We're back in the land o' snow. First, I should go back to where I left off: Tuesday, one week before Christmas:
The snow that had been falling since Sunday melted. When I left for work Wednesday morning, it started snowing again....it snowed ALL DAY LONG - in fact, it snowed for about 24 hours straight. When I got home from work, I decided that I should probably do some snow removing so I could actually get out of the house. So, I shoveled the walk way and contemplated getting on our quad and trying to plow the driveway (Curtis was not due to be home until Thursday night and I was afraid I'd be snowed in or out of the house by then). So, I found the key and started her up. I've watched Curtis do this before so I figured I could do it. Bless our dear neighbor, Jason, who clued me in to the fact that I kept getting stuck because I wasn't in All-Wheel Drive, just 2 wheel drive. They also have a quad with a blade on front, so we gave it our best attempt at plowing (needless to say, Jason is much better than I am). His wife, Heidie, asked if I would be fighting Curtis for who gets to do the plowing from now on. Yeah, right, like I'm going to fight him to do that. I did have fun, but I was cold and wet by the time we finished.

We left for my parents' home on Saturday morning, got to town about noon, fueled up and mom and I went shopping. We did so much baking and shopping! It was great! The 5 days went by way to fast, but it is always wonderful to be home for Christmas. We woke up on the 26th to snow! Now, snow doesn't happen very often on "the other side" of the mountains, and even less in southern Oregon, and even less at Christmas (if it showes up at all, it's usually in Jan or Feb). So, we met up with Curt's parents for breakfast and headed out of town by about 10am. By that time, the snow was melting. It seems like it's been snowing ever since we got home - little bits here and there, but enough to keep Curtis busy on the quad! We probably have a foot and a half. Speaking of snow - it's snowing right now!

We got to spend lots of time with family - my brother and his girlfriend - Karleigh; cousins - David and Craig; Aunt Janet and (briefly cuz he's sick), Uncle Randy. My grandma also joined us (she's the only grandparent Curtis and I have between the two of us). For the third year in a row, we fondued on Christmas Eve, after church. It's a lot of work, but lots of fun.

I took the rest of the week off and have been trying to get things cleaned up and put away. I couldn't stand to put all of the Christmas stuff away, so a few things are still out - snowmen stuff mostly, but I figure they'll fit in for a few more months. The cats are very glad we're home and the dogs are happy to be back to a place where they can frolick in the snow. Seriously, they love it.

Snow

It's finally arrived. Sure, we've had a few days of snow here and there (like when that huge storm pummled the coast a couple weeks ago). But it's been snowing since Sunday night. We had about 4 inches until today when it suddenly got warm (and by warm I mean 37) and melted. I let the dogs out last night (cuz they go crazy when it snows):


I haven't been much in the Christmas spirit this year, but we do have lights on the house, a tree up, and my snowmen decor out (thanks to my wonderful hubby who'll do anything to cheer me up).



Speaking of the hubby, he's gone this week - in Grants Pass for work. He'll get back on Thursday and then we'll turn around and go back to Grants Pass on Saturday for Christmas.

Curtis and I did all our Christmas shopping in 6 hours on Saturday. Let me just say, there was extensive planning and a very detailed list. I had to be reminded several times to "stick to the list." It helps that we don't have lots of people to shop for.

Well, Christmas looks like it threw up in my living room, so I'm going to sign off and attempt to finish wrapping presents. Maybe putting in my favorite Christmas movie (Love Actually) will help inspire me to finish up.

Merry Christmas!

I am a Sunflower What Flower Are You?

Happy December!

So, what's been going on for the last 6 weeks you ask?

We went to the beach (decided at the last minute not to take the doggies - maybe next time)




watched the Ducks beat ASU
Mom and my brother, Jeff:

my mom's brother, Bruce (joined us from Salem) and my dad

Curtis and me:


Hosted Thanksgiving at our home for 12 people (we used our china for the first time since it's spent much of the last 3 years in boxes). It was so nice to have a house full of family and friends.


Made fudge with my grandma while she was here with my parents for Thanksgiving. This was a special time for us since we always make a batch of fudge together at Christmas.



Now, the Christmas lights are up. We have a tree with lights on it and maybe one of these days we'll get motivated to put ornaments on it.

Here are some other random pictures:
What our yard looked like 2 days ago:


What it looks like now because the snow level went up to 8,000 feet:


Chester aka Mr. Hopeful:


Curtis playing with Jesse, who has his KONG toy in his mouth - he LOVES it:

Who Knew You'd Need WMD's to Carve a Pumpkin!

On Sunday afternoon Curtis and I set off with some friends to the Central Oregon Pumpkin Co. for an afternoon of fun! There is a corn maize, lots of yummy, sugary (ie off limits for Shara, but I did manage to find a fresh squeezed lemonade stand that made my lemonade with Splenda) treats, hay rides, pony rides, a pumpkin shooter, and, of course, the pumpkin patch. Here is Curtis and me after going through the pirate themed corn maize.


We got back pretty late, after what was supposed to be a quick stop at the new Super Walmart in Redmond, but ended up taking almost 2 hours! So, tonight we decided to carve our pumpkin.


Mr. Pumpkin has pretty thick skin, so Curtis gave up using a knife and pumpkin carver and broke out the recriprocating saw (I love my hubby - there is a power tool for everything in life and YES, I knew the name of the saw and didn't have to ask).


There was one casuality:


Pumpkin with the WMDs:


We're not very good carvers, but hey, you try carving through 6 inches of pumpkin! Here he is, all lit up with a Pumpkin Spice candle:

Storm's a Comin'

It seems like it was just yesterday that it was a lovely 70+ degrees outside and then, *POOF* in rolled the cold. Wait, it might have been last week that it was nearly 70 at the beginning of the week and then it snowed on Thursday (don't worry - God and I have a deal, the snow won't stick until Thanksgiving). The snow had melted by lunch, but it was still pretty. I'm posting this fact that the snow was pretty to me so in January, when I'm complaining and sick of the snow, I can look back and remember I liked the snow (at one point).

We had some fun tonight - a storm is rolling in and one of our trees decided to fall over. And land on our neighbor's garage. He wasn't mad (he just rents) and no damage was done because another tree softened our tree's fall. Ah, the joys of being a homeowner. Curtis has vowed to take out all the "stupid pine trees," which is what I've been saying since we bought our lot. But, I won't say "I told you so" because that's not nice. It is pretty tempting, though.

We've actually had a few storms roll through over the past week or so. Somehow, the storm clouds are comforting - I love the rain. Now, I don't love months and months of clouds with no break in sight and dreary winters. That's one thing I like about living over here - the sun comes out in the winter! Now, it is seriously cold, but hey, it's nice to see the sun come out in the winter.

Enough about the weather, from the way this blog is going, you'd think we live a pretty boring life. Well, we do have a pretty boring life, but sometimes that's a good thing.

The last weekend in September, my friend of 21 years, Brianne, her hubby, Tony and their 2 beautiful little girls, Camille (22 months) and Madilyn (6 weeks) came for a visit! We couldn't do much outside stuff because of all the rain, but we had lots of time to visit and play games. We did manage to drag the boys around Bend for a little shopping (the Carter's at the Bend Factory Stores was having a nifty sale - couldn't resist buying a couple things for the girls). Bre and I stayed up way too late on Sunday night just catching up on stuff (I think my head hit the pillow just before 1am). It was so nice to have them visit! I can't wait until the next time they come!

Last Friday I got to attend a 30th birthday party for my friend Hannah in Redmond. Her wonderful hubby, Ben, prepared a delightful selection of appetizers and played bartender. I know he was hoping we would do "girl talk," but how can that happen when there is a MAN in the room? We had a great time chatting and I met a few new people. I met Hannah through my friend Aj in college, so we got to tell funny Fox stories. I don't think everyone got them, but they were sure funny to Hannah and me!

While I'm thinking about it: most of the people who read my blog already know this, but I just wanted to put this out there. Please keep my friend Amy and her family in your prayers. Last Monday, October 1, Amy's dad died of a heart attack. My heart grieves for them and I think of them and pray for them often. I just can't seem to think of words that would accurately describe my feelings right now, so all I know to do is pray.

Well, the puppies won't leave me alone, so I guess it's time to take them outside for a potty break and then it's off to bed! And now the cat, Maverick, is trying to tell me it's time for bed.

TTFN

Status Update

Is it really already the end of September? It is just me, or does time seem to slip by faster the older I get? It seems like we haven't been up to much, but yet there is always something going on.
On the 8th I did a quick one day trip to Beaverton for a shower for Grace and Hannah. It was so much fun to get to visit will college roommates and see other Fox-ians (some I'm sure I haven't seen since I graduated!).
My dear friend, Allison, made a quick one day trip over here on the 15th, so we had lunch and I showed her our home and we visited for a while before she had to return to her family.
Last weekend was the first weekend since July that we either weren't out of town, or didn't have guests in town. It was so nice just to have a weekend around home. I did a little shopping and (at one store) actually saved more money than I spent! That's so gratifying...I love a good sale. Plus, I'm now wearing 2, almost 3 sizes smaller than I was in April. Since I was diagnosed with PCOS, I'm supposed to be very careful about what I'm eating...my body doesn't process sugar correctly. No (real) sugar for Shara...just lots of fresh veggies, lean protein, some fruits, and whole grains (mostly organic), ooh and vitamins.
This week I've been trying some new recipies: Parmsean Tilapia (so yummy), Pork Loin w/ Orange Sauce, Cheese crusted chicken. I'm not much of a seafood fan, but I'm going to try a Chipolte Shrimp recipe since Curtis loves seafood and I like spicy food.
This weekend, my friend since 2nd grade (yes, we've been friends for 21 years, in fact, we met and became friends amost exactly 21 years ago - I think it was some time in October), her husband and their 2 daughters are coming for a visit! I'm so excited for them to get here! We don't get to see each other often enough, but when we're together, it's like we've never been apart. I've found I have a few friends like this, and they are such a blessing in my life. Sometimes life happens and we don't speak for a month or so, but when we do get to talk, it's so great that we just pick up where we left off. I probably don't tell them often enough that their friendships mean so much to me, so thank you, Aj, Alli, and Bre for putting up with me for this long. I love you all dearly and I hope that I can be as much of a blessing to you all as you have been to me.
One last note, I'm pretty sure my doggies are certifiable. They bark at nothing, fight over chew bones (they can only chew on one at a time, even though I give them each their own bone, they fight over one), think the living room is thier personal wrestling ring, lick their food, and make strange noises like Chewie from Star Wars.

These are the Cliff Notes of my life...

Visited family in Southern Oregon over Labor Day weekend: visited with cousins, played with babies, confiscated keys from intoxicated cousin, was told by neighbor's mother at parent's church that we have the best lawn on the block, bbq, grower's market, picked blackberries in creek for fresh blackberry cobbler.

Back to work! Short week, yeah! Too much to do in short week, boo! Tried to recover from long weekend and do laundry and clean house.

Got up early Saturday morning, headed to Portland for celebration of birth. Visited Washington Square Mall, it's been far too long since visiting a "real" mall (note to self, visit real malls more often). Visited with college friends, ate Thanksgiving dinner, but food was "finger" food, catered by one of the hostess' hubby. Yum-o! Drove home.

Cleaned house on Sunday. Haven't been home or without guests on weekends since JULY.

Back to work, sigh. No more long weekends until Thanksgiving!

Nighty night!

Tag!

I've been tagged and here are the rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight (8) random facts/stories about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight (8) things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight (8) people to tag and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and to read your blog.

On to the good stuff:

1. My least favorite Sesame Street character is Grover.
2. As a child, I used to eat my McDonald's French Fries in a precarious way. I would eat all of the fry except the very end. That is the tail, and you don't eat the tail! Sadly, I never grew out of strange eating habits. My roommates in college alwasy knew I was done eating when I would start playin with my leftover food.
3. I love lists. I make them often and for just about everything. Grocery lists, chore lists, honey-do lists, pro/con lists, things to do on vacation lists, itemized lists of my nail polish...
4. I was diagnosed with Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) in April. I debated for a while if I should even put this "announcement" on this list because it isn't very funny and I was trying to keep the list light and fun, but it does qualify as a fact about me, so....if you're curious, here is a link.
5. A short list of things I LOVE: the smell of freshly cut grass (love it when Curt mows the lawn), the sound of thunder storms (we had some really loud ones right before Labor Day), cleaning (I took a couple days off for my birthday and spent the entireday of my birth cleaning our house. Ironically, my mom could never get me to clean when I was a kid.).
6. My clothes have a particular place in the closet (no, it's not on the floor).
7. When I go to bed at night (as opposed to going to bed during the day), I find it hard to fall asleep unless one foot is sticking out of the covers. That's a nice change from how I used to sleep as a baby, with my patootie up in the air!
8. As I was driving home from a baby shower on Saturday, for the first time since Curtis and I moved to Central Oregon 2+ years ago, I found myself feeling like I was headed "home."

I tag:
1. Hannah B.
2. Hannah H.
3. Mandy
4. Faithy
5. Shannon
6. Amy
7. Marisa (now you have to post!)
8. Alli (um, hi, your last entry was in JANUARY)

Hello, Friend!

The sun has come back out to play! YEAH! I was getting worried that it had made it's exit for the summer. It's always around in the winter, but it's not so warm, just bright and shiny.

Curtis and I had a great time this weekend at Belknap Springs Resort. We both took off work on Friday so we could take out time getting over there. It's only about 100 miles from our house to the resort, so it was a quick drive. We were going to take highway 242 out of Sisters (the "scenic route") but we saw a sign that said that the highway was closed 20 miles ahead. But, before we turned around, we stopped by the nature preserve because there was a HUGE herd of cow Elk! One had even wandered over to the sprinklers to get herself a drinky!
So, instead of driving the 20 miles to see if it really was closed, we decided to take highway 20 over the Santiam Pass to highway 126.

Once we arrived and got checked in in, we decided to wander through the beautiful gardens.

There are so many flowers all over the place and I'm sure Curtis was delighted that I kept naming all the ones I knew (which was quite a few, thanks to my mom, the gardner).


Here are some shots from the Secret Garden:




Here is Curtis in the "Heart Garden" being goofy:



Saturday we decided to go for a hike, so we drove to the nearby Ranger Station to get a recommendation from the experts. The very cute ranger man suggested we hike up to "Blue Pool." He explained that about 6 miles above the Blue Pool, the McKenzie river was diverted into the Smith Reservior for the Eugene Power and Water Board (something to do with electricity). Then, it gets dumped back into the Trail Bridge Reservior. However, downstream from the Smith Res., the McKenzie river suddenly bubbles back up out of the earth about 2.5 miles above Trail Bridge Res. Cute Ranger Man (CRM) said it is the most clear-blue water you'll ever see. So, armed with a map and some water, we drove up to the trail head and started out. It was fun for a while, until we stared meeting mountain bikers coming down the trail. I serously don't know how they were biking on that trail, it was very rocky. After about 2 miles, we come upon the pool. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.




I think there might be forest fairies that color the pond blue every morning :) It sure was worth the 4 mile round trip hike. We live in such a beautiful world. Sometimes I can't believe how creative the Lord is. People diverted His river, so He created something amazing!

Once back at the resort, we hopped into the hot spring pool. There are two pools at the resort and both are heated by the hot springs. Kind of like a gigantic hot tub, except with lots of little kids yelling about how hot the pool is. After dinner, we just laid around the pool some more. There aren't TVs or phones in the rooms (which was actually very nice), so we spent more time talking and laughing. Here is the view from our room: it looks out over one of the pools and over the McKenzie River



Curtis and I figured we haven't been this relaxed since going to Hawaii 3 years ago and, we are definatly going back! There is so much to do and see and explore!

Now, it's back to reality. I think the laundry is calling my name :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

It seems like the summer has just flown by, but that could be because our Spring/Summer starts about 6 weeks after all the nice weather starts on the other side of the mountains and ends sooner, too. This morning when I left for work, the fog and crispness in the air reminded me of OCTOBER in the valley. Sigh.

Anyway, 2 weekends ago my mom and I had a girls trip to Tacoma for my cousin's daughter's first birthday. We had lots of fun visiting and watching Luci smear cake all over her face! On the way home, we stopped at the new IKEA in Portland. Boy was that a mistake, I think all of the Portland/Vacouver area were trying to get in the store. They even had people directing parking like at the county fair!

Last weekend my parents brought my grandma up for a visit. This is the first time she's been to our new house. We had lots of fun visiting with her and showing her central Oregon. We got to do lots of things we don't normally do because we live here. We took her to the top of Pilot Butte where you can see all of Bend and get a great view of the mountains. We also took her to the top of Paulina Peak on Sunday, but it was too couldy to see anything.


This weekend we're off to Belknap Hot Springs to celebrate our 3rd anniversary (it was 8/21.

Oregon Jamboree

We spent this weekend at the Oregon Jamboree in Sweet Home, OR, and although I'm not a huge country music fan, (well, let's face it, I probably know 5 country music songs and that's because I know who Carrie Underwood is...) I had a good time, but don't tell my mother in law ;)
I'm tired, sunburned, and I ate way too much food I shouldn't have, but enjoyed myself.


We haven't been up to much over the last 2 months, but boy has time flown by. We've been doing lots of yard work and enjoying the wonderful summer weather with friends and family:

My cousin Kurt's son Randall Paul (RP) and my other cousin David's daughter, Grace playing in my mom's pond.

Maverick and Patch peeking out from their very tall kitty tree where they like to sleep.

My mom and dad over Father's Day weekend and their 35th wedding anniversary! They celebrated by taking a trip to New York! My dad fulfilled a life long dream and got to see a Yankee game in Yankee Stadium!

The new flagstone thingie Curtis built for me off of our back deck.

Flower!


More flowers!



Jesse napping at my feet as I blog.

Chester trying to get in my lap as I blog.

Seattle, Portland and Grants Pass

We had a very nice Mother's Day weekend in Seattle, lots of yummy food, good company, shopping, and baseball! It is a VERY LONG car ride from LaPine, but we made the best of it. 5 of us in dad's 4-Runner. Jeff, Mom, and me in the back seat. It's a good thing we all like each other....and that we all showered!


I had a meeting in Portland the following Thursday for work and decided to stay an extra day and hang out with a couple of my roommates from Junior year of college. We had some much needed girl time. I have new appreciation for stay at home moms - they wore me out, and I was only there for 24 hours!




We went to my parent's house over Memorial Day weekend. Some of my cousins were there - I got to play with baby Luci, my cousin Jon and his wife, Erin's 9 month old. We watched the parade on Saturday, bar-b-qued on Sunday after church, saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and watched the jet boat races on Monday. We took Jesse and Chester with us, and discovered 2 things - they do NOT like long car rides and loud boats.


This last week our well started making some cha-chug, cha-chug noises....and over the weekend we started losing a lot of water pressure! We used as little water as possible and did laundry at Curt's parents' house yesterday afternoon. Today, the well fix-it man came and fixed it. Thankfully, it wasn't anything major and I can now wash my dishes. Ah, the joys of home ownership.

Let's see, what have we been up to lately?

• We stained and sealed our deck - it was finally warm enough (above 70!). Then, 5 days later, it snowed (May 3 & 4).
  
  
  
  
  
  









• Jeff, my brother, came for a visit last weekend! He enjoyed a day at the mountain and then a Cinco de Mayo dinner/bonfire we had with the neighbors. No, there wasn't any burning of inappropriate items.


• We finally got an outdoor doggie kennel for Jesse and Chester - they are much happier to be outside during the day.
  
• Our cat, Maverick ran away for about 4 hours the other night. He finally came home about 1am and scratched at the back door and meowed until I woke up and let him in. Here he is keeping the puppies in line :)

• I've been trying a bunch of new receipies from this great blog my friend told me about: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/
  


• We had dinner with some friends and then took a nice stroll along the river in Drake Park.
  


• We're going to Seattle this weekend for Mother's Day and Jeff's birthday. We'll be enjoying shopping, brunch, and a Yankee/Mariner game!
  


• Curtis planted some grass and it's finally starting to grow! I love spring!