Grandpa Jay's Visit

Well, we have had Grandpa now for just over a week. Life is interesting when you are taking care of an older individual. Reed's dad is blind, due to Alzheimer's. The Alzheimer's has now progressed that he has a lot of trouble remembering and gets confused easily. It requires that either Reed or I (or someone) is with him at all times. The first few nights Reed slept upstairs on the living room floor in case he got confused and started wandering. (This has happened before!) Now he seems to have adjusted, somewhat. We keep a monitor in his room so we can hear him downstairs where we are staying. We have also started putting a chair in the hallway outside the room and bathroom so that he doesn't wander the wrong direction. He did that a couple of nights and so we have instituted some safeguards. We worry about him falling. Last night we tried to prepare him for the different schedule of Sunday. Reed has meetings first thing in the morning and so we wanted to get him up and showered (he needs assistance) and ready and then he would come in with me to church. We told him what time we would get him up. Well he woke up last night and thought he was late and that Reed had left without taking care of him. So on his own he got up and took a shower. Small problem, Jackie had bathed the kids last and so the shower curtain was outside the shower. Reed woke up hearing water running and found his dad in the shower at 3AM!! Reed had to mop up the floor (it took 4 towels) and get his dad dressed and back to bed.

Oh well, he keeps up on our toes!! We love him and really are enjoying his time here! He has a great sense of humor and is so humble over the whole thing. It has been a real joy to watch Reed as he is so patient and loving with his Dad. Even when we have cleaned the bathroom for the 5th time in one day. At least Grandpa has enjoyed the books we have put onto an MP3 player we got for him. After going through a ton of Lous L'Amour books, he wanted to change his name to Jay William Sackett!!

Heading For Home

We have had 3 really fun weeks back here on the east coast. We have spent the last few days with Reed's sister in Bethesda. Today as we get ready to leave it is snowing and so pretty outside. Reed has struggled at times feeling like he should be doing more. Of course, there was work he could have done that he never really got around to. We are headed back home and taking Reed's dad with us. He will spend February with us in Oregon and then meet up with his wife in Utah for a week. We are excited to have him with us for a while.

Here are some fun photos of our last little while here!

This is the boardwalk in OC. It was about 26 degrees and blowing about 15-20 miles an hour. They have an amusement park on the pier (closed for the winter)!
This is the boardwalk at Bethany from the beach side. This is the path from the beach to the board walk. Fun, huh?

One of the questions we always discuss is that when you look at these beaches, during the summer there are hundreds to thousands of people who are on the beach. But there is only 1 bathroom. It makes you very thankful we have a private beach. I thought this sign was funny. There was more to the story, but I think it speaks volumes!

Baby It's Cold Outside

We only had a couple of days of the really bitter cold where it got down to about 8-10 at night and warmed up only to about 20. It was really interesting to see the waves freeze on the sand. the wind chill was taking it down to 5 degrees and lower. We have been taking long walks on the beach and walking to town and looking at the damage to the new dune in Bethany. The boardwalk has all these new walkways over the new dune and down to the beach but the erosion has just left a drop off and they have had to close most of them. AHHH taxpayers money at work!!

What does Reed do when he is bored in the winter at the beach? Why get together with Buz and use his new book - Backyard Balistics - and make a potato gun. One problem, with all the cold weather it would not shoot very well. The hairspray would immediatley condense and liquify. So the obvious solution was to stay in the house and open the window and shoot over the dune. Jill and I were the ones sent up on the dune to measure the distance. We were all laughing so hard. We were able to shoot from the house, over the dune and almost to the high water line of the tide! I had the longest shot yet. Of course I have only been allowed to shoot once and the wind was not blowing when I shot!

Sunday night it started snowing. You don't get much snow at the beach, but it was fun to wake up this morning to a dusting and snow ON the beach! Enjoy the pictures!

Winter At The Beach

Reed and I are back at the beach house. He has a professional meeting to attend and we thought we would help out with his Dad. Well the meeting is on here - literally here as in the beach house. When they set the schedule for the long range planning meeting of officers (Reed is one) they did not realize that they planned on the weekend before innauguration. No hotel rooms, outlandish rates and what not. Reed offered the beach house as a place to hold the meeting with hotel rates down here much more resonable - off season!

So here we are - Reed's dad is NOT with us. He is recovering from a very minor surgery and had Dr. appt. so we will take him back home with us when we go and have him stay with us for about a month.

This is what the beach is like in January!! No one around. Imagine wall to wall people during the summer. Kind of fun, but much COLDER! I am bundled up, but the really cold weather has not even hit yet. Tonight and tomorrow we will be in the low teens to low 20's. Add in the wind and it will be something.

I have been walking almost everyday. Sometimes without the boot!! Won't my physical therapist be excited. (I am not supposed to be doing it, but hey they don't think it will get better anyway, so why not!)

Shepherds's Watching Their Flocks

I have so many cute Christmas pictures, that I need to just start posting so that you can see some of them. This picture was taken at our ward Christmas party, where we dressed up and had dinner at a market place in Bethlehem. It is so fun, because everyone dresses up and we sit on the floor and eat. Jackie's boys were so cute as shepherds!

The Children Were Snug in Their Beds!?!

Well, maybe it wasn't THEIR beds. The critters and the kids have had a hard time deciding whose bed they wanted to be snugged in. Mushu somhow prefers a hard basket to her soft bed. What can I say, she is a cat. Kayden, however, loves the dog bed and has since he was little. I just finally caught him in it. I would love it if Riley would get in there with him, but since the dog is not fond of sharing his bed, it probably won't happen. Hey, at least the boys love their dog-dog.

Thanksgiving

We had our first ever Glasmann Thanksgiving in our new kitchen this year. In the past we have joined with my extended family for Thanksgiving. This is a carry over from all the years of Christmas Tree harvest that was always in full swing during the Thanksgiving holiday. This year, with all my children but Josh close at hand, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving. We were joined by Zach's brother, Jace who is an honorary member of our family, and Megan join us. The house was full and we had a GREAT time. My dad and Maxine also joined us, with Maxine furnishing the great pumpkin pie. It was fun to cook the WHOLE dinner, unlike previous years where you just do a part. We spent the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, making rolls and pies and had a lot of fun working all together. The roll recipe needed tweeking and by batch 5 we had it down perfect.

Kayden even snuggled with Grandma in her chair, not something he does very often. Then daddy showed the boys how to do a headstand. First Keegan tried it, then Kayden joined the fun. I laughed so hard watching the boys try it

Then we had our own brand of excitement as Jayme and Virginia had a scare. Virginia almost bled to death, after hemmoraghing on the way home from Astoria. The Dr.'s had a hard time stopping the bleeding and we spent the night not knowing if she would have to have a hysterectomy. Grandma and Grandpa took Katie for the night and next day and then had Jayme and Virginia come to our house for the next couple of days before heading home to manage on their own. Grandpa got some much loved snuggle time with Katie. We are so thankful that everything is fine now and that Mom is recovering and finally beginning to get her energy back.

We have much to be thankful for!! Can't wait for everyone to arrive for Christmas!