2008 in Review

It's been a year, I can say that. We started out 2008 living with my parents, having just begun to deal with the loss of Carrie. Not having my sister here with me has impacted me in every aspect of my life. Movies with death scenes or funerals have an entirely new meaning to me now because no matter what, I instantly go back to my thoughts of loosing Carrie and I cry for her all over again. I am thankful that I knew her for 26 years.

January 1st, 2008: The animals consisted of Russell (dog), Edgar (horse), Oakley (horse), Troy and Echo (goats).

Around March or so, I received an email from some long-lost friends that I never thought we'd hear from again. That initial email was a light in a very dark tunnel for us and just what we needed in our lives, especially at that time. George & Rachel had contacted us out of the blue after having not talked with them in about 5-6 years. They drove up to meet us on a day we had a work party for our property cleanup and we've become great friends all over again. I am Thankful to have them back in our lives.

Softball season started up and as usual, came with it's ups and downs over the season. Derek soon realized his body was not recovering from tournaments as quickly this year and overall, he was feeling the "hurt" of playing ball. Early in the season he talked about it being his last year and as the season continued and more injuries occurred and other interests grew, he realized it actually was going to be his last year. He will miss it with all he has in him, but a new chapter is upon us in our life and we both are ready to change the page.

In early summer, we acquired 2 more goats, Briggs & Stratton. Derek wanted to get 4 more goats, I managed to keep him to 2 more for now! :) Early Fall, we lost Troy to a urinary stone, a hard loss as he was our buddy. Dr Andrea worked very hard to save his life, it was an experience I can say that, to watch open bellied surgery.

Mid Summer, we finished the MAJOR project of building our first house and after 9 months of living with my parents, we moved back home! Building the house definately had its ups and downs, but in the end, it was worth it. I think our old house would have collapsed under all this snow we just had! It was a lot of work that could not have been possible without the help of ALL our friends and family!!! We have a nice house and tons of projects still to be completed.

In August Eric & Andrea got married which stirred up a lot of feelings of missing Carrie for me, but I got through and although I'm sure I'm being biased here, it was the BEST wedding you could ever go to!

We decided to lease Oakley out to a girl in Longview WA, Amanda. She is training him and riding/showing him for the next 2 years. I am very excited to see where she can take Oakley and to watch them grow together. He is a fantastic horse and I am very proud of him and Amanda. Now that softball is done, Derek has decided (and is excited!) to start riding. He wants to do local rides and overnight camping trips with me, this is new territory for both of us, but I am looking forward to it. We are leasing a friends horse HotRod who is a great fit for Derek.

We purchased a camper and a bigger/newer truck. We had to give up my little Kia car to do so, but it definately has been worth it, particularly with all this snow to now own 2 trucks. We intend on getting back into fishing, camping and just spending time together.

Scout came into our lives in the Fall. We wanted a companion for Russell and we missed having 2 dogs, so we found what I consider to be a perfect match for our family. Scout is a bundle of joy as they say.

As we end this year and get ready to move into 2009, I hope to find happiness again and to enjoy life every day.

Live Laugh Love

GRRR.. I'm so frustrated!

The meltdown has begun and as predicted, it is a MESS out there! This sloppy, slushy shit is harder to drive in/through/on/around than just plain 'ole snow and ice! We pulled into mom/dad's driveway in 4-wheel drive just like we have for the past 2 weeks and we just bogged down and stopped! Had to put the truck in 4-wheel LOW to get unstuck and even then we barely made it, this was Saturday. Today, I can get in/out but not w/o spinning tires. My poor parents were supposed to have their septic pumped today (it backed up on Christmas Eve with 25 people at their house!) But the pump truck refused to come in their driveway. It would be nice if it would just rain so much it melted driveways, even our driveway is tough to deal with.

So why am I frustrated? Mud and Muck and Slop always gets to me when it comes to my horses, but usually it is Spring when I start feeling the pressure of needing to do something with my horse to alleviate their situation. I had moved the horses to Julie's old place when my shelter collapsed, I now need to move them again. I will be buying a new temporary shelter to put back at my parents, but they'll be going back up to muck... and when I think about my place, grrr.... pastures are not even fenced! I am feeling all this pressure to figure out a barn situation.

I am slightly excited as I have a small glimmer of light in the tunnel, I found a modular 4-stall barn on CL today for a VERY good price! I just hope it is not in high demand so I can possibly buy it. We would then just bring in a load or two of gravel to create a level spot and set the barn on top of the gravel. It would be portable too, so it would not be a permanent structure and no permit would be required.. It is not exactly what we want, but it would work for the price I can afford.. barely afford! :)

sigh

Merry White Christmas!

Okay, I'm a day late with the Merry White Christmas wish, oh well.. :)

Christmas Eve was nice, all of the family was able to make it out to my parents, regardless of the almost 2 feet of snow there is at their place. We had offered to pick people up in town as the main roads were fairly decent, but everyone decided to give it a try and made it up the hill and in the driveway. Dad and Derek spent some time in their trucks flattening out the driveway, which probably helped keep people from getting stuck. It was snowing Christmas Eve, snowed a few more inches that night and it snowed pretty much all Christmas Day. It was beautiful outside! We spent most of the day at mom/dads, got some great gifts and it was fun watching everyone open their gifts. One of my favorite gifts (grrr my parents spent too much money again! on a Big BBQ and Arbor for our yard) was the wedding album that Eric & Andrea put together for us so we have our own copy to look at. Their wedding pictures are just amazing! Here is Christmas Eve..
On Christmas Day, Eric went outside to keep the young spirit alive and did some sledding off the deck into the yard, he built a quick ramp and took the dogs mini-sledding! I have a couple really cute videos of Russell, he sled quite a few times all on his own, he and Hudson were hilarious, fighting over who was going to carry the sled back up to the porch.. lol

Eric was having a blast with those dogs..

I just love that Russell.. he's so darn cute!

more sledding action...

I got some good pics of Derek and the children on Christmas Day. What a goofy dog Hudson is, he kept trying to catch the wrapping paper and bows we were throwing into the box, he would retrieve them and bring the bundle back to you! Eric finally just put Hudson in the box, it was pretty funny.

Oh and we suffered our first snow loss... Last night I was on the computer and heard something outside by the shop, sounded kinda like metal, I didnt think much of it, it was dark outside... a few minutes later I heard something similar. The next day (today!) I look out the computer window and see the gutter to the garage hanging! So we lost the gutter on both sides of our shop actually.

As I speak, our house is shaking every couple minutes as the snow slides off the deck cover in big chunks. It has snowed every day almost for the last 10 days or more and today it even snowed pretty hard earlier on, but it finally converted to RAIN! It's not raining too hard, but its warmin up out there real quick and things are going to get MESSY!!! Derek & I were just out on the deck and you could hear and see the snow pack gradually move inch by inch over the edge of the deck cover roof and then in big clumps, it breaks off and then a few seconds later it starts creeping back to the edge again.

The ONLY good thing about this rapid warm up is that Derek can finally get back to work. In 2 weeks, he has worked 10 hours.. ouch!

Dogs in the Snow

Here's a crappy video of Russell playing in the back yard this past weekend. This was Friday I think of last week. It has snowed almost daily, so I get very confused on what day it snowed more since it comes daily.. :)

This video is kinda funny, you cant even see the little guys legs! I threw the ball a couple times, but the snow was atleast 8 inches deep, so he was struggling with finding it! Bad mommy..

The NeverEnding Snow....

It is snowing again.. :) Okay well maybe only fluttering/teasing...

We have about 8-10 inches at our house, hard to say how much exactly, I think the new stuff compacts the old stuff, so it appears we have less than it has actually snowed.. does that make sense? lol I think it has definately snowed over a foot worth at our house, it is AWESOME!!! Here's a pic of my street from just yesterday, it is so pretty when it is still white and non-sanded. I am really enjoying this weather.. I'd take this over rainy and sloppy any day. Everything is still frozen, our road is pure sheet of compact snow/ice. I am getting more and more experience driving in it, with having 2 trucks now, I dont have to rely on Derek to drive me around. It is likely to snow on Christmas day, the only bummer is that I hope everyone can make it out to mom's for Christmas Eve! I'll go get them if I have too.. lol

I'm lovin spending time with Edgar and HotRod. I have to go out twice a day and tromp through the snow to walk in their pasture to feed grain, and I just love it.. Every part of it, oh except going up in the barn, I hate that! The stairs are very steep and with snow on your boots, I am always worried I will fall up or down those stairs...

Edgar is eager to see me, okay well they both are, I am the grain lady! The shelter that was at my parents has completely been destroyed by the weather, photo below. The snow just collapsed those poles like twigs! I am sooooo glad I moved the horses down to Marc/Rachel's place.

Here's a couple pics of the boys eating their daily bucket of grain!

A few below of the goats too.. they are NOT lovin this weather, there is a path from their stall to the water and that's it. They have not ventured any further than the 10 feet to their water in probably 7 days plus! Every day, morning and night, they scream at me to feed them, poor boys are probably bored to tears..

Here is Echo, he acts like the King, he constantly is pushing poor Stratton around

Here's little Stratton. He and his cousin Briggs have a long ways to go to catch up to the weight/size of Echo, to push Echo back!

And then Briggs.. He is so hard to get pics of cuz he loves to be right next to me. He finally got bored with me and decided to head back to his stall.

The plan: Build a Barn!!! We are hoping with our tax return to be able to buy the materials to build a barn for the animals so we can bring them home.. I MISS having the boys at home with me... the goats and horses.... So if you are interested in getting in on the building process of our barn, let me know!

I am very excited for my christmas gifts this year, I feel really good about what I bought for people. I havent been this excited about Christmas in a long time, I am doing OK. I cant WAIT for my parents (mom especially) to see the present I bought for them, it was the DEAL of the CENTURY, Literally!!!! and it is something my mom has wanted for years.... hehehehehe

Winter Blizzard 2008 - oh Wait, Its Still Fall, so Fall Blizzard 2008

Okay, well it's a blizzard for this side of the state, actually probably most of the state, my co-worker that lives in Spokane, he has 2 feet at his house! WOW.

We have about 8 inches, well as of 9am this morning, maybe more by now, it's been off/on snowing all day so far. Here at work in Monroe, we have probably 10 inches. Here is a picture of my truck parked infront of our building, look how far up the snow is on the tires! Its pretty deep here, I have my slippers on or I'd go out and measure it.. lol
Here are some pics taken at home first thing this morning. The one pic shows the roof of my deck cover and how the snow slides off the end, every once in a while you will hear a big "Thud!" outside and realize it is snow sliding off the vinyl roofing since there is no gutter on yet to help hold it all up there.
The horses are doing well, I have Edgar with 1 blanket on now and then HotRod has 2 blankies on. I am thinking on walking HotRod down to French Creek Stables on Saturday with Dereks help, to give him a bath in their heated wash racks, I am waiting on a call back to be sure it is ok first.

Derek spent 1/2 the day on Tuesday hunting up north. He is not really working much this week, none of his guys can get out to paint, the work vans are not built for snow driving, plus it is a little too cold to really paint outside. Derek has been working as manager again on hourly wage vs working as a painter on commission. This week and next week will be bad weeks with the snow and Christmas. So instead of working on Tuesday, he went hunting with Tyler. The hunting was AWESOME, so he says! :) Here is what they got on Tuesday...
They actually did not think they would get much of anything so they were under-prepared as far as shotgun shells and they RAN OUT!! lol They had snow geese flying over the top of them and they had no ammo to shoot them down. So they got up bright and early Wed morning and drove through the blizzard like weather to go hunting again all day yesterday, shot down some more.

So here I am at work, bored.. I am only here because I want to wait and see if UPS shows up! A customer called in need of some product and I told them I would stick around until 2pm and if UPS doesnt show by then, I'm leaving. :)

Oh and here's a cute pic of Scout from this morning. She's been very funny lately, we've been trying to spoil the dogs and allowing them to sleep in the bed during this cold weather, and every time, Derek wakes up in the middle of the night to Scout sniffing his head all over. She is always laying right in the middle of his pillow, all comfy cozy, meanwhile he notices he is resting his head on the very corner. She will then refuse to go back under the covers and back to sleep, she wants attention and she wants/demands to sleep on the pillows! So it's back to the dog crate for the 2 of them. We try...

Horse #2

So we brought HotRod home tonight! I was going to wait til after the roads were 100% clear but it sounds like that might not happen for another 10 days or so. So I picked up HotRod and took him to Marc and Rachels to be with Edgar and we are excited to get him ready to ride. Edgar should be happy to have company again!

My blog was used against me!! :)

Our horse club Christmas party was Saturday night and every year there are always these "Whoopie Cushion Awards". People are recognized and given funny, silly and sincere gifts for the bloops and blunders that happen with our horses throughout the year. Well, the organizer of these awards was tipped off to a particular blog session I had written about when my horse tripped on the trail and my rain poncho covered my face and I was temporarily blinded in the near-disaster! I was awarded the "2008 Headless Horseman" award and my own blog words were read Saturday night to tell the story.. It was all in good fun and it was funny! My award was a certificate and a trick or treat pumpkin filled with delicious white chocolate chip cookies. How did she know those are one of my favorites, I didnt blog about that.....

Gotta Love 4-Wheel Drive...

It actually snowed! The forcasters were 100% correct this time and if all goes well with their forcast for the rest of the week, we'll have this snow around for a week or more. I LOVE it when this happens, it is so rare for us. It is supposed to get down to about 9 degrees tonight, yikes! Tuesday night - Wed night we are expecting more snow. This cold snap (highs in the low 30's) is forcast for atleast the next week. YEAH!!

I definately DONT love the affect it has on my horse though. He was shaking Saturday morning when Derek went over to feed him, his shelter tarp was tearing from the weight of the snow, it needs replacing. Saturday afternoon, I brushed Edgar out, DOUBLE blanketed him and walked him down to Marc & Rachels (Julies old house). I'll keep him there until my place is ready. He now has a barn to go into and I have lights so I can brush him. I dont normally blanket my horse in the winter, UNLESS they show signs of being cold and I would normally only put one blankie on, but with as cold as it is getting, I figured it doesnt hurt to put 2 on him. I feed and check on him 2 times a day, make sure he is not too warm and pick ice out of his feet 2 times a day. I feel revived having him down there, he seems happier to be out of the mud. I miss Edgar and hope to start spending more time with him, I have been slacking on spending any time with him its just been too crappy out!

Oh My Gosh! I did get our tree decorated on Friday night, took me a few hours, that is one TALL tree! It touched the ceiling on the high vaulted side. :)

I had to use a broom to get the treetopper on and the broom also to put the lights and garland all the way at the top. It is a very full tree of ornaments, lights, garland and tinsel. We LOVE our tree!!
My dogs, you have to look at how flippin adorable they are. I had dumped all the garland onto the floor and next thing I see, the dogs are laying in it! Not sure what that was all about, but I had to take a picture, they were soooo cute.. and NO I did NOT stage this whatsoever! If you know anything about my dogs, they dont "stage" for shots... lol
It is what 10 days til Christmas and I have yet to get much of any of the shopping done! Eric & Andrea invited us, our parents and her parents to dinner last night, they made a Prime Rib, it was really good. We also built our own gingerbread (cardboard) houses and decorated them, it was fun.


Well here's to hoping for MORE snow!!! :)

Where's Scout.. Here doggie doggie..

Last night I was trying to find Scout, I didnt really "call" for her, but was searching the house and then I found her.. Right here!This little snuggle bug knows how to get herself behind the blankie, all warm and wrapped up. We did NOT do this or stage this, lol.. if there is a blanket anywhere she can get access to, she is in it, under it, wrapped around it.. :)

She's been really good lately, we did move our recycle bin into the pantry to keep her from exploring it's contents! We keep food off the kitchen island because she seems to know how to jump on the big nice garbage can we bought to keep her out of the garbage, but it works well for her to jump on its very sturdy lid to get on the island!

Derek bought a pedi-paws nail file thing, ya know that gizmo that is all over the internet for trimming dogs nails. Well she still hates it just the same, Russell is not a large fan of it either, but I try to work with them every other day and just get them used to it, maybe eventually they will relax. Well anyways, the point is, I had left the thing on the dining table (which is the tall kind, not the regular height table) with a bunch of treats next to it as I was over-rewarding the dogs when trying to get them used to the thing. The next day when i got home from work, the treats were all gone! She left no scratches in the table top and I'm still not 100% sure how she got up there, the stools were all pushed in. Maybe she jumped on the back of the couch and then onto the table.. it's possible! She may be a little bugger, but we still love her and wouldnt trade her in for nothin!

A picture I found that I think is beautiful

Is it really worth getting my hopes up....

Snow! They say it is supposed to be here on Friday (2 days from now!) Could snow overnight into Saturday morning.. I am trying to get excited, I LOVE snow!!! But it's hard to look forward to something that probably will not show up when it is forcasted...

The summit at Snoqualmie as of 2 days ago, had zero snow.. Not a good sign. I am thinking with the weather being a little colder this week and that I can now finally see snow in the mountains when I go to work every day, maybe there is some up there. I hope the weather starts getting a little colder and wetter up there, we certainly dont need a dry mountain range, no good for next year.

I mailed out 81 Christmas cards this year!! :) That was a lot of cards.. It was the first time EVER that Derek & I (okay, well I did all the work) have sent cards out and it feels great to send them. I didnt hand make them or send a letter or picture with our cards which seems to be a pretty popular thing to do. I simply bought some cards, wrote a personal greeting and mailed them off.. :) Maybe next year I'll plan ahead a little better, I'm just glad we finally sent cards in all the 17 years we have been together!

I was hoping to get my tree up tonight, Derek is working late, but there is a UFC fight on late, so we'll be up late and it might just happen. I NEED to get my tree up, I want to wrap presents, but there is no point in wrapping if there is no tree to put them under.. :)

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..

Okay, well there are no geese getting fat at our place, just a couple of humans maybe.. lol

We had an appraiser come out this weekend, so in preperation for that, we got some things done that we've been putting off for a while, but it looks great now and I feel so much better, a lot of pressure taken off my shoulders. We still have the one last big project to clear up which is burning all that scrap wood, maybe this weekend we can tackle some of it.

We spent some time with old friends this weekend on Saturday night, that was really nice. It was the 25th wedding anniversary of a couple that Derek grew up with, they were the parents to one of his friends. Derek and I spent a lot of time at their house over the years, especially in the beginning of our relationship. They were at our wedding, Frank & Beth, they are great people. It was Franks 60th Bday too, so we went to their house and saw some old friends from back in the day.

Oh and on Saturday, before the party, I went to feed the animals at mom's and it was the first time really seeing my horse in the daylight in a couple weeks. OMG, he is disgusting!! I am hoping to get there early enough today to take pics, he is just gross... Notice how I say I hope to get there so I can take pics, but not so I can actually clean him up.. lol He must lay down IN the mud! Literally, he is caked in mud on both sides of his body, his mane looks like dreadlocks, it is caked in mud clumps, he has mud in his tail. I seriously have never seen a dirtier horse in person! Someone is going to report me for abuse if I dont get him cleaned up.. lol

I have almost zero xmas shopping done! We did go out on Sunday and buy a tree... Yeah! George & Rachel and Samantha spent the day with us, we drove around the backroads, looking for a tree farm with good trees. 1st stop had good trees, but they were not tall enough, second tree farm we drove in and drove right back out, they were pretty homely trees, 3rd place had GREAT trees and great prices. $6/foot no matter what type of tree, which is unheard of.. everywhere else charges extra for Nobles, not sure why. We decided to buy an 8-9' noble, not the style of tree I am used to but it's nice to do something different every now and then. I know, I know.. we could just do a fake tree and save ourselves a lot of money over the years, but I love real trees. I like the smell and the fun in finding a tree every year, it is a tradition I am not willing to give up. :)

The Great Escape Artist!

So Miss Scout has decided that she really enjoys her freedom and while I was on vacation, she started digging under the wood fence to get out every day! Derek would come home and she'd be out of the yard. She was sticking around, close to the house, but would play that game of not coming to Derek when he called her! I think she got out 4-5 times, one time he is sure that she got out but by the time he got home, she was in the house, so she must have remembered where her whole was and came back into the yard when her adventure was over. It is really great to know that she knows "home" but its not great that she thinks she can get out whenever she wants! :)

So Derek put up a temporary fence between the house and the shop, so the dogs have a very small section of yard to poddy in. They sit in the house at the back slider door and whine sometimes because they miss running free in the big yard. This weekend Derek & I hope to hotwire the bottom of the fenceline so when she goes to dig, she touches it and shocks herself. I dont want to hurt my dog, but she has to learn she cannot dig out! Its the only way I know how to correct her. She has such a big yard to run around in, I dont know why she has to go exploring! :)

She's still a terrific dog though and we'll do whatever we have to, to keep her safe and in our yard. It is nice to know she comes home, but someone could always take her or she could get hit by a car, so we have to fix the problem. And we dont want her teaching Russell this bad trick of getting out! lol

First Class to some R & R!!

My flight to CO was free, I had some airline miles saved up, but when I got to the airport Wed, I had the option to upgrade to first class for my flight into CO for only $150! So I paid it.. I figured if that is the only out of pocket flight expense, it was worth it. So I got to zip past the security line and fast forward directly to the scanning machine, I boarded the plane first and was treated with a hot towel, real glasses for drinks, a full breakfast.. It was pretty nice.

When I landed I was having no feelings of being emotional about seeing Danielle & Collin, I was excited for sure, but had no idea that when I walked around the corner by baggage claim and they were standing there, that I would start crying.. it was like being hit by a ton of bricks in my throat and I just immediately teared up w/o warning. :) It felt great to see my friend again.

Here are a couple pics of Collin and us..




When I arrived, the day was VERY warm, 65 degrees! We had the front door to the house open, I sat outside on the porch, it was just a beautiful day and yet I was sad thinking what a bummer, I go all the way to CO in November and its too warm to snow! Day 2 (Thanksgiving Day) a different story, it did not even reach 40 degrees that day. Day 3, back up to 55. Day 4 (Saturday) no higher than 34, day 5 the coldest at no higher than about 30 and then finally day 6 back up to about 50. This pic below is my first day there
It is so nice outside, short sleeves and sun! The picture below is of "Castle Rock" which is the name of the town Danielle lives in and this is the rock the town is named after. At night, there is a big star that is lit up. This pic is taken from in front of Danielles house.
Our Thanksgiving was really nice, Danielle cooked a full turkey dinner and I enjoyed having turkey sandwhiches and turkey salads for lunch/dinner for the remainder of my days there. :) I did miss spinach dip, that is one of my favorites at the holidays, but when I got home last night, there was some in our home fridge, so I ate away!

Danielle drove me around parts of CO, it is not as mountainy in her area as I thought it would be and the hills in the distance didnt have snow on them like I thought they might. Denver is very flat! I could see that flying in, not what I expected. In Castle Rock, the elevation is around 6500ft, which is higher than Denver, so there were more hills and a nicer area I think. We did a lot of driving around, she took me past lots of nice barns, unfortunately in CO, almost every farm/stables has a gate at the entryway, so we didnt get to drive up to as many barns as we had wanted to. Danielle works in the horse industry in a couple different avenues, so we tried to stop at the barns for her work, but w/o an appointment, you're not getting in! We did drive to one hunter/jumper ranch that was gorgeous. We did this on Friday, noone was around, but there was no gate, so we drove right up to the main barn.. It was beautiful!! The horses inside that barn are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more.. I was afraid to touch them! lol What if someone saw me and yelled at me for touching the horse, I'm sure that a couple were stallions. I figured better to just observe from a distance. I'd say in a 20 mile radius, I saw every kind of riding discipline ranch/farm/barn there was: jumping, dressage, polo, fox hunters, reining, cutting, barrel racing, ranching, etc..

Here is a picture taken of the hills in the area when we were out on one of our drives. Lots of big open fields like this.

When we were out driving, at one point Collin says "Mom I gotta poop!" Danielle whipped that car off the road as quickly as she could. During the day Collin does not wear a diaper, he is 3.5yrs old and when he's got to go, he's got to go now! He doesnt understand what "hold it" means, he literally grabs his peepee when told to hold it.. lol So we had to pull over, he did pee, but the poop was a false alarm this time...
After all the worry and wonder of snow, we did get snow! It snowed Friday night and we woke up Saturday morning with about 2 inches.. It was really nice. It warmed up a little during the day, but not enough to melt it all away. We went for a hike in the snow, about 2 miles maybe. They have these "open spaces" parks is what they call them. They are not really parks, just open areas with a designated trail that loops around. It was a nice walk, I actually over-bundled up and was pretty warm, wheras I think Danielle was freezing, but she does not have the meat on her bones to keep her warm like I do! lol

Here is the pic taken when I woke up Saturday morning. The road had snow on it, but by the time we left for our hike it was mostly slush or gone from the road.

Here are some pics from our hike.. There was still a good amount of snow to walk through. It was a lot of fun, we took the dogs and they had a great time running free! Collin got tired when we were almost back to the car, so Danielle had to carry him on her shoulders the last 500 yards or so.

Sunday morning we woke up to a little more snow and it was still snowing.. It snowed ALL day on Sunday.. By days end, there was atleast 8 inches of snow on the ground. Danielle lives down a very untraveled street, so it is not one that gets plowed or sanded, she could have gotten the car out, but we decided to just stay inside for the day and not chance it. We spent the day hangin out, reading, a little napping and doing the girly thing of painting our finger and toenails! We did get up and walk into town around 3:45pm, which is only about 2 blocks away. The antique store was still open, but the other stores I had wanted to visit were closed, so we decided to come back on Monday before I left for home. It was fun out walking in the snow.

I took this picture of the pillar on her front porch and how deep it was on Sunday.
Here is a picture looking down the steet from in front of her house with all the snow
I paid for a horsey ride for Collin while we were walking in town
A picture of part of the town streets and then one of "Castle Rock"

It was really nice spending time with Danielle & Collin. I got in lots of relaxation and some rest too! Hard to sleep in when Collin is up and awake bright and early! lol He doesnt have a quiet mode... :) Danielle does not have TV service hooked up and the only working TV/DVD player was in Collins room, so I got caught up on 4 magazines and my fill-it-in puzzles. Danielle's Jack Russell, Sobe, slept with me most nights.

Here is Sobe, chillin on the couch
This is Danielle and her dog "Blue" Blue seems to be camera shy, cuz he is hardly in any pictures I took, yet Sobe is in lots!
Monday we drove around a little and stopped for lunch in a cute little town, then headed to the airport. I was there about 3.5 hours early, but that was okay. I was not able to upgrade to first class for my flight home, I had a window seat and was feeling a lot of anxiety about my flight.. I was worried about having to sit next to someone and be crowded. It is nice when Derek & I fly together, we flip the seat divider up and it works great, but with a stranger next to me, would they be OK with the divider up! So I got myself seated, there was a guy in the isle seat, and I watched in stress mode as every person loaded the plane and walked our direction. It appeared that almost everyone was on the plane, and there was one guy left to be seated... he was at the front of the plane, waiting for others to get out of the isle, I was nervous.. he walked our way, kept coming closer, as he got to the row in front of me, he was looking for overhead storage, which of course there was none. Then he looked at the row in front of me and indicated his seat was there in the middle! Then I hear on the loud speaker that the doors are closed, attendants prepare for take-off! OMG.. HOW did I get soo flippin lucky!! The guy that was last to be seated did put his carry-on in our row under his seat. So I had a very nice flight home. They did show a dumb movie called "Son of Rambo". It was dumb dumb dumb.. I started to watch it for about 20 minutes, decided it was pretty hokey, so I listened to music and then just watched the screen and got the basic idea of how the movie went. It was about 2 kids making a movie about being the son of rambo and it was so cheesy, what a bummer. but it helped occupy the time for the 3 hour flight.

I was pretty happy to be back home. No offense whatsoever to my friend Danielle, but it felt great to be home with my family. :) I was realizing on my flight back, that I had missed Derek more than I had realized. My flight home, was the first time I really spent some time thinking about Carrie over my holiday vacation, so I cried a little on the plane ride home. I forced myself to stop thinking about her because I did not want to loose control on an airplane! It felt great to think of her though. I was not sad over the holiday, maybe because I was away from home and I had found a way to escape those feelings for now...

I sure missed my kids too... I was happy to pet them and love all over them, but Russell seemed more interested in wanting to know exactly where I had been and why my bag smelled like other dogs!!! He would not stop sniffing my bags.. lol I sat down in front of the TV and watched one of my recorded shows, I just had to get in some TV time! So I am happy to be home, but glad I was able to spend my holiday with Danielle.

I had hoped the trip would revive my holiday spirit... Well it kinda did. The snow definately helped and Danielle had her christmas tree up, maybe we'll work on getting ours up this weekend... :) Happy December Everyone!