Category Archives: personal

Homecoming…

This mama duck is really excited that papa duck flies over the skies of Washington today on his way to SeaTac airport. Because he was in Europe we didn’t have the daily phone call opportunities that make being apart from each other easier. So much news to share, mostly good but some sad news, too. He gets home a little before noon on Wednesday.

Maybe he’ll have a window seat and get to see our dramatic Washington volcanoes from the plane…

I mowed the weeds yesterday and used the mower as a vacuum for the leaves that have fallen. Maybe I’ll put something in the crockpot so things smell good when Dear arrives. It’s good that he’ll have Thursday off so he can work on that jet lag that always accompanies such a long trip through several time zones. What does your Wednesday hold?

It’s Time for Fireworks…

…in my little corner of the world!

After 4 weeks of my new season of restraint I’m friends with my scale again.

One more quarter of a pound and I will have lost 10 pounds!! Yes, when you need to lose weight you count fractions of pounds lost.  I still have a way to go but I don’t cringe when I step on the scale anymore. That’s a good thing. Maybe in another 4 weeks I’ll report my progress again.

Before I go I wanted to share this photo of Josh and Laura at the last Sounders game we went to together.

Love these kids of ours! Love all our kids but I don’t have current photos of the others…

Today (Monday) I made borsch and I’ll share my method with new photos tomorrow. We always joke around our house that I am inspired to make soup on the hottest days of the year. Today wasn’t the hottest but it is warm again. We are still dry and will be for a while longer which means I have to keep watering.

Update on my mom: My mom’s MRI confirms the fact that she had a small stroke in the back of her brain. She will probably be able to go home tomorrow. Thanks so much for your concern and prayers for my mom. I so appreciate my blogging friends!!

Her Nest…

My mom was set free from the Care Center on Saturday and settled back into her little nest with Pop. They are both so happy that she is back home. Pop lowered their bed so she can get in and out more easily. He’s doing the cooking these days and family members are bringing in food, too. When I called them on Saturday night you could here the lightness in their voices of being together in their little apartment again. God is good.

Dear found this carefully constructed nest while doing some weeding.

Here we are in the last week of August. Do you have any plans for Labor Day Weekend?

Just a Year Ago…

…We were in Southern California having a bridal shower for Katie. It seems like ages ago.

I talked to my mom today and she is still experiencing lots of pain so will you please continue to pray for her and my dad. They were both crying which is hard to take over the phone and being 1200 miles away. I know she’ll get better but these are hard days to bear before the better days come.

My sister took this photo this evening and she reports that my mom is feeling a lot better since I talked to her this morning. I’m so happy to see this. Thank you Lana. My mom is learning to manage her pain.

A bizarre storm swept through Nuevo, Ca. and the surrounding area with tornado like effects on Sunday. My brother’s family lives there and they have been cleaning up. On one street a dozen power poles came down like dominoes. They had to work hard to keep mud from coming into their home. Yikes, now they are getting severe weather warnings again. So far there are no injuries that we’ve heard of. Needless to say there are power issues and with temps over a 100 that is not a good scenario…

Our refrigerator is getting repaired today sometime…remember our light issue that caused the light housing to melt. It’s after 4:30 and we’re still waiting. Did you ever read Waiting for Godot in your school years? Hopefully we aren’t waiting for Godot.

We are still having summer here in the Northwest and that has been nice. I’m going to have to water!!

Random on Saturday

I bought a new camera strap that is specifically designed with a woman’s body in mind. So far the best benefit is how nice it feels on my body and how much lighter my camera feels compared to when my neck supported the weight with the strap the camera came with. I’ll be breaking it in the beginning of next week when we head out on a road trip to Eastern Washington.

Have a great Saturday!

Fun on Saturday…

Finally hung my new squirrel proof bird feeder that my friend Beth gave me. Thanks Beth! It was sunny a couple days this week! I also added some lanterns in the tree for fun. I might hang them again with red, white, and blue ribbons for the 4th of July.

The lanterns came down before the rains came down again on Friday.

On the way to the Sounders game last Wednesday (another great sunny day, but who’s counting?) we saw the progress on Seattle’s Ferris Wheel. I love that the stadiums and Mt. Rainier are in the background.

Saturday morning I’m headed out, probably in the rain, for a little reunion walk with my former walking buddies. In the evening we are joining our son and DIL at a Medical Missions Auction fund raiser dinner at Safeco Field, that’s where the Mariners Baseball team plays. The dinner will be on the infield of the stadium. We were told to make sure we dress warmly. It should be fun. We might get some sun again tomorrow.  On Sunday after church I’m hoping to drag Dear to the HomeGoods grand opening in Lynnwood. Finally they are opening a store here in Washington state. How’s your weekend shaping up?

Distractions…

I have a lot of photos from the tulip fields to share with you but right now I’ve been thrown into a world of clamor.

Big trucks, scraping and hammering and danger all around. Well…the danger part is mostly me and how I feel about men walking around on steep roofs or climbing up tall ladders.

When things are removed, new things are revealed. Here’s Dear painting the fascia underneath the old gutters that we realized were just bare wood and never painted. I got to hold the ladder, except for when I was taking a photo. Now when the new gutters go up the wood will be more protected.

We’re real thankful that the roofers have gotten some periods of dryness so that things aren’t as slippery as they could be.

Soon the mayhem will be over, my checkbook will be drained, and I’ll post more tulip photos.

Things Are Looking Up…

Just wanted all my kind bloggy friends to know that I’m feeling a whole lot better. For the record, my tooth has not hurt at all and the temporary crown feels fine. All my discomfort involved the procedure. The fear involved with my throat and swallowing affected my whole body. Amazing how powerful fear can be. Once again thank you for your great encouragement to me.

Looks like I’ll be mowing some more leaves but not until next week! Tomorrow I get to go see my therapist hairdresser. Hope your week is going well.

Sometimes It’s Fun to Be a Princess…

…or a Queen!

I’ve lived long enough to know that things can change and sometimes the change is abrupt. A good rule of thumb in life is to enjoy the days you are given. If things are especially nice why not just bask in it. When I consider things I can’t wrap my mind around like “the love of Christ, which surpasses knowlege” I am blown away. Considering what Christ has done for me is the best antedote to whatever comes my way. So I’ve had my Princess days and they are very nice. I’ve also had my dungeon days. Thankfully I knew they wouldn’t last forever.

On Saturday night my laptop got a nasty virus that took over and damaged many of my files, mostly my photos. Boohoo! Truth be told I’ve been thinking I needed a new computer with longer battery life and more room for my photos for a while. Anyhoo, on Sunday after church we went to Costco and bought me a new computer…yes I felt blessed that we could do that. Sunday afternoon we found someone to repair the old one so now Dear can use that one. He doesn’t store photos etc. so it will be great for what he does. There have been many seasons in our past where we wouldn’t have been able to replace a computer this easily.

My new computer has fingerprint technology that allows me to log into all my stuff including remembering my passwords with a swipe of one finger. Pretty weird and cool all at the same time. Dear says if I die he’ll have to cut off that finger so he can use the computer. If I die he can clean off my desk, too.

So I’m in a new learning curve around here with all this new technology. I also need to take some photos because my picasa is very very low on photos since my other computer ate them all up!

Hope all is well where you are…