Hospitality Challenges

Our company from Norway that borrowed our car and took off to Canada for a week, returned on Wednesday last week.  I forgot to mention that in my last post.  In fact, I forgot to mention anything else that happened last week expect the misery I’ve been in because of the poison ivy encounter.  So Roda and Greg had a great time in Banff and said it was the highlight of their months in North America, so far.  They left us on Friday and flew to New York for a week, so they still have plenty of adventures that await them.

Saturday, I put some clothes on and headed south to have lunch with my pal, Paula who is in town from Colorado.  I actually was heading to my step-mom’s 70^th birthday party so I killed two birds with one stone, as it were.  I had a great time visiting Paula and at the party, but I paid dearly for it as the time in the car and wearing clothes about did me in and I itched liked the dickens when I got home.  I was nearly out of my mind with the itching.  Same thing happened at church Sunday.  The desire to tear off my skin only happens if I wear any clothes around my legs or if I sit down.  Kory thinks I should just take a steroid shot and be done with it, but it’s not his body that will go into convulsions from steroids, so he can listen to me complain a little longer, I think.

Sunday night we had a nice home fellowship group at our house but Kory had to miss it because he drove down to the airport to pick up our last Norwegian guests for the year – Tone and Sabina – our old neighbors – who will be with us for three weeks.   At this point, I’m not sure how I’ll get through it with Kaleb’s school schedule and my diminished capacity, but Kory will have to pick up the slack.  I’m not hitting on all cylinders so the next few weeks should be interesting. 

Monday Kory took our guests shopping, as that was at the top of their list, but I’m not sure how we’ll take care of their desire to see a Dolly Parton concert and visit New York City.  I’m also going to be challenged by their gluten-free, lactose intolerance dietary preferences and yesterday I was unable to provide caviar when it was requested at breakfast.  Oh well.

Kory drove them around our area on Tuesday – into LaConner, over to the Reservation and on into Anacortes.  And Wednesday he drove them down to Seattle.  They got tired of being in the car, so now I’m not sure how this is going to work for the next three weeks since they get car sick so easily.

I looked up the price of tickets to go to NY (or Las Vegas or California for that matter) so they aren’t just stuck at our house for the whole time, but they don’t want to go anywhere without us because they need us to show them around because they can’t really speak English.  Oh, Lord, help me.  We pride ourselves on being hospitable but we may not pull it off too well this time.

Scratchin' the Itch

Well, I’ve been fairly distracted this week by itches all over my left leg.  It took until yesterday to figure out what in the world was going on.  I thought it was some kind of bug bite I got on the east coast, but I finally hit upon my symptoms via a Google search and realize I’m having an allergic reaction to poison ivy.  Lucky me.

When we were in New Jersey and I was cleaning out the stream for Connie, there were many vines and small branches floating down the swollen creek, so that must be when it happened. 

My first symptoms were what seemed like bug bites, but they went in perfect formation and grew over several days to be quite the streak on the crease behind  my knee.  Another streak appeared above that one and another one appeared on my ankle on my right leg.  They itched like crazy and I’m not a very disciplined person so I scratched them.  That was a big mistake.  I guess some of the poison from the ivy got under my nails, then every other little itch I had after that, I scratched and transferred the oil to that spot and then my leg got covered in things that looked like bites but really weren’t. 

All week I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with this growing problem.  I have five spots that are clearly infected.  At one point they were just an irritated dot but have now grown to be larger than a silver dollar.  They itch more than I knew a thing could itch and last weekend they began to “weep”.  I kept band-aids on them but they couldn't hold the clear liquid running down the back of my leg.  They only stopped oozing on Thursday. Totally gross.   So all week I’ve been mopping up the mess on the back of my leg.  Not fun.

Kory kept telling me to go to the doctor, but I hate spending money on such a thing and I have a $3,500 deductible so it would all be out of pocket money.  Fortunately, a good friend of mine is a nurse practitioner and she’s in a Bible study I attend in Seattle on Tuesday nights.  She looked at my leg and after a good grimace she told me what to do.  What I had been doing was the absolute wrong thing to do – covering with a band-aid and putting on antibiotic cream.  Who knew.  She told me to take massive doses of an antihistamine and put on cortisone cream and keep it uncovered.  So, that pretty much made me house bound because she said I had to wear shorts and not let anything rub against the infected areas.  I've been house bound and miserable because even with the addition of Benadryl and Cort-aid, I itch like crazy.  And new bumps have been appearing every day so there’s more and more spots that itch.  Ugh! 

I have a few people praying for me and things have slowly been moving in the right direction.  I hope the worst of it is behind me.  My friend, Barb, said I need to go on steroids, but that’s not going to happen so I have to tough it out. 

I’ve been sleeping terrible all week because of the itching and then needing naps in the day because of the antihistamine.  Kory’s been picking up the slack with Kaleb’s schooling because I’ve been kinda out of it.

I’ve found a few things that have helped a little, Oil of Oregano, tea tree oil, oatmeal baths and today I discovered 100% shea butter which immediately takes away the insanity when the itch starts up again. I am just thanking God it’s not something more serious than it is.  I would post pictures of my leg, as Kory has been obsessive about taking photos of them, but they are so gross it would just be rude to make anybody look at them.  He’s been wanting to see if I’m getting better or worse, but from what I read on the internet, this is a two week process before I really get full relief.  Ugh.

So that’s been my week.  What anyone else has been up to is beyond me.  I’ve been out of it and totally obsessed with trying not to scratch the itch.  I’m just thankful it was me, and not Kaleb, that got hit by this so that’s been my only comfort.  And as my daddy used to say, “This too, shall pass.”  I can't wait.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, I guess at a certain age, it’s worth celebrating the fact a person is still alive.  I’ve had enough girlfriends die before they reach the age of 55, so now that I’m 54, I’m thankful to God I’m not joining them – hopefully anytime soon.  It’s just a number, but I was a bit taken back when Janet took me out to dinner Friday night and the waitress asked me if I wanted to order off the “Senior” menu. Really?  I must have worse eyesight than I realize because when I look in the mirror, I sure don’t see an old woman.  I am looking forward to the discounts that are soon coming my way next year, however. 

Today was a good day.  Kory asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and knowing I’d be driving home from California in one fell swoop in the afternoon, evening and on into the wee hours of the morning the day before – I told him I just wanted a nap.  I got one, too.

I got in just before two this morning, fell right to sleep then was woken up by my boys serving me breakfast in bed.  Kaleb made a birdhouse (by request) and Kory did a watercolor of a bird.  I love homemade gifts the best.  After church, I got my nap and I woke up to the smell of homemade soup.  They even took me out to dinner later on in the evening, so my whole birthday celebration was around food.  Go figure.

Actually, every year on my birthday I like to go somewhere I have never been before.  I’ve been doing that since I was 18.  Grammy J took care of that one for me this year when she took me to Weed this weekend to see her grandson play football, so I’m satisfied.  Weed is not a destination place by any means, but we really enjoyed the nature that surrounds the place.  Yesterday morning we went “birding” and saw several types of birds she had never seen in the wild, including the northern three toed woodpecker, wild turkeys and sandhill cranes.  She was elated.  We also saw lots of deer and smaller birds we also have in the Northwest.  It was a lovely morning.

Julian’s football game started at one in the afternoon.  It must have been 80 degrees so I felt badly for all those players in hot uniforms.  Janet and I had front row seats and were so praying his team would win, but they got slaughtered 41-9.  Julian (#91) made a few tackles but it was still a sad sight to see them lose so terribly.  The game didn’t get over until 4:40 because there were so many penalties to deal with.  At one point Janet yelled out, “Is this flag day?” because so many penalty flags were flying after every play. 

We beat feet out of town the minute the game was over and Janet could kiss Julian goodbye.  We decided not to stop for anything so we dehydrated ourselves to save the potty stops and I had her home by one in the morning.  It wasn’t such an easy drive home as it was down, because most of the drive back was in the dark and it started raining the minute we hit Washington.  God kept us safe, however, and I was thankful we made it home without incident. 

So that was my birthday weekend.  Uninterrupted time spent with Janet yacking in the car for hours on end and good food and a nap on Sunday.  Pretty simple but great, too.  I got a few packages and cards in the mail from distant friends, lots of facebook messages and a few phone calls.  It’s nice to be celebrated.  Janet even told me, “I hope someday to meet your mother because I really want to thank her for having you because you’ve been such a blessing in my life.”  Does it get any better than that?

CAL-I-FOR-NIA Here I Am!

I was up at 4:30 this morning, heading south on I-5.  I stopped off in Seattle to pick up Grammy J (Janet Johnson) to take her down to see her youngest grandson’s first home football game.  He got recruited by College of the Siskiyou’s in Reed, California just at the base of Mount Shasta.  She’s soon 75 and has some vision problems and can’t drive that far, and I just love that woman so much I’ll do anything for her – including a ten hour drive south one day, and ten hours back the next.

We were both surprised by how quickly the day zipped by – and with only a few pit stops we made it in nine hours.  It was good weather, light traffic and nothing but God’s creation in front of us.  At one point I spotted a very large branch (think small tree) that had obviously fallen off the back of someone’s truck.  It was smack in the middle of the fast lane where I was driving, so I just gently steered onto the shoulder of the road to avoid hitting it.  As soon as I started veering, Janet freaked out and wondered where in the world I was heading.  I told her I was avoiding the tree in the road.  Her response: “What tree?”  That’s why I drove.

Julian, Janet’s grandson, has been complaining about what a dead town Weed is, and I’ve been giving him little encouragements on Facebook to hopefully lighten his load, but after arriving here this afternoon, I have to say, it’s as dead as I’ve seen a town be dead.  The whole downtown area is a ghost town and only a few fast food joints next to the freeway keep any lights on.  But, he loves football and he’s on the starting line-up so that’s why he’s here.  He has two very nice boys for roommates that are both from Western Washington.  Janet took them all out for dinner tonight and we were both more than impressed with them all.

Kaleb only had a half day of school today because his pal, Brayden, wanted to spend time with him.  When the cats away, the mice do play.  Kory has a hard time keeping Kaleb on track and Kaleb knows how to play him.  Oh well.

Yesterday Kaleb attended his English and Physics classes for the first time.  He’s already been labeled “That Genius Kid” by the high schoolers.  He just shrugs his shoulders and has a smirk look on his face when he hears it.  The kids in that class are respectful of his intelligence so I don’t worry about any kind of bullying going on.  He’s so excited to be in there and he came home just pumped up after doing their first lab.  I’m preparing for the tears when he has to write up his lab report, however.  But maybe he’ll surprise me.

One of his English homework assignments is to write a five-paragraph essay on how God’s essence is reflected in nature.  Kaleb thought writing about the traits of dogs would be a good idea – that they are faithful, loyal and show unconditional love, or something like that.  I can’t wait to read it.  He was even excited about that assignment!  But he has about eight hours of homework for each class each week so he’s going to have to figure out how to manage his time, very soon. 

Kaleb was half way through the Honors Algebra class from Johns Hopkins University before we went to Norway.  I thought he could finish it up when we were there, but our internet connection didn’t work well enough for him to watch the lectures.  He was ready to take the midterm exam when we left in April, so this week he’s been having to watch every single lecture again to try and refresh his brain on all he learned six months ago.  He’s gotta take that midterm exam by Monday if he’s going to finish the class on time, so he’s got a heavy work load right now.  I’ve been having to give him lots of pep talks because he’s in the whole “Why do I need to know algebra?” mode. 

Our friends, John and Dee Foreman, stopped by for lunch on Thursday on their way home from having a few days in the San Juan Islands.  We love spending time with them and they just adore Kaleb.  Kory grilled up some of the salmon Kaleb caught so he was pretty proud to share it with them.  I also roasted up some veggies I got from the organic farm we bought a “share” from.  Talk about delicious!  There’s a ministry here in town that has a five-acre plot of land they grow organic veggies on, and we paid a fixed price and every week we go on Wednesdays to pick up our share.  I’ve never seen such good-looking produce in all my life, and it tasted incredible.  We’ve already eaten up about half of it because it was so good!  What a great perk to living in farm country.

Every day I’m in awe of the life we’ve been given.  I know it won’t always be this good, nor has it been this good in the past, but man, it’s sure good right now.  Thank you, Jesus!

Reel Education!

School is in full swing now and Kaleb’s schedule is packed from eight to five.  It makes for long days but he probably does less schoolwork than most kids, since he doesn’t really have homework.  When he’s done, he’s done.

His motivation for cash continues to propel him forward.  He’s getting up early on his own, running around the house doing his chores and watching the clock like a hawk to be sure he starts school on time.  I’m glad his schoolwork is a little light this week because other opportunities have come up that he wouldn’t want to miss.

This morning our friend, Dal, invited the boys to go fishing out on the Skagit River.  He’s been reading my blog and seeing what pathetic fishermen they are and he thought he might be able to improve their lot.  He was right.  Kaleb called me at eight all excited that he’d caught his first salmon.  He insisted I come down to the river and see the action, so I drove a few miles down the road and watched what I could through my telephoto lens.  Kaleb kept calling me on the cell phone to tell me he got another one and another one and after just a few hours they came home with seven salmon!  Kory spent the rest of the day cleaning and filleting them, and Kaleb couldn’t have been more proud.  Of course, anything to get out of doing schoolwork for a few hours was good in his book, but we were happy to stock the freezer full of so many future dinners.  Thanks, Dal!  (Dal made Kory promise to never reveal his secret fishing hole, so mums the word.  I had to crop the photo to not reveal their location.)

It was hard to get Kaleb settled down into the routine of school after such an exciting morning.  He just wanted to tell me fish stories and go into great detail about the big one that got away.  My dad would have been proud.

Kaleb had his first “grammar lab” today with Hillcreek School, so I drove him into town so he could sit in on the class and start to learn the rules of grammar.  He’s the youngest one in the class, but he did better on the initial exam than the older kids sitting around him.  I’m looking forward to big improvements for him this year as I know there’s a great writer inside him just waiting to come out.

Yesterday, Kaleb was a bit down on himself and not happy with any of his schoolwork.  He just sat and cried when he was trying to draw an image for his art class with Kory.  Both Kory and I asked what his problem was and he gave the blanket statement, “I can’t do anything right.”  After several minutes of probing, it seems I was the cause of all his angst.  He’s heard me describe our friend, John Foreman, as someone who “speaks life into kids,” and Kaleb used that terminology and said, basically, I do the opposite. 

“You’re not speaking life into me,” he complained.  When I asked what he meant, he said that I have been telling everyone that English is not his best subject and he’s a little behind in that area.  He’s apparently devastated by the thought that he’s not ahead of all the kids his age in every subject.  I apologized profusely and told him he was right, that I shouldn’t be saying stuff like that and I would never mention it again because he is a pretty good writer (mostly when he can dictate, however.)  He had a good cry and he forgave me and we were both glad we cleared the air.  He then went about his schoolwork with extra fervor and all was right in his world.  It was a good reminder for me to just emphasis the positive and creatively word things that are less than perfect.  Lesson learned. 

So he cranked through his schoolwork for the  rest of Monday, then ran out the door to go to gym class when the day was done.  We all went together because we had a scout meeting to attend afterwards, so our evening was fairly full.  Kaleb has joined the Big Lake Scout troop and with some of his buddies in the mix, he’s pumped about being back in Scouts.  Me, too.

After school today Kaleb begged me to take him to the LaConner Library board meeting because they were discussing whether the library should buy another piece of property in town in order to build a bigger library.  Kaleb definitely had his opinion on that and I was pretty proud of him, putting in his two cents worth.  He carried on quite the argument that included points others had said before him.   When he was done, the audience applauded.  He was the only kid there and most in attendance were very senior citizens.  He just couldn’t keep quiet on the subject of needing a bigger library in our town.  I’m surprised he didn’t offer to head up the fund raising drive to pay for it.

Our company from Norway drove the Cascade Loop yesterday, so they were gone all day.  Today they borrowed our car again and took off for a week in Canada, driving from Whistler to Banff and back.  I guess we won’t see them until late next week sometime.  What fun to be footloose and fancyfree.

Kory and I both had committee meetings tonight at church, as I’ve now joined the Missions committee and Kory is still the head of the Properties committee, so Kaleb was home in glorious bliss, all alone, watching cartoons.  Normally I wouldn’t worry about him being alone, but yesterday when Kory and Kaleb went for a jog around the cemetery next door, some guy came running out of the woods and jumped in his truck and sped off – NAKED!  Definitely weird and kinda creepy. 

Kory’s theory is that the guy wanted to literally dance naked on someone’s grave, and he maybe ran off into the woods when he saw Kaleb coming, but then didn’t realize Kory was lagging behind so he got caught.  Fortunately, Kaleb didn’t see the guy, but I’m not sure I buy into Kory’s take on the whole thing.  This world is a crazy place.