Spring Break is Over Again!

How lucky we are, Spring Break is over already, and some of us have to go back to work and school. Someone else gets to stay here and do what he does best.


Nick has to leave the life of ease and get back in the rat race of school. Not that he has had much opportunity to pry Zeke away from Will.

Lucy has gone back to Hermiston. Jenna needs to see more of her Uncle Will - for some reason she really likes him.


Other people will still be walking on the beach every day but I won't get that privilege for awhile. Of course, we will probably need to take Zeke out there before long to practice retrieving.

I am looking forward to Steven and Katie's family visiting this week. Their family is singing at the Venetian downtown Albany tomorrow. That's a great way to end the first day back after Spring Break!

Say Hello to Zeke

Will has become a full-time puppy trainer.

He's very cute.


I don't even want to know how many times it has already piddled on my family room carpet. If I step on a puddle though, you will probably hear me scream. Fortunately the carpet has had liters of Mountain Dew and assorted other sugary drinks spilled on it during the past twelve years and is already in serious need of replacement.

Camping at Cape Kiwanda

I love the smell of bacon in the morning. Especially when I am sitting in my RV at the Oregon Coast and Will is cooking breakfast. Oh poor Nick just hit his head on the doorway to the bedroom. He claims it is a short doorway, but I don't have any problem with it.

We had a very peaceful quiet day here yesterday until Nick and his friend arrived in the afternoon. The sun was shining most of the day,and I didn't need my heavy coat on the beach. The morning walk on the beach was wind-free, but the afternoon walk was not quite as warm. We are near the park entrance so we also see everyone coming and going, but we can see Haystack Rock across the road as well. Not the most scenic RV park but I love having the beach just across the road.


We enjoyed walking up the hill and Will's good judgment kept him on the correct side of the sign.

This is the view just beyond the sign.

Yesterday morning brother Doug came to visit to see if we had any salt he could borrow. His family is in a house enjoying "March Madness" with several families down the road. Sounds like madness all right, apparently there are about three times as many kids as adults! We might go visit them today.

The weather is not quite as good today. But that's ok, I brought enough books that even a fast reader such as myself will not run out! It's very cozy to sit in here and listen to the rain and wind.

Puppy Love

So Will has been very busy the past week preparing for the arrival of the new puppy. (Read about it here if you haven't already! http://willsententia.wordpress.com/) We have negotiated some house rules. He has researched and purchased the best of everything for the new pooch; everything from a food and water bowl, the food to put in it, a gate to keep the pup only in the family room, an outdoor kennel, and so on.

The TV in the family room is rather old and the picture has become somewhat fuzzy with a pronounced high pitched whine. Imagine my surprise when Will mentioned that he's thinking we probably need to get a new TV because that noise will probably hurt the puppy's ears. Is this going to be a spoiled dog or what? A new TV, just to protect the little guy's ears. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard? So thoughtful.

Tonight at dinner Will and Nick declared I needed to be educated on some puppy etiquette. (Say "Sit", not "Sit down." or Hey, go sit down." or "You go sit down now." etc.) Nick had the nerve to tell me I needed to stay away from it. I would never deliberately be cruel to an animal, but I got an undeserved reputation for cruelty years ago that haunts me to this day, much to my dismay. Two small incidents led to this.

One incident was witnessed by my three boys, elementary and middle school age at the time. They were watching TV in the family room and got to arguing loudly about something. Their unacceptable conduct could not be ignored, and I took the remote and was standing in front of the TV speaking to them gently and quietly about their rude obnoxious behavior while perhaps gesturing forcefully with the remote. Since remotes regularly disappeared here during that time period and their father hated searching for them down the couch cushions, he had tied some string around it and left a long braided strand attached to make lost remote recovery less stressful.

As I somewhat emotionally lectured my children with this remote in my hand, I was suddenly attacked by our white cat, Dats. With great speed she ran at me, leaping high in the air toward my chest. Startled, I instinctively reacted, leaping back with a slight outward movement of my leg which connected with the cat as she returned toward the floor. The poor cat went flying across the room, landing against the kitchen cabinets, finding her feet and fleeing as fast and far away as she could.

The boys indignantly pointed out that the cat was just playing with the rapidly moving string, which it had been watching with fascination unnoticed by me. Banding together in unity, their differences forgotten, they berated me for kicking their cat. Shaken, I felt that the cat had attacked me in defense of the disagreeable boys who loved it. I'm still not sure. I do know that in spite of their indignation, the boys got to laughing and my passionate words meant to inspire them to kindness and compassion were completely ineffective.

Add to that incident a tiny yappy dog running around too close to my ankles for too long at a trail head many years ago, causing me to eventually find it necessary to gently encourage it to move away with a slight lift of my foot, not realizing how extremely light this little piece of fluff was....well, I was shocked at how far it flew after the gentle foot motion...unfortunately Will witnessed this and I have never lived it down.

I am sure the new puppy and I will live together in peace and harmony as long as it is taught not to leap at me and I am never expected to clean up after it. Will will be an excellent dog owner.

(Note: If any of my family members tries to tell you an alternate version of the above events, don't believe them. They exaggerate.)

Farewell to a Friend

I said good-bye to the little boy with the worm phobia yesterday. He came in to tell us he is moving to Springfield. He was very pleased at the thought of living there. Grinning, he said, "I'll always be watching to see if I spot Homer and Bart out on the streets." We had a good chuckle, then he had to explain to my unworldly co-worker who has never watched "The Simpsons" that Springfield is their hometown. He named all the states that have a Springfield and knew a good bit of trivia about them.

I gave him a shiny red "Character Counts at Memorial Middle School" pen and let him choose a couple of colorful bookmarks that have our logo and character traits on one side and student drawings on the other. He really liked them,hoping to find a picture of a wolf but settling for a bear.

He used his new pen to write a farewell note to a teacher before he left. I hope people in his new school care about him, and I hope he is so busy looking for Bart and Homer that he forgets to look down at the sidewalk!

I'm No Brainiac

Last week I wrote about the boy with the serious worm phobia, and at the time I really thought it was just an excuse to avoid school. Since then, I have seen this poor kid really suffering from this fear, and I realized I should not be so flippant about things that seem funny to me.

The brain works in amazing, mysterious ways. I remember when I was in a kid, I felt like I was pretty smart, because school was usually easy and I didn't have to work too hard to get As. I was somewhat socially backward though, and was too shy to speak to anyone unless they talked to me first.

As an adult, I don't feel nearly so smart! In fact, I am much more likely to be amazed that I could do and say so many dumb things throughout a day! Like tonight when Nick asked if there was meat in the spaghetti sauce and I said, "I know better than to feed you and your dad pizza with no meat!" Nick was puzzled. "I thought you said you were making spaghetti!"

After spending time with my dad, who suffers from dementia, I tend to worry a little more about my forgetfulness and mis-speaking. Saturday when I came home I did some internet research on dementia/Alzheimers and took a little 10 question test. I'm pretty sure I passed it without cheating too much, with the conclusion being that my forgetfulness is still within the range of normal!

So while I have a somewhat normal brain function, I am determined to appreciate and be thankful for the ability to learn, to reason, to remember, to love, laugh, and process the complex patterns of daily living.

Facility Usage

With great anticipation, I utilized my lunch break today to visit the Albany's new public library which opened yesterday. Spacious, light, new carpet and paint smell, comfy chairs, books everywhere - it is very cool. (As a Fast Reader, I make many visits to the library.) I disregarded the map I was handed when I entered and just walked around checking everything out. Oh how I wish I still had small children to bring to the inviting children's area. No, never mind, I have moved on.

As I was coming back through the upstairs, I noticed the restrooms and a sign outside the door that advised the restroom lights were on motion sensors. It seemed a good idea to check this out, so I stepped inside the door into the darkness, and sure enough, the lights came on. I took a few steps in to check it out and registered URINALS! I whipped around and sped back outside, where a male library employee looked at me suspiciously from a few rows over. I fled into the clearly marked Women's room directly across and was relieved to see normal fixtures for Women.

I got to wondering how many times in my life I have accidentally wandered into the wrong restroom. How do I fail to notice the clearly labeled doors? Some of these occasions have mercifully been blocked out of my mind, but I remember one from our vacation to Colorado in the year 2000. We were leaving a campground one morning, and I deemed it prudent to utilize the facilities before our departure. I was hurrying because my loving husband was ready to hit the road and in my usual meek submissive manner, I did not wish to cause any delay. While using the facility, I noticed the large rugged shoes in the stall next to mine but didn't think too much about it. As I hastily walked toward the sink, I was aghast to see a URINAL! How did I miss it on my way in? I don't know. I abandoned any thought of handwashing, wanting to make my escape before the wearer of the large shoes exited the other stall. I dashed out to our Durango just outside, loaded with my husband and boys watching me exit the men's room. Oh yes, a memory maker!

Serious Phobia

A little sixth grade boy I know has a lot of trouble getting to school on time. He lives within a few blocks of school, but the world conspires against him when it's time to go to school. On Late Start days (2 hour delay), he gets to school early. On days when there's no school, he forgets and comes anyway. We are not surprised to see him at any time or any day. This morning he was about a half hour late and I went up to the counter to write his pass. I asked him how his day was going and he said, "Better now that I made it here." "Well, that's good to hear." I replied. "What's going on?"

"I have a serious phobia," he said soberly, looking up at me with his big brown eyes. "I have a serious phobia about worms. I started to walk to school, and they were everywhere. I had to go back home and wait til my mom could bring me."

Over the past 10 years, I have heard many interesting excuses for being late to school. (One that I chuckled over was a note saying "Talia was engaging in medicinal sleep!) This worm phobia one was completely unique and unexpected. I should give that kid an award for originality.

Another Candidate for Mother of the Year

The past few weeks many students have been absent for up to a week with the flu. Strep throat also seems to be running rampant. Our health room aide called a parent last week to let her know that her 6th grader had a temperature of 101 and need to go home. The parent was very annoyed. Her response was, "I don't have time to deal with a sick kid. Can't you just give her some Tylenol to bring her temperature down and keep her there?"

I am still appalled when I think of this. I wish every kid could have parents who are capable of loving and nurturing them. I can't fix that, but I must be careful that I'm not too busy to take as much time as I should to listen and show kids that I care when they come into the office for help. I need to keep Helen's motto in mind, "People are more important than paperwork!"