2020 Puzzle

 We had so much fun finishing this 2020 Puzzle that I decided to frame it.  I don't think we will ever forget last year but I love having this bright memento on our wall.

Usually when we are working on a puzzle, we are convinced that one piece is missing but until this puzzle we had always managed to find it in the end.  Not so this time!  Yes it's a 2020 Puzzle!!!!

4th of July

I love the 4th of July!  It seems like such a relaxed and stress free holiday.  We had a super duper good one this year, this crazy COVID 19 year!  This photo made me laugh and seemed appropriate for 2020!!

At the Lewis home we started the evening off with barbecued chicken sandwiches and grilled veggies, cole slaw and potato salad.  Matt grilled the veggies and John topped off the corndogs for the kids with a short time on the grill.

After dinner, we had fun with horseshoes and bubbles!

Including some mega bubbles.... This combination of water and LOTS of Dawn worked pretty well but now we are on a quest to fine the perfect mega bubble recipe!

A 4th of July tradition for us is a hike up to a great viewing point to see the whole valley where normally we watch the community fireworks shows..  This year there were none but the fireworks stands were close to sold out so we did get to see quite a few off in the distance.  I love this photo I found of the valley, although I am sure it is done with time lapse photography.

Marilyn-Johnny-Monica-Isabella-Elsie-Matt-Anna

photo by George

photo by professional photographer Anna

That evening light is magical.  I can see why it is called the Golden Hour by photographers.

 These two little girls - 4 year old Isabella and 7 year old Elsie- are enjoying getting to know each other.

The moon was spectacular on our way back! The photo doesn't do it justice.

Back at home we feasted on strawberry shortcake featuring Anna's homemade shortbread!  It was fabulous!

Of course, the finale of the evening was fireworks!

Even with all her flaws, I love my country and I'm proud to be an American!  And I'm happy to celebrate our country's birthday!

Cancer Update

 You may wonder why Scott's photo introduces my 'cancer update'.  Well it is a long and good story!

I had my 6 month checkup with my doctor at OHSU in Portland scheduled in late April but because of COVID-19 clinics were only seeing patients with emergent conditions so my appointment was rescheduled for June 24.  The plan was for George and me to drive over, stay in a hotel and go to OHSU for an ultrasound and CT scan and then see the doctor.  I would have my blood work here in Eagle.

My doctor, Dr. Madison, is fully booked at least 6 months out.  Can you imagine what it was like for his schedulers when they add to cancel almost 2 months of appointments and then reschedule them?  He had to add an extra day of clinic to his already full schedule.

The good news for me is that when my blood work came back it was excellent.  In fact, the calcitonin that is the marker for my type of thyroid cancer, had actually come down! After consulting with his nurse, we decided to schedule a phone conference with Dr. Madison.  During that conversation he decided that there was no need for me to drive over for scans because with my super low numbers, they wouldn't show anything.  So we cancelled the appointment.  Yeah!

George and I had been looking forward to seeing Scott when we were in Portland.  We hadn't seen him since Christmas and that is a long time.  So we had him fly over for a long weekend. That way he could see everyone!

It was perfect!  Way better than an ultrasound and CT scan!

Isabella was happy to see Uncle Scott!

We enjoyed lots of family time since there isn't much to do during a pandemic!

Family time is the best time!

Another Week Down!

Starting back to church was the big excitement of the week.  I've gone out a few times to the store but I do always wear a mask.

Deseret Industries opened  for donations but it is 'by appointment only'.  I had to go on-line and get a ticket that said a specific time for my 'drop off'.  Actually I got 2 tickets for 2 different days.  Matt borrowed a truck and dropped off an old bed for me and then on Saturday, George and I dropped off a car load.  They told me that they had been super busy since reopening.  Lots of people used their 'stay at home' time to clean out!  They have lots of rules.  You have to sort you donations into 3 categories - clothes, electronics, or 'as-is'.  You pull up, stay in your car until directed forward and must wear a mask.  They prefer that you take things out of your car and put them in the appropriately labeled box without assistance, although the young workers did help us.  I guess they were being kind to the elderly!

My other two accomplishments this week were to go through our 72 hour emergency kits and update them.  Ours still had 'child sized' rain ponchos and since my baby is now 6 ft. 3in, I don't think those would help.  I have it all organized in our backpacks and one large container.  I even have each labeled with what is in each pocket and I've noted what needs to be rotated.  Miss Super Organized here! Now I need to move them to convenient shelves in the garage.  And if we ever have to use them, I'll be hoping that we can go by car.  The packs are a bit heavy!

 The other accomplishment was buying containers for all my 'keepsake' treasures and completing the inventory as to what is in each box.   When I am gone, I hope my children will appreciate this effort.   Now if they want to look at my papers from 1st grade or my mother's scrapbook from 1948 or see the cards George and I exchanged while dating, they will know exactly where to go.  Or if they get the sudden urge to wear a hat from the best barbecue place in the world, "The White Pig Inn", they can find it with ease!

The next weeks projects include digitizing all our 3000+ slides.  Is there a reason to pass on 20 photos of Alcatraz from 1979 or the San Francisco Aquarium or Yosemite?  My inclination is to keep the really good ones and throw the rest away. I have asked the kids to weigh in on this decision.  Of course I will preserve all the ones of 'people'....I've already found some real treasures there, like the ones I used in the Father's Day posts.  This project could take a LONG Time. I'm set in case we have to 'shelter in place' again!

One project that I'm really excited about is refinishing this little cabinet.  It was my mother's and is definitely not fine furniture.  She bought it to have in her kitchen and used it to store pop and chips.  Matt, my woodworking expert, thinks it was built in the 30s or 40s.  I love the old leaded glass.  I haven't done anything like this in years.  To make it look 'shabby chic' I'm using chalk paint and wax.  So far so good.  It helps that it doesn't have to look 'perfect'.  Little nicks give it character!  This one should be finished this next week.  Yeah!

I'm also just about to be totally caught up on the photo books I make after each trip that we take.  The Dubai Book is only a few days away from being finished.  With no trips on the horizon, this feels a bit sad but I am sure we will get to travel again someday....maybe not until after a vaccine but it will happen.

This week we are trying a social distancing ladies lunch.  It is bring your own lunch, a chair and meet at the park. 

 I may even go get a pedicure so I can wear my sandals with pride!

So life is still good and my days are busy with projects!

Back to Church!! Yeah!

It's been 16 weeks since I attended church.  Last time was in Mary's ward in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia on March 1st.  We missed the next two weeks because we were traveling and then President Nelson announced that all church services worldwide would be discontinued.

 I have loved our 'home church'.  It has been sweet to have George pass the sacrament to just the two of us and to discuss what we have learned as we've individually studied 'Come Follow Me' during the week.  I even played the opening hymn for us once.

We've also had some excellent 'Zoom' meetings with our ward with missionary reports, talks, lessons, and even special musical numbers.

Even though I did enjoy the "home church"  and "virtual church" it felt good to go back today.

Our Bishop received 5 pages of very specific instructions as to how this was to happen.  There are 8 wards or congregation in our Stake.  For the 'reopening' we are using 2 buildings, 4 wards to a building.  Each ward is assigned one week per month so for the foreseeable future we will attend church services one Sunday a month, have 'Zoom' lessons or meetings on the other 3.  1/2 of our ward attended a 45 minute meeting at 10:30 and the other half at 12:00.  The building was cleaned in-between meetings.

The building was set up like this. As you can see, we sat on every other row.  This made it possible for the Priesthood holders who passed the sacrament to walk down the unoccupied rows rather than having us pass the tray down the row as we usually do.  Everyone who blessed or passed the sacrament wore a mask and gloves.  The water was set in every other spot on the tray.  The bread was  also in the small cups usually used for water.  We didn't return the cups but were asked to put them into ziplock bags which were provided and then throw them away.  Inside the bags, there was an antibacterial wipe for us to use to clean all hard surfaces around us when the meeting was over.

They asked us not to use the water fountains, to maintain proper social distancing and to not 'linger' in the building.  That was the hardest part since we haven't seen each other in the last several months. We really wanted to visit!

I felt perfectly safe and protected.  My only problem was that I felt my 'dry scratchy throat cough'  coming after we sang.  I didn't want anyone giving me the stink eye, so I quickly went outside before the 1st cough, coughed a few times and then went to the kitchen where I found some Dixie cups so I had a drink and then went back into sacrament meeting carrying some water.  It worked.  I didn't create panic by having a coughing fit!

The rule is that if anyone who has attended any of our meetings tests positive. we have to immediately stop all meetings.  Idaho is having a bit of a spike in cases so that could happen.  However, I feel confident following the direction of my church leaders.  It was also made clear that no one should feel that they are OBLIGATED to come to church.  If you are not comfortable attending the meeting with others, then you should stay home and continue 'home church'.  

Covid Contests

To keep the family busy and involved during this COVID-19 Pandemic we have had a series of family contests. I think it really helped us adjust to the new normal of staying home.

First contest was to guess how many rolls of toilet paper George and I actually had.  We had some already plus we filled a suitcase with more when we left Dubai.

Actual total of TP rolls that we had -71. YES we are toilet paper hoarders!

        John won this contest with a guess of 66.

Next question involved how many photos we took on our trip to Dubai

        There were 3 categories:

How many total photos did we take during our 10 day trip?

How many photos did George take?

How many were taken on our cell phones?

For the overall winner, George subtracted their guesses for each category from the totals and added the 3 numbers.

      Over all winner was John

      Matt guessed exactly the total number of photos we took which was 2250 - pretty impressive!

      Scott guessed closest to the number Dad took which was 250

      Monica guessed closest to the number on cell phones which was 1518

Our next activity was a Quarantingo game.  Unfortunately only the girls of the family got involved with this one.  Monica completed every activity!

 But Mary earned a special award.  One question was to find the oldest thing in your home.  Mary and Mark have a coin from 1816.  It was given to Mark by his grandfather who got it from his father, who was a plumber.  That is really OLD!

Matt dug out a big bush in our front yard that was right out the front door by the sidewalk.  Our competition was to guess when Dad would notice that it was gone!  It took 4 days before he noticed and Monica won this one too! 

Next one was to poke fun at me a bit!  I had never watched the TV series Gray's Anatomy before and I've been binge watching it.  The question of the week was, "How many episodes Mom watched in a week.  John got this one almost exactly right.  And the number I watched in a week.  22!!!!  I dream about the characters sometimes.

Last question involved our visiting cat.  The neighbor's cat, Shadow, likes to come and visit us.  She wanders in, gets petted by George and sometimes takes a long nap before leaving us.  Somedays she comes over multiple times, other times she will go for days without making an appearance.  The question was, "From Monday morning until Friday when we go to bed, how many time will Shadow come over to visit?"  

The breakdown:

      Monday 5 visits

      Tuesday 5 visits

      Wednesday 3 visits

       Thursday 0 visits

       Friday 1 visit

Monica won this one with her perfect guess of 14

Our last event was one that we all could win.  The goal was to walk/run 50 miles in one month.  And there were even medals!  You can tell how emotional the awards ceremony was for John!

And I think the medals turned out pretty cute! It's a coronavirus, naturally with crowns and toilet paper ribbon and even a hand sanitizer dangle.  

And a good time was had by all!

Prizes will be awarded for each competition whenever I can get out to a store!

COVID-19 - Week #10

I just counted and this is the starting of the 10th week since we got home from our Dubai trip to start 'sheltering at home'.  Some days I feel a little stir crazy but mostly I have survived.  My house has never been so organized.  I've finished going through and redacting my old journals and organizing my memorabilia into notebooks.  Our children will thank me for this someday.

I finally got my brow and lip waxed which was wonderful....I know vain and frivolous but still wonderful!  I've been knitting again, or more appropriately TRYING to knit.  I have managed to figure out how NOT to make my knitting so tight and also isolated the mistake I was making to add stitches.  I ordered some new yarn and can hardly wait for it to come in so that I can see if I can actually follow a pattern now!

I just finished making my photo book for the Kenya 2019 trip.  I've done 2 Zoom Bookclub meetings and 2 Kenya Keys Zoom board meetings.  Technology is great!

I'm still baking a lot and everyone is happy with that.  Bread and rolls and cookies - actually lots of cookies and we now have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe!  I was also happy to learn that even with all the baking, I've only gained about 4 pounds! 

Our evening walks have helped me not gain more.  Plus I've been doing some AARP exercise.  They make me feel young and fit, unlike the other exercise videos I've tried.  Most of them make me feel old and fat!

On our nightly walks we have loved watching the baby ducks and goslings. It was chilly here last week so we saw this cute little duck family huddling together for warmth.  The mom has a large family of 13 and has done a wonderful job of keeping them safe.  With cats and dogs plus foxes and herons, it is not easy keeping ducklings together and alive.  Oh and storm drains...they say that a huge number of calls to our fire department this time of year are to rescue baby duckling caught in storm drains.

 Also fascinating to watch the geese.  There is one large group of what appears to be 3 families that have formed a community and are always together.  

This family has the youngest babies.

Then in this photo you can see the two families - one with 'teenagers' that are almost as large as they are and the other with middle sized tweens!  You can't get too close or the ganders will hiss and act threatening.  Geese make great parents.

Speaking of birds - we have so many that I fill the feeders daily.  I love watching them so it is worth the effort and expense.

Matt and I were thrilled when we had several days of visits from the very striking Western Tanagers as they migrate north to the McCall area. 

Other frequent visitors to our feeder - American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, House finches and the show stopper Western Tanager!

Matt got this great shot of one of our hummingbird visitors.  I love them!

Thanks to Matt,  the little garden is ready to be planted.  Normally in Idaho, you plant on Mother's Day but this year the following week had temperatures into the upper 30's so I'm glad we waited.

And of course we are spending a bit more time with Isabella and her Mom and Dad.

Chick-fil-A delivery

Pretty exciting when you and Grandma have matching shoes AND you find a painted rock that perfectly matches!

The kite I bought years ago in China was a popular diversion one afternoon. 

And we even did a little fishing in the ponds by our house.

Another fun fact is that I filled up my car on April 9th and have used a little less than a 1/4 tank.  Fred Meyer grocery pick up continues to be the way I feed the family.  It is easy and efficient.  They do a good job picking out produce and I am happy.

The church is making plans to reopen soon but the guidelines at this time say that they don't suggest attendance for people over 65 so I guess we'll be enjoying 'home church' a while longer.  

All in all, it hasn't been a difficult time for me.

One 'Stay At Home' Month

It was exactly one month ago today that George and I returned from our trip to Dubai and started the 14 days of self-quarantine recommended by the CDC in O'Hare in Chicago.  A few days later our governor also issued a stay at home proclamation to match the Federal 

15 Days to Stop the Spread.

In the last month I've been out to get a Fred Meyer grocery pick up three times and we've gotten restaurant meals from curbside service 3 times. 

 I have never loved the beautiful walking paths in our subdivision more than I have this last month!  We have been able to go on walks almost every evening.  Sometimes during the day, I go for a walk by myself and listen to podcasts.  My latest theme is Ireland.  I'm dreaming of a trip to the Emerald Isle and making my list of things to do.

What else have I been doing?  Well the baking continues.  I think I found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I've made cherry pie and baked bread.  I even made homemade noodles to go with our stroganoff. 

Delicious and very easy to make homemade noodles. 

I've finished my Blog Books for the last 3 years!  And I've started going through my old journals and redacting information that is too personal for my children to read.

With Matt's help, I've been working in the yard.  He very happily chopped down this bush that had gotten huge and had big thorns. I've been raking and trimming and thinking of what plants to add.

It was so much fun to have a Zoom Book Club with my Portland Book Bunch.  These ladies are just great.  At the end we each shared something we had learned from Pandemic 2020.  My favorite was Robin who said that she had learned that 4 squares of TP is sufficient!

I've even ironed my old Barbie clothes that have been sitting in a box for more than 50 years.  I never iron..  Amazing what a Grandma will do for the love of a cute little 4 year old.

Now I am mending those clothes and sewing on teeny, tiny little snaps....again I never sew.  Isabella is going to be so happy! 

We had 'Zoom' Church and heard two fantastic missionary reports.  I miss going to church although 'home church' is pretty wonderful.

It is definitely spring as the goose and duck families are everywhere.

Can you see the heron?  He looks almost like a statue as he 'fishes' in the pond.

I started reading Wuthering Heights.  I read it in high school but that was a few years ago.  It is quite a story. 
 I've organized every closet and drawer.  The donation places like Goodwill are going to be inundated with stuff when this is over.  

We have a family challenge to walk or run 50 miles before May 13.  Now I need to figure out how to make appropriate 'Coronavirus Pandemic' medals.  

So far, I'm not feeling stir crazy!  I'm really glad that we aren't still living in the tiny little apartment in Lake Oswego.  I have a lot of projects to do here in this house.  I'm also glad that we aren't stuck inside in the winter when it is dark and dreary.

Favorite Memes of the week

I think the end is in sight for at least a soft opening up most of the country in early May.  I've been reading all the pros and cons  of opening and not opening.  I'm just glad that I don't have to make this decision which is truly life and death for so many.