Messages

Halloween

2009-10-31T21:28:00.000-07:00

Miss Savannah and her howling wolf pumpkin.

Nick's creation:

Indiana Jones and Slash, ready to trick or treat...though Indy was a bit under the weather.

Stawberries in October

2009-10-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

I planted a few strawberry plants this spring and they have been prolific to say the least! I've really been impressed with a first year crop. But now with our extended nice weather I'm getting another little crop! Strawberries in October no less!

These were from today:

And there are a lot more that are on the verge of being ripe but there's a really cold forecast for tonight, so I thought I'd get these in just in case it comes true! These may be the last, but they are beautiful!!

Nancy visits!

2009-10-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! Nancy and her friend Jim visited with us today and we had a great time! We just caught up with one another and revisited family history and had a nice dinner out and then visited some more! They are on their way to Yuma for the winter (from North Pole, Alaska, talk about extremes!) but interestingly they went by way of Europe. They spent three great weeks touring Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and Switzerland. Did a little couch surfing as well and thoroughly enjoyed that! Now they are back to Camas for a few days and then off to Yuma! If we get that way this winter we'll definitely stop in for another visit!

Nancy and her Uncle Ralph:

Nancy and Jim:

Savannah's 9th!

2009-09-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sheesh, where does the time go...the girl is now 9!

Birthday highlights, let's see if you can guess the theme! Hint: think pork.

Savannah taking a whack at the pinata.

Nick too.

Finally, the candy is set free!

Savannah with her trophy pig!

Mema made the pig cake for her:

Blowing out the candles!

Grillmaster Erik with the roast pig...

Presents!

And her age mowed into the lawn, a tradition with Greg, next year, two digits!

Doin' the Puyallup

2009-09-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Ralph and I haven't been to the Puyallup Fair for many, many, MANY years, and man, has it changed!! It seems bigger, but maybe because it's just been reconfigured...and it was so crowded we couldn't easily get around. We found out that there were 86,000 people there the day we went, no wonder it seemed busy! And it was much more spendy than either of us remembered: $6.50 for an elephant ear...come on!! Not to mention $10 (weekday) to park and $22 to just get in the gate!

Still we managed to eat some fair food, onion burger for Ralph (and a Krusty Pup) and a Krusty Pup and homemade taffy for me. I wanted a scone (picture freshly baked, hot, with butter and raspberry jam!) but alas, the lines were incredibly long at every stand and I decided it was not worth the wait.

We also saw two great shows, The Coats, a great a capella group and Billy and the Hillbillys, a funny musical show...kind of back hills humor, bluegrass and classical music all rolled into one. And of course we strolled the exhibits. We looked at miles and miles of quilts and all the 4-H baked goods and sewing projects but my favorite of all fair exhibits are the Grange exhibits. Such artistry with food! Here are some of the great one's from this year's fair.

Rainbow of variety:

A locomotive:

This year's fair mascot, strutting:

City pea patches:

And my very favorite:

In my boss's garden

2009-08-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

Tiny froggy visitor! Too cute!

Mom, Dee and Arlene

2009-08-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

I don't really remember life without these women in it. They were friends from the time my mom was 11 I think, stayed friends their whole lives. Each with their own families, mom with me and Randy, Dee with Rick and Steve and Arlene with Christine and Colleen. We were raised together, still count ourselves as friends even though we don't see each other often. Funny thing is, like with our moms, regardless of how many years go by we just seem to be able to pick up right where we left of.

I recently reconnected with Colleen on Facebook and we've been reminiscing a bit. It's been a blast to catch up with one another. Just fun. Remembering times we spent together as kids running with our moms all over the place. That's what summer was for, right?

This morning Arlene died. Long, loving, happy life. She'll be missed. I'm glad I can be here for Colleen and for Christine as well...amazing how the Lord works. Bringing us together just now.

I can't help but think of the happy reunion when Arlene arrived in Heaven this morning...with my mom there to greet her. Oh, happy day!

A fun teaching afternoon and evening

2009-08-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

We enjoy most of our neighbors here, by and large they are a great group of folks. We particularly enjoy Al and Ruby who live across the street from us. We often visit while we are out walking Beau or watering the yard or getting the mail. They are the sweetest couple!!

Recently, Ralph started playing pinochle in the weekly game at the clubhouse and really enjoys it. He thought it would be fun if I could learn to play and join him, so I showed up and thought I could look over his shoulder and pick the game up that way! Wrong!! The play is far too fast and I didn't know the lingo, plus they all converse while playing. Long and short of it is I didn't learn a thing, gave up and came home early.

Al noticed my early departure and asked Ralph about it, when he found out I couldn't play he talked it over with Ruby and they invited us over this afternoon for no pressure games/lessons for me! We played several games with visiting and snacking, then took a break for strawberry shortcake! Then we played and talked more and surprisingly, I got better, little by little.

After we'd played to 1500 twice they decided the guys would go get pizza and we'd have supper and visit some more! So we had Papa Murphy's pizza and Foster's beer and a lovely time all around. And they sent us home with strawberries and shortcake so we can have this treat again tomorrow!!

Have I said how much we love living here??

A house divided?

2009-08-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

I drive by this house every day on the way to work, and these signs caught my eye because three of them are for mayoral candidates. We have five folks running for mayor this term. Made me wonder what kind of political debates were happening around the dinner table. (the green and white sign is for our neighbor Betsy, who's running unopposed for city council).

One day I finally checked it out further and discovered they have a little business that they run out of their house...for signs!

Go Peter! You gotta love a guy with radio station call letters for a last name! KMET!!

Fourth of July

2009-08-14T13:41:00.001-07:00

The family picnic and fireworks at Donna's were great! We had a nice visit with everyone, had a ton of great food and there were three families (including us!) in the neighborhood shooting off the best fireworks I've seen in years...

First - the food! We had brats, burgers, hot dogs and steaks on the grill...Lyle grilling! Plus all kinds of snacks, salads and desserts.

Here's Marlene, Ruth, Donna, Dennis and Lynn enjoying the picnic!

Table two: Ralph, Victoria, Dianna, Cory and Lyle.

Brandi and Annette:

LT looking sharp!

Then we played cards, basketball and visited until it got dark enough for the fireworks. Here Cory, Donna, Marlene and Victoria play.

Ralph and Lyle looking over Angie's wedding pictures...she and her new husband Kelby were apartment hunting in NM for Kelby's new job while we visited so we didn't get to see them in person this time.

Donna with a two pointer!

Brandi and LT:

Lyle (making the shot), Lynn, Cory and LT.

This was just PART of the arsenal that Lyle brought...the neighborhood was like a war zone, a pretty war zone but WOW it was loud, bright, beautiful and fun.

Here's Ruth and Dennis:

Annette, Lynn and Dianna:

Marlene, Brandi, LT, Donna, Lyle, Victoria and Cory.

After the fireworks Dennis and Ruth and Lynn's family said their goodbyes, but in the spirit of "the night is still young" several games of Whist ensued.

While Brandi and Beau called it a night!

They certainly bonded during our visit and Brandi's new mantra is "I want a Japanese Chin!"

The new used car

2009-08-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, after two road trips in the Hyundai we decided we needed a more comfortable road car. The Hyundai zooms, and gets great gas mileage doing it, but the seats leave something to be desired on a long road trip. You get the picture! Since I love the Hyundai and want to keep it as my daily driver we decided that Ralph's old Camry would be the car we'd lose.

So the hunt began. He looked online, and we visited several car dealers and drove a few contenders. In the end we decided on a 2006 1/2 Kia Optima! Boy is it a nice car and it has all the bells and whistles that a guy could want! Plus more interior room and luggage room that the Hyundai every hoped to have. Ralph loves this car!

And the Camry found a good home with a local high schooler! It's all good!

In North Dakota with the family

2009-07-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

As you all know, our family suffered the loss of two of the cousins this past year, Ramona and David, so part of this vacation time was dedicated to visiting the rest of the family and seeing for ourselves how everyone is doing. We talk on the phone, via Facebook and via e-mail. But sometimes a face-to-face is necessary. We both thought we needed to go and visit and thought it would also help us work through our own grief over these losses.

First stop was Ralph's Aunt Donna, the mom of the two children who passed. In all of our visits to Ralph's family in North Dakota over the years we've always stayed with Aunt Donna. She and I share our birthday, June 22, we are exactly 20 years apart!

As you would imagine her grief is still pretty overwhelming, and yet she was a fine hostess for us. She arranged for Jaci and her and David's two oldest, Abby and Jacob, to join us at the cafe for breakfast the very first morning we were there. It was wonderful to see their smiling faces and to hear the exciting news that they have purchased a new home nearby and will be moving in around the first of August.

We had to say farewell to them, as they were off to a family reunion of their own, with 29 guests coming from California!! The twins, Matthew and Marcus, were already at the reunion, so we didn't get to see them on this visit.

We had a fun time at the breakfast, the cafe ladies are so sweet and some of Donna's friends joined us as well. Donna and her friends have their own booth at the cafe and they even decorate it for the different seasons of the year. Very cute.

The weather was fabulous the whole time we were there, with temps in the 70s and hardly any humidity and very few bugs...still the few mosquitos that were around managed to find me as they always do. Donna's gardens are always beautiful. Ralph and Beau didn't mind sitting out and soaking up some of the sun.

This is Donna's garden between her house and garage, really gorgeous!

Peonies and Delphiniums!

We also visited with Ralph's Aunt Mickey! She's a neat lady, and in years past there has always been lively conversation! She's 96, and she's been in a nursing home for several years now, first from a broken hip, then dementia and now blindness. We knew that she was frail and had some bad days now and then and weren't sure what to expect. We were blessed the day we visited and we had a really nice time with her, still a lively conversation! She's doing better than we thought and we were thankful.

Knowing my interest in family history Donna took us to several of the local cemeteries so I could collect information, and in the process she told me of the discovery of Ralph's great great grandfather's grave. Seems Andreas had come to the US to visit his son and died during the visit and is buried in the same cemetery as his son Peder! Another relative had shown Donna the grave, so up to that point none of us knew it was there. So that was a new thing to know for the old family tree!

Donna also took us to a combination 4th of July/125th Anniversary parade in Park River and it was a lot of fun. Loads and load of antique cars and farm equipment, fire and aide units from all the surrounding communities, pipers, bands, horses and riders and even a Polish dance group!

After that we adjourned back to Donna's for a family picnic/potluck and one of the best fireworks displays I've witnessed in person in many, many years. Between our family and two others it was a beautiful war zone for quite a while after dark!! Really spectacular! More on that later!

Vacation with a mission...

2009-07-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

As my boss said when I turned in my leave slips..."gee you are taking a lot of time off". I gently reminded him that I took virtually NO time off last year, save a few snow days at the end of the year. So began our second vacation of 2009! But we this vacation had some definite missions, to see our friends in Alberta and to visit Ralph's family in ND.

We started off by heading east and then north through Idaho and into British Columbia on our way to see our friends Clayton and Brenda in Alberta. On the way we did a bit of the tourist thing, stopping in Fernie, BC to learn about all the coal mining in the area. Fernie is a cute, historic little town in the mountains...really a pretty spot!!

Fernie was the headquarters town for a huge coal mining company and all the hills around the town that had a rounded effect (like the tree covered ones in the photo above) are areas that have been mined and reclaimed. All the craggy type mountains were not mined. They had a cute little visitor center with a nice guy who let us tour the small museum even though we had Beau along with us on our walk through town. He used to be an engineer for the mining company so had tons to tell us about the industry and the company and the area. It was fun to learn so much in such a short time. Then we were off down the road again.

Continuing on the Crowsnest Pass route we came by Frank Slide. This is an area that fell victim to the mining or to unstable geology...depending on who you listen to. On April 29, 1903 at 4 in the morning Turtle Mountain came tumbling down on top of the town of Frank and the mine there. More than 70 people died and Frank only had about 600 people total, so it was pretty devastating.

The debris field is HUGE!!! Probably more than 30 cubic meters!! And it all came down in about 90 seconds or so. It covered not only a lot of the town and the mine, but also the railroad that ran through the area. In later years part of the debris was cleared away to make room for the highway that now passes through the area.

Then we were off to Nanton, AB and the great air museum there. The museum is also home to the Canadian Bomber Command Memorial, a huge granite wall with all the names of those who lost their lives between 1939 and 1945 in the Bomber Command. Ralph toured the museum and took a few photos of his favorite airplanes and he also had a nice chat with a US guy who flew with the Canadians during WWII. The guy was super interesting and funny and Ralph probably could have stayed and listened to him all afternoon!

Arriving at Clayton and Brenda's in the early evening we toured their new house, beautiful! And sat down for a catch up visit with the two of them. They also treated us to a fabulous dinner out at Nilgiris Tea House just down a block or two from their place...a lovely summer evening walk there and back and a truly wonderful dining experience. Thanks to Karyn the owner and to Clayton and Brenda for a great evening.

It was wonderful to hear about their adjustments to being back in Canada after a few years in Pakistan, about their family and their own thoughts an plans for the next few years. These are awesome folks and we love them dearly. We hope they will come and visit us soon.

The next day we hit the road again, headed for the folks in ND!

Cutest grandkids on the planet!

2009-06-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

Wait. Let me think that over. Nope, they are the cutest grandkids on the planet!

The gymnast

2009-06-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Miss Savannah, talented gymnast:

The bar:

The beam:

and floor exercise:

Angie and Kelby tie the knot

2009-06-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

Angie looking gorgeous!

Allison, Angie and Dianna:

Beautiful view from the balcony:

Mr. & Mrs.:

The whole family: Kelby, Angie, Lynn, Annette, Allison and Dianna

Cute one of Angie with Lynn and Annette:

Happily ever after!

Beau has found his voice

2009-06-07T21:52:00.001-07:00

Our little dog Beau is a rescue dog and he has some issues from his past that we will never know. Abandonment, fear, etc. And he never makes a sound except to squeak like a tennis shoe on hardwood when he's happy or excited. He runs in circles and squeaks, too funny.

The vet says he is capable of barking, but chooses not to...maybe a shock collar in his past? Who knows. The only time we ever heard a bark, even a single little one was occasionally when he was having a dream.

Last Saturday after one of the occasions when we've left him alone for a short while, he greeted us by jumping up and down on all fours and barking! We were so surprised, we didn't know what to think. It didn't last long, but we were just shocked. After nearly a year, he'd barked!

Yesterday, we left him for a short run to the grocery store, and low and behold, upon our return he did the jumping up and down and barking again! Not only that, but when we took him for his afternoon walk he leaped and bounced along like he was the happiest guy on the planet.

Oh, how we wish he could tell us his story!!

Springtime color in the yard

2009-06-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is our first spring in the house, and we knew we had lots of rhodys and azaleas in the yard, but had no clue about what color or variety they were. What a pleasant surprise!! Here's just a sample of the beautiful colors we've been experiencing!

Evan's 2nd birthday!

2009-05-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Evan turned two on May 22 and his mom and dad hosted a party and BBQ at their home. It was a beautiful sunny day!

He got loads of gifts, but his favorite, bar none, was from his Grandma Mary...his own swimming pool. He and cousin Ryan wasted no time finding swim trunks and jumping in for a dip!

Blowing out the candles!

Sampling the frosting!

Opening the presents:

He was born while we were still in Mexico, can't believe that was two years ago!!

A day with the kids

2009-05-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hey, Greg Darane' and the kids came down for the day. We went to garage sales, went and picked up and planted our new mulberry tree and ended the afternoon at the Farmer's Market. They had great music and so we scored a table near the stage and waited for our lunches. Goofiness ensued.

An awesome day overall!

Jo and Bryan...the wedding

2009-05-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

A great joy for a great family, pictures from Johanna and Bryan's wedding on May 16:

With dad Harold and Bojangles. She arrived at the church in the fire truck! Harold is a firefighter/EMT and Jo was an EMT for them while she was studying nursing.

The family: Tim, Harold, Daniel, Jennifer and Johanna.

Jo and Jenn: Sister act!

Jo, the cousins and Grandma Donna too!

Jo and Bryan tying the knot:

The happy couple:

Love you guys, blessings on your life together.

Welcome baby Yahiya!

2009-05-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Our friend Luke and his wife Ruth welcomed their new son on Friday!! What a sweetheart!

What a blessing for them!! We are thankful for this new little wonder!

Loving our community

2009-05-10T18:01:00.001-07:00

Ralph and I took a lot of ribbing when we decided to buy our new place because it was in a 55 plus community. Hey, we are both over 55!!! We are entitled. But people thought we might not like it because the community might be too quiet, too old, perhaps too cranky.

Admittedly, we are among the "youngsters" here. We are acquainted with people who've been married longer than either of us have been alive. And there are a few cranky folks here, but what neighborhood doesn't have those.

By far the vast majority of our neighbors are wonderful. They are lively, friendly and we have enjoyed getting to know them all. We can't go walking without stopping to talk with someone, usually several someones, and getting the mail becomes a community event! It's a rare occasion when you just get the mail and come home, there's almost always someone else getting their mail at the same time, so you chat, pretty soon someone else comes for their mail, a walker or two joins in and soon there's a pretty decent gab-fest going on.

We recently have been doing a major remodel of our yard. The whole street-side edge of our property had the dreaded junipers...a yukky plant that we've never liked. But they are tough to remove and so we've let them be. But this long hard winter damaged a bunch of the plants and trees in the yard and we had an arborist come out and take a look to see if any could be salvaged. They couldn't. So we started thinking about making the yard ours more or less. We wanted a more edible landscape and the junipers were in the way.

After much thought we hired the arborist to not only remove the winter damaged things, but to take the juniper out as well. And now it is gone forever! Since then we've planted some peonies and have ordered some blueberries, raspberries, a mulberry tree and an Italian prune tree. Also some strawberries...things are looking up. We've also planted rhubarb, pea pods, butternut squash and both sweet million and tiny yellow pear tomatoes!

I also got wild and crazy and decided I wanted a small perennial garden in the back near the patio to attract hummingbirds. I've seen a few of the little beauties around and want to encourage them. One of the great delights in our house on the rez was the abundance of hummers drawn to our flowering baskets on the porch...I wanted to recreate that if I could.

So I bought a delphinium, a bee balm and a foxglove to get the ball rolling. In mentioning it to the neighbors in one of the above mentioned gab-fests I now also have some gorgeous lilies, a hardy fuchsia and a cute hummingbird feeder, all gifts from the yards of our neighbors!! So this morning Ralph and I took up a bit of the tiny lawn in the back yard and put in the beginnings of a nice hummingbird garden. I still want to add a few things and some sort of water feature and the requisite edging bricks so Ralph doesn't get overly carried away with the weed-eater, but I'm pretty happy with the progress so far.

And I'm really happy that we live in such a friendly and generous community!!

Losing David

2009-05-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

For the second time in just a few months our family is mourning. Last September we lost Ramona and on April 27 we lost her baby brother David. Makes you wonder what God is thinking.

Just 37, married to Jaci, father to Abby, Jacob, Matthew and Marcus. CFO for his company, school board, church board, generally happy, busy devoted family guy. Hadn't been feeling well for a bit, was hospitalized that Saturday with both blood pressure and blood sugar way out of whack. Very touch and go, but by Sunday he was doing much better, getting stable, everyone breathing a sigh of relief. Dodged a bullet. Whew!!

But Monday morning he went into cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated despite the best efforts of the team at the hospital.

To say the whole family is devastated and in shock is a complete understatement. Just doesn't seem real. Doesn't seem possible. How could God let this happen? We are all pondering that.

Meanwhile, prayers for Jaci and the kids, and for his surviving brothers and sister and for his mom. And for the rest of us as well, the cousins, nieces and nephews trying to understand the meaning of it all.

More vacation...

2009-04-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

We took a day and packed it with a couple of ruins, one of which was up in the Superstition Mountains, which are beautiful in and of themselves!

We visited the Casa Grande National Monument, which is a pretty amazing place. It became America's first archeological preserve in 1892. There is this huge, ancient four story building that may have served as some sort of early observatory and calendar!!

The four outer walls of the building are aligned with the four compass points and the west wall shown below has two holes, a round one on the upper left that aligns with the sunset on the summer solstice and the square one on the upper right (barely visible in the photo) that aligns once every 18 1/2 years with the setting moon at the extreme point of its cycle. How weird is that?

Built by the Hohokam people, essentially farmers, they learned to tame and divert the Gila and Salt rivers and their tributaries and formed irrigation communities that regulated the system. They also used groundwater runoff from desert storms to irrigate their crops.

They also had the biggest Saguaro cactus I'd ever seen up close. It really dwarfs Ralph and Beau:

Here's the guys close up:

The Superstition Mountains are famous for mining, mostly copper, but gold and silver as well. There were several old copper smelters along the way and a huge open pit copper mine...I even got a sample of copper ore to bring home.

In the town of Globe there is a pueblo ruin called Besh Be Gowah. It's really tucked away and has been partially excavated and reconstructed.

There is a long entry hallway that would have been covered when the place was built and it was designed as a security feature to control access to the pueblo:

There were loads and loads of small rooms used for various things from storage to cooking to living to ceremonies. There was a small central plaza that was used for gatherings.

Many of the rooms were entered via ladders...

They've recovered a lot of artifacts from this site and have a small museum that contains a selection of what they've found:

There is also a small raised platform, that in more than 40 other sites in Arizona are very large and are usually the base for a special residence, and sometime even huge ones that are the base for an entire pueblo. This one is very small and out of character and they haven't figured out what it's purpose was.

And, a lovely fact in Arizona. We stopped at Burnt Wells rest area for a quick break and to walk the dog and in the middle of the pet exercise area is this sign:

Always something interesting and enlightening...it's why we keep going back to Arizona!!