Oregon and Bellingham

Last weekend, Ken and I made our final trip to Oregon for the Canby Camp Board Meetings. He has been on the board at the camp for 8 years, so we have made numerous trips to the Portland area for meetings. In some ways, I was glad that he wasn't going to be on the board any more and yet, it felt kind of sad to realize that phase of our life was over. I had a routine of things I would do while Ken was in the board meetings, which took place on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. After eating dinner at the camp with the board members, I would usually go to a movie. For 8 years I had to go to other cities to catch a movie, but this time, the last time, I discovered that Canby has it's own movie theater, finally. I usually went to the movies by myself, but this time the wife of another board member and the camp director's wife went with me. We saw "Tooth Fairy", a fairly harmless, but not one Ken would want to see, movie. Saturday morning, I went to visit a former roommate of mine, that I hadn't seen in about 30 years. She had lost her husband a few months before, who was also a friend from Multnomah days, and it was good to get a chance to see her, catch up on what had been happening over the last 30 years, and talk about memories from those days. After lunch, Ken and I went to Salem to visit a former pastor and his wife. It had been several years since we had seen them also, so it was good to see them and get caught up with what was going on in their lives. We had decided to spend the night in Cannon Beach on Saturday, so we headed there after our visit, arriving after dark and thinking the hotel looked very familiar. (We figured out later that it was the same place we stayed at several years ago with Kari and Todd.)

After breakfast the next morning, we were going to take a walk on the beach, which we did very briefly, because it started raining pretty hard. So, we went back to our hotel room which had a view of the ocean, so we could see the waves rolling in, sat by the window with the fake fire lit and enjoyed the warmth and the waves.

As we drove up the Oregon coast, we saw some surfers in the water, that we stopped and watched for awhile. I absolutely don't understand how to judge whether a wave is worth surfing or not. Several waves that looked good to me, were not surfed. It seemed like so much of the time, they just laid on their boards waiting for just the right wave, I don't think I would have the patience to do it. I would want to get out there and then ride one in, and do it multiple times. These guys paddled out there, then it seemed like they only rode one or two waves in, with a lot of waiting in between rides. It's probably a thrill once they do get a good wave, but the rest of the time it seems pretty boring. On the other hand, I like just laying on something and floating over the waves without standing up, so maybe they are just enjoying floating on the waves. Maybe someday I'll meet someone who surfs and can ask them about it. We traveled about 750 miles during the weekend and enjoyed our leisurely trip home on Sunday, with a nice lunch at a fish and chips place in Astoria with a nice view of the bridge there.

Monday, I went to Bellingham, and played with Saben and Annika. We went to the park for awhile since it wasn't raining, then played some games and made a house with the crazy fort kit. Annika is peering out the door of the house, before going in to make her bed.

Both kids got their blankets and pillows, so they could make a bed in the house, but no sleeping was done of course. Annika did insist on me "checking" on her while she laid down in the house, just like she does when she goes to bed in her room, so I would lift the side up and look at her from time to time and that seemed to satisfy her.

Birthday and More - Part 2

Two other things have been going on this month that have contributed to making it a busy month. The first is having to make a decision concerning Dad's future care. Dad has been in the hospital or a rehab center ever since he fell at Thanksgiving. The rehab place was needing Mom to think about and make a decision about where Dad should go for care when he left there. They said that she wasn't going to be able to take care of him by herself because he was going to need someone stronger that she is to help him. So, I rode the bus over to Wenatchee on Jan 3rd to meet with a counselor and Mom about that issue. Mom decided that she wanted Dad to go to an Adult Care Family Home in Wenatchee, so we got a list of them and were able to visit a couple, while I was there. The first one we went to, neither one of us liked, but the second one we looked at was a very nice place and we both liked it and the lady that was in charge of it. We thought that Dad would be in the rehab facility another week or more, but a couple of days later, it was decided that he had reached a plateau and was ready to be moved. I was glad that I had been able to help Mom find a place for him to go because he needed to be moved last Tuesday. Mom said that the move went smoothly and Dad seemed to make the move without any problem.

I only had 1 day to help Mom in Wenatchee because I was scheduled to have a root canal on one of my teeth the day after I was there, Tues., the 5th. Unfortunately, when the Dr. started to do the root canal, she discovered that I had a crack in the tooth that went down into the root, which meant that I would need to have the tooth taken out. I spent a little over a week avoiding eating on that side of my mouth, but still had some pain with it. Yesterday, the tooth was extracted, and I'm still unable to eat on that side of my mouth. The area is very sore, has some swelling and I'm needing to eat soft foods even on the other side of my mouth. I'm taking pills for the pain and swelling, but I have actually been surprised that it isn't more painful. Getting the tooth taken out is just the first step of a long process that is going to take almost a year, before I have an insert put in, then a cap will be put on it so that I'll have something to bite down on. Hopefully, the rest of the year won't have as many traumatic things happen!

Birthday and More - Part 1

January 2010 has been a busy and crazy month and it's only the middle of the month. The year started out with celebrating Seth's birthday. He was 1 year old on Christmas Eve, but we had a small party for him on Jan. 2. Todd and Betsy have decided to have his big birthday get-together each year on his half-birthday, which will be around June 24th, since getting together on Christmas Eve is so difficult.

Here's the birthday boy!

Time to open a few gifts.

Ethan and Aria, Seth's birth parents were there for the festivities.

Seth enjoyed his birthday cake.

New Chandelier

For our Christmas gift to ourselves, we decided to get a new chandelier to hang over our dining room table. We had decided to do this early in December, but it was reinforced when I had the moms from my MOPS group over for a Christmas party. One of them commented, after I said that we were going to get a new one and that the one we had was over 20 years old, that she could tell it was that old because brass isn't in any more, like it was 20 years ago. I hadn't really realized that, but it wasn't a big deal to me,because I had been thinking we'd get something other than a brass fixture this time. Ken, however, was totally floored, he had been thinking of getting another design, but still in brass. (It was interesting that when we started looking on line, that there were no brass fixtures to even choose from.) Anyway, this is the one we ended up choosing. Hopefully, it will be good for another 20 years.

Be Still My Soul

We sang this song in church this morning and God used many of the words to minister to my heart as I was thinking about the decision that will need to be made concerning my Dad's future care. It's a song that I knew from years ago, but hadn't heard in a long time.

Be Still, My Soul

1. Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change, He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend. Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake, To guide the future, as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know His voice, Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, And all is darkened in the vale of tears, Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay From His own fullness all He takes away.

4. Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past, All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Christmas at Our House - 2009 (Part 2)

Some fun images from Christmas!

Kari decided to try Annika's Christmas shoes and new princess shirt on Seth. Seth cooperated but....

Todd wasn't to happy about it!
Annika now understands that Christmas means presents and new toys, she kept saying, "Where's my present?", and had a hard time waiting until it was her turn to open another one.

She got a toy vacuum cleaner, I don't know if it was a hit because she liked it or because Seth liked it and wanted to see it. If someone else likes and wants your toy, it is automatically more attractive.

Seth got his first Tonka truck, one that he can ride on.

Todd asked for money to buy himself some new clothes. We wrapped this purple suit, that he wore in the 8th grade, with money and a note saying that "We had heard he needed some new clothes!"

Saben got these sticks and balls that are used to make a fort, a tent, house, etc. It's a set called "Crazy Forts". You use a sheet to cover it after you get the structure made. Kari and Saben worked on it for awhile and came to the conclusion, that Daddy needed to help them construct it.

Christmas at Our House - 2009 (Part 1)

December 25th dawned with only Ken and I at our house. We opened our gifts to each other and spent the day relaxing. About 9pm, Todd, Betsy, and Seth arrived and they spent the night with us. Seth slept in the crib for a few hours, so we were able to get some time to talk with Todd and Betsy before heading to bed.

At breakfast the next morning, Seth decided his breakfast was so good, he needed to get every drop from the bowl.

While we waited for the Youngs to arrive, the 3 men started getting the cioppino ready. I love having cioppino as our traditional Christmas meal, both because it is so yummy and because Ken and Todd usually do most of the cooking of it. Seth loves to see what is going on during the cooking and to touch the red light on our stove.

If you don't know what cioppino is, here's a picture of it. It's a tomato based stew, with lots of seafood in it. All the seafood on the tray goes into it, including crab. We usually put crab legs in and you have to get the meat out later by cracking the legs. It's a very messy process! This year we tried something new, we had crab that had been taken out of the legs and put it in the bottom of the bowls to warm when the broth was put in. It was definitely not as messy, but I missed seeing the legs sticking out of the bowls. It was still very yummy!