You Don't See That Every Day

Dear Librarian, I am sure enjoying the new checkout system that our library has! You set your books down and zap, they are checked out. It's almost that easy. Ii haven't had time lately to stop at the local bookstore (to get more books from L.M. Montgomery), but I regularly take the girls to the library, so here's what I have on my reading stand this week: 1. Bess and Harry - a biographical rendering of the Truman's. Just finished this one, and I really liked it. They seem like normal people .. not like anyone in politics today. 2. The Oregon Trail, a New American Journey. - I have yet to start this one, it's about two brothers who take a covered wagon on the entire Oregon Trail, in 2007. 3. The Orphan Train Girl - I'm going to start this one later today when we have reading time. About an orphan who ends up with a lady who was also once an orphan. 4. Bing - a biography on Bing Crosby. love his movies; I wonder if I will like them still once I finish the ...

Dear Grandma ,  I wish I knew what you thought of your great-granddaughter's wedding this summer. We sure had fun! But let me back up. September has come roaring in with all its 'back-to-school' glory. Our girls went to the first football game on Sept 1st. I was just so tired to go with them. We had been gone all day, first at the farm picking the produce, and then selling all afternoon. It felt good for me to just sit and read a book. I've gotten hooked on some more novels by L.M. Montgomery; you know, the one who wrote Anne of Green Gables. This one is called Pat of Silver Bush . I can't believe I have never read them before, not with the way I haunted the library as a child waiting for the next book to be turned in so I could read it. I re-read Anne of Green Gables just about every year. This July in preparation for our road trip, we went to the bookstore where I discovered a bunch of books by this beloved author. So I've been slowly buying them and bin...

Dear Friend overseas, I haven't been too good at keeping in touch, and I apologize for that. But you know how summer gets around here! Let me catch you up on the month of August at least. I have to do that before I can post back-to-school pictures. The Cousins came to town. We're naming this summer the Summer of the Cousins. In July as I posted earlier, my kids got to hang out with all their paternal cousins - which hasn't happened ...ever. In August we had cousins come to stay at our place. Which involved the necessary trip to the Oregon coast, since it was in the triple digits at home! What a beautiful day it was too! No wind, warm and just about perfect. It also included the traditional damming-of-a-river. Some of them worked hard at it. We had the traditional fare at Mo's restaurant and ended the day with ice cream. We also spent one of the hot afternoons at a local aquatic center. I got up the courage to go down the big twisty slide, but no way ...

Dear Mom, We made it. 11 days. Oregon to Idaho to Utah to Wyoming to Colorado to Montana to Idaho to Washington to Oregon. Over 3000 miles. Our first two days were just driving, hours and hours of driving. There wasn't a lot of "amazing" sights to see but the different terrain was interesting. The endless miles of road construction were not a lot of fun, but being able to drive 70 mph, or 80 in some places, made up for that. We pulled into outskirts of Denver late Friday. The Boy had taken a flight there and arrived a couple of hours earlier. So he and the uncle, aunt and cousins went to dinner. They were nice enough to bring back some ice cream to the hotel for all of us. I was so wiped out from 2 days of travel that I just stayed in watching "Fixer Upper with Little K," while the others went swimming. On Saturday the 'fun' times began. We went up to Red Rocks Amphitheater and took in some touristy action. The theater was pretty incredible. The...

Halfway through summer! Here are some of the adventures we've had so far McDowell Creek hike with the whole crew:  And a sweet treat at the end of the trail - Silver Creek Falls - The Boy has to work now, so he doesn't always get to go with us: And no summer is complete without swim lessons: We also had a mini-golf day, but the competition was fierce so we didn't get any photos. We've got loads more planned for the second half of the summer, but I'm afraid we might run out of time before we get it all done. Which means, we'll just have to extend our summer into September .. at least those of us at home can!