The Lord's tender mercies...I have heard that but didn't think about it until Stu was in the car accident.
Here are the tender mercies: I was right behind him when it happened, so I was right there to see him; Erik was the 2nd policeman there and helped with the scene; the hospital was three blocks away; 3 of our friends came right down to give him a blessing and were available to do so; it was good weather for the next 3 weeks, so some good friends came and made us a new ramp/walkway for Stu to use;
after the accident, our water line to the street began leaking more, so we had to replace it. Jared, a friend of his(Jeremy Daggett) and our former neighbor, (Tim Kelly) came over with a bulldozer and an excavator and they were able to do that for us for cost of pipe and fittings. (also still good weather)

I am grateful for all the good wishes, help with things around our property , delicious food and prayers that were sent our way! Stu's sister, Carol also made him a beautiful quilt and it was here within a week of his accident!
He is doing much better- physical therapy ( we have several friends and a son who are PT's, which helps when we have questions) has helped a lot and by Christmas he will be without crutches!

Thank you, again for all your support!
Here are some pictures of the walkway, the waterline and Stu !

Visiting in Greeley

This past 3 weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and great gratification for me!
We had Kelli and kids, and Timm and his littlest, Sawyer, here for a "vacation". Kelli was up to see two friends and attend their weddings; and Timm came up to go to the Demo Derby with Jared.
(well, that's not the only reason!)
We cooked, cleaned, played outside, went on many walks up and down Hennessey lane, picked blueberries, and blackberries, and went grocery shopping a whole lot! We also went to Crescent beach, ate with Erik's and Jared's families, and the kids loved being with their cousins! (a big thank you to Jeff, who kept all the older kids busy running around outside, FOR HOURS!)

This past week we were in Greeley, Colorado visiting Timm's family. Megan's parents and her youngest brother and wife came, too, as did my parents. Harrison was baptized on Saturday, and had both Grandpa's plus a great grandpa(my dad) and an uncle help with the ordinance.
Very nice!
We had some great times visiting and eating!
It was a wonderful few weeks- the weather is starting to change here, so I am glad we got to go to Colorado and feel like it was still summer, at least for a few days!

Giving the Old Girl a facelift

For the last several days, Stu has been busy working on painting the trim, dormers, and window frames on the outside of our house. He painted the whole thing about 15 years ago, but as the main color seems to be doing fine, just the eaves and around the windows needed help.
I have to say that I am not as good at climbing ladders and having good balance as I used to be.
Stu has been up and down a very bendy large ladder at the top of our house, and I keep having visions of him falling and breaking body parts, etc.
So one day, Jared came over and helped do some of the high eave painting. I felt much more comfortable having him here. If Stu fell off the ladder, or it started falling, I (the little weak thing that I am  :) couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't catch him, or the ladder, so Jared was much appreciated. They also bought a new toy to share, a paint sprayer. Much easier than painting by hand!
Our house does look much better. My job is to clean windows and paint the ground floor window frames.
Oh, and the bees.....Under most eaves and especially the dormers, were multiple bee nests. Mostly
paper wasps and hornets.
I swell up from stings, but Stu doesn't...lucky him.
He used the better part of 3 cans of spray, and still had a run in with a couple of particularly persistently alive bees.

So, we are doing that, and also putting up wood for the winter. Stu feels good about our progress so far this summer. It has been a weird summer, as we haven't had any rain since the middle of June.
yellow grass everywhere, oh well!
(notice Stu as a ghost...paint all over!)

Bike riding

If you read Kelli's or Megan's blogs, you will see what the Mediterranean cruise was like. I must say I enjoyed being with my kids and their spouses.( Jared will be next to take on one!)
After the cruise, Stu and I went to Switzerland for a few days, and I found it charming, beautiful and what everyone always says it is- steep, and hard to describe!
We spent one day while we were in Interloken riding electric assist bikes. We rode up the valley on a tour with a lady guide(who was in much better shape than I). My favorite part of that bike ride was stopping for a dark chocolate hot chocolate at a local little dive..interesting people there. (young, free spirit dreadlock, etc..)

After that bike ride we had 2 days off from riding, then started our adventure riding electric assisted bikes over the countryside of Switzerland.
Many nice farms, where they are so steep they have to use special hay mowers to cut the hay. I swear the sheep and cows all have bells, and all must have one side shorter legs than the other, to be able to stand on those hills to eat!

I enjoyed the sights, but after a few days, you get used to seeing the farms, and I wasn't thrilled with the uphills we had to climb. But, you say, you had electric bikes! well, they are "assist" bikes. You still have to pedal, and on the steep hills that went on for a couple of miles or so, I had to get off and walk the bike. Luckily, they also have assist on walking your bike. Otherwise I would have expired from pushing such a heavy bike uphill!
The downhill riding was Stu's favorite. He loves speed. I do not. I think 23 mph was my fastest down the steep hills. I also did not like riding in town- I didn't know the streets and the lights, etc.
I did like riding through the forests on the logging roads, and I did enjoy seeing all the animals and people who live there. The restaurants we stopped at for lunches were wonderful. Yum, especially the local weinerschnitzel and the pommes- fries. They served really good bread with local tomatoes and cucumbers. The bakeries were the best ever, especially the one in Interloken.

I got used to riding all day, and when it was over, it was kind of sad.
So, when we were on the river cruise down the Rhine river, we rode bikes in a couple of cities we stopped in. I enjoyed riding the bike trails( not mountain bike trails!) and didn't have electric assist on the two later ones. We even went across the river on a foot ferry that also took bikes. The river was very high, and there were problems with some of the cruise boats, but we did fine.
The last bike ride was in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Interesting guides at the bike shop. I liked ours-Stuart from England. Outdoorsman, mountain climber type guy who wore wooden shoes (he says they are great)(that's him with the orange shirt on) while he rode his bike on the tour. Stu took up the rear, and I was in back behind a young couple from Singapore who didn't ride well. I spent most of the time watching him, and Stu spent a lot of time helping the less able bike riders untangle themselves when they fell, or putting chains back on!
I do like to ride bikes. I am not the spandex/long distance type, but I like being outside, and the bikes become like pets to me! Personalities and everything!
Give bike riding a try sometime, it's pretty great!

Visiting with the Campbells

I went to visit Kelli and family on the the 5th of this month, and came back on the 12th. I had prayed fervently that I would have good travels back and forth, as I don't like driving over the passes in snow or heavy rain and wind. I had my prayers heard, because both ways, I had good weather and no problems.
Kelli and I got to go shopping one day, thanks to her nice husband/babysitter, Allen. We had lunch at a very good Italian restaurant in Wenatchee...yum! We were shopping for some clothing items for the cruise we are going on in May. I found a windbreaker and slacks, and a dress..Yay! It was reminicent of the days when she worked at Shopko and I would come and visit and we would shop there on her days off!
Kelli's kids are VERY smart! Cassidy is more like 15 instead of 3...she makes up her own songs, and stories, and whenever she sees older people she says things like: " that is my other grandma who I visited last year"...hmmm. She also likes to dance, and we think she should be a "clogger" as she stomps more than anything.
Keyton is up on all dinosaurs and is very particular on what pages and things he wants to save in each book that he brings home from the library. He started T-ball while I was there. He has endless energy, so this will be great for him! He is very kind to people, so he will go a long way in life!
Aubrie is still a toddler, but she really likes dogs.."woof, woof!" and Dora "dee dee deedee Doha".
She likes to have books read to her and also likes to RUN outside.

Poor Grandma had trouble keeping up with her at the ball field, as I don't run very well:)

So, it was fun being there! Kelli and I also kept our tradition up of watching the Twilight movies together, and saved the last one to watch at her house. It was really good, except when several were killed in a battle that wasn't in the book! I had to leave the room because it bothered me so much!
Then come to find out it was a "vision" and not what really happened! WHEW!
Funny how imaginary things still seem real to me.

One other note- On the way back on the Edmonds/Kingston ferry, I walked up to the front of the ship to look out on our crossing. Right above me in the air was a seagull- he never flapped his wings, he would move across the windows a little, but he was right there all the way across the water, from one dock to the other. I wondered if he enjoyed being in that place, where the ship seemed to push him right along...I think that 's how we are, too..If the ship is Heavenly Father, and we are the seagull, would it mean that as long as we are doing what's right and trying our best to be a good person, that Heavenly Father will be there behind us giving us an easier trip through life? I don't know...I like to "liken" things !
Anyway, here are a few pictures from being at Kelli's. We have such fun together- best friends, I think!

Yay For Spring!

Just for fun, I went for a bike ride yesterday in Sequim. It's a trail ,part of the Discovery Trail and runs (the part I ride) from Robin Hill Park to the railroad Trestle park. It was a nice day for riding, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the birds singing, and seeing the buds on the trees.
When I got home, I noticed all of my daffodils are out..here are a couple pictures of that. Also a picture of Madison with a hat we made out of a paper plate and ribbon. We try to be creative!
Have a good Easter. Our ward is having a special Easter Sacrament meeting, with the choir singing 4 songs. I am the pianist, so I am going to eat a big breakfast, so I will have los of energy for all that playing!!!

Before and After

Here are two pictures of the duhstrap chair...after the reupholstering  and before. The chair has a history: Back in 1939 my father was riding in the truck with his Grandma and Grandaddy Binns going to Salt Lake. They had a farm between Pleasant Grove and American fork. Just as they were driving out to Alpine Road ( it was a dirt road then, ) Grandma Binns suddenly yelled,:"Tom, stop!" (Grandaddy Binns)- She had seen a chair in the ditch on the side of the road. She had my father and Grandaddy get it into the truck, and it has been in the family ever since.
The man who reupholstered it,said it was worth recovering, as it has a really good and strong frame.
Kind of like our family!
We have had it since we have moved to Port Angeles, and it has been recovered twice. I love this chair, not only because it brings back great memories of phone conversations with friends after school, but it is comfortable and makes me feel a closeness to relatives who have passed on.
Yay, for family stories!

We are sad...Boo, Erik and Angela's schnauzer, passed away last night. He had been with them for almost all their married life and as far back as Carson can remember. Here is a picture of Carson (dressed up to be me....) and Boo from a year ago, and a picture of Boo when he went with me for a walk a couple of weeks ago. I love dogs, but I don't love it when they die..lonely for me!

Christmas pics

Our Christmas this year was rather quiet. Erik and family went to Utah, so we had an "early"Christmas dinner and present opening for them. Jared and Madison came Christmas morning and opened presents and ate the traditional Dutch Babies and we also had fried potatoes and sausage.(requested by Jared!)
After Jared left, it was just Stu and I, and Boo. I love Boo- he is a great dog. We went on walks 3 to 4 times a week while he was here. Nice company!
We spent our New Year's eve with the Beattie family, playing games and I even played Wii bowling!
Hope your New Year will be a good one!