At Least He Still Has A Smile

Mom already told the story of what happened at the Wenatchee Airport so I won't repeat it. Hopefully things have gone smoothly since! I did get an e-mail from the Brazil CTM office stating that Brian and the other missionaries arrived safely and were given a warm welcome. They also mentioned that the food there is abundant and good. His P-day will be either Tuesday's or Wednesday's, so I will be anxiously awaiting. They get to attend the temple in the morning and then can e-mail family and friends in the afternoon.

It's Official!

Brian was set apart tonight at the Stake President's home in Cashmere. (About an hour and ten minutes from Pateros). It was a very spiritual experience and made me feel a little bit more reassured. I'm not going to promise that I won't cry at the airport tomorrow, but he shared some scriptures with us, set Brian apart, and then gave him a blessing. He is now a missionary on his way to serve the Lord and people of Brazil.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brian really wanted a "Thanksgiving" dinner before he left, so he got one! We don't really think they celebrate Thanksgiving in Brazil :) One by one we are checking off dinners, activities, and preparations. Tomorrow is another big day.

43 pounds and counting ...

How in the world do you fit what you need for two years in one bag this size? This is about the size I would need for a week-end get-away. He is almost packed. Brian wants to buy a new pair of basketball shoes to take for P-day. He is allowed to bring two pair of basketball shorts so he is pretty excited thinking that means they can at least do some sort of physical activity (besides walking)
A few snacks for the 24 hour plane ride. Bob and I don't think he will sleep much with all that sugar!

Don't Ask Me

I have no idea why in my last post my pictures were first and my intro is last. I'm getting worse instead of better. I am going to tell myself that when Brian is on his mission, Kyle is settled in at BYU-I, and Katie has started school and the Fair is over I will have so much extra time. I will be able to spend more time doing things I would like to do but have not had time to do: like figuring out this blogging thing beyond the basics! Yeah, right!

I've been a dud!

Don't ask me why: I had a crazy idea that I could re-do Katies room in a day. I mean they can build a house in a week, so why not a room in a day? We painted it white, Bob took two old dressers and sanded and re-painted them black. Got some new bedding, curtains, and wall accessiories. Looks pretty cute! I will post a completed project soon.

Everyones seen the temple picture, but I wouldn't seem right for me not to post one as well. It was a very nice day, long but nice. I guess the missionaries get to go to the temple once a week while in the CTM (that's what they call it at the Sao Paulo MTC, it stand for Center for Training Missinaries).
A happy day for Kyle! He got his braces off today, 8/28/08. We had a fun day in Wentachee. Got his car tuned up cleaned, went to Costco, out to lunch, a little shopping, and of course most important: appointment with the orthodontist.
I have been a real dud at blogging the last couple weeks, obviously! I can come up with all kinds of excuses but I'll spare you! Here's a few pictures:

If Your Looking For A Good Time On A Friday Night...

then you don't want to come to our house!Bob's asleep on the couch before 9:30 while I'm busy
cleaning the bathroom,
doing laundry,

and lots of other exciting things.

The bad thing is, Saturday night

won't be a whole lot different.

I hope your weekend was more exciting!

The Bad News Bears play in Tacoma!

Katie and her friend Ashley
Katie at bat Kyle caught texting during the game, it was hard to watch!
The team

Katie played in a softball tournament this weekend in Tacoma. It was fun staying at the Red Lion, fun eating out and shopping, fun seeing David and Tiffani, fun for the boys to spend a little time with Kinley. Not so fun watching out girls play. WOW, embarrassing. Their uniforms were some shorts and a tank top from Wal-Mart. Someone, not sure just who, then tie-dyed the tank tops and then the girls wrote their team name "Cyclones" on the front and their number on the back with a black sharpie pen. Uh, most of the teams are pretty decked out with matching everything including fancy bat bags. Katie actually pitched pretty darn well, it's just she had to get anywhere from 3 to 6,7, maybe even 8 outs an inning.

Scooter + Kyle = WIPE-OUT

Well let's just say Kyle is probably lucky to be alive right about now. At the very least he's lucky to not be in some ICU hooked up to all kinds of monitors and machines. He decided on Tuesday afternoon to take the scooter down to a friends to pick up a basketball. He was going down the hill by our house at 50 MPH(yes 50 but don't tell Bob) with no helmut. I'm not sure exactly what happened then but for some reason he needed to hit the brakes and due to his inexperience in scooter riding he hit the FRONT brakes. The scooter lost control, he slid into some gravel which then caused the scooter to flip and threw him off. After rolling several times he came to a stop. He left quite a bit of skin on the road. Bob and I weren't home at the time. There were several people around who witnessed the accident. A friend gave him a ride up to the house and another friend drove the scooter home (the scooter came out of this accident better than Kyle). At first Kyle thought he could just clean up the various scrapes and bandage them up at home but he quickly realized it was a little more serious. Bob got home about 10-15 minutes later and took him to the emergency room in Brewster (about 7 miles from Pateros). I was getting my hair cut in Chelan. At the time Kyle and Bob were trying to reach me I think the stylist was blow-drying my hair because I didnt hear my phone at all. When I got up to pay I could feel it vibrating and it was then I noticed I had missed 20 calls from Bob. Needless to say I got to Brewster as fast as I could and we spent the next couple hours in the ER while they scrubbed and bandaged him up. We went to the doctor today to follow-up and decide exactly how to treat each wound. Some are just abrasions so a little neosporin will do, some are more serious and need more attention. He started on some antibiotics today as well. He needs pain pills to sleep at night and mom has to wash his hair in the sink. This little accident will be putting a little crimp in the rest of Kyle's summer plans which were to play golf every Friday and play in a 3 on 3 basketball tourney this Saturday with Brian and a few other friends. But these are just insignificant sacrafices compared to what could have happened. Believe me Kyle has had quite a few lectures from doctors, nurses, random people and even the lady at the pharmacy counter (not to mention Bob and I). We are very glad and thankful it wasn't more serious. Hopefully lesson LEARNED.

Help!!

I have the basics, and I mean the very basics down as far as blogging goes. I did not want to publish my new post like it is but after spending a couple hours and losing the pictures I had downloaded once I just had to go with it. I didn't like how all the pictures are in a long vertical row and I want to be able to make comments about certain pictures under the picture itself but I can't do it. I am going to be calling someone soon to help walk me through it, so maybe just give me a web site that has good basic instructions. I would like to eventually have my blog be a little more than just the basics ... that might be a while though!

Family Road Trip and Reunion

We left Pateros Saturday morning around ten am. The trip got off to a bad start, I broke my camera trying to rush outside to take a picture. The kids think I'm getting a little obsessed. So...

that meant a stop at Costco in Spokane for an early birthday present for me: a new camera! Prior to that we made a quick stop at the River Square Mall in downtown Spokane. Brian and Kyle bought me my birthday present at Nordstroms. A new pair of jeans, thanks guys! I would have worn them on the trip but they need hemming first. We stayed in Bozeman, Montana Saturday night. Sunday we drove down through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Forest. The kids weren't real impressed but it's one of those things you can say you've done. Bob got to make a stop at the Harley store to pick up a couple new t-shirts and then Sunday night we stayed in Montpelier, Idaho. Monday was spent checking in, unloading and driving to Logan for food. The rest of the week whizzed by so fast and before I know it, it was Saturday and time to leave. I was a little relieved to hear that others were a little emotional at saying good-bye as well. I was on the verge of a major breakdown as we drove away. I won't even get started! Here's just a few pictures (the kids started complaining about posing an hour or so into the trip so then I didn't end up taking as many as I wanted).

On A Lighter Note...

I just had to post this picture of all these cute little goats. (not as cute as Loraya by far, I don't have a cute 4 year old who will sing for the camera!). I drive by this pasture regularly on the way to visit a patient and they are always out grazing. The picture doesn't show it but there are at least 100 of them. In the early spring all the babies started appearing. Unfortunately I asked my patient what the owner did with the goats and I won't share the answer! I guess they are safe for a little while and enjoying their short little life in the pasture.

Loss

Most of you "bloggers" have already figured out that blogging is similar to keeping a journal that you share with your family and friends. It gives you a chance to express all kinds of feelings and events that are happening to and around you. This is great! So I thought I would take advantage of it and express some feelings about something I have been thinking about the last day or two. That is about loss. This word can mean a lot of different things to people and can change day to day depending on what our personal situation is. I had been thinking about some losses I have had and will have shortly. First of all is mom and dad selling their house. To me it feels like a loss. A loss of not just my family home where I have lived since I was 12 but also my kids spent a great deal of their growing up years there , a loss future memories that will not be made there, a loss of Christmas eve celebrations, a loss of always having a place to call home in Shoreline etc ... all the things most of you have already mentioned in your e-mails. Then I have been having this overwhelming feeling of loss as Brian and Kyle prepare to "move on" with their lives. They will soon be at a point where they will return more as occasional visitors (at least that's the plan)! Of course having them leave home is not just a physical loss of their presence here every day but of everything that goes along with it: friends, laundry, sports, school activities, attending church together, cleaning up after them every morning after they leave for school or work :) Then today at work I was really overcome with this overwhelming sadness watching families of patients have to face the fact that their loved one is dying. There is nothing anyone can to do stop it. I had a mom of a 52 year old who is dying of pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver follow me to the door when I was leaving and she just had the saddest eyes. They were filled with tears as she talked to me and it was so hard. I had to sit at a table and try to answer the questions of this same pts dad who wants to know what he should "expect" as the patient declines and his death is imminent. Of course this is not the first time I have dealt with this in my job but in the last two days I have had 4 admissions with similar scenarios: cancer that has spread and there is no further treatment that can help. What I really know is that there is only one person that can truly ease our burdens and give us peace. I am so grateful I have this knowledge because to be honest I have no idea how people cope without it. "When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance. " -Elder David A. Bednar

First Concert: Tim McGraw!!

One of Kyle's graduatin presents was two concert tickets to see Tim McGraw. He had mentioned several times that Katie had already been to several concerts (Destiny's Child and Black Eyed Peas) and here he was graduating and had not ever been to one. So I looked around on the internet and saw Tim was playing at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Wa. I got him two tickets so he could take a friend, brother or whoever. After pretty much demanding, Kyle had only one option: take Brian. We all like Tim McGraw. I was jealous. They left Tuesday afternoon after Kyle's orthodontist appointment in Wenatchee and headed to Auburn. They said it was a great concert and had a really fun time. Next time however Kyle said he will bring a date because most people seemed to be there with dates and danced a lot to the songs he was singing! He didn't feel comfortable doing that with Brian :). Now Kyle can go to college and Brian can go on his mission not being deprived of the experience of going to see someone live in concert. They spent the night with their dad in Gig Harbor and then headed back to good old Pateros on Wednesday. They made a quick stop in Manson to visit Kristie and the "gang".

Saving The Flowers ...

Bob has been busy this weekend with a little project. He has set up a automatic watering system for my flowers, the potted and the hanging baskets. I was worried about what to do when we went on vacation for over a week. The last time we went on vacation Bob asked one of his employees who lives in town if he would water the flowers each day and when we came back we are pretty sure he came over that day to water them but had done very little if any before that time. We have a week to test it out. It is set up to water them 3 times a day. Of course the weather has been unpredictable but by this weekend here it's supposed to be in the mid 90's so with that kind of heat they will need watering 3 times a day to stay alive. Now if he'd just get drawing our house plans hmmmm....