Today, my Mom, sister and I visited Schreiner's Iris Gardens. It is off of I-5 just less than an hour from here. I have seen the iris blooming every year as I drove past, but this was the first time I actually stopped to see them. I don't know what took me so long! It was so beautiful, I think I will go back every year! So many colors, your eyes kept looking and looking to take it all in. And they smelled so fantastic too. There was more there than iris, there were lupine and poppies and many other kinds of flowers...

I think the blue ones were my favorite, which I didn't realize until I got home and took a look at the pictures and realized that most of them were a shade of blue, so they must have been my favorite, or I would have had other colors there too, right? Did you know that there is a BLACK iris? and a BROWN one? I can't believe the color combinations that have been created. I could have taken pictures all day, but will just plan on going back again for more.

They have gardens that you can walk all over in or just sit and look or you can see them in rows growing in the fields...either way is amazing to take in the colors. (and the scent!)

We have had such gorgeous weather! Record heat for two days and then two days of summer like weather. It started to rain again yesterday, but the few nice days gave us hope that summer really is on its way! Lindy Mom and Dad and I took advantage of it and took our first bike ride down the Springwater Trail into Gresham, had lunch and rode home.

WE HAVE BATS!!!

Yesterday when I was mowing the field, I noticed something moving in one of the rotten holes of the tree. I stopped to get a look and it was a BAT! He was crawling upside down, going from the top to the bottom and I got a good look at him.

So, get my daughter home for a visit and what do I do? Put her to work! The plan for yesterday was, go shopping, have lunch with Grandma and Grandpa McCool and Aunt Cyndi, then get home and mow while the sun was still out, just in case it starts raining for the next few days. But right after we got home, I got called from the Red Cross to go out to a fire and while I was gone, she decided to hop on the mower and had it almost done when I got back. Thanks JESSI!!!

Last week we got a new computer and I still had the box around. Since they were spending the night, Joshua decided it would make the perfect bed for him, so packed it up with pillows and blankets and his pet Nacho. Now what kind of a Grandmother would let their grandkid sleep curled up in a box? He was in his little box beside my bed. The lights went off, and it was silent, I didn't hear him move at all...I gave him about fifteen minutes and then said..."Ready to get up here?" He was out of his box bed and into mine in less than a minute!

Jessi is home!!! She arrived in late on Friday night and gets to stay for 10 days. Last week she attened a Kids Alive missionary conference in Wisconsin. John and Rachel and the kids came up to help us welcome her home. Last night, Jessi cooked us some Dominican rice to go with the pupusas that I made for dinner.

In case you don't know what a pupusa is, it is a filled tortilla. They are made from the masa mixture that you would normally pat out a tortilla from, but before you pat it out, you put in a little ball of cream cheese and mozzarella that has been mixed together and also a little ball of refried beans. They make their beans from scratch, but I use the kind from a can. The cheese that is normally used is hard to find in the states, but cream cheese is a pretty close substitute. You put the cheeses and beans in, then cover with the masa dough and pat it out flat. It is hard to do without the beans leaking back out. Then you just cook them on a griddle like a pancake. I learned how to make them from one of the students that was here from El Salvador. These don't look very good, but they tasted ok. The ones I have had in Central America are perfectly rounded and nothing leaking through.

Today I took my Mom with me to the Red Cross Volunteer Celebration. It was a breakfast cruise on the Spirit of Portland. We had a really good time and Mom ended up winning a door prize for two nights stay at the Cannon Beach Hotel and a $50 dinner!

Dandelions have such a bad reputation, but just look at them.

From that bright sunny yellow flower, the tight bud and the fuzz ball...now that is a pretty interesting plant.

Not only is it pretty, how many times have you made a wish and blown all the buff away?

I used to make chain necklaces from the stems. Somehow, they used to look better than this. one.

Sure Signs that Spring is Here...

...it was sunny... I got muddy... there was a ton of weeds... and even Bazzel thought it was warm enough to lay outside...
...and the best thing...I found 4 Robin egg shells!

Happy Birthday to ME!

It was a pretty weird thing to wake up to snow on my birthday. I don't think that has ever happened! It didn't stick, but just was a strange thing to have happen, especially since we had 70-80 degree weather just before this sudden cold spell. John jr. called and instead of singing 'Happy Birthday', I got to hear 'I'm Dreaming of a White Birthday...' then Joshua and Emily played me a song on the keyboard. I also got calls from Dennis and Jessi and Mom and Cyndi and Lindy (Luke and Nathan and Ellie, helped her sing too). I got calls from a few friends too, Yasser from Nicaragua, Ron from Virginia, and Alan from New Mexico, and a card from Mary Jane from California and Sam from Panama, Melanie from Tennessee, Teresa from Nicaragua, Mavis, and my Spanish instructor, Merle from Guatemala. I helped instruct a class all day at the Red Cross, but didn't say a word about it being my birthday. It is embarrassing to have it be a public celebration. Once I got home, John took me out to dinner to Typhoon, mmm....Panang Chicken...I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow. It snowed the whole time we were eating dinner. There were a few couples all dressed up for their prom. I took a picture for the group next to us. They were from Barlow. It sure made me miss my kids prom days with tuxedos and pretty dresses and girls primping all day, facials and pedicures and hair being done over and over and the pictures and flowers and wondering if it was a wise thing that they were once again using Cyndi and Dan's Corvette and then the house full of so many kids for the after the prom sleepover.

I watched Emily play in a soccer game today.

I can't believe how aggressive she is.

She played a really good game and helped them win 3-0.

It was a perfect day to be outside, sunny and 80 degrees!!!

This is ridiculous! We have had SNOW every day for the past 6 days! The spring flowers just don't look right with snow coming down on them!

The kitchen windows got steamed up when I was cooking the other day. I noticed this strange pattern across it...what do you think it is?

It was a ladybug trail!

Isn't that so cute how it just wandered around like that?

Today I received the official approval to be moved up from Client Casework Associate to Supervisor!

Pre Easter dinner

So we finished the show and went back home. Emily got to spend the day alone with her Mom and Dad. They went to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa McCool and then hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls. We got the chickens into the oven and while they roasted, we watched the Bee Movie

Finally dinner was ready. We started out with pear bunnies that Emily assembled, roasted herbed chicken, barley pilaf, stuffing, peas, carrots and pea pods and home made rolls, finishing off with Red Velvet Cake.

After that, we had the egg hunt. They started out a little wild, then slowed down a bit until they found them all.

So now everyone is gone and look what is left of Easter dinner...

Go, Dog. Go!

Way back last fall, I bought tickets to take Joshua to see a play at the Children's Theater for his birthday. I didn't realize that Easter was the same weekend. Oh well, Joshua and I went to the play at noon and had a really fun time. I had no idea how they were going to make that book into a show, but they were very creative and did a fantastic job of it. He was camera shy, so the picture I took of him at the show, only shows his book. He was not about to have any of the actors pose with him for a photo after the show either. I did manage to get him to take one with me once we got back home.

Good Friday
Tonight I went to church (English version) for Good Friday service. It was a very unique service. Very meaningful and powerful. It started out with the usual songs, but the lights were low and they were more prayerful than usual. Quieter. Between songs, a person would go up and read a little paper about a struggle with some sin in their life. After each read their little paper, they would go over to a huge cross and pick up a hammer and nail that paper to the cross, they did this one by one between the songs. Then they stopped the songs, and passed baskets with paper and pencils in them and we were told that if we felt like writing a personal struggle, some sin we are facing in our own lives, then write it on the paper, and take it to the cross and nail it there. There were huge crosses all around the sanctuary. Next to the cross was a table with the bread and cups for communion. Each person would nail their paper and take the communion if they wanted to. When I was done, I sat there in my chair waiting for the others in the room to finish nailing, I closed my eyes and just listened to the sound of all those nails going in. Thinking of all those sins that Jesus died for.

Sometimes I think that my sin is the biggest in the world and then other times I think, well, everyone sins…it is not so bad…but as I sat there listening, I realized that we all have those sins, we all struggle, and even if I think mine is the worst, there is somebody out there who thinks theirs is the worst, but no matter how big, or small, it is sin…and sin is why Jesus did that for us on the cross.
It was very solemn…quiet except for those nails echoing.
Then the pastor got up and said…yes we need to look at those sins, we need to realize how needful we were for a Savior. We need to confess and repent. We need to remember those sins are on the cross. We have been forgiven. BUT…it did not stop at His death, if he had only died, then it would have been for nothing. He died, but rose from the grave. And that is why we can thank Him for those sins being on the cross, it was His victory over death that we celebrate on Easter. It was His Resurrection that gives us the forgiveness required to receive Eternal Life in Heaven.
Jesus died on what we call ‘Good’ Friday. Thanks to God, through the gift of His son Jesus...YES, IT IS A VERY GOOD FRIDAY!

Did you ever use a bread maker? A few years back almost everyone wanted one. The ones who had one raved about them. Things like, "Oh wow! It is so fast and easy, you don't have to do anything but put in the ingredients and wait. No mess, either" I never wanted one, I love to bake. I like to make things from scratch, I don't think it is too much work to make bread the old fashioned way. I like mixing it up, kneading it, watching it rise, punching it down, and then baking it. Besides that, those machines are HUGE, who would want to take up all that counter space for that ugly thing?

Well, Jessi is one of those people who had one. I say 'had' because for the last year, it has been sitting on a shelf in my house in storage for her while she is working in the Dominican Republic. I sorted out some closets recently and decided to take a look through her bread recipe books. Mmmm...there were some pretty good looking breads in there. White bread, sourdough, whole wheat, herb breads, breads with fruits in them, breads with meats in them, breads I had never heard of. OK, so why not just give one a try? So I lugged that HUGE machine into the kitchen. There were not instructions for it, so I went to the Internet and got the instruction manual. Yeah right, fast? So far no. I loaded the ingredients into the machine, closed the lid and ONE HOUR later...the house had the most delicious aroma of baking bread as I was slicing it up. It looked beautiful! It tasted so good! I found out that it can be loaded up, and a timer set so that it will come on and have fresh baked bread when you wake up! I just may have to rearrange those counter tops to make room for my new bread machine!
Home made raspberry jam, optional.

With McCool for a maiden name, you know I have to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring has arrived!