Another year in the books - Merry Christmas from The Pederslies

      

         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 8^th, 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 19^th. 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 3^rd 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!

Happy Holidays from the Pederslies - 2022 Edition

The past couple years I have foregone the whole sending of Christmas cards. I blame 2020/Covid (or it would just be plain laziness on my side, but...I prefer to blame the pandemic!). What this means though is that no one gets to receive our wonderful Christmas letter. I have realized that this is very unpatriotic of me. Oh wait, wrong holiday! It is very Bah Humbug of me to deprive you all of our spectacular Christmas letter. So...the Pederslie Holiday Christmas Letter is back!! (Cue confetti, balloons and cheers now)

Hmm, maybe I quit writing the Christmas letter because our lives are quite boring and there is nothing new to tell anyone. But I will try (or at least come up with some really believable, exciting sounding stuff so you don't think we are lame!)

This past year we have been traveling to Tucson quite a bit. As you all probably know, Shelby goes to school at the University of Arizona in Tucson. We have tried to visit her at least once a month, and since she has had a job working as a desk assistant at one of the dorms, we have been going to her instead of her coming home for long weekends.

It is great that we can work remotely as we worked from Tucson last February for a week. Then I went to visit Shelby over Easter. She was done with her first year of school in May, so we packed up her dorm, put it and her car in storage, and flew her home of the summer. 

We went down to see her the weekend of her birthday. Our baby turned 20!! She is no longer a teenager! I am still in shock that she is an adult now and that we have kept her alive these past 20 years! It was touch and go a bit during those pre-teen years! Her BFF and her parents went w/us and we rented a house with a pool and hot tub and went to a U of A/ASU hockey game. OMG, hockey games are fast paced and fun!! (But cold!). 

Then because of her work schedule, we also spent Thanksgiving with her in AZ. We ordered a meal from Whole Foods, which wasn't too bad, and vegged and watched Christmas movies. 

Back in February we had to make the very hard decision to put our beloved puppy, Harley, down. We found out she had bladder cancer prior to that. Even though she really remained a very happy puppy, you could tell she was in pain and tired of it all. We were really hoping we could have held off until Shelby was home on Spring Break so she could see her. But we called Shelby that day, asked for her opinion and let her say good-bye. Hardest...decision...ever. It's been almost a year and there are still days where I am like "Oh Harley is going to come running out to greet me!" 

Chad has been traveling quite a bit for work. He is still at Astronics. I have to say, it is kind of nice when he is gone, and Shelby is away at school - it's like I get these mini vacations where I can do what I want and watch what I want and no one judges me! 

I am still working at Spacelabs. I go in one day a week which is a nice break. I get to see other people besides my spouse and I can get away from the cat who thinks if we are home she should have our undivided attention. She addresses this by climbing up on us, walking across our desks and then taking a nap on our keyboards. Good thing she is cute and fluffy...

So, back to Shelby, since her life is probably more exciting than ours! She started her sophomore year at U of A (though I think she classifies as a senior...IDK...something like that because of her doing running start in HS). She switched her major after the first semester from Nursing to Business. She actually likes things like Statistics and Accounting! Weird kid! She made the Deans list Spring semester. She had thought about transferring to a school in WA for her second year but then made the decision to stay at U of A so as not to prolong her time at school. However, she will have all the pre-req's done after spring semester and is planning on doing the remainder of her degree online. So come May, she will probably be back in WA! (Yay!) 

So that is basically our life in a nutshell. We work, get annoyed by our cat, go see our kiddo a lot then come back home and do it all over again. 

Happy Holidays!

Steph, Chad & Shelby

To the Graduating Class of 2021

     What an exciting and daunting time in your life. No more high school but now you are venturing into adulthood and going off to college or joining the workforce. Though it is an exciting time for you, also know that this is a difficult time for your parents/guardians. We are not okay! Our emotions are probably just as all over the place as yours are! We are excited for you, but also want to stop time and to stop you from growing up and moving out.

We have had the last 18 years to help you navigate through life’s challenges. We have been there when you have been sad and just needed a hug, we were a sounding board when you had questions about school or friends or life. We were just a step away and now we are facing the challenge of you being out of our reach and possibly thousands of miles away. Though we have done a rather good job of preparing you for the “real” world there are still so many life lessons to learn, and we worry that we haven’t taught you the most important ones!

As much as you may roll your eyes at us when we say we understand, we really do. Maybe not quite on the same level because we were fortunate to NOT have social media back in the day, but we understand what you are going through. We had those tough decisions to make, we dealt with friends that quit talking to us, we dealt with heartbreak and difficult jobs or classes. So even though you do need to learn from your own experience, just know that we do have some knowledge and just take what advice we may give you and file it away for future use.

No matter if you are the first, second, or last child in your family to graduate, your parents are all still dealing with crazy emotions. We are dealing with what new our “normal” will be. We are trying to determine how we can care for you from afar, because just an FYI, we never stop wanting to protect you and watch over you.

So, enjoy this exciting time, but give us parents a break. Let us take one more picture of you in your cap and gown, let us invite friends and family over to celebrate you and your accomplishments, let us pull out pictures from kindergarten all the way to senior year and share with everyone – more than likely via a photo collage or slideshow (with inspiration music of course!)

Not only have you accomplished so much in the last 13 years of school, but you have handled the last year and a half dealing with the unknown of remote learning and a pandemic! You are rock stars! Congratulations Class of 2021!