Christmas 2011

From our house to yours, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  May God bless and guide you all in the coming year. Seth and Cathy

An evening sunset

Last nights sunset at home.

A picture just does not do it justice. It was breathtaking and full of God's beauty.

I was home early from work yesterday, as I work this Saturday. I was getting ready for dinner and looked out the kitchen window and this is what I saw. Chuck and I just had to go out and enjoy the sunset and take a picture or two. Its times like last night, that I remember there is more to our lives than a job. I think one can get so rapped up in a job, the worry and  stresses, the "what if's" that we forget about the rest of our life. We are here to enjoy everything about our lives, to live it to the fullest, and try not to worry about the small stuff that really doesn't matter in the end. God has a plan for us all, and we just need to learn to listen when he speaks. And he does speak, sometimes whether we are listening or not. :)  So, I'm learning to listen and pay attention when it happens.
God Bless, Seth and Cathy

Yum...turkey is ready.

A game of Life anyone?

Enjoying a quite Thanksgiving evening at home.

Our Thanksgiving Day with our family. The day was a quite day, slept in late for a change, we we were not eating until dinner time. That was different from years past, where we normally eat Thanksgiving Dinner in mid afternoon. But Skyler working until 4pm changed our dinner time, so all could be in attendance for dinner. After dinner, we enjoyed an evening of playing a game of Life. I haven't played that in a long time, it was fun, and we enjoyed spending the time with the kids.
I hope this finds you well and happy. Take care. Seth and Cathy

Last race weekend of the season...

Well, this weekend Seth and I will be camped in front of the TV watching the Nascar final races of the season. We are currently watching the Nationwide race tonight, where Ricky Stenhouse # 6, a Jack Roush driver, has rapped up the number one spot for that series. Jack Roush car owner, also took the owners 2011 championship tonight for the Nationwide Series.
Carl Edwards #99 is all set to race his car tomorrow in the Sprint Cup series and hopefully come in ahead of Tony Stewart to take the championship for the year. GO Carl!! you can do it!!

Race at California

Need to build a fire in the fireplace...after all we have to keep warm as it is supposed to get down to 25 tonight, with the threat of snow showers for the rest of the weekend.

First flash of winter.....just teasing us a bit.

Our first warning of winter coming on was the cold blast that came down from Alaska and cooled us down enough to bring on the hail and snow showers we are now having. Took Seth to the doctor to have some minor surgery done on a tooth and this is what we drove home in and too. We decided I needed new tires before winter really gets here on the way home also. The tires felt a bit do dicey for what we had on the road. Forecast is for more of the same for the next couple of days.Snow showers down to the 500 foot level. Sounds like a nice fire in the fireplace is in order to stay warm and cozy for the weekend.

Trailer is put to bed for winter. 

Spent Saturday cleaning up the yard for winter. Fall is here and the leaves are falling like rain. The wind has picked up the past couple of days, and they are just flying off the trees. Seth and the leaf blower are best friends right now. Spent the morning doing household chores in the house, and Seth blew leaves..... until he came into the house for lunch that is. Then he thought is would be a good idea to take a field trip to his favorite store....Frys... oh boy.   So after lunch we headed out to Frys. Picked up in printer ink and misc items, stopped by the grocery store and headed home to get warm.  It's been colder than I remember for this time of year. May have to dig out the winter coat soon. 

I can hear the winter outside as I type, sound like the rest of the leaves may have fallen, at least on the big oak tree and other back yard trees anyway.  The trees in front are hanging onto their leaves like their lives depended on it.

I wanted to take a moment to remember our fathers on this Veterans Day weekend.  Samuel Wilbur Finney and Richard Emerson Rampke. Without their service to our country, this country would be a different place to grow up and live in. Because of them and others we live in a free country. We love and miss them both. 

Samuel Wilbur Finney WWII

Richard Emerson Rampke, Korea 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roses in Oregon City Willamette Falls Park area. 2011

Know that you are not alone. The Lord understands what you’re going through and has promised to be with you in every trial of life.  
Joyce Meyers always has a way of saying the right thing, at the right time!

The roses above I found while on a walk I took on the way back to my car from the Oregon City courthouse. I had been to the courthouse for jury duty that day. I decided to take the Willameete Falls Park pathway back to my car.  I had taken the old Oregon City elevator up to the top of the hill where I had parked.  It's easier to park up top than find a parking spot by the courthouse.  I came upon these beautiful roses while taking a few moments  for myself along the pathway. The falls were wonderful that day also.  I enjoyed the moments I took to slow down a bit, and the fresh air of the day. We all need to that this more often in these days of stress and in dealing with the world we live in.

 

The Chickadee's Arrive for Winter

It's the end to a nice lazy weekend at home. A wet and soggy weekend outside. Doing a few odd fall chores, but mostly just taking it easy. Went to see the new Johnny Depp movie and dinner on Saturday. The movie was not what we were expecting, but dinner was nice. We ate at the Canby Grill. They are under new ownership and we wanted to try the food out.
Spent the weekend watching the chickadee's arrive for winter. Got my camera out when I spotted my first one at the feeder.  I love watching them feed  at the feeder all winter long, I enjoy their activities with each other.
Well, have a good week, talk to you all soon.

It was a nice fall day today, cool but all sun!! Loved the cool crisp day. We are expecting our first frost tonight, so after work I covered the veggies left in the garden, tomato's and such. The year is going by so fast! Can't believe November is almost here.. and we still have a few apples on the trees.

Bounty from our apple tree's this fall.

It was a nice fall day in Oregon today. A mix of clouds and sun, normal this time of the year..cool temps, but no rain. I worked today at the bank and Seth spent the day doing odd chores both at the house and with his car. Got the oil changed today. I came home from work and was relaxing standing in the familyroom window and saw our old cat Dusty just sitting there on the deck. Appearently enjoing the same moment in time as I.  I just had to take a shot of him. Dusty was born in May of 1995. That makes him 16 years old. Wow...where has the time gone.

Dusty-A moment in time. Fall 2011

The colors and beauty of fall are enjoyable to view when driving to work on a clear crisp sunny morning. This morning was one of those mornings. It made Monday morning worth it driving to work to see the tree's full of color. And on the way home, the beauty of the saliors delight reds and pinks in the sky  in our sunset....wonderful day.
When cleaning out some of the flower beds yesterday, I came across the last of our flowers in the front. I saved it and put the flower in my kitchen window to enjoy.
I hope you enjoy it also. Remember....enjoy your day and don't sweat the small stuff.

Flowers in my crackle depression ware in my kitchen window.

A Fall Day in Oregon

We had a productive afternoon. Seth moved the trailer onto the new pad when he was finished today. We spent the day finishing up the trailer pad before the rain and wind of fall and winter sets in. It was a cloudy but dry day, in the low 60's. Picked up odds and ends around the yard that needed to be put away for winter. Plants, chairs, my coke a cola umbrella put away till spring arrives next year, and cleaned out the flower beds some. We still have tomato's that we hope will ripen up a bit more before the first frost hits in a couple of weeks. All we have to do is winterize the trailer and put the cover on it. After Seth was finished with Uncle Pat's tractor, he drove it back to his house down the road and around the corner.  So nice to have family close by.

Uncle Pat's tractor working hard for us.

Seth riding the tractor back to Uncle Pats.

Finished trailer pad at the house. Water and Electric included.

The gravel arrived today for the trailer pad. Seth will be working it with Uncle Pat's tractor in the morning. We still have a pile of gravel that needs to be worked into the drive way and over by Samuel's place where Lindsey parks. The weather should be clear, at least that is what they are calling for. But it will be chilly.... Will send picture tomorrow. It's been a long week, so glad tomorrow is Saturday and I don't have to work.

Sunny Fall Day in Oregon

Here we are  at the famous Monster Mile, in Dover, Delaware this weekend. We had a great time at the race, even though the threat of rain was with us all weekend. But God is Good, and the rain stayed out of the Dover area until the races were over for the weekend. But, boy was it cold. This picture was taken before we ended up buying what we could to keep warm, basically NASCAR winter coats.... A cold front dropped into the Atlantic region and was slow moving through our area and kept us cold all weekend long. Wind chill at the races was about 40 degrees. Really....I couldn't believe it, but we had fun regardless.A short but sweet weekend of racing.
Seth and Cathy

Dover Delaware Race this weekend! Go Jr!  Have a great weekend everyone!!
Seth and Cathy

Weekend projects

This weekends pictures from sale work at the Finney homestead.  Our three day weekend consisted of a family garage sale with a mixture of rain,wind and 80 degree sun.  Brittni on Sunday all bundled up against the wind and we said good bye to our Honda Recon. It's time it moved on to another family who would enjoy it.

Garage Sale Weekend

Greetings from the Finney family in Oregon. I thought I would start a blog to help keep our extended family up on what we are up too. So here ya go. Take care, God bless, and be a blessing to someone everyday, you will feel better for it. I know I do.

Well, we worked ourselves to death for the past three days. I home cooked every meal we ate for a change, couldn't get away from the house for three days....I take that back. Friday night Seth brought home pizza for the kids, and a gluten free pizza for us to try. Wasn't bad at all. Seth even thought it was ok. Alot of work putting together a garage sale...had lots of help from Skyler and Brittni though. For the last good weekend of summer in Oregon... Friday and Saturday was sunny and in the 80's. Saturday night it was windy and and rain came down in buckets. Got up at 7am to find the tent covers down from the wind. But the good news was all our stuff was dry under it. Sold most of the extra furniture (the rest went to Good Will) and one of our 4 wheelers. The garage is cleaner too with less stuff in it...Yippie!!!   Seth is happy about that. It's getting time to start down sizing our stuff, we no longer need four 4 wheelers. Skyler and Brittni did well this weekend too. It was a joint effort.

Samuel and Lindsey spent the weekend prepping the house for paint. They got paint on the front before the rain started on Sunday afternoon. I really like the colors. A nice slate grey, and the planned trim is a dark green. Nice. The front looks really nice.

After garage sale clean up Sunday, and the weekly trip to get groceries, I made gluten free spaghetti, which was really good. Used corn spaghetti noddles Lindsey found for us, put that together with a nice salad, glass of red wine and you have a nice dinner. Yum, yum.

"Don't Sweat the small stuff"
Seth and Cathy