Up North and Back Again... Again

This has been a fun week. I'll take you through it and we'll end with the exciting part... and the reason I didn't blog yesterday. On Monday we planted some grass-like plants along Joyce's river and I ran a drip system to them for water. But didn't do much else. Joyce had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Monday. This was just a call back to check her blood work to be sure the meds were doing what they were supposed to do. Her doctor has her own lab so we showed up early for the lab work -- to find the lab is not open because someone called in sick (there's something ironic about a doctor's office lab being closed because of illness!). Anyway, no use seeing the doc if the lab work isn't available. So she had to make two appointments -- one for the lab on Wednesday, and one to see the doc on Thursday.

Tuesday was our anniversary (42 if anyone is counting). So we celebrated by going out to work in the yard early in the morning, then lazing around the rest of the day. Late in the afternoon, Marilyn and her mom, Polly, stopped by. They are the friends we visited in Prescott, Arizona. Marilyn used to live here and 3 of her kids still do. So after visiting for awhile we went down to Abbey's Pizza for dinner. Nice laid back fun day.

We didn't do much on Wednesday. Worked in the yard a little and I worked on my sermon for Sunday. Thursday I was the speaker at a memorial service for the husband of a lady that used to attend Allen Creek. A cousin handled the rest of the service. So I spent a little time in the morning preparing for that. Joyce's doctor's appointment went really well. Her blood sugar and cholesterol are down so she is real proud of herself. Every couple of weeks we have dinner with Mike and JoAnn so this week I let Joyce pick the restaurant. Of course, she picked Chinese and Mike and JoAnn were okay with that. We ate at the China Hut and ordered lots so we would have plenty of take home.

Then came Friday -- the 4th of July. Can you believe we got up early and met Marilyn and her family for breakfast? It was fun because we got to see the boys and their families that we usually don't get to see. It was a little cooler during the day so we worked on the rock border around one of the features in The Backyard. Then in the evening we went down to the church. Every year "they" -- somebody, right now it is the Lion's Club -- puts on a fireworks show at the fairgrounds. Allen Creek church is less than a mile away (as the crow flies -- actually, we have blackbirds around here). So for many years the church people and their friends and people we don't even know gather for a potluck or snacks and then watch the fireworks. They were doing that the day we moved to Grants Pass. We arrived in town on July 4. Some guys from the church showed up to help us unload the truck and then told us about the potluck and fireworks. So off we went to the church for a great meal. I told them I thought it was rather awesome that the whole town put on a fireworks show to welcome us to Grants Pass.

Saturday we didn't do much. I worked on a PowerPoint to accompany my sermon and shoveled a little gravel in the evening. Sunday morning the trip up north began. I preached at Springfield again and we ate lunch with Joyce's brother and wife, Jack and Luwayne. Then drove to Larry and Cheryl's in Newport. They were in our church at Agate Beach. They now attend the Nazarene Church which was having a Luau on the beach. So we went. And got blown away. Literally. The wind was so strong we ate sand instead of potato salad so we didn't stay long. We really enjoyed our time with Larry and Cheryl. Monday morning we had breakfast with Ellis and Kathy, saw Pam at WalMart, saw Willy at the church (I asked him if I could have the trophy we won in the parade over a year ago). Have I mentioned that the Agate Beach church is closed? Willy is working on a new church plant in Newport. Lunch was with Warren and Carol in Lincoln City then on Salem.

We met Ginger at 4:00, toured a mobile home for sale in the same park she lives in, and by 5:30 we bought it. Actually Ginger is buying it but we are fronting the money with some help from her Uncle Don. She is excited. It is a 1973 model, in good condition, and comes with all the appliances including a dishwasher and washer/dryer. It has new vinyl windows, two outdoor storage units and a big covered deck. That is our exciting news. Well, it's exciting to us and to Ginger.

Her's is the one in the middle. Her dining room is in the front and looks out over this pond which has ducks and a fountain.The proud owner.

We arrived back home last night a little after 10:00. And that about covers our week and our marathon visit-the-friends-and-relatives trip. We're staying home for a few weeks now. Gotta work in The Backyard. Except the temp is supposed to be 104 today and tomorrow.