The Mayflower

Don's model of The Mayflower

Don's model of The Mayflower

Don's model of The Mayflower

Don's model of The Mayflower

Don finally finished his model ship, The Mayflower. I'm so proud of it - he did an incredible job. I'm posting pictures but you really have to see it in person to appreciate the detail and how difficult it was. He's getting ready to start his next model, The Rattler. It's a little more difficult, although slightly smaller. He's learned a lot doing these and wants to eventually build scratch models - we'll see if he ever gets that advanced.

Our Relief Society Discovery Group went to "Dance For a Reason" at the Hult Center last Friday night. We had great "box" seats and it was a lot of fun. It's an annual event comprised of dances by all or most of the dance studios (students, choreographers, etc.) in Eugene and Springfield with the money going to a different cause each year. The dancing was quite diverse and I enjoyed most of it, although there were a couple of performances I didn't care too much for.

Joshua and Lily have hired the band for their wedding reception and we're going with them this Saturday to hear the band perform at a concert in town. They play Celtic music, which I love so I'm really looking forward to hearing them.

Our favorite missionary, Elder Leet, went home last week and we miss him, but we've had the other 2 missionaries over a couple of times since then and they're coming over for dinner tomorrow night with an investigator.

Last Sunday I gave my Relief Society lesson (Presidency Message) on the Constitution, how it was inspired of God and how our founding fathers were raised up by God for the purpose of forming our Constitution. I used Pres. Ezra Taft Benson's talk from 1987 and several scriptures from the Doctrine & Covenants and a few quotes from other prophets and general authorities. I really feel like it is important for us to understand the significance and inspired nature of our Constitution and that it's our responsibility to defend and protect it and keep our nation free until the Savior comes again. I see our liberties being taken from us little by little and I think we don't always have our eyes open to it. We're drifting (rather quickly) into a more and more socialistic form of government and that goes against the eternal principle of Agency.

I just finished reading two really good books - "The Goose Girl" and "Marley & Me" - I highly recommend them. I'm back into my jewelry making again and I'm having fun trying some new techniques and designs. I have to rein myself in, though, it's easy to get carried away buying beads, charms, findings, etc.

I've also got a great recipe to post. It's for Banana Bars and they're delicious!

Bars

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (I used a bit more than that)
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pkg. (3 ozs.) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
a little milk to thin, if needed

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of 13X9X2" pan. In large bowl, mix sugar, bananas, oil and eggs. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Spread in pan.

2. Bake bars 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

3. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Gradually beat in powdered sugar (and add milk if necessary) until smooth and spreadable.

4. Spread cooled bars with frosting. Store covered in refrigerator.

Sorry, this posting is so disjointed but I'm not updating it enough and I'm kind of trying to "catch up" on my life - boring as it may be.

Our Interesting Anniversary

Don & I in front of the church

Our "boys", Elder Brown, Elder Leet & Elder Livingston

Elder Brown, Elder Leet & Elder Livingston

Don in front of the Mission Mill Museum in Salem

Don at the Mission Mill Museum

Me by an old loom at the Mission Mill Museum

A carousel horse in the process of carving at the Albany Carousel Studio and Museum

Don riding the Riverfront Carousel in Salem

Me riding the Riverfront Carousel

The Riverfront Carousel in Salem

One of the completed carousel horses in the Albany studio

This pose was Don's idea

More completed carousel animals

Don by the carousel fish

We had a very fun and interesting 28th anniversary on Valentine's Day. We decided to visit the Albany Carousel Studio and Museum (our neighbor volunteers there and told us about it). It was fascinating to watch the volunteers carving and painting the animals and see the beautiful animals that are finished. They're hoping to have all the animals finished in 2010 and then build the carousel on the site where the studio is now located. After we'd seen everything there, we drove to Salem to ride the Riverfront Carousel. It was fun - Don was kind of embarrassed but I didn't care - at my age I don't care what anyone thinks, I just enjoyed the frivolity of it. Since we'd never been to Salem, we thought we'd go to the capital and maybe go inside and look around, however, we'd forgotten that it was the 150th birthday of Oregon that day so the capital was jam-packed with people and goings-on so there was no parking anywhere close. Even if there had been, Don hates crowds and couldn't wait to get away from the area. We passed by a museum (Mission Mill Museum) which we knew nothing about but thought might be interesting to see so we stopped there. It's an historic old woolen mill and we took a tour and learned a lot and really enjoyed seeing it. There were neat shops there too and a little cafe. It's nothing we would have planned to do, but we were glad we happened upon it. By then it was late afternoon and we hadn't eaten so we headed back to Eugene and went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. Then we rented 3 movies and came home. We'd planned to watch the movies but our dear missionaries called and wanted to come over to bring us something. Then they decided they needed Don to go somewhere with them first and then bring their dinner to our house to eat afterward. When they got here they made me answer the door and there they were, one with a rose in his teeth and on his knees and one with Valentine's balloons for me. Then they shared their dinner (BBQ) with us and goofed around for quite awhile. They tell me they're my kids and they definitely act like it. By the time they left it was late and we were too tired to watch our movies, but we've watched 2 of them since (WALL-E and Man on Wire).

I had my final post-op appointment for my shoulder surgery yesterday and the doctor was amazed at how quickly I've recovered. I've been really lucky with that.

I'm using the new treadmill 4 - 5 times a week and am up to 3.8 miles in a hour. Pretty good, I think. Don's increased his time and speed a lot too. It makes it easy to exercise.

I went to the library yesterday and found several books that look good. I finished one of them in a couple of hours and it was great (Grace by Richard Paul Evans). I'm reading another book by him right now and it's really good too.

We're starting a new Enrichment group and they're meeting here tomorrow night. It's a Bring Your Own Project Group. I don't have a project (well, I do, but I don't think I can work on it with them because it's making new Christmas stockings and I need my sewing machine which is in a different room than we'll all be in) so I guess I'll just sit and chat with everyone.

Don finally finished his Mayflower model. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I'll post one next time. And, Hayley, did you notice I've got pictures of Don and I posted just for you. None of the boys, though, mostly because I don't see them that often. I'll try to get some of them soon.

Jeremy's going through a rough patch right now. He hasn't been able to work for 3 weeks. He tried a couple of days, but it didn't go well. He's afraid he might lose his job, and of course, not working is making it difficult for him to get by financially. He's started a new medication and is seeing a counselor so hopefully that will help. Then, to make matters worse, his new bike that we got him for his birthday (and which he just took over to his apartment) was stolen a couple of days ago. He had it locked up at the bike rack at his apartment complex but someone must have used bolt cutters to steal it. He's feeling pretty upset about it. Wish we could afford to get him a new one but we've had to help with his rent, car insurance, food, etc. so a new bike isn't in the budget right now.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm looking forward to our short trip to Vancouver/Hood River/Columbia Gorge in April and then mom and dad coming for a nice long visit.

Joshua's Wedding

I had lunch with Lily's mom last week (we ate at the new hospital's cafe which is pretty fancy, has great food and overlooks the river) and we discussed a lot of the details of Joshua and Lily's wedding. It's getting exciting now that I know more about their plans. It's going to be a lot more casual than what I was expecting but I think it will be perfect for them. We talked about the food but that could change a little. Anyway, it'll be relaxed and fun, I think. Marilyn (Lily's mom) said she'll probably wear a sundress and sandals (that's how casual it'll be) so I'm going to look for a cute sundress for me too. Tonight I'm going up to the church to count and measure tablecloths that I'll be borrowing for the wedding. We have tons of them so I have to sort sizes and see which ones have stains, etc. This is a good excuse to organize them.

We had the 3 missionaries to dinner last night along with one of their investigators and her fellowshipper. Dinner was great (I made chicken corn chowder, salad and biscuits with apple raspberry pie for dessert) but the missionaries wanted to teach the investigator some gospel principles after dinner. This investigator is a young woman of about 30 who is bi-polar and has Asperger's Syndrome, A.D.D., anxiety disorder and a couple of other mental illnesses I'm not familiar with. She also intimated that she's suffered some pretty severe trauma or abuse and is dealing with memories she wants gone. Anyway, the lesson didn't go very well. Her responses were inappropriate to the discussion and it was obvious she has some pretty serious problems. I know the missionaries are trying so hard, but they've already got a baptism date for this investigator and I think they need to slow down and take their time with her - she doesn't even believe in the atonement really (and that is crucial, I think). She does say she wants to be baptized, but I'm just not sure she's close to ready yet.

Don's birthday was last Friday - he turned 69! We went to dinner at Red Robin and then to a movie (Taken) which was good. We got a treadmill for his birthday present but I'm using it too. I'm up to 50 minutes on it at a pretty good pace. By next week I'll be doing an hour a day. He's a lot slower and can't go too long yet, but he's working his way up. We both need the exercise. Joshua was over Sunday for the Super Bowl and then came over again on Monday because he wasn't feeling well and Lily and her mom were cleaning the apartment and he needed to rest. I'm afraid he's got the flu. It was nice to see him 2 days in a row, though. We don't see much of him anymore.

Heather got the keys to her new house today. She's so excited. She called last night but we couldn't talk long because the missionaries were here. They're waiting a month to move in so they can paint and do some work on it. I'm really happy for them. Buying a home is exciting and your first home is really exciting. Jennifer has lost 85 lbs. now. She looks wonderful in the pictures we've seen of her.

That's it for now. Next post I'll try to have pictures of us. Hayley has asked for some and I guess I should take more "people pictures."

Almost healed

Don admiring a beautiful view

Heceta Head Lighthouse near Florence

Yaquina Head Lighthouse near Newport (tallest on Oregon coast)

My shoulder is feeling almost normal. I'm done with physical therapy 3 weeks earlier than expected. I bought some light weights yesterday to continue exercises but the soreness is mostly gone and I'm doing great. I found out yesterday that they cut off part of my collarbone as part of the surgery. That sounds weird but I guess it was necessary. My stomach hasn't felt exactly normal since the surgery and that's a little concerning. It's actually better today (I bought some infant gas relief drops and maybe that's helping). I don't know why the surgery would have messed up my stomach. I'm going to my support group tonight so I'll ask about it. I've felt pretty sick after eating really "safe" stuff and forget about taking a bite of a cookie or bread.

Don wants to get a treadmill so he can start walking consistently. Of course, I would use it too. With the cold and rainy weather and living on a steep hill it's not so easy to just walk out the door and walk everyday. We could drive somewhere but that takes too much motivation so we both think getting a treadmill would be a good alternative. We're going to go look at some today but don't know when we'll buy one - we might wait til we get our tax refund. It'll be Don's birthday present since his birthday is Friday.

We had a fun ward activity last Friday. It was a Mexican Fiesta. It was supposed to have been our ward Christmas Party but it had to be postponed because we had the big snowstorm the week it was originally scheduled. The woman who did all the cooking (and it was delicious) is Japanese so we thought that was kind of funny.

We had an "interesting" week last week. Monday night was Empty Nester's Family Home Evening. There were a lot of people there and we were in the middle of a wonderful, spiritual lesson when the missionaries showed up with an "investigator" they had just picked up in the grocery store. They are so sweet and really meant well but the guy was crazy (sorry, but there's no other way to say it). He was saying all kinds of very weird things and it really disrupted our evening. Then, after we got home, the missionaries called Don and asked if he could take the crazy guy to some social services places around town the next morning. Don never said yes (he never says no) and spent 5 hours taking the guy all over the place. He also made the HUGE mistake of giving the guy our phone number so the rest of the week the guy was calling us all the time wanting Don to do things for him. Basically, he was a user - a friendly, completely crazy user. Finally, on Friday Don spent 6 hours with him taking him places again and packing his stuff to have someone move him to Florence. I was afraid Don would get stuck actually moving him but he did have someone else lined up to do it. We've had a little talk with the missionaries since and advised them to use a little more discretion when getting involved with people. They meant well but I think they've learned a lesson and we certainly have too. We've always been pretty open to doing things for their investigators and having people over to our house, but I think in the future we're going to be more cautious.

Saturday we drove over to the coast and up to Newport (our favorite central coast town). We toured the Yaquina Head lighthouse (the tallest on the Oregon coast). It was quite a climb - I wasn't sure Don would make it but he did and got a button that said "I survived the climb." We had lunch at Mo's (which is a famous seafood restaurant on the coast) and I had slumgullion (clam chowder with shrimp) and a shrimp salad served in an avocado. I could only eat a few bites of each before I was full so I brought the leftovers home. It was all so delicious, though. While we ate we watched the fishing boats come in and watched a woman filet the fish right on the dock - kind of gross but boy, was she fast! I saw some great birds (no new ones, though) but there were some brown pelicans right on the rocks next to the Sea Lion caves and that was unusual. We also saw Surf and Black Scoters, Buffleheads, Red-breasted Merganser, Cormorants, 2 kinds of Grebes and a Kingfisher.

Saturday before last I went to the 2009 Bridal Show at the Lane Events Center with Lily and Joshua to look at all the exhibits. It was so much fun. We got to taste the wedding cakes and caterer's food and see beautiful flowers and displays. Lily's mom went with her the next day and I know they got a lot of good ideas for the wedding. I'm having lunch with Lily's mom, Marilyn, this Thursday so we can discuss a lot of the plans they've been making. It's so exciting! I'm really happy that so many family members are planning to attend the wedding. I can't wait to see everyone. It'll be a wonderful, happy time.

New bedding

I'm excited because I found a wonderful comforter ensemble for a real bargain and if you saw our old bedding you'd know why I'm so happy about getting new stuff. I had bought a cheap down comforter years ago and new duvet cover, shams, bed skirt, pillows, etc. when we moved here. Well, the old comforter has somehow become completely misshapen and bunches up inside the duvet cover. Don has ended up with nothing on his side and it's a total mess to try to make the bed. The duvet cover has torn (it's very soft but not too sturdy) so that's another problem. I've been pricing new comforter sets but when you start adding up the shams, pillows, bed skirt, etc. it gets pretty expensive. So I came across this set on Overstock.com and priced it elsewhere and found out it was quite a bargain. The reviews for it were good so I ordered it. I can't wait to be able to make my bed decently again and for Don to have covers on his side so he doesn't keep pulling mine off me.

I went to the physical therapist yesterday. She pulled and stretched my arm and shoulder and it wasn't too bad. I had taken pain meds before I went and that helped my shoulder but made me very sick to my stomach so I had a pretty bad morning. We had taken the catheter (the block for my shoulder) out the night before so my pain level had definitely increased. I'm trying to take less pain meds but it's hard to balance getting enough pain relief and not making myself sick. I'm not sleeping well since the catheter came out but I'm sure things will improve with time.

I'd hoped I'd be able to have a couple of weeks off from Relief Society but there are a lot of things that have come up that I've had to deal with. My counselors are helping but I still have to be involved.

It's all over

Well, I finally feel well enough to catch up my blog. My shoulder surgery went much better than expected - turns out I didn't have a torn rotator cuff at all so my recovery should go much quicker. I just had the calcium deposits and bone spurs cleaned off and a few other minor repairs made and now, 3 days after surgery I'm feeling pretty good. I have a temporary catheter in my neck which is administering a local block to my shoulder so that's helping with pain control. I also had a shoulder pad that had recirculated ice water running through it - I kept that on for 2 days until the swelling had gone down. I can move my arm and shoulder (with some discomfort) and am up and around. I'll have physical therapy for 6 weeks and I'm assuming after that I should be doing pretty normally. Don's been very helpful, he's waited on me hand and foot and has done everything I asked of him (except maybe making the bed right). I'd been pretty nervous about the surgery and recovery but everything turned out fine so I guess that should be a lesson to me not to worry so much.

My friend, Michelle, brought me a big basket of all kinds of fruit (which I've been devouring) and my friend Sandy brought me tulips and sugared nuts. Another friend is supposed to stop by today too and the missionaries were over a little while ago checking on me. I've had a lot of calls from friends and family asking how I'm doing - it's nice to know so many people are thinking of me. I've appreciated all the well-wishing on Facebook, too.

Anyway, I'm on the mend and should be back to normal soon.

Happy New Year

I've been neglecting my poor blog - but I've had a million things to do before my shoulder surgery next Wednesday. I had to get my Christmas decorations down and the house cleaned and to arrange so many things for Relief Society and type up new schedules for our lessons, conducting, etc. Thank goodness I delegated our 2008 Relief Society History to my secretary - that would have taken many more hours. I had 14 thank you notes to write and I'm still trying to get new Christmas stockings made for Joshua, Jeremy and Lily to match the ones I bought at a craft fair for Don and I. I did some big after Christmas shopping and got all my wrapping paper, Christmas cards and even Relief Society Christmas gifts for next year. Actually, I found some wrapping paper I really liked so I probably got enough to last 6 years. I also found a beautiful red silk top (very dressy) at Ann Taylor Loft for $9.99 - it was regularly $46.00 so that was quite a bargain. And my best friend, Janine, gave me a $50 gift card to Ann Taylor so I ordered online a tweed jacket and pencil skirt that came 2 days ago and are so cute. They're size 4's and the jacket fits perfect but the skirt's a little big. I don't want to send it back, though, so I'll live with it. I can't believe a size 4 can be too big on me. They were both on sale for 75% off. Tomorrow we're having Joshua, Jeremy and Lily over for a big turkey dinner so I need to make a couple of pies today. Saturday night we're having the missionaries to dinner and then going to a baptism with them. These guys are working so hard and have 2 more baptisms lined up this month. They've also been helping a lot with activation.

Joshua, Lily and Jeremy all came over for Christmas Eve. We opened presents (which we've never done on Christmas Eve but may become our new tradition) had our usual hors d'oeuvres (which I made wayyy too much of) and then went out to look at Christmas lights. Joshua and Lily gave me an iHome clock radio docking station for my iPod and some candy.

We had a very quiet but very nice Christmas. It was just Don and I for most of the day, but it gave me time to contemplate the meaning of Christmas and read some Christmas stories. Jeremy came over in the evening and he'd had a nice day so that made mine good. Joshua and Lily tried to come, but they thought our hill was slick and decided not to try to make it up. They ended up coming over the next evening and so did Jeremy so we had a fun time eating pizza and playing games. I didn't take a single picture on Christmas so I have nothing to post. When all the kids were here the day after I meant to take pictures but forgot. I'm going to try to take some of everyone tomorrow.

Heather, Mark, Jennifer and the kids were supposed to come the day after Christmas and stay a few days but the snow in the Siskyou's scared them away - turns out they could have made it but they didn't want to risk it. I don't blame them, but we were sorry not to have them come - we'd really been looking forward to seeing them. Heather is buying her first house. It's in Vallejo just off Columbus Parkway not too far from Benicia. It needs some work but will be really nice when they finish. It was in foreclosure so they got a great deal. It has a pool and spa which we'll enjoy when we go to visit. She assures us that there's lots of room for us to come and stay whenever we want so maybe we'll get down to California to visit more often.

I had my pre-op and anesthesia appointments on Monday (it took 4 hours) and now I'm more scared of this stupid surgery than I was before. I'm not looking forward to them putting a needle and catheter in my neck before they put me out and the recovery sounds like hell but I guess I'll get through it.

Don and I went out to dinner last night at Sweetwaters on the River (a really nice restaurant). We had a table right by the window and the river was beautiful with the light bouncing off of it. I had a wonderful avocado salad (looked really fancy) and a crab chowder (which was delicious but I couldn't finish). Afterward we went to see "Doubt" at the mall across the street. It was very good but Don and I felt the exact opposite about the characters in it - interesting!

Have a Happy New Year everyone. It started out great with the birth of our new little Trevor Noah - Congratulations to his happy family.