Grandkids' New Pix

I do know that everyone thinks they have the best-looking, smartest, nicest, most wonderful grandkids and we are no exception. Here are some new pictures of our grandchildren that we received as Christmas gifts. I just had to share them!
JJ is 8 years old and Hannah is 5.

January Celebrations

January is a month full of one celebration after another in our family.
Both my sisters have their wedding anniversaries this month. My nephew and brother-in-law both have birthdays this month, as did my mother. She would have been 85 on the 25th. All the celebrating takes place in California, so we rarely attend, but it does make for a busy time just trying to remember and acknowledge all these events.
So here goes....
Happy Anniversary Tara and Richard!
Happy Anniversary Ava and Steve!
Happy Birthday, Richard!
Happy Birthday, Derek!
Also a happy birthday to my childhood friend, Colleen.
And....Mom, we all still remember your birthday, too.
February won't bring much relief....we have two more birthdays then, too, but they can wait a while.

The New Year

The old year 2008 went out with record cold and snow and now the new year 2009 has greeted us with record rain and flooding. What happened to normal? Is this global warming, el nino, la nina or just an abnormal weather pattern? That is for greater minds than mine to determine.

At least part of our lives is back to normal. Mark returned to college on Sunday. Drew and his family returned to their home on the other side of the state a few days before that, so our homelife is back to its usual routine. As I get older, I find I like our usual mundane routine. We love having the 'kids' visit and miss them when they leave, but there is something comforting in our usual, uneventful, daily routine. So, now it if off to Starbuck's.......

A Christmas to Remember

This was certainly a Christmas we won't ever forget. We have had record snowfall for the past two weeks and what's more, from 5:30am on Christmas morning to 7pm that evening we were without power and heat. Drew and his family managed to make it here on Christmas - thanks to his heavy duty Dodge Durango. However, when they arrived the house was cold due to no heat and there was no dinner cooked because of no power. Inovative as we are, we fired up both fireplaces and lit all the candles in the house. Dinner ended up being hotdogs cooked in our wood burning fireplace and eaten by candlelight. It was definitely an unusual Christmas for us. I heated some rocks by the fireplace to put in the beds, so we could at least get into a warm bed, but the heat came back on at 7 pm, so we didn't need them. It continued to snow every day Drew and family were here and so we didn't get out much. We totaled about 30 inches (75 cm) of snow before it started to melt yesterday. We spent our days sledding on the steep hills around here, playing board games and enjoying the time together. It is rare that the 7 of us are together any more, so it made for a great Christmas.
We are definitely ready for the new year!!

Record Snow and Cold

This is unlike any year we have had in the 32 years we've lived here. The snow just won't seem to quit and the temps haven't even gotten to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 degrees Celcius)in quite a while so nothing is melting.
Our local lake, which is great for swimming in summer, is partially frozen - we've never seen it like that. The ducks are still there, though.
We also have more icicles than ever before. We've measured one at more than 47 inches (1.3 meter) and it is still growing! Some are about 2 -3 inches (5 cm)in diameter.
We did make an interesting discovery with all the snow. We found out that a raccoon is living under our deck. We saw the footprints and the secret was out.
Our neighbor discovered that the little Oregon squirrels we have here actually dig tunnels to get around in the snow. He also has some hummingbirds that come and feed is his feeder. He is hard pressed to keep it thawed enough for them to feed when the temps stay in the 20's all day.
We are so thankful Mark got home when he did - the news recently referred to the Seattle airport as "Camp Sea-Tac" because of all the stranded people. There are very few flights going out or coming in.
This, too, shall pass.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas......

We have been hit with a lot of snow and very cold temperatures this week. We barely managed to get Mark home from the airport on Wednesday. We got almost home before we got stuck in the snow and just could not get up the last hill. So, at midnight, we got out of the car and trekked the last three-quarters of mile to our house. The next day we retrieved our car with the help of a good Samaratin. Today, two days later, we had to chain up the car, so Mark could get to an appointment he had to make.
Because there is so much snow everywhere, we noticed that some racoons living under our deck. We only found this out, because we saw their tracks in the snow.
More snow and wind is expected tomorrow, so we are hunkering in for the next few days. John has lots of wood ready for the fireplace. We are planning on a power outage - that seems to be standard when winter wind storms hit.
It is time to get a pot of soup made.
More updates as they happen...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you. We have a Christmas card for you.
Click on the link below to view it.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/preview.asp?cont=1&hdn=0&mpv=3150446