This is the home I grew up in from first grade through high school. Please notice the rockery as it will come into the story at a later time in this blog story.
The HUGE fir tree on the left side of the house was planted by my father.. I loved him dearly, but this was definitely the wrong place to plant this huge tree.. I really thought was a super house to live in and this house will always bring back fabulous memories to me. The name of the builder was Ken Birkemeier and he built many homes in the Alameda, Fremont, Regents Drive area and even lived in one of his homes on Fremont Street.
All the shrubbery in the rockery seems to be quite overgrown as to what I remember (as well as that tree on the left-hand side of the house) and if you look carefully you will see stairs that lead from the sidewalk up to the front door and there is no handrail although I remember running up and down these stairs but I wonder if this would get approved today?

Upon entering into the foyer, the living room opens up to showcase the gorgeous fireplace, the open beam ceilings and one can not help notice the front large window and round window in the beautiful alcove. The hardwood floors accentuate the massive living room. This sounds like it came from a professional journalist or something like that but it was how I felt when I wrote this.... I really loved this home.

Entering from the front door there was the staircase to the upstairs and during the cold weather I would hide behind a red chair that was in front of the heat register on the left side of the archway to the dining room and would often cover myself with a cozy, fuzzy blanket. This picture shows the gorgeous scallop work in the passageway to the dining room and also in the foyer and some of the formal dining room in the back and a corner of the living room. It looks like one of the ownes after us replaced our crystal chandelier in the dining room. WOW ~ I loved this home.

WOW ~ someone did some super re-model work to the kitchen and it is beautiful...I love the blue tiles and the stainless steel appliances. The closed door leads to a hallway from the back door and across the hall is the bathroom.. The bathroom was pink when we lived there and according to the Realtor it is still pink....(pink bathtub, toilet, sink etc.)

This is our kitchen nook where we had our table and the phone. My mom spent many hours on the phone in this nook (she was into volunteer work especially for the March of Dimes). This kitchen and nook has since been through a complete overhaul and now has beautiful dark blue tiles and even a dishwasher. My dad always did the dishes. Bless his heart. The appliances have been upgraded too and are now all beautiful stainless steel.

This is the other side of what is now the Master Bedroom but it was the
This is what is now the Master Bedroom but when I was growing up it was our Family Room. We had our television in this room and at that time television was a new thing... Oh these memories are wonderful for me...

This is now a Master Bedroom (I am sure) but when I was growing up it was our Family Room. The wall cubicles were not there and through the open door was a "Powder Room" with a built-in vanity (it has been removed). Thru the closed door is the closet and in the summer when I was a little girl I would check the rockery outside, where garder snakes were sunbathing, I would pick up the snakes and take them into the house where I would put them into a glass milk container. At that time we also had a housekeeper who would come and clean our house twice a month ~ her name was Yulamay...

Well, Yulamay came one day to clean and my mother told her that she didn't need to go into the closet by the Powder Room to clean because Molly had put some snakes in milk bottles that were in the closet....but not to worry because they were all in the milk bottles. Well, poor Yulemay said, "Oh dear, Maam, I can't go there because I am really afraid of snakes so I have to leave NOW" and she got her coat and away she went. Well, Mom went to the closet to remove the snakes but they had crawled out of the milk containers and were never found again.... In fact, they still might be there!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my bedroom. I had a desk in the alcove and twin beds were sitting in the same direction as the grain in the wood floors. The shelves were filled with my dolls and toy horses that I loved to much.
I was especially interested to find out if the same colors were on these walls... which they aren't. I convinced my parents that I could paint my room "in stripes". The whole room was painted in different widths of strips, from 4", 6" 8" 10" and 12" painted randomly and placed randomly. Only from a high school girl...right? Also, there were windows on the steep hill side of my bedroom and when it was snowing I would bring snow up to my room in a bucket and throw snowballs at the people sledding down the hill... Oh what fun I had
The colors I chose were purple, lavender, blue and beige... These colors are a creation of the real thing as best I could do with these colors!












My parents bedroom... in the alcove where the window is are the doors to both closets. My dad's was on the right and mom's was on the left. There was a crawl space at the back of my mom's closet through a little wooden door that I would get into and crawl along the to the opening in my bedroom closet. Great 'hiding place' when one was a child. This room is much larger than picture shows.

Our basement.. The shelves on the wall are new the recessed ceiling lighting is new and the bar which was nestled in the alcove is gone, the bricks on the fireplace are white now but besides that it looks the same.

I really wanted to see my old house in person but these pictures are almost as good.

What wonderful memories these bring back.

Al and I wish each and everyone of you a blessed Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends.

Our front porch 2009 Thanksgiving decorations. The gorgeous new shelf was made by our dear neighbor Howard who was so gracious to spend his time finishing it to perfection. It's gorgeous. I have so much fun decorating our porch for every Holiday and please keep checking my blog when the holiday or season changes.

Two more little bears depicting the Thanksgiving spirit...
















Turkeys the Thanksgiving staple and little girl swinging on a 'Give Thanks' swing.

Classic figurines of Thanksgiving...a Pilgrim, a Native American and a Turkey!!!

Sweet Little Thanksgiving Bears

Why do I always forget to iron these before I hang them? Excited to get it hanging in front of our home.

May all my dear friends and family have a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING. I count my blessings and feel very grateful for all that I have, including all of you, my wonderful friends and loving family. ENJOY YOUR DAY.

For those who have never been to Portland, Oregon, this is what you are missing. I was truly raised in a gorgeous city and this is why I wanted to go back for my birthday and did I have a magnificent time. Continue on to check out a few places we visited.

The Georgian House B&B is where we stayed for my birthday. The house was built in 1922 (one year before our house in Ryderwood was built) and was featured in Better Homes & Gardens. Our hostess was Willie Canning and is located at 1828 N.E. Siskiyou, Portland, Oregon. Check out their web page.
http://www.thegeorgianhouse.com and if in the area please check them out..
I give it a 10+ stars..

This is Willie our "Hostess with the Mostess". She is a wonderful human being and made us feel so 'at home'. She went to the same High School I did, but she was 4 years YOUNGER!!!!!! (I did not know her at that time).

The dining room is behind Al and Willie and it is, again, gorgeous....

When we left Willie gave me a beautiful Christmas Wreath which I will post those pictures soon. She had gone to CostCo and bought one, loved it and then the day we arrived she went back and bought 2 more ..... then she ended up giving me one... What a beautiful, caring, thoughtful and considerate person.

The living room was gorgeous with beautiful windows and perfect light. The foyer opened up to a beautiful staircase which I unfortunately did not get a picture of, nor did I get a picture of the dining room where Willie (our hostess) served scrumptious wheat pancakes with an apple and walnut glaze. We met the other guest who was from Nova Scotia who was here in Portland attending a seminar. At first I thought she was from Quebec (French Canada) as she definitely had a beautiful French accent.

Beautiful Sitting Room and/or Sun Room in a different State...This picture is only a very small part of this cute room.

Very comfortable bed with a gorgeous very feminine canopy over it. Perfect for a Princesses Birthday ... ( ;~}










Beautiful sitting area with fireplace in Master Bedroom (our B&B room).

A nice soaker clawfood tub in a nice sized master bath

I wanted to stop here at the Alameda Brewhouse which is in the Beaumont area of my old neighborhood. We had a tasting tray which are small glasses filled with each beer produced by the brewhouse. They presented 11 beers to us and neither Al nor I liked any of them... Something about HOPS...unfortunately too many are producing beer that has way too many hops which leaves an oily taste in one's mouth... There are many other places to get much better beer ~ as far as we are concerned. The great news though about the Alameda Brewhouse is they have a great Happy Hour serving quite a number of dishes 'Tapas' for $4.00 and would be a fun and inexpensive place to dine.

Laurelthirst Public House has a great selection of microbeer on tap and to top it off live music too... The live music was a Bluegrass Band. It was fun.













Quite a selection of microbeer YUM-O and even a Bud and Pabst for


'those' people who haven't ventured out yet in the Microbeer world.

Believe it or not the name of this Bluegrass group is

FLOATING GLASS BALLS!!

They originate from Cannon Beach, Oregon so now it makes sense....

PERRY'S ON FREMONT is where I finally decided to go for my birthday dinner. It was built on the corner of 24th and Fremont in Portland, Oregon where I remember a gas station and a pharmacy, certainly not a restaurant serving excellent food. My parents would have loved this.

Some of the art from Perry's on Fremont which reminded me of my dear mother and her friends.

Beautifully appointed restaurant that is warm, eclectic, and sophisticated serving a variety of mouth-watering dishes that are rotated quite often... I had the best Salmon EVER, served with what they called a vinaigrette but it was MUCH more than just that... it was awesome.









Ever had a Lemon Drop Martini? They are really great ~

Delicious Desserts.... YUM-O!

This is the house that I lived in from lst grade through high school graduation. It is at the bottom of a huge hill and sits at the top of a tall rockery. During snow storms the streets were closed with barriers the police would set up and magically became the greatest and fastest sledding hill around. My dad would build a fire in our basement fireplace and mom would serve hot chocolate to all us wet and cold kids while our coats, gloves and hats could dry out (or at least warm up). Oh my, those were the days...
There was a "Sale Pending" sign in front and the house was vacant otherwise I would have knocked on the door to ask to see the house again.... The tall fir tree in the upper left-hand corner was planted by my dad in probably around 1951 and definitely needs to be cut down as it is really close to the house and roof. The corner window is the kitchen eating area and the dormer window was the alcove in my bedroom. Great house with tons of wonderful memories.

Perfect example of the gorgeous homes in the Alameda, Irvington, Grant area of Portland, Oregon. There were no two homes exactly alike and the architecture in this area is incredible.













This home was where my dear friend Val lived. We were great friends all through grade school and high school and had many great times in this house. She is married and now lives in Oregon.
Please check in soon for my Thanksgiving pictures.. in the meantime, I am hoping everyone has a very memorable and Happy Thanksgiving filled with special friends and family...
Sorry Val's house pix didn't come through... Maybe I will post it at a later date. In the meantime, Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

ALL our guests decided that they were NOT THAT SCARED to
"Come In For A Spell" so they entered our home for the 2009 Halloween Party. If YOU are not that scared, please enter the rest of my Blog.

What a fabulous night for our Halloween Party... the Full Moon was just one more awesome addition to the evening.
It was an fun party with wine, beer and bubbly, we watched a "horrible" Halloween movie and everyone brought "finger food"... that is "finger food" to eat ~~~ we did not eat fingers.....now on Halloween that would have been appropriate.

The pumpkins were all aglow and one pumpkin was even glowing green ~ See pix.

Of course, Cally was invited too.. She is laying under our dining room table where she stayed watching the festivities. Here she is huggin' one of the Halloween plates hoping to get her share of goodies.

Left to right, Stella, Howard, Marilyn, and our resident Sonny and Cher (Guy & Joanne) althought Joanne has on a blonde wig and not the black one she had on for the Variety Show so you might not recognize her!!

Left to right ~ Ray, Kathe, Jerre and Al too!

This is just one last lone pix of Al performing at the Variety Show last month sent to me by Jerre. Al's piano accompaniment is Terry another Ryderwood resident. He is a wonderful piano player.

(p.s. the pix might increase in size if you double click on it)...maybe/may be not!!!

Keep checking my blog as more pictures will be posted over the next few weeks. Holidays and happenings are just around the corner.