Quiet Life

I came out to the beach Sunday morning. Since it's not quite summer vacation, its been pretty deserted here. I've done a considerable amount of walking. In fact, probably too much because I seem to have injured my knee. I don't have a lot of activities on the immediate calendar. Kevin's graduation is on Friday, so I'll go to that. I'm excited to see him walk. He's worked very hard for this degree. I hope only good things for him and his family. They deserve it.

I did a little exploring yesterday on the back roads of the coastal area here. I found a section of old highway 101 that goes through very dense forest. It was beautiful, but a little intimidating when I realized I didn't have my phone with me and if I got lost or had car trouble I'd have to walk out to the main road (about 10 miles). I'll have to be certain I have my phone the next time I go exploring. I think we have roadside assistance insurance, so I'm sure I'd be able to get some help, so that won't stop me from my forays into the unknown.

I get to pick up Ben and Ryann from their last day of school on Tuesday. I suppose we'll come out to the beach then. I think they'll enjoy time here. I'll have to remember to have them bring their skateboards. There is a very cool skate park close to the house they'll enjoy. It will be nice to have the company.

That's about it for now.

Another day gone

My birthday on Saturday came and went. My husband took me out to dinner, but otherwise chose to ignore the day. Such is life. At least when the kids ask he can say "well...I took her out.."

I'm looking ahead to the summer. I'll have Ben and Ryann for a week at a time several times this summer, and Steve and Beth and the kids will be visiting for several weeks in July. That will be fun.

After summer is over, I guess I need to consider looking for a job. I'll need something to occupy some of my time. I'm just not sure if I should do it here in Salem or on the coast. I suppose I'll answer those questions as they come along. One day at a time.

Memorial Day Weekend

Since my actual birthday falls on an inconvenient weekend, the kids decided that Memorial Day weekend would be a good time to celebrate it. Bruce is still out of town so it was just Amy and Shane, Kevin and Stephanie, Kerry and the kids but we had a good time. We had the bash at the beach house.



They bought me a lovely pearl necklace and bracelet set which is unlike anything I've ever seen. Its really lovely. I also got an "Oregon Mom" t-shirt and Ryann made me a wonderful 'Happy Birthday Grandma" video. I'll try to download it. Be sure and note the evil little giggle at the end. (note: I tried to download but the file appears too be too large...sorry)



We went out to a nice dinner on Saturday and then Kev and Steph had to leave for other family commitments. The other kids stayed until Monday morning then headed back early to avoid traffic. I came home on Monday evening. I think we all had a good and relaxing time.

Yawnnnnnnn...so this is Springtime?

Since Tammy and Rick left, life around here has come to a screeching halt. Bruce is away for the next several weeks and I've got a stupid old birthday coming up. Things couldn't be worse.

OK...so things COULD be worse, but I'm feeling pretty low right now anyway. It's been raining for weeks and even though the flowers are happy, I can't get out to work with them. Sophie and Juliet will only be coming for a few more short weeks so I won't have them to perk me up each day. Juliet was especially cuddly this morning while we watched cartoons she held on to my arm and put her head against it. I'm going to miss our time together.

I went and saw a movie this afternoon. There is something kind of pathetic about a woman alone in a theater watching a movie. The movie was good and I enjoyed the time but when it was over I had to come up with something else to do so I went to the craft store. I bought a few little things and came home...and here I am.

There is nothing on tv and I'm feeling sorry for myself. Oh well...it's not the first time...nor the last. There is always tomorrow....

Its been a busy and exciting couple of weeks around casa Johnson. Ben and Ryann were here for a week and we went to the children's museum. It wasn't all fun and games though...grandma made them write a report on the things they had learned. Tammy and Rick, my brother Dick's kids came to visit on Monday of this week. I just took them to the airport today and they should be arriving back in L.A. about now. We had a great time...at least I know I did. I hope they did. They are charged with reporting back to the California contingent of family and getting others up here to visit.

I should explain the stories behind the pictures above. The box we (Tam, Rick and I) found on the beach in Newport. It was floating in the waves and I pointed it out to Rick. He didn't seem interested in going in after it so I did. (I didn't get very wet....it was fine) We fished it out of the surf. The words you see on it were covered with white tape. I thought at first it was some sort of jewelry box but it had a piece of glass inside that had clearly been installed in the opening at some point. I fiddled around with it and some grey ashy stuff came out of it. It was about then we all realized it was somebody's ASHES! Someone had 'given the ashes back to nature' but things didn't go as planned and they washed up on shore. I washed as much of George (as I affectionately called the deceased) off my shoes and hands and we started to walk up the beach. We saw a ranger stop to pick up the box and we flagged him down. I asked him if it was what we thought it was and he assured us it was. He said he's found all sorts of urns and boxes on that particular beach. All the rest of the day I just kept saying to Tam and Rick..."we found a dead guy!". In the picture you can see a little of the ash-stained sand. Yuck.

The next pic is Tam and Rick at one of the roadside stops I made them go to. We have a cool coastline in Oregon and I wanted to show them as much as possible.

The next is Ben and Ryann playing chess on a huge chessboard at the Children's museum.

That's Juliet Rose (Jubie) and Sophia at their dance class. I just threw that one in because it was cute.

The last picture is an octopus we found near Yaquina Head lighthouse. It was HUGE - the picture doesn't do it justice. It was easily larger than a big cat. Tam and Rick and I were at the tide pools looking for sea life, but we never expected to see anything like that. The rangers we told about it as we were leaving said they had never seen one there. We were excited.

I made Tammy and Rick fly kites before we left the beach. I told them it was fun darn it, and they were gonna have fun if it (I) killed 'em. They agreed it was rather fun at the end. I'm not sure if it really was or not - they may have just told me that to shut me up.

All-in-all its been a fun couple of weeks and I hope more of my family will get the message and come visit. I also hope Tammy and Rick come back soon. I miss them already.

Why does grandma have flames coming out her ears?

That's kind of an unusual title I suppose. My granddaughter Pierre drew a picture of me and titled it 'angry grandma'. There appeared to be flames or smoke or steam coming out the ears. Personally, I think it was a bit of an exaggeration but that's just my opinion. Actually, I think I was pretty mellow for the entire visit. She and her two brothers and sister and mom visited with us last week. Steve wasn't able to come because of a new Apple project that was just unveiled and he was super-busy. We had a great visit and spent the last 2 days at the beach house. Wills and I flew kites - Pierre made an attempt but lost interest.

The best thing to happen though was the glass float Beth and Maddie "found". I should explain that the city of Lincoln City has a program where they put out numbered and signed glass floats throughout most of the year for visitors and beach combers to find. Beth said she had already decided if she found one that she would give it to me, since I've been searching for years now. As it happened, the fellow who was assigned to put the floats out on this particular day basically set it on the rocks right in front of Beth and said simply 'for you'. She called to me (I was about 20 feet ahead) and allowed me to be the one to pick it up. It's really beautiful and multi-colored. A real piece of art. I feel just the tiniest bit guilty since I didn't actually find it, but Beth says it would have been difficult to get it home in one piece, so I'll stick with that. We bought a little stand for it and it now sits proudly in our beach house with the signed certificate of authenticity.

Son Kevin is having a personal interview for a job in California. He's already had several phone interviews. I'm not going to say anything more about it until its certain, but I hope everyone will think good thoughts for him.

I'm looking forward to having Ben and Ryann next week. It'll be fun to have them around to play with Sophie and Juliet each morning. The week after that, nephew Rick and niece Tammy will be here for a few days.

I planted the hanging pots outside on my back patio today. I just hope we don't have another weird weather thing happen and the plants all die. I'm going to have to set up my automatic watering system for the summer since I won't be here all the time.

I guess that's about all I have for now. Hopefully I'll be more interesting next time.

Hugs, Debs

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all. May the blessings of the season be upon all of you that I love so dearly.

I haven't written much lately. I think the reason has been that I was feeling poorly and not sure why. I do suffer from allergies, so that's always a part of it, but I was also have a feeling of general malaise and a lack of energy. A week or so ago I started having trouble swallowing and when I was able to swallow, it hurt like the dickens. Because the pain was mostly in my chest, I was worried it may be a heart attack (because of family history) but it turns out that I have damaged my esophagus somehow - maybe a pill getting 'stuck' and burning it is one theory - but regardless of the 'how' it has really knocked me on my keister. I'm not able to eat much, but after a few days on medication I think I do feel better. The doctor feels pretty confident that is my problem, but will be doing some additional testing to make certain it isn't something more sinister.

The next few weeks promise to be exciting. I will have (in addition to Sophie and Juliet who I watch several days a week) my grandchildren Ben and Ryann will come visit for several days while their parents are on a short cruise to Mexico. After that my daughter-in-law Beth and my four grandchildren Madeline, Wills, Pierre and Cedric will visit for a week. Hopefully son Steve will be able to join us for a day or so during that time. After that, my niece Tammy and nephew Rick will visit for several days. I'm so excited to see them all and hope I can keep everyone happy and busy. I'm sure we will. The fact that Oregon has no sales tax is always fun for the California visitors, so shopping is always a part of the planned activities.

My art is coming along. I've been experimenting some with my techniques and trying not to be so literal in my painting. Being a little abstract is really rather fun. The two tree paintings are done and are just for fun, the third is of irises and not yet complete, but close.

For some reason the spacing here on my blog between paragraphs either doesn't show up at all (no space) or is a huge gaping hole. I'm not sure why that is happening, but I mention it because the overall look of the blog is distorted and that bugs me.

We had a nice dinner at daughter Amy's last night. She is a very good cook (she didn't get that from me) and the meal was lovely. Then Kerry had a few little projects to discuss. We'll get to those soon. Kerry is among the actively employed members of the family now. She actually has health insurance for the first time since college! We're proud of her and her commitment to this new job and lifestyle.

I've been working on our Stewart genealogy for several weeks and really getting frustrated with the inability to move forward. According to family history, brother Jim remembers our grandmother saying was that the Stewart's came by way of Oregon. In theory, since I live here I should be able to find something, but so far no luck. I'll keep digging away at it. We know our great grandfather was born in Pennsylvania, but the route that brought him to California by way of Oregon is still very unclear. It doesn't help that the name Stewart seems to be as prolific in Pennsylvania as Jones and Brown. Sheesh. I'll find something soon though. I just know it.

Time to start preparing Easter dinner. Kevin and Stephanie and the girls will be coming over. I'm excited to see them. When Kevin finishes school and gets a job, who knows where they'll end up. I hope you all have a wonderful day and a great week.

Love, Debs