No Need to Break In . . . My Front Door Works Now
Hooray! I got both my garage door and my front door fixed on Monday, so now I can actually get in and out without a hitch. Previously, my garage door wouldn't open from the outside. I would have to get out of the car and go through the front door to get into the garage to open it up. Then I could pull the car in.
But then my front door deadbolt started getting stuck. The first time it got stuck, thankfully I was on the inside and I used a hair dryer to help get it open. That's when it was about -18 degrees or so, and I thought it was an issue with the cold temps. But then when I got home from the airport after visiting Grandma Lillian in Oregon, I couldn't get in through the front door at all. The deadbolt was stuck halfway again. It wouldn't fully unlock, and it wouldn't fully lock either.
I went back out to the driveway and pushed the garage door button in my car several more times (with a silent prayer for help) until finally the door opened and I could pull the car inside. I don't know what I would have done if the garage door hadn't opened . . . maybe I would have had to break in through a window somewhere . . .
The hair dryer trick didn't work the second time on the deadbolt. Scott suggested the next day that I get some pliers to help force the lever to move.
So I did. I slowly cranked the lever around once, then twice, then a half turn more before the deadbolt mechanism finally moved and I could open the door. Sheesh! I decided to just leave the deadbolt unlocked until it could get replaced, and just focus on locking the doorknob. Not the best feeling as far as security goes, but that's when the frigid temperatures can work in our favor. How many bad guys do you think would be willing to be outside in those negative temperatures trying to get into someone's house? Few enough that I could actually go to sleep and not worry too much about it . . .
I had already called the week before to set up an appointment for the garage door fixer guy to come on Monday afternoon. Smart move to have scheduled that when I did.
He was able to determine that the "board" is going bad - it provides the torque for the door to come up. He tightened it to help it have enough torque for now, but he said it's just a temporary fix. He's seen it last just a few days or it could last up to a year. As soon as it starts acting up again, he said we will need to replace the whole thing. ($425)
Later that evening, my good neighbor, Ben Parkinson, came over with his tools to put in a new set of front door locks for me. Scott had "accompanied" me to Lowe's earlier in the day (on a video chat) so we could pick out a new set of locks together.
I spent Monday and Tuesday pulling all the pictures out of the dozen or so albums. Some of the albums had the adhesive scrapbook pages and some had little individual photo sleeves. It was time consuming, but very necessary in order to scan them.
I tried to keep everything organized in stacks around my living room.
Here are just a few of the 2650 photos that I scanned in 4 days . . .
My Dad as a young Navy recruit
In the photo below is my Grandma Lillian (center), with her oldest son, Mike Moore, and Mike's wife, Suzy.
When I shared this next photo with my parents and siblings, it sparked a huge discussion about Grandpa's famous pork spareribs, and then inspired several of them to want to make some ribs this weekend.
Grandpa always sprinkled Lawry's seasoning salt on the meat (sometimes adding some meat tenderizer as well), then poured a generous amount of Worcestershire sauce all over both sides. He let it sit for a few minutes before very slowwwwly barbecuing the ribs on the grill at a low temperature. They are a family tradition and a family favorite!!
I spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday scanning photos all afternoon. Saturday afternoon, I tackled all of the negatives that were loose and unidentified. This was a more tedious process, especially with the negatives that came from 110mm film . . .
Here's a little video that I made for my Dad, that shows the problems I kept running into with the 100mm negs. I had to add in a little "adapter" that could hold the tiny strips of film in place as I slid them through the scanning device. (Incidentally, this is the same exact device that I used last August to scan all of my Dad's 2100 slides.) The biggest problem with the 110mm strips is that there was a tiny little notch cut out on the end that was also the lead end. It kept snagging on everything possible as I tried to slide it through. I had to pull out the little adapter drawer and fix it every 2 seconds, ha ha.
Video: (1 min, 21 sec)
It felt so good to accomplish this huge and important family history task!! I left in a little bit of a hurry Saturday afternoon (after doing 491 negatives) that I accidentally left my thumb drive there . . . I'll go back first thing Monday morning to retrieve it. Ha ha . . . oopsies . . .
I left in a hurry because I was picking up a friend, Brittany Vance, to go roller skating with me. She is the same age as my daughter, Amber, and they grew up together. She likes to roller blade, while I like to use the old-fashioned quad skates. We had a great time and I got pretty sweaty after 90 minutes of solid skating.
Here's a cute video of Jack eating some shrimp while watching a show during the week. (19 seconds)
Avery is just the cutest little thing over in Italy, as always. :)
I got this cute video today of Avery giving Kylie kisses. (22 seconds)
I miss that girl so much! I can't wait to get back to Italy and scoop her up for a big hug!!
Meanwhile, down South, Abby and Gwen are preparing for Valentine's Day at school. Abby was tasked with making her own treat bag, so she enlisted the crocheting skills of her mother, Amber, to make a little sweater to "hug" the bag.
Gwen is a reading and roller-skating fiend lately. Amber says that when Gwen wakes up in the morning before school, she is immediately wheeling and dealing to get even just 5 minutes of skating in before the bus comes!
She is really enjoying reading a lot of books as well. It tends to run in the family . . .
Today (Sunday) after church, I made a pot of Spaghetti Soup and drove up to Rigby to share it with Scott's parents, Phil and Coy. Coy made some cheesy garlic toast and fruit cups to accompany the main dish. We had a great visit, catching up on all the goings on.
After the kitchen was cleaned up, and while Papa curled up for a cozy little nap, I showed Coy one of my next projects and we brainstormed together on how best to go about it.
Coy remembered that she had a small collection of beautiful white hankies that I could do the embroidering on and then sew those onto the lining of each pocket.
We spent a few minutes looking up a few scriptures regarding when Jesus Christ was baptized, and I think I found a good phrase to embroider . . . one that's not too long, but that has some good meaning at the same time.
Over in Italy, Scott is doing great. He had a busy day today (Sunday) with meetings, training and leadership meetings both before and after church, and also leading a young men's class discussion. He is still hunting for a good second car, too. Hopefully this week will provide a winner!
I had bought him a nice warm hoodie last fall, only to learn that he doesn't like sweatshirts with HOODS. How did I not know this after 29.5 years of marriage??? It's been cold in Vicenza recently, and he's always wrapped up in a blankie or a sleeping bag when we talk on the phone each day. When I told him I would look for a warmer CREWNECK sweatshirt to send him, he dug out that hoodie that I bought for him just to try it out.
He just doesn't like when it bunches up behind his neck.
So the next day, when we got on the video chat, something had changed . . .
Yep. He cut the hood OFF!!! ha ha ha
What a pill.
I did find him a nice warm fleece pullover for him at Target, along with some very soft shirts, which I sent off in a flat-rate box on Saturday. He will love the pullover, because it has NO HOOD!!! :)
Just a couple more things and then I'm done.
On Wednesday, I came very close to rear-ending a semi-truck while coming home from the FamilySearch Center. Neither of us was going very fast, maybe 20 mph or so, as we slowed down for a stop sign near my house. Because his truck was so long, I couldn't see the loooooong section of black ice until it was too late. I wasn't tailgating him, but the patch was just super long.
I tried to brake, but I just kept sliding and sliding towards his rear bumper . . .
They tell you to steer in the direction you WANT to go when you're sliding on ice, and I WAS . . . . but it didn't do me any good. If he hadn't started to move forward right then at the 4-way stop, I would have slid right into him. I was extremely grateful that I didn't damage our only car. (*Note: I took the photo a minute later at the next red light.)
ALSO - I found a new favorite (and unusual) recipe. Banana Pancakes.
All you need is one mashed banana and two eggs, whisked together. I divide the mixture into two separate pancakes, cooking them like you normally would, until they are golden brown on each side. They are AMAZING!! Sweet, simple, tasty, and LOW CARB. They don't even need any toppings at all. I ate them plain the first time and they were fantastic. I had some avocado toast on the side.
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