Masala Chai

     I love masala chai.  It is, hands down, my favorite beverage.  Unfortunately, it is expensive to purchase, either as powdered instant, concentrate, or from Dutch Bros (I don't buy from Starbucks; they water down the concentrate and then add the milk.)
     So I went to my favorite source of recipes - the internet.  I found several and tried them.  Then I took the one I liked the best and tweaked it.  Hard.  In fact, what I ended up doing was create my own recipe.  For those who don't like masala chai, this recipe isn't even close to what you buy at Starbucks or Dutch Bros.  It's a lot less sweet and a lot more flavorful with a hint of heat from the peppercorns.
     Here's the recipe:

Masala Chai

6 cups water

36 peppercorns (I like the mixed variety)

12 cloves, whole

6" cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp ginger, ground

1/2 tsp cardamom, ground

1/2 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated

6 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

7 teabags

5-6 Tbsp vanilla syrup

Pour water into medium-sized kettle.  

Crush or grind the peppercorns, cloves, and cinnamon bark and add them

 to the water along with the ginger and cardamom.  

Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Add the sugar, nutmeg, and milk.  Bring to boil again.

Remove from heat, add teabags, cover and let steep for 15 minutes.

Remove teabags but only squeeze them enough to keep them from dripping.  If squeezed too hard, you'll get an undesirable 'stewed tea' flavor.

Strain into heat-proof container.  Add syrup, stir, and enjoy.

Makes about 7 cups

Approximate cost per cup:  40¢

     I'll make up a batch, store it in the fridge, and re-heat it as I want it.  I'm not going to post how quickly I can go through a batch but it will keep in the fridge for a few days.  I tried using vanilla extract but wasn't happy with the flavor.  I didn't try a vanilla bean...the price gave me a heart attack.

     I do wish to point out that if you intend to use your coffee grinder for the spices, make sure it's completely cleaned of the coffee oils.  I suggest you have one dedicated to coffee and another one for spices and whatever else you need to grind.  I use a mortar and pestle.  The cinnamon was a bit of a challenge for me at first.  It takes a lot to reduce six inches of cinnamon bark to splinters, let alone anything close to powder, in a mortar and pestle.  So I break it into fourths, fold the pieces into a paper towel and take the flat side of my meat tenderizer to it before finishing it off in the mortar and pestle.

     

Bradlee's First Haircut

     It was more of a hair trim than a haircut, really.  His long newborn hair was mighty uneven with the new growth coming in.  I figured I'd hold him while Jenn cut but she wasn't feeling confident with scissors and comb, having used only electric barbershop trimmers, so I did the honors.
     Richelle was handed the camera but quickly assumed the pressing role of Baby Entertainer.  I scratch my head over the fact that it took three people to cut the boy's hair:  One to hold him, one to entertain him and snap a photo here and there, and one to do the cutting.  At barely five months, he's not sitting on his own although he's getting pretty steady, so the holder couldn't really be the entertainer, too.
     His duck-down hair was so light!  Usually, I dampen the guys' hair and then give my wrist a flick to send the cut bits to the floor instead of onto my arm and up my sleeve and between my fingers.  Bradlee's hair dried so fast that when I'd flick my wrist, a little puff of brown smudge would launch softly into the air, hover a bit, and then lightly float down.  I think if I'd inhaled deeply at any point, I'd have had Bradlee-hair in my mouth.
     I know he looks big enough to go kick around the soccer ball and at twenty pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches, he is.  However, he hasn't learned yet how to crawl and one must walk before one can run.
     I felt quite privileged to be the one running the scissors.  How many grandmas get to give their grandsons their first hair trim?

Thanksgiving

All of us seemed to be going in different directions for Thanksgiving so we had our family Thanksgiving on Monday.  I managed to get a few photos for once.

Nick helping Bradlee model his new cap.

 Grandpa amusing the baby while supper is being prepared.

The girls chatting.

Full tummies make for sleepy boys.

It was a wonderful thing to have the kids around the table again with Bradlee adding his own sweet notes to the gathering.  We visited long after the meal was over and played a few board games before they had to leave for home.  

I love watching the kids knit the family ties together.  I love seeing memories being made.  I love the obvious affection between all of them.  May we be able to do this for many years to come.

Month of Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for the spouses my sons have chosen.  They are both loving, caring young ladies and meld well with our family.  I have long known that both of my sons have quirks to their natures and have spent time in prayer that they'd meet the girl who is unique for them.  Nick needs someone strong enough to help lovingly direct his fierce sense of loyalty and duty while Cameron's high level of intensity requires someone naturally calm and even-tempered.  Jenn and Serena are everything I could have hoped for my boys.

And then there's little Bradlee!  We get to see him often and delight in watching him grow.  Something he loves is for a person to get nose to nose and talk with him.  He gets so excited talking, cooing, laughing, blowing raspberries, grabbing your face and ears (and hair ouch!), and kicking his feet.  I was doing this with him yesterday with him on his back and the drool was dripping from his chin down the sides of his jaw from all the raspberries he was blowing.  At one point I told him, "I'm going to kiss your nose, (smack!) and your forehead, (smack!) and your cheek (smack!) and your other cheek, (smack!) but not your chin because it's awash with spit!"  He squealed, grabbed my ear, and blew more raspberries, sending another wave of spit over his chin.

Thankfulness in November

A local homeschooler challenged us to post on our group page once a week about something for which we are thankful.  She went on to say that she was going to post something on her blog once each day of November.  Well, I'm already two days behind so I thought I'd just post twice a week or so.  Maybe.

I can say the typical things about thankfulness for health, job, home, children, etc. but I don't usually do the typical thing.  Today, however, my topic is health.

Richelle and I were in town Monday evening and finished up at the grocery store.  Richelle pushed the cart from the store to the truck as another attack of paralysis came on.  This one was a little worse than the last one (10/23) both in intensity and in type.  There was maybe 20% loss of use but the disturbing thing was the tingling feeling she had as if her thighs had gone partly to sleep.  Up until now, the nerves affected have been the motor nerves - the ones that make your muscles move.  The tingling indicates something going on with the sensory nerves.  However, the herxheimer reaction typically occurs at two days and at four weeks after starting treatment and Monday was four and a half weeks.  Was it a coincidence or the cause?  I don't know.

We discussed this new development on the way home and Richelle expressed her thankfulness for the paralysis because who knew how long she'd have gone without treatment if she hadn't had that first attack back in September.

I echo her thankfulness.  There's a lot of speculation out there that Lyme is the true reason behind so many nebulous conditions such as fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.  So thankful we didn't have to travel into that fog of uncertainty.  The road we're traveling isn't all roses and singing birds but at least we know what we're dealing with instead of simply treating symptoms.

I will add my deep gratitude for a sister who thinks outside the box and has given us several hours of her precious time in advise, encouragement, and treatment and for an excellent chiropractor who also thinks outside the box and attended a conference on Lyme disease last July as part of his continuing education this year.

Art

Richelle attended a six-hour drawing workshop Monday through our homeschool group.  She loves to draw, sketch, and paint so I jumped at the chance to get her lessons from two accomplished artists from Portland.  The parents were required to attend the class as well so we could learn the techniques and help the students as part of our daily schooling.  I will spare you my pictures.

Richelle's "before" picture.  We were to draw a face and a hand.  You can see the original flat hand Richelle drew and sort of erased.  After a lesson on perspective, she drew the other one.

This is Richelle's "after" picture.   This is what she did in the 30 - 45 minutes they were given.  She'd originally sketched in "puppy ears" but used a 6B pencil (very soft lead) that doesn't erase all that well and you can see shadows of that.

I'll not scare you with either my "before" or "after" pictures.  I know what looks good and what needs to be done but I have a difficult time doing it.  Besides, I'd rather make someone laugh through my written word than from looking at my sad attempts at art!

Who needs a repairman?

My dishwasher kept making more and more noise a couple of weeks ago and last week it groaned so loudly that I had to see what was wrong.

Actually, I asked Himself to see if he could figure things out and he took a hands-off approach.  You see, he's gotten to know me quite well over the past 28 years.  He understands that if he promises to do the job he'll feel pressured to get it done even when he's dog tired from work.  (Me nag??  Never!)  He also knows that I'm mechanically minded enough to take something apart, see what doesn't work, fix it, and put it back together.  He's also aware that I hate leaving a job in pieces and will do whatever to finish it.  Plus, my appreciation of the convenience of a non-human dishwasher is often and emphatically made known to all and sundry.

So Himself knew it'd get fixed more quickly if he left it to me.  Himself was right.

A couple of hours more or less at the computer produced an exploded diagram of my model dishwasher, a site where I could order parts with pictures to identify them, and a forum of what others had found and done when their dishwashers started sounding like balky teenagers.  Six trips to Mike's toolbox finally produced the right size socket wrench and torx driver and I took it apart.  Sure enough, the upper pump was broken and one of the plastic pieces was being ground up so I ordered a new pump and two gaskets.  They came yesterday afternoon and I put everything back together today.  It works just fine.

$35 and a few hours of my time is a far better deal that calling a repairman.  Plus, he didn't see the two pistachio shells, two screws, one rivet, and what looked like two sewing pins in the bottom of the dishwasher.  (They'd been down there so long they were pretty rusted out and I only spent the two seconds from the washer to the garbage trying to identify them)  I know one screw must have come from the upper pump when it came apart and I can see how a couple of pistachio shell halves might have gotten past me but the other screw?  And the rivet??  And how did the sewing pins thingies get past me???

I'm kinda pleased with myself.

Richelle

I took Richelle to our fantastic chiropractor yesterday.  He's far more than a just a "bone-cracker" but also uses supplements, homeopathic remedies, and applied kinesiology.  He strongly urged me to have Richelle tested through IgeneX or Spirostate for a complete workup of all the bacteria, viruses, spirochetes, etc. (also known as co-infections) that might be in her system.  The run-of-the-mill tests done in your average Lyme illiterate labs don't test for those (and you have a better percentage of accuracy by flipping a coin if the lab uses the ELISA test).  But at about $650 for the battery of tests, I'm going to have to see if insurance will pay for it.

In the meanwhile, she is taking several supplements known to be beneficial with Lyme disease and will soon start another herbal preparation that my sister recommends.  If you really want to know what they are, drop me a line...I don't want to bore the rest of you!

We think the second bout of paralysis was a herxheimer ("die-off") reaction to the doxycyline she's taking.  With Lyme, it's typical to get a herx reaction two days and as well as four weeks after starting antibiotics and her second episode was at the two day mark.

Other than hating to give up sweets because of long-ish term antibiotics, annoyed at watching her gluten intake because of what Lyme typically does to the gut, and detesting the amount of water she has to drink to wash everything down, she's doing well.  She had a short bout of "why me" but when I pointed out that at least it's invisible to the public unlike her brother's Bell's palsy six years ago, she pulled herself out of it.

Lyme also causes increased fatigue and we came to an agreement:  As long as her bedroom light is off and she's going to sleep by 9:30pm, I'll let her sleep herself out instead of bouncing her out of bed at the usual 6:00am.  It means a change in our school schedule but we'll figure it out.

That pesky tick

Richelle's test results for Lyme's disease came back negative.

I wasn't satisfied because I know of two people who tested negative and by the time they finally did test positive after 20-30 years, their health had been permanently broken.  Both are ladies (is that a common factor?); one in the mid-west and confined to a wheelchair due to paralysis (yikes!) and the other here on the west coast with permanent damage to internal organs (don't know which ones).  One of my aunts (another woman...) has had ill health for about 25 years and I understand she was diagnosed with Lyme's but I'm not certain if she's actually tested positive or if they've just come to that conclusion.

So.

I asked the nurse who gave me the results if the doctor would be willing to write a full prescription even with a negative result and she promised to memo the request to him.  Then I talked with two of my sisters who are in the medical field and they both strongly encouraged me to go with my instincts.

I was all geared up for a (polite) fight for the antibiotics armed with information from my sisters...and the nurse called the next day to tell me the prescription had been called in to the pharmacy and I could pick it up at my convenience.

I'd been gearing myself up from the beginning;  Would he order a blood test or will I have to fight for it?  If it came back negative would he write the prescription or would I have to fight for it?  For whatever reason, the most I had to do was politely ask if the doctor would be amenable to treating Richelle as if the tests had come back positive.

Now she's taking 100mg of doxycycline twice a day for twenty-one days. One of my sisters (a nurse practitioner) is also getting me an herbal preparation that, in her estimation, gets what the antibiotic doesn't.

She feels normal but had some paralysis in her ankle Wednesday morning and her knee went numb during Bible study that evening.  SO glad she's on meds!  Damage done by that bacteria is irreversible.

Quite a saga.

Summer Loving Fun...

I was appalled that my last post was three months ago.  So much has happened this summer!  A new daughter-in-law, our first grand-baby, a family reunion, conventions, activities with Girl Scouts....

I posted a cryptic message on Facebook about Richelle, a tick bite, and Lyme disease that I thought I'd explain in more detail here.

Speaking of Girl Scout activities....

June 11-13th we went camping at a Boy Scout camp that our girls have re-named Camp Lotsa Ticks - in 48 hours, we pulled six ticks off our girls.  That Saturday afternoon, Richelle came to where us adults were sitting and plopped herself down on my knees.  The girls were so jumpy about ticks by that time (and one adult in particular) that I couldn't resist having a little fun.
I slowly pulled her shirt up her back, waiting for her to ask what I was doing, upon which I was going to answer,  "Searching for ticks, of course," and wait for her leap off my lap shrieking.  She didn't ask, so I kept lifting her shirt (modestly, of course!) until I came to her bra strap.  Still no response, so I lifted that (I was really wanting a reaction) and froze stock still.
There, embedded up to its shoulders in a circle of angry red flesh, was a tick already half engorged.  Visions of a trip to Urgent Care or the emergency room danced before my eyes.
My absolute stillness alerted two of the adults and they were beside me almost instantly.  Out came the well-used tweezers and the tick was "unscrewed".  All three of us checked that the head was attached to the body and it was carefully placed in the campfire.  I scrubbed the site with an alcohol prep pad and hoped for the best.
The strange thing was that Richelle hadn't felt the tick boring in.  Perhaps because it was on her back.

Over the next few weeks, I kept an eye on the site.  Other than it taking a while to go from angry red to pale pink, there wasn't anything unusual and I eventually forgot about it.

About six weeks ago, Richelle came out from her (hot) shower with a towel wrapped around her, walking away from me.  I saw the tick site was an angry red again.  I felt something like a little pustule at the site and it itched Richelle for me to touch it.  I decided to talk with a few nursing friends of mine before I spent time and money at the doctor.

Last Tuesday evening Richelle complained of a sore throat, post-nasal drip, and a general not-feel-good feeling.  I gave her half an anti-histamine and sent her to bed.  Next morning (I let her sleep in) she said that along with her sore throat and post-nasal drip, she had a headache, an upset stomach, felt feverish and generally unwell.  I encouraged her to take a shower and she said she didn't think her legs would hold her up long enough for that.  I thought she meant she felt weak, left her in bed, and did our normal Wednesday afternoon/evening activities in town.
Imagine my horror when I got home later that evening and realized she'd meant that her thigh muscles were partially paralyzed!  I had her wiggle her toes and move her feet but she was slow to move her knees in any direction I asked; up, back, out, or in while she was lying down (she said they didn't respond at all when she was in the sitting position).    So I knew it wasn't something spinal but for some reason, she'd lost at least 50% use of those muscles for about thirty hours.

(I'm giving all these details for those readers in the medical profession, not to scare the non-medical ones to death!)

When questioned intensely, she admitted to having paralysis in one leg or the other for the preceding two weeks but since it would occur in one leg or the other and last just a minute or two, she didn't say anything to me.
I had a chance the next evening for a nurse friend to look at it (thank you, Dawn) and she noticed discoloration and the beginnings of a welt around the site.  She also confirmed that 14 weeks wasn't abnormal for signs of Lyme's disease to show up.

So I took her in yesterday and they removed a plug of tissue at the bite site to get whatever we'd unknowingly left behind and they drew blood to send off for Lyme's disease testing.  Results should be in by the beginning of next week.

Children

I was visiting Nick and Jenn the other day and my heart warmed at the picture of Nick cuddling Little Bradlee.  Nick gazed at the little guy contemplatively, smoothed his duck-down-soft hair and observed, "Usually, when you bring something life-changing into your life, you spend time researching it and choosing your options before ordering your specifications; 'Let's see....we want brown hair...blue eyes...about eight pounds....'   With a baby, it doesn't work that way but we're sure happy with what we get!"

"But," Mike pointed out when I told him later, "you choose your specifications beforehand when you look for your spouse."  

Well, yes, I guess you do.  But I never saw '9lbs, 11oz' on Mike's manifest, nor did I see 'nearly bald for the first six months'.  But I agree with Nick - we're sure happy with what we get!

I got a few more pictures of Bradlee and this one of Nick but Jenn was not ready to be photographed and I didn't even ask.

Here he is taking a peek at the world.

Enough of the world.  Back to sleep again.

Baby Bradlee

Here's the latest addition to the Miller family corner.  Little Bradlee arrived Tuesday, July 20th at 9:22 pm.  He weighed in at 8 pounds even and measured out at 20 1/2 inches long.  He has a head full of dark hair and long fingers and toes.

While Jenn was on oxygen because of minor complications......

Nick was catching up on a bit of missed sleep.

Proud Daddy!

Happy Mama!

New Grandma

New grandpa

First bath

We've got the diaper on and we're content.

He's adorable and we love him to pieces!!

Cameron and Serena's Wedding

I've finally gotten some pics of the wedding.  Here's Richelle as one of the bridesmaids.  She, Serena's two sisters, and Serena's best friend (who happens to be male) were her attendants.  

Here are Cameron and the groomsmen.  His brother Nick is second to last and his cousin Chris is last.  The ring-bearer is Serena's nephew and the other young-un is the ring-bearer's brother.

Mr. and Mrs. Cameron Miller!

They were so kind to each other cutting the cake.

Richelle was wearing Melissa's fine pearl necklace so all the siblings were included in the ceremony.

Spring has....um....sprung?

May has been unseasonably cool for us this year but a few days ago, the weather was very spring-like.  The flowers were blooming....

...the goldfinches were feasting by the dozens.....

And then, after a day of Mary-Poppins-turn-the-umbrella-inside-out-and-the-patio-table-over winds, this rolls in.....

The rain made the flowers less than bright but were determined to be cheerful anyway.

We had driving rain like this off an on all day yesterday.  You can see the haze of rain splashing off the table.  The little iris buds are thankfully protected through the onslaught. 

Sunset.  But it didn't bring "sailor's delight" as the red sky promised.  Today was another day of torrential downpours interspersed with spells of....not dryness, really....more like....not raining.

It got up to 49 degrees today and the forecast for tonight is snow as low as 2,000ft.  I suppose if we lived in Prince Albert, Canada, this would be normal.  But we live in western Oregon and it's not normal.  Global warming?  I shake my head as I toss another log into the wood stove.

Language/Culture studies

Richelle wearing a Roman girl's tunic and belt.

We started a course of Latin language study back in September with other homeschooling families.  In name, Richelle was the student and I was there to audit the class.  In fact, we both learned Latin grammar, pronunciation, word derivatives, culture, and history.  Richelle didn't want to take the class at first but when I told her I wouldn't require English grammar if she studied Latin, she was all for it.  For those who may be wondering, we used Latina Christiana I.  

She had so much fun that she's quite ready for a second year.  This course is rather easy compared to a high school curriculum but by completing Latina Christiana II, she will have one credit of foreign language.  Not to mention a leg up in vocabulary and grammar.

Speaking of grammar, Latin is quite interesting.  Have you ever declined a noun?  Everyone knows how to conjugate a verb (I hope!) but English nouns only have two forms:  possessive and everything else; each either singular or plural.  Latin has five; subject, possessive, indirect object, direct object, and object of the preposition; each either singular or plural and each having their own ending although some endings are the same.  So wherever the noun occurres in the sentence, you know by the ending what it's function is.  For example, we could write "Billy put the dishes on the table." or "Billy put the table on the dishes." and by the noun ending (-a in this the object of the preposition case), there is no confusion.  Handy, isn't it?  

Also, just to make things more interesting, Latin has five declensions: feminine, masculine and neuter, and third, fourth, and fifth declensions (they don't seem to have a label other than that) each with their own endings.  We just touched the third declension the last few lessons this year.

The class had an end-of-year party last week.  They all dressed up in as close of dress as they had available, brought food that would have been eaten in Roman times, and watched a movie that had some Latin spoken in it.  A tunic is basically a pillowcase with holes for the head and arms and a belt around the waist.  Boys' were just below the knee and girls' were ankle length.  Men wore the togas we associate with Romans and women wore something very similar to an Indian sari.  Richelle decided she wasn't a woman yet and I made her a tunic from an old sheet.

The class was lots of fun and, although it required a weekly trip to town, it well worth the time, money and effort.  We're looking forward to next year's classes.

The Worst Mom

I am probably the absolute worst mom in the world.  


Richelle had a choir concert this afternoon after more than two months of practice and rehearsals.  This is the first performance in arts that she's done so you'd think I'd make sure things were special for her.  Especially since she's had a bad cold the past few days, looks a bit pale, and has a lingering cough.


Instead, I~

1. Managed to bring the camera with me from home (maybe not the absolute worst mom, then) but completely forgot I had it in the car until after the concert started and I noticed a much better mom in front of me recording on her video.
2. Neglected to make the suggestion that Richelle use a touch of make-up to give some color to her wan face.
3. Spaced out about giving her a couple of cough drops - or even a roll of Life-Savers for cryin' out loud! - in case she got a fit of coughing while singing. (She did, poor thing, but on the last half of the last song.  She lip-synced most of it and suddenly had a lot of color from stifling the coughs.)
4. Didn't remember to get her a bouquet of congratulatory flowers.

Here's where I'd insert the photo of a healthy-looking, smiling Richelle holding a bouquet of flowers.


****sigh****

Spring Break, continued

I had to have Richelle post the last entry and she took liberty with a post script.....

The girls got a little out of hand that first night so we stayed together as a troop the first day until lunch.  The girls groused a little but they had fun and we turned them loose at lunch time.  We took the precaution of making sure they understood the consequences of getting separated from their buddies and checked that each buddy pair had a cell phone.

I went on Splash Mountain and rode in the front.  It's always like a different ride when you sit in front.  This is a water ride and the two of us in front got thoroughly soaked from head to knee in my case and head to foot in hers.  We met up with some of our girls after the ride and they pointed and laughed.

I didn't get to go on Space Mountain the first time I went because they were re-doing it for the 50 year celebration.  I sure missed a great ride!

I suppose my favorite rides are Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Soaring Over California, and California Screamin' - the last two on the California Adventure side.  If I could only ride one, it'd have to be Screamin'.  I just love the first five seconds!

A few great memories:

The girls do something called a "force push" where they pretend to lick their hands (sometimes it's not pretend!) and then shove it in someone's face, causing the victim to flinch back.  The six girls I was with one afternoon were doing that to each other while we were waiting to meet up with a group going to the motel.  One girl did it to me only I purposely didn't flinch and her wet (!) hand made full contact on the side of my face.  I hollered her name and took off after her.  On about the third step, my brain clicked in and I realized she'd used water, not spit, on her hand.  She was pleased as Punch to have gotten me so good.

I didn't realize it but one of the girls was/is absolutely terrified of heights.  In spite of that, she went on most of the rides everyone else did at least once.  Sometimes her hat was pulled over her face and sometimes her eyes never opened the entire ride, sometimes there were tears of terror and always there was screaming but she was determined to do what rides she could.  She flatly refused to ride Maliboomer and I had to do some fast talking to convince her to go on Tower of Terror but California Screamin' became one of her favorite rides.

This was Richelle's favorite pastime - eating Mickey Mouse ice cream.  She must have consumed at least half a dozen in those three days.

The contrast in this picture:  Richelle in the front row with a big grin and arms straight up vs. the girl second row, second from right.  That's the one and only time she rode Tower of Terror.  What a trooper!

The fireworks show was spectacular.  We weren't in a good spot for photos but I did my best.

It took two hours longer to get home than it took to get there.  The girls weren't pushing to get home like they were to get there and they had a little spending money left that had to be spent before they got home.  Plus, they had to figure sales tax before they could decide if they had enough to make the purchase.  We also stopped for lunch and supper going home but the girls had brought a sack breakfast and lunch for the trip down.  Seventeen hours after we left the motel, we pulled into the same library parking lot and ended our adventure....at 2:30 am.

I still had two girls to connect with a parent in a nearby town on my way home so I didn't walk into the door of my house until 3:30 am.  It's taken me until today to feel completely recovered.  Whew!

What I Did For Spring Break

I used to hate when my teacher gave us that writing assignment.  My mind would go blank and I wouldn't know where to start.  Besides, I never did anything exciting over Spring Break or Summer Vacation.  I ended up making a sort of list:  I climbed trees, did chores, pulled weeds, helped with the canning and freezing of produce, read books (I could actually put that in several times since that was the activity of choice from about second grade on) and played games with one or another or multiples of my siblings.

My objection to the writing assignment wasn't because I had nothing to write about but because it sounded boring next to my classmates going to Lake Tahoe or Disneyland or Hawaii or Mexico.  I also had no idea where to start or what to include.  It helped a little when the teacher told us to write about our most exciting adventure.

My most exciting adventure for Spring Break 2010 took up nearly the entire week.  Four adults and I took 14 Girl Scouts aged 11 - 14 to Disneyland for three days.   There were two younger sibling tag-alongs but they stayed glued to their parent's side and I wasn't responsible for them in any way.

The story opens at 3 am Monday morning in the local library parking lot where we met for the drive down.  Most of the girls had stayed up all night with the encouragement of their parents in the hopes that they'd spend a good deal of the drive sleeping.  Richelle had never had me order her to stay up so that was quite a novel experience for her.  One of the girls spent the night with us so they could help each other stay awake.  They managed it but when I got up at 1:50am, Richelle greeted me with, "I'm tired and want to go to sleep!"

I had three girls with me in our truck and do you think they dropped off to sleep in an hour or so?  Hollow laugh.  Those gluttons stayed awake until just south of Redding - about five hours down the road.  Absolute excitement kept them awake and silly.

Sixteen hours after leaving the parking lot, we arrived at the motel.  We can probably skip the part where we had to get off the freeway for a pit stop just as we came into Los Angeles...and promptly got separated from our lead car.  Nothing deliberate, just traffic.  We can also gloss over my merge into a city street while trying to get back on the freeway.  And the sheer terror of finally merging onto the freeway and having a two-trailered belly-dump semi six inches from my mirror.  He had his lane and I had mine but I thought mine was going to end and I didn't see anything but semi to my left.  I'd swear they make the lanes on the freeways down there the width of a semi plus six inches.  It was enough to make a person's hair stand on end and get an otherwise dedicated atheist to fervently pray.  I had one of our SUVs seemingly attached to my bumper with an invisible bungee cord and played tag with the other for about ten miles before we got re-connected.  I love cell phones and people on the same provider as I am.  We met up with the lead car....at the motel.  They had the group checked in so all we had to do was unload and park.

We had ordered "Class B" shirts (informal uniforms) in time for this trip.  At one of the pre-event meetings, we asked the girls what rules they'd like to set down.  The first suggestion was "no drama" and was quickly seconded so we had "No Drama" printed on the left sleeve of the Class B.  Any time any of the girls started getting dramatic, someone would point to the sleeve or say, "No drama!"  It usually worked.

more later.....(the Lovely Daughter is doing this for the Dearest Mother. hee hee. and i will add that the girl that thought of the "no drama" was the most dramatic girl.)

Family Additions

Both of our sons are engaged to be married.  Cameron and Serena announced their engagement last summer; Nick and Jenn shared their news at Christmastime.

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Cameron and Serena are planning a wedding for June 26th. Not the best picture in the world but what I have on hand.

Nick and Jenn plan to be married early summer 2011.

They are both wonderful young ladies, very good for the boys, and we enjoy them very much.  They take the teasing that Mike is so well-known for dishing out and even toss it back now and then.  

It's lovely to see two young couples so happy with each other and Richelle is thrilled to have two new sisters.

A House Full

Cameron and Serena were here one afternoon last week when Nick and Jenn unexpectedly showed up to return some stuff they'd borrowed.  Afternoon turned into evening as we whiled away the hours as families do.

It warmed my heart to have the house full again, bumping into people, extra chairs at the table, doors and windows open because of the extra heat from additional bodies, listening to the five kids forging ties to make a new, larger, family......

End Of The Year Fun

Mike wanted to take the whole family went up into the mountains to play in the snow this winter. It's been seven or eight years since we've done that. He had the last two weeks of the year off so the boys put their heads and work schedules together and we went up on 30 December. There had been a good snowfall the evening and night before so the snow was fresh, dry, untraveled, and about eighteen inches deep. We stopped at about 3400ft elevation at, literally, a wide spot in the road where it forked. We had come to a stop trying to read the snow-dusted sign and couldn't get going again without putting the chains on.

Well, we did go, just not the direction we wanted. Every time Mike gave it a little gas, we slid sideways a little closer to the edge of the road. Cameron was on that side of the pickup and kept saying, "Dad, should we put the chains on?" with a little more agitation each time as he saw the edge coming closer and closer. Mike is very competent driving in the snow and knew exactly what he was doing but I think he was trying to get a bit of a rise out of us, too.

He put the chains on, got himself out of the hole and decided this was as good a place as any to stop. Out came the snowshoes, skis, sleds, snowboard, table, chairs, pop-up shade, propane stove, lunch, and drinks. Mike drove up and down a good stretch of road to make a decent ski/sled run.

Richelle crouched behind Nick's truck, putting on the snowshoes the boys made when they were in Boy Scouts.

Modeling the snowshoes. I didn't get a picture of her hurrying to catch up with Nick and doing a face-plant.

Serena, Cameron, Jenn, and Richelle molding the first two layers of the snow-....um....something.

Mike getting involved in shaping the head. Nick is on the right.

The final product. I think they decided it was a dinosaur of some sort. Later, they added sticks for arms and short pieces of cedar branches for antlers. The decorations are broccoli and carrots from lunch.

Mike took a few turns on the sled and even went one more time so I could get a picture of him. Here, he's waiting for Richelle and Cameron to finish their run.

The "wide spot" in the road. The main road comes up from the left, I'm standing on the road to Hemlock Lake, and the road over the ridge to Highway 138 is to the right.

Cameron and Serena. For some unknown reason, I didn't get one of Nick and Jenn.

Short, steep, and oh! so scary. Richelle screamed every time she slid down. As everyone knows, the more you slide on a spot the faster it gets. By the time we left, Richelle was flying down the cut bank and the dip from the snow-filled ditch launched her into the middle of the road.

This is what a Pacific Northwest logging road looks like in winter at 4,000 ft elevation. This really is a road! The snow was about two and a half feet deep with spots where it was maybe three feet deep. (I just asked Mike and that's what he told me.) Deep enough that we were plowing it with our bumper and grill and throwing snow up over the hood, windshield, and pick-up. Jenn said they watched it blow over the entire truck.