Fall colors

It's been a weird wet, warm fall here in Oregon and the fall colors have been slow to come. Here's one of the trees from our back yard.

We have a plant in our back yard that I think is a camelia. I'm not much of a plant person, but the nice thing about this plant is it blooms in November and December. The blossoms just burst out over the past few days.

Kendall checking out the flowers

While I was out there taking pictures a hummingbird flew right up next to my head. It's so warm out today you'd think it was spring, but I know the cold and the rain are headed this way soon enough.

Sometimes Life Comes at you Fast

We're not talking about insurance ads here. We're talking about real life. Things have changed quite a bit around our house in the last couple of weeks. My mom, who lived in Florida, is very sick. The decision was made to move her to Oregon so she would have access to better medical care and because she could no longer live alone. A week ago, she moved in with us. Prior to her moving in with us we had to get all of the carpets cleaned thanks to a kitty who didn't seem to know the appropriate place to urinate. We shuffled a couple of offices/bedrooms and outfitted a room for mom.

Kendall's adapting very nicely to having someone here all the time. She's getting great practice at being a therapy dog.

We've tried hard to make sure she's out having fun, too. There's doggie daycare on Tuesdays and the trips to the park when it's not raining too hard. Here are some random photos from this fall.

Just back from the groomer with her Halloween bows

Showing off her bows

Kendall, the wine snob

I'll try to keep up with the posts, but right now I'm juggling a full-time job, full-time caretaking, and grad school, among other things. My new mantra is "Breathe". If I keep taking things one day at a time I can figure it all out.