A hit!

I went to bake at the house yesterday and come to find out one of the moms needed both ovens. Her son Trent had just completed chemo treatments and was getting to go home! Needless to say I ended up only baking one small batch so she could bake a big ole dinner for friends and family who drove on up to celebrate with them. It was a happy reason (he's a wonderful kid and a 'Beaver Believer' folks) and I was MORE than happy to pack up my stuff and head home. A wonderful reason to go home.

While waiting for his mom to make dinner he began eating one of the vanilla cupcakes I'd brought with me. She didn't worry about him spoiling his dinner (I have the feeling he could have eaten ANYTHING at that time and she would have just smiled), he gave me the thumbs up on the cupcake (I'd tried a new frosting and wanted his opinion), and with a big ole grin on his face he got into the fridge and he added a big ole pile of whipped cream on top of that cupcake. He was living large, with a large smile on his face: that was one happy camper. Going home.

Keep Trent in your thoughts, sending positive vibrations in his direction.

Before I took off Lindsay asked me to share a copy of the recipe for the chocolate marshmallow cookies I made last week. They were a huge hit with everyone and that made me so happy. With all these folks go through, chemo treatments, the works, anything I can do to help make things a bit easier is good. And cookies just seem like a nice way to start.

Steven gets creamed: ah, High School days...

Nice weekend. Gotta love that!

This was a busy weekend. Doug was busy avoiding the camera. Tricky guy.

I was busy organizing the house. I cleaned out my bedroom closet (the 'wade in' closet), and the hall closet, and such like that there. See the green containers? Organization in action folks!

Lire was busy looking into boxes left by men who were busy. Lire was one happy kitty.

Deacon was busy bugging men who were busy working on a computer. He was SO happy.

Look Mary Jo: his penguin toy. His new best friend. Okay, so he's eating the stuffing out of the darn thing, but he does LOVE that toy.

Computer. Not much I can think to add here. Losing my touch.

Steven and Mark were busy working on our computer. It's back up and running. I missed it.

This little fellow was busy. I think it's the same squirrel who barks until Deacon comes out to play. Then he runs up and down the tree while Deacon barks and barks.

He came up to the sliding glass door, watching Deacon's every move. I wish I could have gotten a picture of him looking in the window. I wasn't fast enough.

I was busy. Look what I got! Thanks Mark: in our house 29 years of marriage equal a kitchen aide. I love it!!!!!!!!!

Sunday Mark and I took a trip to Hood River.

Dreary and blustery day. Lots of wind. Road trip time! Heck, it's Oregon. If we waited for good weather at this time of year we'd never go anywhere.

We went to an air and car museum and had a great time. One of the gentlemen who started it up is from Yuba City. Yeah!!

This plane was my very favorite.

Mark enjoyed all the planes and cars. It was COLD in there, but with so much to look at after a while we were in the groove.

Big brother.

Little brother.

An air ambulance. I'd never seen anything like this. Amazing.

Mark in jeep. Hey John, you wanna come on over for a visit and you too can sit in a 'real' jeep? LOL!!!

The sign said it was un-roped so children could 'gently' sit in it. I kept a close eye on Mark, ensuring he was a good boy and respected other's property. I was so proud of him. He's growing up so fast............

Look at this: is this not cool?

Lots of information about some of the planes. Very interesting.

No way could I have flown this puppy. No flipping way.

Never seen a vehicle like this. Like I said folks, lots to see. Lots and lots.

Big ole piece of farm equipment. The person who sold it stipulated that it could NEVER be sold to part out. Thank goodness they ensured it stayed in one piece.

Big ole motorized bike. The woman who owned it rode it in parades. I loved that. Good for her!

Then we took off for Hood River, got ourselves some pizza and beer, and took a stroll around the town.

A very enjoyable weekend.

Mary, daughter of Edna...

Many years ago, when Doug was three and Steven five, I took the boys on a trip to Ohio for Memorial Day (Cari was scheduled to go to camp that week). My mom's family would make the trip every year to Kentucky to visit the family graves and I wanted to experience that. See a bit of my history. See where my grandparents grew up.

While there my grandmother had some family history books: they were amazing! They were for both her and my grandfather's families. My grandmother was a May and my grandfather an Arnett. I have been wanting a copy of those books for years, and I finally broke down and bought them. There are 5 books in all, 3 of them for the May family. Wow. Let me tell you folks, I come from a vast and varied family line.

Now, according to all of the books, I am the daughter of Edna 'Arnett' Wiles. Now, my mom's name is Erna, so now I have to wonder: is there an Edna out there that is my REAL mom? Hey mom, come clean. Is you my mom? Come on, spill it. I'm a big girl. I can take it.

Well, considering that they have the boys listed as Steven Douglas and Charles Jay (putting their first names together for Steven, and their middle names together for Doug), I guess you really are my mom. Right? I hope so, cause I wanna keep ya.

My grandmother's name was Amy Maxine Margaret May (you would have loved her: one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met: another keeper), her father was William Ernest May, his father was Harmon May (I have a picture of him and I wasn't sure who it was-I have to be sure I label it right away!), his father was James 'Turkey Jim' May, and his father was Caleb May Jr. Caleb May (senior) was born in 1781 (there is some dispute if he was born in May or April 1st: I like the idea that he was born on April Fools Day, so I'm going with that date), he was a Baptist preacher, and he died of breast cancer in 1827. His wife, Margaretta, died at the age of91 after falling off a horse.

I love my grandmother's brother's name: Luster Walker May. Ever met someone named Luster? I thought not.

I'll be sharing more stories of my wonderful family. And don't worry Mom, I'm keeping ya. I've gotten kind of fond of you. Even if Edna shows up and puts in a claim, I'll just shut the door in her face. "Too late baby: I got me a mom!!!"

Here is Mark, husband of Mary, daughter of Edna.

Ah, those were the good ole days.

Our computer's power supply died, so Steven hooked up an old computer for us to use until we get that taken care of. I discovered some old pictures I haven't see for a long, long time. Looking at the picture above brings back some good memories.

Let's take a short trip down memory lane....


Wow, not only the old house is up and running, but the van is even up and running. Wow.

Heck, here I'm up and running. A day at the beach. I liked that jacket. It's no longer up and running. Heck.

Nick. One of our favorite folks. Now he's all grown up, going to Oregon U. Where did the time go?

Doug: can you believe this picture? The scary thing? At this very moment I'm using the monitor showing-this picture shows me it's really the time to be buying a new monitor. Looks like stone age stuff when I look at it online. Yuck.

Look at the ironing board hanging on the door: I forgot about that. Look at Doug's hair. I didn't forget about that.

Old snow days. Steven and his snowmen. Bigger and better each upcoming year.

Can he build a snowman that isn't drinking? Is that possible? Does the madness ever end?

Cari and Deacon. Man, he LOVED when she took him on walks.

Steven in the snow.

Steven. Strange. Nuff said.

Like I said: good ole days. That was one small house folks, but we made it work.

A family picture. Now if that ain't scary. Even the dog can't face us.

Ah, much better.

Yes, that house was old, and small, and cold: well, I could go on and on. But it was home.

Intel Inside

I arrived at the RH House today, put my stuff on the counter, and began to walk over to the office area to put my purse away and such. Thinking about how busy I'd been at work that day, and how I was SO glad the work day was done, and THERE THEY WERE. Intel balloons. All over the friggin place! What the heck? Come to find out some nice folks from Intel had come on out to the house and cooked up a meal.

Okay, okay. Nice thing to do. Darn ole Intel balloons.

I brought some cookies I'd decorated Tuesday night. I had fun doing them, and they looked rather festive. And they were a bit better than my first batch last week. Practice makes perfect!

The dinosaurs were my favorites. How could you not love these little fellows?

Cats and coffee and a big ole loaf of bread.

This last week we took Lire to the vet for her second to the last shot (to help with the healing process for her joints).

She wasn't thrilled about the whole process. Lire usually does pretty good about getting a shot, but this time a different tech gave her the shot. Lire wasn't happy about that(she loves the gal who usually gives her the shot), she didn't take the shot very well this time, and right after the shot she gave the tech who gave her the shot a dirty look, the tech who held her front paws got a dirty look, and then she SHOT into her carrier! She's never done that and the four of us laughed so hard at that one. That was one mad kitty.

So she's hanging in there, adjusting to using the leg differently.

I caught her relaxing in the window. The leg cracked me up. Nice look.


Then I noticed the way the light was highlighting Deacon. Looked pretty cool.

Good ole dog.

Sunday morning Kseniya, Jennifer, Larissa, Cari and I went out for coffee and then to the Douglas Fir to go to the Crafty Wonderland. The coffee was so good. Boy, I love coffee.

I took some pictures of the group, but they didn't turn out very well. I suck at taking pictures.

Cari. Nuff said.

We were all taking pictures throughout the day. While loading my pictures I was thinking, here I'm taking a picture of Jenn and I hadn't even notice the crazy graffiti behind her. Crazy!

No graffiti behind Kseniya. Want to know what we were taking pictures of?

A big ole loaf of bread!!! Coolness. And the lovely smell of baking bread: oh man, it was amazing.

And I couldn't pass up a picture of this. Something you don't see every day.

And no amazing smell.