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Trying to do something and not sure how it is working. This blog is only a test.

I was trying to post a profile picture. I wanted the one I finally have on there. The other is NOT a self portrait..J took the picture and there is a dog in it. However, the dog was not impressed about having his photo taken and I cropped him out of it. So, that is all this blog is. Just a test. And a rather good one at that!

Sew much fun!

Well, I don't have any cool costumes to make, but look what I got from a friend!!!!! I am going to make her some curtains. S wasn't impressed. He didn't know what I needed another one for! I only have 3, I have a friend who collects them..but I am not sure how many she has either. Several, though. This machine is a White and looks pretty simple. Not like my Husky, but hey, I am going to have FUN. The fabric is for her curtains.

J and S are coming home tonight, so I should have more interesting things to chat about after this weekend. (although, the pigs were pretty funny!) J has said he is going to put the wood stove back together for me (those little brick things inside come out!!) and S is finally going to finish the bathroom! (Dancing will commence in the streets upon completion!)

Esio Trot-ter??

Not sure how many of you have read that clever story by Roald Dahl, Esio Trot? Well, today I kept thinking of it, even though we have nary a tortoise in the neighborhood. Although, we just might and we haven't seen it yet!

It has been a misty rainy sort of weekend (the week was just rainy and stormy in spots) and one has to continue doing chores in spite of the weather. So, I did a bunch of errands and got some supplies to do a few things and came home. I managed to get soaked while arranging Teddy's dog house (we have to leave him outside now as it will be easier for the realtors to get in when I am not home.) and ran into a few difficulties. I couldn't find the zip ties..they were much higher than I could easily reach, but I managed. I couldn't find the staple gun..I finally got it off the highest shelf by climbing on a milk crate and stretching. When I got it down, it needed staples and so, back up on the shelf I went. Eventually, it was done and I came inside to dry off and change clothes. Then the neighbor came over. He is selling a cord of wood for us and wanted to load it on his truck. So, I got my wet things back on and started to help. However, we got some unusual visitors while we were loading wood. It wasn't the little pig that stayed home or the little pig that had roast beef, it was probably the little pig who went to market and got lost on the way and the one who went wee wee wee..but didn't go home (I am betting he is the one with the collar). Pigs are very cute, but rather tough on yards. They are like little roto tillers and I had to stop helping our neighbor and keep chasing them from my yard and our other neighbor's yard. Then, Teddy was inside and very upset about these odd looking creatures in the yard..and he got out. Oddly enough, he saw a dog and forgot the pigs for the moment. I finally caught him and put him back in the house (this time I closed the door firmly) and after much longer, the pigs were finally corralled by a lady down the road and taken back to her home. Where I hope they stay!
Yesterday was not fun either. I decided, as it was the nicest day in the next 5, to primer the door. It needed done ages ago, but sadly it wasn't. So, I did it. It wasn't hard until I tried to put the knobs back in. Very bad idea to take knobs out. Especially if you close the door. In order to open it I had to put the knob partially back. (I hadn't taken the little latchy thing out) They are in now, but not as well as they were..which may be why Teddy was able to get out this afternoon. Unless, I just forgot to close it. That could be the correct answer.

So, Jake, I hope this sastisfies your cravings for news. I definitely hope I don't get a day like this for a very long time!

Too much stuff!

Well, S and J were here for a brief visit and took more stuff back with them. This was mostly S stuff, wood and boards and oddments. They did take my bike, which I won't use here as it is too dangerous to ride a bike on the Trask. S got the floor done in J's room. It looks very nice, although some of the boards seem a bit faded. He finished it late on Saturday night and when J got up Sunday morning, the first thing he said was,"how come the boards don't match?" We were not impressed, as we hadn't even noticed. It does look good in spite of the change in color, though. Now the walls seem funny because they are still the regular walls they have always been there and everything else is new and pretty. J took out the shed in the back, which was pretty exciting. J said when he was pounding the metal a pack rat ran out from under the shed. He also said he had to use a mask because of all the rust. I would have preferred him to use eye protection, too. (But that is mom stuff.)

Phones are back!

WooHoo! Our phones are back and our connection is a tad faster than usual. I am very thankful and hope they stay on for longer than a week. (It is just a tad faster, photos still take ages to load!)

My family (well, S and J) are coming home this weekend!! I am so excited. I made cookies (added too much flour, but they are ok) and a cake (forgot the oil and after 10 minutes took it out of the oven and scooped it into a bowl, added the oil, cleaned out the cake pan, put the batter back in and it cooked up pretty well-I was very glad as the ingredients were ones I had just run out of! (poppy seeds) I would post photos of the food, but I am not Better Homes and Gardens. (LOL Jake!) Although, my house is really clean. We showed it again today and I fianally decided that even if we still had debris around here, I could tidy it up. However, now I have to remember where I put it all. I am pretty sure the lightbulbs are all in the bathroom along with the cleaning supplies (or at least, most of them!) and the spiders are happily making new cobwebs to replace the ones I tore down. It is the season of the spider. EWWWW.

Last week or so, I got to visit the THS choir and was able to take some interesting photos of students. I wonder how Mrs. H manages to keep from gray hair?

Note the similarity of some of the sillies in these pictures? And now for Moses, who supposes he wants to be a football player! I wonder if I could make him a tiny THS jersey to wear?

Phones are out of order..for the time being

If anyone has tried to call, the phones are not working. I am at the library, finally. I was told they might be working today, but we'll see. Not much to say. I volunteered at the library today, so that is why I am here. Check out the Tillamook Library page. It is a great library and I will miss it.
T called, or tried to on Saturday. He sounds tired and grown up and he would love to hear from people. He finally got some ice cream and a brownie. He misses sweets.
Not much else going on. I have been a bit isolated with the phones out. More on the later.

School has started and all's well!

J has started school and really likes it so far. He is the only bari sax in 50 kids, but the bari is 'generic'. He likes English and Earth Science and thinks it is cool that after 4 days of school, they get 3 off for Pendleton Roundup. He said the bike lanes have cones and are used by the horses. He also said, "everywhere you look there are horses or something a horse left." He is riding his bicycle at Grandpa and Grandma's and is looking forward to getting out his 'real' motorcycle. (it is the big one that we got from some friends in a trade.)
S is busy, but he doesn't get Roundup off like some people! His dad has surgery this weekend on a valve. There was a discussion in church concerning S fixing it for his dad. S fixes valves all of the time and we were told that arteries needed snipped with wire cutters, which is a tool S uses all of the time. I was creeped out. Eeeew.
We showed the house today. It was kinda scary. I am not going to stay here the next time. I will just let them in and leave! Did the windows and am going to paint them tomorrow. (paint the spaces between the window and the storm window, although, if I painted the window it might always be sunny!).
It clouded up today. That is the weather on the coast. Here are the beach pictures. Note that one has some sun and then less than 10 minutes later, the other is foggy. J is the speck near the logs in the last photo. He is walking between two of them. Our maybe he just went over! He was looking for rocks.

Labor Day Blues

Labor Day is done and gone. Moograss is over (FUN experience, I was there on Sunday for the first time ever and it was pretty awesome), S is gone to Eastern Oregon with J, and T is having fun at Basic.
This last letter he said that they experienced a tornado warning (it was kinda cool, they lost half a tree by a barracks!!!), had several really fun lightning storms (we don't really get lightning here on the Oregon Coast), and got dropped off in the middle of the base to do navigation skills. I only wish he could stay there and not get deployed to someplace dangerous!
S and J are learning new things. J keeps saying the school is huge and yellow. There are lots of stairs and a really long wheelchair ramp. He gets tested tomorrow. S is adjusting. It is lots different from TMC. He has to take lots of his work debris back to his parents as there is no room for it at the shop he is in. Between all of us, we have too much stuff.
I am here waiting to get stuff clean and mended. And I need to pack a bit more. I told a friend that my epitah should say 'I need more boxes'. Even if you can't take it with you, it sure helps if it is packed because someone has to move it!
Took J to the beach for his last day. I haven't loaded the photos on the computer, but it was foggy. Every other day was nice, though. Typical.

Less than a week!

In less than a week, the house will go on the market. We still have so much to do! And not just packing. Then, there is Moograss and J is still not fully registered for school (which starts just after Labor Day). He has to take a test and S wants me to go to Pendleton for that. I would rather stay here and get stuff done. We'll see! I may have to drive back and forth. Not my favorite idea, but sometimes we just have to do things we don't like.


I had to put in these pictures of Moses. J still is not the tidiest of eaters, but Moses will clean up after him (it is NOT something we encourage, but it was pretty funny!). Notice, when he realised he was caught, he jumped down! I guess everyone likes spaghetti.

Almost Moograss!

Moograss is hard on the heels of the fair. It happens on Labor Day weekend at the fair grounds and they have an awesome website. Speaking of fair, here are a few pictures. The apple candy dish was so easy and the judges liked it a great deal. The seastar ornaments and candle container were lots of fun to make for different friends and Jon had a good time with his things, too. The promise of the apples in a previous post turned into a blue ribbon, so that was pretty cool. I am not doing applesauce this year due to the move, but am hoping to dry some. (that will smell yummy!)

We heard from T several times. It appears he is having fun, he says his lack of hair doesn't look as bad as some of the other guys, and his group (platoon, unit?) is the 'most well behaved'. They have won several awards and plaques. We missed him last night at the Eagle ceremony for one of his friends. I would post a picture for that, but the church where the ceremony was held was not photographer friendly! J came back from Scout camp and had an excellant time. His favorite merit badge was not the one for rifles, but a new one for nuculear sciences. Not sure what it is called, but he had a blast! He and S are in EO for a few days to register J for school. We packed what I thought was a ton of stuff, but it really only scratched the surface. Well, it was more of a gouge, but we had two very special persons come up to help after the ceremony and they stayed late. Then, today two more special people hauled their horse trailer (full of our stuff) to EO, where they unloaded it mostly by themselves!!!!! S and J arrived later and almost all of it was done! Then, the dear ones came back to Tillamook. Friends can be very humbling.

A girl named Jo opened this week. Very good play (and great snacks on Fri and Sat--I made them! Chocolate apple cake, key lime bars, and Texas cake). The persons acting are doing things they are not really used to doing and it is fun to watch. It is great to see how our kids grow. Oh, well, I do wish T was here.

And the Winner Is.....

Actually, the fair is on and that is the theme this year. I am going to miss the Tillamook County Fair. It has a great webpage and the Pig N Ford page is totally awesome. We entered several items, not as much as usual, but several. Jon won the Fair theme award in the Art dept and the two of us did pretty well with colors. The pix of mom and the goat won a blue ribbon!! That was rather amazing as there were about 844 entries in photos this year! T's sequin tux jacket (see May, Prom link) won a red and T's sultan robe also won a red. I don't think I have a pix of that on here anywhere, so the robe was the black glittery thing he is wearing. The sword was also entered. It didn't win anything. However, I have heard a few comments about it and when people are told it was from the THS fall play it gets great reviews! I will try to take some photos of the winning things and post them here. TTFN.

Flowers for Jake

OK, so Jake wants not purple flowers. I had to have some in the pictures because they are the ones that are growing like CRAZY, but the evening primroses and the roses look good, too. The last two photos are of different plants that bloomed at different times. The first one was around the 4th and the last one is blooming now. Other than that, have been cleaning up T's room and found LOTS of playing cards. However, there were only 2 or 3 complete sets. So, who isn't playing with a full deck? :o)

It was nice and sunny and breezy today and was able to hang clothes out to dry. Even washed my quilt..although, I know I am not supposed to wash it in the washer. I did dry it outside on the line. Made some rather strange crispy noodle snacks. They never did get 'dry'. I made them with chocolate chips and they set up well, they were just gooey, even after being in the fridge.

Sunshine again!

Well, we had a week or so of rain, but it is now over and the sun has come out again. (Almost a song from Annie!) Everything grew like crazy. S has been mowing tonight and the garden needs weeded something terrible. My Himalayan (sp) Balsam are HUGE and full of bees, the swallows are all grown, and the butterfly bushes are blooming. My evening primroses look great, too. And I have even MORE roses budding and a sunflower came up volunteer in the rose patch!
We also heard from T. It was the token call home. Basic starts tomorrow. He said it was hot. (I can imagine. The humidity in Ft Knox said in the 90's and the temp tomorrow night at 10pm is expected to be 75 degrees. (ICKY)) It must be like Korea in the summer. Probably hotter, though. Outside of that, not much news from him. He said he'd write soon. I hope so!
Haven't gotten the HP book, but not a problem. Re-reading some Mercedes Lackey stuff. Have some more of hers on reserve. I love ILL. :o) Tillamook County Fair is soon and J goes to Scout camp and then it is Moograss over Labor Day weekend. OH-And I forgot the newest TAPA play (see link). Can't wait to see that one! Am also looking very forward to The Golden Compass coming out later this year.
Hey, Jake, do you read these? :o)

He's gone, except in Pix.

Well, we took T to Portland with a dear friend. I was glad she was there. We went to Wunderland Arcade/Avalon Theatre. I had forgotten about that cool Portland spot. We wanted to see a movie, but missed most of them as we had to get T back to the hotel by 10pm. After we dropped him off, I was pretty sad most of the way home and then when we landed in North Plains the Oregon Ambassador's people had come home (See Mrs. Henderson's page) and N was there!!!!! I turned into a watering pot when I hugged him. (A small watering pot). So, then S got me a snack and I felt better. Food and tears. It helped a bit, but it still feels odd. J said it was very wierd because when he got up, T's door was open and it is NEVER open. I am washing clothes and bedding and stuff from his room. (Major work!). No wonder he left home!! We wern't able to do the cell phone thing. We just aren't educated enough in technology. We gave him a calling card, but it is a hassle to use. I only hope he tries anyway. I still want to send him a phone! I gave him some stamps, maybe he'll write. (B does, but we know where he is!)

I have a T spaced hole in my heart. Dean preached about a God spaced hole and how only God can fill it. Only T can fill this one. >sigh<> OK, this blog says it may not post. We'll keep trying!

T leaves Tomorrow

Came into town for a celebratory cake. TMC decided to get a cake for T because he has spent much of his life in the shop..it is almost a second home! I am at the library and this mouse is tweaked, this chair is awful (I leaned back and almost fell off of it!), and I can't get into my myspace site. Go figure.
Have a few things to get and then I will take the boys back up the Trask. T saw the new HP movie, he liked the Transformer one better. J was at church camp and S's birthday was tons of fun. It was pretty much death by chocolate, even though he didn't die. I gave him lots of chocolate and it was fun. All day he got bits of stuff, m&m's clipped to his clipboard, and so on and so forth. :o)
I thought the phone was working..and it was for about 20 hours. This am I was talking and it crackled and blitzed out. NOT FAIR. At least I got a few pictures on!

Past July 13th

OK, Eagle ceremony is over. There will be few if any pix of it as my camera was on a low battery and I was coordinating the event, so I didn't have the camera much. Pix of EO are here, though. We'll see what I have. I only took a few there, too! S took the camera on a Troop fishing trip, so I may put some in of that. We'll see what the phone lines let me do! Here goes!

This first photo is of the EO family around 8pm when we left. The next is of T with his final fish he needed for his Fishing Merit badge, just days before he turned 18. The last is of the awards he earned for attaining his Eagle. I took the photo at a Court of Awards earlier in June, but it looks rather cool and I figured it would work to put it in!
His Eagle ceremony was fun. We had lots of different persons from his life. Teachers from Elm School and HS, members of TAPA, church friends, friends from other areas, and lots of Scouting friends. It was very cool. T leaves on Wednesday for Portland and from their boot camp. More updates will be forthcoming. :o)

LOLOLOLOL

OK, so it is mid July and I have not written a post in ages. I have been busy! We were in EO for several days, then we went to a Wedding on Saturday, then we did some other stuff, then I had to work and plan for T's Eagle Court of Honor for Sunday, and then he leaves on Wed. PHEW.
So, I have been busy. I am at the neighbor's again. Our phone lines are really bad and when I tried to hook up to the net it was about 14 kb whatevers. So, I left that puter and came over here. It is very late and I have scads to do for this Eagle thing, so just a note to let people know a bit of what is or might be going on. :o)
I will try and get a pix or two online, but only if our phone lines cooperate!

Not much new.

I am at the neighbor's and she has a much higher speed net now due to a more modern technology. It is way fun to use! Kinda like when I am at the library, but more homey. I am listening and watching about a zillion hummers outside her window feeding from one of her feeders. It is pretty fun. T will be 18 on Monday and we will be going to EO to visit. I will do many more posts after that. TTFN.

Just about July

This flower is called a corn cockle and is poisonous. It think they are rather pretty. The picture had a swallowtail butterfly in it, but I guess it flew off before I snapped it.

It has been ages since my last post. Not sure just why, but there it is. T's friend TK is off to the Army today and T follows soon. It has been nice and sunny, so we have been doing some stuff outside. Lots of flowers are up and stuff is growing nicely (see pix!). Had a court of honor for Scouts and T's Eagle Board of Review is tomorrow night. All in all, it has been a bit busy and fun.

The photo below is a swallowtail on my privet bush. It is a humblebee hide out! There are bees and butterflies and hummers all over it! The last photo is one of my transparent apple tree. I had a photo earlier of T in front of it when it was covered in blossoms (that was a may day post) and this one is of the forming apples. You can see the dying blossoms on the apple end of this full cluster. I probably should have picked three flowers off to make the fourth apple stronger, but it is too much work! The apples make great deer and crow snacks and wonderful applesauce.

Odds and Ends

Mum has been here and we are getting ready to take her to the airport so she can leave this warm, sunny weather! We finally got some time to go and tourist around the area. Here is the Cape Meares Lighthouse and Radar Beach. I also found one of T without his facial hair. His friend decorated his airsoft rifle and they wanted a picture of it!

More Party Pictures

These first pix are of T shaving with the 'expert' help of a friend from Troop 629 (who is actually younger!). My photo of the final result didn't turn out as well as one taken by a young lady who came to the party. I hope she will share it with me! In the first one we thought he looked a little like Wolverine from X Men.

The next two are on Friday. Goodbyes are so hard..especially when you plan on seeing each other within the next week! All in all, it was great fun and I really enjoyed it.
Something odd is going on. In my draft this page looks much better than it does on the page online. So, those of you reading it will just have to deal with it as I have no idea how to fix it as it does not need fixing in my posts!

Party pictures!

Here are some photos from the party. These were taken on Thursday after the bus dropped off a couple and cars brought up more. I am not going to try to identify them, they are mostly graduated seniors, but there are a few others in there! As you may notice, some of them are of the same people. It just worked out that way.

Portland Floral Parade

How time does fly. I can't believe it is time for the Portland Rose Festival! I haven't gone since I was in college, but it is a definite landmark in the year. You always get better footage while watching it on TV anyway. This year, as it is the 100th year, they are doing bits in a sepia color and then fading back to color. It is pretty cool.

OK, so we have had Graduation, a party, and all kinds of stuff. School is out finally even for J (who is named after King David's friend and one of the older kids in our church--Jonathan Scott). He was glad that he wouldn't have to get up on Friday to go to school. Silly boy. We had a party on Thursday (last day of school for all the underclassman). It was great fun and was more and less than I had anticipated. T (for Tony who is really named for his dad and an old friend of mine) and I expected more kids would come up for the party, but we did NOT anticipate that everyone would spend the night! We ended up with 11 boys sleeping in our living room and the 4 girls who stayed the night slept in Tony's room. I will put pix of that on later.

The next day, Friday, T and I went to Brenton's trial. It was horrid and hard and not fair that it was a beautiful day. Having him in Tillamook will be better. At least we can go and visit him. I promise that we will do that.

Here are some grad pictures. This is T and two of his friends they day after graduation. If the other ones show up again, it is T with Mr. Rhodes (THS principal) and T and his Grandma and Grandpa and Nana.