Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #120 – Taking Down Christmas & More Trip Planning

 

Thursday, Dec 26^th, 2019…… It turned out to be a busy day for me. I started out with getting Rylee walked and tea going for Lydia.  Then I headed over to my sisters and we left to head to Albany. We stopped at Rogers and had breakfast before hitting Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart looking for on sale Christmas items. I found three more Carole Towne houses for my collection. They were marked down 75% so I went nuts!  Couldn’t pass that up and that was the reason for my trip today!  Home Depot was a bust but we found other items we couldn’t pass up at Walmart. I also got my 2020 OR fishing license while there. Once we were done and back, I stayed at Penny’s house and we put up the last string of outdoor patio lights and wrapped up that project. Once I got home, I fixed Lydia a turkey sandwich and then started bringing in boxes for the Christmas stuff. I started on that and Sis came by to help. We got everything off the tree and all of the Christmas Village stuff boxed back up. I still have the tree to take down and box up plus outside lights to get down and put away. I also have the stars in the windows to store away plus all of the boxes to get back on the shelves in the shop garage. Lydia heard back today from the folks doing the ultrasound biopsy. They set it up for Jan. 20^th, the day after we return from Calif. That made the Jan. 2^nd ortho appointment unnecessary. That one got rescheduled later in the month. So, we are still on track to make the SoCal trip! Yaay! I worked on laundry for the rest of the afternoon and threw pot pies in the oven for an easy dinner. Lydia made herself a salad. We watched tv until bedtime.           

         

Friday, Dec 27^th, 2019…… Tough night for Lydia last night. She was up several times and ended up taking a hydrocodone to lessen the pain so she could sleep. She’s been really trying hard not to overmedicate. For the most part, her days are only Tylenol. She only uses the hydro or oxy at night when and if she needs it.

The weather here has been pretty good for the past week or so. No rain until last night. And it was out of the area when I got up this morning. It’s still chilly though. I know it’s winter down south too but I sure hope we get some warm sunny days while we are there! After breakfast, I started in on the rest of the laundry and while that was going, I worked on the Christmas decorations. I got the tree down and boxed and put out on the back porch. The other boxes followed that.  Then I went out to the front porch and started out there. My sister came over and together we got everything down and boxed and out to the garage and up on the shelves. I take pictures of the racks before I take the boxes down so I can make sure everything goes back easily. It worked well. We moved out the tractors and while they were outside, I hosed all of the grass and debris off of them before we put them back. Shoulda done that sooner!  Then, we came in and rested. I forgot to mention the new ladder display I had built for the Christmas village. That is still in place in the house. I will break it down tomorrow and it will be stored, probably up in the loft area in the front entryway.  Sis brought Q over and left her so she could go run errands. I settled in and watched more bowl games today. Later, I heated up ham, sweet potatoes (Lydia), scalloped potatoes (me), and green beans and we had a nice meal. We settled in and watched our shows (and football) until calling it a night.  

Saturday, Dec 28^th, 2019…… Cold again today. I was out and had Rylee walked early. I headed off to get coffee/tea/breakfast. Sis came by so she could help me with the ladder display. I took it all apart and she handed it to me and I put it up in the entryway loft area, where it is out of sight. Lydia had planned on going out to the rv and taking inventory of things before making a list for the trip. But, she felt nauseous while in the shower so I had her stay in the house and rest for the day. I vacuumed where the tree and ladder display were and I was done for the day. I spent some time reviewing the trip plan for next week. We leave next Friday. I needed to make one more reservation for the LA/Orange County area on the return part of the trip. We settled on Long Beach, primarily for the location to the kids. I have a reservation (made online) in their system at Golden Shores RV but still need to call on Monday and finish it with them in person. I watched the two semi-final bowl games plus a few others before turning over to my taped shows. Lydia spent most of the day watching a few of her programs she had taped in our bedroom. That is the receiver we will be taking with us for the bedroom tv in the rig. There is already one in the rig for the front area. We choose not to have the Directv genie system. While it allows viewing on any receiver in the house, you cannot remove it from the room. We both tape most of our shows on either her living room receiver, or my office receiver. But Lydia can tape shows on any of our four other receivers in the house/shop. On this trip, she wants to take our bedroom unit because she has shows on that one to catch up on while we are out. Since I was watching tv most of the afternoon, I forgot to get something out for dinner. So, I went out and got her a taco salad from Taco Bell and I went over to Stick a Pork in It to get a couple of their stuffed potato balls. Unfortunately, he didn’t make any for today’s menu so I ended up across the street at Jack in the Box and got a burger. I tried their egg rolls for the first time and found them to be very tasty! We settled in and watched tv until calling it a night.