Sunday, November 25, 2007

Post Thanksgiving

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.



As we say in my family we are making memories. This Thanksgiving holiday we certainly did that.

(It even beats the time Glenn dropped the half gallon of Tequlia on his big toe.)

The Good:

Dinner was at my house with 9 family members, all traveling 400 to 900 miles to get here. They all arrived safely without incident. My kids arrived on Tue., from Portland, Jeremy on Wed, from Denver. As of last night they wereall back home again, safe, what more could you ask for.

We had a wonderful traditional meal, thanks to every ones help.


The best part of the whole holiday was getting to meet my Grandson Jeremy.
Jeremy is the newest member of our family, we were all anxious to welcome him. I hope we succeeded in making him feel welcome, I believe we did.


You see, Jeremy has been lost to us for 24 of his 25 years, he found us August 1, 2006.
You would think locating someone today would be easy with the Internet, but he found me the old fashion way, he called directory assistance. I speak for the whole family when I say I am glad he did.
Wonderful memories made.

The Bad:
The day before Thanksgiving, my kitchen, dinning, & bathroom lights went out.

Flipping the breaker only sent sparks flying, scared the crap out of me.

I called my handyman cousin, Stan, to the rescue. He suggested a new breaker, easy fix, right? No such luck. Blew that breaker too.

Next, check the dinning room light fixture, where I had previous trouble. Not that easy this time, everything was in tact there.

Next solution , call a electrician, at $76 bucks an hour. Three hours later he found the problem under the house, after pulling everything out away from the walls to check every plug-in. Emptying my closet was the worst part, (breaker box located there)I felt like like my house was being torn apart right before my very eyes. Looking back now it was time to clean out that closet anyway. (Do that next week)

In the middle of the disaster, (I found out latter it was only a disaster to me) Jeremy arrives. Certainly not what I had planned for our first meeting. But he got to see, right off the bat, his raving loony grandma in action.

During this 3 hour period while we were trying to cook a ham, the electrician was turning power off & on all over the house. Somehow it all got done and we managed to put together a meal that night. I don't even remember eating.

More memories made.


The Ugly:


After Thanksgiving dinner, Jessica,



my soccer playing granddaughter ask if anyone wanted to go kick the ball around with her. No napping around here. We all went out and pretended we "The Kennedy's", only with a soccer ball instead of a football.


Grandma wasn't to be out done, I could still kick a ball. After all I have been working out lately. I was on Jeremy, & Eli's side.

I did OK for awhile, chasing that ball. Then big chance to score, I wound up for the big kick then fell flat on my face. Luckily Marty had just removed a big pile of dog crap from that area.

More memories made.

While I sat out the remainder of the game.

The girls won, playing off with sudden death....



All in all I am sure it will be one of the most memorable Thanksgivings our family has ever had.

The only thing to make it better, would have been having Tom & Rhonda here.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Almost Thanksgiving

A time to be thankful for all we have.




Thanksgiving 2006





This Thanksgiving I will be meeting my grandson, Jeremy, for the first time.
Jeremy is 25, lives in Denver. He will be travelling here for Thanksgiving, arriving on Wed.

Marty, Diane, Jessica, Sandra, Glenn, Eli, will be arriving on Tues.
They will be staying here so we can all be together. I am borrowing a travel trailer from my cousin Stanley to park here, for extra beds.


I may even have to borrow dishes, since I have been alone for the last 5 years, cooking for 1, I have narrowed down my kitchen supplies.

I am borrowing a large crock pot from Peggy for the mash potatoes. When I always had Thanksgiving at my house I had a large harvest size table I could easily put 12 to 16 people around. This year we will put two small tables together.

Thanksgiving 1996


None of that matters, we will be together.
I am looking forward to having the kids home again.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

A few of the places I have lived


I have intended to post this for awhile. No time like the present.

When I was sorting pictures for the Summer of 1950 post, I started separating pictures of houses or towns I have lived in, here are just a few.
I'm sure I will be adding more as I find them.





Raymond Wa. Spring 1942



Aloha Or. Fall 1942 til 1945

Peninsula Rd. Priest River Id. 1945 til 1950


"Townhouse" Priest River Id. Summer 1950


2910 S. E. 8th, Portland Or. 1951 til 1953




Spent the Summer of 1953 at my Grandma & Grampa Moores, Wilder Id.


N. Kellogg St. St. Johns Portland Or. 1956 til 1957


Fall of 1957 moved with parents to Halfway Or. til May of 1958
Still searching for picture of Halfway Or.




Commercial St. Baker Or. 1958
















Bellvue Wa. 1985
















Sunday, November 4, 2007

Nov 4 set the time back.

Sunday Morning Musing


November is here, another year soon to be a part of the past. The nights are getting cold the days are getting shorter, just as it should be.

As I am changing the time on clocks this morning, I wonder why they ,(whoever they is) decided to stretch it out by 1 week this year.

Is it really going to save electricity? Would someone mind explaining how that could be.

My Mother always said it was so they could have more time to play golf after work. I am more apt to believe that.
But while they were getting in an extra hour of golf, the kids were catching the school bus in the dark.

Speaking of my Mother she had a birthday last Sunday Oct 28, she would have been 94. She has been gone for 14 years.

This is the time of the year when you are suppose to change smoke detector batteries too.

I changed my batteries in the middle of the night about 2 weeks ago.

I have five, one of them decided the battery was low at 3 A:M: from my bedroom it sounded like the one in the hall. Of course I can't reach it, so I drag a chair from the dinning room, take the battery out, go back to bed.

Again with damn, beep-- beep-- beep.

So it must be the one in the utility room, repeat, dragging the chair, removing the battery, this time I wait. No beep----beep, back to bed.

Again with the damn beeping . This time I take all the remaining batteries out. Back to bed, quiet at last.

Then I begin to worry, no active smoke detectors, @@#$.
This requires digging in the junk drawer to find a battery. No batteries, so I take a battery out of the kitchen clock, problem solved.

Next day I bought 12 batteries at the $ store. All smoke detectors and clocks have new batteries.

No more damn beeping until next spring, unless of course I leave a pan on the stove while I just go check my email.