Judy Writes!

That was such a good Christmas surprise to get a posting from you. Blogger.com has an update that allows the addition of contributors but I see I do have to be careful to keep the political affiliations balanced when I do the inviting.

If the trip was the cause for your happiness it must have been wonderful for you. It sounds like you saw many animals and had great experiences each day. Did you both stay healthy?

You haven’t forgotten Mrs. Underhill’s typing instruction either. I’m impressed with the length of your report. We are all stunned and pleased.

Get rested and have a Merry Christmas!

My Amazonia Adventure

Yikes the whole family on Arla's Blog-that is very scary. Ok I will try to participate. Yes the trip was unbelievable...to have the opportunity to trek the rainforest for six hours at a time, sometimes thru ankle deep mud with hundreds of mosquitos buzzing around your head is an unreal experience. We were where no tourists can go, deep in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, 2 and 1/2 days upriver from Iquitos. No Arla there were no plastic bottles floating down the river, only Pink and Grey Dolphins leaping and caimans glidng by. We saw RedHowler, Wooly, Squirrel, and Brown Capuchin monkeys, an ant eater(in a tree), and way too many birds to relate...lots of Macaws. We anchored in the middle of the Samiria river and conducted our surveys in one of the six assorted boats we towed with us. Our favorite boat was the " sinking Yellow Boat" a canoe that had to be constantly bailed and escaped on our way up river and had to be retreived by the only speed boat. The Ayapua that we stayed on was a beautifully restored 1906 Rubber Boom boat with air-conditioned cabins and ceramic tiled bathrooms. Yes we did have "unlikely events" as Richard called them such as engine and generator failure but the crew was fabulous and very helpful to all. The bar on the upper deck got alot of use! The head PI Richard was a quirky, interesting guy that we all liked very much and the biologists were great fun to work with. The rest of the team (we were 18 in all) had a great time together. Once the 3 Aussies, four Brits and one Canadian realized Hank and I thot Bush was stupid too we all hit it off...they really are angry at us for the Iraq mess! I have lots of stories but too much to tell here. We got off the Ayapua on Dec 17th, spent the nite in Lima and were off to Machupicchu the next morning. That was something to see and try to hike around without sucking air! We arrived home yesterday afternoon and I suddenly realized that we had been on 8 flights during our three weeks. No wonder I'm tired but happy! Merry Christmas to all! Judy

Here we go...

Oooooo....this is fun!

Arla, you are so nice to allow your eccentric (read: crazy) family participate in your blog.

I don't have much restraint when it comes to sharing things that are personal, and Darren isn't here to supervise/edit, so here goes nothing...

I'm busy trying to get through the next three days at work before taking the next week off (Yay!) I recently got a promotion, and need to do some reorganizing (read: firing) in one of my teams, so I have that to look forward to in the new year (not). It will be the first "reorg" I have to perform in my career. Blah.

Darren, Donevan and I are going to visit Mom and Larry in Medford the day after Christmas (Kasondra is unfortunately not interested in hanging out with us at this time). Mom is thrilled since Jeff and Kathryn are visiting her for a few days before Christmas, then we'll be there afterwards. Barb is in the dog house this year since it's Ron's family's turn for Christmas. It's not Barb's fault, but Mom just isn't happy unless all three of us submit.

On Jeff's way down to Medford, he and Kathryn stayed the night at our house. Kathryn was cute as pie and smart too (seriously). She woke up in the morning, came downstairs and said, "good morning Aunt Leslie". No kidding.

My two fake, pre-lit trees both have bulbs out on them. I have one of those light tester gadgets, but I can't figure out how to use it properly so the dark parts of the tree persist. That and I have a seriously short attention span. I wonder now if I had ADD as a child.

In addition, I still need to finish my Christmas shopping, don't have any lights up outside, and still need to make cut-out sugar cookies and fudge. Despite the fact that only the first one in the list above is likely to be done by 12/24, Darren and I plan on having a very relaxing Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

I was told by Jill that I can post something, but only if it is short and contains no personal information.

That doesn't sound like anything anyone wants to read.

As Jill has so elequently indicated in her blog entry we are all doing the Christmas thing. We have a new gas fireplace insert (is that too personal?) and spend alot of time sitting and staring at the fire and marveling at the lack of smoke filling up our living as our former fireplace did. I guess now I will have to sell our six color-coordinated gas masks at a garage sale.

The tree is up and covered with more lights than Manhatten. The Christmas village floats on a cloud of cotton on the mantle with cheery little lights beaming. The stocking are hung by the chimney with care, and the little ones will shortly be napping with visions of Ipods dancing in their heads.

Thoughts of family and friends and snow fill our heads and we look forward to the holidays with great expectations.

Glad to see the family joining in this blog and sharing their lives too.

Pat :)

My First Try

Arla, I accepted your invite to join your Blog. I hope this works. I tried once but the posting disappeared!

I have spent evenings after work shopping for stocking stuffers and presents for the family. We will spend xmas eve with Pat's family in Portland, then on to spend the night in Vernonia where the whole family will wake up xmas morning to open stockings and presents. This includes Rebecca and Regina and Jake but not Ronna and Michelle. On the 26th we will travel to the cabin for snow activities!

Pat and the twins have gone skiing, Jessica is spending her break with her girlfriend, Jesse. Willie spends his time between Basketball practice, the phone, ashley, the phone, ashley, the phone.... you get the picture.

Looking forward to hearing about the Amazon. Pat and I plan on a trip there in October. We really need some good travel tips from Judy - I hope she comes through!
Merry Christmas to All! Jill.

Babysitting Miles

In order to be fair I want to offer Miles the same amount of Grandma contact time as I did Lucas. It isn’t quite fair because now I’ve forgotten how busy a one year old can be. Miles wanders everywhere in seconds and has the strength and inquisitiveness to open every drawer and cupboard in sight and then proceeds to go through the items inside and throw them aside. My house is a shambles by the time the visit is over and I’m ready to head for bed.

Now that Lucas is 4 he is a good visitor. When I find a toothbrush in the kitchen I ask, “Now does the toothbrush belong in the kitchen?” and he immediately takes it to where it belongs. He has been trained by day-care professionals to know that there’s a place for everything and everything in its place and he likes order.

When I was in Spain I talked to a grandma there who told me that the grandparents job when they retire is to care for their grandchildren. I am enjoying my random babysitting more as I watch the brains on these boys change and mature. I think it will be a permanent hobby for me as I am bagging the student teaching effort. I liked going to the schools, seeing the students and watching the beginning teachers attempt to maintain discipline. However I couldn’t get excited about the required paperwork for each student. In order to collect more data each semester new forms were added. Forms like the Pedagogical Assessment which is now required for beginning teachers in the State of Washington. It consists of 10 sections of checklists for teacher achievement. I am not enthusiastic about completing these forms and then asking teachers to complete 3-5 forms in addition although most teachers think it is a good trade for having a student teacher take over their classes for a semester.

Christmas can come anytime now. The gifts are wrapped and under the stick tree, packages have been mailed and the baking is coming along too. I think we still need to have some authentic cut-out cookies with sprinkles as I hear Betty has made some for the Taylor-Wells Gathering in Richland.

Here we will have a Christmas Eve party at Ray and Claire’s, an early morning Santa gift breakfast at Lucas’ and finally after a flight to Seattle a Christmas day dinner at Cyd’s.

December 29 there will be a big birthday party for the one year old twins. Peyton now has a tooth and both boys are walking. Everyone is invited to the three o’clock party so come on by if you’re in the vicinity.

Meanwhile family members have been requesting details about your trip.

Whats up with her? Have you heard anything? I keep checking your blog to no avail.... How is xmas coming? Where exactly did Judy go? Jill.

You should be back in Chicago now so let us know.

Christmas Cookies

The last entry contained one huge error in that the Christmas tree in the living room was not living nor had it lived for many months already. There is a pile of needles under the tree and bare branches on the tree to prove it. I hope next year I remember to spend more that $20 for a tree.

Just in case you forgot, Cousin Gayle had a birthday December 9. I hit 51 this year. Jim took me to Lake Chelan last weekend and we saw the sights of the Methow Valley and took the Lady of the Lake to Stehekin. I picked up some tourist info and was going to call on one for a Memorial day spot.

Did you notice Brad Pitt is following in our footsteps by visiting Fallingwater for his birthday? I guess we should have celebrated by sitting around in the living room for two hours. We are so ahead of the famous folk.

We have been baking. Here Lucas is hard at work arranging sprinkles on the cookies. Our Grandma would be appalled with the packaged dough cut-outs and the frosting packets. This grandma thinks it’s the only way to go especially since this photo was taken about 7 a.m.

Miles is One

This blog needs updating so when you get to an internet café in Iquitos you can find out what’s going on in Spokane. You know we have snow so we have lots of Christmas spirit with holiday lighting on the house and a living tree in the living room. Tomorrow Katie, McKenna, Missy, Colton and Taylor are coming to have brunch. I’m excited about seeing the babies.

Miles turned one last week and he had a small neighorhood party. He is walking all over and into everything but he won’t say a word. I guess that’s not all bad either.



Lucas and I went to see Disney on Ice last week and that traditional occasion is making the way of the circus for me. You know I’ve given them up because of their commercialism and this event got me with the vendors hawking their expensive junk everywhere. I’m sorry my three other grandsons will never have the experiences that I’ve given to the first born grandson.

It is nice that you are on the river where I know you’ll be picking up the floating plastic bottles for recycling.