Help! I Want You Back!

I've just learned that Feedburner is no longer allowing email subscriptions. I thought I saw something about this a long time ago but nothing ever changed. I'm not tech savvy enough to understand what exactly was going to happen... and now I'm not getting many of your blogs in my email anymore! It's been a couple of weeks and I've been trying to figure out what happened. Now I know.

I've tried going to some of your blogs to follow there but that doesn't always work. Bloglovin' says the page isn't available; some blogs don't show a way to follow... does anyone have any ideas for getting blog notifications? I miss you guys!! 😟

Super Mini Vacation

Chuck had today off (Wednesday) so we decided to go over to Poulsbo, a Nordic style town not from us. There's a 30 minute ferry ride then just a 15 minute drive. 

 

The weather was sunny when we left our side of Puget Sound and still cool and cloudy when we got to the other side, but it cleared up quickly and turned out to be a beautiful day! On the ferry you're able to get out of your car and go up one flight to the Sun Deck. It's a beautiful view and gets windy pretty fast.

 

 We wandered around, ate lunch at the Green Light Cafe, did some shopping, and bought some chocolate for when we got home. 

 

 

I just realized I never got any pictures of me and Chuck! Sigh. We sat at a beautiful park and watched the boats come and go from the marina.

 

 

We were there for a few hours, then got in line to catch the next ferry

 

 

You can see Mount Baker to the right of the ferry

 

Pulling back into the Edmonds Ferry Dock

As we pulled onto our street, it was like we had been gone for a week! We hadn't driven onto the ferry in quite a while, the different scenery, new shops, a fun restaurant... It was exactly what we needed!

MRI Update, Garden Stuff, and Games

Thank you for your kind comments on my last post.

 

Chuck's oncologist had given him some Lorazepam to take about an hour before the test. He was very relaxed when I drove him down there!

 

He got into the machine and after about 4 minutes he asked to be taken back out. He took some more medicine, sat in the chair for a while then tried again. The second time he was able to last the entire time. What a relief! So now we wait for the results. We expect it will be a tele-med appointment.

 

I trimmed my hydrangea bush way back this year and only got two blooms on it. I wondered if that would happen. Just have to look forward to next year!

 

 Ally and I have been playing games lately. She's really good and usually beats me!

This is a form of Mancala. I learned it as The Shell Game when I was in grade school. Some of the rules I learned are different from Mancala but it's basically the same game.

My mom had these cards when I was growing up but I don't know if they were part of a game or not. There's probably 10 cards all together. She gave them to me many years ago and we've always just used them to play Bingo. Have you seen them before?

 

We've had temps in the 90's the last few days. The windows and blinds are closed all day and the fans are going full blast. It was 85 in here last night around 9:00! Tonight it's a few degrees cooler but we're supposed to have these temps for a few more days. We're soaking it up because we know it will be over before we know it!

 

I hope you're doing well. Have a wonderful day!

MRI

 I’m writing this at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Chuck is trying one more time to have an MRI of his head. He’s had several since 2020 but the last couple of times he’s had so much anxiety with them. Feeling squished and claustrophobic. He hyperventilates… They haven’t had a successful test in over a year. The CT Scan showed no cancer but the oncologist really wants him to have an MRI.

If you knew Chuck you’d know he is one of the most laid back people on the planet. I often fight the thought process of: “He doesn’t care about a thing! He doesn’t care that the lawn needs to be mowed or that the carpet is dirty, he doesn’t care about anything! Now Cindy you know that’s not true. He cares about you, the family, our home. He cares.” 

Am I the only one that has a thought process like this? 

Anyway, the fact that he has so much anxiety about these tests makes me concerned. It makes me… pray harder! 

Been Too Blah To Blog

Hi everyone. Still here. Just haven't had the time to blog - or - when I do, I just feel too blah to blog. 

 

How are you? Got any vacations planned? Or will you hang out at home this summer?

 

Summer has officially arrived here in the Seattle area, we went from rain and temps in the 60's to scorching sunshine and temps in the 80's and 90's within a week. Somebody flipped the switch! And I don't know about you but when it's warm and sticky... I don't want to do anything!

 

One thing I did do a few weeks ago was find a new hair salon. I will admit I've been going to Super Cuts for decades. Took our girls there when they were little and I just never stopped. A couple months ago I made an appointment on-line but when I got there the door was locked. Lights were on, OPEN sign was lit but no one was there. I even called 911 because I was concerned someone might be in trouble in the back. But the officer couldn't do anything because there was no sign of foul play: no chairs overturned, etc. So I went home. Made another appointment a few weeks later and same thing. So... I googled 'hair stylists near me' and it brought up MODA. The salon is about 10 minutes from me, the stylist was good, she was friendly, since it was my first visit I got a little goodie bag... I feel like a grown up! I got the same hair cut I always get but now I'm so excited to go back!

 

 I think I wrote about the birds that make a nest in our wreath every year and how they actually laid more eggs just a couple months ago. Pretty late in the season I thought. Their first litter? Pile? Clutch! I looked it up. Their first clutch was eaten by some animal. This time every time I looked there were 4 eggs. Mr and Mrs Junco chirped at us every time we'd come or go. Then a couple weeks went by and I noticed they weren't around anymore. I checked the nest the other day and there's still one egg left! I think that one just never hatched! 😢 

I babysat Poppy yesterday. I put some water in her pool and sat back and watched! That dog is a maniac!

What Beth Has Been Up To Lately

 We got in the car the other day and as we're pulling out she pointed to me, then looked away like she was talking to someone else and said, "Mother (then pointed to herself) daughter day!" And she squealed, "Heehee!" It had been a while since we'd hung out together.

She was looking for some new jeans so we went to Target. She actually bought some overalls! She walked right to them and knew what she wanted. Then we headed to the office supplies. Her favorite part of the store!

 All Aboard has opened back up again! So many people asked them to change their requirements and they have! In their email they said mental health is just as important as physical health. So we sat down and looked at all the new activities and she chose dancing! I'm so excited about her having more to do throughout the week. 

So now she'll be working two days a week, plus dancing, church, and bowling. Plus a couple days at home to do chores and just hang out. I'm glad her schedule is filling up again.

A lazy day at home - emptying the dishwasher in her pajamas!

Started Celebrating on Sunday

The older I get the more I like the Fourth of July. I think it's because we get to sit in our 'parade chairs' for a few hours and just people watch. No responsibilities, no checking the clock... just sitting and relaxing. And there's always people walking by that you know so you're giving hugs and catching up. I think we should do that every weekend. 😄

The girls all had things to do on Monday afternoon so we started our celebrating on Sunday. Sharaya gave Diana a box of things she had been collecting for the last couple of years. She had filled it with baby clothes and books and shoes and toys. She bought a small stuffed dog for their baby, exactly like one Ally had (still has) when she was a baby! It was fun to see everything and "Oooh" and "Awwe" over baby stuff!

 

We played some Mexican Train and stopped in the middle to have our traditional jello and whipped cream. This is something we started doing when the girls were little and it's still a favorite!

 We had to cut the game short so we could go get our spot down on the parade route. Do you do that too? We can't put our chairs out before 6PM so people begin arriving around 5:30 and we hang out until just after 6:00, then we all head home. It was raining most of the day Sunday but thankfully the sun came out on Monday.

 We were all together this year, the first time in a while. The parade lasted about an hour and had more small town groups this year. A girl scout troupe, a baseball league... but there were a lot of regulars too! I teared up when the motorcycle group came by, thinking of my sister. Beth held up her Star Wars travel mug when the characters walked passed. And the Mariner Moose was there! He's our Seattle MLB mascot - Go Mariners!!

This group is from our church. We have a Discipleship Home for men - and now women! - who are coming out of addiction. They walk in the parade every year! These two ladies work in the office though.

The civic field is being worked on so we didn't have a firework show this year. After the parade Sharaya and Ally went to watch fireworks with some friends and the rest of us went to Dairy Queen before heading home. Poppy had been freaking out with the random fireworks earlier in the week so they knew they needed to be home with her on the Fourth. At about 9:30 Diana sent us this picture ~

Having Fun With Will Boeing

Chuck got us tickets to the Boeing Future of Flight for my birthday. I've been enamored by planes, the Space Shuttle (when it was flying) and I just love being around them. This was a small museum and we were only there for an hour or two but we had fun!

I didn't realize the Vertical Stabilizer was this big! See me in the corner?

 They had a replica of the Destiny Module that's at the International Space Station.

How they go months sleeping upright I'll never know.

We went out on the sky deck and got to see a few planes land. 

In the second picture you can barely see Mt Rainier on the right.

This is the Assembly Building.  

Each one of those bay doors is large enough for a complete plane to go through.

 

 Before we left we asked one of the receptionists to take some pictures of us by the photo op area. You can tell she's done this a lot because we sure had fun!