Family & Friends Celebrate

It has been a wonderful holiday season for Ron & Me. We enjoyed all the preparations for Christmas and the actual festivities were filled with surprise and delight!

On Christmas Eve Ron cooked prime rib and Eli joined us for dinner. Eli, for those of you who don't know, is our youngest son – informally adopted in 1997 when he was 16 going on 17. With no one to care for him – he needed love and critical guidance to grow up to be the fine Man he is today. He has a wonderful spirit and a big heart. We are very proud of him. He shared gifts with us on Christmas Eve and then spent Christmas Day with his Aunt and Uncle of his biological family.

Ron got his special requests plus a few extra's. I got my request for the most unique and beautiful decorative item ever!

I saw this Beautiful Globe at "Interior By Design", the store that Ron does work for. It was an outrageous request for me to make – but My Ron made it happen. It will delight me for as long as I live and the World Turns.

The "Mova globe" contains a strong magnet inside to interact with the earth's magnetic field. It is powered by tiny solar cells that cause it to turn from sunrise to sunset. It can also be powered by indoor lights in the evening. It is magical to watch my earth turn. It makes me smile and remember to recycle and be kind to my Sacred Mother Earth!

Christmas Morning we opened our stockings and then Mike and Cynthia came upstairs and shared the most wonderful and generous gifts. People that you love in life need to be near at Christmas. It is the love energy that fills the heart with the Love that Christmas Celebrates.
Mike and Cynthia prepared the Turkey to take to our dinner Christmas afternoon. My daughter and son-in-law hosted the best party ever! The house was decorated beautifully and the dinner was grand – pulled off without stress – and perfectly planned.


The most amazing surprise of all occurred just as we pulled into the driveway of my daughter's home. I saw a green pickup pull up across the street. At first I wondered "why is he parking there?" Then I thought "That really looks like Ernie!" It couldn't be Ernie because his family doesn't celebrate Christmas and he lives hundreds of miles away in Moses Lake. Then I knew – it WAS ERNIE! What a grand surprise. He had come a long way to spend Christmas with his Salem family. He made the evening so much fun.

It was almost complete – my son Tim was ill and stayed in bed and his wife Marilyn went to her parent's home. But it was a wonderful time! Thank You to all who kept the secret and shared the Love this Christmas!

I had a very special Joy in taking my Son Tim to the movie "Avatar" for his birthday. He still wasn't feeling great but he was not contagious so we walked arm in arm toward the theater. I said "I had a date with you 47 years ago that wasn't quite so much fun!" What a joy he is in my life. Now he is a good friend – sometimes coaching me in spiritual and emotional matters. We share deep thoughts and common passions. We are both very lucky. Thanks for showing up Tim! Many Happy Returns! Forty Years Ago

When I think of all the friends and family that I love, and who LOVE me I am a cup overflowing. Life is good and joyous! Heaven is Here Now if you notice! Thank you all for being here with me.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to All

Thanksgiving was over, our grandson Jesse and Laura with their three precious children left – us exhausted! We so enjoyed their visit and the wonderful stage that the children are in. Kaylee is so cute – dancing about the house – Landon is so smart and a definite leader! Little Kaedon is cute as a 3 month can possibly be and the parents should be very proud – they are such good kids!

Cold and Flu season caught both Ron & I the first of December and slowed us down for a full two weeks. I finally had to get antibiotics to kick the stuff. In the meantime we have been having a blast enjoying every little thing we do to make this dark season bright and fun.

The lights were on the house before Thanksgiving so that before the great grandchildren left they could walk up the street and see them come on! They thought that was great fun.

Ron started sewing Christmas Gifts making (instead of stockings to stuff) 14 Hobo Bags,and at least twice that many reusable grocery bags + some very special stuff I can't mention before presents are opened!




On the 11th of December we finally felt well enough to get our tree. I got extra branches to make wreaths but just didn't regain enough energy to get that job done.
Gratefully, Mike and Ron helped in the kitchen cracking and grinding walnuts so I could bake a few christmas cookies for gifts. Of course we snitched a few. They are so fragile, and you have to eat the one's that break, don't you?


We had fun decorating the inside of the house with lights and festivity. I am in ecstasy as I sit in my beautiful recliner (recovered by Ron last Christmas) listening to my surround sound Christmas Music and enjoying my elegant fireplace with all the festive lights casting a warm glow all about! How lucky I am! All the things I dreamed of as a child and young adult.

When I was a teenager and discovered I enjoyed classical music – the only instrument I had was a little plastic radio with no antenna . If I touched the metal at the back of the radio I was able to ground it somehow and could tune in to my favorite music. Stereo sound, much less surround sound was not even in existence!

Ron & I enjoyed a lovely evening out with Mike and Cynthia last week when we walked through the Magic of Christmas at the Mission Mill Museum. It was a beautiful evening for a stroll through the lights – and dinner later at the Ram Bar and Grill.


We are all looking forward to our family gathering hosted by my beautiful daughter and wonderful son in law here in Salem. My ex-husband and professional entertainer Bob will make my old piano sing along with anyone who wants to join in! It will be wonderful fun!

Christmas and Holiday Greetings to all of you! We love you and have you close to our hearts!

Children-Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren

Thanksgiving was very special for us this year. Tim decided to spend the day with us,
Eli came for a while and Jesse, Laura and their three children came on Wednesday night and stayed until Sunday Morning!


What a gift!

Kaylee is 4 years old and is sweet and fun to play with (most of the time). We credit both parents with a very good job – because the children are polite and mind very well. Kaylee brought a DVD of her tap dancing performances from last June. It was not only fun to watch her DVD, but fun to watch her as she danced along with it. She enjoyed drinking tea from Grandma's antique tea cups and sitting in bed with Grandma and watching the birds and the squirrels feed outside the window.


Landon is 2 going on 30! He is very deliberate in every step and action. I think that he probably knows EVERYTHING! He is a bit bossy like his Grandpa Ron – telling me when to fasten MY seatbelt, what to get for him, and what to do. When I handed Mommy (Laura) a few dollars to buy presents for the kids, she said to Landon, "what do you say?" He just shrugged and replied, "It's Yours", and walked away!

Little Kaedon is just three months old now and I need to correct his statistics. He was only 21 inches long and 10 lb. 11 oz. – just a little Baby! He is really good and it was fun listening to him squeak like all little babies do when he was hungry. I am sure it was more fun for me than for his Mother – since he likes to eat at least every two hours!
Tim brought his newly invented board game and taught us to play on Thanksgiving Day. It was really fun. It is a great invention! I'll do better next time I play his "Become a Rock Star Game!

That got Jesse in the mood for games so Laura & I played Jesse and Grandpa "Aggravation" and lost 4 times in a row until we "restructured the rules!"

My daughter came over on Friday and played with the kids. She brought toys from her house and they were delighted. She and Laura made plans for shopping on Saturday morning. While they went shopping, Grandpa and Grandma took Kaylee and Landon to the Bird Sanctuary where we saw lot of geese, ducks, blue heron, white egrets, and even deer. We went for a long walk and the kids were great hikers! Then our daughter and son in law joined us for steak and chicken dinners along with left over "Pretzel Salad" that Laura brought. Boy is that yummy!

Saturday evening Jesse, Laura and family visited them at their home to see all the nice things their Uncle has done to make it beautiful after Uncle Ernie and Jesse helped him put down beautiful floors. They will host Christmas this year after all their hard work re-decorating.

Thank you all for making it such a really fun time for Grandma and Grandpa. What sweet little ones Jesse and Laura have. Thanks for coming kids!
Have fun preparing for Christmas! Happy Holidays to all!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for. Life is so good. Ron is doing very well. He is working again pretty steadily with lots of jobs coming from a special decorator shop and long time clients. He enjoys his work and would not want to be completely retired, although weekends off would be a desired future goal!

He was off from work for exactly 4 weeks. His left arm is still affected from the surgery so it slows down his work and therefore he is a little behind. He should be caught up after Thanksgiving – and we look forward to taking some days to play.

I have joined a wonderful community center which was just completed last year in Salem. It has so many wonderful things to take advantage of. Cynthia described it in a recent blog – dated Nov. 11 - since Mike joined as well and he and I go to Water Aerobics at least twice a week. It is so much fun. There is a wonderful warm leisure pool and the Olympic size pool where our classes are usually held. It is a little hard getting into that cold water but I sure feel good after a work out!

In my spare time I have started working on my fictional biographical book, "The House". It is the story of the people who have lived here in our house – as told by the "House". Many people have come and gone over the last 35 years – people who brought their own energy and intentions. The House tells the stories of these people and their personal growth over lessons learned and battles lost. I am having lots of fun with it – and am at 45 pages and over 25,000 words now. It is a good pass time to test my writing skills, and will make interesting reading for those who shared the space under this roof!

Our four teenagers have all grown up! The oldest two are 50 now and the youngest two are 47 and 48. They all have happy successful lives, and we are particularly thankful for Diana's treatment and recovery from breast cancer. We have 4 great grandchildren. Kaylee May Laramore (Jesse's oldest child) takes dance lessons – and is really adorable. Wish we were closer to see her perform. The second child is Landon – who looks just like Jesse at his age – curly hair and all. The youngest born son is Kaeden born August 26th at 10 pounds 12 ounces and 25 " long. We haven't met him yet. Joshua's first born is Isaiah born in April of 2007.

Landon, Kaeden, Kaylee

Landon

Josh and Isiah

This Thanks Giving we will entertain Eli (our adopted son) and Tim and Marilyn. Our house requires small crowds now that we have remodeled and rented out the Studio Apartment downstairs. We love our tenants – as you can tell. Life couldn't be better, unless of course Ron would win the lottery! We expect that to happen any day! (Ha

Marilyn & Tim
Happy Thanks Giving to all of you Americans – and Happy Holidays to our friends abroad! It is a wonderful time of year! Count your blessings and choose to be happy every moment. We love you!

Ron & Betty

Fishing the Crooked River

Ever since Ron had his surgery he has been looking forward to being well enough to take that last overnight fishing trip to the "Crooked River" near Prineville Oregon. It was so important to him, and he has done so well that I was determined that he would have his special trip.

We went shopping for a new fly rod, since he had broken his last new one first trip out. He was thrilled with the action of this new fishing pole and even more eager to get going. Since it was October and his destination is in high desert country with temperatures down near freezing at night, I decided against tent camping and reserved a motel room in Prineville for TWO nights.


We traveled East through the burned out forests of the Black Butte fire in 2007 which left over 5400 acres of scared land. All around Suttle Lake the trees stand blackened. The damage was less toward the resort area. Passing the sight and looking down at the docks I remembered how my daughter had slipped through the ice, when she was a teenager many years ago. She was with a youth group retreat when she tested the ice in her long heavy winter coat, only to be rescued by the young minister who really had his hands full that weekend. We have so much to be grateful for as I look back over the years. So glad I have her with me today as a best friend and confidant.

We drove on into the Ponderosa Pine Forests and made our way to Sisters Oregon. We stopped for a little while in this delightful little resort town and then headed toward Redmond and Prineville. We took pictures of the beautiful Sisters Mountain Range, Mt. Washington, and Mt. Batchelor. The sky was blue – the fall colors painted the rolling range land and the snow capped mountains circled around the horizon.



I guess I knew that Ron always fished the Crooked River – but never really thought about where it was and how breathtaking the scenery could be. Maybe he told me over the many years that he made these trips alone while I was working and focused on career. I am so glad to have the precious time now to focus on Ron and his love of nature and to join him in the experience.

When we entered the Ochoco I was amazed. We dropped from the flat dessert floor down into the wide canyon surrounded by the volcanic ridge that surrounds Prineville and the Crooked River. Click here to see online photos
http://www.fs.fed.us/rb/centraloregon/about/photos.shtml
As we drove out of Prineville toward the Crooked River – the canyon was very wide with acres of green pastures dotted with literally thousands of Black Angus cattle, with a few horses mixed in. Once in a while there would be deer feeding with the herds. We first encountered the Crooked River in the ranch lands but after about 7 miles we crossed a cattle gate which ended the free range and marked the beginning of the BLM recreational area.

The Canyon grew more narrow as we traveled along – fishing here and there. At one stop I set up my medicine circle for a meditation and hoped Ron would be gone fishing at least an hour. He was gone an hour and a half, during which time I had visits from a Golden Eagle who did three fly bys, two Blue Heron, several King Fishers, and to my amazement a Osprey flew by just above the water. Across the river I watched a River Otter carefully slip into the swift current. I listened to song birds over my head talking to each other in a language I could almost understand. The majestic canyon walls soared hundreds of feet on both sides of the river. At the very top in front of me was a giant grandmother Juniper tree. The scent of Juniper filled the air – and the lovely blue berries stood out on near by trees. It was a sacred time of oneness and peace to treasure.


We moved on up the canyon which Ron explained to me would eventually lead to an earth filled damn holding back the Prineville Reservoir. We had lunch at "Haystack Rock Park" before going on to explore the Reservoir.


Staring up at these gigantic ancient canyon walls – I told Ron, "right now I wouldn't be surprised at anything"! A dinosaur could come crashing down the wall and it would seem to fit.

During our trip home we went to the headwaters of the Metolius River. This is one of those amazing sights where water appears from caverns under the rocks and within a few yards is a full grown raging River. It is limited to fly fishing only and all fish must be released. We played there for a while soaking in the pristine beauty.



All in all – we had a Wonderful Fishing Trip. I got to know a little more about this wonderful Man I have spent 34 years with – and am still in awe of his gentle strength.



Best wishes to you all.