Birthday Excitement

Last Friday was Adrian's birthday (the BIG 30!) As I pulled up to the intersection just before my house my quandary over what kind of cake to get him was quickly snuffed and my heart plunged into my shoes. I tend to be a "glass is mostly empty" type of person and often when I approach that intersection I half expect to see emergency vehicles in front of our burning house with our animals trapped inside. Sounds morbid, but this is seriously the kind of stuff I think about! As I came to the intersection I saw a swarm of flashing emergency lights and traffic being diverted from what looked to be my home. Our street is a busy one, with a speed limit of 35 that people frequently overlook. It's a scary street where pedestrians have been known to be hit by cars driven by people who don't see there's a crosswalk because they're too busy texting and putting on their make-up. When I pulled up there were no flames and trapped animals but a busted up Pontiac in the middle of my front yard. As I tried to recover from what I was sure to be utter catastrophe I came to find out that the driver had supposedly fallen asleep behind the wheel, clipped the power pole 30 feet before my driveway, come up on the curb, bust an axel, plow over our mailbox (and the neighbor's), smash through the remains of a brick pillar at the foot of our driveway and slide neatly between our 4 year old Maple tree and newly planted shrubs to rest in the middle of my lawn spewing oil over my grass and stone walkway. It was completely surreal. My mail was littered out in the wet street, soaked and driven over, and there was concrete (from the brick pillar), glass and metal everywhere. The officer overseeing the removal of the vehicle from my yard saw the stricken look on my face and correctly deduced the I must live here. He pulled the incident report from the remains of a mailbox on our front porch (which the vehicle narrowly missed, thank the Lord) and filled me in on the details. There were four passengers in the vehicle, two of which were a 22 year old mother, her 4 day old baby included. Dad had been taken to the hospital though the officer assured me all were okay (again thank the Lord!) From what I can tell the driver did not have insurance and our homeowners insurance has a deductible higher than the $80 or so it's going to take to replace our mailbox. The steel post it was attached to is bent to hell and not likely to come back. Once the dust settled and we surveyed the damage, we realized the mailbox the police left on our front porch wasn't even ours, it was the neighbor's. Ours was nowhere to be found. I can only hope the rain soaked, but mostly intact mail I pulled out of the street was all there was that day. The neighbor's phonebook wasn't so lucky. The driver was blessed that he only glanced off of the power pole. From the looks of it the entire pole must have shaken as the soil around the base was pushed out several inches. If he had hit it straight on things could have been much worse. I'm incredibly grateful that our tree that I love was spared, that the car came no closer to our house and that all involved lived to tell about it. Adrian's cake was forgotten in the shuffle but he says he didn't miss it. I did. I could have used a big 'ol fatty slice right about then.

Time for throw-backs

Years ago, in college, my boyfriend introduced me to the true art of the pumpkin. He took his carving very seriously. It rubbed off on me and I became semi-fanatical about pumpkin carving. Now some years have been better than others and nearly every year I try to do too many. The problem is, once I find a PERFECT pumpkin, it must be bought. However, if 2nd, 3rd and 4th PERFECT pumpkins cross my line of sight, they also must be bought. It cannot be helped! Last year at the pumpkin patch we ended up spending a fortune on something close to 8 or 10 pumpkins (I lost count). Ridiculous. This year we very nearly passed it up altogether but then decided on the spur of the moment to get A COUPLE, and that turned into 4 which turned into something like 6 or 7. Whatever. Here they are, chronological. Don't judge the photos, it's very difficult to get a good shot of a pumpkin lit up.


2003 the beginning.

2004- The Frankenstein on the left is probably one of my all-time favorites. Adrian's always have the goofy expressions so you can guess which ones are his.

2005 (Just one good pic from this lot. Hard to tell, but it's Edward Scissorhands.)

2006 in the light (the far left was supposed to be a killer klown... didn't turn out, as you can tell... but in all honesty, I think that one was Adrian's... haha).

2006 in the dark

2007 (a sampling)

the record of 2008 has been lost. Don't ask about it.

And finally 2009. Adrian's idea was for the pumpkin totem. All his work. I've decided to lay off of the fancy, incredibly labor intensive designs for a few years of just the oldies but goodies.


Not a great pic of the totem. We need more fire-power to light up the top. They don't have bottoms so just the candles in the big guy light up the whole totem. Cool idea.
The display.
From the old days on my mom's kitchen floor with large sharp knives in inexperienced hands, I've always loved pumpkins. Maybe someday I'll get artistic with mine again, but for now...

Pooch Pool Party

Back in August, Adrian, his dad, and I took Molly to the Pooch Pool Party in Nampa. Nacho stayed home for a number of reasons based largely on his disdain for most bodies of water and his inability to play nice with others. Molly had a GREAT time. I meant to post the pictures and video sooner but you know, life happens.

That's not Molly next to him, just a friendly guy looking to snag our ball.

Five Years

Tonight is the five year anniversary of the day Adrian and I met and subsequently had our first date. We were set up, of sorts, by a friend who had known both of us for years. I had recently broken up with a long term relationship and was in no way looking to get fixed up. She gave him my number because regardless of what I wanted, she just knew that he was supposed to be my husband. He called one day and left me a message while I was at work. Like the chicken that I am, I called him back at a time when I was hoping to catch him at work so that I could leave a message and be done with the whole hairy business. But he answered and I suppose it was pretty much down hill from there. He wanted me to join him for his cousin's wedding the following Saturday. I resolutely refused. I would have felt like some kind of wedding crasher, in addition to the stress of meeting him as well as ALL of his tremendous family at once. Over the week we continued to talk and he eventually wore me down and I agreed to meet him after the wedding. I nearly canceled on him a dozen times. I thought I must be crazy to go on a mostly-blind date. The reception was at the Basque Center downtown so the plan was to meet him on the corner out front. I remember my first impressions of him as I approached the corner. He was tall, built like a body builder and handsome as I could ever imagine. As it turned out, it was one of the easiest dates I'd ever been on. We walked around downtown, had a couple of Italian sodas, and rounded out the last several hours into the early light of morning at the glamorous airport Denny's. I can't explain it, but by the end of the night I just knew I'd met my husband. Two-ish years later he proposed on that same corner.

We went down the the Basque Center tonight and had a drink before spending our anniversary date in much the same way as our first. We walked around and had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory (a little classier than Denny's). We've been married 2 and a half years, but somehow the anniversary of our meeting almost seems more significant to me. It certainly hasn't always been easy. But ultimately, there still isn't any doubt in my mind that he's my perfect other half.

Great Adventure

Adrian and I decided to celebrate our end of the summer by taking my nephew Zac and his nephew Isaiah camping for two nights near Idaho City. The week leading up to our departure had me re-considering, wondering what the hell we were thinking! But I'm SO glad we did. We all had so much fun!

The boys wanted to help crank up the tent.





One thing continued to surprise me... the sheer amount of dirt these boys managed to accumulate on their bodies, not to be bothered by it. We'd wash them off and within minutes they'd look like this again. I eventually accepted defeat.




Target practice. All of us had a turn.



A snake that had all three of the boys giddy with excitement.


Too much excitement.

Not sure about this face... but we were sure having fun!


Last morning fun on their rock.


We all had so much fun it's decided that this needs to happen every summer! But Adrian and I are both so glad to be home, in the quiet, with our nap time intact.

Dog Park

Nampa just opened up a dog park this summer and it's really close to our house. Initially I didn't think that we'd be able to partake in the joy because Nacho has such a big-dog complex that he's aggressive with anyone but Molly. But Adrian thought if we bought a soft muzzle that he could still enjoy the time off of the leash without landing us a big lawsuit. Unfortunately he still really isn't very social. He growls a lot, and rubs his face in the grass constantly. Plus, he's the only dog we've ever seen there with a muzzle. But at least he gets some exercise. Molly gets a little overstimulated and foams at the mouth the entire time we're there so people are a little wary of the long strings of goo hanging from her face. It's very exciting. The other night there was a huge crowd there. It's just a riot to watch all of these social dogs, even if mine isn't one of them. And some of the breeds are really surprising.

Pots pots and more pots

I've ended production on the work I'm taking for the Raspberry Festival and I'm just finishing up some of the last carvings. My hope is to drag all this work in to school to fire this weekend, a task I've been worried about all summer. With all the trouble I've had with my handles it would just be my luck that they would all get bumped and break off somewhere in transport (they are so fragile). All told, I have 12 mugs, 12 neti pots, 10 plates (7 with leaves), a smattering of tree pots, and about 20 or 25 minis. I don't know how it matches up to last year's product. It's scattered all over my studio at the moment, so I'll have a better idea when I get it all out on the table for photos. I'll hopefully be bisque firing this weekend and glazing the first part of next week. We're off to the festival next Saturday.

On another note, my new website should be up and running next week. It will be a more professional display of my work, primarily to get it out there and hopefully make more sales. I will still be blogging here about all matter of life, never you worry. I'll let you know what it is when it is. But it's definitely exciting.

With all this pottering, I haven't done anything else for weeks. My house is in a state, my yard is overgrown with weeds (although thanks to a little unexpected help from my mother-in-law while we were camping this last weekend, it's a little bit less-- Thanks Maria!!) I have closet doors that I've been wanting to finish painting this summer, a couple of paintings for our hallway to finish, curriculum to plan and Master's homework to start. It's piling up and my summer is dwindling away! It's enough to bring on full-fledged panic. I'll post about our latest camping trip a little later.

Coast Trip

Adrian and I returned from our coast trip on Tuesday evening. We had a great time and I was relieved that it went as smoothly as it did. Nacho was a little bit of a pill in the car, a lot of whining, but there were actually periods where he would sleep quietly. By the time we were nearly home he was a champ at it, which I appreciated. This was Nacho's first trip to the coast and he really loved it.
On Friday we set out early and drove through Bend to our campground (Beachside) just south of Newport. We made it there in about 10 and a half hours, which I thought was pretty decent with stops. The campsite we had this year was a lot bigger and much more secluded than last year. It had plenty of sun, plenty of shade and plenty of wind cover, all good things. The weather was beautiful and stayed that way all weekend (aside from the wind, of course).

Nacho had his first taste of the ocean Friday night and surprised us both by running right out in it. This dog will do anything to avoid a sprinkler and he's tromping right out into the frigid north Pacific! While he's not to be trusted off of his leash, I firmly believe he'd have kept going and probably have gotten himself into trouble. The beach was really windy that night, blowing drifts of sand all the way down the coast. We visited the tree on which we carved our names on last year only to find it almost entirely buried by sand. Disappointing as we weren't able to see the spot where our initials were. (Below is how we saw it last year)

It was pretty cold so we kept it short with a shivering little dog who decided he'd had enough.

On Saturday we woke up plenty early (thanks Nacho) and walked on the beach. We found a seal pup basking in the sun. There are signs all over saying to leave these guys alone as they come to the beach to rest so I didn't want to get too close. But it was pretty cool to see him. Nacho did not get the opportunity. :)

We spent some time in the sun, reading and napping before heading in to Lincoln City to hit the outlet mall. Didn't get much, just a long sleeve shirt for Mr. I-forgot-my-coat-for-the-second-year-in-a-row. We could practically hear Nacho yowling in the car from the parking garage so we did not stay long.

Then a little more time playing in the water.And after all that, a dog with practically no hair gets chilly, so Nacho spent most of the rest of the afternoon/evening curled up in his blanket.

Every time we camp we like to do the old stand-by foil pack meal over the fire. It's always the same. Potatoes, carrots, onions and chicken plus a little magic and voila! Gourmet.
Someone managed to put up these logs on the beach near our campsite. Not sure how it was done but it was interesting all the same.
We saved the Newport Bayfront trip for Monday hoping the crowds would be minimal, and they were, but apparently the harbor sea lions were on vacation as well. Their normal hangout was completely deserted and a huge disappointment. But again, beautiful weather.
When we got back we did some kite flying. The wind was perfect and the kites were fast. Nacho goes nuts for kites and spent his time barking and running back and forth after them.
We finished off our trip with a very cold but beautiful sunset on the beach.
With weather as nice as we had, we stopped at Multnomah Falls on the way home. I've never been there when the sun was shining and it was downright warm out. It was very cool and I was wishing we could have taken the rare opportunity to hike the mile up to the very top but decided that was best saved for a trip without the dog. I can't imagine we'll ever see weather like that there again though.
Nacho did much better on the way home and was happy enough to stay put in the back with his head between the seats, in case anything interesting happened.

Another great trip. No mishaps or accidents, so that was a huge relief. It is good to be home though now the pressure is really on for the pottery production. Only a couple of weeks left! I'll post my progress, such as it is, soon.