TRIP TO MARYSVILLE

Tuesday Donna and I went to Marysville to visit my sister, Elsie.  She lives in the Windsor Apts. for Seniors.

Elsie and Donna in Elsie's apt.  The apt is much larger than the previous one she lived in and it is less expensive than the one in Lake Stevens where she was.  We had a very nice visit.  Elsie is looking much better than the last time I saw her.  Her other place was getting pretty depressing for her because so many of the residents had memory problems.  We were very happy to see each other.  Donna told Elsie some of the memories of times we went to Elsie's house when she was young.  Donna remembered the huge bowl of Potato salad she always made and some other things.  I could tell she was very pleased that Donna remembered those things.

SUNNY DAYS

Wednesday and Thursday were just such beautiful days here.  Donna and I spent all day Wednesday going to the Quilting Shop Hop.  We took my car.  I now have almost 3,000 miles on it.  We had a nice time going  to the different shops.  There was a long list of shops but we covered 6 shops and that took a long time.  We went to Port Townsend, Silverdale, Port Gamble, Port Angeles, Poulsbo and Kingston.  Donna found a really nice kit for a wall hanging. It has birds and bird houses on it.  She is still trying to decide what kind of quilt to make for the quilting retreat we are going to in October.  The picture above is the one I made last year. This year I think I will just take a smaller counted-cross stitch picture to work on.  I am still working on the large Autumn one that I bought in May.  I have done quite a bit on it but there is still way, way more work before it will be finished.  Even after the cross-stitching is done there is still all the outlining to do. I am sure at the Quilting retreat I will be helping with Donna's quilt. Usually I do a lot of ironing and sewing squares together.

Thursday Donna decided she wanted to make some Strawberry Jam.  She wanted to pick the berries herself.  We took my car again.  My car always needs exercise. I feel kind of silly being so fussy but I had her put towels down in the trunk and on the front seat of the car. At times my OCD rears it's ugly head. I sat in my car and read my Kindle.  I am way past bending over and picking berries.  She got a lot of berries picked in an hour's time.  Donna bought a  Presto canner at Wal-mart. It was really nice for the jam.  Now she can can fruit or vegetables or meat if she wants to.  

I did help with the Strawberry jam.  I got the berries ready for Donna to smash up.  I even helped stir the jam.  You have to be so careful you don't burn yourself.  Also we made 2 loaves of bread.  Donna just bought some new yeast and the dough was rising really fast.  The loaves came out huge.  The fresh bread was so good with the fresh Strawberry jam.  

Tuesday we are going to Marysville to see my sister, Elsie.  I have not seen her for quite awhile.  We write back and forth all the time.  She loves letters.  Once when I called her I had not written for awhile and she said it was nice to talk to me but she missed my letters so now I try to write often.

NEW REFRIGERATOR

Donna and Laif's old refrigerator that I had downstairs finally gave out.  It was only about 7 years old.  The new ones apparently do not last as long.  With all the energy saving refrigerators, the compressors are smaller and run almost constantly to keep an even temperature.  The appliance man that installed my new Whirlpool refrigerator was not very impressed by the Maytag that Donna and Laif had.  He said Maytag makes great designs but the refrigerators themselves were not the best. Whirlpool now has Maytag . Anyway, my new refrigerator is doing great.  It has a really nice ice bin.  You can see how much ice there is when you open the door and also the ice bin tips and lifts out very easily.  Besides the water filter this refrigerator has an air filter that keeps the refrigerator constantly fresh.  It is more powerful than 15 boxes of baking soda. The refrigerator is really keeping my food cold and the freezer is working great.  I think the other refrigerator had been going bad for awhile.

Sunday was Father's Day.  Marge
and Harry invited Laif, Donna and me to the
Fifth Avenue, where they 
live for a nice Father's Day
Dinner. 


My father has been gone now for 52 years. He was a very caring father to my sister and I and treated our mother so well.  Growing up we always had him around all the time.  My parents were such hard workers. My mother kept our house so nice.  We always had big gardens.  One thing we did a lot after supper and the dishes were done was all four of us would play Bingo at the kitchen table. That probably sounds dull to the younger generation but we loved doing it.

UPDATING MY BLOG

I am sorry that I have not written lately.  Not that things haven't been happening, but I just haven't taken the time to write.  I think I left off where Richard and Joan were going to Atlanta.  They made it fine but unfortunately they had an accident on the way back home. Their van and pickup was totaled but the good news is that no one was seriously injured and the pets were OK too.

Rachel is such a good blogger.  I just enjoy all her pictures of their goings on and the great pictures of the children.

Darrell is in Atlanta and has been helping Diane with her house.  Diane said he is such a hard worker and has done a lot.  Diane's ward had a work party for her Saturday.  They filled 18 bags with grass and debris from the lawn and worked on the bushes.  Also helped on the house.  It is so great to belong to a Church that helps people so much.  I remember years ago when we were building a house in Bonney Lake that a lot of the guys from the Priesthood came out and put our roof on.

I bought myself a new toy.  I just could not resist.  One of my visiting teachers had one and she showed it to me and I could not get it out of my mind.  It was $100 so I hesitated a little but then decided I was worth it.

OK, you are wondering what it is.  It is called a Fitbit.  You will have to look it up on line to see just what all it does.  There is a video for you to watch.  Just Google Fitbit. I took this picture but you really can't tell too much. On the left is the docking station, in the center is the tracker which you can carry in your pocket or clip onto your clothing.  On the right is a velcro wristband that you wear at night to track your sleep.  The tracker is very small.  It is only slightly over 2 inches.  Anyway this wonderful gadget tracks all your steps which it turns into miles, it counts "floors" which is counted on stairs you climb or hills you climb.  A lot of days I get 14 floors in because I walk up our steep hill. The velcro band has a slot to hold your tracker.  You just write down when you go to bed and when you get up.  The tracker will tell you how long you are in bed and how long you actually slept.  Also it tells how many times you wake up.  When you log it in there is a graph that shows your sleep pattern and also shows your sleep efficiency. The tracker keeps track of your activity during the day and shows how many calories you have burned.  Also you can put your weight on  it  if you want to and you can put in what you eat.

Another fun part is that all you have to do is walk by the tracking station by your computer and everything automatically downloads. You do have to put your weight on and put in the times you go to sleep and when you wake up.

You get e-mails congratulating you when you meet a milestone in any of the activities.  I got a surprise this morning because I didn't realize that they send you weekly progress reports.  My report for last week was
                            23,534 steps (9.67 miles)
                            44 floors climbed
                            12,219 calories burned
                            Average sleep duration--6hrs and 39 min.
How happy I am to have lived to see this wonderful electronic era.

A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT

I need to catch up on my blog. So much has been going on.  Above is my new Ottlite lamp.  It is just amazing for needlework and small  print.  The picture above I took with all the lights off and you can see how bright it is.  It is just like working in the sunlight.  On the left is a picture of the counted cross stitch project I am doing.  It is a beautiful Autumn scene.  It will be 14" x 11" when it is done and will probably take me six months or more.  I have not done a large counted cross stitch picture in years.


I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day yesterday.  The weather was absolutely beautiful. I am so thankful I have lived to enjoy the wonderful technology we have today.  Erik was able to Skype on Mother's Day and Debbie set up a group skype.  It was just amazing. Kent was in Renton, Debbie and Jennie were in Salt Lake, Erik was in Sacramento and Donna, Laif and I were in Sequim.  We could see each other and talk to each other. It was just absolutely amazing.  Erik looks so good.  He seems to really be enjoying his Mission.

I am sure everyone knows that Michael and Rachel have their new baby girl, Eleanor, who was born in April.  The other exciting news is that Michael has graduated and the same weekend Eleanor was blessed.  Michael will be going to BYU in Provo for two years to work on getting his Masters in Electrical engineering.

The other news is that my son, Richard, and his wife Joan are being modern day pioneers.  They are on their way to Atlanta, GA to spend a month so that Richard can help Diane with some projects in her house she just bought there.  I think I already mentioned that she paid $33,000 for it including closing costs.

The reason I say they are modern day pioneers is that they are traveling in Richard's van with 5 dogs and 2 cats and towing a pickup truck full of tools. Diane said she talked to Richard and Joan yesterday and they were in Iowa.  They only had one problem so far that I know of.  Richard called me a couple of days ago and they were in Rapid City, South Dakota. The towing chain had broke but they got it fixed.  Since they had spent six hours in Rapid City over the towing problem, they thought they would go to Mount Rushmore.  I hope they did.  That was one of the sights that really impressed me when Donna and I went to the mid-west.

My leg is doing much better.  I can go up and down stairs without pain now.  My right leg is still pretty weak and the therapist still wants me to use a cane.  It does help to distribute the weight better.  It is easier to walk outdoors with a cane.  Who knows, at my age I might be using it the rest of my life but there are worse things.  At least I can still walk and take care of myself and do my housework so I really don't have anything to complain about.

BEFORE THE REMODEL

I can hardly remember how my downstairs used to look. Notice how much my Snake Plant has grown.  I started working on this blog earlier today.  Some how I got a couple of pictures on and even got a comment from Rachel and now those pictures have disappeared from my blog.  Now it is so nice downstairs.  Not much else going on.  Had my physical therapy yesterday.  My leg was really sore today but I am much better.  I have an idea this is going to be a lifetime job keeping my legs working right. I am sure I will have to keep doing the exercises forever.  Whatever I can do to keep on my feet I will.

MORE THERAPY

I had another physical therapy session today.  I think this is my 6th one.  I have always in my mind questioned things like Chiropractors, massage therapists, and physical therapists wondering if they really help people..  It seems like for a couple of days after a session I hurt worse but today it was like I had a breakthrough.  Shelia, the therapist, still did this pushing, stretching etc. but today it did not hurt as bad.  I have not only the weakness in my right leg but in the thigh of my right leg I have a mass that is like scar tissue and she is working on getting that broken up.  After the pushing and moving my leg around she took me to the exercise room and I was on a step-on for 10 minutes.  It is kind of like being on an exercise bike but your legs just go back and forth on the pedals.  The reason I said it was like a breakthrough is that today  I could really feel my leg loosening up and it did not hurt when I stepped down.  I could feel my leg was much more relaxed.  Sheila said my leg is a little stronger. I am still using the belt but the time might come when I don't need to.  I told her I have an exercise bike and she said by all means use it but not overdo. Anyway, I just wanted to share this news.  I guess there is still hope for old people like me.