Skiing

On Friday, March 27th, Hubs and I set out on our first adventure on the ski slopes.

We went with a family whom I know from my Bible Study Fellowship.

The boys are the same age as our girls and the guys are about the same age as well.

We had never been skiing before. We water ski, but that isn't necessarily the same thing.

We met up at Lowe's and then headed for Willamette Pass.

After a beautiful drive, we arrived, ready for some fun!

This was one of the first pictures I took. Not realizing that this was what people actually skied down. I for one, was hoping that I didn't have to maneuver down this hill!

This was a reference picture, to note how much snow was actually there.

The guys gearing up for the great adventure

Us girls were on the lift heading up the hill and I was able to snap a few pics of the guys.

They of course beat us up the hill.

Right after I snapped the pic, Hubs ended up on the ground! Too funny. I think this was the one and only time he fell on the hill.

We made it to the bottom. I had fallen coming down the hill. I believe just once on this trip.

After several trips down the bunny hill, we went in for some water. We caught up with the oldest of the boys, M~he is 16. He had been out on the back side of the slopes. He is not an amateur like some of us.

Hubs wanted to get a pic of us girls, so here it is...

Hubs thought that he could handle something a little more exciting than the bunny hill. So M~ convinced him to try the next hill, I can't remember what it is called. Oh~ Duck Soup!

So this is them getting on the bigger and much faster lift to take them to the top.

We were waiting at the bottom! Entertaining ourselves with self portraits. :~)

He made it down safe and sound. He said he fell a couple of times up above, but when we were able to see him, he was doing awesome!

Back to our safe place~the Bunny Hill! That is us girls ahead of Hubs on the lift.

Boy #2, he came to check on us. This is L~he is 13. He is quite the loaner out skiing. He just wanted to see how we were doing. He did ride up the hill with Hubs a couple of times, just for fun.

It was such a beautiful day. I was getting very warm, so inside my bibs is my hat, my water bottle and the camera, most of the time. The bibs Hubs and I wore were the ones that my folks wore back in the days of snowmobiling. When I was just a wee one. It is pretty fun to get those old clothes out and be able to use some of them for our outings now.

My friends foot began to bother her and so she sat down for a while. While she was resting I went up and down the hill a few more times. This is a picture she snapped of me, while she was watching and waiting.

We had such a great time. I am a little sore in the hands and neck today from my few spills. One of them was even on level ground! I would love to be able to take the girls sometime. It was so much fun.

After we finished up our skiing trip, we headed up to Woodburn to meet up with my sister and the girls. They were ready to come home and we were missing them. So it made for a really long day, but one filled with memories.

Quick Trip

Friday evening Mom and I and the girls headed to Washington, about 4:30pm. We stopped a couple times to "rest" and once for some food. We got to Sister's about 10:30pm. T-Rex had a soccer game in Everett the next day. We needed to be out of the house by 8:30am. So we visited and unloaded and chatted and chatted and started falling asleep on each other. Early the next day we all loaded into Sister's car and headed to Everett. Here are some pics from the way

Peanut and Curly....resting on the drive.....
Bugg and Nana...not really sure here???

At the soccer complex in Everett the sun was trying to shine. But, the temp was in the low 40's.

A nice little man had a van that was converted to a coffee cart :~)

So Curly is having some hot chocolate.

Auntie and her girl

Mom~had a COLD one and then told us she was COLD! Imagine that...

Why can't they give me a good picture???

Sister and our cute little "boyfriend"

~cousins~

waiting for the game~

Playing with Max~ he is so sweet. He just comes up to me and puts his arms out for a pick up

~SISTERS~

again

being crazy

texting and DS

There's the boy playing

just a little dirt won't hurt :~)

He had been so sick. He was coughing something awful all the way there.

But he played like he wasn't. He's such a great kid!

trying to be warm....my coat, aunt's blanket...whatever was available

watching...

After the game, it was a tie, we headed out to find some food. We ended up at Northgate Mall and Red Robin for some good times. After we got home to Sister's place, Nana and I packed up the car and headed for Oregon. Mom and I had a good time. We talked about a lot of things and she stayed awake the whole time!!! IT was a quick trip, but it was fun!

He is at it again....

OK, so a couple of things in this one.

Firstly, this week, I had a very close friend call me with some concerning news. She had a test run and the report was very suspicious. This is a new friend, not the same friend I went with last week. Yes, I have two friends :~). The report for this friend was so suspicious they immediately ordered her to go get another test done. So immediately I began praying. I also put a blurb on my Facebook about needing an answer to prayer TODAY. So the hard thing was that the test was yesterday, now the wait for the results. I called my friend this morning and she was so distraught, she was feeling hopeless and down. Hurting emotionally, physically, and for that matter Spiritually. I told her to not give up hope. I was holding out for a miracle. I believed. I did.

So, later in the day, my friend calls me to ask me what "xxx xxx" is???? I said, I will get back to you. I called her back with the information I had, talked with a couple of the people I work with, Doctors namely :~), to see what they had to say. It is not what we were originally told it was!! Hallelujah! It was something totally treatable. I am so happy. I knew He could do it and HE did! Thank you! By the way, she is thanking Him as well.

Secondly, Peanut had a choir concert tonight. She is in the Mixed Choir. She did great. I tried to take some pics while they were singing.....

With the Mixed Choir
All the choirs....

Better yet, let me just take your picture now! After the concert.

and with Nana and Daddy

and of course, with Papa!

So that was my day. A very good day indeed!

Weird~

I got off work yesterday and I was headed home, as I was turning at the light at Newton Creek, I see my car coming towards me. Window down, sunglasses on, sweet girl smiling....it was my girl~she was on her way to deliver some items to her sister who had stayed after school. Was that not the weirdest thing. It just seems so strange to see her, without me, driving down the road, waving as we pass.

I got my things together and headed to the school where Peanut was, so that I could help her. Her Costa Rica group had planned a game night at Jo lane. There were wii games~ guitar hero, dance-dance, rock band~slot machines, cake walk (with so many baked goods it was amazing), the kids were invited to come and they would get a cup full of tokens for $5 and they could play the slots, with the tokens they won they could earn prizes. There were some cool prizes. The winners of the wii stuff could win bowling bucks, free pizza, dinner from sonic, and a tshirt claiming the grand prize of 2009 wii champion at Jo lane. We were selling nachos and hot dogs, soda, ice cream, chips.... The only thing that didn't go well~the number of kids that showed up.
Less than 50 I would say. We found out that there was a dance for the middle schoolers at the Boys and Girls club and that is where the majority of our kids had gone. We worked hard and the kids that came~had a great time. I guess the plan is to try again next month, but what a lot of work. Hopefully, it will go better next time.

Thankful

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend some time with a friend of mine. My friend has been having some difficult times and has been fighting health issues to go along with it. She has been having some tests done here and there and one of the tests came back suspicious. She really is very independent and didn't want anyone to worry, so she didn't tell anyone. We snuck out of town to visit a specialist to get some biopsy done. It was a little scary and we were praying alot.
We were admitted rather quickly, but then we had to wait nearly two hours for her procedure to start. We visited, talked some serious stuff and some not so serious stuff. When you are relatively young (she's just a little older than me) and you face what could possibly be a "death sentence" you tend to talk about some serious and not so serious things. So we did, we laughed, and we cried some. She made fun of all the items in my purse, although I had everything she needed :~). They finally took her away, they told me it would be about an hour. I wondered about this facility, brand new by the way, trying to locate a diet Pepsi. That is all I wanted. It was quite the trek to find, but an enjoyable trek. There is this grand lobby that looks like a Swiss Chalet (not that I have ever seen a Swiss Chalet, but what I imagine it to be) a fireplace in the center, chair and lounging spots around the fire, a grand staircase that has two sides, a grand piano with a sweet little lady playing some soft music. WOW! I just really wanted to find a diet Pepsi. So some nice little volunteer directed me to where she thought "maybe, just maybe" there would be a vending machine, "if we even have those". But, the direction she sent me, up the grand staircase, passed the piano, through these double doors entered into the "cafeteria", which is a far too generic name for the fine establishment. But, I found Diet Pepsi. I made my way back to the waiting area. I read for a little bit, then thought about heading to the ladies room. I went back to my chair, read again and thought to myself, it has been over an hour, maybe I should see if she is done and I just missed the volunteer looking for me. So I ventured over to this reader board that told me her procedure was done and she was ready for family. I made my way to the volunteer and asked for her, "oh yes, I called for you!" I must have been in the bathroom. I went back to the room and sat quietly in the darkened room next to my sleeping friend. I touched her cheek to let her know I was there, she mumbled something to me, unintelligible. Then every few minutes she would arouse and say something, usually something pretty funny and then doze back off. After a while I asked the nurse if the doctor would be back to talk with us, oh yes of course he will. So she dozed.....and she dozed....and she dozed....for nearly an hour and a half. I sat and spoke with her when she would awaken. Finally, the nurse said, "let's get you up and get you something to drink!" After she was up and to the bathroom and had something to drink, the nurse paged the doctor. He came and explained the procedure to us and that he had opted not to do everything he had anticipated because he found the problem. He found a stricture that shouldn't have been where it was and that was what the problem was! Hallelujah! Praising Jesus for answered prayers. He explained himself so thoroughly and then answered my friends questions. We were ready to celebrate. After her discharge we headed to a big name store because we thought we could get a watch battery, cause hers had quit working that morning (which she thought was a bad omen, It wasn't :~). She was slightly wobbly and big name store said, we don't have battery for you because your watch isn't from here. So we wobbled out. Food was our next desire. We headed for PF Chang's! I hadn't eaten there, only heard about it, so we were on our way. We had a great meal, she started waking up a little more, she ate pretty slowly!! Anyway, we visited and laughed and I relived my conversations with her that I had had at her bedside while she was "dozing", because she didn't remember a one! We giggled and felt true joy that our prayers for her healing had been heard and answered. We had a great ride home and felt truly blessed that we could spend the day together and get good NEWS! Thank you Jesus for good friends. Ones that we can share anything with!

New Glasses

Here is a picture of my new glasses. I had to do it leaning over so my little cripple girl could take it to show you. They are hard to adjust to, but I will get it. They are green, you really can't see that from this pic, but here there are. This is for my little friend Aubrey. She just got new glasses too!

Uh-Oh

Bugg got to drive herself to practice for the first time last night! But at the end of practice we got a phone call from her, she had twisted her ankle and couldn't drive herself home! So today I took her in to the Urgent Care, not broken, but sprained and she shouldn't play for a couple of weeks!! Oh my goodness, that really made her sad. She has a Power League tournament this weekend in Salem, they will have to play without her. Her coach isn't to thrilled either! I have to go get her a brace and exchange Peanut's crutches for a longer pair! Uh-Oh!

Today!!!

Bugg made an appointment to take her Driver's test at the DMV at 8:50 am. She actually made the phone call by herself and everything! So, she got all fixed up, just in case she had to have her picture taken and we headed to the DMV.

She is driving to the DMV. I started getting butterflies in my tummy just thinking about it!

This is her face after she came back with the test driver~Guess I don't need to tell you how she did!

Getting her picture made with her new jacket and top from yesterday's shopping trip!

Adjusting everything in the car so that she can drive off! Wow, how weird! My baby is headed out all by her self. She is now a licensed driver. Her dad picked her up from school and headed to a car lot to look at this car she really likes. They even test drove it! WOW. I feel so old and weird and I am not sure exactly what I feel! :~)

Congratulations Lynsey, you worked hard for this day.

I love you!

Sunday March 1st~Laura's shower

Laura and Richie are expecting their first baby in less than 7 weeks. They are going to name her Addison Marie. The shower was Sunday and we had a great time. They did a great job. The new Community Center in Winston is amazing. When we lived out there it was a run down building and then the tree fell in it. Now it is gorgeous and that is where we "showered". Here's a few pics to remember the day.

The Mother-to-be~7 weeks to go

Laura and Brooke~ Brooke works with me at the Surgery Center

This is Grace, her Mommy is cousin-in-law to the Father-to-be, she also works with me.

Grace's mommy~Trixie~she is due again in June

Nicole~the Hostess, Laura and Brooke

This is Richie's little sister~she is expecting as well!

Trish and Grace~

Grace and I~we were looking at the "camera". She wouldn't take her picture with me until we had the play camera, so while her mom held the play camera, Bugg snapped a shot of us. Too funny that I was looking at the wrong camera! You think I would know better :~)

Those Mom's again~Gramma Willy, Nana and Gramma Gail~

forever friends

Kimmy~my big (little) sis

Richie's mom and Brooke~aka the Gramma and the Aunt of Addison

Brooke and Laura again~

Mom and Willy

Gail and Kimmy

one of the outfits we got her

Gracie helping with the tissue paper~

Richie~getting in on the action.