Sunday (Monday) Brunch

I know we are a day late meeting, but yesterday was Easter Sunday and we were busy visiting family.  Stay tuned for more on that adventure.

This past week was Crazy (yes Crazy with a capital “C”)!  Meetings, meetings, and more meetings.  Fortunately, a lot of good things are going to come from these meetings, so in the end it is worth it.

Wednesday I made an up and back trip to Salem.  Some people think that it’s crazy to drive nine hours in one day for a four hour meeting.  Believe me, there are some days that I think that is crazy. Lucky for me I was able to catch a baseball game along the way.

My nephew is playing high school baseball for the first year.  I was so proud to watch him play.  He is definitely one of the leaders on the team.  I can’t wait to see where this goes for him.

I just need a minute to get past the fact that he plays for the high school that is my high school’s arch rival.  It’s still a little hard to cheer for the Bulldogs.  Good thing I have a few years to get used to this.

The only night that I was home this week, Thursday, I was able to get out and enjoy a little bit of the sunshine (yes, it was still only 46 degrees). 

Sometimes when I need a brake, Mack steps in and does some digging for me.  Sometimes I don’t actually need a brake, but he wants to help anyway.

Daisy’s not into that so much.  She’s more embarrassed that people driving by probably think I am a crazy homeless person.  I really didn’t know I looked so crazy until I saw these pictures.

Saturday we drove North to celebrate Easter with my family.  Saturday was spent catching up on our shopping.  Thanks for buying the full-size truck honey.  Somehow I still managed to fill it with a trip to Costco.

Once again, my mom cooked an awesome dinner!

What would Easter be without an Easter egg hunt?  My sister brought the eggs and after dinner, she and I ran outside to hide them. 

Hmmm, and we thought that no one was watching! This is how my sister hides eggs:

This is how my niece finds eggs:

My nephew’s a little more easy-going about it:

My niece may get her competitiveness from her dad:

She was the first to find her limit of 16 eggs.  (Did I mention that there was a limit of 16 eggs per person.)

Everyone participated in the festivities.  There was good stuff in them eggs!  I do wonder now though how it is that my dad seemed to end up with all the eggs that had money in them.

All of the easy eggs had been found, and now the seriousness took over:

It’s a big party foul to have more than 16 eggs.

The final egg was found by my mom:

We were so lucky to have about a fifteen minute break to go outside.  Everyone had a great time.  I enjoy the time I get to spend with my family.

But today was back to the grindstone.  Kim and I are participating in Operation Prom Night at work and we spent four hours this morning standing in the middle of the high school track while it rained and hailed and snowed.  Then it rained and hailed and snowed some more.  My body feels like it will never get warm again.  I think I will take a nice hot bath before going to bed.

Have a great week!

Sunday Brunch

Oh, another week down and a very busy week to come.  Scott and I didn’t even bother going to the grocery store today because we won’t be home any nights this week together.  We are pretty excited that we get to see our family next weekend for Easter!

How was your week?  If we were meeting for coffee today, I would invite you to my house to enjoy a cup made fresh from my new Keurig Coffee makers.  We have drank more coffee and tea in the last couple of days just because it’s so easy to make!  It’s nice to not have to make a full pot just to have one cup.

This past week seemed to be all about work.  Tuesday night I went to a meeting regarding our upcoming “Operation Prom Night” presentation.  I will post more about this in a couple of weeks.  It’s kinda top secret right now.  Friday I spent the day at work all by myself.  it was so great to get a ton of stuff done.  Friday night I went to a training regarding creating and planning for non-profits.  We are currently creating a Foundation at work and this training was excellent.  I only wish that everyone on the Foundation attended the training.  It continued on through all-day Saturday.  Really felt like another day at work.

Saturday night was a retirement dinner for two of the Captains that we worked with.  Coincidently, they also happened to be brothers.  The night was great, and ended with one of them proposing to his long-time girlfriend!

It was perfect and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

One thing that came out of Saturday night was an impromptu reunion of the “old city guys”.  See, there used to be two fire departments in our town, the City and the Fire District.  About 18 years ago, they merged to make the Fire District that we currently have.  There are very few of the “old city guys” left.  In fact, there are only four still working.  Yes, Scott happens to be one of them.  He is in the running to be the last one, and I am encouraging him to stick it out and be the last one.

Back to this reunion, since there were a couple of the guys that had come to town just for the retirement party, they decided to get together this morning and take some pictures.  Sadly, there were a few that could not make it.

These guys would have stayed all day, swapping stories.  It was so good to see the young guys work their way in on the storytelling.  I could see that they were listening with a type of jealously, wishing that they could have been there too.

These guys are pretty proud of the legacy they left for others!  Not to be outdone, the wives also had to have their picture taken.

We were really having a good time, but we had to cut it short and head to a wedding.  To add to my day of firsts, I actually attended a wedding in a horse arena, where the bride came down the aisle on a horse!  There were horses in the bridal party!  One on each side, which the bride and groom then rode out on.  That was definitely a first for me.

Don’t worry, I did have some time to get out in the yard and do some digging.  I did warn some of the neighbors about what I am doing.  I am getting some strange looks from people driving by.  A few have even slowed down. It’s an adventure and I can’t wait so share more pictures with you.  Scott is threating making me get a tetanus shot with all the cuts on my fingers.

I should get going.  The laundry isn’t going to do itself.  I can’t wait to meet next week and share all the adventures that I have planned for this week.

Sunday Brunch

Hi there!  Join me for a fresh cup:

How was your week?  Were you able to get out and enjoy the sunshine at all this week.  The sunshine is deceiving around here.  It may be one of the famous “300 days of sunshine” we have around here, but we were lucky this week to get above 45 degrees.  That doesn’t make it real welcoming to go for a walk after work.  I know, excuses, excuses.

Don’t worry, I was able to get out to the lower yard a couple of times this week to do some history detective work.  I am having so much fun finding bits and pieces of the past.  At this rate, we will need to rent a backhoe next spring and really start digging.  Scott says no, but he has to go to work, right.  You would be willing to come help me.  Heck, a backhoe can’t be that hard to drive.

I reached a milestone this past week.  April 1st was my five-year anniversary at work.

On Tuesday, my crew at work presented me with my certificate and pin.  It’s part of my job to coordinate everyone getting their pins, so it was enjoyable to watch the people that I work with try to figure out how to be sneaky when presenting me with mine.  There are days that I really love the people I work with and this was definitely one of them.  Thanks Kim for being sneaky!

You remember that movie Caddyshack?  Remember how Bill Murray’s character spends the whole movie chasing after that gopher?  We have our own version of this dilemma at our house; except it’s not a gopher, it’s a mole.

This mole has tormented Scott for several summers.  He (the mole) has torn up our yard, and in a lot of places it feels like you are walking on a sponge.  Every morning we look out to find another fresh mound somewhere in the yard.  Do you have any idea how many ways there are to kill a mole?  There is a whole aisle at the farm store dedicated to this task.  The catch is that we have two dogs and a cat that frequent the same areas of the yard and we have to be extra careful that they don’t get hurt in the process.

Scott and Dusty are trying a new method for us.

They spent the afternoon burying these foot-long spikes all around the yard.  These battery operated spikes omit sound waves that are guaranteed to scare the mole away.  Obviously these sound waves weren’t keeping Mack away.  He was more interested in seeing if he could get the boys to bury his toy. 

After a brief conversation regarding the appropriateness of burying things in the yard and then digging them back up, Mack and Scott were on the same page.  Now, we’ll see what tomorrow morning brings.  Will there or won’t there be a new mole hill?

As a side note, my favorite “mole killer kit” at the farm store consisted of a hose.  Yes, it was a fancy “guaranteed mole killer method” sold in this beautiful box with a dead mole on the front.  The box literally contained a hose.  The idea behind this method was that you stuck one end of the hose into the mole hill hole and the other end of the hose to the exhaust system on your car.  Basically, you killed them with carbon monoxide.  You know that someone just got rich off of selling nothing but a hose to a desperate man who would be willing to do anything to win the mole vs. man battle.

Where does the weekend go?  How can it be that time to start planning for another week?  I should be going.  I have a turkey defrosting in a sink full of water and I really hope that we aren’t eating at 11:00pm tonight.

Have a great week and I will see you next Sunday.

Sunday Brunch

Ahhh, another week over and a new one on the horizon.  Good to see you again my friend.  I can’t wait to hear all about your week and what you are up to.

The weather here is finally getting better.  I guess better is all a matter of opinion.  Some people actually enjoy the snow.  Not to say that I don’t enjoy it, but I am so ready to put away the sweaters and boots and break out the capri pants and sandals.  In fact, I spent half of my weekend getting out my summer clothes.  Closet space in our house is limited so I have to shrink wrap my seasonal clothes.  Two nice days of weather and I was ready to swap the sweaters for the tank tops.

The other morning I was ready to leave for work when I looked out the window to find some other creatures enjoying the newly uncovered green grass.

They were so excited to finally have this treat!  I figured they would run off when I opened the back door.  Nope.  I figured they would run off when I opened the garage door.  Nope.  I figured they would run off when I started to drive down the driveway.  Nope.  They had found what they wanted and they weren’t budging for anything.

The deer weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the good weather.  After a busy week, that included several after work meetings or appointments, Scott and I were finally able to get out and enjoy the sunshine Friday night after I got home from work.  We took the dogs out for a walk down the road from our house.  We usually head towards the river or back towards town, but this night we turned right and headed up the hill towards the other subdivision.

After walking for a while, we decided to cut back through the BLM land that runs along and behind our house.  This would allow the dogs to run free without having to watch for traffic.  There are several ATV trails that run through this patch of land.  Some of them were used as logging roads at one time.

As we were walking along through the woods, using one of the old logging roads that comes out right at the end of our driveway, I made a comment to Scott about the amount of trash along the side to the trail.  He pointed out the rusty tin cans.  I had noticed them, but never gave them much thought.  He showed me how they were leftover from the old logging camps that would come through temporarily while they were logging the area.  Looking closer, it was fairly easy to find other remnants of these camps.  Places where the land had been shaped to allow for a stream to be diverted and spots of the land that had been cleared to set up the camps.  The other thing that you can find, by moving a few pine needles and pine cones, are broken pieces of glass.

This discovery made me think about the times I have walked through our front yard, out along the road, and picked up various pieces of broken glass that I always assumed people had disposed of by throwing their trash out their car windows. I would go along the fence line and pick up the glass so that the dogs and horses wouldn’t hurt themselves.  How many times I have tossed this out, cursing the irresponsible person who just threw it aside.  When I said that to Scott, he was quick to reply that this wasn’t trash, this was leftover from the logging camp that at one time existed in our front yard.  What!!  Did it ever cross your mind to tell about this bit of history in our small piece of the world?!?!

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I love history.  Especially history of my environment.  At this new bit of information, I made a beeline for our house.  We made a very, very quick sweep of the front year, finding a few treasures.

In about five minutes we found these leftover pieces of history.

Who were these people who lived here before us?  I have found a new hobby in trying to find out a little more about them!  Oh I can only imagine what is out there waiting for us to find!

I need to get going.  The sun will only be out for a few more minutes and the yard is calling me.  Have a great week!

Sunday Brunch

I hope you had a great weekend!  It’s nice to get together again.  It’s been a busy week, but we took a little time to relax this weekend.  I won’t bore you with the work stuff from this past week.  It’s our Sunday, let’s not talk shop.

Scott and I decided that we would get away for a few hours this weekend.  We headed up to the Pinehurst Inn for dinner and a night’s stay.  I love going up to the Pinehurst.  It’s only 25 miles from our house, but it might as well be 250.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there because the road is very curvy.  Plus, it’s been snowing off and on the last few weeks and there were still patches of ice on the road.

Our plan was to just sit and enjoy the quiet.

That’s exactly what we did.  It was a slow weekend and there were only three other couples staying.  I love that they seat everyone for dinner at different times so that you feel like you are the only table eating.  We had the best London Broil with a red wine mushroom gravy.

It would snow off and on throughout the day.  It was so nice to just sit by the fireplace and read my book. 

Scott’s not really the type to just sit and do nothing.  He wandered around the house taking pictures.  He did some work on his computer.  He even took his turn playing the piano that the Innkeeper Donnie plays for everyone after dinner.

It was nice to get away, but nobody came by and did the laundry or any of the household projects.  It was back to reality as soon as we got down off the mountain.

Oh, in case you were wondering, I have an update on the infamous “shoe of the month” pair of shoes that I ordered a month ago.  I told you last week that they got lost at the post office.  Surprisingly, they showed up in a post office package box on Tuesday.  No explanation as to where they had been for almost two weeks.  The only thing written on the box was “3/10”, the date the post office received them.  Needless to say, I have the shoes now and I absolutely love them!  Now, we just need some nice weather so that I can wear them outside of the house.

Well, another weekend is over and Monday is looming in the near future.  There is still laundry to be folded and things to be put away before the week starts.

See you next Sunday!

Sunday Brunch

I am so glad that we get to spend the last day of winter together enjoying a warm cup of coffee.

Notice the sunshine in your cup?  According to the weatherman, we won’t be seeing this anytime soon around here.  We are now in the pattern of snow in the morning, rain in the afternoon, and just plain cold at night.  The grass isn’t sure whether to take the time to turn green yet, or wait another week.

How was your week?  I spent part of the week by myself, as Scott went to visit Nick and check out his potential new house.  It’s a pretty big moment when you buy your first house.

It was a busy week for me, and after getting back from several days of travel, Scott and I decided that we were going to take Saturday off and do nothing.  That’s exactly what we did, nothing.  We figured out how to watch the Netflix through the Wii, so we caught up on a bunch of shows and movies that we didn’t even realize we were missing.  It was so nice to spend the day together, doing nothing.  Those kinds of days are few and far between.  You know how that goes?  How life somehow gets to moving so fast that you feel guilty about taking a little time for yourself. 

Remember a few weeks back when I talked about joining the shoe of the month club?  I ordered my first pair of shoes and waited for them to come.  Hmm, how do I explain what came of that?  Maybe it’s just best if I show you.

So here is the very long story short.  My shoes actually arrived at the Post Office.  The lady at the Post Office swears she put them in package box #6, along with my Amazon book order, and then put the key in our mailbox.  Yeah, that is not what happened because the only thing in box #6 was my Amazon order.  After Scott went to the Post Office twice, several phone calls back and forth, and the lady asking me a half dozen ways if I got the box with the shoes in it, and me answering her “no” every different way she asked, we have reached the conclusion that there is nothing I can do about getting my shoes.  Somewhere in this little town, someone is wearing these right now, I just know it!  To be completely honest, at this point it’s not about getting the shoes, it’s about proving to the lady at the Post Office that I never got these.  My hope is that someone will be nice enough to return them to the Post Office.  It’s been over a week, so I am thinking that it isn’t going to happen, but a girl can hope.

What do you have on tap for this week?  I have a couple of long days and late nights scheduled at work.  No Spring Break around here.

I hope you have a great first week of Spring.

Sunday Brunch

Wow, has it really been a week since our last Sunday together?  Why does it feel like time is moving so fast?  If we had met for brunch today, I would ask you if you have any tips for slowing down and enjoying every moment.

This week I spent most of the time at work alone.  The other girls were out doing other stuff, which left me by myself to hold down the fort.  I actually had some time to sit down and work on projects that needed a time commitment.  I enjoyed the time, but I am looking forward to having someone to talk to again.

I also spent most of the week not feeling good.  I never ended up going to the walk-on clinic, so I don’t actually know if I had anything official, but it sure felt like it for a couple of days.

A couple of weeks ago, a woman from my hometown passed away suddenly.  It has brought up a lot of memories and it was important for me to go to her memorial service yesterday.  It was good to see people that I hadn’t seen in a really long time and to be back in my old high school gym after 20-years of being gone.  Boy, did that bring back even more memories.

The traveling was definitely like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.  Even though it was 65 degrees in Eugene, it was raining like a banshee.

Then there were signs that a windstorm had passed this way.

Hmmm, this might have been a pretty serious windstorm.

This guy was not so lucky.  Wait, by the looks of this, he was extremely lucky!  Check out the diameter of the tree that fell on the back of his car, which was completely gone.

Here’s a little bit of trivia for you.  Can you identify the object in the center of this picture?

It’s not exactly the angle you normally see one of these at.

Just in case the rain and the wind weren’t enough, the snow and ice made the adventure complete.

I am not sure I am ready to start another week.  Just think, by this time next week we will know who Brad picked to propose to.  If you don’t know what I am talking about, it just means you have a life on Monday nights. 

I wish you the best this week and I hope that the adjustment to losing an hour this weekend is quick and painless.  I just feel bad for everyone that has to deal with me.

Sunday Brunch

We meet again.  Unfortunately, I won’t be giving you a hug today.  I am not feeling up to par this weekend and would hate to pass this along.  Although, I am pretty sure that I was the lucky recipient from someone else.

I won’t be having coffee today.  I think that tea would be better for this sore throat.

Do you have a secret remedy for a sore throat?  I would gladly take any advice right now.  To add to the pressure of not feeling well is the fact that the other girls at work are off last week and this coming week.  That literally means that I am the only one at work.  Calling in sick is not an option.

So, tell me about your past week.  The weather here has been rainy which has made most of the snow disappear.  I love the rain.  I know it may sound crazy, but this is the weather that I grew up with.  I love to lay in bed at night and listen to the rain on the roof.  We only have a few really rainy days here.  Around here things slow down when it rains.  People decide not to go out because they might get wet.  Hmmm, snow doesn’t stop anything, but a little bit of rain and it’s all over.

I picked up my knitting again this week.  I love the fact that I can sit with my family and knit.  When I scrapbook, I am usually in the other room, away from everyone.  Knitting is portable and I can sit next to Scott on the couch and watch tv.  Pretty soon I look down and I have another scarf completed.  Now I just need to learn more than two stitches to shake things up.

Have you ever joined a “of the month club”?  You know, like cheese of the month, wine of the month, fruit of the month, book of the month….  Did you know that they have a “shoe of the month club”?  They do!!!  With a little encouragement from my coworker (thanks Kim), I am expecting my first pair any day.  I will be sure to share with you how this goes.

Last night we went to the local performance theatre to see One Night of Queen. 

As the name eludes to, it’s basically a cover band that performs the songs from Queen.  The lead singer definitely played out the Freddie Mercury role perfect.  The songs were great and we really had a good time dancing in front of our seats.

Well, I hope today is not any indication of how this week is going to go. I will definitely be calling it an early night and hopefully sleep is all I need.  I hope you have a wonderful week. I look forward to seeing next Sunday.

Time Well Wasted

If you ever wondered what sunrise around here looks like this time of year, wait no more.

This was yesterday’s sunrise, taken by Scott on his way over the hill to meet Scotty.

Scotty is working for the federal government.  He is loving what he is doing.  One downfall is that he is required to take a two-three week layoff this time of year.  This kinda reminds me of being a child and being told that you have to take a nap.  As a child, you don’t want to take a nap.  There is too much to do, too much to see, you’re not tired, etc., etc., etc.  But now, as an adult, there are days when I wish someone would tell me that I have to take a nap.  I am not sure that I would mind if someone told me that I had to take a two-three week layoff.  Sorry, I got a little sidetracked from the story.

Scotty’s big plans were to spend this time with his buddies fishing, running around in the woods, and just generally hanging out.  Unfortunately, these friends aren’t on their mandatory layoff.  They have to go to work.  Fortunately, Scotty’s dad has four days off each week.  Jackpot!

“Hey Dad, how would you like to get up at 5:00am and head over the hill to go fishing with me?”  Are you kidding me, Scott thought Scotty would never ask.  With a list a mile long of things to do on his day off, Scott headed out before sunrise.

A day on the river is never a wasted day.

Hamburgers for lunch cooked outside on a grill.

I debated about posting this picture.  If our dogs got wind that Scott and Scotty took another dog fishing, oh I don’t even want to imagine the attitudes they would get.  Scotty is staying at a friend’s house and they encouraged him to take their dog out for the day as well.  This picture will be our little secret.

The fish weren’t really biting on the river, but somehow I don’t think yesterday was about the fish.  Now, maybe if Scotty’s get really bored during this layoff he can come by the house and do some of those things on Scott’s list of things to do.