Happy Halloween!

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Still wowed by the view.  I was in the kitchen getting my lunch and turned around, and boom.  The rain seemed to intensify the colors and make everything pop. Add in Simba's outline as he monitored the neighborhood or scouted for lunch and I just have to smile.



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My trick-or-treaters.  Carus was a vampire, Leia a football player, and Yoda wore his "Too cute to be Scary" shirt.  We went to downtown Forest Grove to TOT the businesses and check out the little party with activities for the kids that the college students were putting on (I love my town!) and then came back home to TOT the neighborhood.  While it had been pouring ALL day, it stopped raining while we were out save a few light sprinkles, and it wasn't cold out either.

Carus's school gave the students little boxes from Unicef and asked them to do a little fundraising while they were out this evening.  Carus remembered her and she dutifully sang, "trick-or-treat, and for Unicef too."  I wasn't expecting a lot of people to contribute and figured I'd have to pull out some change for her, but almost every single house paused to pull change out of their pockets or step away to grab wallets or purses and she received more paper money than coins.  She can be shy, but she didn't let that hold her back and I'm proud of her.  When we got home I opened the box curious to see how much she raised, and then added a bit of change from my wallet to make it an even $22.  Not much, but will provide some drinking water or vaccines or education for some needy children and that is much.  (That sentence contains a link to videos of children helped by Unicef.)

Wowed by fall

First off (unrelated to my 366 photo for the day) I'd like to say Happy Birthday to my oldest baby brother, Bud.  I miss you!


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While working I try to get up every few reports and walk around a bit.  Sitting at my computer 8 hours a day can be hard.  I don't get much walking done, but the "lap" around the house, occasionally switching laundry over, does help a little bit.  I was walking by the front window this morning shortly after sunrise and was wowed by all the fall color being lit up by the sun peaking through the clouds.  It poured all weekend, and it was forecasted to continue into most of this week so I wasn't expecting to see the sun until late Thursday or Friday if I was lucky.  It was a very nice surprise.  I grabbed my phone and used Instagram to upload a quick shot to the internets.

When it started to look like I wasn't going to get a picture of anything else today, and the sun was still out (why does it not rain on a Monday when I'm stuck inside working?) I grabbed my camera; but none of those images were as good as the phone one from this morning.  The light was just too perfect.

Damn, Oregon. You're doing fall right!

Say good-bye to football

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Adam had his football uniform home this weekend for one last washing before it had to be turned back in and I wanted to take advantage of that and get a football posed picture of him in it.  We didn't have him do the individual photos with the rest of the team because they were extremely overpriced.  I just can't bring myself to pay $15 for one 5x7 photo, especially when experience with past football photos have taught me the quality isn't even worth a buck.  For the amount of money they want, I'd like my son's face to be in focus and not the grass in front of him.

Anyways, I don't think I did a bad job.

Running low on inspiration

I did my usual grocery shopping today and took the whole family, and was reminded once again how much I don't like grocery shopping with Robert.  He doesn't like doing it so he treats it like a race, which annoys me on good days, but especially today because of my gimpiness.  My foot is doing loads better today, but I'm still can't fully walk on it and I'm limping, so I borrowed Robert's walking cast boot he got from his leg surgery to help my foot.  Long story short, being rushed through the grocery store had me really annoyed.

Then we had a movie night and watched Terminator with the kids.  Wow, the special effects from 1984. And the hair! Wow.  The machine war in the movie took place in 2029, so not long now. HA!

Anyhoo - I'm running low on inspiration and ended up photographing my Scotty Dog salt and pepper shakers.  I have a very small salt and pepper shaker collection going on with a set of houses, another dog set, some pugs, and some that match my plates.

Last football game

10/24/12 - Wednesday evening was Adam's last football game.  Even though it had been raining off and on all day when we got to the field for warm up it was not raining and I was hoping it would stay that way for the game.

It did not.  Just as the game was starting, it started pouring, and then hailing. I was very thankful the stands where under cover and felt bad for the boys playing in the yuck.

See the rain and hail coming down?  And all the hail on the ground?  Adam wasn't on the field for this picture.


Adam is #72.  Not sure what's going on here, I think Adam might have just been hit and spun around since he's facing the wrong direction.


299:366 - Adam is #72 going after #43.  #43 was a very good player that made a couple touchdowns and won the game for his team.  Adam didn't get him this play, but in the play after this he sacked the quarterback (before the QB could pass the ball off to 43).  I was too busy cheering to get a picture.


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10/25/12  - Day 300!!

Thursday - Early in the day, while working, Leia gave me her biggest saddest puppy dog eyes.  She wanted to play, and I was ignoring her.  I would have much preferred playing over working too.



I made it almost to the end of my shift, and then when returning from a quick restroom break, I wiped out after tripping over the step into the kitchen and banged up my knee and my foot pretty good.  Because I'm talented.  I hobbled back to my desk to finish my final report and clock out and then hobbled off to the kids' schools for parent/teacher conferences.

Two things that made us laugh.
With Adam, when meeting his history teacher (who, by the way, just won Oregon's History Teacher of the Year award):
Teacher:  "Adam is awesome!"
Robert:  "He thinks so too."

And Adam is. He's doing well in school, his teachers love him, and he received praise for helping other students out when he gets his work done quickly.

Then, with Carus:
Apparently, Carus started the school year speaking in an English accent and had her teacher believing that was her accent.

Carus is also doing very well and has straight A's.

By the time we finally got home, my knee (actually just below my knee) and foot were throbbing and a little bit swollen.  I sat down and put my foot up, but couldn't put ice on it because I couldn't have anything touching it.

Which brings me to today - it still hurts. Just below my knee is a bruise and it's sore, but it's nowhere near as painful as my foot.  I can barely move it and cannot bear any weight on it.  But it is less tender to touch than last night and the swelling has gone down.  And there is no bruising so I'm pretty sure I didn't break it.  I don't think I'm ever going to break a bone, though not for the lack of "trying"*

And I'm phoning my photo in for the day again.

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Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur.  Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr  (Click here)


*I'm not actually trying, I'm just klutzy.  Or as a friend, Bethany, pointed out, I'm spatially challenged.   

A distant view

Oooh, with a title like that I wish I had something incredibly profound and enlightening to write about. But I don't.

I've had a headache all day, which is from the cold that will not go away, yet doesn't fully develop.  Also from dog 1 (Yoda) who snored ALL.NIGHT.LONG and dog 2 (Leia) who nudged me awake the probably 5 times I did get Yoda to stop snoring and nodded off to have me let her outside. Again. Sometimes the dark scares her and she can't pee if I'm not out there with her and with temps in the 30s at night I'm not standing outside at 2 a.m. Or 3, or 4... etc.

Also not that profound is my 366 for the day.

Behold, the distant view from my front window, above all the rooftops of houses on the street.

Rain, rain, rain

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It's been pouring on and off all day, more on than off.  And to think we were in a drought only 3 weeks ago.

Maybe we'll have a very wet winter...

This is the side of Robert's shed, he opted to not put gutters on (at least at this time).

Grandma Pat

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Robert's Grandma Pat passed away early Sunday morning.  She had been sick and in pain for some time so her passing is a release from that pain.


Grandma Pat was a very sweet woman who I would have liked to spend more time with, especially to hear her stories.  She grew up in England and fought in World War II.

She helped raise Robert and some of his greatest childhood memories are of RVing up and down the west coast with Grandpa and Grandma Pat.  He loves to tell stories about where they went and what they did, and I love hearing them; even if I've heard them a million times before.  

I would love to have our own RV trip - maybe even someday with our own grandkids.

She was an avid knitter and along with the yearly sweater for the kids, there have been stuffed toys, Christmas pot holders, a Christmas blanket from our first Christmas as a couple with our anniversary date on it, and Robert's cherished "R" blanket she knit him.  That blanket is so heavy that we can only use it (unfortunately) during the winter and I nearly broke a couple washing machines washing it.

Rest in peace Grandma Pat, you will be missed.

Date night

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The kids went to stay the night with the grands; Gramma came and picked them up this morning.  Robert and I were planning on a date day and night, the first we've had in far too long, and then Friday afternoon he found out he had to work today.

The alarm was set for 6:00 a.m. (extra special not cool on a Saturday morning) and he got up, stumbled around getting dressed and then checked his phone to see two text messages saying he isn't needed yet (yay) and they'll call when they're ready for him.  This information would have been helpful BEFORE 6:00 a.m. (Yawn)

I wasn't able to go back to sleep really, though I tried to do more then doze a little before finally giving up and getting up.    After Gramma came and went with the kiddos Robert and I sat down to watch one of our shows that records during the week, and he was called into work.  He went to work, saw snow on the side of the road by the way (the fuck?! too early for snow here, this winter is going to be cold) and I went grocery shopping (isn't that exciting?).

About halfway through my grocery shopping I started feeling really crummy.  My sinuses and lungs have been achy and burny (I know that's not a word, but it's the best description I can come up with).  I've been holding off a cold for about 2 weeks. I'll start feeling a bit blah, take some Emergen-C, drink some extra water, and try to go to bed earlier and the next morning, and for the next couple of days, I will feel fine...all to start back over again.

I've powered through, and we went to dinner and a movie (saw Taken 2; good, but we liked the first one better).  Now I have dosed myself up with some NyQuil and I'm off to bed.  Hopefully this will completely get rid of this crud.

Football, sunsets, and silly kitties

Football season is coming to a close, and it's probably the last season Adam will play football.  He doesn't want to play next year out of worry about how hard 9th grade will be, and we are okay with that.  We will just have to wait and see if he wants to play after that.  We feel school is the most important thing for him right now.

At his football game the other night, we arrived at the field in time to watch a gorgeous sunset! I didn't capture as well as I would have liked, the colors aren't right - but it's close.



The lovely sunset became a lovely moon scene.



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10/17/12  - On the line.  Adam's team(s)  (he plays back-up lineman for the other team) won a couple games, and while they played well Wednesday evening, the opposing team was just a bit better and we lost.  We have one more game left, a home game, and hopefully we'll win.


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10/18/12 - Sunrise the next morning was pretty too, not as pretty though.  I grabbed this quick shot with my phone heading out the door to take Carus to school to meet with her teacher.  It ended up being the only photo I got that day (the day got away from me) so it became my 366 by default.



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10/19/12 - Silly Simba kitty peaking at me through the cobwebs.

Re-reading

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Football practice pickup duty = reading time. I've finished the Inheritance series, which I enjoyed very much.  Adam is happy that I can now discuss the books with him, though I'd probably have to read them a few (hundred) more times to know as much as he does about them.

But for now I'm re-reading Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  Diana posts excerpts (posted under the hashtag #dailylines on Facebook and Twitter) from the book she is currently working on, often of book #8 in the Outlander series, Written In My Own Heart's Blood (also known as MOBY).  I enjoy these little bits and they help (and don't help) with my excitement over the book which isn't due out until 2013 at best.  However, there are a few times when I've been confused over something revealed in them.  Which is why I've decided to re-read the series to refresh it in my head and hopefully clear up a few things.

Fog

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Wow, almost into the 300s.  This year is going by fast.

This was the view out the front door yesterday morning. The distant hills poking up out of the fog.  I like the fog and fall in Oregon is perfect for creating fog.

I feel like I should say more or explain more or something, but nothing is coming to me.  Blah blah blah, yada yada. And more blah. There - I said more.... I'm going to go eat my lunch now.

Apple Crisp

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The stormy, windy, rainy weather we had this weekend worked well for staying inside and baking.  I did not bake much, but I did make some cinnamon chip scones and this apple crisp.  We love this apple crisp and have yet to find it's equal in the crisp world.  It's loved specifically because of the topping which is perfectly crunchy and not soggy like crumbles sometimes are; nor cake-like as most cobblers can be.

Apple Crisp

10 cups apples - peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp flour

Crisp
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted

Coat apple slices with lemon juice while cutting up to prevent browning.  Toss with cinnamon and sugar and place in 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle flour over the top of apples.

Mix oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda and pour in melted butter.  Stir together until mixture is crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over the apples and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, until the apples are tender and the crisp is golden brown.

Cool slightly before serving.

Friday and Saturday

Friday
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Fall colors and rain drops.  I love the color of this bush in the fall.


And then I made it all Halloween-y. Pretty cool, right?



Saturday
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Carus has decided it's time to start decorating for Halloween and now I have a cobweb problem.

A little tree

When driving home, I come around a corner and the road lines up perfectly with this little dip in a hill in the range separating me from the ocean.


In this dip is a lone tree.  It stands out and catches my eye every time I drive that road, in that direction.  As the sun sets, this tree is illuminated and seems to draw me in more.

It is alone.  But yet it still seems strong.  As if because of the fact that it stands alone, it is stronger than the other trees.

It's almost as if it is my beacon home.

Tonight, while trying to capture the tree and not standing in the middle of a busy highway, I found a sweet spot on my street where I can see "my" tree.  The slight shift put the sun directly behind it instead of just off to the side - all the better for me.

Geneva cookies

Made some cookies on my lunch break today.  We call them Geneva cookies because the recipe came from my friend, Geneva.


Geneva's recipe came from her mom who would make them when she was growing up when the family was going camping or hiking. They're like energy bars/cookies and they're awesome.

Geneva cookies

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1-1/6 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups peanut butter
4-1/2 cups oatmeal
3 oz chocolate chips
raisins (optional)

Mix together, adding the oatmeal last.  Scoop rounded spoonfuls onto baking sheet and flatten to 1/4 inch thickness. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Makes about 4-1/2 dozen cookies.

I usually have to add a bit more oatmeal (we have moist air) and never add the raisins (I have some picky eaters that don't like raisins, but I imagine it would be good).  And I don't flatten them being a bit of a lazy baker and they turn out fine for me.

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I caught him post yawn, but looks like he is about to sneeze.



Occasionally Simba visits me at work and unless I kick him out he tries to help me work.  He'll play with the pens and papers and any other bits of clutter I have on my desk (and I do have a lot).  Then, he'll try to cuddle on my lap or between my hands that are on a keyboard so he ends up lying on the keyboard.  He'll get mad if I continue to type.  But occasionally he'll just curl up next to my keyboard on my desk and just hang out.

I like when he just hangs out.

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Carus and her flute.



At first she was very frustrated she couldn't get a sound out of it, but we encouraged her to keep trying and watched a few tutorials on Youtube.  She can get a sound out of it now, though it doesn't sound like much.

Actually she and Robert are currently "playing" it in the kitchen right now.

I can't wait for it to sound like more!

She is learning though, as evident in her currently trying to teach her father to play the F note rather than just noise.

And then he gave up in favor of just noise...

The Weekend-o

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I'm still slowly making my way through the Eragon series, working on book 4, Inheritance and I found a typo.  

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Another football game - Yay!  They lost, but it was still a fun game. 

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Adam is such a goof.

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It's not quite what I had in mind when I took the photo, but I like it and I'm done playing with the photo tonight.

Hopefully I will have time (HA!) really soon to play with this photo and all the others I have just waiting for me.  Le sigh.

Carus isn't feeling too well.  She is coughing and cranky.  She was sent to bed early tonight, but she has been up several times to refill her water bottle, complain about the coughing, for one last potty trip, etc etc.  I have given her cough medicine and sore throat spray and hopefully she'll feel better in the morning.

She doesn't want to miss school at all this year, but especially tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the Fund Run, a fundraising run the school does where the kids get run the track and then get pledges for money per lap run, or a flat amount.

Plus, tomorrow is also band and dance day.  If she misses school, she misses band and dance.

I forgot to say - Carus decided on an instrument in band.  She had thought she wanted to clarinet, but decided on flute.  She was wanting to give up on it Wednesday though.  She hasn't been able to get sound out of it...yet.  We looked up some tips and technique videos on Youtube and she will try again next band.  The band teacher will get around to helping her too, but I think there are like 20-30 kids just starting band so it takes him a bit to make the rounds to all the kids.

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Carus doing her homework, well except for stopping to smile for a picture.  She has been asking me to braid her hair at night lately, she likes how crimpy it makes her hair.



I'm being a bit lazy with my 366 and using my phone more and more.

It's just so easy, and always near me.  I'm not feeling really inspired for my big camera.  I probably should do something about that.

Anyhoo.

I had an interesting morning.

I have been house, dog, cat, and chicken sitting for a neighbor this week, and when Carus and I went over this morning to check on the animals and feed them breakfast Carus found a dead opossum next to the chicken coop.  No, it wasn't playing possum.

It wasn't that big, so probably a baby. I've never seen on in real life except as road kill (man, aren't I cheerful) but I still imagine they are a bit larger than a squirrel, which is what size this one was.  It looked like it had been slobbered on really well.

Carus thought it was beyond cool to find a dead rodent, and also unfortunate because "they are so cute".  I find them a bit creepy, not sure why. I'm a fan of all animals, at least to some degree, but opossums are not on my cute and cuddly list.

And then I got to clean up a dead animal.

The opossum didn't get his/her chicken or egg dinner so... Good dogs!

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Today started out crappy, but ended well.

I was woken around 4 am by my bladder and when I went to get out of bed I got one of those excruciating cramps in my calf.  While I was trying to massage the cramp out Timmy decided since I was moving that meant I could get him food and started meowing at me, Yoda decided that I could pick him up and put him on the bed and was trying to jump in my lap, and Leia decided that I could let her out and was pacing.  And I still had to pee.

When I was finally able to hobble into the bathroom I started having an asthma attack (I was breathing fine, but not getting enough oxygen).  That quickly bloomed into a bit of a panic attack (because not being able to breathe is something to panic about) and my attempts to not wake Robert were tossed out the window.  He went and got me an inhaler, and I shakily went back to bed.  Of course, after I let the dogs out and fed the cat.

The last couple hours of sleep weren't really sleep and I was a bit zombie-ish during the morning routines.  Lunches got made, the kids got off to school, dinner got put in the crockpot and I got to work.  It took until about mid morning for the zombieness to wear off and the inhaler puffs to fully kick in, and thankfully I got off early.

I took off early today to go to one of Adam's football games.  It was an away game in a town about 30 minutes from here.  They lost, which I think has a lot to do with psyching themselves out, but it was still a fun game to watch.

And this afternoon was just gorgeous!  It's nice to be able to spend a nice fall afternoon outside in the sun.



Adam is center (with his hand on the ball) here.


Adam is not in this one, but I like it.


You can't see Adam's number in this one.  He's the white jersey in front of number 92.

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Fall is here.

Knitting (and quilting and crocheting) season is here.  ♥