Good day and welcome to 2008. The first month has already come and gone. Let's take a look back, shall we?
The girls were off for the first week of it, but I was back at work except for New Year's day. We didn't do much, though the weather cooperated giving us a dry morning to take a walk and get out of the house for a little bit. We played board games and napped. We enjoyed black eyed peas and corn bread for a good luck New Year dinner.
Jada and the girls spent the week visiting with friends and family and completing projects. They all went out to see Grandma and play a little Monopoly Jr. Gram moved rooms that day and the girls helped set everything up to look cozy. Jenny brought Nolan and Brycen over for a playdate. It took Nolan a while to settle in to playing, but then when it was time to leave it was hard for him to go. Bryce spent the whole time trying to climb anything and everything. Jada's big project for the week was finally assembling a "Tot-to-teen" album for Phoebe. Ellen already has one, but Jada needed to update all the photos. This will be an ongoing project, but Jada was excited to make so much progress. The girls both had their dentist appointments this week. Their teeth are in good shape. In addition to Ellen's front tooth, she has 2 upper molars starting to push through. The dentist says that her other front tooth will still be a long time coming.
The weekend was a fairly laid back affair since I was oncall, and we couldn't really go anywhere. Saturday morning, the girls played quietly without fighting or band-aids for over 2 hours while Jada was out meeting with an Oregon Senator in her role for the teacher's union in Beaverton. In the afternoon, we brought grandma over for dinner. She got to play with the girls and have a yummy dinner. Sunday was another rainy day so we didn't really do much.
The second week of January came with everyone going back to school. Ellen and Phoebe were very happy to get back to school. We found out that Phoebe won 3rd place for her age group in a coloring contest that she entered at New Seasons grocery store which was good for a $10 gift certificate. Ellen was a bit upset about not winning her age group. It took her a while to calm down and let Phoebe enjoy her moment which I think she did by the time I came home from work, and she walked up to me beaming to tell me that she won. Ellen got to do her special thing by starting up piano lessons this week. She does a hour and half lesson with the teacher- 45 minutes at the piano; 45 minutes on a computer doing music learning games. She likes it so far, and has been practicing every day so far. On Monday night of that week, I came in to the kitchen just before bed to put some things away and make lunches, but instead I found water dripping down the front of the refrigerator from the water dispenser. I spent some time trying to troubleshoot the problem with the manual and web while Jada found a large cup to collect the drippings. Eventually, I called Sears to see if we could get someone to come out to service it, but they couldn't come until Wednesday at the earliest. Luckily, I was able to pull the fridge out from the wall far enough to turn off the water to the fridge so we wouldn't have to keep swapping out cups for the next couple days. So that ended up being another big amount of money that I hadn't planned out. So much for our savings this year. We're trying to figure out what is going to fail next. My money is on the stove, Jada thinks it will be the T.V.
For the next weekend, we decided to go snow shoeing again. We asked some friends to go with us since we were planning on going to the Winter Trails day at White River Canyon snow park. It was a demo day so it would be good day for them. However, they had an illness and weren't able to make it. We ended up going to Pete's house in Government Camp again. We left after work to drive up. I rode with Pete to Troutdale where we met up with Jada so I could drive in the snow for them. It rained all the way until we started up the road to Government Camp. The girls fell asleep right away once at the house, but unfortunately, they woke up around 2:30am, and I don't think any of us ever really fell asleep again. It was quite a miserable night, and the next morning wasn't much better. Phoebe threw a huge fit about breakfast, about getting her hair done, about getting dressed, you name it. She continued to scream and yell in the car in the parking lot while we were trying to decide if we were going to stay. It turns out it was probably for the best that our friends weren't able to come because it was right at the point between rain and snow. The snow was very wet and it packed up in the cleats of our snow shoes. We also noticed that Ellen's boots were not fitting terribly well in the bindings any more. We hiked up a little ways anyway and came back. I don't think we even got in a whole mile, but in the conditions, it was enough. Then we went to the Huckleberry Inn, drove home, and had a nice long nap. Sunday we did errands in the morning, including buying groceries and picking up a new pair of snow shoes the next size up for Ellen and goggles for both the girls. I took the lights down from the house, and Jada went out to visit her mom while the girls had a nap. Ellen practiced her piano while dinner was made. She played while Phoebe danced., and then later they played a duet with Ellen on piano and Phoebe on harmonica. It was pretty nice. After our nightly routine, Jada and I finally watched some movies we had rented (I can't even remember the last time we felt it necessary to go pick up a movie that we hadn't seen in the theater). We watched Once, and we both enjoyed it.
We had a little aside while Phoebe was taking her shower. I was waiting for her to finish up, and she was talking about her future. She figured that if she didn't get married, she would give her kids baths herself. She said she would rent some kids if she didn't have her own. I didn't bother to correct her. She has also become quite the songstress whether playing her harmonica (and naming songs such as "Fields of flowers") or creating new lyrical songs (such as "Rosemary Rose" who likes everyone). She also enjoys playing with words. She does a lot of opposite songs where she'll insert the work "not" in front of popular songs such as "Rudolph the not rednose raindeer. Did not have a very shiny nose", things like that. She also makes statements such as "I am admiring my picture."
Ellen continues to be very much a bibliophile. The other evening, she expanded on her earlier statements about books by saying, "I love reading books because they take me to where they are."
For the weekend of the 19th, we had a lazy Saturday aside from the usual grocery shopping. Jada took the girls to Grandmas for a while, and I had an eye appointment. Sunday, however, we met up with our friends to go snow shoeing with our godson and his brother. We had as perfect a day as you can get up at the mountain. Light snow with a little sun breaks. We did the half mile down towards split at Trillium Lake again since they were new and Brad was carrying Brycen in the backpack, and it was a little difficult, but not too much. The snow was fluffy and light and fresh. Ellen made first tracks for us zig-zagging down the trail with the occasional loop-de-loop thrown in for good measure. We did our snack stop at the bottom, and then we headed back up the hill. Nolan hit his stride when he decided that he was going to stay up with Ellen and follow in her tracks. We walked at Phoebe's pace since Jenny was only 5 weeks removed from heart surgery. When we came back out at the top, it was like we emerged into a Subaru dealership with all them in the lot up there. It was already close to 11am, but the rest of the snow shoers and cross country skiers were just now arriving it seemed. Which made it the perfect time for pancakes, and then we all headed home.
This week we finished up the Little House books that were written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We pulled out the Atlas to see if we can hit both the little town of DesMet in South Dakota and Mansfield, MO during my next sabbatical to see the locations of the book. Ellen did a lot of piano practice. It's not always easy to get her going (yes, I'm aware of the irony, Mom and Dad), but she is getting better. It was a very cold week for Portland. We had temps in the 20's in the morning with highs only in the mid to upper 30's, but it was dry. I was able to ride to work twice this week after it being too frosty and slick in the mornings last week. This week was family math night at Ellen's school, so we all went to that. The girls got a bit of exposure to chess and some more complicated math games.
The weekend of the 26th, we had a couple of lazy days. It was hovering around freezing, and the rain had come back in. The snows that had been predicted never materialized, but we stayed at home anyway just in case. The girls got to play a lot, Ellen got a couple of long practices in, and Jada and I played a little music together (we worked on "Yesterday" and "Morning has Broken"). I don't have any books I'm working on right now. I'd already re-read the entire 5 books of the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, so I started on the Harry Potter series. We've gotten through Stephen Colbert's I am America and So Can You as well as Steve Martin's autobiography this month already.
On Monday the 28th, the wintry weather they had been predicting all weekend finally arrived over night so I wasn't able to ride to work, and Beaverton had a 2 hour late start for schools. The roads around us were pretty slick which prompted me to stay home for my morning meetings. Tuesday I was supposed to fly to Arizona for a meeting, but the plane got delayed by snow again. So I attended the meeting remotely. Wednesday, I took Phoebe to gymnastics, and did a bit of work while I waited for her to finish. Finally, Thursday night was the Cycle Oregon kick off party. Since we are planning on taking the girls with us on the CO weekend ride this year, we took them to the presentation even though it was past their bed time. I rode my bike to work that day and met them at Nike. The weekend route is based in Astoria this year. We'll get to go across the big bridge that crosses over the mouth of the Columbia River. It looks like it'll be a great route with lots of options.
See ya next month.
Journal Entry: January 31, 2008