Week 4 - Oregon City - January 22 - January28, 2024

This week we went to a place in Lake Oswego to get our TSA Preapproved status - for only $78 for five years.  This year I will use it twice when I go to Boston in February, so it will have cost me 7.80 for each trip to have to only stand in a shorter and faster line. 

This week I also finished the windows.  Here is the last window to which I applied three coats of a polyurethane oil finish.  Unfortunately, as I was applying the urethane, I occasionally (...actually often) seemed to drip or flip the brush, so there were lots of little round drops that had to dry and then be removed using a razor - lesson - cover with newspaper...

In a stunning act of bravery or just pure organization, I did use the razor blade and scrapped off every little drop and then washed both inside and outside!!!!  THE WINDOWS LOOK GREAT!!!

On Tuesday we went to Home Depot and ordered 15 Bali Light Blocker, aluminum, mini blinds.  In a perfect world they will be delivered to Prestige Installations on February (almost two weeks away).  Prestige Installations will then call to make an appointment to come and install them.  We're looking at the fourth week in February which is about a month away.  I can wait.

One afternoon this week, Jessica sent Logan over to "help us do something".  This happens when he walks around the house asking when he can use the computer again.  It was great for us!  He helped Dad and Zelensky prune the Asian Pear tree.

Then he helped me by washing all of the baseboards in the kitchen and bathroom

And he played with the cats

Zelensky does stretching exercises with me.

We did a bunch of Find A Grave photos at the cemetery and ended up at........DQ

Tyler went to Winter Formal with Lydia.  They are very hot.......pink.

Jamie pictures!!  He weighs seven pounds this week.

 Week 3 - January 15 - January21, 2024

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrr...really cold this week.  School was closed every day.  Every day was really cold and icy and slippery.  We spent a lot of time inside!

I took a bunch of photos with snow - I want to frame this one and display it with three other photos depicting the woods in the four seasons.

Swiss cowbells and Thai temple bells.

Lots of fog

A guy from Prestige Installations (they do blinds/shutters/curtains/whatever for Home Depot.) came and measured our windows.  I felt guilty about how dirty one window was....don't remember ever cleaning it...

Now that measurements have been taken, we'll go to Home Depot and order the mini blinds - which....will actually be custom sized to fit the windows rather than being 1-2 inches too small on each side.  If we're lucky the blinds will be installed around February 1.  I also spent lots of time painting three coats of polyurethane on the windows and on the frames around the windows...I feel like I have spent most of my adult life painting.

Jessica and Bev must have spent a lot of time going through old photos because they kept sending text to me with the photos.

Family photo about 1988.

A very cool OCHS Letterman........searching for Easter Eggs.

Jane, Ruby, and Holland spent an afternoon with us....they got bored at home.

Dad and I went stir crazy too and one evening we ended up at Rigobertos for dinner - I got my usual...carne asada and fries.

Coming home we felt friendly enough to risk the slippery snow and went to the cottage to visit with Malcolm and Haley....and Jamie.

Weekly photos of the cats.

Sunday - January 21st - we celebrated Warren's 40th birthday.  Even though Whitney had told she would make a cake for him, he declined saying he had an idea he wanted to try - it would be a Lasagna Cake.  he lasagna noodles were carefully created strips of fondant, the hamburger was chocolate covered rice crispies, and the spaghetti sauce was red frosting.  amazing.

It was quite tasty except for the fondant lasagna.

Jamie came to attend his first birthday party celebration....for Warren.

Bev wanted to recreate an epic photo she had taken of Dad, Clara, Gretchen and Copeland (who was nine days old.  Photo was  taken in January 2020.

This one with Jamie was taken on January 21, 2014

 Week 2- Oregon City - January 8 - January 14, 2024

This week - Paul's birthday....beginning of freezing cold weather....Jamie.....cats

Paul turned 41 this week.  We celebrated by - even though snow was threatening - going to Cheesecake Factory and ordering our favorites.  Dad and I got Honey Truffle Chicken (maybe the Truffle part is wrong), and it was delicious.

...and cupcakes Sunday night.

Really cold weather set in on Saturday and had gotten even colder by Sunday - church was canceled....ostensibly because the roads and parking lot would be snowy and icy, but in reality, the church's heating system is awful, and we would have frozen.

Ray's humming birds suffered, and he was constantly moving the feeder in and out of the house so the little sweeties would be able to drink.

Grandkids suffered because the snow wasn't deep enough.  The couldn't even make a snowman and built a snow cairn out of ice chunks instead.

A bit of snow accumulated on the deck.

The freezing weather inspired us to defrost the freezer that M&H had been using.

The pile of frozen food spent the night on the sidewalk while the frost in the freezer melted and dripped into a big pile of towels.....DONE!

The cats didn't like the cold weather or the snow.  They spent most of their time inside.

I spent a lot of time staining the new windows.

Tyler entered adult hood - or at least he got his driver's license.

Jamie was a big hit with everyone

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Bev is showing how to properly bundle a baby..