A wonderful weekend off!

It is Sunday evening and I am in my pajamas in bed with my cozy pink blanket, laptop, dogs and my lastest People magazine and I had a fantastic weekend. My sister came to visit me this weekend from Medford and we had a lot of fun and just a great time catching up as girls without our husbands. AJ had class at OSU all weekend and Tobin had to work all weekend at the hospital so it was a perfect weekend for us to catch up. My sister, Christy, drove up here Friday night and Saturday we spent the entire day doing whatever we felt like and had no set schedule. It was nice.

Here is how our day went. Ate breakfast, took our time getting ready, cleaned out my closet(she loves hand-me-downs from my closet), organized AJ's closet(not sure why but I felt like it needed it right then), ordered pizza and headed over to Andy and Ruth's for an impromptu lunch. We hung out with them for a while and then took Gracie and Benjamin to the carousel and then shopping for a little bit. It was fun to hang out with them and give Mom and Dad a little break. After we took them home, we headed to Portland to do real Christy and Maryanne shopping! Our mission was find a bridesmaid dress for Christy for a wedding she is in in May.

Off we headed to Nordstrom Rack in Beaverton, only to not find it and finding ourselves headed to downtown. We were okay with that and were quite happy after we left Nordstrom Rack with a bagfull of deals each. Then we headed to Washington Square to return something at Nordstroms, and start our hunt for a dress. No such luck on the dress hunt but maybe a couple of possible options. I, of course, found a few thing to add to my look. So then we left the mall and headed down to Trader Joe's in Lake Oswego and stocked Christy up on items her and Tobin have fallen in love with and can't get as there isn't a Trader Joe's in Medord. Oh and mind you, it rained all day Saturday. So each trip to a new store or parking space was a mad dash in between raindrops.

After Trader Joe's we had one more stop at Bridgeport and the Container Store as my mom wanted me to pick something up for her there. She just loves that store and they don't have one in Bend. So we wandered around the Container Store, bought our few items and dashed back to the car. It was now 8pm and we hadn't had dinner yet. We had seen a Baja Fresh across the street and headed over there only to be drawn to the Qdoba Mexican Grill instead. It is like a Chipotle where you create your own burrito or taco or tostada. We both got burritos and loved each and every bite of them.

Well, our night came to a close as we climbed back in the car for one last trip back to Salem. Upon arrival at home, we showed AJ our finds for the day and then hung out before bed and then crashed. Today we had planned on church in Portland, lunch and then come home and Christy would take off. Church was good and we tried a new restaurant on Hawthorne called the Bread and Ink and it was fantastic. Then on our way home AJ wanted to stop at Frys so we did. We got home, packed Christy up and off she went to Medford.

We had amazing conversation, lots of laughter, made some wonderful memories and found some remarkable deals! I am so glad my sister came to visit. She may not be as it took her 7 hours to drive home today after she left Salem, but once she gets home, I am sure she will be glad then that she came. She even has tomorrow off as the clinic she works at has already decided to close for the day tomorrow as there has been quite a bit of snow in Medford and southern Oregon today. Whew, what a weekend!

Ellie likes to burrow!

Our little schnauzer is a very unique dog. She howls and someday I will catch it on camera and put a clip of it on here. Our other dog, who is also of the terrier family looks at her like she is crazy. Terriers by nature are not howling type dogs. But Ellie does and it makes us all laugh when she does.

Ellie in the pile

But Ellie is also unique because she loves to burrow under our down comforter after we have made the bed. So every afternoon it looks like we never made the bed that morning, when in fact, we have. Many of times, I will see the covers are in a pile and go to straighten the out, only to find a little ball of fur under them. Ellie takes her nose and burrows under them and gets them in a nice pile and then curls up under the covers and stays nice and warm. When we use to live in Cottage Grove during the summer we couldn't find Ellie and we would call and call for her and then here she would come, out from beneath the shed through a tiny little hole, coverd in dirt and as happy as could be. Ellie is our little Vegas dog and loves to lay in the sun and be warm!

Snowmobiling at Trout Lake

The last of our trips for December was a quick weekend trip to Trout Lake to go snowmobiling. My sister's in-laws live there and have some snowmobiles. Christy and Tobin were up there for Christmas and since there was some good snow and we had another free weekend, we joined them to take advantage of the snow.

AJ and I drove up on Thursday night and at one point or another thought we might have to chain up as it seemed the storm that was blowing in was getting worse. We stopped at the Wal-Mart in Hood River to buy a flashlight as once you go over the bridge into Washington there isn't much light or cars. So off we went into the snow and night of Washington. It seemed like it was going to be worse than it actually was. The trees and road were covered in snow and we had a truck in front of us and a car behind us all the way to Tobin's parents house. We made it safe and sound and unloaded our car with about four inches of snow on the ground and more coming down.

Later that night, they decided to take us for a night ride on the snowmobiles around town on the local roads as they were snow covered. Off into the night we went and it was a nice refresher on how to use the machines and a great experience to buzz around Trout Lake.

The next morning we woke up to a lot more fresh snow and a beautiful day outside. No snow was coming down but there were a few clouds in the sky but perfect conditions for a day in the hills. Off we went and begin our climb through the old logging roads in the hills. All of us at one time or another would get our machine stuck in the powdery white stuff and then we would dig each other out. At one point, I got my machine stuck and Christy and I undug it ourselves. We were pretty proud of ourselves as we didn't need the guys to help us.

AJ had a close encounter with a tree, I felt like I almost slid off the hill at one point, Christy yelled from the hill at one point down to us, "I'm stuck," and even veteran snowmobiler Tobin got his machine stuck. We had a lot of fun and great memories made. I was certain I was going to be sore the next day and of course I was.

After we got back from snowmobiling and eating lunch, we then played a round of Hand and Foot, Citadel, Boggle and Memory. And then after dinner of waffles, ice cream and sauteed apples, we had a rematch of Citadel.

All in all a great time in Trout Lake and hanging out with the Rummels. But AJ and I were just ready to be home and finally unpack our suitcase for good. No more! We love our families, but we are ready to be home and welcome in the new year and hang out with our dogs. AJ starts school next week and has been breaking in his PS3. It is nice to be home!

Dogs....

I love my dogs. We have two of them and AJ likes to blame me for both of them. He is just as much to blame as I am. It all starts when you start going to the puppy stores. There is no turning back when you begin. That is how we fell in love with Lucy, our rat terrier/chiuaua mix. She is crazy and skittish and pees if you look at her funny but she is a lover and a cuddler at heart. Just don't try to pick her up or else....well, just get the picture.


Then there is Ellie who came along after we got Lucy and both had very busy lives and felt that Lucy needed a friend. Back to the puppy stores we went and instantly fell in love with Ellie and just couldn't leave her so we bought her and brought her home. She is a pure bred minature schnauzer who is pretty dumb. She can be smart but often times has her own agenda and could care less who the rest of us are. She is notorious for darting out the door and out into the neighborhood. AJ and I always say she would make a great wild door as she is super independent and had no allegiance. She is a wonderful cuddler and seems to do really well around kids. Now that she is almost 4 she has mellowed out a lot. She does love chocolate and no it doesn't make her sick, but she does bounce off the walls for a while after she finds some. That does has a nose for mischief and amazingly, she hasn't died yet.


So those are our dogs. It is a true love/hate relationship but most often it is love. The do drive me crazy occasionally but then I just have to remember, they are dogs!

Inn at Otter Crest

This is the view of Otter Bay out our window.
This is one of the many little tide pools we saw at Yaquina. Very vivid and bright colored anenomes and starfish.

After we came back from Sunriver, we left most of our stuff packed and I worked for two days and then we repacked our bags for a trip to the coast with AJ's family. Off we drove to the Inn at Otter Crest just north of Newport. We had a very relaxing trip and watched movies on the big screen every night with the projector JJ brought and then during the day we went to the Outlet Mall, Newport, the tide pools, the lighthouse at Yaquina, the Rogue Brewery or the movies. One thing that the DeBacker's say on their vacations is that you do not have to do anything you don't want to do. So, some or all of us did a variety of the above mentioned activities and if you just wanted to lay around and watch TV all afternoon while everyone else was out shopping or drinking some ale, I could! I didn't feel the least bit guilty as AJ and I both got sick and had those nasty winter colds that everyone has. We had a lot of fun but after being gone two weekends in a row, AJ and I were glad to have our own bed back. I was happy to see my dogs again!

Hoodoo with Gracie and Benjamin

Well, I volunteered AJ and I to take Gracie and Benjamin with us over to Sunriver and give Andy and Ruth a break from their two of their kids. AJ wanted to stop at Hoodoo and play in the snow with the kids. So we stopped, got them in their snow clothes and headed over to a little hill where they slid down on their bums and made snow angels. Gracie was much more adventuresome in the snow, while Benjamin had his reservations about the white stuff. We finally got him to slide down the hill and of course, then he didn't want to stop. We had a lot of fun. We then headed back to the car to change into dry clothes and down the mountain to Sunriver we went. It was a fun drive and AJ was teaching Gracie how to tell time on the digital clock in our car as she wanted to keep asking how much farther. We finally made it to Sunriver and unloaded the car. What a fun way to start our weekend!

Sunriver: December 2007

Well, here I am blogging and thought I would start off with a picture of the Miller family. We all got together in Sunriver for my dad's 60th birthday and took some family pictures. This is one of all of us. My brother, Andy and his wife Ruth and their three kids, Gracie, Benjamin and Zoey. Then there is my sister Christy and her husband Tobin and AJ and I along with my parents. We had a fantastic weekend and lots of fun playing games and laughing and hot tubbing.

So that was the beginning of the traveling that AJ and I would do for the month of December. We packed our bags three times in a matter of three weeks and each trip was fun and exciting but we were tired by the time 2008 came.