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September 14, 2007

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We had a great weekend with my oldest daughter, Lara and family who came down to the beach to visit. I think it was an excuse to take a trip in their new car. With another kid on the way, they were going to have to get something bigger - big enough for three child seats - and so they got a real good deal on a Hyundai Vera Cruz. Greg's pretty stoked about it - he does a lot of car research and knew this car was rated as good or better than some of the bigger name "luxury" cars. As I said, they got a good deal on it, so now they have a real nice car that can handle three car seats and a stroller! Anyway, the east wind was blowing hot in the valley and that brought a lot of people to the coast to cool off, including them. The wind was blowing here too, but it wasn't as hot. The wind was too strong to take the steamboat out or to go crabbing, so they just headed for the beach. I just like to hibernate when the east wind is blowing because the heat just drains all of the energy out of me.

We get the biggest kick out of those grandkids. Jaysa was two in May and we haven't seen much of her all summer and you can sure see a lot of changes. She did the "big" one in the potty while she was here (a first for her) and so we all had "high fives" because of that! Lara is hoping she is completely trained by February when she is expecting her third. Jadyn, who is four, is also growing up much too fast. It seems that the word "actually" is a big part of her vocabulary. It is "actually" this and "actually" that. And it's not "ak-shully", it's "act-tyu-ally" - very precise! We have to laugh every time she says that.

We had some friends of ours give us a salmon fillet from a fish that they had caught the day before and so I fixed it for dinner on Saturday night. It was delicious and just melted in our mouths. There is nothing like "fresh" salmon for dinner. This one was special because, not only did Mike catch it the day before, he caught it right in front of our house and we watched him land it!

On Sunday evening after dinner and after most of the crowds had started back home, the family packed up and drove back to West Linn. I was left with happy thoughts of grandchildren and little hand and nose impressions all over my windows. I just hate cleaning them off, I'd rather find a way to frame them and leave them there forever.

We have been watching lots of salmon being caught in front of our house. I think I mentioned the guy out in the kayak catching a 21 pounder the other day. Well, we saw the strangest thing out in the bay a couple of days ago. There was this guy out fishing in his small boat with a sea gull riding on the bow! At first I thought it was a statue, but it moved its head. I thought I had seen everything, but a pet sea gull!! Not that it was really a pet; it was just braver than the others. The gulls tend to hang around the boats so they can catch some scraps...this one just decided that it was easier to land on the bow of the boat and ride while he waited!

We celebrated our 42nd anniversary twice this week. On Tuesday - which was our anniversary - I had mentioned to our friends Des and Donna that we were going to have "leftovers". They couldn't see us doing that on our anniversary, so we were invited down to their place for steaks over the grill with this wonderfully decadent chocolate pie for dessert. Then on Wednesday, since we had to go into Tillamook for a doctor's appointment, we ate at one of our favorite places, "Rosanna's" in Oceanside. We had this wonderful view of the ocean while we ate fresh Ling Cod in some kind of secret lemon sauce. It was soooo good! And if you go to Rosanna's, you must have one of her famous desserts. In fact, we mentioned to the doctor at the appointment that our next stop was going to be dinner at Rosanna's, and he insisted that we had to have the Marionberry dessert. Hey, doctor's orders! I need to go on a diet after all the food I have been eating this week.

The reason we had to see the doctor was to interview him to see if we wanted him to be our new family physician. I think I mentioned that we were getting increasingly frustrated with the doctor in Hillsboro. We've been seeing him for years, but he's winding down toward retirement and even if we make the trip to the valley, it's almost impossible to get an appointment with him any more. So we decided to look for someone locally. Then, after I made the appointments with the new guy, Dave came down with some kind of ear infection that made it so he couldn't hear out of his right ear! We just get him hearing aids and I'm finally able to communicate with him and then this happens! I don't know who's more frustrated, Dave or me! The doctor came up with some kind of miracle medication that's supposed to eliminate the swelling - and restore the hearing - within a few days. I hope so, because we're going to be watching a lot of plays next week, and it would be frustrating for him to not be able to hear them.

Our other daughter, Leslie has had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year. She could open a roadside stand she has had so many. I am envious, as my one solitary tomato plant that I babied along all summer didn't do very well. Oh sure, a few tomatoes, but not like hers. But I did have a good crop of green beans, enough to put up ten jars of dilly beans and we are still eating them fresh from the garden.

Speaking of Leslie, she emailed me the other day, telling me she was feeling kind of blue. She said she had just dropped her "baby" off at kindergarten! Paige started school. I told her I knew exactly how she felt, because I can remember dropping her - my "baby" - off at school for the first time, and I can remember it like it was yesterday!

Another project that we want to get done before fall arrives is to have some gravel delivered for both our driveways. But before we can order it, we needed to spent some time pulling weeds and clipping back bushes so that Dave could get the Kubota in there to level and remove soil. That was a two-day project. I think we're about done with that, but now we're going to be gone, so we won't order the gravel for another week.

We are taking off next week for our semi-annual trip to Ashland to see some plays so I don't know if I will be able to get my journal written in time next week. So if I am not here, that's the reason. I'll try to post on Friday before we leave southern Oregon, but if I don't, look for me here sometime on Saturday.