Work, etc.

Worked, it was fun. 

Drove to Lville to pick up the grandbabies, ate dinner there at Nipps, and, as we were driving to her home five minutes away, we received a call from M that the babies' mom wanted to keep them another night. 

I was quite cranky after having driven up to Lville unnecessarily, but at least Hubby and I enjoyed the nice drive and dinner together.

Cap'n Gown

The Big Cap'n Gown Week began today. Work was fun and busy with happy grads picking up their packages. Afterward I grabbed some lunch at Fred's, went to the library to read, and napped in the car at Officers Row, till it was time to go pick up Hubby. Check out this butt-ugly view:

Picked up Hubby, we chatted with poor sick R, then picked up B at the gym. Then it was rest-with-kitty time.

SICK??

Oh, I better not be. We have cap and gown distribution coming up this week! I woke up coughing and feeling a bit cruddy. Boo. I popped a DayQuil to see if it took care of my symptoms, and it did. Darn it. I was hoping it was just allergies. 

Later: H & A came over and we grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch. Yay! We love seeing them. 

Later still: Next door excitement arrived in the form of the Neighbors' Landscaping Team. Read here if you're interested.

Kitty.

Laterer Stiller: The babies are off to visit their mama in Lville this evening. We'll miss them. 

Extreme Makeover: Headstone Edition

But first:

srsly, b.

This morning, Hubby and I ventured back down to Farmers Market for more of their lovely flowers. It's Vancouver Cemetery Sunday!

And, candied nut time.

The three relatives we visit at Park Hill Cemetery died while the family lived in Vancouver, but didn't serve in the military, so they wouldn't have been eligible for burial at Willamette National Cemetery. (Also, Willamette's first burials didn't happen until 1951.) So, unlike at Willamette, we get to hunt for and do some excavation work on their headstones whenever we come to visit.

1. Uncle John before...

and after

2. Grandma Jennie before...

and after

3. Uncle Haudy before...

After

After the cemetery: more car stuff and lunch at a local Asian place. Hanging around. Good times. 

This evening I took the bike out for a quick spin to the park and while I was there, I met up with LeighAnn P. from our former ward. She's lovely as always.

AND WE'RE OFF

It's Portland Cemetery Saturday!

First to fuel up:

Then to swing by farmers market and snag some amazing blooms:

Then we drove down to see the Portland folks. Sister M and Nephew A were able to join us.

I brought my garden tools and the four of us had fun putting together little sprays for each grave, sharing funny memories of our loved ones and deciding which flowers to use ("Gran hated salal! Make sure he gets some").

Here's Dad...

Gran...

Poppy and Grandma...

...and Aunt Rose and Uncle Kenneth. We were only able to find three vases, darn it. The cemetery was quite a busy place today.

As always, we had a goofy time.

 (they call her Sister M Half-face)

Taco Smell for lunch, and then Hubby dropped my grouchy self at home and left to get some car stuff done. He's such a good hubby.

Weeded for an hour. Found this quote: 

"Growing old is a privilege and growing up is optional." Went to dinner with my dear Sandy (hi Sandy).

"The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry"

It sure did. 

For a while I've been following a Reddit sub called r/slowliving and, as a result, have developed a few "slow life" habits, such as driving slower, whenever possible; blogging again, instead of engaging in regular social media; and going to the library and checking out books. 

Just wanna slow things down. Life is too short to hurry through it.

These two. My heart

I'm calling today a Walkabout Friday even though I drove this time. First I dropped by the bookstore and took wee gifties to Annie and Liz. It was nice (but sad) to hug them goodbye. 

Then, it was off to the library. 

This book should be required reading for folks my age....

....and this entire page memorized (or at least, the last five words):

We'll see if John feels like playing nice this time.

After this, I picked up B from work, then it was off to purchase mass quantities at WinCo. We're gonna eat!! Hooray!! Life is good. The rest of the day was spent engaging in sprinkler worship with the grandbabies (under the guise of "watering"), picking up Hubby, making dinner, and vegging with Sims and TV.

Hubby and I are planning some car-care and cemetery shenanigans for this upcoming Memorial Day weekend, so stay tuned.

Bye, Ladies

Work was fun but sad today. We all said goodbye to two lovely longtime coworkers, Annie and Liz, who are off to greener pastures: Liz is retiring after 23 years at the college. Annie accepted a full-time position with another company. Both situations are awesome for them, but we'll miss them so much. 

Out Gallivanting with Sister M

WE ATE LUNCH AT A&W...with the drive-in ordering and everything! It's a pretty big deal.

Today we're looking at houses for her to buy. So far this one is our favorite:

After lunch, we had some time to kill, so we found some pretties:

1. Foster Lake

2. Weddle Covered Bridge

And THEN: The house she really wants.

(Cute closet idea)

I hope she gets this one. It's huge and has a really weird floor plan, so she'll love it. After this we saw one other house in town, which had no chance after she saw this one. So we'll see what happens.

After this, we had a fun drive home and she dropped me off. I ate dinner I tried to watch some TV but I was so dang tired. Off to bed for me.

John Grisham, you're grounded.

You know what you did. That ending is extremely unsatisfying.

And also: This is me, happy to be back at work

wooooooooot

Some random Couve shots:

1. One of my most favorite places on earth...

(the library)

2. This red! It's amazing!

Took a big nap after dinner, then heard from Sister M. There are plans in the works for tomorrow.

"Nothing to see here"

It's been a lovely slow Monday. After dropping off Hubby, I snuggled and played with babies for a good part of the morning, rested a lot, and went to pick up R's inhaler at the pharmacy. Had a nice session with my beloved shrink (who thinks I'm doing great), then went to pick up Hubby. Now we're cozy again. Life is good as of this moment.

High: 72 Degrees

We woke up and decided to head to Farmers Market downtown. First: fueling up at Sbux. Note the sweatshirts - the weather is PERFECT. 

Our friend Steve popped in and joined us:

While browsing the booths, we bumped into one of B's teammates, who was coached by Hubby. It was so fun to catch up with C.

Went to WinCo, enjoyed lunch at home with the kiddos, turned on a movie and got to work putting up our new-to-us drapes! Thanks, Sandy!

Some lazy time, then we made dinner and ate, and then took pictures at the Fort.

 I find it fascinating that even today, metal detecting is prohibited at Fort Vancouver because archeologists are still uncovering stuff. It makes you wonder what (who?) you may be walking over. Hmmm.

After visiting the Fort: DQ Blizzards.