The Week That Was

This week did not start with a bang, got better (much better for me at least) followed by the sadness of leaving Portland, a couple of ho-hum days and ending with more happiness. I guess you could say it was a mixed bag of nuts.

Monday: Sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning I heard weird noises. It urned out to be TheHub who had contracted a severe stomach virus. He was sick as a dog hugging the porcelain throne while the contents of his stomach made a repeat appearance. He finally settled enough to sleep a little. Once he was down, I got ready for the day and met Pip in the restaurant downstairs for breakfast. She was feeling a little under the weather too, so Son1 picked her up after breakfast and his meeting. 

By about 1 I realized TheHub needed to see a doctor. I am very thankful, because of his job, he had a working relationship/friendship with a doc in Portland. We called him and he arranged for TheHub to be seen immediately. (Especially thankful for Son1 who drove to the office in an area of Portland I was unfamiliar with.) 

A  couple of prescriptions and a ton of Gatorade along with some rest at least allowed him to sleep through the night. (Fitful sleep but at least it was sleep and not another night of hurling)

Tuesday:  We had planned and already bought tickets for a tour of a bean to bar chocolatier, Creo. TheHub thought he would feel like going but I made a judgement call to nix that idea. Instead Pip invited her friend to go with Son1 and me.  The tour was interesting and I learned a lot about the growing, shipping, winnowing, pulverizing and finally preparing chocolate for bars and candies. 

Each person on the tour was able to create a bar of their own. I chose red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper and candied ginger flakes for mine. (It was fabulous) 

I am not sure what Son1 did with his, but Pip and friend went full kid on theirs with tiny m&m's sprinkles, nuts, more sprinkles, more nuts, and more m&m's. You were encouraged to name your bar and they both named theirs Unicorn poop. They were unimpressed with the name I gave mine__Annie's.

After the chocolate tour we walked back to the hotel. We have stayed at the same place the last four or five visits to Portland because it has a large indoor pool where Pip and friend swam for a couple of hours. TheHub roused and sat on the pool deck with Son1 and me for a bit, but then he needed to go stretch out for some healing rest. 

After the girls had enough of the pool and accompanying hot tub, they dressed and we went to the hotel restaurant for a light dinner before they went home for the night.

Wednesday. The day was cold and rainy but it was a much better day. TheHub felt somewhat well, and ate a little oatmeal before we headed out to pick up Pip. We had a shopping day planned and headed to Ulta to look at everything she "needed". I told her she was lucky she is the only grandkid as she walked out of the store with a bag of things to make her feel, smell, and look more beautiful.  

Our next stop was Crumbl cookies because she "needed" those too. 

Finally we made our way downtown to the Nike store. It seems she also wanted a pair of white and blue Nike high tops.  

It might seem like we were excessive, but we see her twice a year on a good year. I don’t have the advantage to have her spend the night with us and go grab a burger or see a movie.  When we are there we have to make up for lost time. And we love doing it.

We drove back to their house and watched a movie before eating dinner. DIL1 had made a pot of chicken noodle soup with TheHub's stomach in mind. It was delicious soup and such a good thing for him to have to eat. I am very lucky to have her as a DIL. (I am actually lucky to have all three, and could not love them more.)

We visited with them a bit more before returning to the hotel.

Thursday: Son1 and Pip came over to the hotel, ate breakfast with us then stayed until it was time for us to head to the airport. We do try to be at any airport about and hour and a half ahead of our flight, just in case there are any snafus. We had an uneventful boarding but sat on the tarmac for a while. There was a slight mechanical issue with the latch on one of the toilet doors. It delayed us about 45 minutes, but thanks to the tail winds we arrived in Dallas close to our scheduled time.

Alabama was playing basketball and there was a bar next to our gate with a TV tuned to the game.  TheHub stood and watched until halftime when we boarded our connecting flight. We had planned on watching it on Live TV offered by the airline, but it was not operational. We had no idea what had happened until we landed close to midnight  and discovered Alabama had won by 2 points. I was surprised, but glad for them.

I was even happier to be able to sleep in my own bed.

Friday: I slept in then washed all of our dirty laundry and got things in some semblance of order.  TheHub came home from work early, we ate mac and cheese (what TheHub thought he could stomach) then settled in to watch Alabama softball, and Tennessee and whoever they played. I was having trouble getting to sleep so I read___until about 3:30.

Saturday: We got up and did our usual Saturday running around. We were especially happy to see our favorite produce stand has opened again for the season. They will there Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday until November, and now we have gorgeous tomatoes. They had sold out of cucumbers before we got there, so I will be sure to be there Tuesday morning to snag some.

We came home, ate lunch and watched Alabama softball lose to Kentucky. 

I read a little more then it was time to start watching basketball. I am not sure how it has happened but Alabama advanced to the Final Four for the first time ever___Amazing!

Sunday: It was a drop dead gorgeous Easter here.  We went to church and got to see all the families with children (and some without kids) standing in front of a flower bedecked cross for their annual church Easter photo. The children were precious and the weather was perfect for all the Easter frocks they were wearing. 🐣

We had no plans for a big Easter dinner after church,. Instead we came home, ate a sandwich, and watched basketball games.

In the early evening Son2 and DIL2 came over for supper. We loved seeing and visiting with them, even working in a FaceTime visit with Pip,. 
While we were in Portland, I bought Son2 a ghost pepper white chocolate truffle and she wanted to watch him eat it. I think she was kind of happy to see him do it, but would have liked it even more if she could have seen steam come out of his ears.

Look for your joys, they are always out there, no matter how small.

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

March Reading List:

The Girl Who Lived Twice

Remote Sympathy (I have been reading this between library books and it took a while to finish)

North Woods 

The Things We Keep

The Silent Corner

The Librarianist

We All Want Impossible Things

Child Finder