01-31-17

Another plant to nurture.  Or keep barely alive like the other greenery in my life.

01-30-17

The couch is calling our name... think I'll just veg all evening after another manic monday!

01-29-17

Guess where we are now?!?

Spent some time in Albany and Vancouver, but spend most of the day catching Pokemon in Salem.

The capital building with the shiny man on top.

01-28-17

Retirement party for Jim Balumas tonight.  Celebrating 47 years with Weyerhaeuser.

Around the table: Sierra (granddaughter), Jim, Dora (wife), Susan, Rhonda, Chelsea (DIL).

01-27-17

Guess where we are?!?

01-26-16

Opened the front door to funky flooring int he entryway tonight.  But, I like it!

01-25-17

My scrapbook room looks naked - no monstrous shelving and no carpet!

01-24-17

My mess overfloweth!

Need to empty the furniture out of the first floor to get to the hardwood floors.  My scrapbook room has become a big pile on the built in shelves...

Hope I don't need to find anything on the bottom of the pile anytime soon!

01-23-17

My view as I left the office tonight, sun setting over our log decks.

Love that the weather was nice enough to jog in the morning and walk int he evening today.  It seems like its been ages.

01-22-17

A few years back we had a goal to eat at every restaurant in our town.

After a few bars, I lost my enthusiasm, but one restaurant that stayed on the list is the Indy Way Diner.  I know it has no food options for my vegan ways.  It is a truck stop, attached to a gas station in our industrial area,  We had to wait 20 minutes for a train to get there.

It's open on Sunday, which is a plus.  Pretty typical diner menu.  The bowl of dressing is almost as big as the bowl of plain iceburg lettuce.

Check, it's off the life list.

01-21-17

Spent a couple hours helping Sasha move today.  Lots of muscle, I helped with drying the raindrops off, pulling stickers off the windows, and pulling boxes form tight places.  The storage unit seemed small when we first got there, but we stacked 8 loads of stuff into it Jenga-style!

01-20-17

Costco!  Somewhere dry to walk around after a long week, and picked up a few staples...  TGIF!

01-18-17

Two things to share with one artistically composed photo.

Look at the cute bunnies that arrived from China for shoeboxes!  Love them, even if the ears are different lengths.

Look at the next section of hardwoods Bruce unearthed as he continues to pull up carpet,  Fun to see the surprises underneath.

01-17-16

Resorting to ugly pads to try to get some pressure off my nose.  Relief!

01-16-17

Ouch ouch ouch!  I like my new glasses but they don't seem to like me... wow I look old!

01-15-17

Clothes and shoes shopping with the kids... road conditions are still horrid in Portland.

01-14-17

Chasing Pokemon with Xander.  Neither of us had a Grimer.  And we still don't.  The paths are sure slick!

01-13-17

Headed to the log pavilion in Aberdeen today for Jan's retirement party.  Plenty of retirees and other folks I haven't seen in ages.

01-12-17

Our living room with the carpet torn up.  Parquet hardwood!

01-11-17

Worked from home today.  Not because I had to, but because I could.  My week went from over scheduled to a dead stop.  Enjoyed a walk with snowflakes gently falling.

01-10-17

Score!

I always read about people getting great deals for Shoebox Ministries at Office Depot, so when we went tonight I told Bruce I wanted to cruise round all the end caps in search of said dime discounts.

Found $0.14 pencil sharpeners!  And a lot of quality dollar items.

01-09-17

Back into the swing of things.  Monday night women's Bible study started back up tonight.  Second Corinthians.  Ministering in the city in the midst of our weaknesses, plus themes of generosity.  Should be a good study!

01-08-17

Woke up to a city of ice!

Once it warmed up we headed to Castle Rock, to Vault Books & Brew.  Enjoyed some coffee, spun a Pokestop, and picked out two wrapped books for the Blind Date book club.  Hard to choose a book form a very short description rather than the cover.  I was interested in hitchhiking to San Fran or garlic growing, Bruce was also interested in hitchhiking to San Fran or manly-man military hostages.

Where else can you have this much fun for a buck?!?

01-07-16

My focus word for 2017 is Enough.  I pulled it all together this weekend.  Maybe too ambitious when I'm trying to give myself permission to do less, but way less than what I could have put on the list, and don't plan to kill myself to accomplish the list.

I have enough

I do enough

I am enough

Slow progress is still progress

in my Christian life:

Teach Dave Ramsey

Shoebox shopping: soccer balls, sewing kits, ages 2-4

in my healthy lifestyle:

Move more, eat better

Get weight down

Consistent vitamin consumption

Track/work on food variety

in my professional and landlord life:

Two maintenance inspections (Katie & Luis)

Finish reading Brandon's landlording books

Deal with trees at 15th and 29th

Set up website

Freshen up Linked In and resume

Attend 3 BP meet-ups

Keep up BP and Linked In presence

in my hobbies:

Complete PokemonGo "manual"

Hot air ballooning

Trip to Long Beach

Trip to Vegas

Stay in tiny house village

Use four weeks of vacation

Attend a food event: taste of tacoma, seattle mobile food rodeo, portland eat mobile

Additional hike or event from Life list

in my quest to declutter:

Scrapbook room organized and trimmed down

One album complete

Kitchen pantry organized and trimmed down

Keep working on capsule wardrobe.  Buy clothes in quality, not quantity.

Better photo solution for 2017

01-06-17

A scrapbook page about my blog!

We have a tradition of presenting a scrapbook to employees who leave the Aberdeen Finance & Planning team.  Jan retired at the end of the year.  Her party is 1/13, Polly and I are frantically pulling layouts together.

I thought it would be fun to include some Aberdeen and work related blog posts in her album...

01-05-17

Working on a farewell scrapbook for Jan.  Needed to get a photo of the fern she and my co-workers got for me when I turned 30.  My how time flies!

01-04-17

Tearing Christmas down.  See you next year dear friends and treasured memories!

01-03-17

New glasses!

01-02-17

Love this F.  Fischer power!  I got it for a prop for Christmas photos, but think I'll be enjoying it all year long.

01-01-17

Crud, forgot to take any photos today! So here's a thought for the day instead.  Enough is my focus word for 2017.