Easter - 2011

An Easter tulip
Kari hosted our Easter celebration this year. While we waited for dinner to cook, Saben and Annika colored Easter eggs.

Saben was content to just help color the eggs, but Annika enjoyed putting stickers on them, too.

Saben showed off the Ninja costume that Kyle brought him from his trip to Taiwan.

The Easter egg hunt begins!

Annika started feeling bad that Seth wasn't finding as many eggs as Saben and her, so she found some to share with Seth.

Checking out what was in the eggs.

Seth liked the nun-chuk from Saben's costume.

3 kids together = impossible to get a decent picture.

Saben gets a piggy-back ride from Todd.

The Easter Bunny is Here!

Remember the house in our neighborhood, that was decorated with so many Santas and other Christmas figures? This is how they decorate for Easter!

A Funny Story

On Sunday, an acquaintance came up to me and asked how my knee surgery went. I looked at her puzzled and said that I hadn't had knee surgery. Then she looked confused and said that she had heard a prayer request for a girl's breakout leader who had knee surgery and she thought it was me. As we talked some more, it did turn out to be me that the prayer request was made for, but apparently the girl misunderstood when Ken told our class that I had kidney surgery. We decided she must have just heard the ney part of kidney and thought I'd had knee surgery! I thought that was pretty funny!

My Kidney Stone Experience

I found out several weeks ago that I had several kidney stones. There was only one on my right side, that was 7mm and several others on my left side, a couple of 3-4mm ones, a 7mm one and a 15mm one. The urology doctor I saw, thought that I should have them broken down, so that I could pass them without a lot of pain. He said that if they started to go down wihtout being reduced in size, that I would be in a lot of pain before they came out. Since they hadn't been bothering me,(I didn't even know I had them until I had an ultrasound for something else)I decided to wait until after we got back from our trip to the Bahamas to have the procedure done. There was some risk in waiting, because they could have started to come out at any time, but I wanted to feel good for the trip, so I waited. I had no problems at all on the trip, so I was glad that I waited. I asked the doctor, how long I would be laid up after the procedure and he seemed to think that I would bounce right back and be doing my regular routine the next day. I thought that sounded good and that it wouldn't be a big deal to have it done. WRONG! I knew it was called surgery, but he said that was just because they put me out for the procedure. Yes, they didn't cut me open and remove anything, but it was still an invasive procedure with a tube being put up inside of me and a stent being left inside to help "things" move along. I had the surgery done on Tuesday and once I got on top of the pain, I did pretty well. I did so well that first night, that I thought I didn't need the percocet the next morning, so I just took a couple of extra-strength Tylenol. Big mistake!! It took most of the morning for me to get the pain under control again. I definately wasn't up to doing my normal activities that day. Because of those experiences, I was afraid to cut back on the percocet for awhile. I finally had my first percocet free day on Friday, although, I'm still taking the extra strength Tylenol when I need to, because I still have some discomfort. I'm definately not bouncing back as quickly as I thought I would or as quickly as the doctor seemed to think I would. Catching the tiny little bits that come out is an experience also, I thought there would be a lot coming through, but in reality, there's not much at all. Hopefully, next week will be better, and I'm still glad I had the procedure done because people have said that passing a stone without it being reduced in size is more painful than child birth.

A Saturday in April

No rain on a Saturday in April means a list of chores to be done in the yard:

1. Mow the side yard - check
2. Prune some branches on the fruit trees - check
3. Order compost dirt and spread it in the garden boxes and in the flower beds - check, but more to do
4. Prune the old leaves off the ferns - One done, more to be done later
5. Work on weeding - continuous job, small part done today
6. Cut up branches that fell during the winter and haul them to the burn pile - check
7. Take some aspirin and rest our weary bodies - check

Bahamas - Part 6

Our last 2 days in Nassau were spent going to a couple of museums, sitting on the beach, and doing some last minute sightseeing. The colors for chairs, houses, etc. were such fun in the Bahamas. This is one of my favorite pictures that I took while we were there. I just love the colors of the chair and the color of the water, with the lighthouse and boat. The first museum we went to was a pirate museum and we learned how Nassau and the Bahamas were a popular place for pirates to hang out. This is a replica of a pirate ship and a typical city street of the time. The other museum we went to was one about the slave trade that took place in the Bahamas. One of the things I learned, was that in spite of all we hear about the slaves in the USA, there were less slaves brought here, than to other countries in the Caribbean and South America.

More conch shells and this man was chopping them up for a salad while sitting in his boat.

We had several hours our last day in Nassau, before we had to head to the airport, but at that stage of the game, you don't want to go to the beach and get wet and sandy again. We decided to go to a small zoo/botanical garden for a few hours. One of the things they advertised was feeding the parrots. This parrot landed on my head as soon as I walked through the gate.

Everyone was given pieces of apple to feed them and told to hold your hand out and let them come to you. They ate the apple down to the skin, but they don't like the apple skin.

This is Ken's hand, showing what messy eaters they were. Notice all the pieces of apple in his hand.

After lunch, the last thing we did was take a horse and carriage ride. This is our horse with his cute little hat.

Only in the Bahamas would the government buildings be pink!

A side note for others unaware! I developed a cold sore on my lower lip while down there. I've had cold sores there from time to time and didn't think that much of it. It kept getting bigger and bigger until almost my whole lower lip was swollen and had a huge scab on it. I finally found a pharmacy and was able to get some cream to put on it, but by then it was looking really bad. Ken did some research on cold sores and found out that exposure to the sun makes them worse. Neither one of us had ever heard that before and now I know to stay out of the sun if I have one, but by the time we figured that out, it was to late. Of course, I'm not sure how much I would have stayed out of the sun, even if I had known, after all we were on vacation in the Bahamas! Since I get sun burned so easily, I don't lay out in the sun like a lot of people do, but the time I was in the sun was enough to make the cold sore go crazy! So, beware of the sun, if you get a cold sore!

Bahamas - Part 5

Nassau was quite a change from Eleuthera! It is a stop for several cruise ships, we saw 3 to 6 ships docked each day in the 3 days we were there. That meant there were lots of people in town whenever we were there. There was also a lot more traffic and when you've gotten used to very little traffic, like Eleuthera, it was hard to get used to.

This seems to be the symbol of the Bahamas.

The first thing we did was to go to a Junkanoo museum. It turns out that Junkanoo in the Bahamas is as big a deal as the Rose Parade is in the USA. We learned that there is a Junkanoo parade on Christmas Day at midnight, then another one on New Year's Eve, again starting at midnight and both parades go all night long. There aren't floats, but all the participants dress in elaborate costumes and dance with drums, bells and whistles down the street. A doll with a Junkanoo costume.

We were allowed to try on a Junkanoo hat. It was pretty heavy, I don't know how they could wear a whole costume and still dance.

We found a whole costume in another area where you could take a picture without putting the whole thing on. We thought it might be fun to go to the celebration some time, but I don't know about it going all night!

A couple of police officers in Nassau.

Our first night, we went on a sunset catamaran dinner cruise. This is the boat we went on.

This is a very famous hotel called "The Atlantis" on Paradise Island in Nassau. It's a very expensive place to stay.

Putting the sail up on the catamaran.

Sunset is coming.

A gorgeous sunset!

On the catamaran after sunset.