Kat's House

2009-05-31T19:41:00.000-07:00

I finally got a Pendleton blanket! The dentist that I work with is going to be leaving soon to be the mission president in Chile for three years. He asked if he could stop by on Sunday and didn't say what for. Anyone who knows me knows that I spent the week worrying about why he was stopping by. He gave me this nice Pendleton blanket and said thank you for all the years I worked with him. HOW NICE :-)

2009-04-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

So no picture for this one, but I had to share....Brian cut his finger through the fingernail at work in the kitchen and could not get the bleeding to stop. He came up with a very unusual solution.....he deep-fried his finger!! He put batter on it and stuck it in the deep fryer until he could feel the heat. The cooked batter made an airtight seal around the cut and stopped the bleeding. Later he took the batter off and it appears to be healing fine. Who would have thought this one up except Brian!

2009-03-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

In cleaning/sorting Dad's stuff, I took the T-shirts he designed off the posterboards to wash them. Most of the posterboards were blank, but a few had artwork on them. I could tell that they were all his artwork, probably designs he didn't like and cut up. This one was fun to find. If there was ever a picture Dad would create for Rick and Holly, this would be it! It is in good enough shape to save, so let me know if you want it Rick and Holly....

2009-01-29T17:32:00.000-08:00

I just have to say today that I love my job! We had our yearly staff meeting and they took us on a shopping spree at Washington Square, followed by lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. And it looks like we will be going to Hawaii next year for spring break. We also got cool Stormtech vest jackets with our new logo. I spent my money on a bike trainer so I can ride my bike indoors. Life is good today.....

2009-01-25T21:24:00.000-08:00

Brian was up in the attic at work where they keep stuff for big events and he found this vintage country club wool jacket. It fits him perfectly and they said he could keep it. Very nice.....

2009-01-25T21:22:00.000-08:00

Oh, and I forgot to put this picture in with Christmas Eve. Damien liked his cowboy hat. He was tired and his rocking horse scared him, but he liked it later.

2009-01-25T21:17:00.000-08:00

When the weather cleared, we went to St Helens to visit Dan's family. Freyja is only two months old here and I think Odin likes his new rocking horse! Michael and Daniel were excited as always....

2009-01-25T21:07:00.000-08:00

So, this was Christmas Eve at our house this year. We had more snow than we ever get here, so Dan and Tammy couldn't make it to our house. Sharon was here and Cheri came down from Tacoma in the snow. Michael made it out to Tigard and brought Andrea and Damien over for the day. Brian spent all day cooking - he made prime rib! You can see that Brian really enjoys meat, that is his giant slab of meat on that plate. I have no idea where he puts it all. That is also Brian's great wrapping job (he gets it from me). I saved Michael's mom's Santamobile she made in the 60's for the table centerpiece.

2008-12-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

Snow and ice have been making life fun here....If it wasn't for internet shopping with free shipping, I would be way behind in getting ready for Christmas! The ducks have been out all day playing in the snow. The black one is having a bad feather day now from constantly picking the snow out of its feathers.

2008-12-04T22:44:00.001-08:00

I went to the Festival of Nativities today with my friends. It is amazing! Every year it gets better. I posted a slide show of some of my favorites. They have different choirs, bands, handbell groups and other groups perform in the chapel. They also have two rooms set up for kids. One has crafts to make and stories. The other has a stable and nativity scenery and clothes for the kids to dress up in to do a live nativity. The main cultural hall is filled with all kinds of nativities that you could imagine and another room is set up like a log cabin with children's and country craft-type nativities.

2008-12-04T22:42:00.001-08:00

2008-11-23T14:10:00.000-08:00

The Apple Butter Gang

So, after canning and canning and canning more apples, we finally got things wrapped up this weekend. I had three friends from work come over with crock pots and we made more apple butter and got it canned. It was fun having friends over, something I haven't done for longer than I can remember. I finally feel well enough to clean house and not be in too much pain to enjoy company. We started things Friday night and then finished Saturday morning and had breakfast together.

2008-11-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest picture of Freyja. She slept most of the time that I was visiting. She is doing really well and is almost 2 weeks old now.

2008-11-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

I also have been canning a lot lately. This week it was apple chutney. Next is more applesauce and apple butter. I don't know why I got so many apples! I still have a lot of apples to go....

2008-11-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the middle of November and I still have flowers blooming! It was nice that this rose named Evelyn was still blooming on Mom's birthday. It is one of my favorite roses, not just because of the name, but it smells good and has a very long blooming season from late spring to late fall.

2008-11-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

The Secret of My Success/How Kathy Got Her Groove Back.....
Those of you who are close to me already know most of my story, but I am so excited that I want to share what's going on with everyone.
How my story began:
Lots and lots of pain, followed by more pain and suffering with no end in sight. I have an autoimmune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis, a rare disease similar to rheumatoid arthritis that causes extreme pain, inflammation, joint/spine damage and can fuse your joints together when it has done enough damage. Basically, my body sees my joints and connective tissues as the enemy and attacks. There were many days when I couldn't walk, migraines that lasted 5-7 days, muscle spasms so hard that it would pull my ribs out of place. It took over 10 years to find out what was wrong with me and then the real fun began. I have been on almost every drug the medical doctors have to treat this with. Some of the drugs have ruined my stomach and caused problems with my liver and kidneys. Some have side effects listed like "may cause lymphoma and fatal lung infections". Great....I think I'll sign up for that one! I have tried a lot of alternatives like natural medicine and herbs without much help. I was at the point that my rheumatologist told me I was on the last medical option out there and he was considering sending me to the pain management clinic to at least control the pain levels. I was no longer able to sit for more than an hour, wear most normal shoes, go hiking, exercise, sleep more than two hours without pain. I started to distance myself from my friends and was giving up on life as a normal person. My husband and I started to think about when I should go on disability. It was at this point that I met someone who had Fibromyalgia (another autoimmune disease) so bad that she couldn't work and was in constant pain who found a way to get well. Since this wasn't some infomercial on TV and I knew this person, I decided to try what she was doing. The first day I started taking the vitamins and supplements, I noticed a big difference. Over the next few weeks, things dramatically improved for me. Now I have no pain or inflammation, I bike to work now (3.5 miles each way with some hills), I have lost over 20 pounds, I actually sleep all night and I feel HAPPY. We went on some road trips and it didn't cause me pain for once. I feel better than I have felt for the last 20 years. I thought a long time about posting my story with so much personal information, but if it helps even one person who needs help it is worth it to me.

2008-11-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! This is Brian's pumpkin he carved for work - it looks great. October has been a busy month for us. Now that I'm feeling better, there are so many things going on. We went to Hood River and picked apples (still making apple butter, apple chutney, etc.), we had a baby shower for Tammy (first girl grandbaby, will be born Nov 3rd), I've been biking to work, gardening, taking jewelry classes, etc. My friend from work and I went on an underground tour of the shanghai tunnels in Portland, too. Last night I got to take Damien, our grandson, out trick or treating. He was so cute! We only went to the end of the block and back, but it was fun. Everyone at work dressed up and it was so hard to focus on work yesterday. When you have a doctor dressed up as a chili pepper or Elvis, it's hard to take it seriously.

2008-07-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Death of the Naughty Squirrel

So, this morning I woke to a loud explosion at 6:30 AM. It sounded like a car got blown up or something and the power for the whole neighborhood went out. I went outside to see whose house or car was blown up and everyone in the neighborhood was on their front porch looking around to see what happened. I couldn't find anything and there is only so far I will wander outside in my fuzzy pink bathrobe, so I called the power company to let them know power was out. Of course I put ALL of my scrubs for work in the washer last night knowing I could dry them before work because, hey, Wednesday is my day to sleep later. When the power guys came out, the fuses in the box in front of our house were blown out because the tranformer by our trees exploded. A squirrel got in the transformer somehow this morning. The little squirrel was dying amongst the lavendar and his friend was sitting in the hazelnut tree chattering very sadly. Luckily the power was back on in time for me to dry clothes to go to work!

2008-07-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

The ducks are finally starting to earn their keep. They started laying eggs yesterday! Cheri and Brian are afraid of trying the eggs, but I hear they taste just like chicken :-)

2008-07-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday, Damien!
July 24th was Damien's first birthday. Andrea came over on Sunday and we had a great time. We all went to church together and had cake and ice cream at my house. When Damien was eating cake, he just kept say, "Mmm". I think he might like cake!

2008-07-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

Look what Brian brought home! Brian has a friend at work who has acres of raspberries and lets people come pick them for free :-) Brian made two pies with them. They're still way too hot to cut yet, but I'm sure they'll be good!

2008-07-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!
Cheri and Brian set out on the 4th to barter with the fireworks stands. They managed to get quite a few good fireworks and mortars for not too much money. We also had a fire going outside and did S'mores on the patio. Then Brian took off with his burn cream to Josh's house. Josh burned himself with fireworks (big surprise!). Cheri and I hung out with the neighbors for a while since they bought about $650 worth of fireworks. The show in our neighborhood was amazing!

2008-07-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Poor, sad Cheri! She just got her wisdom teeth out today. It took Valium to get her in the chair, nitrous and Diazipam to keep her in the chair. It still didn't stop the crying when the needle came out! But hey, she made it and will spend the weekend healing.

2008-06-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

After reaching the end of the modern medicine road and still being in a lot of pain, tons of side effects, new muscle spasms and nerve pain, I decided to try natural medicine. My neighbor told me about this herbal specialist in Portland that helped a friend of hers who had severe liver problems and was given only two months to live. She is doing fine now. The guy is a little bit "far out there", but I have an open mind and am willing to try whatever to get well. It has been one week without any pills and I am doing pretty well, not perfect, but a lot better. I am taking 8 different herbal remedies and bee pollen as well as not consuming any red meat, milk, cheese, peanuts or soy. My stomach feels great, I have more energy, I seem to be losing weight, no headaches and the pain levels have gone down. I hope this continues....I will let you know.

2008-06-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

Where can I turn for peas, where is my solace.....
It is nice to finally by enjoying vegetables from my own garden! The lettuce is amazing right now, too, but today is the start of a heatwave and I had to harvest all of it in the last few days. The tomatoes are starting to get blossoms, so maybe it won't be long until they have fruit. This has been the easiest vegetable garden I ever had with the best results. I will definitely be doing this again!

2008-06-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

What creates more fun and family unity than a game of Scrabble, right? Not when you have two highly competitive sore losers. Cheri came down for the weekend last week when she couldn't take the lack of sunshine in Tacoma anymore. Cheri used a questionable word and ended up winning. Brian refused to accept her win, saying without the word in question she would have less points and he would have won. So, when I was taking pictures of them at the end of the game, Brian stole the scoresheet from Cheri before I could take a picture of her with it and then he ate it with a big smile on his face.

2008-05-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

The weather has been really hot, going from 60 to 100 degrees in a few days. The ducks really like the pool. They also love scraps of spinach from the garden. I just put it in the pool and they go crazy eating it up. It's like duck soup. :-)

2008-05-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

Brian's Mullet
Brian needed a haircut, so he decided to have fun with a mullet for one day before having the rest cut off. It's a little scary how well he pulled it off. The white wifebeater tank top adds to the effect.

2008-05-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Brian's Hand
Brian has the proud title of being the first injury at work since the remodel of the country club's kitchen. The people who installed the new metal counters left the edges really sharp. He has six stitches and, as an added bonus, they stuck him with a tetanus shot at the hospital. They didn't tell him until after the shot how sore his arm would be for a few days. By the way, if you haven't seen Brian lately, he is really proud of his Elvis sideburns.

2008-04-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

The sun finally came out today! I had fun in the garden and so did the ducks. Rick gave me a book on Square Foot Gardening and I am trying it out this year. The peas, spinach and lettuce are all starting to grow and I don't have any weeds yet! I am excited about how it's going so far.

2008-04-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice picture of Cheri and Ryan in Spokane when we went to visit Rick on Thanksgiving weekend. Rick and Holly look so cute, too.

2008-04-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is the lovely April weather today! I hope all the plants survive since last weekend the weather was unseasonably warm, about 85 degrees and all the warm weather plants started coming up.

2008-04-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything in so long......sorry! These are the newest additions to our family. This picture was taken in March, so the ducks are a lot bigger now. When the weather is nice, they play in the back yard. While we are building them a house, they are staying in a cheap tent in the back yard. The yellow ones are Indian Runners and are turning brown. The black ones are Cayugas and are good slug eaters.

2007-09-08T11:24:00.001-07:00

This is the new sign across the street from Cheri and Brian's house. It's at the entrance to the crackhead trailer park. I'm sure someone stayed up all night making this piece of artwork....

2007-09-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Brian's new look....Imagine my surprise when I saw that Brian has shaved all his hair off! It must be the age because I remember both my brothers shaving their heads, too. At least he doesn't have a weird head shape so it looks okay.

2007-08-29T12:45:00.003-07:00

Here are better pictures of my car during the day.....

2007-08-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the new grandbaby, Damien Michael Perrott. This is Andrea's first child. He was born July 24th and weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. He is a very good baby.

2007-08-25T21:43:00.003-07:00

Hawaiian Cruise on the Willamette
I got to go on a cruise today on the Portland Spirit! An oral surgeon who is friends with our dentist invited us to come on the cruise. There were real Hawaiian dancers, great food and I even tried to learn to hula....anyone who really knows me knows I don't learn things fast that require coordination! The weather was fabulous today, too. It was almost like a trip to Hawaii (and the closest I've been to going there).

2007-08-21T23:16:00.001-07:00

Feeling a little crafty....
I made this handbag out of satin ribbons for a friend's birthday. It turned out absolutely gorgeous, but was a lot more work than I thought! Satin ribbons like to slide around when you are trying to sew them in place.

2007-08-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

My New Car!
So, it's not EXACTLY a new car, but new to me and very nice.....It's a 2002 Infinity I35. It has lots of fun stuff and has some get up and go!

2007-08-05T21:52:00.001-07:00

The last wooden PT boat - I got to see the only wooden PT boat left. It has been fully restored with the original Packard engines, torpedoes, and guns. It was in Portland for a Maritime Heritage festival. Very nice...The guys who restored it are mostly WWII veterans who served on PT boats.

2007-06-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

We took a road trip to California and I talked Michael into driving out of the way to Sequoia National Park. This is me in front of General Sherman - the world's largest tree! It was getting dark, so not the best picture, but pictures do not do the trees here justice anyways. It's just something everyone should see at least once in their life. Absolutely amazing...

2007-05-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

Chef Brian
Brian was recently promoted to a cook at the country club. :-) This is his new chef's uniform. Notice the handy sleeve pocket for the food thermometer. Way to go, Brian!

2007-05-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite late spring flowers. I love peonies for the way they bloom so beautifully every year and the way they smell. I wish they had a longer blooming season!

2007-04-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

Rick wasn't the only to have fun with finding old records! I can bet he didn't find Gunfighter Ballads by Marty Robbins with the hot pink cover!

This is one of Michael's favorite things from his mom's old Avon collection. It's a cologne bottle shaped like a gun. I came home once to find him pointing it at the TV while watching westerns. Not likely to scare off burglars......

2007-04-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm really bored today. I know it's Easter, but I really don't have anyone to spend it with this year. Michael and Brian are working, Cheri is in Seattle. Cheri showed me how to take pictures of yourself, so I took this one so I could show my almost-done teeth and new haircut. I only have less than two months left and my teeth will be done being straightened!

2007-01-20T22:10:00.000-08:00

Anybody have a finger to bite?
Because our lives aren't crazy enough, we brought home Peach from my inlaws house. We are trying to find homes for all the pets, but Peach doesn't like most people and loves to bite. She has taken a liking to me, though. I'm not stupid enough to think she'll not bite me someday, so I bought some really thick leather gloves to handle her with. She's a blue-fronted amazon that's about 28 years old and will live to close to 90. She can bark like a dog, cry like a baby, sing, and says things like the usual parrot stuff "pretty bird" "hello" "cracker". She likes to tell people "Come here" and then bite them when they get close. Since my nephew took care of her, she picked up new phrases like "What's up" and "whatever".

2006-12-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

These are some of my favorite ornaments. I like the Bumble from Rudolph because, unlike me, when Bumbles fall, they just bounce. The angel has been on the tree for at least 35 years. The eggshell ornament my mom made at church. The wooden ornaments are just funny (sort of) because the bear is saluting like a WWII German soldier while the bear in the VW is driving by....hmm.

2006-12-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is.....our tree. Kind of a sad little tree, but nice. It looks better with the lights, but they are tiny lights and don't show up well in pictures. If you look closely, you will see Brian's favorite ornament, the glass brown cigar from the country club.

2006-12-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

LOOK INTO MY EYES......You WILL have a Merry Christmas!!

I was looking through pictures from last Christmas and found this scary one of our cat, Poptart. Just don't stare at the picture too long..... :-)

2006-12-16T22:33:00.000-08:00

These are a couple of the definitely unique nativities. I can understand the Eskimo nativity, but the hippie frogs? Where do people find something like that!

2006-12-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

Our church has a Festival of Nativities every year. There are hundreds of different nativities from all around the world. They have rooms setup for children to do nativity crafts and dress up and take pictures in a lifesize stable. These are a couple of my favorite nativities this year. The one on the left is carved out of a single piece of knotted wood.

2006-12-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

Either the ice machine has gone wild or someone has been making sure that we have our emergency supply of snowballs (iceballs now). Luckily, I found these before someone wanted ice out of the refrigerater and these got jammed in the mechanism.

2006-12-16T22:13:00.000-08:00

Snow and ice always bring out the best in Brian ...... That snowball looks painful! We didn't get much snow and it must have taken a long time to scrape up enough snow to make a snowball that big. As long as Brian and the neighbor's kids are around, I'll probably not have to worry about clearing off the driveway or my car from snow.

2006-11-23T21:58:00.000-08:00

Oh, and I got my hair cut shorter again....
I like it, but by the time we took a few pictures, the all day cooking fest had made it go flat.

2006-11-23T20:42:00.000-08:00

Brian's First Turkey

Brian, being the chef that he is, wanted to do the main part of the cooking for Thanksgiving this year. He did a wonderful job. The turkey was seasoned with rosemary, he made a mashed potato blend with sweet potatoes and seasonings, steamed vegetable medley and turkey gravy with white roux. Of course, he said I could cook the pumpkin pie and stuffing (because he really doesn't like either one of those).

2006-11-23T20:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back online.....This is the new grandbaby (our first one!) born 10-3-06, Odin. He's a really good baby and of course, really cute!

2006-07-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

This is the chipmunk who lives at the top of the mountain. It is really good at begging.

2006-07-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

This is the view from the top. Glad we survived to see it. You can see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens from here. We saw two bald eagles hunting, but I didn't get a picture before they moved on. The elevation is 2488 feet.

2006-07-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

This is Hamilton Mountain.....a good mountain to hike after some good conditioning. It's about 4 miles up to the top. We thought we were ready to hike it.

2006-07-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

Apparently this is going to be a great year for pears. In case anyone wants to know, they usually get ripe about the first week of school. (Just in time for kids to leave a trail of half-eaten pears on the way to school.)

2006-07-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

When I was out riding my bike today, guess who I ran into at the intersection......

2006-07-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is Brian's broken hand. He broke it this weekend getting his bike back from someone stealing it. It would have been cheaper to replace the bike.

2006-07-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Cheri and me on the log bridge. No, this is not a new fashion statement for me......the strap on my overalls broke on the way. Good thing it had two.

2006-07-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Cheri taking a dip in Opal Creek. It was HOT and even though the water was cold, it was nice to cool down.

2006-07-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

We HAD to get a picture of this.... It's the porch light at the lodge in Jawbone Flats.

2006-07-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

This is one of the buildings in the old mining camp at Jawbone Flats along the Opal Creek hike. (Solar panel on roof and picnic table obviously not historical)

2006-07-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is Opal Pool along the Opal Creek hike. Pictures don't do it justice. This was the most amazing hike I have been on.

2006-07-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

This is the bridge I made for Michael. I have a lot more respect for woodworking. I didn't realize that the store sold green wood. Lots and lots of fun.....

2006-06-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

We have seen a lot of dragonflies in our pond, but this one was SO pretty. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the color better. It's the same color as the bright red koi.

2006-06-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

A word of warning....If you're expecting company, don't steam beets in the microwave. What a bloody mess!

2006-06-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Brian looks quite regal today. You can tell that he was just loving the attention.

2006-06-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Me and Cheri at graduation. We both had funny looks on our face because it took Michael forever to figure out the camera. Cheri looks like she is thinking, "What are you doing, man?", and I was thinking, "Are you ready yet?"

2006-06-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Cheri on her graduation day. Sorry the picture is sideways....I'm still working on my computer savvy. Go Cheri!

2006-06-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's graduation day! We were so proud that Brian made it! Brian has his usual smile, of course.

2006-06-16T12:32:00.000-07:00