Update for July 2013 (So Far!)

Well, it is like trying to plan a wedding....there are people involved that you can't control, and it gets frustrating!!  What am I referring to?  The architect that is supposed to be drawing up our house  plans!!  We submitted our drawings and went over the specs in person with him around the 10th of April, yes, that's right, APRIL AND WE ARE STILL WAITING!!  He won't return our calls, we even stopped by his place and he wasn't home last month on our vacation, even sent a friend of ours over to check on him.....no answer.  I seriously do not know how someone can stay in business by not communicating with their clients!!  SO we are probably going to cut him loose and start over.  Thanks George.  Because of you we will not be in our new home before the end of this year!!  AAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!  The most we can hope for is getting someone else to draw up our plans, getting our house sold, and MAYBE getting the foundation poured before it freezes this fall.
Lloyd is busy with another home build so he probably couldn't start until next Spring anyway.  The biggest sacrifice will be me and the dogs living with Duane's folks longer than we intended. Duane is having a camper built to live in over here in the Corbett RV park when he is working, and will come
home weather permitting on his weekends.  He plans to do that for at least 2-3 more years if he can stand it that long.
Anyway, we feel like we are in "Limbo Land" right now, not a good place to be.  Homer is getting near the end of his life, dealing with him is reminding me of how it was taking care of my Dad, only Homer just bites me instead of cussing at me, lol.  I am kind of tied down with him, coming home for lunch on my 8 hour days at work (Thank God I am close to home now!) and not going very far away for very long.  We went to a wedding last Saturday only gone for about 4 hours and Homer pee'd all the way down the hall and into the familyroom trying to get to the doggy door, I know he slept the entire time we were gone and couldn't make it, he is scared of the doggy door now anyway!!
Duane is tired, driving himself too hard working 6 days a week.  His back and neck are so locked up he can't turn his head, and the Chiropractor said ice it up because he couldn't adjust him. 
And as far as I am concerned, I am behind on my mammogram, annual exam, need to do a sleep apnea test, and need to quit my job before Christmas!!  My heart is so not in it anymore!!  I got a verbal warning at work last week about being late too much, part of me just doesn't care anymore!!  I am so over working with the public, people are so stupid, rude and thoughtless these days.  And those are the good ones!!  LOL....Well, I hope when I check in again things have progressed in the right direction....I hate to think all of these years of sacrificing won't reward us with some of our hopes and goals being realized!!

So I guess I didn't remember updating last year after Dad passed away.  It has been a while since I have been on my blog, thanks to Jamie for the inspiration to get on here!  I am on facebook so much
that this seems a bit isolated, but if nothing else I can use it to remind myself where I have been and where I am going!!
We are hoping to build our new home this year..... A LOT of things will have to fall into place though!!  Duane's job at least right now seems to be going in a more positive direction, the company got sold and "The Old Albertson's"  is in the process of taking back over.  Supervalu almost ran them into the ground, hopefully it's not to late to turn things around!! 
We also want the lot accross from the one we have now in Prineville.  Duane likes the lot better, and also the house can be orientated the way he wants, etc.  Trouble is, we have been trying to sell ours for almost 2 years now and can't give it away!!  Duane says it's all relative, but it grinds me anyway!!  We hope if we can sell that we can get the developer to sell us the lot we want at a lower price so we don't have to come up with too much of a difference.  If we can work all of that out, then we have to get our house here in Gresham sold.  Worse case scenario is that we will have to put our stuff in storage and go live with Duane's folks in Bend for a couple of months.....that is if we can get ground broke and a foundation in before the weather turns cold in the Fall.  Duane absolutely does not want to pour a foundation in freezing temps.  Lloyd might help Duane build, which would save us quite a bit of money, that would be a Godsend!!  Duane would be the general contractor, and Lloyd would "help out".  We went to the sportsman's show a couple of weekends ago, and found a wonderful custom furniture builder!!  He has samples of his work there and his style and workmanship were
absolutely what we are looking for.  He is just outside of Courdelane Idaho, and will deliver himself right to our door~~  Duane is going to Montana in a few weeks to see his friend Paul that is building our latest camper shell and may stop by the furniture builder's shop to check out more of his work and talk to him about what we want.  Well, this is enough for now, hope it won't be 7 months again before I update!! 

Some of my favorite photos from 2012!

So we lost my Dad on June 19th 2012.  His dementia had gotten to the point that we could not care for him here at home anymore.....He got pneumonia in both lungs, followed by a bladder infection.   He was 87 years old and could simply not fight to recover.  I miss you Daddy, not the person that was sick and frustrated, the person that I grew up with that was my Dad!!

Finally a Road Trip Vacation!!

So we got up at 1:45 am a week ago Sunday to start our journey!! Duane, our neighbor Jeanine, the doggie's and I headed over the mountain to Bend to drop off the dogs with Dick and pick up Lois to go along with us. We arrived in Reno around dinner time, checked into our rooms and hit the buffett!! After dinner Jeanine and I tried our luck at the slots, they were not so lucky so she went up to the room she was sharing with Duane's Mom, and then Duane and I walked the strip. Reno is really getting hit hard by the economic downturn, several casino's are gone, along with half of the pawn and gift shops. We did the breakfast buffet and headed to California and Bodie State Park, an old ghost town and abandoned mine. Duane and I had been there before, but for Lois and Jeanine it was a new experience, and since they both love ghost towns, they really enjoyed it!! We headed to Yosemite, what a busy place! We got there a little later than we planned, so didn't spend a lot of time the falls, but did see a lot of beautiful scenery driving through the park to get to it. It was like rush hour on the banfield trying to get out of there too!!

We headed for Fresno to spend the night, and got up bright and early and headed for Sequoia National Park to see the big trees!! Again, Duane and I had been there with my Dad about 6 years ago, but our neighbor had never been there, and for Lois it had been a hurried trip long ago when she was traveling with Grandma Bea and the boys moving the family when Dick was in the Navy. What a beautiful place it is, those grand old trees, so massive!! We then headed to Paso Robles to spend the night, and the next morning we went to a beautiful old Catholic Mission, Mission San Miguel Batista. Duane and I had never been to a Catholic Mission, and our neighbor being a life long member of the Catholic church, was the perfect tour guide!! Then, I had to seize the moment, and stop at one of the many vineyards for a wine tasting!! :) We then headed up the road toward the California Coast. We stopped in a little coastal town called Cambria and had a lovely Italian lunch. Delicious!! We drove for miles up the coast line, past Hearst Castle (got a zoomed in pic of that, not worth posting right now..... stopped at Big Sur for a snack, and then up past Carmel and Monterey before turning inland. We stayed the night in Gilroy CA, then hit I-5 to start the trek home. We stopped in William's and went to a local Olive grower that has olive tasting and a deli called Granzella's. Jeanine and I bought the industrial size deli mix with olives, pepercini's, onions, and garlic, pickeled in vinegar, olive oil and spices, yum!! Oh, now I am out of sequence.... let me back up a bit. When we were driving along the coast we came upon a cove where Elephant Seals swim in to rest and molt their skins. What a ruckus they make!! They snort, grunt, kind of bark..... A couple of males squared off, rising up and hitting their chests against each other..... the smaller one of course backed off and scooted away!! LOL!!
It was pretty cool!! Okay, back to the after the olive place .... we just kept up the I-5 boogie, hit Weed and HWY 97, stayed in Klammath Fallsthat evening, got Lois back to Bend, picked up the dogs and got back here to Gresham!!!

Uh.... Well, looks like 6 months have sped by again!! And, the only reason I am on here now is

that I am waiting for Dad to get out of the bathroom so I can cut his hair!! LOL!! Not much fun on the horizon for us right now, just working away at things. Our house is 16 years old now, and seems to have at least one upkeep issue on the burner all of the time. Our fence is having issues, Duane already fixed and reinforced the gate, and now is contemplating doing the same to some of the sections on both sides of the yard sometime this summer. It is easier to do some preventitive work now rather than being under the gun in the Winter when the wind knocks a section of it down and we HAVE to take care of it then and there!! Oh well, such is life!! Okay, so Dad is out of the bathroom, so gotta go cut his hair now!!! Until next time!! :)

A new year!!

Geez, I was so into this blog thing before Facebook took over, I have to admit that having a much larger audience is more interesting and fun!! I must make a habit of dropping in here at least once a month!! I hope I remember how to get here once this computer dies, which may be very soon!! Having the page bookmarked makes it so easy to get to, and all operating systems are so different!! Our laptop has been in the "Geek Squad" hospital for a couple of days, and this desk top is so screwed up that the wireless card adaptor won't work on it anymore. So, I had to buy a ethernet cable, put up the card table in the family room (near the router). We had to have access to the internet and be able to print orders and packing slips for the business while the laptop was being fixed!! So, my family room looks like it is ready to explode with all of the cords and such hanging everywhere! I will pick up the laptop tomorrow, and restore order to my house, thank goodness. I only had to work yesterday and today this week, that will give me time to get things done for a change, instead of waiting until my days off with Duane to do everything. We need a vacation!! Dad is getting worse every day it seems, he is a handful. We will need to bring someone in if we want to get away on a trip, my friend Martha's daughter doesn't work and is willing to come here and hang out, make sure he uses his inhalers and meds, and feed him.
It will hopefully go well and Angie will be willing to do it again. I don't know if we will get away much on our first vacation at the end of this month, but will hopefully go for a week down to California in July. We still need to watch things money wise with Duane's contract coming up in September. Things could get ugly. We hope to at least get one more contract out of Albertson's, Duane is so close to having his time in for retirement, we hope things don't go south......
Anyway, it is getting late, I have been up a long time, gotta go to bed!! Until next time!!

It's November already?

Wow..... Another year almost over. Time waits for no one!! These past 3 months or so have been a blur of ups and downs, such is life. The days are so short, I am looking forward to Spring already so they can get long again, daylight is so much more inspiring!!
Duane has gone mostly gluten free, he doesn't have siliac's disease, but has found that he feels much better eating little or no wheat products. So, our eating in and out habits have altered quite a bit!! We have been making a lot of home made soups and stews, stuff that he can take in a thermos with him on the road in his big truck. I just bought myself a Dutch Oven last weekend, and broke it in with a pot roast with potatoes, onions and carrots. Yum!! We go to New Season's Market at least once a week to stock up on gluten free products, they have a great selection, and even do a gluten free tour/class every Saturday morning, we haven't done that yet!!
Dad is slowing down more all of the time, his memory, especially short term is really slipping, and I am his "Mommy" more now than ever!! My boss at work is pretty good about keeping my hours down and during the day so I can be home more to look after him. If I am gone longer than he thinks I should be he calls my cell phone to make sure I am alright and ask when I will be home!!
I am spending more time on Facebook than I probably should, I play some of the games, which is my way of escaping reality!! LOL!!
Our doggie bag business is still moving along, we have a new product we will be launching in the next month or so, and will be totally revamping our website, that will be exciting, hopefully things will take off after that, we will see!!
Duane's folks are still in Bend, Dick had the shingles last month, started in his feet of all places!!
He is better now thank goodness. Lois is doing okay physically, but 2 head injuries are starting to take a toll on her mentally these days.
Well, that is about it, I will TRY to update more often!!