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May 12, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Last Friday we decided to splurge and eat at a local restaurant that makes gourmet meals. Even though it was Cinco de Mayo, they didn't have one of their specialty Mexican dishes on the menu that night. Instead, I had this wonderful halibut smothered in some kind of herb sauce I have never heard of and Dave had a mouthwatering steak. Mind you, this place is small and you have to make a reservation and the chef does comes out from the kitchen and makes small talk with you while you eat your meal. It was sooooo good! We can't afford to eat there very often and if you are having any kind of celebration, I would recommend this place. It's the Treasure Cafe and it's located right in the center of Wheeler.

On our way home from the restaurant, which is only a half-mile from where we live, we were held up in traffic. Apparently, a motorcyclist had just fallen off his bike and had broken his leg. And I mean it "just happened". We were like the third car in line behind the accident. While he lay on the road waiting for the ambulance to get there, we decided to make a "u-turn" and take the "back road" home. This is a one-lane unimproved dirt road way up on the hill behind our place and you have to know where to go to find it. I wouldn't recommend it unless you had four-wheel drive. It was either that or wait until the traffic cleared. We were only two blocks from our house, but it might as well have been two miles! It took nearly two hours for them to get everything cleared up. I hope the guy on the bike didn't have to wait that long!

On Saturday we took a drive down the coast to Newport to meet up with Leslie and Jason and their girls who were camping for the weekend. Yes! They finally got their trailer back after fighting with the dealer and the manufacturer over the leaks. They wanted to get out and try it out, so they left right from the dealership and spent a couple of days along the beach. After we all had lunch, we drove to the Hatfield Marine Sciences Center to look at the displays and then out to Devil's Punchbowl to watch the waves come into this collapsed cave. The tide wasn't all the way in so we couldn't get the full effect. The weather was kind of showery so it wasn't a pleasant day to be out on the beach.

It was sunny on Sunday and I couldn't stand it any longer, so I went ahead and put my vegetable garden in. I planted pole beans, beets, carrots, lettuce and cucumbers. I have tomatoes in the greenhouse. I had a date with a lady who has a local farm/nursery back up in the Nehalem Valley and she gave me some tips on how to make my greenhouse more efficient. I also got a lesson on growing tomatoes on the coast. I have discovered it is a lot different than in the valley as the climate is more windy and cooler here. So far, I have four tomato plants going, so we will see how they produce.

I have also spent some time weeding and separating plants in the flowerbeds. A lot of plants had overgrown and had taken a lot of space from other plants so it was divide and conquer time. Meanwhile, Dave had the tractor out and had been hauling garbage cans full of yard debris away and I'm filling them faster than he can dump them. Go figure!

I have also made a couple of trips to the chiropractor to see what he can do about my shoulder. He finally got my legs the same length again by working on my back but my shoulder is having this tingingly sensation and he pulled and yanked on my arm for a while. I am going to give him a couple more weeks to see it he can get it feeling better and if that doesn't work, I guess I will go see the orthopedic doctor. I know what you are thinking, why are you doing all this yard work and then seeing a chiropractor? Don't ask!

There baaack!! We spotted the herd of elk over on the island the other day. They were really close too, clear over on our side of the island and it was nice to see them back again. There's something relaxing about watching them and when they visit us, it's hard to get anything else done. They really stuck around this time too. I don't know if they got trapped on the island by the high tide or if they just decided all that tender spring grass was too good to leave, but they spent the night. They wander around this entire area and so it is always a pleasant surprise to see them in our neighborhood.

It's Mother's Day on Sunday and I hope everyone will give his or her Mom a big hug. If you don't have a Mom, hug someone else's.

You Know You're Really a Mom When...

• You count the number of sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they are equal.
  
• You want to take out a contract on the kid who broke your child's favorite toy and made him/her cry.
  
• You have time to shave only one leg at a time.
  
• You hide in the bathroom to be alone.
  
• Your child throws up and you catch it.
  
• Someone else's kid throws up at a party and you keep eating.
  
• You consider finger-paint to be a controlled substance.
  
• You mastered the art of placing food on a plate without anything touching.
  
• Your child insists that you read "Once Upon a Potty" out loud in the lobby of the doctor's office and you do it.
  
• You hire a babysitter because you haven't been out with your husband in ages, then you spend half the night talking about and checking on the kids.
  
• You hope ketchup is a vegetable because it's the only one your child eats.
  
• You find yourself cutting your husband's sandwiches into unusual shapes.
  
• You fast-forward through the scene when the hunter shoots Bambi's mother.
  
• You obsess when your child clings to you upon parting during his first month at school, then you obsess when he skips in to the building without looking back.
  
• You can't bear to give away baby clothes - it's so final.
  
• You hear your mother's voice coming out of your mouth when you say, "Not in your good clothes."
  
• You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.
  
• You read that the average five-year-old asks 437 questions a day and feel proud that your kid is "above average."
  
• You say at least once a day "I'm not cut out for this job," but you know you wouldn't trade it for anything.