The Beauty of the Snow

Click on any photo to view larger image

My name is Tiger....

Hello, world....

I am a lucky dog. I was adopted a week ago from a shelter. I've have had a really rough life. I am underweight, weighing in at 7 pounds.

My new family drove through the snow and ice to pick me up. They have taken me to the doctor for a check up, and also to the groomer to get my new hair cut. I have a warm home now, with lots of hugs and kisses.

My two new brothers, Checkers and Bear look out for me, too. I hear I have a sister, Cindy Lu, who is living in Arizona with Grandpa and Grandma Andrews.

Yes! Got Snow!

8 1/2 inches of snow fall Saturday

We received 8 1/2 inches of snow over the past 24 hours. Our yard and neighborhood looks wonderful. I wish it could last all winter.

We have had many small birds visit our bird feeder that we have hanging outside our kitchen window. They take turns floating down from the nearby tree to eat from the feeder. The squirrels haven't been by yet this morning to eat the peanuts.

Matt and Dan doing cookies in the street

Let it Snow .... (some more, please!)

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are receiving cold air from the Arctic and moisture from the Pacific Ocean which when combined gives us snow! When warm air currents from California swoop up north to us, then the snow melts and turns to rain. We've had about 3 days of snow this week so far.

Schools in the area have been closed all week because of the freezing conditions. Christmas break starts today. We have one more snow storm expected on Saturday, then everything turns to rain next week. Bummer.

Snow is so magical in the way that it transforms the landscape.

We've been trying to keep up with feeding the birds and the squirrels. We found out that we now have two squirrels visiting our new squirrel feeder. They visit at least twice a day and empty the feeder. We've been feeding them raw peanuts in the shell. We spoil our birds with shelled raw sunflower seeds (less mess). By buying the nuts in the bulk foods section of the grocery store, we find it's more cost effective than "packaged" food.

Lori and Abi

Easing into Decorating for Christmas

Nope, we don't have the Christmas tree up yet. With the kids and us in different directions lately, we haven't made plans yet for our tree.

Contrary to previous years, I haven't done any homemade wreaths yet, either. This year, we purchased a wreath from our neighbor for his Boy Scout fundraiser.

Today I decided to dress-up the porch area a little bit, as I was inspired to do so when I removed the un-carved pumpkins.

Fred Meyers had a door mat for $4.99, and that got me started.

I put a couple cinder blocks on each side of the door along with a smaller brick. I wanted to add some varying height of the cheap potted greens from Home Depot. I didn't like the look of the bricks, so I ran to the dollar store and picked up cellophane wrap in bright Christmas colors and a couple metallic large gift bags. I wrapped each pot with the wrap and secured with a rubber band. I folded the metallic bags over the front and top of the bricks, to make them look like presents. I strung cheap red bead garland on a couple of the trees.

It's a start, at least it looks like we are trying....

We definitely want to get our Navity scene on display in the front yard before Christmas, but don't know when we will do that. We're expecting very cold weather this weekend and into Tuesday. Low temperatures are expected around 10 degrees, and highs about 20. Unusual weather for our area.
-Lori

Orange you glad, for safety's sake?

I visited with Matt at work this past week, I spotted an additional item of clothing on him that he wasn't wearing when he left for work.

He was wearing a bright orange vest. Now I know he is an avid hunter, but this is taking it to the extreme. As I entered the warehouse, he pulled open his vest and cloaked me with 1/2 of it, as we walked across the warehouse floor to an office.

Apparently, the change of management has inspired additional safety measures, and personal touches. Now, all personnel, even the design guy who sits at a desk all day, wears a bright orange vest, for safety's sake.

Thankfully, nobody is allow to bring their hunting rifles to work, or Matt would be all over that one!

It's a Snow Bird....no...it's, it's a Snow Dog....

Cindy Lu and Matt

Kisses for Daddy

Cindy Lu, our black poodle, has arthritis in her legs. We found that she does better in the summer, opposed to the colder winter weather. We also have stairs in our house that she does navigate, but slowly.

Matt's mom and step-dad live in Arizona, where the temperatures are in high 80's at this time of year. We talked with them about the possibility of Cindy Lu spending the winter in Arizona--they agreed to take her to see if this will help.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we put some miles on the car. We started with Thanksgiving in Shelton, WA, then took our daughter back to school in Eugene on Friday and continued driving south on I-5 to California, where we met up with Matt's parents, who also drove a long distance to help us out.

Matt walking the dogs at a rest area, Bear, Checkers and Cindy Lu

Breakfast at Black Bear Restaurant in Redding, CA
Norm and Cindy Lu

Not sure if this is the first case of a dog "heading south" for winter, but we are glad we have the option for her. She's such a sweetheart, and we love her so much that we want to do what we can to ease her pain. Her Grandma and Grandpa have promised to spoil her with love.

Checkers in back seat of car, not enjoying the ride so-much

Bear enjoying the Californian sun through the car window

Matt and his Mommy, hadn't seen her since 2006

The Avenue of the Giants in the Redwood Forest (that's one tree in the background)

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent the day up in Shelton, WA with aunts and uncles on Matt's mom's side of the family. The food was superb! One turkey was smoked on the barbecue, the other baked in the oven.

Matt made his special steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Very good.

We had a wonderful visit, and wished it could have been longer....

Ahhhh, Fall is in the air...and there go our sunflower seeds!

Among the many "To-Do" list items listed on our bulletin board in the kitchen, one of the them is to harvest the sunflower seeds from our garden, and dry them. This was a low priority item, under 'rake the leaves' and 'fix a door knob'.

The rains have come, and the sunflowers have become very wet. I looked out our second-story window and discovered that 'early bird gets the worm -- or early squirrel gets the seeds'. A bushy-tailed brown squirrel was dangling from his back feet about 15 feet in the air and consuming the seeds one at a time as fast as he could. I managed to catch him on camera.

We've decided that he can have the rest of them.....

200,000 .....and still going!

Nah, we're not talking about dollars, or votes....

Today at about 2pm, our little Honda civic rolled over 200,000 miles! Our baby is all grown up.

We bought the car new back in 1999, and in less than 10 years we managed to drive an average of 20,000 miles per year....and it's not our only car. That's an average of 1,666 miles per month or 55+ miles per day.

Our best gas price in the area has been Costco. It's been consistently the lowest gas prices for about a month now. Today we filled up for $2.19/gallon for regular. It's really cool to spend only about $20 to fill up.

I noticed I had less than 100 miles to go before the big rollover event. I ran some errands, went to an appointment, then stopped by Matt's work to be able to witness the "event" together. It all went down on a road called Tooze, nice view, pleasant drive. As we watched the rollover begin, all we could say was "Wow". .....and then it was over.....