43 Days, Whose Counting

We are winding down on our mission. There's not a lot we can do here now. We have been picking small projects that can be done in a short period of time. We cremated our Christmas tree yesterday. Larry is dismantling the base around our trailer. We are trying to get our "things" in order. We have new stuff that we want to bring home, but also other stuff we don't. The sofa and recliner need to go somewhere else, and the big BBQ needs to find a place to be packed. I've been mailing photo albums and other things home to save space. Our winter wear is not coming back to Texas., but actually it was what we have worn most of the time here......we look forward to that hot humid Texas weather.

Christmas All Year

This is our Christmas tree. We cut it the first week in Dec. We put it in a large pot and balanced it with big rocks and gravel. I took this picture in May, yes it still looks good. In fact it looked like it was starting to get new growth on it at one point.

After the holidays I just couldn't take it down. It gave us a lot of pleasure, something about it made us smile everyday. Diana Copitzky, a friend, said it always brightens her day when she sees it.

The sun has been shining for 2 weeks now. Our tree has finally started drying out, we had to turn out the lights for fear of fire. The day is coming when we will have to take it to the Christmas tree graveyard. We will remember the tree that brightened our gray rainy Washington days.

I haven't made a post in about 6 weeks. We have been just doing the same things. We cut brush, burn and mow. We take our "P" day weekly. I try to have something scheduled every week. The Tulip Festival, doing things with Jodie and shopping.

I'm scheduled for a colonscopy in June....I"m so excited. After being hospitalized for colonitis I couldn't put it off any more...almost 8 years.
We cured Larry's itching with zertec....he must have an allergy to something here.

The weather has been better than last year. We've actually been warm and used the A/C in the truck a couple of times....it was in the 60's. Returning to Texas in August should be a shock to the system

We are short timers, a little more than 80 days. We will miss spending time with Jodie, George, Jenna & Jake. But hopefully they will come to Texas to visit, and we know we will come back to Washington to visit them and the friends we have made here.

We plan on going to Forks with Jodie once school is out. We plan on hitting the Twilight sites.

The Warr's Visit the Warr's

Last week our son Brody, daughter-in-law Stephanie & Axel our youngest grandson came to visit. We had not seen Axel since he was 2 months old, how he's grown.

While waiting for them in the baggage area, we got to see Faith the 2 leged dog. It is amazing to watch her walk upright. She was on Brody's flight, but she flew First Class.

Axel warmed up to us real fast. How fun for us. So much of our fun is arranged around food. We first stopped by The Bus....real Mexican food. It tests my Spanish, but isn't taco & burrito universal. Then the first of several ferry rides.

The next day we went to Seattle, Pikes Market and the Space Needle, tourist must sees. At the market there are lots of ethnic foods, flying fish and the original Starbucks. We walked a few blocks to catch the monorail to Seattle Center and the Space Needle. We had lunch there. Definately not cheap, but the view was great and the food good. I would recommend paying the price and enjoy the view.

The next 2 days, nice drives. A ferry ride to Whidby Island, then to Deception Pass. Spectacular views. Off to Mt Vernon, the site of the Tulip Festival only no tulips yet, but lots of daffodils. Friday we headed east to the town of Leavenworth. We had beautiful weather,(sunshine!) It's a cute German town, lots of shops.

Saturday we went to the Museum of Flight. It was a good day to be inside, it rained like crazy(nothing new in Seattle) Another place I recommend seeing if you are going to Seattle. Larry and I plan to go again. We then went to Claim Jumper for dinner. Stephanie had asked what kind of place was Claim Jumper. It's hard to discribe, it must be experienced.

A trip to the zoo, and then the week was over. We all had a great time together, we are greatful for the time we spent together, and already miss them. We are on our countdown now to going home 121 days.

Be Careful what You Ask For

Larry & I have had a bit of a routine for while. I cut brush and pull weeds. Larry hauls off and burns what create and he also takes out fence. Larry said a couple of weeks ago he was kind of tired of the same old thing. But when you have 105 acres that needs lots of clean up and we need to burn it while we can.

On 02/03 we went for our monthly shopping trip to stock. I woke up a bit under the weather, passed on breakfast, but eager to go to Costco. After shopping a Costco hot dog and very berry sundae sounded good and hit the spot. On to Walmart and a couple of more stops, last being Panda Express for take-out later. After putting away a months groceries and prepping the pork for Larry to start the next day. We enjoyed our Panda. Green bean chicken and orange chicken. Yum.........a couple of hours later I started going down hill. You'd think I'd know better than eat that kind of food on a bad digestive system. I barely made it through American Idol and crawled into bed...oh yeah I already took the max of immodium earlier in the day.

It just went from bad to worst. After spending most of the next day in bed or in our micro bathroom I headed to a doctor. (a scary thing to do in a strange land). I ended up being referred to the ER and stayed a couple of days. I had colitis...no one knows why, but after 48 hours of fluids and antibiotics I got to go home. (It couldn't have anything with eating the hot dog & Chinese on a weak system, well it definately didn't help)

We do have alot a great people in our Branch on Vasho Island. When I went to the dr, I figured they'd give me a prescription and go home. Larry had 20 lbs of meat smoking on the weber, a couple of quick calls on our way to the ferry (oh yeah, no hospital on the island) and someone was going over to pick up and save the meat. I had offers to pick me up to bring me home and several calls to check my well being.

The work party pruned and trimmed on the apple orchard. Then we partied on good southern BBQ. (I was careful with what I ate) We later went to Jodie's for some more R&R. Oh yeah more snow Saturday and Monday.

And back to the routine of clearing brush and burning it.

My son's mother in law passed away a week ago. Jan and I had a good time being the "Grandma's" wanting for the birth of Axel. We since alot of time together going to Jan's treatments, worrying about Axel coming to soon, and then not soon enough. I will miss her.

Some sunshine

Today was 46 degrees and sunny. We actually drove with windows down a little. Yesterday we woke up to snow. But the sun came out for a while. Larry rode his bike in the afternoon, it was 38 and came back frozen. Again the weather plays on our moods. But it turns out that my whining about the sun is not without cause. I found out 2 wks ago, I have a vitamin D deficiency. The best resource is sunshine, but when you are covered head to toe in clothes and the trees hide the sun when it's out, it's hard to get the benefits. So now I'm on 50,000+ units of vitamin D per week and we see if that helps. Larry said he wouldn't mind if I laid out naked when the sun does shine. But I'm afraid 1) that would not be very missionary like of me 2) I would probably scare every living thing in the Park between the super white and sagging skin.

We had our Washington grandchildren over the weekend, while Jodie & George went to Vegas. We had fun with them. We went to the zoo, had pizza, worked pruning the forest, lots of ferry rides, and just a good all around time.

We went to see our CPA about getting our taxes done. This is always scarey. Just a few notes for those of you thinking about a senior mission. If you rent your house out, you cannot claim your living expenses. Lucky for us that is not the case. Our return may trigger an audit because of the high amount in contributions. But our CPA said when they notice it's an LDS return, they know that the contributions are usually higher than the norm. I hope we don't get to experience that adventure though.

Thirteen month down five to go.

One Year

I'm sitting by my dining room window. I think it's the first time in months that I've seen sunshine come through it. It feels wonderful. The temp is 48, but in front of the window it must be at least 50.
Saturday Jan 31 was our 39 wedding anniversary and we left Texas 1 year ago. In some ways the time has flown by, and in other ways it has drug by. We've had many wonderful experiences and many trials. But many of those trials are fading in time. Before we know it Aug will be here and we will be driving home.