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What a year 2023 has been. It’s actually been kind of a blur, and it’s hard to believe it’s almost over.
Early in the year on February 8th,
my dad Gary passed away. Something you start to expect when your parents get to
be a certain age, but that still doesn’t make it any easier when you get the
call. He was just shy of turning 80, which would have been on February 19th.
And this is probably where everything starts to become a blur as we had to
quickly decide where my mom was going to live, and then start cleaning up their
house to sell.
At the end of last year, my mom had
started to see a neurologist regarding some memory issues she had. At first the
doctor noticed she had some tremors, so he tested for Parkinson’s since my
grandma, her mom, had had Parkinson’s. If the results came back positive, then
the memory issues could be related. However, the results came back negative for
Parkinson’s. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
After my dad passed, my mom didn’t
want to remain in their house. She didn’t like being alone, and there was a lot
of house to take care of. Due to her ongoing memory issues, we looked for a
facility that allowed her to still be independent but also had people around to
help her if needed. We ended up finding her a nice little apartment at Aegis
Living in Marymoor. She moved there in mid-March.
Meanwhile, back at Freeman’s Folly
(aka their house), Chad & I were starting the fun task of cleaning up their
house and property. Imagine a 3,000 sq ft house with almost 40 years’ worth of
crap, I mean treasures, inside. Add a few outbuildings and several cars that
were hiding under weeds and there was A LOT of stuff to go through.
Luckily, we have wonderful friends
and family. There were numerous weekends where we would have a half dozen or so
people at the house helping us clean and sort through items. 5 months, 4
estate sales, 5 waste dumpsters, 2 metal dumpsters, 14 unearthed cars sold or
taken away, and 35 junk trucks later, we were done! We had the house on the
market in August and it sold within a week! It is currently
being remodeled by a company out of Snohomish. I can’t wait to see what they do
to the house! I am so thankful it is being fixed up as it is a great house, in
a great location and for its age, had great bones.
In May we headed back to Tucson to
bring Shelby back from college (Univ of Arizona). She decided to finish off her
degree online, so this was a permanent move back to Washington. We had to
somehow get her car back home and it was easier for us to just drive it instead
of trying to coordinate transport of it so…Shelby flew home, and Chad & I
drove her car back. We made a quick stop at Warner Bros. Studios. I think this
makes it our 3rd time going on a tour there, but it never
disappoints! The good news is that we got home in 2 days, the car didn’t break
down and…Chad & I didn’t kill each other! 😊
Shelby immediately began her online
classes once home and is set to graduate next fall. She started working at
Braithburn Academy here in Duvall. A friend of mine is a teacher there and…it
is the preschool that Shelby went to back in the day! She also turned 21 this
November. Where, oh where, does the time go?
In September we bought a travel
trailer. After the year we had, I told Chad that it would be nice to get away
on a regular basis for some long weekends just to relax. So far, we have
enjoyed a weekend at his family’s property in Plain, a weekend in Anacortes,
and then a weekend in Gig Harbor. It’s fun to see different parts of our state
that we don’t usually see. We have a trip planned to Cannon Beach in January
the weekend of my birthday (and yes, I do turn 29… again!)
Oh and…I caved and agreed to
getting a puppy! Both Chad & Shelby have wanted a dog since we had to put
Harley down last year. It was hard though to commit to another dog. For one,
Harley was such a good dog that we feared we would get a dog that just didn’t
measure up. Two, dogs are a lot of work. They want to eat 3 times a day and go
outside and want to play. Cats are so much easier – you leave out food, a
litterbox and they just sleep the day away! 😉But I came across a double doodle breeder in
Montana. So over Labor Day weekend we met up with them and picked up Shelby’s
new puppy! He is an Australian Labradoodle and Aussie doodle – so Poodle, Labrador,
and Australian Shepherd. His name is Winston, and he is just the sweetest
thing. Nova, our cat, still isn’t thrilled with him but maybe some day they
will be friends! 😊
And that has been 2023. It’s been chaotic but it has also reminded me what a wonderful support team I
have with my friends and family. I would not have been able to get through this
year without you all!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!
