Wednesday, January 30, 2008

a very short note

Thank you for all the prayers for Tony. He really appreciates them and just keep praying. He is supposed to be in a training this week.
Athena has been hammered by snow and ice, pretty fun in a very cold sort of way. I made a lumpy snowperson today while playing with the dog. (I will have scads of photos to load on here when we finally get the internet again!!)
J will be 14 years old pretty soon. Me, well, I will be older, too. S and I are a bit sick, the varied temps and the dry air I think are playing havoc with our systems. I guess we are used to the Oregon coast.
Book of the day: Patricia Wrede's Mairlon the Magician duo and a trio by Mercedes Lackey and someone else. I will write more on them later (after I read them).

Jake wanted 7 random facts. Well, let me think. A random fact is something that is true and yet well, random. OK, 1) I like dill pickles and peanut butter on wheat bread. 2) I used to detest chocolate. 3) I don't like driving (you can pay less attention when you are a passenger). 4) I enjoy reading coookbooks almost as much as my sister (but, I don't take them to the bathtub!). 5) I need a nap. 6) I put cinnamon in almost everything I cook. 7) I like real kettle korn (Papa Llama's from Tillamook, Or)

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

A quick note

So, for this run of staccato notes, I now have T's address!!!!! It is:
PFC Hansell, Stephen
CMR 411 Box 2074
APO AE 09112
Many of you will also get this along with a photo of T to hang on your wall..just so you can remember what he kind of looks like. I say, kinda, because a friend sent a video of a musical program he participated in last spring and he looked VERY different. The photo will also help you remember to pray for him. His orders, last we heard, were changed so that he will be heading off to the sand in mid Feb and not early March, as we had thought.
On another note, we think we found a house. It is in Helix, Oregon. We will let you know how that goes. I am too nervous to say more at this time. It may or may not pan out. (Sorry, that was a very obvious statement!).
It is super cold here with snow. This am it was 10 above and now it appears to be around 28..in the sun!
The last note today, we don't have the internet yet. The wireless thing from Qwest was a bad idea. It worked not at all. Verizon was better, but not much! So, we will have to look at a satt dish if we stay here..if we move to Helix, they have internet at the house we looked at!
Book of the day: Something else by Grace Livingston Hill. I need some warming bubble gum type books at this time!!!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Just a note

How about a note in C. C the house, c the cat, c the silly catapult that J made, c the loverly day outside!
I did go and look at a place today. It is rumoured to have been sold, but it is totally empty. We kind of looked at it in July, but didn't know if we were moving. It is only 3 bedrooms and appears pretty aged. We are hoping to learn more about it. The land we are looking at by R and Dot's is sitll 'in the hopper' we were told. Thus, it will be at least 2-3 more weeks til it is finished being processed. We will let everyone know what happens when it does!
J made a catapult for his shop class and it is pretty neat. I will post pictures when we get the net at our house again. We had it, but it was super slow. Slower than our old dial up!! We ordered another chip thing and need to get it this weekend.
It is lovely today in Athena, Oregon. Chilly, but not much wind!!! Very pretty with lots of sunshine.
The cats have been lots of fun, too. They are doing well. Rusty seems to have become a housecat! Katie Kat had lost weight..which she needed to do, but looks to have gained much of it back.
Book of the day..actually, author of the week: Grace Livingston Hill. She is very bubble gum and old fashioned, but fun to visit with. My next book will be Countess Below the Stairs by Eva Ibbotson. Or maybe it is under the stairs..not sure, but it is one of my favorite books ever!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Photos


Snow pictures! Who's on top now?



Heart's Haven had a foosball table and T was given an army motif quilt by some friends from church. Cute, huh?



Our last photos with T. I took a couple with my phone (those are such fun bits of technology!!!), but need to figure out how to get them from there to the puter!

Field of Breeze

Yup, that is this place in a nutshell. It is always blowing here and we managed to miss the windstorm from last weekend. Not sure how that happened, but we missed the one on the coast by a few days and this one by a few minutes or so. We did see a grain elevator in Adams that was down and we drove through a brown out for a few miles, but the rest of the way was pretty fine.

The Tillamook visit was fun in spots. We are going to miss peoples so much. I took some photos, but several more are on a camera that we have not used up yet. It snowed on Sunday and when we left Monday, it did take awhile to get to Portland. The house we stayed in was fun. It was a 'quirky' place as one of our visitors called it. Old fashioned, but pretty neat. You can find it under Heart's Haven VRBO using the Google technique. (I am sure Jake could do the clicky thing that lets you go to the site, but I am still a newbie at this.)

It was very hard letting T go. But, on the ironic note, we got back to Athena and he had a jury summons for Feb waiting for him!!! I wrote back and suggested that they might reconsider his name and told them why. I do think a commute from Kuwait and Iraq to Tillamook might be more than the county would want to fork out for traveling expenses!!!

I have started babysitting for some friends and Dot made an excellent dinner this evening. It would go well on baked potatoes, she put it over egg noodles.

It is:
1 lb of hamburger, browned and drained
1 14 oz can of tomato sauce
about a cup of water
1 packet of taco seasoning mix
Combine these items and simmer for at least 15 minutes.
Add half of a bag of Dorito corn chips in your favorite flavor. Stir in and simmer until Doritos are soft.
Top with shredded cheese and serve.

It is called a Dorito casserole recipe, but it is more of an entree mixture to add to a meal. Have fun with it and let me know how it turned out.

Book of the day: I read my friend's book about the baseball. It was wonderful and a tad hard to follow, it also had a confusing title. Cutting Loose was it, I think. I am now reading one my sis sent about a cat who came for Christmas. It was the only thing I had as most everything else is still packed!!!! I am pretty sure I have it in a box, but as Jake's was not packed. It is the one that is more important.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Of note

When one is baking one must remember all the ingredients. And sometimes it is very hard to add them later! Especially, when the mixture is complete and baked and done. I had thought that my chocolate chip cookie dough looked funny and then they baked really odd, but hey...they were chocolate. After they were all finished, I ate one and immediately realised I had forgotten...THE EGGS! Ah, well. Happy New Year, eh?
Other than that, I did some projects today and won a game of Scrabble. Actually, J and I were playing together and I had no idea we won until I used the back of the score sheet to write a list on. I was pretty surprised. Teddy got to go up to the Mtns with S and T and J. When we get the photos on the computer, I will try to load some on. My mum and my sis called today and that was fun.
We are just hanging out and not really looking forward to the day when T leaves (Monday). I did hear from another friend who is headed for the Ukraine. Mailing him letters will be as interesting as it was when we sent them to B when he was in jail!! We get to send him what is called a pouch letter. I have to read up on them, they sound unusual. Kind of makes me wish I had sent him some when he was in Utah!
Well, hope everyone had a good start to the new year and I am not going to recap this year as Jake did. It has been pretty long and full of many corners. Our family is just looking forward to seeing where the next one will take us.
Book of the day: Finally finished Hans Brinker and am planning on starting one that I put down somewhere that is about baseball or something. It belongs to a friend.