Good bye to old friends

We had to say goodbye to our dog, April, this week. She was 16 years old and suffered because she couldn't see well, she couldn't hear well, and she had arthritis. The kids watched as April and her brothers were born. She has been in our family all her life. Her mother, Holly, was a Christmas gift from Pam.

Even though she was old, she still found the energy to get excited when the kids visited. They all loved her and we will miss her.

We also said goodby to our old van - yes we sold it. We traded it to a guy who installed a sprinkler system for us. We had to pitch in a little extra because the van wasn't worth the whole job, but we are excited that the van will have a new home. I'm sure it has potential for many more miles.

We bought it when it was 4 years old and put aproximately 150,000 miles on it. It was a good old van - took us to Wisconsin and back when we picked up Kyle from his mission. It took us to the Oregon coast and Mt. St. Helens for family vacations. And who knows how many activities it took our kids to. After we bought the newer van, the kids drove it - to thier jobs, to mutual, to college. It was reliable and a good van, but we didn't need 3 cars in the family.

BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER

We had our water line replaced this week. All the flowers you see here are gone. We did dig them up and put them in crates. Then, we gave them a temporary home in the garden in the back yard. They are happy for the time being...

This 2nd picture is of this backhoe digging - it is amazing how they can take a big machine like this and be so gentle. Yes, they dug up all the flowers; but he was careful not to disturb the cement border that Vic put in for me years ago. Count your blessings!!!

The third picture is the after picture. Yes, things are still unsettled. We still have a hole in the yard - the water leak was actually on the City side of the hole. They haven't come to replace their part yet. So we are not back to normal..........

While we were in the mess, we chose to add a daylight basement window. You can see in the picture where the outside water faucet is in conjunction to the window well. So we had him dig over another 5 feet, A-cor (a cement cutting company) cut the hole to the exact dimensions Kyle asked. And yes, we got a visit that night from Kyle, Kat and the girls while Kyle installed the new window.

This last picture is of the new window and window well. It is great - it really makes a big difference in the lighting in our basement. We still have to replace the sheetrock around the window, but we were going to do that anyway because over the years it has gotten wet; but that is a project for another day.

Wow! It's About Time

Spring is here - snowy one week and warm the next, rain then clouds, then hail. You wonder whether to wear a winter coat or a jacket or no jacket. Here are pictures of the same daffodil just a week apart.

Here are some of the things we have done in the past month:

Vic received his Silver Beaver Award. It is the highest award the Council can give to volunteers. Vic has been in Scouting for 29 years. I had the priviledge to present it to him - I received my Silver Beaver in 2002 and have served the last couple of years as the Silver Beaver Colony President. I have now passed that priviledge on to another.

I got busy sewing - made 4 of my granddaughters spring dresses - they are so cute with little lady bugs around the bottom.

We have also replaced our water heater, paid lots of $'s getting the blue van fixed, and have yet to find a water leak in the front yard.

We are enjoying being Empty Nesters.

Snow Days

Aren't the trees pretty? The weather has been extremely cold and the frost does amazing things to the trees. Winter is a pretty season and when you dress warm, you don't even get cold.

Vic says you can't complain about the heat and the cold so he only complains about the cold. I don't like the heat and tell him that you can add layers when you are cold, but you can only take off so much when you are hot.

Vic would like to invent a perfect snow - one that doesn't snow on the roads and sidewalks.

The second picture is of the eaves of the house - we have a metal

roof and as the metal warms up, the snow slides down. Then it

freezes before it falls off. Quite unique.

The third picture is the snow after it has fallen off the roof. It falls with a thud that scares you if you don't know what it is. This picture is of our front step - the snow pile is higher than the 2 steps up to the top.

This is Vic and his new snow blower. He is truly happy that he got it for Christmas because he has used it quite a lot this winter. He is blowing the snowpile that fell off the roof into the driveway.

He spends a lot of time cleaning snow. First he cleans the driveway and sidewalks, then the snow plow comes by and he does the end of the drive and the sidewalks again. Then the snow falls off the roof and he is at it again.

Sewing Room updated

I am so excited! I now have a sewing room. Before now, Vic and I shared a room - it was the office, sewing, craft and whatever else we could scrunch into the room.

When Missy moved out, I adoped her room for a sewing room. I adopted a couple of cupboards from my office remodel at work and needed a few more to complete the room. So a few days after Christmas the new cupboards were installed. I thought that would be my Christmas present for this year.

Unknown to me, Vic bought me a new serger for Christmas - It now sits in a prime spot in my sewing room amongst all my new cupboards. I went to a class to learn how to use it and am in 7th heaven - it is an air threader (no more tensions either). I am happy!!!!

Ready for Christmas

Yep! We are finally ready for Christmas!

Chris and Chantelle came and helped us get the tree down out of the top of the garage and then helped us decorate it.

It looks great - we are enjoying it. It is hard to fit a tree into our living room - we have to move the furniture around and then have no space to exercise in the morning (not that I do that every morning anyway). We have lots of memories in the ornaments that we put on the tree. We thought it would be nice to include our children every year in the decorating of the tree. That was really fun.

The bread has been baked and shared with the neighbors - along with raspberry jam. Yes, we even found time to make the jam this summer in between weddings.

Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Halloween

The annual Pumpkin carving tradition was great! We have the traditional jack-o-lantern by Kathy, the goofy eyes by Vic, a spooky house by Chris, Wolves howling by Chantelle, An Apple a Day (complete with worm) by Mahon, Cindy's whomping willow, Briant's smoker, Missy's toothy smile.

We had a great time, complete with chili and apple crisp.