Over the river....

And through the woods... I'm sure your mind is already singing the rest of the song. Yes?

We packed up our little car and headed for John Day, Oregon on the evening of the 23rd. Lyssa and I had dental appointments in Sandy that afternoon, although in retrospect, once we'd decided to spend our Christmas away from home, (Eric's idea a couple weeks ago) we should have canceled the appointments.

Thing was, Lyssa was gone for almost a year and did not see a dentist in that time, so I wanted to make sure we kept her appointment.

I hadn't gone, either. I kept putting off the six month checkup until a whole year had passed for me, too.

It's about a four and a half hour drive to my parent's house from Sandy when the weather is good.

However, we were required to chain up the car to go up Mt. Hood. I say 'we', but it was my husband out there kneeling in the ice and snow, putting chains on our tires next to the road while the invincible people with 4wd and a deathwish whizzed by like fucking maniacs. At least he was on the passenger side of the car when the vehicle that sprayed our entire car with slush and ice passed. Assholes.

Eric never complains about the things he's forced to do to take care of his family, either. Just thought I'd add here that I married an amazing man.

When we got to the top, traffic was at a standstill. Apparently big trucks trying to come up the OTHER side could not get up the hill and they were towing them. One. At. A. Time. While traffic just sat. And sat. And sat. We ended up on the road for 9.5 hours. Possibly we were a little tired and more than a little crabby when we arrived at our destination at about 20 minutes past midnight. It was friggin' freezing, snow and ice and clear skies.

Checked in at our motel, then took Lyssa up to my mom and dad's house. She decided to take advantage of their guest room (she and my mom are particularly close) and we decided to sleep in a big bed in a quiet place.

Matt and Amy were able to come for Christmas, too, but we did not tell my parents they'd be there. They arrived about noon on Christmas Day. I was cooking in the kitchen and saw them approaching the door. I made them stand in the kitchen for a moment so I could go around the other way and see the look on my mom's face when they walked in. Her mouth fell open and stayed open for a good 30 seconds. A nice surprise.

There's more. We had a lovely time with family, sang some songs and opened presents and ate way more sugar than we should. More of everything else, too.

But those are things that are mostly interesting to me.
However, "they" say a picture is worth, well, a lot.
So here are a few.

Me with Mom and Dad. And Daisy. Who is not a dog, but a Tasmanian Devil.
My stupid brother thought it would be a good idea to get two elderly people who don't get around very well a Jack Russell Fucking Terrier about six years ago.

Alyssa, Matt, Amy, Me, My parents. And the Devil.

My son, his lovely wife, my parents and the devil's back.

My beautiful daughter

There was some snow.

The tie dyed pajama shirt I made for Mom. You can see my dad in the background, wearing one I made for him about a hundred years ago.

 

It really did happen!!

Me with the baby of the family. :)

The Bride and Groom

Had to use the bouquet for a photo.

They are a lovely couple, you're right. :)

Ahh, Sunday

And the sun is most certainly OUT.
We're going to be in a heat wave until at least Friday.
Ugh.

I don't like the heat.
I don't like humidity.
I particularly dislike heat mixed with humidity. If I still liked to swim (meaning 'if I had a pool in my back yard and 20 foot impenetrable-by-human-eyes walls) I'd enjoy the sun a little more.

We escaped from the heat yesterday by driving up toward Mt. Hood. There's a little place we like to go that's almost never crowded, mostly because there's really nothing much there. No amenities, just a couple brown outhouses and a dumpster. A small creek runs along the day use area, and there are picnic tables, birds, and bugs.
I still smell lemongrass insect repellant.
Repellent?

Funny, spell check finds both acceptable. My fingers typed it with an 'a' first, then I typed it with an 'e'.

:::shrug:::

Anyway, I still smell it because I sprayed it on my clothing and haven't done the laundry yet. Don't want to heat up the house. I'll run a couple loads this evening and dry them in the morning before it gets hot.

So just the two of us... a picnic, my tangly stuff, we both brought books and comfortable chairs. Reading glasses. Yeah, we're old. So?

It was nice to hang out with my favorite guy and have nothing I had to do.
When I'm home and trying to relax, there is always a miles-long list of things that need to be done, and the guilt kills me if I don't get busy on it and do something. (Although I usually do the minimum necessary for survival.)

When we arrived up there yesterday, we unloaded our car and walked up the hill to the bathrooms. I worried aloud about leaving my backpack on the table, and Eric said there was no one even near our area, we'd only be gone a couple minutes, and he'd be watching when he came out. He thought he'd have to wait for me. Haha.. I peed faster. In case you needed to know. I came out first and watched our little area downhill. Saw nothing.

We were there for maybe three minutes. Hiked back down the hill. When we reached our little clearing, there was a raven near the fire pit. In his talons was the whole package of hot dog buns! The little opportunist had stolen them from the grocery bag on the table.
He'd been busy.
He'd stuck his pecker into my husband's buns (hahahaha) and just shredded most of the buns.
And the plastic.
Eric waved him off. We inspected the damage.

He was able to salvage two buns, enough for his lunch.
I had brought my own lunch, which was in the ice chest. Apparently raven-proof.

We stayed until a little before six last night.
Came home, showered and put stuff away, and went to bed.

Party animals, that's us.

So today is grocery shopping and getting at least a start on the whole clean-the-house-the-father-in-law-is-coming annual cleaning festival.

Matt and Amy are getting married on the 24th of August, and Bob will be arriving a couple days before.

Dinner and Company

How often does company come over and bring dinner?
Matt and Amy brought us Lasagna tonight. We had a nice time sitting around talking, I'm more convinced than ever that Matt picked out the perfect person to marry.

I had training today, had to be there early, stay late to help put stuff away, and I'm tired and crabby and ready for bed now.

If you look at the post below this one, you'll see the thing I drew during training. I'm planning to add a picture to this post later on but I have to get to sleep, there is no way around it at this point.

So I hope you have a good day and will forgive me dashing off like this. :)

Family

Alyssa made me this wonderful little mouse. The head and hands are sculpey, the body is stuffed fabric, the feet and tail are pink and soft. The tail is poseable. Such a cute little critter. It's sitting here next to me as I type.

The whole true meaning of Christmas... family. :)

I cooked today. Glazed a ham for the first time. Would have turned out really wonderful except my oven decided to stop working toward the end of the endeavor. Only we didn't know it had stopped working until we tried to bake the rolls that had been rising all day long.
::sigh::

Something wonky in the electronics, I think. We eventually got them baked. Mostly. :)

Ah well. Making memories, right?

Matt and Amy arrived a little before four and left about eight. We had a really nice time together. Opened some gifts and had some food and told family stories and laughed a lot.

We pondered the fact that my mother sent me her end of life care wishes the same week she sent out her Christmas letter to everyone in the universe. The letter in which she mentioned my brothers and what they were up to.

And didn't mention me at all.

Amy remarked you'd think she'd be a little nicer considering I was the one who could pull the plug. ;)

And yes, I know that Mom didn't purposely leave me out. It's one of those things that I'll bring up over the years and snicker about.
We got out our little itty bitty tree this year. It's about two feet high, has multicolored continuously lit lights, and sat nicely on top of the computer armoire in the living room.

Also out? Refrigerator magnets. They're on the front of the dishwasher. A little elf rearranged the letters of C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, though.

Eric wandered out to the shed for me and got my serving dishes. I used the platter my grandmother Del always used to serve ham on for OUR ham. I used one of her green glass relish dishes to serve the crackers in.

When I get those things out and use them, I feel a connection to the people who came before me and are gone now. I sometimes feel sad and miss them over the year, but during the holidays I don't seem to feel as sad. I feel more focused on the times we spent together.

And I hope that 40 years in the future my kids will be looking back and feeling the same way.

I hope your day was a good one, and that you were surrounded by people you love.

I expected...

To feel a little melancholy after going to dinner at Matt and Amy's. After all, it was the first time we've seen where he's living. He moved out four months ago. It's not that we haven't seen them, they've been here a few times, and we keep in touch and all that... but we hadn't been to their home.

It was dinner and conversation. Matt cooked dinner. Amy isn't interested in cooking and doesn't know how to cook much. So he cooks and she cleans the kitchen. What cook doesn't love a kitchen cleaner? :)
(I had no idea how to cook when we got married... so I am not casting aspersions. And they're happy with the arrangement, so who cares, right?)

A pleasant evening. They complement each other beautifully.

Their apartment is small and cute. Very clean and uncluttered. And they are so happy together. It's very obvious that they were meant to be a couple.

So I left there feeling happy and my feelings haven't changed today. I'm really pleased that they found each other.

I have started keeping my clothes in the 'spare' bedroom. We don't have a traditional closet in our room because we don't have a traditional bedroom. Our bedroom used to be the living room of this house until the previous owner turned the two car garage into a family room. No closet space.

So Eric's stuff is in our room, mine is in the other room.

Also in the extra bedroom? A ton of stuff that I either need to take to work, give away, throw away or, well, something.

It's really hard for me to get rid of things. I understand why, too. Being deprived as a kid has turned me into a hoarder. The only reason my house isn't stacked wall to wall with stuff is that there are other people living here who need to be able to walk in the house.

You watch. I'll die all alone at 90 or so, and my house will be on television. Everyone who didn't really know me will be saying, "Wow, I never had any idea!!"

And everyone who does know me will be saying, "My god. How did she ever live to be 90 years old?"

Off to finish a tangly thing I am working on to send to a friend. And sleep. And get up at 5.

Why is it that the weeks go so slowly and the weekends just zip by?
Anyone?

What do you call it when it's not from the randomizer?

Not really capable of linear thought because I took something to help me sleep tonight, that was about an hour ago, and I'm still sitting here in front of the computer.

I keep making typos. Slowing down helps a little, but I'm going to wear out my backspace button if I keep going too long.

We had Matt and Amy over for dinner this evening. I made shredded bbq beef sandwiches in the crock pot for dinner. It's easy to do, get a 3 lb or so chuck roast or brisket and pour a bottle of bbq sauce on it. Cook it until it's done (about 11 hours on low) and take the meat out. Shred with forks and toss it back into the sauce. Serve on hot toasted buns.

Of course I can't do commercially prepared bbq sauces, so I have to make my own. Pretty tasty stuff, though.

Lyssa made a rolled up cake. She's pretty creative with the baking stuff, makes it all from scratch and is pretty generous with letting me taste the batter, the icing etc.. :)

Matt seems so happy with Amy. Which of course makes us happy. He chose a good person to add to the family. :)

I have nothing exciting to report. There is a stack of unopened mail on my kitchen table that I won't be opening until Monday. That way if there's anything in the mess that will upset me (couple of legal documents in there) I won't be sitting here stressing and not able to call to sort it out.

I'm not looking forward to having my knee looked at. I despise the whole new doctor, tell the whole story and go through more of the crap that I've already gone through in the last few years.

I know that fucker Al won't rest until he's done everything he can to take my job away from me. Disappointing that that's how we protect injured workers, isn't it? I'd really love to confront him sometime. Just ask him WHY or maybe HOW he can do what he does. Maybe accuse him of being a sociopath. Or just a fuckwit/reprobate/asshole who does mean things to his dog/cat/hamster.

Ah well. Going to go brush teeth and try to sleep.

Lasagna and the Photo Bomber

Matt and Amy were here for dinner this evening.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work for the ingredients because we hadn't yet invited them for dinner when we did our grocery shopping on Sunday.

Didn't get off work until 5, so had to hurry a bit. Lyssa did all the noodle boiling for me before I got home, and Amy washed mushrooms, Matt sliced them, I cooked meat and threw cheese into the dishes.

Turned out great, although if you're like me, you like it better on the 2nd day. The flavor is just better.

Since Amy won't be back over while Bob is here, I wanted to get a photo of the happy couple with Bob. And everyone cooperated. Lyssa photobombed the 2nd one... if I could see Bob's face better it would be a perfect photo. :)

Since I can't top the happy family stuff for tonight, I'm gonna just let it go at this.

But I am so fortunate to have my amazing family.
And properly grateful.
Lots of love in my life.

Nothing but net

Haha... that's punny.

Haven't felt so great today, migraine hit me about 2 AM, then came back while we were out and about doing grocery shopping etc this afternoon.

Not doing too badly right now, but all I've been up to doing, really, is sitting here playing on the internet. Hence the 'nothing but net'.

I'm feeling okay, doing laundry, preparing for the work week ahead.

Eric made a nice dinner with potato salad, chicken and corn on the cob. Good stuff.

Matt is currently in Georgia with Amy visiting relatives, but I'm guessing we'll see him a bit this coming week. It will be good for him to see his 'Whisker Grandpa'.

Did I ever tell you why he's Whisker Grandpa? I probably did, but whatever.

We moved to Oregon when Matt was 21 months old. Not too long after, Bob came to visit, and we hauled the whole family to John Day to visit my parents.

Matt had two grandpas at once. So he started calling Bob Whisker Grandpa and my dad Regular Grandpa. Cracked me up then, still makes me smile now.

So we won't be seeing Regular Grandpa this time, they're not really up to travel right now, Mom is having some troubles medically. Again.
::sigh::

She's going to end up having a 'reverse' shoulder replacement soon. A tough thing to go through even when you're young, not so much fun when you're in your 70s. Takes awhile to heal. Times like this I wish I lived a little closer so I could help.

Of course it's not practical, I love my job, but I work for a reason. Groceries and medical insurance. Can't afford the time off. And even if it's covered with vacation time, leaving my site, especially at the beginning of the school year... not a great idea.

So I am going to bed early, even though I slept three hours this afternoon (thank you migraine medication) and putting the computer away for the evening.

Heat, Headaches and (aww) The Happy Couple.

I'm relaxing next to a fan and ac combo.
It was hot here today, although it's going to get hotter and hotter through next Tuesday. Yippee.

I am not complaining too much (yet) it's a lot hotter in other places.
But I don't do well when it's hot, and I will hate the weather the next few days for sure.

My cousin posted a photo of the display from her iPhone today on Facebook. She's in Arizona, where it was 122 degrees.
Although it's not humid. Which is a good thing, right?
(But it's a DRY heat!!)

People laugh at that, but it's true. When it's not humid, I know I tolerate the heat much, much better. And although it's humid here, it's much more humid in other places. I've been in those places when it was 90 degrees (New Orleans in late August, for example) and it felt like 120 degrees outside. UGHHH.

It is hot here, though. After you pass about 82 degrees, I'm too hot. 92 or 93 today, up to 100 next week for a couple days.

I went out pretty early because Goodwill opens at 9. Got there by 9:15 and only found a pair of shorts for Eric. So not a total waste of time, I guess. :)

I had some pressure in my head, which I chalked up to the heat and the change in atmospheric pressure. I took two Excedrin when I woke up this morning so I wasn't feeling too bad by the time I went out.

Decided to stop at the grocery store since there's not a whole lot of food in the house.

I was wandering through the produce section, holding my celery in one hand and my phone in the other, waiting for my husband to call me back and tell me if there was anything he needed from the store when SHE walked by.

She had two children with her, about six or seven years old. They called her 'Grandma', so I guess they were related. :)

Grandma passed me.

And a scented cloud, attached to her like a parachute, wrapped around MY head as she passed.

What was the smell?
Why, I'm glad you asked!

It was a combination of old sweat, rancid grease and sex. With a really, really HUGELY LARGE goddamn big dose of some oily, flowery fucking perfume.

Three heartbeats.... WHAM. A full blown fucking migraine.

I wanted to kick that bitch in the taco.
I would still like to kick her, actually.

Home again, me outside a dose of migraine medicine, Matt and I decided that he'd go grab a lunch to go and bring it home instead of us going out.

And I ate and then took a nap. And woke up with very little pain. Yay.

Matt and Amy went and picked up their Uhaul and they both stopped by here to pick up this and that. I was going to take a picture of them with the moving truck, but blame the headache and the heat... I forgot. :(

So instead, I will leave you with a photo of the happy couple they took themselves sometime in March. I think.

Moving day.

It's moving day!

Matt is outa here.

To commemorate the occasion, I plan to have lunch with him. And then cheerfully wave goodbye.

I won't sit and cry over it. Seriously. He's heading off to 'the future'.... that misty concept I never, not once, considered when making the decision to have a baby. Babies are a right now sort of thing. But then they grow up and become people. And they meet other people. And they like those other people and would rather live with them than with their mommies!!! Can you imagine???

:)


I am happy for him. I think he's made a good choice of a person to marry, I plan to be the kind of mother in law that doesn't stick her nose into every little thing. I won't criticize her. Or him.

Unless it's called for. ;)
And no, not really. I will allow them to have their lives and try to be decent and supportive and kind and just... love them.

But I will miss having him around.

It will be strange.

Happy Birthday Baby!! And oh. Oops. Thought I'd mentioned it.

There is a beautiful girl in my life. Her name is Alyssa, and today she is 20 years old. I don't know how that is possible. I really don't. I've heard so many times over the years how fast time goes, and when my kids were small, I didn't really believe it.

I was wrong.

So happy birthday to my beautiful, smart, quirky, hilarious, adorable, loveable, huggable, wonderful daughter, Alyssa. Who is also my coworker... and does a HELL of a job with kids. She has a natural talent and empathy and is the best assistant I've ever had at my site. I do not say that lightly, I have had some excellent ones.

I miss you, Sweetheart... it's so strange to have you be away from home on your birthday!!

And speaking of beautiful.....

Matt's been dating this beautiful girl for, well let's see... almost a year now, I think.

They're moving in together at the end of this month. He has a diamond for her, and although they haven't set a date, she is THE ONE.

Her name is Amy. Matt has liked her for years and years, although they weren't in touch. They sang together in choir when Matt was a teen homeschooled weirdo in public school choir. :)


Amy was here for Thanksgiving dinner. That was our first official meeting.

She came again at Christmas. An excuse for me to tidy up the hoard a bit. I'm going to have to seriously work on that if I want to see much of her, I think. :)

She's a lovely girl, has a beautiful smile, a great laugh, and yes, she's good enough for my son. I have no reservations about it. You know how sometimes women (moms) look at the person their son has picked out and say things like, 'well she's great except for ___.' or 'Well, it doesn't matter to me, he's the one who has to live with her.'

I suppose one or both of those things *could* be true, but I don't feel that way at all. She obviously loves him, he's nuts about her, they can talk about anything and everything and are the best of friends. I know Matt is happy with her, and I'm assuming that she's happy with him, too. They certainly spend as much time as possible together.

After their first meet up (coffee at Starbucks) he came home and said, "Well, even if nothing comes of it, I have a new best friend."

(I know... awwwww.)

I thought maybe I'd said something here on my blog about him getting married, but it was pointed out to me on Facebook that I actually haven't mentioned it. Anywhere.

So consider this your official notification.

My son is getting married. We think she's adorable and perfect for him, and wish them a future filled with everything good and just enough stuff that's a pain in the ass to help them appreciate the great stuff. :)