The Petzelt Pages

Where does the time go? John and I have been so busy this summer and fall. It's hard to believe it is the end of November and Christmas is almost here! People I used to work with ask me all the time if I like being retired. My answer is always an cheerful YES! Sometimes I am so busy, I don't know how I had time to work!

We have started some major improvements to our yard so the kids (young and old alike) will have easier access to the back yard as well as a better place to play. We have a large lot but only use a very small portion of it that is fenced in for Lucy, our 13 year old dog. We started this project by clearing out all of the underbrush in our forest that we call our back yard. It took a lot of work but I love the way it looks. We had the fence moved so Lucy has a much larger yard now. When the weather is nice, she loves to lay on the deck and watch over her "kingdom". She also loves all of her new space to roam. Next we are going to have a stone walkway, steps and patio put in. I can't wait until that phase is done! After that will come the gazebo and play stuff for the kids. We saved some of the large logs from a tree that had to be cut down. I'm going to sand them and put some sort of varnish on them to preserve them. Then they will be made into some sort of graduated stepping and climbing area.

You can barely see the old steps going down into the "jungle" that was our backyard.

This is what it looks like now. The fence will be moved and these steps will be torn out and replaced with a stone walkway and stone steps leading to a stone patio in the backyard.

This is what our back fence looked like before we started clearing the underbrush.

This is the backyard now with the fence moved. You can see the wood piled in the back that will be used for the graduated stepping and climbing stuff for the kids. Our backyard goes approximately 100 feet further behind the fence.

In August, my friend Emily and I went to Seattle to visit our friend Rita's daughter. Erin is a pathologist at the Seattle Children's Hospital. We have known her almost all of her life. She was able to take a few days off and show Emily and I around Seattle and the surrounding areas. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to get out of the city and see some of the other beautiful parts of Washington!

The troll under the bridge. This troll is made out of concrete and is underneath one of the bridges in suburban Seattle. Look closely and you will see that his right hand is crushing a Volkswagen Beetle. It was really cool looking. Kids loved climbing all over it.

Emily, Erin, and I at the waterfall garden.

Emily and Erin at Deception Pass.

Deception Pass. The fog pattern over the water was really interesting.

Future vino at one of the vineyards.

In October David, Kennedy, Jill, Michael and I had our annual trip to Burt's Pumpkin Farm. Jill made Kennedy a cute outfit of pants and a pumpkin appliqued on a shirt with her name embroidered on it. She looked so cute. Each of us picked out a pumpkin to either decorate with or carve. We rode the hayride wagon and bought some pumpkin bread and a slice of pumpkin roll (yum-o). Jill paid me a big compliment when she said that she thought my pumpkin bread was better! I do love the fall with all of the spicy smells from pumpkin bread cooking and apple cider brewing on the stove!

David, Kennedy, Jill and Michael on the hayride.

Kennedy with her pumpkin.

Michael with his pumpkin.

Grandma with the grandkids.

Even with all the hard work in the yard, John and I have also found time to have some fun. We were fortunate enough to be invited to visit a friend in San Diego for a few days in November. It was a wonderful trip. I have never been to San Diego before. I have to say that my favorite thing there was the famous San Diego Zoo. While we were standing in line to get into the zoo, I heard one of the zoo workers tell someone else in line that it would take approximately 6 hours to see the entire zoo. Well, I didn't believe that at all. However, John and I were there for 5 hours and didn't see all of it, so I guess he was probably right! My favorite animals at the zoo are the panda bears, giraffes and elephants. Fortunately, we got there early enough and the panda bear exhibit wasn't crowded yet. We spent a lot of time at that exhibit watching these amazing animals. One of the panda's had just had a new cub and we were able to watch the little cub on the panda-cam. We also spent a long time watching the giraffes. The exhibits at this zoo are so open and the animals are right there at you. The giraffes are so graceful. When the workers came out to feed them the giraffe's even ran gracefully to the food. If you ever get a chance you need to check out this amazing zoo. It was awesome!

Looking at San Diego from our bay tour boat.

Our friend Andrea.

The zoo entrance.

There were a lot of water fowl at the zoo.

The tall giraffe was the only male with 4 or 5 females!

Isn't he so cute???

There was a girl standing around in the area where the peacocks were that could make a peacock call that sounded amazingly real. I think she got this peacock confused!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family. Both of my parents have passed away but we still carry on the long standing tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the

family. He was one of six children - 5 boys and 1 girl. His sister is the only one of his family still living and she still has a sparkle in her eye at 88! Unfortunately my brother was sick and was

not able to be with us this year.

David and his fiance, Summer.

Summer's daughter, Kennedy and Jill and Sam's son, Michael.

Aunt Lois, my dad's only living sibling.

All the cousins that were here.

Rick and his daughter Ricki.

All the children of the cousins that were here.

Our family: David, Kennedy, Summer, John, Kay, Sam and Jill (Michael was taking a nap).

My brother Dennis and me. This picture was taken about 6 weeks ago.

Next was the second annual Pink Pig and pictures with Santa. Jill and I started this last year with Michael and it is something we hope to keep up for many years to come. I wish Kennedy could have come with us this year but between David and Summer's school and work schedule, we just couldn't work it out. I hope to be able to go with them when they take Kennedy to see Santa later in December.

Standing in line waiting to see Santa.

Michael wasn't scared of Santa at all. He looked at him and carried on his own conversation!

Outside the Pink Pig.

Michael was so excited when he got his tickets.

Grandma and Michael. He was beginning to get tired but he was so good all morning long!

John and I are leaving this week for Branson, Missouri to meet up with two couples we met on our "Autumn in New England" trip last fall. One of the couples is from Arkansas and is very familiar with Branson and couldn't say enough good stuff about it. So, we all decided that it would be a good place to meet and spend some more time with each other. We have a weekend packed full of good shows but we did leave some time for shopping (I'm sure the guys are thrilled about that!). We come back from Branson on John's birthday then shortly it will be time to celebrate Christmas with our families! I love this time of year!

It has been a busy couple of months. If you read my previous post you saw that John and I had a fabulous vacation out west visiting a lot of national parks and various other places of interest along the way. Just prior to our leaving for vacation, Jill turned 26 and we celebrated her birthday. I gave Jill the option to choose whatever she wanted for dinner and John and I would fix it. She chose Mexican. I was not surprised - that's the food I craved while I was pregnant with her and I guess it got into her system before she was even born! For dinner we had hard and soft tacos with all the fixings, nachos, and Mexican rice. For dessert, we strayed from the traditional flan for birthday cake (white cake with chocolate icing) and ice cream. Jill was only turning 26 but the candles were sure burning brightly!

Jill's cake with 26 candles

If you know anything about Jill, you know she is a very crafty person. She can create just about anything out of a pile of scraps! She has been talking about embroidery machines for the last 6 months or so. She made Christmas stockings for she, Sam, and Michael last Christmas and wanted to embroidery their names on them, but no embroidery machine...she had to take a friend's Christmas gift to a store to be monogramed because she didn't have an embroidery machine... she would like to make some individualized baby gifts but she doesn't have an embroidery machine...if she only had an embroidery machine, she could make so many things and start her own business! So, we took the hint and got her an embroidery/sewing machine for her birthday. I don't think she was expecting it at all. The look on her face when she opened it was priceless!

Jill was surprised with her embroidery machine

Jill has been busy learning how to use all the features on the machine and has followed through making gifts for friends. I now have a list of things I want monogramed and am currently on the waiting list!

When we returned from vacation, it was David's turn to celebrate his 24th birthday. We gave David the same option for dinner - choose your favorite meal and John and I would prepare it for him. He chose steak, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Since Jill and John were on a carb conscious diet, I also fixed cauliflower gratin (yum-0!). For dessert, we had birthday cake (chocolate cake with chocolate icing) and ice-cream with homemade chocolate Ghiradellli chocolate syrup!

David, his fiancee Summer and her daughter Kennedy

David is very hard to buy for. He does not have a lot of wants and it is like pulling teeth to get him to tell you what he would like as a gift. So, when he tells us what he would like, it is not going to be any surprise to him when he gets it. David wanted some new golf clubs for his birthday. Since I don't know anything at all about golf, he had to choose exactly what he wanted and send me a link so I could check them out and purchase them without looking too dumb purchasing something I knew absolutely nothing about. Needless to day, he was very pleased with them!

Kennedy helping David open his present

We also had a little something for the kids, Michael and Kennedy. A long time ago, before Michael was even a glimmer in Sam and Jill's eye, John and I saw a see-saw at Costco (our favorite place to shop!). John wanted to buy it and put it away for the grandkids we would have someday. I thought he was crazy but we bought it anyway. It has been sitting in our basement for about 3 or 4 years, but I'm really glad we bought it because I haven't seen it at Costco again since we bought it. The box says it is for children over age 6 and neither Michael nor Kennedy are anywhere near that age. But, we thought with adults around, they would be able to use it before they are 6 years old. So, we brought it up out of the basement and put it together on the deck. We had it covered up when everyone got here and took them out on the deck to surprise them. I think the grown kids liked it a lot more than the little kids. I hope that changes as the little ones get older!

David, Kennedy and Summer on the see-saw

Sam, Michael and Jill on the see-saw

Kennedy having a blast on the see-saw

Sam, Jill's husband, left to lead a mission trip in the Dominican Republic on June 18th. Sam has been doing mission work there since he was a child doing mission work with his parents, brother and sister. Jill was always involved in mission work when she was a youth. However, she had never done mission work out of the country until she met Sam. She and Sam have spent every summer since they have been married doing mission work in parts of Mexico, Peru, and the Dominican Republic (they are both fluent in Spanish so there is no language barrier). Jill did not want to leave sweet baby Michael for a long period of time this year so she is not going until July. Since Sam has been gone, Jill and Michael have been staying with us. Since retiring, I have spent the majority of my days doing whatever I want to do whenever I want to. Having a little one around and keeping him on his schedule has made my days totally different. Our house is not baby proofed and with Michael walking now he is in to everything! His toys don't interest him for very long and he wants to start getting in to all kinds of other "adult" stuff that is sitting around. He is in to my paper, getting the remote controls, the telephone, pulling the leaves off my plants, eating the dog's food and playing in her water bowl! But, it's all worth it to have he and Jill spending time with us. We have gone to the park near our house to play, we went to the Zoo, and have spent countless hours playing around the house. I am really going to miss them when they go home!