Kidney Stones?!?

For those of you fortunate enough to have never experienced a kidney stone, count your blessings.  I had my first one back about 1980 and had no idea what was happening, only that I was in extreme pain.  And it didn't help a bit at the ER when the nurse said they couldn't give me anything for it because the pain was their only clue as to what was going on.  Well!!  (We don't live near that hospital anymore, thank goodness!)

My second go around was in 2005.  I woke up in the middle of the night in pain and finally woke Dan up to take me to the ER.  On the way there, I said to him that this was reminiscent of that long ago day and I thought I knew what was going on.  Bingo!!  It passed and I was thankful, but exactly four weeks later the same thing happened.  After a week of drugs and no relief, it was determined that this one was too big to pass and so surgery to retrieve it was required.  They decided the one four weeks previous was probably a piece that broke off this giant one.  

I had another a few years ago and then again yesterday.  Last night about eight I told Dan I'd had all the fun I could stand so off to the ER we went again. I'm so thankful to live in a town with a hospital with such a great staff.  Everyone there was so kind and helpful. They did a CT scan and the good news is that there don't seem to be any more biggies lurking around, and this one passed this morning.  I'm hoping for a lifetime reprieve!!!

Meanwhile, I wonder what people did in the "olden days?"  I can't even bear to think about it.  

Cousins and Aunts!

Monday Ann and Daniel and I took a little trip and had a wonderful afternoon of visiting with my two nieces and their little ones.  Jennifer had driven out from Oklahoma with her two, Grant (8) and James (4) and were at Kirsten's.  Kirsten has recently moved to a new town with her husband, Tim, and little Taylor (18 months), so we were excited to not only see Jenny and the boys, but also to see Kirsten's new house. 

We left as soon as Daniel's swim lessons were over and in a little less than two hours we made a quick stop at a Wendy's and then programmed the GPS with Kirsten's new address.  It did not fail and led us right to her door. Amazing!!!  

The boys took right off from their last visit and spent all afternoon in the yard, running and playing and investigating trees and bugs.  We big people, along with little Taylor, spent the afternoon visiting and catching up with our lives since our last meeting.  So glad we get to see them all at least once a year!

We decided pizza out would be the perfect ending to our day and drove to a local neighborhood place and devoured several yummy pizzas--pepperoni and cheese for the boys, of course, and several "adult" pizzas including a pesto one that was especially delicious, along with an amazing pesto macaroni and cheese for Taylor (she ate it by the fistfuls!!).  The weather was perfect and the pizza shop had large garage doors in the front that were open to let in the lovely late afternoon air. There was grass out front and playing out there kept the boys busy until the food arrived.  

Before we all parted, I captured this photo of gang.  

Such a great day!!  ♥

Cameron Update

It gives me great joy to say that four weeks from today Cameron will be back!!  It's been a long five months with one more to go.  He's having an amazing time and has learned so much.  He's learned to live without so many of things we take for granted--running water, hot showers (for him, it's a bucket over the head), meat (they eat potatoes, beans, and cooked bananas), and so on.  He's really looking forward to throwing his clothes in the washer!!  

After five weeks in the bush of Kenya he is back in Rwanda's northern province, not far from Uganda in the area known for Gorillas in the Mist. 

Here are a couple of the photos he's sent us. The first is a gorgeous picture of a sunrise in Kenya.

This next one is of Cam with some children at a school they visited.  Everywhere he goes, the kids are drawn to the Mzungu, the white guy.

He's seen giraffes and zebras in the wild.  Seeing the giraffes was the hardest, and finally on his last morning in Kenya, several of them got up early and went out to be rewarded with a sighting.  Cam was thrilled.  

For this Grammy, the next four weeks can't go fast enough!!  ♥

A Little More Americana is Added

I think I mentioned a post or two ago that I was working on a new project for summer decorating.  A table runner using a "honeybun" (1 1/2" strips) of Primitive Gatherings patriotic fabrics for 2019. The design has three large blocks utilizing lots of tiny 1 1/2" squares and as I worked on it I hoped it would turn out square. Even when I finished the piecing I wasn't sure, but it quilted out beautifully and when folded in half, all parts lined up!!  

The colors are brighter than other Primitive Gatherings patriotic lines that I've used for our living room, so I decided this would probably be a good addition to the dining room table.  

The glass star dish of red, white and blue peanut M&Ms is a perfect accompaniment.  This year I actually found a pantry-sized bag of the seasonal M&Ms at Safeway and it's been so nice not have to use white ones saved from the Valentine's bag and blue and red ones from a regular bag.  ♥

It's Dan's Birthday!

Yup, today is my honey's birthday.  Most of the world has been concentrating on the fiftieth anniversary of the moon walk, but here at the Resort, it's a birth-day! Dan remembers well the day of the moon walk and he says that while the rest of the world thinks it heard Neil Armstrong say, "That's one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind," Dan says he really said, "That's one small step for Dan..."  to honor his birthday.  LOL!!  

Anyway. . .

Dan had a fun day in the woods with his buddy Dennis exploring and picking a few huckleberries. While they were gone I decided I would go for broke and make him a totally from scratch cake and even use round cake pans to make it a layer cake.  Several times this year a message from King Arthur flour has popped up either in my email or on Facebook with a link to their recipe of the year--a birthday cake.  I looked it up and printed it and decided to give it a whirl.  It did not disappoint!

I didn't take a picture of mine and now it's all wrapped up for tomorrow, so I borrowed this photo from the KA website.

Believe it or not, mine looked just like that except it's on a pink depression glass cake stand that belonged to my Grandma Hansen (of the picnic photo in my last post). We both loved the cake and if you'd like to give it a try, click here for the recipe.  (In full disclosure, I used my usual recipe for the frosting--from the back of the box of C&H powdered sugar, chocolate version.)  ♥

Of Picnics. . .

My long-time pal, Kathy, recently did a post recalling her family's Fourth of July picnics when she was a child.  I don't remember my family having picnics on the Fourth, and actually only remember a few lunches which could possibly be called picnics because we ate them while taking drives for the day (people used to do that back in the day, take drives just to drive).  

In my pondering, I remembered a picture I have of my mother's family taken at a picnic with friends.  The year would be circa 1927.

First, notice how dressed up the men are--suits and hats!  Mom told me some years ago when I asked her about the photo that the car was her family's.  Grandpa Hansen is the tall man in the center.  The man standing next to him in the straw hat was his older brother, Lawrence, and he is holding my mom who looks to be about two.  Grandma Hansen is peeking around beside Mom, and that's Mom's brother, Richard standing in the front with his hand on the watermelon.  The other people were family friends.  

Apparently going on a picnic was a big deal, worthy of dressing up!  Was this the Fourth of July?  Grandpa and his brother had both emigrated to the United States from Norway in the early years of the 20th century and became citizens as soon as possible.  The U.S. was good to them and perhaps they were celebrating the birthday of their new country.  We'll never know; Mom is gone now and was too young to remember the details anyway.  Looks like watermelons have been an integral part picnics for a long time though!  ♥

Happy 4th of July!

It's a beautiful, warm but not hot day here at the resort and we are enjoying a relaxing afternoon after some work here and there earlier in the day.  I just took a lemon cheesecake out of my InstantPot and it will be a cool, tasty treat this evening.  

I've started a new Americana table runner and it's well on its way.  I may even get some stitching done on it today!  The pattern is based on a Moda "Honeybun" pack which means width of fabric strips that are 1 1/2" wide. There are a lot of 1 1/2" squares in the design!  Stay tuned for a post with pictures, hopefully in the next few days.  ♥