Stampin' World: A few of the New Zealand Pictures

Thursday, September 24, 2009

A few of the New Zealand Pictures

The Pacific Ocean just off the the coast of the Bay of Plenty...Matata, New Zealand

Buddha....my new buddy and my brothers best pal.

The bench and steps that my brother built for me so I could sit and see the Ocean and the Pikowai valley.

My Brother Mike and Buddha on the beach near Matata, New Zealand

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2013

This year started out calm. That lasted a month. On the first of February my youngest son found himself needing a new place to live so he moved in here for about 6 weeks. It was nice having him around to talk with for long periods of time, but as life would have it he found a place and moved to the Beaverton area.

Rick is doing well as am I. I have been making extra food for him to take to work and as of July 15th we are a certified non-profit in the state of Oregon.

Feeding Our Friends was formed to help the homeless and less fortunate get a good hot meal at least weekly from us. With help from friends and Rick we are feeding 125-150 people large casserole type meals on Saturday night, in downtown Portland. The need is so great that if we had the space and the money we could feed 200 or more every night.

Our facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/FeedingOurFriends

We are always open for donations and volunteers.
feedingourfriends1@gmail.com is our contact.

2012

2012 started out kinda crazy as we were trying to get our house sold in Canby...Mission accomplished.

We signed final papers on our Canby home and at the same time located our new home in Milwaukie. Everything was what we wanted then came the inspection, which revealed dry rot, blocked vents, no sewer clean out and multiple other small projects..Fast forward the previous owner agreed to have everything fixed..(YEAH). We finally were able to move in in mid March. I have a nice stamp room/office that I just love. The house is totally wonderful and we are spending more time just relaxing on the weekends as we enjoy just being home.

Life just continues. Rick is still working with the homeless and really enjoys it. He has decided to work at least another 7 years and with that decision made we both updated our cars. He in April and me in June..(I got a Hemi !!)

We had a great summer get together in July to celebrate our anniversary...We made it to 25 years so far.

Our house is doing well and we are so enjoying living back in the area. 2 minutes to Fred Meyers and 3 minutes to Safeway, the bank, credit union...ect. So very convenient.

Family is doing well

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2011

The new years started out very quite as Rick was working.
He continues to have chest pressure and tightness, but after a full cardiac and pulmonary work-up the Veterans Hospital cannot find anything that could be corrected or improved with surgery. They did adjust a few meds, but other than that it is back to a normal routine.
The kids are all doing ok...nothing major to report.
As June rolled around it found Rick had changed jobs. He is now working with the disadvantaged in a new housing development in Portland. He loves his work. He is working 4 days a week instead of 5, great benefits are an added plus. I have had a spot on my nose for over 2 years that just would not heal. I had been told by the doctor it was psorisis being irritated by my glasses. I checked in with my new doctor and was told it was a skin cancer..See Photos on blog. All is well now and it looks pretty good.

Things are going just a bit crazy here..Hubby got really tired of paying $600/month for space rent and after talking to our realtor we have listed our manufactured home and are looking for a stick built home closer to Ricks work.

We had a rep from the local Manufactured home lot here today and she says she has a buyer for the house. We shall see. I have been very busy packing up boxes of things we dont use much, 25 boxes so far.

We ended the year still looking for a house. Our current one is for sale and we have had some interest. We are still packing and all of my card making stuff is now in boxes.
Welcome 2012

2010

The year started of very quiet with nothing notable going on.

In late January I woke one morning and had a slight back ache, but by the end of the day I was in a lot of pain. After taking pain meds and trying to rest, it just got worse. I went to the doctors and after a couple weeks had an MRI. The results were that I had spinal compression and a ruptured disc.

While this was going on we received a call that Rick's mother had a hernia and needed surgery so off to the southern Oregon coast to be with her. A quick turn around trip and she was doing wonderfully. After she was home for just over 10 days she had a stroke and it ended her life after about 3 days in hospital. We had her funeral on the 25th of April.

We returned home and I was admitted to the hospital on the morning of the 28th of April. Surgery went really well and they were able to do the laminectomy on L1-L5 successfully with a disc repair. I was home in 3 days. My back feels better than it has for quite a while. I am trying to limit the amount of time that I spend making cards and sitting upright as it still has a tendency to get tired.

As the soggy spring progressed so did I. I have improved with each day.

May was uneventful, the kids are all fine, hubby is working and I feel so much better.

June 1st hubby bought me a new car...yes this old lady now owns a new Mustang. Four days later he was told that the company he works for will no longer be doing the property management where he is working and his last day is in a couple months.

August brought a few changes and Rick was offered a job at the new company doing the same thing he had been. We had already planned to take a trip across the United States so he could find members of his birth family.
We left on the 15th of September and spend 7+ weeks on the road. To read our travel blog go to The Great Adventure.
I am glad we got home and finally got some rest. We were both so tired.
Late November Rick went back to work so we are adjusting to a routine again.
Rick was having chest pain and went into the hospital for 3 days. They did rule out a heart attack but diagnosed him with unstable angina. They added yet another medicine. He is back to work now but still not feeling on top of the world. His blood counts are quite low and he has a follow up appointment in January.

2009

The beginning of this year continued to be quite chilly. We had a rough winter with lots of snow and tons of rain.

March found Rick going back to work as a night watchman, security at The Pearl Court Apartments in Portland. He really enjoys the job and it gets him out of the house. After being home for 5 months I know he was glad to interact with other people again.

Spring was wet...but hey we live in Oregon. As I looked forward to the one year anniversary of my moms death, I knew I wanted to spend the time with my brother in New Zealand. With my hubbys blessing, I planned for a great trip that took me first to visit my oldest son in Australia and then on to see my brother.

I left in mid-July for the trip of a lifetime....I went boating on the Indian Ocean, flew over the Pacific Ocean, Tazman Sea, and lots of land. I had absolutely the best time of my life. Family is so important. My brother and I planted a wonderful tree on his place in memory of our parents. I got to meet the neatest dog in the world...a huge yellow lab named buddah...he became my buddy.

I returned home in September and almost immediately got extremely sick with a systemic strept infection....hospital time, at home IV's and after 3 months I am still on oral antibiotics. I am doing much better.

In November, Rick was attacked at work, assaulted by some thieves and left laying on the sidewalk. He was knocked unconscious and when he came to, he was taken to the hospital. He did have a traumatic brain injury and is still off work. The prognosis is good, but the doctors are saying it will take at least 2-3 more months for his brain to fully heal.

Christmas was very quiet as the kids are all working or not in the area. We did go visit Rick's mom in Coos Bay the weekend before Christmas and that was really nice. Rick and I stayed home and done nothing for Christmas...kinda sad really...I miss having family here and the nice dinner...
Dad and Mom....you are so missed and loved...I am sure you had a wonderful Christmas in HEAVEN

2008

As this year comes to an end it is time to reflect on the changes that have occurred, both good and bad.

The beginning of the year was really interesting. My youngest son and his wife moved back to Oregon from California. That was a great thing...the reasons were not that great. Roger had open-heart surgery for the second time in his 34 years. It went really well and he is now doing great. Due to the surgery, he was unable to return to construction work. That is what promped the move back here.

In April, Rick returned to the local Ford dealership and was happy to be working close to home again.

In June I traveled to Oklahoma to visit with family and celebrated my birthday with cousins that I had not see in 43 years. The reason for the trip is my Aunt was ill and not doing well at all. It was a great time for me. I got to spend time with family that I had not seen in so long, met people who were not born the last time I was there and just spent 10 days catching up. I took lots of pictures and was able to share them with my mom when I returned.

My mother continued to deteriorate to the point she was falling a lot and was no longer able to walk. (severe dementia)
It became very obvious that she may not be with us much longer. Her speech was almost non existent. The level of communication was slowly leaving completely.

We had put our house on the market due to the decreasing economy. Ricks car sales were so poor we decided we needed to move to a smaller house and a smaller house payment. We found a cute 1700 sq ft manufactured place out in Canby and set to move on August 1.

August was pretty much a blur. Shortly after the move, mom was continuing to decline. I had called my brother (who lives in New Zealand) and after he talked to the staff at the care center and me he decided he needed to come home. He got here on the 13th of August. We had a meeting with the hospice staff on the 26th of August and Mom passed away August 29th at 5:20 PM.
Mom had met dad on his 16th birthday and she died on what would have been his 82nd birthday.
May they both rest in peace.

My brother returned to New Zealand on September 10. I was so blessed to have him here during this time.

Rick got laid off on the 19th of September just after turning 62. The auto industry really sucks and the dealership let some of them go, and 2 months later the dealership closed its doors.

December of 08 has been very interesting..We have had more snow this month that we have had in 50 years. We were snowed in for 10 days..I can say I am glad it warmed up to about 40 degrees.

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Thursday, September 24, 2009

A few of the New Zealand Pictures

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