This one's for you Ed!

My friend Ed stopped by today and told me I was falling behind on my blog. He said it was terrible, and I better knock it off. He had nothing else to read when he woke up at 3 am and had resorted to rereading my old blog. So, Ed, this one is especially for you.

I have a lot of catching up to do, so I will start with the trip Tess chaperoned to the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport with my granddaughter's class. This occurred on February 28.

The Marine Science Center trip was really fun. The group of kids we had were awesome, unlike the kids some of the other parents got stuck with. We had my granddaughter and two other girls as well as two very well behaved boys. One boy told Tess, I think your daughter is really pretty. (Tess said he was such a shy kid my granddaughter would probably never notice him.) She is so bubbly and outgoing like her momma. We got to look at all kinds of critters, and the kids touched lots of different intertidal animals. Clams, mussels, sea urchins, sea stars (starfish), fish, sea anemones, and a sea cucumber. There was an enormous octopus, a bonded pair of wolf eels, and so many cool things to look at and do. One of the fish in a really big reef tank kept following me around. They must do that because they are hoping we are there to feed them. It was so beautiful there we ate lunch outdoors in the beautiful sunshine and the kids ran around after lunch and burned off some of their excess energy. While everyone was eating lunch I asked several groups if they were eating fish for lunch, I got a bunch of eeeww gross comments, and a few puzzled looks. I had to laugh. Haven't they heard of tunafish sandwiches??

Here is a picture of the octopus, and two of my favorite anemones, and the view from where we ate lunch.








We had a great time. Then Tess and I went on to shop at Walmart and headed for home.

This past Thursday I drove my cousin Nick to Portland for a doctor's appointment. Wow was that a long day. I got up in the middle of the night (5:30 am) and drove to my cousin’s house and picked him up at 6:30 am. We then drove for 2-1/4 hours to his doctor appt. We got right in so had the rest of the day away to play. We went out to lunch, a fabulous Chinese buffet in Portland, a thrift store, an art store, Michael’s Craft Store, then on to a bead store I had been dying to visit. Then of course we had to go to Walmart so he could buy a new TV for his bedroom, and then had a two hour drive home. I was really beat, but feel great for all I got done and the cool stuff I found.

I also got a little soldering torch and fuel. It has all kinds of tips, even my dad thought it was a good buy. I showed him the beads I bought and he was happy I had found some things I like and can use. I bought a big fish bead for Cassie, a pretty green leaf pendant for Tess, and at the thrift store I bought Athena a big unicorn toy she will love. I am sore and really really tired, but relaxed, and happy. Oooh, I bought some Qwan Yins at the new bead store. It is such a great store. I got two types of Qwan Yins and some Thai silver they had bought in Thailand recently. Had a great day!!

At Michael’s I got a few beads, and some Shrinky Dinks!!! Here is a picture of my bead purchases.



See Ed, sometimes you get what you ask for. I don't know if you will finde this interesting, but it is a glimpse into my crazy world.