Sherri's (Never A Dull Moment) World

The Sweetest Thing...

To wrap up our adventure from last weekend...

We stayed at our favorite place, The Olympic Suites, in Forks, Washington.

Forks is famous as the setting in the "Twilight" book series by Stephenie Meyer. Forks used to be a small logging town that only fishermen and beachcombers would visit on a seasonal basis. Now they have revamped (no pun intended) their image to be a novelty destination for "Twi-Hards"-- teenagers and adults who are in love with the book & movie franchise. You can pick up a map at Fork's Chamber of Commerce and go on a small tour of the town to photograph key places that Bella (the teenage girl character), the Cullens (the vampire family) and the Native American werewolves "frequent" on a regular basis-- including Forks High School, the home of the Spartans.

Technically, Bill and I "did" the Twilight tour on our last visit to the coast (2 years ago). It was corny but fun. However, we noticed a few new signs around Forks that were worth a laugh, like this one:

But seriously, this time we were there to explore the beaches! So here are a few glimpses at one of our very favorites, Rialto Beach:

This beach often has BIG waves and always has a TON of surf logs strewn on the upper edges of the beach...

We had both cameras in action again:

What we love about this beach is that it has a secret ending...

You have to plan for this one and consult the tide tables. Just before a low tide, you should pack a backpack with water & snacks for a 1+ mile hike down the beach. You need to wear boots because you have to slosh through a freshwater creek along the way. You'll pass a sea stack or two before you get to the end where there is a rock wall separating Rialto Beach from the next one. Here is the "secret"-- there is an opening in the rock wall called the "Hole in the Wall" which you can walk through only during low tide! It is a real treasure because there are some wonderful tidepools on the other side that are fun to look in. BUT you have to pay attention to the tide and get back before you are trapped on the smaller next beach (which does not have a trail out).  We have made this trek many times when the kids were little during summer camping trips. During one excursion (through the Hole in the Wall) we were distracted and ended up CARRYING kids, backpacks and our dog out through the incoming tide!

During this trip, the tide was high and it was approaching dusk so we paid our respects and called it a night.

We ate breakfast at "The IN Place" and they served me a mean (=yummy) hot chocolate:

We ate dinner at "Pacific Pizza" and Bill LOVED his grinder:

The last beach on our list was Ruby Beach, which was lovely two years ago. It has a short trail and only a few logs to step over at the beach entrance. The sun was out, it was windy and the waves were crashing:

At low tide, you can access these cool sea stacks up close-- but the water was too high to get to them this time:

We watched a couple of sea kayakers attempt to stay upright in between wave sets:

We looked longingly at a couple of dogs (accompanied by their owners), like this one who seemed to be smiling:

We went for a walk along the beach, and as usual, I chose to splash along at the water's edge. Bill laughed at me when a couple of "sneaker" waves rushed around me and sloshed into my knee-high boots:

 

Satisfied, we waived good-bye to Ruby Beach and headed out:

We packed up Sunday morning and got back on the road.

We drove around the scenic Crescent Lake (which is the deepest lake in Washington):

We crossed over Hood Canal:

And we caught an afternoon ferry to get closer to home:

It was a GREAT road trip and I loved our beach adventures.

However, the sweetest thing from our weekend away had to be THIS:

I love him.  {heart} S & B

Playtime With Elijah

Jeremiah brought Elijah to Honey's house today to play:

 
He really loves remote controls, both at our house and his own:

 
We found Cheez-its for his snack today:

 
He really wanted to play WOW (World of Warcraft) on Papa's computer but I said "no" and we moved onto something else:

 
He was playing "peek-a-boo" with Papa:

 
We spent the rest of the time walking from room to room (in search of kitties), looking outside (in search of chickens), opening and closing drawers in Honey's scrapbook room, reading books...

 
 and choosing toys from Elijah's toy chest:

 
 

And then it was over. (sigh!)

So I hugged our beautiful Angela:

and waved good-bye until our next play session.

See you soon, cutie patootie!

Snow Days

As I shared in an earlier post, we had a little bit of snow this week. We woke up to ~6 inches of snow on Wednesday morning.

By Thursday morning, we were at a new snow record at the House of Rodgers:
We had ~18 inches!

When I stepped outside for chicken duty, the snow was almost to my knees:

 
 
My chickens were NOT happy.... they had enough of that crazy white stuff in December!

 
With snow drifts up to their chicken necks, they were sadly resigned to staying inside their chicken house all day (and all night) long. Poor chicks!

However, both of the kitties were content to stay inside to take catnaps:

 
If you look close, you can see that Mysty has white whiskers on one side of her kitty nose and dark whiskers on the other side (I love that).

Sierra tucked her tail over her kitty face when my paparazzi camera showed up:

 
The lighting inside our house changed with snow covering our skylights:

 
We had to dig Bill's car out from beneath a snow blanket.  My car (a.k.a. Little Red Hot) was buried under snow next to the fence (I can't park in the new garage yet):

 
Another car landed in the ditch at the same corner that the schoolbus was a couple of days prior. We didn't get mail for a couple of days due to our slick hills and mounds of snow lining both sides of the street. I watched deer crossing the road in search of anything green to eat. The only sounds outside were of snow falling from overhead branches.

What I like best about snow days is that they slow things down. It doesn't pay to be in a hurry and wreck my car on the way to work. It makes me grateful for what I have (a warm, secure home) and who I get to spend it with (my best friend).  They present opportunities for reading a good book (I am reading "Inside of a Dog-- What Dogs See, Smell, and Know"), watching daytime TV (like "Ellen"), or catching up on my blog. They make it worthwhile to look out the window and marvel at white snowdrifts, glistening icicles, and lazy snowflakes falling from the sky. The laundry and dishes can wait for a rainy day... literally.

HOORAY for snow days!

Third Beach Near La Push

We decided to adventure onto Third Beach the next morning.

This required a 1.4 mile trek through the rainforest to access this beach. We packed a backpack this time with water, a snack, and a phone... just in case.

 
Yes, there was snow on the ground which had fallen a couple of days before.

 
The air was crisp and the sun was out. We had the rainforest to ourselves and it was PERFECT.

 
We walked and talked. We stopped to take pictures along the way. There was no rush, no hurry to be anywhere at a specific time. We had all the time in the world to get where we wanted to be at the end of the trail...

All of a sudden the forest was brighter, we could hear the rush of water and we were greeted by blue skies ahead:

 
Once again, we had to traverse a jumble of surf logs for our feet to touch the sandy beach:

The sunshine was almost intoxicating after a long, gray winter...

 

We could see a waterfall and the shapes of sea stacks in the distance:

Bill took some pictures while I sat on a log and soaked up some sunshine. The late morning light was bright and the tide was high-- these factors made both photography and beachcombing difficult. We decided to just sit and enjoy the moment. We watched seagulls preen their feathers on the beach. I played in the surfline and laughed when the foamy water surrounded my rubber boots. It was a luxury to be suddenly stress-free in a natural environment.

Eventually, we decided we should head back (which meant another pep talk for the second 1.4 mile hike through the rainforest). You might think that we have run out of things to talk about after ~30 years together. Instead, there is always SO MUCH to talk about. We analyzed the presence/absence of Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest (comparing Big Foot facts vs. fiction) and what the odds were of us running into one in the rainforest. I impressed Bill with my knowledge of rainforest ecology (ex. nurse logs, the role of shelf fungi, how ferns disperse spores, how successional events change the forest) while he patiently listened. We entertained ourselves by making up fake SNL skits.  I told Bill about the latest "Gray's Anatomy" episode and when he finished scoffing about all of the character drama, it led to a discussion of today's medical advances and how technology is always changing.  We made plans of where things are going to go in our new house addition. We shared our favorite memories of our last two dogs and what we are looking forward to with the next puppy. We talked about our kids and dreamed of their futures.  We speculated on the rising cost of oil.

All of a sudden, we walked out of the forest after what felt like only five minutes on the trail. That is what it feels like to be with Bill-- we tend to get lost in our moments together. And I can't imagine feeling that way with anyone else. :)

Second Beach Near La Push

We left the Indian reservation and pulled off the main road to visit Second Beach. It has a trail marker which takes you on a .7 mile hike through the rainforest in order to access the beach.

The rainforest was wet (it had started to rain) which made it exactly what it should be-- AMAZING with color and texture:

 
We practically had the trail to ourselves, which made it a fun experience while we were walking and talking:

 
Some trees had fallen due to winter storms -- others were unique in their shapes and branch patterns:

As we neared the end of the trail, the forest lit up and we could hear the roar of crashing waves...

We had to scramble over another pile-up of surf logs that were shoved to the very edge of the woods:

 
At last! Here was Second Beach and it was GLORIOUS! To the right of the crescent-shaped beach was a rock wall that had a key-hole opening. It was still raining and the wind was blowing-- which meant rolling waves would occasionally crash all along the outer rocks and spray through the rock "window": 

 
 
I am always entranced by the power of water:

 
Bill and I walked along the high tide line of the beach, snapping pictures of basic elements-- like rock and water:

 

 
Just then, the clouds broke and a weak winter sun peeked through... Even though my camera was still on automatic, I thought the contrast was stunning:

 

(the light circles in the middle of the photo are actually raindrops on my camera lens)

and

and

 

The clouds returned and the waves were still churning:

 

and

 

I was having soooo much FUN that I did a little side-kick in the air:

Which, of course, Bill caught me doing...

We decided we should say "good-bye" to Second Beach and head back into the rainforest before dark...

 
We cautiously worked through the heap of surf logs to get back on the trail  (I slipped twice). I cracked a couple of jokes (about how I should just "walk it off") so we could get motivated for the uphill climb:

 
Eventually the trail leveled out and we went back to enjoying the rainforest:

 
A moist environment is a great place to find some cool fungi:

So we walked and talked our way back .7 of a mile.... I paused to take a picture of me on the edge of a creek bridge:

 
Ta Daaa! We made it!

 

All of that fresh air made us happy and hungry, so we returned to Forks to find a restaurant for dinner.

Second Beach = scenic and very beautiful.

Time with my best friend = PRICELESS,

First Beach at La Push

Bill & I went away last weekend....

Destination:  the outer Washington coast. We love the beaches this time of year-- it may be cold and stormy, but fewer people and bigger waves! It makes my inner marine biologist very, very happy.

We stayed in Forks and visited five different beaches in two days.

We thought we would start with a few that we have not seen for many years. So we left Forks and drove to La Push. Unintentionally, we chose First Beach first:

 
This beach was easy to get to. You park your car and take a short trail onto the beach. (That is, once you scramble over all of the drift logs that are pushed up onto the beach from winter storms.) The skies were gray and it was windy-- not a problem since we were all bundled up.

 
My camera is Bill's old Nikon D70. (He upgraded to a Nikon D300.) He has given me numerous photography lessons, but it still intimidates me. I usually have my settings on automatic (which drives him crazy). While he takes his photography technique seriously-- I use my photography artistically. I am not looking at F-stops or shutter speeds, instead I am simply looking through the lens and capturing what I like.

 
Bill is fascinated by beach debris, in the form of huge strees with even bigger root masses that are stranded on the beach:

 
What I stop to look at is the lovely patterns of algae growing on another tree trunk:

 
I love the sea stacks (= eroded rock islands) that are offshore and the waves crashing on shore:

 
The tide was high and there wasn't a lot of beach exposed for walking, so we decided to move on:

Our next stop: Second Beach. (Seriously, that is what it is called!)

The Sunshine Cafe

About last weekend...

We left Thursday night to catch a ferry to the Olympic Peninsula:

 
We stayed our first night in Sequim:

We thought we would fuel up with a nice breakfast before our long drive to the coast.
We passed by this restaurant in the middle of town, called the "Sunshine Cafe":

 
It had such a cute name, we thought we would give it a try.

We were greeted by a friendly waitress named Gigi (she is wearing a pink shirt & gray fleece vest);

 
She offered to bring us something to drink, so Bill ordered a coffee and I ordered my usual hot chocolate. Wow! This is what she brought me, complete with red sugar sprinkles and a doily powdered with cocoa:

 
We studied the menu:

 
Gigi informed us that they had a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls that just came out of the oven-- would we like one or two? I said to bring one over:

 
It was DIVINE. 

We ordered breakfast and Gigi was slinging sassy remarks as she was coming & going. When Bill's breakfast arrived, I said "Oh, that looks great!" She said over her shoulder, "Good luck! I doubt that he'll be sharing that with you..."

I think I was giggling over Gigi's sass the whole time I was eating my breakfast (I ordered Dani's breakfast sandwich and it was delicious!).  As she continued to check on us, she stopped at our table and nodded her head at me. She said to Bill, "I bet she is a lot of fun to be with-- that girl is laughing ALL THE TIME." Without missing a beat, Bill replied, "Oh, she is fun all right! But when she is laughing in bed it makes me wonder..." Gigi put her hand over her mouth and said, "Pullleeeaase-- this is a FAMILY CAFE."  But then she and the other waitress (who instantly appeared) stepped closer to Bill and said, "Tell us ALL ABOUT IT!" 

Conversations like that = HILARIOUS.

Cost of our breakfast at Sequim's Sunshine Cafe = $35.77 (I tipped big)

Would we return? ABSOLUTELY.

Today In My Neighborhood...

As I reported earlier, we had a BUNCH of snow this morning.

Bill's school district cancelled school for the day. However, I was feeling guilty about Hallmarkland. So we left our neighborhood for a test drive.

This is what we found 1.5 blocks from our house (on the same curve that my car could not make during the last snowstorm)...

 
and as we slowly drove by it:

 
Yes, we asked if we could help (the driver said "no", he had already called it in). We asked if there were kids on board (the driver said "no", he had already dropped them off). And yes, it made the local nightly news.

From my neighborhood. And no, my little Red Hot was not in the ditch during the last snowstorm, I just backed down the curve and parked at my neighbor's house. Because that is how I roll. ;)

Right Now...

Right now...

1) I am reading the book, "The Beauty of Different" by Karen Walrond:

 

It is one woman's perspective on meeting interesting people that have stories to tell and are each very beautiful in their own unique way. I love that. True beauty is not on the surface, but rather what is INSIDE. I know a lot of truly beautiful people.

2) I am still a GLEEK for "Glee Club":

 

The latest episode had the Glee Club preparing for a alcohol prevention school assembly while they experimented with the "juice" on the side. I shouldn't have been laughing BUT it was sooooo funny with uptight Rachel throwing a party and those Glee kids facing hangovers the next day. Seriously. Those Glee kids just want to "fit in". High school is so painful.

3) I am knitting a scarf.... for me:

I can't wait to wear it before winter is over... with a T-shirt and jeans.

 4) I just ordered this book on animal behavior from Barnes & Noble.com:

 

I already know that contrary to popular belief-- chickens are SMART (at least, Rodgers chicks are!). I have heard that mice and rats giggle when tickled, but at such a high pitch that we can't hear them. I know that many bird species sing, whales sing, why not bats too??  I can't wait to read more!

5) I am in love with these new oatmeal dark chocolate chip cookies by Kashi:

 

Mmmmmmmm..... delicious!

6) Bill & I are laughing over Season 1 of "Modern Family":

 

We have caught random episodes here and there that were sooooooo funny that we asked ourselves,
"WHY aren't we watching this ALL THE TIME????" So we decided to start it from the beginning. It is TOTALLY worth it.... I can't wait for the episode where Cam and Gloria go out for dinner to get to know each other better (as extended family members). Gloria chooses a Mexi restaurant and Cam insists on ordering the same thing as Gloria-- Enchilada Diablo. The dish is soooo hot that he is sweating profusely, protests that he is "just fine", until he sees the waiter walking by with a water pitcher. He grabs the pitcher to pour it in his mouth and exclaims, "Please save me! My mouth is like THE SUN!" (insert hysterical laughter here)

7) I am counting down until this movie arrives at the movie theater:

 

Woo Hoo! Even Bill wants to see it! (That means we ARE going.)

8) I heard this song on the radio this week and it totally took me back to the '80s:

 

Yes, that's right. It plays in the "Sixteen Candles" movie near the end, when Jake finally finds Samantha and wishes her a proper Happy Birthday in his parent's house (that is totally trashed from the party held the night before). Oh how  I LOVE '80s music! This song is by the Thompson Twins.

9) I have a new puppet for my biologist toy collection:

It is a snail and it is so cute!

10) We woke up to 5+ inches of snow today:

And it is STILL snowing.... I love that.

Hello Second Floor!

ALOT has happened to our house in less than a week...

The second floor emerged. And the roof trusses were delivered on Thursday:

We skipped out of town on Thursday night and this is what we found when we returned on Sunday:

And just today-- our contractor filled in more of the second floor and papered the roof:

He also cut out the rest of our double garage doors and all of the doorways too!

It is SOOOOOOOOO exciting!!

Happy V Day To You!

 

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

 

And Then There Were WALLS...

We had a nice stretch of weather last week, so our contractor made progress on our house project.

We came home to this Monday night:

By Thursday, the siding was up and the floor between ground and second floor was done:

 
Which makes me feel like this:

It is soooo exciting!

"You don't get anything clean without getting something else dirty."
- Cecil Baxter

This is my personal paradox--my "cleaning" projects always turn into a hurricane mess!

Dedicated 2 The One I Love...

Valentine's Day is approaching and once again, Bill & I are happily boycotting it...

What?! Boycotting V-Day? This is where we were a year ago and it holds my explanation for why we choose to go against the trend.

Instead, I will smile to myself and think about the man I love:

And this song by Colbie Calliet, called "I Do", sums it all up for me:

 

 When I began dating him in high school, I fell in love and stopped thinking of me, myself & I -- I wanted us to be a couple .... to be TWO.

Three months after we were married, I found out I was pregnant and this meant we would become a FAMILY. I loved that concept and still do.

Now our 3 kids are grown and gone and we find ourselves happy again, being just TWO.

I think of us growing old together and I smile again. All because he made me say, "I do".

I love you, Bill Rodgers. I really, really, really do.

I Think I Like It...

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head??? Most of you will nod "yes"...

I saw this cute little video clip for a new scrapbook product that will be in stores this spring-- they are fun little books, called "SMASH" journals, and you can add ANYTHING to them:

 

So the first song I thought of after watching that video was Enrique Iglesias' hit "I Like It":

 

And now I can't get it out of my head..... I want a SMASH journal and Baby, I LIKE IT!

Super Bowl 2011

It should not be surprising to anyone who knows me that I am NOT a football fan. Remember? I am a self-confessed nerd.

This is what I was doing last year during the 2010 Super Bowl.

As for 2011, I am back to doing what I usually do on Super Bowl Sundays. I twiddle away my time until the half-time show. Whooop Whoooop! This year it was the Black-Eyed Peas!

And... I watch the commercials. This one was my favorite this year:

   

As for the Green Bay Packers winning the game... Poor Bill. He made a bet with his 4-5th period 8th graders that if 1) the Pittsburg Steelers won, he would give them extra credit or 2) if the Green Bay Packers won, he would have to lose 10 pounds. In 30 days. And if he doesn't lose 10 pounds, his mother has to come to class and lecture for him. NO, THANK YOU.

I feel bad for him already.

 

Cement Day

I happened to be home on cement day...

Some may consider this to be boring, but I was FASCINATED by the process and grateful I was not involved in the hard, physical labor. Instead, I watched for two hours and hid behind my camera:

So, here is where it started. They filled in our foundation with dirt and covered it with plastic:

Cement truck #1 arrived at 9:00 a.m.:

The cement truck started mixing and they positioned the troughs for the back corner. Out came the cement!

They poured cement, sloshed in it, shoveled it, and leveled it:

  
Cement truck #2 rolled in and waited for #1 to finish up. The drivers chatted until it was time to switch:

The first half was smoothed out before it set:

Cement truck #2 pulled in and positioned itself for the second half:

There was more sloshing, shoveling, scraping and leveling:

It was time to pour the last section:

They worked all of the edges and wet some areas before it set:

They removed wooden section markers and leveled as they went:

Whew! It looked like HARD WORK!The cement truck driver cleaned up his rig and left:

This is what we came home to after it was finished:

 
Ta Daaaaaaaa! We have a garage floor! We are so excited!

Our New BIG Project

We have been patiently planning a BIG project for over a year now..

What are we doing???

We are adding onto the House of Rodgers!  We have been garage-less ever since we bought this house:

We have been very creative with storage space. Our laundry room is behind secret doors in the family room. We have assorted tools stashed around the house. We think it is about time to solve some of these problems with a new approach. We think ~1800 square feet should do it.

Here is a frontal view (in blueprints) for our project:

That's right! The addition will be two stories; the bottom floor will be the garage with utility/mudroom and an extra storage room. The upstairs is a bonus room.

We spent over 6 months shopping for the right contractor. After we found him, we had to wait on the weather. We had snow. We had frozen ground. Finally, one day we came home to this:

Which was done by this:

 
The next step was this, building forms for the foundation:

Followed by this:

Note: During construction days, my chickens had to be penned up in the sideyard so they would not be in the way. However, one Rodgers chicken is very clever. And always gets out.

Who could that be?

That would be Miss Runt (a.k.a. "Houdini"). She thought she would be the on-site chicken inspector:

Silly chicken. There is no extra $$ in the budget to pay her. But I could make her a salad. ;)

 

 

Entertaining Two Generations...

Yesterday, I spent part of my day entertaining two generations. I scheduled two playdates. Here was how the morning went...

We started out in my scrapbooking room, where Elijah found all kinds of interesting things by opening cupboards and drawers:

He found my paint stash, but no worries! The lids were on tight:

It was too rainy to play outside, so we peeked at my chickens from inside:

We played with other farm animals found inside his Fisher Price farm set:

 
We had snacks-- I originally put this bowl on my coffee table for him to "help himself", but instead he flung Cheerios & Cheez-its all over the floor! After we picked them all up, I decided I better ration them out:

Elijah likes his water bottle at my house... here he is hamming it up:

After a nice drink of water, he decided to give one of Bill's elephants kisses:

Yes, he found my container cupboard:

We played hide-n-seek:

He sat on my  lap while I checked my email. We cleaned the sliding glass doors. We attempted to load the dishwasher. We read books. We picked up most of the messes. We followed Sierra the kitty around. Elijah spilled the kitty water bowl and then played in it. We cleaned that mess up too.

Bottom line: We had a REALLY FUN time! I can't wait to do it again.

After J & A picked up Elijah, I got ready for my next playdate... with my mom. I picked her up and we headed downtown for lunch at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op:

They have a wonderful deli inside, laden with all kinds of choices. We ordered custom sandwiches and dessert.  I think my mom really enjoyed the experience:

We talked and talked and talked. We laughed alot.

Bottom line: I think she loved the special attention and the time spent together. I know we will do it again soon.

Truthfully, I was living in four generations yesterday-- I played with Elijah, chatted with Jeremiah & Angela, had lunch with my mom and dinner with my sweet Bill. I am lucky to have some of my family live so close and feel lucky to have these moments TOGETHER. :)