Planning ahead.

I love this time of year. I started starts for my garden today. I have two kinds of tomatoes - Oregon Spring and Legend, eggplant, green bell peppers, zinnias and marigolds. Hopefully the weather this summer will be much better for the tomatoes to produce well. And my plants will be bigger when I transplant this spring. I didn't start seedlings last year until late February/early March.

Being silly.

Yesterday my new glasses came in. Things are much clearer.

Russell and Michael playing Wii baseball. This apron is the new uniform for said sport. lol Actually Russell was helping me make dinner that night.

Deep thoughts...

Yesterday Nephi went to his first birthday party for someone in his school class. He was very excited and had a great time. On the way home he was unusually quiet. Finally this conversation ensued....

Nephi: "Mom, I think you will be a grandma when I am a dad."

Me: "Are you sure?"

Nephi: "Pretty sure."

I am hosting...

The great Emergency Kit Swap on recipezaar this week. I am really excited about the possibilities! If you my readers would like to participate - first sign up with recipezaar. It's free. Then click on this link and it will take you to the rules and sign up for this wonderful event! Hope to see you there. :) http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=290365

Owies...

My face hurts. My head hurts. My nose is plugged up. I took some Benadryll. Now I can't type right. lol Today should be a great day. But hey - at least the sun is shining!

And so it begins...

My marathon weekend begins today. I help out in Nephi's class on Fridays. Then I get to go to our insurance company to find out WHY we keep getting statements saying we don't have enough flood insurance. ARGH! We are not covering our entire property amount - just the house. Why you ask? Because Russell puts it like this..."We are not covering flood loss for every blade of grass!" Then we will whisk Christopher off to get his eyes checked. IF we are really lucky (and Chris is hoping with his fingers crossed) he will not have to wear them anymore. THEN I have cub scouts after school today. Then I can come home and relax for awhile. That's for today.
Tomorrow I get to head on down to Lincoln City for a Camp Manager Conference. I am the program director for Tillamook County Day Camp and all the camp leaders from the council get together to toss around ideas, get information, OSHA rules, etc. I am not stressed about the ACTUAL meeting. Just GETTING there. My eyesight in the dark has decreased significantly over the past several months. If it's not foggy (a rarity on the coast) I should be okay. I don't know my way around Lincoln City but I have a map. I might have to be late and leave early so I can drive while there is daylight. We shall wait and see.

Coupons...

I love coupons. I live for coupons. Especially if I am already planning on buying a certain item. Right now Fred Meyers is having a sale on Progresso Soup. They have their stacks of store coupons that are found...only in the store in a little newspaper type deal. On the back is a coupon for Progresso soup 10 for $10. I just found online printable coupons for $1.10 off 1 can of soup! http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/10/progresso-soup-coupons.html Free soup - here I come! And another coupon for $1 of 2 cans and $2 off 4. http://confessions-of-a-psychotic-housewife.blogspot.com/2008/11/printable-progresso-soup-coupons.html So - if you are a coupon frugal shopper too...feel free to print yourself some darn good coupons! Happy shopping!

One year anniversary!

It's my one year blogversary! According to my profile there have been 411 visits! Thanks to all of you who come to visit!

Christopher's in the kitchen!

Chris received the cookbook you see on the counter from Grandma Rogers for Christmas. Last night he had some help but managed to make Nutty Jumbles mostly by himself! He was so pleased and everyone enjoyed them! Even Mr. I Hate Nuts Nephi. :)

Great job Chris!

2 1/2 years is all it took...

To finish the afghan on the left. The pattern is the Fisherman's Circle. I started it back when I was serving in the Relief Society Presidency. That was over 2 1/2 years ago. My dear mother-in-law had to walk me through all the steps until I had them memorized. I don't read crochet patterns very well. Thanks Mom! I am happy to say I finished it last night.
The afghan on the right is Nephi's. He loves it very much. I am working on afghans for each of the other boys and will finish as I have yarn to work on them.

'Fraidy Cat'...

No - this isn't to poke fun at a certain 7 year old residing here. However it did make me chuckle this morning. I came out of my room for the day to find EVERY SINGLE light on in the entire house. I asked Michael why all the lights were on. He didn't answer. I asked if he was afraid of the dark. He said he was very afraid. I told him he probably shouldn't watch scary movies any more. He said movies don't scare him. He just doesn't like the dark.


BOO!

We are home again...

Which we feel we are fortunate to do. There are many in the Pacific NW right now who are displaced from their homes and may not have one to return too. We stayed with some friends on the north side of town and had a whole new perspective on a Tillamook flood. These pictures involve the Wilson River.

The golf course across the street from the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

A little seafood hut just on the banks of the river.

At the Fred Meyer intersection. For those of you familiar with this stretch of road....it is closed all the way to the intersection that has the old KFC. There was a lot of water.

A picture while traveling on the bridge over the Wilson River. It was flowing very, very, very fast.

Water as far as the eye can see.

More wet weather on the way...

We are under yet another flood watch starting tonight through Friday. Ugh. We will leave this time and head into town so Russell can still get to work. If he has school. And the boys can get to school. If they have school. Which we won't know until we see/know how bad the rivers rise. In case all you readers are wondering where I disappeared too...I may not have internet access.

The rains came and the winds howled...

Literally. I was awake most of the night too terrified to sleep. This was a different kind of wind than what we usually have. It would come in shifts and sound remotely like a semi-truck. Then it would hit and whamo - shake the windows on the south side of the house. I was just waiting for them to shatter. I am glad they didn't. That would have been a mess.

I give up...

We have started the new year off with a weather frenzy. The water from the past two days has gone down enough that we can get in and out again. However - this morning it is freezing cold and SNOWING! I don't know who said we were having global warming but they surely don't live in the Pacific NW or anywhere else where it's freezing cold and winter conditions.

January 2, 2009 flood...

Around lunchtime today I went next door and checked on the neighbors. I also took a few pictures from our property. Around our house there isn't much water. Which is a good thing.

Looking along the fenceline down the road. The water is over the top of the fence.

Looking down our driveway. It's the highest place on our road. As soon as our neighbor's property starts - that's where the water is.

Looking to the east to the actual river itself. It's still flowing into the fields but the overall water level is going down.

Oh no! We have a teenager in the house!

Our very excited brand new 13 year old got the game he's been wanting for a long time now! Actually all the boys and dad play it. It takes a lot of planning and thinking. A good game.

German Chocolate Cheesecake coming right up! Don't mind the interesting display of birthday candles. My darling husband came up with this. We were flooded in and couldn't get regular birthday candles. Fortunately Donovan is a teenager and they don't really care about things like that. Right?

On this day 13 years ago Donovan joined the family. Now and then. Happy Birthday Donovan!

It's New Year's Day!

It's New Year's Day 2009. We spent the past few days out of town. We were flooded in last Sunday. Left town Monday afternoon and came home today to....more flooding.

We are officially home now until the flood waters recede. The weather forecast says we are supposed to get 3-7 inches of rain here in the next day or two. Yikes! That's a lot of water.

New Year's Eve Dinner

We had dinner New Year's Eve with my side of the family. We also had birthday cake and ice cream for Nate's birthday.

My brother Joe taking an after dinner nap.

The birthday cake!

All the family waiting for cake and ice cream.

Everyone who was at the house for dinner this year. L-R we have me, Christopher, Nephi, Michael, Russell, Joseph, Mom, Dad, Nate, James. Back row L-R Jessica, Martin, Raphael and his friend Billy.

An afternoon at the bowling lanes...

These pictures are from yesterday's post. I didn't have a way to download the pics from my camera. So....posted them today! My nephew Nate had a birthday yesterday and Grandpa wanted to take all the grandsons bowling for a birthday present. They all had a great time! Grandpa came away with the highest score of 320. Michael came next with 311 and then Nephi with a 284 score. The other boys quit after 2 rounds.

Russell helping Nephi get started.

Michael getting started. He actually loved this sport. He had a great time and said it was his most favorite thing to do of all.

Donovan got a gutter ball. :(

Nate the birthday boy.

Nephi after he sends his ball it's very slow but merry way!

The birthday boy (Nate) again with his dad (James) and brother (Raphael).

Look at all the bowling balls we had going! Raphael is up to bowl as well.

And then there's Grandpa Dysart. The mastermind of this really fun outing!