What Are You Reading?

When I return, I'm going to have more than enough time to read the "BEST BOOK" on everyone's reading list. Please, leave me a comment and tell me your favorite books.....your "must read next" list.......and what you are reading now! I just recently finished The Life of Edgar Sawtelle. All I can say is "OH MY!" (just read it !!!)

And I am now reading "The Shack". I'd heard so much about it, I bought it - twice. (duh).

I got home from the book store and went to stow my new books in the nest I've created next to my chair (where I'll ultimately spend LOTS of hours) and there it was! already. So I have 2 copies to share....The jury's still out on this one. ( One minute I love it. The next, I think it's poor writing....) You can decide for yourself!

-v

g'bye for now.....

This is "it"....I got most everything done: puppy washed and clipped, lawn furniture stowed away, Perennial Flowers mulched and put to bed, house cleaned, laundry done, bed linens changed, voted absentee, bought a couple "last minute" Christmas presents, (bah ha haaa...you have to know ME to get this), raked leaves, packed for the hospital, checked email, cooked dinner,tested the hot tub water and put the temperature on stand-by for a few weeks.....yadda yadda.
I know I'm compulsive, but I feel like I'm going away on a very long trip...it's weird. I just know that even though it's a short two or three day stay in the hospital, I'm not going to be "UP" for much of anything for weeks after I get home. My thoughts will be all about pain and survival and just getting from point A to point B. And I am in total angst about the fact that the rest of my favorite Indian Summer days will be spent indoors, where I can't feel the sun's warmth on my face. I refused to put the wicker chairs away in the garage. I am hoping for just a few more warm, golden afternoons, where, if I talk sweetly enough, Hugs will pull my chair out into the sunshine...and I can feel blessed to live out my days ..... back on the ranch.

Until then, g'bye for now.
Miss Vic

It's Crunch Time

I knew it was coming. I thought I was ready. But everywhere I look, there is evidence of... well...sloth.

You see, it's all over for me Tuesday morning. No more "Oh, I'll finish that up tomorrow." or "It's still too early to mulch the perennials for winter."....

"I'll finish planting the flower bulbs..."

just WHEN exactly????? After Tuesday morning, THERE WILL BE NO MORE DIGGING IN FLOWER BULBS !!!!!

It's Crunch Time. It's all over. What's not done, won't be getting done. I found myself foaming at the mouth...I had to have fresh clean sheets on the bed! The laundry had to all be done...the floors vaccumed, the dog shampooed and groomed....

WELL, WHAT WOULD YOU DO, IF YOU KNEW YOU'D BE BARELY ABLE TO GET YOURSELF TO THE TOILET THE NEXT TIME YOU CAME HOME??? Huh?!??!!!!

Nerves? NO.o.o.o.o.oooo huh uh. Not ME. I don't mind pain. At All. NOPE. I'm TOUGH.

(As long as the doc prescribes good drugs - I'll be just fine).

Tuesday morning - 11:00 - Miss Vic on the operating table....ever after will be known as NewKnees! ...I'll be setting off alarms at airports around the world, from a distance of 1/2 mile away!

Now! About YOU ! Yes, you! Don't you leave and forget about me, just because I go off missing for a couple weeks! I'm going to NEED you in the following weeks of recouperation. I'm going to need you all to listen to me whine and carry on as though I am the pioneer of the Journey Knee. Never has anyone else gone through such sacrifice and pain for the good of ALL humanity!

Or something like that.

Meanwhile, Back on The Ranch...........

HUMPH

Humph.
See, I told you there was a learning curve to Blogging!
Would anyone in their right mind actually run the text along side their photos in the manner of my previous post ?!?
I think not.
And though I tried to fix it, I failed.
I'm sorry.
Good night, nurse.

Family

My most crowning glory, My Own Belov-ed daughter.


Mom,unaware of the camera,(the best time to catch her)



My Baby sister, looking cute, as only baby sisters CAN !




One of older Grand daughters, Alex, at her first HS Homecoming Dance. (Wasn't it just yesterday that she was a baby in our arms?!?)


My two youngest Grands: Sisters & Best Friends



Just Grammie and her girls on a recent trip to the ocean.



And here's Hugs n I at our 25th Anniversary celebration. And they said it wouldn't last!! I said, "Love will keep us together"...I had it engraved on the underside of his watch; I believed it then and it still holds true. We took those vows seriously, and love has gotten us through the hard times as well as the wonderful times.
Let it be said, that family is important to me. And you can say that again, for good measure! We are a small family. My parents are still alive, and Hugs mother, too. It just feels like our family is SO small, sometimes. And it's scary. I have realized the frailty of life this year, as our parents health has begun to really show signs of failing. And I DON'T WANT TO BE A MATRIARCH!! When our parents are gone, who will we have holiday meals with?? Our kids have all moved away! Well, it's something I don't like to think about!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch............

The Gardening Bug...in AUTUMN ?????

Any of you that have known me awhile, knows of my love of anything "natural"...and anything to decorate in the yard and flower gardens....well, guess what I found on the way home from Seattle? (nah nah nah na nah nah....)

Yup. A silicone mold of a gigantic leaf, so that lil old ME can produce my own stepping stones, and bird feeders and bird baths and water features, and....oh MY !!
I am sooooo excited about this mold!...and making them whatever color I want to make them....this little shop had lots of different hand made molds of different leaves and if I'd been rich, I would have bought several different ones...different sizes. They are too expensive for me to be that impulsive. Now, if I start doing these and really love it,then I can purchase or make some more molds. I can hardly wait to start making things, but me thinks it will have to wait for my new knees and warm weather next spring. Don't any of you let me forget to do this at the first sign of new life next Spring !! But if you're feeling jealous and want your own leaf molds, contact Pam at kitrnorton@comcast.net and tell her Miss Vic sent you!

She had the most eclectic blend of old,and rusty vs. shiny and beautiful, all in one funky little shop on WA Highway 2. I actually feel very at home and comfortable when surrounded by old rusty hardware...it takes me winging back to the wonderful days as a little girl shadowing my belov-ed Grampa in his workshop. I could have spent days in that little road-side shop.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch..........

Just Keepin' It REAL

Today, I'm just spreading the Love. It's the least that I can do, in light of the fact that yesterday was THE-DAY-FROM-HELL. YIKES ! In preperation for the upcoming knee replacement, I had to attend several appointments. before the "Big Day"...and in light of the fact that surgery will be at a hospital 80 miles from home, (and the price of gas).....I scheduled three appt. in one day.
So Hugs and I got up at 0-dark:thirty to get to the first doctor on time.
So, we made it out the door, coffee in hand (duh!)and hair on fire, at a horribly early hour for re-tirees. Three doctors/hospital/lab visits later, we made it home by 7:30 PM. Hugs got first hand knowledge of my painfull knees when the specialist displayed my X-rays in agonizing life-size. Let it be said that NOW he totally understands my pain issues and wonders out loud, "How can you even walk??!??!?!?"
Half-Starved and ready for instant intervention, (Poppa Murphy's to the rescue) and I fell into bed by 9:00.


Yeah. Just keepin' it real. Miss Vicki

In The Beginning

In The Beginning

Whew! It's happened! I have finally started my Blog. But I can tell right-off-the-bat that there's a learning curve to this Blogging thing! All I want is WHAT I WANT, THE WAY I WANT IT, DAMN IT !!!!

okay...deep breathing....

I just get irritated when computers don't do what I tell them to do IN PLAIN ENGLISH!

It somehow reminds me of talking to children. Or herding chickens.

Oh, now THAT's a whole 'nother BLOG, folks!

*.*.*.*.*.*.

From the backwoods of our own little "Paradise Found", I will drag you, (kicking and screaming, all the way, I'm sure) through our life here. The every-days-worth of living the quiet life, snug on a few small acres in the rural northwest.

Twenty five years ago, Hugs and I dreamed of building our own log house, and we succeeded in creating a home that gives us comfort and JOY, every day. We built our home with no blue-prints - only a shared vision of a big, warm and comfortable place where friends and family could gather. You know the kind of place - where you can sink into a chair and put your feet up, instead of perching on the edge of your seat and watching for the first moment you can conveniently escape.

Now, we're retired, with the kids grown and gone, and nothing to do with our time except just what we really WANT to do. No more daily grind, (except MY daily grind of PURE, Arabica Beans), we find that staying up late to "finish the last chapter of the book" and sleeping late the next day is more than just okay. There seems to finally be enough time for Hugs to go on 4 wheeler trips with his guy friends, and for me to take week long journeys to spend with the grand daughters. Life just doesn't get much better than this.

Today begins the count down of the last week before my first total knee replacement. I am not looking forward to the pain and the recuperation. But I already have the crippling pain, so let the recuperation journey begin!. I am giving my old knees to a surgeon I trust with my life. Dr. Kym saved my crushed arm with severed nerves, from a 4 wheeler wreck a few years ago, and I wouldn't be willing to let much of anyone else touch my knees.

But this month, I am running around with my hair on fire, trying to get everything done before surgery...every errand done, every project finished, every fruit and vegetable preserved and stored for winter. Good Grief! You'd think I was going to the m@@n !! For a LONG visit !! Approx. 250 # tomatoes were made into spaghetti sauce, preserves and whole canned tomatoes, 3 boxes of peaches, about 60 # beets were pickled, and cukes were pickled into Dago Dills. Pumpkin Butter was stirred over a slow burner all day, (oh MY!), squash was cut, cooked and frozen...why! if Armageddon occurs this winter - head on over. We've got yur' back.

In the meantime.....back at the ranch.............