Passing on

Dave's Grandma Rose did pass away this afternoon. She will be missed so much! She was a really strong, independent and amazing woman - even to the end. Thanks for all the prayers and comments. The above photo is of Rose with Dave's Mom, Bev.

My Cousin Thomas

This is my cousin Thomas, he and I share a birthday and he was just a year older than me. He passed away earlier this month from pneumonia He was a very special person. Thomas was disabled, but lived a very full and meaningful life. He was only 42 years old. My Mom was able to fly to Little Rock, AR for the funeral and to support my Aunt Maureen and her family. It was also wonderful that both of my cousins, Jeff & Mark flew out to be with the family.

We also got some bad news today that Dave's Grandma Rose may not make it through the night. We got a call from Dave's Dad that the doctor's are expecting her to pass in the night. Loss is hard and as we get older it happens more often. It is so scary how fragile our lives really are and how we can lose someone so quickly. It makes you want to hug your kids, kiss your husband, call your parent's and send an email to a long lost friend.

One Little Word

Ok, so I finally made my "one little word" album and my first two pages to go in it. My first word is "blessed" for the current challenge. I took this photo of my husband while we were on our Spring Break vacation a couple of weeks ago. I also did a page for "explore" just to get myself going. The photos of me were taken by my husband at Ft. Worden in Port Townsend . We found this really neat tunnel on the old fort and took some "artsy" photos. We had such a good time being together!

Spring on the Palouse!

Well, we had a snowstorm yesterday and the kids had a snow day in March! Everyone around here has a saying..."if you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change!" That is so true! Dave was happy (really!) to use his snowblower one more time this year! Hope wherever you are you are having sunny days!

Grandma Rose

This is Dave's Grandma Rose.
She is one of the most amazing women I have every known.
She is 95 years old and up until a few days ago...
she still lived in her farm house by herself,
she still drove herself around town,
she still volunteered her time to many organizations,
she still planted a huge garden each spring,
she still made amazing homemade applesauce from the trees in her yard,
she still played cards and scrabble,
she still baked the best potato rolls...
but this past week, Grandma Rose had a stroke and now for the first time in over 75 years
she is not on the farm. She is in a hospice center, where she is stable and being made comfortable. She is not able to speak and her whole right side is paralyzed. She is able to understand what is being said to her and is able to communicate a bit with nods and shakes. We wish we were there to help support her and the family. We love you Grandma Rose!

Good to be Home!

It feels good to be home! Janie & Terri took great care of our dogs and house while we were gone. And, Shawna and the girls did a great job at the stores! We were also surprised to find Jared had come home too! He has been living and working in Portland for the past 2 months. It is so good to have him home. He has come home to save up some money for a ticket to Fairbanks, Alaska this summer. He plans to go work the summer up there with his friend, Ben.

I can't wait to print out all of the great photos we took and do some scrapbooking. Here are some of my favorite "nature" shots!

Sealife Show with Bruce!

Bruce is one of the employees at our timeshare and he always puts on a sea life show on the dock each week. He dives out into the Bay and brings in starfish, crabs, sea cucumber and even octopus. This is one of our favorite parts of coming to this condo! The boys are off fishing again and I am off to go read my book, "A New Earth" and relax!

New Haircut!

I could not stand it anymore! It is so sad that I have to go on vacation to find time to get a haircut! Shorter than I would have liked, but I think it will do!

A Day on the Dungeness Spit

What another fun day here on the Olympic Peninsula. We spent the day hiking in the Dungeness Recreation Area. No rain yet...but I guess we might get some later this week. Missing all you Pals at the stores! More to come...

Hi From Port Townsend!

Dave, Ryan & Zach

Love my new hat!

Karen & Dave

We had a great day today! Got up early and headed into Port Townsend to walk around downtown and go in and out of all the fun little shops. We had fish and chips for lunch - so good! After lunch we went to Fort Worden to hike around all of the old bunkers, took some fun photos and did some beach combing. More to come...

In Port Townsend, WA!

We are in Port Townsend, WA for our annual spring break trip. More to come...

A New Earth - Oprahs Live Web Event

Last week I had a customer and her husband come into the store to shop and we got to talking. I can't remember what started the conversation or how we got talking about it, but she started to share with me this new book she got from Oprah's latest book club. It is called "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. She told me she was doing this live web event on Oprah's website called A New Earth She shared with me how she is learning to live in the moment and stop all of those little voices in her head that bring her down. I told her how I stay awake at night with all of these thoughts coming and going...what I forgot to do today, what I have to do tomorrow, I go through my "worry list" and then I start to beat myself up for all of my failures, mistakes and weaknesses. We both just connected for a moment and nodded our heads in unison - yes...she knew exactly what I was talking about. I love that, a moment when a complete stranger can touch your life, maybe even change it! I wrote down the information and went home and registered for the web event. I am off to Waldenbooks and/or Hastings to get myself a copy of the book today.

I have read other spiritual books. Some of my favorites are The Four Agreements, The Secret. and any of the books by the Dalai Lama. I am not a religious person but I am spiritual. I was raised Catholic but to my Mom's disappointment I do not attend church and have not raised my children Catholic. I do believe and have raised my boys to believe that there is a higher power and that it does not matter if you believe it is God, Buddha, Muhammad or any other god or goddess - just that we need to BELIEVE. We are a very open minded family and have raised our children to not judge other's beliefs or convictions. So, I am excited to explore this new book and to learn and grow as a human being.

I will be watching the first web cast - Monday night, March 3rd at 6pm (pacific time.) If anyone else is reading this book or doing the web cast, let me know!

Antique Store Photo Safari

Shawna and I went antiquing again today in Moscow. We hit the Goodwill store and the Antique Mall on North Main. I brought my camera in and took lots of fun pictures all of the things I wish I could buy. I did manage to find a few items I could not live without. Check it out!

Found this 1950's yellow pitcher to add to my collection! Love the lid!

I got a green potato ricer to go with my "green" collection of kitchen stuff.

Found these wooden letter blocks with the initials for each one of us in our family and put them in my printer's drawer.

Added these to my new owl collection!

Wine, Cheese, Chocolate & Taxes?

I love my accountant! Carmel Minogue is my accountant and she is the best! All week long I have been dreading my meeting with her to go over my corporation files, personal taxes and to have our annual board meeting for the stores. I just hate talking about taxes and profits and expenses and all that stuff! But, Carmel always makes it easy on me. We started our meeting off with some wine and cheese and crackers! I brought Shawna, our Pullman Store Manager, along to participate in the annual board meeting and we made a little party out of it!

Carmel told us what an amazing job we are doing in managing the two stores. She has been more than just an accountant to me for the past 5 1/2 years. She has been my mentor, big sister, investor and friend! I could not run my stores without her and her staff. We ended our meeting with some chocolate and a refund! Yeah!