It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

The day after Thanksgiving we began the task of transforming the house for Christmas. Corbyn, Morgan, and Gracey couldn't wait to get the tree decorated! I have to admit, it was great to see homemade decorations clear back to when my boys were the ages of the grandkids now and how special it was to tell the stories as we hung them. However, I was ready to quit after the tree was done but they wanted to keep going until all the tubs were emptied! Whew--time to quit acquiring! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Tummies

After a very filling Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends, we decided to compare tummies! Guess who won?

Okay, Crystal has an edge--the newest Kluver grandson who could make his appearance some time in the next month!

Morgan at Centennial

I wish I'd taken my camera to school today. Since Salem doesn't have school all week, Grandpa has been babysitting so I decided to lighten his load today and Morgan went to school with me. Since I work with just kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders, he fit right in (he's in second grade). The kids were all so surprised that I was a "Nana"! They all wanted to be his friend and loved it when he helped out. Actually, his reading level fit right into my 2nd grade group too. It was probably a good thing that he had to practice reading all day! I love that I teach at a small district where it's perfectly acceptable for a grandma teacher to bring her grandson. :>)
Tonight was filled with getting things ready for Thanksgiving---we'll all sleep well tonight!!

PS-Grandpa painted the living room today! Morgan asked if he was an artist before going into road construction. LOL!

Literacy Workshop

Yesterday I drove to the other side of Eugene for a Leadership in Literacy workshop. You never know if these things will be worth the time, but in our quest to always improve (and the fact that it was a free workshop sponsored by ODE), I decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised both by the content of the day AND because Bonnie R was there from Melrose! It was fun to catch up. Seems most of the old gang has retired, just 3 or 4 left. I'm excited to share the things I'm learning but I have to hit the road and do it again today. I wish I'd just stayed down there---the prospect of another long drive in the fog/rain doesn't appeal to me at all. Oh well, it's Friday!!
Dan will be at Hidden Lakes Retirement tomorrow selling some of his handi-work so he's been busy this week even without work, doing odd jobs for a lady at church and getting some things made for the sale.

Beautiful weekend at the coast!

The coast was beautiful this weekend-sunny and actually not too cold! In fact, there wasn't any wind this morning while we went for a walk on the beach. So hard to leave! While there we had an "Owner Update" with a very nice guy who gave us all kinds of great ideas to utilize our credits to help our finances. We have a 2 bedroom condo unit booked for the week of Spring Break at the brand new Disneyland condo (we had wanted to take the grandkids-before the job loss), so we are going to list it on Craig's list. If there are no takers, then we can still cancel it by Feb. with no penalty. It should be worth at least $200 per night but we might take bids. Anyway, it was a great "light at the end of the tunnel" moment to think about being able to do something like that. For now Dan's going to be busy this week doing some odd jobs for a couple of people from church and making some things for a craft fair this weekend. :>)

November weekend

It's been quite a weekend so far. I'm battling the "crud" and trying to stay warm at home when I received a frantic call from daughter-in-law S.K. She'd been in a car accident which totaled the van. Gracey was with her but relatively unharmed, just a "rope burn" from the seat belt. The boys needed to be picked up from where they were so I hopped in the car and went to retrieve them. We went to their house to wait since the police were just on their way to the scene. Finally, they arrived. Gracey stayed with us and a friend took S to the hospital to get checked out. She's suffering with whiplash, concussion and sore muscles. She was uninsured and it was her fault so who knows what she'll do for a car. All the guys are out of town hunting and not in cell phone range, so I took kids and let her rest. Corbyn is at his real dad's relatives for the weekend . Since they are separated, there won't be a car around for her. (Did I mention it was her birthday the next day-what a way to celebrate.) Anyway I'll keep the kids again today, but although they don't have school tomorrow--I do so they'll have to head home this evening I guess. I want so bad to protect these little ones.