Happy Birthday Catherine!

She took the first two pictures herself. I was letting her play with my camera at the beach That's her foot & her towel.

Hopefully, you had a fun day today. There's a present coming in the mail - We've been kind of busy, sorry it's late!

Love from Tante Tina, Uncle Lee, Trev, Diana & Connor :)

I tweaked my back :(

On Thursday we were trained on lifting techniques at work (we have to move the kids around to different positions & changes from & to their wheelchairs).

I did fine with the lifting under the supervision of the Physical Therapist. We did lift more than usual tho. However, I felt fine, and had used the correct technique.

So after we're all trained, I go to use the restroom. While I'm laying down the little strips of TP on the seat to protect myself, I feel a twinge in my back. Suddenly I have to hold on to the rails on the wall and stuff to lift myself up & down. Dang it.

I had to file an incidence report, and fill out worker's comp stuff and go see a chiropractor. This particular chiropractor has massage therapists work on you before he does the adjustments. They use a heat pad, then massage, then the adjustment. My back feels a lot better already. The ibuprofen is good too.

Today the custodian at the school installed a holder for toilet seat covers, and filled it.

Girls like horses

Before you can ride, you need to help muck out stalls tho...



Thanks Nancy & Kraig for letting us come play with the horses!

:)

Cowboy Connor

This was great. Connor really liked the horses. Lee's brother Kraig & his wife Nancy have about 18 horses at their ranch. We wanted to take Leonie to visit some of our family and this is part of what we did while we were there.

Besides practically force-feeding them hay, Connor just really loved the riding part.


When I asked him later to tell me what he did, he must have strung 50+ words together in 8-10 sentence fragments about feeding and riding the horses. That's more than I've ever heard him say at once.

He sat on the white horse and said, "I'm cowboy! Let's go! Giddy-up! I'm Connor cowboy!" It was great.

The brown horse, Tia, was more skittish, so she needed to be led. The white horse, Trinity, was much more calm, so Connor could steer and ride more on his own.

We'll have to do this again soon.

A bunch of posts

After a bit of a break from blogging, I updated today (yay!).

Click on the photos to enlarge them. You don't always see the best detail in the photo as it is on the blog page.

There's another couple of day's worth of stuff I still need to add, but I'm tired now.

Enjoy!

Saturday, Part 1

So on Saturday, we did a bit of a round-trip tour.

We started by going out to Reedsport, then up past Florence to the Sea Lion Caves.

Then back down to Florence to play around on the sand dunes, and then have some lunch.

We went back to Reedsport and stopped at the lighthouse, but by then, kids were tired, so we didn't do the tour of that after going thru the Coast Guard Museum (or maybe I was tired & didn't want to chase Connor up & down the lighthouse?).

Then down to Coos Bay, and back over inland to get home.

It was about 250 miles.

Saturday, Part 2

Leonie rolling


Connor sandy-face (click & view close up).
Diana rolling.













Trevor takes a leap.
This is just way too much fun. Ever.

Do this next time you're up our way.

Saturday, Part 3

We stopped here for lunch. You can eat in a car. It was cool.

They also had little dime or quarter rides, so we had to spend a little change on that too.

Good burgers - regular & veggie!

At Crater Lake

Here they are! The 2006-07 GAPP kids! Well, a couple of them are missing - mostly on the American side.

We had Friday off from school, and I was one of the drivers. Besides Diana & Leonie, I had the German kids' teacher, and one of the American kids' teachers. So the adults talked in front, and the girls in the back.

On the way up, we hiked at Watson Falls, which the german students really enjoyed. They live in a very flat part of Germany, and hilly hikes with waterfalls are just way cool to them. Then we got to Crater Lake and ate lunch, took a bunch of pictures & then headed back toward home.

We also did part of the "Dread & Terror" trail on the way back. If you're up our way, you gotta do that one. The "dread & terror" part isn't the trail so much as it used to be very difficult to get the mail thru that section via horseback - too many blackberry bushes and other pokey plants. The trail itself is all full of water features. It's a good idea to wear shoes that can get wet, since a lot of the trail is partly in water. Water emerges from the walls, above & under the trail (where is it all coming from?). It's not a tough hike at all, but be prepared to get wet.

We had a spectacular day, weather-wise, and all the kids enjoyed it (as did the adults!).

Gotta get ready

So Diana's going to the Homecoming Dance this weekend because all the German & American partners are going. This is not something she would choose to do, normally. It's just not her thing. This is the girl who shops in the boy's department because she prefers cargo pants over skinny jeans (you can hold a lot more pencils & erasers for art!).

However, a couple of years ago, we went to Eugene to visit a mom & daughter that were living there. We all went shoppign together, and while we were in Ross, both girls decided they wanted to try on formal dresses. Diana found a very nice strapless gown in black & white, with contrasting embroidery. She actually liked the dress well enough to ask me to buy it. At the time, she was a freshman in High School, and I didn't think it would be a great idea to buy a $50 dress to hang in the closet for years. And you know what? She didn't need it anyway - she didn't want to go to the big dances, and she didn't want a boyfriend.

Fast forward to September. We found out ALL the German & American partners are supposed to attend this Homecoming. And really, if you're going to go to a big dance like that, it's certainly a lot more fun with a bunch of friends than going with a guy you barely know anyway. If you're already in a couple, it's a bit different, but she's not, so this is cool. She now regrets that she didn't get that black & white dress at Ross, though.

Moving on, we had a sleepover with our girl scout friends. Mary, who is IN to all the big dances, has scads of dresses. She brings some along for Diana & Leonie to try out. In the bunch is the black & white dress Diana wanted 2 years ago. It found her. Guess what she's wearing to the Homecoming? Leonie also found a nice dress.

Today, a guy came up to Leonie and handed her a note from his friend. The friend asks Leonie in the note if she'll go with him to Homecoming. He writes she is "varry pritty" in his penciled note.

Actually, going as a couple is discouraged. The German & American students are supposed to hang out together - not pair off with dates. So Leonie already didn't think she was supposed to go with anyone. But Lee & I also told her it was not a big loss. First off, the guy doesn't have the guts to ask her face to face. She doesn't even know who he is! And the creative spelling isn't helping either.

But doesn't Diana look cute in make up?

Remodel update

So here's the new shower, sans doors. As you can see, it sits in the corner of the bathroom. It's actually 3 pieces, and you caulk in between all the seams first. Once the doors are on, you do a lot more caulking.

I'm not sure I'm happy with the showerhead so far. It's more like rain than a massage-type shower, and I like a little more pressure... That might get switched out. But I like the handle to turn the water on, and that came with this showerhead. Easy enough to fix.

The far left is the color of the bedroom, and in the bathroom it's a bit lighter blue.

More later....

Getting there...

Okay - we have the vanity in, the mirror up (with lights!) and the toilet is in. The base of the shower is down, and tonight when Lee gets home, we'll put up the rest of it. It has to be glued and set, and I guess there's a 10-minute window of time to get it in the right place once you start sticking the glue on the wall, so we'll have to move fast. And apparently this glue doesn't wash off once it's on something, so we'll also have to be careful! Then it sets for 48 hours. During that time we can use the caulk and seal everything though, and once the shower walls are up, we can put up the towel racks & stuff like that.

I think we're going to put a few more shelves up still - like above the toilet. And some kind of cupboard for the appliances to stay plugged in. That will be on the wall to the right of the vanity. But we're not going to get into that part yet. We're just concentrating on a working 2nd bathroom at this point!

More pictures to follow...

Germans!

Last Friday, Lee & Diana picked up our exchange student from Germany. Her name is Leonie, and she's very nice. Her English is very good, and she has been a pretty easy guest so far.

Diana is experiencing more High School stuff than she normally would. The first night the students arrived, there was a home football game. Leonie wanted to check it out, so off they went. I dropped them off and they got a ride home with another host & german student. Diana hadn't ever been to a game before.

The next day was Saturday, and we went to a Harvest Festival (kind of dull, but it gave Leonie a chance to see a little of the town & try our great ice cream). That night there was a pool party at another host family's house, so I dropped them off there. There were 40+ high school kids there (yikes!) and that was Diana's first big boy/girl party.

On Sunday, a local pilot flew groups of 3 german students at a time for an hour-long flight. We were actually scheduled for 9:00, but it was too cloudy, and she eventually got to do her flight from noon to 1:00. After that, we had to get stuff together for a pot luck dinner, held at our big park on the river. Connor enjoyed throwing rocks in the river a lot.

Then on Monday, school started. Leonie followed Diana through her schedule the first couple of days. I had to go to a Girl Scout leader meeting, but Lee took Leonie with him to get some groceries.

Tuesday we had our regular Girl Scout meeting. I'm not sure what Leonie actually thought of that. I have some wild & crazy teen girls and there's a lot of giggling and silliness and eating. I actually had the scouts figure out a craft to do as a kind of get-to-know-you thing. So they all had canvas bags, sequins, puff paint, felt, googly eyes, etc. to stick on with sewing, tacky glue or hot glue. Everyone made a unique bag. Some of the girls got it all done, others are still working on them. After that, we had spaghetti. Mary was impressed with Leonie's use of a tablespoon to wind her spaghetti on her fork. "I love how Leonie does it right, and we're all just slopping spaghetti on our faces!"

Wednesday all the german students took a tour of our mill and museum. Leonie thought it was a little long. Leonie's best friend (also an exchange student) came to visit. I dropped Diana off with them at our outdoor mall for a couple of hours. They had to go to Claire's, Dollar Tree, and the Spirit store. That's a temporary Halloween store. Since they don't do Halloween in Germany, it was a lot of fun for the german girls to see it.

Today Leonie got her own schedule of classes. She's checking out Beginning Acting, Foods, and other elective classes. She said she enjoyed that today. Then after school, she went along to the Japanese club meeting with Diana. Speaking of, in her downtime, Leonie loves reading Diana's manga. She's currently going through Full Metal Alchemist, one of Diana's favorites. They aren't familiar with that one in Germany.

Tomorrow we'll go to the big mall in Eugene so Leonie can check out Hot Topic (so she can get her own FMA stuff. Whoo Hoo!

:)

Good tip

I got an email from a friend today. It's full of good tips.

We live a rainy part of the country. When it rains a lot, the clay that makes up most of the soil around here gets too wet for the ants, and they move into your house. It doesn't matter how clean or dirty your house is - you can have a spotless kitchen counter, and fly dies on your windowsill and now there's a line of black going from the dead fly to whatever hole in the wall the ants found their way out of.

Trevor's way of handling the ants is to "draw" circles around them with the liquid dish detergent. This uses up a lot of detergent. And the ants are still alive, just stuck in the circle. Until you wipe them up. Ew.

Diana likes the foam soap pump better. At least that way you don't have to look as much at the dead ant bodies.

My personal favorite way to get rid of ants was shown to me by my cousin Ekki from Germany. He used his lighter on a line of ants on a tree while we were at a park. They just froze there - burned to a crisp. But we can't do that in the kitchen without causing damage to my counters.

So here's the tip: Put some cornmeal where you notice ants coming in. They will take the cornmeal to their nest, but they can't digest it. So when they eat it, it kills them. Ta da!

Maybe it gets stuck in the 'node.'

For any that take issue with my attitude toward ants - hey, I pay the mortgage. Freeloaders of species other than human or dog will be terminated.

Wrong size hands

Yesterday, I worked on putting up the insulation in our new to-be bathroom. Trevor helped me first, then later Lee & I worked together.

You know, it's a lot harder to do something if all the tools are the wrong size and/or weight. After 5 tries, I could no longer squeeze the staple gun. Sure, I'm not used to doing that, but dang, it would help if it actually FIT my hand!

Working with the hammer isn't much better. It's weighted correctly for Lee (rightly so, since it's his), but it makes it more work for me. I have a small hammer I use for camping. It's a POS, but it works for me!

I would rather be the gopher with construction. I get too frustrated with doing the actual work. I'll cut the insulation down to size, but forget stapling it. So I just handed Lee the nails, tape measure, caulk gun, yadda yadda.

I'll stick to my sewing machine, knitting, canning stuff, etc. I'll leave construction to the people it's better suited for - people whose hands fit the tools (I know there are large-handed women out there somewhere!) and who have the arm strength to staple things to the ceiling.

I won the basket!

Back to my TOPS club. Don't read if not interested. And you're probably not :P

Every week at the TOPS meeting people bring some things (healthy food, money, whatever) to put in a basket. Whoever has the largest weight loss that week (minus any gain from the prior week) wins the basket.

We have a few KOPS, eight ladies, in our club now (Keeping Off Pounds Sensibly) and yesterday another KOPS lady & I were the ones with the biggest weight loss in the chapter that night. That's very unusual.

Until you reach your goal weight, most of the time the TOPS members will beat out the KOPS people every time on the weight loss. Especially since the KOPS people are all about maintaining their weight loss, vs. continuing to lose every week.

We have a 10-lb leeway we're supposed to stay in, and when you are hitting the top of your leeway, sure, you need to lose weight. But it's harder to lose 2 lbs. in one week when you only have 5 to lose!

So, that's my little piece of TOPS club history for today. 2 KOPS beat out the TOPS members to get the prize basket (and I got an energy-saving lightbulb in my half!)

See you lighter!

Thank You

to any and all people involved in keeping us safe in the USA for the last 5 years.

But oh, the potential!

We bought our house because 1) we were sick of living in a tiny 2-bedroom duplex with 2 school-age kids & a baby, 2) it was very very affordable and 3) we planned on living here a long time and the house has such potential! It's on about 1/3 acre, one story with a daylight basement, 2 toilets (tho 1 full bathroom) and 3 bedrooms. A nice fit for us. It's in walking distance from the elementary school and High School, if you really want to walk that far - Downtown is closer than that.

The first thing we did when we moved in was paint the interior. The previous owners were apparently losing their vision, so they painted every thing in extremely LOUD colors - greens & pinks and oranges. It hurt my eyes.

Lee's sister, Donna, came up with a nice color scheme for me - I selected the colors I liked best, and she helped me paint the kitchen & laundry room. Much, much better. The bathroom went from being bright lime green to white with green accents, and our bedroom went from bright pink to white with pink trim. The boy's room had been dark beige and pink (???) so we went instead for a yellow & blue that matched a cool wallpaper space thing that Donna had found for them.

Diana's room was very small. It had been used by the previous owner for his ham radio room. I guess he used to have a massive ham antenna in the back of the house or something. Anyway, her room went from dark beige to light blue. Donna had found a lot of nice wallpaper borders & stuff to match up with paint.

All that together raised the value of the house right off the bat. Then we took a break for about 4 years.

Now we've added a master bedroom where our carport used to be. It's very nice and big and exactly what we wanted. Diana's tiny bedroom became a nice, big walk-in closet, and she moved into our old room. She painted all our previously pink trim a nice shiny black (to fit her oriental-theme decor). The new big bedroom has medium blue walls & light blue ceiling, with a nice Pergo floor that looks like real wood. The trim in the room is white.

Since the windows for the new room came with white frames, we went ahead and painted the other window frames in front white as well. It looks much cleaner than the old blue. We still need to paint the other windows on the sides of the house. However, we are in September now, and it's already started raining here & there. I'm focussed more on the new bathroom at this point.

And that's the last thing we've been working on now. If you've looked at Lee's blog at all, you'll know how that's going already. Suffice to say, I'm not much involved in this project other than cleaning up after it a lot. I did put down the tar felt stuff today by myself on the floor. So that's something. I also helped pick out the vanity. I need drawers. I have a blow dryer! And product for my hair!! Lee's dad took the wood from the huge cupboard that shared the room with the toilet, and he's going to make us a linen closet with that. It will go in the laundry room.

Our german exchange student is coming at the end of the month, so there's the timeline! Actually, the sooner we get toilet #2 up & running, the better!!

First Day of School

Connor started on Tuesday, T&D started on Wednesday. I worked Tuesday, but we didn't have students until Wednesday, because the construction from the summer wasn't done yet!

Connor's in 3rd this year. He apparently did fine the first week. I keep in email contact with his teacher, special ed teacher & assistants. They can also call me at work if there's an issue. I didn't really hear from anyone, so on Friday I sent an email to his teacher, asking how it's going. So far so good! He should be working on a "word of the day" every day, and he should have homework coming home on Mondays that's due on Fridays. I'm thinking it might be good to have each of us work a little with Connor during the week.

Diana is taking Anatomy & Physiology as an elective this year. She wants to work toward being a Physical Therapist (can't go wrong with the baby boomers getting older!). They are supposed to dissect a rabbit this year. Later, they'll go to a big hospital in Portland and see an autopsy performed. This is the girl who looks away when we watch CSI. Hmm. Should be interesting. She's also taking German 3, Video Production & Algebra 2 as electives. She said she wants to be done with Math after this. Too bad, it really comes pretty easily for her. The required classes are English & Economics, I think.

Trevor is doing Drafting 3, German 3, Trig, Chemistry & College Prep English as electives. The last four are more college-bound classes vs. elective in my book. And he's heading for something to do with engineering, and the Drafting should work best with that. Trig is just a semester class, and if he can do it, Lee would like him to learn welding, just because it would be a good hands-on thing to know - and it fits with engineering too. Trevor's required classes is Government.

I think everyone is going to need to be pretty organized to keep up with the class loads. Both older kids are supposed to do a household chore when they get home, then start on homework. Diana has her route, but she's wanting to change to a "real" job soon. I think we'll wait until after the exchange student is gone though, since it's easier to work around a paper route than it is to ask your new boss for hours to fit socializing with a bunch of german kids. Still, she's almost halfway into what she needs to earn for the trip, and that's pretty good!

The construction in my classroom was so late because 1) the school district waited too long to put the job up for bids - all the local contractors bid way high because their summers were already booked, and 2) they wound up using the district Handymen, who didn't know the codes as well, so there were 5 change-orders during construction.

We still had a toilet uninstalled and no linoleum in our changing room on the first day of school. They finally finished everything completely (I hope) by Wednesday afternoon. The linoleum had been laid on Tuesday, but it needed 24 hours to cure - but we could step on it during our day on Wednesday. Still, all that dust and stuff was a pain in the rear when we should have had kids in class. Oh well.

Now we get down to scheduling who is doing what with which kid. We have a new teacher this year, and she took the first 3 days just to see what the needs of our special kids actually were. On Monday she plans to have a schedule, and that will help us remember to take our breaks and lunches on time too. The new teacher and a new aide still need to be trained on feeding protocols for most of the kids, and that needs time with the nurse and Occupational Therapist. Until then, the three of us from last year will have to cover the feeding schedule. But that's okay, we can do that.

Whew! Once school is going, we get to start thinking about Girl Scouts! Whoopee!!

Canadian Humour

This next entries were on a menu at a pub I visited with my mom & sister, Connie. We thought they were funny:


Thieves broke into an RCMP headquarters today in Cape Breton and stole all the toilets. Police say, "we don't have a thing to go on."


Then there was the Newfy, who thought he had fooled Air Canada. He bought a return ticket, but he wasn't coming back.



The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service, at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review:

Room Service (RS): "Morny. Ruin sorbees."

Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service"

RS: "Rye... Ruin sorbees... morny! Djewish to odor sunteen?"

G: "Uh... yes... I'd like some bacon and eggs."

RS: "Ow July den?"

G: "What??"

RS: "Ow July den? ... pry, boy, pooch?"

G: "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please."

RS: "Ow July dee baychem... crease?"

G: "Crisp will be fine."

RS: "Hokay. An San tos?"

G: "What?"

RS: "San tos. July San tos?"

G: "I don't think so."

RS: "No? Judo one toes??"

G: "I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo one toes' means."

RS: "Toes! Toes! ... why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow singlish mopping we bother?"

G: "English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'toast.' Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine."

RS: "We bother?"

G: "No... just put the bother on the side."

RS: "Wad?"

G: "I mean butter... just put it on the side."

RS: "Copy?"

G: "Sorry?"

RS: "Copy... tea... mill?"

G: "Yes. Coffee please, and that's all."

RS: One Minnie. Ass ruin torino fee, strangle ache, crease baychem, tossy singlish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy... rye?"

G: "Whatever you say."

RS: "Tendjewberrymud."

G: "You're welcome."

The last one is my favorite

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Abraham Lincoln

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
Mark Twain

Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.
Plato (427-347 BC)

Plato was a bore.
Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900)

Nietzche was stupid and abnormal.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

Jack's memorial

click on the picture to enlarge it.

Here are some photos of Jack from the memorial. It was very nice. His brother played piano & picked out the music for the background, which included Weird Al Yankovic. His dad gave the Eulogy, and his sister related a funny story. Some kids from the High School band performed as well.

During the part where people came to the microphone and talked about their experiences with Jack, Diana went up. I was very proud of her.

One of Jack's friends had said that they'd discussed who had the funnier German last name. Dannenhoffer vs. Kirkendahl. Diana went up and introduced herself as "Diana," and then said, "Jason, I believe I win for the funniest German name with Kiester." Everyone laughed at that. Then she told her story about how Jack had insisted that dragons were real, etc. She held it together and was able to smile. Later, her teachers & people that know us told her she was very brave to do that. But knowing Diana, she has that ability to pull up courage and do what she feels needs to be done.

Afterwards, Jack's dad asked me if it would be okay if he took Trevor & Diana to help pick out a location at the cemetery behind our house for Jack's ashes. He said Jack would have thought it great fun to be so close to our kids - so they could just look over the fence and say "Hi Jack!" I told Diana if she wanted, she could ask if she could plant some snapdragons there. While we believe after death the soul moves on, and the body is just a shell, more or less, it will still be a place that she & Trevor can go to reflect and remember. I don't know what the restrictions are on an Oddfellows Cemetery, but they'll be trying to get him in there.

We'll be going over this week to visit. Lee was home with Connor & missed the memorial, and I think he'd like to visit with Jack's folks for a while too. Diana & I will bring some goodies. We know his brother really likes chocolate, so I think brownies, at least. Diana might want to make a cheesecake too.

Also, a blurb was posted in the paper that Jack was indeed wearing his lifejacket & doing everything he should to be safe. Some debris caught on his shorts, and that's what caused the accident. Of course, anyone that knew Jack would know he was following the rules. This was the safety-monitor kid who would remind everyone to do things the right way. People float the river all the time around here, and unless something freaky like this happens, everyone just has a great time. And that was Jack - living & enjoying life, and having a great time, with a huge grin on his face.

His dad reminded us at the memorial, none of us knows what will happen. Be sure to let those you love know how much you love them, and take the time you need to do that.

Not ready yet

Jack's memorial service is tomorrow. I will have to get time off of work to take Trevor & Diana. Lee will stay home with Connor - that's not something Connor would be able to manage very well. Not so much because he misses Jack, but all the emotion would be hard for him to handle.

Jack's parents opted to have a viewing yesterday & today so people could pay their respects. I offered to take Trevor & Diana, if they felt they needed to do that. Neither of them wants to remember Jack that way, though. They are still coping with the whole idea, but that's not the way they want to bring closure to it.

Because we were quoted in the paper, another mom called me to talk about the whole thing. Her son was Jack's best friend in Kindergarten to 4th grade (about when Diana stepped in, actually), and they'd kept contact. She found out by hearing a local talk radio host blasting parents for letting their kids play in the river. This was the very next morning. Anyway, because she'd moved to a town close by, no one knew Jack, and she needed to talk. So we talked a good hour or so. She wanted to do something, but other than dropping off food, I said I wasn't planning on getting in their way right now. She said when she'd lost her dad, there was all this support for the first few weeks, and then suddenly everyone went back to their lives and she felt left all alone. I said that's when we need to step in then.

The obituary in the paper also named the son they'd lost previously. I had seen a photo of him at their house in the past, and thought maybe he was a cousin or something, but Jack's mom had told me that was their son who had died. She didn't go any further than that, and I didn't ask. I expect everything they went through losing Kyle has resurfaced now with Jack. I just can't even comprehend what they are dealing with right now.

Diana & Trevor will try to prepare for the Memorial tomorrow by writing down their memories of Jack. Most are funny and make you laugh. Both Trevor & Diana are doing a bit better now than earlier in the week, although they have tried to keep busy and not think too hard on it. Tomorrow at the memorial, I just expect to see a lot of tears.

Lee gets to work off his emotion by ripping up the bathroom floor today. He & Pop are installing our shower & sink/vanity today.

I have to go to work & see if our classroom is ready to clean up yet. There was construction done over the summer, and when we went in on Tuesday, there were still pipes & the toilets on the floor in our kitchen area - not ready to be cleaned yet. They were waiting on permits for electrical & plumbing. I have no clue what we're supposed to do with our medically fragile kids on Tuesday next week if our room isn't ready!

Until we meet again, Jack

On Sunday, our kids lost a very close friend. He was on the river, kayaking with his brother, and somehow drowned. Knowing Jack, he was wearing his lifejacket, because he was a kid who followed the rules. Obviously we don't know what happened, but it doesn't matter - the end result is the same. We lost Jack.

We first heard the news on Monday morning. I got a call from one of my girl scouts on the answering machine, so I called her back. I was totally blindsided. It was very hard to tell Trevor and Diana, who'd known Jack for nine years. Living in a smaller town, you tend to keep the same friends a very long time. I sent Lee and email & asked him to call home. He wound up coming home himself, because we were so upset, and Connor was feeling the effects.

Lee called our local paper to get the actual story, vs. rumors and they wound up taking a few comments from him. They also asked if we had any photos, so I emailed one from Trevor's birthday party in June. Jack was one of the three friends there. The paper decided to use that photo as well. The article is below:

newspaper article

I still can't talk or write about Jack without crying. Anywhere I go, work, school, whatever, I see people that had connections to him and his family. No one can discuss him without tears. His dad is a pediatrician and his mom is on the school board. The memorial service will be very big, I think. Jack was just a great, friendly easy-going kid. I appreciated his friendship with Trevor, and his protectiveness of Diana. He was always ready to help out any way he could and would do anything you needed him to do.

I can't imagine what his family is going through. I'm still grieving more than being able to comfort at this time. Diana & Jack had just spent a chunk of their summer doing Driver's Ed. His mom & I traded off bringing them to & from the Jr. High for 6 weeks. They rode the same bus and sat together during the regular school year.

Diana drew a picture to show her feelings on her webcomic (link on right).

Today was better than yesterday, and yesterday was better than Monday. Hopefully after the memorial, everyone will be able manage better emotionally. But we will never forget him.

We miss you, Jack.

The Lake

My folks live near Lake Okanagan in Canada. It takes maybe 15-20 minutes to get to the "beach" (altho Canadians don't call it a beach). It had sand, it's a beach. Lake Okanagan is called "Canada's Hawaii" for the climate. It's nothing like Hawaii. It's a temperate zone and there are cherries, blackberries & strawberries in season in August. Heh.

In the past, we'd go to a beach that was a bit of a hike, but less crowded than the beaches along the main drag. My folks called it the secret beach. It no longer has any amenities, since the big fire that ravaged the area a couple of years ago (my folks were evacuated for 2 weeks, but their house survived - others in their neighborhood burn to the ground). In any case, since we visited during the high tourist season, my sister made the suggestion to go to the beach after dinner. If we showed up around 6:30 to 7:00, there were still a couple of hours of daylight and the beach is pretty empty. And that's what we did.

Connor absolutely loved it. This particular beach has an extremely shallow slope out to the deep water. Connor & Diana would swim way the heck out, yet still be able to stand. The buoys protected them from the various water sports being enjoyed further out, but on the very windy visit, it was like watching a show of sails and spray.

Trevor spent each visit building sand castles. He is not fond of getting wet or very dirty (Connor EATS dirt), and after the first time, Trevor didn't even wear his swim trunks - just regular shorts. Diana helped with diving in the water to find Trevor the coveted black sand to decorate his castles (???). Connor just really liked the sand and water.

My sister and her kids came along a couple of times to join us, which was always fun. My niece seemed a little bored and didn't want to swim one time, so I gave her my digital camera and told her to take some interesting shots :) She got the one of Trevor for me.

I'm betting next time we will visit the lake again the same way. The evenings really worked well, and the kids had so much fun. It was less stressful for us as parents as well, since we didn't have to hunt to find our kids - they were the only ones in the water! Kudos to Diana for swimming with Connor so much - next time we'll get some good goggles for her.

Water Park

About 1/2 hour from my folk's area, there's a water park called "Atlantis." We were able to get the whole family in for about $60 Canadian. There were 4 longer slides, a couple of medium slides, a rapids-style slide for which you used "donuts" (inner tubes), and then some smaller slides for the little kids. The slide with the tallest height requirement was in the kiddie area, but the pool you drop into was deeper than all the other pools. Connor had to swim the whole time. But that slide was also very wide, so people could go down together, spin, on their stomachs, whatever.

The best part was the hot tub. There was a shallow circular pool with seating spots that was just there to warm up in. It was 105 degrees, and mostly full of the little kids with no body fat and very changeable core temperatures. It was great for the breezy day we had, after coming off the cooler slides into the wind. You could sit in the tub for 5 minutes, and dry off almost as soon as you got out. For Connor, he couldn't possibly give up slide time, so we'd have to wait until his teeth were chattering. About the 3rd time, he went on his own to the hot tub to warm up.

There were also picnic benches with umbrellas, and the lockers they rented came with a key, so you could open and close them as needed all day before you turned in the key at the end of the day. And they allowed coolers if you wanted to bring food. There was also a concession stand. The only thing I bought was a lemonade, but it was a slushie lemonade - yummy! Of course there were changing rooms as well, plus a video arcade & gift shop.

On the way home, Lee & I discussed what would be necessary to open a water park in our town. We have the hillsides, we have other attractions, permanent and seasonal, and we have the hot weather all summer. It could open in May, and run thru September. I guess we'd have to figure out the cost vs. benefits with insurance, employees, etc. The kids think we could already start with just a few slides, and build it up over time. Hmmm. If it were next to the Freeway so everyone driving by saw it, we'd probably have people come from as far as Ashland in the south, to Portland maybe in the north (altho they have Enchanted Village up there, but that's got more kiddie stuff or big ol' rollercoasters). And then we'd have the coast & inland areas to serve as well. And anyone wanting to take a break from driving on I-5, I suppose.

Medical differences

My dad wound up in the hospital again while we were in Canada. He has a form of blood cancer called Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and he's undergoing chemo. He has also had a nagging cough for the last two years. He's supposed to go home between today & Thursday, depending on how he's doing. That would make a one & a half week stay.

Because he wound up with a fever of 103 degrees on the Sunday night while we were there, my sister & I took him to the ER. This time thru, I'm thinking because he's bald now, they were more perceptive about him being a cancer patient. In the past, he's had to sit there up to 6 hours (actually, he went out & sat in the car), even though he has a letter from his cancer doctor saying it's life-threatening with his immune system to be exposed to illness like in the ER.

It took about 40 minutes before they moved him from a bed in the hallway into an actual room. Then they had to perform the tests on him and check his lungs. By now, the fever was gone completely though.

This time through, the doctor on call realized that even though my dad was on antibiotics, his lungs looked worse than they had before he gone on the antibiotics. He said he wanted to keep him in the hospital and have a respirologist see him. My sister & I went home at 3:00 am.

It took until Tuesday before my dad's regular doctor checked on him in the hospital. It took until Thursday until the cancer doctor came to see him. The respirologist finally showed up on Friday, I believe. And he didn't realize my dad was a cancer patient. Apparently they don't have charts by the beds (!?!).

The respirologist discovered my dad has a lung fungus. Even though he's been in and out of the hospital for the last 2 years with these fevers & cough, this is the first time anyone checked for anything other than pneumonia.

I told my sister to make a sign that says 78 white male. CLL. On (medications). Lung Fungus.

My dad is also now getting an IV catheter that can stay in his arm for up to 3 months. That way they don't have to keep poking him every 3 or 4 days to check blood or add meds.

And I also told my sister they should get pizza or something for the nurses. In Canada, they are not paid as well, and are really overworked. When they get upset, they go on strike. Be nice to the nurses!!

Canada has socialized medicine. They can't afford to pay their medical people as well as they are paid in the States, so they loose a lot of their trained staff that way. This hospital, while really crowded in all the rooms being used, has a whole wing that's empty. There are no people to staff it.

The rooms are shared, and there's no TV or phones in the rooms. This time my dad had a window, at least. And Carolyn had left a bunch of Ellery Queen magazines for him to read short stories. He didn't care for the Sudoku book I'd gotten him, but my mom & sister play it when they go to visit.

Lee said if it was me in there, he'd figure out how to get internet connectivity and at least I could level my characters...

Carolyn said she should have left her kids' DVD player they use in the car - but he wasn't so sick while she was there.

My hospital stays with each of my 3 c-sections were a lot more comfortable, and the staff was less stressed, I think. Of course, I was on drugs for part of that, but even so, I think I prefer our system over socialized medicine. Then again, I have no clue how Medicare/Medicaid works, and maybe by the time I'm old enough to need it, it will be close to what Canada has now.

In the meantime, we're all praying now that the lung fungus is being dealt with, my dad can go thru chemo and get that done without the fevers and coughing. Chemo is plenty tough on it's own. At least he should be rested up for it?

Border Crossings

Make life easy. Get a passport.

Now, officially, you don't need a passport until 2007, according to our local travel agency, if you're going to Canada or Mexico. But you do need photo ID and your original birth certificate.
It's not so much leaving the country as it is getting back in.

When we went to visit my folks in Canada at Christmas, we brought our photo ID's and copies of the kids' birth certificates. At that time, that was sufficient. I also have a Resident Alien card, since I'm still Canadian.

This time around though, soon after the foiled terrorist plots with the planes from Britain, the US is being even more diligent (rightly so) about checking identification. I didn't realize we needed the original birth certificates, not just for the kids, but for all of us. We wound up spending a night in Bellingham, WA so I could coordinate with our neighbors to get into our house, sort through my mess of a filing cabinet (at least all of us have an individual file), and then they FedExed our stuff to my folks. We didn't want to cross the border without knowing they had all the documents in hand first.

Once that was established, we were fine to go into Canada. 3 days later, we had our documents so we could head home a few days after that.

Just so you know this wasn't overkill, once we made it to the US border (after a 50-minute wait in a long line of cars), the officer asked to see each of the kids and checked all our ID's against our photos. He verified the names on the birth certificates, and he even ran my information on the computer as he did all that. Again, we will wait however long they need us to in order to keep the nation safe. I live here, and I appreciate the diligence.

I am in the process of getting my Canadian documents so I can renew my passport. I'll be getting the paperwork together for Lee & the kids this week as well.

It's a shame the media has been so disappointed - first, nothing got blown up for them (aw!) and then, no one is even getting mad about the "hassles" of travelling. I feel so sorry for them - NOT!

Back from Vacation

We went to Canada for a week to visit my folks and sister + kids. We had a great time & got to do & see things we hadn't before. The bad part was my dad got sick & wound up in the hospital again. Good news is they finally figured out what's been bothering him for the last two years (more on that in a different post).

I will download photos and post more later, but today is my 18th Anniversary & Diana's 16th birthday, so I'm kind of busy.

:)

Up Early

Lee accidentally knocked over a fan in our room this morning around 5:30. I don't usually get up until 7:00. I had already gotten up to let the dog out, since she was making noises (and then she didn't even need to go - she was just lonely!). So, after trying to fall asleep again, I just gave up and got a cup of coffee.

I have enough to do today anyway. We're getting ready to leave on our little visit to Canada, and I have a ton of stuff to take care of before we go with setting up the house & all. Diana's happy she got someone to cover her paper route after asking 6 friends that couldn't do it!

Tomorrow we'll go to the fair, so I need most of the trip stuff done today. I'm still waffling about what to do with the apples. The tree still has a bunch on it, and I'd love to make pie filling or applesauce or something. I wonder if I let it cook on the stove all day, I'd still have time to can it tonight? I really liked the applesauce too, and if I use the stove instead of the microwave, I should be able to get a bigger batch... Maybe if most of the other stuff is done by the afternoon. And it doesn't get too hot - altho I have a burner I could plug in outside, I'm not sure where to set that up so no one knocks THAT over - what a mess that would be!

My van is in the shop today as well. We got it in January, and when I drove it there was sometimes a little hesitation that I'd felt before with the other van that wound up being a sparkplug issue, so I wanted them to check that this time. Turns out someone jammed a sparkplug in, and they were working on it all afternoon yesterday trying to get that one out. I'm thinking I was right about there being a sparkplug problem. And the passenger side window stopped working completely a little while ago, so they need to fix that too. Hopefully the van will be done today, altho we could still get away with it being worked on tomorrow. We take the free busses around town to get to the fair anyway. I would rather not walk downtown with Connor tho - not so much for going, but for coming home.

At least I finished sewing my mom's present. I won't say what it is here, just in case she checks the blog :P

And I should try to get a bike ride in today as well. And we need to eat the cucumbers our neighbor dropped by before we go...

I guess I should stop blogging & get busy, eh?

:)

A Quote

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
-Herm Albright

Donating Blood

Lee & Diana just left for his appointment to donate blood. Lee has O+, and his blood is very much in demand. I don't remember what Diana's is. Mine is A+ (I only remember that because Carolyn told me I get an A+ in blood).

Diana will probably not donate. Lee wanted to bring her along today so she could see what it's all about. In the past she's been too light to donate, but over the last year, she's grown/filled out, so she meets the weight requirement now.

Lee donates every 3 months or so, I think. He started doing that when he began working at Dell. I haven't donated since I worked at First American, a long time ago.

One teacher in High School told us men just have that same blood cycling through over & over, unless they have some sort of bloody accident. Women get to replenish their blood supply every month. So he thought it was more important for men to donate blood regularly. I don't know how true that is, but it made sense to me.

I'm thinking Diana's do-good-deeds Girl Scouting background + free cookies won't be quite enough to offset the ick/pain factor involved with donating blood. If they could make it completely painless, maybe she'd do it. But I doubt she'll donate this time.

One other benefit of donating blood - they don't give you a donor card if there's something wrong with your blood (oh, say, like HIV). So it's also a test for your health that's free!

:)

Too many apples

It's a bumper year again. We have been slicing & dehydrating the apples, but they are dropping out of the tree faster than we can do that. I can make apple pie filling & freeze it in ziploc bags in pie pans, and that would take up part of the volume. I can also make canned pie filling - I bought a special kind of starch that will survive the canning process. I can try making applesauce in the crockpot, but I haven't done that before and I'm not sure it would work the way I want it. I think it might come out more like apple butter, which is doable as well, I guess.

Oh, and Connor just picks them up and eats them, after close inspection.

Lee's suggestion was to get an apple press. You just throw the apples in there and press them down into juice. You have to heat the juice to pasteurize it, but then you can drink, freeze or can it - or make jelly with it. He did some research on apple presses. They aren't cheap. I don't think we're going that route.

In the meantime, I have the kids collecting the dropped apples. Some are already turning, and those go in the wheelbarrow to be dumped into the burn pile, along with the half-eaten ones from Connor. The rest I will wash and do something with... as soon as I figure out what I'm doing!

:)

No Big Pool Today

I bought a family pass for admission to the local college pool for the summer. After 10 visits, it's pretty much paid for. I know we're going more than 10 times this summer. Connor absolutely loves the pool. Especially the diving board (he's still just jumping off, not even bouncing yet).

The forecast for today is 102 degrees. It's very muggy and rains occasionally. There's a swim meet at the college, so we can't go to the big pool. I guess I'd better set up the sprinkler for Connor. *sigh*

Which one looks better?

Click on the photos for a close up view.

I took a couple of pics of this nice sunflower I didn't plant that's growing along the fence. My neighbor had planted sunflowers last year in hopes of hiding the chain link fence, I think.

Anyway, it reseeded, so now I have a nice big sunflower.

The first shot is just afternoon sun, the second is using the "backlight" feature. So which one do you like better?

Anniversary

Lee's folks celebrated their 62nd anniversary this weekend. I don't know if I've ever known anyone else able to reach a milestone like that. Sure 50 years - I've seen lots of people get there. But they are well beyond 50 now!

After a jet boat trip & brunch, everyone went over to Kraig & Nancy's place. Connor loved the pool. That's pretty much all he was interested in. Trevor found a new ear to tell about Warhammer 40k, and Diana spent most of the day with her cousin, Daniel.

Lee had to work, so he didn't get to join in. Because of that, Connor & I stayed at his sister's place while everyone else was on the boat. It's just too hard to keep Connor safe right next to a swift-flowing river. We've done it before, but then both of us were there and we could take trade time watching Connor.

I always try to use the opportunity of having family around to teach Connor their names & stuff. He does better with some than others, and it also depends on what else it there that could distract him.

Still, he had great fun in the pool, staying in until his lips were blue. :)

Grophe-Eating Night

Okay, that's not the real name. That's what Trevor called it when we first moved up. He kept looking for the stand where they sold the grophes to eat. Some day I'm going to have to come up with something to eat & market it to sell on Graffiti Night.

We usually get 300-400 cars, all from 1960 or earlier. This year's oldest entry was from 1904. That's pretty dang old. They have events leading up to the big cruise on Saturday night, like ice-cream socials & a couple of Show 'n Shines, where you can talk to the owners & learn more about their cars.

Some are done up with cool purple lights underneath them, or headlights with pinwheels that turn as they drive. One looked like a horseless carriage, but my camera ran out of batteries before I saw that one.

This is just another cool thing about living in a smaller town. I can't imagine walking through Long Beach from dusk till after dark, just strolling with my kids through downtown. There are lots of food stands, live bands, and even a beer/wine garden that's roped off along the route. Most of the town comes out for this. The folks in the cars throw candy out to kids.

This year the Budweiser Clydesdale Horses opened the cruise for the first time. Connor & I had to drive on the highway for a small stretch, and they were in the center turn lane, making their way back to their big trailers. Those are some dang big horses.

I had a link to the newspaper's photos, but 1) you had to log in to see them, and 2) the above photos show the scene better than the close-ups from the paper anyway. So I'll get different & better ones next year :)

Sparklers are fun

Connor is getting better about the 4th. He only hid for the bigger fireworks in the street. He really liked the sparklers quite a bit. These are the metal ones, not the wimpy paper ones. :)

Our neighbor across the street winds up spending $300+ every year on fireworks. Consequently, we only get a few and some sparklers. Ol' Doug really likes fireworks. A lot. He keeps half of them for New Year's too. He told me this year the stand in front of K-Mart had a $200 firework. One. He was sooo wanting to get it, but maybe next year. He did have one the size of a six-pack that lasted about 10 minutes. But we had a few that were only $1.50 that I thought were at least as good, if not better. Guess it depends on where you get your fireworks!

Still, good times. But I forgot to make the Rice Krispie treats - oops.

SAT score in

Trevor got a total of 1630 for his SAT score. According to his English teacher last year, 1400-1500 is considered "good" altho there's debate over that. Still, I'm very happy with his score.

There are 3 tests now, vs. the two that I had when I took the SAT. Trev did well with the verbal & math, but the essay sunk him a bit. He had already told me he ran out of time with it. In working with him last year with his English assignments, I could see he wasn't getting the idea of the essay. To me, it's a simple formula for presenting your arguement - introduce the idea, 3 reasons to agree, and summarize.

One aspect of Asperger's Syndrome autism is a lack of having another person's point of view. It's very difficult for Trevor to imagine someone not thinking the way he does, so the skill of debate is very hard for him to acquire. You need to prove him wrong to get him to accept something other than the idea he has. And if he's trying to convince you of something, he has no tools other than "I know I'm right!" Obviously, this makes it hard to write an essay.

Most of us would take different points of view, and then take them apart to prove to the reader why they don't hold water. Trevor will just go on and on about his point, but never provide the proof because in his mind, it doesn't NEED any proof. He's right, and that's all there is to it.

I can explain this to him over and over, but here's a quick little example. Over the last couple of weeks, Connor has been having fun reciting, "Snap, Crackle, Pop - Rice Krispies; Snap, Crackle, Pop - Cocoa Krispies; Snap, Crackle, Pop - Berry Krispies!" Connor likes to also just say the beginning part, and then whomever he's playing with is supposed to put in the "Rice, Cocoa or Berry Krispies" part.

With Connor's form of Autism, he currently doesn't have the capacity to make something up. He's 8 years old now, and pretty much every idea he has is somehow connected to something he's seen or read. There are no original ideas - he can change a phrase he learned to fit what he needs, but the rest of the phrase will be identical to how he originally learned it. Everyone in the family understands this except Trevor.

So we're shopping for groceries yesterday. Connor wants Berry Krispies. None of the rest of the family has ever seen Berry Krispies and Trevor says there's no such thing, but since we know Connor, we can accept there are Berry Krispies out there somewhere. But because Trevor hasn't seen them, for him, they don't exist. Diana was trying to convince Trevor that Connor wouldn't (couldn't) just make that up. No go. It wasn't until Trevor saw the box himself that he could accept there were Berry Krispies. He just can't factor in Connor's perception and accept it.

Yes, he can be taught all the rules of writing an essay, but if he can't create an arguement to support his thinking other than "because I know it's true," it's just going to be really hard for him to ever be able to write an essay to convince anyone else.

Which is why he has been taking Drafting, 3-D Animation, and hopefully this year, Welding. No essays required. Ever. We're focussing on the strengths here ;)

I am extremely happy he was able to sit thru the entire SAT test. Other parts of his autism are that he writes very slowly, using too much pressure, and that he has a tough time sitting still for an extended time. If he gets upset or nervous, he will feel sick to his stomach, and often, that means using the restroom (he did this during the PSAT and missed 20 minutes). We did do a practice test at home as well - the College Board site lets you download 50 pages of SAT style questions. I think he was pretty well prepared. I don't know that he needs to do the SAT again. And we could have asked for special consideration because of his autism (they would have given him more time on the essay, for instance). I'm very proud he was able to do well in the standard setting. :)

Early for USA, Late for Canada

Fireworks are still legal here. Although, not these kind.

Our neighbors down the street were shooting these off last night. Connor normally goes to bed around 9:00, but they started in around 9:30, so he had to get out of bed to watch. They were done by 10:00 - before any police showed up. Of course, the police won't come unless someone complains, and since they stopped by 10:00, I don't think anyone did. They were probably all watching, like us.

I was born in Canada, and I'm still Canadian. My parents live there, and I'm not sure I won't need to go back for an extended time in the future. If I change citizenship, that becomes problematic. My older sister did wind up moving back with her 3 kids, and my younger sister has become a U.S. citizen. I'm still at the point where I was at age 6 when we moved to California.

This is kind of how it's always been for me. My folks spoke german to us at home when I was growing up, because they considered moving back to Germany off and on, and if we wound up going, we girls would be able to speak the language.

The biggest downside of being Canadian is the passport hassle. This is going to be even more of a hassle since up until this coming January, I was able to cross the Mexico & Canada borders with just my regular ID & green card. I am in the process right now of getting a new passport. The last time I had a valid one was 1987.

It's even more of a problem for me because I don't have a birth certificate. I was born in Montreal, and was baptized in the Catholic Church three days after I was born. In Quebec at that time, your baptismal certificate counted as your birth certificate as well. It doesn't anymore. I need to get a birth certificate first, then I can submit my application for a passport. The form is available online in pdf format, and I've completed that. I'm sending it in this week. I have no idea how long it will take to get the certificate back. Then I'll have to send off for my passport. And because it's Quebec, the main language is French, which is just kind of funny that they keep that going, if you ask me.

In the meantime, I will enjoy the 4th of July (it was Canada Day on the 1st of July, btw) with the rest of the U.S.A. The only things different for me as a legal alien are I can't vote here, I can't be on jury duty, and I don't qualify for a lot of student loan programs which is the one the bothers me the most.

Lee tells me I should vote in Canada elections - I don't agree, since I don't live there and wouldn't have to live with the consequences of my vote. Plus, I'd really want to be informed, which is a little more difficult from here. If I wind up moving there, I will jump right on that.

Incidentally, all three of my kids are considered Canadian, until age 28. They are able to live, work & go to school in Canada if they wish. After 28, if they haven't gotten a Canadian passport or moved there, it's assumed they don't want the nationality, and they lose it.

What we do around here in Summer

We live in an area surrounded by fresh produce. Strawberries weren't great this year, but blueberries and cherries are bumper crops.

I love blueberries. They are easy to pick, store, and taste great. They have all kinds of wonderful health benefits too. I never ate them all that much before moving here though. Probably because they were very expensive, and really tiny.

Our blueberries grow big. I picked 13.5 lbs. in an hour. They grow in big bunches, and you can set your bowl on the ground, and use two hands to just pull the berries off the bushes. Once you get home, you can just soak them to get anything other than blueberries to float to the top (dead flowers, stems, leaves, bugs) and I do pick off the stems. Then you rinse, dry & freeze them in big Ziploc freezer bags. They are great to eat frozen, or you can throw them into pancakes, waffles, muffins, whatever. Fresh blueberry pie is fantastic, though I didn't make one this year. Diana wants me to try to make spiced blueberry jam this year too - but that can wait until the Fall, when it's not so warm in the house.

Connor just calls them "cold berries" and will eat them non-stop if I let him (I don't). He likes them best frozen.


Cherries are in season now too. I picked Bing Cherries this year. I think we eat the cherries even more than blueberries right after picking. Cherries are more work though. First you have to find a tree laden with enough at the right height. Then you have to figure out how to place the ladder so you won't fall over while reaching for the ones you want. I got 13.5 lbs. of cherries this year. Once I get home, I give them a quick soak too, but then I like to pit them. Folks around here will just can them with the pits, but I don't want to have to try to make a pie filling with cherries with pits in them. It's easier to just do it first. It does get messy though, though, because the juice sprays a bit when you work with a cherry pitter. I got through about 8 lbs., and then I got a blister, so Trevor had to finish up for me. I halved & froze most of the cherries, but I held out enough to make cherry jam. I forgot to put in the lemon juice, so these will be a little soft-set. But they are still fine. I will probably make more in the Fall.

I'll be drying apple rings next, I think....

They finally caught on

Lee & I email each other during the day. We send status reports on the kids, figure out what we'll do for dinner, remind each other about stuff we need to do.

Today he hasn't gotten any of my emails. Not from my regular account or the family account. He thinks I'm ignoring him, or I went somewhere for the day.

I think his company just blocked our IP address or something. Maybe I've sent too many emails? He hadn't gotten any comments about our emailing or anything, but who knows? Maybe I topped the 1,000 mark or something?

So babe, if you're reading this, you'll have about 10 emails from me en route that won't go thru. Altho I'm not getting the "undeliverable" thing in my mailbox either.

Or maybe you're joking with me? And you've gotten all my emails till now? Hmmmmm.

With Lee, you never know...