About the Woodstove

What's a Christmas season without a couple of unexpected projects? We've had smoke in the house - this is not a good sign. A bit of exploring proved the professional who installed our wood stove wasn't quite as professional as one would hope. In talking with stove store owners this man is the only recommendation we have been given. Michael is taking care of it himself. 

Michael rigged up THIS tool to suck soot out of the pipe without getting it all over the house. It works. He also hooked a phone to the end of this tool and went all the way up to see what is going on. It turns out the fix is more extensive than originally thought. 

Expect more photos of this project. The plan is to buy a new end cap, install it, soak the current one and switch them out NEXT SUMMER or FALL...as that is a much better time to be on a roof. 

I have been assured safety precautions will be in place before anyone is on the roof...but to be doubly sure I enlisted Cory to the roof team - he's a great safety expert. Seriously Michael has a big 4 foot hook to stabilize the ladder. 

We miss the warm heat....it is nice not to be at 80* in the house...but there are days when it is just COLD and wood heat is nicer! 

Rosie Pays A Visit

Rosie must have heard we were out of quarantine! She came to visit, big as life. It's nice to see she made it through another hunting season. 

For new blog readers, Rosie has been collard and is monitored by the Fish and Wildlife Department. I don't know why. She's been coming to our yard since 2017 and even gave birth here in 2019. 

Benny & Baachan Do the Town

Many years ago a particularly harrowing experience in a big box store, with eight children at Christmas time, led me to call an END to group Christmas shopping trips. I decided it would be much easier to make numerous trips than one - where eight children hide gifts from each other and store security shadows us.  Eight, because the girls left home two weeks after Stacia was born and thus their Christmas shopping extravaganzas didn't overlap. 

My practice has been to take each child (or sometimes two at a time) out for a day where they could buy ALL their Christmas gifts on one day and choose where they'd like to have lunch. It worked well. 

At this point everyone is working or driving themselves and I only have ONE child to take Christmas shopping. I  miss the outings with each one. I do not miss the bustle in the stores. LOL BEFORE COVID HIT OUR HOME I had hit on the idea of taking Bella, Gideon, and Benny out....I thought how nice it would have been for someone to take our kids out to buy gifts for us. We could have been surprised at Christmas. Time is short and we have to act if we are to make it happen.  CoRielle said they would love for me to take Benny shopping. 

Today was the first day we could make it happen post quarantine.  Stacia came with me as we had Bible study this a.m. and it would have put me late to run her home. It was fun to have her along. We pulled up at the house and I went in to get Benny....

Before I got to the door, he ran out in the yard and yelled, "Baachan! I am SO excited." 

I jumped up and down and yelled back, "Benny! I am SO excited too!" 

Cory put his car seat in my van while I went in to chat with Arielle. It turns out he had been laying by the window with his coat on -waiting. Benny had specific things he wanted to find for Cory and Arielle. He told them he would get them a CHRISTMAS moose and a CHRISTMAS airplane. I asked them if they wanted me to steer him towards a gift or let him decide. They opted to let him decide what he wanted to buy. 

We were far to focused to take photos while shopping. We shopped local.  I chose our first store to be one with reasonable prices, Christian owners, and friendly staff. The sales staff offered to help us numerous times. I explained my grandson and I were out shopping for his parents for Christmas. They seemed to enjoy bringing things to Benny for him to check out....I was diverted from the original plan several times, but Benny repeatedly told them, firmly but politely, "No, I need a moose and an airplane." 

We found all the gifts in ONE store. Somehow Benny managed to  "sneak" in a couple of gifts for himself and "Danny," too. ::wink::

Our next stop was a local restaurant for lunch. 

The final stop of the day was our home to wrap gifts. Benny explained he didn't WANT to wrap gifts...but he did want to write names on the packages. This worked for me. 

Remember when your preschoolers
wore their shirts backwards? LOVE it. 

I opened Grandpa's bedroom door, but he was dead to the world and didn't join the fun. Papa had an appointment and had to leave when we got home.  These two had more fun playing with the wrapping paper than wrapping gifts. LOL 

Benny and Auntie Yay-ya!

Such clowns! I told them to pose so I could get a photo of them with  Benny's purchases. THIS is what I got. 

I had promised to have Benny home in 3 hours. He wasn't quite ready to go home, but agreed it was a fun day and we'd better do what Mommy and Daddy asked so we could do it again next Christmas. 

I delivered Benny at home with wrapped gifts to go under the tree. He has NOT told them what the extra gifts are, nor allowed them to look under the tree. He did tell them he found a moose and airplane. 

Yes, this is how traditions begin. 

Years from now people may wonder why they see little of BreZaak's children in our blog this year. There is no big family rift. BreZaak have chosen for the kids and Bre to stay locked down until Covid passes...the kids and Bre aren't going out. 

Millie The Therapy Dog

Our research showed that Labradoodles were bred to be therapy dogs. I'm not 100% sure that was a good choice. ::snort:: Our labradoodle puppy is VERY energetic, she has to RUN several times a day or she is CRAZY...and she loves to play rough. 

But slowly....she's catching on. 

She is the first into Grandpa's room when the alarm or call button sounds. It's fun to watch. He loves seeing her...probably more than my cheery face in the early a.m. ::wink:: 

I've been working to teach her to bring Grandpa his paper. We aren't having great success....it's often quite treacherous to take an unexercised Millie out for a walk on icy inclines...but we make our way to the top of the driveway, unbury the paper and then I diligently try to show her to put it in her mouth and carry it into the house. 

She was pretty excited today to get the paper into the house....but she kept dropping it before she actually gave it to Grandpa.

Ah, well....she'll get it. She's getting closer. At least it's NEAR his breakfast table now. 

Millie Does Winter

 Millie is simply not sure about all the snow. We are glad we didn't shave her last month.

Unexpected Fireworks

Snow or no snow, we needed to be up and OUT of the house by 0940 to make it to Anchorage for dad's cardiac follow-up. Michael came with us as the doc office required a negative covid test for the appointment, and I don't have one. LOL  I stayed in the car and had some blessed quiet time, journaled, prayed, read....and they called and put me on speaker during parts of the appointment. Worked well. Maybe we should do ALL appointments this way. ::wink::

The appointment was fairly pointless and I am NOT sure why Maple Springs and Ancora insisted this needed to happen. They simply checked his incision and the answer to all our questions was, "That is a good question to ask his Cardiologist in the Valley." OK then.  I called to make an appointment with the cardiologist and they wanted the oral surgeon to fax info to them. I called the Oral Surgeon and they are closed on Wed.....Dr's are closed on Friday....the weeks are growing alarmingly shorter around here during 2020. 

Taking Dad to town for the doc reminded us of taking Mom G to town for the doc. Both insist on stopping at a restaurant, regardless of the time of day. The challenge today is no restaurants are open for dine in in Anchorage. We stopped and had some Panda Express in the parking lot....Dad agreed to Panda and then was a bit put out that he couldn't order a Big Mac. Oops....I guess "anywhere" and "Chinese is fine," means stop at the McDonalds.  ::snort:: 

Friday nights have been our traditional pizza night...Wednesday nights are our busiest at this point. The kids suggested we switch and we did just that tonight.  Nolan had picked up Alex AND pizza before we got home. Stacia was making cookies for a youth party. 

Michael and I enjoy dropping Stacia at youth group and going out for a hot drink. Snatching time alone is precious in this season. We watched the Laci's do this all those years ago in Hardin and FINALLY we don't have a thing planned on Wed. night, the boys stay with Grandpa,  and we can steal a bit of time alone. LOL Seasons....

We happened upon the lighting of a menorah and fireworks presented by our local Jewish Center....we thought the Menorah would STAY lit and planned to get a photo after we warmed up. We grabbed these photos on the way in for our tea. 

It made us happy to find a nativity and a menorah on "town square."

Note: it is too LIGHT out to have fireworks on July 4th.  Instead we have them the day after Thanksgiving, after the Colony Christmas parade, tonight and New Years. LOL 

Feels Like Monday

 Dad saw the oral surgeon today. I KNEW this was going to be a hot mess, but his primary doc was sure it would be simple. Not so much. The oral surgeon won't extract dad's infected teeth unless the heart surgeon gives his approval - IN WRITING. He is worried about dad bleeding out, he doesn't want to use IV Sedation as dad had much trouble waking up, AND Dad has afib so he worries about taking him off the blood thinner.....oy vey.  These are the very concerns I raised BEFORE surgery and again when Dad began complaining after surgery. It's hard to know when something is serious with Dad. He doesn't complain, then he does, and then he swears it doesn't hurt when I get an appointment. I've told them a better gauge to his pain is to observe HIM, rather than trust his memory or expect him to choose a number on a scale. He is grabbing his jaw when he eats, he winces, he's losing weight - it hurts - even if he insists it doesn't. If that isn't enough the crown fell off, he pulled part of a tooth as it was hurting him, and he  lost  part of a tooth at dinner the other night.  "Yes, he's symptomatic." LOL 

Something has to be done. Something should have been done years ago, but Dad said he didn't want to spend the money then....I'm managing his money these days and I just tell him, "You have enough." ::wink:: 

We were pretty proud of doing our first solo trip with the chair.  We grabbed a couple of drinks at our favorite cafe when we picked Stacia up from work. She took this photo of reindeer lights seen through her 3D glasses. LOL 

Yikes - meds are EXPENSIVE. One of Dad's is $206...and medicare paid $1600 on it. It really is crazy. 

This moose came by to moon us....she wasn't going to turn around...so I took a photo of her back side. 

Michael and Nolan fixed our woodstove. It was smoking. I'm not sure what they found - but it will be nice to have warm feet and hands again. 

I wrapped gifts for the grands. I'm trying to clear my closet. 

We're working to establish a new routine...one with quiet time, workout time, caring for Dad's needs, Stacia's needs, and a bit of fun worked in too.....we'll get there.