Happy "Sun"day!

What a BEAUTIFUL day!  I woke up early to head in to work and the sun was already shining!  Amazing the difference the lack of clouds makes on how bright the morning is!  It sure helped me get going, especially since this was supposed to have been a Sunday off for me.  Seems "miscommunications" are the name of the game at work lately.  Anyway, we had a good Meeting and had Victoria, Marianne, Brent, girls and baby-boy-on-the-way for ribs for lunch.  Knowing that the weather was going to cooperate, we grilled ribs.  SOOO, yummy!  After Gospel Meeting then, Gordon and Ivona and kids; Jill and Trevan and kids; Joe and Jasmine and kids; and the three of us met at a park after picking up some dinner at Subway.  The sun was beginning to lose its warmth, but still the sheer joy of sun on our faces made the end of the day that much sweeter.  Now, it is really time to go help the hubby with leftover lunch dishes and then hitting the shower and bed!  It's been a long, beautiful day!

What a day!!

What does /\this have to do with this\/?

Or perhaps this \/...

...with this \/?

These are all things we saw today at the same beach!  The tape recorder was playing some music to a group of kids covered in tattoos, boys with long hair, girls in bikini tops with unshaven pits and some monstrously huge plastic sunglasses.  The iPad using young man was with a group of young men who eventually took off not only their tops, but one proceeded to get down to just his plaid briefs!  The other young man in another group was enjoying the sun in his old fashioned swim trunks while playing hacky sack with a soccer ball!!  Ah, what the sun doesn't do to stir up the eccentricities of the PNW!!  It was a GLORIOUS warm-ish day that seemingly is to be the only one again for awhile.  Thankfully we were able to get out and enjoy it!

And a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom!

WEIRD!!!

I think that today will be a first ever for our household!  Kent went to work this morning at his usual time of about 6:30.  Because Paul is gone, he will be at work until at least 5:30 tonight.  I took Tiana to school at about 7:00 and then headed to class myself.  Now, I'm home until 4pm.  Tiana may not come home from school today if she decides to stay after and study for history since she'll be gone on a choir trip this weekend.  If she doesn't come home, she'll just stay all the way through until 6pm because she has jazz choir practice from 4-6.  My math class is 4-5 and my public speaking class is 6-8:10.  SO, that means that none of us will be together for dinner or at all as a family until about 8:30 tonight!  That is really just about the weirdest schedule we've ever had when we've all been in town!  Of course, if one of us is gone, then all bets are off, but...  Hm...feels like the "norm" that many others always experience!

Family Time!!

Family 2011
We've had a good weekend with Justin, Kathy, Wyatt, and Zoe.  Mom and Dad came up, too, so we did a valiant effort of getting a family photo.  I even got some great pictures of the individual kids.  Been a fun, ACTIVE weekend!

WHIRLWIND!!

We are home!  What a whirlwind of a weekend and the fun is just getting started!  Friday after work I drove to OR to pick up Tiana.  She'd spent the week with my parents just hanging out and doing whatever it is that they do -- oh yeah!  SHOPPING!!  And, of course, the requisite teenage pastime of constant texting!  Kent had a class to go to on Saturday so he stayed home and kept Coda company for the weekend.  Saturday I also took a quick trip to Eugene and visited my on-line card-making buddy, Cora.  I haven't seen her "new" body since she lost so much weight, and so it was good to see her and see what all she's doing in her terribly organized craft room!!  It was fun to see all of the baby lambs in the fields that were framed in wild daffodils as I drove down there!  Spring really is in the air, even if it doesn't feel like it!  Now, another week of class and then my parents and brother and his family come for the weekend!  Like I said, the fun is just beginning!  Thankfully my work schedule fully supports this week's extra activities! 

I'm in college now!

And this is what I do for English 102!

2 weeks...

What a fantastic, prolific, busy, accomplished 2 weeks.  For 2 weeks I've been off of this computer and I have been very able to get lots of things done!!  I read 3 books, knitted 2 dishcloths and managed to make a large stack of cards to catch up on personal correspondence and to be ready for the next birthdays coming up during this quarter.  I also spent some time with my sister and her kids and some "quality" time in the doctor's office with Tiana.  I did break the "no-computer-for-two-weeks" rule when she decided to throw up one night.  It looked suspiciously wrong and I had to look up info about the severity of what I might be seeing.  We determined simply to wait until first light and I took her to the doctor where many tests were taken.  The test for H.pylori turned up positive so for the last week we've been dealing with multiple antibiotics and their oh, so, lovely side affects.  One fairly interesting side affect sent us back to the doctor Saturday morning before we headed to Portland to take her to grandma and grandpa's for spring break.  The result of that visit was finding a pharmacy that actually CARRIES the drug and would get it to us in under 1.5 hours!  So, now we'll see if we can't get rid of this bug (it causes ulcers) and find her feeling really good for the first time in a long time.  She's also doing physical therapy for her back which probably has two ribs riding on top of each other rather than independently so she'll hopefully be pain free there, too! 
Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I will log on to my math class online.  I'll just have to jump in with both feet, and open mind and make sure my "lifeguards" know that it is time to watch me and make sure I don't drown!