Four Years today!

Can you believe it's been four years from when we arrived here, on the sunny shores of Clatskanie Oregon with Bob, Rueben and Molly? So much has changed - four years!

 We still have Bob who this year is really starting to look like an old cat, we got her as an adult from a friend - she was dumped at his house. We have no idea how old she was at the time but I think she was older than we thought she was. Molly and Rueben are no longer with us, they passed away almost 3 years ago, I still miss them.  We now have Dutch and Bee - hooray for Vizsla people on Facebook because it was through those connections  that we now have Dutch and Bee. .. Fun Fact ! -  Bee and Dutch are weirdly Rueben's niece and nephew! Small world. The girls who yes I talk about and take way too many pictures of are now 7 and in elementary school - when we first moved here they were 3. We've spent so many wonderful vacations and weeks with them - this summer it will be less but for a good reason. Jackson and his wife Amy are now stationed in San Diego and they'll be spending part of the summer there. We'll miss them but I'm so glad they get to spend time with their Dad. But we'll have them for two weeks and this year's mission is bike riding, Poppop is ready. We see Kim and Steve quite frequently - our friendship has truly stood the test of time. Kim turned 60 this year and joined the rest of us in our question to become Senior Citizens, I worked for two weeks on her cake and cookies  and I love that we got to spend it together (along with 50 or 60 other people). The house has changed immensely - or maybe just back to it's former glory. At this point all that's really left is odds and ends, David does want to start replacing some of the deck out back but other than that we are super pleased with how beautiful this house is. In August I'll be at my job for 4 years, looking back I'm glad I took the two months and really looked at jobs - this is one of the few places I didn't have to job hop a couple of times. Retirement for me is still a few years down the road, I don't qualify for medicare yet and I still like money. We like to take trips around here, there's so much to see and do! We're hoping to do a jaunt to NOLA, Adam is scheduled to graduate in August but we'll see as that's also Monsoon season down there. But hopefully by the fall. 

Leavenworth

Since we've moved here I've wanted to go to Leavenworth, about a 4.5 hour drive from our house. But you know how things go - and we just never got there. This year for our birthdays we made actually plans and I rented a tiny house cabin. Leavenworth is pretty interesting, when it was settled it was supported by the fur and timber industry, logging and sawmills. But then the railroad re-routed it's lines and in the 30s the town started dying, limping along for the next 30 years. In the 60's because of the beautiful mountains ranging around the town the town leaders came up with the idea to turn it into a German bavarian town. They went full out - all the stores were renovated, they had festivals, german food, etc... Downtown is amazing! I was so glad we were finally able to head out.

We usually drop the dogs off at the kennel the day before but I thought we would try dropping them off first, then driving up -  bad move. Had I looked at the map I wouldve realized that we had to drive an hour to the kennel, then an hour BACK, then the 4.5 hour drive to Leavenworth adding so much time to our travels we ended up going via the highway instead of the backroads. But live and learn - the drive on the highway wasn't too bad as we avoided rush hour in Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle so despite the extra time tagged on we made good time. I've always wanted to stay in a tiny home so the cabin was right up my alley! They're pretty new and fairly high end, for two people it wasn't bad. I like to do AirBNB because I don't like to eat out 3 times a day. Breakfast is more fun if you're able to dawdle around. But it was tiny - the only place I could open my suitcase was the living room and I can see that actually living in one storage would be a big drawback. But it was in the woods and about 20 miles outside of town, we were surrounded by trees and they still have snow on the ground despite it being in the 70s that week. 

We did two half days at Leavenworth - it was so worth the drive! The mountain ranges are beautiful and the town is insane - it really does look like you're in the alps. We walked the park abit, the town closes off most of the streets downtown for pedestrian traffic only so you can wander around. We saw so many dogs!! We even ran into a pair of very gracious vizslas and their owner, he had one american bred and the other he got from Hungary -they were so sweet of course. We went to the Nutcracker Museum - 7,000 under one roof - it was interesting how many different kinds there were. I personally find them unattractive but it was interesting. They have tons of shops of course, I bought a decorated wooden egg, a shot glass for Kim, not much. When you move around as much as we have tchotchke kind of loses it's  appeal.For my birthday we went to a fancier restaurant - and it was ok. The beer was great of course, but I've found with  the vegetarian selections it's either something I recognize (beyond burger) or they try to fancy it up with  some very weird sauces and weird vegetables.  All I have to say is thank goodness beer washes away a lot of sins!!

I also found a Safeway grocery store there and we stocked up - the first day we hadn't brought food and stopped at the local convenience store - took a bath on that one. EVERYTHING was 6.99... but a google map search showed where the locals shopped.

The weather was beautiful which I was so glad for - we visited the town, a historic water dam, just pulled over and took pictures. The ride home we had discussed the back roads but you know how it is when you're done with vacation - you just want to get home and empty your suitcase. I had taken an extra day off between work and vacation and was glad I did. We did the  shopping out in Warrenton and then picked up Frick and Frack who were no worse for the wear. We probably pay more than other places but they take such good care of them and we've never had an issue so it's worth the extra drive and money. Hopefully we can get back to Leavenworth in the next year or two, it was more than worth the trip.

 

Late Easter Post

Easter went well this year, very well. The girls are 7 now, they bean count everything - C is the queen of comments. I had to replace D's toothbrush and C noticed requiring an explanation of why she didn't get one. I explained it and she thought about it, then said "I'm not ok with this Nana". Yes, she got a new one too. Vegetables are not as much of a negotiation thank goodness and for the first time they take separate baths now which is a whole other dynamic. One will be in the bathtub and the other in the shower, they can wash themselves but I still have to dispense soap and shampoo or we'll be awash in bubbles. Toys have all been upgraded, this is the year of fashion dolls, they spent a lot of time in the playroom with Barbie and the LOL dolls. They also squabble a bit, we now have a new rule that you cannot punch your sister in the face - even if she did dare you to do it.

I thought of this vacation as the Re-do for the Christmas That Didn't Really Happen - I have over a month of vacation saved since I gave most of it back over the holidays.  So I took days off and we did all the things that we didn't last vacation. David met Brandi at the halfway point and brought them home while I worked, most of the weekend they just wanted to play with the dogs, their toys.....and us. We painted, ran around the yard with the dogs (who were beside themselves with joy), played Battle of Bikini Bottom and I'm STILL stuck in Jelly fish fields, swung on the swings, took apart the playroom and hung out in our PJs - it was so much fun. Monday I worked from home, Tuesday I was in the office but Poppop took them to the activity center and McDonalds and then I was home. We drove out to Seaside to hang out with Aunt Kim and Uncle Steve, the girls are old enough to sit on the couch and hold the 5 lb dog Piggles. We did the Carousel and then Funland, then out to lunch. Friday we made the traditional Bunny Cake and Saturday easter eggs with their mom in the morning. 

We did Easter Dinner Saturday afternoon - it's too much to try to do it on Sunday as Kim and Steve go to their daughter's and they have to back by Monday morning - it's too stressful. So I do the full traditional dinner using my 1950s china, I forgot to take pictures but rest assured, we had a wonderful time. The girls are at that age, D kept saying to me "I don't think the Easter Bunny is real Nana!" trying gauge my reaction to this statement, I told her that was for her to decide. But despite that Easter morning was its usual chaos, running and finding eggs and baskets. We did a nice breakfast and then they were on their way back home. Everyone had a good time - oh and they finally got their birthday presents! We missed that because I had pneumonia and they had the stomach virus so we had to cancel the trip to the zoo - Jackson had flown down to spend the week with them for their birthday and he came down with it too. They did get to go the next week though so better late than never.

 

LOL

So, I've been doing an ongoing purge for the past couple of months. As everyone knows we do estate and yard sales, I've been updating my clothes, etc... One of the things I did was go through the girl's playroom upstairs. When Jackson and Amy were here he mentioned he thought some of the toys were a little babyish for them which made me realize that might be my next target. I went through the toy basket and got rid of a lot, dolls they didn't play with, broken and missing parts, a couple of Barbies that looked like 3 miles of bad road, you get the gist. I probably have to do another sorting but I got rid of a couple of bags. 

And yes, the girls have a small playroom - we take them for long stretches ( over Christmas it was over 2 weeks) and when they're here they are here. They don't go to school or  daycare so we need things for them to do. We have an art tote which is full of paints, projects and shrinky dinks - when Kim cleaned out her loft she gave us a ton of fun stuff. The TV has a wireless game controller upstairs, there's the swings, the dogs - but here in Oregon it rains. A lot. When they were here over Christmas it rained almost every single day so the well stocked playroom was a blessing! But now it looked a little bare. I started going on FB marketplace - you can get some crazy deals on used toys. And you can often buy entire collections when kids outgrow it. Which is what I found. The girls love the fashion dolls now and the LOL surprise dolls are pretty popular.

I had come across a pretty good collection but they wanted $120 - too much for me! But I saved it and saw it down to $100. I texted the guy and offered $75 which he accepted right away and mentioned the collection was a "little bit more" than shown. We met in a store parking lot, me in my little white Volt, him in his fairly new giant white truck. I gave him the money and  opened my hatchback and he brought the house first - WAY bigger than I t hought. I put down my seats. He had put the toys and accessories in giant black yard bags, one, two, a smaller bag full of dolls, three....my car was stuffed. I started to thank him and he pulled out a FOURTH bag - he must've seen my panic because he peeked over my shoulder and said "I'll bet it'll fit in the front seat if we move that other bag!", stuffed it in my car and ran before I could change my mind. The drive home was interesting, I could barely see out my side window. I hauled it in the house and piled it in the kitchen. 

He had said his daughter had been a big collector and outgrown it - there is easily a thousand dollars of these toys, there are sets that were never opened! It's all really clean and wow, the house, the camper, the jeep, the party car, the container play skate park, bags of dolls, the beauty salon - I have a feeling we are going to have some pretty excited little girls. I have to sort it out, this kid saved EVERYTHING and I had to go on some websites to see how the camper worked (retail is $134!) but overall I did good. Barbie will have some new neighbors and the house the bears own will be moved to the back of the neighborhood. The nice thing about buying this stuff used is you get the entire collection all at once and when they outgrow it I'll simply pack it up and donate it to Goodwill so it will get played with again. I can't wait for them to see it

 

Waiting for Rain

If you're on Facebook they have a memories function that  goes back to that date for various years. Mine kept going back to the Pittsburgh Yarn and Fiber Festival, one of the biggest shows in the country and that will lead us back to Mary - one of the strongest women I've ever had the honor of knowing. This festival has classes and people send in a request to teach, but sometimes they ask you and when they do it's like having your art work win first prize. I'd entered an intricate lace shawl I'd worked on for months at the local festival - only to lose to one of the judge's daughter in law who had (I kid you not) produced a plain crocheted scarf. She also won second place,hmmm. Anyhow as I was stewing in my tiny pool of knitter's hate I got a call from the person running the Pittsburgh festival asking me to teach two classes! Me! She has come down to the festival and saw my work, she told me how impressed she was, I was so flattered.  I went to the yarn shop we all shopped at and asked the owner if I could pay her to  give me a class on how to teach a class - and got ripped apart with the owner telling me she had no idea how they'd picked me, it was a horrible idea and she knew I'd fail. (Mary suggested later on it might have been the owner had been upset because she'd never been asked). Needless to say at our knitting group I was deciding to not do it and Mary told me to wait. She called me the next day to let me know we were going to her friend's yarn shop that weekend and they would both teach me how to teach a class. I had the best day - it was such a confidence booster. The day of the class Mary and  my other friend Stephanie met me up there, they both had signed up and gave me so much support, walking me through the parts I faltered, I have never forgotten their kindness that day - they made it a once in a lifetime experience I'll always treasure.

I met Mary in a knitting group outside of Pittsburgh, when I started with Bayada it was a few miles from my office - I knit with that group for over five years, every week. We had some people come and go, but we had a core that always showed up. I met Mary when she was in her 70's, she was a retired ortho nurse so we had some common ground. She was married to someone not likeable (not abusive, just not likeable) but she loved to travel and she collected yarn from all over the world. She was such a  precise knitter and would often be found walking us through some of the more complicated patterns, she never got annoyed or short with anyone and yes, she too taught. One night when she came in she announced she was getting divorced - we were floored. But she said she was not going to spend the rest of her life miserable with someone who didn't appreciate her. The following months she regaled us with tales of the divorce which went anything but smoothly often having us laughing with her antics. After we moved I kept in contact, but not as much as I would have liked - we were all over the place the first year. And then Mary passed away in her sleep unexpectedly - I felt so terrible. She had finally gotten the divorce and was getting on with her life, I know she passed peacefully, but how unfair that was. 

This pattern kept coming up in Ravelry and I know my former knitting pals will recognize i, it's called Waiting For Rain.We all have one of those projects we drag our feet to finish and this was Mary's albatross, as far as I know she didn't finish it  - or maybe she did. All I know was it seemed to make numerous Guest Star Appearances at our knitting group once in awhile. She frogged parts of it on occasion as she was a perfect knitter but it never seemed to be done! We would sometimes laugh when she pulled it out once again - I think she just didn't want to finish it. The yarn I used I dyed myself and somehow managed to get three colors from the same yarn and the same pot! It was not really a hard knit and I am not a perfect knitter so the few teeny bobbles are left in it. But I knit it in memory of Mary, I think my thoughts of her went into every stitch. I still miss her and when I find a fun project my thoughts will go to her, gone way too soon.

 

Short But Sweet

Jackson finished up his tour in Guantanamo Bay  and Amy finished up in Italy, they are finally going to be stationed together. That only took forever didn't it? We didn't expect to see them , I knew they had a lot on their plate coming home. They had to wait for Amy's dog to arrive, then off to Arizona to see her parents, get started with the cars and then off to Whidbey Island to see the girls. But he called on Thursday to let me know they would be down for a short visit with the girls - bonus! This time of year is the long stretch we don't see them as they're in school and there's no vacations to plan. I had to cancel plans with Kim and Steve, but they didn't mind, they know how infrequently I see either one of my kids. They planned to leave at noon and arrive around 5 but didn't leave til two and 5 potty breaks later they arrived about 8pm, the girls were excited to be showing Amy and Jack  their things here. We will have lived here 4 years in June (I can't believe it either! In August I'll be at the four year mark at my job!) but they've never been down to see the house.

I didn't take too many pictures - I know,weird for me! I just wanted to enjoy this short time with my family. Bee and Dutch were over the moon to have  so many visitors at once, Bee was hostessing her butt off and managed to sit on everyone's lap. Jack grew up with Vizslas and is used to their overly friendly antics, Amy was playing with them all weekend. We didn't do much, I had no time to plan anything and I think with all the traveling Jack and Amy have been doing staying put was not objected to. The whole house was full! The girls slept in their room downstairs and Bee somehow managed to sleep with the guests taking her hostessing skills to a whole new level. She did get under the covers and shared pillows but no one seemed to mind. Saturday we just hung out, it was fun getting to know Amy better and of course seeing Jackson - we are so proud of him!! D took him and Amy upstairs to play Barbies and C played video games and showed off the Office that they seem to think belongs to them and not Nana. They also managed to squeeze in a tea party even though I was out of marshmallows that they don't like.  But they feel the Not So Hot Cocoa needs them, who am I to judge?

The girls had school on Monday so they drove them to the halfway point to meet Brandi, I offered but Jackson wanted to spend all the time that he could with them. After this they will be down in March for the girls 7th birthday - I know! SEVEN! They came back for the rest of the day and evening and on Monday left to return the rental car and then fly back to Arizona to register the car and get Amy's dog. I had taken a few hours of personal time on Monday so I could see them off but then I took another two vacation days this week. Even though I've had time off - it was all non-stop. Christmas, over 2 weeks with the girls, the flu, emergency surgery.........I feel like I need a little time to regroup. Today David and I did Costco (we're completely out of fruit and Vegetables) and I took the hydro unit completely apart and scrubbed the bejesus out of it. Yes it's a pain but I only have to do it a couple of times a year and I think I finally figured out a faster way to do it. Tomorrow I have a few phone calls to make but I am going to take one day to do Absolutely Nothing Of Value. Because we all need to breath once in awhile. 

 

The Used and Reused.

A few years ago I decided to eliminate most of the disposible things in our home - not an easy task some days. The first thing I did was stop buying most paper products - towels, plates,coffee filters, cups. No bottled water, reduced bottled beverages (neither of us drink soda so not an issue). We have containers, water bottles and I have a reusable lunch box. I started growing my own produce and yes I can yammer on about that all day every day - I love to garden! We use laundry sheets which take up no room, work well and there's no giant plastic container. Reusable shopping and produce bags, if we get something in a box i'll often use it as a donation box. I buy most of household things - cooking utensils, table cloths, etc at yard and estate sales - I've gotten such beautiful things for a tenth or less of the original price. I bought a pampered chef microwave pot brand new for $2, it's on Amazon for $40. Some of the girls clothes are used from consignment shops, kids grow so fast I occasionally find some really good buys. 95% of our furniture has come from Facebook Marketplace or estates sales - you get the idea. Even the house we live in was bought at 1/4 of what's it's worth today - doing the cleaning and work yourself saves you.

I've said before brand new only lasts as long as it's not in your house, the second you bring it through the door it's used, isn't it? And yes, you do have to be careful - the last thing we want to do is bring home unwanted visitors hiding but we dont' buy anything we're not sure of and certainly nothing dirty. We  have a beautiful leather living room set we purchased for $300 and refurbished ourselves, the iron and wood coffee table - $15. Our replacement chandeliers - new in the box and $5 apiece, scrounged from a hoarder sale. I love hoarder sales - I bought a large  tote for $20 a few months ago full of wrapped packages - they were brand new pelicans of every size and shape you can imagine. I only kept a few but the amusement value was off the charts and a lot people are now the proud owners of pelicans thanks to me. You're welcome! Not everything worked out of course, David refuses to entertain the idea of a bidet gently sprinkling his nether region and really nixed buying one at a yard sale. But other than that he's been onboard.

And the benefits! We of course save money because we don't spend a lot, when we retire we'll have to watch our spending, but we WILL be able to retire. I do plan on working a few more years though, I really like my job and it's pretty low stress - plus you know, money. One of the things I was surprised we save money on is trash collection, because we've drastically reduced our output we only have it picked up twice a month, we put out about 3 bags a month now. We save alot not buying pre-cooked or pre-packaged foods, dishes are washed as are containers. We recycle and reuse the bananas out of everything. This spring I'm planning on starting a compost pile to further reduce the trash with the goal of being able to just cancel it and David can bring what little we produce to the dump. I find I enjoy the challenge of it too, it's much more fun to find the things you wanted at a estate sale then simply take it off a shelf. Onward!