Advent

Yes, gentle readers, it's me.  I didn't intentionally mean to refrain from blogging these last weeks, but as time went on, I did make that decision.  I decided that I wasn't going to miss this Christmas by racing from one "should do" to another.  And it's been wonderful.  I just slowed down and prayerfully sought out what was important and what just didn't matter.  

I've decorated the house, of course, because that brings me joy.  Candles, the tree lights, the decorations going back to early years of married and family life help remind me of many happy years of blessings.  And I've had time to sit back and enjoy them.  

We put the tree in a corner of the dining room that adjoins the living room and we like it there.  We didn't have to disrupt the living room by moving furniture and that was a gift in itself. We actually bought a tree this year!  Dan and grandson Keaton went to a Christmas tree farm owned by some friends from church and cut this one down.  Its size is perfect for the spot.

The weekend of the 13th and 14th, we watched Keaton and Daniel while Ann, Eric, and Cameron drove to Seattle for the Seahawks/49er's  game.  Ann received the tickets from Eric for her 40th birthday in October, and since Cameron is a 'Hawks fan, he got to go, too

Dan and I had a great time with Keaton and Daniel.  In addition to the tree-getting, Christmas cookie baking was on the agenda.  We made candy cane cookies and gingerbread cutouts.  

Note the smashed cookie dough in front of D.  He thought it was as much fun as PlayDoh, with tastier results.  (See below...)

A special Christmas gift arrived early one day in the mail. When I picked up a small box that had been delivered, I recognized the handwriting of my long-time friend, Kathy.  When I opened it, I found a note telling me that she had received the last of her mother's Christmas ornaments, and wanted to share some with me.  As I unwrapped each ornament, I remembered seeing them on the huge tree that was the center of her family's extensive decorating.  They brought tears to my eyes and I love each of them.

One of the things I have most enjoyed over this advent season has been the reading of Ann Voskamp's book, The Greatest Gift.  

It is an advent book with readings for each day of December until Christmas and it has helped me truly focus on the reason for this season.  She begins in Genesis and follows God's plan for our redemption through the Bible.  Her way with words is truly God-given.  I can't recommend this book enough.  

And now, it's December 23.  It's been a Christmas season that I've loved,  Tomorrow Ann, Eric and the boys will arrive about noon and will stay with us for several days.  That they live here in town and still want to come and stay is a precious gift.  Bruder Bear, Karen, nephew JR and niece Kirsten along with her new fiance Tim (wedding in May!) will all be at Mom and Dad's for Christmas.  Our gang will drive down on Saturday and join them for a family day.  

May your Christmas be filled with joy and love as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  ♥

Exercise and Me

I started this post the other day, but got interrupted, so I'll try again.  

Exercise:  for those who know me, it's a word not much in my vocabulary.  Take my PE teacher back in 9th grade.  She was a formidable sight as she joined in our games, running over us and plowing in for a goal.  True, she was only a few years older than we were, but there was an unfortunate spirit within her that made her ridicule any students who weren't, shall we say, athletically gifted.  She did not make a lover of sports out of me.  

In my sophomore year, my family began to ski.  I was not a speedy learner, but after weeks and years of practice, I did become a fairly good intermediate skier, good enough to enjoy winter weekends throughout high school and college.  And even into married life.  

So I got some exercise, not the least of which was my walking to school every day, including walking home for lunch every day, which equated to about thirty-two (or more) blocks of walking each day, mostly in a hurry, especially at lunch time because we only had a forty minute lunch break.  And college?  Our campus was know for its hills.

In other words, organized exercise was not in the picture.  Fast forward to now, and as you know, I've been NordicTracking for almost two years.  And it's gotten old.  Reeaaallly old.  Boring.  Which equates to finding all kinds of reasons for not doing it.  Guilt set in. (Really, I think guilt is one thing I do well!)

When I signed up for my Medicare supplemental insurance, it turned out that the insurance I chose came with a free (to me) program called Silver Sneakers (where do they come up with these names?!?) which gives me access to gyms across the country.  And there was even a participating one right here in our town!!  I finally decided I'd have to avail myself of this perk or I was going to fall off the exercise bandwagon and I didn't want to do that.  

Guess what?!?  I LIKE it!  No one could be more amazed than I am.  I'm going three times a week (MWF), and working out for an hour or so. I come home thankful and energized.  The cardio machines have TVs on them, so I plug in my iPod headphones and watch NCIS or HGTV and work away.  I wanted to work on strength training, too, so I make the rounds of about 8-10 weight machines that work different muscles, do my sets and move on to the next one.  

Here's to my Silver Sneakers card!!  ♥

Just For You, Bruder Bear

Hey, Bruder Bear.  Remember the basement guest bath? The one you've been forced to endure using for a number of years? The one with the unbelievably green fixtures?  Take a look now!

Just look at that bee-u-ti-ful sink!  Gorgeous new faucets!  And a lovely new toidy which sits higher! Yes, the counter is the same, and unfortunately for now the tub is the same, but no more will you have to endure shaving over an ugly green sink.  Dan has been hard at work, with more planned. Come visit and see!!  ♥

Note to those who have not visited this bath:  The fixtures were bright green.  For those of you who would know, Washington Water Power green.  With gold faucets.  I know.  It doesn't even bear thinking about. Why we waited this long is a mystery that will never be solved.  

Dinner and A Movie

Our town has two old movie theaters that are still in operation--of sorts.  They are both used for special events and the occasional movie showing.  A week or so ago we were driving down Main Street on a Friday afternoon and noticed one of them had a free showing of Casablanca that night.  It's one of Dan's favorite movies and he was super excited at the prospect of seeing it on the big screen so we decided it was a "must see."  

We always usually have a date on Friday nights; it's a longstanding tradition and we both look forward to it. Mexican is our usual food of choice and we have several great places to choose from. (When we both worked and had kids at home, our date was Saturday morning breakfast out.  "Hi!  I remember you from last Saturday morning!  How was your week?")

We managed to remember our movie plans once we got home and went out for dinner early enough to have plenty of time to eat, take our leftovers back home and get to the theater.  A small crowd assembled and we settled in to watch a video favorite in all its big screen glory. We mouthed the famous phrases and enjoyed the entire evening.  Ahhh, the classics, where you leave satisfied, not horrified.  ♥

Fall is Definitely Here!

Of course fall is here--it's November!!  And apparently it's been some time since I've posted.  Ah well, I'm back.  

Dan is off to the woods today, daylight savings time is over (big yay to that!), and I was actually up before seven, thanks to the end of the aforementioned DST. It's a dampish, cloudy day and here I sit in my jammies, enjoying a cup of coffee deliciously flavored with raspberry white chocolate creamer.  (I think I drink coffee just for the creamers, but that's another story.)  

Since Dan was off early, I made myself a bowl of my favorite cool weather breakfast--oatmeal.  (Dan is not a fan.) I use old-fashioned oats, cook it long and slow, stir in a tablespoon of peanut butter, add a drizzle of pure maple syrup, and top it off with vanilla almond milk. Yum!!!

The peanut butter adds protein and it only takes a little maple syrup to sweeten a bowl compared to the amount of brown sugar I used to use.  

Saturday was spent at an out-of-town soccer tournament watching Cameron's school compete.  Dan, Ann and Daniel went up on Friday and were thrilled to watch the team win two games including defeating the number one seed.  Cameron scored eight goals between the two games!!  Saturday was the final playoff for the top spot, and while they didn't win, Cameron scored both goals in the 3-2 heart breaker.  He also received a trophy for being one of the top league players.  And the second place trophy the school won is pretty impressive, too.  It was a very cold, windy and damp day, but we all huddled together, kept warm and had a great time! (And a little chocolate didn't hurt, either.)

Hope you're all staying warm and cozy--  ♥

Pedicures: A Silly Little Post

My adorable daughter dropped in one evening a few weeks ago and handed me a bottle of nail polish.  She said she had a bottle, really liked it, and thought I'd like one, too.  Fun!!

Now, lest you think I have beautifully manicured and painted fingernails, think again.  Oh, I long to, but it has never worked out for me.  My hands are always in some kind of mess, or I'm scrubbing something, and the polish, should I actually have some on, is gone in a flash.  

But, about twenty-some years ago I discovered that feet, in sandals, look a lot better if they have some color on the nails.  So I began to buy fun colors and painted away.  I even discovered that it was totally fun, in the dead of winter, to take off my socks and discover wild red polish!  It always made me smile.  

I'm far too cheap, um, frugal, to pay someone to do my tootsies.  Hey, there's fabric to be purchased! So every so often I sit on the edge of the tub, soak my feet in some scented bath salts, buff them, and slather on lotion.  Then I contemplate my color choices, apply, and watch some oldie rerun on the tube while the color dries. It's always an upper.

Here's today's efforts featuring the polish Ann brought me.  It's glittery!!  And the color changes with the light. It's my current favorite.  

The bottle is so classy that I keep it out on my nightstand to admire.  The color number is 315.  And seriously, this stuff lasts!  I have to work hard to get it off with the polish remover.  

And one more thing:  over the years I've discovered that if I think I don't have time to give myself a pedicure, my priorities are seriously out of whack.  It's my firm belief that everyone needs to take time for some fun pampering.  I know I feel great when I do.   ♥

My Genius Husband

Now, first of all, I need to be sure to state that I know mine is not the only genius husband around. But he is my genius husband.  :-)

Back when we were working on the new landscaping for the front yard, we discovered that our original plan wouldn't work because of a French drain that ran beside the driveway.  Our Plan B (or was it C?) was to use small river rock inside a rock edging and plant boxwood, which we did. BUT we realized our pretty river rock would soon be orange because we have our own well and our outside water is full of iron which turns everything but the grass orange.  Our underground sprinkler system covers the whole yard with the exception of the new area because it was formerly (huge! gigiantic!) shrubs, so we had to supply some sort of watering system.  

Enter my genius husband!  Our garage has a set of faucets that run in-house (read treated) water.  The original owners of our house, who had it custom built, probably installed them for washing cars, but Dan realized that he could run a hose from them to water the new area, thus preventing orange rocks.  He dug a hole, crafted a pop-up sprinkler head that the hose could attach to, and added a green cover to be placed when it was not in use.  Voila!  Green grass, no orange rocks!! It's easy to run the hose out of the garage (it's usually left attached to the faucet), water that section, roll up the hose and replace the cover.  

Yes, it's October and we're still watering.  The days have been glorious and the colors are beautiful!  ♥

A Family Project

This is a little late in coming to the blog because I forgot to take my camera. Yup, big oops. So I decided to use my cell phone camera. Which I was totally unfamiliar with. The pictures were all taken outdoors and in the sunlight, which meant I never really knew what I was getting. All this to say that the pictures did not turn out exactly stellar. But I do have documentation, of sorts.

So what were the pictures of?  Well, my dad built a combination shop and garage in back of their house about 1965.  The roof is sloped to the back with the very back just above ground level on the hill behind.  The original roof was tarred and Dad had redone it some years back, but it was leaking and causing him to worry. At ninety-one, there was no way he could do the job himself anymore. Family to the rescue!  

On Saturday, September 6,  Dan and I drove down. Bruder Bear had arrived the night before and son-in-law Eric and grandson Cameron were due in shortly after we got there.   Dad had decided to put on a tin roof this time and he and Dan had already figured out all the materials needed and those had been delivered by the local builder's supply earlier in the week. 

Now commenced the figuring, measuring and hole drilling.  As Dan, John, and Eric conferred, at one point, I heard someone utter the comment that there were too many degrees working on this project! I had to laugh. (How many degrees you ask?  Five between the three of them.)

Conference in process with Dad overseeing.

Finally deciding on the correct placement for the holes for the screws, they began the work.

The hole drilling station.

John placing the first strip.

A terrible picture of the whole crew.

It was a hot day but the guys worked hard until late in the afternoon when, red faced and worn out, they stopped.  That Saturday also happened to be my mom's eighty-ninth birthday so after a rest and some cleanup, we all drove down to the local Mexican restaurant and had a great meal together.  As we headed back to our trucks after eating I remarked to Bruder Bear that it had been many a year since we'd been on main street together on a Saturday night.  Lots of memories in that town.

The roof was finally completed Monday morning and BB headed back home.  It was a great weekend with four generations of family working together.  Poor dad was stewing about not being any help up there, but I assured him everyone who was working was doing it because they wanted to.  I told him it was time to reap his harvest.  ♥

Happy October!!

Ahh, one of my favorite months has arrived!  Brilliant blue skies, crisp mornings, and carpets of brightly colored leaves.  Absolutely gorgeous in every direction.  

And here inside the resort, the call to cozy meals is being heard.  Time to bake bread, cook up soups and stews and bake a few cookies.  Yesterday I made a loaf of yummy whole wheat bread and realized I needed to pull some bags of extra flour from the freezer so they'd be available for the next baking.  A few years ago I bought a bag of King Arthur white whole wheat flour.  I'd been reading about it and thought I'd give it a try since I'm not a big fan of things that taste heavily of whole wheat. It did seem lighter.  Since then I've used one I really like from a brand called Wheat Montana that my dad bought for me (available at a market in their town). I finished that one up and now I'm going to try one from Trader Joe's and see what I think.  I've also used Bob's Red Mill stone ground whole wheat, but for a 100% whole wheat bread, it's a little heavy.   

Meanwhile, small steps on the updating of our house are continuing.  Dan is working away on parts of the yard and last week we installed a new toilet in the upstairs guest bath.  An elderly guest was here a month or so ago and after using the facilities, she confided in me that she thought she wasn't going to be able to get up from our standard height toilet.  I told Dan it was time to replace it with a new higher model as we couldn't have guests stranded in the potty.  I had fallen in love with Kohler's Tresham line of bath fixtures and was planning on using them for our bath, so I was thrilled to find they made them in the color already in the main bath--Mexican Sand.  We ordered one through our local plumbing shop and Dan was able to easily install it.  

Only at the resort will you be asked to admire a beautiful new toidy!!  Now to replace a few faucets in that bathroom and the light fixture and it'll be set.  On to more projects!!!  ♥

New Project in the Works

I started a new project in the sewing room yesterday. My Bruder Bear is going to be a grandpa again and so it was time to start a new quilt for the little one. We know it's another boy (great-grandson number six for my parents), and so I picked out some cute boyish fabrics at the quilt shop a couple of weeks ago.

Most of the fabrics are from the Giraffe Crossing line by The RBD Designers for Riley Blake.  I'm going to use the Yellow Brick Road pattern by Atkinson Designs, which is the same pattern I used for soon-to-be big brother Grant's quilt.  

Meanwhile, it's a very dark and dreary day here at the resort, so I think that makes it a very good day to spend sewing.  And maybe for making a big pot of soup.  ♥

A Couple of Finishes

Hey, as promised, I'm back!!  

Down in the sewing room, I finally got gutsy and decided I needed to quilt the window scene wall hanging using the Through the Winter Woods fabric.  Yes, it had me buffaloed because it had light and dark sections and I'm an "all over" quilter girl and what color thread would work on both?  Answer:  none.

So Tuesday afternoon, I gathered myself together and came up with a plan.  First I put the layers together and pin basted them, then I stitched in the ditch (right down the seam line for those not acquainted with the term) around the scenes and the window frame.  Then I basted around the entire edge of the quilt and put it on my Handi-Quilter and using a brown variegated thread, stippled quilted the border.  I changed to a cream thread and lightly stippled each scene and...I was done! And I'm happy with it.  Turns out it's no big deal to change thread colors!  What a dork I was about this!  

I may stitch some lines through the window sill, but that'll just take a jiffy using my regular sewing machine.  

I also finished the herringbone table runner from the same pattern book as the window wall hanging several weeks ago.  It's not the best photo as the light was wrong in my sewing room and I was too lazy to drop the blinds.  

I think I'll make two more projects from the book.  Can you believe that, after almost forty-three years of marriage, we've never had a real Christmas tree skirt? There's one in the book I really like, so I hope to tackle it soon.  Also, Ann gave me a jelly roll of this fabric for my birthday and there's a log cabin quilt, using those scene panels, that I believe I'll try.  That will most likely be after Christmas, though.  

Ah, the joys of being a quilter--there are always more patterns and fabrics calling to us!  ♥

Thankful Thursday

Wow, I can't believe what a slacker blogger I've been this month.  But then again, there's only so much you can say about dusting, organizing shelves, and cleaning sinks.  Yeah, it's been that exciting here this month.  

But, this morning I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures.  I try to do at least four posts per month, so stay tuned for a flurry in the next few days!

Meanwhile, I know Thursdays have become known in the internet world as "Throwback Thursday", but today I decided I would do a Thankful Thursday.  So, in a few words and a few pictures, here goes:

I'm thankful for this perfect little ceramic bird I found last fall in a drugstore next to the shop where I get my hair cut.  It makes me smile.

And I'm thankful for my trusty ancient NordicTrack.  I can't believe that for the last one year and nine months, most days, I climb on it each morning and work away. It's a love/hate relationship, but still, I'm thankful!  

Hope your day is as beautiful as it is here!  ♥

September?

Well, it looks like I've missed a few weeks here.  Things have been busy, and when I've had down time, I've been lazy.  :-)

I have my little house picture done and hanging.  I've left the frame matte-finished, but I may varnish it later. I do like it!  And it solves a bare-space dilemma for those times when my Christmas stocking and my little flag banner are out of season.

The little basket below it holds our car keys and I've made different garters for it for various seasons. I haven't been to a Longaberger party in years, but I sure love the baskets I have and use them all the time. (We'll just have to ignore the fact that the light switch isn't centered...  Bah!!)

I have finished changing out Americana decor for fall and it feels so good!  Love, love, love the fall season. And here's that Edyta Sitar runner I made earlier this year. Doesn't it look perfect with this arrangement on it?

So far I've found no bags of cute little pumpkins at Safeway, but I'll keep checking.  ♥

A Tiny Little Decorating Project

As it's about time to change seasonal decorating, I came to the realization that my little flag decoration would soon be coming down and I would again be left with a blank spot next to the front door. This was unthinkable! And so I headed down to my newly organized sewing room and began to pull books from my stash, looking for just the right new thing.  I finally found what I thought would work and was able to go right to my bin of ziplock bags full of scraps, all sorted by color!! Super yay for organization!!  

A few fabric tryouts and some tracing, cutting and ironing, and I had my little top. 

At first, I thought I'd make a small quilted hanging, but as I looked at it I realized it would just look bulky. It's quite primitive and I decided what it needed was to be framed with a simple black frame.  Hmmm, where to get a simple black frame?  I called in my Sweetie and described my dilemma, knowing full well he would volunteer to make one.  

He's made the pieces and hopefully he'll have time tomorrow to put it together.  (If you think retired people, or in his case semi-retired, have lots of spare time, I suggest you think again.)  I told him I would be glad to paint it.  ♥

And...It's Done!

That old song, "Heaven, I'm in heaven..."  probably from some musical, keeps running through my head.  It took me a few days, but I have order, lovely, blissful order in my sewing room!!  I combed through every piece of fabric I owned--yardage, fat quarters, and scraps, and I was ruthless.  I have bags and bags of things to take to the Hope Center (click here to read about) and my trusty Explorer is full of them.  

And the closet itself?  Have a look:

Now, I know must quilters would scoff at my "stash", but I can assure you that there is a lot of fabric on those shelves, and of course, there will be more to be purchased in the future.  It is so lovely to be able to walk into the closet and see exactly what's on each shelf.  I have sections for colors, sections for Christmas, one for fall, one for Kansas Troubles fabrics, and so on. I even have a section for fabrics to make more of those little Dresses for Africa (I was inspired to do them again after watching the video of the ninety-nine-year-old lady from Iowa who makes a dress a day and hopes to make her 1000th dress on her 100th birthday next May).  

Another section of the closet, which didn't need revamping, is a series of small shelves on the left side where I have books and magazines:

(Also on those shelves is the complete Magnum, P.I. series, courtesy of my Sweetie, and the complete Scarecrow and Mrs. King series, courtesy of my adorable daughter.  Love to watch them while I stitch.)

My sewing room seems even bigger and so much fresher! I even dusted now that there are cleared-off tables. (And we all know how rare that is for me!)  Now I'm ready for a new project.  ♥

A Little Organization, Please!

My longtime friend and pal, Kathy (all the way back to kindergarten!), and I email regularly as well as keep up via our blogs.  We've been discussing quilting stashes recently and mulling over purchases and possible additions.  I mentioned to her the other day that I really needed to sort out my sewing room closet, although I confess I really wasn't planning to do anything except contemplate sorting.  Until yesterday. 

For some strange reason, I found myself in my sewing room and I opened the closet doors and shockingly began to pull things out.  Dan happened along and I told him what I was up to.  He said, would more shelves help? Well, of course they would, but he has little time these days and I wanted closure on this project within a day or so.  He measured, we talked, and he said that rather than build the shelves from scratch and paint them, he could buy pre-painted boards and some brackets and get this project done that very afternoon.   Pre-painted boards? Who knew?!?  (Obviously not me.)

So, with my blessing, he headed out for the builder's supply and I attacked the closet with a vengeance. Here are some before pictures (don't judge!)

 

And how did the renovating turn out?

I so blessed to have such a wonderful, huge closet (with a light in it!) to start with, and now I have space, space, space thanks to my sweetie!  Today I have begun to put things back and it's an archeological dig.  So many wonderful fabrics that had been buried, some not so wonderful ones that will go bye-bye (I'll donate to the local Hope Center), and if you can believe it, I even found a piece of fabric I bought to make a maternity top back in the '70's!!  (Yeah, I saved it.)  

It's taking me a while to sort, and I have all kinds of plans for how to organize, but we'll see how that works in the space.  A section for Kansas Troubles, a section for Christmas, sections for colors (blue, green, red, etc.), flannels, and so on.  I'll keep you posted!  ♥

Still Here!

No photos, no real new news.  More storms but no trees down, just some limbs and another day of cleanup. We did make a quick trip to McCall last week as Dan had a talk to give.  The little over-nighter was a nice vacation and we enjoyed it immensely. I stopped at the little quilt shop there and added some Kansas Troubles fabrics to add to my stash.  Score!  

An old high school friend of Dan's was in a motorcycle accident so we drove to Spokane on Monday to visit him. He had surgery yesterday and we hope he's on the road to recovery although all estimates place that time at six months.  I'm so thankful Dan sold his motorcycle many years ago!!

The days are getting noticeably shorter.  We've enjoyed many evenings of reading on the deck, and all of a sudden, we're running out of light.  I guess it is the middle of August.  And speaking of August, I had a major birthday this month.  The one where one becomes eligible for Medicare.  How has this happened?!?  I feel no older. I remember my aunt, my dad's sister, telling me when she was in her eighties that she didn't feel any different than she did in her thirties.  I'm beginning to understand. At any rate, I have several new cards tucked into my billfold these days.  

Autumn is approaching and cooler days and nights are heralding it.  I'm looking forward to changing out my Americana decorating for fall things in a few weeks. Sure hope Safeway has those cute little pumpkins again!  ♥ 

Front Yard Update

For those of you who might have been wondering, we have grass where once the mighty shrubs grew!  It now looks like this:

Instead of this:

What an amazing transformation.  Just look at this beautiful grass!!

There are a few places that still need to seed in, but tonight marked the first cutting of this new green lawn. When Dan was done, we sat out in the old grass and admired it for quite some time.  ♥

Sewing Aerobics

One does not usually associate sewing with exercise, but with my latest project, I beg to differ.  The instructions called for eighty 2 1/2 x 5" rectangles to be sewn in a herringbone pattern to triangular bases.  

As a stickler for pressing as I go, that meant that each time I attached a rectangle, I needed to hop up, go to my iron, and press the seam.  Times eighty.  Because it was that herringbone pattern, there could be no chain piecing with a group pressing along the way.  

While my ironing board is fairly close to my machine, it does involve a few steps.

Up, over, press, back to the chair, stitch, up, over, press, back to the chair.  I think it was excellent exercise! 

The pieces are all joined and last night I trimmed them to size.  Up for today will be the assembling of the whole top.   And what will it be you ask?  A table runner from the Through the Winter Woods book.  ♥

Ahh . . . Vacation!

Bruder Bear and Karen had been asking Ann and family to come for a visit as it had been quite a while since they'd been down.  They worked out a time and we were glad to be able to join them for our annual trip to the Bruder Bear Resort.  Ann and family went to Jackson Hole first and would join us Sunday evening, but Dan and I drove down on Friday, arriving about nine.  A major remodel has been in progress at BB's, and we spent our first minutes seeing what had been done and being amazed at the transformation.  Karen is a fabulous cook and she now has a beautiful kitchen worthy of her efforts.  The rest of the evening was spent in a wonderful visit, catching up with one another.   

Dan and John spent much of Saturday working on one of the jet skis and the jet boat.  Both turned out to be fairly easy fixes--a stick in the intake of the jet boat and a new spark plug needed for the jet ski.  Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a boat trip up the Snake River to the dam, arriving back in time to welcome Ann, Eric, Cameron, Keaton and Daniel.  Sunday was also Dan's birthday, so dinner that night was barbecued ribs with all the trimmings courtesy of Karen and a Poor Man's Cake I had baked earlier that day.  It was a splendid birthday party! We were just sorry John had to fly to Nashville early the next morning.

The jet skis were, of course a hit with everyone. (Except me--they look like fun but there's no way I'm going on a rocking and rolling machine with my balance issues.  I was doing good to get on the boat although I was fine once I was on.  The getting on?  Not so cute.)  Cameron was soon zipping all over, Keaton was content to drive as long as someone rode with him, and Daniel was up for riding with anyone who would take him!  I forgot to take my camera when I was down at the dock so the following were taken from the deck at the house on zoom:

Keaton and Eric on the left, Ann and Cameron on the right

Ann and Cameron coming in to the dock

Part of the remodel included expanding the deck and adding a roof over half of it, making a wonderful outdoor room.  We made good use of it from the time we got up (coffee overlooking the river) until it got dark.  

Ann enjoying some of Dan's birthday cake

Cameron enjoying a relaxing moment

Daniel playing on Papa Dan's iPad

The lovely view

An evening game of ladder ball

What a wonderful time we all had!  Spending time with family is just the best gift of all.  How blessed we are!  ♥

And A Big Wind Came Along...

A week ago today we were on our way home from a visit at the Bruder Bear Resort.  As we drove north from Riggins, we noticed the wind was blowing.  REALLY blowing.  As our trusty Explorer crossed the bridge over the Salmon River just south of the White Bird grade I wasn't sure I could keep it on the road and I could only imagine how the 18-wheeler behind me was going to make it.  All the way up the grade we were blown and buffeted.  I was afraid to drive in the outside lane and kept to the left passing lane.  By the time we arrived in Grangeville, my hands were sore from clenching the steering wheel, but we made it and I was thankful.  

When we finally arrived home, it was dark and we unpacked and headed for bed.  When I got up the next morning, Dan had left for his Thursday morning guys Bible study and he'd left a note on the counter saying the wind had broken one of our hybrid poplar trees!  I looked out the dining room window and this was the scene:

Poor broken tree!

We had no idea the storm was so widespread.  From Riggins to Spokane and north there were downed trees and downed power lines.  Our power had been out; we'd noticed blinking clocks when we'd gotten home, but it was back on.  We heard that there were people without power until Sunday!  

But now we had our work cut out for us.  Or at least Dan did.  It was still windy on Thursday, so Friday morning Dan put in a call to his buddy Dennis and together they worked out a plan.  

If you look carefully at the above photo, you can see Dan's blue shirt as he climbs the ladder to attach a cable to the upright portion of the tree.  The other end of the cable was attached to the rear of our pickup off to the right.  Dennis ran the chain saw as Dan kept tension on the cable.  When the cuts were just right, Dan pulled with the truck and...

WHAM! Down came the main tree followed by the broken top.  Now all that was left was the cleanup.  Lots and lots of cleanup.  But we had help.

Lots of help!

And now we have a big empty spot in our back yard where once a mighty poplar stood.  (Come back tomorrow for the story of our trip to Bruder Bear's.)  ♥