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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

On Saturday, Lara and I were invited down to Salem to attend an awards ceremony at my granddaughter's soccer club. They especially wanted Paige to attend as she was going to receive an award. She knew nothing about it and wasn't even suspicious when her aunt and both grandmothers came. Lara and I made our way to Salem and found the place where the festivities were to be held. Anyway, Paige was recognized as the "Most Outstanding" player on her club. The soccer club consists of both boys and girls ages 10 to 16 years, so for a 10-year-old to get that award was really special. We are very proud of her.

We were in town that weekend because Dave had to work three games in three days. He had Blazer broadcasts on Friday and Sunday and worked a Portland State football telecast on Saturday. He knew he wasn't going to get very much sleep Friday night because the crew call on Saturday was at 7 a.m. Wouldn't you know it, the Friday night Blazer game went into overtime and it was after midnight before he got home. By the time the third game was played on Sunday, he was dragging. I'm glad we decided to stay in town that night because he would have had a tough time staying awake for the drive home. Besides, it was really stormy that night.

So, Monday morning we tried to make it back down to the coast. The usual way we usually take to get home is Highway 26, but that was closed due to fallen trees on the road. So we took the alternative route which is Highway 6 that takes us to Tillamook and then north on Hwy. 101 to Wheeler. The wind was still blowing pretty strong and the rain was coming down so hard we could hardly see the road, but we made it through Tillamook before high tide and didn't encounter any flooding on the road. The Wilson River was wild with high water and fast currents and I was glad the highway was a few feet up from its banks. We were so glad we didn't try to drive that in the middle of the night! Since we were planning on coming home on Sunday, I didn't pack enough of our prescriptions or underwear! We didn't get our medications until we got back home on Monday and I was not a happy camper without my "happy" pill in the morning. It is just a low-dose estrogen, but I can tell when I miss a pill. I think Dave would rather battle the elements than battle with me!

When we arrived at home, the yard looked like a war zone with broken branches everywhere. We had our garden bench on its side along with our barbeque grill. We lost one small tree down by the church and a few of the wind chimes were missing too. We had lost power sometime during the storm, so we had to reset all of our clocks. We were unable to restart our 10-year old computer after the outage so we had to take it with us this week when we came back into town to get some help to get it running again.

I had invited Des and Donna Kahrs for dinner on Monday evening, but since it was so stormy out, our friends were a little reluctant to venture out. Donna had just had surgery on her foot and she can't do stairs. Besides, her foot was in a cast and she was afraid of getting it wet. Since I had already purchased a special gluten-free cake for her belated birthday, we decided to take the dinner to them. So we packed up the baked chicken, roasted vegetables and salad and proceeded to have the celebration at their house. It turned out better than I thought and everyone had a great time.

There were a few things on our calendar on Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment and Dave had a City Council meeting. Once we took care of those items, we left again on Wednesday to come back into town for Thanksgiving and a Blazer game on Friday night. We had to stop at the bank in Hillsboro on the way in and then get the computer to the repairman that evening. Traffic was absolutely crazy! It's like everyone in Portland was on the road for Thanksgiving. We drove about 30 miles through Portland from Hillsboro to West Linn and it took us three hours. We both commented how we're so glad we don't live in the big city any more. We're definitely "small town" folks now!

As it turned out, it was a good thing we came in on Wednesday evening, as our youngest granddaughter, Jordyn was playing "bounce on the couch" and fell and broke her arm! We decided that it would be better for Greg to stay home with the other two girls so Dave and Lara rushed her to Meridian Park Hospital to have it examined. I guess the emergency room was swamped as they had to wait awhile to see the doctor and get x-rays on her arm. Jordyn was in a lot of pain, but she was a real trooper and waited as patiently as she could. Still, it they were all glad when she was finally examined. Since that hospital wasn't equipped to handle pediatric cases, she was transported by ambulance to Portland to the Randall Children's Hospital at Emanuel where they have a beautiful, brand new facility. Jordyn was so excited about the ambulance ride that I think she forgot all about the broken arm. She had been sedated by then which was a job in itself. It took four nurses to hold down a 4-year old to try to insert an IV and when that failed, they resorted to spraying some anesthetic up her nose. By the time she was admitted at Randall and the IV inserted, it was 2 a.m. She ended up spending the rest of the night and having surgery Thanksgiving morning because the break was so bad. The doctors put a pin in her bone and she is wearing a soft cast. Lara spent that night and the next day with Jordyn at the hospital (with almost no sleep) and Dave headed back home around 3:00 a.m. once Jordyn fell asleep. Everyone is back home now and Jordyn was very emphatic in saying that she's never going to jump on the couch again!

We had Thanksgiving with our youngest daughter, Leslie and her family in Silverton. The turkey and special dressing were prepared by my son-in-law, Jason and were delicious. I made a couple of pies, a pumpkin and a chocolate. We had a nice visit and stuffed ourselves with so much food. We don't get a chance to spend a lot of time with them, so this was fun with a crackling fire in the fireplace and Thanksgiving Day football on the TV. I really have a lot to be thankful for and one of my special blessings is my family. I hope your Thanksgiving was great too.

Now that the Thanksgiving feast is over, let the Christmas frenzy begin. I am not one of those persons that will get up at 5:00 a.m. to catch all of the Black Friday sales. I hate crowds and will wait for some week day when everyone is busy at work. I did get some Christmas cards and will try to find some time to write a Christmas letter pretty soon but I always wait until the turkey has settled before I do that.