Fabulous Visitors and Dualing GPSs

We were so happy to have our dear friends Nana and Alana (aka Tunie and Rio) visit us fora  few days last week.  It was so nice to have familiar faces around here again.  Sadly, after a few nights of wine and Banagrams, they had to leave us.  Can't wait until they come back to visit (hint, hint).

Andy was in Plano, Texas from Sunday to Thursday to visit a customer site.  He worked 6pm - midnight or later while he was there because that's when the printer was running.  In case you don't know Andy, these are not his peak hours.  He's more of a 7am to 4pm kind of guy.  He's glad to be back in Oregon where there aren't any rent-to-own tire and rim stores around. And I'm very happy to have him back.

Work is a little stressful for me right now.  Not to sound old, but, kids these days are NAUGHTY.   Thursday was particularly challenging and we actually ran out of places for misbehaving children to sit in time-outs at the at lowest point.  THEN while driving to Eugene to pick up Andy at the airport, I got lost because the GPS on my phone was showing one thing on the screen but the voice (so I thought) was telling me something completely different.  I managed to drive all the way to Eugene (in a very roundabout way) before realizing that the GPS in the CAR was talking to me the whole time and a completely different location was entered in it so while I thought it was my phone telling me what to do, it was a different robotic voice  trying to take me somewhere completely different.  I was not a happy camper. 

We're continuing Operation: Home Sweet Home and are pondering one we saw tonight.  It's a beautiful house but doesn't have the lot size we were hoping for...trying to weigh the pros and cons is almost as exhausting as trying to get six 5 year olds to stay in time-out simultaneously. 

Coastal Anniversary

Hoping the phrase "better late than never" applies here.  

We celebrated our first anniversary at a little cottage near the coast.

We enjoyed another trip the the lighthouse (no fog this time!) and some impromptu whale and seal watching on the beach followed by massages.  It was fabulous.

This photo makes it look like the leaning tower of lighthouse  but it was the photographer (it was me....shhh, don't tell) that was leaning. 

 

Andy enjoyed the fish and chips from Gracie's.

And I enjoyed this sign at the nearby convenience store. 

 When we returned home on Sunday, Shadow seemed to be very upset with her raccoon.  And proceeded to behead it. (note the headless body in front of her paws).

The Monday after our mini-vacay, I started my job.  I won't lie...the first week was rough.  I felt like each and every one of the 21 kindergartners beat me up.  I was (and still am) exhausted.  There are a couple of kiddos that are trouble makers and there is a lot of general unruliness so we're working on that.  I weighed my options and decided that bribery was the way to go.  So, we started the "Button Game" on Friday....the rules are simple.  Good deeds get a button.  The button goes in the jar (not in our mouth).  When the jar is full, we get to have a "celebration."  I'm thinking I should have gone with a smaller jar...or bigger buttons.

First Visitors!

We were thrilled to have Andy's dad, Jim and step mom, Val come and visit us over the holiday weekend!  We started off by visiting HP on Friday so Andy could show us the printers he works on.  We walked through several hallways before entering the test/lab area.  Lots of drums of printer ink, lab coats, goggles, etc.  We made our way over to see what I'm now referring to as Andy's printers.  They are HUGE.  Really impressive - especially when you see the giant rolls of paper feed through as people were printing test pages.  I wish I could have taken pictures.  We also got to see a 3D printer which creates prototypes, models, etc.  The man working with that printer looked like Christopher Lloyd's character in Back to the Future (long white hair and all) and was very happy to talk with us about his printers. 

On Saturday, we headed to Corvallis for the farmer's market and lunch.  Here is a photo of one of the blackberries we got.  The pint only had about 7 berries because they were so big. 

On Sunday, we ventured over to the coast.  When we arrived, fog had set in.  We still went to visit the lighthouse but as you can see from this father-son picture, we couldn't see much.

Andy and Jim went to Silver Falls on Monday for a hike and Andy was sad that the falls weren't flowing nearly as impressively as they were back in June when we went. 

We had a great time and were so happy they could come and visit us!  Shadow also really enjoyed the extra love and attention and decided to invite herself into their room so she could greet Jim and Val most mornings.  Labor Day marked our 1st anniversary...hard to believe!  We're heading to the coast this weekend to relax and celebrate -- using it as a good excuse to get away from the heat!   

Here's a picture of one of Shadow's favorite places to perch these days - sitting on the treadmill, right in front of the fan.