It's a Boy!!

This is how we received the news. We got an express package in the mail. Brandon and Monica found out on tuesday and Morgan helped put this announcement together. Then they mailed them to the grandparents so they kept the secret pretty well until we had our package. When Brandon got home from work tonight he called so we could open the envelope with all of us on the phone together. It was fun and so exciting for them to be having their first baby and our first grandbaby. Love you guys!

Ghosts of Birthdays Past

Happy, Happy Birthday Morgan Dear!

I should have been more prepared and posted this yesterday on Morgan's actual birthday. My baby is now 26. She is in New York so we didn't have our traditional dinner at the chinese restaurant. She did make herself a cake. Celebrate.

DEER CITY

Just as I was telling Gareld we needed to move the camera because we hadn't seen anything for awhile we got these beauties. There was a nice little herd hanging around. Gary wants to put in a food plot over by the orchard spring. He said he will fence it in to keep the cows out but the deer and elk will love it.

SPRINGTIME

Sunday after church we took a drive out to the property. It was a beautiful day. It's showing signs of spring so I snapped this shot. We walked up to the orchard. We checked out the spring that comes out of the ground up there. I tried to find the source of where it starts but the further up I got the more I thought of what a good hiding place this was for a bear so I went back down the hill. Gareld was off collecting ticks...I walked around a little and saw parts of the property I haven't seen before. It will be fun to scope out all 80 acres.

FIRE SEASON

Yea! Fire season begins! Last week Anthony Lakes closed for the season and this week Jeremy is already out on a fire. Where you might ask? He got word yesterday that they were flying to the east coast but the didn't know where. He called this afternoon saying he was in North Carolina. Let's pray for lots of hot, dry forests this summer. He hasn't had a solid summer of work for a couple years now. They go out on thinning and burning projects but there really hasn't been alot of fires except California and they don't hire out very easily. Jeremy is a sawyer. He is in the picture above on the very far right. This photo was cropped and on the cover of a magazine. He was not on the cover shot. It's a nice picture. I like it. It is how he spends his "off season". It's good for him to stay busy. He likes to earn enough to carry him over the winter in a nice ski resort town. He spent the last two up at Anthony. Time for somewhere bigger and more fun. Pray for fire. Well for work at least.

COPY CAT

I am always on the lookout for a good idea. I found a couple on a recent trip to Portland. I have been crafting. I am getting ready for a couple of antique shows in May. Sister Shic will be at Aggies in Union on May 1 and we will be at the Something Special Spring Bazaar here in La Grande on May 8. I try to have things I've made at every show so it is not just all resale of my found treasures. I really look forward to setting up the booth. It is stressful and feels overwelming sometimes but we get so many great compliments on our booth it is fun to make it look different and interesting every show. Right now I am laying out a cowboy display to see how it will look in the booth. I love it! I am good! Fun, fun, fun!

Not much interpretation needed here mine look just like the ones I saw in the marketplace.

Here's my version. Funny thing when I did a web search for "love poems" you wouldn't believe what came up in the margins!

I had never been to the Monticello Antique Marketplace before this February. Morgan and I checked it out while Gareld was at the sportsman show. There are lots of extra cute booths. These clipboards really caught my eye. This was another thing I knew I could copy. I immediately started looking for clipboards at Deseret Industries Thrift Store and at Goodwill both on 82nd Ave. I had six of them in no time. I got my book of wallpaper free at a yardsale.

Here's the cute original that I saw in Portland two different times. Morgan took a picture with her phone on our trip there but I didn't have a copy of it so the next time I went I took a picture. I still liked it just a well the second time so I thought I would make some. I got my bedspread at an estate sale in Union for only $2.00.

PUMPKIN PATCH

Here's my little garden out soaking up some sun. We are still getting below freezing this week in the overnight hours. They were outgrowing the window sill in the kitchen so had some repotting to do.

I want to have a pumpkin patch out on the property. I planted a bunch of seeds this year. I saved a nice "cinderella" pumpkin all winter and finally dug the seeds out of it. I planted them and waited and when nothing came up I planted one "white" pumpkin seed in the same pot....then they all sprouted so as I divided them today I don't know which is which. I also planted some "blue" ones and some decorative guords. I went to the PLFN tree cooler on friday and got some free tree plugs and some 2 year old trees for fifty cents each. I didn't even know this place existed. It is the Private Lands Forest Network and they were giving trees out in celebration of Arbor Day. Ya hoo! Now we've got to get them in the ground this summer and keep the deer and elk away.

FORWARD MOTIONS...UPDATE

Here's one of the places we have rearranged many, many times. We take stuff in, get it back out. Bury spring show totes then spring rolls around so we need the out again. Same with Christmas show totes, holiday decorations, winter then summer clothes, studded tires then basic tires....see the problem. It will be nice when we can be settled. We organized it again Sunday so we could put in these next boxes....

This past weekend was busy with a wedding, a halibut feed, a movie date night, bringing the camp trailer down from Anthony Lakes, ordering cushions for my camp trailer and estate sales.

I did manage to squeeze in some packing. I packed up some winter stuff (yet again) and some of the clutter that has accumulated on the book shelves again. Every time I watch "Designed to Sell" they are talking about getting all the personal belongings boxed up, all the family photos put away and opening up the space so prospective buyers can visualize themselves in the home.

I am sorting, thinning, and boxing up things I can live without for a few months. By the way I did that two years ago and that stuff is still in boxes. What does that say about how much stuff I have that I don't need? I can tell you after ordering my cushions I am going to have to sell half of it to pay for them.

HAPPY EASTER

HEAVENLY!!

Oh my goodness! Jeremy and Morgan got me a gift certificate for a facial last October for my birthday. It was in a pretty envelope tied with a pretty ribbon. I thought it was a unique idea and something I would never get for myself which is why they thought of it. I put it in my drawer and headed into crazy holiday season at Walmart. Well we have slowed down between the holidays and full on garden season so I pulled it out and made an appointment. It was wonderful! I hadn't had a facial before but I thought I knew what to expect. It was way more than I expected. I LOVED it. It was nice to be pampered. Hands and face got the royal treatment while I layed there for an hour listening to spa radio. I wanted to go home and give Gary the same treatment because it felt so good. He didn't go for it though. Thank-you kids for the thoughtful gift.