On the Road Again

Sunday, February 27, 2011

This 'n That

Have pretty much been busy with all the usual stuff here in Oregon since Christmas.

Un-decorated the house of Christmas
Back to work (aka school) on January 3rd
Youngest son turned 29 years old on January 4th (how did I get so old??)
School district made final decision to cut 15 days (11 teaching days) from the school calendar for budget reduction
Went to a Christian Women's Conference in San Jose, CA with a dear friend. She is our Pastor's wife and she was the speaker at the conference. She roped me into doing a skit! Then she and I spent a day in San Francisco exploring and having fun.
February 17th - went to Tinseltown in Medford and saw "RISE", the movie. Excellent. If you love figure skating, you'd love this movie. Find out more at: www.rise1961.com
February 18th - 22nd were some of our budget reduction days so I went to Portland to play with grandchildren!
Snow day on February 24th - no school in our district
And now we are looking forward to:

Un-winterizing the 5th wheel and heading to the Oregon Coast for a few days in late March
Alaska cruise and land trip in June

Here's a few pictures for you.

Women's Conference

Stacy and me doing our skit

Bonnie, Conference Speaker

Rode the cable car from Fisherman's Wharf to Market Street, San Francisco

Ate dinner at Bubba Gumps on Pier 39

Some of the many sea lions that live at Pier 39

Granddaughter Claire, older twin (by 1 minute!) The twins will be 5 in June.

Granddaughter Julia, younger twin

Grandson Eli, almost 2 years old

Eli is going to be a singer/songwriter/musician!

Granddaughter Jocelyn who just turned 1 year old

Jocelyn busy at playing

Playroom at daughter's home with her three plus Jocelyn

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas behind us, New Year ahead of us

We trust you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Our Christmas was....different. But it was delightful.

Both of us got busy in the kitchen with more baking. Gordon wanted mince pie so he made one. He pointed out to me that he had never made a lattice crust before. I think he did an excellent job. (And the pie was delicious!)

I decided that we needed cookies and baked up some Russian Teacake cookies.

Christmas morning we slept in (the advantage of not having little children in the house! LOL). Then Gordon fixed breakfast for us: fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs benedict (one of my favorites!) and hot English Breakfast tea. YUM.

After breakfast we had our devotions and then opened Christmas presents. A bit later our doorbell rang. Gordon went to the door to see who could possibly be at our door on Christmas morning. There was Peter & Heidi and their kids, standing on our lawn, singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"!!! That was a total surprise and so fun. The camera was handy and I got a quick snapshot of them. :)

They came inside and visited for a while. The girls were so excited to tell us all about their presents. It was fun listening to them. And all the girls had on their brand new 'jammies from Auntie Crystal and Uncle Gary. Then they all headed off to fun times with Heidi's family.

In the evening Gordon and I watched "Amahl and the Night Visitors." That is a Sletmoe tradition. We've watched that every Christmas for a number of years. And before we had the video, we would listen to the record. All our kids grew up on "Amahl". When that was over, we watched "It's a Wonderful Life." Christmas isn't Christmas without George Bailey and Clarence!

Here are a few of our Christmas decorations for your viewing pleasure. :)

Candy canes and snowflakes

Our new front door

I started a collection of Christmas bears in 1998. I add a new one each Christmas. An additional two were given to me so I now have 15 bears to sit around the Christmas tree.

My mom crocheted these bells for me many years ago

This Nativity was given to me by our older daughter, Yvonne, over 12 years ago

Now we are looking forward to a new year. New adventures. New surprises. New hills and valleys. We go into this new year with our hands held tightly in God's hands, knowing that He will be with us every step of the way.

May God bless us all in 2011.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It is almost Christmas 2010. The year has flown by. Like everyone else, there were the usual “vicissitudes of life”; but really, it has been a wonderful year. God has been so good to us.

We celebrated our 49^th wedding anniversary in October. Our kids and grandkids surprised us with the announcement of an Alaska cruise for our 50^th wedding anniversary next year, which we will be taking in June. We are quite excited about this! On our honeymoon we took a 4-night, 3-day cruise along the inside passage by Vancouver Island. So this coming cruise is somewhat an extension of that cruise. J

We both have been very busy. Gordon is still working for First Student as a bus driver trainer and student behavior manager. He teaches first aid and CPR to the bus drivers and staff as well. Barb is working at Fort Vannoy Elementary School as an Education Assistant. She loves working with the 1^st graders. She comes home with funny and interesting stories quite often.

We so enjoyed having most of our family here with us for Thanksgiving. There were 27 of us packed into our little home. We all had a good time. The only thing that would have made it better would have been having our other two kids and their families with us. With a family as large as ours, it is pretty hard to get everyone together.

We are so proud of our 15 grandchildren. The oldest just turned 21 and the youngest is 10 months old. We had the opportunity to see 7 of the younger ones in Sunday school Christmas programs and saw our beautiful Amalia in her final Nutcracker ballet. She has done this for 12 years and now that she is a Senior will not be able to take part in it as she heads off to college next year.

The past seven years we have gone to Arizona for two weeks at Christmas so that we could spend Christmas with our son, Steve, his wife Shawna and son Jonathan; and to visit Barb’s sister, Pattie and her husband Gary. But this year circumstances were such that a trip to Arizona just wasn’t possible. So, we put up more Christmas decorations than we usually do, including a Christmas tree, and are enjoying the Christmas season at home.

Both of us have been busy in the kitchen this December making Christmas gifts. Gordon made a lot of bread and Barb made cookies and candy. These were fun projects.

At this Christmas time we are very thankful for family and friends. And we are most especially thankful that God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to be our Savior.

Merry Christmas to you! God bless you extra special at this Christmas time.

And may 2011 be a wonderful year for you.

Gordon & Barb

PS - some pictures for your enjoyment