Did What I Wanted To Do!

I was able to run my errands.  Grocery store, bank, drug store, and then go to Mt. Angel.  My brother David walked the Abbey Hill with me.  My niece came and visited and then we were joined by her mom Jalen.  It was a fun visit.  My "digestion" started acting up half way through our visit, but wasn't too bad.  LL and I did end up eating at Mac's Place.  It is a small town bar with food and on weekends, great live music.  I am a big fan of Northern Exposure.  It is actually my favorite TV show ever.  So if you know the show, Mac's place is a lot like the Brick.  A lot of locals, tourist stop in.  They are open for breakfast lunch and dinner and always can find  someone interesting to watch. 

So a good celebration day for me.

Tomorrow, I need to start getting Marlin (RV) ready for the weekend.

Hopefully get a post for you in the morning.  Max is being creative again:)

So much for Goodwill

Went on a walk today.  Needed to return things to the library, but on my way I walked to the post office and then Goodwill.  Didn't find anything worth buying at Goodwill but did find myself in a position that I didn't know what to do.

While walking through the glassware, I hear this lady yelling at her child.  "Stop being such a whiny stupid brat, we going".  Well, I start to head there to interfere.  Normally don't get involved with parents parenting, but this was definitely verbal abuse.  So before I get to her, a large man with 3 boys trailing behind him, came up to her and yelled "How long did you expect us to wait in the car? Get your lazy ass in the car so we can get going."  Well this guy was big and I was a little scared.  The best I could do was give him a dirty look.  All the kids were school age so either they were home schooled or from out of town. 

LL and I have our disagreements.  Our arguments definitely can get heated.  I was raised by parents who argued more than their fair share.  My mom is no shrinking violet.  I can hold my own with LL.  But never do I remember my parents disrespect each other like that.  LL and I never resort to such behavior either.  And as for the way the mom talked to the little girl.  Well about breaks my heart.

The thing is, in my experience, if they are acting like this in public, it can only be much worse in private.

In hindsight, I wish I would have said something to the mom or the dad.  Probably would not have made any difference, but at least it might have made one of them think.  I am not very proud of myself.  Fear to interfere is not a good thing.

Getting Out and About

You might have noticed my tone in recent posts.  Being an involuntary hermit has been getting me down a bit.  Even though my "digestion" has been bad and have had accidents recently.  I took a chance this morning and went to Costco with my mom and sister.  I was fine and was able to go all morning with them.  Was a bit hungry because I didn't eat, but was worth the trade off.

It is amazing how doing something as simple as errands in Salem can brighten my day.  I am a bit nervous about this winter.  I tend to have a little seasonal depression anyway.  But add cabin fever to that, well I just am not sure how I will manage.  Before things get bad, I need to think of ways to get out of the house, without risking too many accidents and issues.  I really don't want to fast too often, just for appointments and occasions.  It isn't healthy for me and I definitely have low blood sugar issues.   Prayer is my best bet right now.  I feel it might be the only solution.  I don't want to end up curled up in bed in the middle of the day with depression.

So if you are so inclined, keep me in your prayers, or at least send good thoughts.  I do feel so much better today after getting out.  I want to keep it going and keep cabin fever at bay.

Digesting my Frustration

I really shouldn't complain.  When I complain about my "digestive" issues, I feel like a very ungrateful girl.  I should never take for granted my remission, and always thank God for the opportunity to live another day.  I am grateful.  But sometimes I just get frustrated.  I could write everyday about how my bathroom issues keep me from living a normal life.  But I would only depress myself and bore you terribly.  But I am particularly angry today about my lot in life. 

Over the last week, I have not been able to attend 3 different events I was really looking forward to.  Last Saturday, my sister Kris took the time to cut, color and style my hair.  I knew what I was going to wear on Saturday night and was looking forward to a fun evening at the Oktoberfest Kick Off Party.  But no go.  My "digestion" kept me home close to the bathroom.  There were a couple other places and things I was looking forward to this week.  But again, I couldn't attend.

Today the Oktoberfest is starting.  Last year, I was in the middle of my chemo treatments.  I went to the Oktoberfest for a day, but had to be in a wheel chair because I was so weak.  I am strong now but know at anytime, I will need to get to the RV FAST.  Hopefully without an embarrassing accident.  I had a bad accident this week while shopping and although I am sure no one knew, thanks to diapers, I was embarrassed all the same.

The thing is, most the time, my day is always dictated from what I eat, when I eat, do I feel safe enough to go somewhere, can I get dinner made before it starts up.  This is becoming the norm for me.  I really don't dwell on it too much.  I don't usually mind it too much.  I hate it when my issues keep the rest of the family from doing things.  But they are getting better at taking my word for it.  "Go, do, and have fun without me".  And I mean it.  But sometimes my disappointment is great. 

Today, I have a lot to do.  Yesterday, after I got my pie made, I started having a lot of problems and got almost nothing else prepared for our weekend RVing at the Oktoberfest.  I ended up with a lot of pain and had to take a couple percocets and spend the evening watching movies.  So I will quickly this morning, do what I can do.  Then hopefully get to Mt. Angel before the town children dance and do the May pole.  I love watching them.  I do feel blessed and thankful to have the RV so I am more likely to chance getting out and enjoying the festival.  Today my mom, cousins and aunts get together to browse the festival, then meet at the Wine Garten to listen to music, eat, and drink wine.  It's my favorite part of the whole weekend.  So I will do my best to be there so I can visit with them all.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will have some pictures of us and I will feel embarrassed to have even posted about this.  But I have promised myself to always be honest in this blog, and for today, these are my honest thoughts and feelings.  So............wish me luck:)

Practicing My Chicken Dance

One of the biggest events of the year in my life is The Mount Angel Oktoberfest.  http://www.oktoberfest.org/  I grew up in the country about 5 miles from Mt. Angel.  Even though I went to a different High School (I went to Gervais), and our address was a Silverton addy, I consider myself a Mt. Angel girl.  It's where my mom grew up and was married.  I was also baptised, married, my kids baptised in Mt. Angel, and most childhood memories are of Mt. Angel.

I now live in Silverton, 4 miles from Mt. Angel. But I become 100% Mt. Angel Girl for the next 4 days.  Starting tomorrow, the small town grows and is the third biggest event in Oregon.  Oregon State Fair and the Rose Festival in Portland are the only larger events.  I will spend most my time visiting with family and friends, hopefully working in the beer garten on Friday evening if my "digestion" allows, eating a bit, trying new wines, looking at arts and crafts and just having a merry good time.   This year we even took the RV and parked it behind my sister's house.  This will give me a place to go and have privacy when "digestion" hits, and we can stay the night on the two busiest and dangerous nights to travel, Friday and Saturday night.

So today I need to cook and bake a bit so we are not only eating the food at the festival.  It can get expensive and unhealthy.  Oh I will still get a fondue one day, a Rubin sandwich another day, and don't forget the dough boys, but having some other food available is a good idea.  Also today is the day everyone brings in the booths.  It has become a bit of a tradition with my mom and sisters and I.  We walk on down to the festival area and watch the set up.  All the neighboring towns and organizations come in and set up their food booths.  We get to see a lot of people we know all in one place and can say hi and all, without the huge crowd.  Once the crowd begins tomorrow, it is hard to visit workers in booths.  They are just too busy. 

Unfortunately, the weather prediction is not good for the festival.  I imagine it might not be as busy as in previous years.  But it will still be fun.  So expect a lot of pictures of the oktoberfest in the next few days.  Well I best be off getting my cooking done.  Have a great day.

We're Back..........

The Oregon Coast weather couldn't have been better for a Labor Day weekend.  Sunny most the time occasional clouds and a slight drizzle for an hour one morning.  Lovely!  Where we stayed is Devils State Park.  Our first night our campsite was easily the worse site in the park.  Small, no place to really sit outside.  I didn't get the reservation until three weeks before Labor Day so we were not surprised.  But the next morning, LL and I went for a walk and saw a couple sights open, so after checking with the office, we moved to a much better spot.

Devil's Lake

The state park is right between the ocean and Devil's Lake.

Friday night, LL and Max went to the amphitheater to watch old cartoons.  Max loved it!  I would have liked to go but my "digestion" made it impossible.  I am happy to say my that is the only time over the weekend that I had problems.

 Mom and Karen came over on Saturday Morning.  We dropped LL and Mom at the Casino and Karen, Max and I went antiquing.  Karen found an old cookie jar she got a great deal on.  I also got a cookie jar, but mine was not very old.We came back to camp sight for cocktail hour.  After that, Mom and Karen took off to meet Bud, Bertie and Skippy at another Casino.  If you don't speak Konnie, that would be Steve, Kris and David.  I was a little disappointed that the didn't stay overnight with us but when a casino is calling mom..........well you know where she will go.

That night, I made a nice dinner.  We had Steak, bake potato, and green salad.  I love that you can cook just as well in a motor home as at home, and save money by avoiding the restaurants.Here is Max, as we were packing up on Sunday.  I would have like to stay another day.  But we did beat the traffic home and spent Monday morning doing chores, then took Bailey and Max to lunch.  Late afternoon, we went to Mom's for Peach drinks, Sandwiches, chicken wings, and upside down cake.  All my siblings were there and this was a great way to end the holiday weekend, and really also to end a great summer.

BTW, this is the first Labor Day weekend in 20 years, that I didn't have to get a child ready for going back to school.  Kinda bittersweet.

CELEBRATE the Abbey Hill!!

I have been to a lot of beautiful places.  Two of my favorites are Victoria, Canada and on the Mediterranean in Spain.  But my two very favorite places are Three Creeks, which I wrote about earlier this month, and The Mount Angel Abbey which is a Benedictine Monastery.

The Abbey has been a source of calm and peace for many years for me.  When Max was at his most difficult stage, I would get a sitter once in a while, and go up to the Abbey.  I would go to the beautiful library, check out a book, browse their gift shop, go into the retreat house and sit read and pray for hours.  It was my mini retreat to keep me sane. 

For years, the Abbey was my destination for walks.  It is just outside the town of Mt. Angel.  I would park my car at my mom's or sister's and just start walking.  Up and up.  It is quite the climb, and a good workout. 

Last summer, while recovering from surgery and chemo, I drove up there, looked around the gift shop, prayed in the church, talked to a few monks, and sat in the retreat house drinking hot chocolate and just enjoyed the peace.  I remember being a bit sad.  I thought I would never be able to walk the beautiful path up the long and high hill ever again.  I am happy to say I was wrong.  I have been finally exercising and Bailey and I decided to try the hill out.  I warned her I would be lucky to make it half way up. 

So we started up

Made it to the first Stations of the Cross.

There are fourteen of them.

Got half way up and thought I could go a little more

This is me sitting about 3/4 of the way up.  My mouth looked like that because I was breathing a little hard. 
After about a three minute break I felt like the Little Engine that could.

I MADE IT!!

It is so beautiful up there.  I use to take aerobics in this building when I was 20yrs old.

I decided to say hi to Mary on our way back down.

.

We walked around town after getting down from the hill.  I walked for an hour and felt like I accomplished something big.  My "digestion" held out, my stomach muscles must be healing, and I am building stamina so........Hurray for Konnie!!

Champoeg Park

LL had a furlough day on Friday.  So Thurday we loaded up the RV and took off just 30 miles to Champoeg park.  We wanted to try out the RV at a full hook up before Labor Day, and we wanted to bike ride.

Our RV Site was roomy and had some trees in the back

Here is the field and woods behind our RV

As you can see, I brought my trusty old bike that weights a ton. 

We rode to Butteville store.  The oldest continuous open store in the state

Beau had fun.  Look, he has his bow tie on and smiling from ear to ear

It's Some Terrific Radiant Humble Pig!

While in Astoria, Max and I went to an small old fashion County Fair. Clatsop County Fair to be exact.


Max doesn't like rides but he was brave enough to go into the Haunted Fun House.

And the Big Slide!

My favorite part was the animals. I had to take a picture of this Chicken. It still cracks me up.

I made Max pose in front my favorite part of the fair................

Meet Roxy and her babies.

Roxy is almost 700 lbs and quite the attraction.

This is the last post about our vacation. It was a great time. We did a little of everything. And it was fun to spend so much time with Max.

A Couple Days Alone

LL was busy during the days while we were in Astoria. My brother Doug and Mom brought Max over after a couple days. Wasn't that nice of them. This left me by myself for two days in Astoria. Never in my life have I been a tourist by myself. It was peaceful and relaxing. But I was ready for my Max when the time came.

I love touring mansions in different cities. Usually I have a husband or a bored kid with me. Not this time. I toured this beauty and took my time. This is the Flavel House Museum. It was built for Captain George Flavel in 1885.

This is the Carriage House.

Next to the Flavel House is the Oregon Film Museum. It just opened up and is not really worth the time or money. Very disappointing. But you might recognise this building that use to be the town jail. It was where the opening scene of Goonies took place. Most of the movie was filmed in Astoria. Along with other movies like Short Circuit, The Ring Two, Kindergarten Cop, Point Break, Free Willy, Into The Wild, and The Road.

I took a ride on this trolley and learned so much about Astoria. I definitely would recommend the trolley ride that takes about 1 hour for the round trip and cost a whopping $1.00:)

Astoria

Astoria, Oregon is the first and oldest permanent US settlement west of the Rockies. It was once the second largest city in Oregon. The Columbia River bar is known as "The Graveyard of the Pacific," with over 2000 wrecks and 700 lives lost.

This bridge called the Astoria-Megler is the longest continuous truss span in North America. It is 4.1 miles. I accidentally drove over it one day. My knuckles were white.


There are lots of shops and business on the docks.


Max in front of the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

This is one of many beautiful and interesting docks.

Max and I did a day trip to Seaside. This statue of Lewis and Clark is at the Promenade

Max in Seaside.


Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.

LL and I at a lookout point. Boy, don't we look like we are having a good time. We just got done snapping at each other. I guess pictures don't lie. Don't worry we got over it by the time we got to the car. Oh the joys of 25 yrs of marriage:)

A more beautiful place in the world I believe does not exist. We are back from four days of camping. I have not downloaded my pictures yet. These are from Bailey's camera.

The view of the lake from our campsite

Kris and Kara at our camp site

My kind of bridge

Bailey and Rett went for a walk up the hills and took this picture of the lake.

Bertie, Bud, and their middle child Bernice.

Rett and Bailey

Gus and Gertie and their dog Gutsy

I have pictures of Kane and Max on my camera and will be posting those later. Cole and I are home for just 24 hrs and are leaving for Astoria for a few days with Max joining us later. The other two kids will be taking care of animals and house. Hopefully the motel has WiFi so I will be able to post most days.

Load Em Up

All that is left to do is load up the RV and go.
Because there is nine of us camping in a pretty remote area, I have stuffed food and supplies pretty much everywhere:)



This tote is for supplies not normally for the RV. But since we are also tent camping some addition stuff was needed.

The boat is coming with us. I can't wait to fish. Note to self.........bring straw hat:)

My sister gave me two wine glasses with Lucy on it that says "and tasty too" from vitameatavegamin skit.

Kris also gave me this card that perfectly depicts us. I promptly framed it and it will be mounted on the wall in the RV. Bailey wrote Kris's and my RV names on it.

It says...........We've reached the age where we just can't function without our glasses............especially if they're empty.

By the time this post, we will be on our way home from camping. So hopefully tomorrow I will have some good pictures to show.