My busy week

I had such a busy week, I didn't get on the computer to blog much. I intended to post photos of our beach trip each day, but I was so busy and tired I haven't been on the computer much.

VBS
Starting Monday, Natalie and Zander enjoyed a week long VBS at our neighbor's church in Pleasant Valley. The theme was Avalanche Ranch and each day they got to bring home a "Bible Buddy" figurine with that day's memory verse written on the back. They also did fun crafts, ate yummy snacks, played games, sang songs, watched a movie and had TONS of fun. I was a little bit apprehensive dropping them off at a church they had never been to, where they didn't know anyone, but when I picked them up the first day, Natalie had her arms wrapped around a new friend she made and she was giggling and smiling and having so much fun. Zander, like always, jumped right in and didn't even look back. Every day this week after I picked them up, all they could talk about was Avalanche Ranch.

Natalie and Sarah had fun together at VBS.

Weeds vs. Allergies
My plan was to use the three hours each morning to clean up around the house and catch up on yard work. So for the first two days I was out in my vegetable garden pulling weeds. A few weeks of being ignored and the weeds literally took over. Unfortunately, my allergies were so bad that it became extremely difficult to remain outside at all, much less stirring up grass and weeds. I decided it wasn't worth it.

Broccoli, lettuce and leeks.
If anyone needs fresh lettuce, come on over...It's all coming up at once and I would hate for it to go to waste.

Here is the scary part of my garden...this is where I have not only weeds coming up, but pumpkins and sunflowers thanks to some seeds planted by our vast bird population around here. Anyone know if it's too late to transplant these things? I intended to have an orderly garden, but don't think it is turning out that way...oh, well...don't tell Martha Stewart on me!

Getting into Shape
Later in the week, instead of gardening, I used the 3 hours (while the kids were at VBS) to go to the gym. Earlier in the week I was going on walks down our road, but again, my allergies wouldn't have it, so I had to do my work-outs indoors. I have done about an hour of cardio each day along with some light weights and let me just say it practically knocked me out. It took all of my reserve energy and by the end of the day I could barely load the dishwasher. Dan has been so helpful, knowing how much time I was spending at the gym. I think he put the kids to bed more days than I did so I could just crash.

Blazer Draft Party
Our friends CJ and Cathy Gish and their three kids are in town from Idaho, so on Thursday Dan and CJ headed over to the Blazer's Draft Party at the Rose Garden Arena. They got to meet The Shonz (Bill Schonely) and saw first hand, along with 6,000 other Blazer fans, the Blazermania that erupted when the crowd rushed the court after Greg Oden was selected as our #1 draft pick! Am I kicking myself that I didn't send my camera with Dan?...um, Yeah!!! I know my dad, who was quoted in last Sunday's Oregonian (about the draft), should be pleased with our pick too. He is an Ohio State alumni and a big fan of Oden's. That about covers my week until Friday.

Greg Oden, our new guy.

They're Baaaack...
During our recent beach trip, I began to experience some "flank" tenderness, which made me think something was going on in my kidneys again. I didn't think much of it because the dull ache was nothing compared to the agony and pain of passing a kidney stone, so I just upped my water intake and went about my day. Due to my mother's recent kidney stone problem, I was prompted to finally (after about 6 months of on again off again soreness) make an appointment to see what was up with my kidneys. Since moving out to the sticks, I didn't really want to drive all the way out to Emanuel Hosp., so I decided to make an appointment with my Mom (and Dad's) urologist at Portland Adventist. He was all booked up, so I was assigned to a different doctor. Friday morning I woke up at O-dark-hundred hours because I had to get an X-ray before my 8 am appointment. I took the X-rays to my car and decided to go on a walk as I had 30 minutes to kill before my appointment. After waiting FOREVER, the doctor finally saw me around 9 am. (Hey, I was on time...why couldn't she be!!!) After discussing my medical history, she took me to see the X-ray...there, way up in the upper section of my right kidney, was a HUGE spot. Yep! I got a monster kidney stone. I just shook my head in disbelief. For those of you who know anything about kidney stones, this was over 1 cm. My last one from 2 years ago, which was also considered large, was between 6-7 mm.

Due to the location, my doctor ordered a CT scan to get a better look at what we're dealing with. She said there is a small chance it could be a gall stone, but I am going to assume it's a kidney stone for now. So the bad news is...I have another kidney stone to deal with. The good news is...this sucker is way to big to pass (or even fit in my ureter), so I am almost guaranteed that it won't cause me any excruciating pain! Unfortunately, I will have to undergo one, maybe two procedures to break it up. This part I am not worried about, but the stent that is put in for a month afterward is what I dread. UGGG!

So, with this lovely news weighing on my mind, I drive home just in time to get Dan and Hayden and drive to the VBS program and hear all the songs Natalie and Zander have learned all week. Afterwards we rushed home to clean up for our friends who were coming over for dinner.Zander, 4th from the left, shows us all the motions that go with the songs.

Dinner Party
Dan had arranged a small reunion of sorts with our friends CJ and Cathy and our former college journalism advisor Bob Watkins and his wife Patty. Dan has been working with Bob for the past 3 years at the college, but CJ had not seen him for over 10 years. We had such a good time talking and catching up over dinner. I brought out my college scrapbook (done the old-school way with those horrible magnetic pages...yea, I know bad, bad, bad) and they loved seeing the photos of the old newspaper staff. Some really, really great memories were made during our newspaper production down time. In fact, the camaraderie that was established during that time is largely responsible for Dan and I getting together and it's also where CJ and Cathy met. After lots of laughs and funny stories it was time to call it a night. After everyone left I crashed on the couch...which is where I slept all night, as Dan didn't have the heart to wake me up.

Bob, scoring some points with Hayden, then looking through some old photos. CJ and Cathy, our long-time friends from college.

What's gotten into my husband?

I'm sure a few of you out there can relate to me when I say my husband is a little distracted lately. He's been calling up all his friends and chatting about the good news...For those of you who haven't heard, the Portland Trail Blazers just won the number one draft pick! It's been a long time coming, but I think this may be what gets me back on the Blazer's bandwagon.

For about 5 or 6 years the Blazers have really not been worth watching, in my opinion. I used to love watching the games back in the day (in the early to mid 90's). They were always in the playoffs and Blazermania was everywhere. But something happened (bad trades etc.) and we ended up with a team of losers, both on the court and off the court. Dan would turn the games on and I wouldn't recognise any of the players. I knew nothing about them, nor did I care to. Eventually I began recognizing some of the players by name as they were in the news a lot. Unfortunately, none of the news stories they were featured in were sports segments.

Back when Clyde, Terry, Jerome, Danny, Buck, Kevin and Cliff were part of our team, they were great. Great players and for the most part, great people. They were fun to get behind and route for. I just hope that having the number one draft pick will get us back to where we were, when watching basketball was fun. One thing is for sure, tickets are already selling like hotcakes. Dan tried to score some season tickets and all the good seats are all but gone.

On another note, did you guys catch Clyde on Dancing with the Stars? Let's just hope he doesn't trade in his basketball shoes in for dancing shoes. The guy was bad. And I mean bad in the original translation...not a good dancer at all. I have never seen such "white" dance moves from a black guy...especially one who's nicknamed Clyde the Glide! I am a HUGE fan of his, but he totally was not into this show. Most of the time he looked like he was thinking "get me out of here...I don't want to be doing this."

I was actually rooting for Joey to win, cause he made me laugh. He seems to have such a good sense of humor, but Apollo was just as good a dancer. It was exciting to watch both of them. Now that all my favorite reality shows have ended, there is only one more cliff-hanger left...tonight will be the 2-hour season finally of LOST (only the best show on tv right now!). I can't believe how good the show has gotten over the past 3 months. So many questions have been answered, yet so many mysteries remain. I have never anticipated a show like I do this one. The character development, the story line and the writing are brilliant. I could go on and on. There were a lot of "spoilers" on 2 Peas (scrapbooking message board) today and I just had to get off the computer before I was tempted to look. If you are as crazy about this show as I am you will be glad to know that their contracts were renewed through 2010!!!

Well, I have Zander's preschool program tonight, but you can bet Dan and I will be racing home to put the kid's in bed so we can watch our show!

By the way, my dad had a doctor's appointment today and his PSA levels are still going down slightly. Not to where they should be, but the doctor was pleased that they are going in the right direction. Thanks for all who continue to pray. His next appointment with his surgeon will be in July.