Just adding more pictures from the hike. I took almost 80 pictures, so you have a few to enjoy!

Yesterday was a great day off! I spent the morning cleaning up the garage(I have 9 boxes of stuff to send to UMW for a rumage sale) and straightening out my yarn/thread stash, and then AJ and the dogs and I went for a hike up to Whiskeytown Falls. These are falls that were 'lost' for 60+ years and were just rediscovered in 2006. It was my first hike up into them - 1.7 miles up. It was a fair hike - I stopped to 'take pictures' frequently (and catch my breath!)


The first pictures are taken from the Whiskeytown Visitor's Center. The trailhead is 8 miles further up Highway 299, and then another 3 1/2 miles up the mountain. AJ wasn't really that thrilled to be going with me on the hike, but....he did it just for me! AJ got out of school at 1:30, so it was after 2:00 before we got up on the trail, and the afternoon light was beautiful!

The hike is notated as a 'moderate to difficult' hike. The hike itself wasn't too bad - a couple of steep hills is all - but boy are they steep! Some of the difficulty is the narrowness of the trail - check out the bridge across the creek! The dogs were still very excited to be out and a bit rambunctious at this point, so we were careful to go over one at a time. On the way back, they were no problem at all!



This is one of the 'steep' parts - and AJ and Jasper ran up it. AJ spent a lot of his time waiting for me to catchup.

My 'relaxing' day off has been pretty productive so far. I put in a couple of hours straightening up part of the garage and working on my yarn/thread supplies. I am only working on the part of the garage that I can control, and I put a pretty big dent in it, if I say so myself! Yesterday, I put some time in straightening up the guest house, so it is looking better around here!



Here is a bookmark that I finished up - part of the weekly series of small project form a Yahoo! group. I think it turned out pretty nice, and AJ actually took it - I don't know that he will use it, but he liked it enough to take it, so - I'm happy!



I'm not sure how my seedlings are going to do - the lemon cucumbers are growing like weeds (on the right side of the first picture), and not much else came up. One package of cantaloupes seeds sprouted a few plants, and the peppers are just now beginning to show anything at all (picture on the right). With my luck, the cucumbers will have been planted too soon, and won't be viable by the middle of May!

Did I mention that AJ had started soccer practice? If I did, I probably didn't mention that his games were starting too, because I didn't know! He had his first practice Thursday, which was a day he stayed home sick, so he didn't go to the practice. He had a game on Saturday at 11:00, which I didn't know about until 9:30 Saturday morning, and I was leaving at 9:45 to go to the church! AJ was actually still in the shower when I got the call. He had to hustle to get everything ready to go. As it was, Alli and I left before he and Ralph were ready to go, since they both had slept in.



I missed most of the game. I took him to the Anderson River Park at 10:45 and hung out long enough to see that he found his coach (we had no idea who he was!) and the start of the game. He changed into his uniform on the field - there is no modesty in the child! He did sit down to change his shorts, so he didn't show everyone his underpants. I love boys! After the game started, I took Alli back to the church to finish our job.

Church cleanup went good. I checked twice with the guy who was supposedly organizing it, and showed up at 10:00. Everyone else showed up at 9:00 or before. He told me that no one else followed his orders around there. I think I won't follow them anymore either! I got my usual job - windows! The insides were already done by the time I got there, so I got the ladder part outside. My only problem - Alli was inside! When I went to check in for what job they wanted me to do, I went into the sanctuary to talk to the 'head of cleaning' (since it obviously wasn't who I had talked to before!) and Alli found herself a seat on a pew, and settled in for the duration. She stayed there for about 40 minutes - until I had to leave to take AJ to his game. I would work for a couple of minutes and then go check on her, work a couple of minutes and go check on her. She was so cute and happy! The group of ladies that were cleaning the sanctuary loved her! After taking AJ to his game, I kept Alli with me outside, and she laughed and spun the whole time - happy girl!

Ralph was replacing some broken sprinkler heads at the church, and he wore himself out! He said he got up and down so many times he was exhausted. He did get three of the four sprinklers fixed - and it wasn't his fault that he didn't get the fourth one fixed! He had met up with Charlie from the church on Friday so he could see what he needed in the way of parts, and there were only three broken sprinklers at the time, so....he got parts for three sprinklers. Then, when the lawn was being mowed on Saturday, they ran over a different sprinkler, and Ralph didn't have parts for that one! Ralph got to take the rest of the day off after helping me out at the church. He did BBQ hamburgers for us for dinner - yum!

After I finished cleaning windows, Alli and I went back to AJ's game, and caught the last 20 minutes of it. AJ wasn't playing very well, and was actually sitting out most of the time I was there. Turns out they were ahead 6-0, and they weren't playing very aggressively so as to not drive up the score. Some of the same kids from prior years are on his team, including the kid across the street. One new set of parents I met recognized Alli from Challenger League baseball. Their daughter was on AJ's soccer team, and their son was just a year behind Alli, and just a bit more 'functional' that she is. The mom and I had a nice chat, and I look forward to the rest of the season! (It isn't often I find someone in the same circumstances - one 'normal' teenager, and one 'not'.) On a side note - Alli took herself to the bathroom again yesterday to go poop! Yippee!

I have a three day weekend this weekend! I debated all day on Friday about whether I should be taking Monday off, but, in the end, I decided to just go for it. I will pay for it on Tuesday, but at least I will have Monday off! Work is a little crazy (to put it mildly) right now - we have a big project that is starting on April 15th, and it is something we have never done before, so I'm not sure of what is really going to happen. I just try to do all the prep work I can, and hope for the best! I don't even have any real plans for Monday - what a treat! Maybe I'll take Koori in with me when I take the kids to school, and we'll go for a walk on the River Trail! I could also start cleaning out the garage and/or the guest house, but that doesn't sound nearly as much fun!

We have a clean-up day at the church today, and Ralph and AJ are coming with me (which means so is Allison!) Ralph promised to help with the sprinkler system, so he went down yesterday to see what parts he needed to get. We are taking two cars, so he can 'take Alli home' when he is ready to go. Since clean-up is from 10:00 - 2:00, I am going in early to the grocery store this morning. That way, I have everything all done for the day except actually cleaning my house! I'm going to make some sandwiches to take to church as well. I know other people will have something going for lunch, but Ralph forgot who called me, so I didn't call back to see what I could bring. So....sandwiches it is!

Another fun-filled week is speeding by! I had a seminar in San Francisco on Tuesday, so left work a little early Monday afternoon and drove down. It was a fun trip - a co-worker went with me, so the drive and evening were fun (dinner at Chevy's on the Bay!) The seminar was good, and traffic cooperated with me the whole way! The only downsides were - all the work waiting for me when i got back, and all the things I found out about at the seminar that we needed to be doing. I don't think I'll ever catch up!

The bank has another 'huge' project for me - going live April 15th, so I have a ton of stuff to do for it. I hope to get everything handled in a timely manner, and I can still take my vacation the first week of April!



Wandering about in the back yard this weekend - Spring has definitely sprung! All of the plants that I cut back to the roots are shooting up all over the place! These rose bushes and the fern are just shooting up! I can still see my little bunny hiding in the rocks though!



These are pictures taken from my hotel window in San Francisco. The city looks much better from there!

Spring sports have started too. AJ was supposed to have his first soccer practice yesterday, but - once again - he is sick! He said his entire Calculus class was sick on Tuesday - even the teacher commented on it. Several of his friends did stay home on Wednesday as well. Allison has her first practice for Challenger League Little League today, too. Spring has sprung!

Spring forward! This is the time change that I like in the evening when it is lighter, and not in the morning when I have to get up earlier! I do like the thought of sleeping in until 7:00, but my body knows that I only got to sleep in until 6:00. (Not much 'sleeping in' there!)

Like I thought, I got almost nothing accomplished yesterday around the house. That means I have a busy day ahead for today! I am also going to Oakland for some training Monday afternoon, coming home late on Tuesday, so I need to get the household ready for my absence. I did get some crocheting in yesterday, but no pictures yet. (As I said, I got almost nothing done yesterday!)

My seeds are sprouting! The seeds on the left are lemon cucumbers, and they are sprouting a lot faster than anything else. The seeds on the right hand side are pepper seeds, and are just beginning to sprout, and the ones in the middle are Armenian cucumber, and two types of cantaloupes.



I thought all of the cucumbers and cantaloupes would sprout at once, since they are similar, and the peppers would sprout later.! So much for my logic. I just hope I didn't plant the seeds too early. They can't go in the ground for another month. I figure, with my luck, I have a couple of options. #1 - all the plants live and I have three dozen cucumbers, 2 dozen cantaloupes, and 1 dozen pepper plants that I need to plant, and will have to find homes for most of them, or.....#2 - I forget to water them and they all die! I'm hoping I have a surplus of seedlings!

What a week! I'm so glad it is the weekend! Not that I don't have anything to do this weekend, but at least it is my stuff that I have to do! This was a week of 'shifting priorities' at work, so I never felt like I actually got anything finished! Now, if I don't finish anything, it is because I am lazy, not because I had to go do something else that is more critical (at least to someone else!)

Yesterday, winter came back for a short visit - another day of rain. It was cold, windy and wet! and then, on the way home. the sun came out! a beautiful double rainbow was out all the way home (the sky was happy it was Friday too!) It was still out when I got home, so I got a couple of pictures of it from the back yard. Today is supposed to be warmer, and then tomorrow, and most of next week, it is supposed to be warm and sunny! I am so ready for spring!



I got to have lunch with a girlfriend on Thursday - it was nice to catch up with her. She lives here in Redding, but I see her more in Susanville than I do here, since she spends most of her weekends in Susanville.

Just a few pictures of the work we got done last weekend. AJ helped me spread out bark in the garden off the patio, and put in my pansies in the pool area. I also put some in out front! I also took some pictures of the flower bed out front - the one that Mom and I put in a couple of years ago (the one with the hollyhocks!).

We had a breakthrough yesterday! Allison was playing in her room, bouncing on her bed, and she stopped and took herself to the bathroom for a poopie! Yippee! I almost didn't even notice except I went to check on her because she stopped bouncing and was quiet! There is a light at the end of the tunnel! She's been doing better at daycare and school to take herself in to go pottie, but we didn't know how much of that was a scheduling/timing thing for her or a realization that she should go to the bathroom to stay dry. I was so excited I almost threw her a party!

The weather has been so nice on weekends lately, I have gotten in a rush for real Spring! Yesterday, I picked up a flat of pansies to plant, and a mini-greenhouse to start some seeds for the garden. I have tried starting seeds before, and it was a colossal fail, so I am a little anxious about this try. I know what I am doing this afternoon!



The pansies will go out in the pool area flower pots. When the boys were helping me clean up out there a few weeks ago, they dumped all the dirt out with the old plants, so I got more potting soil yesterday, and some more bark to put out in the area off the patio. I picked up 4 cubic feet of each - we'll see how much more I need! (Those bags were heavy!) I am so ready to put in other plants, but that is about all that is available at the stores right now. I need to stop by the nursery after church to see what they have, but....it is still early. The pansies won't last too long around here anyway!

I did a check last week on my front flower bed, and it is in pretty good shape. The Dusty Miller was nipped back by the cold weather, so I need to see if it will come back, but the lavender was already blooming, the columbine is putting out a new flower bud, and the pincushion plant and potato bush are both okay. I don;t know if my _____ (forgot the name - the one ones up against the fence) (Now I remember - Hollyhocks!) will bloom again this year or not. They bloomed last year, and I don't know if they bloom every other year. or if it is just the first year they don't bloom. I need to do some serious weed control in that bed - the grass came through the mulch we put in. I'm hoping to get Ralph to spray it with weed-killer when he sprays the rest of the yard area. I'm so ready for Spring! Maybe next year, I'll plant bulbs so they come up in the spring! (I say that every year around this time, and then by the time it is time to plant bulbs, I am burned out with playing in the yard.)

Alex finally got something done on his Eagle Project! This weekend is the 'Scouting for Trees" project - where the scouts plant trees in areas needing reforestation. In this case, they are planting trees up by Shasta Dam in the burn area. Alex didn't particularly want to go, so we made a deal - he finishes part of his project, he doesn't have to go camping. He finished the 'written plan' for his project, and turned it in for review by his scout master. He still needs feedback from the school principal (his project is a clean-up remodel of a school garden area) but she was out of the office when he was trying to get this done (if he had planned ahead.....) He really does need a lot of work on it still, but - it is started!

Here are a couple of butterfly bookmarks I've been working on - hopefully they are presents for 'Spring'. I need a few more, and then I hope to get some flowers (pansies, etc.) and give to co-workers on a nice sunny day!

I've got to start getting up earlier! I haven't taken the time all week to update the blog! Bad me! I don't think daylight savings time is going to help either - it's hard enough to get up early now - it will be an hour earlier in a week! I have been busy at night though. I finished up another doily. This one is about 19 inches across, and the thread is variegated blue and white. The photo doesn't show the colors very well.



I also started a couple of other project (of course!) One is a series of small projects - unknown to me what they will be! One of the Yahoo groups that I am one is posting a series of small 'mystery' projects. They send out one pattern a week, and if you have finished the pattern from the week before, you get a new pattern. This week, it was a coaster:



It is about 5 inches across - a bit big for a coaster for me, but the pattern is pretty. It worked up in one evening. We'll see what comes along next!