What’s Gracie been up to?

She met her vet last week… got spayed, micorchipped, shot and groomed.  My Doctors office should be this nice… seriously.

Since she’s been home she’s rested

Watched cats on YouTube

And is feeling well enough to snack

On a lighter note

We partied like rock stars at the pumpkin patch…
If you want to see proof, you can check out #1’s Flickr or my Flickr

Flickr Toys

I recently discovered Flick Toys…
and it’s been fun to play with!

Flikr photos

The vacation photos are up… just click *more photos* in the sidebar!

It’s been a big day

Today we celebrated the grandmonster’s 3rd birthday!
This boy is going to be a heartbreaker one day…

The next big news is going to keep me awake for a few months. I know people do this everyday and it’s no big deal. But I never ever have, and I’m a little terrified at the responsibility.
I’m buying a house.
All on my own.
I know it sounds crazy (or morbid) but it’s on my list of things to do (before I die).
Now that the kids are “grown”, we’ve found ourselves in need of some kind of tax deduction and I started looking into buying a house as a rental. I want to continue living where we are currently. Today my loan consultant found a lender for me… which is crazy because my credit isn’t steller and I’m self employed and I am doing it just on my own income and in just my name.
I never ever thought I would be able to buy a house… I just didn’t think it was in the cards for me.
Now I’m looking at a huge debt and I’m the landlord people call when something is broken, and appearently there are laws that say I have to figure out how to fix them… And there is insurance, and taxes and maintanence… and I find I get short of breath just thinking about it…
We are supposed to close Janurary 31st.

How does your Christmas tree reflect you?

First, let me apologise for my extended absense… I’ve had a cold right here:

and I’m a firm believer in medication, so I’ve been sleepy.

But today I got the Christmas tree out, it took a while to find it. Most people have a “junk drawer”, I have a ~junk room~. No, it’s not a real tree. Yes, I live in Oregon. But it’s practical, so we will start with “practical” as being a Christmas tree reflection.
Fortunatly, I had assistance keeping track of the box, once the tree was unloaded:

And some supervision while “Step into Christmas” played (the song that signals the beginning of the Christmas Season):

So we know to add “needs supervision” to the list.

While the decorations have a basic theme, over the years we have gained quite the collection of hand made ornaments as well. In recent years, we have bought blank glass and wood ornaments so that each person decorates and hangs a creation of their own:

The “making of the decorations” has become somewhat of a tradition.
In honor of the holiday, the tree reflects both tradition and respect:

But the most important is love, lots and lots of love:

Peace, love and NyQuil…
In the holiday madness, be sure to embrace the little moments and to share some love…

Honey… I’m home!

What a great trip!

I had some apprehensions about traveling with husb. I’d really gotten to the point where I didn’t due to some, um, behaviors. Not that the behavior was bad, just the absolute dependence on it. It’s been a weird couple of years, we really needed some time to re-focus. Some time that wasn’t mired in the day to day. This trip was it.

We arrived on Oahu where #3 met us at the dock and expidited our boarding proceedure. Our cabin was wonderful. It had a balcony and was decorated with a “happy anniversary” banner, balloons and lei’s shaped into hearts on the pillows. A bottle of wine and chocolate dipped strawberrys awaited in our cabin. After getting settled, we still had time to walk around the harbor.

Sailing around the islands is a bit differnet than other cruises we’d been on. Mostly, we would sail at night and spend the day in port, free to wander off of the ship. Our first port was Hilo, on the Big Island. We’d lived near Hilo, and it was a little like going home. In a matter of hours we had already picked up the lingo again, I knew we were “back” the first time husb called a tourist driver a “lolo”. The highlights of Hilo were going to the lava flows that wiped out a portion of the Island and most of the black sand beach. We also went into a lava tube… much like a very deep cave.

The next port was Maui. We rented a jeep for a day as we spent the night in port. First we went to Kihei the next day Lahaina.

Next we went back to the Big Island, for Kona. We started the day with a horse back ride followed by wandering the streets and beach of Kona.
Husb and I both “forgot” how to ride a horse and ended up with some impressive :neither region: bruises.

Next stop is Kauai, another over night port. The highlight was going mud bugging with #3

We left the island of Kauai via the NaPali coast.

We toured the ships bridge, which was impressive!

The cruise ended back on Oahu. We stayed an extra night in Waikiki before flying home.

Lastly… the cruise offered some amazing food, excellent service and great shows (got to meet Bud Andersun after a show). There are more (larger) pictures in my flickr too!

Obcessive people get things done!

I added a couple of these

A few of those

And you will either understand this, or it will totally gross you out, but our aging dog has lost many of her teeth and occasionally will lose a claw (nail). She has is pain free if not handled, but she can no longer tolerate grooming… we drawing near having to make a painful decision about her care and what would be the most humane for her. Anyway, you will see a dog claw attached to the walking stick.

Arts and Crafts

Husb can be a very unselfish person (for a self-centered bastard ). On our trip to Reno, he gave his favorite Aunt one of his Native American walking sticks because she had admired it so on her last visit here.

I thought I’d make him a replacement as a gift.

Everything was chosen for it’s value’s. There is an eagle feather for courage, an owl feather for wisdom. It carries his talisman, a braid of his hair, bells to ward off evil. The beads are grouped by type and in numbers of meaning (5, 5, 7, 1, 7  for his date of birth), gems that represent him and the kids. It bears his initials. His Aunt always wears silver tibetian prayer beads and because he gave his original stick to her, this stick also carries those same beads.

While it will take a while to completely finish, I took pictures of the process… I’ll share more as it nears completion. I got a pretty good start today though.

The pile of “ingredients”

Carving out the setting for the top stone

A spare set of paws to help with the beads

The first pieces go together

A braid of his hair is added

Next is some fur

His initials

The crystal bear talisman

Adding the base and then the bells

There is more leather and several strands of beading to do and then add… more pictures as the project continues…

Furniture store fire

A local furniture store recently announced it was closing… today there was a fire. No one knows the particulars yet, but rumors are, of course, flying. Because it was only a block away (and this store completely furnished our house) I ran down after work with the camera.