Teresa started a puzzle

  

Grandma's birthday.

Saturday we celebrated Theo's 78th birthday. It was a fun time. We took lunch out for her so she didn't have to cook. Teresa baked a beautiful cake. Teresa and I started a puzzle for them. It will be up to them to finish it. Grandad is progressing well after his surgery. Enjoy the pictures.

Today Chris's team led worship so we had an early start with a 7:15a.m. practice. Now we are hoping for naps. Teresa and Chauntel are working on the LSG project.

Grandad is looking good after his surgery. Isn't he handsome in his mustache?

  

It has been a complicated past week with surgeries on Milton and Grandma Ruth, a conference at church, our car getting broken into and work and a slowly leaking tire yesterday. But things are looking up today. I found out the tire that was going flat yesterday was able to be fixed for no charge buying us a little time to replace it. The replacement window will only be $65 from the junk yard installed but I have to wait till Friday. Grandma is hanging in there. Even tho they did find some cancer cells in the pathology of the polyp they had already taken out a portion of the colon so she won't have to have chemo or radiation. I have two days off so can spend more time with mom and get a few things done with the cars and house.

Chris started doing transcription at Sunnyside tomorrow. I haven't heard how it is going. Don't forget to see my quilt on the previous blog picture. Love Jan

my new quilt

  

I'd rather be quilting!

Well I have officially been bit by the quilting bug. I have been thinking about my next project since I finished my log cabin quilt. I’ve looked through books for designs and gone to the fabric stores. I really don’t want to spend the money that is necessary for the type of quilt I really want so will try to use up some of the fabric I have bought at garage sales last year. I have enough for a yellow baby quilt and a blue quilt that could be for a baby boy or as a blanket to take to meetings at the church since I am always cold in this rainy weather. This will help my skill level but doesn’t get me a finished product that I really want. But I must have self control and not let this new temptation take over.

I have also been forcing myself to do some things around the house instead of starting a new quilting project. I want to paint the back bathroom but before I can allow myself to do that I had to finish painting the front bathroom which I did yesterday. Then I had to go to Wal-Mart to get paint and primer and a spray bottle to spray the icky mildew with bleach or “30 seconds” which the lady at Wal-Mart says is actually 99.9% bleach. Meanwhile I am having trouble keeping the stupid flexible tubing on the dryer since I moved it to paint. I have duct taped it twice but we’ll have to see if it will stay.

Other things we’ve done over the past week include:

-Went to see the movie The end of the Sword in Battleground with Linda and Susie
-Teresa and I had to take a class on preventing child abuse and procedures for childcare workers so we could volunteer at church
-Chris’s worship team had their first time of leading worship. We had a lot of compliments and they were asked to do worship at a special conference in Feb.
-Had home group last night here (it hasn’t been here for over a month)
-Had lunch with mom and dad (aka Ruth and Larry)
-Hit a few pitiful garage sales.

Still to do:

-Class tonight for Chris and Jan. We have to present a teaching on the Joy of the Lord to be recorded and evaluated.
-Watch survivor tomorrow.
-Sewing at Linda’s on Saturday, (I get to start a new quilt!)
-Actually start painting the bathroom. Ugh!

Teresa and Chauntel

 
 

Teresa, Chauntel, Joanna, Glenna, Danny

 
 

Joanna

 
 

 
 

I have had a few days off so have been able to finish my quilt. I really like how it turned out. We are also getting everything together for Teresa's formal tomorrow. She is having a sleep over afterwards so I still need to clean a little. We will have pictures by Sunday maybe.

Chris has been busy with work, physical therapy and doctors appointments, life group, band practice and our leadership class. We gave our lessons in front of a camera on Wednesday and were evaluated. We still have one more to do next week. I enjoyed it.

Teresa is also preparing speeches and getting totally freaked out about it. Fortunately she didn't have time to do it Thursday and so has the weekend to practice. She got 100% on her math homework and test. Yea!

The city cut down five large trees on our block yesterday.

 
 

Another view of the quilt

 
 

Jan finished her quilt today

 
 

Life after Christmas

The good:

-Teresa and I worked on quilts last week. Teresa finished her quilt top and I have most of my blocks done. I hope to work on it more this Sunday.

-We are starting plans for a trip to Yellowstone this August. It’s fun to be making itineraries and have something to look forward to.

-We enjoyed celebrating birthdays with both Grandma Ruth and Granddad

-Chris got a good report from his doctor yesterday. He is healing well and starts physical therapy Monday.

-We can watch the second season of 24 instead of old Christmas specials.

-Teresa got a new dress for the formal next week. It is turquoise blue and gorgeous.

-Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Larry came over for lunch yesterday and we had a good visit.

The Bad:

-Jan has been sick for the last ten days. (I am getting better, no coughing last night.)

-All the Christmas decorations have been taken down and it looks a little plain.

-It’s kind of lonely without all the kids home…but there is potentially more to read on the blogs that way.

And the ugly:

-I did move Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus to the back yard and noticed how ugly the yard is….moss growing everywhere, dead roses still on the rosebushes, rain, rain, and more rain and lots of weeds. (But the daffodils and crocus are poking up and eventually the rain will stop and I will be healthy enough to go outside and clean up a bit.)

Hope your life after Christmas has more good than bad and ugly.

Teresa's new hair cut

 
 

Chris playing Jimmi Hendricks was the murderer which nobody guessed.

 
 

Teresa as Judy Garland

 
 

Julie as Bob Marley

 
 

Susie as Lucille Ball

 
 

Bug as Bruce Lee

 
 

Chris and Tonia won prizes

 
 

On New year's eve we went to a Murder Mystery party at Linda's home. It was a lot of fun. Tonia and Chris both won prizes. Enjoy the pictures.

Jonathan and Tonia as Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers

 
 

Ed as John Wayne

 
 

Tonia's new hat and scarf that Teresa made

 
 

Bev

 
 

Gloria and Deborah at Thanksgiving

 
 

Grandma Ruth

 
 

It's back to work we go.

Chris got a call today that they need him to work in Salmon Creek Pharmacy department tomorrow. So he will be 8:30 to 5:00 we think. After two days off I will work one last day before Christmas. And the girls will both be working tomorrow as well. Thank you God for jobs.... but who is going to clean the house? lol.

Today we finished up last minute shopping and wrapping, made chex mix and did some sewing, lots of laundry and tried to clear off the dining room table yet again. Now to give Wilson a bath and a new blanket and I will be ready for Jonathan and Tonia to come (well maybe closer anyway).

Tomorrow we also have to drive Wilson to the vet to get his shots. Fun Fun.

See you all soon. Jan

We survived the slumber party and even managed to get some sleep. Laura, Teresa, Grandma Ruth and I all invaded Susie's house and joined Linda for a card making party. Our cards had much more variety since we borrowed some of their supplies and ideas. It was great fun. We all sucessfully completed several cards and/or to/froms.

We are very happy that Chris was able to climb up on the roof and fix our ailing antena so we now are able to get Channel 8 and the others are coming in much better as well. Thank you Chris! Now if there was only something interesting to watch on TV we could watch it. Lol. (We couldn't quite handle The sound of Music or the christmas specials so Teresa and I watched the Gilmore Girls 3rd season.)

I finally finished decorating the last of the gingerbread men and they are ready for the freezer until next week since we've eaten many the past few days. It sounds like we will have plenty of deserts over christmas.

I’m glad it’s Friday.

After working four days this week I am ready for the weekend. I have been making cookies in my “spare time”. We have presents under the tree and cookies so we are almost ready for people to stop by. Tonight is Teresa’s Christmas sleepover although they don’t sleep much. Laura is housesitting for my coworker so we don’t see much of her for a few days. We did get to watch the Apprentice finale with her. Tomorrow we are having a card making party with Linda and Grandma Ruth and Laura. Hopefully Teresa can stay awake for it as well.

Chris’s arm continues to improve and he is back to playing guitar. He has practice for a new worship band on Thursdays and he led worship at home group Tuesday. He went to Cathlamet on Monday and a Christmas party with Kaiser Sunnyside on Thursday. We have a party together on Tuesday with our home group with a white elephant gift exchange. We can hardly wait till everyone comes home to celebrate.

A busy fun weekend

Laura arrived home late Friday. It is good to have her home.
Saturday Laura, Teresa and Jan went to Suzie Meyers with Linda and did sewing and arts stuff. Then we came home and decorated our tree and then went to see The Chronicles of Narnia.

Sunday we went to Church and were given tickets for the Blazer game tonight so Chris and I went to that and the girls went to Andrea's. We also got some Christmas wrapping done.

To do list:
*Chris to Dr. Greene for post op..............Done (His brace is off and he is gradually to increase his activity. No lifting over 10 pounds for now.)

* Christmas shop..............................In progress. Got two more presents. Only one more to go!

* Buy foam to make cushions for rocker........Done

*Finish Healthworks tape

*Finish Christmas mailing

*Make up bed for Laura

*Clean up a little outside ie hoses etc.

*Get tree from the attic

How many Fergusons does it take to change a tire?

On Saturday it took four of us to change Laura's tires to snow tires. Chris had to just direct because of his arms. Laura and Jan were doing quite well and got the first one changed when we decided Teresa needed to get some experience changing tires since she didn't have to do it in driver's ed. So Teresa helped us change the second one with Laura instructing where to put the jack and Mom helping loosen and tighten the lug nuts when Teresa had trouble. See what fun we would have missed if we had gotten Jonathan to do it as originally planned.

We also got Christmas lights up with Chris cringing at how I moved the ladder and how I did things but they are up. We even got Mary and Joseph and Jesus and a star. Today we went for a walk to look at lights but not many were up yet. Jan also decorated the inside of the house today except for the tree. That will have to wait for another day.

Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Larry

 
 

The girls pose for a picture