6 hours

Walter is settled at Skip's house. Of course he had to initiate the carpet right off! The bags are packed except the hair brushes and tooth brushes for the morning. The taxi is coming at 7:30... if we're lucky. I got a snotty woman on the other end tonight and almost told her what she could do with her taxi. Got some problems wrapped up today and got a new one as I was working outside and someone tried to run me down. It's so much fun to be a manager! Haha... comes with the territory. This time tomorrow night we will be resting from the 6.5 hour trip in our room at LaQuinta.

Next post will have some pictures. Was going to do one of the packed bags, but the camera is packed and don't want to mess things up.

Countdown

The countdown has begun! 6 Days until we leave for Florida. I'm SOOOOO ready for a vacation!

A Tribute

This picture was taken 5 years ago at my in-laws 50th Wedding anniversary party. My second Mom and Dad (the only ones I have now) have been the most incredible in-laws anyone could ever ask for. They accepted me from the very beginning as an equal part of the family, just like I had been born in to that family. It is no different today.

I was privledged to spend Mom's last three days with her and the rest of the family; Dave, Dad, Christi and Ron. It was such an incredibly time as we held her hands and talked to her. Ron and Dad sang to her at different times and we prayed. She passed away at 8:12 am Thursday morning, October 30th. It was truly a "death with dignity" as it was in God's perfect timing with her family by her side. I love you Mom.

Christmas Cards

The santa and the snowman are flocked, and these are all CTMH stamps except the last one which is from Flourishes (online store). I'm sure that I have bought one of every Christmas paper that is available this year. Just found out though that the Mighty Mouse Brigade, Relay for Life is doing a sale December 12th, so I need to get lots of cards ready for them.

Did I say that I am anxious for Christmas this year? I am! I have room for a tree now, and plan on doing it up good. Dave bought another inflatable for the yard, a polar bear. Don't know for sure where we are going to put them all, but it will be fun trying. I'm going to use the occasion to start moving our stuff out of the Snohomish storage and get something closer. Hopefully in doing so I can sort out some stuff that I've been hanging on to, so that we can get a smaller storage unit.

Looking for Leaves

We decided to go for a drive to Enumclaw today to see the fall leaves. I've never been to Enumclaw that I can remember, and it is so close to us now. So we headed out.

We came to a fork in the road and it said Mt. Rainer one way and something the other, so we said sure, let's go to Mt. Rainer. It's been a long time since we've been there. It's definately a different route than I've ever taken, and Dave too.

When you see it from a distance you don't even see this little peak on the side.

Not too many fall leaves up here. We came to another fork and it said to Portland one way and another something else the other. Thinking we would miss Rainer if we went the Portland way, we went the other. Oops... wrong way. Oh well, we'll enjoy it anyway.

So we get up to the summit of Chinook Pass and got out to take some pictures. Oh yes, most of these pictures were taken through a dirty windshield. I asked one guy if he knew how far it was to Yakima and he said he thought it was about 45 minutes away. So we thought, hey, that's not so bad, let's do it.

These pictures got a little mixed up as I posted them, sorry. Most of the ones with the fall leaves are from the west side and then it began to get more barren as we got closer to Yakima. Oh yeah, it wasn't 45 minutes, more like double that. But that's okay, we needed an escape today.

This one made me very sad. This was just coming in to the eastern side of Washington. We could see the hillside behind a ways back and I thought that there were deciduous trees interspersed with the fir trees. But as we got closer I saw that they were dead fir trees. Years ago when we returned from taking Carla to Prairie Bible School in Canada we came back through Montana, Idaho and in to Washington. There was a progression of dying trees and it was a beetle that was destroying all the pine trees. As you got closer to Eastern Washington it diminished some until you got to the west side and we had our nice green fir trees again. I am wondering if this is from the same beetle that is destroying the pine trees of the east side.

Out of place picture. The next two are from Chinook pass looking onto the William O Douglas and Norse Peak Wilderness. We do still have some wilderness left, thank God.

As we got closer to Yakima, we saw less and less trees until there was nothing but rock. Homes sit where they literally cut them out of rock and built there homes. No yards, nothing but rock on every side.

But we did get to see some pretty trees before crossing over. Not as many as I would have thought. I was so afraid of missing them as I do every year and guess I was a little early.

When we got to Yakima and filled up the tank I washed the windows so we could get better pictures, but there just wasn't anything worth photographing there. I am so glad that I live on the west side of the Cascades.

There was one thing that we were not early with. We were sitting eating dinner in Ellensburg in a nice little family restaurant and I had this thought.... I asked Dave what day it was... and he looked at his watch and said "the day after our anniversary." It hit us both at the same time. Oh my gosh, 34 years and we both forget?! I'm sure he felt better that I forgot too, because last year I remembered and he forgot. So I told him that for our 35th we are going to have to plan something really BIG! Maybe a trip to Hawaii? I'll make him pay for forgetting two years in a row..... hehe.

Australian Flax

I made another trip to Auburn Park yesterday. I really should take pictures of their gardens because that is the real piece of art! But I am working on this one, and have visions of grandeur when I look at magazines of perennial gardens. But this flax is defiantely grand! We started by digging up small plants; sedums... lots of them, some daylillies and various others. Then we went out front and Steve dug up this huge gorgeous Flax. Marjie and Steve were discussing weather it was New Zealand or Australian, but whichever it is it is really pretty, has a purplish spear and is probably 4 feet tall. There is also a giant Autumn Joy in full bloom that I brought home, and all I have to say is everyone in Auburn that I passed on the road knew what I was doing. The Autumn Joy which is not much different in size from the flax was buried somewhere under the flax that was sticking out the back window. I called Dave and had him meet me at the entrance to unload and of course all he could see was the dirt in the car. Hey.... we have a vaccuum!Behind where the flax is now, we had cut down one of those cedar trees to expose the playground, so this kind of makes up for that without hiding the playground. If I manage to get the Autumn Joy staked up today I will post it, but it took a pretty good beating on the way home. No loss though really because I took all the little (or not so little) stems that broke and replanted them and they will become their own plants next year.

It's off to Mount Vernon today, but I hope to get back to my cardmaking this weekend. I got some new stamps this week from Michael's on coupons! The only way to shop!

Clyle's "nose"

Remember Clyle's fossil collection from his digging escapades in the community? He's at it again! But this time he says he found a nose. It's actually a broken rock that looks like a huge honker! Actually I told Dave I thought it resembled his a lot... was he getting just too "into" his digging?