Christmas with the TWINS

Standing is a favorite activity

Emmett with Grandpa (aka Poppy)

Emmett went straight for the packages

Maggie with Auntie Den

Only in Seattle...

Still snowing and only 29 degrees but apparently the Christmas spirit is keeping him warm...

Colorado? SNOW

We have been coming to the Northwest the past few years to spend Christmas here and usually we are greeted by gray skies and lots of liquid falling from the sky. But this year it's been different. We have been here a week and most of the time it's been WHITE stuff floating from the skies. And icy roads and temps in the 20's and 30's. When I looked out the window this morning, I thought for just a nano-second that I was in Colorado. It is beautiful and a bit strange to see snow falling on green shrubbery -- in December??? And some plants even have little buds on them. Definitely NOT Colorado in December.

We rented a 1925 bungalow in the northern part of the city. It is a charming old house, with much of the original wood floors, leaded windows in the living room and dining room, push-button light switches, ornate doornobs, etc. It also has single-pane windows and Seattle-ites don't seem to know about storm windows. Before the days of combination windows I remember, in Cherokee, taking off the screens in the fall, going to the shed and getting the storm windows -- then washing both the windows and the storm windows (no Windex either!) The next step was matching up the little round metal numbers (that my Dad had put on the screens and storm windows) to the little round metal numbers he had placed on each window casing. And then in the spring, we would do it all over again with the screens.

We have been enjoying our "GRANDS" so much! Emmett is just a bundle of energy, moving those arms and legs all the time; Magnolia is just happy to cuddle and be held. They are such GOOD babies -- they don't cry much at all and never for very long. They both go to bed without rocking them to sleep and they sleep through the night. And their smiles -- I just cannot describe what a joy it is to have those two precious babies smile at us. It warms our hearts and makes us smile in return. Emmett smiles constantly; Magnolia needs a little coaxing but it's worth the effort!

Stay tuned for some pictures of the babies coming here soon, or go to Heather's blog. She posts them frequently.

Sunset over the Mountains

We have been having some spectacular views to the west of our house this week. Wish I could get my photographs to look exactly what my eye sees, but here's what my camera sees.
Chuck is feeling much better each day. He is requiring less pain Rx and he is able to be up and around more. Most of the rash is drying and it's not so red. We may be able to head for the Northwest early next week if he continues his steady progress. YIPPEE! Those babies are SO CUTE. We just can't wait to see them. Check out Heather's blog if you haven't seen recent photos. The link is over on the right side of this page.

HERPES ZOSTER (shingles)

Chuck started having a headache on Tuesday; Thursday he asked me if there was a rash on his head, under his hair, behind his ear. When I went to take a look I couldn't see the rash under his hair, but I DID see this terribly red splotchy rash on his neck. Friday morning his headache was worse and the rash had postules (blisters) on some of them. He called the doctor's office and talked with a nurse to find out if it could be a reaction to the flu shot he had on Tuesday. She said probably not, but that if it got worse he should see the doctor. Saturday morning he was up at 3am with a raging headache that wouldn't quit.
So we went to the ER over at the new hospital and one look at the rash and the doctor said, "You have shingles." I had actually "Googled" his symptoms and come up with the same diagnosis. But Chuck said he didn't think he had chicken pox when he was a kid. Wrong!
They gave him two Percocet for the pain, we had breakfast, and then he had a nausea attack and ended up fainting on the bathroom floor -- scraping his arm on the wall, breaking his glasses, and landing on his face. As many of you might know, I am not really good in an emergency -- I mostly just stand there and scream -- which is what I did in this situation! But he said he was okay, so we cleaned him up, bandaged his arm and put him back in the recliner (with a bucket by his side) with a warning from me that he NOT get out of the chair. After a couple more episodes of nausea, I called the ER back and they gave him a Rx for the nausea.
I went over to Target and got that Rx and it has really helped him. He still is in a lot of pain and he says the area of the rash feels like it is on fire. It has spread a bit more since Friday and the most painful rash is the one that is on the back of his head, close to his ear.
So he has Perocet, Prednisone, Famciclovir, and Ondanesetron. I had to get a chart started so I can record when he takes each Rx.
The doctor said this outbreak could last anywhere from 1-4 weeks (or longer). We had planned on starting our drive to Seattle tomorrow, but we are definitely not going anywhere for at least a week -- hopefully we will be able to go within 2 weeks -- we'll see how he does. Right now he is in a lot of pain and he isn't able to be up very long before he needs to lie down. He is able to read the paper, do some Sudoku, and watch a little TV. The worst part for him, is that now he has to eat MY COOKING -- he has been doing all the cooking for years, and he's very good at it, so this is not a good thing -- for EITHER of us! I am really good at grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. And cold cereal is REALLY good, don't you think???
Oh, and it seems this was just not a good week at our house -- the water heater went out Friday and on Tuesday I had to take my car to the dealership because the speedometer quit working and I couldn't start the car in park. The diagnosis: mice had chewed through the wiring in THREE different places. We're glad we have just started a new week - whew!

It's FINALLY here!

After 22 months of listening to the "right" and the "left" and "everything-in- between" I am so excited for TODAY. Will the polls be correct or ??? I am thinking positive!

I have been doing a bit of volunteering over the past few weeks -- mostly calling people on the phone. It has been challenging, because most people won't answer the phone, some people give us their fax number or some other wrong number, some people answer and hang up, and some people answer and as soon as I start talking, tell me to "go to hell!"(actually only one person). And I really can't blame people -- we have been harassed with so many "robo calls" that I hang up on those, too. People are ready for it to be OVER.

So today I decided to go knocking on doors. I worked about 6 hours today and although I didn't find many people home, I could leave a hang tag on their door to remind them where to vote. And a few people were actually home, answered the door, and HAD voted! Those were the fun ones.

Okay, time to watch the TV for the duration of the evening. GO OBAMA!

Mom is 98 years old!

It was nearly 70 degrees yesterday afternoon so I took Mom on a little outing to the sculpture park -- it's just a block away from the nursing home. I told her it was her birthday photoshoot. So as we went around the park we stopped now and then for her "portrait." I printed an 8x10 collage of some of the pictures so she can experience the outing again and again and again ...that's one of the only advantages I know of dementia -- you can't remember what you've heard or seen so the world is new every few minutes. A lady saw me taking pics of Mom and offered to take one of us together -- people really are nice (most of the time).

Redwoods

One of the main reasons we wanted to drive to California was to see the Redwoods. Chuck pointed out to me that we had seen them before -- 43 years ago to be exact -- on our honeymoon trip. Who could remember THAT??? The trees are close to the northern CA coast and the state and national parks have combined to provide good viewing for them. They are indeed HUGE. We had to wait out some stormy weather to see the ones in the Humboldt Redwood state park, but it was well worth the wait. It was difficult to get good pics in these forests, as it was really dark below these towering giants.

Oregon and California Coasts

The good news is that our trip home is safely completed and the bad news is that the house is totally "trashed" with everything we unloaded from the motor home. I have to get busy and get everything sorted, put away, laundered, etc. and Chuck has to winterize the motor home. I will admit I have been finding it very easy to play slide shows of photos of our trip home and my photos of the "grands" (grandchildren)to avoid the work that needs to be done!

We decided to take the scenic route back to Colorado by avoiding interstate highways and driving down the coast of southern Oregon and northern California. We did start out on I-5 but went over to the coast at Reedsport. Gary worked down in this area a few(?) years ago. I'll post a photo of one of the sand dunes from that area. We saw lots of sea stacks -- they have always been one of my favorite coastal views in central Oregon coastal locations -- but the ones in southern Oregon and especially northern California are absolutely spectacular. I will never tire of watching the ocean waves pounding over and around those stacks. Mini-water falls burst forth over some of the flatter ones. I just wanted to sit and watch the waves for a couple of weeks -- I don't think I would ever tire of watching Mother Nature do Her thing on the coast.

Heading Home

I know I have not been posting since last week, but I have a good reason (excuse?) No WiFi. We have been staying in state parks and lucky to have even electricity, much less WiFi. But OH THE SCENERY! Who cares about anything else
So in the next few days I may be able to post some photos. However, our connection tonight is SO SLOW it won't load my pics.
Suffice it to say that the southern Oregon and northern California coastlines are absolutely spectacular --more sea stacks then I could wish for combined with the season's first rain/wind storm made for a very exciting first few days of our trip back to Colorado. More to come ...

Mount Ranier National Park

It was our last weekend in Seattle before heading back to Colorado (boo-hoo!) so Denise and Roger joined us for a trip to the National Park, just a couple of hours drive from Seattle. We entered the park at the Northwest Entrance and exited at the Southeast Entrance, so we had numerous spectacular views of the mountain (which really can't be captured by a novice photographer!). Even though we can see Mt. Ranier from Seattle (and it seems quite close) that view pales in comparison to the close-up views in the National Park.

We rented a cabin for Friday and Saturday nights, about 4 miles from the small town of Packwood, just south of the park. We could hear the river from the deck and it was located in a quiet little subdivision with no streetlights so the stars were easily visible.

Saturday afternoon we took a 1.5-mile walk to see the Patriarch trees -- mostly Western Hemlock, Red Cedar, and Douglas Fir varieties. It was interesting to learn that when the old trees die and fall, they are considered "nurse trees" and they provide nutrients for new trees, which grow right out of the fallen trunks.

Sunday we drove the winding road to the southwest entrance, completing our circle drive of the park. The visitor center at Paradise gave us our closest view of the mountain. Through our binolculars we even saw hikers up on the mountain. We also saw a group of buildings that serve as a base camp for climbers, half-way up the mountain.

Mt. Ranier is a volcano with an ice cap of 26 glaciers -- quite unusual for a volcano. From Seattle, it just looks like snow, but up close we could definitely see the blue color of the glaciers. Speaking of blue -- the sky was unusually blue, with no haze and no clouds. We even saw Mt. Baker, 40-miles away. Awesome weekend!

8 weeks old

Pals forever

Blurringly-quick hands and legs

Baby Time for G'ma

San Juan Islands

drug-sniffing German Shepherd

mount baker

ferry docking in Anacortes

Roger driving onto the ferry (white car)

Glass and Pottery Shop




Last Friday night we stayed at Denise and Roger's so we could get up early (5:30am) and go with them to the San Juan Islands. We were on the road at 6:30 and arrived in Anacortes about 8:30 to board the Washington State Ferry that took us to Orcas Island. While we waited to board the ferry we noticed a border patrol agent with his dog sniffing every vehicle in the waiting line. Once on the ferry we enjoyed the ride! It's a special treat to be out on that huge expanse of water after living "inland" our entire lives.
The San Juans include 172 islands, but many of them are uninhabited. Orcas is 57 square miles, so we got a good look in just the one day we were there. We landed on the south side of the island and drove to the north side where the largest town is located -- Eastsound. From there we went east to Moran State Park and up a steep 5-mile road to Mt. Constitution -- elevation 2,409 feet.
There is a lookout tower up there that gave us a breathtaking view of the islands and snow-covered Mt. Baker and Mt. Ranier. WOW! My photos just DO NOT do it justice. It was spectacular. On the way back to the ferry we saw some small deer near a hotel -- they were tame and several were eating out of the hands of some very excited children. We also stopped at a very interesting artsy shop on the way that featured beautiful glass-blown flowers and bird baths , along with lots of pottery.
The ferry left Orcas at 7pm and we were back home about 10pm. We appreciated Roger doing all the driving -- over 250 miles -- while we got to ooh and ahhh over the scenery.

7 weeks old

Emmett smiling at Mom and Dad

Outside for a walk in the stroller

Emmett playing in the crib

Night caps

The twins were 7 weeks old yesterday. They are awake much more these days and they are both smiling. It is SO PRECIOUS! We just love to see their bright eyes and those sweet little mouths break out in those smiles. There is a cute little toy hanging on their crib that has a little plastic mirror in it and they both enjoy smiling at themselves. I wonder if they somehow know it is THEM???

The days have been perfect for a stroll outside and they really enjoy the ride, even though they sleep most of the way. This stroller is actually a frame that receives their car seats -- it's handy to put them in their car seats in the house and then just carry them outside and snap them into the stroller frame. The base of the car seats stays in the car so, again, you don't have to carry the babies out and then try to get them in the car seat (rain, hot, cold, etc.) you just strap them inside the carseat in the house and snap them into the base in the seat of the car. It's a nifty solution.