Monday, Monday. . . What's Happening?

I'ts just a few past midnight, but close enough. I'll be back. Not ready to go to bed yet.

Busy. productive weekend here. We weren't with the kids but got calls from both. Living 5 hours away I can't be with them all the time. We do manage to see them about once a month sometimes even more often.  We spent most of the weekend working in the yard. Before we moved in in October we had the lawn and sprinklers in. This spring we have been working so hard to finish up the rest of it. This weekend we planted a non-flowering plum tree in the front. 18 inch pot + 36 inch wide hole by 14 deep. A lot of dirt to move!  But it does look nice. Hope the wind doesn't blow it over!

Planted several perennial plants. Sure wish Jan C was here to help me decide what to plant where! I'm going to get some starts from my mom's yard; I especially want some of the little ground cover stuff to start on my granite rocks.

Finally about 3pm we took a break and drove down through the Wallula Gorge. We call it the "loop." It just takes about 1.5 hours but is such a pretty drive. The wild flowers are blooming on the hills above the river. This gorge area is where during the Ice Age Floods it created a huge dam of ice and rocks. As this mess came roaring down from near Missoula, Montana it plugged up and then broke through this area. It left hug boulders many hundreds of feet up the hillsides. In the sides of the hills you can actually see "waves" where the water carved the hills much like the waves do the sand on the beach. This is all so fascinating to me. Around here those of us interested in the Ice Age Floods are called "Floodies." I belong to a group that goes on hikes to the various areas. If you're interested there is info on the web. Recent legislative action has earmarked funds to create an Ice Age Floods trail. Actually a series of trails with kiosks that explain this phenomenon. Hope I didn't bore you to death with that spiel. Kind of like my genealogy stuff. I don't realize that "enough is too much" until I see that glazed over look in people's eyes. You all will just have to tune me out when you've had enough!

Can't believe I'm still up. Actuallly I did catch a nap on the couch. We've been watching the  new series on tv about the American Indians. Fascinating stuff. Geronimo was featured in the one we watched tonight. We've been taping it so that we can watch it in smaller than normal segments. My great grandmother Elizabeth Alphin Clark was supposed to be part Native American. She was red headed, left handed (I am too) and had really short thumbs (also have these. They look more like toes than thumbs, but heck they work!). I've always felt a stronger than normal kinship to her. Her grandparents were married in Georgia in 1807. I think perhaps that's where the Chickasaw, Chocktaw, or Cherokee comes in. Doubt if there were many single, Scots/Irish women there in those days. Elizabeth's grandmother's last name was Ivey. Hope to find out more about this family line on my trip coming up to Salt Lake City.

Wow, I'm wordy tonight. I haven't even had any caffeine. I'll close and try to get some shuteye. We'll be watching 4 yr old Emma, our friends' grandchild, for 5 hours today. I'll need energy as we have a picnic planned at the little park down the street.

You all have a nice day.

 Karen,

I'm a native of WA and love the gorge area.  I love driving up to Grand Coulee and looking at all the centuries of lava flows. You mentioned more info on a web site.  could you please share the web site?

Thanks

Millie

Good Morning Millie, Just check out the following on line. There is a lot of info and links to other info about the Ice Age Floods. Check this site:  Ice Age Floods Institute. Are you familiar with the Palouse Falls area here in eastern Washington? I love it this time of year.

 Hi Karen,

Thanks for the info.  Yes, I'm familiar with Palouse Falls.  It's sad that so many people see central and eastern WA as dry desert - like areas.  It is fascinating to me how the land changes from one phenomenon to another in such a short distance.  Taking a back road last summer opened another whole area of beauty to me.  It was from Soap Lake to Coulee Dam.  I had not been on that road before.....  OMG  the coulees were breathtaking at sunset.

Millie

Hi all,

Another volunteer day and hopefully, dance class tonight.  My check didn't show up on Saturday so I am a little nervous.  With hubby laidoff, we need every bit. 

Not much else to say.  Well, that's not exactly true lol, but I will spare you.

wow Karen the area around your place sounds fasinating.....i would love to see that area up there maybe some time . We are going to be spending most of the winter in Tucson again this winter. Hope to get some relief from the arthritis ....
wish i was there to help you with your yard too , i love helping people do that...I designed  2 yards this past year. one was a complete new build and nothing anywhere the other was an older home with so much there and overgrown they rented one of the small dozer things and pulled a lot of it out and left themselves without much and then wanted to redo it and didnt know where to start. i always hate to see people do that because with some work the mature landscape always looks the best i think...i was able to salvage a lot of their stuff and use it and some of it came home with me and found a home....Joe said maybe he needed to go borrow that bulldozer lol ...
Margo im working on trying to lose enough weight to get inside a suitcase. would love to take that trip with you...sounds great. 
I am putting up back splash in the kitchen of the guest house today....exciting huh?
Well will get off here and get busy, i know what you both mean about people getting a glazed over look in their eyes when you are talking about your passion, ive seen it too when i get to talking about plants and flowers and landscaping lol ....

Jan, You and Joe are welcome here anytime. Just head north! However, our weather isn't usually very nice before March and I know you head home in time for gardening. September and October are always very nice too.

I am so overdue for my MO/AR fix! Erin and I will take the babies to Columbia/St. Louis in September but just 5 days. I'll have to plan one of my non stop 2 weekers again soon. If I plan it right and come down through Springfield to see my cousin there on my way to Arkansas I'll be sure to stop and see you.

Hi Karen and my OFF family:

I had a lazy do-nothing day yesterday. I was so tired! Talked
to mom, my brother, my friend Mary Kay and briefly to Carla,
but otherwise watched baseball and napped, tried to read but
was too sleepy. Kitties gave me lots of snuggling and kisses
yesterday ... do they know it's Mother's Day too, or just that I've
been stressed out and need extra loving?

Karen, your area sounds wonderful, reminds me of Montana,
and I loved Montana so much. I know most people want to retire
some place warm, but I long for the mountains. I think my heart
is in the mountains ... unfortunately, my knees aren't!

Well, I need to get going. It's the "Squish your Boobs Day"
(sorry George) ... or as one nurse put to me, "the day your
C cups get turned into tea cups." Since I admonished my
coworker Kim about getting her yearly mammogram (especially
since we get ours paid for 100 percent through insurance) and
she hasn't had one for nearly 3 years, I must get mine done.
I always get mine in May, after my gyne exam in April; however,
this year, the gyne office screwed up my exam date and didn't
send me a reminder card, so now my exam is in August. Oh
well ... at least I have a yearly exam. I also got on Kim about
taking her calcium ... she's in her late 40s and asked if a
multivitamin would suffice ... I told her no! She's at that age that
she's probably starting to lose bone mass. And she drinks a lot
of pop, too, which we know pulls calcium from bone. So I'll keep
at her about this. I feel like a nag about health issues to her.

Well, gotta go. Have a good day.

I never would have said this before my cancer diagnosis, but the mammo is so important! I was fairly regular about having mammograms but I never really took them seriously- until I was diagnosed because of the irregularities that they caught in the mammo that I had in 2006 pre-WLS. I had skipped three years and had I been more diligent I would have caught it before it became invasive. Now I have mammograms twice a year for the rest of my life. Enjoy your big squi****hank goodness we have the option to squish!