Little Prairie Girl

Halloween! Our 'Little House' had it's own 'prairie girl' this year.
The girl was "Mary" (because she's blonde & wears glasses) not Laura. Grandma made her a bonnet & we had the dress. She's watched the original series, we love that show! And when we had to come up with a character from a book for our school's 'Fall Festival of Fictitious Finery', Little House on the Prairie was our pick. (Last year she was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.) Any ideas for next year?

Disneyland!

M-I-C....
K - E - Y...
M-O-U-S-E




I went on a Girls trip to Disneyland! No kids, no men, we went to the "Happiest Place on Earth", and had a screamin' good time. Lost our voices riding "California Screamin'" and "Tower of Terror". But I still think my favorite in California Adventure is "Soarin' over California".

Disneyland was so fun & decorated for Halloween. I've never been there during a 'holiday' time. Pumpkins everywhere. "Haunted Mansion" decorated with "Nightmare before Christmas". Saw more villains then before.

It was a great trip. Next time I'll have to take my girl & hubby! Maybe - if they're good!

Beach Trip in September

The Husband and I got a way for a quick weekend to Lincoln City.
It was nice, we stayed at The Inn at Spanish Head (where we honeymooned 18 years ago).

We walked on the beach, I collected shells & rocks, we took a lot of pictures, ate a yummy breakfast at the 'Beach Dog Cafe', went to a Pirate bakery, and stopped at an antique mall to explore. On the way home we even went to some wineries.

All those fun grown up things that you don't get to do with a child along. It was nice to go and nice to come back! We are thankful to good friends who kept the girl on a sleepover so we could have this time away. 18 years... where has the time gone?

Next time I'll put up pictures from our beach trip, but I wanted to do something!!


35 Odd Things About Me

1. Do you like blue cheese salad dressing? Yes

2. Do you own a gun? No

3. What's your favorite drink at Starbucks? Nonfat caramel macchiato

4. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? coffee or diet pepsi

5. Do you do pushups? No, yuck!

6. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My 'family' necklace, it's silver and looks like an abstract outline of our family, mom, dad, child.

7. Favorite hobby? I always say scrapbooking, but so seldom get to do it, but I'm going to this weekend!

8. Do you have A.D.D? Sometimes!

9. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? Procrastination....

10. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: Can't 'the girl' just pick up her room with arguing?, my coffee is cold I need to go get some more, how much time do I have left to play on the computer before I need to get ready...

11. Name 4 drinks you regularly drink. diet pepsi, coffee, water, crystal light

12. Current worry right now?
The girl has been in a 'story telling'/ 'lying' phase, and how
do we get her to realize pretend from real and not keep stretching the truth.

13. Current hate right now? Not enough time (so why I am I doing this?)

14. Favorite place to be? Home doing nothing, relaxing with family.

15. Do you like to travel? Yes

16. What color shirt are you wearing? green tinkerbell pajamas

17. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Never tried it, sounds
cold & slippery.

18. Can you whistle? Yes

19. Favorite color? Purple

20. If you could would you be a pirate? for Halloween, maybe, for real, no.

21. What song do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower, I'm usually
in and out in under 5 minutes, can't even begin to think of singing

22. Favorite girl's name? Victoria, Olivia, Isabella, I like all those.

23. Favorite boy's name? Daniel was the only we liked when I was pregnant, but no boy.

24. What's in your pocket right now? No pockets.

25. Favorite bedsheets as a child? I can't remember, but I
did have a favorite pillow case, with yellow & red flowers & it was really soft.

26. Worst injury? Back injury, just a fluke pulled something wrong & could hardly sit down or get back up for a few weeks.

27. Do you love where you live? I like where I live, as in geographically. Decent weather, noticeable seasons, and I like our little house a lot, although sometimes wish it was bigger.

28. How many TVs do you have in your house? One

29. Who is your loudest friend? I always thing CJ for loud, but it's a good thing!

30. How many pets do you have? 1 cat, Sophia.

31. Does someone have a crush on you? My husband.

32. What is your Favorite Book? Anne of Green Gables series.

33. What's your favorite candy? Chocolate caramels out of a box of chocolate, not in a bar.

34. Favorite Sports Team? I'm not a big sports fan. I'll go with
OSU, Oregon State University.

35. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Yipee, late start day at school, I slept in an hour!!

Sad...

Last week was a sad week. Our dog Stella (also pictured in first day of school pictures with 'the girl') became unexpectedly ill, one day she was fine, the next day she didn't have any energy, didn't want to go for a car ride, we thought maybe she had a tummy ache. Later that day she was worse and we took her to the vet. She had low blood count/anemic, had got something, couldn't shake it and died 2 days after taking sick. We were heartbroken. She was such a great dog, so patient with "the girl" and any other children.






My husband was devastated as she was more his dog, although she was the family dog.


We miss her. The door bell rings and no there is no barks, it doesn't seem real. We were scraping plates into the garbage and something fell on the floor - normally Stella would be there to 'clean up' before we got a chance to pick it up - it sat there - we both looked at it for a minute and realized there was no dog to come lick it up.... There is no clickety click of her nails down the hardwood floor. No heavy sigh & breathing & fwhump as she lays down near our bed at night. We had to rearrange the living room, removing her bed, because it was just too empty in there.... but we're getting on with our lives. We'll be dog-less for a while, someday we'll probably get another one, but for now, we are adjusting to life without Stella.

Frog!!

Okay, I don’t mind frogs, I actually think the little ones are kind of cute - I like hearing their little croaks & chirps and they are cute when they live outside. We had one a few years ago that lived in our hose reel box - for months - it was dark & shady & moist & we could visit him & then forget about him. But when they are in my bedroom - I don't think they're so cute! 3 times in the past 3 days I have had this frog (I think it's the same one) sneak into my bedroom via the air conditioner. There's a little gap around it and this little tree frog sneaks in and sits on my windowsill. The first time I wasn't sure what I was looking at til I got closer - then I yelped - and then my mother in law & the girl helped me relocate it outside via a little box over the top & a piece of cardboard underneath. We put him outside in the garden by the soaker hose & watched him - Then he jumped - both the girl & I screamed and ran back in the house. That was Thursday after work.

Friday night I'm getting ready for bed and there he was again!! On the window sill. We tried to catch him, but he crawled under the air conditioner. I'm freaking out so hubby blocked it so it stayed underneath the airconditioner - towards the outside - with a hanger, so that froggy couldn't jump into our room & this morning he was gone. I've suddenly developed a very squeamish attitude towards frogs!! I'm scared it's going to jump on me when I'm sleeping!!!

Then AGAIN Saturday afternoon, he's BACK!! Once again I scream and this time he is again caught & relocated, this time to the front yard - in hopes that this location will take him longer to find the backyard & my windowsill again!!! We haven't even had the AC on, but tonite - need it or not - it's on - in hopes that the noise will scare the frogs away. I hope it works!! I'm about ready to take down the air conditioner and we probably can use it up for the rest of the month!

(the frog in the photo is not our actual frog... I did snap a picture of him by the hose, but it wasn't very clear....)