Good bye 2010; hello 2011!!

The last few days of December always generate a time of reflection and a sense of hope and anticipation for the new year. What will 2011 hold??
Only time will tell but I am looking forward to it!

Winding down the year already!? Reflecting on 2010.

I can't believe it is November already! Its slightly embarrassing that this is my first post for 2010. But that is just the way of it.

Headlines for the year include:

• Family, Fashion and Fun: A trip to New York for a fashion show, family reunion and an expedition.
• Feeling Effects of A Crippled Economy- we both faced major changes in our jobs as a result of the economic times.
• Eastcoast comes West: Mom and Dad venture out to Washington to check out Seattle, visit with us and explore the Oregon coast.
• Yard Produce and Putting food By: Our front yard garden produced enough for canning; we have beets, green beans, potatoes and carrots put up for the winter!
• Big Birthday Catch: A birthday fishing trip yields 2 Steelhead for the freezer and a commitment to fishing the local rivers
• Baby boom: There is a new baby boy in the family and another cousin and a nephew are arriving in early 2011.
• 200,000 mile club: Acquisition of a "new" car and I come to the realization that all of our vehicles have over 200,000 miles and run strong and reliably thanks to the skill, care and diligence of the man in our house
• West goes to the Southeast: A visit back to Georgia to be with family and and cheer on friend at a huge horse event
• Searching for Caches: We discovered the adventures of Geo caching - great fun and it requires gadgets, a sense of adventure and being outside!! Does it get any better?
• Your how old? CARDED on 30th Birthday!
• Star sighting! Rainbow Brite and her Sprite, Twink, appear at a doggie costume contest at a local restaurant on Halloween
• Burly Blondie Relocates: Warren moves to a pasture in the country and befriends a herd of cows, other draft horses and ponies and thrives in his new farm!
• Fruit loopy: A determination for growing a lemons in the balmy pacific northwest! A lemon tree makes a a new home in our quaint little house.

Phew, it has been a busy year thus far! I wonder what 2011 has in store...

Go Capri!

A winter Project for Russ was going to be to get his 1974 Mercury Capri up to driving status again. Mostly it was tires and a tune up that it needed. He figured it would be a slow winter project. Well.. the lugs were hardly snugged down before he was ready to tune it up and drive it to work again. Needless to say, the Capri is alive and breathing and going strong these days and Russ couldn't be having more fun zipping around town in the little cruiser.

Girlfriend's Half Marathon

The day before the race, I decided if there was an opening, I would sign myself up and run it. The weather was promising to be pretty decent, cool but not rainy. It turns out there was one opening, so I got my number and I was signed up to run. The entire time, I am thinking what in the world am I doing!? Ah well. 13.1 miles around Vancover, it will be a nice stroll through the city....

The race was geared towards women, pink shirts to wear, and chocolate to eat and firemen handing out water at the finish line, what fun is that!?

Saturday morning I met up with my co-workers, stretched out and lined up for the race. The announcer said go and away we went. I stayed with my competitive co workers for the first 2.5 miles but then decided if I was going to last another 11 miles, I needed to knock the pace back a little bit. So down the Columbia River I shuffled with a mass of women all ages and builds. It was actually pretty fun being in the group. There were refueling station every 2 miles so you could pace yourself that way: just get to the next tent, there is water and energy gels (yuck - but they do provide a boost if you can choke them down) I met up with a lady that had all sorts of timers and watches going off that was going about the same pace as me so I stayed wit her and chatted for about 5 miles and then again had to slow up the pace for myself. By mile 10, I was starting to feel the muscles tighten and it became a push to keep going but the end was insight. Just go around the fort, back up the hill, through town and you are over the finish line! Becky and Denise were already across the time by the time I got to my last mile. They were doubled back and cheering me on, I sprinted the last 1/2 mile and I had done it! 13.1 miles!

June, July, August....

We were out having so much fun over the summer, I did not make it in to sit down and blog much. It is difficult when the sun is out and the days are long, to come indoors. Especially when you know the summer is so short lived and the sun will disappear for months on end. So a run down of the highlights of the summer:

Golfing - I learned to hit a golf ball and play golf- real golf on a golf course with a cart and clubs and everything! Lucky, Jade, Russ and I entered in a golfing competition - we even took home a first prize trophy. woo hoo!

Running - My co-workers got inspired early this year to run a 1/2 Marathon in August.

(that is 13.1 miles)! I have been wanting to build up my endurance so I decided to join them in their afternoon runs. We took a trip to the shoe store to get the right fit and got on a training plan. We even got skirts to run in (they are way cooler than shorts!) So we became the running skirts! We have run in a few shorter races, a few 10Ks. a few 5 Ks but the big push is the 1/2 marathon. I don't know if I can do that many miles. 6 is pretty long for me!

Clean out- Russ and I cleaned out the storage container and the garage - a MAJOR accomplishment -not only do we have less stuff - we have more have more room to put the boat in the garge for the winter instead of the chore every fall of deflating and storing it - now it can remain inflated and parked in the garage!

Man Island - Russ has this great tent hammock that sets up perfectly in between 2 tress in the back yard. He got the idea to make a rock area underneath the trees to put his feet. It evovled into what we now call man Island.. complete with rocks, a fire pit umbrella and a tiki man. Soon there will be bamboo and lights. A nice backyard island get away.

Lake - Of course we spent many hot afternooons out on the lake -

it was even hot enough for me to want to get in chilly waters of the glacial fed lake a few times. Jade and I found a log to play on one afternoon while we were paddling around!

Manteo, NC - Russ and I went to the Geidel family reunion at Granna and Pa's house. It was a lovely trip, we stayed wit Mom and Dad in a condo they rented right on the water. Russ though Nags Head was a neat beach town and loved the scenery and all the ocean going boats.

Canon Envirothon and Visit to GA - I had the opportunity to spend the week in Asheville, NC to represent Washington state at the Canon Envirothon meetings. Since I was so close to home, I spent an extra few days visiting family in Georgia. We had a lovely summer picnic at the lake and even got in some gardening.

Memorial Day Weekend

This is perhaps the most summery, warmest, non-rainy Memorial Day weekend the Northwest has ever had. What better way to celebrate the weekend than to have a backyard cook out!? Lucky and Jade came over Sunday for an afternoon cookout. We had a tasty meal on the patio of steak, baked beans, hot dogs, hamburgers, cantaloupe, and brownies! (I made deviled eggs but forgot to get them out of the fridge - that's okay, they were good the next day on the boat!)

On Monday we headed out to the lake for a day of fishing and puttering on the water. The lake hasn't warmed up enough for swimming yet (of course, I never think it is warm enough for swimming!), but it sure was relaxing and a beautiful sunny day on the water. The big fish weren't biting much but Jade did mange to hook a few little guys worth keeping.

Spring Cleaning!

The weather suddenly made its shift from damp dreary cold winter to warm, dry spring to near summer feeling temperatures in the matter of a few days! The weather inspired us to get out and do some cleaning. Russ weeded out a pile of clutter from his storage container and then decided it was time to scale down the lawnmower collection that was taking up part of the backyard. He had 2 riding mowers cleaned up and sold in just one weekend! While Russ had all the machienry up and running, we even hauled all the rugs out to the yard for a good pressure washing! It sure does feel good to have everything cleaned up and some clutter gone!