Deck day

We have spent the last couple of weekends pressure washing and stipping the front and back decks so we could re-stain them. Ron got the front done last weekend and on Saturday I did the back. Funny how I got the bigger job. Man what a HUGE job it was. We thought 2 gallons of stain would do 2 coats well it barely did 1 coat. She was a thirsty deck!

BEFORE :

AFTER!

It sure looks good now that it is all done.

Birthday dinner.

Ron and I went out to Black Angus for dinner last night to celebrate Ron's birthday. We had a really nice dinner just the 2 of. Ron had steak and Lobster and I had Terriaki Chicken. I also enjoyed a very yummy Raspberry Lemon drop.

They brought Ron this yummy brownie sundae for his birthday we only ate about 1/2 of it but it was good.

After dinner we walked over to look around in Petsmart, Joes and The Office Store. Since Ron did not need to leave for work until 8:30 we still had about an hour to kill so we walked down to Adamo coffee and had a cup of joe. Ron played a little guitar and we sat out on the patio and talked. It was a really nice night.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is Rons 40th birthday! He is in denial about it. 40 was really no big deal for me but it seems to be hitting him hard. Like he really feels this as the lose of his youth! I have been trying to tell him that he lost his youth YEARS ago! LOL! Funny though how just a number can evoke such emotions. So your 40! Big deal. Enjoy it before it turns into 50! EEEKKK!

Eat more Bananas

Breanne had her blood test done Wednesday afternoon. It was quite the ordeal for her. I thought for sure she was going to pass out. After they stuck her and filled up 5 tubes of blood Breanne turned ghostly white and began to sink in the chair! She drank some water and wobbled for a bit but then after about 5 min was better. Blood was sent out STAT so we would have the results first thing in the morning.

Thursday morning I am sick as crap but the blood test results for Breanne are good. Her heart enzymes are all normal and so is her thyroid. She is very low in Potassium and this can cause fatique and heart palpitations so that my be contributing to her anxiety. Docs prescribes potassium and wants her to also eat a diet rich in potassium. This means lots of bananas, oranges, potatoes and rich green veggies. So in all good news!

A trip to the Doctors.

Breanne has been suffering from Panic attacks for about 6 months now. Problem is they have been coming with increasing frequency and intensity. She doesn't know why she gets them. There seems to be no specific trigger that causes them. With my panic disorder I know what my triggers are, small spaces, the feeling of being trapped even if the space is not so small. Public speaking Gulp! Anything that is unfamilar can set me off. That is one of the reasons I am such a planner. Anywho back to Breanne. Yesterday she got a major attack at school and was not able to talk herself out of it. There are some things that we can do to help curb the attack. Counting your pulse outload. Deep breathing with positive talk like "I am OK", "This is just a panic attack I am breathing and will not die" Junk like that. But for her nothing was working. She has been seeing a counselor to learn coping skills and get to the root of the problem and we had an appointment scheduled with her regular doctor for Thursday to get her on some medication to help. Well obviously we could no longer wait until Thursday so I left work early and we got a walk in appointment to the doc. The Doc wants to do an EKG and draw blood to rule out any physical issues. This Freaks Breanne out! No Blood for Breanne! She has to have advanced notice and preperation time for this kind of thing. The EKG is done and it has an abnormality making the blood testing all the more inmportant. But NO WAY JOSE is Breanne having any blood drawn today. So Zoloft and Xanex prescriptions are written and we get to go home with a warning that if she has ANY chest pain we are to get her to the ER. Now that is comforting! So after we are home and the hysteria has passed Breanne and I discuss how important it is to get her back in to have the blood work done. So she has agreed to go in for it this Wednesday. She then chewed her first 1/2 tablet of Zoloft and within a few hours was passed out on the couch! I covered her with a blankie and let her and Brutus snooze on the couch. She had a rough day!

Yippee! It's Free!

HOORAY! Free dining! Our reservation has been changed and we are all set for free grub in the world! So exciting! Now all I have to do is plan our dining reservations. You actually HAVE to make them 90 days in advance if you want any chance of sitting down in a restaraunt during the free dining promotion. Luckily I am an obsessive planner so this finally works to my advantage!

Free dining!

On 3/26 Disney announced thier annual Free Dining promotion for September. It is first available for Disney Visa card holder (Still can't believe I don't have this Visa card) and on Monday 3/30 it is available to the General public, that's me! I am freaking out! I can't wait until Monday so I can change our ressie to add FREE DINING! This will save us about $1500 and means we do not have to pay out of pocket for ANY food on this trip. Yippee! I have been waiting for 6 months for this moment and now I am freaking! They only have a linited number of rooms available for the promotion. I want to stay at POP but will change resorts if we have too. Won't be able to relax until I get through to my Travel agent and know for sure that I have locked in my resort with Free dining! Breathe Marsha, Breathe!

Road Trip

Sunday arrived and we all got up early to head out on our adventure. I got up at 5:00 started coffee and hoped in the shower. I woke everyone else up at about 5:30. The plan was to leave the house at 6:00. (Secretly I knew it would be more like 7:00) We actually left the house righ around 6:45! Not too bad. We stopped for gas and then headed out. We drove south toward Olympia and cut over to Aberdeen and then north up 101. We circled the Olympic National Park and came back through Bremerton and Tacoma. It was really a very beautiful drive. We stopped first in Elma, just outside of Olympia, for Breakfast at the Rusty Tractor! Yummy! Way too much food though! Only Ron managed to finish his entire meal! We got back "On the Road again" and had a nice to drive into Aberdeen. A quick stop at the local Wall-Mart for drinks and essentials and we turned on to 101 to begin our Rain forest Journey.

Next we stopped at Kalaloch Lodge to take a look at the beautiful ocean view!

Next we stopped to see the GIANT cedar Tree. After a short journey on a very pot hole riddled road we got out for a even shorter walk to see this giant tree. Ron of course had to climb it.

They don't tell you how old this tree is but I am guessing it has seen a few years.

Breanne and Todd inside the tree. And below is me and Breanne on the Tree.

We went on from here to Forks where we did some Twilight shopping at the "Dazzeled by Twilight" store. And just looked around. We continued to drive up 101 and enjoy the amazing scenery. Lake Crescent was huge and amazing. Ron and I have decided that we are going to come back and stay at the Kalaloch Lodge so we can enjoy more time at these places. We stopped for a while in Port Angeles and looked around the waterfront. Then it was time to hit the road and get back home.

We got back home aroung 5:30. The drive was 400 miles round trip and we did it on 1 tank of gas. Not too bad. We will make sure to go back this summer and spend some more time enjoying the forest and what it has to offer.

Forks, Wa

Ron and I have decided to take a drive to Forks, Wa this Sunday. That is right folks home town for Twilight! I have been wanting to get away for the day one of these weekends but just could decide where to go or find a time that worked for everyone's schedule. Ron loves to take long drives but I have to have a destination. Seeing how Breanne is a Twilight fanatic we though this would be a perfect drive/destination combo. According to MapQuest it is about a 4 hour drive. I plan to get going around 6:00 so we can enjoy the drive and site see on the way there and back. Ron has been wanting to "get to know" Breanne's boyfreind Todd a bit better so he figured we could make this drive and have some "bonding" time. I hope it works out for the good! So I am really looking forward to a nice drive and maybe some fun shopping and site seeing! Hopefully it won't be raining too much!

Disneyworld

Ok so in 180 days from today we will be leaving for Walt Disney World! YAY!!! I have offically booked our plane tickets. Got a great deal on the air fare all 5 of us for $1250! We leave on Saturday the 12th at 9:52 pm and arrive in Orlando on Sunday the 13th at 9:50 am. We will take the Magical Express bus to the POP resort and check in around 12:00!

The plan is to spend the first day checking out the resort and playing in the pool. I expect we will all be tired and crabby from traveling all night. I hope that we can get some sleep on the overnight plane ride but I am not holding my breath.

So I am going to make a early dinner reservation at the Whispering Canyon Cafe @ Wilderness Lodge. It looks like a fun place with good food. Then we can check out the Wilderness Lodge get a good meal and get to bed early so we can start our first full park day at Epcot bright eyed and bushy tailed! I am soooo excited!