02.03.10
Posted in General at 3:16 pm by Dale W.
I’ve been waiting for Janet to do this because I did the detailed journal, so what does she say to me? Since you did the journal, this will be easy for you. Okay, here goes and grab your pillow.
On Saturday the 9th, Dixon drove me, Janet and Dale G. to SEA where we met up with Mark and started our adventure. The packing was easy since we now have to pay for checked luggage, so I was limited to one carry-on. Janet checked her large bag, and took some of the space in my bag for her wardrobe. I only needed two shirts, a pair of shorts and some socks. The flight took us to Atlanta, as it is impossible to get to New Orleans unless you fly into the Eastern Time Zone. The flight went well - in fact they gave us all seats in the emergency exit row, so we had lots of leg room.
When we arrived in New Orleans, it was very cold - colder than it was that morning in Seatle. We took a cab to our hotel in the Convention Center area and had a great meal and a good sleep.
We were close enough to the ship that the next day we walked there from the hotel. It was a snap to get on board and by noon we had wedged our way into the Buffet, or as we called it, the “Boo-Fay”. By evening we were steaming along the Mississippi towards warmer destinations.
We spent Monday at sea and we enjoy sea days for relaxation. We all brought reading material and participated in several activities and enjoyed the entertainment. A day at sea for me was, get up at 7:30, go to the gym, eat breakfast, relax, eat mid-morning snack, relax, lunch, relax, mid-afternoon snack, relax, dinner, entertainment, evening snack.
Our first port of call was at Coasta Maya. We booked an afternoon excursion to the Chakchoben ruins.
Janet, Dale and Mark at Chakchoben ruins
Dale had never been to a jungle before so this was especially interesting to him. The trip took several hours and was fun. The following day we were in Santo Tomas Guatemala. I’d never been there before and we booked a boat ride from a local vendor and went along the coast into a river inlet and saw a lot of the country side. We had lunch in a place with a Guatemalan family playing drums, singing and dancing. The food was overpriced and under quality, but what do you do when you are in Livingston Guatemala.
On the boat ride along the Guatemalan Coast
Our next port of call was Belize City. Janet and I have been there twice before so we didn’t do too much. The boys took a tour to Altan Ha, a Mayan Ruin, and the liked the place. We continued the next day to Cozumel where Janet and I had been once before so this time Janet and Dale walked around the city while Mark and I did some snorkeling. It was fun as there were only four of us in the water and we had a guide. We saw a couple of barracudas and a sting ray and a very large eagle ray among other things. It was an enjoyable day.
Cozumel
After snorkeling we went to the ship for lunch and then back to the city to see if there was any junk we wanted to buy. There wasn’t.
We had another day at sea on the return and enjoyed that. We arrived at New Orleans on Sunday monning and were able to walk to the motel from there and were in our room before 11 a.m. We walked to a WW2 museum nearby and enjoyed that, along with great Cajun food. We also walked around the French Quarter and we came across the Café du Monde and had some of their famous Beignets.
New Orleans
On Monday morning my nephew Nick Speth met us at the hotel. He lives in Baton Rouge and drove down to spend the day with us. We walked our legs off and saw a great deal of the city with Nick and we were ready to call it a vacation. On Tuesday morning we caught a cab to the airport and flew to Cincinnati - again in the Eastern Time zone. Our flight to SEA was very good, in fact we arrived 40 minutes early and our ride (spelled Kurt) arrived about 50 minutes after we arrived. We arrived home safely and loved our adventure.
Permalink
02.02.10
Posted in General at 11:30 am by Janet
I called Madigan to make an appointment and was told that I wasn’t assigned to a Doctor. After several more calls to investigate what the problem was I found out that I had been kicked out of Madigan. This was surprising since I had been told that I could use Madigan as my primary care facility.
Maybe I should go back so you can understand. We came home from Germany in July. One of the first things we did was to go back to Madigan and set up our insurance for stateside care. We left thinking all was in order. A few days later we came home to a message that we needed to go back, they had made a mistake and we needed to pay some money in order for our insurance to take effect. It didn’t mean I’m uninsured, just that I can’t make appointments. We went in and were told instead of being able to make appointments in August we would have to wait until September, which was fine because, really, at the time I didn’t need to go in for anything (except the ophthalmologist, who I am supposed to see every six months). They told me who my Dr. was going to be and which clinic I needed to go to.
Fast forward to January. I call, and was told they had kicked me out and that I needed to go to a civilian practitioner. That is fine too, except, I have to find one. Which I am doing today. Or not doing today however you look at it. I have a list, some of the names we immediately crossed off usually because they were orthopedists, or nephrologists. That left a few on the list. We called some, no answer, only for inpatient etc. I may not be able to find anyone in time for me to get my medications. Yes, I have a deadline.
What bothers me the most is how much you get hassled when you are trying to work with Tricare. Their name is a misnomer, they should be we don’t care. Why didn’t I receive a letter last September telling me that they had dumped me? Why don’t they give a separate list for all those who are currently seeing patients who don’t need an orthopedist or a nephrologist, just list of pcps who are accepting new patients?
We had the promise of health care for the rest of our lives. I guess I should not complain. You get what you pay for and we don’t pay that much. I just wish they were more organized so that I could have been working on this problem last September instead of thinking I had all my bases covered.
Now, about the title of this post. Every time we moved we had to start all over again with figuring out where things were and how things worked. I am sure it made me a better person. I am not so sure that it was helpful to all our children. I don’t know if it is a revelation to them how difficult it was for someone like me to pick up and start all over again. They were all troopers and never complained much even if they had to leave a good bunch of friends. Now I feel as if I’ve had to move and reestablish myself. It isn’t a good feeling for me, kind of upsetting and overwhelming, but mostly just unexpected.
I promised a vacation blog with pictures. I haven’t forgotten the promise. However, I wasn’t the only one in the family on the trip. How about some of you others do the blog. I will use the excuse that I can’t figure out how to post pictures.
Permalink
01.25.10
Posted in General at 9:49 pm by Janet
A vacation was just the thing I needed to make me want to be at home.
Let me explain.
I thrive on routine. I don’t mind if Monday is just like Tuesday. I don’t care if the meals I make get repetitive (I cook what we like). I never get bored and seldom have to look for entertainment (as close as your local library). Traveling is stressful, especially when you fly tourist and you feel like you are loading onto a cattle car. I resent it when someone checked a suitcase which weighed 53 pounds and my suitcase which weighed over 50 had to be opened in the airport and the load made lighter (who knew Dale’s cargo shorts weighed that much?). They were flying first class (hogwash). That is stress I can do without. Remember here, we made all our flights, everything was on time, our luggage arrived when we did (always a surprise to me). All in all a great experience and yet I was stressed out the whole day.
You need to also know that I have an itch to travel, there is so much I haven’t seen yet. I’ve only just scratched the surface in Asia, and Africa, well one little city in one tiny country, it hardly seems fair to count that. I want to visit all the continents, all. Yet so far in my life I’ve only been to 4 (and I can hardly count the few hours we spent in Africa). I think the hardest continent to visit will be Antarctica. I’ve heard the waters surrounding that coninent are the roughest waters on the globe…but I still want to go (and before the ice completely melts too).
Before we go on another mission, I am determined to visit another continent.
So many places, so little time. Thinking about another cruise.
By the way, a vacation blog will be coming soon. Hopefully with pictures.
Permalink
01.08.10
Posted in General at 7:50 pm by Janet
We are leaving for our vacation tomorrow and won’t be back for 11 days. We hope we get some sunshine, but it isn’t looking that great. New Orleans will be colder than here.
When we get back we will have a lot of pictures to post and a nice long blog to write.
Until then, adieu, adieu to you and you and you…
Permalink
01.05.10
Posted in General at 10:04 pm by Janet
It is back to our regular weeks now. We had our normal Sunday meetings. Dale was gone for most of the day. I ended up riding to church with Leslie. It is funny to have Dale be in the bishopric, I don’t sit alone however since I have my grandchildren all around me. The reason I say it is funny is because we recently returned from a mission where we were together all the time, but especially in church meetings.
Monday we had a lot of things to do around the house. We still needed to get the rest of the Christmas stuff boxed up and put away. We had taken the tree out and put the ornaments away, but that is only part of what we had up. I went visiting teaching Monday morning (yes, I have my visiting teaching all done for this month) and came home to see all the Christmas stuff taken down, and much of it boxed up and ready to put away. My husband is wonderful. We also found the time to go out and do some grocery shopping, it was a very busy day.
Today I prepared for scouts. I found a really funny skit to perform at Pack meeting next week that used 7 boys and no props. Wow. I also spent some time trying to make invitations to Carolyn’s shower. I need to back up and tell you that we had the Comcast guy here this morning switching our phone line over to Comcast. After that Dale had to mess around with the Internet to get it to work again. He was getting a little impatient with me and Leslie happened to call right then. Everything was fine, really. We just joke that whenever we get in a disagreement the kids always thought we were getting a divorce because we never fight about anything, ever. So one of us always says that we are getting a divorce and that makes us laugh and then all is well. So we joked with Leslie about that over the phone. By the way where is our loaf of bread Leslie?
When we got home from scouts Dale (our son) came over and had dinner as he usually does because he doesn’t get home from work in enough time to eat before he has to be at church. He chatted with us a bit and then just left for home. Kurt ate dinner with us tonight as well, but was gone when we got home from the church.
Tomorrow I plan on getting the invitations for the shower sent off, do a little planning for the shower, read a book for part of the day, and sew. This is in addition to all the housework I need to get done. I also need to plan a meal for tomorrow night, and maybe watch a movie. We just received the Planet Earth DVD today and I would like to watch it and send it back before we leave on Saturday for the cruise.
That is what a normal beginning of a week looks like for me. The end of the week is usually more laid back with more time for sewing and reading, my two passions. We usually do our visiting teaching at the first of the week at the first of the month, which was yesterday. I always have scouts on Tuesday. Church is always on Sunday, the rest of the week is pretty open. I like that, too much scheduling makes me crazy. I didn’t like to fill my children’s lives with too much either. I always felt that they would be better off with only one or two “other” things in a week. But then again, maybe they aren’t that much like me.
Permalink
01.02.10
Posted in General at 9:44 pm by Mark
I want to do something a bit different for my New Year’s Resolutions. I am planning on only focusing on one thing that I want to accomplish by the end of the year, instead of setting many goals. It will be something different, and something I have never done before.
The trap I often fall into for New Year’s Resolutions is that I get overambitious. Oftentimes the resolutions are for things I should be doing anyway, such as exercise, scriptural study, dating, career goals, being less of a jerk, and so on. The result of this is that I have way too many goals to keep track of, and I neglect them.
I decided this year that I will not set any goals on any of those topics. That’s not to say they aren’t important (in fact, they’re probably more important than my actual resolution). But since those are things I always need to work on, I’ll leave that to my weekly and monthly goal planning.
So, without further ado, my goal this year is to learn to play a new instrument. I already play the violin, and want to learn either piano or guitar. I’m leaning toward piano, since I think that will be more useful (male piano players are frequently needed in church — think priesthood meetings, and I think learning piano would teach me more in general about music than guitar). I could attempt both.
I’m not sure how to measure this goal for the whole year, but I know how to measure it for the short term - find somebody who can teach me, find a place I can practice, and start learning. As I start to get into it, I think I’ll get a clearer idea for what my goal for year end should be.
So let it be written! That’s my goal for the year. I’m sure I will post on my progress throughout the year.
Permalink
01.01.10
Posted in General at 11:10 am by Mark
With the advent of 2010 upon us, I think it’s time to reflect upon what happened in 2009. From a personal standpoint, here are the highlights of the year:
- Rang in the New Year in Vienna, Austria after seeing the philharmonic perform
- Participated in my first ever Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (but didn’t finish)
- Went on an awesome backpacking trip in the Olympic mountains
- Discovered that cooking oil is flammable
- Said goodbye to one of my best friends, who moved out of the area
- Survived a harrowing week of moving several people, including myself
- Met several awesome friends who I hang out with on a regular basis now
- Welcomed Mom and Dad home from their mission in Germany
- Climbed, biked, hiked, and skied my way through probably my most outdoorsy year in my life.
- Shaved my legs
- For what may be the only time in my life, I got to see my friend Laird with a look of sheer terror on his face (Note: not related to the previous item)
The most important thing I learned in 2009 was this: Anything that is worthwhile is worth taking a risk to get.
Permalink
12.28.09
Posted in General at 9:16 pm by Mark
At the beginning of November, my roommates decided to not shave for the rest of the month. For some inexplicable reason, I joined them.
Some background: I had never attempted facial hair before, aside from a feeble attempt at a goatee shortly after graduating college. I abandoned that quest after a week when I realized that (A) it didn’t look very good and (B) goatees are for jerks, anyway.
So, I grew the beard. I did shave my neck, however. There’s no way I’m growing a throatee. The beard came in nicely, although I realized I didn’t have much facial hair on my cheeks. It was kind of scraggly and I didn’t particularly like the upkeep on the beard - it was almost as much trouble as shaving. Not to mention the constant itchiness against my face. I did get some compliments on the beard, but then again, I got some compliments after I got rid of it, too.
So now the beard is gone. I think I’m going to stay clean-shaven from here on out. I personally didn’t like how the beard looked, and I’m willing to put up with the trouble of shaving because it’s preferable to the trouble of not shaving. And besides, while many consider beards to be manly, I take a particular kind of manly pride in the art of giving myself a clean, close shave.
And of course, this post is useless without pics, so here they are - the beard, and what I did in the process of shaving the beard.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
Posted in General at 10:47 am by Janet
We have all heard that you should never stop learning, and that learning can come to us in many different forms. Book learning is my favorite. Often when I develop an interest in something I will reserve books at the library, pick them up and then spend some time reading about a topic. Classes are another way to learn something new. I have learned to crochet and sew from taking classes. Experience is a teacher as well, although the lessons learned there come with a price. We also learn from others, directly or indirectly, by observation.
Recently Leslie (oldest daughter for all blog readers who are not family) had a catastrophic computer failure, you know the kind. She was horrified when she figured out that she had many years of photos on that computer and had not backed them up anywhere else. I was upset also but figured Mark (next to youngest son) could probably yank out the old hard drive and retrieve the photos. He worked on the project on Saturday and after looking for various cords and working a while came to the conclusion that her hard drive was toast, there was nothing he could do.
What I have learned from my children from this episode. 1. Don’t buy a hard drive from anyone but Western Digital. Mark has never had a failure with one of those. 2. Back-up your photos several different ways. If they are on a computer you need to back them up on another computer, burn them on a CD and back them up on another hard drive dedicated to photos only and then keep that somewhere safe. 3. Even someone who works miracles can not bring a hard drive back from the dead.
I feel sad that Leslie doesn’t have photos of her older children when they were little, but on the bright side this sure will make scrap-booking easier. I have very few photos of me or my siblings growing up and I am okay. Having photos is fun, and important,but if you don’t have them that is okay too. So now for the plea. We all need to find photos of the Oliver family and share them so she can start collecting photos of her family. This can be fun for all of us. Dad is downstairs right now collecting photos (from our triple backed up archives) and will burn them onto a CD for the Olivers.
Permalink
12.25.09
Posted in General at 6:37 pm by Janet
What a change from last year! We were in Germany with our two sons. We had a lovely time, but we missed being with the rest of the family. Last night we spent Christmas Eve with most of the family and had a really nice program. We actually used the program our ward choir presented last year, with a few modifications to make it short enough for the kids. It was fun to have the children dress up and participate. I was glad that Hayden (15) and Porter (13) were not too cool to dress up with their siblings. Hayden was a very buff angel and Porter a well-dressed king. Regan was Mary, Turner was Joseph, Landon a shepherd and Cooper was a lamb. We took pictures, but I’m not going to post them here. We sang around the piano and played Uncle Wiggly. We also showed Turner and Regan where Santa was with the NORAD Santa tracker, very fun to have believers in the house. I read a story at the end to get everyone settled down and the Oliver’s went home and eventually to bed. Apparently the story didn’t do the trick because Turner didn’t go to sleep and today he was grouchy.
We got up and I fixed a breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon and eggs. The Nadeau’s arrived and they ate too and then we all sat down in the downstairs family room and opened the funny gifts this year. They were all nicely down, even though some of them were last minute, nobody had just a piece of paper to read. I think the biggest laughs came with Carolyn’s gift from Leslie which chronicled some of the naughty things Rose has done this last year in the style of the No David books, very funny. We also laughed at Mark’s gift from Dixon about dating, it was a multimedia presentation that made him laugh so he didn’t mind too much.
We then went upstairs and opened regular gifts and everyone was excited. We all enjoyed that even though it got kind of crazy and we had to ask after about what others got. It is too hard to ask the children to wait to open gifts while someone else opens a gift.
We had the roast in the oven and almost forgot we had other food to cook, but quickly got that done and everything served by two. I like to eat early in the day because then the kids don’t snack as much. I would have liked the food to be ready at 12 or 12:30, maybe next year. We didn’t play games in the afternoon, but we spent some time singing songs and playing with the children. Turner was really grouchy and hard to manage, the rest of the children did great, though we did have some tears here and there and Carolyn will be able to add three pages to her No Rose book.
My house needs some attention, but not tonight. Dale and I will tackle it tomorrow. We have New Years to look forward to next week, although I doubt if we will have any family that evening. Right after that we leave on our cruise, and I am really looking forward to a week of reading and resting.
Permalink
« Previous entries