It's been a fruitful weekend. We brought home the last of what we wanted from Dad's house. The estate sales people are getting everything ready for a sale next weekend - if the weather permits!

I wrapped my fruit trees. We haven't seen the deer again but I want to be prepared ahead of time. It's a good thing I did that Saturday during a warm spell (40 degrees) because we had snow coming down sideways this afternoon and tonight. There is 5 inches of fresh snow on the ground right now. No telling what it'll be by tomorrow morning!

We've filled all the bird feeders for the hungry winged. We are seeing flickers, chicadee's, all kinds of finches, and sparrows at the feeders. Licorice loves watching the action from the various windows.

Jack and I got his clothes picked out and set aside for the cruise. I now have sea bands and meclizine tablets to combat sea sickness! Our dive logs have been located and put in the carry on...we're getting excited!

I've cooked twice this weekend! Dinner Saturday night and breakfast today! I didn't leave the house all day today. It was nice to just stay home!

About 1 am last night Jack woke me up - no riske story here!- to tell me there were 5 deer in our back yard AND they were snacking on our shrubs. The moon was bright so when the young forked horn streached his neck up to see what was in the birdfeeder outside out bedroom window I got a wonderful view of his profile. Sitting up in bed I could see a couple of other deer standing at the arborvida planted at the end of our patio. They are the first deer we've seen in our yard. They must be pretty hungry to brave the heavy dog scent around our house!

Jack asked if I minded if we just let the deer eat the shrubs...he didn't want to chase them off. I don't mind at all - I'm glad they have found them. Everything should have a purpose and seems like that is their's. Jack pulled down the blind in our room...so they could eat in privacy... and we went back to sleep.

When Jack got up at 5 am...his ususal get up time... he was surprized to find them all still here! He flipped the patio light on and stepped out and they still didn't leave. The little buck just looked at him.

Little Shilo stuck her head out the door and looked at the deer and then ducked back into the house!! She's only 1 1/2 and has never seen deer so we'll not snicker at her too much. She gets her feelings hurt really easy! I can just hear her saying "It's hard to be brave when you are small!" Since it was 2 degrees Jack didn't commune outside with the buck long.

From the livingroom window (ours faces into our backyard) Jack watched as one of the doe's pawed at the snow beneath the large apple tree at the far end of our yard. We didn't pick up the apples that had dropped this fall and now I'm glad we didn't. I'm sure they taste better than the evergreens!

They were gone when I got up at 6. The arborvida have been nicely trimmed down but the fruit trees we planted this summer seem to be untouched. I will be getting tree wrap and some fencing tomorrow. The trees will do fine as long as the deer don't de-bark them. If winter continues to keep snow on the ground they may be back to do that!

The three fruit trees were purchased with wedding gift certificates so they are doublely special! An apple, pear, and a plum!

It's Friday night so I stayed up late to post. Off to bed now! Tomorrow I'm off to Rite Aide to scope out the sea sickness remedies, then to the vet's for Mike to get his atheritis shot, and then to the gym! Getting ready for the cruise! 15 days away!

Oh,Oh meant to tell you all that Brett is safely back from his rock climbing vacation in Thailand. Evidently he took some falls but only left "alittle skin" behind. He also posted some pictures on flickr of his trip. You can find him under People 'evillordbrett'. Tisk tisk - as if he were!

He's doing some pretty awesome stuff from the looks of it! He went with his friend Marcus and spent about 10 days traveling around Thailand, climbing rock walls and celebrating New Years on the beach with a bucket of vodka.

He is planning the move from Japan to Thailand for this April. I hope to visit him there!

So many places to go and so little "vacation" to do it in!!!!

Love to you all!

HI! I've been busy and haven't posted for sometime, as was pointed out to me recently. This was my first end of the year/new year in payroll and it was intense - for me - since many things occurred that I had no reference point for. Many long days.

Squeezed in some holiday time though. Dinner with Caleb and Mike in Corvallis at a Japanese Steak house. Thinking of you Brett!

And a more traditional gathering at the Comacho's with friends in Klamath Falls.

We are really fortunate to have so many good friends. We also had a Christmas Dinner with Rocky and Caron at their house in Roseburg the week before Christmas!

Christmas Eve Signe and Leo joined us at our house. I used Mom's good china for the occasion. Jack has filled the set back in for me and I can now serve dinner for 8 with matching place settings! The table was prettier than the food was good. The dishes I made were just not quite right. I've always said I'm best at setting a mean table than filling one! They are good friends so it didn't really matter. We spent the evening looking through books I've brought from Dad's and discussing Ghost Towns we'd like to visit before we all retire to Mexico.

New Years Day we spent at Susie's playing Buzz Word, and War of the Sexes while snacking on all the different "New Years Day" traditional foods that everyone brought. I overheard Jack telling someone in the livingroom that "You can always tell when my wife is having fun!" I don't know how he meant that but I was deffinately having fun.

This is one of the coldest winters many can remember and we have a lot of snow on the ground. If it warms up enough to melt alittle in the day it freezes to an ice slick by early evening. We've not been out of town since before Christmas! It's been dark when I leave for work and dark when I got home until just recently. We are now on the count down for our Carribean Cruise. We expect completely different surroundings!

I've got my clothes laid out in the guest bedroom because it's still alittle to soon to put them in the suitcase...

Our little family is getting comfortable with each other. Licorice, the newest edition, is now ok with sleeping on my lap with the dogs sleeping at my feet. Shiloh still watches her and she watches Shiloh but we haven't had any chases through the house. Jack grouses about all the hair in the vaccumn but I am sure he is happy with our little troup.