Surprise!

We actually managed to truly surprise Stephanie with the birthday party! Here are the girls posing for a picture while waiting for Stephanie to arrive. When we heard the garage door opening, they then, like all giggling girls, hid behind the couch and yelled Surprise!

The girls played 'Apples to Apples' before we brought out the cake...and Stephanie in one blow took care of all the candles.

The girls know that Stephanie likes to draw...she received two different art pads and pencil sets, in different sizes.

It was an emotional day for me as in the morning I had no idea if it would actually work out. We had only known of two girls that could come, so I sent email to Crystal asking if Sophia could come too...and she did, with a friend, Andrea...and we loved having them! Also, at the last minute, two others RSVP, so things were really working out well.

Me? I was up at 4:30 in the morning, baked the cake and then hid it. And in order to hide the scent of the cake, proceeded to bake some cookies...Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This is the first party I have given where I didn't have to spend a penny. The invitations, the baking and drink supplies were already in house! What more do you need???

Another nice birthday present??? Steve has an interview scheduled for Wednesday! Let's pray that things work out there too!

Scarves for Sale

I have opened a store in ETSY.com to sell some of my scarves. Knitting the scarves was the easy part. Teaching Stephanie how to be a model...that was a challenge, but I think she did pretty good.

Then there was the time to just set up the store itself. Thankfully I have a husband who understands all of that and really made it easy for me. He also looked up all the shipping info for me. You also have to set up the store, take the pictures, re-size the pictures and then decide which ones will actually be put in the listing. You can only show 5 pictures max for each listing. I spent half my day...Saturday afternoon and early evening...just getting the scarves listed.

So if you are interested...or know anyone else that might be interested in buying a homemade scarf, my store is listed at: http//sweetrt.etsy.com

I'm really hoping that they sell...and soon. Monday I will be listing some of the bags I have made too. So keep watching the site.

These are the actual pictures we took...in the listings, they are cropped and sized smaller. I just didn't think you would want to see only the chin of Stephanie... :)

Stephanie teaches her Mom a new trick...

We have lived in this house for 11.5 years and I have used this stove-top all this time. There have been a few times when I thought we might have to replace the stove-top as the element for the big burner would sometimes not completely work. Sometimes only the inner element would get hot.

Well, last night, Stephanie was in the kitchen helping me prepare dinner, it being her month as kitchen helper. This time she wanted to be involved in all aspects of it...and I was delighted to have the help!

While I was preparing the potatoes for frying (peeling the baked potatoes and cutting them up), I asked Stephanie to get out the two frying pans and put them on the stove. We needed to cook the bacon first, so I asked her to turn on the burner for the big frying pan on the big element to get the pan heated up. I watched as she pushed the knob down and then turned it to the left until it was at the medium high spot. Now, I usually turn it to the right, but didn't really think anything of it...just as long as the pan heated up.

This time, it seemed like the pan was taking a very long time to heat up, but I put in the bacon anyway. I was right...only the center of the pan was hot...and checking the element below noticed that only the center was getting red. At this point I bemoaned to Steve that yet another thing is broken and might be needing to be replaced! We already have three other things in that catagory! (Air conditioner, lawn mower and computer monitor). Replacing the stove-top is not high on our list at this time!

So I switched the pan to the left burner, which is a bit smaller than the pan, but would be better than the small element currently working. During this switch, Stephanie noticed something I had never looked at before. Just above the knob for the bottom right burner, there are drawings to indicate that if you turn it to the right, the big element would work. If you turn to the left, only the smaller inner element would turn on.

Yeah for Stephanie...I can now cook a small pan on the big element! Or rather the inner element on the front. I am sooooooo willing to learn from my daughter!

Flood Waters

This morning I called my brother, Doug, who lives next door to the river in Carnation (I don't know if it's the Tolt river or the Snohomish river), he said that he would send me a picture of it. Here it is. :)

Then I got to thinking...I should go and get some pictures of my own from here in Monroe. It is my "play" day and I haven't done any playing yet...so let the adventure begin... :)



First I picked up my best friend, Stephanie G, and we headed to the town library. I knew that if you stood on the berm next to the parking lot that you could see the river in the distance, especially in the winter when the leaves are gone. Well, we are standing on the berm and the river has come to meet us.

Part of the adventure here is that I had to climb over a bank of snow first, and promptly fell onto my knees. Stephanie had to get out of the van and come rescue me. It took me a while to stop laughing.



We then headed over to Sky River Park where you couldn't even get into the park...all the playgrounds are flooded.

Our last stop was at the park on Lewis Street, just as you come into town on State Route 203. There too the roads were closed to thru traffic.


In this picture, the bridge is SR 203 and the Skykomish river is running very high!

Now I'm sung at home, eating home made bread and basking in the thought of chicken strogonoff for dinner.

Where in the House is Isabel?

Yes...another drama, but this one only lasts an hour!

I had just returned from exercising at the YMCA at 11 am. (Yesterday morning). We had a Vet appointment for Isabel scheduled for 11:30 and the plan was for us to have me arrive home, pack up Isabel in her carrier and head out. It didn't quite work that way.

Our lovely cat knows how to find hiding places! When I got home, Steve had already been looking for her for half an hour. Me, I went through all the logical places downstairs, opening cupboards (yes, she can get into our cupboards), checking under furniture, pillows, behind the furniture. You name it, I looked there. Upstairs, Steve had already checked all the known hiding places in the play/game room and was checking out all the bedrooms. Now, we keep these doors closed unless we are in there, so the chances of her being in them was very slim.

Interesting things you find when you are looking for a cat. Scott's closet floor is a disaster. Stephanie's corner and chair have turned into a closet. Our own closet needs a makeover... :) But still...no Isabel.

Steve even gets a ruler and starts banging it in various places in hopes to "wake" her up and get her moving somehow. That didn't work. Here we are, two adults, and we can't find a cat! By this time it was time to go and already we knew we were going to be late.

So we called in the "big guns", a prayer! We asked Heavenly Father to have her move so that we could hear her bell (she has a small bell attached to her collar). Steve then looks some more downstairs, I head into the game room, sit in the chair on wheels and check out my scrapbooking suitcase...it has velcro for closures...thinking that if she is so smart to get into our cupboards, she might be smart enough to get into the suitcase. I undid the velcro, but no luck...no Isabel.

Then I just sat there in the chair just listening. You have to remember, I am totally deaf in one ear, so I can't tell where sound is coming from. It was while I was there listening that I heard a "tinkle". I yelled down to Steve if he could hear it too...but no. Then I looked up...and there she was! On a shelf with Stephanie's horse books! She had found a perfect hiding place behind those books. They are at my eye level when standing, so we wouldn't have seen her from looking down at the books.

Anyway, Steve was there quickly, and with a few scratches, she was in her carrier and on the way to the vet. Thankfully, Heavenly Father answers prayers for our pets too!

Oh, the vet claimed her perfectly healthy, just fat. She also got the shots she needed.

Cat Tree Drama concluded...

Ok, we last left you with our not knowing if and when we were going to get the cat tree. As you can see...it has arrived.

On Monday morning, we received a phone call from Sylvia Black, the administra-tive assistant to the president of FedEx! Clearly the email sent on Saturday did get through. She was all apologetic, and had been in touch with the management at the warehouse where our package was sitting (it sounded like they had had an earful). She assured me that the package would arrive that day - and she was going to watch the tracking and make sure (and if it didn't, she would call back the next day).

We checked the tracking web site, and sure enough, the package had finally been scanned again (so, it wasn't lost). But the drama still wasn't quite over. Later in the afternoon, we received another call from someone in the trace department (since a trace had been started, as the package had been suspected to be lost). He informed us the package had been found (probably just saw the same scans we had seen), but he said it would be delivered on Tuesday, because the home delivery department was closed on Mondays. We informed him of the promise made from the executive office, and he could only speculate that maybe the package had been turned over to the "Ground" department, instead of the "Home Delivery" department.

So, we waited out Monday, not sure what to expect. But then, around 4:30pm, Steve happened to look out the window, and saw a big box on the porch. It had arrived! But adding one more frustration, the delivery person seems to have just snuck it up on the porch and left. It would have been nice to have a knock on the door to let us know it was there. At least the USPS mail carrier offers that courtesy.

It all sounds quite confusing, and sounds like FedEx needs to make some improvements to their system. First, if they are behind schedule (due to bad weather in this case), they should be using their usual days off to catch up. Second, they need to fix their tracking site so it stops telling lies (if a package on a truck isn't delivered, it needs to be rescanned to show where it is now so it stops claiming it is still on a truck for delivery when it is not). Third, having so many separate departments in FedEx, that don't know what each other are doing, doesn't help when there are problems like this. Finally, they should ALWAYS knock or ring the bell when they make a delivery, even if a signature is not required. So, even with the quick response and help from the executive staff at FedEx, we will probably still avoid FedEx ground shipping in the future if we have a choice.

Thus ends the Drama of the Cat Tree, almost. PETCO had already shipped a replacement, so when that arrives, we will let them know and they will have FedEx come pick up the duplicate. Hmmm, I wonder how long it will take them to make that pickup...???

Drama of the Cat Tree

All we really wanted for our new cat, Isabel, was a cat tree. One that she could find a place to hide and to be able to perch on to watch everything that was going on.

It all started the day we brought her home. That was on Wednesday, December 17th. As a family, we were all crowded around the computer looking at the various sites on line. The one we have pictured here is the one we liked best. And we looked at lots of different ones! But before we actually ordered it, Steve wanted to check out the ones here in town.

Now, you have to remember that the day we got Isabel, it had snowed just a little bit, enough to close the schools. Then on Thursday and Friday, we were snowed in! Friday, we managed to shovel the snow from our driveway and Steve was able to get out and about. One of his errands was to check out the local pet stores and see what they had and the prices. He came home not liking what he found...one of the stores had trees made of real trees...just a bit too natural for our home.

Then, on Saturday, the 20th, the weather held enough in the morning for us to travel to Gig Harbor for the Tart Christmas party. After we left the party, we made a quick stop at the Petco there as it was on our route to the freeway. We really were in and out of the store in under 10 minutes. The cat trees they had in the store we didn't like and it was a treat to see some in person that we saw online. So based on our research, we all decided that the best thing to do was to order the one online when we got home. It was on sale and it had free shipping!

The Cat Tree was ordered on the 20th, and on the 22nd I received an email from Petco that it had been shipped...they also gave us the code for us to watch the tracking. I have copied and pasted that info here:


Dec 30, 2008
2:10 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
BURLINGTON, WA

Dec 29, 2008
5:40 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
BURLINGTON, WA

Dec 27, 2008
7:01 AM
At local FedEx facility
BURLINGTON, WA


2:01 AM
Departed FedEx location
PORTLAND, OR

Dec 26, 2008
5:02 PM
Arrived at FedEx location
PORTLAND, OR

Dec 23, 2008
11:16 AM
Departed FedEx location
BLOOMINGTON, CA

Dec 22, 2008
6:16 PM
Arrived at FedEx location
BLOOMINGTON, CA


2:02 PM
Picked up
BLOOMINGTON, CA


11:48 AM
Package data transmitted to FedEx

We originally saw a projected delivery date of December 29th. Then it was moved to the 31st. Well, on the 31st, that was our day to be in Bellevue for a special hair cut. So Steve put a sticky note on the door frame (white on white) to let the FedEx delivery person know that it was okay to leave the package on our porch. When we got home, no package and the sticky note was taken off the door frame by Steve. By this time, the delivery date showed as Jan 2nd. Mind you, we have seen several FedEx trucks in the town, so we know that they are working hard (and are not blocked by remaining snow on the ground). However, around 1 pm on Friday, Steve calls FedEx Customer Service and they tell him that it should be delivered on Saturday. The rep even tried calling the Burlington facility, but it wasn't answering. Why the package was even in Burlington was a mystery to us as that is quite a ways north of us...

Those tracking logs also claim that it is still on a truck for delivery, but the last rep we talked to ensured us that it wasn't. So, it seems that the tracking site is telling a lie.

Anyway, Saturday morning...no package! Steve then makes more calls. This time the Customer Service Representative tells him completely different information and he realizes that he is getting the runaround. (We suspect at this time that the package has been lost, but they don't want to admit it.)

Now Steve does some research and gets the names of the CEO's/Presidents of both Petco and FedEx. Emails were sent to both of them explaining our situation. Also, a call to Petco was very cooperative and that they decided to send out another cat tree and if for some reason, we get two trees, to let them know and they will have FedEx come and retrieve it back. It will probably get shipped on this coming Monday. If our emails don't work, Steve wants to call one of our local TV news stations to see if they would be interested in our deliema. (We like watching "Get Jesse" on King 5 News.) One thing this tells us -- we will avoid FedEx Ground shipping in the future.

So, we (and our cat) are still waiting for the cat tree. To be continued...