A Date with Glenn!

On my break yesterday I text Glenn asking him to take me out on a date, so he asked me if I wanted to pick up some dinner, take the top off the jeep and head up to Broken Top. Broken Top is on of our favorite spots to be in the summer. Anyway someone Glenn works with told him there was another way to get into the broken top area and he wanted to hear more because it is getting harder and harder each year to get to our favorite spot. So Glenn was very anxious to try this new route, this is where the story begins.

We left on skyliner road after stopping at Long Board Louie's for some tacos and beer. We were to follow some well maintained forest road, Glenn was following his GPS that he can read really well with his glasses but last night he did not bring them, being on a date and all. We drove along and over a mountain side full of 5 foot tall manzanita with the road or should I call it trail full of rocks, boulders, ruts for miles and hours. The sun was setting and there was no moon in sight. Glenn stayed calm and cool as always making me believe he knew exactly what he was going to do next, but I knew he had no idea where we were or how we were going to get out of the forest. The funny thing about this was being at 6800 ft elevation you could see the lights of Bend but you did not have anyway of knowing how to go in the direction of the lights.

After awhile we came to some familiar territory but that was after we had drove through a stream, dodged bull toads all over the road, look eye to eye with deer along side the road or I mean trail, I guess you can call it a jeep trail..., and all around us was the dark august night sky.

We did make it to broken top right to the area we like the most, Glenn stopped the jeep we reclined the seats and watched the night sky. I have never in my life seen the sky I seen that night the Milky Way was across the whole sky you could even see where the Way started and ended, I could even see the curve of it, only those people who have seen it understand what I am talking about. It was well worth the drive or should I say adventure.

So now there was a decision to make, go back the way we came or continue on the way we were familiar with and hope the boulders were gone from the entrance or our case the exit. I really did not want to go back, I have had better experiences in my life to say the least so on we went hoping the exit was cleared. When we got to the exit at Todd Lake it was open and we were able to get onto Century Drive, we "high five" each other and on home we went.

I told Glenn I think he owes me another date, he just looked at me and said "Didn't you have a good time?" I answered "yes, but you still owe me another date". We both smiled at each other, I thought to myself another crazy adventure under our belts.

Wedding Ringlets

Joanna's ringlets


Kadie's ringlets

My Niece got married last weekend and Kadie my Daughter was her maid of honor and I just have to give Kadie a little space on my blog.

Kadie you did a great job and I know your Cousin really appreciated all your help and support. It is really to bad you two don't live close by each other, between the two of you, you guys could figure out life together and your family's could celebrate events together. You should think about talking to your Cousin and plan a time of the year that both your families can get together and enjoy each others company, just a thought from Mom.

Now, My Sister (she isn't going to like this but...) You planned and pulled off a beautiful wedding! I know how much work they are and how the planning of a wedding can consume your life, but you didn't miss a beat. Every detail was completed, I know there was something that was missed or forgotten but nobody knew or even noticed. The food was wonderful, and we all enjoyed ourselves way to much. The 3 of us had fun staying at your house, I hope we left it like we weren't even there well except for the dirty sheets and towels, HA HA. Again, I really admire you Sis, you did it :)

Back to Kadie, last night Glenn and I went to the local grocery store to pick up something and we saw Kadie's car in the parking lot so when we got into the store Glenn said he was going to go look for something, I think it was Kadie. Then I saw my Daughter pushing her grocery cart full of grocery's, like good for you white bread, pop tarts and dinner making stuff and Glenn was with her talking I asked her if it was payday and she said "yes and next is walmart for shampoo and stuff like that" then her face fell and she gave us a "pout face" which she has always been good at, Glenn patted her on the back and we both knew her whole paycheck was going to this shopping trip and probably GAS, he took out his wallet and gave her a $10 bill Kadie eyes just lite up and she said thanks Glenn with the biggest grin. Glenn's response was something like anytime Kadie. I gave my Daughter a hug and we walked away, I guess you could say my baby is growing up I would call this one of my sad and happy momments in life :) But to say the least I am very proud of that GIRL of MINE!

It's zucchini time!

One day you go out to your garden and there are these really cute yellow flowers inside this big plant, then a few days later you go out into the garden and see the same plant and a little 2" green vegetable and the yellow flower is on the end of it, then about 3 days later you go out to the same plant again and the cute little 2" green vegetable is the size of a "LOG" which is still green in color. So at this point you start to look around and the yellow flowers, 2" veges and logs are everywhere and I mean everywhere. They begin to overwhelm you if you let it so that is when the baking starts and the recipes come out all containing the one same ingredient: ZUCCHINI!

Zucchini Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil


• 3 eggs or equal egg substitute


• 1 1/3 cups sugar


• 1/2 orange juice


• 1 teaspoon almond extract


• 2 1/2 cups flour


• 2 t baking powder


• 1 t baking soda


• 1 t salt


• 2 t cinnamon


• 1/2 t ground cloves


• 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini

oven 350. combine 1st 5 ingredients, in separate bowl mix all dry ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Fold in zucchini into the batter. Fill cupcake liners bake for 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

I used mango juice instead of orange juice, it turned out great. The finished recipe. Stay tune for more Zucchini recipes

Summer Fun

When it is 100 degrees outside in the high desert, what do you do? If your Husband loves you enough he will put up misters high in the Juniper trees so you can sit under them and stay cool. My Husband is so wonderful to me.
The when the sun goes down you walk to Apple B's for a salad and a cold margarita. The heat during the day either has you under the misters or in the house so when we returned from dinner we decided to watch a movie in the backyard on the basketball court pad.
Here is Juniper our dog and Glenn watching Pirates of the Caribbean and enjoying a cold beer and popcorn.
The evening was perfect the temperature cooled down to about 85 degrees by the middle of the movie. I had a great time being at home during the day, walking to dinner, and having our own outdoor movie right in our backyard.

I don't get very many weekends off, so some time ago we planned this weekend to be a camping trip. Because of the high temperatures Glenn decided maybe we should stay home. I don't handle the heat as well as I use to and I really appreciate him thinking about that. The camping season for me is as short as my gardening season so I feel really bad that we did not get to go, we have such a good time when we camp but I know that our weekend home was just as fun.

My advice to you before winter: pick out a good movie, set up your laptop outside, get your ipod speakers some cold beer and pop some popcorn then just sit back and enjoy the show!

Sunflowers

How Cute is this!

Here is the 1st sunflower of the season, isn't it cute! I am waiting to see how many actually get flowers on them since they all came up volunteer. The deer have ate most of the sunflower plants I have left the stocks up so hopefully the deer keep nibbling on them and not the one patch that has been avoided so far. Most of the garden this year has been eaten up by deer we have 2 fawns and a mother doe that come in about every night or early morning to have a snack, it has made me very upset and I really don't know what to do next year, it really seems useless to plant but I so like a garden in my back yard. They have even pulled the zucchini off the stocks now that is hungry.

I hope to enjoy some more sunflowers as they grow, we just leave them in the garden all winter so the birds can come in to eat on the seeds. The stocks on the plant are so large they stand up through the entire winter until we pull them out the following spring. I think there is about 2 months left before the 1st frost. Really I am just hoping it will be that long we will see.

This is what happens after the deer have their dinner in the middle of the night. Not a pretty sight.

Mr. Magorium's WONDER EMPORIUM

You know when you have this movie sitting around the house and you just don't seem to be interested in watching it but there is something about it sitting there that makes you have to sit down and watch it. Well that is how I felt about this movie, Mr. Magorium's WONDER EMPORIUM. The movie is about a 243 year old toy shop owner (Dustin Hoffman) his health is failing mainly because his favorite shoes are wearing out, you will have to watch the movie, he wants to turn over his magical toy store to a quiet, depressed manager, but since the store reflects the energy of those who work it, Molly has to lift her spirits and help the store recapture its magic, taken from Netfilx, I thought it was so well put so I copied it, I only wish I could have seen this movie when I was in my past position as SGM, but that is a whole other topic, that I don't like to talk about. ANYWAY if you feel you are at a crossroads or just getting by or maybe you feel your magic is gone, which by the way I am not at any of these times in my life but I still felt really good after I watched the movie, so let me go on. To me the movie reminded me that you can't do it alone, you need good friends, co workers and just everyday people around you to make it work. If you are wondering what I mean by "it" I mean everyday life, but in the movie "it" is a toy store. SOOO with all this said I was very pleased I watched the movie, it was very different but sometimes different is good, and in my case today I just wish I hadn't waited so long to watch it. This is a movie I would recommend, just keep your mind in a magical state while watching it and you should feel as good as I did when it is over.

Post Cards from the Desert

This post card reminds me of the time we were in Portland on New Years Eve 1999, we were on the Max riding down town to ring in the new year with the kids. The train was packed and we were all dressed for a fun evening in the city! Just like this post card. Read on to find out more.

I have lived here in Central Oregon since the early 80's, I really didn't appreciate the desert until Glenn came into my life. He showed me another side of dirt and sage brush, I have since travelled through and around more of the Central Oregon desert then I could ever imagined. I have camped, explored, hiked, watched jets fly under the radar, and even got into a June Bug hatch. Glenn goes to the desert more then I do and when he goes without me he usually brings me home some treasure that he has found. I have received presents that he has restored or just gave me with the desert dirt still attached. There has been times when I was given bones or some hairy dead thing that I didn't except. I don't think I hurt his feelings it makes him laugh more then anything. But there also has been times when he brought me home a really good find. Take this box that was just laying in the dirt out in the middle of nowhere. I just love the postcards, I have not used them I just keep them in a drawer, so I can take them out every now and then just to look at them. I wonder if Glenn even remembers finding them? So the next time you are driving down the road and all you see is Central Oregon Desert, take a really good look around because you never know what you will find.

This is the box with all the cards.

These cards look like where someone has been. These cards are the "women" in the person that owned the box before me.

Faith and beyond!

Above left must be favorite actors, to the right is what I can see as their "rights".

To the left is the kid in all of us.

This card is one on my favorites on the back of the card it says, "THE MARRIAGE 1989", it looks like to me they are on a hill by the ocean and Dracula is performing a wedding?? So weird, I really like this one. I have added some cards to the box and who knows maybe some day I will have Glenn take me to where he found them in the desert and I will put the box back for someone else to enjoy like I have. In the mean time if you are ever over to my house and you want to see my box of desert cards please ask I just love to show them to people and listen to their responses to the cards.

2008 Family Reunion

Every year Glenn's Dad has a family reunion at his home. Every one in the family comes to enjoy a Sunday afternoon in August together. Over the few years I have been going I have watched the kids grow up to be fine young adults, I have had the privilege of getting to know Glenn's brothers and sister and their spouses they like to tell me about the situations Glenn has got them into. The Aunts like to talk about the past and what it was like growing up, the food is wonderful, there is always a variety to eat. Since we travel from Central Oregon to West Salem we usually stop at Costco and get a pie, everyone seems to like it in the late afternoon. This year we went to the berry patch and I found out for the 1st time that Glenn's favorite berry is boysenberry's until then I thought his favorite was blackberry's oh well you find out something new every once in a while about your spouse. That's what keeps life interesting. What a nice time we had!

Morning Thunder and Lightning

Thursday 5/07/08 at 10am




Wow I have not seen lightning and heard thunder like I just did here in Redmond before. I could hear the thunder coming but I could not see any lightening until it got right over our house. My camera went dead right when I went out side, so I used Glenn's camera and I was only able to get one shot of the lightning I was to slow the rest of the time. I really need a tri-pod, I got soaking wet (don't worry Glenn your camera is OK I put it under my shirt) and I was really scared because the thunder was so loud it shook the windows in the house. Our Dog Juniper Berry is under our bed and she won't come out, she has never done this before, I guess I will just leave her there until she is good and ready to not be such a scardy cat, ha ha. It is funny I hear the thunder in the distance and the sirens are continuous around our house, very weird feeling, this is! Well here is the photo I was able to get taken right from the front door at the corner of the house.

Brooks & Dunn Concert

Hot Air Balloon going over the Old Mill before the concert.

I have always been a fan of Brooks & Dunn, I have gone to 3 of their concerts one in Seattle then when I lived in the Portland area and last night I got to enjoy them right here where I live. I was so excited when I found out they were coming to Bend, I think I have had the tickets for about 3 months. I really appreciate Glenn going with me, he probably only listens to their music because I like it, I think that is real nice of him. The weather was HOT, and with the sun going down over the mountains it made it even HOTTER but as soon as the concert started I seemed to forget about the heat. I hope they enjoyed playing in Central Oregon as much as I liked going to their concert. I will let the photos show you how much fun I had.

Both Brooks and Dunn to the left performing one of my favorite songs. The back drops made it very easy to see no matter where you sat.

I took these photos with micro zoom on , I am glad they turned out as well as they did. During this song, they brought out Soldiers from the different armed forces, very well done I thought. I can't wait until the next time, Thanks for coming to Bend.

Game of Scrabble

My Husband set up a chess board in his office at work some time ago. The people he works with have started chess games and Glenn has had fun and a challenge playing through the game. I heard him once even talk to his son Micah about a game he had going in his office. The other day the CEO's of the business he works for was visiting, when they came into Glenn's office one of them showed an interest in the chess board.The Guy challenged Glenn to a game the next time he was in town. Glenn said sure, I don't know if that was a good move or not. Especially those of us that know Glenn's past with corporate executives I would call it a pretty colorful past, but I guess he did not learn or should I say he sometimes has to learn the hard way. I have had fun listening to Glenn talk about his chess board and it seems to bring some sort of spark in his voice when he talks about it. Since I don't know how to play chess I am going try something else at home. I have set up a scrabble board, with 2 players playing, each day you have to add a word to the board that fits but to make it interesting it has to be a word you heard that day. That's the house rules! How about it Glenn are you up for a good old game of scrabble? BJ

Happy Birthday Lucille Ball

You know how you have someone you have admired as a little girl. I have always admired Lucille Ball, she is one special Lady. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Ball, Her early movies are just as good as her weekly TV shows she had in the 1960's every Monday night. This short worded site tells her film career really well,http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ball_l.html.
When ever I have been asked to talk about someone I have admired that wasn't directly in my life I would always talk about Lucy, she was a very smart Lady, a great business woman.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you Lucy, you will always be in my life as someone I really appreciated knowing through books and TV, I hope I am half the woman you are and I will always admire you!

Kadie and I at Madame Tussauds wax museum in Las Vegas.

pitching a tent

Champagne makes everything all better, read on...

Happy 7Th Anniversary!

We went up century drive with our camping gear to spend the night. We really don't worry were we will pitch our tent because Central Oregon is filled with places to camp if you are the type of person who doesn't need to stay in a camp ground, which we are that type.



We are fans of the broken top area but we knew that it was early in the season and the unmaintained road you take in to the base area could still be closed due to snow. Well not only was the gate up but there were big bolder rocks in front of the gate making Glenn nervous that they are going to close the road completely for the season or who knows how long. If that is the case we will have a 5 to 7 mile walk to our base camp where we are use to driving into it. This is not a good sign. But I won't worry about that right now, so we went to sparks lake to see if there was a spot, even though both of us knowing there probably wouldn't be. We were right, the whole area was full at least to our liking. So then we went on a powerline road (if you haven't been on a powerline road before you need to experience this just make sure you are in a jeep) not finding a good camping spot we went onto little Cultus Lake it was full also. Now we move onward 7 miles on a one way dirt road to Irish Taylor Lakes. The mosquito's were as thick as a cloud and we were in the jeep topless (the jeeps top was off)... So we left as quickly as you can on a dirt one way road. We decided to go down some logging road and see what we would find. We ended up somewhere on look out butte road, at 1st I really didn't like the spot until the music started playing and the champagne started flowing in due time this area became a really good camping spot. The stars were bright at least until about 2am then the moon came out and dimmed the starry night sky. Yes this evening at times got tense and Glenn was getting anxious trying to make sure the nightwould be perfect. Even though we felt it was hopeless at times and we were wondering if we were going to have a good evening, we did. The night camping was great, we even call the evening fun and exciting. Now we look back at the photos and laugh and situation we were in. We are still nervous about the boulders blocking the road we take to our paradise every summer, but maybe the next time we go there the boulders will be gone and the snow melted enough to get there. Even after scouting for a camping spot for 3 hours I still like to walk out of work and see Glenn waiting for me in the Jeep with all our camping gear, knowing we are heading somewhere into the mountains or sometimes to the desert for a good old night of camping our way....
This car was on the one lane road to Irish Taylor Lakes, I see this as a red flag, what about you? Glenn after the tent is pitched and he realizes everything with turn out OK!I have this weired thing about having this sheet around me when I don't really know where we are and it gets dark. I guess you could call this my protective sheet cape thing! It hasn't let me down yet.The next morning I found these little flowers growing along the downed trees. They almost look like a berry.