Shoulder Surgery

Tiffany and her new friend, Pete, took me to my appointment with my orthopedic surgeon this morning and I am approved for a left shoulder replacement. Last year in October, I had my right shoulder replaced and now my left shoulder is worse, so I will be having that surgery in Portland next month. Then I will have a total of my left knee, right and left hips, and right and left shoulders all replaced. Hey, I still have a right knee, elbows, ankles, etc to go. Oh, I forgot, I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand, and a disc excision on my back. If I only felt like the bionic woman!

New blogs, oral surgery, etc.

I just added a link to Kay-Lynn's blog--check it out! This makes 13 of my kids and grandkids that have blogs (including my own blog). Kids=Debbie, Lisa, Michelle, Kay-Lynn, Erica and Jennifer (we still need Brett and Tiffany to join us). Grandkids=Aubrey, Kris, April, Ashley, Alanna, and Rhiannon (Brett, Lisa and Erica all have kids old enough to have their own blogs). Jen promises to update her blog as soon as they get their computer repaired. It is boxed up and ready to mail in to get fixed. They are all moved in and her new address is 10552 Gibbous Moon Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89129. They kept their old phone # (702) 740-4044.

DeWayne just left for Lincoln City. He will be home on Wednesday this week since I am having oral surgery on Thursday morning. About two years ago I noticed a sore on my tongue and kept mentioning it to the dentist I was going to. Finally, 18 months later, he referred me to an oral surgeon who said I had leukoplakia, a precancerous condition, and thought it was caused by trauma to the tongue as I kept biting the side of my tongue in the same spot. So I am finally having it removed and a biopsy done. I am also having eight teeth removed at the same time. This is all being done under general anesthesia. We are driving in to McMinnville, in the valley about two hours away. I probably told you all this before which just shows how much I am worrying about it.

Roof Repair

Last winter's November storm blew off lots of shingles and our roof leaked. We had a tarp put on about ten months ago, and now that DeWayne has gone back to work we finally have the money to have it fixed. It will be another week or two before they begin the work because we have already had a few rainstorms during which the roofing company hasn't been able to work. They are behind in fixing all the other roofs that were damaged. As long as ours gets fixed before the really big storms roll in off the Pacific and the Gulf of Alaska I will be happy! No more leaks, please.



Our roof is covered with a "lovely" blue tarp. This is taken with a telephoto from Neacoxie Road (which is the street behind us) across the neighbor's unlandscaped sand lot. You can't see our green grass because of the high rock and sand berm that separates the two properties. When they put in this rock wall they should have made it twice as high as it is instead of leaving that sand pile on top. For those of you who haven't been here, this view is of the back of our house. The top left windows are my bedroom, the top right are Rhiannon's bedroom. The bottom left are the dining room windows and the bottom right are Tiffany's. All the six center ones are to the living room which has a two-story ceiling. There is another bedroom upstairs and a computer room downstairs as well as a total of 3 and 1/2 baths--just right for the two of us, but a little crowded with Tiffany plus her three, and really crowded when company comes to stay over.

Tree Climbers

Rhiannon has one and a half days off from school for teacher conferences. Today Josh (Tiffany's lifeguard friend) came home with Tiffany and brought his tree climbing equipment. It was part of the training he went through with the Job Corps. He threw a line over the branch of a tall pine tree and got into this harness contraption and hauled himself up. Of course the kids wanted to try it. Racer was a little daredevil--no fear. He reminds me of Daniel, Erica's youngest. Rhiannon loved it and didn't want to come down. Ryder was a little hesitant and would only go half way up, but then proceeded to climb two other trees without any gear. He wanted to be in control of the situation.


Josh is all decked out in his gear ready to ascend the tree.


Just hanging out part-way up the tree.


Josh said this tree was small compared to some they had them climb. He is up about 20-30 feet.


Rhiannon is getting into the harness.


Rhiannon is loving it!


Ryder's turn


Ryder likes to climb on his own and then says "Look at me!"


Racer is getting buckled in.


Racer is checking out the distance to the ground. He is up pretty far. I took this with the telephoto lens so it is hard to tell just how high he really is.

Then they all went to their classes--Ryder went to tumbling, Tiffany went to the conference with Rhiannon's teacher, and Rhiannon went to dance. Then they all went to see the latest Harry Potter movie at the discount theater.

DeWayne came home this evening and wasn't too thrilled with sleeping in the basement at the dental clinic. He said he was afraid That mice and spiders might crawl on him during the night! Tomorrow we (DeWayne, Rhiannon and me) are going shopping at Fred Meyer's for food and junk, and on Saturday he is taking his sister, Deanna, to lunch to celebrate her 70th birthday which was on October 9th. They will probably go to Mo's in Cannon Beach which is famous for it's clam chowder in bread bowls.

Update on Michelle

While Michelle was teaching, Barry and Tony found a house to rent! It is a two bedroom, one bath bungalow with a small yard and parking area, but no garage. It sounds really small, but she said it is clean, newly painted and the price is only $825 a month. They signed a year lease and are moving in tomorrow. Their address is 617 Moran Street, Reno, NV 89502. Now they have the "fun" of connecting telephone, electricity, garbage, cable, internet, getting new driver's licenses, finding a obstetrician, etc. In the meantime, you can call her on her cell phone. She hasn't told the principal she is pregnant yet, either. And today was the last day the substitute teacher will be there, so tomorrow she is on her own. One good thing, there are 15 boys and 10 girls. Five girls were absent yesterday, so that is better than 20 boys and 5 girls. (I'm not saying boys are bad, just harder to manage). Monday Barry is reporting to the Reno office of the construction company he has been working for to hopefully start work right away. Tony is going to apply at the same company. Oh, and they are going to go buy a car for Michelle since hers burned up, and Barry will need his truck back for work on Monday. A lot has been happening in their lives in the last 2-3 weeks!

Michelle called

Michelle just called (Monday, 6 p.m.) to tell me that they arrived in Reno safely with no trouble with the U-Haul truck or Tony's Mitsubishi Montero (they towed Barry's truck), and are staying in a Quality Inn motel while Barry and Tony look for a place for them to live. Michelle spent her first day at her new school, got fingerprinted, got an ID tag and shadowed the substitute teacher around. She has 25 little kindergarteners, 20 boys and 5 girls, with 2-3 having IEP's (development problems, needing Individual Education Plans, hence IEP), so she will have classroom management challenges. The school is near the center of town and is in an older building with a really large classroom with lots of windows. She sounded totally happy and excited. Barry and Tony weren't there so she was going to go track them down and find someplace to have dinner. Call her cell phone to talk to her. I gave you her # before in an email.

They Are On Their Way!

Michelle, Barry, Tony and DeWayne got the truck packed, they checked out of their apartment and they (not DeWayne, of course) left Newport at 2 p.m. Saturday. We haven't heard anything from them yet. Michelle is supposed to be at work today or checking in or something. We thought they would call Sunday but they didn't. Has anyone heard anything? I will try to call Michelle tonight.

DeWayne decided to come home after the trio left, pick up a recliner and lamp, and take them back with him this morning and he will sleep in the basement of the dental clinic in order to save money. He said the garage is partitioned off into a place to park a car and a room. I hope it has heat and electricity. The dental hygienist sleeps on one of the couches in the waiting room. He says not to worry because she is around 80 years old! They would share the kitchen and bathroom. The office manager says it is OK but the dental hygienist has to OK it too. She lives out of town and goes home on the weekend.

DeWayne has his Soupman title back. He took some to work the other week and everyone loved it. He make a big batch Sunday, fed us some, took some to Deanna, and took some with him to work. He heats it up in a crock pot and everyone loves it. He has lost at least 20 pounds, has been jogging and riding his bike and says he is going to see if they have a pool in Lincoln City. That will serve two purposes--exercise and a place to take a shower while he is down there.

DeWayne has Tiffany and the kids' cold. He has a bad cough, but so far I have avoided it. It is time to get my flu shot! Colds are bad enough, but I really don't want the flu.

The addition of all the new blogs is great. I love reading about your families and looking at the photos. Aubrey's makes it 12 for the Bowman family, kids and grandkids. Just click on the links on the right side of my blog to see them all. The perfect situation, from my perspective, would be to have everyone add a new post at least once a week. Is that unrealistic from all you busy people who still have lives?

It rained again last night, was damp and foggy when Rhiannon and I raced to the bus stop (she was late as usual), but is absolutely gorgeous outside right now. When you look at the weather report for this area and it says rain, that is mostly true, but that doesn't mean we don't have nice weather in between, and we can see all kinds of weather inside a few hours. Except for January 2006 when I was in the hospital!!! It rained for 31 days straight and we caught only a glimpse of the sun late one afternoon.

My peaceful day vs. DeWayne's whirlwind day

A sunny day at the bus stop with Kato waiting for the bus.


A rainy day at the bus stop

I walked Rhiannon to the bus stop at 7:45 a.m. yesterday morning. It was so beautiful after the rain during the night. The air smelled like the ocean, pine trees and humus from the forest floor (leaf mold--not the kind of hummus you eat made from chickpeas). Kato, the cat, and I went back to get her in the afternoon after I had a quiet day reading and watching TV. On the way home Rhiannon wanted to hug a tree like Alanna did. Look at her photo in her blog. We took photos of huge mushrooms and Roly-Polys (potato bugs aka wood lice).


It looked like a potato sitting on the grass.


It was full of black spores.

A roly-poly on Rhiannon's hand


Rhiannon acting goofy in the beach grass along our driveway

DeWayne got home at 7:30 p.m. and started working around the house. He was home for only 19 hours and managed to get a weeks worth of my pills and insulin shots ready, do the dishes, my laundry, errands for Deanna at the Health store and Rite-Aid, go to the bank, take the recycling to the recycling center, take me grocery shopping at Safeway, and then come home to pack up his truck with empty boxes, packing paper, dollys (hand trucks) and moving stuff to help Michelle and Barry pack up the rental truck. We think they are planning to leave by Sunday. DeWayne left at 1:30 p.m. for Newport and won't be back for 6 days. Michelle and Barry are turning in their apartment key so he will probably stay at a motel until he can find a room to rent. It was 38 degrees last night so he had better not try to sleep in his car! Barry is moving to Reno and they will all get a place to rent together.

A boring Sunday and other humdrum events

We stayed home from church Sunday as we were having a huge rain and windstorm and DeWayne didn't want to load the wheelchair, etc. We hung around the house all day. I read a book, watched TV and napped, and DeWayne cleaned the house and did laundry. Tiffany took the kids to the indoor playland at Subway in Astoria. They have been sick with fevers and colds and were crazily wild all weekend so I gave her $15 to go and give us a few hours of peace and quiet! Tiffany has been sick too and missed a day and a half of work.


The wind blew these over during yesterday's storm. It even blew over the heavy ceramic pot that holds the rose bush!

What a change in the weather today! It is sunny and beautiful and when I pick Rhiannon up at the bus stop at 3 pm I want to go for a walk and take pictures to add to this post. We have to hurry with the photos because storm #2 is on its way and this will be the pattern for the whole rainy season which can last until June. We will have storm after storm interspersed with a day or two of clearing.


Looking South on Manion Drive from our mailbox.


Looking at the ocean from up by our mailbox


Looking down Pine Ridge Court from up by our mailbox


A meadow on Pine Ridge Court


The forest across from the entrance to our driveway


The neighbor's hydrangeas. Their bushes are 10 feet high!


Looking east from the neighbor's house where we sometimes see the herd of elk.


The entrance to our house

Home Sweet Home---33300 Pine Ridge Court

Stephanie (Brett and Kim's daughter) called and then came over and picked up her suitcases and things on Sunday with one of her girlfriends. She is living with her boyfriend and his family and going to Seaside High School this year. She stayed with us last year, but DeWayne didn't want Tiffany and me to have that responsibility since he is gone four days of the week. That decision has caused a lot of hard feelings towards us on Kim and Stephanie's part and I feel really badly about it. I didn't see her when she came over, but DeWayne said she acted cold and distant towards him.

I told you that Michelle brought back my cat and it turned out to be just in time since she (Michelle not the cat) got pregnant the following weekend. Cats who carry toxoplasmosis excrete it in their feces and if a pregnant woman changes the litter box, she can become infected with it and with dire consequences to the fetus including mental retardation and other birth defects as well as spontaneous abortion of the fetus. However, working in a garden and eating raw or undercooked meat are also dangerous to pregnant women for toxoplasmosis. The rest of us can be exposed with mild flu symptoms resulting and a large percentage of us are already carriers, so anyway, just in case you aren't already exposed, wash your hands well after cleaning it and avoid breathing in the dust from the litter box.

I think my cat has fleas (shudder), and I read that for every ten fleas on a cat, there are 25,000 eggs and larvae in the house (in the carpets, couches, and its bedding). My cat is scratching, scratching, scratching so on Saturday we went to the pet store and got flea shampoo, flea drops, and a flea collar. She sleeps on a down comforter folded up on the corner of my bed and I imagine all those eggs dropping off and the little larvae burrowing into the comforter and eating the little pellets of dried blood that fall off the cat and I get totally DISGUSTED!!! I now know more about the life cycle of a flea than I ever wanted to know. My brother Ken said he knows how to get rid of the fleas. GET RID OF THE CATS! Rhiannon wants my cat so Tiffany doesn't know it yet but tonight she gets to give my cat a bath.


Cuddles, the flea monster, out on Pine Ridge Court

I am so happy that many of you have blogs now. I love reading them and I love the connection with you and feeling part of your lives. So keep adding to them and those who don't have one yet, please start one for old granny Bowman's sake who is homesick for all of you.

What's with Christmas in the Stores?

I can't believe I am seeing Christmas decorations and displays in the stores already and it is still SEPTEMBER!!!! They are right up there next to the Halloween displays. What's with that? Are retailers so desperate for our money that they take three months or one fourth of the year to devote to the commercial aspects of this holiday? It really makes me angry.

About Christmas---since we are so far in debt that Dad, at the age of 68, had to go back to work, please understand that the amount we can give everyone at Christmas will be drastically reduced. It doesn't look like I will get my inheritance from Esther and Floyd before Christmas, so I will be using my Social Security money, so be forewarned. Sorry. I thought we had enough saved to carry us through our retirement, but didn't expect that we would need to give so much financial help to kids and grandkids.

I hate that he has to work. It is hard for me to get by without DeWayne's help for four days each week, and it isn't fair for him to have to work so hard. He has pain in his wrist and suspects carpal tunnel syndrome. If that is the case, he won't be ABLE to work. And I am kind of jealous that he gets to escape all the noise and commotion here and go see new things, places and people. Do I sound frustrated? He will have to buy a trailer, get a camper shell, or rent a room if Michelle gets the teaching job she is hoping for since he has been staying with them! I will be having a shoulder replacement in November or December so he will take off a month then to help me.

A Sunny Day in Astoria

Josh (one of the lifeguards Tiffany works with), Tiffany, Rhiannon, Racer, and Ryder in front of Tiffany's car and the Columbia River.


The market has 200 vendors up and down four blocks. The Columbia River is visible at the bottom of the hill.


Dad waiting in line for some kettle korn.


Close-up of Celebrity cruise ship.


Astoria, Oregon from the Young's River Bridge.


Cruise ship on the Columbia River

DeWayne and I had a fun day in Astoria today. For one thing it was SUNNY, and coolish-warm with a slight breeze off the Columbia River. The air smelled so good. We went to the outdoor market and ate our way through it with our favorites. We started with grilled Italian sausages on buns and ended with Humdinger karamelkorn (still hot) and home-made fudge. They sold out of their white Pina Colada "fudge" because a cruise ship was in town and several buses full of tourists came to the market. Afterwards we drove to where we thought the sea lions were and heard MOM, MOM, GRANDMA, GRANDMA, GRANDMA!!! We were surprised to see Tiffany, the kids and their friend Josh. Tiffany said she thought this was where we were. We decided to look for the sea lions next time and went and looked at the cruise ship instead.

Energizer Bunny

Do you remember that TV commercial for Energizer batteries and it would show a bunny that was powered by Energizer batteries and it would keep going and going and going? We joke that that is DeWayne. He got home from his office in Lincoln City last night and in less that 24 hours has done all the dishes, washed several loads of laundry, fed me meals and gave me my insulin shots, fixed my pills for the next week, taken all the recycling to the center in Seaside, been to the library, gone to Radio Shack, shopped for groceries at Safeway and put them all away, swept and mopped all the floors, made my bed and is now making his famous vegetable soup to share with his coworkers. His nickname at the office in Las Vegas was Soupman and they even gave him a gift one year of a ladle engraved with the word Soupman. He has lost a lot of weight since he went back on his soup diet. It is nice to have him back even if it is just for the weekend.

Wheelchair Lift

I have a new wheelchair lift on the back of my suburban. It runs off the car battery like the old one. The old lift quit working--the motor died. First the platform was bent toward the ground so it scraped every time we went up a steep hill, into an inclined driveway or over a bump. Sometimes it wouldn't go up or down unless DeWayne handcranked it about 200 times. Finally it gave up the ghost and just stopped. I was stuck at home for five days waiting for the new one to get here from Pittsburg. This new one can be driven onto from either direction and has three retractable tie downs. It can also hold a 3 or 4-wheel electric scooter.


This is what it looks like loaded. It is still pretty close to the ground but it doesn't scrape.


This is what it looks like unloaded. You can see the yellow cartridges that hold the tie-downs.

Visitors

This week we had company. Michelle came from Newport and we enjoyed going to church, doing arts and crafts, playing beauty shop (doing makeup, hair and nails), shopping at Fred Meyer, eating at Dairy Queen and driving on the beach. My step-cousin Kay (her mother and my stepfather Eino Mickelson were sister and brother) and her husband Ed Cook stopped in on their way to their beach house in Rockaway Beach about an hour south of here. We had a lovely visit. They brought several varieties of tomatoes from their garden as well as a head of cabbage. We used to stay at their house in Clatskanie for Easter, Memorial Day, July 4th, summer vacation, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. and then they would come stay with us in Garibaldi where we would always go clam digging. This went on from about age 7 to 17--lots of fun memories!

Cuddles

I have had Cuddles, the cat, for a few years. She has spent the last year with Michelle and Barry because when my shoulder was bad I couldn't take care of her. I had my right shoulder joint replaced last October so I do pretty well now, and since Michelle anticipates being pregnant she brought Cuddles back yesterday. Pregnant women aren't supposed to change a cat's litter box and Barry said he wasn't going to do it. My cat was so glad to be back. She has been purring non-stop and found her favorite spot on my bed where she is in this picture. I will probably have my left shoulder replaced in November or December though. I guess DeWayne will have to take over caring for her. Tiffany owns Lightning and Kato who are cuddles sister and brother, but Cuddles fights with them. Cuddles is very defensive of her territory which is my bedroom and bathroom.

Church

Kathy Bowman in front of the Seaside Ward Chapel

Michelle came up from Newport for a four night visit. We are all so glad to see her and the kids are having a great time doing art projects with Aunt Shelly. We ALL went to church today and I taught the Relief Society lesson on marriage (I guess being married for 47 years gives me some experience on the subject). This picture was taken outside after church and I am holding the flowers we brought to decorate the Relief Society room. We were going to put them in the chapel too, but we forgot them and Tiffany brought them when she came late with Racer.

Dad's New Truck

DeWayne Bowman and his new red 4-door Silverado truck

Dad and his new car parked in front of our house.

Dad bought a 2005 4-door Chevy Silverado. I took this picture of him today. He drives it back and forth each week to his dental office near Devil's Lake which is in Lincoln City 2 hours south of here. He leaves here at 5:30 am on Monday morning, and works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Next week he will start working Thursday also. He stays over with Michelle and Barry in Newport which is 45 minutes further south along the coast in Newport. Then he drives home after work on Wednesday (or Thursday in the future). He leaves at 5 pm and gets here at 7 pm. That will be hard when the storms set in and he has to drive that narrow two-lane highway when it gets dark at 4 pm and it is raining and and the wind is blowing!!



Near the summit of the beautiful coast range.

THE COAST RANGE AND A VISIT TO AN ORAL SURGEON

Today we drove to McMinnville which is a small city on the other side of the coast range. I took this picture up in the mountains. I hate the fact that there is so much logging going on. We went to McMinnville so I could see an Oral Surgeon about the lesion on my tongue. He is going to biopsy it on October 19 and also remove eight teeth at the same time all done under general anesthesia. It will cost $2000 so Dad has to work 4 days just to pay for that! People with diabetes that isn't perfectly controlled can have high blood sugar which promotes the development of dental decay (caries).

The year of the Flea

Yes--We have fleas! The person at the pet supply store said the fleas are bad this year. That is an understatement. Racer especially has a big reaction to the bites. Tiffany has two cats and they live mainly in her room and Rhiannon's room which have carpets. So far the cats have had baths with flea shampoo, got special drops put on them which interrupt the life cycle of the flea, and wear flea collars. In addition everything got vacuumed and borateam sprinkled on the carpets (it is supposed to kill the larvae) and we got flea bombs for those two rooms. For the last three days Kato (the white cat) has sneaked into my room and settled on my new bedspread!!! I saw on tv that cats don't like vinegar, so I sprayed the stairs with it. That kept him away for one day. Now I just throw whatever is handy at him when he jumps on my bed--books, cd's, etc Are cats worth all this trouble is the big question and in this house it depends on who you ask!

Elk

The last three elk going across the neighbor's property.

Rhiannon's friend, Megan, was over and happened to look out the upstairs bedroom window where they were playing and noticed a herd of elk walking across between our house and the new house that the neighbors are building. This is the second time in two years that they have come this close to our house. I gave Rhiannon my camera and she ran downstairs and was able to get a photo of the last three elk. The stags keep a lookout behind them for danger. The rest of the herd of about 15 were disappearing into the trees. DeWayne says he has seen a huge herd of around 100 elk south of Tillamook the last two weeks as he passed through to Lincoln City.

That same night Tiffany, Rhiannon, Ryder and I went outside at 3 a.m. to see the total eclipse of the moon. The sky was totally clear and we tried to get photos but needed a tripod. We could never see that many stars in Las Vegas because of all the lights. The shadowed moon and all the stars in the sky were gorgeous! I should have learned something about astronomy. I wish I recognized other constellations besides The Big Dipper and Orion.

We have been having the most wonderful weather--cool nights and pleasantly warm days. It is 79 degrees out now at 1 p.m. July, August and September are the best months at the coast. Every day when we go up the hill to get the mail we continue around the block. Sometimes we go over the hill down onto Ocean Drive. Rhiannon rides her new "birthday bicycle" and I am in my wheelchair. The blackberries are ripe and we stop and pick some. When DeWayne comes (on the days he is here and not working down in Lincoln City) he picks the ones up high or around in back of the bushes. He follows the deer paths through the bushes. Last month we had fun picking the salmon berries. They go from salmon-colored to red to deep red. Gary picked these little round blue-colored berries for me at Cape Meares from a ubiquitous plant found throughout the area.


Rhiannon in a blackberry patch on Pine Ridge Court road going up to the mailbox.


More blackberries

Today is Wednesday and Rhiannon went to Cannon Beach with her friend Megan to play on the beach and build sand castles. I am home alone so I went over the hill and down around Ocean Drive because it is too nice to stay inside. It takes about 45 minutes. I take my cell phone in case my wheelchair malfunctions, or I have an accident (so I can call Tiffany or 911).


ANOTHER SCHOOL YEAR


A nervous Rhiannon ready to get on the bus.


Waiting for the bus on the first day of school.

Tiffany and Rhiannon went to an open house at Rhiannon's school which begins next week on Tuesday. I walk Rhiannon to her bus stop every morning at 7:45 and then meet her at 3 p.m. and we take care of each other until Tiffany gets home from her lifeguard and swimming teacher job at the Astoria indoor swimming pool.

Ramblings

I am so proud of the blog my daughter Erica created. She has done a great job! Can a computer deficient granny create a blog by herself? Sometimes I feel like I was left behind in this world full of electronics, but I have a cell phone, an Ipod, a digital camera, two computers, two printers, a fax machine, and a scanner. Do I know how to use them? Not to the fullest! A blog is my latest attempt to stay current in a world where the pace is ever-increasing, and to record my thoughts and activities for those family members who might be interested. So here are some of my mental ramblings. I have included some of the photos that go along with my thoughts. The old photos are of my grandparents, parents and family.

I used to be an intelligent energetic biology teacher, but I feel the energy and intelligence trickling away. Who am I, aside from being someone's wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, and aunt? Do I have an identity of my own? This year at Church, after my health improved, I became a Relief Society teacher and a visiting teacher. I would like to do something scientific like volunteering for an environmental or conservation organization.

I am also an avid reader, and I am (or used to be) an artist. I loved my 3rd grade teacher. Besides encouraging reading, she encouraged us to excel in penmanship, math and art. Mrs. Getchell was an artist herself and she recognized the potential I had to be an artist. I took art classes in high school and one in college and explored art on my own. I took an art class in Hawaii, more classes in Oregon including palette knife technique and went faithfully every Saturday in Germany and studied the human figure, pen and ink, watercolor, and the Old Master's technique in oil painting. I did a little painting during vacations when we lived in Las Vegas, and while I am inspired to paint the beautiful scenery here on the Oregon coast, our house is so crowded that the only clear open area to set up an easel and table is in my very large shower. I need to start drawing and painting anywhere!

And finally, I am (or used to be) an educator and scientist. With a B.S. in Zoology from B.Y.U., a M. Ed. in Educational Administration (at age 47) and a M.S. in Biology (at age 56) both from U.N.L.V. you can tell that I believe in lifelong education! I wrote my thesis on the Naatural History of Daphnia in Red Rock Conservation Area, Nevada. I have taught Biology in Crete, Greece at Iraklion American High School. In Las Vegas I taught Physical, Life, and Earth Sciences as well as Biology at the Hebrew Academy. I taught Biology and Microbiology labs at U.N.L.V., and then Biology at Mojave High School. I miss teaching at the college level but have to say that I do not miss teaching high school kids! They can exhaust a teacher, and so much time is spent on classroom discipline that would be better spent on teaching the subject matter.

So you can see some of what I "used to be" (artist, educator and scientist), but not what I am now except "retired," and I am not sure I am happy with that label (I waste time watching TV and playing computer games and napping). What would I like to accomplish? I would like to get my personal history and family histories up-to-date. I would like to get my photo albums finished and print some of the hundreds of photos that are "stuck" in my computer. I would like to continue genealogical research and get names temple-ready and take those names to the temple myself. I have included photos of family history that I enjoy looking at and hope you do too. I would like to exercise (swim?) and lose weight. This last one has been my New Year's Resolution every year for the last fifty years!!

I would like to spend more time with my family members who are not here, so come visit and maybe one of these days we will get a trailer or motorhome and come see you. I have eight children with their partners, 22 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. Tiffany and her three children live with us and sometimes it feels like they are more like my children than grandchildren. They certainly liven up the place.

I am happy to be back in Oregon an hour west of Clatskanie where I was born and an hour north of Garibaldi where I grew up until I left to attend the University of Oregon after high school graduation. I am fifteen minutes from Astoria, the town at the mouth of the Columbia River where all four of my grandparents settled when they immigrated from Finland, and where my mother was born in 1910. The photos that follow were taken in 1941 in the Marshland area of Clatskanie. The first one is of my mother with Kenny and Rosie with me and the second is of my father Charlie Erickson, uncle Hugo Hanhi, Grandpa Sakari Hanhi and uncle Floyd Van Horn.

Anna Hanhi Erickson holding Kenny Erickson, Rosie Peaney Erickson holding Priscilla Erickson


Charles Erickson, Hugo Hanhi, Sakari Hanhi, Floyd Van Horn

I am happy that I had the opportunity to live in so many different places--Provo UT, Portland OR, Ewa Beach and Aiea Hawaii, Albuquerque NM, the Greek Island of Crete, Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Las Vegas NV, and to visit so many other different places--Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Cyprus, the Isle of Patmos, Egypt, Israel, Italy, the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and England. Thanks to the United States Air Force for our world tour!

My three favorite places are the Big Sur in California, the Hawaiian Islands and the Oregon Coast. I love living so close to the ocean that we can hear and smell it and are a few minutes walk over the hill and across the sand dunes to the beach. Our community is less than ten miles north of Seaside, is called "Surf Pines," and is in the south end of the town of Warrenton. This area was reclaimed from the sand dunes in the 1940's when it was planted extensively with rows and rows of shore pines. It is nice to be back "home" in Oregon after spending 45 years following my dentist husband around the world which included being stuck in Las Vegas for 25 years. So tell me what you think of my blog so far!

This photo is of my mother's family taken in 1921 in Rosburg, Washington where they lived in the house grandpa built. The story my mother told me was that grandma Matilta Kouva made grandpa Sakari Hanhi wait seven years to get married. He had to earn the money for land and build a house before they got married. Vieno didn't like his picture so he cut himself off the left side of the picture. In back are Grandpa, Grandma, Helen, Anna and in front are Hugo and Esther.