Love you Mom 7-31-07

I was writing the text for my entry about the Family Reunion when I decided to switch gears. I am not a mushy, sentimental live in the past kind of girl, but I guess with the family reunion and being around most all of the people that were so important to me from my formative years I decided I had to do a little tribute to my Mom.

Yesterday was her birthday, she was born in 1937 and on todays date, 17 years ago she died the day after her 53rd birthday of breast cancer at home with many of these same people at her bedside.

The pictures sometimes don't line up with the text so I'll just list the text in the same order as the pictures and hopefully you can figure it out.

The first was when she was dancing and was probably a teenager (I forgot the date and am to lazy to go back and look). The second was when she was dancing in San Francisco in 1963. The third and fourth were from 1977. The fifth was on my wedding day 9-3-77, 30 years ago and the last was taken on 7-29-89 with Lori at the top, Mom on the right and me on the left.

We love you and miss you.

Quick & Pics 7-30-07

I just wanted to get some quick pictures up for your enjoyment! I haven't had time to really sit at the computer and get this blog updated. Hopefully tomorrow!

The first pic is of Ian, 4 1/2 and Seth, 3.

Then here is Andrea our oldest daughter who is Ian's Mom and Michelle our youngest is Seth's Mom.

Lori and Me, she is 18 months younger than me, because she is taller I like to tell people that don't know us that she is my older sister...pisses her off...my job as big sister.

Jaclyn, Lori and Lindsay in the back and Michelle, Me and Andrea in the front.

Jaclyn is Lori's youngest, Lindsay is Lori's oldest, then Michelle and Andrea.

Yard Animals 7-25-07

We have been busy over at my family’s visiting. Every day Uncle Marty picks 20 pounds or so of green beans. I’ve gotten there a couple times in time to snap beans.

This first picture is of the beautiful buck that likes to graze through my Aunt and Uncle’s beautiful flower garden. I just thought I would keep you all posted so you don’t think I have dropped off the edge of the planet. I’m sorry for those of you that follow my blog daily that we aren’t doing something more exciting!

Our family reunion is this weekend. My sister and her two girls are flying in on Friday and leaving on Monday. Andrea and her family arrive Friday and Michelle’s family arrives on Saturday which is the big gathering day. More of my cousins arrive on Friday too; we’ll have lots of fun catching up and eating!

This last picture is of an animal I saw in my front yard imitating a lizard. Ain’t he cute?!

Mostly pics 7-22-07

Nothing much scintillating to tell you about. We've been over to my Aunt and Uncle's a couple times and helped peel and slice 108 pounds of peaches for freezing. We got a wonderful cobbler out of it!

The weather has been partly cloudy and warm. We've just been hanging out. All these pictures were taken at my Aunt and Uncle's place. They have some gorgeous flowers and a great vegetable garden! I couldn't resist taking pics of course!

Rainy day 7-17-07

Yesterday we took a drive out towards Elkton to the Kellogg Cemetery. Granny is buried there and she had taken us to all the family cemeteries in the area several years ago. It was neat hearing the stories of who was who, just a shame that I can’t remember any of them! The drive is very pretty along the Umpqua River…lots of forest and mossy trees.

In the little town Drain we came around a corner and this house almost blinded us! Wow, what a lot of work and patience! We walked through the few antique shops in Oakland and then headed home. Oh, we stopped and had an ice cream cone, mocha almond fudge, I think the rocky road might have been a better choice.

I took two long walks yesterday, a little too long but I am way better. This morning it started raining and has rained a little off and on all morning. Cleaned house went to the store and that will be about it for us today!

Hey Pat! 7-15-07

Hey Pat, look who I’m holding! What a cutie!

Yesterday we met my newest cousin. Anthony LaPilusa is 4 months old and quite the handsome youngster. My cousin Stephanie, her husband Marcus and Anthony were visiting Steph’s Grandparents, my Aunt and Uncle. We went over there to visit for awhile and snoogle the baby and being the kind person that I am I HAD to torture my cousin Pat with a picture of me holding her Grandson…tee hee. Anthony’s Grandparents Pat and Mike have been RVing around the northwestern states the past few months and won’t see him for another few weeks.

We didn’t get home until after ten…a wild, late night for us! Then at three thirty a.m. we were RUDELY awakened by some little dog yapping up a storm and then the owner calling the dog’s name, but of course the dog couldn’t hear over its own noise. That went on for a little bit until the owner went to get the dog, it had cornered a raccoon; we know this because of the loud discussion being carried on outside of our window by the owner and someone who wanted to know what the heck was going on…did I mention three thirty in the morning!? What IS the matter with people?

So I think a nap might be in order today…I’ll try to fit one into my busy schedule. I’m planning on cutting Larry’s hair, taking a walk and maybe doing some laundry, but who knows…plans can change!

Pomegranate Flowers 7-14-07

Not much has been going on. Tuesday we went out to see my Aunt Millie and Uncle Marty for a bit, we had a nice visit. Tuesday is also the day that it got over 100 degrees here. It was still 90 around bedtime. Clouds had formed to the southeast of us and gave us a lightshow after dark. By the time we had turned in for the night the clouds had moved over us.

We woke Wednesday to a warm morning because of the clouds, but it didn’t get as warm. After 7 p.m. big black thunderclouds moved over us and for the next three hours we had a fantastic thunderstorm, lots of stunning lightning, thunder and fortunately rain. In the three hours that the storm was over us we got over a half inch of rain and quite a few little fires started because of the downstrikes. Thursday we never saw the sun and Friday started out cool but warmed up. Today we are back in the high 80’s.

Wednesday I was able to take a walk without limping for the first time in two weeks. This took way longer than I expected to get better. Yesterday and today I walked a little over a mile. I have some discomfort, but every day it gets better and better. It might be another month before I try jogging again though!

I finally remembered to take my camera on our walk this morning and the turkeys were walking around. I guess they had their tails fanned out earlier according to someone passing by us. They have so many iridescent colors in their feathers.

This orange flowered shrub is a pomegranate. The flowers are so vibrant and look very papery.

This picture of our very handsome boy Ian was taken last month, he was in his other Grandparents renewal of marriage vows ceremony and looked very dapper!

We drove around Roseburg a bit on Thursday and that is about all we have been doing.

Rabbit Rebuttal

You just never know the response you’ll get when you do something unexpected. This picture of the jack rabbit that I posted to this blog a few days ago generated a complaint from a reader:

“What the hell is with that rabbit? Is it dead?! How’d you get so close to it if it wasn’t dead? It looks weird. I kept reading and rereading the blog entry looking for an explanation of the rabbit and there wasn’t one!”

Well, I could say it was just one rabbit showing another rabbit how to freak out a human by playing dead.

I could say it WAS dead, but weird would be putting a picture of a dead animal on my blog. Though I must admit that at least they aren’t moving and WOULD make taking their photo easier. You’ll notice there is a lack of wildlife photos on this blog. The reason for that is that every time I get the camera and just get it focused the subject moves away.

I could say it was a baby rabbit showing how to tuck and roll for a somersault or it is a rabbit doing an imitation of a nautilus.

So for any more of you out there wondering: the rabbit was behind our trailer, I was inside and when I snapped the picture from above it, it had reached down to chew on its leg. Simple. Oh and I cropped the photo in close when I posted it on the blog.

So Michelle, are you happy with the explanation!!??!!

Oh, just in case; the other picture on that days posting was of a deer through the screen door and even though I mentioned seeing wild turkeys, there was no photo of the aforementioned fowl.

For some reason I can't put a title in the title field. 7-6-07

Yesterday, Thursday I tried a little walking again and I started icing my still very sore knee. The cold seems to give it some comfort. I guess I should have been doing that all along. I keep trying to keep it loose, but just a little walk/limp around the circle gets it all wadded up and sore, limping aggravates my healing right knee also. What a pain! It is embarrassing; I am slower than the old people! I might have to steal a walker! Hard to believe that over a week ago I was excited about jogging and today I would just be happy to walk!

Today was a little cooler, we had the a/c on the last couple of days for a few hours in the afternoons, but we didn’t need it today.

I sat down at the computer as Larry was going outside this afternoon and I told him I saw some smoke wafting through the trees. He walked into the street to see it and then he is telling me to call 911…a structure. 911 on the cell phone is stupid, I got a department in Monmouth…he didn’t even know where Sutherlin was, not to mention Monmouth is two and a half hours from here. Fortunately the lady across the street has a landline and she called. It turned out to be a gazebo and hot tub and people with hoses in the backyard got it out. It would have been bad if it got into the trees right behind us! So that was our excitement for the day.

We had salmon and salad for dinner and then we went to the DQ for a Moo-latte…yummy. I had mocha which was very good and Larry ordered mint, but we couldn’t taste any mint.

Today I walked up the hill to the library and then later took a walk around the block…I can walk a little easier, but not much faster, the ice helps keep it from getting too aggravating.
Larry converted the drawer under the window in the bedroom to a shelf. He said a few potty words, but of course did a brilliant job! This morning on our walk at the top of the hill we saw the three turkeys. They have so many pretty colors in their feathers, even though they are unattractive birds.

I finally remembered a picture of our home here in Sutherlin. Really nice big sites.

July 4th 2007

Happy Independence Day! It is hot and windy here today. I only took a couple pictures of the big parade here in the RV Park. There were all of 8 golf carts and they zoomed by with their flags waving in the breeze....and that was it.

Hope you all had a wonderful day!

Settled in Sutherlin 7-2-07

Today we got settled in our home for the next month. Larry was at the office when it opened getting our stuff confirmed, the office isn't open on Sunday, but fortunately Larry had called on Friday and they gave us a site we could pull into and this morning we were official and this site is down at the bottom of the hill where we can get a satellite shot. There are more trees up the hill, but no shot to the sky.

We just settled in and relaxed and enjoyed the warm sunshine. Larry took a walk into town this morning...Sutherlin is less than exciting. I took a couple of very slow walks up the hill to the club house to turn in some books and pick up some others from the little library.

As we don't have plans to be doing very much I may not post every day, can't imagine you wanting to know when we go to the store and do laundry, clean the toilets etc. I'll let you know when I start jogging again, that is always entertaining!

In Sutherlin, Oregon 7-1-07

Wow, half the year is gone already! We did some yoga this morning, trying to keep the rest of my body from going south while my legs heal up, which is happening at a snails pace.

We got ourselves all tidied up, put away stuff and hooked up. Larry went to the office to take care of our electric bill and was gone for a half hour…the lady in the office talked his ear off. He got back and asked me if his ears were bleeding. WE hate parks that don’t tell you their costs up front and this is the only park we have run across in our travels that had a $7.50 basic charge for electricity and three other charges on top of our actual electric usage.

We were on the road just after 10:30. It was mostly sunny and being Sunday there was quite a bit of traffic on I-5. We headed south for Sutherlin, Oregon. We are staying here at the Escapees park for a month. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow when the office opens. It took us two hours to get here.

I forgot about the rabbits that are all over the place here, deer too, so I have to remember to put my little petunia bowls up in the truck at night. I didn’t take any pictures of our site because we aren’t sure if we’ll have to move in the morning or not.

We have a family reunion near here the last weekend of this month and we didn’t have any real desire to trek around between now and then so we decided to stay here a month and explore the area and just kick back and enjoy the summer. The summer before last we “worked” and last summer we traveled, it seems that this summer we are just going to take ‘er easy!