It's Been Awhile

Me in front of the Flying Tiger at the Evergreen Aviation Museum

Me in by one of many beautiful waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge (can't remember which one)

Don & I in front of Multnomah Falls along the Columbia River Gorge

Dad, Me, Mom, & Don in the cockpit of the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation Museum

I haven't posted anything in forever and there's no way to catch up, but Mom and Dad just left this morning and we had a wonderful time with them during their visit. We went to the coast twice, went up to the Evergreen Aviation Museum and IMAX Theater in McMinnville, went to dinner and a concert with two other couples from our ward, went to dinner several other times, once for Joshua's birthday and one other time with the whole family and did lots of shopping, birding and sightseeing. We also did some dry-pack canning with their portable dry-pack canner and my mom gave me 3 beautiful sunstones which I hope to make into a ring and some earrings. She also gave Lily a couple of sunstones. In the middle of their visit I came down with the stomach flu which lasted a few days but I was really only in bed most of the first day and, thankfully, no one else caught it.

We got a new bishop last Sunday. I loved working with Bishop Tittelfitz and I'll really miss having him as our bishop; he is wise, compassionate, understanding and was patient with me as I learned my calling as Relief Society President. Our new bishop, Bishop Salisbury is going to be wonderful too. I've already had occasion to talk with him about ward issues and I know he will serve the ward well.

Jeremy seems to be doing much better and it's been wonderful to see him laugh and joke again. Seeing my parents made him very happy; he loves them so much and they are so good to him. He's back at work part-time, hoping to get more hours as time goes on.

It's raining today and I want it to stop. I'm really ready for sunshine and to get out in my garden and weed and plant and clean up. The few sunny days we've had recently have been the days we went to the coast or did other things with my parents.

A quick word about the swine flu pandemic. Looks like this isn't the "big" one they think is coming eventually but I hope this has been a wake-up call for us all to be prepared for at least a 3 month period because the next time it could be deadly. Stock up on food, water, bleach, Purell, and even some gloves and masks. I have and now I'm ready just in case. Also ask if your place of employment and city/county have pandemic emergency plans in place - they should! I'm big into preparedness, can you tell?

Well, Joshua and Lily's wedding will be here before we know it and I'm so excited. The invitations are going out within a day or two. I can't wait to see all our family and friends who are coming. We'll have a houseful of guests and it will be chaos, but fun chaos. I'm figuring there will be 9 people staying with us for 2 nights and 5 or so for several more nights. Anyway, the more the merrier.

I nearly forgot to mention our 3 day trip up to Vancouver, WA to explore the Columbia River Gorge. We drove along the old highway on the Oregon side and saw all (about 5) of the beautiful, huge waterfalls along the gorge and drove up to Hood River. We hoped to visit a big carousel museum there but found out it had closed which was a shame. We did go across the Bridge of the Gods (over the Columbia River) to a wonderful Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center which we really enjoyed, then drove along the Washington side of the gorge and saw Mt. Hood. We also wanted to go up to see Mt. St. Helens and made it almost there and saw how the landscape has been changed dramatically by the eruption, but the road was closed (due to snow) 6 miles from the top so we didn't make it all the way up. We went to another museum that had lots of pictures, exhibits and a movie about the eruption and learned a lot and realized how devastating it was. We'd really like to go back and go all the way up next time.