Christmas et al

It's now two days after Christmas and we did something we haven't been able to do for a week and a half...drive my car out of the drive, up the hill and and down the road with absolutely no troubles! It is quite exciting!

Yesterday we went to the mall to use a gift certificate from my parents. I think that 80% of the metro area was at the mall, feeling like we did that one more day stuck in the house would not be fun. We got lunch there at 1:00 and had to wait in long lines and circle the food court for quite a while before we found a place to sit. I bet the mall had the highest sales for December yesterday.

On Christmas day we had friends over for a relaxing afternoon, then went over to their house the day after Christmas for a relaxing evening!

I've been off work now for two weeks and TJ for a week, and it will be quite strange to go back to work next week. I think the most exciting thing I've done since being home has been to clean the kitchen! It is reorganized and sparkling! I got a new cleaning book at our Bible study Christmas party and I love it! I cleaned my counters with a 2 part baking soda, 1 part borax & 1 part hot water mix (though I added more water later) and it really worked! They are very clean now and I wish I could wrap them in plastic to keep them clean forever!

My other project was to try and clean up my computer, especially my pictures. I must have spent three days just sitting here deleting blurry photos, cropping and adjusting picture color. I deleted all my online photo albums and reuploaded with the better sets of pictures. I think this computer is growing closer to dying and have copied all my files to disks just in case.

In the new year I'm considering canceling our home phone line and internet access. It would save us almost $60 a month and between work and free wi-fi spots I think it may be interesting to try for a while. I've been trying to figure out an internet connection that would be cheaper, still run fairly quickly and not need a home phone line but thus far have not found anything. I would miss hanging out on facebook though and the convenience of a home internet connection. We'll see!

Hope you all had good Christmas's! I don't have any new pictures to show at the moment because after days of looking through old photos I'm all photoed out!!

Snow III

Well, it's Monday afternoon and we are officially stuck at home. I am anyway...TJ thinks he can get his truck out now that they've plowed the driveway. He tried yesterday and got stuck about 20 feet away...did manage to back up and park again though. Wish we would have bought a shovel, it really would have helped get the cars out.

But there is really no reason to get them out! Both our jobs are closed and to drive on the roads chains are required...and we don't have chains. We went out this morning to play in the snow. It's about 7 inches on the bottom, covered by a half inch of ice, which is covered by another 4 inches of snow! So when you walk your foot goes through a lot of layers! In some parts of our yard the snow is almost up to my knees!

Here are some of today's photos...

My personal favorite...old garbage cans buried!! I think this is the best photo to show the amount of snow we've received as well.

Getting plowed out.
Snow on top of my car.
Coyote tracks in our yard, left there overnight.
We took Sarah out for a romp in the snow...I think she likes it!
These little birds were not scared by us...they just wanted to find some food.
And of course, no set of snow photos would be complete without a snow angel!

The rest of our photos are in our online photo albums...

Bible Study Christmas Party

Since TJ is done with school we were able to go to Bible study a few weeks ago, which was also the Christmas party! We got there a bit late due to my work party but had a really nice time once we arrived! These are some photos of the night thanks to the Korn's (thank-you!).

There was a train going round underneath the tree that the kids were loving!


Thought you would enjoy this break from the snow photos!

More Snow!

A pretty view of the tree farm.

I've lived here 5 years now and still am not quite used to how this city deals with snow...or doesn't as the case may be. We've been having snow since last Sunday night and the snow is expected to continue through mid-week next week. On the news channels they call this storm "Arctic Blast 2008" and/or "The Deep Freeze" and as I type one of our local news stations has preempted its normal programming to run the weather report (still snowing) and a story on a stuck train. Not that the weather isn't important, but really, to halt all programming to report for an unknown amount of time that the snow is falling and will continue to fall all night...really not that newsworthy in our opinions.

I guess we should understand why this is big news. We usually get snow during one week of the year. It's big news and then it melts a day or two later and we forget about it. This year it's going on a week and a half! My school is at the 500 foot level (yes, it's all about your altitude) and was canceled (along with almost all the other schools) all week. I went up one day to try to work and barely made it up the hill because the road was not plowed and had a good 6 or more inches of snow on it!

We knew this larger storm was coming this afternoon (5-10 inches followed by freezing rain) so we had planned to go out this morning to get groceries, wood and Christmas presents. TJ woke me up at 9 to say it had started snowing. I quickly got dressed and we dashed (and I mean dashed!) out the door to go get groceries, taking TJ's truck because it has more weight and agressive tires.

Our first obstacle was to get out of our driveway which slopes up at a 45 degree angle, then has this troublesome dip and another hill to cross before reaching the road. If a car is coming and there is snow on the ground you have to roll backwards down to the bottom of the driveway and start the uphill process again. Next obstacle was the hill by the stoplight. Then the curves. Then the hill going down on a curve. Then the hill going up to the next stoplight. We were doing good till the 4th stoplight on a hill turned red. We got stopped but then had a rough time starting again, cab going forward, tires spinning and the bed of the truck skidding back and forth. Mind you trucks and cars with chains and studded tires were passing us as we spun up the rest of the hill. This was the point we decided that Christmas presents were not that important and we would race through groceries/wood and go home!

TJ happy in the snow!

Made it down the large hill and then had to run a red light at the next stoplight because we (along with two other cars) couldn't stop quickly on the somewhat plowed roads. Made it to the grocery store, got groceries and wood, then had the conversation "which way home has the least amount of hills, or at least the least degree of angle on the hill?" Decided on a route, prayed for a safe drive home, then left. Only skidded a few times, mostly as we had to make it up another hill to stop at another stoplight! The rest of the drive home was uneventful much to our great joy.

If you get nothing more out of this post, hear the commonly used word..."hill!" We decided on a few things. 1) Our routes to grocery stores during snow must change. I think had we tried a different route to a different store we would not have had hills, or at least they would have been less steep. 2) We really need chains. When we lived in the city we could just take public transportation, but now we have no choice but to drive! And since only main roads are plowed semi-often and only gravel is used (no salt), the roads stay icy and slick and mostly snowy until it melts. 3) We are very thankful to be home, in one piece, and have no plans to leave any time soon! 4) The Christmas eve service at church will probably be packed since no church will be open tomorrow!

We did go out for a walk tonight, shuffling through a good five inches of snow! It's been snowing now since 9:00 this morning, and it's after 9:00 tonight! That's a lot of snow, unless you live in the midwest. And then you have salt, snow plows, and flat land!!

View from the window, our footprints still fresh...

That's my rant on snow. And for interested parties, the news is still on (an hour now) talking about the weather, now including the fact that flights are canceled. So rather than tonight's CBS movie, we can tune in to learn it is snowing, will continue to snow, a train lost power and is stuck and flights are canceled because of the weather! And the ODOT cameras show snowy roads. At least we didn't want to watch the movie...

Our First Snow!

Well, today we had our first snow...and most likely our only snow of the season. In true Portland fashion the roads were not plowed or salted and for two to three inches of snow most of the city will be closed tomorrow. TJ won't be going to work and my school was cancelled. Today we drove to the corner store and it took about three tries in TJ's truck to get up and out of our driveway! It's a fascinating world when in snows here. Tomorrow we plan to work on the guest room. Here are some photos from the snowy day...it was sure pretty!

We took the cat out for the first time in snow...I think she may have liked it!

This tree is so pretty generally, and especially when covered with snow.

This is a road near our house...all the roads look like this, even the highways.

A late rose covered in snow...

Our Holiday Party

We had a lovely holiday party today! Our friends came over and spent the afternoon with us. The menu included cookies and hot drinks and lots of good conversation. I tried my hand at jam making too...I think it turned out a bit runny but hopefully still tasty! Everyone got a sample to take home. Here are some photos of our day...

In our craft room.

Our new mantelpiece decor...and yes, those are teeth, many thanks to Ben B! :)The food table.

Katie holding Grady...so cute!

Kris & Andrea, Rubye & Grady

Brian & TJ

The rest of our photos are on our picasa web page. :)

No More School

Well, it's official- TJ is done with school, both now and forevermore. Or at least as far ahead as we can see. He loves his new job, but unfortunately the hours won't accommodate his school schedule.

Now, lest you worry his brain will become dull and rusty, he'll be taking day classes paid for by his employer. He'll also be able to take some online John Deere classes. All in all he is a very happy camper!

In other news...well, there isn't much! We plan to have a "Holiday Open House" this weekend, which means we have two days to get the house clean...nothing like a deadline to get us moving! I'm planning to post photos after the party.

Here is some random TJ and Cheryl trivia for your day: tonight we had beef stroganoff for supper; there was a professional development event at my job today and much of my day was spent sitting in the hallway waiting for people to ask me questions or purchase something...and I was sans book!; TJ changed a transmission today in a self propelled walk behind mower in half an hour, and two weeks ago it took him almost two hours...learning is wonderful! Oh! And today we found out one of our good friends is having a boy- in May. We're quite excited.

That's all for us!