Another long update

The last couple of weekends have been pretty busy. Therefore, this will be a long one again.

The weekend after Easter Sara, my niece; Joey, my nephew and her little brother; and John, Sara's boyfriend, all came to visit. They got here Friday afternoon. I still had an hour left of work, so they went and surprised Patrick at the middle school and picked him up. He was SO excited. After they dropped Joey & Patrick off at the house, Sara and John went and picked Aaron & Emileigh up at the elementary school. Like Patrick, they were pretty surprised. I hadn't told any of the kids that she was coming :)

Friday we just hung out. They had a long drive and were pretty beat. Saturday we got up and had a lazy morning. Then we went to the Gilbert House, which is a children's museum. It was a free day there. It was pretty interesting. The "Gilbert" that they are referring to is the guy who invented the erector sets and other toys like that. He also made small appliances like hair dryers, fans. There is even a Gilbert brand telephone. Anyway, after the Gilbert house we walked over to the carosell. It was fun! Each of the kids got the golden ring so they got to ride 5 times! The carosell is one of the very, very few left in the world where the horses are all made of wood and each individually hand carved. What makes it even more special is that each of the horses has it's own personal story and "history".

After the park and such, we came home and had some lunch. Then we loaded up the car again and drove up to Portland to go to the Japanese garden and rose garden. The Japanese garden was just BEAUTIFUL! The rose garden didn't really have anything blooming, but it was still a pretty walk. Then, on the way out of the gardens there was a park, so we stopped and played there for a while. We didn't get home until after 8pm! It was a great day and the weather was so nice.

Sunday we went to the beach. We packed a yummy picnic lunch of ham & turkey sandwiches with cheese (we made them at the beach), various kinds of chips, bananas and a variety of snack-cakes for dessert and "walmart water" to drink. I just LOVE walmart water! (the bubbly, flavored stuff - the golden peach is my most favorite!). The tide was out so we got to see TONS of star fish and hermit crabs. One of the crabs was as big as a tarantuala! Sara took a picture of it...maybe she'll send me a copy :D

The sun was really warm, but the wind was blowing and was pretty chilly. So after we saw the "ocean life" and had our lunch we packed up. Sara wanted to check out the outlet mall, so we went there. She and John found some GREAT buys on things they had been looking all over for and hadn't been able to find, so the shopping trip was a success.

After the mall, we went to Depoe Bay to see the spouting water. The tide was still out pretty far, so they didn't get to see that :~( So...we headed home. It should have only taken us an hour, but ended up taking 2 because of traffic... I don't think I will EVER get used to that! Southeastern Idaho spoiled me as far as traffic is concerned!

Monday was "back to work" and back to Idaho for Sara, Joey & John. It was really nice though, to have them here. I miss them so much! And I am especially glad that the weather cooperated with us - mostly.

April 28 -

I had saved the above post as a draft because I wanted to add some pictures and check my spelling. Since so many days have gone by, I guess I'll just keep going...

One of the things Darren was hoping to accomplish when Sara & John came was to get some helpful hints from John. He is a machinist and Darren has some equipment that he has been teaching himself to use. John was able to help him with some tricks for his lathe but the mill wasn't here yet. So, Darren wasn't able to pick John's brain about that. The bummer is that the mill got to our house yesterday. If they'd have come a week later... but, then again, the weather isn't nearly as nice this week, so I'm happy they came when they did!

Other than that the only other "exciting" thing has been my ears :^( I have had the worst itching in my ears for over a year now. Every time it gets bad enough to go to the doctor and I decide to make an appointment, it gets better so I don't go. A couple months ago it was really bad and my ears were swelling up and I couldn't hear, so I went to the clinic. We don't have insurance and we didn't have a regular doc at the time so... Anyway, the clinic doc said I had "swimmer's ear" and prescribed an antibiotic. My ears felt better for about 2 weeks, then started itching again. Last week they were so bad that I thought the itching would literally drive me mad. A parent at the school mentioned a PA that was taking new patients and lucky for us, she agreed to take on our family. I made an appointment. She did a prelimanary test and said that it looked like it might be some sort of yeast infection. She prescribed a medicine w/ steriod and said she'd send the swab into the lab for further tests. My ears did NOT feel better. My left ear swelled even further and the pain was excruciating! By Monday, with the help of some left-over vicadin the pain had subsided but not the itching. While I was at work the doc called to tell me that I did not have a yeast infection, but I had the "mersa virus" -- a highly resistant virus, which is why the original anitbiotic didn't work. She prescribed a new oral antibiotic and an ear drop one with the medicine along with a steriod. The 2 prescriptions totalled almost $150 !! Like I said, no insurance... Anyway, I asked the pharmasist if I could get away with just the oral one (it was only $15) and she said - "No way!!" -- the mersa virus, I guess is pretty serious...

So...the question of the day - - how did I get such a yucky virus in my ears??? I am thankful to finally have a doc who will go the extra mile and actually figure out what is wrong. And I hope that our $150 is well-spent and that my ears will FINALLY quit itching!