Tuesday Jan 24, 2012

Gosh it's hard to believe it is 2012. January has been busy and now it's almost over. The 12th was my Granddaughter McKenzi's 12th Birthday. Scary, she is so beautiful I just want to lock her away until she is 30... is that illegal? Happy Birthday Kenzi, You ARE perfect to me. Smart, caring, nothing you could EVER do would make me stop loving you. I will ALWAYS be here for you... well, ok maybe a few hours away by car.... but close by phone.

January 14th was my Friend Lani's birthday, (and the anniversary of the day my Dad passed... weird) so I drove to Gold Bar (my first solo trip driving in 'The City') to spend a few days with her on the farm. I enjoy spending time at her house.... a 'real' house, the warm pellet stove, comfy couches and chairs, big bed, a full sized shower, a toilet that flushes... It's the little things, Ya Know?

We all went to the Casino and had dinner to calibrate Lani's birthday. I had so much fun! Dustin gave us each $100.00 to lose and we played till  3am! We won we lost, we were sober we were drunk... fun was had by all.The 'Storm of the Century' started on our way back to Gold Bar Sunday morning. We almost didn't make it back up her driveway! I was only going to stay a few days but ended up being snowed in for 9 days! Poor Ben... he almost had a meltdown. BaHaHa.

We spent the week putting mat's in Lani's new barn and moving horses. Her 5 were sure happy to get outta the snow and mud and into the new barn. The first night they were kinda freaked out... But by the next morning they were happy campers! I finally made it back home to the boat Saturday, Ben had the carpets vacuumed, dishes all done up, sheets on the bed changed..... he had even found some carpet to put into the bedroom and master bath to replace the diesel soaked carpets. What a guy! He tries so hard.... The boat is smelling a lot better with the new carpets! I had taken Zoe with me to Lani's and I think she was happy to get home also, although she probably missed getting to fight the cat for the canned cat food. LOL I even saw her run for it one time! WOW... I haven't seen her run for YEARS!  This coming weekend is the Annual Kamiah Volunteer Fire Department Crab Feed... Ben and I go every year with my brother and his wife and of course 100 other people. Each year they have a theme.. and each year Sylvia and I get dressed up, Last year it was "Outer Space"... see picture. LOL.. I think the year before was "Disco Fever", before that was "Roaring 20's". I love going and getting dressed up. I always have SO FRICKING MUCH FUN!!!! This year we will not be able to go. I was so looking forward to seeing Oley and Sylvia and the kids. Gosh I miss them Soooooo much! The crab feed is ALWAYS A blast. I usually get snockered off my rear. I dance, I drink, I visit with old friends I haven't seen in years. * sigh * Oh well... it is what it is.

No snow here on the water... just lots of rain, LOTS of rain. Right about now I'm really glad we are in a boat house!

Christmas / New Year 2012

The Holidays are over, and life is returning to normal... well as normal as it gets living on a boat! We had a WONDERFUL Holiday week. Spent Christmas day with Nicole and Anthony, T.J. and Kale. Nikki did a great job on Christmas dinner. We had baked ham, turkey, green been casserole, candied sweet potatoes, cranberries.... all the fixing's. It was AWESOME! I ate till I was ready to explode... then I ate some more! It was our first Christmas with Nicole in her new house, the first Christmas dinner Nikki ever fixed for her Dad... We had a great day. Little Kale had lots of fun annoying Grandpa, he is so CUTE! (Kale.. NOT Grandpa!)

The next day we got up at the crack of dawn and headed to Idaho. We decided to take the new jeep... wanted to show it off. The girl's, Chas and Crystal, gave us the best present ever.... gas money to go home for the holidays! What a wonderful gift. The holidays just aren't the same without your family, not matter HOW wild and crazy they are! LOL (speaking of... we Missed you Carson and Katie) The day after Christmas is traditionally Game Day for the Byers Clan. I love Game Day, It's the one day a year when ALL the family gets together to eat, drink and be merry... and drink, and play games. Cousin's and Niece's and Nephew's and people you haven't seen since LAST year's game day show up... Very cool! The past couple of years game day has been at Mike and Karey's, they have enough ROOM for everyone!  After a 6 hr. drive Ben and I were the first to arrive for cocktails. Let The Games Begin! I laughed so hard playing those silly board games! It was great seeing the Hanley boys, and their girls  :-)   The new baby, Dominic was passed about from one Grandma to another... from one Great Aunt to the next... I love family. I had the bestest time, there was SO much food... once again I ODed on ham, and fudge, and sugar cookies and, and, and. (I love going to stay with Karey) The next day as we were leaving Karey's to go visit more family... Ben decided to try out the 4 wheel drive, when he pulled back on the stick the entire shifter came OUT of the FLOOR in his hands! I of course just looked at the now gaping hole in my floorboards with a stupid look on my face like "This can't be good". So I got to spend the day on the couch with Mike and Karey while Ben used Chas's garage for the day to fix the jeep. Poor Don got to see a little MORE of the jeep than he probably wanted too. The boys got her all fixed up and I now have 4 wheel drive as well as all my lights working correctly AND my sound bar is hooked up... Thanks Don. Thursday night Crystal cooked Taco's for us, (a nice change from ham sandwiches. LOL) and we got to spend the evening with the girls and Shawn. Those kids are so fricking CUTE! Friday Chas treated us to dinner and both Ashleigh and McKenzi were there... at the same time... Those girls are growing up so fast! My GOD they are beautiful! I wanna just lock em away somewhere to protect em... That's not legal, right? Baby Dominic is 3 months old now... HOLY COW... That's it! I want them to all just STOP getting any OLDER for just a few years and let me catch up!   ** sigh **

We spent New Years with Mike and Karey and we actually made it to midnight! Of course we were all in bed by 12:05....

We headed back to Port Orchard New Years day, just past Ritzville we noticed the oil pressure gage was at 0... I panicked, Ben pulled over and sure enough.. nothing showed on the dip stick. We used the TomTom and it said a rest stop was ahead about a mile so we limped there... Ben was able to get a couple quarts of oil from kind travelers, that only put us about a quart and a half low so we headed the 18 miles to Moses Lake. Once there Ben found a auto parts store open and got oil and parts and fixed the problem.... Whatever that was! So it WAS an interesting trip, but we DID make it back to the boat safe and sound. So now a New Year starts... Hears hoping its a good one!