Swing!

I'm way behind on blog posts. What to do? I may get around to catching up, or I may not. The last few weeks have been crammed full of travel, helping Mom get unpacked, visits from grandchildren...

Meanwhile, whether I blog about it or not, life goes on!

Kendra and her family were in town today to join in the annual blueberry harvest. We celebrated her birthday (actually it's tomorrow) and Mom and Dad's 61st anniversary (really was today).

Mom made a delicious roast with all the fixings, and her famous carrot cake. Yum!

Afterwards she joined her great-grandchildren outside on the swings.

I'll try to post more often...but I might be outside on the swings.

Road Trip: California Central Coast

Road trip: first stop, central coast of California. This is where Mark and I grew up. My mom grew up here, too. We spent four days visiting Mark's mom, LaVerne, and renewing old memories.

Places live deep in our souls. The Morro Bay waterfront always takes me back to my earliest sense of self. While we were here, we at lunch at Giannini's and poked around in The Shell Shop. My brother and I used to collect sand dollars from the beach and sell them to The Shell Shop for 5¢. The guy who owned The Shell Shop would let us buy exotic shells from him in exchange. I wrote about one of my earliest memories in Morro Bay here.

We also visited the home in San Luis Obispo where Mom grew up.

It is on the corner of High and Price streets in San Luis Obispo. My grandfather used to always joke about how they were "high price" people. It looks much the same on the outside, although I noticed that the front porch seems much smaller to me now than it did when I was a child.

There was a man on the front porch, and Mom introduced herself to him, explaining that she had grown up in the house back in the 30s and 40s. He invited us inside. The house has been divided into two separate residences, both small. They each have a kitchen/living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. The property is now owned by an agency that provides housing for terminally ill AIDS patients. We were only able to see one of the kitchen/living rooms - it was the area of the former living room of the house. Although we didn't see very much inside the home, it was an emotional experience for Mom to be back in that place where she lived all of her childhood.

This home was a significant place in my childhood, too. I dearly loved my maternal grandparents, who were consistently kind and loving to my brother and me, and our cousins, too. I have so many memories of spending the night there when our cousins came to visit from out of town (we lived only 12 miles away). My grandfather would pull out his harmonica and play old tunes--"Redwing," "Yellow Rose of Texas," "Red River Valley," and some Civil War-era tunes--"Dolly Day," "Soldier's Lullaby." After he had played each song on his harmonica, he would sing the words to us in his quavery old grandfather voice. Then he would play the tune again. Then a different one, the words, the tune. Then another...

The home has a peaceful, healing feeling, and we all agreed that we were glad it could be a place of peace and kindness.

Mom also took us to the place where she and Dad met when she was 15 and he was not quite 18. He was a new student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and she was a sophomore in high school going to dances at the Teen Center. This was in 1950. There were no female students at Cal Poly at the time. The Teen Center dances were only open to teens up to 18 years old, but Dad didn't turn 18 until October of that year, so he went to a Teen Center dance early in the school year to see who he could meet. He always said that he knew that night, during their first dance, that this was the girl he wanted to marry. They were married two years later, in July 1952, when he was 19 and Mom was "almost 17" (it was only 3 weeks until her birthday). Mom went on to graduate from high school before they started their family. They were married for over 60 years and had a life full of adventures.

 Mom, Maria Barrows, me

We also connected with two dear friends while we were visiting the central coast. First was Maria Barrows, mother of one of my very close high school friends. She lives in a lovely retirement home, where she graciously treated us to lunch and showed us all over the grounds. It has been many years since I've seen her, and it was a treat to enjoy her lively conversation again. Sad irony...her daughter, Ann, who lives and works in Japan, will be visiting Oregon while we are out of town! Ah, well, we will have to reconnect with Ann another time.

Mark, me, Jill Barnier

We spent a very happy evening with another close high school friend, Jill. She has an extremely busy schedule, but when she heard we were coming to the central coast, she arranged her schedule to make a weekend trip from where she lives in the central valley to spend some time with us on the coast. It was hard to say goodbye at the end of our visit. Jill made the very astute observation that friends who have known us since we were very young--before we found ourselves in our adult lives--hold memory of us that no one else does, which makes these long-time friends especially precious. So true! It was a delight to pick up where we left off, which was quite a few years ago. Jill was my matron of honor at Mark's and my wedding, and we've only seen her once since then. Except for occasional emails, (and Jill stalks my blog - Hi Jill! I know you're reading this!), our only contact is these rare visits, which makes them all the more cherished.

I don't even know what to call this post...

...I thought about "Bloggorhea," but that sounds kind of negative and self-deprecating. Not my intent. Then I thought about "Ketchup" - you know, as in "Catch up" - but when you have to explain the punchline the joke's not funny any more, right?

In any case, May and June have been crazy-busy, and I'm way behind on posting. I've been working on this post for about 4 days now, and it's not finished. I promise I'll post before I go to bed tonight, finished or not!

Where to start? 

School is out

The end of school is always a crazy time for teachers. This year was even more so because Mark has been working on his National Board Teacher Certification, and the deadline for his humongous portfolio was May 30. He had intended to work on it over spring break, but then family needs took over everything else with Dad's death, moving Mom, etc. 

Anyhoo...school was out last week week before last. We had finals on Tuesday and Wednesday, teacher grading day on Thursday, and then...done for the summer! The longer I teach, the more I appreciate our 10 weeks of summer vacation. 

Kendra and family - in the Northwest

Kendra and her three darling children flew in from Kansas at the end of May. They stayed for a week while husband Chris and his brother drove to Woodinville, near Seattle, where Chris' parents live. Kendra and Chris are settling in the Seattle area. He is looking for work and plans to finish his nursing degree in Washington, instead of Kansas. Their Kansas foster kids are settled into new homes. 

Kendra has the camera.

Chris, Lilly, me, Charlie, Abbi, Mark, Mom

We are looking forward to seeing this dear family a lot more often. 

Mom getting settled in

Mom is pretty well settled in to her bedroom/sitting room. Her pantries and her refrigerator are installed. The kitchenette is almost finished. 

Mom is a cheerful, positive person. She goes to water aerobics and the Curves gym almost every day. She has joined the Church choir and reading group. She has been busily meeting with her new doctors, dentist, audiologist financial advisor, etc. Most of the financial/legal dust is settled following Dad's death in March. 

She and Mark and I are getting along happily as a family of three. I am so grateful for our home - the 100-year-old farmhouse with the funky floor plan is adapting well to a new apartment within the house. I'll post some pictures soon!

Meanwhile, the fun never stops...

I've been doing some fun activities with the Young Women. We hosted a fancy dinner for the bishopric & wives at the house. We've taken a couple of pre-camp hikes. 

In my spare time I've been building Mom's kitchen cabinets (purchased at Ikea). Love them! I am a pro at putting Ikea cabinets together now. 

We left last week on "vacation." Yes, I know, we're teachers and we get 10 weeks of vacation. And yes, I know that road trips involving seven states, 3 weeks, and oodles of grandkids are not necessarily restful. But yes, we are calling this a vacation! We left last week and spent several days in central California with Mark's mom. Now we're in the L.A. area with David and Holly, and next we'll drive to the Las Vegas Area to spend some time with Angela and family. Then we hop a flight to Ohio to visit Katie and Bryan, swing home through Utah and Idaho. We'll pull into the driveway just before the 4th of July. 

Mom is traveling with us. She's such a good sport! She'll leave Ohio a day early to fly back to California on her own and catch her high school's 60-year reunion (!), and she'll return to Oregon a couple of days before us.

Here are a few photos from our spring / summer so far. Stay tuned - more vacation photos coming soon!

Dinner for the bishopric:

We turned our living room into "Chéz Haynie."

We surprised the bishopric with the location by having a chauffeur pick them up. 

Mark impersonated The Fonz.

YW Hikes:

Triple Falls (near the Columbia River Gorge)

Mirror Lake and Tom-Dick-and-Harry Mountain (near Mt. Hood)

 Mom hiked with the group as far as Mirror Lake

 About a third of the group hiked to the top of Tom-Dick-and-Harry Mountain, overlooking the lake. The others stayed back and played at the lake.

Lemon Meringue Pie for Mother's Day: Mom used her mother's recipe

Building Ikea cabinets. Believe it or not, I'm having fun. (Really! I am!)

More vacation photos coming soon.

Longer than...

Today marks the day that I have been married to Mark longer than I was married to my first husband.

Nineteen years and thirteen days.

Ahhh...this time it's been nineteen happy years.



Congratulations to us! We're so glad we took a chance on each other.

Penny Party - A Quick & Simple Party for the Grandkids

Yesterday we hosted a belated birthday party for Sarah, Kat and Maddy. I reached back into my grandma memory bank and pulled out the...

Penny Party!

This is a super-easy, super-inexpensive party theme. I bought a cake mix, whipped topping, ice cream cups, and 4 bags of the chocolate coins covered in gold foil (more about those later).

You can get a lot of mileage with little kids and pennies.

First I burgled 200 pennies out of the coin jar Mark keeps on his dresser. Then I hid them (pretty much in plain sight) around the living room before the grandkids came.

I also made up a quick little "penny bag" for each of the kids. The girls got yellow polka dots, and Josh got one with a manlier print.

It didn't take long for 4 grandchildren to find 200 pennies.

We counted to make sure we had found them all.

Let the Penny Games begin!

First we played Drop the Penny in the Silver Pitcher

They had to stand with a penny on their chin and try to get it to land in the pitcher. Obviously, Maddy had less of a handicap here than Joshua had. This kept them entertained for about 7.5 minutes.

Then we played Toss the Penny on the Diamonds

In theory, they were aiming for the green diamonds in the linoleum flooring. The kids were good sports about this game, but it was even less exciting than Drop the Penny in the Pitcher. They would have been more enthused with better targets and better prizes, I think. Since I didn't have any targets or prizes at all, it should be fairly easy to bring this game up a notch the next time we try something like this.

All right then, on to Pin the Penny on the Maddy!

First, we needed a Maddy:

The kids colored in the Maddy outline, except for the face.

They they took turns putting their pennies on the Maddy, trying to give her a face. (I put little rolls of masking tape on the back of the pennies. Each grandchild got to put 4 pennies on the Maddy.)

Time to sing "Happy Birthday." I made strawberry cupcakes and kept the frosting super-simple: Whipped Topping. The kids put a few sprinkles on the top and everyone was happy. We also had the little plastic cups with ice cream in them, and I gave each of the kids a bag of foil-covered chocolate "coins" as party favors.

The kids played together until it was time to head home.

Happy belated birthday, Maddy, Kat, and Sarah!

To be a little girl again

What a treat, to be the daughter in the home for Mother's Day. I am treasuring every moment of being a full time daughter. Here's a photo Maleena took yesterday after our family picnic at Canemah Children's Park.

What makes a mother? I loved this video. "Life didn't come with a manual. It came with a mother."


And if Mother's Day is hard for you, be sure to check in with Polly's sweet post.

To my dear mother and mother-in-law, to my amazing daughters and daughters-in-law, to my friends and colleagues and sisters everywhere, to my grandmothers who have gone before me are with our Heavenly Mother today...

...Happy Mother's Day. Thank you for all you do. I love you.

Butterflies in my tummy

Butterflies in my tummy this morning...not what I expected! My AP Lit students are taking their big test this morning, and Mark is taking his National Board Certified Teacher exam in Spanish.

Hahaha--I thought I was cool as a cucumber. After all, I'm not the one taking the test!

Mmmm...not so much. My tummy is doing flip-flops even though I'm pretending to be cool and relaxed.

Moving Day

Mark and I flew to Spokane on Thursday to help with Mom's move. My brother, Maury, drove over from Shelton (WA) and our son-in-law, Eric, drove over from Royal City (WA) after work. We packed and sorted Thursday afternoon and evening, then loaded the truck all day Friday. Some of Mom and Dad's wonderful Colville neighbors joined us. Bless them - they stayed and helped all day.

 The manly men: Mike S (neighbor), Maury, Mark, Mike W (neighbor), Eric

(except for Eric, it was a very alliterative crew)

 Mark and Brian (neighbor)

 Mom and Dad had lived the last 16 years in a 60'x14' mobile home on beautiful ranch property. They owned the mobile and rented the site from the rancher. Dad called it their "mountain cabin." Here's Mom in her cabin, mostly packed into the truck. (The rancher bought the mobile from Mom, which made the financial arrangements of the transition much simpler.)

 Mom fed the birds every day for 16 years. They will miss her!

She was regularly visited by quail, pheasants, finches, blackbirds, robins, flickers, and many, many others. She was also visited by wild turkeys, but she didn't like them much.

 Saturday morning before we left for Oregon City, Mom, Mark, Eric and I hiked to the top of the hill behind their home. We had a special destination in mind.

 The iconic barn at the top of the hill behind Mom and Dad's mountain cabin. This was their view every morning.

 The view from the barn. The green roof in the center of the photo is the snow roof that Dad built over the mobile home 10 years ago. Dad took Mom on many adventures over their 61 years together...and he gave her some beautiful views throughout their marriage.

This photo is taken next to the stone foundation of the barn. We brought a small bag with some of Dad's ashes on our hike, and we took turns scattering them near the corner of the barn. We thought Dad would like to have a little bit of himself left on this beautiful ranch. He sure loved his time here. I also read the poem, "High Flight." It seemed very appropriate because Dad had proudly piloted small planes for many years.

 Exploring above the barn. Mom is showing Eric the homesteader cabin on the property.

The barn reflected in the pond, which was the water source for Mom and Dad's cabin.

High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high untresspassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee No 412 squadron, RCAF Killed 11 December 1941

Remodeling, sort of

We are gearing up for my mom's move to Oregon City this weekend. Back in February, we had started making plans with both her and Dad to move here sometime over the summer, but since Dad's timeframe was shortened so much, it will be just Mom coming.

Thank goodness for this sturdy old farmhouse with it's "interesting" floor plan! It seems to stretch and expand with all its old fashioned nooks and crannies. Mom will have her own apartment on the main floor, with easy access to the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Mom's apartment will have a large bedroom / sitting room, a walk-through closet, a full bath, a pantry area, and a kitchenette and dining area. Ikea, here we come!

Last month we had a laminate floor installed in the bedroom / sitting room, and Mark worked all day yesterday on finishing the moldings and trim in the room. It looks so pretty.

 The new laminate floor in Mom's bedroom / sitting room

 Pretty new trim / baseboards

 One of the architectural details we saved when we did the big remodeling job 8 years ago - now it's installed in a corner of Mom's closet.

Mark even made the moldings pretty inside the closet.

And...drum roll...speaking of Ikea, I headed out on a little shopping expedition of my own Friday night. Came home with some...um...heavy boxes full of two or three million little pieces. 

I needed some prettier more efficient storage space for our office "stuff" if it was going to be right there in our dining room, instead of tucked away on the back porch. (Which will soon become Mom's kitchenette and dining area.) While Mark was constructing awesome-looking trims for Mom's apartment, I was playing carpenter with the fun that is Ikea furniture.

 It's not too complicated, right??

 If you just take the directions one step at a time, it's not too hard.

 I actually got a small blister on my right hand from all the screwdriver use.

 And this is the awesome result! I love this pretty cabinet.

 Instead of having "stuff" all over the top of the desk, it's stashed away in the pretty cabinet!

And to replace the desk drawers + rubbermaid drawers + 4-drawer filing cabinet...ta da!!

I built the little 5-drawer cabinet from Ikea, and bought the little filing cabinet at Office Max.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

Makes me happy!

Mark and I will fly to Spokane Thursday morning to help Mom finish packing. Son-in-law Eric will join us on Friday to load the U-Haul truck. My brother will come over from Shelton, WA (near Olympia) on Thursday, too. On Saturday, Mark & Eric will drive the U-Haul back to Oregon City, and Mom and I will drive her car. We have a crew planning to meet us at 7:00 pm to unload Mom into her new home (!!) and then Eric will fly back to Spokane on Sunday morning to get his car and drive home to his sweet family.

I know there will be adjustments to make all around - for Mom as well as for Mark and me - but we are genuinely looking forward to having Mom here. She is sweet, happy company, and we are looking forward to good connections and happy adventures together in the coming months.