Playing Catch-up on this blog!!

October 2015
I really can't believe it has been nearly a year since my last post!  My last post was celebrating the life of my Auntie Elvera...my Dad's oldest sister.  A lot has been going on in the time between!  Let me catch you up on life with the most current events, then I will go back and make some highlights!

First here is a picture of my dad:

Now for the story:

On Monday Oct. 12 I get a phone call from Dad (about 5:15 pm) and he can barely talk and breathe at the same time. It seems he took a great fall out in his garden.  He had pulled up all his tomato plants and all but one stake two weeks earlier.  This one stake was giving him some problems, it was pounded into the clay and didn't want to budge.  Every time he walked by, he tried tugging on it.  Well, on this fateful day, he climbed into the raised bed ( about 16" high) and decided this was the day that stake was coming out because he wanted to get his garlic planted!!

He tugged, the stake broke and he flew backwards, out of that raised bed and landed on his back left flank onto another raised bed.  It really took his breath away and he couldn't move for maybe 5 minutes.  He managed on his own to get up, and I am not sure how he did it.  Still, he waited nearly an hour before calling and telling me about this accident and that he thought he should go to the hospital.

Marty picked him up at home and I met them at the hospital.  Sure enough a broken rib.  They sent him home with pain pills and we were told to double up on some laxatives as the pain pills will cause constipation.  Between Marty, Bernie and myself we took care of him.  

then on Friday night at 8:00 pm he calls to say he is NOT good and in a lot of pain from constipation.  So back to the ER.  Bernie took him and I met them.

They admitted him at 2 AM and he stayed until Monday about 4 PM.  He celebrated his 94 birthday in the hospital.  Marty told him if he didn't want a party, he could have just told us!!  *wink*  You can bet I will be making his favorite German Chocolate Cake (the one my mom ALWAYS made for him) when he is back on his feet and ready to party!!

From the the hospital they transported him to The Pearl for some rehab and time to heal the rib.

The picture above is him at The Pearl, he is laying on his bed and he is doing really well.  He is NOT taking any pain pills except for Tylenol.  He will be discharged on Tuesday, Oct. 27 and will be going home.  His goal is to stay at home and for now, we are going to see if we can make that happen.  He has all winter to heal and gain back his strength.  He is walking like he is in a race at the facility!  The caregivers all love him, naturally!  They think he is so sweet and nice.  AND HE IS!!

Now I am going to share what was going on during some of this time of my Dad's ordeal.

First, Ellie, Dina's 14 year old daughter and lover of all things volleyball made the West Linn High School Varsity team as a freshman!  And the best news is she actually plays and has a rotation position!  She really is amazing to watch.  She plays left back and can dig up just about any tip or hard hit, she is so fun to watch.  I have a blurry picture of her on the floor as she dives for the ball!  As usual she hits the floor and gives it all she has to get the ball up and put it back into play.

This is a silly picture of the team after their last league victory game against Lake Oswego.  Ellie is middle row second from right. (front row is just one girl stretched out!).

And being the typical grandma, I will proudly declare that Ellie saved that game for them in the final 5th set of the match.  West Linn won the first two sets, then a different team was out on the floor...serves were missed hits were long, you get the picture!  (all except Ellie, she got in all her serves and had aces!  Oh, I will interject at this point that the last tournament in Bend a couple of weeks ago, Ellie served 11 straight points and had 6 aces!!  I told you she is amazing and so fun to watch!)

The team gets to go to the State Playoffs, the first game is Wednesday, they should win, we have beaten the team before, but again, it depends who shows up to play!!  *wink

This game was played on Tuesday, October 20, just keeping the time line in place.  

On Thursday October 21,  at 2:00 am Scott woke me and said he needs to go to the hospital...he was in a lot of pain, he had been up for a couple of hours, had vomited and wasn't sure what was going on...so another trip to the ER.

NO surprise, it was a kidney stone!  And it had already dropped, however there were a couple more in his kidney.  

He was screaming in pain and took quite a bit to get it under control.

Finally by 7:30 am he was pain free and sent home.

NO pain the rest of Thursday, NO pain all day Friday,

then comes 2:00 am Saturday morning and he needs to go back to the hospital.

we were there until 8 am...and I think this was a harder day, lots more vomiting.  But once the pain was under control he was good.  We actually went to watch Addie play CYO volleyball and then had  a nice visit with dad and came home.

We were both in bed before 9 pm and out like a light.  I slept until 7 am and felt great with a good nights sleep.  Scott was still sleeping away and finally about 10 AM I go check on him and he tells me he drove himself to the ER, I said, "No you didn't"  he says, "yes, I really did!"  He didn't get admitted to the ER room, but talked to the Triage nurse, told her he took two pain pills before going to the hospital, but wasn't sure it would be enough to take care of the pain, so he sat out in the lobby for one hour with the nurse checking on him and sure enough within one hour the pain was gone, so he came home!

He is staying on top of the pain, but the poor guy got a migraine and he cannot shake it, it is causing more vomiting which is never good.

The only good news is NO stone pain!

Praying tomorrow he wakes up feeling better!

 END OF SEPTEMBER, FIRST OF OCTOBER 2015

Linda and I were suppose to go on a stamping retreat with 6 other ladies to the San Francisco area.  So as soon as we were invited we purchased our tickets and found a place to stay for two nights to see some sights before heading east to our stamping retreat.  We were so excited and looking forward to meeting the other ladies that we just "talk" to on our card blogs.  Sadly the host had to cancel (hopefully just postpone) as her husband had a major accident and needed surgery and lots of rehab time.

So Linda and I canceled our hotel reservations and I asked Scott to take care of the plane reservation.  He offered to take me to San Francisco instead

I couldn't turn down an offer like that!

We found a place to stay using the Air BnB.  We stayed in "Rob's flat in what is considered the North End of the Pan Handle. And it was a wonderful neighborhood.

Rob has the whole top floor of this building, two tenants have apartments on the first level.  He is lucky to have a garage and a very safe gated front entry.  That is Scott standing in front.  We walked about the neighborhood every evening for our dinner.  We loved going where all the locals eat and living among them.  And on many corners were the local 'grocery' stores...small but I guess they have all you would need, people would be carrying packages back to their homes and if you have ever been to SF, you know that it is one hilly city!  So not an easy walk by any means.  This cost us $179 a night which is a steal in SF, and it turned out that Rob flew out very early the next morning to go to North Carolina to see his mom, so we had the whole flat to ourselves!

The Painted Ladies..any house that has at least 3 different colors on it and in the Victorian style

STS Peter & Paul Church

Looking down the street we just walked up to go to Coit Tower

We walked this hill several times a day to go back to our flat

The Hardly Strickly Bluegrass Festival in the Golden Gate Park, this is Lee Ann Womack singing.  They had about 5 stages set up around the park, the festival was free, lots of food vendors, lots of grass to sit and listen to a variety of music.

Sunday morning double parked cars for people attending a local neighborhood church.

We drove down the coastline a bit heading to the airport to leave, we are sitting above the beach and this metal container held three service men whose job it was to keep an eye on the coastline for any Japanese war ships during WWII.

there were hiking trails and lots of people had their dogs out walking.

 

A description of the BASE End Station...Watching for the Enemy!

We rode a tour bus around the city and stopped in Little Italy so we could have lunch and walk the streets a bit.  We had an awesome sandwich at this place!  YUMMMM

We rode the city bus to the Golden Gate Park and we rode it another day all around the city...$1 for all the rides!  We walked around Ghiradelli Square, and we finally did the Alcatraz Tour, we managed to get the last two tickets for a Friday afternoon tour.  It was very interesting!

Alcatraz Island from the boat, it is no longer in use, it shut down in 1963

Well, these are some of the highlights of this very fun trip...Oh, I almost forgot about our trip to Stanford.  Scott wanted to reminisce, so we took a day and drove down there.  The only thing familiar was the Larkin house where he lived for two years!

A celebration of life

Elvera Iacolucci Detore Zallocco

June 15, 1919 - Dec 5, 2014

 

Auntie Elvera was my Dad's older sister, she was 95 when she died. 

My brother, his wife, my dad, a cousin (granddaughter to Elvera) and I made the trip up to Seattle to celebrate with the Iacolucci family a life well lived.  I have so many wonderful memories of her as a child.  I loved going to her house because she always had a tin of chocolate chip cookies, make as a bar cookie, not a drop cookie! 

And everyone was "honey" and she always had a smile on her face just like you see here.

This picture was taken in August of 2013.  My dad is on the left and their other sister, Carm is on the right.  This is the last picture of the three of them together.  We had a big Iacolucci reunion picnic...I think there were about 90 of us this year.

I knitted a Prayer Shawl for my cousin Bonnie, she really gave up her life to watch over her mom the last several years.  She was devoted to her and gave her much love and great care.  There will definitely be a hole in Bonnie's heart, but she walks with the Lord, so I know she is happy for the place her mother is now residing.

My cousin, Miranda, my dad and his sister, Carm who is 90.

It was a lovely funeral service with fabulous scripture and stories and then a wonderful dinner for the family at of course, an Italian restaurant in Burien, WA...Filiberto's.

 

Auntie Elvera, you are loved and I am happy that you are now with the Lord.

 

While we were in the area, we took the time to visit my Mom's last remaining sister, Lorraine.

What a cutie she is...and 92 years young!!  She didn't have a tree, but she had so many awesome decorations up and lots of Christmas stockings that she makes herself with kits...lots of sequins and details to them...she is amazing!

Christmas Tour of Homes

BELIEVE IN THE MAGIC

A year ago I was asked if my home could be a part of a "tour of homes" as a fundraiser for my church.  I looked around and saw so many things unfinished, even after 5 years of living here.

I thought, why not, maybe this is just what we need to light the fire under a certain person and get this house completed!

So I said YES!

I asked Dina's MIL to help me "stage" the house, so on November 2nd we began our decorations (I was heading to Hawaii for a week later in the month, so I needed to get some things done before I left). Here are some of the pictures:

 

This piece of luggage belonged to my MIL, it had an SAS sticker on it! It made it over to Europe many times in her lifetime!

 

 

 

The Guest Bedroom, filled with Teddy Bears

The pillow reads:  "Dear Santa, is it too late to be good?"

The Hall Bathroom

 

The Living Room

The built in shelf to the left of the fireplace

The Living Room Christmas tree...9 feet tall and filled to the brim with ornaments and lights.

The built in TV unit to the right of the fireplace.  Finally I have a place for my Dicken's Village!

 

the sofa table has the Advent wreath and candles...the sign in front of it says:

the magic of CHRISTMAS

is not in the presents

but in His PRESENCE

 

I have a Lladro Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus piece in the center given to me many years ago by my MIL.  In front of that is a book by Ann Voskamp:  Unwrapping the Greatest Gift...The three grandchildren who live next door would come over, we would light the candle, and read the scripture from the book, then the children would draw a picture to put on our Jesse Tree.

The Entry

 

this is the entry table filled with the "favors" I gave out at the Open House, I downloaded a printable M & M Christmas Story and printed it out.  I used glassine bags and placed about 25 Christmas colored M & M's inside the bag with the story stapled to the outside of the bag.

 

The Master Bedroom!

Finally had my gas firplace completed and the mantle got put up just days before the open house. 

My dad gave me a Nativity set that belonged to my mom, it is beautiful...I made a "believe" banner and added a red dove to each end.  I potted "Paper whites" in pots three weeks before my event, they all bloomed and gave off a nice scent.

 

 

 

 

I used the Norwegian ornaments that belonged to my MIL, I added the white balls which were made from strips of muslin glued onto a foam ball.  The burlap garland was made from burlap yardage cut into 5 inch strips and then the center thread pulled to make the gather.  I have had the red wooden bead garland for years and thought it added a nice touch to the tree...keeping it rustic with reds and whites. 

 

The Front Porch

always important to have that curb appeal...

Front porch at night all lighted up

front door burlap wreath that a friend made for me.

I bought the huge lantern from Home Goods and filed it with Christmas balls, big and little and about 4 battery operated Martha Stewart string lights that had a timer so it could come on at dusk and shut off when we go to bed!

an antique Santa, sled and some burlap home made pillows on the bench.

These skis are very old, hand crafted and made by Scott's grandpa and him when he was a young boy, I actually have some pictures of him skiing with these ski's.

 

 

Well, this completes the Home Tour, I did these pictures not only for you to see, but also for me to remember how lovely it is to decorate for Christmas and to bring the spirit of Christmas into every living space...I haven't counted, but I have quite a few nativity sets...some quite small and then others that I placed on the mantles...the true reason for celebrating this Holy Day!

Thank you for staying with me through all these photos!