Southern Oregon Postings

Joni and Friends Camp Report

2011-08-21T15:52:00.001-07:00

We are back! A little tired - in denial that we have to go back to work tomorrow. Loading pictures onto Facebook and looking at other's pics to relive the moments and wishing that they were not in the past already.

I have had about 48 hours to reflect on what I want to communicate about camp this year. I'll start back a few weeks. I wrote my last post (below) a few weeks before camp, knowing that we were short on STMs. I wrote about being nervous but trusting God that He's in control and why that is the best situation that we can be in - out of control. I wrote that primarily thinking of what fears that people have about being an STM and hoping to inspire confidence. Apparently I gave you all the impression that I was more nervous about being an STM than I really was, because I lot of friends commented about it.

The truth is that I was definitely a bit nervous, but my excitement about being an STM this year far outweighed my nervousness. So, on the night before camp, I decided that my new statement would be "I'm one part nervous, three parts excited."

As I thought about who I might be paired with for the week, I figured that I would get either a very small typical sibling, a child who uses a wheelchair, or possibly an adult with a disability who is more reserved. Since I already know many of the campers, I pondered the different folks I might get paired with.

One camper came to mind who made me more nervous. At some point, I definitely thought "I hope I don't get paired with Michelle". Michelle is an adult camper with spina bifida. During some illness, she had a trach and was left with separated vocal chords and she can only speak in a whisper. I had heard that Michelle was a very sweet gal, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hear her and we would both end up frustrated if we were paired. You see, since I'm deaf in one ear, I have a hard enough time hearing a regular conversation in a crowded room, let alone a whisper.

So, fast forward. It's Monday morning, day two of training, when we get our camper assignments. Who did I get? You guessed it - Michelle! I read her paper carefully, knowing that God had made this match and figuring He must know what He's doing. I was really happy that I got one of the adults, because that meant that I would get to attend the "Friendship Group" program and get to know all those beloved campers better.

It turns out that I was probably rather uniquely suited to be Michelle's STM. I was able to point my one good ear directly at her. Since I often miss some words in conversation, my mind is pretty skilled at searching the context for the right word to fill in the blank. As time went on, I also discovered that she sometimes will use sign language for a short message - and all her signs were ones that I knew. By Wednesday, I was getting really good at hearing and understanding her - she even said to me "you are so good at listening to me!" which was really reassuring. I became Michelle's voice when we were in group and she was talked over, when we visited with other people. I would wait to see if they understood, but if they didn't I would "interpret".

Besides the language issues, being an STM was ALL that I expected and hoped for it to be. It was so fabulous to be a participant in the programs and activities. To be involved in a family through the whole week. To get to know a particular camper's likes, dislikes, fears, interests and help her have the BEST experience.

Michelle's birthday was Wednesday during camp and she had an epic day! The whole camp sang Happy Birthday to her off key (camp tradition) at breakfast, went on a horse ride in the afternoon and was the closing act in the talent show that night.

Meanwhile, Denis and Cynthia (the nurse that we recruited) were kept quite busy this year. There were more medical issues this year than last year - but thankfully, none too serious. Cynthia had a ball and is hoping to return next year. I made a deal with her - as long as she wants to be the nurse, I will be an STM!

Getting ready

2011-07-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

We are only three weeks away from the Oregon Joni and Friends family retreat, and it's kind of push time to get ourselves squared away and ready for camp. Denis and I have dragged the medical supply box into the living room, but have not inventoried it yet. Our friend who has agreed to work with Denis as the nurse this year is coming over today to look at the stuff with us. I've started reviewing the medical information from families and organized it into an easy to carry chart that we'll print out when it's complete.

One of the most exciting things for me is that I get to be a typical STM this year. For those of you new to Joni and Friends lingo, STM means Short Term Missionary, and that is what volunteers are called. Most STM's who go to a family retreat are paired up as a "buddy" for the week to a family member who has registered. That person might be a child with a disability, a typical child who has a parent or sibling with a disability or an adult with a disability. The week is spent hanging out with your "buddy", building a relationship, serving the family, attending activities through each day.

I have never gone to Joni and Friends Family Retreat as an STM, I've only been the nurse. As the nurse, I enjoyed having the freedom to rove and get to know everyone a little bit. But I know from observation that the STM experience is very different. STMs who are paired as a buddy get to know their one family very well and bond closely with them. It can be difficult, trying, challenging, but on the flipside so rewarding. STMs tend to leave camp exhausted, but overwhelmed by the blessing of being so intimately involved in an amazing family and having been a selfless servant for the week.

I have no idea who I will be paired with, hopefully someone slow - as I'm not fast myself. Not knowing is part of the situation that makes it stressful or scary to go as an STM. But, the pairing of STM to family is a total God-thing. Being out of control of that is precisely what makes it so wonderful. God pairs buddies very well. And if the pairing is hard or challenging, it's because God has a growing to do in me. Stepping out beyond my control is something that I am excited about, because that is precisely when I get to see God work.

We are still very short of STMs for our Oregon camp that is Aug. 14-19 at Rockaway Beach on the Northern Coast. We really would like 30-40 more STMs so that all of the families can be served. Aug. 14th is a training day, then families arrive for camp from the 15th to the 19th. If you know anyone who might be interested, please pass on the info.

Here is the website to find contact numbers and applications.

General information about family retreats

My report from last year

My report from 2009 at Mission Springs in CA

Amos Lee

2011-07-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

"Cup Of Sorrow"

I want to drink from your cup of sorrow,
I want to bathe in your holy blood.
I want to sleep with the promise of tomorrow,
I know tomorrow may never come.

I send a prayer out across the ocean,
To a man that?s forced out of his home.
I send a prayer out across the ocean,
So that he may not suffer there alone.

I want to drink from your cup of sorrow,
I want to bathe in your holy blood.
I want to sleep with the promise of tomorrow,
I know tomorrow may never come.

I want to sit at your table of wisdom,
So that not one crumb shall go to waste,
For if we keep down this pathway to destruction,
Oh will our children will suffer for our haste.

I want to drink from your cup of sorrow,
I want to bathe in your holy blood.
I want to sleep with the promise of tomorrow,
I know tomorrow may never come

Amos Lee's newest album, called El Camino, has several tracks with Gospel lyrics and rythm. This one is my favorite. You can listen to the whole thing for free on his Facebook page.

Is it July already?!

2011-07-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

What has happened in the last three months? Hmmm... let's see. Two main things stand out:

1. I started a new role at work - I am no longer doing the clinic-based diabetes classes and individual education. My new role is focused entirely on the hospital care. Up until this point, all of our diabetes dept. RN's have shared the job of rounding through the hospital, answering questions, reviewing charts of patients with high or low glucose as well as doing in-services for hospital staff, etc. Now, I am the one doing all of these things at the hospital here in Medford. I do rounds in the hospital 3 hours a day, Mon-Thurs. The rest of the time I spend planning, going to various meetings, and working on PI projects. This is a big change. I've been doing it for about two months now and so far, I don't miss the clinic stuff. I am quite passionate about us giving good care in the hospital, so I think this role is a good fit for me.

2. We went on a week-long vacation in Sonoma County, CA in June. Had a really nice time. We stayed in a cozy little cottage in a small town outside of Santa Rosa called Sebastopol. A former pharmacy student that did a rotation with our department and now lives in the East Bay area drove out of her way to meet up with us two days. IT was so fun to see her and to meet her fiancee. We sampled a bit of wine, ate at some slightly upscale restaurants, listened to some good music, had great coffee, saw the coast at Bodega Bay and drove home through the redwood forest. All in all, a relaxing time.

Mid-month report

2011-04-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

OK, I've made it through the busy part of April and survived. It should be a downhill slide from here, but there are more events just around the corner, so I shouldn't get too cozy about relaxing.

The weekend in Portland with my coworkers was very enjoyable. The conference was interesting - great speakers and we came home with some good, useful ideas.

Yesterday was our Southern Oregon Sometimes Miracles Hide luncheon for moms of kids with disabilities. 64 people from my church volunteered to help, either cooking, serving the lunch, or helping in the carnival section. I had agreed to be the "Carnival Coordinator" which sounds more impressive than it was. I didn't actually plan anything - but I was the "check in" person who directed carnival helpers to the right spot and assigned duties. I was kind of nervous about assigning duties since I really didn't know the people I was assigning. I didn't know their personalities - so didn't know who would do well where. But it turned out well. (I actually had TONS of help from another couple in my church who were "leading games" but ended up roving with me for problem solving) I had put some kids working together who didn't know each other at the beginning of the day. As the carnival went on, I saw them working together really well, coordinating breaks for each other and having fun. Denis got to be a buddy for the first time and enjoyed having more to do.

So, next up is Easter, then our church's next respite day in early May.

It's Spring

2011-04-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

It's April and as usual, it seems, life is very busy this month. I seem to recall writing very similar posts in years past... what is it about April? So far:

I finally recorded a presentation that I've been planning for about two months to be viewed by physicians, pharmacists and nurses in my hospital. This is a REALLY big deal, because in it, I am presenting a "how to" type of instruction on Diabetes care in the hospital setting. (I actually recorded that in March, but it was this past week...)
had our annual Diabetes healthfair yesterday - it was a new format this year, so we were all an extra bit on our toes. I messed up part of our facilities order, so there were a stressful 15 minutes, but it turned out well.
I helped coordinate our church disability ministry getting T-shirts - ordering the right sizes and then handing them out today.

Still to come:

church disability ministry planning meeting tomorrow
meeting with a physician group Tuesday to explain and promote my Diabetes presentation - hoping they will want to view it for CME credits
planning meeting at work Wednesday - have to make a pasta salad for the potluck lunch
our group travels to Portland Thursday for a conference - FUN!
the following week is the Southern Oregon Joni and Friends luncheon called Sometimes Miracles Hide - Denis and I are volunteering

Busy April, fun April. And it really is spring here now - we have daffodils up, the sun is shining. I even took Phoebe out for a little walk - she she is one happy kitty right now.

Reading

2011-03-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

I've been very out of the habit of reading in the last few years. I decided to pick up some of the books I've been meaning to get to for a while. So, I'm currently trying to be more purposeful in reading:

Believing God by R. C. Sproul, Jr. - contemplating the promises of God and letting them sink into my soul.

When Helping Hurts by Brian Fiklert and Steve Corbett - an in-depth look at poverty and how to effectively help, avoiding the pitfalls of creating dependence or exacerbating a problem with superficial fixes.

The Valley of Vision, a collection of puritan prayers.

And finally, I'm going to be joining a group from my church to read and discuss the 25th edition of Desiring God by John Piper. I've actually never read it, but have heard many good things about it over the years.

I'm writing these plans here in hopes that will help hold me accountable to the task... :)

New Music

2011-03-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've found some cool new musicians lately that I've heard on the radio. Just added some new stuff and deleted some oldies from my playlist. I hope you enjoy it. :o) Kim said recently "your blog is my favorite radio station". I'm totally flattered. I hope the new stuff lives up to the expectations.

A song that prays

2011-03-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas in my head
And come write Your wisdom on my heart
And teach me the power of a moment
The power of a moment, the power of a moment

I get so distracted by my bigger schemes
Show me the importance of the simple things
Like a word, a seed, a thorn, a nail
And a cup of cold water

Chris Rice

Christmas Cards ordered

2010-12-12T13:49:00.001-08:00

Mod Merry Ornaments Christmas

Shop Shutterfly for unique, personalized Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Joni and Friends 2010

2010-08-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well, Denis and I have been back from Joni and Friends Family Retreat for a little more than a week now. I've had some time to adjust back to "regular life", quite a let down after such a joyful and impactful experience. So here's a bit of a report from our fabulous week at camp:

There are many ways that this year's experience at Joni and Friends was very different from last year for me. I'm very thankful that I was able to share the "duties" with Denis. It was such a relief for me to have him there, since he has a different set of skills than I do. His skill set is better suited to the sorts of issues that come up at camp, so I really liked being able to have him to defer to. That's a pretty selfish reason to be glad to have him there... It was also wonderful to get to share the experience with him, because the Joni and Friends family retreat experience is so impressive and Denis didn't get to go last year.

Another thing that was different this year was that we were involved in the planning. We had access to the campers' health information, so we had a much better idea of what kind of situations we needed to be prepared for. We planned the first aid kit from the ground up, so we knew what was there. I also had a much better idea what sort of supplies we should carry with us. Now being more prepared was a very good thing, but it wasn't exactly reassuring. We had some campers with some significant health issues, and it was a bit scary being aware of them... But actually not any more scary than NOT knowing, which is how I felt last year. :o)

Praise goes to God, of course, that we did not actually have any significant health issues arise. The worst injury of the whole week was just a minor thing that only require arrangements made for a tetanus shot. We were kept busy though, with little things. Cuts, sprains, bandaids, little things. Those little problems gave us the opportunities to interact with people, which is really one of the greatest blessings of being at Joni and Friends. When we get to soothe a boo-boo for someone, we get to be a small blessing to them. I'm grateful that so many little things came up, because that meant getting to be involved with the campers.

This year, I felt more a part of the action - less on the fringes. Some of the highlights of my week:

1. interacting with some of the adult campers with disabilities

2. getting thumbs ups, smiles and waves from some campers affected by autism spectrum issues

3. helping a visually impaired camper figure out a better way to use her blood sugar meter

4. being invited by some teens to do the macarena dance with them at the talent show

5. seeing my friend who has Down syndrome blossom with all the attention and encouragement

This family retreat was the first one to take place in Oregon, or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest in about 20 years. The majority of the campers and STMs (volunteers) were new to Joni and Friends family retreats and did not know what to expect. One family feared on the first day that they would get kicked out because their son was pouring water out on the stage during the first worship session. What they didn't know is that at Joni and Friends family retreat, that's OK - it's normal even. God moved in powerful ways this week as families were blessed by the acceptance, rest, love and celebration of their kids offered by everyone at retreat. I also heard reports of how God worked in wonderful ways in the young adults with disabilities group.

My overall statement about Joni and Friends retreat this year is - what an honor! What a privilege to be just a small piece of what God did there. what we did was very little - but what a joy to be a part!

Getting ready!

2010-07-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

August is going to be a busy month around here - or maybe not around here. That's why it's going to be busy...

The first week of the month, I'm flying to San Antonio for not quite a week to attend the annual conference for the American Association of Diabetes Educators. I'm going with one of my coworkers. She and I work opposite days of the week, so we rarely actually get to see each other. Our lives are intertwined, though, as my mom provides day care for her adult daughter who has Down Syndrome. Our two families spent Thanksgiving together last year. Joy just got married and we attended her wedding on the beach. Lots of new stuff in her life and I'm really looking forward to spending the time with her.

The third week of the month, Denis and I both have the privilege of serving as the medical team for the all new Oregon Joni and Friends Family Retreat! As you know, I was able to go to the California camp last year, which turned out to be a fly by the seat of my pants sort of experience. This year, Denis and I are getting to organize the entire medical plan for the Oregon camp, determine what supplies we want to have, etc. I'm so excited to get to share the experience with Denis, not only because his skill set is so much better suited for the job, but also for him to see first hand what a blessing this ministry is to the families that attend. It's hard to believe that it's just three weeks away! Things are falling into place, but there's still some planning left to do.

Hard times

2010-07-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to a song by Jill Paquette that contains comforting words.

One of These Days

it's been so long, said it's been too long

can't remember when i've felt so known

You're so warm shelter me from the storm and the fears that are just so cold

they're telling me things get messy when you care

things are messy everywhere and don't i know it, don't i show it

every time i look away 'cause what can i do? what can i say? to help myself

or to help anybody else

You meet me in my need

You bring new life to me, and You go beyond what i feel

Your life brought more than freedom

Your love brought time just what i needed, to see i needed You

One of these days it will be easier to mean what i say

if i remember each and every day

that this world is not my home and i never walk alone

and before time began my days were known by You

You meet me in my need

You bring new life to me and You go beyond what i feel

Your life brought more than freedom

Your love brought time just what i needed, to see i needed You

Movie reviews

2010-06-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

At a friend's request, I'm doing some more movie reviews. As always, * ratings are out of a possible ***** (five stars)

"7 Up" Series ***** - a series of documentaries that followed a set of children in different parts of England every 7 years into their adulthood. The premise was that the kids with different social advantages would turn out differently as adults, a bias that became increasingly annoying to some of the subjects. The last one was "49 Up" and I suppose there will eventually be a "56 Up".

Enchanted *** - a cutesy fanciful movie about Disney-esque characters accidentally wandering into the real world. Enjoyable fluff.

Emmanuel's Gift **** - documentary about a young man with a disabled leg who embarks on a campaign to inspire better lives for his compatriots in Ghana. His story was very impressive and the influence he has made in his home town was very hopeful.

Crazy Love **** - Wow! This one was weird and fascinating. About a very strange relationship featuring overbearing possessiveness descending into abuse. The thing that was fascinating was to hear both parties justifying their actions and choices. This kind of film reminds me how capable the human mind is of committing heinous sin and denying it.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly **** - another documentary. Are we seeing a pattern here? This one is an amazing story of survival.

The Lady Vanishes **** - Black and white Hitchcock. Nice!

Julie and Julia **** - I really enjoyed this movie. How could you go wrong? Meryl Streep does a very endeering portrayal of Julia Child. We learn about how she built her remarkable career. Amy Adams is always nice to watch, though her character was rather self-absorbed. And lots of cooking. Made me want to go out and buy Julia's original cookbook. (but I didn't)

Doubt **** - Meryl again, this time with Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is one of our favorites. Did he or didn't he? (the priest abuse the boys in the school) Surprisingly, Denis and I came to different conclusions!

African American Lives **** - This was a television series special. A handful of stars trace their roots back in time through the slave era in the US, and for some back to a specific region of Africa. This was quite interesting.

Pixar Short Films *** - some of these were really cute and funny! Some were less so. But it was also an interesting look at the evolution of computer animation through the years.

The Blind Side **** - This one is rather main stream for our tastes, but it was a good film with a positive plot. Nice.

12:08 East of Bucharest ** - Gosh the critics loved this film, but what a dud. So slow, Denis fell asleep pretty quick. I stuck with it to the end, but there was no payoff.

My Sister's Keeper *** - Ok, we actually quite liked this movie. But a disclaimer - we found the medical situation quite unrealistic. With suspended disbelief, what we enjoyed was the character portrayals and acting. It was an interesting dilemma for the characters to be in and we went along for the ride.

new stuff

2010-03-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

I was getting bored with my playlist, so I changed out a bunch of the songs. I hope you like the new mix. Remember, you can always skip a song you don't like.

I recently downloaded Google's web browser called Chrome, which is supposed to load pages faster. One of the main things that I like is how it magically syncs all the sorts of stuff that use your google ID to sign in. The browser has an extension called "blog this" that lets you go immediately to creating a new blog post from any webpage that you find interesting. I creates a link to that page and it will also bring over any text that you highlight before hitting the button. I used it to create that last post about the disability friendly family fun center.

Overall I'm liking it. it organizes the bookmarks a bit differently too, which I couldn't figure out for quite a while, but now I get it and it's easy.

Morgan's Wonderland - The World's First Ultra Accessible Family Fun Park

2010-03-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine from the local Joni and Friends chapter showed me this exciting new fun center. Unfortunately, it's in San Antonio, TX! What a fantastic idea and blessing for families with a member who has a disability.

I'm actually going to be in San Antonio in early August for the National Diabetes Educator's conference, so I think I will look into whether I might be able to volunteer for a day. It would be a neat experience. A bit of a long shot that it would work out, though...

Morgan's Wonderland - The World's First Ultra Accessible Family Fun Park

Prayers

2010-02-28T16:42:00.000-08:00

This year, I've joined a group of folks in my church who is reading through the Bible in a year. So far, so good, I'm still on track with that. Last week, I started reading prayers from The Valley of Vision, A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions as part of my morning routine and I'm really convicted by these prayers. They are so full of meaning and are a great start to my day. Here is the one that I read this morning.

My Father,

Enlarge my heart, warm my affections, open my lips, supply words that proclaim 'Love lustres at Calvary.'

There grace removes my burdens and heaps them on thy Son, made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;

There the sword of thy justice smote the man, thy fellow;

There thy infinite attributes were magnified, and infinite atonement was made;

There infinite punishment was due, and infinite punishment was endured.

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,

cast off that I might be brought in,

trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,

surrendered to hell's worst that I might attain heaven's best,

stripped that I might be clothed,

wounded that I might be healed,

athirst that I might drink,

tormented that I might be comforted,

made a shame that I might inherit glory,

entered darkness that I might have eternal light,

My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes,

groaned that I might have endless song,

endured all pain that I might have unfading health,

bore a thorned crown that I might have a glory-diadem,

bowed his head that I might uplift mine,

experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,

closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness,

expired that I might forever live.

O Father, who spared not thine only Son that thou mightest spare me,

All this transfer thy love designed and accomplished;

Help me to adore thee by lips and life.

O that my every breath might be ecstatic praise,

my every step buoyant with delight, as I see

my enemies crushed,

Satan baffled, defeated, destroyed,

sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,

hell's gates closed, heaven's portal open.

Go forth, O conquering God, and show me the cross, mighty to subdue, comfort and save.

Surrounded by smiles

2010-01-25T15:32:00.000-08:00

Mom was released from the hospital one week ago today. I've been staying at her house pretty much day and night to help her. Her restrictions include no driving, no lifting more than ten pounds and no pushing or pulling with her arms. That means that she is not allowed to use her arms to stand up out of a chair and proves to be the greatest limitation. Only one of her chairs is tall enough that she can get up without assistance. Fortunately, though, she has a tall toilet, so she can get up from there very easily as well.

Most of you, my readers, do not know my mom personally. So you do not know about her afinity for smiley faces. Mom has always drawn smiley faces with her name as long as I can remember. She got the habit from her mother. So, for years and years, mom has gotten gifts of all sorts of smiley face paraphernalia for any special occassions and they fill her little house. I usedy iPhone camera to take this grid photo sampler of just a FEW of them...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mom Updates

2010-01-09T08:40:00.001-08:00

If you're not family and/or don't live here locally, you probably don't know what's been going on with my mom's health. To get you up to speed, here's the short story: Mom had a pacemaker placed in late November due to a slow heartbeat. In the process of working it up, we learned that she has severe atrial valve stenosis. This means that the valve in her heart that controls the exit of blood from the heart to the rest of the body is scarred and quite narrowed. Her heart has to pump harder to get her blood through that barrier and it's severe enough that it warrants surgery.

So we've spent the last month finding out about the options and getting more checks and such. Valve replacement surgery is full on open heart surgery, so this is a big deal. She's had an angiogram as well that showed she has two areas that they will do bypass on while she's in there. So, to cut to the chase, Mom is scheduled for her open heart surgery on Monday - this Monday! It's been a busy week.

good things - she's pretty healthy and strong, our hospital is nationally recognized for cardiac surgery, we requested and got a great surgeon (even our cardiologist said he would pick this surgeon)
risks - she's got diabetes and she's 80. This is not going to be easy to recover from, but my mom is not one to take things lying down. She is very independent and has good drive to stay that way.

I'll be working most of my usual schedule this coming week while she's in the hospital, then I'll be taking 2-3 weeks of family leave to help her at home. Her best friends from Yakima have already arrived and plan to stay until she's home and settled in. We'd appreciate your prayers in the next several days.

Mobile blogging

2010-01-03T22:19:00.001-08:00

I just got a new app on my iPhone that let's me blog from my phone. Just thought I'd give it a trial run here.

Denis and I just had our first anniversary that we didn't go out of town. This year we decided to save some $$ by staying home and just did some special things locally. On Dec. 31, our actual anniversary, we had dinner at a very nice place in a neughboring town Jacksonville.

It was a very nice night. Here's what I ordered.

All very yummy. Last night we spent one night in a historic hotel in Ashland. Overall, a very nice anniversary and a happy new year to boot!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

It's 2010! We're careering towards a new decade. (BTW, after discussion with a friend yesterday, I've learned that the new decade doesn't start till 2011, so now you know!)

Are you making any resolutions this year? I'm not - I try to avoid making resolutions because I know that I'll never achieve them. However, I did join a group in my church that plans to read through the Bible in a year. I've read through the Bible a couple of times, but the only time I managed to do it within a year was the year that I spent at Multnomah Seminary. Through the course of the school year, we did study all the books and reading them was homework.

This year, I've chosen to use the Chronological arrangement and read it in the Amplified Version. Both of these choices are geared towards making it fresh and hopefully keeping my attention. The thing that often happens when I endeavor for getting through a designated section is that it gets really rote. So, I've never read one of those Chronological Bibles before, so that will be new. And using the Amplified Version means that the wording will not be as familiar to me. I'm looking forward to it. Today was day 2, so far so good, but that's not saying much yet... :o)

I've thought about blogging quite a number of times in the last two weeks, but my computer is being a dweeb and it's too difficult to sort my photos and do stuff with them. I'm typing this on Denis' computer. I'll be taking mine into a repair place on Monday to see if they can find what's making it sooooooo slow.

BTW

2009-12-14T11:31:00.001-08:00

I turned on word verification for a while. I've been getting an amazing number of spam comments and it's such a pain to find them and then delete them. I'm hoping this will cut it down.

Going grey

2009-12-14T11:21:00.001-08:00

So, my friends and faithful readers will know that I have been coloring my hair since shortly before my wedding. The above picture was taken a few years before that... maybe '01? I don't really remember. The one below was taken in Jan or Feb of '03, shortly before. Believe me, I really did have some "silver" at that time. I got my first grey hairs in college. My friends and I called them "silver" for a while because it sounded much more distinguished.

And here's the picture from my 40th birthday, with all the gray safely covered up. :o) The scary thing is that now there is a lot more of it to cover.

About two months ago, I decided, "that's it! I've had enough" and I started to let my gray grow out. My hair dresser has been putting some color partially into the top of my head for the last two visits, but none underneath where most of the gray is. I was at a party the other day and someone was surprised to hear that I was growing it out, so I take that as a compliment that the technique is working... I don't have any pictures yet of my new look. But I'll get some up at some point.

a new post

2009-12-12T18:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I just caught up with reading my friends blogs. It's been quite a while since I've been following them. It seems some action is picking up again as people are writing a bit more steadily again. Shall I join the ranks?

I'll give it a shot.

If you are my friend on Facebook, you probably know that we put down one of our cats yesterday. I've had Phoebe and Monica for about 10 years, which is hard to believe. Bringing Joey into the house two years ago just about did in Phoebe, but she made a miraculous recovery. And now it's Monica who got ill and we had to say goodbye. She got sick very quickly, but I've already written all about that elsewhere.

I just mention it here to say that I've been just kind of blah and dull today. Not much motivation to do much. It seems a bit silly to be depressed over losing a cat, but so be it. I know that I'll feel better soon.

We were supposed to go get our Christmas trees today, but it was quite icey and slick on the roads this morning, so we decided to put it off. Hopefully we will be able to go tomorrow, because Mom is really looking forward to it.

Ho Hum... that's about it for now. It was really fun to read you all's posts. It's nice to see more action on the blogs again.

I don't get it...

2009-11-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

what is the purpose of blog spam? It seems that my blog has been targeted for random spam comments because of my inactivity. But I don't quite get what the point is. There have been 5 span comments on old posts from June or so, but who would ever read them to see the spam?

Ugh!

2009-09-22T02:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm awake at 2 AM and feeling increasingly bad that I haven't written anything on my blog in months! Now seems like a good time to write something, whatever, anything...

I've been up at this hour several times in the last week - mostly it was with fever and chills last week. Tonight it's with congestion and wheezing in my chest. It's not dangerous, just annoying. I can hear the noise in my ears and it keeps me awake. Asthma is so weird, at least for me. I have started a course of Prednisone and I'm taking my Albuterol inhaler, but I don't really notice that they help much. I'm always left wondering if I would get better just as quickly if I just ignored it and let it run its course. But I won't, because I'm generally an obedient patient...

I haven't written about the chickens lately. They are just about full grown - 5 months old or so. Denis is keeping track, but I lose count on the passing weeks. No eggs yet. This is about the time that they are supposed to start. We've added a light inside the coop to increase their "daylight hours". Some books say they need 14 hours of daylight to be in production mode. Since our girls have never been in production mode, we're giving the light a try to make sure they start on time. I need to take some new pictures - the girls are very pretty now, with all their colored feathers in place.

While I was sick, Denis and I had to cancel our plans for a weekend trip up to the Willamette Valley (just South of Portland) to meet up with friends who were driving down from Seattle to meet us there. This is a friend from my old church's singles group. His wedding was one month prior to ours and we've not had much chance to hang out together over the last 5 1/2 years. We had been planning the trip for two months and then I had to go and get the flu 2 days before we were to leave. One of the reasons that I was in denial about having the flu initially.

Our next trip is going to be a quick one - flying into Denver and driving a rental car to attend a niece's wedding in Nebraska. We'll stay two nights in NE, then back to Denver to fly back home. One nice little detail is that we both have friends in Denver who we'll get to visit, though briefly. I made our hotel and car rental reservations yesterday. I was able to buy our tickets with frequent flyer miles! Yay Alaska Airlines!

Well, that's enough for now. Hope that gives a bit of an update.

Joni and Friends Camp report

2009-07-27T14:53:00.001-07:00

Sorry, folks, but pictures on my blog will be very limited due to privacy reasons for the families that attend JAF camp. Here are two - above are myself and Esther, the other nurse who attended camp. I was so grateful to have her there. We ended up taking turns staying the in the "First Aid Station" during the times of day that people were all over camp and most likely to just drop in there looking for help. During "all-camp" activities, though, we went to the location where everyone was gathered and got to watch and participate.

Praise God, we had no serious injuries. A couple of minor incidents were a bit stressful, but mostly we had bandaids and ice packs as our tools of the trade for the week. With all the things that could go wrong, it's truly evident that God has His hand of protection on the JAF camps each year.

I had a wonderful time and am SO glad that I went. Here are some of my thoughts as I reflect on my camp experience:

Overall, I felt a bit like an outsider/observer. A lot of folks attend this camp year after year and a majority of people already knew each other. It's a happy reunion of old friends for them. I, on the other hand, did not know anyone but the people from my church. Esther and I were technically part of the leadership team, but didn't really know what was going on a lot of the time. I had the wonderful opportunity to wander and meet lots of campers, kids, young adults, parents, siblings, but I didn't get to know anyone very well. A lot of the campers with disabilities are a bit reserved around new people, so I didn't end up on a huggy basis with very many campers. I would love to go some time as a hands-on STM (volunteer assigned to be with a single camper for the week).
On the other hand, I was priveledged to get to meet lots and lots of campers. I saw a more vulnerable side of them when they came to me with an owie or bump on the head. At first, I was kind of stymied by the communication challenges of treating these kids. But after a day I was really enjoying the challenge of trying different approaches until I was able to address the problem at hand. Keep in mind that the STM who works with the camper about 12 hours out of a day gets to know how to communicate best with them. But I'm just meeting them in a small crisis moment and don't know the best approach.
The people who go to JAF camp every year call it "Heaven on Earth". People also say, "I can't explain it, you just have to go". Well, I'm going to give it an attempt at explanation. JAF camp is a place where people with and without disabilities are all accepted just the way they are. Not just accepted, but celebrated. People are not made fun of for enthusiasm that may not seem "appropriate". Activities are geared to meet everyone where they are and let all participate with as little barriers as humanly possible. A highlight of the week is the talent show night. It's a performance night in which it matters more that you got up and did something than that you sounded "great". The growth and change in campers from year to year is a real highlight for those who go each year.

I came back from camp feeling much less intimidated by our own plans for disability ministry in my church and much more excited to see who may walk in our church doors. Bring it on!

Here is our group on "camper day", the day campers arrive.

I'm going to camp!

2009-07-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I asked for prayer about Denis and I attending the upcoming Joni and Friends Family Camp as medical personnel. Unfortunately, Denis is not going to be able to go because he's working the entire week. I was not real excited about going without him, but decided to take the step of faith and send in my application. I was in contact with the camp director, making it clear that I hoped to have a second person there with whom to share the responsibility.

So, I'm please to report now that I am definitely going to camp next week. I'll be the "camp nurse" along with another gal who is from the Bay area in CA (where camp is located). I spoke with Esther on the phone and we were both pleased to realize that we have a lot in common. We've both got a lot of experience in hospital nursing. Esther currently works the night shift on a Med/Surg unit, which is where I spent most of my nursing career as well. We are both really happy to have another person to collaborate with. We will be roommates for the week, so I'm expecting to have a new great friend at the end of this. I think we'll be getting to know each other really well. :o)

The medical responsibilities are actually not that extensive. Though there are a lot of medical issues with the folks who come to Joni and Friends camp, they are chronic needs and the families continue to provide any personal care, or they bring a care provider with them. Our responsibilities are to assess any emergencies that arise, treat minor injuries and determine if a hospital trip is needed. All our decisions will be made in collaboration with the camp staff as well as the family. So, we will also get to participate in the camp activities and are not expected to just stay put in a "sick room".

I have no idea what to expect except being challenged to grow as I trust in God to meet any need that arises, give me wisdom and give me a servant heart towards the families that I will meet. I am also looking forward to spending travel time with my fellow church folks who I'm carpooling with and getting to see God work in all our lives. And then to see how our church is blessed as the 19 members who have participated in camp this year infect our church with passion for disability ministry. If you think of me in the week from July 18-24, please pray for camp - for all involved to be blessed and be a blessing to each other. Thanks!

from Moline, IL

2009-06-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

I can't get onto Facebook from this hotel computer, so I thought I'd type a little something here on my blog. So far, we've travelled at least half-way across the country and are on our way to OH tomorrow where my brother and his family live.

We had a great time visiting with Denis' sister in Nebraska. We spent a day with the nephew who has two little girls. We went to a museum and then a winery. We found out that a "dry red" in Nebraska means a sweet red in Oregon. We will be flying out there in October for our neice's wedding.

We stayed one night with Denis' folks in Iowa. Then tonight had a really nice time at dinner with three couples that Denis used to go to church with when he lived here. It was great getting to meet some of his friends who were so close.

Tomorrow, we should have just a 6 hour drive to get to Ohio and hope to make it there in time for my nephew's baseball game. That's it for now!

Been so busy!

2009-05-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends! I know that I have been very negligent in keeping up my blog of late. I guess it's been over a month now since I last posted. Here's a bit of an update on what's been keeping me so busy these last weeks.

Chicken update: the baby chicks are now a little over 3 weeks old. Our original plan to have a broody hen mother them didn't work out. The hen pictured below didn't take them, so we did a quick hen trade the first night that we brought the babies home. The second hen took them initially, but then didn't know what to do. She had never raised a brood of chicks before. So we've been taking care of them ourselves. It's been fun, but a bit time consuming. Our weather has been getting pretty hot during the day, but cold at night. There were a few nights that we were worried that it would get too cold out in the coop. But they have all survived so far. They are going outside now and really enjoying eating the grasses and weeds in their little enclosed space.

Work: I've had a bit of a perfect storm of responsibilities at work in the last two weeks. I have a chart review project that I've been trying to work on for the last month. But my manager wants me to prioritize it now and get it done. I worked extra days the last two weeks, covering for a coworker's vacation and then going in on my days off to start three new insulin pumps. Starting a new insulin pump always means receiving multiple pages. So I've been getting paged almost daily by three different people for the last week. All making Tracy a bit scattered.

What's next: Now, I finally have a somewhat normal week coming up and we have to get prepared for our big road trip. We'll leave one week from today and we're taking my car which is a MESS. I'd like to get it into the shop for a look-over. Got to clean the house so it's ready for our house-sitter, cat company-keeper, chicken wrangler extraordinaire. We thought that the chicks would add a bit much extra work for just my mom. Between the two of them, things should go smoothly.

I'll be very ready for the vacation. :o)

Project chicken continues

2009-04-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

So, if you have been following our ongoing saga of getting set up to have chickens for fresh eggs, you know that we have progressed through a couple of stages already.

Stage 1 - gather information, read books, talk to friends, find out legalities, etc.

Stage 2 - obtain a coop and a location for it. Done

Now we have moved on to stages 3, 4 and 5.

Stage 3 - decide what breeds we want and if we want to buy adults or raise chicks. We decided to raise chicks so that we could get the specific breeds that we want. We ordered our baby chicks from a local store and we will pick them up THIS WEDNESDAY (and I mean it this time...) We're getting two chicks each of three different breeds; Barred Rock, Americauna and Rhode Island Red. We're also hoping that we can get a hen to raise our chicks so that we won't have to do quite as much work.

Stage 4 - borrow a broody hen from a friend. Enter the hen in question!

One of my coworkers loaned us this hen who has been broody (sitting on eggs hoping for chicks to hatch) for about a month. I have named her Henrietta Penelope Cluckbottom (Henny Penny for short).
She came to us sitting on two real eggs and one glass egg in a pet carrier. Do you notice anything wrong with this picture? one, two, three real eggs and one glass egg. Yep! Henny Penny laid a new egg. This means that she's not broody any more. She's snapped out of it.

I didn't realize that when I opened up the door to the coop to have a little chat with her on Saturday. And when she decided to step outside, I wasn't too worried. My coworker told me that a broody hen will go outside for a while, but go back to her eggs pretty quickly.

We started to worry about 30 minutes later when Henny Penny showed no interest in returning to her nest. She decided to roam around our garden instead. She quite enjoyed a little dust bath amongst the garlic plants. We shooed her away from the small lettuce, radishes and pea plants in another planting bed, however.

After about an hour of exploring the area, Henny decided that her favorite spot was underneath the coop. So we decided that it was time to move onto
Stage 5 - complete the enclosed chicken run. We hoped to make it all the way around the coop with the chicken wire to catch her inside. Here we are 1/2 way around.

At 3/4 around, Denis thought we might be able to corner her into the enclosed portion and shoo her back inside the coop. He blocked the way out while I did the shooing (after taking a picture).

No good. Henny was determined to stay outside. After more than 30 days sitting on those darn eggs, she wanted to enjoy the sunshine! So we kept going. We managed to get all the way around with the chicken wire which she stayed under the coop.

Aha! We've got you Henny Penny Cluckbottom! Now you will stay inside your enclosure like a good chicken...

We had to leave Henny in her enclosure because we had a game night to attend. We left my mom in charge of checking on Henny and shutting her coop door once she finally decided to go inside for the night. We didn't find out until the next day that Mom found Mrs. Cluckbottom OUTSIDE her enclosure. That's right, she'd flown the coop! But she happily marched into the coop once the door was opened up for her. On Sunday, a tarp was added to cover the top of the chicken run. A permanent roof will be added on Saturday.

Okay, the good news is that Henny is sitting on her eggs during the night. I find her there when I close up the coop for the night and I find her there in the morning when I open it up. My coworker thinks that is a good sign as hens generally ignore their eggs entirely if they are not broody. We're hoping that Henny will still take the chicks. Just two more days, Henny. Hang in there!

A nice busy weekend.

2009-04-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was really busy in a good way. Friday and Saturday, I attended our Oregon Diabetes Educator association's annual conference, which is an opportunity to get a lot of continuing education credits that I will need to renew my certification in a few years. The topics this year were quite good and I enjoyed the company of my coworkers who also attended. Some of the subjects this year were:

Continuous Glucose Monitoring - what it is and how to use the info (This is the latest tool that we have for managing diabetes, it's not used widely yet, but we believe that it will change how we treat the disease in the coming years.)
Why your patients hate to test their blood glucose and what you can do about it. (This was presented by a psychologist who specializes in Diabetes issues.)
Diabetes and Exercise. (presented by a very fun physical therapist)
Inpatient Glycemic control (This is very applicable to my job, especially the special projects that I work on)
Current trends and controversies in nutrition
Type 2 diabetes in children (a growing problem in the US!)

I learned a lot and came home inspired to make some changes in my own eating habits.

While I was at the conference on Saturday, Denis helped out at a disability ministry event sponsored by our local chapter of Joni and Friends. I think I heard that over 30 people from our own church volunteered at this event, which is so exciting and encouraging. It was a great opportunity for people to get some experience with this type of ministry. On Sunday, a few special guests from JAF came to our church to speak and it was great to get to speak with them afterwards to keep "picking their brains" about how to keep things growing at our church. They were asking Denis and I if we would like to go to the July family camp as the medical personnel. Please pray for us for this. We would really like to do it, but will have just used up three weeks of vacation pay for our June trip cross-country. It would be a significant financial cost to us when you consider the lost pay.

After church Sunday, we bought our last supplies for the chicks - food and water containers, chick feed and wood chips. Denis has been working on the enclosure, so I'll post pictures of the finished coop when he's all done. And of course, chick pictures will have to be posted!

Some attempts at art

2009-04-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures that I have taken in the last year. They were all taken around the Rogue River which is a world0-class fishing and rafting river here in Southern Oregon.

Adventures in cooking

2009-04-07T12:11:00.001-07:00

One of Kristina's three questions last week was "What do you like to cook/bake?" In pondering my answer, it occurred to me that there is a difference for me between "what do you cook often?" and "what do you like to cook?"

The food that I cook often is stuff that I like to eat or whatever is easy. I get stuck in ruts and just do the same stuff over and over. But what I like to cook/bake is whatever is new and adventurous. I like experimentation. When people have company over, usually they cook something familiar so that they know it will turn out well. When I have company come, I usually pick something new to cook that I have never made. It's a good excuse to open up my cookbooks or magazines and try something new.

However, this makes me tend toward buying new cookbooks but then only making a few recipes out of it before I get tired of that particular method. Sigh... Well, my newest adventure is making yogurt and I was successful last night. It's pretty good. We'll see if I find this skill useful enough to make it a regular habit.

My last adventure was inspired by Christine Jolly. She wrote about this book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (on facebook, not on her blog). You make up the dough and store it in the fridge, then use it as desired for two weeks. Here's what the dough looks like

The yummiest creation was the sticky rolls. Here they are rising.

and the finished product!

I did learn I need a better container for storing my dough and I need a plan for how I will use up all the dough/bread. So this book is not in use at the moment.

The chicken plan progresses

2009-03-02T18:32:00.001-08:00

After about a year of Denis researching and planning how he wanted to build our chicken coop, we got a phone call tip from my coworker who's an organic farmer and lover of chickens. She had seen a ready-made coop on the sales lot of a local company that makes backyard sheds. So we went to check it out one Sunday when we could snoop around without getting a lot of sales man pressure. The coop was very sturdily made, seemed to be pretty raccoon-proof, etc. Denis predicted it would be priced at $1200. The following day, I went to get the price. Surprisingly enough, they only wanted $800 for the finished, painted coop! Denis honestly didn't think he could do as good a job for as cheaply, so we decided to go ahead and purchase. It was delivered on Friday.

We had our custom made with just a couple of minor adjustments - our chicken door and ladder are on a different wall than the original and we had the latch changed so that it can be locked. After AM's horror encounter with a raccoon, we are particularly concerned that our coop be raccoon proof.

Here is the backside. All openings are lockable with a padlock except the ventilation window on the front. It has a sliding latch, but there is strong mesh covering the opening, so we don't think a raccoon would be able to pull it off. Still to do:

paint the exterior to match our house. We have left-over yellow paint to match. We'll need to get more green made up.
paint the interior for easier maintenance.
install the roost where our gals will relax. The original had a mesh roost which is not the style recommended in our chicken books.
Denis has to build a chicken run, fully enclosed so that they are protected from dogs and such during the day when we are not there.
in the future, he will put a fence around a larger area so that they can be let out to forage - better eggs.

Here's the interior.
Denis also wants to lay VCT flooring which will make it easier to clean. Don't you think the hens will appreciate the stylish black and white flooring?

What I learned at Joni and Friends Summit

2009-01-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

Denis and I had the privilege of attending a Joni and Friends training summit in Pasadena, CA along with 6 other folks from our church this past weekend. We went to learn from people in other churches who already have more mature disability ministry programs up and running. The days were full of different workshops with a variety of topics, so we took a "divide and conquer" strategy. These are some of the take home points for me:

People with disabilities need the church - they need to be told that God loves them, Jesus understands their pain and that hope is only found in Him.
The church needs people with disabilities - people who have been to the end of themselves, looked suffering and self-pity in the face and learned the long-suffering patience of putting their faith in God have a powerful testimony that we all need to be exposed to. Not only that, but we need the opportunity to give without being repaid. I don't think I really had a vision of this until one of the workshops about ministering to adults with disabilities. Sometimes, it may not be as much about the people we serve getting so much out of it from our perspective, but that we can put ourselves aside without earthly reward.
We are VERY blessed that our pastor is the one who initiated our disability ministry. Most of the attendees were struggling to get their church's attention on the need for a disability focus. They were very envious of our position. Our church is already leaps and bounds ahead of some because our pastor is enthusiastically promoting it from the pulpit.
It's not necessary to have all the answers or programs in place to get started - most of the mature programs started with just meeting a couple of needs as they arose, then growing from there.
"Disability Ministry" doesn't have to be hard and intimidating. It's good to provide low-commitment opportunities for people to get involved. It's contagious and the desire to be involved will spread.

The icing on the cake was getting to hear Joni Eareckson-Tada speak in the closing session. I've admired her for many years. What a blessing!

Five Years Ago

2008-12-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

Five years ago today, I was getting a manicure/pedicure with my matron-of-honor.

Five years ago today, Philip put a million bobby pins in my hair to keep the pretty flowers in place.Five years ago today, we had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends, some we had not seen in many years.

Five years ago today, I was this happy.

Five years ago today, Denis was this relieved that it was all over.

Five years ago today, we took vows to love and cherish each other, in good and bad, sickness and health, a serious covenant we were reminded of this week when we attended the beautiful wedding of our pastor's oldest son.

Five years ago today, we were pronounced husband and wife.

It's almost Christmas!

2008-12-24T14:34:00.001-08:00

Well, it's Christmas Eve. The presents are all bought and (almost) all wrapped and under the tree. The cats are waiting for all the action to begin... I thought I'd put up a bit of Christmas music on the blog to get us all in the mood. These are all from Sufjan Steven's 5 disc set that we own. I love his sound - it's a nice change from the usual stuff. I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones around you.

Two weeks ago, we went to get our trees along with my mom.

Denis didn't have to work and it was so nice to have him along to man the saw. He's much stronger than my mom and I. We were very impressed with how quickly he muscled right through our little trees.

Here we are with our tree.

And here it is all decorated. Joey has not been messing with the tree as much this year. But he seems to really enjoy pine-scented water to drink... And a few ornaments have "fallen" off during the nights.

Mission Accomplished

2008-12-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a lot accomplished today, but what I did get done was significant. I finished up my Christmas shopping. I had heard some terrible stories about the traffic around town, so I wasn't looking forward to getting out in it. But this afternoon I finally bit the bullet and navigated the streets. I think that I just happened to plan the right route so that I didn't get stuck in the really bad areas. For one thing, I didn't go to the mall. A friend of mine called me just the other day from the mall parking lot where she had been stuck for 45 minutes trying to get out! Ugh!

I also sent out my Christmas letters via email. I had to find people's emails one by one on Facebook because they don't have a feature for finding them easily. Annoying! You have to go to each friend's profile and click on the info page to find the email address. Oh well, it's done now. :o) I still need to send out by snail mail the letters to friends and relatives who are not regular internet people.

And can I just say that I'm really digging that first song in my playlist? (Arise by Shane and Shane). I found it by browsing some other playlists - I'd never listened to Shane and Shane before. I haven't really figured out all the lyrics to the song, but I really like the sound of it.

Pretty soon I will be able to answer that question, "Are you ready for Christmas?" with a firm "yes!"

Movies

2008-12-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've given any movie reviews or reports. Here are a few we've watched lately. * ratings are out of a possible ***** (five stars)

The Bridge **** - a documentary about people who kill themselves by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. There were 24 suicides in the year 2004... Who knew? Not an uplifting film, but an interesting look at what drives people toward taking their own lives.

Sweet Land *** - We just watched this one the other night. I was looking forward to it because Kristina said she really enjoyed it. This is a story about a mail order bride who comes to Minnesota during WW2 and how difficult it is for her to be accepted because she's German. The first few scenes were confusing and I thought that it could have been improved on to eliminate the confusion. The story itself was nice, though.

Darwin's Nightmare ** - a documentary about the massive export of a non-native fish species that is devastating the habitat of Lake Victoria, while the local Tanzanians suffer from a famine. We have friends who were missionaries in Tanzania, so the topic was very interesting to me. However, the filmmaker seemed to have his own agenda and he took his time making the point. The movie just dragged on with the same topics being covered over and over. So I ended up turning it off without finishing it.

The Devil's Playground **** - this was a fascinating and disturbing documentary about the teen years in Amish communities. Apparently, the doctrine of the Amish religion says that church membership and baptism cannot happen until you are an adult. In the teen years, you are allowed to experience "the world" and decide whether or not to get baptized and join the church. In some Amish communities, the teen years seem to be a huge distorted experience of "the world" that is just drunken parties, drugs, etc. The doco follows about 6 teens as they decide whether they are going to join the church or not. After watching the film, I did some searching on wikipedia and found that this is certainly not a universal experience in the Amish church. Some communities do not give their teens such free reign. But the movie seems to be an accurate portrayal of some Amish communities. It made me really sad to see that, at least these Amish groups do not have a true understanding of sin and grace...

Who Killed the Electric Car **** - another documentary... This one about an electric car that was produced by GM in the 70's in response to a mandate by the state of California that a certain percentage of cars on the road be electric by a certain deadline. As the deadline was approaching, three auto makers worked on producing the electric cars as they simultaneously fought the mandate. When they finally won and the mandate was removed, they removed every last electric car from the roads. Again, a disturbing look at the auto industry.

Letters from Iwo Jima **** - We'd been looking forward to this one for some time. It was very well-done. Interesting to see WW2 from the Japanese perspective.

The Railway Children **** - placed on our Netflix list because Ruth is so fond of the book. This was a nice story about a family having to give up their privileged life, but keeping faith in each other and God's care of them.

Wah-Wah *** - kind of a quirky story, a period peice set in Swaziland in Africa. An alcoholic father, divorce, remarriage, a child trying to figure it all out. It was interesting.

Stranger Than Fiction **** - This one was really well-done and interesting. Emma Thompson is writing a novel and Will Ferrell is her main character who figures out that he is at her mercy. Dustin Hoffman is the English professor who counsels Will in what to do about it. Some really funny lines and a clever plot.

The quest for poached egg perfection.

2008-12-15T23:55:00.000-08:00

Recently, Ben in Australia (who I did not meet in September because I had not yet made his acquaintance in the blogosphere at the time...) wrote a post about his poached egg conundrum. He's taken a fancy to them, but has not figured out how to achieve a nice consistent result with his cooking method. When I mentioned my egg poacher, he said he would like to see it in action. And so I present "The Quest for Poached Egg Perfection, a Pictorial Demonstration".

Here is the egg poacher. This device was created for the sole purpose of making poached eggs. The cups hold one egg each. The legs hold the eggs out of the water and no precious egg white is lost.

The first step is to lightly oil the egg poacher and place it into a pan with some water.

Notice that the poacher will hold three eggs, which generally compels me to make three poached eggs at a time even though no one person should really consume three eggs at a time. So for the purpose of this demonstration, I restrained myself and left one egg cup vacant.

Next, the lid is place on the pan so that steam will be retained. I generally cook them on medium heat since the food channel shows always cook eggs on medium heat. I'm not sure it makes any difference in this case since water boils at the same temp no matter what the heat is under it...

While the water is coming to a boil, one has time to prepare the toast. Now, don't think me strange, but I have a very specific technique for my poached egg toast. It must be cut into squares before receiving the eggs. I'll explain the reason a bit later in the process.

It is very important to STAY IN THE ROOM where the eggs are poaching. It is very hazardous to leave and PLAY FACEBOOK GAMES while eggs are poaching. It tends to result in the very disappointing overcooked egg. To test for doneness, check the whites with a fork. When the white are fully cooked but the yolk is still runny, they are perfectly cooked.

The extraction of the eggs from the poacher is not explained in the user manual of the egg poacher. I had to learn by trial and error that a knife inserted into one of the slots on the top allows you to suspend the entire device over the toast and then a fork can be used to gently dislodge the eggs. We're almost done.
The whole point of the runny yolk is for it to soak into the toast - ideally, there should be yolk in every bite since it's the best part. This is the reason for precutting the toast. As soon as the eggs are cut, you can mix the whole mess together. Perfection!

Travel plans

2008-12-13T11:10:00.000-08:00

So I was chatting with Rachel the other day and she said, "When is your next vacation? It seems like it's about time for you and Denis to have another one." (She thinks we're always gallivanting around... :o)

Well, okay, I'll admit it. Yes, we are planning a couple of more trips for the coming months. We'll go to Bend, OR (in Central Oregon) for a quick weekend anniversary trip. We have some friends in Bend who we'll get to hang out with, probably go snow shoeing one day. Meet their baby for the first time. Other than that, we'll just be hanging out. We got a cute little cottage right in town for about the same amount as it costs to stay in a hotel.

Next, we'll be travelling to Pasadena, CA with some folks from our church to attend a training conference put on by Joni and Friends Ministry. Eight of us are attending from our disability ministry group to learn some more nuts and bolts about getting our church up and rolling with this new focus. Denis and I plan to leave early and take our time driving South. Then, in Pasadena, we'll be sharing two suites with our team - 4 people in each one bedroom suite. It was the most economical arrangement. It will be fun to spend so much time with the team.

Finally, our summer vacation this year is going to be a long road trip out to OH to attend my niece's graduation in June. We'll stop on the way to visit Denis' family, conveniently located right along the driving route. And since we're going to be in OH, it's only a 7 hour drive to ... guess where! ....... Upstate New York! We're going to spend a few days visiting our blogger friends Martha, Priscilla and Rachel. (and the crowd goes wild...) This vacation is in the planning stage. I've planned out our driving route and how many days it will take. We have to map that out on a calendar and figure out what date to leave so we arrive in the locations on days that work for family and friends. What fun!

New songs

2008-12-09T17:13:00.000-08:00

I've added some new songs and rearranged the playlist on my blog. I hope you enjoy the new stuff. I was getting a bit bored with the way it was. Some of the songs that were at the bottom are now nearer to the top. Remember, you can always click on whatever song you want to play and it will go from there through the playlist.

World's Best Peanut Butter Cookies

2008-12-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

This recipe was created by a friend of a friend when she was in high school. Andrea had a chronic illness and died suddenly while she was in college. They really are exceptional cookies.

Cream together with electric mixer on medium speed:
1/2 C shortening (I used coconut oil, which is solid at room temp, instead)
1 C creamy peanut butter (I used Adams all natural)
3/4 C sugar (I used Splenda granulated)
1/2 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add 1 egg and 1 Tbsp milk and beat until well-blended.

Combine separately:
1 1/4 C flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Add to wet ingredients and mix all well together. Form rounded balls of dough and place on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten with a fork in a criss-cross pattern. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

New Post

2008-12-09T15:53:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I last wrote something... I guess I've been suffering from the same blog inspiration drought that a lot of my friends have been. Maybe it's contagious!

Well, it's time for it to end, so here I am typing something... I have had several ideas about things to write over the last month and a half. Hmmm... Let's see now.

Okay, here's one: Bad news - I got another traffic ticket. It happened the day before we left for Australia.
Good news - I can take the online traffic school again to have it removed from my record.
Bad news - I still had to pay a heft fine.
Good news - at least I'm supporting our city's budget in these rough economic times.
Bad news - I felt more annoyed than guilty when I was pulled over this time. It was a rolling stop at a four way stop. No school zone this time, no one's life in danger. I honestly think that he was giving a rookie cop some practice at writing up the ticket since it took him about 10 minutes to write it up.
Good news - I have till Jan 12th to do the online school. I'd better get going on it...

Disability Ministry

2008-10-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm done with my commitment to the ADA walk planning committee, I'm excited to be diving head-long into our church's new Disability Ministry. Denis and I are both on the leadership team and we're just starting the process of getting it off the ground.

This is how it started - our pastor's wife and daughter have attended the Northern California Joni and Friends family camp as helpers for the last few years. Their participation has been a particular passion of the daughter. This summer, our pastor attended for the first time and he came back home fired up. What he learned at Joni and Friends camp is about the sad statistics of families who have a member with a disability. The divorce rate is high, church attendance is low - it is a very isolating situation for families. It is difficult to even get out the door to church, and when families do make it, they might not feel welcomed by the church once they get there.

Our goal with a Joni and Friends affiliated ministry is to be "Fully Accessible" not just in our building having wide enough doors, but also in our congregation to have wide enough hearts. The goal is not just to welcome people with disabilities to attend, but to participate in ministry. This is NO SMALL TASK and we are just getting started.

I'm so excited to be a part of a purposeful ministry that will take me out of my comfort zone and allow me to see God at work. In the past, I've participated in short term missions, but I have come to the realization that I'm not likely to be able to do that any more. If you happen to think of praying for our ministry, current requests would be a solution to a sticky problem of not having a wheelchair accessible bathroom, an upcoming training day for ushers, greeters and volunteers and planning our kick-off event in February.

Alright, Nixter!

2008-10-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Here is my "yearbook" self. www.yearbookyourself.com

Digging myself out

2008-10-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly digging myself out of the hole that I've been buried in since we got back from Sydney. I knew before we left for vacation that I'd be coming home to a very busy week. October is a month when several different BIG projects for work and my life are coming together.
1. the ADA walk, one week after we returned. I was on the planning committee so there were lots of emails and tasks to muddle through in that last week. It was this past Saturday, so that's behind me now.
2. an extensive education project for the OB department of my hospital. My boss and I are doing multiple talks and meetings this month. Some of it I had prepared before hand and some I left until I returned to plan. This is about half-way done now, so I'm feeling more in control
3. I'm taking my Diabetes Educator's certification exam on the 25th of this month and I haven't actually started to study for it yet... I have two weeks, so now's the time to start.

So with all this on my plate - the unpacking and household chores have taken a back seat for the last week and a half. I worked extra hours and came home and just didn't do anything productive.

This week, I've got the walk behind me. I'm just working my normal week. I don't feel as overwhelmed. And so I'm slowly digging out of the hole. I balanced our checkbook on Sat. afternoon. Started laundry and cleaned the kitchen yesterday. Today I've gotten some errands run already. I need to buy us some real food so we can stop subsisting on cereal and potatoes. :o)

The list is still long, but I'm feeling more hopeful about getting to the bottom.

Everything you need to know about owning a cat

2008-10-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

This is a bit long, but believe me, it's worth it. Really clever and funny in a quirky way. :o)

Souveniers

2008-10-05T17:24:00.001-07:00

First a note about my pictures - It took me over 3 hours to upload all my photos to Facebook and organize them into albums, put them in chronological order and label them all with the related stories. It was a frustrating, painstakingly long process and I just can't stomach the thought of making a separate slide show just for the blog. SOOOO, for those of you who are NOT on Facebook, I discovered that I can give a link to those albums that you can access directly. You do NOT have to be a member of Facebook to view them (as I understand it). So, please see the photos, in order, here, here and here. I had to split them into three albums due to the number. It doesn't take that long to view them all though, I promise...

Here are the souveniers that we brought home from our trip. From the top left, clockwise:
1. wooden coasters made from 4 different woods that are typical to Tasmania
2. a novel, the cover of which was designed by our friend Nick (graphic designer) and written by their friend who we met at the Salamanca market and autographed it for us. It is about a musician who moves back home to Hobart (Tas) from NYC after a nervous breakdown. In my opinion, this is the BEST kind of souvenier!
3. wine from the Hunter Valley trip. We managed to bring two bottles home with us. It would have been a shame (and a bit embarrassing not to purchase at a tasting) not to bring some home to share with friends.
4. a commemorative Sydeny spoon for T
5. scenic calendars of Australia (one is actually full of aboriginal artwork for a friend who was particularly interested in knowing more about their history)
6. a sweater bought at the mall on sale since they are going into summer weather there. :o)
7. multiple postcards we intended to mail home but didn't manage to do so.
8. money (see below)
9. dishtowels with cute drawings of animals unique to Australia.

I've realized with chagrin that we didn't buy enough gifts... Oh well, hopefully people will understand. There's only so much room in a suitcase.

Here's a close up of Australian money. I collect money from any country that I travel to. I especially like the coins, but I try to get a few small bills as well. I'm very sad that I didn't make it to Europe before the Euro went in. You probably can't tell, but if you look closely at the pink bill, you might be able to tell that there is an emblem that is see-through. The bills have a plastic core to them. The small gold coin is a $2 coin. There is no $1 bill. Also, there are no pennies. All prices are rounded up to the nearest 5 cents. I think our money is so boring compared to other countries!

There's no place like home

2008-10-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Especially when your mother snuck over and cleaned the whole house while you were gone... :o) THANKS MOM!

We flew into LA 3 hours earlier than we left Sydney, then through customs and a quick 2 hour flight back to Portland. We started driving south and stopped for the night at about the half-way point. Drove into our driveway about noon today, unpacked, started the laundry, visited mom to show her our pictures, plowed through the email, checked everyone's Facebook status and here we are 7 hours later. I'm too tired to fiddle with my pictures tonight. I work tomorrow, so it will likely be the weekend before I'm organized enough to get them in a post-able state.

So sorry to keep you waiting... We had a lovely time. I'm really looking forward to showing them.

So far...

2008-09-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

So far we have:
1. had a lovely visit with Kate and Nick, Pablo's people. We were so pleased to find that we had a LOT in common and plenty to chat about. Nick and Denis had a nice jam session as Nick has a few couple of guitars around the house and is keen to improve on his finger picking skills.
2. met the famous Pablo - he didn't want to change his aloof internet celebrity status, so he stayed a bit aloof, but we did sneak a little pat in and had some photo ops.
3. went to the street market with Nick, Kate and Christine - we did our part to support the Tasmanian economy and got some particular Tasmanian souvenirs.
4. went to morning home church with Nick, Kate, Christine and Mike. This turned out to be our only chance to get to meet Mike and I think he felt a bit there "by request", but it was great to meet him and get to visit even though it was short. We did get to spend more time with Christine since she came to pick us up at the airport, went to the market and also to church.
5. travelled North to Launceston (Hobart and Launceston are the major cities of Tassie) to meet some friends of friends. We saw emus and wallabies on the property of a friend of theirs. Many of the wallabies had joeys in their pouches and I was able to get some pictures.
6. went to Toronga Zoo with Ruth, Nixter, D, E and Ruth's mum. D and Denis became fast friends - so cute! D thinks Denis is too cool!
7. had a nice dinner interview by Ruth's boy's. They guessed things they thought were true of America and we provided verification. :o)
8. attended Bible Study led by AB - it was nice to meet some of the young people in their church.
9. Stayed overnight in downtown Sydney - we've ridden the fast ferry to the historic section of town. We also met Nixter for chocolate near her work.

Still to come: the 30 minute ferry ride to Manly beach which will get us great views of the opera house and the bridge, a day in the Blue Mountains and meeting Rodeoclown and fam, seeing the Aussie rules Football final with Scott and Nix, picnic with friends in the park and Hunter Valley overnight trip. Yay!! I'm getting some good pics. I'll be sure to get ones of people, except I totally forgot to get any pics with Mike and Christine!

Putting my lessons to use

2008-09-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

Last summer I made salsa and had some problems with it. Well, I did learn my lessons this year:

1. real cilantro
2. a nice new bigger food processer
3. plenty of jalapenos.
= much better this time around. :o)

Walking again

2008-09-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

I'm still on the committee to help plan the annual fundraiser walk for the American Diabetes Association and I'm walking to raise funds again this year. The walk is October 11th and I'm not exactly looking forward to how busy the next month is going to be. I've got some extra work projects going and planning our big Sydney trip. As soon as we get back, my feet will hit the grounds running because the walk is only 1 week after.

In case you are not aware of all that the ADA does, I'll summarize. They work to benefit people with all types of diabetes (type 1, type 2 and gestational) in three main areas:
1. Legal and political advocacy - Workers can have reasonable accommodations to be able to take their blood glucose readings, insulin and eat when necessary without discrimination. Children with diabetes should be able to safely participate in all school activities. Health insurance should help to pay for the costly care of diabetes. The ADA lobbies in DC for these sorts of rights and offer legal help to individuals who have been treated unfairly.
2. Education and professional leadership - The ADA authors an extensive informative website as well as many brochures about diabetes treatment, self-care and prevention. They also lead the way for appropriate treatment, providing professional conferences and guidelines for adequate care.
3. Research - the ADA helps to fund all kinds of research, some investigating best treatment for all types of diabetes, others searching for a cure. Yes, they do support, lobby for and fund stem cell research, both adult and embryonic. This is the one area that I do not agree with, but I feel that it is a very small piece of what they do.

If you would like to pledge to sponsor me for the walk, you can go here. Thanks

Low fat, low calorie - who me?

2008-09-03T06:52:00.001-07:00

I found this cookbook on sale at Safeway a couple of weeks ago, so I took a look at it. Have you heard of Hungry Girl? It actually started out as a small email newsletter produced by a gal named Lisa Lillien and sent to a group of her friends. It grew into a website devoted to finding low calorie, low fat foods that actually taste good - "guilt-free" cooking.

Now I must say that I have never been one to buy non-fat versions of food. I have switched to the "low-fat" version of some foods, but I'm really hopelessly addicted to creamy, cheesy, fattening foods. The nonfat version of these things just never taste right, so I don't get them.

Well, the idea of this book is to combine different non-fat products to make them taste a bit better than the sum of their parts. Often, they are also hidden underneath something more flavorful so that distracts you from the non-fat food.

Anyway, my goal is not really to eat completely out of this book. But I'd like to replace some of my splurge foods (fettucini alfredo, sausage mcmuffin with egg) with some Hungry Girl "splurges". She's got lots of suggestions for avoiding high calorie foods at restaurants and at work too.

Here is the recipe for the faux fudge that I made last night:

Ingredients:

2 cups canned pure pumpkin

1 box Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies Mix (the 18.3-oz. Family Size box)

2 tbsp. reduced fat peanut butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine pumpkin with the brownie mix in a large bowl; stir until smooth (do not add anything else). Spray a small baking pan (8" X 8" work best - no larger!) with nonstick cooking spray and pour in the mixture. Spoon 2 tbsp. of Better ‘n Peanut Butter (room temperature) on top and use a knife to swirl peanut butter around. Cook for approximately 35 minutes. The batter will remain very thick and fudgy, and it should look undercooked. Remove from oven. Cover with aluminum foil and let cool in fridge for a couple of hours. Cut into 36 squares and serve.

Serving Size: 1 piece (approx. 1.3 oz.) Calories: 63, Fat: 1g, Sodium: 56mg, Carbs: 13.5g, Fiber: 1g, Sugars: 9g, Protein: 1g

Garlic - Mmmmm....

2008-09-02T00:53:00.000-07:00

So, once you have grown your garlic and harvested it, you are supposed to hang it up to dry in a cool place. Where do you hang it when you live in an area that is 90-100 degrees for most of the summer? The garage is too hot and we have a small house.

How about the broom closet?!

It's been hanging in the closet ever since we harvested it about 5 weeks ago. It's perfect now and I'm loving cooking with it. The cloves are so perfect and white - no ugly bruises or rotting areas like what I buy in the store. And the heads are nice and big!

What have I been doing for the last month?

2008-08-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Well, over a month now. For goodness sake, I can't believe it's been so long. Here's a bit of an update on what's been happening:
1. We spent our one week vacation in Portland. It was fun and relaxing. We stayed at our second McMennamin's hotel, the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. It did not have private bathrooms and we were very surprised to find that the shared baths were all single full baths. We were expecting dorm style shower rooms. We also went on a dinner cruise with our friend AMG, heard a free concert in Pioneer Courthouse Square - The Dimes, a Portland band was really good.
2. Two days after we came home from Portland, I developed a respiratory infection that I may have caught from AMG's husband... :o( I had a fever of 102 and took antibiotics for 10 days. The respiratory infection then set off my asthma which is normally almost non-existent. It was definitely not a good time to be sick from work because several of my coworkers were at a big conference in Washington D.C. and I was scheduled to work Mon-Fri. I wound up working just Tues and Wed. I think it was a good 3 weeks before I was fully well again.
3. I've been doing work helping plan our local American Diabetes Association fund-raiser walk in October. It's just around the corner, so it's time to really knuckle down and do some work. So I've been spending some of my days off making phone calls and running errands.
4. We've been nailing down all our plans for the Sydney trip - we've got our passports and travel authorities, hotel reservations, flights, itinerary is set. I can't believe it's just over 3 weeks away now.
5. I recorded most of the Olympics on NBC and watched a lot of it. I still haven't finished it all off - I've got about 2 days of events left to watch!
6. I found a cookbook on sale at the supermarket that intrigued me. It's all low cal/low fat recipes and I've been trying to replace some of my high fat indulgences with these recipes. I'll have to write more about that in another post.
7. And yes, I must admit, I've still been playing Packrat on Facebook a bit more than I'd like to admit.

Reading them again

2008-07-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia in years and I thought it was high time to enjoy them again. I asked for the all-in-one volume for my birthday last year, but hadn't started reading it yet until a few weeks ago. In the past, I've read them in the order in which they were released, but this volume is in "chronological order" as the events unfold in Narnia. I'm up to the third book which is A Horse and His Boy.

I'm sure that I've read these books at least twice through in the past, but I'm surprised at how much of the details I had completely forgotten. Everything is familiar to me, but I can't remember how the different storylines will come together in the end. I still really enjoy C. S. Lewis' humor sprinkled through out.

New post label

2008-07-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

I've added a label to my list called "Tracy 101". I added that label to the posts I've written that tell more details about who I am so that new readers can quickly learn more about me. It can also come in handy for those who want to cram for the "Tracy quiz" on Facebook. :o)

Getting Serious

2008-07-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

It's time to get serious about planning our Sydney trip in September. I bought these two books for us to get some ideas. The one on the left is by Eyewitness Travel and it's just a "down and dirty" reference with lists of restaurants, hotels, sights, etc, grouped my neighborhood. I thought it would be good to take with us when we are out and about. The one on the right is the Lonely Planet book which is more in depth. I liked it because it includes info about some good day trips outside the city as well as within the city.

We've decided that we're going to head straight for Tasmania upon arrival in Australia. I haven't booked our tickets yet, but we should be able to fly to and from Tas for about $200 each round-trip. While in Tassie, we'll visit the cyber-famous Mike and Christine as well as Pablo's devoted human staff members Kate and Nick. They've suggested that we go to the Salamanca Market on Saturday. We'll also likely visit some acquaintances in the city of Launceston which is just 2 hours north of Hobart.

Once we return to Sydney, Ruth has very sweetly offered to help plan our itinerary to maximize the time and what we can see and do. Here is our list of planned stuff so far:

Meet and have some sort of party/mixer with as many of the following people as possible: Ruth and family, Nixter, Craig, Ian (Rodeoclown) and family and Erin.
Attend church and hear AB preach.
Go to Toronga Zoo with Ruth and the kids
Take the ferry to Manly Beach (this ferry goes under the harbor bridge and past the opera house) and perhaps a ferry that goes deep into the bay.
See the Blue Mountains area
Visit "The Rocks" historic neighborhood
Wine tasting in the Hunter Valley

I hope that won't be too much to fit into 8 days. It is amazing how quickly a 2 week vacation can just disappear when you start planning all you want to do.

My Wordle

2008-07-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Kristina for telling us about this website. This is the "Wordle" created from the RSS feed of my blog.

Did she say chickens?

2008-06-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, I did say chickens. Denis and I have several friends with chickens and love getting to eat very fresh eggs from healthy hens. We have been thinking very seriously of getting some of our own. In fact, we've pretty much decided that we will do it... eventually.

Here are the steps involved:
1. visit your friends who have chickens

ask them lots of questions
examine their coop design
ask about the breeds they like and why

We have done this step. We've picked the brains of my former next-door neighbors, my friend AMG, a family from our church and one of my coworkers who all have chickens.

2. research chicken coop designs
basic?
or fancy?

Knowing Denis, this phase will take quite a while... He is looking at all kind of designs online. I particularly like the AMG's advice to build the nesting part up at shoulder height so that egg collection and clean up are streamlined. Once Denis has figured out the precise design and how much material is needed we can move on to step 3

3. build coop in the area between our house and my mom's
Again, this is Denis' realm. Once he gets to it, I've no doubt it will be perfect. Part of the yard will also have to be penned in so that we can let them out to roam a bit.

4. decide what breed of chickens to get. Should we get adult hens? or chicks? AMG swears by getting adult hens. My coworker has an organic farm and gets chicks each year of all different breeds. They are so funny!

5. buy supplies and chickens.

6. collect and eat eggs!

Are you surprised by my thoughts about chickens?

More flowers

2008-06-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

Is anyone getting bored with flower pictures from me? Above are our roses in bloom.

Below is our rhododendron that we planted last year. This is the first year that it's bloomed for us.
Here's a close up of the flower. I like it.

I'm getting some suggestions for a new post. Here are the options:

more about our plans for Australia
something about the cats
something that I've read lately
a movie that I've seen
a project that I'm working on
a friend coming to visit
my thoughts about chickens

So, what's your vote? What shall I write about next?

A very good sign

2008-06-10T18:29:00.001-07:00

Our renters decided to plant a garden! They asked our permission first and we said, "go for it". They have plans to make some changes in the front yard as well. They've been mowing, watering and even offering to do some of the yard work that is not really their responsibility at all. They seem to be "putting down roots" so to speak. Ha! Pardon the pun.

Below you can see some more of their handiwork. The deck badly needed new stain. Denis was planning to just do some minimal prep work, so he purposely bought stain the same color so that it wouldn't be obvious. Well, then we thought, why not ask if they would like to do the work in exchange for a reduction in the rent for one month? They did, and boy a job they did. They sanded the entire deck and really did a good job. We're hoping they stay for a while.

I win!

2008-06-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ever since I became a cat owner, I have not been able to have flowers around my house. I really like to have a cheerful boquet of flowers on a table top or counter, but whenever I do, curious cats always manage to get up when I'm not looking for a sniff. They don't stop with a sniff - then they have a nibble and before I know it, my beautiful flowers are not very beautiful anymore. Petals fall off, greenery disappears. Not only that, I'm not really sure what plants are safe for a cat to eat, so I worry about them

Well, I found this tiny vase at a local street fair a few weeks ago. I thought it was a rather ingenious solution to my problem. Last time I checked, my cats were not able to scale a refrigerator!

Future Veggies

2008-06-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

Here is the new planting bed that Denis built this year. It is not up off the ground, but rather just an improved area in the grounds with the wood border around it. It's for our larger vegetables and the vines that want space to spread out.

Here is a close up of the corn, beans and green onions sprouting up.

One of the raised beds from last year is now occupied with maturing garlic. This is our first attempts at garlic and I'm so excited to taste and see how different it is from the stuff that we buy in the store.
The other bed has the old familiar folks from last year - tomato, carrots and lettuce, plus some new comers - radishes and broccoli. I also picked a head lettuce this year instead of leaf. A friend gave us a "ground cherry" plant. Apparently, it is a relative of the tomatillo but it's sweet. Should be interesting.

I didn't take a picture of our two strawberry plants or our raspberry plants that were put in last year. Hopefully we'll get some nice berries this year.

It's about time!

2008-06-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

I added a few new songs to my music playlist and changed the order around a bit. Don't want you all to be getting bored by the music. I'm so happy to know that some of you open my blog while you link to others' so that you can listen. :o)

Big changes coming...

2008-06-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Denis is making a big change in his employment - it's a change to benefit his sanity rather than our pocketbook. He is changing his status in the Emergency Room to on call only. That means that he loses his full benefits as an employee and will go on my insurance. We'll pay a bit more each pay period for that.

He's been working some shifts at two other jobs for the last two months and this change will allow him to accept more work for them. One is for a local pediatrician and Denis really enjoys that one. When I ask him how his day was his reply is generally, "it was great fun!" Such a change from the stress of the ER. The other job is in the Occupational Health department of our same hospital. That job involves caring for people who have had on the job injuries as well as doing work-related physical assessments. There are some legal details to be learned in that job and it's not quite as fun, but it is a low stress environment.

Denis will still fill in with shifts in the ER, but he'll be able to pick and choose, which will be nice. He hopes to cut down on or eliminate working on Sundays so that he can attend church. Eventually, there is the chance (and we hope that this happens) that the Occupational Health job can become a half time scheduled job. That would give Denis back his benefited position. This was a bit decision and a long time coming. The big change happens in July. Now he just has to get through June... Prayers are welcomed. :o)
These are some photos of some of the more noteworthy flowers in our garden this year.

HOW?

2008-06-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

How can two small people generate so much laundry? It seems like the basket is overflowing every other day. I think I probably do about three loads of laundry each week. I'm sure that is NOTHING compared to you with families. How many loads do you do in a week?

Going to Sydney!

2008-05-12T13:13:00.001-07:00

Denis and I were trying to think of where we could go for our big vacation this year. We've been talking about taking a really big trip for a number of years, but never took the plunge to buy tickets. Well, this is the year. We bought our tickets and are going to Sydney, Australia in September! I was able to get one ticket with my frequent flyer miles, so we only had to buy one ticket. We are going to visit all our wonderful blogging friends that have become such a part of our lives. Ruth and Nixter, the dearest two, plus Erin, Rodeoclown and Craig. I'm hoping that we can find time to fly to Tasmania and back to meet the great Pablo (and his mum, Kate) as well as Mike and Christine.

Ruth is going to help me plan our activities and accomodations. We have to come up with a list of people we want to see and places we want to go.

I would like to see this fellow in the Toronga Zoo. Isn't that the cutest picture?

We are just getting started with our research. Will keep you posted.

Busy Weekend

2008-05-05T14:48:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from last week when we were busy pricing all the items for the garage sale this weekend. So I guess I should have titled this post a busy week! The sale was pretty successful. None of us made a ton of money, but we did get rid of some of the largest items that we really wanted to be rid of.

An interesting thing to note is that Denis and I were not actually around for much of the garage sale taking place at our house. We both worked on the first day of the sale, Friday. Saturday afternoon, we left for a wedding at 12:30 and didn't return until the sale was over. And Sunday we went to church and then out to a local vineyard to pick up our wine club selections. We returned in time to make quick work of the pack up. A local charity will be picking up all the left-overs on Wednesday or next weekend.

So who was manning our sale while we were gone? Our staff - my mom and her good friends who came down from Yakima, WA for the occasion. They have a whole system for doing garage sales and did SOOO much work. I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures of the "staff" at work, though. We had them over for dinner (with our locally produced wine) last night as a thank you.

Signs up Life

2008-04-29T17:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some signs of life at our place...

Daffodils were blooming a few weeks ago. I felt guilty that so many of my friends were still buried in snow!

Our rock garden is really starting to fill in and look more mature. The plants that we put in last year are spreading out and blooming nicely. Denis picked out some new ones that we'll get to see more from next year. I'm imagining how this area will look in another two years.

Our little "courtyard" with siberian and pacific coast iris is getting ready to do it's thing. The flox on this side of the walk looks great! But the other side has a bald spot in the middle.
I love the color combo on these tulips and their pointy blooms.

This is our garlic that we planted last fall! It will be ready for harvest in June, I believe. Isn't it pretty? I love garlic, so I'm looking forward to having "home grown". MMmmmm....

And this is our newest addition. A baby japanese maple. The leaves come out red in the spring, turn green for the summer and then back to red before they come off in the fall. It should be very pretty.

Blogging Excuses

2008-04-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

1. I have been working more than usual - doing some extra projects on Tuesdays
2. Denis and I went away for two weekends to professional conferences recently. One was in the Mt. Hood area and the other in Portland.
3. I have been consulting for Denis on new plant location in our garden and admiring his work.
4. I have been monitoring our cats' adjustment to the new Litter Robot (see beolow).
5. I am on the American Diabetes Association fund raiser committee and I have been doing some leg work for the walk.
6. Denis has been working more day shifts and so I've been spending the evenings with him instead of blogging.
7. I have been going on some day trips with a friend from church.
8. I started discipling a gal from my church.

All of the above are true, but they are not the real reason that I have not been blogging lately. I am hopelessly addicted to the Facebook game Packrat. I'll just come out and admit it. I have been spending waaaay too much time playing that game lately.

Finding Balance?

2008-03-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

I've really been struggling with balance in my life lately. I find that I can totally fritter an entire day away being absolutely lazy - games on the computer, TV shows, etc. I've been feeling really convicted about that for quite a while. I know that leisure time is an idol for me and I can let my games petty entertainments totally eclipse God right out of the picture.

But the last two days have been the opposite. I've had two extremely busy days, running between errands with hardly any time to breathe. Well, I can breathe, but I quite literally have not eaten well the last two days because I had no time. This is certainly not laziness, but my attitude on these days has not been great. I get to feeling really put out that I can't catch a break between the phone calls and demands on my time. I forget in those days that God is orchestrating my life, that He never promised me comfort all the time and that my attitude is just as important as my actions.

How do I find a balance? How do I fit in harmless entertainment and avoid slothfulness? How do I fulfill my responsibilities with a good attitude? I seem to feel guilty for something that I'm doing or not doing much of the time...

I don't necessarily need answers or suggestions for these questions. I know they are just the perpetual struggles of life. I know that one of the key factors is prioritized time spent reading God's word and praying. But this is how I've been feeling lately.

What I want for my birthday

2008-03-07T21:32:00.000-08:00

One of these.

Child of the 80's

2008-03-04T18:40:00.000-08:00

You Are 72% A Child of the 80s

Not only did you experience the 80s... you are practically an expert.

You should be totally stoked!

Are You a Child of an 80s?

I graduated from high school in 1985, so it's no wonder...

Larry's gone?

2008-02-26T00:13:00.000-08:00

Wow! Such a strange feeling when I heard that Larry Norman died yesterday so soon after I had been reintroduced to his music. Here is an article from The Oregonian's website about Larry's life and death. He had been sick for a long long time with heart failure. There is a wonderful last statement posted on his website. Farewell Larry. I look forward to worshiping with you in heaven one day.

Wireless

2008-02-23T15:49:00.001-08:00

We've decided to ditch the home phone line and use only wireless phones. It's a step that I have resisted for the last several years because I prefer the quality of a land line call. However, we've had unending trouble with our current land line anyway. Our line went dead a couple of times, seemingly due to one of the older style corded phones that we had. It was impossible to tell which phone it was that caused the problem, so we were only using our cordless phones. And for some reason, the cordless phones that we had (not very old at all) we not working very well. Needless to say, the "land line quality" that I was looking for was sorrowfully lacking and we were paying an arm and a leg to the phone company each month. Our wireless venture is going to save us about $50 a month.

So, to celebrate, we each got a new updated cell phone with more features than our old ones. I haven't had a flip phone in a while, but so far I'm liking it. I'm just afraid that I'm going to forget it somewhere.

Larry and Terry

2008-02-17T16:47:00.000-08:00

What does seeing Terry Fator have to do with Larry Norman? That's what I was wondering when I saw Larry's CDs for sale in the foyer of the concert hall last night. If you don't know, Larry Norman is considered the "father of Christian rock". He recorded the bulk of his music in the 70's and influenced a lot of musicians over the years, both Christian and secular. I was introduced to his music by a friend in college. Larry has had serious health problems for years now (I remember hearing about his chronic illnesses about 15 years ago at a concert I attended.) Well, Larry now lives in Salem, Oregon and most of his income is dependent on continued sales of his albums which he re-releases with some new tracks from time to time.

It turns out that Terry Fator has met and become friends with Larry Norman. He donated all the proceeds from the concert last night to help with Larry's medical costs. In my wikipedia research I found out that Terry also performed at Larry's 60th birthday party. Anyway, that was just the icing on the cake of a great evening. The show was really great. Terry has about 6 different puppets all with their own personalities. He also did some singing on his own, most of it impersonations of other singers. He's really good and really funny. There were some great interactions with the puppets. It's really impossible to describe. I bought the DVD that he has available of his first Las Vegas performance as well as a couple of Larry Norman CDs.

Mom and I got home at 2 AM, so that wasn't bad at all.

Terry Fator

2008-02-16T13:55:00.000-08:00

Have you seen this guy? He won America's Got Talent. I didn't watch the show when it was on. I only heard about him from a posted Youtube video after he had won. This is my favorite segment - the first time he appeared on the show. The reaction from the judges is so fun and Terry really shows great comedic timing and an amazing voice.

My mom are going up to Salem to see him tonight! It will be a 4 hour drive both ways and we will go up and back today, returning quite late. I'll give you a full report later.

Addendum - Terry Fator will be playing at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland in April.

That was nice!

2008-02-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

Denis and I just got home from our first memorial service of someone associated with our church. A dear church member, one of the founders, beloved by many went home to be with the Lord in a very unexpected way about two weeks ago. Much of his extended family attend our church, and the pastor is his brother-in-law. Denis and I had occassional interactions with the man over the four years since we started attending Bear Creek Church. Loren was always very attentive and interested in us and our lives. It was a blessing to hear all the stories of how his quiet, supporting, generous and serving attitude touch so many lives - of his family and his friends. It was a hopeful, happy service because everyone knows that Loren's faith was rock-solid. We know that he is in the best possible place now and we will be joining him there one day. It was really nice!

My playlist

2008-01-28T13:30:00.001-08:00

I'm sure you have noticed my new music playlist on the sidebar. You can choose which ever song you like to listen to. Just click on the one you want to hear.

Thirteen Flavors

2008-01-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a Thursday thirteen that I have been thinking of all week. Thirteen flavors of ice cream that I want to make with the ice cream maker I got for Christmas:
1. Butter Pecan - done!
2. Coffee chocolate chip - done!
3. Vanilla - done!
4. Raspberry
5. Banana chocolate chip
6. Strawberry yogurt
7. Maple nut
8. Avocado
9. Coconut
10. Date
11. Tea
12. Pumpkin
13. Mixed spices

Thirteen flavors Denis would like me to make:
coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee.

Just kidding, he has enjoyed the three that I made so far, but I don't think he'll be too keen on some of the weird ones I have listed above. I have two ice cream cookbooks that I bought in 1988. One is a Ben and Jerry's book and the other has all the strange recipes in it. I didn't even list the really weird ones (there is one for bread ice cream). I've been wanting to try some of the more bizarre recipes for all these years but never had an ice cream maker. Thank you Denis!

Taking the challenge?

2008-01-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of this? I'm thinking that I would like to do it, but I'm a bit nervous about the commitment, since I have not been a very good reader in years. It appeals to me because there is a schedule for reading and some discussion opportunities, so it would be kind of like a book club. I received Valley of Vision as a gift from my church, but I need to get to the book store to look for the first couple of books. Anyone want to join me in this?

Cleaning, or supposed to be...

2008-01-19T16:19:00.001-08:00

I've got some of my new music in the CD player and it's nice. Shelby Lynne is kind of bluesy. Bethany Dillon was folk-ish. Now, i think it's Shelby Lynne again and its a nice mellow groovy kind of sound. This music is not motivating me to clean however, which is what I really need to do. Then I need to get some papers in order for a meeting we have next weekend with our financial adviser. Maybe I need to wait until Jonny Lang start playing so he can inspire me to get moving. What about you? Do you listen to music to help you get moving on housework?

Yay!

2008-01-18T18:45:00.000-08:00

I ordered some new CDs from Sound and Spirit at the end of December and they finally came! I haven't listened to any of them yet, so I can't give a full report, but here are the titles:
1. Ron Block - Doorway
2. Caedmon's Call - Overdressed
3. Alison Krauss and Union Station - Lonely Runs Both Ways
4. Bethany Dillon - Waking Up
5. Jonny Lang - Turn Around
6. Shelby Lynne - Suit Yourself
7. Shelby Lynne - Identity Crisis
8. Matt Redman - Beautiful News
9. Erin O'Donnell - Christmas Time is Here

Too bad there are not 13 titles - I could have saved it for Thursday... I'm looking forward to having new music. I've been getting tired of listening to the same old stuff.

How nice!

2008-01-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

I didn't have an early morning patient scheduled today, so I got to sleep in until 7 AM. The only problem is that I stayed up until almost 1 AM. I'm always doing that to myself!

It turned out to be a long day. I got some new projects from my boss, had a complex note to write to a doctor and didn't get out of there until 6:30 PM. Got to go to bed tonight at a decent hour...

What I did on my winter vacation

2008-01-15T18:14:00.000-08:00

Well, as was promised by the weather forecasts, we did have stormy weather for just about our entire trip. Because of that (and poor planning), the camera didn't come out except for a couple of days. At any rate, we started out in Florence on the central Oregon coast and had a rainy evening looking around the old town of Florence. We had dinner reservations at a place recommended by the hosts of our B and B, but we drove around aimlessly in the dark to kill some time before hand. The hosts were very friendly and we'd love to go back to explore old town Florence when the weather is decent.

Day two was traveling from Florence to Cannon Beach and stopping to see anything of interest on the way. It was quite a long drive on historic Hwy 101 with windy and rain most of the way. Wind gusts reached 85 mph that day along the coast and we felt some of them when we stopped at the Sea Lion Caves. The visitor's center is up on top of a bluff, so the full force of the wind propelled us across the parking lot and into the building. Since neither of us had ever been down into the cave, we paid the $ to see it. I found it a bit disconcerting to be in a cave at sea level on a stormy day, but it was worth seeing. The scariest driving for me came after dark on the last stretch of road. It was really pouring and the road is very curvy and in need of repair on that stretch. There always seemed to be a car behind me wishing that I would speed up, but we finally made it.

We stayed two nights in Cannon Beach, so there was enough time to catch some pictures in between rain clouds:

Cannon Beach is known for having large rocks just off shore, the most famous of which is called Haystack Rock.

This picture of the Tillamook Rock lighthouse is the best one showing the wind-blown white caps coming in on the beach. The lighthouse is only accessible by boat and during it's operation was very difficult to maintain. Some waves actually crash over the entire lighthouse and would extinguish the light. It was decommissioned at some point and is now used to store cremated remains.
The obligatory photos of us... :o)

So, our final coastal drive was the short distance from Cannon Beach to Astoria. Astoria is the oldest permanent city west of the Mississippi! We didn't make it to the Fort Clatsop reconstruction due to the weather, so this is also on our list of places to return to. It promptly started to snow right after we checked into our hotel.

The weather was nicer the next day, allowing for this scenic photo.

We did explore the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria which documents the history of the precarious waters where the Columbia River meets with the Pacific Ocean ("the graveyard of the pacific") We read fascinating stories of the Coast Guard activities and rescues. Also very interesting is that specially trained ship pilots guide all of the ships the pass through here - one group to navigate the river and another group navigates the "Columbia Bar", the area where river meets ocean. The bar pilot must board and leave the ship via a ladder - climbing from and descending onto a pilot boat. This is a very hazardous line of work - it's amazing that they do that!!
This retired lightship is permanently docked at the maritime museum. It used to be anchored beyond the river in the Pacific.

We ended up by driving to Portland and staying one night there before we headed back home. The highlight in Portland was dessert at Pix Patisserie - Yummo!

Happy Birthday, Christmas, New Year's, Anniversary!

2008-01-02T23:23:00.001-08:00

We get most of our big holidays out of the way in a single two week span of time around here. It's really been too long since I've posted anything, I'm sorry. Thank you all my friends for your Christmas wishes on my last post. Here are some highlights in bulleted points from the last few weeks:

I ordered Denis' annual carrot cake from Fred Meyer's because I recently had a slice that was great. I was very disappointed to realize that the cake I had tasted came from the store across town. This one was a little strange tasting. But that didn't deter Denis from eating about half of it over a few days.
One of my Christmas presents was an electric ice cream maker! :o) So far I have made some yummy butter pecan ice cream in it.
Denis had Christmas Eve and day off for the first time since we were married. We had a nice evening with my mom.
Joey knocked all the ornaments off the lower branches of our tree and we gave up on putting them back up.
Phoebe is on just one medication now and is much improved. She has gained weight and is acting like her old self. Her most recent lab results were improved, but one liver value is still a little elevated. We don't really know what caused the trouble or how long the medication with keep helping.
Our Christmas gift to my brother and his family was a donation to Heifer International. Their gift to us was a donation to Project Chacocente. Great minds think alike, huh? (We had not discussed the ideas with each other.)
I have started using my Nordic Track and can tell that my stamina is improving. It takes a lot of coordination to use the arm pulley together with the legs. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do it. So far, I'm just doing my legs.
Denis has not yet been able to get a decent shot of espresso out of the new coffee maker. He thinks that our grinder won't grind finely enough. Now we are waiting for our new high quality grinder to arrive by UPS.
Denis and I are leaving for a short anniversary trip. We're going to the Oregon Coast, starting in Florence (halfway up the state) and then continuing North to the last town before crossing the Columbia River to Washington. It's supposed to be stormy the whole time we are gone, so hopefully what they say about storms at the coast is true - they are supposed to be fun to watch.

I think that's it for now.

Early Christmas

2007-12-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

Denis and I are very excited because each of us just acquired a new toy! Here's mine:

I have completely fallen off the exercise bandwagon since about March! After I went through that wonderful 6 week period of going to the gym really regularly, I just haven't been able to get motivated to organize my stuff, drive to the gym and use the equipment. It never seems to be convenient to go during the off peak hours and I find it annoying that I can't watch what I want to on the TV or listen to my own music. SO, I'm very excited to have a piece of equipment that I can use at home. One of my coworkers had this unused and offered it to me for FREE! yay. It obviously takes up a lot of space, but it can be folded up if we need to get it out of the way.

Here is Denis' new toy:

The espresso machine that he has had for several years now seems to be giving up the ghost. So we went to Starbucks and found they had this very last unit of last year's espresso machine. It had a clearance tag on it and then they took even more off because it was not clean at the time... (I think it had something to do with me being a regular customer who they know by name) This machine is so pretty and it is a step up from the old machine. Denis is still working on getting it to give us a perfect shot of espresso, but we have faith that he will. The reviews on coffee lovers' websites are good.

Q and A

2007-12-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

Updated: I just added the link for "pinging" your blog right above the blogrolling list. The automatic function is often not working, so go ahead and manually "ping" it so that we can all use this list to tell what is new. :o)

Hi, my friends! Sorry I have been very absent lately. I have recovered pretty fully from my cold/bronchitis and have more energy again. Phoebe is eating pretty well and is holding her own on the new medication. She's gained a bit of weight, but is still skinny. Her personality is more like her old self, but she's still very grumpy with the other cats.

Anyway, you all asked some questions in the last post's comments. First of all, the buttercream frosting is very yummy. It was a little complicated to make, but it would be easier if I had a candy thermometer. I may have cooked the sugar a bit further than it was supposed to be. I also think that I didn't beat the egg whites quite as long as I should have. So the end result was a bit softer than I think it could have been. It's nice and creamy, though, and has held up well. I found the recipe by doing a google search for buttercream frosting. If you do so, you will find some are the egg white based recipe, and others are making a milk sauce first. Very interesting.

Secondly, the list of blogs that shows when there is a new post is hosted by "blogrolling". It takes a bit of work to set it up and it doesn't always work. But you can get to the blogrolling website by clicking on the link under my list. Once there, you register for the service, name you list and then add the links. After you have it made, you have to get your html code that you can put on your blog. You will add the blogrolling list as an element on your blog. Instead of picking "list" you choose "html code".

Now the downfall is that this service was sold by the developers to some bigger organization which does not maintain it very well. In order for your links to show up as "updated", the blog has to get "pinged" as updated. It's supposed to do that automatically, but sometimes that part gets broken. When the system is not working, you can still "ping" your blog manually at the blogrolling site. On the cats' blog, I have a link to the "ping" form for everyone to easily go ping their blog when the system is down. (most of the cat blogs use blogrolling for their lists, so it's handy). I've never put that link on here, but if you all like that feature of seeing when everyone has a new post, I'm happy to put the link here too. Then, when you post a new item, you can just come here, click on the link, enter your blog info (it's very quick) and hit "ping".

Life

2007-12-03T17:23:00.000-08:00

Life ticks on. Here's what we've been doing lately:
1. Running a kitty hospice: Phoebe's blood work was not much improved last week. We stopped the pills and are only doing treatments that do not bother her. A steroid compound that is rubbed on her ear twice a day we hope will increase her appetite and may help the liver failure a little. Also subcutaneous fluids to keep her hydrated - she doesn't seem to mind them much at all. She's been staying the night over at my mom's house so she gets a break from Joey and has constant access to any food that she might eat. We bring her back home during the day. It's a real up and down thing emotionally. She's a bit more like herself, but still skinny. Some days she eats pretty well and then others doesn't eat much.
2. I've been home sick from work: I started getting sick with a cold Thursday at work and by evening was really coughing and called in sick for Friday. By Friday PM, it had turned into bronchitis, so I called Denis at work and had him bring me home a prescription for antibiotics. Today is day three and I'm starting to breathe better now.
3. Watching Ace of Cakes with my mom while I go visit Phoebe. It made me crave cake, so I baked a banana cake from scratch and made real buttercream frosting (the kind with egg whites, cooked sugar and real butter).
4. Denis worked two extra days for a coworker - Friday and Sunday. Now he has just today off. It's a really strange week for him.
5. Playing an Amazing Race geography game - you get more points the closer on the map to an exact town in the world that you click. At the end of the game they calculate a "traveler IQ". My first try was an IQ of 73. I finally made it all the way through the game and got an IQ of 116!

That's about it. It's cloudy and dark around here today.

Funny Video!

2007-11-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

Check out this music video about a kitten! He looks just like Joey and it's hysterical. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

Denis and I went to the house of a family from our church on Thursday. They annually invite several people and this is the first time that Denis and I have both been able to attend. It was really fun - visiting with folks that we knew and some that we had just met, eating wonderful food very little of which I had to prepare.

I have so many blessings to be thankful for this year. I'm so thankful for my husband, he is a faithful, kind and gentle man and I'm honored that he's in love with me. I'm thankful for my health and the well-being of all our extended family. I'm so thankful for this job that I really enjoy. We also have a new praise - Denis has accepted an on call position in the occupational health department of our health care system. We hope that will turn into a part time position that will be less stressful for him than the ER where he works now. I'm thankful that we have a strong church body that we belong to and have some good friends in.

All of these blessings come from the hand of the great God of the universe. He has blessed me with these insignificant material things in addition to the greatest gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful that I can trust in His loving care for me.

I have been feeling pretty down since Phoebe got sick. This is really good for me to "count my blessings". Phoebe's hanging in there, not really getting worse or better. I made an appointment for Tuesday to have her bloodwork repeated. We will have a difficult decision to make based on the results.

Today I made a turkey for the first time all on my own. My mom is in Ohio visiting my brother. Since we went to someone else's Thanksgiving, I missed having left-over turkey, stuffing and gravy. So I bought a turkey on Friday. I'm not good a price comparison, so I hope that I got a good price... It came out really good. I'm pretty proud of myself... :o)

Worried

2007-11-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

Here is what has been occupying my thoughts and time lately. My precious kitty Phoebe is sick. We noticed about 3 weeks ago that she was getting pretty thin and at her annual physical one week ago today that was confirmed. She had lost 6 lbs in the last year and was 1 lb underweight. Lab tests and an ultrasound showed some low grade liver failure possibly caused by a gallbladder infection and anemia. We started a two week course of antibiotics which is almost halfway through now, as well as vitamins and a gallbladder medicine.

The trouble is that there is no noticeable improvement in Phoebe after a week of treatment. She still is eating very little and is not her usual self at all. As you may remember, Phoebe has always been the very social cat, generally following me around all day to be in the same room and watch what I'm doing. In the last week, she has been withdrawing, hiding much of the day. The more I try to get her to eat, the more she pulls away. It's been very sad. I have to force those vitamins down her twice a day and I give her one pill in the AM and the other in the PM. I've been trying to consolidate the bad stuff and not bug her too much the rest of the time so that she won't withdraw even more.

On the positive side, she does still want to cuddle with me at times, particularly at night. She still grooms herself from time to time and she's still interested in going outside. As long as there is hope that she will improve with this, than I'm willing to continue, but i don't want to distress her if it's not going to make her better. We'll know more next week when we repeat the blood work. We made an appt. to take her in today and see if another boost with subcuatneous fluids might help.

New Haircut

2007-11-03T12:27:00.001-07:00

My hair was getting pretty long and it was frazzled at the ends, so I decided it was time for a big change. I went darker with the color and got it cut much shorter. Here it is still styled by my hair stylist. I really like how nice and smoothly straight she gets it. Fortunately, Denis actually prefers it the way I do it, which is without much effort put in! It took me several attempts at self-portraiture to get one I was satisfied with.

Recent pics

2007-11-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm going to try to make these worth the wait... Here are some scenic and family pictures from the past couple of weeks. We had my brother Jim visit for a week and took him up to Crater Lake. I hadn't been there in a few years. It was a beautiful day, so the lake was reflecting the blue sky. The Mt. Hood pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

One Week

2007-10-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's been 7 days since I posted anything on my blog. Seems like it's been even longer... Here's a quick update on what's going on around here:

I worked an extra day on Monday doing another chart review for my work project. It's going a bit slow this time around, but it is interesting. At this rate, it will take another couple of extra days to get it done.

My brother is in town for a week. He flew in from Ohio on Wednesday and is staying in our lovely guest room! My mom's best friends from Yakima, WA are also in town and staying at her house. So the last two nights, we've had dinner all together here where there is more room to sit around a table (than at my mom's house). Tomorrow, we will go to the United Methodist Church to here my brother present his mission work in Nicaragua and preach. After church, Denis, Jim and I are going to the coast. We won't have to hurry back since we are all late night people.

I took Joey to the vet today for a follow up visit. He got his second round of shots and a de-worming pill. He should be good for a year now unless we notice any problems. The official verdict is that he is still small for his age, but he is growing nicely now. Phoebe and Monica seem to be a little under the weather, so I'm keeping an eye on them. They will each get two de-worming pills in the next day or so (really looking forward to that.... NOT), just to be sure that those nasty creatures don't just make the rounds between the three of them. We are also going to be vigilant on kitchen cleanliness to be sure they aren't getting any food stuffs besides their prescribed stuff.

So that's it. You're up to date. I'll probably still be a bit absent the next few days with family in town.

Greetings from Hood River

2007-10-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Denis and I are up in Northern Oregon for the weekend. I had a conference to attend for work in Vancouver, WA and we decided to extend our time. We are staying at the historic Hood River Hotel and getting in touch with my roots. I was born here and lived in a small town at the foot of Mt. Hood until I was 11. It's a beautiful area. Today we are going to drive around visiting the local farms and hunting for "good apples" (Denis has specific tastes in apples) and admiring the mountains. I will take pictures. I hope your weekend is going well.

House for Rent

2007-10-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the rental house is on the market for new occupants. Denis put a lot of sweat and tears into that place. It's so nice to have it done and off our shoulders (as far as work goes). The cat pee smell is gone and it all looks pretty nice now. We would like to continue to make some improvements each year. Hopefully, that will be appealing to new renters and inspire longevity and responsibility. We'll see.

The ADA walk is this weekend. This is why I have not been posting anything lately. I've been running errands and a bit stressed out. When I'm home, I just haven't felt like putting much effort into thinking about what to write... But I have some good news to report. I went to my Nurse Practitioner about my allergies. She was able to get me in the day after I called! I now have both Allegra and the same fancy-schmancy nasal spray as Denis. I'm also doing a sinus rinsing thing that is not too much fun, but seems to be helping with the runny nose business. I feel like my nose is normal more of the time in the last two days. Not all of the time, but more of the time - it's an improvement anyway. I'm withdrawing from Afrin spray. It causes "rebound" stuffiness. I'm not sure how long that will last.

well, I think I'm going to sign off now. I'll write more after Saturday and let you know how the walk turns out this year.