Orangette It was accidental that I found her blog. John was on his computer playing 'the game' and I was on mine. I was bored, and decided to have a look at some other people's blogs, so I pressed that little 'next blog' button on the top of my blog and began going through some other blogs. You randomly find all kinds of blogs...you find them in every language, you find things you really don't want to look at at all, some even have music to listen to while you read. I was just hopping through them, when I landed on 'Orangette'. Her writing was so nice to read, humorous and captivating. Along with each entry, she included a recipe and picture that tied in with what she wrote. Well, I love to read and I love to cook and you know I love to take pictures, so I marked it as a favorite and kept going back to see what she put on each week. Not only did I like her style of writing, I liked her recipes. One of the first ones I tried was for granola. It is easy and really good and healthy, made with applesauce to stick it together. I make it all the time now. Another one that stands out is a cheesy tomato pasta that I can't stop eating when I make it. Just tonight I made her tomato soup, which includes of all things, chopped cilantro stems and jalapeno. It is fantastic! Well, a few months back she announced on her blog that she was writing a book, and later on we could pre-order one. Then that she was going to have a book signing. I looked over the list of places she was signing and sure enough, she was on the list for Portland, at Powell's Bookstore. So last night after we had our little birthday dinner for Lindy, I drug Lindy and Cyndi with me to get my book signed. Just what Lindy wanted to do for her birthday. I have never been to a book signing before. It was really fun. Molly Wizenberg is her real name. The name of her book is 'A Homemade Life'. She read the first chapter of her book (her chapters are really short), then she answered questions and began signing. I know she has quite the following on her blog, but was amazed to discover that there are about 8-10 THOUSAND who go to her blog EACH DAY! Amazing! Next thing I plan on doing is going to Seattle where her husband is going to be opening up a restaurant named 'Delancey'. They hope to open sometime in May if all goes as planned. Just in case you want to take a look at a REAL blog, here is the link. http://orangette.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday, Lindy!
Last night we went to the Old Country Kitchen and had happy hour food for dinner to celebrate Lindy's birthday. After that we went to Powell's Bookstore in Portland for a book signing. (which had NOTHING at all to do with Lindy's birthday)

It just felt like spring today! I felt like I wanted to get out to the yard and start working on the flowers. But even though the sun was out, it was still only 51 degrees. There are a few bulbs up, about to bloom, the pussy willow is blooming, the forsythia and flowering cherry trees are about to burst, but that is about it so far, there are not even any weeds yet. I wandered around for a while looking it all over. Then I came back inside and worked on a different kind of flowers...flowers made from flour. Now it is spring inside at least.

Thanks, Chele!

Memories. We all have memories of things, moments, foods, good times, bad times, traditions, trips, all those things. But what is interesting to me is how things that are considered MY memories are also someone else's memories just as much as mine. And how those memories are always there and kinda forgotten until somebody else pulls them to the front of your mind again. That is what happened to me today. My cousin Chele was reminiscing in an email about a trip we took with our Grandparents way back when she was 6, which would have made me about 11. I just looked at some pictures and they are dated 1967. OK, so it has been a few years...try 42, since we took that trip! No wonder those pictures are a bit fuzzy. Grandma and Grandpa McCool loaded my two sisters and me and my cousin Michelle, (now called Chele), into their truck and camper and off we went to Yellowstone Park. It was a really fun time. That was back in the days of no seat belts and rules, like I would ride up front with Grandma and Grandpa and the kids would ride in the back in the camper. Now, I'm talking, camper... not one of those over the cab type, it was just an over the bed of the truck, camper. When we stopped for the night, I got to sleep alone up in the cab and the rest of them slept in the camper. It was a fun trip. For us kids. I wonder how it was for Grandma and Grandpa. We went farther away from home than any of us kids had ever been before. We saw the Snake River, buffalo, bears, deer, Old Faithful erupt along with a few other geysers and the lava beds in Eastern Oregon. I kept a diary the whole way through and it is funny to read it now. I have not done that in a long time, I need to pull it back out of my trunk. Well, one of the things that Chele reminded me of was while we were on this trip, Grandma would mix honey into the peanut butter jar and make us the best sandwiches. The whole entire morning, all I could think of is 'peanutbuttermixedwithhoney' sandwiches. Fortunately for me, I have both in the cupboard, so guess what I just had for lunch?

You got it! It tasted as good as my memory had left it, which is not true for all memories.

FINALLY!!! The big day arrived! John and Dad delivered the flowers while the girls got dressed. We arrived at 9 am for before wedding photos. The wedding was scheduled for 11:30. Photos were done, the Americans (and Candace the Canadian) were all ready...but the Dominican bridesmaids were just showing up...the groom arrived...the bride went into hiding...the musician was still not there, and none of his equipment, by 12:30 he was there setting up...and the guests were slowly filtering in. Us Americans had a real culture moment as we waited around. Nobody seemed concerned at all, including us, it was not OUR party. At 1:20 John walked Jessi down the aisle! The sun was out, the sky deep blue, the ocean in front of us the most gorgeous turquoise. A perfect backdrop for a wedding. They became husband and wife and headed down the aisle and took a few more pictures. While they were taking pictures, the guests had a snack of Ritz crackers with cheese and a fruit punch. Then we were all shuttled up to the front part of Sea Horse Ranch where the reception tents had been set up. Everyone greeted them with bubbles as they walked into the tent. We ate all kinds of typical Dominican foods, including a roasted pig, roasted chickens, tamales, and a few other things I don't have names for. They cut the cake, toasted, she threw her bouquet. They said their goodbyes and were off on their honeymoon. The next morning we were on a plane headed back to the states. Our goodbyes at the wedding were pretty tough. Not only did she have to say goodbye to all of us, she also had to part with Candace, her room mate for the past 2 1/2 years. Candace is now back in Canada, possibly to take up nursing studies. It all went way to fast!

Monday we went back out to the school so they all could see where Jessi works. We had lots of time for shopping, walking on the beach, eating at the restaurants just a short beach walk from our house, had pedicures, good coffees, good wine, and lots of good times. It poured rain those first few days. We had to cancel plans for some of the sightseeing we had planned, but it didn't seem to matter, we kept busy anyway. It poured! At times the water was ankle high in the streets. Fortunately we didn't have any serious flooding in the area we were in.

Ariel came over and he and Jessi cooked us a typical Dominican dinner.

Then it was time to get busy doing what we came to do...help put on a wedding! We wrapped candy kisses, strung up the programs, tied bows on bubbles, and finally drove to Santiago to the flower shop and bought the flowers. Friday was the day to put it all together. It was a long day, but sure was worth it to see how beautiful it all came together.

Saturday we moved from the team house to the house that we rented in Cabarete. It was an awesome place. Each of the three bedrooms had a bathroom. Outside by the pool was another bedroom with another bathroom. Jessi and Julie shared that room. Candace came out at the end of the week and stayed there with them also. Eileen and Julie arrived on Saturday and Mom and Dad arrived on Sunday.

Friday...tooth pulling day. I was for sure not prepared for that! Those little kids showed up, walked in, got numbed up and their little rotten teeth pulled right out. Some had up to 6 teeth pulled out. The team did their best to save any teeth that were permanent and can be filled. A local dentist has offered her services for simple cases in the future. Most of the kids walked to the school alone and went home alone afterwards. No forms to sign for permission, nothing like that. Such a difference from how we would handle our own kids getting a tooth pulled. There were only a few who were scared the way they had all been the day before for a simple little shot. Maybe that is because they don't have that done very often. Next time the word will be spread and they will all come in freaked out, IF they come at all. I could not believe how the team came so prepared, they had portable folding dental tables for the kids to lay on, all the right tools...well, not ALL the tools, one dentist was working on a little boy and jokingly asked for 'suction'...which they didn't have. But they laid it all out and even sterilized it in between. Pretty well organized. What was the most shocking to me was that those teeth looked like they were already filled...the whole tops of some teeth were gray black like a silver filling. But how wrong I was. Some of them had only parts of their tooth in there. some were rotted all the way to the root. I've added some gory pictures just so you can see for yourself how gross it was. How in the world were those kids existing, studying, laughing and playing in that condition. My job that day was to hold their little hands and try to talk them through it. Some cried, a few screamed, a few had to be held down, but most handled it really well.

Oh wow...so where do I begin? There is so much to write...and only 1,ooo+ pictures to sort through to help tell the story. I spent the whole day today on the pictures and finally am able to update the blog. As you know we left here on Tuesday at 5:30, flew all night, first to LA, then to Miami, getting there at 4 am. The flight to Puerto Plata left at 2:30 in the afternoon. We got there at 4:30. Two days travel to get there. In September we only had one day of travel, but the airlines have cut so many flights it is impossible to book a flight from Portland to get us there in one day. I was so excited to see her again. The first three nights, before the rest of the gang we were sharing a house with arrived, we stayed in the Kids Alive team house. Jessi stayed there with us. She still had work to do, so we went to the school with her. A team of doctors, nurses and dentists from the states was showing up to give Hepatitis B shots and cavity screening on Thursday and Friday they were going to pull teeth on those who obviously needed help. They decided I needed to learn to give a shot. I was sure I did NOT need to learn it, but gave in. After the first shot, I was shaky...I wanted to sit down. But I made myself do it again and it was easier the second time. Those kids got themselves so worked up. Before they even got the shot they were just so dramatic...crying and some had to be forced into the shot room...some little guys worked themselves up into a sweat.

Hola...well, we are here, having a good time, and I have taken tons of pictures...maybe like over 1,000!!! Trouble is that I don't have a computer that I can download them to in order to post them on the blog, so you will have to wait to see them until I get home. I am really sad about that because I have some really good stories and pictures to go with them. Like the first day here, a team arrived to give Hepititis B shots to the kids...and screen them for the tooth pull, which was the following day. So on the first day, in came the team, one doctor, two dentists, and 5 nurses. They asked me if I wanted to learn to give a shot and at first I was like "No way!" but I thought it over and ended up doing it. I felt like I needed to sit down afterwards, though. A little while later, I decided to try it again and was much better with some experience behind me. So then on Friday, they arrived and they started pulling teeth. I could NOT believe it! Some of those kids needed 4 teeth pulled, a few even 6!!! They would open their little mouths and you could just out and see those cavities, it looked to me like a silver filling. They would shoot up the mouth with novacaine and just out and pull the tooth. Wow, did I ever learn a lot. I held hand, held some kids down, and wiped a ton of tears. Plus took tons of pictures. I can't wait to show them all to you. Yesterday, Jessi's room mate from college, Julie and her mother Eileen arrived, and today, my Mom and Dad finally made. Sothat is our trip so far in a nutshell, I decided to take advantage of a rare moment with a computer and update this even if I don't have any pictures to go with it. Sorry! More as soon as possible!

I'm out of here!

Spring is on its way, the tax refund is on its way and I AM ON MY WAY!!! Time to warm these frosty toes in the warm Caribbean sand.

I did my taxes last night. I have used Turbo Tax for a few years now. It is such a good program! They even have it automatically deposited into our account! Nice to know that it's on its way too!

These guys have been working their way out of the ground for a couple of weeks now. Nice to know spring is on its way!

The countdown is on!

It has been a busy few weeks since Christmas! I addressed the invitations and then got them mailed at the Bridal Veil post office, of course, to get that 'bridal veil' postmark. I have my dress sewn and then a last minute decision to have a flower girl prompted me to make a little flower girl dress. Mom and I have been hunting down the supplies we will need to do the flowers, but don't know if we can find once we get there. Who would have thought that it would take 3 days and uncountable stops at craft and florist shops to inquire, in order to find 1 inch wide floral ribbon in baby pink, kelly and mint green!Last week I pulled out the suitcases to start tossing in the things we have to bring for the wedding decorations along with the clothes. It looks like I will have my two largest bags full of just wedding supplies. Bazzel has made his bed on top of one. This is where I find him sleeping every day. I wonder if he thinks we won't notice when we pack and that we will take him along.

Mom and I made it in to have a pedicure so that we will have pretty pink toenails in our wedding shoes. On top of it all, I have jury duty this week! What timing, right? I hope they don't put me on a jury...I still have a veil to make! Do you think the judge will notice if I bring along my sewing machine?

Lunches out...

When my kids started school, I started meeting other moms whose kids were in the same classes, moms who were on PTA or were room mothers. We built the fitness trail at the grade school, put on fundraising dinners, ran the carnivals, started the art print program, weighed and measured the kids, went to board meetings and made cupcakes and cookies for school parties. A few of us really hit it off and little by little we started getting together for lunch or something when it did not have to do with school business. We had a book read for a while, one of us picked the book and we all read it...then another picked a book and we read that...it lasted through a couple of books. Next we tried to lose weight. We all weighed in every week. For every pound we gained we had to put money in a jar. It was supposed to be incentive to lose, but instead we had quite a savings going and that started our first overnight get away. We took the money and all went overnight to the beach. We had enough in there to pay for our room and a really nice dinner! (OK, so it was not a very successful weight loss program!) From there on, we took a few trips together. We have been to the Oregon coast, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Palm Springs and one year they went to New York (I missed it that year) We've been together through funerals, our kids graduations and weddings, surgeries, became Grandmas, had way too many birthdays and many ups and downs in our families lives. We don't go on the trips anymore, it just got to be too hard to schedule that much time away that we could all go. But, even after all these years we still get together as much as we can. Last week 4 of us managed to schedule in a lunch. Above is a picture of Mary, Joan and Sandie after lunch. Marvel and Carol and Sheri could not make it. Here is the whole gang (except Sandie) at Sandie's daughter's wedding.













A couple of weeks ago, I met my Mom and Dad and Cyndi for lunch. Lindy had to work or she would have been there too. Cyndi thought it was funny that Dad and I wore the same color and had to take a picture of us. She made some comment about us not letting them know that we were supposed to wear brown. Then Dad looked at her and Mom and said, "Well, YOU guys didn't tell us that we were supposed to wear purple!" and then we all just laughed because Mom and Cyndi were perfectly matching in their purple. So we had to have a picture of them too. We are easily entertained.

Obama's Presidential Inauguration. This is as close as I got.

January is BIRTHDAY month!

It is almost like a long drawnout Christimas around here during the month of January. Beginning on the 1st all the way until the 29, one week even has three birthdays! Elizabeth, John (son), John (husband), Bobby, my Dad, Emily, Ariel, David, Alan, Joan. A month long celebtation and by the end of the month...I've had my fill of birthday cake. (and still have not gotten rid of that extra 5 pounds!) We had Emily's last week...after the party we went to the pet store and brought home two new gerbils.

I have been having a good time learning to use my new camera.


Last week, on my walk, I took a picture of the most beautiful sky over Mt. Hood. It was so pretty how the clouds were just below the mountain and the sky color was gorgeous! I was so excited to get home to see on my computer how it turned out . I was so disappointed to see that there were two spots of dust on the finished picture. The camera has a dust removal system, so I took care of that problem, but it didn't help with the ruined picture. Yesterday the sky was pretty again, so I tried to recapture it. It is nice, but not as pretty as the first day. (p.s. I was able to remove the spots in my photoshop.)Here are a few other shots that I took. It is still cold, you can see the ice coming out of the ground and on the puddles and there is a pile of snow left over beside the road. The apples are still there, the birds like that. Down the road, I noticed some signs on a driveway...I guess they don't want us to enter, huh? A tree fell on a fence and was all the way across the road. The pond at the end was overflowing a couple of days ago, but has come down a bit. NOBODY is out there on the fitness trail, what happened to all those New Year's resolutions? And just HOW did a golf ball get in the field by my house?I'm having fun taking the camera on my walks, but it is not helping much with the 5 pounds I need to lose. Pretty hard to get your heart rate up when you keep stopping to take pictures.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The snow is gone, Jessi made it back to the Dominican Republic, John and Rachel and the kids are safe in Salem, the decorations are all put away and the only remainder left over from all of it is the 5 pounds I gained! Time to work on getting rid of that and get ready for Jessi's wedding on Valentine's Day in the DR.

December 29
Jessi and I were able to get to Salem and see John and Rachel and Emily and Joshua. We had lunch at their place, John's special recipe of tacos.

December 28

We drove into visit John's parents. While we were there, his sister Sandy and her husband Jack stopped in.

December 25

It was STILL snowing! Since we could not drive out of the driveway yet, plans were made for Lindy to come and get us in her truck. We loaded up our gifts into bags and headed down the hill to be picked up. She and Dad left at 1:00 to pick us up...normally it would take about 10 minutes...not this time, it took them 1 1/2 hours to get over to our place! Good thing we waited inside and warm for a call that they were getting close. Then she got stuck at the bottom of the hill! John and Dad helped maneuver the truck around and we headed out...arriving back at their place at 4:00...THREE HOURS round trip! John and Rachel happened to meet us in Sandy on their way back from her parents' place and Lindy blazed the trail to get us all there.

Check out the last photo...hard to remember it being hot enough to swim in that pool!

December 24

Jessi and Joshua made a snowman and a snow angel and then us girls decided to try to shovel out the driveway so that maybe we could get a car in or out if one of us was lucky and brave enough to try to make the hill. It took us almost all afternoon, but we didn't get it all done before it got dark. It was hard work with snow piled up on top of a sheet of ice.


We quit and came inside and made chicken and home made noodle soup for our Christmas Eve dinner

December 23

After 3 days of being housebound, Jessi and I struck out on foot to Gresham. Our neighbor came by just as we were leaving the driveway and drove us in. He dropped us off on Powell and from there we went to pick up a few things from WINCO for Christmas dinner and then over to Fred Meyer for some last minute things and of course we had to have lunch while we were in town. It was a fun day. The walk home (almost 2 hours) took us about twice as long as it normally would with stops to take pictures and adjust the backpack Jessi was carrying. (no, Jessi...we still have not used the 10 pounds of potatoes I thought we had to have)

John and Rachel decided to take advantage of the break in weather on Tuesday afternoon and drive on up a day early. The snow on the Interstate had piled up and made tracks so deep that the cars were high centering. The highway had to be closed on one side at a time to de-ice and had backed traffic up from Portland all the way to Salem. Instead of having dinner with us, they pulled over in Woodburn and ate and put on chains and then took Hwy 99 on up instead. Their drive ended up taking them 6 hours instead of the usual 1 hour!!! They could not make it up our hill into our drive so we walked to the bottom and helped them carry their things up.