IT'S ALL ABOUT BEN

This Morning it is way way way too COLD to go for a walk. So Me and Ben decided to stay in and play with his favorite new toy. The Hedgehog. He honks it constantly and loudly. He will shove it in your face until you struggle it away from him and toss it so he can chase it, bring it back to you, and shove it in your face, again and again and again. Of course while he is wildly honking it. So after a satisfying play time Ben decided it was time to warm up by the fire. This is one of his best places to sit. That way he will be right in front of the TV and you will be looking at him, which he demands that you do most of the time.

We recently got Ben his own doggy door. Kim was some what hesitant about getting him one because he did not want to cut a hole in the side of our house. We have only one exit out the back of our house and it is our sliding glass door. Ben really needed a way to get out on his own and a doggy door seemed like the only solution, so we hunted around and found one that you actually install beside your patio door. it has been working out really well and Ben loves it. We Love it too because now Ben stays in the house when we are gone and he can let himself out or in any time. Happy Dog, Happy people.

BLACK ICE, BRRRRRRR!!

This week has been very cold. We have had temps as low as 7 degrees. While the cold is bad enough, Yesterday we had freezing rain. It started around 2:00pm and covered my world with ice. Living in Oregon you get used to the rain and cold and a little snow from time to time, but what are you supposed to do with ice!. This Morning everything is frozen. I have been battling frozen pipes all week. Each day I have come home to a frozen washer, faucet, and sink that is in the garage. I thaw them by using a hair dryer and try keeping them thawed with lots of cover.

We are getting warmer temps by this afternoon and lots of Rain. Boy do I love Rain. Well, not so much , but given the chose between rain and teeny weeny temperatures, I will take the Rain. I work from 2:30-11:30pm today and I am a little nervous about driving. I hope the weather man is right about it being warmer this afternoon. Our driveway and road are a solid sheet of ice right now so I am glad I don't work early. I wish me and Ben could ice skate. We would be out there for sure.

WINTER TIME

BRRRR!!!! It is very cold and windy here this Morning. Me and Ben are trying to stay warm. We need to go outside and clean up the yard. After last nights winds it looks like we have a carpet of pine needles and leaves. Hopefully it will warm up and give us a little sunshine. Kim is on his way to sunny Phoenix AZ with a load. It will probably be around 80 there. They were predicting 95mph winds at the coast, we must be getin some of that. Oh well, time to bundle up and enjoy the great outdoors. :(

MY BLOG BLUES ????

I have been trying for days to fix my blog. I have now set up two new blogs that I will probably delete. I tried to import my old blog to my new blog but it popped up "finished" as soon as I clicked on "import. So tonight I tried again to import and the same thing happened. Only this time when I checked my old blog all my icons were on my home page. So now I don't know if I actually imported my old blog to my new blog or my old blog is fixed or what? No matter. Lifr is good again. So Happy writing to me!!!. See ya all soon.

MY BROTHER THE IRONMAN

My Brother

Randy, Just competed in the 140 mile Ford Iron man Triathlon that was held in Hawaii on Saturday. There were 1800 athletes from all the world and he was one of them. He has been training very hard for many months and all of his hard work has definitely paid off.

Randy has always loved running. In high school he was a star athlete in Cross Country. He was never a strong swimmer and has taught him self with help from his good friends in Hawaii. Randy is also an ace photographer and writer. He works for the daily newspaper in Hawaii . Most of his photos could win prizes. His stories could be published.

He has a great family. Five children and a life long best friend, his wife, Karen.

I am so proud of the strength he has found to pursue a life long dream and compete in a world wide famous Ironman. I am also really happy we have social medias like blogs , face book and my space to communicate with each other. Until they arrived on the scene we would occasionally speak on the phone. My life get so busy , I am ashamed to say I am out of touch with my family. But with the help of the Internet, I now get to be updated almost daily with my brother Randy's family in Hawaii, my sister Marilyn's family in Florida , my sister Denise's at the Oregon coast. Now if My youngest Brother Tim would get up to speed, we would almost be able to have Christmas together again, kind of a Virtual Christmas.

Here's to many many many more triathlons and the spirit and dedication it takes to get there.

Way to go Randy!!!

OUCH

Last Thursday I had an MRI done on my left ankle. I stepped on an empty pallet on July 17th and hurt both ankles. I have been hobbling around since then waiting for my left ankle to finally heal.

A couple weeks ago I decided I have had enough limping and went back to the doctors. This time I went to my own doctor instead of emergency room. He re xrayed and thought he may have found a fractured bone. So he had the radiologist look at the film and he actually disagreed with my doctor. So in an effort to prove the other guy wrong, my doctor ordered up an MRI. He gave me a walking cast, or boot, and it has helped my foot so much, I may ask for the matching pair when this is all over and wear them when I dress up. :)

Today I went back to my doctor (the fourth trip) and He was telling me what the MRI had revealed. Apparently I am the proud owner of one fractured bone (nearly healed), one broken bone (in alignment with it self but hasn't yet touched where it is separated) and, his words, a bunch of bad stuff happening in there. He says the bones may heal correctly with the boot, It is probably too late to cast it at this point. However, the ligaments and tendons are going to be my biggest problem. They may also heal, but again they may require surgery. Only time will tell. I will wear my cute boot for three more weeks and see what happens then.

Just a foot note to the Emergency room doctors who first looked at my ankle nearly three months ago.
THANKS ALOT! GOOD JOB!! MAY WE NEVER EVER MEET AGAIN.

GOLD CUP WEEKEND FUN

We went to Chico California a couple weekends ago. We have been going the the Gold Cup Races for along time . Probably around 12 years, maybe longer. We usually take Kims truck and make it a working week end, but not this year. We drove our pick up and we were able to drive places we can't when we take his truck. These photos are taken in San Francisco. The Day was alot of fun and the weather was great. The Sprint car Races were really good too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Today is my 52nd Birthday. WOW. I am soooo old. I really do not feel any different than I did Yesterday or actually last year.
We celebrated this weekend by going to the State Fair. It was fun. We ate a lot of food that was bad for us and walked hundreds of miles. We have been to this fair so many times, like many Oregonians, we know exactly where every single attraction is and where all our favorite food booths are. And, we hit them all. The weather was perfect and being that it was only the second day of the fair, it was'nt to crowded.

Today when I got home from work, Me and Ben watered the yard, or should I say, I held the hose while Ben ran thru it and bit the water. We were both drenced by the time I shut the water off. Then we made chicken fajitas and ate ice cream. YUM! I watched two recoreded episodes of Big Brother and did a little work on the computer.

That was how I spent the first day of my 52nd year. I am hoping for more days and hope they too include water works with Ben, chicken fajitas and ice cream. And of course long lazy days with Kim at the fair or any place we can be together.

Looking back, I know I have been lucky and blessed.
I love my little world. My Husband, Family and Friends. And My Pets. Even my Jobs are good.
Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy and I love them all.

Gotta go work on the rest of my 52nd year. Need to make plans to have this be the best one yet.

PAPER OR PLASTIC??

Paper or Plastic? :)

paper

Would you like paper or Plastic today?:)

plastic

What would you like today, Paper or Plastic?:)

you decide

Which one you going choose today, Paper or Plastic?:)

I'm bag sexual(heeheehee):(

Oh good, you have your own bag !!

Plastic or Paper , Paper or Plastic . Plastic Plastic Plastic, Paper Paper Paper,

Yikes, I am going mad. I have to ask that question a hundred plus times a day when I work as a cashier at RAY'S. And you get all kinds of answers. Some people get mad if you don't' ask, some get mad if you do. One lady called headquarters on me because I did not give her credit for using her own bag. That's a whole nickle, you know. Whoops, my bad.

Most people who bring their own bags buy organic stuff. I am not kidding. They are very concerned about their environment and do not want to use paper or plastic. But they do put most of their organic produce in PLASTIC bags. And almost everything else they buy comes in cardboard boxes or paper bags of some type.. Eggs, milk, butter, cereal, candy bars, chips , detergent, dog food, well, you get the picture.

SO, America, Take a chill pill would you. We all care about our earth. Use your own bag when you remember it and for Heavens sake PLEASE wash it once in a while, would ya. Nothing like having to bag your groceries in a smelly, greasy, dog haired, bag.

Come on, that should be a violation of environmental proportions. Recycle, Reuse, Refuse to use paper or plastic, but please stop being so snooty about it. Thank you and have a nice day!! Now go out their and hug a tree or a dog or something :)

MY LEFT FOOT

On Friday I had to be taken to the emergency for x-rays on my left foot. I did such a stupid thing. I am tossing a box of freight upon a pallet and when I step back, I stepped into the slat of an empty wood pallet. Then I started to stumble and tried to correct it by stepping with my right foot, yet into another slat.

Next thing I do is fall on my tush. Both feet are still stuck in the pallet and I have lost both shoes. It takes me about 30 seconds before I can be sure my ankles are not broken. When I realize they are not, I get up, dust my self off, put my shoes back on and try to walk off the burning cracky feeling my ankles have. Luckily there is no one else there to have wittnessed such a graceful move. It was about 6:00 AM.

When the door bell rings a few minutes later , I kinda hobble up front to let the person in and by the time I get there I can no longer put any pressure on My Left Foot. OUCH. The Janiter sees me hopping around and gets the wheel chair and I go back to my office to wait for some one else to come in so I can go get My Left Foot looked at.

When I do get to the emergency room, they take pictures and decide there are no breaks and most likely just twisted, pulled, bruised, and strained. HUH? I could have guessed that. Except for the X-Ray tech, I think the DR and Nurse I saw might be paid too much. Today is Wednesday and I am still limping. My ankle is swollen and purpleish.

Or yeah I hurt my Left thumb again, the same one I keep hurting. DORK DORK DORK.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!!!!

BEN AT 9 MONTHS OLD.

THIS IS OUR GORGEOUS COLLIE, BEN. HE JUST TURNED ONE YEAR OLD. I WANTED TO SHARE THESE TWO PHOTOS. ONE IS HIS FIRST NIGHT EVER WITH US AND THE OTHER WAS TAKEN ON HIS BIRTHDAY. I SHOWED SIMILAR PHOTOS WHEN HE TURNED SIX MONTHS OLD TOO. BUT HE IS BIGGER NOW. HE IS A GOOD DOG. WE STILL NEED SOME TRAINING, BUT BEN IS A SMART DOGGY.HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN.

BEN AT I YEAR.

BEN AT 9 WEEKS OLD ,CUTIE PIE!!!!

WILL WORK FOR FOOD

This is Ben. He loves to help. I was pulling weeds and when I turned around to pick up the rake Ben was already doing my job for me. He actually had a small pile of pine cones gathered, not sure if he really meant to but he did a great job.

This is Ben helping with the cleaning and filling of his pool. He ,loves the

water. He will chase it , run thru it, bite it, sit in it, jump in it, as long as he is getting wet, he is one happy puppy.

Then we moved onto cleaning up the summer furniture. He was a big help here too!!. As you can see , he thinks he can do a better job than me so he gets right in there and does all work.

I believe I missed a spot here. But thankfully Ben was ready to make sure everthing was perfect.

Finally, all the work was done and Ben could get a little rest

Or could he.....................

I think he found something else to pick up. Now where did He put that Rake.?

SMORES (revisited)

SMORES, SMORES, SMORES, WHO WANTS SMORES?

I loved smores when I was a kid. Who didn't huh? I can remember the very first time I ever created one and ate it. The chocolate was melting all over and the marshmallow oozing everywhere. The grham crackers slightly chewy. It was the most delicious thing ever. EVER. I was sitting around the camp fire looking up at the stars when I noticed that some of my gooey treat had dripped in my long hair. Oh well, no matter. Still delicious.

So not to long ago I decided to try making Smores in the microwave. The marshmallow puffed, the chocolate melted and everything looked ready. It was perfect. But somehow my memory failed me. They didn't taste delicious anymore. It didn't melt in my mouth and taste like heaven.
Instead, I burnt my tongue and the whole thing was like eating sugar, only messy.

My walk down memory lane was a little disappointing . I realized what went wrong.
I was not 12 years old, my friends were not here , I had no camp fire or stars to look at.

Now I know that some memories are best left in your mind. In that secret little place where your imagination colors them, polishes them, and makes them a warm wonderful thought that you remember from time to time and when you do they put a smile on your face.

I still love Smores, or at least the thought of Smores.

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE


There is a Bridge connecting Heaven and Earth. It is called the Rainbow Bridge because of its many colors. Just this side of the Rainbow Bridge is a land of meadows, hills, and valleys with lush green grass. When a beloved pet leaves us, it goes to this place. There is always food and water and warm spring days. Those old and frail animals are young again. Those who have been maimed are made whole again. They play all day with each other.





But there is only one thing missing. They are not with their special person who loved them on Earth . So, each day they run and play until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks into the distance. The nose twitches, the ears prick, the eyes are intent, the body eager and quivering. Suddenly it runs from the group , flying over the green grass, its legs carrying it faster and faster.





You have come, and your special friend leaps to greet you. Happy kisses rain upon your face and hands. You look once again into the trusting eyes, hands caressing the beloved head, stroking the silken ears so long gone from your life, but not from your heart.





Then you cross the Rainbow bridge together, never to be separated again.


It has been one year since Jake died. I wanted to remember him with a special story given to me by a friend.

OUR PATIO

This is our patio. It was a project that we did this afternoon. A friend of mine, Lori, showed me pictures of her patio and I was very impressed with what she had done. I paint our patio every summer and I have always wanted to do something different. I would love to put in stone tile, but it would cost a lot. The way this is painted kinda looks like tile.

Kim taped off the squares for me and I painted. It took us a few hours and I think it looks pretty good. I also posted a couple pics of the before and during process.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. I hope everyone has had a good one. I had Saturday and Sunday off from both of my Jobs and Monday off from one of them. I am getting ready for work now. It is only a three hour shift so it should go quick. Kim and I went to the races last night and a movie yesterday afternoon. The movie was kinda slow. It was a Jennifer Aniston movie called Management.The Races were also kinda slow and not that good. But, we had fun. The weather is great, Sunny Sunny Sunny. We always wish we had just one more day when we have the weekend off, and now that we do have one more day, guess what?, I want one more day still. Oh well, We had a good weekend and lots of good food, mostly popcorn I think. Hope everyone also had a fun and safe weekend.

DEADLIEST CATCH

Captain Phil from the TV series "THE DEADLIEST CATCH" came to Rays Food Place last week. He was a surprisingly nice guy. He has his own brand of coffee " Phil Harris " and we sold tons of it. He signed autographs for everyone and on anything that you had. He also had coffee mugs and pictures. I think after anyone met him, if you weren't already a fan of crabbing you are now. Vickey , A friend of mine from Kmart took photos of him and his son, who was also signing autographs. She had brought her grand daughters in to meet Captain Phil. They had fun. And so did the 2000 other people who came in to meet him, by the way, they all came thru my register too. I did tell a lot of them "hope you have a Crabby day". Most got it , some I'm not so sure. Any way it was kinda fun to have a celebrity of sorts in our little town.

BIG BRO BEN

HAPPY HAPPY MOTHERS DAY
MOM!! BELLA REALLY KNOWS
HOW TO CELEBRATE MOTHERS
DAY!!! THIS IS BEN'S MOM WITH
ALL TEN OF HIS NEW BROTHERS
AND SISTERS. AREN'T THEY
CUTE. BEN AND BELLA LOOK SO
MUCH ALIKE, THEIR FACE IS THE
SAME FACE. IT'S AMAZING. I
HOPE THEY ALL FIND
WONDERFUL HOMES

OREGON-- YOU GOTTA LOVE IT!!!!

For those people who love Oregon,
today is a really good day. It is pouring down rain outside. The temp is around 54 degrees and you can hear the thunder in the distant. It is not terribly cold or hot, just kinda cool , luke warm. You can either sit by the fire or enjoy the rain outside ,on your covered patio of course,. Makes no difference.


Spring time in Oregon is something everyone should get to see at least once in their lifetime. Beautiful colors and greenery are everywhere and you can go from 80 degrees one day to 45 degrees the next. Splashing in mud puddles is definetly allowed. Shorts and coats can be seen in the same group of people , they may be drinking coffee or licking ice cream cones, and all Oregonians seem to really love it.

I complain about the weather sometimes , but I have never complained about the beauty that surrounds and makes up the Willamette Valley. Mountains, Oceans, blue skies and green trees. Plenty of wildlife and flowers and hiking, skiing (both snow and water) camping, swimming, biking, horse back riding, all with in a stones throw.

AHHH , SPRING TIME IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST..
YOU REALLY GOTTA LOVE IT !

BIG BEN !!!

This is an updated photo of Ben at 9 months. He is in the same chair as the photo I took the first night we had him home in September 2008.. In an earlier post I also took a photo of him in the same chair at six months old. I think it is fun to see his growth in progress

HERES THE THING....THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME !!!

I like to visit Face book and My Space. They both have different attitudes than each other. Heres what I mean.

Facebook:
I feel like I am in a Big City. A Big Loud Noisy Nervous City. Excitement is everywhere and people are racing around from one place to another. Horns are honking, cars are zooming past you, Kids are laughing and yelling and playing, Dogs are barking and running. There is confusion everywhere and yet I am having fun. I look left, right, up , down, under, over, every where there is something new and different to try out. Fast, Fun and Silly. Snow balls are flying , listing five favorite anythings, comparing my self to everything, You can learn a lot about yourself . That's What I feel when I visit Face book.

My Space:
Night Club arama. Party Animals are everywhere. I have never had so many drinks, tattoos, music, and invitations in my LIFE. WOW, Crazy stuff. It is also a very fun place to visit and interact with friends and family. A little scary though for someone with not much experience.

My Blog:
Home Sweet Home. I feel relaxed, peaceful, safe, and quiet here. I come here when I just want to tell a story or share something that has happened. I love reading about my friends and families daily events. Blogging is comfortable for me and I love it. Hope to see you all soon in our crazy world of communication. Does anyone Twitter?

It's time to break out the squirt guns on Facebook , so look out , here I come.

HAPPY EASTER

HELLO EVERYONE. HAPPY EASTER. I HOPE EVERYBODY HAS A REALLY FUN DAY TODAY AND GETS TO ENJOY THE THINGS THEY LOVE THE BEST. HAVE A GREAT DAY

SOME HABITS......

Just thought this is interesting. Ben still loves to lay the same way he did at just a few weeks old. He is just a little over 8 months in the second photo and I think he was just about three weeks old in the first.

SPRING IS SPRINGING (finally)

These are some crocus that have just started to bloom at our house. I thought they looked very Springy. I love this season.Working in our yard is one thing that I love doing . It is so much fun.

SNOW !!! HAIL!!!! MARCH IS IN LIKE A LION FOR SURE

This is a picture of Ben after our very long walk today. He is warming up by the fire. It's one of his favorite places to lay around.

In this picture I was talking to Ben about dinner. I think he likes the idea a lot.

This is a photo after Ben ate his dinner. May be time for a nap!!

I just woke him up. I think he will probably go right back to sleep. Also one of his favorite things to do.

Talk about a Lion.............

We woke up Sunday Morning to HUGE snowflakes. Then it hailed. Then we got a little sunshine. Weird stuff. It snowed again Monday morning and then turned out to be a very pretty day. Today Ben and I went on a long walk and it Hailed on us for most of our walk. We usually walk around our own neighbor hood , which is actually quite large and growing.

Today I let Ben decide where we went. Every time we came to a corner I would stop and let him choose which way to go. We only went around one block twice. The rest of the time we were going to new places. We were a long ways from home when it started hailing though and it was kinda cold. But we Had a good time. Got to see a dog that was having some training issues. ( sometimes that can be Ben) but he was good today.

I am still waiting to here from Rays for a second job. I went in on Friday for an interview and he was suppose to call me yesterday but I haven't heard from him yet. My fingers are crossed in hopes that he will call me soon. He seems like a good manager. Pretty young though, I think.

I tried getting some snow pictures Sunday but by the time I got my camera out and ready it had stopped. So no pics this time. I am posting some updated pictures of Ben. He seems to be really wiggly most of time so I am having quite the time getting good ones. Anyway hope everyone is enjoying daylight savings time.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

HI EVERYBODY, HOPE EVERYONE IS HAVING A GREAT WEEKEND. IT'S MOSTLY SUNNY IN OREGON TODAY SO IF YOU HAD ANYTHING TO DO OUTSIDE TODAY WAS A REALLY GOOD DAY FOR THAT. SO FAR WE HAVE ATE LUNCH OUT AND WATCHED A LOT OF TV. TOMORROW WE ARE GOING TO GO TO THE COAST. IT SHOULD BE FUN. THE WEATHER WILL PROBABLY NOT BE THAT GOOD THERE, BUT BEN WILL HAVE A GOOD TIME RUNNING ON THE BEACH. HAVE A SWEET VALENTINES DAY !

AMAZING TALENT!!!

This young lady is from Hawaii and is the winner of a Beauty Contest held in China. She was on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and this was her Talent in the Contest.

A DAY AT THE BEACH

On Sunday We went to the Beach. It was the very first time Ben has been there. We had so much fun. The weather was super Beautiful. It was really warm, no wind , and lots of sunshine. There were Dogs, Kids and People everywhere. Ben had a blast. He was jumpy at the waves at first, but then when he got used to them he just played in the water. He ran and ran and ran. He got to meet a few dogs, one mean one that growled and bit at him, And he got a ton of pets.

While we were there we ate at Mcdogalls(Mcdonalds). Ben had a hamburger and chicken strips, frys and some ice cream. What a Day!! Happy Happy Happy.!!!!!

The ride to the coast was a little rough for Ben. He got car sick three times. Yuck!! But on the way home all he did was sleep. It was a great day. Hope we can do it again soon.