We almost ran out of wood.

Our woodpile was down to a scant few pieces of spruce that Staci, Spencer, and I hauled in a few weeks ago.
A few weeks ago!
We go through about a tree a month.
Todd came up on Saturday, and we spent the day taking down two of the biggest trees I've ever seen (see first photo).
Both were rather hair-raising events. If you want more detail, talk to me in person. Suffice to say I nearly soiled myself twice by the time the sun went down.
Sunday I spent splitting and chopping up our cache.
Hopefully this will buy me some time to finish our house so we can move in...

Holy Snow

our house got a little taste of the winter wonderland we've been waiting for.

The Train Guy

last weekend, we headed down to the library to see the "train guy". replicas of trains from the 1930's wound around the tracks. smoke billowed out of the little engines and miniature dining cars were set up with actual place settings. it is the stillest i have ever seen spencer with the exception of when he is asleep.

spaghetti smooch

How I spent my Thankgiving vacation...

I like to call it the "great escape". We left behind the floods, broken car windows, and Spencer. What a treat to spend some qt with my husband in the little town of La Manzanilla. What was I thankful for? Sleeping in, first class, family, beers for breakfast, sunsets, lots of time in our swimsuits, chilequiles, margaritas for lunch, full moons, sluggish crocodiles, snorkeling, parades, colonial towns, miles of empty beaches, naps, mexican music blaring from megaphones on top of pickup trucks, and having to decide between beers or margaritas for dinner. Oh, how I love Mexico.

Revolution Day...

of course, it wouldn't be complete without a parade of 5 - 8 years olds doing human pyramids and dance routines. and unfortunately, my camera battery ran out before i got any good shots of the 6 year old boys doing crazy hip gyrations like they had seen brittany spears one too many times.

skyliner rox.

For some reason, my initiative has all but disappeared since Mexico.

ICICLES!

We knew we had inadequate insulation, but this is crazy.
The one on the far right is over 8 ft. long!

This was only last week.

And the adventure continues.....

Well, once again, I am reminded that I am not in control. Paul and I had planned on having a quiet Saturday morning with Spencer before we headed to Mexico. But once again, Paul woke me up at 6:30am...."Hey honey, I think you might want to get up. We are flooding again." Are you kidding me?

A little deja vu as I start packing up the computer, video camera, our art, and oh yeah, don't forget your swimsuit because Mexico here we come. Althought the river rose a little slower than the weeks before, it got to the top step of our front porch. We spent the day moving stuff up to the new house "just in case" and ran into the sheriff on our way out who brought in the troops and 800 sand bags ( i like to call it the Great Wall of Skyliner) to divert the river.....about 6 hours too late. Luckily, we missed the media circus, but feel free to get all the goods at ktvz.com or bendbulletin.com.

I would have included my own photos, but it was hard to hold my camera with the canoe paddles in my hand.

Oh, and just in case you thought the day was done, Paul drove me back to my van in town only to find that some kids had shot out my back window with a bb gun. super. So I am now driving around town with a black plastic bag and duct tape as my window. (This is when you start humming the Sanford and Sons theme song.)

The froggy's back in town...

Happy Halloween. Spencer spotted this outfit about a month ago at Goodwill and all he wants to do is, "hold it mama, hold the froggy." So, he got his wish. Here he is, full monty as froggy. We only made it as far as the pub, but he'll never know....he's only 2 right?

Cheap fun

2...going once..going twice...gone.

This boy knows how to celebrate...

Maybe he takes after his mama, but this boy knows how to celebrate his birthday. Two years old and we managed to stretch it out over at least two days. Mimi, Memaw, Pepaw, uncle doug and uncle todd (we missed the other Pepaw and the F'uncle dearly). A little party at the cabin, some pumpkin patch complete with fire hat, presents galore, and cake.

Spencer's parting words...."more birthday?"

Our first flood...

Staci's version...take one.

5:30 am - wake up to what I think is a wind storm. step outside to the loo and the air is still. oh....the river is just REALLY loud. go back to a sweet slumber knowing that no trees are going to fall on my house.

6:10am - "honey, i think you need to get up. i don't want you to panic but i got to get to work." sure. sure. but, spencer isn't even awake. why do i need to get up? i open the front door to see water flowing underneath my house (because there is no foundation you know) and it is already up to the front steps of the porch. my knees start knocking. paul says he is going out the back door. water is up to the porch. did i mention it is pitch black outside.

6:15am - my knees are still knocking. paul tries moving the van. can't get it out, so he parks it on the highest ground....next to st. francis, by the way. i am thinking bye-bye van, hello new car.

6:30am - my knees are still knocking and i start packing. video camera, computer, pictures, movies that need to go back to the library, ipod, two changes of clothes, our cameras, external hard drive, and the latest bills. hearing the commotion, spencer wakes up, "hi, mama....hi, papa". sweet. i grab spencer's dog and the wave machine because i honestly think that everything else is going to be underwater within the next hour. in the meantime, paul is thigh deep in water trying to save the bbq, stroller, and everything else from the front yard from going downstream. oh yeah, could you grab the truck too?

6:45am - spencer is standing at the front door in his pj's looking at the river...."huge, mama...huge, mama". yeah baby, i know.

7:00am - paul has now made many trips across the flowing lake in our front yard to shuttle stuff to the truck and tells me he can't feel his feet anymore. he grabs the canoe, we load aly and tashi in it, i strap spencer on my back and we wade across in thigh high water, which is cold as all get out, to the road.

8:30am - paul goes back to take some pics and already the water levels have dropped considerably.

10:00am - we walk back to our house, build a fire, notice some things missing and thank our lucky stars and in awe of Tumalo Creek.

it was crazy. i still feel a little crazy and can't believe how fast it all happened. the creek, usually so clear, raged throughout the day with a dirty brown tint. mike schindler came on bike to check on us as well as some other neighbors. the latest i heard is that the creek was flowing at 80 cubic feet per second at midnight and by 6 am it was at 600 cubic feet per second and our neighbors have said they have never seen anything like it. i am glad paul woke me up.

24 hours later...

are you kidding me?

Just standing around...

My co-worker Jimmy and I have been making fresh hop beers for Deschutes for the last 4 years. The hops come out of the field, we pick them up and transport them to the brewhouse where we dump them into the brew kettle ASAP. Usually, we are brewing and driving and loading, etc. This was the first year that we were on hand strictly to 'supervise' (our demand was so great, we had to organize a semi to pick up the hops this year).