SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't gotten caught up on ANYthing since arriving home at 1:30 Wednesday morning, so my internet time has been limited. Today I put off vacuuming the filthy house took a few minutes to scan through my Blogger Reading List at the blog posts I hope to read soon and saw a post titled "The Winner" - along with my name! Seeing that it was a post of Sara's at Punkin's Patch, I couldn't pull it up fast enough to see if my tired eyes were deceiving me. You see, Sara recently celebrated her five-year bloggiversary, and like so many generous blogpals, decided to celebrate with a giveaway. The prize? A personal cartoon of the winner's farm family!

But don't you think she really needs to see the family in person to capture everyone's true personality? Not that I would want to leave Equinox Farm if I was her (a visit there was the highlight of our trip to Kentucky for me), but NW Oregon does have its charms. The guest bed is waiting, Sara!

That's it from a very excited . . .

One last walk

Every morning that I've been here, I've taken Kohl for a constitutional. My sister lives in a newer development that is perfect for this; just the right size and situated on a long, gentle slope. (Kohl and I walk the uphill stretches and jog the downhill stretches; I could actually get back in shape if I kept this up!) Every day I see something new in this place that is so different from home. This morning I took along my camera to document.

Probably my favorite two houses for all their mature landscaping

While the weather has been pretty similar during my visit (see; it's not just grey in NW Oregon, and it rained while I was here, too), the landscaping and architecture are strikingly different. All the houses are brick; many sport distinctly Texan touches. The warm-season grasses are dormant and brown, trees are sparse and comparatively short, and you see very few flowers. Just a few homes sported pansies or petunias; I was charmed by this cheery blossom reaching through a fence:

My dad said 80% of this area used to be wooded (he went to school here); you get a glimpse of this on the land that backs up against part of the development:
Evergreen trees are rare; I only saw one attempt by a homeowner to get one established, and it was sadly unsuccessful:
Most young trees are staked against the strong Texas wind

This morning gifted me with a special treat, wrapped up in bright red:
I couldn't get too close with Kohl on the end of a leash, but it was still a lovely sighting of a bird we don't have at home.

Of course, I had to snap some last shots of Little Man Micah before I left, snuggling with his mom:
Do you MIND? I was trying to rest here!

That's it for now . . .

Second sweater

I had MORE than enough yarn to do a second mini-raglan today, and in doing so, I realized I had incorrectly divided my stitches on the first one. THIS one has the correct proportions. Ah well.

Another gratuitous shot of cuteness:

And something to crow about!
That is nine-day-old Micah holding his head up for like, a minute! Precocious, this one is.

It has been so neat to be here with my newborn nephew, watching him change day by day. After I go home tomorrow, I'll have to depend on photos from my sister and BIL to keep up with the rapid changes. I'm trying to leave them with some food in the frig ready to heat and serve; my sister also stockpiled some casseroles in the freezer. They will do fine; I'll just miss being here. But my guys need me at home, too, so home I must go.

That's it for now . . .

Sweater in a day

Maybe I'll knit another one during the Super Bowl. :-)

That's it for today . . .