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.

Lessons on Packing for Airport Security

Cameron went to the east coast in 2005 at age 15 with a large group of Boy Scouts to attend National Jamboree. He was going to be gone for a little more than two weeks and one of the items on the packing list was detergent so they could wash their clothes.

When Nick went in 2001, I could buy pre-measured packets and did so. I looked high and low when Cameron went four years later and couldn't find anything. No problem. I'm resourceful and imaginative. I measured out eight or ten small load's worth of detergent, vacuum-sealed them individually, put them all together into a gallon zip bag, and gave them to Cameron to pack.

A couple of weeks later, we were standing in one of many long lines of uniformed Boy Scouts at the Eugene airport waiting for their luggage to be checked. I'm thinking 'checked' as in 'checked baggage, not carry-on' and it was 'checked' as in the TSA officer having the boys open their bags so he could check the contents. Not a problem. I knew Cameron didn't have anything he wasn't supposed to have.

Cameron's checked bag was a very large duffel stuffed fairly full. He shoved it along with his foot as the line inched closer to the officers. Eventually, he came to the front and the officer asked him to open his bag. Cameron obligingly reached down and, with one smooth, quick motion, zipped it open. The sides of the bag promptly fell wide, revealing a gallon zip bag full of smaller packets containing white granulated stuff lying right on top.

The officer stood there transfixed and I instantly realized what he thought he was seeing. I practically gibbered as I tried to explain what that packet was and offered to open one to prove it. I think I might have even asked Cameron if he had his knife on him to open one.

After a moment, the officer seemed to come to himself and waved away my offers. "You're Boy Scouts," he said. "I trust you."
"Besides, it doesn't look like drugs, really," he added.

Culinary creations

Cameron loves fresh salsa and has been wanting to make his own for awhile now. I don't particularly like it so hadn't pursued a recipe until he started asking me to find one.

The first thing I did was call my sister-in-law who is an awesome cook and can take random things out of the fridge and come up with some great-tasting stuff. That was not as profitable a call as I'd have liked because like all great cooks, she doesn't measure or jot down. She just takes what's on hand and tosses them together in proportions that "look good". She did, however, give me some good advice. The best advice was to look on the list of ingredients of his favorite salsa and start experimenting.

Yesterday, Cameron, Richelle and I made a trip to the grocery store and looked over the assortment of vegetables. Cameron loves habañeros so we got three of them. He doesn't particularly like jalapeños so we ignored those. There were some little dark green peppers called serranos that looked good so we picked out half a dozen. There were some poblanos that I remembered my sister-in-law mentioning so we got one. I pointed to a tomatillo and asked Cameron if he wanted one.
"What do they taste like?" he asked.
"I have no idea but they look cute!" was my girly answer. He snorted, shook his head and told me to put one in the cart. Well, they are cute - a little green tomato wrapped up in a papery leaf-like thingy.
We added half a dozen roma tomatoes, a yellow bell pepper, an Anaheim pepper, a yellow onion, cilantro, a few limes, fresh basil and took a swing through the chips aisle on our way to the check-out.

He was three hours slicing, dicing, and deciding how to concoct four different combinations of ingredients. Along the way, he decided he wanted to taste the different things that were unfamiliar to him. That's when we learned just how HOT serrano peppers are! He tasted the teeniest mince of one and described the experience as a blast of heat that tapered off to very warm. He also managed to get some oil on his lips in the process and was forced to stop production long enough to wash them with soap. Juice, chips, and bread simply couldn't cut it.

He was impressed with the tomatillo. Crunchy and moist, a hint of citrus with the idea of heat but when the piece was swallowed, so was the illusion.



He was mildly disappointed with the results. None of the four combinations he made were hot enough for him!! They were plenty hot enough for me. But then, I don't like very much heat (I also don't like my sodas very fizzy or very cold [the guys say I like it flat and warm] but that's another story.) We forgot to add garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar until most of it was gone but it did bring out the flavors a little more. He liked the serrano peppers but not the poblano. He wants to swap out the yellow bell pepper and try green onions instead. His favorite mix was the one with everything in it.

I told him that I would supply him with whatever vegetables he wanted however often he wanted it. He looked a bit startled and I explained that I would happily keep him in ingredients if this was the way to get veggies into him.

High Achievement

ANNOUNCING
the
EAGLE SCOUT COURT OF HONOR
for
CAMERON MILLER

Sunday, 21 December 2008
2:oopm

at the

SUTHERLIN COMMUNITY CENTER
SUTHERLIN, OREGON

Cameron officially achieved the rank of Eagle Scout on April 29, 2008 but it's taken this long for us to pull the ceremony together. You can read about and see his project in the May archives.

Cameron's arm

I wanted post a quick update about Cameron's arm. He says it still hurts quite a bit but he hasn't missed a day of work and even worked overtime six hours yesterday on the greenchain and eight hours over last weekend doing clean-up. He says clean-up is the easiest job ever and works eight hours overtime each week that he can.

He's not been to the chiropractor yet but has an appointment and is on the cancellation list. His appointment isn't until early September because he's limited to Fridays with his 10-hour shifts.

He's pretty careful of his arm but doesn't feel he needs the sling. Each time I ask him how it's doing, he says it still hurts so I ask him if it's getting better and he mumbles something. So like a man.

Memory is the first to go

We were sitting around the family room this afternoon talking about Cameron's arm and he mentioned that they saw the scar from the old break.

Whaa?

"When did you break your left arm?"

"Five years ago. A couple of weeks before Melissa died," he says. He thinks, "Mom, you're losing it."

"No, that was your right arm," I correct while struggling with memory.

We had a short discussion about how we know Nick broke his left arm because his Scoutmaster, missing his right arm from the shoulder, called Nick his "right-hand man" and we know that Nick's and Cameron's breaks were almost identical except for being opposite arms. We scratched our heads and dusted off memories and I finally asked Cameron if he remembered which side the casket was on when he was pallbearer.

"The left side.......oh. It was my right arm I broke."

So he did damage the bone when he walked in front of the jitney. The x-rays showed what was either a crack or an old, healed break and at 2am Mike and Cameron assumed it was his left arm he'd broken years ago.

Children.....

I was suddenly yanked from slumber by the shrill of the telephone. Like all mothers, I was on my feet and in the next room before my eyes opened, multiple thoughts racing through my head one after another as if they were playing tag, "Where's the phone? I have to answer before the machine picks up. Follow-the-sound-follow-the-sound. Please don't let me collide with a chair," and the thoughts we keep shoving away, "Who?" and "Why?" Not complete thoughts because we don't want them answered.

I answer the phone. A voice so upset I can hardly recognize it says, "Mom, I'm all right."

I'm a bit rattled. That's what Nick said four years ago when he rolled his Bronco but nobody should be driving anywhere at 11pm. I mean, they should be in bed or at work. Mike's shift ends at 11:30, Cameron's ends at 2am and Nick's shift starts at 6:30am. Mike sometimes works later and occasionally comes home earlier but this is Cameron talking to me.

"You're all right where?" I wondered, fumbling for reality.
"At work." Again, a voice fighting for control.

It turns out that he was hit by a forklift and injured his arm. They got on the radio and called Mike who was there in a few short minutes and took him to the hospital. He called me because we have a deal. When he gets hurt, he calls me. That way, when he's not home when I wander the house in the wee sma's, I don't worry.

So now I'm waiting to hear what the extent is of his injury. I'm waiting up, of course, but this is one of the few times I can't seek oblivion in a book. I keep making stupid mistakes in my Sudoku book, and my stomach isn't feeling the best either. Mike called from the hospital a few minutes ago to find out when his last tetanus shot was and his uneducated diagnosis was either a bruised or broken arm. Let's hope for just a bruise!

First Day of Work

Cameron had his first full day at work at a "real" job. He chose to take the 10 hour day/4 days a week shift. The shift starts at 5am. This means that he needs to plan on getting there by 4:30am because of the length of the commute. It takes 45 minutes to drive there. This morning he needed to be there by 4:30 for last-minute training so he had to leave at 3:30am. GAG! This was hard on me because I was afraid he'd sleep through his alarm. He has a habit of thinking he's awake and he isn't. So I set my alarm for 3am, thinking that if he wasn't up when it went off there's still be time for him to get up and out the door by 3:30. Not to worry. He was up and around by 2:45. I quietly turned off my alarm and when he left, fell back asleep.

It wasn't a very good sleep because I kept waking up with a jolt and had to remember that he'd already left for work in good time. I had programed myself to worry and did a fine job of it all night long. I took a short nap this afternoon and felt guilty because Cameron couldn't.

So you know how your kids come home from some function or overnighter or something and have to share with you every single detail of their time away from you? Cameron didn't even wait to get home. He called on his cell. It was interesting because Mike worked in the green end at the time we were married and for, oh, maybe six years more before he went into management. I was curious about what Cameron would tell me about pulling green chain. One of the first things he complained about was the stench of peeled hemlock. I was transported back in time about twenty years and it was Mike complaining about having to pull hemlock. I guess it's something pretty bad and any slivers you get fester up in a matter of hours.

A quick explanation here for those who aren't familiar with the process of making plywood. The logs are stripped of their bark and sent into a pressurized steam tunnel for an amount of time depending on the type of wood. The purpose of the tunnels is to drive the water into the wood, totally saturating it. The logs then come out of the tunnels and are peeled with a lathe. Just like a wood-shop lathe where the wood spins and you press a knife to it to make the design, the logs spin and are laid against a very long blade (4, 8, or 10 feet long) that has been adjusted for how thick the peel needs to be (measured in millimeters). The log is reduced to a very, very long "ribbon" (called veneer) of very, very thin wood. Here's where the steam is needed. If there isn't much moisture, the wood will break and curl. Soaked with water, it holds together and lays flat. The veneer goes through the clippers and then down a chain where most is removed by machine and some is removed by hand. This is where Cameron is. Yes, it is heavy. In about a week and a half, you'd be silly to challenge him to an arm-wrestling match.

I guess he didn't do too badly and got some encouraging words from his crew. He came home starved and exhausted and ate a large supper, but I couldn't get him to go to bed until about 11:30pm; he was that wound up. He doesn't work until Monday or he'd have gone much earlier. The beauty of working 4/10 is that you get three day weekends.

So endeth his day.

Eagle Scout

I see I'm not off to a good start about keeping things posted! The following was written last week and then I was interrupted and never got back to it until now. Ah, well.

Cameron went to his Eagle Board of Review last Tuesday night and is now officially an Eagle Scout. We are so proud of him! Several questions we had were answered for him at that time.
He had responded to the notification letter, letting the chairman know that the date and time fit in with his schedule as was requested. The email he got back mentioned that the chairman would officiate but was not allowed to vote because he knew Cameron. So then we wondered what would happen if all the members knew the Eagle candidate. I thought that was unlikely because I didn't even know many of the Eagle board members. Turns out I was wrong! I don't know many of the Eagle board members but that's not who sits in on the review. The review is made up of Eagle Scout adults from this area who don't know the candidate. In Cameron's case, there weren't any Eagle Scout adults who didn't know him. So the answer to the question "What happens if..." is that they choose three members who don't know him very well.
We now know that there is a minimum of three on a review, they all need to be strangers to the candidate (or as unknown as possible!) , and they're all Eagle Scouts that live in the area. Strange I didn't find this out when Nick went before the Eagle Board! I wonder how difficult it was for them to form a review board for him?




It is such a relief to have it done. For a while there, I'd nearly given up because he was so stubbornly opposed to earning this. I have SUCH a stubborn child. And he certainly does not get his stubbornness from me because I have every last bit of what I was born with and have since cultivated more! I was nearly out of my mind with frustration because he stopped working toward Eagle rank when he was three and a half merit badges and one project short of the necessary requirements. When you learn that there are twenty-one badges and six previous ranks required along with that project, you can empathize with my frustration.

But it's done now!!