MY HOW TIME FLIES

It's hard to believe that we left Portland two months ago, one day short of two months. So much has happened, it feels more like six!

In two months, we've sorted and packed all of our belongings, driven completely across the state, bought a truck, bought a house, I've gone back to work...WOW...



Both Nick and I have remembered lessons learned as children, lessons from parents and grandparents. We have truly been able to slow down a bit, relax a little, and enjoy time together.

We've seen snow that doesn't cripple a city, sunshine, and yes even rain. We've looked to the sky and seen more stars than I've seen since I was a kid on the beach.

We've seen snow covered mountains...

and majestic buttes...

it hasn't been easy...we've had our bumps...but through it all we have all been able to keep in sight what really matters most...we are together, and we are in love. We might not be rich, but who cares!

Well, it's off to work with me.
I hope your day is filled with love, wonder and beauty.

xo

A VERY GOOD DAY INDEED

I don't have to work today. It's a good thing too, I spent ten plus hours in the salon yesterday, had my big six month review with corporate (keep in mind I've been there 2 weeks) and it's spring break here, so I also had to cut a bunch of hair.



The QSR, as we call them, went just like I thought it would, no surprises for me, I know what needs to be done, the owner of the salon however thought that it was unfair and biased, and made me feel as though she holds me responsible for her low score. What ever. I've promised myself I'm not going to worry about it.

Nick decided to take my mind off of it by suggesting we go look at the Ontario State Recreation Area, we have been thinking it would be a good place for our wedding ceremony, I think he really just wanted to see if it would be a good place to fish but, whatever his motives it sounded like a good idea, and it's really nice today.

He went to drop off a couple of resumes and run a couple errands before we left, so I jumped in the shower and got dressed. That sweet man did something very unexpected, he stopped at the grocery and picked up some things for a picnic!

Smoked salmon, cheese, crackers ,strawberries, Mexican pastries and sodas! It was just what I needed! We sat and relaxed, talked about the wedding, talked about our grandson, watched Bru try to act like a civilized dog, all bets are off when it comes to cheese and salmon! It was a beautiful time! I love my two boys so very much, they know just how to make me feel better!

Have you ever wanted to cry because you were happy, but known that if you did the person that was making you happy might misunderstand and think it's his fault somehow that your upset? I've needed a good cathartic cry for a while and just haven't been able to get there.


 I think that I just might go lie down and do that, not because I'm sad but because life is so beautiful!

And because I'm so lucky!

Well, that's all for now. I hope someone you love does something to make you cry tears of joy!

Have a great day!
xo

p.s. remember to enter the giveaway:) you can find details in my last blog!

500 PAGEVEIWS, A GIVEAWAY, AND IT'S STILL MONDAY

Well if my computer will cooperate I might get this posted before Tuesday! I have 30 minutes! Any way I promised a surprise and here it is...sometime Sunday I passed 500 pageveiws! Yes Dad, Other people find some of what I have to say interesting. So I decided to have a little giveaway to celebrate! No it's not the heart rock I found in the yard...it's...



two original art print magnets, made all by my little self and a pair of Nick's hand made earrings! I might even throw in the heart shaped rock!! Oh, how do I win these lovely prizes Vana? Simple, just leave a comment or click on the join this site dealy boober over there on the side or follow by e mail. Easy peasy! No counting how many times I've used the phrase "poor Nick" or anything like that. Yes if you do both you get entered twice, leave more than one comment, even more chances and no, you don't have to comment on this post specifically. I will randomly choose a winner on April 7th.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by every now and then. It means alot to me!

Phew...11:50 pm...I just made it! Now just hit the publish button...Ha ha Mr. Speros, smart alec!
xo

HAPPY DAYS!

Happy Saturday! Wow, Saturday's are different here, busy, but at a slower pace. Like everything here, people are just not in as big a hurry. It's sort of hard to adjust to but it's nice. People take time for family and friends on the weekends. Of course I work weekends, have forever, wouldn't know what to do if I didn't, but part of the beauty of moving here is that, I have more time to spend with Nick and Bruno!



This is the first really warm weekend we've had, and Nick has the gardening bug bad, yes you can't get a shovel out of his hands for long. Brunotopia is a real mud pit when it's wet and a dust bowl when it's dry. We want to get some grass seed down before Ms. Jane gets here so that she and Bruno can sit on a nice cool lawn, but, it's still getting cold at night. I don't know.

Maybe soon. Nick has struck an uneasy truce with the neighborhood hooligans by promising them pumpkins at Halloween and he's started them. Wow, our friend Anton, aka, punkin head won't need to worry about pumpkins for a while!

He's even gotten quite creative when it comes to containers to start his seeds in, his basil for instance is in P.B.R. cans! Bet your not surprised Johnny V! That's my Nicky!!

I think Ga'mom and Ga'pop would be proud of his resourcefulness!

Well, Happy Saturday! Hope your all well and happy and check here on Monday afternoon for a big announcement. No, Ms. Jane I will not let you in on it before I announce it here Monday! Sorry!

Have a great weekend!
xoxo

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME

I love the sky here...it's big and expansive...usually blue. Coming from the lush Willamette valley to the high desert of the Treasure valley is a big change. One that I celebrate every day, with or without wine. Life is good here once you get used to the smell of the onion juicing plant.

I spent my day off baking bread, grocery shopping and hanging out with my two favorite guys. Living here is simpler, less rushed, and happy. I have plenty to do. Plan a wedding, finish decorating not one but two houses, work, but I'm not crazy stressed here,  my attitude is more...get done what has to be done and the rest will fall into place.

I think Bruno enjoys the changes the most, his people aren't going nuts, I get to spend more time at home, Nick is actually starting to relax a little, and there is fresh bread, once a week. The smell of bread as it cools is something that really gets him to focus.

One of these days he is going to swipe at least one of those loaves right off the table, I just know it.

That tongue sort of gives his little plan away, he doesn't fool me! Angel dog my hinney! Future bread thief! Oh well if he does and it makes him happy I won't get too upset.

I really enjoy working the morning shift, it forces me out of bed so that I get to enjoy the sunrise. My walk takes me east so I can't miss it. I can't believe that I live in a place where I get to see this.

I hope your day is full of beauty and silly puppy faces!
xo

SOMETIMES LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART

A proud Papou.

Yesterday was my sweet grandson Cayden's 6 month birthday. I thought about him the entire time I was trudging through the snow and blowing (should have listened to Nick and called a cab) freezing rain to work. I thought about the first time I met Nick, how his eyes lit up and sparkled when he told me about his kids, how his eyes teared up when he explained that he wasn't able to have a close relationship with them because of circumstances with his ex-wife.

A photo of Maddie that lives on our mantle.

He was so proud of both of his children, loved them so much, was so hurt and broken...my heart broke...and I fell in love...with all three of them.

My handsome Corbin and Ga'mom & Ga'pop

There have been many times in the years Nick and I have been together that my heart has broken, and my love has deepened. It's usually his daughter, Maddie, little girls have a special grip on a daddies heart, that, very unintentionally, gets him right in the solar plexis. The Father's day phone calls...the "Hi dad, your going to be a grandfather" phone calls, and then there's realizing that his little girl is a grown up Mommy!

A man very much in love.

The strong man that I love can be rendered a very hurt little boy in a big hurry. I know that any parent can relate to what I'm saying. Both of his kids are adults now. Corbin, the adventurer is studing in Senegal. We miss him very much, not that we saw that much of him, but he wasn't half way across the world. He won't be here for our wedding, I had a dream of Corbin being Nick's best man, playing guitar for us (he is amazingly talented) and just hanging out. He is a remarkable young man.

Cayden the apple of my eye.

Maddie is doing the most important thing a woman can do in my opinion, raising a little guy, and from what I've been able to see, 465 miles away, doing an exceptional job of it. I don't believe there has ever been a little boy who has had so many people love him, so many grandparents, step, great and otherwise. I know that I think about him everyday, and miss him, and wish he was big enough to sit down at his Yia Yia's table with a big plate of cookies and a glass of milk and tell me all about his adventures.

"As soon as I can talk, Papou, I have some stuff to tell you."

I know that like Nick, Corbin and Maddie, Cayden will walk all over my heart, that it's going to hurt, and that I will love him more deeply afterwards. That's what true love does...

Sometimes pictures help

it forgives, grows, and lasts. Maddie is a new mom, a new wife, and I guess that I'm really writing this as a love letter to her...her blog...the multi-tasking mama...can break my heart. Love is not easy, if it was it wouldn't be worth much.

I hope that someday we can all get together, Maddie, Parker, Cayden, Corbin, NaNa, PaPa, Papou and Yia Yia. Until that day I will continue to adore this crazy family I have chosen to love, with all of it's cuts and bruises and bumps and warts. Yes, sometimes love can break your heart, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I think I need to call my Daddy!

xo

HAS SPRING SPRUNG?

This beautiful sunrise is what I started my day with yesterday.

This is today! Happy spring!

Bruno loves the snow, chasing snow flakes is one of his best tricks.

He thinks it tastes pretty good too.

They're awfully hard to catch on your tongue.



 Well, HAPPY SPRING! and WARM WISHES.
time to get ready for work and a mile walk in the snow (don't tell Nick, but I'm looking forward to it) it's supposed to stop by noon.

Have a beautiful day-
xo

WHAT A LIFE

Yum! Fresh strawberries! There's something about strawberries that says summer to me...here it is...mid March and the strawberries in the local Red Apple store are sweet and ripe...and large!

This was just an average sized berry! When I saw these at the market I knew that God loves me!!! Everybody sing...Jesus loves me this I know...look at how the berries glow.

I'm still walking to and from work, it's only 25 minutes, a lot better than the 50 minute bus ride in Portland, and I'm loosing some weight too.

This was the view going to work at 7:30 am yesterday. How beautiful is that? It's been cool and wet and overcast for the last 5 or 6 days here but it's still not as bad as Portland. At least the sun comes out for a little while every day. Coming home I got to see this...

Can you make out the snow capped mountains in the distance? Ontario is really surrounded by a ton of beauty, you just have to look out, not just straight ahead. On clear days this view is truly spectacular.

Nick built me this cabinet the other day, out of scraps of this and that. I love it! It gives me an extra 17 inches of counter space which I desperately need! The other counter is only 3 feet long! I think we will paint it to match the drawer pulls and really funk it up. I like that it looks really weathered.

Poor Nick, yes I had to say it again, the truck project has turned typically Nick and is not going well at all. In fact courtesy of the JERK at NAPA AUTO PARTS it could have killed us. The shocks went in in a wind storm, luckily no one named Dorothy landed a house on him, but it could have happened! Then he found a missing lug bolt...you have to disassemble the brake to fix that...and once that was done and the bolt was in, brakes bled etc. we went to run some errands. The brake fell apart!!! Why? because a guy at Napa told Nick he didn't need a spring (one that was on the brake when he took it apart) and Nick took him at his word. Lesson learned...not everyone here is a decent person! One of these days these older guys out here are going to figure out that people do look at reviews on line, and a bad review can in fact hurt your business.



Well, we've been in the house for one month, yesterday, and we still love it! Plumbing and all. We've made progress turning it from a rental house into a real home, and there are lots more changes coming. An old house is truly a labor of love. Speaking of love I just found out Ms. Jane will be here May 10th! I can't wait! Buno is beside himself! She doesn't know it yet but I just might have a project for her, one that will be a big part of our new home! TEE HEE!

Hope all is beautiful where you are-
xoxo

IT'S A PRETTY GOOD LIFE...

My life is pretty alright right now. I have my little house, my big dog and my wonderful guy. All in all, it's good. I sat down yesterday to tell you all about how great it was to see some rain when my phone rang...yep...it was work...could I come in...so I changed gears and got dressed and walked to work. It's such a nice walk.



I was just getting my two loaves of bread ready for the oven when my phone went off too. Well, I was able to get my bread done and out of the oven before I left.

Man...this bread is great! Nick was the one who suggested we start taking one of my days off and bake bread so we don't have to spend $4.98 a loaf. Translation...you should take one of your days off and bake bread. It's o.k. though, I love to bake, and handmade bread is sooooo good!



When I got home from work last night there was another box of goodies from Ms. Jane. Loads of fabrics and table cloths and even a sewing machine cover! I can't wait for my next day off so I can get at it all. Start creating again. The problem with a new job is that, it's sort of like being the guest of honor at a party where no one knows you, you have to be ON, the whole time. It's stressful and exhausting!



We keep finding weird heart garbage in the yard...a good omen? Well, I'm supposed to have today off, I need to give Nick a haircut so he can look good for job hunting, color my hair, put the goodies from the Mother in Love away and generally get caught up. It's nice that it's overcast I don't feel like I have to be working outside today.

Have a  beautiful day-

xo