Mt. Loop Hwy is open

Three years ago this popular high country road was flooded out by the Sauk River and it has taken that long to replace the road. This is the first weekend of it's opening so we just couldn't resisit hittin' the road.

Clyle did a little exploring on a stop along the road.
I just heard that it was a triple digit temp today in our neighboring Oregon, and I'm sure not much less here today, but it was a little nicer up in the hills.

Blue Skies

We've been feeling a little blue-sky deprived lately, so I couldn't resist these shots of the pilots having fun with their "smoke" with the moon in the background.

I longed to be in one of those planes, but headed southeast, not north.

Snoqualmie Falls

I never tire of the power and beauty of Snoqualmie Falls. Just one more of the fantastic sites in Washington.

Elena Graduates

I was blessed to spend the afternoon at the Pomeroy's celebrating Elena's Highschool graduation. Elena is my great-neice and we were all laughing about the "great" part and how we never feel old enough to be called "great." But then when I think that my oldest grandchild is twenty years old and engaged, I guess that being a great-grandma isn't that far off either. Here are some pics from the day, I'm sure you'll agree she's a beautiful girl!

Relay for Life is over and I'm already thinking about what I want to do for January. I found this cute little 8x8 at the dollar store of all places... or should I say "Dollar Plus?" (they blame it on inflation... yeah right!). So, anyway, I was going to do this as a girly album but then thought since I'm doing it for Cancer fundraiser that I would do it in pink for breast cancer. Since it has the flourishes on the front I want to have flourishes on each page. Don't know if I 'll make that or not but I have four or five stamp sets with flourishes. I think on the window in the front I will use the ribbon stamp.

Is there a twelve step program?

Maybe not, I think it's a two step program called fall and winter. But in the meantime I'll enjoy spring and summer! But I can't stop buying new plants! They are still small now, but here's some of my latest finds. A couple of nice tri-color hydrangeas to go with the three blue that I bought two days ago. A gorgeous Rex Begonia, and some impatients and coleus for the deck.

Relay For Life

I did about 50 cards this week for the Northwest Hospital's Relay for Life. It was fun putting them together. This is their last fund raiser for the year, so I'm going to have to think about something else. Maybe Christmas cards?? I'll be ready when the time comes anyway.

Here are some of the cards I did for Relay. the date on the pictures are wrong as you may have noticed. I didn't realize that Dave had set the date stamp on them and when I changed the battery it changed the date to default.

I think that the round one I am going to do for Christmas. I know that i will be getting new Christmas stamps so I will just do some basic backgrounds then add the stamps later. I am going to do more production line ones this year instead of having 44 different styles like previous years.

I love the funky flowers one (with the circles). It was a scraplift from the Cards Magazine. The one in the book had the flowers stamped with journaling lines, but I embossed and sanded them, think it was a lot cuter.

So, anyway, I think the relay went well. I didn't stay long as the people I know were not there and wouldn't be back for some time.

Springtime

I love the spring and the flowers. I don't know about mowing three times a week, but it looks pretty anyway. My fledgling plans are starting to grow nicely. I got a killer of a deal at Home Depot today. I went over there to get a gift card for my Kudo's Corner winner and found these huge hydrangea's, about three feet tall for only $3.33. Of course, I didn't have room for even one in my yard, and just couldn't justify buying more flowers for the park, but I still managed to get three of them. I planted one in the new bed that I started that I made this year... well, actually an extension of an old one. It's mostly just fabric and mulch covered lawn with pots sitting on it. I moved a red japanese maple over from the front of the house, and the rest is in pots, but now it has an hydrangea. Put another one in the bed next to the stairs and don't know where I'll put the other, but know I'll find just the right place for it. Here's a few of my flowers.

The last one is where I planted the hydrangea (this was taken before hydrangea). There was a small one just in front of the office, and another one where the white lilac is. I had taken out an ugly old bush and replaced it with the lilac, and also dug up some ugly shrub in front of the office. The little Japanese maple moved very well, you could never have known it was disturbed at all. It was sitting in front of a electrical transformer box and PUD told me that if they had to get in to the box they would just cut down the tree, so figured it had better be moved, and I think it's the best thing that's happened to it in a long while.

I have lots of pretty geraniums in the front that will be blooming soon. Another killer deal, but from Freddies - 33 cents each for the starts! They've well over trippled now in size. My petunias are getting bigger every day, and things are really filling in nicely. The entrance is starting to fill out with the blue lobelia, white petunia's and red snapdraggons. I lost a lot of the snaps before they were actually planted, but I saved a lot of money on that project this year by buying early and transplanting the little starts and fertilized until the weather was acceptable. Tomorow if it's not raining too hard I will go out and take some progress pics of it.