The Mom Song

I know I'm way past the time in my life when this video really applies to me, but I've run into it a couple of times, and it really makes me laugh. It's comedienne Anita Renfroe's song about what a mom says in a 24-hour day. You'll have to click on the link because I'm not computer-savvy enough to know how to embed it properly. Sorry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXgoJ0f5EsQ

Now, wasn't that funny?

"It's a Marshmallow World"

This is what we woke up to this morning. This, plus the sounds of the sirens as the emergency vehicles rushed frantically from the scene of one minor accident to the next....to the next....to the next...Well, you get the picture. Idiot drivers who think that just because they have an SUV or 4-wheel drive, that they don't have to slow down for the EXTREMELY ICY roads. I even saw people zipping by talking on their cell phones -- at least until they slide into the curb, or the car ahead of them.



I know this amount of snow is basically nothing to many of our friends and family who deal with this all winter in the area they live, but Western Oregon doesn't "do snow" very well. (All the schools were closed -- except the U. of O.) Those of us who know better take the bus to work, or stay home. Not because we don't think we could handle it out there, but because we know the roads are full of those who can't.

Anyway, isn't it beautiful? But cold -- very cold!



Everything looks fresher and cleaner covered in a blanket of white.



And for those of you who really aren't interested in our pitiful amount of snow, I give you the following random picture to ponder.

"Me and My Shadow"

As I watched Danica follow Clay around for several hours yesterday, "helping" him hang the Christmas lights, it brought to mind the many, many other similar occasions I have been a witness to in the last 4+ years. Clay and Danica have been best buddies from the very beginning. I don't mind not being the favorite grandparent because I had a similar relationship with my grandpa and those memories are very precious to me.

This little munchkin got ahold of our hearts the moment we saw her.

Clay got used to doing whatever he needed to while having a baby hanging onto him.

Whatever Grandpa was eating, Danica had to have some of it.

He taught her the value of work.

Any time he was holding still, he was fair game to become a lounge chair, or a jungle gym, or a trampoline, or whatever piece of furniture or playground equipment Danica could use him for.

He taught her to dance at the Hillbilly Hoedown.

She insists on helping Grandpa on any project he is doing.

They enjoyed making gingerbread men.

She is always willing to help him with the gardening and yard work.

Her first driving lesson.

She can talk him into anything -- even playing dress up.

"Let's race, Grandpa!" They have great fun at the playground.


Which brings us back to yesterday. Danica had a blast helping Clay look for Christmas decorations. Exploring the attic with Grandpa was a big adventure to her!

I'll finish up with a few quotes I found on being a grandparent:

I don't intentionally spoil my grandkids. It's just that correcting them often takes more energy than I have left. ~Gene Perret

Grandparents are similar to a piece of string - handy to have around and easily wrapped around the fingers of their grandchildren. ~Author Unknown

If I had known how wonderful it would be to have grandchildren, I'd have had them first. ~Lois Wyse

Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly ever our own grown children. ~Ruth Goode

Yes, I Have No Willpower

Neil made chocolate chip cookies at our house last night. In return for using our ingredients (and leaving me the mess to clean up), he left a whole cookie sheet full of them -- a heaping plateful -- for me and Clay. Here is what's left of them....less than 24 hours later. Hmm, they look lonely, don't they? I'd better go put them out of their misery....

(It wasn't just me -- Clay ate some too, even though his favorite cookie is oatmeal-raisin).

A little Christmas Cheer

I saw an "Elf Yourself" video on someone else's blog, and had to try it for myself (see below). It made me and Clay laugh, so I thought I'd add it to the blog. (I believe it disappears after January, so I'll have to remove it then). There's a limit of 5 elves, so I was not able to get the whole family on there. I'm sure Nathan and Neil will be heartbroken not to be included, but I had to have Danica on here -- she's the cutest elf!

Happy Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wii Are Obsessed

We have a new obsession at our house -- the Nintendo Wii. And I'm probably even more obsessed with it than Clay is. Our kids are making fun of us because we waited until they were all out of the house before getting a game system -- they begged for years and years as they were growing up and we always refused to buy one. (But let's face the facts -- if we had bought one years ago, it would have been a constant battle to get them off it to do homework and chores, and I would never have gotten my turn to play, right? So I think the timing was perfect).




We each had fun creating our "Mii" (your on-screen alter-ego). I am the one in front in lime green with braids, Danica is the short one in the middle with pigtails, and Clay is the "cool dude" on the right. We've created random other ones for fun.



We really like the bowling game. I think it's funner than going to a real bowling alley. This was my highest score ever (I've never come anywhere close to that in real life!). I had to promise Clay that I wouldn't show you his score on this particular game because he wasn't really trying. He's rather competitive, although he denies it. Shortly after I bowled this game, he played until he beat me -- by one point! LOL



I apologize for the crummy pictures -- our cameras don't take really good pictures of the TV screen.

When a game ends, the winning player jumps up and down for joy in the spotlight with confetti falling on them, and the losing player bows his head and looks sad. That's not a very good example of good sportsmanship, is it?!




We only have a few games, but my favorite right now is MarioKart -- a racing game. It gives me the chance to drive like a maniac without any bad consequences. Except for occasional motion sickness! Clay jokes that I'll have to get some Dramamine to take before playing this game! Or maybe learn to drive a little smoother. ;)

This is the character I usually choose: Princess Peach. There aren't very many female characters to choose from, and this is my first experience with the Super Mario characters, so I didn't know anything about them. I just found out today that she is on Forbes Wealthiest Fictional People List, with a fortune upwards of $1 billion. Wow, lucky choice! LOL

Clay likes to choose one of the more "macho" characters, like Bowser, seen below.

This is my highest score so far in MarioKart, but I've got a long way to go still.

For winning a certain number or configuration of races, I got this commemorative "photo" of my Mii posted on the Wii Photo Board (no idea what that is, but don't I look stunning in my racing outfit?)

Princess Belle

I'm sure Melissa will do a post on her blog about Halloween, but I couldn't resist showing these cute pictures of Danica as Belle from "Beauty and the Beast." She was very excited about trick-or-treating.




;)

Big Sky Country: Scenery

I have just remembered that I didn't ever finish blogging about Clay's trip to Montana in September. Wow! That's a "senior moment" -- how embarrassing. I had the photos all ready and everything. Now I've forgotten what Clay told me to say about each of them. (Maybe I should wake him up and ask him to describe them to me again? No, that's a bad idea. I'll just guess, and he can correct me later.)

The mountains in the distance are "Pilot" and "Index" -- these are Clay's favorite mountains. He takes numerous pictures of them every time he goes to Montana. We have 30 years worth of pictures of these mountains. They haven't changed much, but he still keeps taking more pictures of them. :)



Here they are a little bit closer.



(some lake in some valley from some high point above it)

Clay and Ed hiked through part of the area that ended up getting burned in 1988, the year of the huge Yellowstone fires. There isn't a trail to follow any more.

Interesting geologic feature.

Clay liked the red color of these cliffs.

Looking out from a high vantage point.

Pretty wildflowers.

He suggested that we could use this for our vacation home. I said no thanks!

The view from the family cabin out across "the meadow."



And the view looking back at the cabin (the green roof in the center of the picture).

It was nearly 10:00 p.m. when Clay took this picture. He put the camera on a tripod so he could have the shutter open for a longer period of time. It almost looks like daytime. (Notice the Big Dipper).

From the airplane on the way home.

;)

Fall Foliage

I was going to call this post "A Dead End Day" because we kept running into little "snags" all day long, but we really did have a nice day, so I decided that title was too harsh. I'll explain a little better as I go along.

These first three pictures were taken at home the day before our little trip up the McKenzie to see the fall foliage. I had looked out the front door Friday afternoon and noticed how beautiful the leaves were on our vine maples with the sun shining down on them. So I took a few pictures (I got some strange looks from several of our neighbors as they saw me out in the front yard pointing my camera up at the trees).


Blue skies and sunshine will become quite rare here in the next few months, so we have to enjoy it while we have it.


There was quite a variety of colors just on a single tree.

On Saturday, we headed up Highway 126. Clay's plan was to pick up a CD guided tour of the Aufderheide National Scenic Byway at the McKenzie Ranger Station. (You listen to the CD as you drive this road, and supposedly it points out all the attractions to stop and see). This scenic byway "meanders for 54 miles through the foothills of the Cascade, first following the South Fork McKenzie River (and Cougar Reservoir) and then following the North Fork of the Middle Fork Willamette River." (Sidenote: Does anybody besides me think the rivers are named a bit oddly in Oregon, i.e. "the North Fork of the Middle Fork"??)

Anyway, we discovered that the Ranger Station isn't open on Saturdays this time of year, so no CD guided tour (1st dead end). We pulled out a detailed map of the area and looked at the route, trying to plan where to stop and eat lunch, and what hiking trails we were interested in.

Before we reached the turnoff for the scenic byway, we stopped to take pictures of the McKenzie River at a picturesque spot, complete with covered bridge.

I know this picture is a lot like the first one, but I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I used both of them.

This is the part of the river that fills Cougar Reservoir.

And this is Cougar Reservoir.

This is further up the road from the dam. The reservoir is drained down quite a bit this time of year. Not quite as picturesque, but it was interesting to see the tree stumps, etc. that are usually covered by water, although it would have made a much better picture of the reflections of the trees if the water hadn't been so low.


We headed further along the scenic byway, and got to the place where we planned to eat lunch and go hiking -- Roaring River Campground. We found out that it was closed (2nd dead end).

Just past it was a forest service road, so we went up it just a little ways, parked the truck and walked up an old logging road, hoping to get in a nice little hike through the forest. It was pleasant, but it ended in less than half a mile (3rd dead end).

Clay saw an "improved gravel road" on the map called the Roaring Ridge road, so we decided to explore that, hoping to get a nice scenic view from the top of the ridge. The drive was okay, kinda pretty (although there was a predominance of yellow foliage all day, and not much of any other colors). Anyway, we got all the way to the top without finding much of a "lookout point" -- and hit a dead end, of course. The road just ended in a small clearing at the top, where a truck was parked and a guy was standing there holding a gun. (Yes, we spent the whole day wandering around the mountains during deer hunting season!! Not the best idea in the world -- we decided we need to buy some bright orange vests if we plan on hiking during hunting season.)

Still looking for a nice hiking trail, we headed up the road to "Skookum Creek Campground."

This looked like a nice place for camping, if you don't mind roughing it a bit. There are several little lakes to hike into, and the trail was nice. It was getting kind of late in the afternoon, so it was hard to get any good pictures because the lighting just wasn't right.

We hiked to Lower Erma Bell Lake, which was 1-3/4 miles from the trailhead. We'd like to come here again and explore a little further.

I think this is a pretty good picture of my best friend.