The World According to Jos

My Sister's Dream-Come-True

  

My sister loooooooves Amy Grant.  Has forever.  I tease her whenever I get her her car, because I know I'm going to be hearing some Amy at some point. 

This is how I think all of this came about... Heather and our friend Marti both wanted to see Amy and since Heather's birthday was a week or so ago (and no, I still haven't given my beloved, adored sister a present - I am lame.  We've discussed it and she agrees that I'm lame, but loves me anyway) ...  where was I?  Oh yes - Marti bought Heather's ticket as a birthday gift (I might be wrong about that, but who really cares??)  The point is:  Marti won BACKSTAGE PASSES to the concert and was even able to be at the sound check! And Marti, being such a good friend (who ALWAYS remembers birthdays) gave Heather a backstage pass too!  Really?  How can I compete with that?

I'm thinking their excitement is close to what I would be feeling if I ever get to meet my pretend boyfriend, Sting.

(btw, I tried, like, 8 times to include the pic of Amy and Marti also, but it wouldn't work.  Boo Typepad!)

Enviro-Fieldtrip

Yesterday was the field trip with Nate's class.  When I woke up I was being REALLY  lame and told Kirk that I REALLY didn't want to go.  He told me to suck it up and quit complaining.  So I dug out the bag of winter clothes, made a lunch and got the kids out the door by 7:10am so we could go to Starbucks because there was NO WAY I was going into this without coffee.

Sidenote:  Nate tried the new Signature Caramel Hot Chocolate with Salt.. Sounds NASTY - it was DEEEEE-lishious!!!   He was so cute - after he picked up his drink he said, "does it need a shirt?" 

me:  "a shirt?"

Nate: "yeah... a shirt... does it need one?"

me:  (still not quite awake): "honey, I have no idea what you're talking about..."

Nate:  "you know - a SHIRT?!"  as he picks up a SLEEVE so the cup isn't too hot to hold... so cute! 

The bus ride out to the field trip location was gorgeous... all of the leaves are changing and the valley is beautiful right now.  It wasn't sunny but THANK GOD it wasn't raining.  It was really, really cold though.  At one point on the bus ride, Nate leaned in to me and thanked me for coming.  He's so sweet!

 

I was all ready to be rolling my eyes at the "love Mother Earth" crap I was expecting to hear, but was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't any of that crazy talk!  The field trip is put on by the Gorge Ecology Institute and it all about learning how the forest and animals adapt to the environment.  The only time anything got kinda "tree-huggy" was when the leader gal (they were all college students) shrieked when a kid stepped on a baby tree.  She says, "I'm sorry - I just get so defensive about those little guys!" (meaning the baby tree).  She also got upset when some mushrooms got trampeled.  Sorry sweetiee, that'll happen when you have 24 fifth graders tromping through the forest.

The best part was when the kids got to try to catch aquatic macro invertebrates in the stream. 

They LOVED that!   

 

This is Nate and his friend Hannah, who we had lunch with.

So, other than needed a hot bath to thaw out, I had a really good time!  I'm SO glad I went!

Busy Days...

The past couple of days have been pretty exhausting.

My grandma has Stage IV lung cancer and is now living with my aunt and uncle because she needs constant care.  Well, not "care".. more like "assistance" because she's quite frail and unsteady on her feet.  In addition to caring for her they own several businesses and are, under normal circumstances, the busiest people I know. 

Now that I'm closer to them (they live 40 miles east of Hood River) and don't really have anything to do during the day, I'm making myself available to them to help out in any way I can.  Last week I took Grandma to a couple of medical appointments so that my aunt could get some stuff done around the house.  Yesterday there were more doctor appointments so I offered to clean their home while they were gone (they had 8 house guests over the weekend). 

Their home is like, 7,000 sq feet.  I cleaned for 4.5 hours and basically just got the main floor done, which was fine - she was THRILLED to come home to a clean house!

Today I was back up there at 11am so that my aunt could run errands in The Dalles. Caring for a terminally ill person is uncharted territory for me.  I've never been in this situation.  When my other grandparents passed away I wasn't really exposed to the process of dying.  I was also quite a bit younger.  But today I helped Grandma with things that I never imagined I could do... I've always admired people that work in nursing homes because I don't think that I could do what they have to do... as far as caring for people's physical and hygiene needs.  But today I realized I was giving a GIFT to Grandma by caring for her in that way.  All I want is for her to be as comfortable as possible and I will do whatever I can to make that happen.

After she was dressed I helped her out to the couch so she could enjoy the beautiful day.  We watched some TV and she kind of dozed off and on.  She hasn't had any appetite and we're always trying to get her to eat SOMETHING, even just a nibble.  I was making myself a turkey sandwich and she said she'd eat a little bit (I was shocked).  I was even more shocked when she ate the entire piece I gave her, which was only about 1" x 3". 

We stayed in the living room talking a little here and there, because it's really hard for her to talk because it wears her out.  I'm able to make her laugh alot, and I love the look she gets on her face when I say something that amuses her!  Apparently I was hilarious today because she needed a nap after two hours with me, so back to bed she went for a nap. 

I'm always kind of tentative around her because I'm afraid I'm not doing something correctly and that it will result in me hurting her.  I have good reason to be nervous (or, I should say, SHE has good reason to be nervous):

*  Last week while helping her back in to the car after a dentist appointment, I was just learning how to get her in and out of the car while kicking the walker out of the way and holding on to her purse and car keys at the same time.  In this instance, I almost whacked her in the head with the corner of the car door.  We had a good laugh about that one.

*  At the hospital while getting her settled into a wheelchair, I didn't know how to put the foot-holder-flap-things down and got her legs and feet all tangled up. 

*  I took her to visit my uncle the same day... I got her in the wheelchair and was pushing her towards the door, and there was a pretty sharp downward slope in the sidewalk.  Not realizing that I should've turned the chair around and gone down the slope backwards, I charged right ahead telling her to "hold on!" and  just about tossed her right out of the chair.   That was a close one... we laugh about it now, but at the time I think she was wondering why my aunt put me in charge that day.

*  Today I was brushing her hair and I was telling her that I'm always afraid I'm going to hurt her ( 'ya think??) and she assured me that I'm not going to hurt her but to "be careful when I brush by the right ear because...  OWW!!!"

Sure enough.  I drug the brush right over a spot that is sore.

So, for better or for worse, Grandma will be seeing a lot more of me :)

Tomorrow I am going on a Eco-Lovers propaganda/brainwashing field trip with Nate's class.  Apparently the high temp will be 43*.  Did I mention it's SIX HOURS, ALL OUTDOORS?  Maybe I can hug a tree to keep warm.

Barking and Braces

First, I have to start off by letting you know my nerves are a little on edge. 

Remember the barking dogs?  Maybe not.  I think I Twittered about them, but maybe didn't blog about HOW INCREDIBLY ANNOYING THEY ARE.  

Rewind... We have neighbors whose backyard faces the side of our house where Nate's room, kitchen and family room are.  I also MUST have the windows open.  Even if it's only 3 inches, I need air, so every window in the house is open.  The neighbors have this little yappy white dog that makes our dogs (yes, plural.  I know.) CRAZY and our pooches would run up to the neighbor dog and try to kill her through the fence (apparently, her barking annoyed them too).  

So, being RESPONSIBLE PET OWNERS, we blocked off that side of the house so our dogs can't get over there.  There.  All better, right?  Wrong.

Sometime during the summer these people acquired another dog.  He's a medium-sized mutt.  And he barks all. day. long. 

What's even BETTER is, they LEAVE BOTH DOGS OUT ALL DAY LONG.  While they're at work or gone on the weekends. So, guess what I get to listen to everyday?   I'd be IM-ing Kirk all day long about these stupid dogs.  Our dogs finally became totally immune to the barking and just sleep through it.

Well, about three weeks ago Kirk was home working on a Wednesday and they were doing their thing.  Kirk needed to be able to concentrate and he started getting really freaky.  So, I sent him over with a note to put on their door... Short and sweet... "I don't think you know this, but when your dogs are left outside they bark constantly".  Thinking, they probably have no idea this is happening and would be totally embarrassed to know they are disturbing people.  So Kirk put the note on the door and that evening things quieted down. For the past couple of weeks it's been nice.  But last week they started in again.

Anytime I do something at the kitchen sink, or we walk out the front door, or they hear any sound, they go nuts.  In the "downtime" the big dog just barks.  Non stop.  Bark. Bark. Bark.  The other day I counted and in one minute he barked 23 times.  People, that's like once every two and a half seconds.  I'm going nuts here. 

He barked all day yesterday and started in at 6:45 AM.  Not kidding. 

So, at 9:30 this morning I was done.  I called the city to ask what I should do.  Long story short, the gal sent an officer over to listen.  I happened to (read:  was hovering around the window looking at the street) see him drive by and as fate would have it, both dogs went berserk at the exact moment he drove by.  It was even better when he rang the doorbell because they again flipped out.  The owners weren't home but I saw (when I casually strolled to the mailbox hoping to chat with the officer) that he had left his business card on their front door.

Now, if this were me, and I had already received a note about my dogs, and then came home to find that the police had come by, I would be MORTIFIED.  We'll see what happens.  In the meantime I still have to listen to them for the rest of the day.

In other news, in my continuing my mid-life-crisis behavior, I got my braces this morning.  Both Kirk and my dad have told me I look like a teenager.  Right now they don't hurt, in fact, I kinda like the feel of pressure that they have.  I'm thinking that pressure will turn to ache/pain tomorrow.  I'll enjoy it while I can.

 

UPDATE:  It's about 30 minutes since I wrote the first post.  I just took a note over to the stupid neighbors house asking them to please show some consideration for the people around them and put their dogs in the house when they're gone.  

All I hear is barking.  Like when someone tells you that you can't use the bathroom because the toliet is broken, and then all you can think about is how much you have to go???  All I hear is barking.