What a Week!

The week with our grandkids has come and gone--just the memories are left (plus one forgotten item--Tano's computer game, "Wakeboarding"). But, oh what a week it was!

A week ago today (last Saturday), we drove out to Wildhorse Canyon (in Central Oregon) to pick them up, after they rode a tour bus from Missoula, Montana. For us it was a 4--4-1/2 hour ride, but for them it was about 11 hours or so. Not having the heart to stick them right back into the car for another long ride back to our house, we stayed for awhile and let them play in the pool. Wildhorse Canyon is the Young Life ranch on a piece of property that encompasses 100 square miles, out in the middle of nowhere!

In addition to our two grandkids, we had one extra kid (their cousin) to bring back with us, to give him a ride home after spending a week in Montana, going to Bible camp with Nathaniel. (It was their first time to go away to camp for a week -- what fun they had!) Very shortly after getting on our way home, all three kids were sound asleep, which made for a nice quiet ride for awhile. But, then we had to wake them up half way home to stop for supper, so the quiet ride came to an end. After returning Ben to his parents in Vancouver, Washington, we arrived home about 11:30 P.M. on Saturday night.

Sunday morning we opted to let everyone sleep in, and then we had a family worship time here at home. Uncle Jim played his guitar for singing and Grandpa led a little interactive devotional time. Then we all headed out for a river-tubing adventure which took most of the rest of the day.

On Monday all of us (including Jim) went to the coast (2 hours away) to camp overnight at an ocean-side campground. On Tuesday we spent all day at the beach, playing in the water, building sand castles, flying a kite, exploring a dark cave-tunnel, climbing up the stairs in a lighthouse, and touring the Tillamook Cheese Factory (mainly for ice cream cones)!

On Wednesday I took the kids to a park in Vancouver, Washington, for a few hours of playground and water fun with family friends--Jennifer Beatty and her three boys. After lunch Jennifer took all the kids back to her house for some more playtime, and then took them to their cousins' house to spend the night.

Meanwhile, I came back home just in time to shower and change, to go help with a funeral luncheon. We had received the tragic news during our ride back from Wildhorse Canyon, that one of our close friends lost his daughter (in her mid-twenties), as the victim of a brutal murder. Larry went to the funeral and I joined him later at the luncheon.

On Thursday morning I drove back to Vancouver to pick up the kids, and then back into Portland, to spend the rest of the day at the zoo. On Friday morning we drove back out to central Oregon to meet the tour bus returning from Wildhorse Canyon, to reunite the kids with their parents for the long ride back home to Montana. I arrived back home at 5:00 P.M., and they arrived home this morning sometime after 1:30 A.M.

It was a whirlwind week, with tons of fun -- seemed like only half a week! When it was almost over, I was ready for the week to start over and slow down a bit. Already I can hardly wait for next year's week with the grandkids! Click here to see pictures of the week.
Click here to read about the wild week at Wildhorse Canyon.
Click here to view a short video of the Wildhorse Canyon experience.

BEWARE: The Crazy Animals Are Loose!

(Book 2 in the nonsensical series called "Why Is An Orange?")

"The Crazy Animals Are Loose"

A collection of Short Stories by Elliana (age 6), Tano (age 9),
Uncle Jim, Grandma Jeannie and Grandpa Larry (ages unknown)

These stories were concocted as a cooperative team effort, while riding in the car today. We took turns in choosing the next word in the stories, as well as for the titles of the stories, and for the title of the book.

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Story 1 – “Giant Tadpoles Unite Against Lemonade”

Once upon a time a boy said, “Hello. My--my name is—is George”, and he showed lemonade to his giant frog’s tadpole, because the tadpole wanted to swim in a pool near frog eggs. Gently, as the feather floats up, down came a ton of frog eggs, filling tadpoles with gummy worms that were real green and slimy, just like snow.

The End
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Story 2 – “Hello Kitty Cooties Are Squirmy”

High up in Hello Kitty treehouse lived a mouse whose name didn’t make money. One day beautiful dogs said, “I’m going to warn the others that there’s two dogs and one elephant nearby the treehouse. Please don’t feed the elephant or kiss the mouse until you pay the piper with money and trees that squirm whenever you drop your shorts and toothbrush.

The End
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Story 3 – “Dentistry Is Needed For Money”

Today, I played crazily at the playground, but a bear came to eat me. Fortunately, I could run away slowly and play checkers on the bear’s head, because he had no teeth. Someday I want to apologize again to the bear’s mom for crowning his head with a black checker, and I saw the bear’s cutest, toothless smile. Tomorrow I plan to let my self eat the bear’s mom’s lasagna, because she had no teeth either.

The End
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Makes no sense, you say? Well, neither does “Why is an orange?” (or other semi-related topics), but it was lots of fun-– crazy, silly, hilarious fun, with uproarious laughter and uncontrollable giggles! Guess you had to be there. Come to think of it, guess we weren't "all there" either, but we sure had fun! Ha Ha Ha!!!

The story-writing project helped to while away the time as we drove to and from a tubing trip down the river (2 miles of fairly fast current), which included shooting the rapids (3 different sets of rapids), and sometimes free-floating down the river! Woo hoo! What a ride! (Both in the car, and down the river!)

Tomorrow we'll head over to the ocean for an overnight camp-out (right at the ocean) and a day at the beach. Who knows what other creative, juices will be flowing!

Red Skies at Night -- Jeannie's Delight!

Tonight's sky -- pictures were taken from my deck and in the back yard down below.

Even better than my delight in red skies at night,
is my delight that my two grandkids are coming for a visit!

Tomorrow the fun begins! Saturday morning we'll head out for a nice long drive (like, all day long), and half-way through the trip, a two-some will turn into a foursome! We'll be driving to central Oregon, to a place called "Wildhorse Canyon" (near Antelope, about 4 - 4-1/2 hours from here), to the Young Life ranch where our daughter and son-in-law will spend a week with their bunch of high schoolers. (They are directors of a "Young Life" group in Montana.)

We have lots of plans already set for a week of fun with our grandkids, (including an overnight camping trip at the ocean), and this grandma can hardly wait for it all to begin! We had a week with the grandkids last year also, so I'm already filled with excitement as I remember how much we enjoyed it!

So, if you don't see much new posting going on here next week, just know that I'm out and about everyday, trying to have as much fun as I can possibly fit into one week -- the one and only week of a whole year that we get our grandkids all to ourselves!

Yea! Let the fun begin!

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Update on our "broken" laptop: It seems to have succombed to either dementia or alzheimers (sometimes its hard to tell the difference). It has either lost its memory or its mind--or has a mind of its own that we can't figure out! Perhaps it's just fed up with the internet and refuses to have anything further to do it! Larry plans to completely empty the hard drive and start over from scratch. If that doesn't work, we'll sign the death certificate and buy a new one.

Oh my...my philosophical mind could easily take off on this one! Sometimes, something just doesn't work right anymore and must be dumped! No matter what you try, it just can't be fixed, so you just have to throw it away! You know, like an old pair of shoes that has a hole in the sole, or they're just not comfortable any more. Well, I guess if the problem is that they just don't fit well any more, they might not need to be thrown in the trash--you could just give them away--they might be a good fit for someone else. But, who would want a broken computer--one that is continually problematic because it has lost its ability to think straight? Of course, it might be good for laughs! On the other hand, it might cause nothing but constant frustration and irritation, in which case it's probably best to get rid of it! Wow! I guess I should have written a separate post for this subject!

Welcome to "Jeannie's Salt and Pepper Shaker"! Hmmm...I feel a whole new blog idea coming on... Oh, no! Not another blog! Help! Somebody, quick, please tie my hands behind my back and drag me away from this computer!

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LATE NIGHT BREAKING NEWS -- THIS JUST IN:

The laptop computer has been completely emptied of itself, reloaded with all the essentials, and is now up and running -- alive and well again.

It has reconnected with the internet, plus the virus protection and firewall are back in place, keeping us safe from all the bad guys out there in cyberspace! (Guess we'll keep it around for awhile longer.)

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Take Two!

My husband asked for a retake --

Is this better?

Well whaddya know --

He does look younger!

He's a changed man!

I wonder if he could
go to work dressed like this.

Hmmmm....

Defending My Husband's Honor

Well, it looks like it's time for a loyal and loving wife to come to the rescue of her dear husband's honor!

As a result of my last post, he was accused of being "old". Well, I suppose that's true if you consider 57 to be old. Wow! Since I'm only one year behind him in age, I wonder if I'm old too. Well, no matter -- "You're only as old as you feel", right? Believe me when I tell you, he certainly doesn't feel old, nor does he act old, and, I love the way he looks!

A comment referred to him as an old person, first, by way of appearance (his attire), in contrast with the more youthful look of my son's "knock-about" attire. Aw 'cmon now--that's the way this businessman dresses for work in the morning, and, fortunately, that's the way he looks when he returns. I mean, really! If he came home in different clothes than he went to work in, I'd be a tad concerned, or at least confused! Give the poor guy a break! That work-worn man has a nightly habit of immediately sitting down on the couch to unwind from the stress of his day in his pressure-packed job. At my encouragement, he picks up the laptop and checks his email while I finish getting dinner ready. Last night there was no benefit gained by that little moment of rest, for he was greeted by a black screen with a very strange message that indicated something was very wrong with the laptop! Not only could he not sign in to check his email, he couldn't get rid of the strange message on the black screen, nor could he reboot! For the next half hour or so, Larry and Jim brain-stormed and attempted recovery, without success. Jim finally admitted his diagnosis: "Yup, it's broken!" So, immediately following dinner (without changing his clothes first), Larry returned to the couch to spend the rest of the evening working on restoration of the laptop. (Even after undergoing an extreme make-over, it's still not back to its old self.)

Secondly, said comment also made mention of the fact that he was using an "old peoples tray with the beanie bags underneath to put the computer on". Now, this is just too funny! That clever little item was made way ahead of its time! First of all, yes, it is old -- it originally belonged to Larry's mother, who died a couple of years ago at the ripe old age of 93! (I considered putting it in a garage sale, but then I discovered what a handy little thing it is.) I wonder how many people, besides us, still have them around because they have found some great uses for them. Besides occupying space on a shelf in the closet for these last two years, we discovered that it serves well as a heat shield between one's legs and the computer (not to mention the comfort factor). Larry quite often has the laptop sitting on his legs all evening, and by bedtime he is sweating from the heat that emanates from the laptop. (I would love to hear your solutions for this problem.)

On a sidenote: When Larry and I went out for a walk late in the evening (in the dark), I offered the "old peoples tray" to our son to use, since it would be sitting idle while we were gone. Being a "young person" (not yet quite as wizened up in years of experience as we "old people" are, and perhaps still a little more vain in his desire to appear youthful--in his 30's), he agreed that it was probably a good idea, but he just didn't feel the need to use it. (Maybe by the time he is as old as we are, they will have figured out how to have a built-in heat shield in these machines--if indeed laptops still exist by then.)

Just as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", age is only a mindset -- "You're only as old as you feel." So there ya have it: "Too soon old, and too late smart!" I'm not sure what any of those old cliches have to do with anything (I suppose mostly they sound like something an "old person" would say), but they just came to mind, and these days, when something comes to mind, I find that if I don't write it down quick, I'll forget it!

Thanks, Rebecca, for your interesting observation and funny comment!
It gave me something to post this morning!

P.S. How many of you out there in blogger land, who know us well, think our son looks just like his father? Let's hear your votes: Does he look more like his father or his mother?

Like Father -- Like Son

One of those rare photo-ops that I just couldn't resist grabbing!

I had been working/playing at the computer in the office for awhile, and finally decided I should come out of hiding and be sociable with the two in the family room. This is what I saw . . . dueling laptops!
And, here I thought maybe they were missing me or something -- silly me! Well, it made for a good laugh!

Are we a bunch of computer geeks, or what???

Tonight our laptop crashed, but, have no fear, our systems administrator was near! He tried a little of this and a lot of that, but finally concluded: "Yup, it's broken!" It has taken lots of time, but little-by-little, it's being reloaded and may just rise to live again! (Fortunately, I rarely use that computer, so I couldn't get blamed for the mishap.)

We really do enjoy having Jim (our son) living with us.

Penticton Photos

For anyone who is interested in seeing a few more pictures of my trip to Penticton, British Columbia, CLICK HERE. This album isn't complete yet, but it's a start. I've tried to avoid posting pictures that have already been shown on my blog or the blogs of my sisters.

Wake-up Call

It's amazing how much better one can feel after a really good night's sleep! I'm one of those many women who usually sleep very poorly, but last night I had the best night's sleep I've had in a very long time. I slept all night long without waking up even once, as far as I can remember, and I actually felt ready to get out of bed this morning! Boy, that feels good when that happens! Now I've enjoyed coffee and toast, and some "quiet time" with the Lord, and I'm ready to start my day.

Yesterday morning wasn't quite like that. Our weekend had been exceptionally busy, with almost non-stop activity--fun activities and wonderful times with two different sets of friends, but nevertheless an exhausting run on the treadmill of life! We finally fell into bed Sunday night sometime after 12:30 (A.M.), after making a trip to the airport to pick up our son from his trip to San Diego. Then, after a very fitful night's sleep, I finally gave up on trying to sleep in a bit, and dragged myself out of bed to start a new day. Mechanically, I headed for the kitchen and made coffee, hoping to clear my foggy brain and jump-start my nearly-dead battery.

In my sleep-deprived state of weariness and half-hearted interest in being awake, I must have suffered another attack of mental-pause as I made coffee. I poured water into the coffee maker and touched the "on" button and then walked away to do a few things while I waited for my desperately-needed shot of caffeine. When it was ready, I eagerly poured myself a cup and headed for the living room to have my "quiet time". After getting all settled in with Bible, devotional book, afghan, plate of toast and cup of coffee, I prayed and then quickly swallowed my first sip of fresh-brewed "wake-me-up".

"Hmmmm," I thought, "it just doesn't taste quite like I expected." Then the light dawned... "I don't remember opening the bag of coffee --uh-oh-- I used yesterday's coffee grounds, and only added fresh water!" Needless to say, not only was the first sip rather disappointing, there wasn't much "wake-me-up" in the cup! The pot of "fresh-brewed" coffee was absolutely worthless! So, I set aside all my provisions, unwrapped myself from my cozy blanket, and plodded back to the kitchen to dump it out and make a fresh pot!

As I stood there pouring out what appeared to be fresh coffee, the thought occurred to me that our lives can become like that worthless coffee. We can appear to be fresh and new, putting on a smiling face and saying all the right things, but inside we can be like tasteless, stale, reused coffee grounds! Unless God does His work in me each day--unless He adds newness and freshness to my heart, there will be no real vibrancy. Without His daily replenishment of "fresh grounds" to bring refreshment to my soul, there will be nothing to perk up excitement in my life, and there will be nothing to stimulate others in their stale and stagnate weariness with life.

My desire is that I will experience God's daily wake-up call to a fresh-brewed life!

38 Years of Mini-Golf!

Tonight we celebrated another anniversary -- the 38th anniversary of our first date (a blind date). (We're such incurable romantics!) So, tonight we did what we always do on July 10th -- we went and played miniature golf -- just like 38 years ago! Fun! Larry beat me this time (51-54), but he doesn't always win at this game. I think the loser should get a back rub, right?

Now we're gonna have some ice cream topped with those yummy raspberries! C'mon over!
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P.S. I guess we both won--we both got back-rubs last night.

Sisters Three -- The Twins and Me

After growing up like triplets (14 months apart), we so quickly fall back into the role of "The Three Musketeers" whenever all three of us are in the same place at the same time! It's funny how the 35 years of separation just slip away whenever we get back together. And, or course, if we're all three together in one spot, with a guitar anywhere nearby, we will not be content unless we're singing togther! That's how we grew up, and that's how it's always gonna be! But, when it comes to dancing, the twins shine! They learned (and love) to do country line dancing. Me? Either I have two left feet or a brain that just can't learn to follow dance steps!

Just the Berries!

Larry and I picked almost nine pounds of raspberries this afternoon--not bad for about an hour of picking (including a little eating as we picked)! The yellow ones are "Anne" berries (with just a hint of apricot flavor), and the red ones are "Willamette" berries. Both of these are the sweetest of the local raspberry varieties . Mmmmm, mmmm, good!

A Warm Welcome!

It's hard to believe the first week of July is almost gone! Didn't it just begin? Oh, I guess my focus was on a wedding when the month of July arrived.

July 1st: Canada Day; my niece's wedding day, and the bride's birthday -- all on the same day! What fun, complete with fireworks, beautiful warm sunshine, and the best scenery you can imagine! It was a wonderful family time, but it's always nice to come back home!

I came home on the "Fourth of July" to find a yummy little picnic supper awaiting my arrival.
We ate outside on the deck: outdoor-grilled cheeseburgers, potato salad, corn on the cob, wine, and freshly picked berries,
(raspberries and boysenberries, hand-picked that very day, by Larry himself!) generously spooned over little sponge cakes, with whipped topping. We stayed outside for the rest of the evening and watched the fireworks from our deck.

What a fun way of welcoming in July, and a delicious way to be welcomed home!

Tonight They Tied the Knot!

Or, should I say, "They got hitched"

What an incredible setting for a wedding!

Time to Hit the Road Again!

Bright and early tomorrow morning, I'll be driving to Penticton, British Columbia, for a family gathering and the wedding of my niece. Larry is unable to get away from work, but my son is going with me, and we're picking up his girlfriend at the airport on our way. Both of my sisters, one of my brothers, and my dad will also be there.

I'm looking forward to this little reunion of sorts, and lots of fun together as a family. (That usually means lots of laughter and a few pranks.)
I'll be returning on July 4th, hopefully in time to enjoy watching the "Fourth of July" fireworks with my husband.

Now, it's time to get back to the laundry, ironing, packing, and...uh-oh...
I also have to go to the bank to get some Canadian money. I hope nobody remembers me there as the mental-pausal lady who mistakenly claimed she lost her keys in their bank, and had the manager take apart the trash receptacle to look for them. (Maybe I could put a bag over my head with two eye holes. As long as I'm not holding a gun in my hand, it should be okay, shouldn't it?)

Phooey! If only we could just hit the "delete" key and erase some of the things we do!