Wrapping Up the Year

Christmas is over and the new year is about to start.  

I've never been so exhausted and stressed around Christmas.  Granted, it was mostly the weather which made it so stressful.  Visiting our families was great.  Tromping through feet of slush was not great. 

Stephen and I visited his parents this weekend, which I think was my favorite part of all of our Christmas outings.  Going to their house is always like a weekend vacation for me--getting away from our cold, dark, lonely apartment into a whole house with lots of people and lots of lighting and warmth, inside and out.  It's a blessing.

I was anxious about leaving our cat alone, so I felt like I was ready to go home on Sunday, but as we left I got really sad.  Didn't really realize why until Stephen and I were back in our cold, dark, lonely apartment at 7:30, wondering what to do with ourselves.  

Genevieve was okay.  She wasn't mad at us or scared of us.  She wasn't sick, thankfully... I think I was mostly worried about that.  We did discover she'd resorted to drink out of the kitchen sink while we were gone... That cat just WILL NOT drink out of a kitty bowl proper.

She was a source of comfort as she snuggled and purred and rubbed and kneaded our sweaters, but it still didn't stop the sadness of our apartment and knowing we're back to the daily routine from setting in.  

I'm glad 2008 is coming to a close.  I'm pretty sure this was the most insane year of my life.  It started with a lot of excitement and anticipation; it's ending with a lot of fatigue from all the events.  Next year ought to be calmer...We hope.

Prayer requests for us:  That the year will be a year of renewal.  That Stephanie will get a job--and the motivation to go job-hunting after being discouraged several times.  That our finances will sort themselves out, especially with all of Stephanie's needed dental work in January (a root canal and two crowns).  Pray that our health will continue and that we won't forget that God will take care of us.

Disastrous Driving Story #2

This one isn't nearly as long as the last.  And, in my opinion, not as funny.

Rain started coming down early today and hasn't stopped, melting all the snow and creating instant flood conditions.  The roads are loaded with slush, which was for me more dangerous than driving in yesterday's snow.

Longish story short, I got stuck on my way back, trying to turn off the road into my parking lot.  No, I mean, like REALLY stuck.  What I wouldn't give to have been driving Mom's Jeep today instead of my PT!

I think I killed my snow tires spinning them in the slush, attempting to get either out of the road or out of the parking lot.  All I know is I smelled burning rubber.

Three guys helped me.  God bless those men!  They were so nice--and I didn't catch a single one of their names!  I wanted to--if only I could send them thank yous or something! 

What eventually happened was I just backed further backwards, straightening out until I could angle myself to turn into the lefthand side of the turn-in place (where cars would normally be coming out), which had way less slush buildup.  Thank heaven that was all it took.

That was definitely one of the scariest experiences of my life.

Oh, The Optimism of Youth: A Comedy in Five Acts

Prologue

What a humiliating day.

I've let Steve do most of the driving these last few days, since I've never driven in snow this bad before, but after a few days I decided I'd been in it enough to have learned some lessons.  Enough lessons to try braving it myself.  I had packages to mail and wanted to see if KMart had ice scrapers or if they were out of everything winter like Fred Meyer's.

Act 1

The first task to overcome was just to get out my car out of the parking lot.  The driver's side was free, but I was parked next to a snowbank on the passenger side.  The snow was piled halfway up my tires.  I took out my handy-dandy ice-chipper-scraper (I love that thing) and started hacking away at the snow.

I didn't realize that that particular area hadn't been cleared out since the freezing rain on Sunday.  I got down through 5 or 6 inches of snow and hit ice.  It was easy enough to get out, though, 'cause it wasn't frozen to my car or anything.  I just reached down with my gloved hands and pulled up the chunks.

I'd uncovered my front tire most of the way and decided to try getting out, although there was still snow piled up against the body of the car.  I hopped into the driver's seat and timidly tried backing out.  It went pretty easily for a sec, but stuck again.  I hopped back out and dug away at some of the snow against the body, observing that my car had moved a good 5-6 inches.  I figured what it really needed was just oomph.  The snow was coming away really easily.

So I got back in and put it in reverse once more.  Making sure nobody was behind me, I started to back up, but suddenly wasn't sure which way to back out.  Toward the snow bank or away from the snow bank or straight out?

I should mention that my car has terrible turning radius.

I continued backing out, indecisively turning my tires this way and that before finally deciding to back out toward the snow bank.  By that time the tires were cleared of it anyway... I had to go the long way to get out of the parking lot, but that didn't matter.  Task #1 completed.

Act 2

Task #2 was to manage the Tualatin-Sherwood Rd. in the middle of 2:30 traffic.  It took forever to even get out of my apartment complex, traffic was so backed up at the first light, but somebody was nice and let me in.

So!  Now the real excitement began!  Thankfully the roads were semi-slushy, but they had deep ruts.  That might've been a problem for my PT.  On top of a sucky turning radius, the bottom of my car has pretty low clearance.  I wondered if I would be able to drive in ruts 6" deep.

On my way down Tualatin-Sherwood, I stayed in the left lane headed for the post office, thinking for some dumb reason that I was going to go past the part of the road where it merges into one lane.  About 5 blocks before the light I should've turned at, I realized the post office was on the righthand side of the road, well before the road merges into one lane.  Unfortunately traffic was way slow in the right lane and there was no way for me to get in at that point.

Nobody was in the left side of the road except me (good thing? bad thing?), so I kept swinging along, averaging about 12 mph on a normally 35 mph road, and about 7 mph faster than the traffic on my right.

Two and a half blocks before the light I should've turned at, I discovered why traffic was so slow over there: two semi trucks with hazard lights on were moving at a very slow pace and holding traffic up.  All of a sudden I saw the sign for Haggen's and Staples just ahead of the trucks, the shopping area I was supposed to turn in at.  Oh great!  How was I going to get past these trucks in time??  I couldn't go much faster or I'd be a danger to everybody, including myself.

But I was going faster enough than those trucks to shoot ahead of them just in time for the light by the Haggen's sign.  I had enough space to bump and slide and bumble my way into the right lane in front of the trucks and still turn before they got to me.

The light turned red and I prayed that my eyesight hadn't fooled me and those trucks were going slow enough to have enough stopping space to not squish me.

Then I realized there was a green right-turn arrow under the red light.

Oh, praise God, I get to turn!

As I turned into the parking lot, I realized that I was still a block away from the light I should've turned at.

Oh well.  There is more than one route through that parking lot to the post office.

Act 3

I wondered as I pulled into the post office parking lot if there was going to be a forever-long line of people trying to get those packages in at the last minute.  Or, was the post office even going to be open?  So many places were closed 'cause the workers couldn't get to work.

I slid and shuffled my way up to the doors and realized, thankfully, that they were open and that there were only two people in there.  I got service relatively quickly, and after another $12.00 out of my rapidly diminshing "play money" from my pre-marriage bank accounts, I sent off the packages to be delivered "I have no idea when", in the words of the post office man.

"Noooo problem, I'm sure my family will understand," I laughed.  They already knew they were going to be late anyway, and with this weather?  I wasn't surprised at all.

Off to KMart.  That meant harrowing the infamous Tualatin-Sherwood Rd again, although for a much shorter trip.  As I sat at the left-turn light, I wondered if I was even on it enough to trigger it.  People had been having so much trouble with that lately, sitting at red lights for several turns before choosing another route.

This one was good, though.  My car's kind of heavy anyway, that probably helped.

At the left-turn light into the KMart parking lot, traffic was backed up so much that I couldn't even get into the left-turn lane until the other lights went green and people moved forward.  Finding a parking space was tricky too... Everyone's flocking all the department stores for that last-minute Christmas shopping plus any "HELP! It's winter in Portland and I'm not prepared!!!" shopping.

Eventually I got into the store, which, for the parking spaces taken up outside, was surprisingly unchaotic.  The only thing was I hadn't been in a KMart for years and I had no idea where the ice scrapers were or even if they had any.  But I followed my instinct and tiptoed my way back to what looked like the car section.

It took some searching, but I finally found the aisle for winter car care, only to find (not surprisingly) everything out of stock.  That was okay; my hopes hadn't been too high anyway.  I just wanted an excuse to get out of the apartment.

I wandered the store a bit, loathe to attack the streets in a 2000 lbs of metal again.  I looked at some hideous snow boots, the only reasonable snow footwear they had left in the shoe section, and decided I was doing okay with my current shoes.

Act 4

When I got back out to my car, I realized the snow piled on top of my car had slipped down a smidge onto the windshield.  That's the other thing about a PT.  Their tops curve quite smoothly and gently downward into the windshield.  It's kinda cool-looking but not exactly practical in snowy weather.  Shoulda taken that off with my ice scraper, I suppose, I thought to myself.  Set on just getting home now, and really not that far away, I decided to go and sweep it off when I got there.

It was now 3:30 and traffic looked pretty normal coming out of the KMart parking lot.  Cars were lined up to turn left onto Tualatin-Sherwood clear through the 4-way stops in the parking lot.  I took a longish way around to the light so that I could just slide up to the tail end of the line instead of attempt to turn into it halfway, which never works and mainly just bugs people.

The light makes me nervous, though.  It's not a protected left turn light and sometimes you don't get through the intersection before it turns yellow again, especially if lots of people are coming on  straight.  

But this time most people across the intersection were turning right to get to the turning lanes for I-5 to Portland or Salem.  Lots of backed-up traffic once more.  Unusually backed-up, actually... I wondered what the deal was.  Just rush hour in the snow?

Everybody in my left-turn lane glided right through the light seemingly without regard for anybody who might be wanting to come straight, so I followed suit.  I don't think there were any people coming straight anyway.

The light turned yellow as I went through, as it always seems to.  I continued gliding through the intersection, and people behind me followed.  Traffic rules seem to be generally bent in crazy weather.

When I got into my lane I realized why traffic was so backed up.  There were two trucks stuck in the Portland freeway-entrance-only lanes.  I could see black snow dug up under their spinning wheels.

In a moment of horror, I wondered if they were perhaps blocking my way home.  I turned my eyes ahead of me and saw cars squeezing past one of the trucks in the lane I take home.  I looked back to the truck and yes, there was enough space to get through.  Not much!!  But enough.

Following the cars ahead of me once more, I inched past the truck, praying again that he wouldn't suddenly start sliding uncontrollably backwards down the overpass and slam into me.  Have I mentioned trucks scare me to death?

Act 5

Having made it safely past the truck, I was now three lighted intersections from home.  Yay!!  My daring adventure was finally coming to an end!

I got through the first intersection with no problems, just a little sliding and nervousness as I wondered whether traffic was treating the two lanes at this point as one or two.  I took a chance on the latter and drove in the (indiscernible) left lane as usual.  The guy in the car beside me did likewise and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Navigating traffic seems like a lot of guesswork to me, snow or no snow, and I love guessing right.

I was going a little faster than the man on my righthand side and pulled ahead of him, knowing the lanes merged into one shortly.  The end was in sight.  Just two more lights and I'd be turning into my own parking lot again.  

SHLUMP!

Snow started careening down my windshield.

Oops!  Windshield wipers to get it off... Still doing okay...

SHLUMP!

Okay, continuing with the windshield wiper plan.  My visibility is still fine.

SHLUMP! SHLUMP!  SHLUMP!

Oh great.  There went my visibility.

Blinking right.  Hazard lights, just in case. Checking the mirror.  Hey, all right!  The guy's way behind me. Into the nearest parking lot.

Only concerned with parking so I could get the darn snow off my windshield, I pulled the wrong way into a very narrow parking lot, parking the wrong way across a few parking spaces.  I turned off my car and got right out with my ice scraper and pushed tons of snow off my windshield.  Every last bit of the snow that had once been on my roof was now on the hood of my car or the ground.  I made sure to get ALL the snow off my car, whether or not it seemed necessary; I had so had enough trouble with it for today!

I had to just laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.  What a day it'd been so far.  What stupid things I'd done.

After assuring myself that ALL the snow was off my car, I was relieved to get back in and prepare to proceed safely the whole block-and-a-half left until home.

Now, how to get out of this one-way parking lot?

I decided, instead of reversing out and risking backing out into the intersection I'd entered by, I'd just try a three-point turn to get myself going in the right direction.  I had plenty of space.  Of course, with a PT, it's never a three-point turn, it's always more like an eight-point turn, if you're lucky.  Darn turning radius.

So I started.  Zhoop, zhoop... Zhoop, zhoop... Forward, backward, forward, backward.  

Oh great.  Traffic had come into the parking lot...from the right direction.

The first was just a little truck with a trailer of some sort hooked on.  I was out of his way and was glad to just sit and wait for him to leave until I could try getting out myself soon.

Oh, here came another car... Hm... Let's hope there aren't anymore.  Should I try to get in behind this truck, or wait until this car goes by?  I was here first, I ought to be able to get in front of that car... I'm almost out.  Zhoop, zhoop... zhoop...

Hm.  Now there was some guy walking out from the building.  I stopped, indecisive once more.  Continue trying to get out, or just wait?  The guy stopped as well and looked very nervously in between me and the other car.  I felt very embarrassed all of a sudden.

I honestly don't purposely try to endanger people.  Really.

I put my car in park, and tried to communicate nonverbally that he could go.  He looked back and forth, back and forth between us again, checking.  You going to stop?  You going to stop?  Okay, then.  He finally walked through the two of us.

Just me and the car and the truck again.  Why was the truck still there, for goodness' sake?  He should've gone forever ago.  It would've made things a lot easier for me and this other car...

Now I worried at the car across from me.  Was he going to let me in?  Please, please, please...

I blinked left real briefly, to show that I was going to try and move in.  I paused, and the truck suddenly pulled out, and I FINALLY slid into the place the truck had just left, in front of the other car.  Hallelujah!!  I was on my way home!

Epilogue

I manuevered my way slowly down the narrow parking lot to the light outside 7-11, where I usually exit this narrow parking lot if I'm going home.  It's easier to turn right there, where the lanes have already merged into one, than it is to turn smack dab into the merging lane and immediately try to merge.

I observed that today there was not a bus stuck right outside the entrance to my apartment complex, as there had been yesterday.  I turned in and pulled my car into a parking space--NOT the one I started out the day in!  I never wanted a repeat of this again.

The lot was really slanted where I parked and it scared me to death for a sec when I stopped my car and realized it.  Should I try to find a space at a more level spot?  Was my car going to slide into the one next to me?

I made myself stop panicking and decided to just observe the lot and see if there WERE any level parking spaces.  Stepping out and stepping back, I assured myself that, yeah, pretty much the whole parking lot was slanted, especially 'cause of the snow bunched up in places.  If the truck on my right was going to be okay, I should be okay.

I finally turned round and started the trek back to my apartment from the parking space I was in.  I'd taken about two steps when my legs suddenly went flying from under me and I landed hard on my side.

Ow.

This day was done with.

Well, it is Christmas...

...Which is my excuse for posting so many blogs.  

Today I made lemon bars for Steve's birthday.  (Specially requested.)  I had no powdered sugar to put on top, so they came out looking kind of naked... But they still taste good. :)

Mommy Claus

Steve worked from home until lunch.  On lunch break, he put chains on his car's tires to drive to the office.  I really wished he weren't going and almost made him stay, but just as he was trying to say goodbye, Mom called and declared she was coming to our house.

"You are?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah.  I got my Jeep," she said.

Mom loves her Jeep.  She drove cross-country in it last fall, all by herself, camping at KOA sites along the way so she didn't have to pay for hotels and such.

"O-k-a-y," I said, knowing full well that once my mom sets her mind to things, she gets them done, come hell or high water.  Or just high snow.  

So off Stephen went to work, and about 45 minutes later, Mom came in with a gust of wind and a bag of goodies.  Kind of like Santa Claus.

"I ought to call you Mommy Claus," I told her as she pulled out Christmas napkins, Christmas candles, Christmas Trader Joe's cookies, and ornament hangers--plus some music I'd forgotten at her house.

The Sugar Cookie Saga

"I forgot the sugar cookie ingredients too," I told her.  I was determined to make sugar cookies this season.  Even though I'm missing (nearly) all the ingredients, not to mention most of the cooking stuff, and have never, ever made sugar cookies before.

"Oh!" Mom said triumphantly.  "Yes, so guess what I did..."

And she pulled flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla out of her sack.

I love my mom. :)

So I now had all the ingredients... Except shortening.  Mom decided we should go in her Jeep to Fred Meyer's nearby and buy some shortening.  She also wanted a shovel.  "Good luck!" I said.  "Fred Meyer's is out of everything winter, and nothing's getting restocked because all the trucks are stuck."

We ventured out anyway and picked up some shortening.  I also bought cooking spray and frosting.  As we shopped around, I realized...I didn't have a rolling pin.  Mom suggested I use the can of Pam.

Mom took off pretty soon after we returned.  As soon as she left, I researched sugar cookies on the Web (yep, I didn't even have a recipe!).  Every recipe I found included mixing up the ingredients with an electric mixer... Which I also don't have.

This was a true crisis.

I called Mom up.  "Mom, can you make sugar cookies without an electric mixer?" I asked, worried.

"Oh," Mom said, in that 'Hm... Didn't think of that...' tone.  "Well, yeah, with arm power.  And a sturdy mixing spoon.  It'll be... Well, then there's the flour.  Oh well.  Just use arm power!"

Hm.  How hard was this going to be?

I thanked my mom, and with my recipe up on the computer, a mixing bowl and a clean wooden spoon in hand, I jumped in.

All in all, I think it went over pretty well.  Stirring the cookie dough wasn't that difficult.  The only real problem I had was counter space, or lack thereof.  

I made cookies in the shapes of Christmas trees, ornaments, hearts, and one candy cane.  Only one, because the dough kept breaking.

The hearts were thrown in there because it was the only cookie cutter I had even remotely close to a Christmas shape.  Christmas means love, right?

The rest of the cookie shapes were made from cutting around cardboard cut-outs, an idea I got from my grandma.

I still have half of the dough left and plan on finishing up tomorrow, but our cookies look beautiful. :)

Snowed In

We are officially snowed in.

Stephen tried to get to work today in my car, but the car wasn't able to make it over the snow.  Last night's accumulation totals our snowfall to 1.5' here.

He is working from home at our kitchen table.  I'm sitting on the couch listening to and watching him.  It's kind of fascinating.  I know what he does but I've never seen him do it.  I kind of want to hover over his shoulder and watch.

What I should be doing is applying for jobs of my own.  What else do you do on a snow day at 9 in the morning?

More Snow

Whew! I am exhausted. This winter weather has got me beat.

We got about 1/2" of freezing rain last night, on top of the 6" of snow we've already got. It's fairly common in the Portland area, but I am not native here and have never seen anything like it. I was amazed when I stepped on what looked like a beautiful snow bank and CRACK! The "beautiful snow bank" broke in shards like a mirror.



I continued to be amazed as we proceeded to un-ice my car. My doors weren't sealed shut, thank goodness. So we turned on my car, put defrost on full blast, grabbed my ice-scraper-chipper and started chipping away. Giving Stephen our only ice scraper to use, I started to use chunks of ice to deice my car. It was incredible to break off 2-foot ice slices.


As we drove through town, several places were closed, including a McDonald's and a Starbucks. We went to Fred Meyer's to get some food. While we were out, it started snow-raining. When we got home, about an inch and a half had collected. Tired of driving in the snow and not getting to play in it, I suggested Steve and I go walk around our apartment complex and take some pictures. I took advantage of the play date and dressed up like an "ice princess"--white eyeshadow, shimmery pink cheeks, and a white sweater with a faux fur-lined hood.

Walking through the snow-ice-snow wore me out, but it was fun and we did get some good pictures.

SNOW.

The weather has been crazy this week. We had snow on Sunday and around-freezing temperatures all week long, plus more snow every night, and unrelenting snow today. It's been snowing since 5:30 this morning, without stopping.

Tomorrow we're predicted to get freezing rain or snow or both. The schools in the area have been canceled every day this week, so teachers and students get an extra week of Christmas vacation.

It's quite beautiful, but very wearisome. I'm glad I don't live in Michigan or Canada. I would get really tired of the snow, really fast.

Steve and I drove around doing errands today and then spent a little bit of time at his work campus walking around and playing in the fluffy white. It's not wet enough to pack, so no snowball fights or snowmen, but I did have a fun time running around in it and making a footprint heart and a footprint snowflake. The ponds at his workplace are mostly frozen over. Everything is covered.

What do you like best about snow?

Stephen: I like how it changes the scenery, and I like the element of danger it adds to driving.
Stephanie: I like how it sparkles and makes everything white and fluffy-looking. I also like making snow angels and having snowball fights and sledding in it--basically doing everything fun in it.

Ice and Snow

Ice and snow, ice and snow... The Portland metro area got dumped on last night, like much of the Pacific Northwest. Then a strong east wind kicked up from the Gorge and scoured the snow into ice. The temperatures aren't predicted to get above freezing this week. Our apartment complex parking lot is like an ice skating rink.

Stephen got to work okay with chains on his tires. I planned to spend the day with my mom, since it's her birthday. We were going to go hear a brass band playing Christmas music. I couldn't get out of the parking lot, so Mom went ahead and drove down to get me. When we got there, there was no brass band (go figure), so we instead went to the mall to eat and then headed to Powell's.

When we got back to my apartment complex, the mail truck was stuck in our parking lot and being rescued by the post office. As Mom and I approached, the mail lady called, "Do you want your mail? What apartment are you in?" I stopped and talked with her a bit--she congratulated me on getting married, which made me smile. :D I'd seen her, but never talked to her before.

Stephen and I spent most of yesterday indoors, watching Christmas movies and decorating our tree. Tonight we are supposed to make gingerbread houses with the young marrieds group, but trying to find a strange place at night in this kind of weather makes me a little nervous.

The Holidays

Our first holiday season as a married couple. We dealt with the juggling families last year too, but last year Stephen's parents were still living in our area. This year, the family moved away because Stephen's dad got a new job.

This year we spent Thanksgiving day with my aunt's boyfriend's family and some of their mutual friends. My grandparents, who live 6 hours away, were able to join us, and my mom and sister, who live in the area, were there too. It was a big party, and Stephen and I got tired and left kind of early and had a little Thanksgiving outing for two to the theaters. We saw Quantam of Solace.

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we went to his grandmother's house. She still lives in the area. His parents drove down to spend Thanksgiving there, so we got to see them too.

It looks like this year we'll be going up to my mom's house for Christmas Eve like we did last year, spending a little time with my aunt and her boyfriend on Christmas, and then driving to Stephen's parents' house to visit them for the rest of the weekend. It's nice that Christmas comes on a Thursday this year, so Stephen gets a four-day weekend.

We won't get to see my grandparents or Stephen's brother and sister-in-law this year, but I imagine in the new year we'll have opportunities to visit with them. In the meantime, we'll enjoy a slightly smaller Christmas and try to form some new Christmas traditions of our own.