Our New Oregon Home!

Well, we are here!  I hope people can comment now, but if you can't, I will still keep posting and I will start visiting you all again.  We just got our internet hooked up, but have been in the house three days now.  The first two and a half days we were like pioneers....no tv, no internet, dark and quiet after 5:30pm....

Our trip was good...God kept the roads clear and the sky bright blue.  We made it fine after a flat tire on our first night on the road. 

Southeast Oregon

We arrived at our daughter and son-in-law's house in Bend where we immediately got stuck  (twice with the U-Haul and four times with the car so far!.....we need snow tires!) Being with them again is such a joy!  In time for our daughter's birthday, then our grandson's and then Christmas.  LOVE Bend, and loved every minute with the kids....

We didn't close on the house until December 23rd!  What an amazing Christmas gift, though.  It was a long, "painful" process, but it was done, at last!  Still, our house is out in the country, and the road leading to our road was icy the first time we came out with our realtor to see it, and as you can see, someone was being pulled out as we arrived!

It's beautiful here on Crooked River Ranch, and there are deer all over!  Going to connect with Eileen's Saturday's Critters!

Lots of juniper here.

A view from our deck!

At our nextdoor neighbor's house.

More to come soon!

Comments Disabled!!!!

For some reason my comments are not working, so if you saw my Nov 22 post and my post this weekend, and tried to comment you apparently weren't able to!  I'm not sure what is going on.  I went into Settings and tried to fix it.  I'm pretty annoyed right now!  So, I will keep posting because I want to share my move with all of you, and some gorgeous snow shots from Oregon, and my new house, and I just won't expect to get any comments.  But I hope you will be looking at my posts anyway, and maybe at some point this will fix itself, or someone will tell me what's wrong and help me out.  Either way, I'll be posting for those who follow me faithfully, comments or not, and I will try to get on your blogs and comment on your posts as soon as we are in the house and things are back to normal....Have an awesome and very blessed Christmas!

A Little Art & an Update

I am going to post this on a site Mom has been posting on lately to share a charcoal drawing I did in 2008.  To see more or to join in click on  Sunday Sketches.  Also joining Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five though I will be actually short of five things. 

1. While I was packing I came across some of my old artwork.  I am actually looking forward to getting back into painting after we get settled.  I thought I would share this charcoal drawing of pears.

2.  Also, to give everyone an update, we are about to leave our home in Tucson and head to Oregon!  The men will be here Monday to pack up the truck.  We will be heading north  the next morning.  Last week, even though it was in the 60s/70s (basically normal winter temps for Tucson) I heard the ice cream truck music...the ICE CREAM truck! :-)  Where we are going, it's in the teens and twenties.....brrrrr!  But, we are ready!  The big adventure of our later lives is about to begin!  Below is a photo our daughter took while sitting outside our grandson's school waiting to pick him up last week.  Doesn't it look like a Christmas card!? Pray for our safe travels!  I'll be in touch as often as I can!

3.  I made my first etsy sale!  I couldn't believe it!  Opened up my email this morning and there was a message that I have sold two Bee Ornaments!  I am so happy this didn't happen two or three days from now, because I had considered packing the box of Bee things and have actually already packed the other items (though I could find them easily now if I had sold one of those) because we would be on the road!!!!  Much easier to get this sale now.  If anyone does order something while we are on the road, guess the mailing can wait till we get there.  Yikes!  Timing! :-)

 

4.  Daughter's photo

Treasures

There are treasures of all kinds...blessings that make our life richer.  There are beautiful things from the past, like this dresser that I TREASURE that belonged to my great aunt, and I use as my own.

There are the TREASURE of friends old and new who, like the song "one is silver and the other gold."

There is the TREASURE of family who are all part of us and who have our hearts, each one an irreplaceable part of our lives.

There is the TREASURE of time with the Lord, and with our family in Christ, giving thanks for all He has given us and done for us, and all to come.



Pastor Ron and Vickie
 

There is the TREASURE of this beautiful world we live in...a Colorful World filled with wonder.

Here at Thanksgiving I hold all these treasures dear.  We have so much to be thankful for!  Joining in with Tom's great meme Tuesday Treasures!  Everyone have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Well, we have had a delay in our departure due to a delay in the house appraisal.  We may leave only a few days later than we thought, but it may be as much as a week & a half.  But God knows what He is doing, and though disappointed (because I am SOOO anxious to get there!) we are just thankful all is happening beyond our expectations.  We are thankful God's grace in this long and trying process!

I'm back a little bit...

Good Friday Morning!  This isn't my actual return from my respite, but I had to stick my toe back in the water briefly!  Forgive me if I don't visit you again yet, but I will do my best to try to catch up...from the new house!  Just a quick five for Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Amy's Five on Friday....

1)  May I begin by sharing a lovely sunrise from this week!

2)  The big news!  We have a new President, and a lot of prayers have been answered.  Trump isn't perfect, of course, but he may be exactly what this country needs to turn things around.  Our world has been changing for the worst for too many years now.  Keep praying!  Pray our sense of division in this country will be healed, and we will all start to stand together, work together and not let our differing points of view destroy us!

3)  I've been following The Bulletin online, the Deschutes area OR newspaper, where we are moving.  It's fun keeping up with what is going on at my new home.  Today there was an article about a new book  by a Eugene resident (and prolific writer) Notaro, called Crossing the Horizon.
It's a novel based on the lives of the three other contenders for the first trans-oceanic crossing by plane by a woman--three women unknown where Amelia Earhart is a household name, of course.  I read the article eagerly, hoping one of the women pilots would be my distant relative, also a female pilot.  That was not the case, but I am very excited about the book, and anxious to read it.  [btw those of you who do reviews on Magnolia, get with it!  You know who you are! :-)]

4)  Watched a program about the Long Island serial killings on ID two nights ago to get our minds off the election results.  We like to watch detective/murder shows sometimes.  In another life, I would have loved to solve murders.  Our grandson wants to become a police detective.  Perhaps he will do so!  Anyway, that string of horrible murders is still unsolved, and may involve the police chief of that county who is now in prison, at least in a cover-up.  The really sad part was at the end of the program it stated that the mother of the young woman whose disappearance started the search that ultimately turned up 17 bodies, has been killed (allegedly) by her youngest daughter this year!  I opened my computer and looked it up...so sad!  After going through the murder of her eldest, now she is killed (allegedly) by her youngest, a schizophrenic, who stabbed her repeatedly.  Really tragic turn of events!  And as for the LI murders...I so wish they could be solved and that monster found!

5)  I am going to attend a going-away luncheon tomorrow with the ladies from church.  My hubby was invited by the men to a bar-b-q at one of their houses also.  So so sad to leave my sweet church family!  Going to miss them all so much!!!  Will post pictures of course at a much later date.  The date of Veterans Day was chosen, I think originally because of Russell's service, so they are honoring him that way as well.  Thank you to all the Veterans out there who have personally given so much for American freedom!!!!

My helicopter door-gunner husband in Viet Nam.  Thank you sweet guy for all you have done!

Pausing....

It's been between 90 and 95 degrees here for the last two and a half weeks!  I will be so glad to leave this heat!  Of course, it's out of the frying pan and into the fire...or the ice, so to speak.  We will be arriving in Oregon in WINTER! :-)

I will be taking another break...this one pretty substantial.  The packing is at a serious phase now.  I will check every couple of days for a post by my Mom, and may make a comment or two on someone else's blog post or previous comment as well, but that will be it for about the next three weeks.  I won't be posting anything.  Hope you all don't forget me! :-)

I leave you with three shots of the Texas sage in my Tucson yard.  Soon to be a memory....

 

A Nice Surprise!

I haven't been "birding" in ages. The heat over summer was just too unbearable.  Now I am so caught up in the house-buying, finishing a Dec birthday present quilt, and getting packed for the move....What birding usually means for us is a slow drive down a back road.  We can't hike like we used to.  But, we do find some great birds sometimes!  Last Wednesday I attended my last Quilt Guild meeting and when my friend and I came out of the building and returned to my car, this little surprise was waiting for us!  Such a treat.  Instead of having to find this wonderful little Vermillion Flycatcher, he came to us. :-)

Joining in with Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday, and later Anni's Bird d'Pot....both great birder blogs! 

An Afternoon With Someone Special

From 1999 to 2004 we were in Texas.  1999 was the year my husband had his heart attack and was deemed unable to fly, losing the job that had brought us there.  I had to find work, and for two short months I worked at a Subway while I looked for something better.  Amazingly we had discovered an incredible thing, tucked quietly away in the countryside, only six or seven miles from where we were living...The International Festival Institute.  You can't imagine how shocked one can be when driving around on back roads toward a tiny hamlet, to suddenly see an imposing structure, beautifully designed and most definitely important.  We learned that we had seen the Festival Concert Hall that day.  For the next, almost five years, I worked as Administrative Assistant to James Dick, founder and artistic director, and concert pianist, in a world unto itself...an amazing music institute with a summer festival sought by music students from everywhere.  God had led me there, and it became a high point of my life...

Not my photo

Fast forward to yesterday and a concert performed by the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church where I sat next to my friend Paulette, and we listened to James Dick perform Gershwin's Concerto in F.  Jimmy had been here once before to perform, four years ago, and we had taken him to dinner at what was then our son-in-law's chef position, and our daughter's pastry chef position, at Union.  That had been an amazing reunion, as I had not seen him in 8 years!  Then yesterday I sat entranced by his wonderful talent, swept away by the orchestra's perfection, and remembering again how amazing live orchestral music can be.  For almost ten lovely minutes afterward we saw Jimmy "backstage" and "caught up."  It was incredible to see him!  Check out the YouTube video below of him performing at another time, another piece.  He's so superbly talented!!!!

I am hoping we can go to Texas in April, to a Viet Nam group reunion in Austin, where our grandson was born, and can drive out to Round Top and see everyone again...maybe catch a performance....just soak in my former, much-missed life there!  Yesterday was special...it meant a lot to me to get to go, and see him perform once again.  He looked genuinely happy to see me....that was a moment I will hold dear.

Three Quick Things!

Though I missed the links yesterday, and I don't actually have Five....

1.  I hope you saw my post about having our bid accepted on a house!!!!  We are in major celebratory mode!  It was a long time coming.  See that post HERE if you missed it. 

2.  Went to my last Quilt Guild meeting on Wed.  Even though we won't actually leave till the end of the first week in December, I won't attend the November meeting because of packing etc.  So this was my final time to get to go.  If you want to see it, click HERE.

Here's a quick shot:

3.  Tomorrow (Sunday) I will be attending a concert by the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra that features my former boss for five years at the Festival Institute in Round Top, TX, and renowned concert pianist, James Dick.  Below I copied the information on the performance....It will be amazing to see him again, and to listen to him play!  I have such amazing memories of my time there, and I miss it so much sometimes, and miss my Round Top friends. 

Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 7:30pm
SaddleBrooke DesertView Performing Arts Center

Sponsored by Tom & Carolyn Cochran

Sunday, October 16, 2016 at 3pm
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

Sponsored by Patricia Linder

Program

• Márquez: Conga del Fuego; Danzón No. 2
• Gershwin: Piano Concerto (James Dick, piano)
• Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony

A Treasure Indeed!

Today I am joining in with Tom's wonderful Tuesday Treasures because I have something that is indeed an amazing treasure to share!  Those who know me here in the blogosphere know my husband and I have been desperately searching for months for a home to move to in Oregon.  Our daughter, son-in-law and grandson have been there since late March, and we had hoped to find a house and get moved by the end of October at the latest because of the coming winter.  We have LOOKED and LOOKED....and may I get a drumroll please....

Photo taken off the internet

....Our new home!  Our bid was accepted by the sellers on Monday morning.  We won't be able to move in till December because it is taking the V.A. about two months to inspect and approve a house for purchase.  We may be driving up there in snow and sleet and rain, and well, will need prayer!  But I feel like this is the house God wants us to have, and I am so thankful He led us to it! I am SOOOO happy!  We are about 50 minutes from our kids, but look at this wonderful juniper forest...we are even close to the Crooked River!  I have always dreamed of living close to a river or creek.  We only bought a house once before, in the early 80's and this is a dream come true, a blessing, an answer to prayer....our final home!  A treasure!

For Friday...

1.  House?  Before we could put the bid in on the second house we wanted like crazy, it also was gone!  On to the next possibility....Then another disappointment followed.  The house market in that area has exploded.  Karen at Beatrice Euphemie says her daughter and SIL are having the same problem.  As soon as you pick a house to bid on, before the bid can be presented, the house is already gone!  I get online constantly hoping a new house will have come on the market overnight  ...sometimes there has, but then there's always something wrong.  I'm frustrated because it's taking the V.A. two months to inspect a house once your bid is accepted, which means closing now will be AFTER Thanksgiving, and we so wanted to be in Oregon no later than the end of October, and certainly be with our kids for the holidays.  I'm going a little nuts!  The last time we bought a house was in 1980 and I remember nearly having a nervous breakdown then...this is WORSE!

2.  I made another fun find inside the pages of a used book!  Last time it was a sweet note from a daughter who arrived to find her mother sound asleep.  This time is less personal, but lends itself to a wonderful evening out!  Two tickets to the musical Chicago...at the London Strand Theatre! Someone's special memories!  They were found in the back of the book I have been reading, The Big Rock Candy Mountain, by Wallace Stegner.

3.  Several of you were so nice to comment on my carpal tunnel issues.  Actually I remembered why I added the mouse back...you can't "right click" on a touch pad, or drag pictures.  How does one accomplish those acts without a mouse?....If anyone knows, I would love to hear!

4.  We've had some beautiful partly-rainy weather lately with temps in the 80s and nice breezes (at times some heavier winds) with short spurts of rain, sometimes light, sometimes heavy.  It's wonderful to walk outside and not be knocked down by the searing heat!  Summer is coming to an end....

5.  I don't really have a five this week, so I will end this post there.  Hope you join in with Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Amy's Five on Friday.

Floundering!

      I didn't intend to take a break again, and yet I have been so tied up with this house-hunting business I haven't been doing much of anything else.  What a roller coaster ride this is, trying to buy a house long-distance!  We just put a bid in on a house and waited two days only to have the bid refused.  Now, it's back to the drawing board.  I'm trying not to have a nervous breakdown.  AFTER someone accepts our bid, there will be a two month wait on the V.A. to approve the house, and that puts us right up to Thanksgiving actually leaving here...or longer!!!!


Connecting with Anni's Bird d'Pot and in a few days Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday....

I waited all summer to see the baby quail, and they didn't visit the yard when I was noticing.  Then four days ago, the family appeared...Mom & Dad, what looked like a juvenile, and four young ones!  But they aren't little and fuzzy anymore, they are getting big, and I was on the phone with my grandson and didn't run for the camera.  But it was good to see them! 

Just pulling some photos from our archives so I will have something to post...

All were taken at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in 2012 at the Raptor Show.  The Harris Hawks are a phenomenal group of desert dwellers who hunt in family groups and sometimes perch on top of one another to get better views of prey. 

Hope to have some good news about a house soon!  Have a great week!

9/11 SEPTEMBER 11 TRIBUTE VIDEO AMAZING GRACE

I dressed for work that morning, Russell driving me to Festival Hill and on the radio came the news about the first Tower being hit. We were so stunned.....our lives had changed forever on that morning. People we did not know but who were brothers and sisters in this journey of life, were dying and a world we knew and loved was being destroyed. All day we would sneak back to the room where the TV was to see what was happening. The mood was somber. We were in shock. I called our daughter, very pregnant with our grandson at the time, and woke her. She turned on the TV and began to watch the horror. As I look at him, now almost fifteen, I see the beginning of life in her womb on that day, safe and warm and ready to be born....as the world he should have been born to was crumbling around us. The greatest tragedy in our history unfolded on 9/11 and his new life began so soon after....coming into an uncertainty, a horror, a sadness. His generation does not remember that day but it is important that we show them...teach them about what happened. They have a burden to try to make this world a better place but we have to give them the tools with which to do just that....if it can be done. God bless us all!

Friday Things

1.

Our friend runs the non-profit Wright Flight here in Tucson.  He invited our grandson to learn some ground maintenance on airplanes when he was staying with us and he and his grand-daddy visited the airstrip.

As most of you who follow me know, our kids (daughter, SIL and grandson) moved to Oregon in late March.  The grandson actually stayed behind with us to finish school, and then beyond for about two weeks before we put him on a plane to join his parents.  He is starting high school at his new place of abode...actually this past Wednesday was his first day.  This school is so COOL!.....

2.  On the first day there is an Orientation, then a Tour of the School then....

 

The entire freshman class went on a field trip to Lava Butte and hiked to the peak together!  The symbolism of this act is so rich!  I mean, how COOL is that!?

3.  His new school is ranked 11th in the state.  He is in the Robotics Club this year, and his shop class where he will learn both woodworking and metalworking will make sets for the plays...their theatre group is outstanding!  He will also run track this year.  I can't wait to hear how his academics are going, as well as these awesome extra subjects!  If you have a few minutes, here is the Prologue Scene of Les Miserables from 2006 at Summit High School...such talent and professionalism!!!

4.  We got the tail end of a hurricane....in Tucson!  Well, this happens sometimes when a hurricane hits Baja, but I have yet to see more than some steady rain when this occurs.  So much less worrisome than the hurricanes we used to have to escape from in Florida!  We didn't even get any wind this time and we almost always get 35 mph winds with the regular monsoon rains.  Back to 100 degrees now....Monsoon is almost over, and temps will start dropping into the 90s and then the 80s by the time we leave...

5.  When I got my new computer last year I chose a laptop that has a pad (instead of a mouse) and a touch screen.  I really like this computer, but it was extremely difficult for me to get used to not having a mouse, so I went ahead and connected the mouse to use sometimes.  Eventually I had quit using the pad at all, and only the mouse, and didn't even realize it until my wrist started hurting!!!!  Now  I have gone back to almost exclusively using the pad.  I had carpal tunnel surgery back when I used to work as an Administrative Assistant, from too much mouse usage...just in my right hand.  That's where the pain is happening again now, and it is the HARDEST thing to stay away from that mouse!!! :-)  I may have to disconnect it altogether again if I can't stop reaching for it! :-(

Connecting in with Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five, and Amy's Five on Friday.  Have an awesome weekend!  And check them out!

Long Shots

Isn't it funny when you learn where expressions come from...of course "Long Shot" refers to taking a shot with a rifle.  But I recently learned that "Keeping your nose to the grindstone" refers to checking with your sense of smell as the grain grinds in a mill, to make sure it isn't burning from the friction.  Love that!  Anyway, here are some definite "long shots" taken from my back porch toward an orange trumpet flower bush in the corner of the neighbor's yard, just as the sun was rising behind the scene.  Because of the distance and the lighting, they aren't the most sharp photos I've ever taken.  But, hey, I actually took some photos this week....that in itself is amazing! ;-)  I am joining in with Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday, Anni's Bird d'Pot and Denise's Today's Flowers. 

This was the shot I was after...only I got it off center, and then didn't have another opportunity, because the hummingbird didnt' go back to that flower.  But it isn't too bad!

She spent the rest of the time deeper in the shadows of the bush.

Then, I noticed a little verdin coming to enjoy the nectar as well.

 

I was happy to get his photo!

This is the trumpet flower bush in the afternoon....

 

 

Running Late

Oh no!  I just realized it's been a week since I last posted, and it's Friday again and I had something I wanted to share with Willy Nilly Friday Five with Tanya and Five on Friday with Amy!  My kids (daughter, son-in-law and grandson) just went to Portland and Astoria (in Oregon) on a special trip to celebrate my son-in-law's 40th birthday.  He loved the movie The Goonies as a child, and had always dreamed of going there....so these photos are not mine (still in hot Tucson! :-) ) but are theirs from that recent trip.

1.  Amazing coastline!

2.  Beautiful beach and river!

3.  Family fun...

4.  Welcome to Astoria...and gorgeous architecture

5.  The house the family lived in in The Goonies movie....those poor people (you can hardly blame them!) who live there I'm sure get tired of people visiting, so they've blocked off the driveway now, and this photo was taken from a block away.

I can't wait till I can see all of this myself!  Soon....