Life at the Beach!

You know - it just dawned on me that we live here now! Isn't that amazing! We've been here a month and it took me that long to figure it out!!! But, since we came to Oregon for a month every summer, and we'd visit the kids, spend time in a condo ... sound familiar?? Yep - just what we've been doing so far! LOL! I guess retirement is supposed to feel like a vacation! Good job!

We're still going to the grocery store more than 3 times a week. It's so funny not to have those basics around ... I was going to make corn bread this week to go with corn chowder I made - hmmm, "R? Didn't we buy eggs yet???" "We sure did - up at L's house!!" Oh, add them to the list!

I went back up to Portland Thursday to babysit Miss P thursday night. Yes, she's cute, but the real reason was a repeat visit to Ikea on Friday. Anyway - she was down for her nap when I got there - L said they'd been talking about Nana coming all day - so they left and I went up at the appointed hour to wake the kid. The first word out of her mouth was "Bom pop???" When I said, no he didn't come with me - I got a dirty look! But we did fine. She's turned into a kid - riding on a toy outside and talking up a storm!

Friday, L and I got more bookcases for the sewing room stuff - so THIS week - I'm going to get set up. We SHOULD even get our dining room furniture this week - so I'll have the table to set up my computer and sewing machine on. It's amazing to me the difference having a machine set up vs setting up the machine when you need it. I needed a larger sleeve on my lighthouse quilt - and without the cutting board, iron and sewing machine set up - I actually ripped off the old sleeve, opened it up and sewed in back on BY HAND - cause that felt faster! I did take it to "Stitching Circle" to do the handwork and they REALLY liked it! So it's a "Go" for the Newport Quilt Guild Show in August.

Guess what! I found the missing iron!! Woohoo!

We babysat Miss P Friday thru Sun. She's SO-O cute right now. She sounds like a little Amish woman - she says "thank yee"!! But Sunday I drug us away from her and we went to IKEA. R complained all the way there - how he hated them - and then we got there and bought 2 'Expedit' bookcases for the sewing room! They are like cubes - and we thought they would do well with the stash! They do - but we need about 4 more!!! - for a start!!! Lord - forgive me!

Brought home the bookcases and a few boxes from L's last night -- "another load of crap" in R's words! Our garage is about 30 feet and 10 stair steps away from our front door. So to make it easier to carry everything in, we propped our front door open - never noticing there were two birds sitting on top of the outside light RIGHT BY THE DOOR! Thank goodness they just sat there and pooped - they didn't fly into the condo. Our condo was empty for a few months before we came - I assumed the bird poop was from that time - didn't know the stupid little things were still living there! This morning I removed bird poop (ick) and we fashioned a bird repellent doo-hickie from a milk jug. I'll let you know if it works.

We put together the 2 bookcases this morning and this afternoon I unloaded ALOT of sewing room boxes into them. It felt good to see "my favorite things" again. And just as I was afraid of - the fabric in the boxes felt a little damp. It's so humid here - I'll have to double check everything to be sure there's no pins in anything to rust.

In the 200th box (LOL!) I found a magazine holder that I had tucked the iron and the spray bottle in. When we were searching the boxes - we didn't look inside magazine boxes! Yeah! Now all I have to do is find the receipt for the cheap Walmart iron! Wish me luck!!

Oops - that week went fast!

Life by Yaquina Head lighthouse - This is one of the lighthouses we can see from our beach. Yaquina Head has 2 short light bursts and a long pause. I love seeing it send me it's signal at dusk. I am still unpacking and moving things around. We still don't have the furniture we ordered ... maybe next week. We've had really cool weather on the coast last week. Looks like the same this next week. Should be good weather for setting up a sewing room! I finally have the rest of the house pretty squared away. The spare bedroom here is so cut up - 5 walls with odd angles involved. The one long straight wall has the closet and a door to a bathroom on it. And the one piece of furniture I wanted to keep - it's an entertainment center - is really too big for the room. Don't know how I'll even be able to watch the tv in it! Moving - it's an adventure!

I joined the Newport Quilt Guild last week. Went to the June meeting and it seems to be a good group. They have an annual quilt show every August ... I just left the Lincoln Guild right after their Memorial Day weekend show. So-o, it already seems familiar! Looking forward to picking my favorite quilts to enter in the show.

Last weekend we went down to Ashland for J2's graduation. She received her Masters in Education and her mom got her Bachelor's! It was a gorgeous day, upper 80s and it was quite a celebration. When we came back to the coast it was only 55 and we were glad we had soup in the fridge to warm up for dinner!

Next weekend we'll be up in Portland to babysit Miss P during the neighborhood garage sales. I'll let you know how the sewing room goes! Could someone send me a 6 foot shoe horn, please!

Unpacking in Paradise!

I've been back at the coast for 24 hours now - and there are still too many boxes to unpack! I hate them sitting around. Once in an earlier move, DH actually hid some boxes from me so I would relax!! Sewing room is still boxed in the garage ... of course, I'm anxious to get that set up.

The Newport Quilt guild meets year round and the June meeting is next thursday! So I'm excited that I'll be able to jump right in. I stopped in at the quilt store and got some local quilters to contact too. Looks like they have sewing days at least every month - kind of like Lincoln's workshop maybe? I'll let you know. Last August they had their quilt show - I don't know if they have it every year or every other year. There was an article in the paper's web archive - 900 visitors and 199 quilts. Not too shabby!

The condo is at the south entrance of the harbor - so we get to see at lots of boat traffic going in. The warning horn is alittle annoying - but I'm sure we won't even hear that after a week or so.

After days of rain, rain, rain - we had sunny skies today - walked the beach twice and drove into town for lunch. Walked around, found the library - it's pretty good! and then went to the grocery store AGAIN. It's impossible to restock all those things you don't think about ... like baggies, 3way lightbulbs and olive oil are already on the list for ?tomorrow?

We're HERE!

Well - almost. We're in Portland today and tomorrow - got our half of the truck emptied yesterday and now going to unload L's half. We turn in the truck tomorrow up here in Portland.

We'll get cable and internet connection Friday back in Newport - then we'll feel like we're in business. So far it feels more like a vacation that I really packed way too much for!!!

The ordered furniture is delayed! :< We found that out before we left so kept 3 folding chairs for diningroom furniture! The blow up bed isn't too bad - but the ceilings are so high - 10 - 12 feet! I have to convince R to turn up the heat alittle more than we are used to. I think it's all up at the ceiling level and the temp we kept it in Nebraska is freezing us out in Newport.

The trip went really smooth. Thanks for all your prayers and positive thoughts - I could feel them! Just a little advice for anyone following a rental truck across the nation - tie a piece of fabric around the handle on the back! There's not many Penske trucks in the midwest - but out here ... once I had THREE of them in front of me and they ALL look the same from the back!

An accident happened right in front of us the second day. Guy pulling a trailer lost it and we were numbers 3&4 in the pack. No one else hit him - not even the semi that was passing me at the time! Just the one car/trailer involved - he jack knifed and wheels were flying thru the air! One tire ended up at least 1/4 mile down the road! The middle guard rail seemed to help him not flip. As we edged by - he was dazed but conscious, the first two cars were stopping and the I80 rescue guy was in the east bound lane, he saw it happen and had already stopped. So that got our adrendeline going!

Third day of driving was long - 11 hours to Portland, but beautiful scenery, etc -so it seemed to go smoothly. Newport is just a little longer than 2 hours from L's - even with the truck. We'll be glad to get that brute emptied and out of our hair! R is an awesome driver - but he's tired of manhandling it too. I was the truck groupie! Always right in the middle of the semis. R said he thought of it as more of a stalker! Really!!! What did he expect - my sewing room was in there!!! LOL!

The condo is filled with boxes. The kitchen's not as big as it looked - and the living room is a little bigger than we thought. That's good - still working with the closets, etc! the sewing room boxes are out in the garage - so I'll be working hard to get them inside! There's a method to R's madness!

R and Miss P just came back from a walk - she's so cute and loves her "bom-pop"! I'll write more after we get connected. We'll be in Newport after friday for a week - then down to Ashland for J2's graduation the middle of June. Ain't no way I'll get her quilt done - hope I can even find it by then!!!

Woo hoo! The unpacking's going to feel like a breeze after all the packing and driving! Especially with motivation to get the sewing room set up! Later!