Relaxation

Rylee sure knows how to relax. I find him in this position all the time. Sometimes, he will lay like this happily chewing on his squeaky toy. Ahhh, the life of a dog.

Looking forward to spring...

While it was a pleasant surprise last week to be reminded of the wonders of an Idaho winter, I still find myself longing for spring. I am ready to work in the garden, clean up the yard, barbeque (more accurately, watch Kevin bbq), and watch my bulbs peek through the ground with their gift of color after a gray and white winter. Kevin gave me these daffodils for valentine's day. They smell good, and look so inviting. I can't wait to see my daffodil bed in full bloom.

A view from the top of the world

It was a gorgeous day to go on a snowshoe hike around the peak of Schweitzer Mountain. The blue of the sky was brilliant against the pure white of the crystal snow. Once we got out of the wind, it was perfect!

This side is looking off towards Washington State just off in the distance.

And here we are looking down towards Lake Pend Oreille. Ahhh memories. Just down that run is where I broke my leg in 1994... the last time I went downhill skiing.

Looking out towards the south bowl. That peak is about 400 feet higher than where we are standing.

Some of our group opted to downhill ski... but most of us enjoyed a quiet, but rigorous snowshoe hike through the woods. It was absolutely beautiful.

Just a note to my family: this is where we need to have a winter reunion... the Schweitzer village is really nice, and we would have a blast. I am looking into where we can all stay.

mARTi gras in Coeur d'Alene

If you can't make it to the real New Orleans Mardis Gras, you really should come to Coeur d'Alene for a great party...

It is definitely worth it!

Another sleepless morning

Sometimes I just can't sleep. It usually happens when I just have too much stinkin' stuff to do, and too many things running through my mind. This is one of my busy times of year. Not only do I have work to do, and plenty of it (yea!), but it is mARTi gras time... an annual event that I have a love/hate relationship with.

Regardless of what the reason, here I am up at some ungodly hour. It just occurred to me I hadn't posted for awhile, so I think some rambling is now in order.

A funny story: Tuesday I took our down comforter out of it's slip cover and down to the cleaner's for its annual drycleaning/fluffing. They were very understanding when I requested to get it back the next day since it is the only thing that keeps us warm at night (other than each other... I know Kent... TMI).

Anyway, we decided to sleep in the spare bedroom and pretend we were staying at a bed and breakfast for the night (or atleast a mediocre hotel). I love throwing a wrench in our routine, and it was a fun adventure—something to break the winter monotony.

Let me back up a bit. We have three animals that stay pretty dang close to us at night: Juggernaut, the cat, who sleeps at the end of our bed pretty much all day and all night. Then there is Jack and Rylee, who since Rylee came to live with us, sleep beside our bed: Jack on Kevin's side, Rylee on mine (and I never thought I would admit that I LOVE it, but I do... I peek over the side of the bed to check on him regularly and see what funny position he is sleeping in). So now you are in on our nightly routine.

Okay, back to Tuesday night. We watched a movie in the living room (an excellent movie by the way: "Priceless," a French movie with English subtitles). Then instead of wandering into our back of the house, we headed off to snuggle into our old bed in the east wing. 

I snuggle in first while Kevin is in the other room brushing his teeth. Rylee keeps running in and out of the bedroom to see if I am ready to get back in our real bed. When Kevin comes in, Jack wanders in and just looks at us with this blank look, as if to say "am I allowed in here?" He finally decides we are not kicking him out and he finds a spot at the end of the bed where he curls up.

Rylee is still running in and out of the room.

We turn on the TV, and all of a sudden the fat cat, Jugs, jumps on the end of the bed. I started laughing because he is trying to get comfortable as Rylee is jumping up to see what he is doing there. (It is so funny when Rylee peeks his head over the top of the mattress that he can barely see over... he wants to jump up on the bed SOOOOO bad.) He jumps back and forth checking on Jugs, and checking on me, completely unsure of what to do. Kevin finally says, in his low commanding voice, "Rylee, lay down." Miraculously, Rylee lays down (for a little while anyway).

The unsettlement of everyone continues all night. Funny how much room a cat can take up in a bed. We are usually all in a king, but the queen-size bed is amazingly small this night. It should come as no surprise that we all slept horribly.

I picked up the comforter yesterday afternoon, and everyone is back in their comfort zone. (I know... I am up and not sleeping, but atleast I got sleep before I woke up). Next time I get the comforter cleaned will be when we are out-of-town anyway.