This and That Thursday:

Today is diary day.  About once a week I like to sit down and write about the other things that I haven't written about yet.  Jenny The Blogess calls it "S*** I was doing when I wasn't on here."   I just call it "This and That Day".  Because I don't cuss.  Unless I get hurt.  Or am working all summer at the gravel pit with a bunch of guys.  


First of all, I want to give a shout out to my kids:

Graphic courtesy of Zazzle.com

Kari is holding her BFF Nikki's new baby girl, Kylea.  Congrats to Nikki, Brandon and Matthew on their beautiful baby girl, who was born just this week.

I am proud of my girl Kari.  She has just received a promotion, and has moved to another department at work.  Way to go, Kari!  I also admire how she takes care of Casey, everything at home, and willingly helps others.  This pretty woman is smart, organized and efficient.  I love you, girl.

Nigel called from school yesterday, and he is doing great.  He received an award, and is keeping busy with all of his classes.  Besides being enrolled in the Business Management courses, Nigel is working on the school newspaper, just like he did in high school.  I am very proud of him, and am glad that he has found his spot to land and is excelling there.  Way to go, Nigel, I love you lots!

Then there is our Sissy, aka: Kristin.  The countdown is on for her medical mission trip to Guatemala with Grandma Jody and cousin Ethan.  She is getting so excited to go!  I am so proud of this smart, funny and beautiful daughter of mine.  I love you, Sis.

A few more things about our adventure in Chemult on Sunday night:

They just finished a new train station in Chemult.  It is beautiful, handicapped accessible and has a roof to keep the snow off of you.  They also built a little heated building, with chairs bolted to floor. It was warm inside, but the lights wouldn't go on.  The light below came from my flash.  Sometimes, I wonder why agencies do things the way they do.  Especially Amtrak.

There is no bathroom there or anywhere at the station.  You still have to walk a block to the Pilot Travel Center to find one, but that is where everybody hangs out anyway.  Especially inside the Subway.  The people working at Pilot are so nice, and that store has a little bit of everything.  Including 17" flat screen TV/DVD players that plug into your car cigarette lighter.  I couldn't talk Cary into one, but I wanted it (for camping). 

Speaking of nice people, the shuttle driver has the patience of a saint.  He was so nice to everybody.  Here it was, the train being 6 hours late, and he still had to drive to Bend to drop off one passenger for $20.00 or so.  (It is $15.00 to get to La Pine, so I'm guessing on the actual price for a ride.)  The decals on his shuttle van said that they go all the way to Redmond.  The worst case of hurry up and wait that I have ever seen was that night.  I'll just say this one more time, if you are in a hurry, do not take the train. 

As we were waiting, I was taking a bunch of pictures at the train station to see if I could come up with something cool for Shadow Shot Sunday.  This little series of photos cracked me up.  It was dark of course, and I zoomed in when I saw this cat approaching the streetlight.  This all took place a little ways away, so the zoom makes it not too clear, but take a look at this:

Kitty goes to the light.

  
Kitty sits down.

Is he really doing what it looks like?

I guess he didn't want to go potty in the dark. 

This is a really odd shadow photo that I came up with that night.

Over the past couple of days, there are three new followers to Oregon Gifts, bringing the total up to 52,  Christine, Court and Micki have joined the team, and I am so excited!  Thank you, ladies.  I will be highlighting them, and anybody else who joins up this week, on Monday.   I have decided that will be one of the things that I'll do on Monday from here on out.  Highlighting our newbies will coincide  with SJ's Homemaker on a Dime's "Swap Followings".  You can learn more about what SJ is doing with this by clicking here. 

The weather has been beautiful here.  It has even been in the 50's.  The snow is melting.  Life is really good right now, here in Mayberry. 

Take care and God bless,

Don't miss out on the news ... please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.