Nothing better than... Nothing worse than...

Tonsillectomy

2012-11-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

When my husband and I were kids, having your tonsils out wasn't a big deal. It was a common procedure and you were in the hospital for days, pampered by the friendly nurses. My husband actually tells stories ( over and over by the way) of his tonsillectomy. He remembers vividly the stuffed pink elephant he was given in recovery. He also remembers getting to eat as much ice cream as he wanted!

When it came time for my 19 year old to get her tonsils out we were thinking...no big deal.

Everyone was telling us that the older you get the more painful the recovery. How bad can it be?

According to every adult, awful!!!!!!!

One friend said it was worse than her hysterectomy. She ended up taking three weeks off of work!

When my daughter went in to have hers taken out we were glad! She had tonsils the size of grapefruits in her throat! Ok maybe more like the size of grapes but still big and nasty!

After her surgery , we expected her to have some pain for a few days

Like a good mom I made jello and pudding for her to eat! After a couple of days the pain had prevented my poor baby from eating much. We made a trip to the store for her favorite ice cream; mint chocolate chip!

Nothing worse than having your favorite ice cream in front of you and not being able to eat more than a spoon full!

On the other hand, nothing better than losing weight eating ice cream and pudding!

Hidden Treasures?

2012-11-07T11:38:00.001-08:00

Fall is a beautiful time in the Pacific Northwest!

Deciduous trees losing their grip on their last green, red and yellow leaves until the next wind sends them to the ground.

It’s when these leaves land in your back yard that they become a problem.

Our back yard is hit especially hard with our location next to a small wetland. Keeping up with the raking is almost impossible.

I don’t mind a little raking on a sunny day; good exercise, adding to the compost pile and time with the dog!

Our adorable little Corgi actually blends right in with the leaves!
Blending in with the leaves I don’t mind, but the hidden treasures she leaves on a daily bases I can do without.

There is NOTHING WORSE THAN walking through the yard, raking leaves and finding a fresh poop well hidden under a large maple leaf.

I didn't show the actual treasure under the maple... too gross!

It wouldn’t be so bad if there were only a few. The problem with the PNW is that with the beautiful fall colors comes rain... and lots of it. I haven’t racked in over a week and the yard is covered.

Who knows where the next hidden Corgi treasure will be? Hopefully it won’t be on my boot!

Kids on a Plane!

2012-05-15T19:47:00.004-07:00

With both of my kids in college, my husband and I find ourselves doing a little more air travel. I spent the weekend with family at Lake Natoma in Sacramento, watching the Pac 12 rowing championships. The weekend was fabulous and we hated to go home.

Plane travel can be painful with long security lines and full body scans but we moved to the gate with ease. The flight was on time; passengers loaded their bags and took their seats. Seats 8A and B were perfect; close to the front, a great view, and no screaming children…then… the screams began.

In unison we both looked at each other and said; “I’m glad we aren’t sitting next to THAT family!”

He went back to his paper and I to my book.

In the back of my mind I remembered how difficult it was to travel with kids and how forgiving one man was in particular.

My son was just over a year old. We packed a rather large bag with cheerios, toys, pacifiers and books. His favorite toys at that time were small dinosaur figures. Like any boy, there were many battles between the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the flying Raptor. The flight was going well and we let our son stand up and hold on to the head rest behind us.

What passenger on this plane wouldn’t think our son was the cutest thing ever! The man in the center seat behind us probably didn’t think so.

There is nothing worse than your smiling one year old launching his toy raptor made of cheap hard plastic straight into the forehead of the man seated in 14 B behind you.

We were horrified, embarrassed and quickly apologized to the man behind us. As we looked at the damage, the man with his reading glasses knocked off center had a smile on his face. He adjusted his glasses, waved at my son and went back to reading. In shock, were extremely grateful for the patience of the man sitting behind the family with the obnoxious boy.

I think I’ll be a little more tolerant of screaming children on a plane!!!

My Favorite Alarm Clock

2012-04-18T16:02:00.001-07:00

I am truly not a morning person. But who actually is? Who likes to here the beep-beep-beep of an alarm? Who doesn’t push the snooze button a time or two? My husband! That’s who!

I like the wake up process to be slow and gentle. I don’t want to talk with anyone until all of the cobwebs have been removed from the gaps between the gray matter in my brain. Those sticky webs grab the back of my eyelids and draw them closed unless I have my favorite alarm clock.

What is my favorite alarm clock?

It’s not soft country music or the ‘Old Phone’ ringtone I have on my phone. It’s not the phone vibrating right off the nightstand. It’s not even the corgi trying to lick my face. What is it?

There’s nothing better in the morning than my husband waking me up with a delicious cappuccino and a kiss on the forehead.

That's my favorite alarm clock!

The smell of the coffee and his kiss is what I look forward to every day. Why does he do it?

Which would you rather see in the morning?

How Far Should I Run?

2012-04-16T20:50:00.002-07:00

Every so often I go on a run with my two friends who run marathons, bike 150 miles for Multiple Sclerosis and swim across Lake Washington. The logical question for the fair weather jogger is; “How far are we going?” Both are such good sports with their tagalong friend, stopping at corners to make sure I haven’t dropped dead.

When I ask myself how far I can run today, I usually listen to my inner plumbing. I’ll go as far as Betty bladder will let me. I have no intentions of taking a detour from the main path to find a tree where I can hide what my spandex cannot.

On a recent run, while waiting for the crossing light, one of the gals asked if I had head the nettles story. Nettles…stinging nettles? One could only imagine.

There is nothing worse than coming home from a long run wishing you had identified the prickly assailant before you exposed your sensitive areas to the sticky hairs that itch like crazy.

How far do I run? To the next public restroom!

For an image and further information about stinging nettles go to

http://landscaping.about.com/od/weedsdiseases/ig/weed-plants/Stinging-Nettle-Photo.htm

Where Did I Park?

2012-04-16T18:20:00.005-07:00

I love those big supermalls. For a lady who is always on the go, checking off items on the “Honey do” list (OK…“Honey NEEDS these shoes” list) satisfies that small part of my concrete sequential brain. Now the larger remaining portion of my brain is not only random but it’s getting older. I’m not quite ready to use the term, ‘senior moment ‘but I fear it will soon creep into the vernacular.

I was at our local supermall the other day with my friend picking up a few plants for the empty patio pots. We walked out of the store looking at each other wondering where we parked. We laughed at each other knowing this isn’t the first time this has happened to either of us. Both shared past happening while we searched for the car. I do have to say that my friend’s most recent mental mishap made me laugh and therefore needed to be shared.

There’s nothing worse than searching for your car in the rain for 20 minutes after which you realize that your car isn’t in the parking lot at Marshals because you came in at Sports Authority on the other side of the mall.

Where is that darn car?

For those of you who aren’t seniors yet; What is your favorite moment?

Osoyoos Cherries

2012-04-10T19:02:00.002-07:00

Every year since our kids were little, we vacationed with dear friends from work. All of us are in education and have children about the same age. As the kids grew so did our vacations. A couple of years ago all 16 of us decided to rent a house in Osoyoos, Canada, not far from the Northeastern border of Washington State.

The house was older, the rooms were small, but the location was great. We spent much of the time on the lake, walking the property, playing games like capture the flag and wolf and of course there was plenty of food!

Why then did I find it necessary to harvest baskets full of ripe cherries? They were deliciously inviting and abundant. I ate as many and I gathered in the baskets.

Too bad no one warned me about the cherries.

There is nothing worse than slicing open a cherry to find little white larvae enjoying the cherries as much as I did… or I thought I did…

I continued to cut open cherries hoping that this one cherry was an anomaly only to find that every cherry I sliced open had the same creamy, white, legless maggots. “OH MY GOSH, how many did I ingest?”

Western Cherry fruit fly larvae

I ingested enough to consider how much alcohol just might kill these aliens before they started exiting my body to pupate!!

Risen indeed!

2012-04-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Going to church on Easter Sunday is so much easier with adult children. As I look around at all of the parishioners with toddlers I breathe a sigh of relief. Those were difficult but memorable times. Keeping kids occupied for an hour isn’t easy but our new, and may I say young (looks like a high school senior), associate pastor did his best.

The children’s message started with a parade of children and their happy parents saying “Alleluia”. At the end of the brief message, the surprise was revealed and all of the children received colorful helium balloons with the word Alleluia inscribed.

One of the fathers of a young child with a little one in tow gasped as he watched his child’s balloon to be the first to ‘Rise’ to the cathedral ceiling with the entire congregation watching. His attempt to jump and retrieve the rising balloon failed, but not without cheers and laughter from the crowd. More balloons followed and the whole church was filled with laughter.

The young pastor picked up the microphone in an attempt to get us back on topic. I’m sure he was thinking ;
nothing worse than watching his children’s message rise to the ceiling as the more practiced members chatted about the merits of his naive attempt to deliver a fun and engaging lesson.

Mission accomplished! Nothing better than a visual message… He has risen, he has risen indeed!

As church filed out of the Sanctuary many of the balloons were in the hands of parents or tied to the cute baskets filled with toys and color crayons. I noticed one balloon out of reach in the bookshelves of our library and had to snap a shot.

What a great message. Well done Pastor!

Why did we get a dog?

2012-04-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

It was difficult to decide which event I would post first. I chuckle every time I look at my notes.

This post could go either way. From my husband’s perspective it began with there is nothing worse than your new corgi puppy sitting on your lap throwing up her last meal, which happened to be her own poop!

I know puppy sometimes eat their own feces, maybe an evolutionary inherent trait to deceive predators, but this is a domesticated dog who gets good dog food and, on occasion, table scraps… disgusting!

My son and I and our favorite puppy Shira

From the perspective of me and the kids there was nothing better than the look on dad’s face as he said, “WHY did we get a dog?”