Here's a rare occurance: our boss told us to close the office and go home at 2pm today! Since I've lived here, we've never had a snow day, only the occasional close early days. We got about 10 inches in 4 hours...that's a lotta snow!
It feels like Christmas out of a movie here. There is something about this time of year that draws reflection...reflecting on the past year, and looking forward to the New Year. Sadly, part of my job is notsofun – I see a lot of foreclosures come across my desk and I can't help but feel sadness for those families. A home lost, a dream spoiled. As I sit in my comfy, overstuffed chair, next to the Christmas tree, I can’t help but feel blessed. Sure, I have struggles and times when I can truly feel the weight of the world on my shoulders (good thing I have Curtis to rub out those knots), but I am one lucky girl. I have a roof over my head, a job to pay for that roof, a husband to share things with under that roof, friends to entertain under that roof, family to host under that roof, pets (who just want to love us and be ascloseaspossible) to keep warm under that roof, and memories to make under that roof.
My mind drifts to the Doxology:
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
3 Degrees
Yes, that was the temperature as I left this morning for work. My car didn’t even get warm enough on the way to work (and I was nice to her, let her warm up for 10 minutes before leaving). I drove to work on a sheet of ice…we were eating dinner at a local diner with some friends last night and the de-icer truck went by. Curtis joked that maybe they were spreading water to make it look like they’re doing something. J We didn’t’ get quite as much as the weather forecasters said we would (10-12 inches, we got maybe 3-4). I guess we were overdue for winter. I kept saying that all the nice weather was making me nervous for what it would be like when winter actually hit. Then, when I left work tonight, I'm pretty sure my car started spitting ice crystals at me out of the vents when I started her!
Yet again I’m behind on my blogging, so here is a bit of a catch up (sorry for the lack of pictures, the camera died a very sad death, involving stairs, and the new one hasn’t arrived yet…did you get that one, Santa?)
It seems like Curtis and I lead a pretty unadventurous life, we have friends we hang out with on the weekends, but we rarely go anywhere other than Bend. We’ve been having MarioKart tournaments (it’s a whole new experience on the Wii!) and Curtis is currently perfecting his pool game on WiiPlay.
We got some high elevation snow the first weekend of November, yes, higher than we are at 4200 feet, so Curtis and I, along with our friends, Scott and Star decided to take the quads up to the lakes and go for a ride. We went up past Little Cultis and rode the quads up to Irish and Taylor lakes. The boys got their fill of snow for a while and I, well, I got to bundle up in my snow gear.
Back in mid-November we said goodbye to a friend who was headed out to boot camp for the Marines. In proper form, we all played one last round of MarioKart and listened to Elvis and Ray Charles’ Christmas (2 favorites of the boys…yes, we listen to Christmas music over the summer).
Nov. 16 I drove over to Portland for a surprise party for Marisa. She was very surprised and it was so nice to see college friends again. After dinner, several of us went back to Hannah’s and played Rock Band. I am a TERRIBLE drummer! I could keep the rhythm, but couldn’t manage to hit the drums at the right time.
My friend Star and I have been reading the Twilight series (seriously, you need to read the series if you haven’t yet) and we went to see the movie on the weekend it opened. There were LOTS of girls there and a few board looking boyfriends/husbands who had obviously been forced there against their will. I’m guessing they would have rather been at the new Bond movie.
Thanksgiving: we hosted again this year, 14 people! My parents and brother came up for the long weekend (yea!). Also in attendance were Curt’s parents (Don & Martha), Curt’s cousins (Rick, Linda, and Ricky), our adopted “grandparents” Irv and Pat, and our friends, Scott and Star. The boys (Curtis and Scott) had decided they wanted to fry a turkey (yeah, I’m thinking it, too: BAD IDEA: boys, fire, hot oil…), but they did a really good job. We had plenty of turkey as I roasted another one in the oven “just in case.”
Friday we didn’t get up early, but we did go see the new Bond movie and wandered around Fred Meyer a bit. We had all been watching Food Network in the morning, as if we hadn’t eaten enough the day before, we had to watch people make more yummy food. Rachel Ray made Turkey Croquettes with Mushroom Rosemary Gravy, so mom and I thought we’d try our hand at them. We modified her recipe a bit….for the breading, we added chili flakes for some heat and we just used what leftovers we had in the fridge. They turned out pretty, pretty good!
Saturday mom and I picked up Curt’s mom and we hit some of the sales. I think we thoroughly wore Martha out. We made it home just in time for the Civil War to start.
Sunday my parents left pretty early…mom needed to finish her lesson plans and they needed to visit Grandma since she’s stayed home to visit with my aunt and uncle who came to visit from Virginia.
All in all, it was a great weekend, but I was exhausted! Monday rolled around and Alli emailed me to see if their visit Dec 5-7 was still on, yeah, sorry, Alli, I totally forgot you were coming! So, all week, Curtis was put to work helping me get the house ready for guests! We took them down to the big city of La Pine on Saturday night to watch the Trucker’s Light Parade. Basically, people decorate their trucks with Christmas lights and we have a parade. Lots of the local businesses get involved, so it’s lots of fun, even if it was about 30 degrees outside. There was much Wii playing and movie watching and good times. Well, except for the part when the dogs decided not to like each other. We love hanging out with them and the kids, they are so much fun.
All week last week we were gearing up for winter to hit. At about 1pm on Friday it hit. It’s a good thing and this year I found myself not really dreading the arrival of snow. I’m sure my tune will change when it’s May and I still can’t plant flowers, but hey, at least it’s pretty.
On Sunday, Curtis and I joined some friends on a Christmas Tree Hunting Expedition (we already purchased ours at a lot…it was for a good cause, La Pine HS Baseball). There was about 19-20 inches of fresh powder on the Cascade Lakes Hwy, but we all have trucks and just plowed our way thru the snow. Curtis and Scott brought their quads so they could take the kids on rides. We built a fire to defrost our toes and fingers after hunting for the tree, which was found, chainsawed down, and transported safely back to “camp.” Ike and his family brought a Coleman camp stove and heated up the homemade chili they’d made…YUMMM. So, after the kids were thoroughly and completely tuckered out, although I’m not sure who was more tired, the kids, or the dad who had to drag the kids around on the sled, we packed up and went home to warm up and relax and get ready for another work week.
Yet again I’m behind on my blogging, so here is a bit of a catch up (sorry for the lack of pictures, the camera died a very sad death, involving stairs, and the new one hasn’t arrived yet…did you get that one, Santa?)
It seems like Curtis and I lead a pretty unadventurous life, we have friends we hang out with on the weekends, but we rarely go anywhere other than Bend. We’ve been having MarioKart tournaments (it’s a whole new experience on the Wii!) and Curtis is currently perfecting his pool game on WiiPlay.
We got some high elevation snow the first weekend of November, yes, higher than we are at 4200 feet, so Curtis and I, along with our friends, Scott and Star decided to take the quads up to the lakes and go for a ride. We went up past Little Cultis and rode the quads up to Irish and Taylor lakes. The boys got their fill of snow for a while and I, well, I got to bundle up in my snow gear.
Back in mid-November we said goodbye to a friend who was headed out to boot camp for the Marines. In proper form, we all played one last round of MarioKart and listened to Elvis and Ray Charles’ Christmas (2 favorites of the boys…yes, we listen to Christmas music over the summer).
Nov. 16 I drove over to Portland for a surprise party for Marisa. She was very surprised and it was so nice to see college friends again. After dinner, several of us went back to Hannah’s and played Rock Band. I am a TERRIBLE drummer! I could keep the rhythm, but couldn’t manage to hit the drums at the right time.
My friend Star and I have been reading the Twilight series (seriously, you need to read the series if you haven’t yet) and we went to see the movie on the weekend it opened. There were LOTS of girls there and a few board looking boyfriends/husbands who had obviously been forced there against their will. I’m guessing they would have rather been at the new Bond movie.
Thanksgiving: we hosted again this year, 14 people! My parents and brother came up for the long weekend (yea!). Also in attendance were Curt’s parents (Don & Martha), Curt’s cousins (Rick, Linda, and Ricky), our adopted “grandparents” Irv and Pat, and our friends, Scott and Star. The boys (Curtis and Scott) had decided they wanted to fry a turkey (yeah, I’m thinking it, too: BAD IDEA: boys, fire, hot oil…), but they did a really good job. We had plenty of turkey as I roasted another one in the oven “just in case.”
Friday we didn’t get up early, but we did go see the new Bond movie and wandered around Fred Meyer a bit. We had all been watching Food Network in the morning, as if we hadn’t eaten enough the day before, we had to watch people make more yummy food. Rachel Ray made Turkey Croquettes with Mushroom Rosemary Gravy, so mom and I thought we’d try our hand at them. We modified her recipe a bit….for the breading, we added chili flakes for some heat and we just used what leftovers we had in the fridge. They turned out pretty, pretty good!
Saturday mom and I picked up Curt’s mom and we hit some of the sales. I think we thoroughly wore Martha out. We made it home just in time for the Civil War to start.
Sunday my parents left pretty early…mom needed to finish her lesson plans and they needed to visit Grandma since she’s stayed home to visit with my aunt and uncle who came to visit from Virginia.
All in all, it was a great weekend, but I was exhausted! Monday rolled around and Alli emailed me to see if their visit Dec 5-7 was still on, yeah, sorry, Alli, I totally forgot you were coming! So, all week, Curtis was put to work helping me get the house ready for guests! We took them down to the big city of La Pine on Saturday night to watch the Trucker’s Light Parade. Basically, people decorate their trucks with Christmas lights and we have a parade. Lots of the local businesses get involved, so it’s lots of fun, even if it was about 30 degrees outside. There was much Wii playing and movie watching and good times. Well, except for the part when the dogs decided not to like each other. We love hanging out with them and the kids, they are so much fun.
All week last week we were gearing up for winter to hit. At about 1pm on Friday it hit. It’s a good thing and this year I found myself not really dreading the arrival of snow. I’m sure my tune will change when it’s May and I still can’t plant flowers, but hey, at least it’s pretty.
On Sunday, Curtis and I joined some friends on a Christmas Tree Hunting Expedition (we already purchased ours at a lot…it was for a good cause, La Pine HS Baseball). There was about 19-20 inches of fresh powder on the Cascade Lakes Hwy, but we all have trucks and just plowed our way thru the snow. Curtis and Scott brought their quads so they could take the kids on rides. We built a fire to defrost our toes and fingers after hunting for the tree, which was found, chainsawed down, and transported safely back to “camp.” Ike and his family brought a Coleman camp stove and heated up the homemade chili they’d made…YUMMM. So, after the kids were thoroughly and completely tuckered out, although I’m not sure who was more tired, the kids, or the dad who had to drag the kids around on the sled, we packed up and went home to warm up and relax and get ready for another work week.
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