Road Trip..

Harold's Great Aunt and Uncle where in town visting from Alabama so we decided to get the family together and rent a house down in Florence, Oregon on the Lake....

Since Florence is known for the Dunes we decided to load up the quads and get in a little riding while we were down there. We left Friday afternoon and where scheduled to hit Florence at 7:30 pm. About 20 miles outside of Eugene Harold remembered he had forgotten the spare tire for the quad trailer. I told him not to worry about it, we had recently had both tires replaced on the trailer there was no way we would get a flat!

Not ten miles after that.... KABOOM.... blow out.. on the HIGHWAY.. in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERESVILLE FARMLAND...

Thanfully we had cell service and were able to call for a tow truck to come and retrieve the trailer. Another blessing was that we were driving the truck rather then the Hummer..so we were able to offload the quads and position them in the back of the truck

This was no small feat! While we were struggling to get everything loaded into the truck, the Oregon State Police pulled up. They asked if we had called a tow truck for the trailer.. watched us work for a few minutes and then took off!

After an hour of waiting on the side of the highway for the tow truck they finally showed up. They towed the trailer to Les Schwab, where we left it with a note saying we would call in the morning!

Les Schwab fixed the tire and left the trailer outside for us to pick up on our way home from Florence.

All and all... it was a LONG and expensive trip (due to those repair and tow fees!), but we got some riding in and got to spend some priceless time with Harold's family.. His Great Aunt and Uncle are amazing and I can't wait to visit them in Alabama in the fall!

Precious Moments

As I was dropping Talia off at her preschool this morning, I bent down and gave her a big hug then told her I loved her very much... her reply "that's good to know." Then she happily trotted off to play with her friends. I sometimes think she's a teenager trapped in a toddler's body. Where did my baby go??? :)

Murphy's Law

Murphy's law: Anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong.



Case in point: This morning I had to be at a courthouse 60 miles from my house by 8:00 am to set up our trial presentation equipment prior to the trial starting. To make sure I was 100% prepared I lugged home all the trial equipment and did a test run taking copious notes of what needed to be plugged in where to ensure there was absolutely NO way I could mess it up. I laid my clothes out. I bathed Talia and dressed her in the outfit she was going to wear to school the next day so I wouldn't be delayed fighting with her over the small stuff. I programed the courthouse address into my Garmin. I had everything I needed to bring with me gathered and ready to go, set my alarm for 5:00 am to give myself more then enough time to get up and ready to go.



at 5:35 am I realized I had been hitting the snooze button for 35 minutes... oh well, because of my careful organization the night before I was still in good shape and would be able to get out of the house on time. I got myself ready no problem (YAY me!) Got Talia up.. teeth brushed, shoes and socks on, coat on.. and then as I was brushing her hair she started screaming that she wanted bangs... Bangs? Bangs! How was I to accomplish bangs? Bangs require scissors and precision and for Talia who is 3 and has NEVER had haircut it requires a trip to the hair dresser and lots of pictures commerating her first hair cut. This was nothing I could accomplish in the 5 minutes I had before I ABSOLUTELY HAD to leave the house... thank goodness she is a very bribable child. A couple of Dora the Explorer stickers later she was sporting braids and ready to go.. whooooo.. disaster avoided I was able to wipe the crocodile tears away and shuffle her out to get in the car I had thoughtfully already pre-warmed. As I hit the garage door opener and looked out into the darkness I noticed huge snowflakes falling from the sky.. CRAP snow.. but not a problem as I am the proud owner of a H3 that proved during the last snow storm in December that it could go virtually anywhere. I successfully got Talia and all our belongings loaded up went to back out of the driveway and noticed the lighted electoronic dashboard was dark. S*... its pitch black out.. how am I going to know how fast I am going? I briefly entertained the idea of unloading all my junk, the 500 pound ELMO, the 5 foot long projection screen and the various laptops and infocus machine into the truck and then notice.. Harold has yet to unload his duck decoys, cart, waders, or even the shot gun from his weekend duck hunting excursion.. scratch that idea! Oh well, I don't need to know the speed I'll just go with the flow of traffic. I get 3 miles down the road.. and ta da!! the light on the dashboard magically comes back on.. but wait the battery light is still on .. does ths mean my battery is going dead? I drop Talia off at Daycare leaving the car on in case I am dealing with a dying battery but keeping one eye on the car at all times to ensure it doesn't get stolen with the thousands of dollars of equipment I have in the back. I finally get on the road and dial OnStar and ask them to run a diagnostic test.. after all I pay $18.95 a month to have their support I ought to get something from it. They run a test and tell me everything seems fine, but the battery light should not be on. They suggest I report to the dealer immediately to have the car checked and ask if I would like them to conference them in.. um Hello its 6:30 in the morning I HIGHLY doubt their open and I have NO FREAKIN' time to be dealing with car issues today.. and being a person of reasonable intelligence I could have gathered I needed to take my car to the dealer all by MYSELF!!! Oh well, I figure as long as I am able to make it to the courthouse on time I'll deal with the dead, useless hunk-o-junk my car has become later. I grab my trusty Garmin plug it in and notice.. it won't turn on... O M G... how am I going to make it to the courthouse in a city I have NEVER been to onTIME in the SNOW without directions on how to get there? I switch plug ins... nothing.. I plug in my cell phone, which works, I bang it on the dashboard a few times for good measure.. S T I L L N O T H I N G.. I dive off the next exit headed back towards my house trying to think of the quickest way into the house and onto the computer to mapquest the route when I notice a reset button.. I locate a paper clip and while steering with my knee jam it down into the reset button..BINGO that does the trick.. the Garmin starts powering up like a champ...I make it to the courthouse with 5 minutes to spare, go to park and realize every single parking spot within a 4 block radius has a coin meter on it... Of course, I have dollars but no change due to a trip to the pizza place with Talia the weekend before (think racecars and Hannah Montana tattoo's people) I park and pour my purse out on the passenger seat.. and find a quarter a dime and a nickle.. I have never been so happy to locate .40 in my life! I get out and grab the heaviest pieces of equipment to take in first. I get to the courthouse steps and someone kindly informs me I am at the wrong entrance and need to walk down two blocks to another entrance..I lug, shuffle and huff and puff my way down to the other entrance with the 30 or so other court goers when I notice the door says JURORS ONLY... Errrr, who in the world would think a girl with a laptop bag over her shoulder, a 500 pound elmo and a infocus machine would be reporting for jury duty?... super annoying.. but not the end of the world I am not late YET. I get back to the entrance I was originally at where I am made to open all the equipment for viewing, take my shoes, coat and belt off and have my purse rummaged through (three times, since I had to make three trips back out to the car) I was still able to remain calm.. however, admittedly when the security guards asked me to take my spine model out of the case so they could look(play) with it.. I was a little annoyed.. but I let them have their moment and crack their jokes about "growing a backbone" I even answered their dumb questions ("No, its not a real spine" "No, I can't imagine someone wanting to have their spine made into a model after they died" "No, I don't think this spine is cheap, not sure where you could pick on up at") I FINALLY get to the courtroom and successfully get all the cords unraveled and all the equipment hooked up and working perfectly. My attorney arrives and I borrow quarters from him so I can feed my parking meter and stay on the right side of the law, I get back into the courtroom after going through the metal detectors -yet again.. to learn that all parties had conferred and agreed to settle.. SETTLE, GAME OVER, NO TRIAL.. NO NEED FOR TRIAL EQUIPMENT.. all that for nothing..... to add injury to insult as I am loading the equipment back into my car I realize I had received a parking ticket.. in my rush to get to the courtroom I hadn't taken the time to read the fine print on the parking meter... you could only park in that spot for 2 hours regardless of how much money you fed the machine... my bad. hahah.. perfect ending to the perfect morning!!!

P.S. My car must have been feeling the pressure. Now that everything is said and done and it is no longer under a time restraint its running a like a million bucks... no error message, all electronics are working.. SNAP! :)

All I want for Christmas is a 40 degree day!

What's the deal with the weather? It just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing... hahaha. I love the snow. I really, really do. In 2004 when Portland shut down for almost a week we spent the entire time at our neighbors house playing games and watching the weather reports, and drinking hot spiced rum...but now times are different! I have a three year to try to keep entertained, and we have a business to keep running, and I have a billable goal at work to meet by the end of the year. FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

Last Sunday when it started snowing I was delighted. We hadn't cut our Christmas tree yet, so we were able to go out and cut a tree in the snow! Amazing...but then came Friday and the HUGE flakes that just didn't stop. Due to the snow and ice we had to cancel Talia's birthday party in Seaside. Poor kid had to celebrate her birthday at home with her boring Mom and Dad :)

I have to admit I didn't mind it when I called into work today to find that the firm had decided to close.. but now watching the weather reports and seeing we are only expecting more snow and freezing rain through the rest of the week... AHHHHH... I am going totally stir crazy in the house.. I have done every project I can stand to do and because of the massive amounts of snow on the roof our DishReceiver is stuck and is only able to find local channels.. which are only broadcasting the NEWS!

I hope we are able to make it home for Christmas!