Day Off.

Steve took the day off today to take the Mercury in and get right with the Oregon DMV. The heart of this Alaskan was sad. However, I can put the Alaskan plates up on the wall in the little house with some of the other ones I have! 

As we drove thru Pendleton, I became aware of something startling. It shouldn't have been, but it was. People don't look. One car almost backed out in front of us, another lady, animatedly  using her cell phone, flew past as we waited to merge into traffic, and different folks walking by proceeded to not see anything other than the papers or technology in hand. Many people DO notice this bright blue and white with chrome car and it is fun to respond to their joy in glimpsing something different. Yet, those who don't, I felt sorry for. People who are so wrapped up in their own lives they can't see anything else, those people exist in an isolated world. I understand they may have been in a hurry, they may have been distracted by good news, or they might have been learning about something bad. It doesn't excuse them. Flowers bloom, raindrops make rainbows on dirty earth, and wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings deserve to be discovered and marked as special things. 

 Things as simple and gentle as warm fleecy blankets and whiskers on well.... everyone! Afternoon naps on rainy grey days and books-More favorite things!

I'm glad we can count up all these good things and I'm glad for the lesson learned on Steve's day off. Now, am going to make pizza dough and hope it turns out as well as it did the other day when I made cheesy bread sticks!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!!!

 Jonathan Scott was born Feb 4 early in the morning. He's not gotten up that early since, except to go deer  hunting. His brother, Tony, gave Jon his middle name. Tony also gave Jon the cat in the photo taken last April (2015).

 We celebrated Jon's birthday this year with a moderate turkey dinner. Complete with grey mashed potatoes. (I had a spice mix from something else that I accidentally spilled into the lovely white taters, the spice mix appeared to be heavy on the pepper side!). There is not a photo of the mashed veggies--

When I made Jon's cake, I discovered I had not purchased enough Kit Kats. It took one break more than 10 full size bars to complete the circle. I also used 6 bags of assorted flavors of M&Ms on top. When we added the 21 twirly candles, it was a rather festive topping! We put in one straight candle for the 22nd birthday.

 Steve's hand was getting a bit warm, so he had to pull back to cool off before finishing the rest of the lighting.

 I also took one of Jon blowing OUT the candles, but alas--I was standing in the way of the smoke and well, it ended up being a VERY dark picture.

We decided if the citizens in Ceaser 3 had a chocolate coliseum to live near, they'd not have complained! (Jon's been playing this and his citizens got very annoyed at living next to their coliseum!)

 Cutting a cake is always  interesting. The edges would have been more secure if I had been able to get it all decorated when the frosting was 'sticky'. Putting more decor on at a later time made things tumble easier. Jon didn't mind.

 Kila tried to get a stray m&m. He was mad we took it away.

 OK, forgot to turn this around! Jon had a choice between cookies and cream and chocolate chip mint ice cream. He chose wisely.

 We let the birthday boy cut the cake (talk about a blurry photos!! Jon also didn't take many of these pictures). On the cake he didn't use a protractor or consult our neighbors (one is his HS geometry teacher and the other is a uber smart science professor type) for assistance.

 We rounded out the evening with a couple shakes of Yahtzee. Which dad won both times. We are pretty sure he added up his columns more than once...

 Jon had poppy seed muffins at work yesterday and then today, on Friday, one of Jon's coworkers made a cake for him! I think he had a pretty good birthday. Wonder what next year will bring??