November started out with a pretty decent weekend. I was able to rake again. Phoebe had a birthday party with a friend from her school at the YMCA in Sherwood. So Ellen got to stay home and help me with the yard work and cleaning up around the house. We spent some time in furniture stores looking at new couches to replace my old Montgomery Wards couch that I bought when I moved here. Savannah has shredded it into a really big scratching post that we happen to be able to sit on. We also moved our things back into the closet after the clean-up of our crawl space. The only entry is through our closet, so we moved everything out of there. We lived in the front room on the hide-a-bed while we worked on airing out the must and dust that came up into our room while they were working down there. In the process, we cleaned out a bunch of clothes that we didn't or couldn't wear any more. I donated 8 pairs of jeans to Goodwill plus the suit I bought in high school. Jada donated a few dresses and old luggage. We also picked up a few plastic bins to get a little more organization in the closet to see if we can keep it more clean for longer.
Ellen and Phoebe started a swimming class two evenings a week. Ellen gets to swim in the big pool now. She was a little nervous at first, but after she had to kick down the length of the pool and back, she was fine. On the 8th, Ellen's school hosted a Literacy Night where they had several rooms with games around letter and sound recognition. The girls' favorite one was the story writing station where they got to hear a story of a mouse who lived in a library and wrote books that he would then place on the appropriate shelves in the library. It was all about how everyone has a story to tell. After the story, everyone got a little book of clean white paper to compose their own stories. Ellen chose to write a non-fiction book about butterflies. Phoebe was writing about princesses.
The weekend of the 10th held our usual clay class for Phoebe and Ellen's gymnastics class. We also had Grandma over for a healthy dinner. The girls were excited to have her over and show off their gymnastics moves. Phoebe took her on a gallery tour of her clay creations. Then they listened to mommy play piano. We all went to bed early that night (even Jada and I went to bed before 10pm). Sunday morning we all woke up well rested for our big breakfast. The girls spent the morning playing quietly (yes...quietly!) in their play room while we went about the usual chores of post-breakfast clean-up and laundry. I continued the girls' music education by playing Donald Fagen ("Kamakiriad"), Genesis ("Duke", "abacab"), Peter Gabriel (the face melting one), Mighty Mighty Bostones ("Up against it"), and a little Sting (before he lost his mind) CD's. Last weekend, we explored the Eagles with special emphasis on the Joe Walsh years. It was mostly a Sunday to be around home other than a few errands and the raking of leaves. I made a pizza, and Jada and I both practiced on our axes (he means that I played the piano and he played his guitar.) After the girls went to bed, we even played some songs together while the girls shouted out their requests from beyond. Phoebe really wanted to hear Jingle Bells, but we don't have that one yet.
On Veteran's Day, Jada took the girls to OMSI for some time in Science Playground. The girls spent most of their time in the huge sandbox. Then they decided it was time for an art project. The art room was set up for leaf creations. Each of the girls drew a picture and then added in leaves as props. Ellen's leaves served as a tree and an umbrella. Phoebe's snowman used a leaf as a broom. As always, we stopped by to watch the ball machine during snack. The girls had an unexpected visit to the Thornton's when Jada went up to the hospital to see how her mom was faring. Unfortunately, Jeannie is having quite a bit of swelling again and the doctors don't know why and have not been able to do anything about it. The worst part is that the swelling causes immense pain in her legs and back and makes it almost impossible for her to walk
Random thought 1: Ellen can now whistle pretty well. Phoebe is learning her sight words. She can read many words now (8 in a flash card stack with more likely). After her family Literacy night when she picked up a Boxcar Children mystery, Ellen has decided that she likes mysteries. She checked out another in the book series from the library this week. She says that they're fun, and that's why she likes them. Phoebe has been designing a new building for her school, and also a new layout for our house. She was disappointed when we couldn't just start building it.
The weekend of the 17th started on Friday for us. I took the afternoon off to run errands and ended up over at Jada and Ellen's school where I did some volunteer work while we waited for Ellen to finish up her drama class. Manghelli came over to watch the girls for the night while Jada and I went downtown for the Grand Celebration that Intel had for our organization in honor of the work we did to release our newest technology. We even stayed over night at the hotel where the party was held. We met up with everyone at Ellen's last gymnastics last class of the session so we got to watch the class for a little bit. It was a little disappointing seeing Ellen not behave terribly well at the beginning by not following directions and paying more attention to her friends than her teacher. However, she settled down as the class went on. Phoebe and I had to get across town to her last clay class. It was a free form day. The teacher had out a bunch of paints so people could bring in things that they wanted to get painted or they could just sculpt. We didn't bring anything in, so we just made new things...well, Phoebe did. She was very prolific making several different cave paintings and a face mask. Plus she made a rose for herself. I have been taking some pictures of finished products, so I'll have to try to post some of those. The girls played in their play room all afternoon without fighting. Unfortunately, they threw a huge fit when we asked them to clean up before dinner. They finally calmed down, and after dinner, we sang some songs with guitar and piano accompaniment. We went to OMSI on Sunday morning to see the new Ends of the Earth exhibit about polar bears at the North Pole and penguins at the South Pole. As usual, it was a nice exhibit with lots of neat things to look at including a huge Jumer's style free standing Polar Bear. We spent a little more than an hour in the exhibit, and then it was time to go home for lunch. It was a very rainy day, so I declared nap day. However, the girls didn't nap, so I didn't nap. On the plus side, I was able to get all the laundry done much earlier than normal. Phoebe is learning "Hello my baby" since it's one of the songs in Jada's song book. She enjoys singing it. Now I should find that Michigan J. Frog Warner Brothers cartoon on YouTube or something to show her.
For Thanksgiving, we decided to do something a little different this year. The weather was clear and sunny, though the temperature was in the upper 30's, so we decided to get outside for the morning before we started getting things ready for the day so we went to the Zoo. The lot was packed with cars when we got there at 9am because of the annual Turkey Trot run. Luckily, it was just ending so we were able to find a place to park in the main lot. We went immediately off the main drag and into the Pacific NW exhibit to see the bears which also took us away from almost all the people that were currently in the Zoo that morning. We took a couple pictures to see if we could get a good Christmas card picture this year. I thought I was smiling, but I think I was the only one who wasn't for some reason. We hit our normal stops except this time, we stopped to have a snack in the Amazon rain forest where it was warm. Once home, the preparations for dinner began with cleaning. Then we went over to pick up grandma early so she could spend a longer time here while Jada and I got dinner ready. After Pete came over, and while we were waiting for the turkey to finish, Jada and I played some carols. Jada set a beautiful table for the whole family including Papa, Grandma, and Pete.
I took the Friday after Thanksgiving off. I got the car's oil changed in the morning (ok, I did some work in the waiting area there since they had free wifi and all), and we spent the rest of the morning visiting with family friends and their grandchildren who are Ellen and Phoebe's age. In the afternoon, everyone took a nap but me. Jada successfully talked me into going for a bike ride since it was still nice and sunny, and this time of year, you never know how many days like that you're going to get. It was in the upper 30's, but I stayed warm enough during my 30 mile ride. I even saw a coyote walk across the road. I thought it was a dog when I first saw it walk across, so I wound up my sprint towards the driveway I saw it walk down so I'd be at full speed to discourage it from chasing, but that's when I saw it was a coyote with no interest in much but trotting along the road. That night we went to Zoo Lights for the members only night and buffet. We skipped the train this year since we usually only ride every other year, plus it was quite cold. We started off with the holiday buffet and got a table in the corner of two windows overlooking the train station so we could watching the decorated trains pull in and out. Dinner was great as always. We gave our compliments directly to Chef Warner. Since the girls had both napped and been in such pleasant moods, we let them have a second Jell-o cup. The funny thing is that neither girl finished the second cup! Then we walked it off with a stroll around the Zoo through the lights. It was nice as always.
On a Saturday drive back from grocery shopping, we were treated to the thoughts and ideas of how the girls are currently planning on spending their futures. Ellen would like to move out of Oregon and settle in Maine (Maine?!? Why? We have no idea). She said she would come back to visit us every other year. She'll be speaking their language when she comes back too, she claims. What that language is? Again, we have no idea. Phoebe is planning to live with us forever, or at least next door. Though she'll settle for down the street as long as she can walk to our house whenever she wants.
During the last week of the month, my back survived my first basketball game of the season, and I got to take Phoebe to her gymnastics class. She does quite well in there. She runs super fast. Then Jada had to be the single mom on Thursday and Friday while I was away in Arizona for work (it was cloudy and raining there, too). One night Ellen talked about how much she feels like she "falls into books" when she's reading them. With November in the rear view mirror, we're coming into the home stretch for the year.
Journal entry: December 1, 2007