Wednesday, August 26, 2009

PYO is a beautiful thing

One of the HUGE things about living where we do now is that there are farms all over the place. There's a large span of time where you can pick your own food -- buckets of it! (Literally, in this case.) :D

The other morning Jack and I took off for a tomato field to get some spaghetti sauce supplies. The photos speak for themselves pretty adorably, I think!









Our final haul!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

he walks!

Jack started really trying to walk while he and I were staying at my parents' house, waiting for Alex to drive the car across the country. It really looked like he was going to do it, and then he just gave up! This happened right after I mentioned that his daddy was going to miss seeing Jack's first steps. Apparently this was not an okay plan!

The rest of the Quincy crew and I were watching Jack carefully and betting he would walk like a pro within about a week of getting to Oregon and finding his daddy.... Sure enough, here he goes! This is only day two of really trying to figure it out, too. Are we in trouble, or what? :)

PS -- I ADORE the happy little smile he's wearing. I can just watch this over and over to see him being so proud of his accomplishment. :)

Monday, August 24, 2009

Rotary Nature Preserve

There is a nature preserve one block away from us, maintained by the Rotary club. Of course, Jack and I had to head over to see what it was all about.

It was very large, much bigger than I expected. We actually got lost for about 20 minutes while trying to find our way out on all the intersecting trails! Every time I thought I was on a trail I knew, I would find a new bench, signpost, etc., that informed me I was somewhere new AGAIN!

There were holly shrubs, bits of river, blackberry bushes every time you turned around... and many, many paths. Jack LOVED the whole experience. He even found a couple of birds to point at, including a woodpecker!

....and on that note, it's time to put my very tired boy back to bed. More later, probably when I get pictures. :)

welcome to Oregon!

Alex has at least made a couple of posts in the last month, but I've been pretty much totally absent from the blog. Why, you ask? We MOVED!!

Jack and I arrived in McMinnville (to be known as Mac from now on) 9 days ago, with my mom. She and I had a grand old time prowling around and getting furniture, food supplies, etc. We now have a couch, a rocker, an ottoman, a bookshelf, two dining chairs, a stool, a fan, a really nice dining room table that Alex found at goodwill, a small desk for me.... and that's just what I can see from the couch. :) I will be posting pictures soon, I'm sure, but I thought I'd better post an update while I had a second, and pictures be damned!

Alex, Jack and I went to the library and got our library cards this weekend. I was very surprised to find we can check out fifty books at once! WOW! Of course, they didn't have the author I was looking for. Better luck next time!

A big perk of moving here is that we have a whole flock of kids now available to play with. On Saturday night Jack and I went to an Iron Chef night (which will be explained in a later post, because I don't feel like it right now) and Jack got to play with Molly, Daphne, Cyprus, Audrey, Copper, Rowan, Quinn, and Oliver! He mostly just sat there happily gawking at the fact that there were so many kids doing Grown Up Things. Later on he decided he could chase a ball with Molly, who is just about his age. :)

It turns out that the library has a 3-and-under play time every Wednesday morning. It is also right next door to the swimming pool! Jack isn't hugely fond of water, but the pool has family swim Mon-Sat from 12-1, so I think we're going to have to get him used to it. It's an indoor pool, so this has great potential as a winter activity!

Chris Anderson is one of my totally best friends since high school, and lucky for me, she lives 10 minutes away! We have already gone and played with her several times, and while my mom was still here we picked 16 lbs of blueberries together. Those are all in the freezer now. Yum, yum! :) She and I are going to do pick-your-own tomatoes later on and can a whole bunch of them.

In summary, since I can't think of anything else to post just now, we are here and planted firmly in the middle of farm country, with lots of babies to play with and lots and lots of fruits and veggies to stock up on before winter hits. Hooray! :)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Trip: Day Six

For those of you following: I Made it to Katrina's. I'll post more when we're back from this party.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Great Timing

Jack has started walking since I left. I realized that Melissa is almost never on the computer, so who knows when this information would get posted if I don't do it right now.

They have some video of him taking about 4 steps on M's cell, but it is too large to text over to my phone and they don't know where her USB cable for her phone is, nor do they have any bluetooth devices. So video will be posted as soon as I get my hands on some.

Trip: Day Five

What a day of driving!

NE was a lame, boring strip of flat road.

WY started that way, but became very hilly and more interesting. I took a nap at the Lincoln memorial rest stop in WY around 2:30 until 3:30, so I'd be ready to go late (since I gained another hour on my drive today).

It is hard work driving on the exact same road for 800+ miles. :)

I hope to make my way through all of Idaho on I84 tomorrow and either into Oregon or all the way to my Aunt Katrina's house late in the evening. We'll see how it plays out.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Trip: Day Four

So far, so good. I made it though MO, IA and into NE.

While in IA, I managed to meet up with Jamaal and later Lauren showed up for a bit. It was good to see them both again.

Anyway, I'm ready to turn in for the night, so I guess, as always, more later...

Trip: Day Three

I'm pretty bad at posting on this thing. It seems there is just so much to do that doesn't involve being in front of the laptop when there is an Internet connection.

Well, today I got out of Eric's around 11am and had to travel through the set of the next slasher movie (Bowling Green, IN). So I was on 46 heading west, and a Google street view car showed up in front of me. I don't know how long the turn around is, or even if the camera was on, but perhaps I'll be visible on the street view of Google maps here someday.

After a short drive (by the clock it was only 4.5 hours--timezone change), I made it to my home as a youth. They put me to work rearranging the A/V equipment in two rooms (mostly swapping things in the two rooms) which was made exciting by having the two rooms on two different floors. Before all the moving, Markita made a yummy chicken dish, green beans and Grecian version of a salad they had stumbled across while visiting Katrina (who is the last stop before the Anderson's couch on my trip). I also was force-fed several excellent beers that Michael had found from a company called Founders.

In the morning, I did some laundry, this blog and let the cats have the run of the house. Duchess and Bo got along fine (Bo was indifferent and Duchess was interested but not overly so) and Sparky stayed under the bed with the nip they had ripped out of the bag the night before.

I'm off to visit Jamaal and then the wilds of Nebraska. Perhaps, I'll use the photos on a recap summary post at the end.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Trip: Day Two

Today's drive was much less interesting. I only went through the rest of PA, all of OH and most of IN. However, after I arrived Eric took me out to the Irish Lion (though, the website was down when I tried it, but google had a good cache of it, so it might be up when you look).

They specialize in everything Irish (orange, not green--for those of you that don't get that reference, they are all about AUTHENTIC Ireland). I had a nice fish and chips, which Melissa will be jealous about when she reads this, and Eric had coddle in a bread bowl. We both enjoyed some Guinness while we ate at the bar. Our wonderful bartender, Brynn:

Who drew a cloverleaf with the Guinness as it poured from the tap:


Then I took Eric to see The Hangover, and even though I had seen it before, it was just as funny the second time as the first.

I guess I could upload my photos of my crossing of the Hudson, scenery shots of NJ and PA, or the silly leaving OH sign, but I'm not feeling it with this slow connection. Plus, I'm very tired.

Trip: Day One

I would have posted this last night, but AT&T wouldn't let me connection to T-Mobile's access point.

*Whew* what a long day. I made it through MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ and deeply into PA (by way of a small slice of DE?). I snapped a few pictures along the way with my phone, but those will be posted when I have a high speed connection to use.

Elliot State Park was a nice place to stay last night. The cats and I only had to share it with one other set of campers, a nice, older couple in a minivan, so I let the cats roam freely for a while before turning in for the night.

I was up and on the road around 8am, so I plan to take a few leisurely breaks to put me at Eric's around (or after) 6pm, which is when he gets home tonight.

Ok, time to get the cats back in their box and get back on the road.

The next post will be from Eric's, so I'll include pictures there.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Ready, Set, Wait for it....

The original plan was for me to start driving for Oregon with the cats Saturday morning. As it turned out, we still had plenty to do to clean up/out the apartment.

I'll be cleared for take off after taking care of some last minute things on Sunday. This means, I leave between 7 and 8 am Monday morning from Quincy, MA.

My first stop is Elliot State Park in PA, then on to Eric's in IN, Michael + Markita + Duchess in MO, Jamaal + Lauren in IA and Katrina + Tom in OR before landing on the couch of our good friends Chris and Jared.

I'm ready and itching to travel!

P.S. This was posted using my cell phone connection, so I'll be posting from the road as I go.