November 1st was a beautiful day. It started off in the upper 30's, but we made the effort to sleep in followed by our big breakfast. It was sunny and clear with a nice fall coolness to the air. Jada went to visit Gramma while I stayed behind with the girls to finish up piano. We made a run to the orchard as well to stock up on apples as we come down to the end of the season. I had to rush off to help some friends move to their new house. It took all afternoon. And we managed to get the U-Haul stuck on the driveway. The trailer hitch scraped, and it wouldn't budge. We got the truck unloaded hoping it would help lift the rear of the truck, and it did, but not the hitch. Eventually, we had to call the auto club to get a tow truck. I ended up leaving before the tow truck got there so I could meet the girls over at swimming. It was too late to make dinner at that point, and since we had planned on pizza, my arms were too tired to make the dough. We decided just to go out instead. We finished up the night listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book on CD.
Monday morning was the start of parent teacher conferences, and Jada had a full day ahead of her. I stayed home since all of my meetings were able to be attended via phone anyway. And attend them I did. I was on the phone pretty much all day. My ear set at home isn't nearly as comfy as the one I have at work. I tried to move around a lot too since my desk for my laptop is not very ergo. While I was attending my meetings, the girls got to quietly do whatever they wanted. To their credit, they played quietly all day. I didn't have to break up a single fight which must be some sort of record. Around noon, they came out with a completed book that they had written and illustrated called Rabbit's New Friend. I scanned it in as their first collaborative effort. Ellen wrote the words, and Phoebe drew the pictures. It just needs to be colored in, and I think it'd be ready to print after cleaning up some of the spelling.
On Tuesday morning, Jada and I went in to Ellen and Phoebe's teacher conferences. They are both doing very well. We got to see the stories that they have both been working on in their classrooms. Jada took the girls over to have lunch with Gramma. We were notified Tuesday that Phoebe won another 2nd place for the New Season's coloring contest in her 6-8 year age group. Ellen was disappointed. Jada also took the kitties into the vet for a check up. Both are healthy, but Flower is a little overweight. They said she just wasn't getting enough exercise. Another reason that we need to get her to a farm or someone who can let her go outside. In the afternoon, the girls got to do whatever they wanted, and Jada pulled out some of my old Choose your own adventure books from the closet. Ellen is really enjoying them. During dinner, Phoebe was complaining about her front tooth that has been loose for the last month. Jada offered to "clean it" for her, and she plucked it right out. It was ready this time. Finally, I started coming down with whatever crud Jada had last week. Friday night, we had our soccer party for Ellen's team. The head coach hosted it at his house, and everyone brought food to share. After getting a slice of pizza, it was time to bring each of the girls up to get their certificate, dog tags, and hacky sack soccer ball. All four of the coaches had something to say about each of the eleven girls, so we went really long, but to their credit, the kids stuck it through to the end. It's just a really good group of parents and kids on the team. It was fun to get to know them and try to teach them soccer. We left just before 9pm which wasn't so great due to the fact that the girls had their piano competition in the morning.
The late bedtime didn't make any difference for the girls though. I heard the first door open at just after 5am. We had breakfast, and they each ran through all of their pieces before heading off to the location of the competition known as the Festival of Ribbons & Ensemble Festival in Sherwood. The girls did a terrific job on their duet, and Ellen did great on her duet with a different girl in her studio. I had never gotten to hear the other part of that one, so that was fun. The girls both did well on their individual music too. Phoebe (or Phoobe, as she was listed in one of the programs) surprised a lot of people as her piece is quite long for a memorized piece especially after following a girl who did a very short one and looked only a little younger than Phoebe. Ellen's piece was long as well, and a little more complicated. They both got good marks on all of their work. We spent the afternoon hunkered down in the house while the rain poured outside. I wasn't feeling well still, so I spent quite a bit of the time in bed. I didn't sleep much, and I woke up with more of a headache than I went to bed with. While I made dinner (my deep dish pizza), Jada went over to visit Gramma. After dinner, we listened to some more of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on CD.
Sunday morning, we all slept in as much as we could. After breakfast, I attempted to copy our latest home movie to the computer for DVD distribution, but I wasn't able to play the tape on the video camera. This may finally be the end of our 8 year old Hi-8 camera. Now I have to figure out what to get next and whether I want flash or hard drive. At least the non-HD models are a lot less expensive. We stopped by Gramma's to visit for a while, and spent some time around the house. After swimming, we came back home to get ready for Monday. While I was on the phone with my parents, we had a message from the girls' piano teacher to call her back. When Jada did, we found out that Ellen and Phoebe did such a good job on their duet that they were picked best in their age group (K-5th grade) by the judges, and they get to represent the Tualatin Valley District at the Oregon Music Teachers Assoc. state recital. They'll participate in a recital with kids from all over the state performing their pieces in December, and they'll be presented with a medal for their performance. It's very exciting. Ellen and Phoebe's faces lit up when we let their teacher tell them on the speaker phone. We spread the news to the family that evening we were so excited and proud. We finished the night off with more Harry Potter.
The week went pretty uneventfully. Wednesday was Veteran's day, so Jada had the day off. During that day, she was able to visit Gram with the girls for lunch and get the book that Ellen wrote and Phoebe illustrated "published" at Kinko's for the baby shower Jada was hosting for Phoebe's Godmother.
Saturday was the day of the shower, and we had a lot of cleaning to do. We got a cold day (32 degrees when I woke up), but at least it wasn't raining. After grocery shopping, Jada cleaned the house, and I took care of the yard while the girls "helped". I hadn't raked since the beginning of fall, and it showed. I completely filled the yard recycling cart, so I had to hide the remainder on the side of the house. The shower was nice. The guest of honor had requested that everyone bring a book that they enjoyed when they were a child or with their own children. Her mother-in-law brought two books from her father that had been handed down through the family. There were loads of other great books including the Ellen and Phoebe original tale Little Rabbit's New Friend - now colorized and typed in to book form. Sunday was back to rain. We visited with Gram, did piano, and went swimming. I did free swim with the girls after their lesson this time. We listened to more Harry Potter before bed. I wondered aloud when we should start waiting to listen to it during the day since I know the bit with the spiders is coming up soon. For a thin book, a lot happened in the last act.
Tuesday morning, Phoebe woke up with a temperature of 101, so she had to stay home from school. I stayed with her since Jada was busy with teaching in the morning and testing in the afternoon. Hopefully it's just the regular flu. It seems the more people are trying to avoid it, the easier it is coming this year. Early the next morning Phoebe's temp was lower, but still over 100, so I stayed home with her again. By afternoon, the fever was completely gone, and we sent her back to school again on Thursday.
Saturday the twenty-first, was a potentially busy day. We did the grocery shopping to prepare for Thanksgiving. Then Jada was invited to the blue belt test for some students (one current, and one former) for taekwondo. We were originally going to take the girls, but they found it more fun to yell at us all morning, so they stayed home sending Jada alone. We did make it to a play put on by a local high school of Disney's Aladdin Jr. We met up with some friends there. It was a good production. The girls really liked it. The whole cast was lining the hallway outside the theater on the way out, so the girls got to see Jasmine up close. On the way to Gramma's from there, Ellen said she'd like to participate in one of those plays, so I told her to talk to Auntie Mandy. After Gramma's, we stopped by the camera shop I had dropped my tape off with last week to get it copied, and they couldn't find anything on it. It had gotten completely erased somehow. Which explains why the camera couldn't read it any more after I rewound it. I'm not sure what happened, but we are all very bummed that we lost almost 6 months of activities including gymnastics, the school informances, some piano, and soccer. We'll try to get the piano pieces recorded on the new camera which arrived on Friday. I started with Ellen's Christmas song practice Saturday morning. It's just very sad. Our dryer is also making horrible noises now too. I think that's probably just a belt though.
On Sunday morning, we visited Gramma. Each of the girls brought something to read to her. We did house work most of the afternoon. I did laundry and hoped that the dryer would last long enough to make it through everything, but the first load of girls clothes, I had to stop it. The squeaking was too loud, and It sounded pretty bad. It could be a belt, but it also sounds like it could be a problem with the lube somewhere in the cylinder. I don't know much about dryers so I'm calling in someone for repair tomorrow. I just hope they can get in this week, and it won't cost more than just buying a new dryer. The girls had their last swimming lessons too. Neither got to move up to the next level. They both need to work on their side breathing, so we stayed for free swim again this week. I worked with Phoebe a little bit on side breathing, but we mostly just played around. Ellen was using a pair of flippers. She has a good dolphin kick with the flippers on. I know I didn't learn how to swim a proper stroke until probably somewhere around junior high, so I'm not too worried. They can both have fun, and move around in the water. The strokes will come.
On Tuesday, the girls found out that they raised enough money for their school's fun run to be one of the 12 to get a limo ride with the principal, as well as a pizza party, T-shirt, medallion, and a coupon to the student store. So they are super excited. It's taken us a while, but thank you notes are on the way, so we apologize for that. On Wednesday, I had to sit at home between 8 and noon to wait for the repairman for our dryer, but they didn't actually make it before noon. In fact, he didn't make it until 1pm. Diagnosis was a bad motor. On the bright side, it was still less than a new dryer. On the downside, it wasn't that much less. However, with the new motor, we shouldn't have to worry about that again for a few more years at least, and it is 10 years old now. So I ended up just staying home all day. Luckily, I had made arrangements to not have any face to face meetings on Wednesday afternoon. I was disappointed though since the afternoon before a holiday is usually a great time to catch up on things at work since few people are there which means few distractions. Jada went to Phoebe's class today to help with the unit on spiders. She made "spider shakes" also known as "bug juice." Really she set up a blender and put in the milk (web or silk), then added scoops of vanilla ice cream (bugs), caramel syrup (poison), chocolate syrup (digestive juices), and finally blended the mixture. Then the students drank it through two straws acting as fangs. It was a big hit!
Thursday was Thanksgiving. We had a surprise visit from Pete first thing in the morning. It was nice to see him so soon before he had to rush off to his many other appearances that he has shoved into this weekend. Jada started on the feast that we were bringing over to Gramma's for lunch. We got ready and loaded everything up to head over. It was raining all day, so unloading over at Gramma's wasn't fun, but luckily, Pete met us there to help. We brought the wagon to make things easier. We had lunch followed by a performance from each of the girls on piano. I brought our travel piano with us as a surprise, and Gramma was sure surprised to hear a piano in her room. We had pie after the performances, and then Gramma fell asleep on the couch. (Pete fell asleep in the chair. No surprise there!) We went home and listened to the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before heading over to our dinner with the Wiltz clan. Dave (Wiltz) deep fried the turkey and sweet potato fries. Man, that's tasty! It was nice to see them again since we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. Since it was Thanksgiving, I want to give thanks for the friends that I have made here in Oregon. We've rarely had to spend a holiday alone without family or friends who are practically family. It makes us very grateful for all the support we receive, and I just hope that we are able to give some of that back.
Friday morning, I didn't go to work, but I did take the car in to get it's 30k maintenance done. I rode my bike home from there. The rain had finally stopped some time over night, so I had a dry, chilly ride home. As soon as I got home, Jada suggested I go to the gym since I couldn't go this morning since it didn't open until 6am after the holiday. I decided to ride my bike over there too. And just get a little more exercise, I took my commuter up one of the big hills near our house. Jada went to help her mom move to a new facility where she can get more care in the afternoon. Later in the evening, we all stopped by to check on Gramma on our way to the Zoo for Zoolights. We had gotten there later than we would prefer, but we were able to find a place to park still. We then walked into the Cascade Grill expecting to find the annual spread of the Holiday Buffett, but instead, we found nothing setup except the condiment table for the grill. We stood there agape for a good 2 minutes trying to comprehend what it was we were looking at while the girls asked us where the food was. We asked the kid working the counter about it, and he said that they had decided to discontinue it. We were all very disappointed. Both the girls started to act a bit surly after that. I can't say I blame them all that much since Jada and I weren't happy about it either, and we were all hungry since we had expected this to be our big meal. We went ahead and did a lap around the Zoo to look at the lights. There were some new ones to see. It looked really good as always. After we left there, we went in search of a meal. We spent the drive on highway 26 trying to figure out where we could go. We settled on Benihana, but when we got there it was a 45 minute wait. Then we tried Noah's Bagels which we figured would be fast, and it was close by. However, they were closed. Finally, we settled on the Fresh Grill which is a nice neighborhood burger place we had recently found through recommendation from some of Jada's co-workers. It was open and not busy. And they had sweet potato fries so it was all worth it. We put the girls to bed when we got home, and it wasn't long before we followed.
Saturday morning, we did our grocery shopping and picked up the Subaru from the service center. We got a line on someone who may be able to take Flower off our hands, so I sent some information and pictures. We'll see how that turns out likely next month. Ellen spent some time trying to teach herself ballet from one of her books since we can't get her into a class. Phoebe spent the day reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We visited Gramma later in the day until dinner time.
Sunday wasn't a busy day for us. We visited Gramma in the morning, and then Jada went over to the old place do some more packing. During the day, Jada also made her first whole turkey dinner. We had gotten a free bird at Fred Meyer with one of their coupons for spending a certain amount on groceries expecting that we could donate it towards Thanksgiving dinner at our friend's house or to a shelter. However, no one needed it or had room to store them, so it naturally thawed in our fridge over the next few days. Jada used a New Seasons reference sheet to help her get it done, and it turned out really well. The girls each ate their own drum stick.
Monday was the last day of the month, and it was strange to be back at work after 4 days off. The girls didn't have school because it was a report card day for their school. Ellen had a Nature Park camp to go to. Phoebe isn't old enough for them yet, so she went to school with Jada to do some work along with some errands. They also visited Gramma, where Phoebe snuggled up on the bed and enjoyed the conversation. Gram informed us that had eaten her first meal in the "big" dining room and really enjoyed it. We are so excited that she is happy about the move and getting better care. We, of course, had more turkey for dinner.
That about does it for November. One more month to go in 2009.
Journal entry: 11/30/2009