A Pickup and a Trailer

Today I went with my daughter, Lesley to her horse trainer's place in Dallas. We hauled her new horse, Cash, and dropped him off for a few weeks of schooling. There's nothing I love more than to travel with Lesley and her horses. It's our time to talk and catch up. Lesley is 22 now, which is unbelievable because I swear I only blinked once and she was grown up. I had hoped to get my son, Chris, to go with us, but it was last minute and he had plans.

Simple things are my style. I love to spend time with those I love. Don't have to do anything exciting, just traveling down the road towing the horse trailer will do.

It's a good day.

Proud to be a Cheesemaker!

It's been an entire month since I have written. I have a good reason; last month was the annual Tillamook High School Charity Drive. It's ten crazy days of raising money for local charities and Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Each class competes with one another to raise the most money. In order to receive donations, a service has to be provided, such as dinners, silent auctions, concessions at ball games, art camp for kids, car washes, donkey basketball, boxing events, you name it...it's done. At the end of the 10 days, the princess and prince from each class makes a grand entrance into the gym at a basketball game and the royalty of the class raising the most money is crowned Queen and King. It's a community-wide event and it's a big deal. This year the four classes raised over $172,000.00! This is from a community that is NOT wealthy. It's from a community that has a high unemployment rate and struggles financially.

I am a co-advisor for the class of 2013, the Sophomore Class. As an advisor, I began with this class last year when they were freshman and will "travel" with them until they graduate as seniors. Kara, my co-advisor and I work very hard to instill good values in our class. Last year the school raised over $136,000.00 and the freshman won, earning over $40,000.00 of that total. It is unheard of for the freshman to win, in fact I think the last time a freshman class won was in the 1980's. But this class did it and we are very proud of them.

Then came this year. How would they top last year? Was it possible? Kara and I were a bit worried about the possibility of meeting last years total, considering the harsh economic climate. But our student leadership was positive that they were going to raise at least the total of last year. We commenced to work our behinds off and when all was said and done, this remarkable class with wonderful parents, raised over $51,000.00 of the $172,000.00! Amazing it was! Unbelievable. The junior class was right behind us with over $50,000.00, the seniors with over $41,000.00 and the freshman with over $29,000.00! Over $80,000.00 was donated to Doernbecher Hospital and the rest will remain in Tillamook, awarded to local charities and college scholarships for Tillamook High School seniors. This was the 58th year for the charity drive and our grand total is now at over $1.9 million dollars! All from a little town on the northern Oregon Coast, Tillamook, OR.

Unfortunately, the charity drive doesn't receive much publicity in the metropolitan areas of Portland and Salem, Oregon. We have requested that news crews come and report on the giving, but alas, they seem to be too busy covering bad news to cover good news. Ironically, the news crews of Portland are "Johnny on the spot" when it floods or storms at the coast. Go figure...doesn't make sense to me.

One bright spot came this week from radio station KUIK in Hillsboro, Oregon. They called and interviewed the sophomore class charity drive student chairs about the charity drive. It was neat to know that people do care and notice the good that is being done in areas of our state.

They say, "It takes a village..." but in Tillamook, I believe it "Takes a High School." A school of dedicated, hard-working teenagers that have huge hearts and willing hands that make magic happen every year during the Charity Drive. The community of Tillamook High School is special. It is dedicated to serving and helping others.

I was born and raised in Tillamook. I graduated from this school and now work at this school. Before me, my mother graduated from this school and years after me, my two children became THS graduates. The hallways are full of memories and tradition for me and I get a sense of pride when I watch the students of today continue the activities that were started 58 years ago.

I love Tillamook High School...

Hearts and Affections

So I'm preparing myself for another February 14. A day when everyone is supposed to have someone for a Valentine. The gooey, syrupy, sugary day of love. Bah Humbug. What about all of us singles? Yeah, I sound jaded, I know I do. OK. Enough self-pity. Sometimes love is bittersweet as in the following poem by Lord Byron, one of my favorite romantic poets.

When We Two Parted
by Lord Byron (1788 - 1824)

When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever the years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder, thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
Sunk, chill on my brow,
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me...
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well..
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

Sun Rays

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.  ~Aaron Rose

I found this beautiful sight right out my front door. The clouds hid the December evening sun; the brightness sharply outlining the edges of the clouds. The rays of sunlight burst across the sky and honestly took my breath away. I drove up the road and picked up my mother because I simply had to share this view with someone. I had to have a witness to validate it in my memory. 

 

I imagined that the heavens were behind the cloud and while we were not permitted to look directly at it, God provided the glorious rays as a testament to the beauty. I also thought of hope and faith; that the old saying, "behind every cloud there is a silver lining" was totally true. This photo illustrates the awe behind the clouds and the faith it takes to know that there is light behind the darkness.

 

This I believe...

Life and Cookies

I’m baking Christmas cookies! This is a big deal why? Well, let’s just say in my “other life” I baked tons of cookies each Christmas time. I also baked with my much-loved Grammie. She taught me to make homemade frosting, pie and other yummy recipes. Grammie always had cookies in her freezer, ready at an instant to display on a plate to offer to anyone who stopped by.

Recently, I found a holiday tin with the words, “Peanut butter, 2001” taped to it. It brought back memories of helping Gram with her Christmas baking. Gram had shoulder surgery in the fall of 2001, and was unable to complete her usual baking, so I went shopping and made the lists of the traditional treats and spent a couple of long days in her kitchen. Gram directed from the table and I worked. She was able to frost cookies and I did all of the grunt work. We had fun, visiting and remembering times past. She told me about her youth in North Dakota on her family’s large farm. She told of snow and sleigh rides to church. She told of her older brothers and how they would always dump the sleigh in a snow bank, causing all of them to look like festive snowmen. She told me of how she loved to read before going to sleep at night and how her father would knock on her bedroom door and tell her to turn out her oil lamp. That brought back memories of me as a child, holding a flashlight under the covers to finish “just one more page.”

During Christmas of 2001, my life was going through many emotional changes. Working my way through a long divorce, smiles were hard to find. It was comforting to know that the time I spent with Grammie was “safe.” It was a place where you felt loved and I needed that then.

I honestly haven’t baked much since that Christmas. My heart was not in it and too many other things got in the way. Christmas became a time to put on a “game face” for my children and smile even when I felt like going to bed and pulling the covers over my head until the season was over. Baking reminded me of my old home and all of the busyness of being a mom and a wife. Funny how some things, like baking, in this instance, define a time and a place.

Well, this year I decided to get with it and make some family traditional cookies; snowballs, sugar cookies, molasses cookies, to name a few. Sometimes it’s the simple little things that can inspire you to forge ahead and make your way through. For me it was the little dented holiday tin with the masking tape label that read, “Peanut butter, 2001.”

I miss you, Grammie. With each cookie, I think of you.