It's Basketball Time!!

Caleb is in 5th grade this year and he has never played basketball.  He gave wrestling a try and football; he has played several years of baseball and now he wanted to try basketball!  He is having a lot of fun especially since his best friend is on the team!  The coach is very positive with the boys and gives lots of encouragement.

And of course this is a family affair!  Addie is very good, she knows to stay only on the bleachers, not to go onto the court.  Tristan was quite engrossed with the painted cement wall behind us!

A Valentine Card Making Day

My two good friends, Becky and Liz joined me at our favorite stamping store in Milwaukie, Stamp a dee do da, and we played for almost three hours making special valentine cards!  Even I learned a few new techniques and got to play with some new material which was very fun!  Afterwards, we went to Gigi's for a bite of lunch and because we were so close and Liz wanted to go, we all went to "Simple Folks".  A delightful little store full of goodness and cheer!  Both Liz and I bought a garland that had 'white' berries' on it and we purchased a package of little lights to intertwine in the garland.  As soon as I got home, I set it out on my entry table and plugged in the lights, it looks so festive!  I can see this staying for many seasons!  I also bought a wooden sign that reads:  "This is the house that love built"  I thought that was so appropriate for our entry table, because indeed Scott has built this house for over two years now and I am sure every nail and board was done with LOVE!

And this little card I made when I came home from the class.  It is a digi stamp, which means I purchased a digital stamp online and have it in a file on my computer, so I can print out as many of these little girls as I want.  Her name is "Lily Valentine Ballerina"  I couldn't resist, because you know I, too, have a Lily!  I will need to print out several of these and let the girls color her and make a card also! 

How I send Hugs and loves to YOU

I have this fabulous room that is right off the kitchen, easy access to stir a pot or take a batch of cookies out of the oven! I can get lost in here and not be seen for hours (well, hours doesn't work, because there is someone else who lives in this house who seems to want lunches, dinners, snacks etc...you know who I am talking about!)  Not to mention a little three foot munchkin who pops over in the morning to see if Grandma wants to watch "Handy Mandy" with him!! And then around 3pm, sometimes a couple of cute neighbor girls (that would be Ellie and Lily!!) stop in to see if Grandma has any chocolate chip cookies for an afternoon snack and then maybe, go into the "Studio" and do some crafting with me!

However, when I am by myself and can get messy, I like to make cards. So I thought I would share a couple with you.  I stamp, I color...I always did like to color as a young girl!  I often use the sewing machine to stitch around some of the pieces, I experiment with lots of different medium; like chalk, water color pencils, regular colored pencils, different inks and then distressing.  Anyway, I de-stress here and I create these cards and not just cards, I love to make boxes, too.  I love to give little treats out and think putting them in a homemade box is the 'icing' on the cake!  Hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of my work.  And the sentiment says exactly what I would say if I were to see you and give you a hug!

Xanadu...place of idealic beauty

Do you remember back in 1980 Olivia Newton John and Gene Kelly were in a movie titled: Xanadu? I guess it was not a very good movie, but we loved the name...so when we bought our first Papa Murphy's (Papa Aldo's back then!) franchise and needed to think of a company name, we decided on Xanadu Restaurant Management, Inc. Wow, that is a long business name, but it is DBA: Papa Murphy's.

The movie may not have a been a big hit, but  I LOVE Olivia Newton-John's songs. Of course, I LOVE her voice and how pretty she is and how thin she is...anyway, we have many of her cd's.

So a couple of nights ago on the news, they showed a clip of a Musical in town called Xanadu...and Scott got 6 "stage" tickets for all of us to go to it! It was absolutely fantastic!! And we got to sit right on the stage with the actors dancing, roller skating, singing all around us! It was so fun, our cheeks were sore from always smiling or laughing! It is a musical comedy! Oh, how I wanted to sing out....have you never been mellow...have you never triiiiied...., but I thought perhaps the people around me would not appreciate my voice! So I really held myself back, buuuuuttttt...I did NOT hold myself back with swaying and moving to the music! And the crew did get to interact a bit with some of us sitting on the stage, one of the "muses" sat next to Scott and offered him some popcorn! I think there is a little utube clip you could check out if you are interested. Anyway, it was way cool and I loved it! I am hooked and thinking we need to go see the Musical Legally Blonde!! The movie starred Reece Witherspoon..kind of a silly but good feeling kind of movie, I think the musical will be great!

Update on Riley

Riley had his first chemo treatment on Saturday, January 9. He did not have a very good Friday and Scott and I were even concerned about going through with the chemo just because of his bad day and wondering if it was the right thing to do. But then the oncologist vet checked him out and she declared him to be 50% in remission with just the one shot that kills cancer cells prior to starting chemo!

I am happy to report that Riley is not having any side effects that we are aware of, and he is eating...in fact his appetite is quite good! I wonder if it has anything to do with my fixing "human" meatballs with rice (had to give him a little carb, you know!), and then adding a bit of roasted chicken with "human" gravy to the whole thing, yummmm maybe he was just tired of the same old dog food day after day after day!

At any rate, we are thrilled with what we see so far! His back legs are still a little stiff and he sometimes needs an extra helping hand to boost himself up, but he is out walking by himself and taking care of his needs. He still comes inside and sleeps a lot, but he is now back to talking to us (dog talk! we totally get it!) He is super happy to see us and lets us know! He will have another chemo treatment this Saturday. The best we can manage is to watch him and make sure his quality of life is good. When it is not and he is hurting, then we will take the necessary steps to say good-bye. And let me tell you, that is a day I am not looking forward to having.

So good news for us and Riley! Just wanted to let you all know!!  And Riley's knew 'place' is in the living room, right in front of the fireplace!!

Tristan - 8 months old now!

Where do the days, weeks, and months go?  Here is our little Tristan ("little" said with tongue in cheek, because really he is a "bruiser") 8 months old now!  It just seems like a few days ago he was this little guy being brought home from the hospital!  This little man just loves to snuggle, it is so wonderful to hold him!  I must admit to knick-naming him:  Jumping bean!  I don't know if it is because he has spent so much time in one of those "Johnny Jump Up's" -- you know the ones that attach at the top of a door frame or he just likes to bounce up and down.  But let me tell you, when you are holding him, you get a good arm workout because he just bounces off your lap and you best keep up with the bounce or you will lose him!  He is a lot of fun...he gets excited when his big brother Caleb gets home from school and he loves for Addie to play with him.

He gets around by doing the 'army crawl'...just wait until he is walking...Lacey will be in big trouble!

Our Four Legged Family Member

This is Riley, he is 10 1/2 years old.  We first spotted him when he was just a fluffy little puppy about two months old.  Oh my...he was just too adorable for words.  Both Scott and I fell head over heels in love with this dog!  However, we were just getting over the loss of our beautiful Nikki girl and we both said, "No way, no way are we getting another dog...uh uh."  So we kind of talked our daughter, Dina into getting Riley so he would still be in our family!  She fell in love with him too.!  So off to her and Jamie's apartment Riley went and boy has he been the one to bring tears of joy, tears of distress, and tears of love to all of our eyes.

So I should start with the little puppy and tears of distress....Dina is standing on the couch in her living room and gives us a call, screaming for HELP cause this little puppy was attacking her ankles, feet, anything he could get his sharp little baby teeth into!  Scott and I just hooted with laughter imagining this grown woman jumping on the couch to get away from a little fluff ball!!

Now, I know quite well about those little sharp baby teeth, because you see, we brought Riley up to the Oregon City Papa Murphy's store with us every day when we were building the store at a new location.  I can so clearly recall those sharp little teeth biting into my hands and wrists.  Oh my, it hurt!  I had to wear gloves, plus drag a sweatshirt sleeve over my hands to give me some protection, I tried sitting on them so he couldn't attack, but he was ruthless!

Then there was the first Christmas with Riley!  He was outside at our house.  Dina had to go out to the car to get some Christmas presents.  Riley saw her and he was so over joyed, he started attacking her ankles again.  Dina was running from one door to another door screaming (and I do really mean screaming..) for HELP!!!  But by this time it was not funny at all for her, she was crying...remember those are sharp little puppy teeth!  Now, we really didn't mean to be laughing 'at her', but it was just one of those very comical scenes like in a movie...the door is locked, her hands are full of packages, she can't get in, she can't escape, she pounds on a window to get attention and what with Christmas and all, we just didn't catch on to her distress!  Well, finally we did and boy was she one MAD girl!  Of course, we all look back and laugh at those memories now (well, maybe not all of us * wink*!!)

Now remember, this was Dina and Jamie's dog, right?  Well, Dina did her part by taking Riley to dog training and I must admit that the trainer was very skeptical that Riley would make a good 'family' pet.  He was a little on the hyper side, a little possessive with his food etc.  So one day when Riley was outside at her house, he apparently bit a little neighbor boy....who knows, the boy may have pulled Riley's tail for all we know.  But what happened was that Riley had to be quarantined for 10 days, so we thought it was a good idea for Riley to come up to our house during the days while Dina and Jamie worked.  After all, we have 5 acres to let him roam and NO little children to bother him!  It turned out that he just stayed and he ended up being our dog after all.

And he has been a good pet, although there have been times when he growls and it scares even us...

So let's fast forward to yesterday.  We took him to the Vet because he was NOT eating.  And we thought it was possible he had teeth issues, or an absess or something, so we wanted him checked out.  Turns out his Lymph nodes were swollen in his neck and his back legs, so they ran some tests and today we got the word that he had lymphoma.  And he was to see an oncologist immediately!  (YES, he is a member of our family!!)  So we are starting a protocol with him to see if we can get him in remission.  They injected him with something that attacks and kills the cancer cells.  Then on Saturday they will begin the regimen of chemo for him.  What we are after is simply a good quality of life for him and if after one month, that is not possible then we will have to go for option B.  The doctor says that if a dog has to get cancer then this is the best kind to get. However dogs cannot be CURED (unlike humans) so we have only been given more time to share his last days with us and hopefully gather more loving memories of our Riley dog.  So we are praying that we can at least have 6 months to one year more with Riley and that he will feel well enough to do what he loves doing most, which is sit at the top of the stairs at the other house (Dina and Jamie's) and guard the houses.  He likes to sleep a lot, and he still loves to chase tennis balls, we just don't throw them far.  And most of all, he loves to greet us with such enthusiasm that we have no doubt  how happy he is to see us and that he loves us as much as we love him.


Now that he is a mature dog, he talks quite a bit to us, oh my, he just carries on such a conversation like you have never heard.  It is fine unless you happen to have a sleeping baby in the car and would prefer that the dog NOT wake the baby when you open the door, but NO, he has to let us know exactly how he feels about us returning home to him.  He is OVER JOYED!  He cannot contain himself, oh really how wonderful it is to be so loved unconditionally. No matter that he was left out in the rain, or the hot sun, he is exuberant with delight when he sees us.

Starting a Little Early...

Caleb was the first of the grandchildren to stay overnight.  Well...he is 10 now and pretty low maintenance, so that makes it easy for ME!  And he was willing to sleep on the floor in the TV room, which I suspect the other children would have to sleep on the floor in my room!  Not that I don't have room on the floor in my room, but I do have Riley our dog sleeping at the foot of our bed, and it may not be good to have a lot of others near him while sleeping.  Caleb was especially looking forward to Jalen knocking on my door in the morning and seeing him.  They did finally connect, but Caleb had to go over to his house to see him and then he brought him back to my house.  So here they are, sitting on the couch and Jalen wants to play with Caleb's DS, they fight for a minute, then I tell Caleb to give Jalen his other one.  That makes Jalen very happy...now he is just like his BIG cousin.  Does he know how to play it?  I don't think so, but he is happy and he is quiet, so I am happy, too!

Lily joined the group after a few minutes, but she went right into the craft room and started making snowflakes.  Then Caleb joined her and finally Jalen, who had to color with markers!  (YES, I have the washable markers for the little ones so I can easily wipe off anything that gets off the paper).  I have a little secret stash for when the kids come over so we can "create" things together.  Sometimes what I cut out and plan for them is NOT quite what they want to use.  For example, I cut and stamped some Christmas Thank You's for them and got out the snowflake stamp and made sample card.  I thought it looked quite lovely.  They liked it, sure, but they had a different idea about how to put it all together.  Now this is where I have to rein myself in and let their creativity juices flow...grrrr....why can't they just do it the way I had planned???  Dina gave me a thought however...she said sometimes she tells them it just has to be done this way THIS time!  But they wrote the thank you cards and they turned out great!