Folks at Facebook already know that I had a devil of a time in traffic yesterday morning. A woman plunged over the side of the freeway in her vehicle and died, causing one heck of a backup. The girls landed at 10:10 a.m., and I didn't arrive at the airport until 12:30 p.m. The folks at Southwest were very understanding -- a lot of other folks had come in with the same wild-eyed look as me, all folks either meeting flights or trying to fly away. I was incredibly glad that Emily had her cell phone. I was able to call her and let her know where I was and thus she was able to tell the flight staff what was up.

Sophie doesn't look too happy in the photo -- apparently their behavior wasn't the greatest on the plane and she was feeling guilty. I decided to be calm about it and let their consciences doing the punishing.  Anyway. We got home at 3 p.m. We put together a Chinese dinner courtesy of Wal-Mart, but my brain was pretty much on automatic. Jeff wanted to know if I was mad at him for any reason, but I wasn't -- I was just exhausted and unable to really operate. LOL. 

So today we got the Toy serviced. We were 2,000 miles overdue so they flushed the engine oils too, and then we did the coolant as well. Jeff wasn't too thrilled when I told him, but y'know, I was doing my best to do things right and he said he's not mad, but I know he's annoyed (he had put Caterpillar coolant in there some time ago and that's spendy stuff). I have solemnly vowed to stay away from the maintenance of the truck -- just no need to get involved in that. LOL. I know the Toy's in tiptop shape at least and that's all that matters as it's our chief mode of transportation.

And I had an embarrassing thing happen... the pair of knit pants I was wearing developed one heck of a hole in an awkward spot. We happened to be checking out a pet supply store to satisfy Em's curiosity and Fashion Bug was next door. I found two new pairs of knit pants on sale. So... now I will toss out the raggedy pair I had on, plus another pair that are also in terrible shape. And these knit pants aren't all clingy either. Yea! It's been ages since I could find this particular style and fabric in my size and length. Whoo hoo!

Found dinner too -- was checking out the sales at Safeway and discovered chicken stuffed with asparagus and cheese. Just pop them in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and voila! Got those and we'll have salad and bread as well. Roast is on tomorrow's menu.

We're headed toward the weekend, folks! Yea!

Jeff has been on vacation for about a week now, and returns to work tomorrow with a bang, having to be at Diamond Lake (quite a ways away from here) by about 7 a.m. He's already in bed, as is Jonah, the little dachshund we've been babysitting for friends this past weekend. Kind of cute... Jonah refused to use his bed the first night until we put it in the living room, but Friday, Saturday and tonight... he wants his bed on the floor by my side of the bed. Jeff is in turn adoring of the little guy and exasperated. LOL. I'm just very fond of him -- he's a little sweetie.

Anyway. I've been absent from Xanga yet again -- but only because it takes time to sit down and properly do a blog entry with photos and photos do I have! Dear friends of ours from Las Vegas came to visit, staying in town for several days and then going to the coast with us before heading northward to Seattle for the rest of their vacation. Rob and Jeff have known each other for nearly 20 years, having worked together first for the Caterpillar dealership in Seattle, then together at the Cat dealership in Las Vegas before we moved on to California and then Oregon. Funnily enough, we had tentatively planned a trip down to Vegas this summer to see them, but it worked out better this way, especially since we might accidentally be heading to southern Idaho at the end of the month. We shall see though.

Besides having guests in town, we've been minus both daughters.. Em and Sophie flew down to see their grandparents in Idaho for several days. I am missing them so much! The Fourth of July wasn't quite the same without them here. They left last Thursday and will return this Wednesday. I haven't gotten to speak to them... Jeff and his mom get to talking and that's that. Ah well. It'll be just me picking them up Wednesday morning and I'm looking forward to it.

Pictures...

I should start with the annual awards night for the girls' swim club. They both received certificates -- very nice. If they continue they'll get a plaque next year and then from thereon out they get a little bar each year to put onto the plaque. Kind of nifty.

The rest of the pictures are from our trip to the coast with our friends. Rob hadn't been to the Oregon coast before (he's actually from American Falls, Idaho), and Teresa has lived most of her life in Las Vegas, with brief sojourns in Montana and northern Nevada. She'd never seen the ocean before from what I understand... which boggled my mind a bit because we sneaked over to the California coast and Malibu a couple of times while we lived in Vegas -- it wasn't that long of a trip really. Had to see some ocean...

Devil's Elbow Beach at Heceta. Sophie's in the background with yet another "pet kelp".

Thank goodness for $5 faux Crocs from Rite Aid. Where there is water, there is Sophie. This was also taken at Heceta.

The wind was just incredible that day. Just before getting to Heceta we stopped at the overlook between the Sea Lion Caves and Heceta Head. Gusts of up to 35 miles per hour had been predicted for that day and guess what? One blew right up as several of us were leaning over to take pictures of the sea lions below. Whoo! One guy yelped and ducked down against the barrier, both girls screamed and scurried to the Toy and I just backpedaled as furiously as possible. We all agreed it felt like hands were trying to push us over the edge and to the rocks below. Yikes! So we didn't hike up to the lighthouse or climb up to the World War II lookout area at Cape Perpetua. Noooo way... LOL. We did stop at Devil's Churn though. The tide was just starting to come in and the waves began to get spectacular while we were there. Teresa and I hiked on down, and the girls and Jeff followed after. Rob stayed atop and enjoyed the view -- his knees are a little bad. Mine suck pretty badly, but I swallowed the pain because I'll be danged if I'm going to miss out on stuff. It was excellent exercise climbing back up anyway, and I discovered that I wasn't as out of breath this time around as I was the last time we visited. Yea!

Foxglove.

I should know what this is, but the name escapes me. Pretty though!

The winds were getting big enough and the winds were strong enough that we got a lot of spray in our faces -- and got more than a taste of saltwater on our tongues. LOL

Ah, my  dear one.

Looking back down.

And then it was off to Yachats and the Shamrock Lodgettes! We've stayed overnight in Yachats before, but at a different place. Jeff's been wanting to stay at the Shamrock for quite some time so we treated our friends. We were very lucky and got the last two bayview rooms and they happened to be side-by-side. Yea!

We had a small fridge, microwave and coffee machine, two queen beds, television and a woodstove, plus a private patio.

The star attraction was the Fisher woodstove that Sophie's standing in front of.

Our view of the bay and Yachat lies beyond. It's a very small town of abou 960 people -- about the same size as Jeff's hometown.

If we angled our chairs we also had a view of the ocean. Mwaha!

Miss Em -- Teresa is just beyond.

My girls.

Looking toward one of the cabins one can rent as well.

The Four Stooges as Teresa called us all. LOL.

Outside our front door.

A view of the building we were in -- four units per building.

More of the cabins... we're hoping to snag one of of those for an entire weekend the next time around.

The girls and I explore the bit of beach accessible from the lodgettes and we found this fantastic sandcastle. The creators came out again as we were leaving -- they looked worried that we might have been damaging it, but I waved my camera and that brought out the grins. Really, quite the architectural achievement in sand.

We had enjoyed a lunch of clam chowder and fish 'n chips at Mo's in Florence earlier in the day, so we all munched on cold cuts, sandwiches, chips and pop we'd stocked up on. Those food items were a picnic lunch the next day too. Yum! After dinner, the girls, Jeff and I hit the beach again for the sunset.

Emily and I took an early morning walk on the beach the next day. This was a tamer beach than the one near Driftwood Shores in Florence, but we just enjoyed poking around and talking quietly with each other. My girl is growing up and I'm savoring every second I get with her.

That was my perch after we returned from our walk --nothing like a good, hot cup of coffee and a fantastic view to get one's morning off right.

We hit a diner called The Blue Whale for breakfast. Excellent! Great service and really yummy food. We visited the Green Salmon later after we checked out of the Shamrock and discovered the smoothest, most excellent coffee I've had in a while. Wow! I cannot wait to return there! And they had some fantastic variations of green tea I want to try! The girls got to enjoy horchata con cocoa. We discovered horchata (rice milk with cinnamon and sugar) at a local restaurant a couple of months ago and this particular combination had the girls happily slurping for a while.

Stopped at Smelt Sands for some more incredible waves before we headed up the coast to Newport.

Where we finally got to tour the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse! We have tried twice before and it was always closed. I also learned how to pronounce it as the locals do: Yah-kwin-uh. I was trying to pronounce it the Spanish way. LOL! This is a view from the top of the stairs that lead the lighthouse "tower".

The lighthouse worked for only three years before a bigger one was built at Yaquina Head. We hope to see that lighthouse on our next trip. The interior of this particular lighthouse was fun though... the house was small, yet efficient. I took pictures, but I guess I decided not to title them to show here. LOL. Sorry!

We went to the marine center again -- only because it's free and we were running low on funds. We've yet to see the Newport Aquarium, but soon! Meanwhile, we got to see Amigo the octopus get fed. He's grown a lot since we last saw him and is less shy now. Teresa loves to eat octopus, but was absolutely enthralled by Amigo -- she'd had no idea how intelligent those critters are, or how much personality they actually possess. We parted ways eventually... after a visit to the Newport Bay Candle Company of course (and yes, I got Teresa one of the ocean scene candles). We followed them into Depoe Bay -- they had lunch at the Sea Hag, and we picnicked at Boiler Bay. When we traveled back through Depoe Bay I could see that a whale had been spotted, but Jeff kept driving. Next time... right?

The next day we arose at 3:30 a.m. and took the girls away up to Portland where they boarded a plane bound for Boise, Idaho. I barey held it together as they boarded the plane -- we've never done this before.

As parents Jeff and I were able to escort the girls to the terminal. The co-pilot greeted them and another little girl, and they got to board first. Pretty cool. I'll be there on Wednesday to welcome them back home.

This holiday weekend has been a nice one. I did work Friday (oy! what a day!), but we had a very nice Saturday... watched the parade in Harrisburg (took Jonah with us: envision a very tall man with a very little dog and you have Jeff and Jonah, lol), enjoyed a barbecue potluck, had a dinner date at Olive Garden, then caught Quantum of Solace on Pay-Per-View. Jonah didn't care for the fireworks and Jeff eventually popped him into bed with us. LOL. We also picked pie cherries and black cherries -- today I got the pie cherries all processed since they're fairly fragile. I have two quarts of frozen cherry pie filling, and two one-quart bags of simply frozen cherries. I plan to make jam with the black cherries -- that'll happen on Tuesday.

And that's it for now. Working tomorrow --plus two hours at Willamalane on Tuesday morning. Take care!

In Memoriam of my dear and beloved friend, Dorothy Sutfin, who died Wednesday, July 24, 2009. In just the two short years that we lived in Marysville, California, she and her husband, Allen, became very dear and precious to us. She was always there for Allen, keeping his schedule on track, always having his meals ready and the house warm and welcoming. She shared her canning books and recipes with me... I have her one canning book that survived the big floods that swept through that area in the 80s and 90s -- it's dog-eared and water-damaged, but precious. A favorite memory of Jeff and mine is when one night we commented on how wonderful it was that Allen and Dorothy had been married so long ands still held hands whenever they walked together. They'd come over for dinner and were heading back across the street. Both Allen and Dorothy responded in kind, "It's not because we like holding hands, it's because we'll fall if we don't hold onto each other!" Ehehehehe. But they did love each other deeply and had 56 years of marriage. I know Dorothy was anxious about some upcoming operations when last we got to visit, but it didn't seem possible that anything serious might be occurring. We last talked on the phone in the fall when I called to tell her I'd canned pickles and made three different varieties of freezer jam, exchanged Christmas letters and cards at Christmas... and now she's gone. I have a wooden barrel filled with daffodil bulbs that she gave me just before we moved and I've always said those are my memory of two wonderful years and a good friendship with a wonderful lady. They're even more especially poignant to me now.

Much love to you, Dorothy. We miss you.

I just realized it's nearly five and I've yet to make the Xanga blog I'd promised. Basically I simply wanted to share some photos from the weekend. Sophie attended her very first swim meet, taking part in just one event, but doing really well. For the first time we saw her truly focus on swimming. It was awesome! She was 19th out of a field of about 35 entrants in the 50-meter freestyle and swam her little heart out. Yea! Emily did awesome as well although for some reason I misunderstood when her events were scheduled... so we missed an event on Friday morning, then another on Saturday, although she made it for the other three she was scheduled for. She also made it for her final event on Sunday and was entered into a relay as well, helping to bring a second-place ribbon to her team. I took heart in the fact that quite a number of other parents were also little confused about the scheduling... summer meets are completely different animals it seems. It was wet, windy and cold for the most of the weekend too, which figures since Amazon Pool is outdoors. It's a gorgeous pool, but aaiee!!

Jeff and I also decided against doing stroke and turn training for this partcular event and instead focused on getting some major volunteer time in. We both worked four hours in concessions on Saturday and I put five more hours in on Sunday -- I'm very sore from the constant standing and rushing about. But it was fun and we plan to volunteer for concessions again the next time Willamalane hosts a meet.

So now for a few pictures.

Warm ups on Saturday morning. Sophie isn't proficient with diving off the block yet. She does what Jeff calls "farmer falling into the ditch". LOL. The coach had her dive off the side for her actual race. She was so psyched and excited when I handed her a team cap -- team suit is next!

After warm-ups... it was so chilly! Fortunately both she and Emily were in the first event of the day -- Sophie was in the second heat and Emily in the fifth heat.

Sophie, waiting beside her coach for her heat to come up.

And after the race -- one thrilled Sophie!

This was on Sunday... look at those clouds! In the afternoon the wind tore in and the rains just fell. It was a split meet so it was the 13 and olders who got the deluge. I loved this particular picture because Ingrid is one of our premiere swimmers and a very sweet, gentle girl. She knew Emily hadn't swam in a relay in this particular pool before so she took my daughter under her wing and gave her encouragement. I believe Ingrid is just one year older.

Emily swam the last leg of the IM relay -- that's freestyle. Because the pool is Olympic-sized the teams split into sides -- backstroke and butterfly come from the blocks side, breast stroke and freestyle from the other -- and the latter two have to start in the water since it's shallow at that end.

Unlike concessions at the UO football games, swimmers under age 16 can help out too so on Saturday the girls prepped for the next day by bagging up bagels and muffins.

And Jeff learned out to make WSC's signature fried rice -- an extremely popular item that folks look for specifically at these events apparently. We made a killing -- $3 for a plate (heaping), $1.50 for a bowl. Jeff fell in love with the rice cookers and the electric wok. But of course.

On Sunday Emily helped the club president's son sell snow cones. She also got sucked into the fried rice process and prepped rice for the cookers. I also got her started on learning how to count change (surprised a few folks when I counted out change to them in the proper manner). Emily kept muttering that school was out and it wasn't fair that she had to add and subtract in the summer. ROFL. Emily most preferred serving up rice and getting hot cocoa for very cold swimmers.

The biggest thing for the girls was that they now have new personal records to aim for and I noticed that Emily's not just swimming -- she's racing now. Awesome! She was unhappy each morning of course... but once she hit the water she was all business and so gorgeous to watch.

And for her grandma... I took a few pictures of her on Friday -- she was knitting.

She has no idea what she's making, but it's skinny and long and she's having fun.

Later!

It's gotten pretty darn warm here in west-central Oregon. The 80s are hot when you don't have AC and your house is so tightly built it just retains the heat. LOL! Whoo! We'll deal. We blew in all the "cool" morning air we could and then I shut the doors and we're hoping we can keep the house reasonable. We've had triple digits here before... that's when the girls end up sleeping in the hallway with the big fan blowing.

The 80s are also hot when it's only May and this not normal temperatures for this part of our world.

Anyway. The last two nights have been busy and have not involved swimming. Wednesday was Emily's sixth grade barbecue and orientation. It was weird to sit in a desk after so many years and have to raise one's hand to ask questions. Jeff sat in the back and annoyed me and I felt like I'd rocketed right back in time. LMAO. I should have sat a couple rows forward... Sophie was hysterical. She had a lot of questions, but she won't hit sixth grade for another two years. Em was fun -- I love her and that's all I'll say.

Last night was the 4th and 5th concert night and they sang numbers from High School Musical, Music Man, Annie and The Wizard of Oz. Really fun and cool. Tonight? Swimming. I am expecting a call from the club president. No matter how thoroughly I fill out the application packet, I never seem to get the registration dollars right and I've no idea why. I follow and fill it all out... maybe they have a secret cost sheet I'm not aware of... Goodness! Isn't $175.50 enough to get started? LOL -- we'll see what the issue is.

Jeff's Roto Rooter visit went well, but I will tell you, I DO NOT like being the one looking down at my loved one on a hospital bed. Granted, it was all preventative, but it was scary to me and I didn't like it. He was awesome though... a 4 mm polyp was found and removed with a hot snare. He's all good to go for another five years. Versed is amusing on him... it just makes Sophie loopy and limp -- it makes Jeff dizzy and hiccupy. Got him home and of course he sacked out in the living room -- but he didn't remember a thing -- not even that he'd called his mom. He perked up enough in the afternoon, but went to bed pretty early, right after Em's concert.

Next week signals the end of the school year for the girls... I don't work Monday, I work two hours at Willlamalane on Tuesday, supposed to work Wednesday, but I have to check with Ms. Cherrell to see if I can get the time off to see Em's 5th grade "graduation" celebration. I'd really like to see that.

And here are the photos I'd hoped to add to an album at Facebook, but things are a little odd after my IE update to version 8. I did not have a problem uploading photos here to Xanga so... uh huh.

A quick shot of the lockers at Em's new middle school. Looked familiar. It's not a huge building and I guess the sixth graders will share.

Donna's beautiful peony in all different shades and states.

Donna's white hardy orchid. Whoo! We're just waiting to see the yellow ones next.

My ugly bush... it has taken form and definition. Last fall I worked my butt off to trim and shape this little bugger by hand. Jeff then rented a hedge clipper a few days ago and finished shaping. We've been rewarded with the first blooms off this thing in 3 1/2 years. I guess I can't call it my ugly bush anymore. LOL. This silly thing had been ignored for years and years and was about six or seven feet tall and totally crazy when we moved in.