Eastern Oregon drive

It is a 5 hour drive between Prineville and Ontario via Burns. Most people think the drive is flat, straight and boring. But I don't think so. On the drive over I saw 3 bald eagles, a flock of snow geese and a rabbit. Many times I see deer and antelope and once in a while a coyote. Here are some pictures of the drive.

Kid-sitting

I am kid-sitting our 3 Oregon grandsons this weekend. They are spending the night tonight at Gramma's house and tomorrow night I will be at their house. We had fun playing a new board game - Richard Scarry's Busy Town and playing video games. Keon was able to keep up with the older boys pretty well. We had scrambled eggs and ham for dinner and toast. It was delicious and they all ate good. No fights all evening and the little ones went to bed without a fuss. Gramma spoiled them and let them stay up an extra hour and read Dr. Suess' Red Fish Blue Fish to them. It was a very nice evening. Bogey and Birdie were busy keeping track of all 4 of us so now are taking a much needed "pre-bedtime" nap. James and Amy are at a retreat until Sunday afternoon.

Mini-vacation

Terry and I had a mini-vacation (which was really just a long weekend). We traveled to Reno for some much needed R&R. The roads from Silver Lake, Lakeview and Alturas were packed snow and sometimes slushy. We stopped in Lakeview to have lunch with Aunt Marcie & Uncle Glen. The slushy roads made the snow and ice cake up under the tire rims and it got so thick we heard it grinding when we made a turn so stopped and tried to knock it off. It was extremely hard but we were able to get enough off so it wouldn't grind. After we got to Reno, it took two days for it to finally melt. We stayed at the Nugget and I found a John Wayne penny machine that was pretty fun and I won some on it. We also played Pai Gow Poker and I even tried Let It Ride Poker. I like Pai Gow better. Terry got a royal flush in Pai Gow but as usual I was not playing when he got it, so I missed seeing it (I did get to spend some of the money later though!!)
Terry also made some points with me by taking me to see the Nevada State Museum in Carson City but it was his good luck and my bad luck that the Museum was closed on Mondays. Oh well, he tried!! So he gets credit for that. Another nice thing about the trip - I did not worry about work this time, since our plant is now using the corporate software system I am not the sole support, and so there are other people that can help if someone gets stuck on something. Quite a different feeling after being the only one that knew our old system. So, for the last 6 1/2 years even when I was on vacation I still had my work laptop with me and checked e-mails and got phone calls. This time I did not have to "stay in touch" so it was quite a refreshing change.

Happy Birthday Terry!

Today is Terry's birthday. He is out on the road so all he gets is this picture of his birthday presents. And a trip to Reno at the end of the month. (I get to go too!!)

We have had snow three days this week:

2" Tuesday

3" Wednesday

1" Today

It melted each day so has not accumulated. Not very impressive compared to what the kids get in Minnesota and Alaska get!!!

Gone again

Had a nice week with Terry home. Took two days off work (Tuesday and Wednesday) but we didn't do very much. It was nice to be lazy!! The weather was cold so no golfing. Instead we played our favorite card game which is a type of rummy. Terry beat me every game. One game he thought he would win every hand but on the last hand I finally went out so he was unable to "skunk" me!!
The dogs enjoyed having Terry home too because they got to stay in the house the 3 days that I worked.
We don't have a very exciting life, but guess after the last two months of constant work, being lazy seemed just the kind of excitement we needed.

On his way home

After being stuck in Palo Alto all week Terry finally has a Grocery Outlet load to Redmond and Prineville and will get here about 10:30 today!!! He hasn't been home since Christmas. Don't know what we would do without our cell phones!! I left mine at home one day and that made it feel like Terry was a lot farther away than usual!

We plan on watching the Super Bowl with friends and seeing our friend Tim who is home on leave for two weeks from Iraq. Also, hope to see lots of family.

I saw this sunset a few days ago driving home. It was beautiful but I was unable to get a picture. My friend Nita took a picture and posted on facebook so I am borrowing it!! God's artistic handiwork is AWESOME.

Random thoughts

I think my grandson's favorite word is Random. That's what my blog post is today. Just random thoughts.... We had a deer visit us in the back yard yesterday. The dogs spied it out the patio door and set off the "barking" alarm. They even growled at each other as if to say "I saw it first!".... We had a snow/rain mix this morning. I think it caught the road crew off guard as there were no cinders on the road or that chemical they spray. The road was icy all the way to town. Down there it didn't look like it had even rained.... Terry was stuck in Seattle area since Friday night and just left around 4:00 p.m. headed for Palo Alto, CA with a load from the IKEA warehouse. If I had known soon enough I would have driven up there to see him. Would have been a long drive but the weather was like spring and it would have felt like a mini-vacation.... It is hard to believe that it is the end of January. At this rate, I will blink a couple times and it will be December again.... It is supposed to get cold here again this week. Glad brother Jim loaded my garage up with firewood for me.... I want to praise the Lord for his many blessing to me and our family and His care and mercies. Nothing is "random" with God.