Countdown to School

Wow, what a hectic week. I go in early, I stay late, and still the piles on my desk grow. But it is great fun having the staff back at school and meeting new and returning students and parents as they continue to stream in and register. People have been surprisingly nice even when faced with mess ups (not mine, of course!). My respect and admiration for my new principal and assistant principal grow every day.

Nick is counting down the days til he is done working. School is sounding pretty wonderful to him in comparison to 12 hours a day in a dusty seed warehouse! Friday is his last day. We still haven't found him any new school shoes yet. In Albany, if wear a size 13 you often have to search quite a few stores to find the shoe you want. And who has time to shop out of town right now?

I am looking forward to relinquishing the lawn mowing back to him. I hadn't touched a lawn mower for probably 20 years, but I was just too kind to make my hard-working son do it when I was off work in July, and of course it's hard on my tall husband's back. I couldn't believe what a workout it was to push that mower around the yard! I congratulated myself that I was getting great exercise. But I was totally exhausted before I was half done. Fortunately, Will came home, walked out and pushed that nice lever down that powered the front wheels. It was amazing how much easier it got! And I was ready for it! It's amazing how stupid a grown woman can be sometimes!

Only two more days to get ready for school to start. My goal is to be there at 6 AM tomorrow and leave before 6 PM. Will has already headed up to the Posse Camp where Nick and I hope to join him Friday.

A Relaxing Weekend at my Favorite River

Friday after work, I hopped in my car and drove up to the mountains to join my husband at Smiling River Campground on the Metolius River. He had a delicious dinner waiting for me in the Dutch Oven (chili and cornbread). Saturday morning I talked him into driving over to Suttle Lake to hike around it. When we arrived there, it was quite cloudy and a chilly breeze had sprung up. I thought it the weather was too unpleasant to hike for long, but we might as well do a short one since we were there. I had failed to bring a jacket, since it was sunny and warm at camp. Will came to the rescue with a shirt he had in the pickup. It was a bit large for me, but fortunately, the wind died down and the sun started to peek from behind the clouds as we walked along. I was able to shed the oversized shirt before we reached a boat dock where people might stare at me. Here is Black Butte across the lake before the sun came out.

I caught Will spying on me with his newest toy, a monocle he got at Lowe's in Bend. Or maybe he was looking for wildlife. He let me look through it too. Very good spy tool.
It warmed up nicely when the sun came out, and we walked all the way around the lake. I think it's about 3 1/2 miles. Lovely easy walk.

Will hiked with me, so I got to take a drive through washboardy mountain roads with him. We went up to the Jack Lake trailhead and had some pretty views of Mt. Washington, some Sisters, and Three Finger Jack, but I couldn't get all of them on one picture.

Back at camp that afternoon, we saw that Will's friend, the resident deputy at Camp Sherman, had stopped by and left a "Junior Deputy" sticker on Will's chair. Deputy Dave soon came back. As he got out of his patrol car at our campsite he called out, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The neighbors at the next campsite snapped to attention and listened with interest as Deputy Dave continued, "Every time you are up here, someone gets dumped out of a kayak and we spend all day looking for the kayak." During our last visit, our next door neighbor lost her boyfriend's kayak and the stresses of their day culminated in a fight that night as we were at our campfire. We could hear the boyfriend saying, "Stop hitting me" and "Don't throw my bike in the river!" She came over to our campsite crying and saying he had bit her hands and wouldn't give her car keys to her so she could leave. We tried to call Deputy Dave but he was soundly sleeping through his phone ringing. Some other police came but the boyfriend left before they got there. This weekend it was a 12 year old girl who got dumped. She was rescued and so was her kayak eventually.

It was a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend. I was a guest on Will's camping trip, and he cooked wonderful meals and cleaned up. For some reason he took to calling me "Princess" before the weekend was over. Perhaps I adapted a little too quickly to being served! I could get used to a lifestyle like that! I told him this it what I envision it will be like when he retires. It sounds like I will have a few years to help him get used to that idea!

Hopefully this relaxing weekend will help me get through the stresses of this next week - school registration with a new principal, new assistant principal and new counselor. Oh joy!

Favorite Summer Food

I love veggies. My new raised beds are abundant with zucchini and yellow squash, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers. I'm still waiting on my peppers. My favorite ways to use these veggies are as follows. I can eat this for lunch and dinner and be so happy!

I chop red, yellow and orange peppers, zucchini and yellow squash, broccoli and red onions (and whatever else I might have). Pour a small dollop of olive oil and some minced garlic in a nonstick skillet. When the oil is hot, throw in the veggies. Stir fry or put a lid on it and steam them. When they are cooked, stir in some spaghetti or marinara sauce. Put in a plate and sprinkle with feta cheese. If I feel a need for meat, some sliced chicken breast is a delicious addition. The flavorful blend of taste and texture, plus the knowledge that this tasty treasure is so good for you makes every bite sheer joy!
I chop some extra veggies and put them in a container or ziploc bag for dinner. At dinnertime, I get out my box of mixed baby greens from Fred Meyer (they last longer than Costcos). I add cucumbers, the rest of the chopped veggies and cherry tomatoes. Then I sprinkle with my very favorite toppings, Craisens and feta cheese. The last thing is whatever dressing sounds good - my favorite right now is light raspberry vinaigrette. This can also be topped with chicken. Then with some freshly picked blueberries and strawberries from my backyard and a glass of my homemade raspberry iced tea, the delightful dinner is complete!
This could also be known as my "Will is gone camping, Nick and Eric are working, and I don't have to make dinner so I can eat whatever I want diet". It would be an excellent weight loss plan, if only corn on the cob weren't also in season and we didn't have leftover zucchini coconut cake with cream cheese icing and oreo cookie ice cream dessert also laying around the house!

Happy Birthday Eric!

Nineteen years ago today, on 8-8-88, our second son Eric was born at 12:04 p.m., about two hours after we arrived at Albany General Hospital. Craig was very excited to be a big brother!















Weighing in at 9 pounds, 13 ounces, Eric was then and remains today the biggest boy in the family!

Eric began a full-time job at the new Lowe's Distribution Center in Lebanon last Monday. He spent last week in Orientation and this week began working graveyard, which is four ten-hour days, Monday-Thursday, 6:30 PM-4:30 AM. It sounds like a good company to work for with many opportunities.

So Eric now works only one job, and like most adults, has to work on his birthday. His father and I took him and Molly out to a late lunch today at Los Dos Amigos and he's going to have friends over for pizza and Guitar Hero on Friday evening.

He had an unexpected gift come his way last week. He brought home a guitar case, opened it up, and brought out a 12-string guitar, which he proceeded to make beautiful music on. He said Molly's brother-in-law Matt invited him to come over and look over some guitars that he was ready to get rid of. Eric was drawn to the 12-string and asked how much he wanted for it. Matt told him a story about someone giving it to him years ago, and said since it was given to him, he couldn't sell it. So he gave it to Eric. Eric said he will continue to tradition and give it away to someone years from now!

Happy Birthday, Eric. You are a genuinely nice person and we really like you a lot!

A Day in the Mountains

Nick took off for a week of church camp this morning, so it seemed good to us to have a day of exploring in the mountains. It was also a good reason to go to the new Saturday evening service at our church last night, which was a wonderful service and doubly good because we got to sit with Eric, since that's the service he prefers.

It's all good. We packed a picnic lunch this morning, thinking we would eat it at Clear Lake. As we passed through Sweet Home, we stopped for mochas. Sadly, they were lukewarm, so we returned to the Java Hut. The gal there apologetically microwaved them and returned them. They were warm, a slight improvement. We gave them back. It seemed to take forever, but eventually we received our very hot microwaved mochas and took off. This is not a good way to get return customers. As Will said, (perhaps more than once) "If I wanted microwaved coffee, I could get it at home." Fortunately, our day could only improve after that.

As we were travelling down the highway, Will said something about Iron Mountain and I said I'd like to hike it again one day. Next thing I know, we're headed down the gravel road to the trailhead. You can see our destination at the top left of the picture below.

There are many lovely stone benches where a tired old gal can rest on the way up. Or down.
Once again, I was overjoyed to hike through profuse wildflowers, as well as view amazing vistas.
It is well worth the arduous trek up the multiple switchbacks. The views are great all the way up. Here's part of the view from the top.


Hiway 20 far below. Many people drive it and look up at Iron Mountain Lookout but have never had the privilege to look down from there.


If you look really close, you can see a beautiful Chevy Duramax truck down at the trailhead.
I tended to slip on the loose rock on the trail coming down, and had a couple of heart stopping moments as I caught myself falling backwards and careened upright again. Wrenched my back a bit but at least I never landed on my rear. I asked Will, "Why do you think I'm having so much trouble slipping and sliding?" He said, "Well, you aren't used to going down hill." That was nice. Then he added with a wicked chuckle, "Or maybe you're just clumsy." I informed him that I was pretty sure it was just a problem with my shoes, and that was what I had wanted to hear him confirm.

The weather was perfect, some clouds in the sky but sunshine and about 70 degrees. We were starving when we returned to the trailhead so we ate our lunch at a picnic table there. It was a good thing, because the picnic tables at Clear Lake were heavily used today. We had to go on into the restaurant there and have a piece of warm pie with ice cream. Will had razzleberry (raspberries & blackberries) and I had marionberry. As Will said, it was the kind of pie you hate to see come to an end. Quite delicious.

We stopped at Sahalie Falls and did a little more walking. So beautiful. We meandered on down the road, driving into some different campgrounds where Will and the boys used to go to father-son campout at church, Ice Cap and Trail Bridge. Will was kind enough to stop at one of my favorite places, Belknap Springs, and we walked around a little there looking at the gorgeous flowers. The dahlias and many other flowrs are blooming in the flower border along the McKenzie River.
As we were heading down Hwy 58, we saw a Ford pickup pulled over on the other side of the road with the hood up and steaming water spouting up. Will pulled over to turn around saying, "I just happen to have five gallons of water with me." The cheefully loquacious man bending over the hood was very glad to see him and his water container. Ya know what I mean? This man ended nearly every sentence with that phrase. Ya know what I mean? I was sitting in the pickup cracking up. When Will returned to his tool box and got a roll of duct tape, the man and his woman exclaimed about how prepared he was. The man enthusiastically started ripping off duct tape with his teeth and slathering his leaking hose with it. Will told him he could keep the roll and we got out of there with Will muttering about how he didn't know it was going to be his day to help a Ford.

We ended our fun day out with brupper at IHOP in Springfield. (That's what Eric used to call it when we had breakfast for supper.)

I love weekends.