Going through changes...

Just life changes - not menopause!!!

July was a rough month.  In part I have been struggling with some things at work, and I finally felt compelled to do something about it.  So I half-quit.  I had two jobs and gave up one.  So I am still working half-time at the church and enjoying it, but I also am half time working on the house and trailer and other projects to come.  Eventually I will get my substitute teaching application in for the schools, though I am not ready to start subbing yet.  It is a big change and means I am home two full days in the middle of the week - working on the house.

But first - we started the month of August in Portland for my 20th high school reunion.  Lots of fun - no pictures - but good times!  We also spent a good amount of time with the nephews and niece, though I failed to come home with lots of pictures.

This gem is Isaac - and he has grown up so much, right into a giggler!  I really enjoyed all the smiles and laughing, not so much soaking my shorts in baby spit-up.  

Tom and I ate some delicious seafood and hopped through a couple brewpubs.  He went to the Flugtag event with Marty, and I picked blackberries with my sister.  We got to see the Dieringer kiddos, too.  Just lots of go-go-go-go fun - the norm for our trips to see my family!

Then Tom was out of town for a week, and right off the bat, I had an opportunity to see a bunch of my "oldest" friends in Denver.  The plan for working less and two less days of driving was not to trade it in for trips to Denver every week, but it was a pretty wonderful opportunity, and I was home alone anyway.

Anna Belle and I got to have lunch (and coffee)

 Dee took a picture of Dorothy, Rudy, Betty, Fred, Nancy, David, and I on the occasion of Rudy's birthday.  And then I got a little extra hang out time with Betty, since I stayed at her place.

It was sure a treat to see everyone.  And by fluke of great timing for a text, I got to see my friend Deb as I drove out of Denver to get back to finish up my last few hours of work for the week.

I'm not sure if it's really settling into a pattern yet, but I got lots of texturing and painting in the house done, and the trailer is getting boxed up for the move into the basement when it is finished!

July 2015

July was one heck of a month!  It has been two months since I posted, and July is to blame. 

The weekend before July began, we had a flood - in the Cimarron Canyon, not at home.  But while Tom and I were working on the house, he got called away to serve as incident commander in the canyon - where the highway department was liberating the highway from the river bed and from the canyon walls - lots of water, lots of big rocks, and lots of mud.  Andres and I took a firetruck out and helped for about eight hours.  We got to see a bear, but I wasn't fast enough to catch a picture.

I worked with some kids on a float for the church, which was lots of fun.  Thomas rode the firetruck with the ladies and gent below.  And we ended the evening with some fun, food, and fireworks with the family!  Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday feverish and achy and was bedridden for a few days.

The following weekend I had already arranged for someone else to do music, so we could getaway!  We went to Albuquerque Friday evening and had a nice dinner out.  Saturday we went to the Museum of Nuclear Science - very neat!  Sunday we went to the Botanic Gardens - very cool (actually - it got a little warm), the butterfly pavilion, and the "aquarium" which was included with the admission.  We did hit Costco and pick out our basement floor colors at Home Depot, but it was all about good food and time together.

 These two turkeys were both griping at me.  

Even though Tom was the one in little Tom's face, I was the one causing him to bristle!

 The aquarium was pretty little, but it looks like they hope to expand.  

They do have an awesome tank of jellyfish - my favorite to watch!

The trip to Albuquerque was also a celebration of seven years together.  It was fun remembering that fateful evening we met on the porch.  The following week I prepped and prepped to get the basement cleared out; Friday we had everything moved out and cleaned up.  Saturday morning we taped up a barrier on the wood walls and stained away!  The concrete floor looks amazing, but before it had chance to dry, we broke away back down to Albuquerque and bought two couches.  Two in the afternoon and Tom says, "You really liked that couch, and the only reason we didn't get it was because we were in the car, right?"  So we hit the road and made it to Costco right before closing and made it back around midnight.

The next week was hectic for me at work, as the audit I had been preparing for finally arrived.  It was mostly painless, and we're in good shape.  That was great news.  And then the last weekend brought water day...the annual work day, lunch, and meeting.  Back at the tank, Tom wouldn't let anyone else in to clean, but I kept busy swatting bugs away.

Sunday we got together to celebrate Pop's and my birthdays.  It was a great way to wind down a busy month.

Wood or Silver

Last Friday Tom and I celebrated five years of wedded bliss.  We spent the beginning of the month remembering where we were five years ago - driving to Bend, checking out Crater Lake, buying salmon on the docks of the Columbia, playing golf, BBQing with friends, and then finally - saying "I do!"

Five years ago we were just settling into Miami, building a mud porch, stashing boxes away that still haven't been unpacked.  It is a great feeling to have moved again - into the house, though there are still so many things on the to do list.  Five years really flies by!

My brothers inform me that the five year anniversary "gift" is wood or, more modernly, silverware.  We got a canoe - which is neither, but technically the oars are wood.  My older brother asked is we'd named it, which we haven't, but Tom rejected the idea of "Cinco" as it sound a lot like sink-o, which is never what you want a boat to do.  We enjoyed a great paddle around the lake, stalking the frogs, watching the dragonflies, and splashing (each other and our nieces also on the water).

Here's to many more....

Miami Sound Machine

We've got a whole other kind of live music here - and it isn't the band Miami Sound Machine.

This may end up being the wettest year on record - at least in the five years I've been here.  The rain is nearly daily, though the storms dropping an inch of rain or more are only once every couple of weeks.  We haven't been able to get the upper pond low enough to  finish it, and we're about to start our sixth water run of the season!!  People are actually passing up on their water runs because they don't want any more water or don't have room in their ponds.  Meanwhile, the lake is still too high!  How bizarre!  All the storms have made for some beautiful skies...the cloud formations have been amazing, not to mention the colorful sunsets.

Planting anything is a roll of the dice, as the ground has just been so saturated.  We did get a handful of perennials planed in the circle drive - where I'm grateful for the rain, so I don't have to water by hand.  We also planted some berries and an apple tree - hopefully they take well and aren't overly wet.  And then all the seeds that ever fell and weeds that ever spread by root have taken over everything!

just a sampling out the back window - lots of sunflowers

The sound machine reference is to the kind you purchase to lull young children to sleep.  The toads and frogs and crickets and other noisy bugs have turned up the volume - or rather the volume of toads and frogs and crickets and other noisy bugs has multiplied, consequently growing louder.  The pond is full of tadpoles at various stages, and I might have accidentally watered the apple tree with a few.  The mosquitoes are most plentiful, so I'm sure the spider and bird and frog population will explode - at least I hope something starts eating them so they'll stop eating me!

 sun setting on the fields and fields of green

A Shocking Night!

Friday the 15th we awoke to quite a shock!  Around 12:30 am we were struck by lightning.  Though it was some time before we knew where we were hit, the damage had already been done.  Outside our bedroom window (not more than eight feet from where we lay our heads), the TV antenna, affixed to a long pole, was struck by lightning.  The impact of lightning and thunder with no seconds between them will cause a person to sit up in bed with a bit of heart-thudding.

I was warm in bed and quite asleep when it happened, so my reflex was to pull the covers back up and listen for Tom's movements and updates.  He jumped up with a flashlight and started looking for smoke, smoldering anything, black streaks.  He circled the house, not seeing anything in the dark, and then started inspecting inside.  Our bathroom fan popped out of the ceiling, and the force of energy erupted the push buttons from the bathroom fan timer out of the wall:

The GFI in the both bathrooms was dead, along with CFL bulbs over the dining table.  The front security light switch was fried:

I continued to listen to Tom pad around, switching things on and off.  He joked about never being so relieved to hear the ice maker kick on in the night.  Admittedly, the smell was unnerving, for which I did get out of bed just to check it out.  Eventually it went away.  After Tom came back to bed, he "punnily" said he was too charged up and was going to watch TV.  I never heard it come on, and he was back to bed soon enough to say that the old TV and digital converter box and DVD player had all been fried.  The VCR was still okay.  I can only presume it was because the charge went through the coaxial cable and lost its fizzle by the time it reached the VCR. 

We made it to Santa Fe and back with our replacements after church on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the TV screen was discovered cracked upon turning it on, but Tom has even taken care of that.  We have survived the strike and will soon have a new whole-home surge protector.  The antenna is probably going to be moved and mounted differently, too, rather than serving as a lightning rod.  Oh - and no surprise that when thunder struck this afternoon, I jumped in my seat and nearly pissed myself!  How fun!

MAY!

It was good to get home on the first of May - and then buckle down to all the work that needed tending to - in the office and at home.  In my absence Thomas hung most all the blinds on the windows - a real plus at night. We got to work on hanging the shower rod and head over the clawfoot tub and cleaning up my poor edging job around the guest room windows.  This was all in anticipation of my parents arrival last week.  My mom hasn't been out since we put the decking down for the floor (three years ago!), and this would be their first stay in the new house!

We've been getting lots of water - rain as well as two water runs in April.  Our third is slated for this Friday, and in anticipation of it, I got the great idea to dig an upper pond.  This meant clearing out a couple dead trees and digging up a new pond closer to the property line where the well is.  My dad certainly doesn't need an excuse to play on the tractor.

The weather was pretty crummy Friday and Saturday, but they were able to get the stumps out and move some dirt.  The rest was accomplished Sunday when we finally had some sunny weather.

Monday the clouds returned and that night we got three inches of rain!!  The pictures of the rain gauge are proof - and it was a swampy mess to get to it Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning we awoke to a call from the neighbor saying that his pond was overflowing and would be filling our new pond.  When I went out to take pictures, the flume, which we just cleaned out, was up to 10" and the pond was already overflowing!

What a muddy mess!  I know several little boys back in Oregon who would have loved to slosh around and play in the dirt Tuesday.  Gratefully, Mom and Abba made their way south and got some golf in before the weather turned so wet.  Thanks God for the moisture!

A busy month!

My last update was actually posted from San Diego!  I had the privilege of helping a friend with her 10 month old during an out of town conference.  I enjoyed the sunny (and the overcast and rainy) weather, mucho gelato, and, best of all, time catching up.  The baby and I went for multiple walks a day - my girlfriend and I had fish tacos at least every other day - and I read a few books during nap time.

The baby and I checked out the USS Midway - an aircraft carrier turned into a museum.  It was pretty neat!

Following San Diego, I spent several days hanging out with my niece and nephews, getting to meet my newest nephew only a month old!  There were special meals out, trips to different parks, and some good ol' rough-housing.  Before I left, everyone got together for a gorgeous evening - eating and playing.

Those two weeks were a great deal of fun, but I'll admit coming home a little pooped.  All my traveling seemed to begin earlier in the morning than sunrise, but after an early flight and a long drive home, I was sure delighted to see my Thomas!