2010 Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas to all! I couldn't sleep so I'm up a bit early this morning. Delaine and Anna are snoozing comfortably in their nice cozy beds. The weather has been very nice the last couple of days with no rain to speak of and temperatures in the 50's most days of the week. This year it's just Delaine, Anna and me for Christmas. Devin and Ryan stayed home in Wyoming and Tara and Zach stayed home in Las Vegas. It's really quiet in the house without the grand kids here, they always bring so much energy where ever they go! Mom stayed in New Mexico this year even though I tried to talk her into coming up, and she is at Uncle Darrel's house with his family and I'm sure having a great time. We opted out of traveling too, partly because of the weather but mostly because I have used up all my vacation time earlier this year. I'm thinking of saving a few days next year to take around Christmas time. Anyway, it certainly is nice to have Anna here with us! She is out of school for a couple of weeks then heads back on the 4th of January to begin her second semester. She's in her freshman year and so far is doing very well at BYUI. She changed her major from Animal Science to Speech Pathology, so she will have to transfer to a different college at some point to get her degree. She is hoping to transfer to BYU Provo to continue on that path, and so far her grades are what they need to be to qualify for the transfer. We just have to see if it can be done.

I can't help but think about past Christmas mornings when we were young living in our old two-story house on X avenue in LaGrande . . . the three of us boys would get so excited about the coming of Christmas morning! We usually had to go to our rooms early so Santa would be able to the come, but we rarely got right in bed. We would sit up talking and playing and waiting for Mom and Dad to go to bed. We would watch out the window for Santa to fly over and swear we saw him in his sleigh! Some years we would sneak back down stairs after Mom and Dad were well asleep to inspect our Christmas presents. Every year Santa would bring us some nice presents and leave them by the tree and we could hardly stand not knowing what was there. At times we were even naughty and would use a razor blade to open our presents so we could see what they contained, then we would carefully tape them back up so we could open them on Christmas morning. We were always excited to get up early and rip and tear! Once all the presents were open we usually had a nice big breakfast then spent the rest of the day playing with our gifts. One year we got an HO road race set, and I remember Dad and our uncles spent more time setting it up and playing with it than we did. Not that we didn't want to mind you, but they were having so much fun with it we couldn't get close.

One year I remember a small gift under the tree that came from Granddad Fuentes. It was small and had a question mark on it. It was mysterious in its size and the way it was wrapped with just plane white paper. I remember looking at it every day before Christmas trying to figure out what it could be. Christmas morning that was the first one I wanted to open up. When I opened it I discovered it was my pocket knife I had lost the summer before! All at once the memories of that summer came rushing in. We had been at Grandma and Granddad's place in Luna and Mel, Dale and I were playing out back around the grain storage building as we normally did. I forget what game were playing but I had gone into the storage building and Mel locked me in. I couldn't open the door from the inside and nearly panicked! The door had a screen window in it that let the air in and I had a pocket knife, so I pulled it out and cut the screen so I could unlock the door and free myself. I spun around and stabbed the knife into a bag of grain and run free promptly forgetting about the knife until that Christmas morning. Guess what? I never used my knife to damage anyone's property again and I remember it to this day?

I love Christmas! Maybe next year we can all be together again . . . may we always remember the true meaning of Christmas and my we work to keep "Christ" in our lives this time of year and all year long!

Merry Christmas!

091114 Saturday Morning

We sat out in the cold, foggy evening yesterday and witnessed Roseburg bury Barlow 47-8. The Indians were on their game last night and look very good though at one point in the 3rd Quarter and fight broke out between a couple of players and one from each team got ejected from the game. Thereafter every holding penalty resulted in a loss of 15 yards for offending team. Other than that it was a clean game. Roseburg moves on in the playoffs to go up against West Salem next Friday. Since it's an away game we won't go but it ought to be a good one.

Now that I'm up, I'm doing this a bit and paying the bills. It's one of those necessary evils of life. Once that's all done . . . I'll be out working on the horse stalls a bit then no doubt make a run to the dump. If there is time left and if the fair grounds are available we will take the horses out this evening for a work out.

Have fun today and be safe . . .

Here we are - Saturday Night

Anna went to a party at Kylie's house today after our horse ride and is still there. They are watching movies. We watched a movie this evening - The Proposal. It was a funny movie :) I'm not sure it is a movie I would want to watch twice but it was probably worth watching once. I like Betty White and Sandra Bullock.

Oh, did I mention the horse ride. We took the horses out to the Mildred Kanipe ranch today for a trail ride. This is the last weekend we will be able to ride there this year since it will be closing next weekend. The weather was great with the sun peeking out between the clouds most of the day. I didn't even have to wear a jacket. The horses all did very well today with no big surprises. Pretty good considering is been several weeks since we've been on them. One little issue with Dustie and Lacey while going down a fairly steep decline into small valley. There was a ditch in the very bottom and neither horse wanted to go over it to the uphill side. I worked Dustie for a while next to it and finally got her to cross and Delaine took Lacey down the ditch till they found a spot to cross. It was good to have them out.

Mom and Tara, thanks for responding to my I'm curious posting. I've been wondering if anyone reads my blog. I know it's very dry but that's all I have. I'll keep it up and try to post more regular but I can't promise anything

Just Curious

Does anyone out there still read this blog?

Home Coming Dance

Remember when you were in High School and you got to go to the home coming dance? I don't . . . but Anna got to go to the dance this evening. She is still there probably dancing and having a great time with her date Oliver. The play saxophones together in the marching ensemble and in the wind ensemble and in the jazz ensemble. Even though she is 17 now and only a few short months away from 18, I worrying about her being out on a date. I guess that's just a dad thing. :) Devin and Tara, you may be surprised to know I had the same feelings when you were out like that. Like you two, Anna is a very good kid and I trust here completely, just worry by nature I guess. Here is a photo of the two of them on their way out the driveway:

Looks like they are already having fun, doesn't it . . .

I'm still here . . .

I know it's been a while since I posted to this blog, but just wanted to let you all know we're still here and still doing pretty good. Anna is back to school and is very busy with band and other activities associated with going back to school. We've managed to volunteer for the band parents organization so that keeps us occupied when we aren't working and when we aren't doing horse stuff. Once we're back in our groove I'll start posting a bit more often. In the meantime my flickr site is still up so you can enjoy looking at our photos and I log into face book daily.

I hope all of you are doing good . . .

Some of my current concerns:

Health Care/Socialism
9 trillion dollars debt
Mortgage foreclosures
AH1N109

To name a few . . .

Another Fair Coming Up

We are hardened county fair participants as we have been doing 4H and FFA with the girls since around 1989. Devin and Tara started the whole thing with those dang rabbits. Actually the truth of the matter is that Delaine started it by bringing home a rabbit named Apricot that she picked up for free at the girls swim lessons in Medford. So here we go again for another year. This year of course we're in the Douglas County Fair Aug 4th through the 8th and we will be there from the 2nd through the 9th with the animals. Anna's steer is finished and ready for market and she has delivered 20 buyer letters to misc. businesses throughout the Roseburg area. Of course one went to all previous buyers and then she added several letters to folks that have bought but not from her. We know the economy is in tough condition and the odds of getting a good price at the auction are slim but she'll do her best anyway. Then there is Brazo . . . he'll go in Monday afternoon and Anna will compete in events on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She will compete in western equitation, showmanship and trail on the three different days. Brazo is more mature this year and more settled so she hopes to score higher than she has in the past with him. I'll try to get off long enough to watch at least one of the events, but I'm not taking the week off.

Along with Anna showing her steer and competing with her horse we will be working the gates a couple of evenings during the week with our Posse group. It's one of our main fund raising events for the year so we need it. Delaine will work in the 4H kitchen at least one day and maybe more if needed.

I scored tickets to the Josh Turner concert on Thursday evening and since I'm not a big fan of Josh Turner I gave the tickets to Anna and Delaine. They will get to go back stage and visit with him and have their pictures taken with him and maybe the band, who knows for sure. I think it will be a good relief for them. Then Friday night is the auction . . . I'm sure we will be there late for that and of course we hope Anna sells early so most of the buyers will still be there.

Anyway . . . wish us luck . . . I'm sure we'll need it.