Jacob's Mustache Challenge.

I don't know how he found this, but Jacob decided he wanted to do this. All for a good cause also.

http://www.donorschoose.org:80/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=27636

I have actually been on the donorschoose sight before when I have been looking for places to donate money. I really like the idea of it as you know exactly where your money went.

Illinois

Pat, Frank, and Patty.

Dinner with all the Illinois cousins and Wayne and Helga.

Pat and I headed to Illinois last Thursday. At the airport I was behind a young man who had never been through security before. He hadn't emptied his pockets so needed to do so. He just put all the items right on the conveyor belt. ON the other side I helped him get his phone which got stuck. Most of his money didn't come through. But then when I picked up my totes I found a five and a ten that I gave back to him.

On the plane I saw the most beautiful laptop. It must have been a Mac because it was candy apple red. Glowed in the sunlight. We had the best pilot ever on that flight. Didn't even feel the landing. We were just on the ground. Came out of the airport to 11 degrees. A tad cold. Good thing I brought my scarf and gloves.

We had the nicest visit with Wayne and Helga. Helga had to work so Wayne chauffeured us around. We went out for breakfast a couple of times and shopping at Walmart. Helga works at Walmart. She said two years of retirement was enough. We went over and visited Vern and Dorothy and looked at pictures. Paula and I compared family trees. She made copies of what she didn't have. We had dinner Saturday night with Wayne, Helga and all the cousins except Patty. She had come over the night before and had dinner with us so we saw everyone on this trip.

We caught the bus back to the airport Sunday morning and came on home. It was a lovely weekend.

Spit Bubbles

Illinois Here I Come

Tomorrow morning I fly to Chicago with my brother Pat. Then we catch a bus that will take us to Rockford where Uncle Wayne will pick us up. We'll spend the weekend and come home. Really looking forward to seeing my aunt and uncle and my cousins. I'll be back on Sunday.

Catch Up

Dalt and Wyatt

Zach, number 10, at his game.

This was a great picture until I did the red eye thing and got the blue across Shaquira's face.

Getting ready for cake for Aunt Cris.

So last weekend was very busy. We rushed over to Zach's basketball game and caught the tail end of it. While I was trying to take pictures Wyatt said to take his. So I did, and it was one of the few that turned out that day. Wyatt is my neighbor Dalt's grandson and that is Dalt in the picture with him. Zach's team won the game. One kid did a spectacular throw right at the buzzer from half court and it went in. Amazing.

After the game Mom and I headed over to Beth's house for cake and ice cream. Aunt Cris had her birthday last week and this was her party. We had a nice time and heard some stories we hadn't heard before. That is always special because someday there will be no one left to share those stories.

Then Mom and I went shopping and out for dinner at Thai Lotus. It is a Thai place up on McGillvary and 162nd AV in Vancouver. Mom had lemongrass chicken and I had vegetarian yakisoba. Our meals were really good. Everything smelled amazing there even if it was spicy. I went back again on Monday and had pad thai and it was special.

Shabbat

My friend Nathan had invited me to Shabbat last fall. But then he felt like he needed to use all his spare time studying so he didn't fail that quarter. Nathan is a nursing student. So we rescheduled for last night.
Shabbat at Nathan and Staceys' house consists of lighting a couple of candles and singing a song/saying a prayer. Nathan explained it as Christians saying grace. I guess the difference is Shabbat is done on Friday night. I likened it to taking a moment in our busy busy lives to pray/reflect/just stop and breathe.
Nathan cooked spaghetti. The sauce was homemade. There was a fruit bowl and garlic bread. Very nice supper. Then the kids told us stories/dreams before they moved to the living room to watch a movie. Us grown-ups chatted and the time flew by.

Sports Medicine

Ali at work told me I really needed to follow through with sports medicine. Just in case there was a small tear in my knee. Small is better and easier to fix than big. So the sports medicine office called Friday morning when I was home. They got me in two hours later. Dr. Muhammed was great. I really liked him. He tried to torture my knee and only his thumb on one of my tendons hurt. He wiggled and ground both knees in every direction a knee goes. Said I have very stable knees and my pain/stiffness is tendinitis. At first he was going to prescribe, but then thought better of it. Said doctors always want to do things and change things, but since my regiment was working we would just stick with that. It is just going to take time to heal. Great news for me. I was so relieved.