Just as we were getting back from IL we were greeted at the airport by Kirk and Lindsey who had flown up to spend an extended weekend with us. We were so happy to have them here! We spent our time relaxing, touring local Portland pubs, watching movies and just enjoying each others company. We'll see you guys in March!
We got to be at my mom and dad's this Christmas. It took some doing, but we finally made it. Our trip began on Saturday, December 20th when we received a phone call from United telling us our original flight had been canceled due to weather. Go figure! It's December in the
st...we've come to expect such things. Which is why we packed carry-on only! It's amazing the things you can do without when it becomes necessity. After several attempts by phone to get on a new flight, we decided the best option was to head to the airport as quickly as possible. You see, we weren't just worried about Chicago. Portland was in the middle of an "Arctic Blast" that was threatening to close the airport, we needed to get out of here! I loved listening in as C gave the phone operator several options of where to fly us..."How about Sacramento? My mom lives there, we could stay with her.....no? Okay, let's try San Francisco! We love that airport....no....hmmm....LA? That would be perfect! My dad is there, he'd love it!" I can only imagine what she must have been thinking!! Racing to the airport was really out of the question we soon realized as we ventured out onto to the icy roads. We couldn't go 
much above 35mph, not because of traffic, but because of the Slip-n-Slid our car was on. Ahead of us a huge Ford truck was simply attempting to change lanes and his tail end slid out from under him which made him slide sideways down the freeway a short distance. We soon noticed cars stopping alongside the freeway and drivers getting out to chain up. We had chains, but no time to chain up! It took us much longer than anticipated to arrive at the airport, but we finally did. The plane we were hoping to catch had already left but we were able to get on standby for the next flight out. Our original flight had us leaving Portland traveling to Chicago then arriving at Springfield where my brother, Kurt, would pick us up. Our new flight 
schedule had us going from Portland to LAX, spending the night in LA, leaving LA on Sunday morning and flying to Denver then finally to St. Louis where my brother, Bret, would be picking us up! My brothers are the greatest!! The only caveat was actually getting out of Portland, as by now they had canceled all flights leaving after 6 p.m. and were continuing to cancel more. We were sitting in the terminal waiting to see if we would be flying standby to LAX on the 1:30p.m. flight when we got the call that all other flights from Portland had been canceled. This was our only chance...and two minutes later they called our names for standby! We made it!! A blessing in disguise as it gave us the opportunity to spend the afternoon and night with Roland and Daniel, which we hadn't anticipated. The following morning, after a scrumptious pancake breakfast, we headed to LAX to continue on our journey. The rest of the trip to IL was 
uneventful. We made it to Denver and then on to St. Louis where Bret and Jessica were waiting with -4 degree weather. C looked at me and said, "I don't think I brought enough warm clothes!" Hard to fit all that in a carry-on! It was wonderful to be home and see my family. It's always too long between visits. Dad had worked hard to cle
ar the attic so us "kids" could go up and play our choice of pool, foos ball, or air hockey. Mom made delicious dinners and decorated the house so beautifully. Bret and Kurt rocked on World Tour and even shared the limelight with C and me (C on guitar, me on drums!). Dad even got into it! What a fun week! All too soon it was time for our trek home. The weather in Portland had settled down, but weather in the Midwest is always unpredictable. There was a ton of rain, wind, thunder and
htning none of which is a good thing when you're flying out of a tiny airport. We decided to leave early to Springfield and again try standby. We just had a feeling our flights would be canceled. Kurt drove us there, since that's where he calls home. We had a short visit to his apartment before heading on. Once we got there we found that all flights had been delayed. To make a long story short, we got on a standby flight that was supposed to leave at 2:30p.m. but didn't actually leave until 6:30 p.m. Our original flight was canceled, so we got lucky to get on the standby. We made it to Chicago in time to catch another standby that had been delayed and we made it to Portland around 11:30p.m. C's brother and his wife were at the airport to pick us up. Home again, home again....jiggity jig! Merry Christmas!
More Snow Photos. This weekend we welcomed Roland and Daniel for their first visit to our new home. They arrived Friday afternoon after driving up from visiting Daniel's mom in Red Bluff. We took them to dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant and came home to enjoy the rest of the evening by the fire. The temperature has been dropping for days, snow has been in the forecast and we really started feeling it on 
Saturday. We took a walk around the neighborhood and decided it was better to stay by the fire! Later in the evening we headed to the movie theater down the road to see the epic Australia. As we left the theater we thought it was definitely cold enough to snow. This morning we woke up to a wonderful, white surprise! It snowed!! And it kept right on snowing all day long! We think so far we've gotten about 5 inches and I just received a call saying we have a snow day tomorrow, no school!! It's absolutely beautiful outside...and it's still snowing! I've posted some photos here and I'm including a link to our photo gallery as well. You can tell we're pretty excited about the snow! :)
We are blessed in so many ways and for that we are truly thankful. This year we spent Thanksgiving week in Southern California visiting C's dad in Huntington Beach, my big brother in Montrose, and C's mom's family in Camarillo. We had so much fun taking our niece to Disneyland on Wednesday. Who doesn't love seeing Small World lit up for Christmas?! We are truly blessed! I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and continue to have a very happy holiday season!
A few weeks ago I posted a photo of our front yard covered in leaves. It got worse! And then it rained!! This weekend we were blessed with sunny skies so we decided to take advantage and get out there and rake up the leaves. I love trees and I am so happy to have tall, beautiful trees in our yard. However, after filling 20 - 30 gallon leaf bags full of leaves (yes, that's 600 gallons of leaves!!) I decided it was a little too much tree love for me! I guess that's 
what happens when you wait so long. It doesn't help matters when the neighbor pokes his head out and says "WOW! You guys got buried!!" As for disposing of them, we got lucky. Our town offers two weekends in November when people can bring their leaves to dumpsters provided by the city and this weekend happened to be one of those 
weekends! We disposed of all 600 gallons and are relatively leaf free. To top it off, we decided that all that raking gave us good reason to spend the rest of the day inside watching football! Go 49ers!!!
Whole Foods we headed back home to settle in for the evening. I'll stop here and add that it had been raining for 6 days. Not just a little rain, torrential rain. On Saturday it turned into a light rain, but it kept going, and going, and going. Okay, back to the story. After Whole Foods we headed home to settle in for the evening. It was about 6p.m. when we arrived back home. C was building us a fire and I was putting away the groceries fully intending on changing into my jammies when I heard Andrea from the guest room sweetly say, "Guys....you have a leak." C and I rushed upstairs to inspect. As we reached the landing at the top of the stairs we saw the huge puddle of water on the floor and side table. We quickly rushed to dry and move the side table away from the water and put towels on the floor. As we worked we noticed that the crack in the ceiling where the leak was coming from...had gotten larger. C climbed up in the attic to see what he could see and 
found that the insulation was soaked and there was a two inch circle in the roof where the water had come through. At that point we realized...the ceiling was going to fall. We quickly moved the bed to the wall and put down more towels just in time. We barely finished when a two foot chunk fell right out of the ceiling and smattered all over the floor and entire room. After the initial shock, we inspected the ceiling again...it wasn't finished. Another two foot chunk fell right out. What a mess!!! I'd like to claim the credit for cleaning up, and the photos are quite deceiving. C is the one who actually cleaned up the entire room while Andrea and I made dinner. We spent the rest of the evening soaking in the hot tub, writing a letter to our landlords and being thankful once again that the responsibility of repair is not ours. Our landlords were here with a repairman by noon on Sunday. The repairman had the hole patched in no time and now we are just waiting for him to come back and paint. Poor Andrea spent the rest of her time camped out in the family room. On the positive side, our couch is very comfortable and it is pretty cozy by the fire! And just for the record, there were no further mishaps for the remainder of her stay.
