Gigi's Visit

This is how Gigi kept busy. Don't worry, we were out there too. :-) This is how we were going to make the perpetrators feel VERY guilty about what they did.

Hey Y'aLL - We're back - or at least I'm back from outer space (or Benadryl lala land). After a quick, enjoyable weekend in Az I was anxious to post pics with our flooring and tile shower done. But I woke up Mon am with spots all over from ankles to neck! And on parts merging to form one ugly red mass. Apparently I'm allergic to Sulfa drugs. So I downed benadryl til I could get in to see the Dr. That was the right thing to do but it left me dopey and clumsy. I spent the hot day on the couch with chills off and on - another result of the reaction - considering how hot Mom was complaining about being I felt lucky. Today I just have fading spots so am off the benadryl and back to normal - also have a thumbs up from the after surgery check. I did my nursing home for the first time in a month this am. It's good to be back in the harness.
We had a good productive work day Sat - but still have a few loose ends to tie up. Kyle, The garage lights are working!!!!! That was a big high five when Mont solved that puzzle. The one light in the north bedroom that wasn't working wasn't wired - so you either missed it or I forgot what you told me you'd done. We enjoyed our lunch to the accompaniment of thunder and then a few raindrops. Our moisture sensitive power skylight closed as it was supposed to.
Here's a few pics - but check the photosite for more

This weekend

My dear friend Sheree's dad died Monday morning after a year-long succumbing to ALS. They had always thought that once he couldn't swallow, they could put him on IV fluids long enough for Sheree to get home from Honduras to be with him. But he just died rather suddenly before that ever happened. It took Sheree until midnight last night to be able to get here and the service will be this Saturday.

Mark's brother Brad has been here with us since Gigi left. His wife, Nika, is in China for 5 weeks for an intensive course as part of her Master's degree in Chinese. He's opening a medical imaging center here in LA and has meetings here this week so will be with us until he returns to San Fran sometime this weekend.

I'm plugging away on the book...

What's up with everyone else?

Go Beavers, go! - Etc

Yes! Beaver baseball is the college champs after winning games 2 & 3. Game 3 was a really tough, hard fought game that wasn't decided until the last out.

Today we drove up to Silver Falls State Park and met Darc & the kids, who are camping with some church friends. As I mentioned yesterday, George,and 2 other Dads are commuting to work from the campsites as they can't get vac time off as yet. All arrived Sunday and leave this coming Friday. We arrived at lunch time with our Sub sandwiches (and treats to share). Then we took Josh, Sarah & a lil pal of Sarah's to North Falls, seen in the pic - they most needed to cool off as it was 98 in the shade, even up there! Aurora had a high of 104 today & yes, our AC is on in the BR! Silver Falls is a beautiful state park with a number of waterfalls, of which you can walk under one of them, and some very beautiful hiking trails. We'd go more often but it is almost a 2 hr drive from here!
PS We are sure tickled that the Beavers BB team did it! The drive home FLEW by as we struggled to listen to it on scratchy radio in the poor reception rural areas. I do feel better about returning to work my FT week, having been able to "play" with both sets of Grands over the weekend! :-) M&M

Swimming on a HOT day - 101 Degrees

We met Nath, Teresa & kids at the Inn and had a really nice swim today. (When we called to suggest it yesterday, we learned they had just discovered a small hole in the top of their brand new above ground play pool JUST when it was finally filled up so were disappointed to have to take all down & back to the store)pool, sigh.) It was in the high 90's outside so the pool felt wonderful. All the kids are water kids, with the oldest 3 having gills (too early to tell if Ethan will). The heat for the pool had been accidentally turned off , so the pool temp was 73 when we arrived. It felt SO GOOD. (To SOME, like Mike - Teresa the kids, Nath and I beg to differ! :-)
When they arrived, Kelsey started to hand one of the pool toys to me and then kept adding more, with Monique helping her. I could see BIG smiles and heard a lot of giggles. They wanted the picture taken with me and everything they had piled on. MB
PS Was a wonderful lazy Calif-like pool day, ending only when Ethan started to fall asleep in his "floatie". After they left, Mike & I packed up & drove to the McD's for an ice cream cone for the drive home to our "oven". Tomorrow we go to Silver Creek Falls to see the Naughton church group camp site - will take treats in case they are actually in camp - they don't know where they'll be or when- all they know is that George & friend Dan will be commuting daily to & from Salem- neither can take time off work just yet. Nice that they can carpool for that! Am having to make summer fun time on my days off till staffing returns to normal. Am just "making hay while this particular sun shines"! Welcome, summer! MC
Yep, it hit 101 Sunday - the hottest june day ever, with 102 predicted for today. MC

Me again...

So, I get the "MFB" award this week (most frequent blogger).

Mom and Dad are on their way back and I'm excitde to see the pics with the floor put in, etc... Hopefully they will post them soon. They will pick up Gigi and take her back to San Diego.

Mary....when do we see pictures of Katherine? From your silence you'd think you were caring for three small kids or nursing an infant or something. Sheesh. :-)

Gigi's OC adventure Part 2

Well we never did make it to Newport Harbor, but we did have a nice dinner last night at our version of Nati's, a little hole-in-wall called Pancho's, and then followed it up with a walk around the town plaza and a drive through the Old Town Orange area.

This morning we enjoyed cooler breezy weather with a trip to the little but lovely Santa Ana Zoo, which Gigi said repeatedly was "a very pleasant morning." It takes only 1-2 hours to see every animal in the place and ride the train and watch Jakie play. Then we went by a bead store and bought supplies for an afternoon craft, making a bead bookmark for Gigi.

By the time we got home, Mark had come down with a high fever and upset stomach so he stayed hidden back in our room away from everyone- where he still is, poor thing.
So Gigi, Jakie and I had a quiet evening with dinner at home followed by a viewing of the old Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris version of Freaky Friday. Gigi and Jakie make a very good pair since Jakie is VERY playful and likes to start trouble and Gigi is very good at playing along and giving trouble right back. It's fun to watch.

Gigi has been sleeping VERY well- waking up at 9:30 both mornings so far! Very late for her. She's had naps too! Today she didn't get a nap, and we'll see when she wakes up.

Nighty night.

Gigi's OC adventure

Gigi's napping right now. We're having fun and I've decided this visit is to be Gigi's official OC tour. No matter how many times I've said that OC is NOT LA, is completely different and distinct from LA and doesn't want to be LA (LA is very liberal, industrial, dirty & run down, OC is conservative, family-oriented, suburban, much cleaner and well-maintained)Gigi confessed to me yesterday that whenever she's told her friends that I live in OC they get this awful look like "Eeeeewww. Poor thing." She says she's always thought that Orange County was just "the poorer part of LA", the people who wished they live in LA, but couldn't afford to get closer. Sigh.

So...yesterday afternoon we had to go to Mark's parents' house for a bit to meet a repairman (they are in Chicago)so on the way home we took a driving tour of Villa Park and Orange Park Acres, past Jordan & Jacob's old school Salem Lutheran and some friends' houses and interesting streets. She said she had no idea there were such nice rural neighborhoods here and was starting to believe that maybe Orange County isn't just a poor outer section of LA.

Tonight I plan to take her down to Newport Harboor to ride the ferry back and forth from Balboa Island, show her "The Wedge" and a little tour of OC's own bay. Saturday is TBD, but we'll have fun.

Last evening we had a yard-work extravaganza, with Jakie directing Gigi what to do. He keeps trying to make us go out today to finish it and I keep having to tell him that Gigi and I are NOT going out until the heat of the day is passed.

And then this morning we woke up to the front of the house completely toilet papered, which Jordan and Gigi and I cleaned up.

So that's Gigi's OC adventure so far.

"The Wall" - St Vincents Hosp. ER Display

We just talked to Nathan & have his ok to share this.. These pics are of what is referred to by N&T & the rest of us up here as "The Wall" - the real life, solemn yet wonderful, permanent documentation of Nathan's treatment & recovery from his heart attack which is part of a display of a few cases successfully treated at St. Vincents Hospital in Beaverton (Oregon). I attempted to explain it descriptively to GiGi when she visited in May, but there is nothing like seeing "the real thing" to do the job. Nathan said tonight that he will get us a copy of the actual video of his particular case history which is shown on an individual computer screen on the larger than life display of N&T & the (now 4!) kids on a Wall outside of ER at
"St. V's". His Dr. had said (in our presence) that Nathan "should not be surprised if he was contacted by the hosp. to tell his story" which the Dr. described more then once as "a Miracle", but NONE of us anticipated THIS!
In the center box of each case history there is a computerized interactive box with a video interview of the "victim" on the display. This was made over the course of a year in N&T's backyard while N&T & the kids played in the backyard, & condensed to what you'll also eventually get to see on the video. In the pic of the entire display where I am looking intentently at a screen, you can faintly see a shot of Nathan as he talked about what happened.
We are all rather in awe of the whole thing all over again - Mike & I saw it again Sunday eve when in the area. Sometimes as we go about "normal life" we "pinch" ourselves that this all even really happened, but this Wall is now there to remind us that it did indeed and that we can thank the Lord for Nathan's complete recovery. Yes, St V's had the technology to get the blood flow to his heart resumed, but the Lord alone restored his enlarged heart back to normal,leaving it unscarred and completely restored his physical and mental capacity.
Praise be to God Almighty! M&M PS - having trouble getting the pictures. Will send them tomorrow. Finaly had to download the picturesone at a time. Enjoy!

We tried to post this 10 days ago & somehow lost it so here is our second attempt with re pics from K,M & E's Gymnastics "Exhibition" June 11!
#1. Proud Gramma with Ethan as Proud Papa videotapes. #2. Break time! #3. Strong Emma on the bars! (Sigh, the pics of K&M didn't turn out well enough to post.)
What a delightful afternoon we all had! MC

Gigi

I thought I'd throw in a couple pics of Gigi having fun, too.
I'll take her to Heidi's tomorrow so Mont & I can head to AZ Friday after work. I'll just mostly have to sit and watch him - but there isn't much for him to do this time. I'm excited to see the floors in. Our contractor said he hopes to be finished in 4 weeks. I HOPE SO!!!!!

Jakie = off and running

I know M&E and W&K won't actually be surprised by this but, we took Jakie's training wheels off tonight and gave him the big speech about how it's going to take a while to be able to ride without falling and you're going to fall a lot, but you can't quit, etc. etc.

30 seconds. Max.

It was nearly dark and Mark set off holding the seat for Jakie while I'm watering the lawn, and I just hear Mark start laughing. I look to see what's so funny and he's laughing because Jakie's just riding along happy as a clam while Mark walks behind.

Starting from a full stop. Riding full speed. Riding slow. Hairpin U-turns. Fishtailing turns. Riding over speed bumps full speed while making motor noises.

I guess that's taken care of.

I, too, had fun on the beach!!! Maybe not the wisest thing - but I couldn't resist trying to give Heath a few wave rides while daddy had Cade out in the deeper surf. I had lots of cuddle time - I just taught Heath how to climb into my lap rather than me lifting him. The boys weren't too thrilled that Grandma never could get down to play on the floor, though. I felt totally depressed Fri & Sat after they'd gone, and still needing more boring recovery time. The first 2 weeks were a challenge and painful - but what fun to have all the family around!!

Gigi fell in the water and got totally soaked - but came home and said it was the best time she'd had all summer.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY UNCLE STAN!

I mean Uncle Frankenstan. What are you now, like 75? or is it your twentieth 35th birthday in a row?

It is a beautiful day!

It sure is good to see new posts to the blog. The pictures are all good. This picture of mine shows a branch from our neighbor's redwood tree that broke off today a few hours after I mowed the lawn. This is the second time a limb has fallen where I had been working.

We were gone to Otter Crest on the coast this past Wednesday and Thursday and we had to renew our Norton anti virus which took close to nine hours for all of it to down load. That is why we were off for a while. Marilyn will write more later. MB

Petrie's Back

I have a new laptop! Thanks to the good folks at Apple. I am not really at liberty to discuss things, but I am very happy. Windy, the boys, and I, will leave the Schmidt's dark and early in the morning for Colorado. We had a great time with all of the various relatives and functions over the last few weeks, but realize that it is time to return to a normal life. At least, as normal as it can be over the next two onths preparing for life abroad. The photos should all be fairly self explanatory, but if you have any questions, let me know. The one that may need a little explanation is the one of Windy showing her handiwork during the Grunion Run. Look it up on the web. It was a blast. Work will be crazy for me next week, and since I am the only Petrie who POSTS, you may have to wait for an update.
I will let Heidi post the great pics of her kids that were taken these few weeks...

Schools out

I really disappeared on you here, sorry. We made a last-minute trip to the Seattle area to spend the weekend with George's dad and then came home and I woke up with the nastiest stomach flu ever. I was down and out for an entire week and none of you even brought me a casserole. (insert smiley)

School got out yesterday and I think I need a few days to adjust to the idea. I've come to really enjoy my quiet time and 4 children are definitely not quiet. Think I could establish a policy of locking them in their rooms every morning till I've finished my coffee? I got the pool up yesterday, so that will help with something to do. We upgraded to a 16'x 42" this year, so it's quite a bit bigger than our old 12'.

I thought you might enjoy a few of my hydrangea pictures... they're really starting to take off.

YEA!! She did it

It was 10 yrs ago she started. I ran through my mind all the events of her life since she started. WOW! Think of it - what perserverance - with a few "keep it ups" from Mark along the way.

Well I tried to publish this with pictures for 4 days and I'm giving up. Hopefully we'll get some pics 0f the graduation up soon.

Turn about is fair play

So on Sunday before they went to the beach Kyle decided it was time for the men in the family to get haircuts. First was Heath - and then Heath decided he should get to cut daddy's hair. ----Just kidding - Kyle got 1/2 way through his own hair cut and our shears broke, so he was stuck with this til Windy ran to Target and bought a new set. He was irritated with his mom-in-law taking pictures - but you can't strike and invalid.

Gigi's revenge

OK - I can't believe I feel as good as I do. Of course, I'm sure the Vicodin is doing its job well. But Gigi scowled at me and told me to get inside - we went out to the garden to prop up some glads together. She is taking revenge for all the times I've dragged her in from the yard telling her it was definitely time to rest! Hope she enjoys her brief reign as boss of the health. I sure can tell I've had lots of prayers!!!! I'm going to be back to normal soon. I'm trying to take it easy and make myself go slow.

Here's a few pictures from the house. I'll post on the photosite soon.

Kelsey VB & Gigi

It was a fun morning with Nath & family. Kelsey had her last volleyball game (Actually it was a season ending tourn.) and we caught her on a serve. She really did a great job - so proud of her. We are going to be sad to see Gigi go home tomorrow. It has been a really enjoyable time. Marilyn worked Friday and Saturday last week and Friday this week, so Gigi & I terrorized the neighborhood. Love ya all - MB The 1st pic is Kelsey serving the volleyball, the 2nd pic (I hope) is Gramma and Ethan. There is one with their cousin and one with Gigi and N & T watching.

Picture Trouble

Heidi and I have been having trouble getting pictures to post the last few days. If you're lucky, there'll be pics on this one...

Mom Update

One more thing... My mom is still in the hospital, but doing well. She feels mostly fine except for the incision which will probably require help from painkillers for about a week. She will go home tomorrow. Windy, Kyle and their boys will leave OC and transplant to Point Loma for a week and help wait on Mom until they come back up for my graduation...which may not happen if I don't stop blogging and start writing papers.

Also, how's the Naughton flu doing? Poor Sarah sounds like she's been REALLY hard hit by it. How are she and the others?

Welcome Mary/ Disneyland

Yay! We finally have Mary on board now and can get to see all the latest photos of her adorable kidlets and their family news. :-) And I hope, Mary that you can troubleshoot your mom's difficulties so that she can join in also!

As for Disneyland, it went great. We were all amazed that 3 boys of 4, 5 and 6 yrs old went the whole 12-hour day on their feet with 90+ degree heat with no naps and no meltdowns. Each boy had a small 1-minute round of tears (Cade when Windy had to leave early due to headache, Jakie at being terrified of getting on Winnie the Pooh after Kyle said that it would cover them in honey, and Heath when told he was too small to ride Splash Mountain) but all were minor, over quickly and not repeated. There were lines, but short ones so we hit every single kiddie ride in the park (except Jungle Cruise and Snow White) and even took all 3 boys on Splash Mountain, Matterhorn, Big Thunder Mountain and Star Tours, as well as the new "Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters."

Heath's favorite was our first, the Buzz Lightyear ride along with Dumbo. Cade's was Star Tours and Splash Mountain and Jakie's was the Rockets and Dumbo and Teacups. I had forgotten how loud most of the rides are, even the kiddie ones, and Jakie doe NOT like loud noises so his favorites were the outside ones without loud sounds.

Heath had a happy ending to his Splash Mountain disappointment also. I had taken him on Winnie the Pooh while Kyle and Mark took Jake and Cade on Splash Mountain. I thought that instead of waiting on a bench for the others, we would just walk down to the exit for Splash Mountain and wait there. Then I though, well, let's just wait at the picture screens (you know the pictures of you coming down the big drop). They weren't there, so I thought let's just keep walking up the exit and maybe we can see them coming off the ride. So we did. We ended up right where people get on/off the ride and the girl working the ride came and asked if he wanted to ride it. I said he was too small but thanks. She measured him and to my surprise, he was just tall enough! But, I said his dad and others were already on the ride and it was too late to join them so we would just wait. She said no problem, I'll just let them go right again and you can join them. Cool! Kyle, Mark, Cade and Jakie came back looking wet and happy.

I asked Jake, "did you like it?"
"Yes!"
"Do you want to go again?"
"No!"

So Mark stayed back with Jakie and Heath and I jumped on and Kyle and Cade got to just keep on and that's how Heath got to ride Splash Mountain.

Windy's day was dissapointing in that as the day went on, trying to walk on a hurt foot, plus a migraine brought on by heat and sunlight, ended the day for her early (about 6pm- though she was down and out before that). Luckily Jordan was happy to take her home since he didn't really want to hang out with his parents and three little ones anyway. But the boys held up like champs and it was really a success. I was concerned at the end, when Mark and Kyle went to ride Space Mountain and I had to fill the last 50 minutes at the very end of the night with all 3 boys by myself. But even that turned out great, when they showed interest in Star Tours, they were all big enough for it, line was short, enjoyed it. Then we went to the Buzz Lightyear Shop and bought cheap toys. I still thought, Oh boy I have 20 minutes of standing around waiting left with not enough time for another ride. But right as we left the shop, the fireworks show started and lasted the whole time until Mark and Kyle showed back up. A great end to a great day.

Just saying Hi!

Hi folks - finally got a chance to follow Heidi's link, and here I am. (Now I have to help my Mom find her way back - she says she signed up, but the site doesn't remember her password - we'll see!)