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February 26, 2016

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

I just looked at the calendar and wondered where the month of February went! A week from now we will be well into March! Boy, does time fly.

We started our weekend by going to a birthday party for Leslie's mother-in-law, Connie Alexander. It was a landmark birthday for Connie and we wanted to be there to help her celebrate. It was mostly family and was held at Leslie's new home in West Salem. I think that there were about 35 or 40 people and kids in attendance and we had a great time. As usual, there was way too much food and the cake was fantastic, so we didn't have to worry about eating for the rest of the day! Another reason for wanting to be there was to see their house for the first time since we helped them move into it a few weeks ago. The last time we saw it, it was piled to the ceiling with moving boxes! They have it looking real nice and it is now a cozy and comfortable home. Even their Chocolate Lab "Chip" has settled in and has staked out his favorite spots. Leslie has lots of ideas for decorating and has already made her "wish list" for her father's help building things.

Besides Leslie giving tours of her new home, Ashtin had to show us her new car. She is now the proud owner of a red PT Cruiser and loves her new ride. She is going to finish high school at Silverton, and so she and her sister are commuting between Salem and Silverton. A decent car was a "must". She is also was excited about introducing her new boyfriend to us who was also at the party. She is growing up way too fast!

We ended up staying longer than we had planned and it was after 8 by the time we headed for West Linn to spend the night with our other daughter, Lara and her family. As it turned out, we were just in time because they got home from Jadyn's dance performance a few minutes ahead of us. We were greeted by our youngest granddaughter, Jordyn who had our Girl Scout Cookie order ready for delivery. We have been buying cookies for so many years from these girls but I am afraid that Jordyn will be the last one as she is the youngest. After our overnight stay, we left for home.

Before we left for the party, we had promised Leslie and Jason that they could have our old/new mattress as it turned out to be way too soft for us. It was difficult for these senior citizens to roll over and even get out of bed. We have since then gotten a new firmer one and love it. Anyway, we were going to get the soft mattress ready to take with us to Salem on Saturday, but after the two of us got through wrestling with it trying to get it covered with a protective envelope, we discovered that there was no way that we would be able to hoist it up on top of the car to deliver it by ourselves. We decided that they will just have to make a trip down here and take it home for themselves.

On Tuesday, I worked out at the Learning Garden in Tillamook for the Master Gardeners where I did some winter cleanup for them. They meet every Tuesday but I normally don't help because I hate making a special trip into Tillamook for just one thing. But since I also had a follow-up appointment with my doctor that afternoon about my colonoscopy, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. The doctor reported that he had removed two benign polyps and that everything is okay, so it will be five years before I have to go back and do that again!

While I was doing my thing on Tuesday, Dave had several therapy sessions at OHSU in Portland. He also set up a lunch date with his cousin Marta and her husband Gene, who live a couple of blocks from the clinic. The therapy was something his oncologist recommended and it was in three parts: Occupational, Speech and Physical. Of course, he doesn't need Occupational or Speech but the Physical Therapist recommended a little exercise would do him some good and encouraged him to check out our local area for some training. We will see how that goes.

While Dave was in town on Tuesday, he had been invited to attend the Blazer game and sit in on the radio broadcast with all his old buddies. It was fun for him to do and he enjoyed seeing and visiting with everyone. Since the game was late, he spent the night in West Linn before he came home on Wednesday.

We had the Wheeler City Manager over for crab and macaroni on Wednesday night. It is always nice to get together with him as he is so busy and he is single so he enjoys coming over for a home-cooked meal. We try to get him over once a month or so, but with the holidays and the weather emergencies, we were overdue. He and Dave sit around with a wee dram of Scotch and figure out how to run the City.

Thursday, I spent all day at my Master Garden class. I have to take 9 hours of continuing education and so I sat in class revisiting Plant Diseases and Diagnosing Plant Problems while thinking about how nice the weather turned out and wishing I was outside in it. Our instructor was an Extension Service plant pathologist from OSU and he kept us entertained with his antics, so the time did go by pretty fast. That class took care of six of my hours. I have one more three hour class to take next week and that one will be on Weed Identification.

We have two projects that will get underway this next week. One of our "view" windows at the front of our house has turned cloudy and so we're going to begin the process of getting a replacement ordered and installed. And the water damage at Leanna's place is about to be dealt with as well. Our friend Ray is going to work on that. He has ordered the new door, water heater and floor covering and the repair will begin next week.

That's about it for this time; hope everyone enjoyed the warm spring weather this last week. It looks like the rain will come back today.