Inside & Out

This was my office today. It was a ton more comfortable than my regular office, I have to admit. Our primary sitter was sick (as was her son) and our backup sitter is out of town for the week. So I worked from home today, and got a surprising amount done. Kayla entertained herself VERY well; she sat on the blanket there and played alone for an hour at a time. She has discovered a new game: Pull everything out of the toy basket, play with it, and then roll/crawl around for a while until it gets boring, then crawl over to Mom and be picked up. We played this game several times today, and I'll admit I found it to be a fun game.

In other news...remember the bulbs I planted after my parents ripped out my mostly dead rose bushes for me? Well, they're almost all in full bloom now and I'm loving the vibrant colours around my front porch.

No April Fools'

This was a perfect shot for this week. Sunday is Easter and I found the Easter Bunny. Jason and I ate at Lions Park today and he saw this little rabbit hop out of the bushes. I decided I wanted to see how close I could get to it, and I got a lot closer than Jason thought I would. I am under the impression that this rabbit is domesticated. Here's why:

1. It let me get this close. I am not zoomed in AT ALL. This photo was taken with my phone.
2. It was clean.
   
3. It's the colour it is. Most wild rabbits (at least, in this area) are light grey in colour.

Regardless, this little rabbit was adorable and I was so excited to be able to get a good picture of it. Happy Easter, everyone!

Across the Miles

As I was walking through the administration building for a meeting I glanced out one of the stairwell windows and loved the view. The glass building with the dome on top is Chan Shun Pavilion/Kretschmar Hall (they're supposedly two separate buildings but from inside it's all one), and the roof right outside the window is the top of the Fine Arts Center, home to the music and art departments. CSP/KH house Engineering (CSP) and Math, Physics, Computer Science and Astronomy (KH). It's definitely spring out there! (This view is facing south.)

Sabbath Walk

This afternoon Jason wanted to do something outside, so he suggested walking up the hill at Yantis Park. That is quite a walk...especially when you're pushing a stroller up that steep hill. Jason had Raina for the steepest part, so she basically pulled him up. At one point we saw a snake curled up on the path, but when we got up to it, it wasn't quite what you'd call "alive" anymore. Jason kicked it off the path and we continued on our way. It was a small snake (not a rattler), but we couldn't identify it, as it wasn't a simple garter snake, either. Once we got to the top, we stopped to rest where there used to be a covered bench (now there's just a covered slab of cement), and Jason walked down a narrow trail to take a picture of what was at the end of it. What IS at the end of it? Not much. About where that tree is (the yellowish shrub at the bottom of the tennis courts) it drops straight down. Raina was quite concerned that Jason hadn't taken her along. The view from the top is quite lovely, actually, especially in spring. It was windy, but not cold.

The Hills are Alive

I loved how the mountains looked this morning. The nice thing about it being Spring Break is that Jason doesn't have to be at work so early since the library doesn't open until 9:00. So he is able to come with me to drop Kayla off at the sitter's in the morning. It's nice to have the company...and now I can take pictures like this while he drives! Granted, it's not the best picture, but along this road you don't get many breaks in buildings to take shots of the hills.

Signs of the Times

I love this tree on the Walla Walla U. campus. I'm not sure what it is, but it's in front of the Fine Arts Center and it really lit up with the sun shining on it this afternoon. Spring is certainly here!

Spring

You can tell the seasons are changing - the ducks are back in the park. I love the white one...I think there were two in the whole flock. This was taken at Lion's Park in College Place.

Spring?

I could not believe how beautiful it was here this morning. After what felt like (and probably was) weeks of gloomy grey and dreary fog (which I like occasionally, but THAT MUCH?!?), the sun chased all the clouds away, blue sky made its first (I think) debut of 2010 and everything sparkled from last night's rain. I stood out on my front porch to take this picture and heard birds chirping all over the place. Amazing! And look - the grass is even turning green! Guess the groundhog was wrong this year...

Hilarity

Today Jason and I had lunch with Ruth at a picnic table in a grassy area near my office. (How's that for a bunch of qualifiers?) When I took this picture, we had long finished eating and were just enjoying the lovely spring afternoon before going back to work. Ruth was standing next to me, and she was saying something super funny. As she made her comment, Jason reached up to scratch his face. The result is...well, this. He looks like something horrifying is happening behind me, when really...he's just laughing as he scratches his face. I had to use this picture because it really just makes me laugh.

Enjoying the Evening

Today Jason and I took full advantage of our front porch. We had both lunch and dinner on our patio table, and the weather was perfect for both meals. Because the sun gets so high so early, by the time we were ready for lunch, there was just enough shade on the porch for the table. Tonight it's probably 70 degrees (perhaps a few degrees higher) and it was perfect (minus a few bugs), so after dinner we took a stroll down a street we hadn't explored before. It's just the next street to the east, but we'd never had a reason to go down there. It's nice and quiet, and all that's down there is a couple of houses and a bunch of apartments.

A Productive Day

April showers bring May...cleaning days! Above is a picture of our back patio - AFTER we cleaned it. The pile in the middle will stay there until Tuesday when our trash can is empty again and it will all fit. Raina has taken to digging a tunnel in our yard, right where you step from the cement to the grass. You can see where it was - the left leg of where the yard is dirt rather than grass. We took a shovel to all the dirt she'd piled onto the patio and dumped it back into the hole. Then we put dog repellent on top of the dirt. Hopefully she'll leave it alone and let some grass grow there.

We did a lot today. Here's a list of what we accomplished:

1. Cleaned our guest quarters (i.e. the upstairs).
   
2. Got rid of a dead plant.
3. Potted the daisy plant I got from Jason's aunt for Mother's Day.
4. Vacuumed the house.
5. Cleaned the living room (it needed it).
6. Cleaned the patio and the patio chairs.
   
7. Moved boxes of books from the corner of our dining room to the shop.
8. Picked several meals to make over the next week or so.
9. Made a grocery list and went grocery shopping.
10. Succeeded in NOT stopping at Baskin Robbins or Dairy Queen on our way home from the grocery store, in spite of the fact that we were hungry and thirsty and it was 90 degrees.
11. Balanced our checking account.
12. Washed and vacuumed the car.
13. Jason practiced the bass clarinet (we have a concert on Thursday).
    
14. Watered the lawn.

In addition, Jason put a piece back on the vacuum cleaner that popped off randomly while we were using it today. Fortunately it wasn't broken, it has just slipped off. I guess we shouldn't throw our vacuum around so much.

All in all...a very satisfying day. Now we will sit back and enjoy the beautiful spring evening. And truly - it is a lovely evening.

A Cool Spring Evening

After a day of potlucking Mexican style (i.e. enchiladas, rice, etc.) at a second wedding reception for our friends Andy and Kelie, we headed back to my parents' house to spend the evening with them. After dinner, we all went out to the backyard to enjoy the cool evening. Morgan saw some quail on the fence, and when they flew down into the neighbour's yard, she wanted to see them again. So Uncle Jason picked her up and they tried to see if they could see the birds.

Then she just wanted to pull leaves off the tree in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard. So Jason and Morgan walked around with Morgan being "up higher." She's really gotten a lot better about warming up to us now that she's older. When she was little she didn't recognize us very much and wasn't sure if she wanted to let us hold her. By the time she got comfortable with us we were headed home. It's nice that she lets us play with her almost as soon as we arrive now. She's getting so big!

Home for a Surprise

Today Ruth, Jason and I drove to Boise to surprise Mom for Mother's Day. It was going to be a surprise for his mom, too, but she invited us here after we'd already planned to come, so there was no surprise there. This is a beautiful time of year for the drive between WW and Boise. It's about the only time of year the entire drive isn't ugly and brown. These are the Elkhorn Mountains around Baker, Oregon. The view was FANTASTIC on the drive, and I couldn't stop taking pictures. This area is almost always photogenic. At any rate, we really did surprise my mom...and we'll have Mother's Day pictures this weekend, for sure!

Brewing Up Some Storms

I love this time of year! The clouds are so awesome to watch - they're constantly changing, and they are very different from the clouds that appear any other time of year. During the winter the cloud is the sky. It's just one big gigantic cloud that doesn't lift for more than about a day at a time between November and February. The fall clouds are cold and very unfriendly, and just look ominous and aloof. Summer clouds...wait. Do we even HAVE clouds in the summer? Not often...but when we do, they're thunderheads, billowing on the horizon, looking majestic and powerful. Spring clouds, though...they're happy clouds. They're on vacation, watching the world come back to life and enjoying the flowers so much that sometimes they part to let the sun show them brighter, and other times noticing they need a little lift, and dumping some rain. I love this time of year!