A Friendly Visit

Kelley and Lisa arrived on a Friday for the weekend in Oregon. We came back to our house for lunch and to see the house and Sprueill family. Wade came home early to help get the weekend started. I think he was just as excited to see friends as I was. Or maybe he was just excited to get me out of the house for a few days!

It was hot as hell, or Arizona, but we still sat out back for lunch. The porch and apple tree offer shade which helped. We also enjoyed some local wine (which was only the beginning for the weekend's wine consumption). I purchased a few bottles from David Hill Winery which is the closest winery to our house...less than 2 miles. As we caught up over lunch and drinks, Chandler and Henry came home from school. We soon left for our hotel in downtown Portland. Beautiful room, with a great view of Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson.

The next day we were pick up by the touring company. We toured four vineyards, in this order, Elk Cove, Archery Summit, Erath Winery, and Lachini; and tasted 25 different wines. Elk Cove was a nice start, the view was beautiful and the landscape was picturesque. Archery Summit we tasted the most expensive wines, the top being $150 per bottle. It was also the most unique, with the tasting room being in a cave under the vines. We toured Erath which was a buzz kill but we still had fun. Lachini was a perfect ending. Their wines, in my opinion, the best of the day all around and the view was spectacular. Phil, our driver, was fun and put up with our chatting and silliness.

Sunday, we decided to drive to the Mulnomah and surrounding falls. We couldn't ask for better weather. It sucks to drive out there and see nothing but clouds. Although the falls are still visible and beautiful, rain or shine. We saw three different falls. Mulnomah, the last one, is the most popular and very crowded.

Our weekend ended with a drive around Portland. I got lost returning from the falls. I didn't plan out that trip and wasn't sure how to get back into downtown. We made it back and had time to quickly see the Saturday Market. Yes, it was Sunday but the market is called the Saturday Market. Lisa got her Banana Republic fix, at the city's two story store. We finished the night with a few drinks at an Italian restaurant.

Needless to say, we had a lovely time. I was thrilled Kelley and Lisa took the time to visit. I hope you had a great time too and Happy Birthday Kelley.

Found Camera and Orphan Pictures

Maybe I'll find my lost photos on this site. Would you want to?

(turn off music below before starting clip)

Are You My Mother?

After the bus left this morning, I returned to the house to find Chandler's homework folder left behind. Not that I need to justify my next action, but I will by saying he never forgets his homework nor do I need to remind him to pack it. So the stay-at-home mom in me kicked in and I drove the 4 miles (if that) to school to deliver his homework.
I figure I can beat the bus and meet him in the parking lot/drive-up lane. Sure enough, I do and watch him get off the bus and start towards the school, where the kids play outside until the doors open at 8:50. I can't get out of the car, school rules, so I'm yelling for Chandler from my car...every kid's nightmare! Our neighbor, from across the street, hears me first and looks at me very curiously and hesitantly. Mind you, they just saw me at the bus stop and see my car every day...for God's sake it is an innocent mini-van with a Disneyland antenna ball! Chandler finely looks at me but keeps walking! I wave again, with a look of 'It's me Mom!' He looks again..and keeps walking!!!!! I finally get out of the car and wave his homework folder in the air!!!!!! I guess that is the "white flag" of the school ground rules. He walks over, grabs his homework with a big thank you, and rushes back to his friends. Before he leaves I ask, "Why didn't you come over?"
Chandler, "I didn't know it was you." I had to laugh and also look at the upside. At least he is cautious and doesn't run to any car yelling his name.

Part Two:

Now that I have handed off the homework folder, I need to wait in the drive-up lane to drive out of the parking lot. Kids are crossing the lot from buses to school grounds. Two teachers are assisting with stop signs. One (unfortunate) teacher is taking to a student, actually be talked to by a student. It is another neighbor of ours. So now I will tell you about our neighbors to the south. This was going to be a post all by itself but I felt guilty complaining about children.

Our neighbors have four children: seven year old twin boys, and a boy and girl preschool age.

The twins are outside alone A LOT. If we ('we' being any one person from our household, including Wade (Wayne as they call him)) are outside or even in the garage with the door up, they come right in and begin 20 questions. "What are you doing? Why? Where is Miss-chelle? Why? Why are you painting the garage? It looks messy in here. Why is it messy? Why don't you clean it then paint? What is this for? What do you have in the backyard? Why are you cutting the flowers? Is that why you grow flowers? We went to two bar-b-ques this weekend, did you?"

When I meet the boys at the bus stop, they get to me first and start telling me about their day or anything they may know about Chandler and Henry's day.

At first we thought it was cute, but now, four months later, it is very intrusive. They really just rambling off questions, they seem to care less about the answers or that you are busy with something, and more about talking. I think you get the gist.

Back to the school. As I am waiting to drive off, I see one twin talking to the teacher, as she is clearing trying to manage crossing the students safely. He is just talking on and on. I imagine he is rambling about the same things he bombarded me with at the bus stop this morning. She had the same 'save me' look on her face as Wade and I often do.

The mom and Christian in me has compassion for these kids but at the same time I want to say, "BUG OFF!"

Luckily, they are renting. Not sure for how long but there is hope for an end. It feels good to vent so please pardon my negativity and have compassion for us.

Catfish is Eight!

Happy Birthday Henry, aka Catfish, Little Man, Sprout, Solid, Sir Henry, Oh Henry!

You have grow in so many ways this year. Everyday I am impressed by your honesty, humor, intelligence, creativity and compassion. You are a good son, brother and friend. I'm so excited to celebrate your birthday with you today, as are Chandler and Dad. Have a great day today. I will see you later at school.

Love,

Mom

In addition, I am adding how much I admire Chandler for his attitude towards Henry's birthday. He is so excited to celebrate with him and is keeping his gifts a secret. In turn Henry has shown the same respect to Chandler in the past.

Growing up, I had a neighbor "friend" (I use the quotes because I remember not liking her that much because of how she behaved), she had a sister. I distinctly remember at my "friend's" birthday party, the sister cried because she didn't have a gift to open. Instead of the buck-it-up speech I would give, her parents gave in and let her open a gift! Of course, the birthday girl began to cry, if I remember correctly, the party ended early.

I believe this is why I'm so intent on party guests sitting back and watching the birthday child open gifts. I hate when guests try to open the gifts or get in their face. You get only one birthday per year, but we all get one (except Goldstar, his is on Leap Day) so back off to let the birthday child enjoy the attention. That's all I'm going to say about that!

Simply Fabulous!

This past weekend was simply fabulous! My dear friends, Lisa and Kelley, came to visit me from Arizona. There are so many great pictures and fun times to share, I think it best to post each day separately. But remember, what happens in Oregon, stays in Oregon! Just kidding, it was all innocent, but definitely marvelous!

I will preface the posts with a "thank you" to our families for supporting our time together. A break was needed all around, but for me personally, to see friends and spend time with them was priceless. Wade, Chandler and Henry also took advantage of mom being gone. They had a great weekend together, including a trip to the beach, seeing Speed Racer, and, as Henry put it, eating meat and pizza! To top is all off, I came home to a still clean house and the laundry done! Guess I should go away more often!

Good Morning!

Once I realized the large, flat, green leaves in the flower bed, don't belong to tulips, I have anticipated, what feels like forever, the opening of the Iris. Every morning I check their progress; all I see are taller stems. With the HOT weather we are expecting this weekend, I figured they will bloom over the weekend. As my luck would have it, I'm away for the weekend with friends visiting from AZ. As excited as I am about that, to add to my day, I found one Iris in full, splendid bloom. It looks like many more are to follow.

Give me a break!

I'm not as thrilled with this warm weather as the rest of Oregon. All day, I had to hear, "Isn't this weather great!", "Are you enjoying the warm weather?"

No, no I'm not enjoying this warm weather! I like 60 degrees! If I wanted 85, I would move back to AZ!!!!

Sorry Kelley and Lisa, who knew. You know the tasting rooms have A/C. See you Friday.

In honor of Mother's Day

I could do a post in honor of my mom, with special memories. Instead, I am posting a dream my friend Lisa from MOS had after after I moved from Arizona. I find it touching. I get choked up each time I read it.
Lisa recalling her dream: In it, you were standing in your driveway, and the garage door was open. You were playing with a dollhouse - arranging the furniture in it, and you were surrounded by packing boxes. As you were working, I looked up towards the sky. As I did, I saw your mom - It was her as she was smiling in the picture that used to hang in our office at the shop. When I looked at her, I started to say something, but as I did, she smiled at me, and pointed to you at the dollhouse, she put her finger in front of her lips and said, "Shhhhhhh." and looked down at you and smiled. It was so vivid and real. Like she was there watching over you.--

Ted--I love the dollhouse reference

Blame it on the Beta Blockers?

Yes, this is a grocery list. No, not mine...I found it in my cloth, reusable grocery bag when I returned from the grocery store today. Weird, how would another person's list get in my bag? However that happened, it reminded me of a few recent memory lapses which Wade and I found humorous.
After my cardiac arrest, I seemed to forget a few things from my past-- places I visited, timelines, or things I said (I guess I left them on the other side). Luckily, Wade is around to remind me.
I heard and read about people experiencing memory loss after near death or death and recovery incidents. I was content with that explanation. Then, one night Dateline (or one of the many nightly news shows) did a report on Beta Blockers and their use to induce memory loss for crime victims. Eureka!!! I take a Beta Blocker to help control my arrhythmia. Long story short, we blame my poor memory on the Beta Blockers.
Here are the top 3, most recent memory blocks. Why only 3? I can't remember any more than that!
3. Seeing this list above reminded me of this one. A few weeks ago, I return from grocery shopping and I can't find my list that I just used to shop. Big deal? For me it was, because my list had copies of the recipes I was planning for the week. So once the list was lost, I forgot what recipes I was going to cook. I still haven't found it.

2. Last weekend, I was cooking Galette of Rhubarb, which called for baking soda. I thought I had baking soda on hand...who doesn't. I couldn't imagine doing Christmas baking without it BUT I couldn't find it in the kitchen...so I must be out. I went to the store and bought more, did my baking and didn't think twice about it...until...three days later, the Today Show had a segment on doing laundry...I remember! In December, I purchased a HUGE bag of baking soda at Costco and put it in the laundry room for washing.

1. The number one memory loss within the last month...this is a good one. This also gets the award for the quickest loss of memory loss. Leaving the grocery store, I unlock the car, get in, start the car, then my phone rings. I answer the phone, talk and hang up. I can't find my car keys. I know I had them because I unlocked the car. I check my pockets, purse, seats, cup holders, etc. Any guesses? I gave a hint in sentence three. They are in the ignition, to make it worse...the car is running!
When I told Wade that one, he had a look of, 'Should I commit her or not?'
Feel free to share your greatest memory moments...if you can remember.

Tribute to the blossoms!

As I have mentioned before, our yard is blessed with four apple trees and one cherry tree. From what the neighbors tell us, they produce great fruit. Actually, a few are a little disappointed we moved in...I've heard, last year, they helped themselves to the fruit, since the previous owner was not living here.
I can't wait to start canning and preserving, apple butter, apple jelly, dried apples, applesauce, apple topping, apple gumbo...just kidding.
The blossoms are just beautiful. They also have a lot of bees on them. If you stand under a tree it is a constant hum; the flowers are filled with honey and bumble bees. I took these at dusk, most the honey bees were gone, just a few bumbles left. I'm glad I took them when I did, the cherry tree has lost it's flowers and the apple trees are almost the same.
I'm really happy with the photos but I must give credit to my new camera. It offers an internal guide on special photo situations which I'm slowly figuring out.

Soon-to-be Locavore!

{locavore--

A locavore is someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles usually for ecological reasons.

Michelle being a locavore, decided to buy local produce as opposed to imported goods from supermarkets.}

I am trying. When we decided to move to Oregon, I made it my goal to provide healthy, pure foods for my family.
Pictures above include, homemade yogurt, with the help of a yogurt maker I purchased in AZ. No more aspartame or Splenda yogurt. I add fresh fruit or organic granola. The cookies are homemade oatmeal raisin, my grandmother's recipe (thank you Sheri for sending that to me). Last, is Galette of Rhubarb, which doesn't look very pretty but tasted great!
The rhubarb grows in our backyard. A nice surprise from the previous owner. We couldn't identify it at first but, after looking at many pictures, concluded it to be rhubarb. Just to be sure, Wade checked pictures of Hemlock too. Chandler (apple not falling far from the tree) asked before eating it, "Could it be Hemlock?" Now that we have survived for a couple of weeks after eating it, I have a handful of recipes calling for rhubarb.
Granola and granola bars are next on my list. Thank you Wendy for the recipe.

A surprise from Wal-Mart

My "to-post" list is long but I must slip this one in.
A little history: When we arrive in Oregon, Wade took my van for an oil change. He was informed that the oil drain plug was stripped the last time the oil was changed. The last oil change was at Wal-Mart in Arizona. Which, the oil leaked after and we returned to Wal-Mart, a couple of times, for them to fix the leak. They did and, we left for Oregon a few weeks later.
March, we take the van to a local Honda dealer for this repair among others. To fix this stripping, we need to have the whole oil pan and gasket replaced. Total cost for this repair...$305.92!
On April 7, I sent a letter to Wal-Mart requesting reimbursement for the repair. I explained the situation and attached the comments from the Honda repair technician. Honestly, I did not expect to receive reimbursement or even a response. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise...today I received a phone call from a Wal-Mart customer representative. He followed-up with the service center in Arizona to confirm we had service there (several times), understood our limits in reaching a service center in Oregon (no Wal-Mart within 30 miles) and confirmed our address. We should receive a full reimbursement within two weeks!
I must say, I am totally blown away, and impressed with the response. They have risen a few levels on my respect-o-meter.