Where I've been

Well, there are some obvious answers as to where I've been...

I've been wanting to post photos of several activities over the last month but I hadn't taken any of them off of my camera yet. Then Doozie took a bunch of pictures of Dorothy on the day she passed away and I haven't even been able to put the card in my computer because I just wasn't ready to see them.

I'm still not ready but I made a folder buried at the bottom of my photo files and moved the pictures into the folder so I don't have to see them all the time. One of these days I will put them on a CD and save them as memories.

So jumping back a whole month... here is what I've been up to. :)

First, I did some experiments with my mad scientist.


Then, Stacy and Madre (and another old friend who happened to be in town for the weekend and is the one taking this picture) took me out to dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant. Delicious.

The weekend after my birthday Steve and I went to Portland for the MUCH anticipated Cirque du Soleil! This is the view from our room:

The big tent

Kooza!

The show was INCREDIBLE! I went with the intention of letting it take me away to another place and it totally did. I was mesmerized. I loved the entire thing. Over the course of the weekend we walked, rode Max, the streetcar and took a bicycle taxi. :)

And when we got back to our hotel we asked a lady at the front desk if she would take our photo. She happily obliged, then knelt down and took the picture looking up our noses. Um, thanks.

In the morning we decided to do the whole VooDoo Doughnut thing. We stood in line for 30 minutes and bought ourselves (and our friends back home) the most interesting doughnuts I have ever seen. And now I can say that I've had the experience.

The inside of that place is PINK!

Then we returned home and I spent some time snuggling with my boy.

After church on Mother's Day we went with my sister and her boyfriend to the Thyme Garden in Alsea and walked around in the beautiful gardens and took photos.


And visited with chickens.

I spent some time planting my own herbs and produce to enjoy later this summer.

And a couple of weeks ago we celebrated my cousin earning his Eagle rank in scouts and then debated long and hard over a very interesting croquet game.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Dorothy.

(I hope this photo doesn't bother anyone. This is the one picture I did want to get off of my camera because I find the daisy so sweet in her hand and I always loved her hands.)

Her memorial service was beautiful and we took this photo of her family afterwards. Her son and daughter-in-law are in the blue and green (tall and short) and her mom is the amazing looking 97 year old in the middle. Her three brothers are in the picture, her daughter Heather is behind Grandma, and Doozie (Heather's roommate) is on the far right.

Heather and I (I've officially gained another sister through all of this).

And my goofy, goofy dog, who moves to Portland tomorrow to live with Heather, Doozie and Blu.

What a handsome, funny boy. :)

(Diana, you will love this part.) I found out yesterday that this pretty girl will be mine in just a few short weeks! Oh my gosh, I can't wait.

And this brings us to today. Some good friends of ours had their first baby together this morning at 11:11! We were hoping to visit them tonight but Steve works until 7:30 and visiting hours end at 8 so it's just not feasible. We will go see them at home tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait to get my arms around this precious babe. Baby Boston Ryan.

Things have kind of ranged from both ends of the spectrum for me over the last week and a half but I'm in a good place. I've found that I CANNOT deal with sad things right now (like scenes in movies) but I know that's probably just in light of the last couple of weeks and will get better as time goes on.

A favorite cousin of mine comes to visit next weekend and I'm super excited about spending several days with her.

Work on the house is SUPPOSEDLY almost finished (tomorrow is the fourth deadline they have been given) and I will be spending my weekend over there painting. If I can crank out the rooms I'm hoping to tomorrow then I will just have the kitchen and family room left to do. Moving day is June 12th. (Kitten day is June 18th!!!!)

I'm hoping to be around a bit more now. :)

Play-by-play

Here is a recount of how my Monday morning started out. (Disclaimer: there are a few words in this post that I don't normally use. Like the word shit.)

4:36am – Charlie (the dog) is in Dorothy’s room not-so-discreetly trying to alert somebody that he needs attention (i.e. to go outside). He does this by giving a short, low growl or by yawning with a little sing-song sound at the end. I can hear him through the baby monitor so it’s really hard to ignore him. (Why he didn't come into my room to get me up, I don't know. Dorothy certainly wasn't going to get out of bed to let the knucklehead outside.)
4:37am – I am laying in bed willing Charlie to shut up but knowing that he won’t.
4:38am – I get out of bed and he immediately runs over, prancing and jumping around in front of me so that I can’t even walk forward.
4:38am – I open the back door, flip on the porch light and Charlie SHOOTS out the door. I look over to the fenceline just in time to see a flash of something in the bushes.
4:38am – Charlie BOLTS over to the fence, snarling and barking at whatever animal is over there.
4:38am – The animal snarls and snaps back at him! And thus begins a very loud snarling/snapping/barking session.
4:39am – I YELL at the stupid dog, probably waking up half the neighbors, and clap my hands loudly at him, telling him to shut the eff up.
4:40am – Charlie wanders into the yard, does his business and then looks back over at the fence.
4:40am – I tell him to COME HERE RIGHT NOW.
4:40am – He looks at the fence, looks at me, back at the fence, back at me.
4:41am – Charlie decides the he would rather not listen to me and heads back for the fence.
4:41am – I am FED up with him (and with being awake at this hour) and march out into the wet, freezing cold grass, in my bare feet, to get him.
4:42am – I STEP IN A PILE OF DOG CRAP.
4:42am – I spew a whole bunch of things I can’t repeat, mostly at the dog.
4:43am – I am now beyond pissed at the dog, grab him by the collar, march him up onto the deck and put him in the house, cursing a LOT in the process.
4:43am – I go over to the corner of the house and hose down my feet with FREEZING COLD water.
4:44am – I go back in the house, mutter some more angry things at the dog (if Dorothy was awake I’m sure she was wondering what the HECK was going on) and go in the bathroom.
4:45am – I wash my feet in the tub.
4:47am – I head back to my room, pointing down the hall to Dorothy’s room and telling Charlie to go back to bed.
4:47am – He doesn’t listen to me and I get back in bed.
4:48am – Charlie is still standing in the hallway, making noise and being an utter pain in my you-know-where.
4:48am – I get back out of bed, lead him to HIS bed and make him get in and lay down.
4:49am – I pat his head for good measure (even though he’s totally on my shit list) and go back in my room.
4:50am – I lay in bed, unable to fall back asleep.
5:15am – I finally fall sleep.
5:25am – My alarm goes off.

And this is why I am a cat person.

Charlie is lucky the snarling animal wasn't a skunk. I would have gone back to bed and left him outside until the sun came up!

Wordless Wednesday - out for a walk

Thursday Thirteen - 13 photos hanging out on my camera

Das Not Funny! Friday

It’s finally Friday! How many times this week did you hear or see something and think… “Das Not Funny!” but then realize that it actually was pretty funny? Well, such is the purpose of this blogapolooza known as Das Not Funny! Friday.

********************

I was in the grocery store and pulled out my card to pay. The checker looked at it and said, "Oh, what a cute credit card!"

My card has a picture of my bank on it.

********************

We see and use a LOT of medical terms where I work. EKG's are all over the place. One day my coworker was sending a fax and instead of writing EKG he wrote KEG.

********************

I dropped Dorothy off at her acupuncture appointment and someone had parked in the space that we always use. I made a mock gasp and said, "Somebody took our spot!" to which she replied, "Of all the nerve!!"

(If you know Dorothy and know how difficult her speech is to understand, this might be funnier to you.)

********************

On the same day Dorothy and I drove past a guy who is not all there (to say the least) sitting on the ground, picking at it (the ground, that is). Dorothy made a funny face and I told her about another guy in this town who goes around picking staples and nails out of telephone poles and posts. I ended my story by saying, "... A little crazy."

She replied, "Somebody's gotta do it!"

********************

I was helping Dorothy get ready for bed and I could hear Jordan out in the front part of the house spouting off all kinds of French words. He was going on and on with "Voila!" and "Bonjour!" for several minutes.

I came out from helping her and chuckled at him and asked, "Whatcha doin?" He replied, "I'm half American, half French!" I told him, oh really, and where did the French come from?

He looked at me, then went back to what he was doing, shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Don't know!"

********************

Tomorrow is my sister's graduation party and the theme is "Hats Off to Kendra!" and everyone is supposed to come wearing a hat. I told Jordan this and he asked, "But what if I don't wear a hat?" I told him they wouldn't let him in. He thought for a minute and said, "I'll take Colby's hat." After thinking about THAT for a minute his eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "And then HE wouldn't be able to get in!"

********************

Dorothy's daytime caregiver has a little boy who just turned 3 and sometimes comes with her during the day. One day when I got home from work they were still here and so were Natalie's mother and her other 3 sons. All of a sudden Caleb starts flipping out, exclaiming "Where's my bee????" Natalie pulled a little toy turtle out of her bag and said, "Do you mean this?" He did. He started showing it around and his older brother told him, "Caleb, that's not a bee, it's a turtle" about the time he stuck it in his other brother's face and said, "RIBBIT! RIBBIT!"

A very versatile bee. Er, turtle. I mean, frog.

I'm so confused.

********************

And last, but certainly not least... The other night I emptied the ice cream container. When I empty containers of ice cream/yogurt/cream cheese I let the dog lick them out if he happens to be standing nearby (which is, um, always). This is what he did: