Identify This, Kids !

OK, Kids - identify this.
The first one to respond with the correct answer gets a Tootsie Pop!
Hint - We took this when we were visiting Pat and Lyle on our way up to our our weekend at Ocean Shores.
We were sitting out in front in the car looking at the house and a guy came out and asked if he could help us.
The house is up for sale so guess he thought we were thinking of buying it....
I tried to talk him into letting us go thru it but he said we would have to go thru the Realtor. He said the guy selling it has totally redone the inside. The side garage is now a bedroom and there is a bar between the kitchen and the domed living room. They totally redid the foundation.
I was dying to get inside....
What do you think?

Meet Henry : )

This is my little friend, Henry. He lives on or around my hose in the back yard. He comes every year and often I forget to check to see if he is on the hose before I water my plants in the morning. Then, guess what, he goes for a little ride as I unwravel the hose to reach the flower beds.
He doesn't seem to mind too much but I always feel bad when I start to rewind the hose when I'm done with it and I see him clinging to the hose or the side of the holder looking a little dizzy.
Sometimes he just sits on the side of the house clinging to the siding.
He is a cute little guy and comes back every spring to live there. Guess he likes the moisture he gets from the rocks under the hose. I was hoping he would show up when the grandkids were here so I could introduce them - and Lo and Behold - he did but it was early in the morning when I went out to water and none of them were up yet. But just in case he didn't stick around, I took a picture of him on Savannah's camera so I could at least show them the picture and sure enough he was gone before they got up.

MEOW - How Cute is This

We have had Savannah and Ethan here since Sunday. Today we will be going up to Longview to meet Lorraine and get Kyler.
Friday we are going out in the RV just for fun -
Then we have to return the kids on Monday.
We've had a blast.
Yesterday we went out to the animal shelter and spent two hours just loving the kittys.

OK It's short but sweet today. We are heading over to Jackie's to love on her kittys this am.
Hugs

It's A Grand, Grand Day

Sometimes you just have days like this... all is well with the world !
(In spite of the fact I have had gremlins doing really weird things on my computer the past few days. Some of which have even stumped my live in "computer whiz.")

The sun is shining. I got in a little early for a haircut app't so walked the river walk awhile. The ships were gently moving up the river, the birds were on the pilings, the water was lapping along the shore. I love Astoria!
After my app't I stopped in for a latte at the little coffee shop next to the hair salon. It was funny as I was getting hair cut you can hear the coffee machines as they are right beside each other. I asked Vicki (my hair dresser) if that was the latte machine. She said "Oh no that is the Smoothie machine. The latte machine makes a clacking noise." She knows them all by heart.

After getting my latte, I walked over to get my coupon scanned at JoAnn's so I will continue to get their ads. Found a really cool plum basket for behind my chair for 1/2price (My old one is falling apart)and a really neat pkg of 12 x 12 paper with fall and Christmas paper that was way COOL.

On the way back to the car stopped to look in a window of a small little store on a side street to enjoy two large kittys both sleeping along the window glass. One big tabby up front with his fur pushed up against the window and on his tail again pushed up against the window another big black one end to end - both SOUND asleep. I couldn't go in to love them a bit as the store was closed but they made my heart happy!

My Weight Watcher lesson is done for this week. Always a good feeling to be prepared before the "day" of the meeting. It has been doing great this summer. We have averaged with both meetings about 90 members a week...usually around 50-55 first mtg and around 40 or so second meeting. Wondering what will happen in Sept when all our vacationers and our "I've blown it all summer and want to look nice for the holidays"
people come back. I challenged them all (baiting them with prizes along the way) to come 12 out of the 14 weeks before Labor Day and they seem to have taken the bait : )
But we still have LOTS of new people after school starts and the routine begins for everyone.

Our garage sale was a HUGE success last weekend! Had four of us with things in it and we ran two days putting out new things on the second day. One lady came by three times and bought each time. With all four of us we were about $10 shy of selling $900 worth of stuff! Not bad for things we wanted to get rid of, huh ! We met Kevin Pierce from J & S next door in Dairy Queen Sunday night and apologized for all the cars coming in and out and even parking in their lot. He just looked at me and said."Oh, we expect it at least once a year." They are such good neighbors.

Anyway Bob is filling in on the Light Ship with an unexpected shift this afternoon. Dinner will be as soon as he gets home as we have a concert tonight at the Liberty Theater here in Astoria. What better day could one ask for -
GOD IS GOOD !!
HUGS !!

What A Life !!

This must be how the other half lives !!
I'm sitting in the window overlooking the ocean with a cup of coffee while my favorite man snoozes... The room is quiet, the ocean waves crashing in on the sand, a mama deer with her fawn feeding below our fourth story room which looks up and down the beach. Our bed will be made by the maid, breakfast will be served when we go to the dining room....There is a boardwalk to the ocean, our room has a fireplace and we watched a gorgeous sunset from our window last night over the ocean!
We are at the Ocean Shores Resort as a freebie from Bob's 50th class reunion prize.
We drove up on Friday am, visited Pat and Lyle over lunch in Aberdeen then headed on up to Ocean Shores. Yesterday after my 30 minute (free) massage, we headed into town and played around. Visited the Interperative center, had huge ice cream cones at a little place called Murphy's which made us feel like we were back in the 50's, played 36 holes of miniature golf - meeting a really fun couple about our age that was playing right behind us that we visited with at each hole as we waited for the party ahead of us to finish each hole. Then came home to keep our reservations for dinner (free) in the resort dining room. Really a fun get away -
We will head home this afternoon and back to reality....
(Cathy, we are about ten miles from the house you were checking out as a potential Christmas setting if anyone is interested - so we plan on driving by just for fun since we are so close)
(Steve/Lorraine - We found a really cool campground (Ocean City State Park) with lots of trees and green grassy spots along the beach here in Ocean Shores with spots way large enough for our RV and several tents -will talk to you about it when we get home. Has potential unless you think it is too far away. Ocean Shores is about 45 minutes from Aberdeen)

Plan on a cemetary visit on our way home thru Aberdeen. Haven't made it up to check on things for awhile. More when we get home
Hugs to all

Want An Eyeball on The End of Your Finger?

Just got home last night from a weekend with Steve, Lorraine,Spencer and Riley camping at Stub Stewart State Park up near Vernonia. We tend to look for closer RV parks now with the cost of gas and this is one we had never been to before. It just opened a year ago so everything is nice and clean and new. Nice park! A little bare of trees right now on the RV field but they have planted some for future shade.
It does have beautiful forests all around and lots of trails although it was really to hot to do much hiking.
Saturday we drove in and did the town of Vernonia (in about ten minutes : ) It is a quaint little place but too small to have much to do. We hit a few antique shops and a pet store where a cute little bird pooped on Steve's arm but that pretty much covered the town experience.
We played games ... waited on Spencer to make the most possible points rearranging his cards : ) playing Quiddler, laughed together playing a game called "What Would You Rather Do?" What a riot! Can't remember for sure the first part of the question but it was - something like "Would you rather have white eyeballs or AN EYE BALL ON THE END OF YOUR FINGER. NOW this intrigued me! No question here. I want an eyeball on the end of my finger! JUST THINK OF THE POSSIBLILITIES HERE - with an eyeball on the end of your finger you could see around corners, look down the back of your neck if you had an itch, look in small places for a lost item, sneak a finger to the next page for an answer to a test and other numberous options. Why didn't God think of how convenient that could be !
Then we ended the last evening with S'Mores around the campfire. What more could you ask for on a camping trip. That's what memories are made of !! Fun Times Together.

Garage Sale Treasure

Forgot to tell you about my "cool find" at a recent garage sale. Judi and I went to one in Astoria that was several blocks long with sales on both sides of the street. Really cool as we just parked and did all the blocks at one shot.
Anyway I found a really cool metal lamp with a really pretty shade for the table beside my living room chair for $5 bucks. But when I got it home I couldn't find a switch anywhere even on the cord where I figured it must be but when I plugged it in to be sure it worked (which he promised me it did) I accidently bumped it AND IT CAME ON. Bumped it again and it got brighter and again - brighter still.
I have seen these but had no idea this was one of them. I LOVE IT ! He had two more there and if I had known they were so cool I would have picked up another one.

We had a blast that day. Hadn't been out garage saleing (how DO you spell that?)all year and just took off on a whim after going to a sale our Close to My Heart lady had at her house one Saturday morning. We just goofed around all morning and I found all kinds of little fun things without spending a whole lot of money.

Now we are in the middle of prepping for ours which will be July 25 -26. It is always a big job but a good feeling to get to downsize and sort things out. Always feel "so organized" when we are done.

Organization! I love it but don't do nearly as much as I wish I could. To many other things crowding in. "Clutter drives me up the wall" - Found a saying in a magazine the other day I am hoping to live by more and more. It said "IF IN DOUBT, DUMP IT
YOU WILL REVEL IN YOUR DECLUTTERED EXISTANCE AND HAVE FEWER ITEMS TO DUST."
I love this but I MUST tell you I had to move a whole pile of papers and books on my desk to find it under the glass where I tucked it so I wouldn't lose it before I could share it with you. OH DEAR - guess I certainly haven't reached my goal yet, huh!
Hugs to you all today!