Lynnette's News

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We are nicely settled in Palm Springs and glad to be back for the winter season. The first week here was rather cool with several days of rain followed by warmer temps and more typical desert weather. We survived a horrible wind storm yesterday and were inside of the rv all day long. The mountains were not visible because of dust in the air, and I guess several major interstates were closed because of the high winds. Today is clear and pretty and much back to normal. All in all, it's much warmer here than in Vancouver this time of year. I am particularly grateful to be here this year without a broken/sprained ankle and am enjoying walking, biking and swimming. The weight is continuing to come off.

Our wish to all of our family and friends is for a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. Whether home or away, enjoy this time of year and hope for a wonderful New Year. We hope to hear from all of you sometime soon. Stephanie and her family will join us for a belated Christmas on the 28th. They will travel to Palm Springs from Las Vegas where Curtis is bowling in another nation wide tournament. We're hoping for a repeat performance of his last time there with a perfect 300 game! See you all next year.

 

Family Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year with Stephanie, Jeff and the grandkids. They arrived from Spokane late Wednesday and were lucky to have clear dry weather. Thursday went so well with great food and even better company. I cooked a very traditional dinner along with home made pumpkin and pecan pie. Steph and Alexis helped in the kitchen while the guys tried to keep Norine occupied.

 Sorry, Curtis and Jeff avoided the camera as much as possible. I got a couple of good ones of Alexis butthey turned out too blurry. Our good friends Kim and Rhonda, along with their daughter, joined us for dessert.

We are heading to Palm Springs on Tuesday or Wednesday depending on how organized we are. We are anxious to leave as the weather is cooperating and will be dry for the next week. We really don't like traveling when there is a chance of snow or ice and it looks like we have a perfect window. I'll let you know when we arrive and how the weather is. The last we looked it was in the mid 70's in the desert.
  
 

Lots of Good News

The past month has been extremely busy for us and the next two weeks will be even busier. We have Stephanie, Jeff and the kids arriving on Wednesday for Thanksgiving and will be able to enjoy them until the following Saturday. Once they head home we will begin preparation to leave for the sunny southern California desert.

I saw my doctor on Wednesday to review my 6 month ultrasound on my left leg, and the results were what I had hoped and more. The tiny blood clots have all disappeared and I am free from cumadin (blood thinners) hopefully forever!  I have also now lost 40 pounds and am off one other medication. What a relief! She feels I will be off one more in the next 6 months due to the fact that I have peeled off the pounds. My goal, of course, is to off of them all. Good news is always appreciated and I think this winter in the desert will be much more pleasant for both Steve and I. He has lost 35 pounds now, so we're feeling much better and for sure moving around much faster.

Norine & Alexis last year
 

The winter weather is definitely here, but I have to say, neither of us mind a bit. The four seasons are still special for us to watch. The trees are all pretty bare by now, so leaf cleaning has been a big effort. We plan to do a bit of re-landscaping when we return in March and are anxious to plan a new look to the yards. We are also planning to paint the house, (at least the trim) so we have a lot to think about while out of town during the next few months.

I will report our Thanksgiving holiday with the kids soon. In the meantime, we wish our friends and family a happy turkey day!

We're Settled In

Steve & I are finally settled in our new home and back to assuming a fairly normal life. Moving is tons of work, but we are so happy here and feel as though we've lived here for a long long time. One huge difference here was that we gave out over 300 trick-or-treat candies on Halloween, which is something we weren't used to at the last house. We managed but had to turn out our lights before 8:00 p.m.

I started a new quilt (African Theme) which is for our motor home. I've finally decided that I would like to keep at least one for us. I've also been working on Alexis' scrapbook which I intend to give her next June for graduation. She is attending Eastern University in Spokane and will receive her high school diploma while completing her first year of college. We are very proud of her.

 
 Alexis- Leaving Seattle on our cruise in August

Stephanie, Jeff and the kids will be coming to our house for Thanksgiving this year. We're looking forward to seeing them and having a traditional type holiday dinner. I'm ready to tackle the whole nine yards in my new kitchen up to and including pumpkin and pecan pie. It's been awhile since I've had a crowd here for the holidays and am grateful that they are close enough to come.

We're planning to head to Palm Springs around the first of December and do hope the weather cooperates. We will just have to be ready to leave when the weather looks clear enough for the long journey. We are starting to get cool temperatures here and some rain, so we are ready for the winter in the desert.

We've Moved!

Sorry I haven't blogged for awhile, but we've been majorly busy. Steve and I have been discussing moving to a smaller place on one level, so we listed our home on August 8th and sold on August 10th. This was a big surprise in an ailing real estate market. Anyway, we were extremely lucky and found a perfect single level home with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths as opposed to 4 bedroom 4 bath. Getting rid of the stairs was worth the move in itself. Steve also scored a five car garage and is now able to have a real shop. My sister and brother-in-law came over from Wenatchee and helped us out and for that we are grateful! We do have a new address to share for those of you who still mail things................it's 1218 NE 145th Ave, Vancouver, WA 98684. Our land line and cell numbers remain the same.

 
Our new house in Vancouver 

Seems like the summer passed very quickly this year, but we enjoyed beautiful weather and lots of outdoor time. We took several rv trips, including a  family reunion in Eureka.  As usual we went to the Oregon coast a few times as it is so pretty there in the summertime. We met Stephanie, Jeff and the kids in Cannon Beach and had a nice family visit. They camped and we stayed in an rv park nearby. Our idea of camping is really different from the old days.

Life is good and we're staying busy with everything. We should be heading to the desert sometime in December depending on how settled we are here. Steve and I have lost a ton of weight between us (about 65 lbs.) and are motivated more than ever. We both feel better and are low on clothes that fit properly. I'll keep you posted on our progress. Please let us hear from you.

 

Fun Week With Our Grandson

We met Stephanie half way last week in Kennewick and picked up Curtis for a week. He is taller every time we see him and is changing daily. I had forgotten how much a 13 year old boy can eat in one sitting. Since you all should know by now that he is a bowling maniac, that's pretty much what we did all week with the exception of eating and sleeping. We visited 3 different bowling alleys in 5 days. Curtis bowled a 279 at one of the alleys with a 700 plus series. Most of us who have bowled in our lifetimes will  never see the likes of either!  Regretfully we returned him to his mom yesterday and had a long 8 hour round trip in the car in hot temperatures. We're glad to be home safe and will look forward to seeing him again soon. He's a really fun kid to be around and he kept us entertained with his teenage antics.

Below is a picture of our resident squirrel. We finally caved in and got a feeder since he was performing acrobatics on our various bird feeders trying to eat. We do enjoy him (or her) early in the morning and later evening.

A cute picture of Timi sunning himself in our backyard.

  Steve and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on July 12th with our good friends Bill and Candy. Their anniversary is just two weeks later, so we got together in Canyonville and had a fun weekend. It seems like we've been going a lot and are still committed to some more. We will attend a wedding in Eugene next weekend and plan a trip to see Steve's mom in early August. I don't know whether there's much time to do more but we always manage.

Alexis, Alaska and Me

Alexis and I returned last Sunday, July 5th, from our week long cruise to Alaska. We had a fabulous week of weather, and I guess we really lucked out. The cruise one week prior was completely rained out, so we were grateful for mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures. Let's see, we managed four days of shore excursions in seven days and enjoyed them all immensely. We went whale watching in Juneau, did a city tour of Skagway, including history of the gold rush days, a lumberjack show in Ketchican, and a city tour of Victoria. We really enjoyed the Butchart gardens in Victoria and managed some great photos there. Below is a shot of Seattle from our balcony on the back of the ship just prior to setting sail. It was a beautiful day!

 Alexis with the Lumberjacks in Ketchican who performed the show with axes and chain saws. These guys were amazing and really strong. She got a kick out of the fact that the one standing next to her was her height (5'4"), but boy could he swing an axe!

            

This was at the Butchart gardens entering the rose section. What a treat to see all of the beautiful roses in the best bloom we were told in several years. It was almost 90 degrees there that day and so spectacular.

           

This is the overlook in Skagway, and this was the only day of overcast skies. It wasn't cold though and we had a great time.

           

All in all, we had the best time imaginable. It's not often that grandma and granddaughter have the opportunity to spend a week together, and for that I am grateful. She is a great girl with lots of hopes and dreams for the future. Alexis will be starting Eastern University Spokane in the fall and will undoubtedly be very busy from that time forward. Curtis is coming to Vancouver next week to spend some time with us alone also and will probably see plenty of bowling alleys while here. Our other concern is how to keep enough food to feed him for a week.............he is, after all, a teenage boy!

Lots Going On

Sorry you haven't heard from me for awhile, but there has been lots going on with the Fridleys. Around 3 weeks ago I was diagnosed with a blood clot in my leg, and as a result was chair bound (again) with my leg elevated. The doc has everything under control and I will now have to take a blood thinner for about 3 months. It was scary at the time but I started to improve immediately, and with proper medication will be fine. Yes, this is the same leg with the broken and sprained ankle, and my doctor is confident that this condition occurred as a result of trauma to my ankle. Oh well, stuff happens. I am back to my regular routines around the house and garden and am grateful for that.

Below is a picture of our motor home at the Seven Feathers RV park in Canyonville Oregon. We stop there when coming and going on I-5 which is fairly often. What a beautiful spot to stay, and of course there is a nice casino/restaurant also.

 

We had a yard sale last weekend and in two days managed to get rid of lots of "stuff". I'm definitely in the spring cleaning mood and have been going through things I haven't looked at in a very long time. Along with garage and house stuff, I also let go of some old coins to a neighbor who collects them with his young daughter. It's nice to recycle things to someone else who has a different appreciation of them. I have also sorted a bunch of old jewelry and have managed to get almost every loose picture in this house into an album. It feels great to clean house literally!

Alexis and I will be heading to Seattle on June 28th and will be on a seven day cruise to Alaska. Steve will drive us there on Sunday morning and pick us up the following week. So far we have four shore excursions planned which will include whale watching, a lumberjack show, shopping trips, and a city tour of Victoria B.C. to include the famous gardens there. (We will be in Victoria harbor on July 4th and are hoping for some good fireworks). We are both looking forward to special grandma/granddaughter time and with her starting college next year may not have this opportunity anytime soon. She is looking forward to seeing the state in which she was born 17 years ago. I'm still blown away by that. My next blog should have some fun pictures from our cruise.

 

 

 

So Much Going On

We have been extremely busy since returning home from Palm Springs.  This past month has been especially so with Kristen and Steve coming through on their way home and Mother's Day with Stephanie, Jeff and the kids. We also squeezed in a trip to Eureka to visit mom Fridley and had fun visiting with her. We had a great time with all of them and can't believe how much the kids keep growing!!! (Except for Alexis, she's full grown) The kids had fun visiting the Portland Zoo, especially Norine. Below are some pics of her while visiting.

  

Norine is such a happy girl and her English is phenomenal!!! I gave Stephanie the scrapbook I have been making for her of her first 18 years, and I have to say she really was surprised and happy.

Curtis had a bowling tournament in Longview while here, so we enjoyed watching him improve into quite the pro. He won the blue ribbon for high game which I think was a 257. We are very proud of him. Alexis is still Alexis in that she is so sweet and so much fun to be around. She and I will be going on a cruise to Alaska the end of June and we are both very excited.

Other than that, we are continually busy working in the yard and going to as many estate/yard sales as possible. We need to have a yard sale soon to get rid of some of the stuff we've been accumulating. It's fun and we continue to learn our way around Vancouver that way.

Everything is blooming!!!!

I'm going to make an effort to get back to regular blogging now that we are home and very well settled. Sometimes it is hard to switch gears from one place to another, but I think I have a good handle on it now.

This is a very exciting time of year for Steve and I since we love to spend lots of time in our yard. One really wonderful part about the northwest is the ability to grow about anything imaginable from Spring until late fall. We work much harder here trying to keep things reasonably sized as opposed to trying with difficulty to get things to grow big in central California in the clay soil. 

Our camellias literally opened overnight in our front courtyard and are so beautiful! The blooms will last a long time now. I have gorgeous daffodils this year and I'm wondering whether the unexpected snow and frost was actually good for them.

Kristen stopped for two nights on her way home from Grants Pass where her son Craig lives. We haven't seen each other for months now, so we had a great time catching up on the last months' happenings. She had her two dogs Jackie and Joey with her and that in itself was tiring. Joey is still a puppy and was able to wear out the entire household, including his cousins Timi and Tia. This picture tells it all:

Joey is the most precious thing and wore himself out as seen here! Timi & Tia did get used to him and eventually were able to move around the house without too much snapping or growling. Her other dog Jackie causes no problems at all and sticks very close to Kristen.

Other than a couple of necessary dental visits, our lives are pretty well settled and back to normal. We had glorious weather over the past week with temps in the 70's and even close to 80 on Monday. We will have spring rains and unsettled weather over the next two months, but we don't mind the changes and actually know it's great for the lawns and gardens. We manage to stay very busy and are happy to be here.

We will be heading to Eureka to see mom Fridley sometime later this month and will have Stephanie and her family here for Mother's Day in May. Steve's sister and brother-in-law also have tentative plans to visit us sometime in May. Alexis will turn 17 tomorrow, so Happy Birthday Alexis!!! Steve and I cannot believe it.