New Toy

So for Christmas/birthday I got a new toy.  A camera - a Nikon - I'm learning and I am very thankful we don't have film any more.  It is so easy to delete.   Went to lake Coeur d'Alene and this is my first time playing with my new toy.

 I like the zoom on this camera -

 Lake Coeur d'Alene on a cold December afternoon

 Looking for fish - or ?

 Roots of a tree on the beach - looked like a snake to me

 Dead fish all over the beach - Eagles like them alive

This is for Nathanial

 Two - one on the left stands on one foot

 Had to take a picture of this duck.  He was way far away but I liked the reflection on the lake.

Such a nice pose.

Not bad for my first play.  

Rudy the red nosed school bus

First you get Santa to come and help.    He is sitting with his legs hanging down one of the roof hatches.

We have decorated the bus for the past four or five years.  Lights covering both sides of the bus, antlers - all lit up, lashes on the headlights (eyes) .  Rudy is pulling Santa.

Even a red nose.  Even made ears next to the antlers.  

This year the Parade was canceled.  Not a good thing  - so my boss decided we would get Rudy out and go around and collect food for the food bank.  It was very cold - got down to 24 - but Matt and I volunteered to be a walker.  We got to hand out candy canes and collect the food.  I didn't get pictures of us doing that - but we had a blast.  We got a lot more food then we thought we would - and that was way cool.

I love North Idaho

Had a relaxing Saturday on a train ride in Ion.  Just a few pictures - of home - for those who are missing it.

Heaven

It is a good three weeks when you get to see.....

Georgey  

Maddie  

Sadie  

Grayam 

Jack 

Hallie 

Troy 

Gibson 

Kevin  

Ezra 

Lucas 

....all your grand children.
And all your children too.
More in a few days

Wild adventures

Summer is here.  In case you haven't noticed - just thought I would bring that to your attention.  In my case this means I am out of work for two and a half months.  A very nice thing for the most part.  

So far not a whole lot going on.  Pulling weeds out of my raspberry patch.  Enough weeds to fill six garbage bags.  That is how we do things here in the west.  We measure yard work by the garbage bags.  " I cut the lawn and got 16 garbage bags full of grass.  It was high."  This is helpful if you ever get a chance to talk to my father about his yard.   Anyway - the raspberry plants are weeded and now to the rest of the yard.  

I have been taking my parents to the doctors.  That is our social life.  Doctors and their office staff.  Dad's eye is all better - Mom is going to physical therepy for a while to try and help the pain in her hip.  Mom lost half a tooth.  Dad's diabetes is under control for now - working in the yard is helping that.  I even had my blood work done and all is well.

For fun Matt and I have been trying to use our bicycles.  We got new helmets and Costco.  Printed out a map of the Coeur d'Alene bike trail and off we have gone.  This trail is like 72 miles long.  Going from Plummer to Mullan.  We are presently doing the section by Cataldo.  There is this (maybe) ten mile stretch that goes through a wet land reserve.  It is so cool to ride along and see all these birds.  Cranes - Bullock Oriole - Mallards - and another Duck that I have tried to identify but so far no luck - need a better book - then half a frog and a pile of white feathers - wonder what killed this large bird?  We also saw an Osprey - I was thinking Eagle but I do believe they are gone this time of year.

Then Matt and I came face to face with Fred.  That is what I named him

Matt saw him first - my phone took the first picture.  I think he is saying "cheese".  Looks like it anyway!!

Well, we road eleven and a half miles this trip.  Not bad for two old people!!!

Matt is number one

So Matt is driver of the year - of course!!!!  Who else?  I mean really - who else is as good a driver as Matt.  Actually - when it comes to truck driving there is a LOT more to the job than just driving.  It is nice to be recognized that you are doing your job the best you can.   They - the company - gave Matt a new coat - this plaque - $250 - and a certificate.  NICE!!  That is a nice pat on the back.  Congratulations Matt!!

This past Friday - I had our regional Road-e-o.  For the bus drivers.  I came in third.  Seems to be my place.  I come in third a lot.  I was happy with what I did.

So Matt came in first and I came in third.

Define your life

Go ahead define your life in seven letters or less.  Not seven words but seven letters.  That is what I have chosen to do this past month.  Believe me it is a lot harder than it sounds.

You see - here in Idaho - you have to have a licence plate on your car.  You can choose from a variety of styles - regular scenic , wild life, an air plane, different state school logos - even the armed forces - all can be random numbers and letters or you can personalize them.  My old plates had a school bus on them.

It even stated my pet peeve - cars not stopping for the red lights.  I thought it fit me and even made my husband get them for his car.  These special plates are fund raisers for their different causes or schools.  This campaign was to raise money for student safety regarding busing.  It failed.  Only 90 plates were sold state wide.  So they discontinued these plates and when the time came to get new tags we had to get new plates. 

I didn't want to just get a random number that was hard to memorize and besides - I have grown accustomed to looking at the plate - to make sure it was my car that I was headed for.  You would be surprised at how many white Buick's there are out there. 

So I decided to get a personalized plate.  Since my last plate was a school bus I had a mind set at staying with my job.  I drove "bus 59" - so I thought that would be cool.  But I was not guaranteed to keep that bus so I thought "route 17" would be better.  Turns out just last month they gave me a new bus - glad I didn't get that on my plate.  As far as "route17" - Mandy didn't like that.  She thought that my life shouldn't be defined by my job.  That got me to thinking.

What does define your life.  OK - this is just a license plate - it shouldn't get so philosophical.

So now what?  I started to think of things I liked - crafts - sewing - grand kids - not in that order.  Then there was my faith.  A big part of my life is my faith.  I made the decision to stay away from that for my plate and just keep it light.  "Engage"   "Lv2sew"   "Busdrvr"  "MattSue" Were all ideas that I kicked around.  I looked to see if these were even available - most were not.  Back to the drawing board.

I finally figured it out.  My family was the most important thing to me.  So that is what I went with.

I did wrestle with putting "DCAMGD" on the plate but we never call Mo - Amanda unless we're mad at her and well, Miranda is always in my heart and I didn't want to explain over and over again why the extra "M". - So this is how I define my life in five letters.

I am well pleased with Damon, Cristy, Mandy, Grant and Darren.