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December 19, 2008

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

This has been a stressful week.

As you may know, our son-in-law is a policeman for the City of Woodburn and I can't help but worry about his safety sometimes. I try to keep it in the back of my mind, but sometimes it just pushes in front. For instance, last Friday, we found out about the two policemen who were killed by a bomb in Woodburn. One of the policemen was our son-in-law's boss and it could have easily been Jason in the line of danger. There were two bombs discovered and Jason had been investigating the first incident and after it was decided there was no danger, Jason had permission to return home to meet the cable guy for their new HDTV hookup. While he was doing this, the second bomb they had discovered at the adjoining bank exploded, killing his boss. Jason, who is normally in the thick of things when it comes to police work, really feels guilty but we feel thankful at the same time that it wasn't him. So we juggled our plans and instead of having Christmas early at our place (they will be attending the funeral), we have moved our plans to have an early Christmas Eve at Lara's. The weatherman is predicting more snow for the weekend and we didn't want everyone trying to drive over the coast range to our place this weekend.

Speaking of weather, it is amazing what a few flakes of snow and freezing temperatures can do to your plans. We went into town last Friday because of a Blazer game and planned on staying all weekend to take the grandchildren to see Santa and attend a Blazer Christmas party on Sunday night. We woke up in West Linn with a blanket of snow on the ground on Saturday, so we stayed in town to weather the storm. We ended up not seeing Santa or going to the party planned on Sunday night and decided since there was a break in the weather on Monday, would head for home then. The coast range was covered in snow and when we reached the summit the temperature outside of the car read 20 degrees! Thank goodness the roads were well sanded and plowed but we had the car in 4-wheel drive and we arrived home smoothly.

But the kids always are excited about the snow. They could hardly wait to get out in it! After awhile, their little cheeks were as red as apples but they still wanted to be out there! They made snow angels and their dad pushed them around on the sled. Even the baby had a great time!

After we got home on Monday, Dave had to turn around and leave again on Tuesday for a couple of games this week. I opted to stay at home as the garden club was having their Christmas potluck this week and I needed to be there. He should be coming back today (weather permitting).

We had so much going on this week that was cancelled. The grade school closed on Monday because of the snow so we didn't read to the fourth graders. The pool was closed for my water aerobics too. We ended up cancelling our delivery of the new stovetop and refrigerator that was scheduled for arrival on Wednesday and I was suppose to have a dentist appointment today but opted not to make the trip into town for that.

The birds were glad to see me when I got home. The poor things were scavenging around for something to eat. I even had a hummingbird trying to suck sugar water out of the frozen feeder. I put some fresh food in their feeder and almost was attacked. I had about three hummingbirds fighting over the food! We also had a red woodpecker drilling on the trunk of the walnut tree and even the squirrel made an appearance. (Whatever happened to him hibernating all winter?)

We have enjoyed all the cards and letters that we have been receiving and hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.