Time to be a B-- A--

Trying something different this school year. I'm kind of tired of being the only thing that must change. If only I get more training or change my attitude children living in abject poverty with parents who cook meth for a hobby will suddenly become able to overcome their circumstances and pass some arbitrary test, proving to all that they are educated. Well, students in my classroom ARE educated. And this year I am going to remember that fact when someone tries to pin all the ills of the world on my shoulders. Yup, I'm planning to be a Bad A - - this year. Nothing you can do, I'm just saying. Think I'm gonna get myself a pin with BA on it. ;)

Ouch!

Last day of vacation Lucas helped me down to the water with a kayak. He misstepped on the bottom stair and sprained his ankle. It ballooned up immediately - I hate those injuries where you just can't decide if it's bad enough to go to the emergency room. This one was a no brainer. We found out that the hospital in Florence is a fine place with very kind people working there. The doctor even called around and found us some "after hours" crutches that were delivered straight to the hospital for a total charge of $20. And he put all the x-rays on a CD so we could follow up with our doc here at home. Nice guy. Lucas is feeling a bit better after a week, but his ankle is still painful. It's a yucky shade of purple and yellow now and he'll be going in to see the doctor again next week. This is why we need national health coverage, people. He has no insurance because he isn't employed and can't get coverage because of his prior problems. So we'll be getting a final souvenir from Oregon later this month. We're just grateful it wasn't worse than it was.

Water Sports

Today was aquarium day. Anna had an appointment to visit with the director of membership at the Oregon Coast Aquarium near Newport. Mike's favorite part was when they fed the otters. He went back a second time to watch. Lots of normal aquarium stuff along with some pretty weird little animals in a rotating exhibit. We ate at the cafe and shopped the gift shop. Pretty touristy of us...

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day here. We headed into town about noon, took a wrong turn on the tiny, steep, scary gravel roads and had to back uphill out of a dead end. When we got to Heceta beach the sky was clearing with low clouds/mist breaking overhead. The ocean water is too cool and too wavy there, so we didn't do much more than wade. But we did get Grandma out to the shoreline, not too near the water, to sit on a big log and watch the kids play. Lucas hyperextended his knee and fell as he ran along. We got him a knee brace and some Advil at Fred Meyer and he seems better now. Later in the day we toddled down (a LONG way down) to the dock where I helped the girls get out in the two person canoe, wrenching my wrist in the process. Mike had me go out on the paddle boat with him. It's built for short people or something, because I kept getting a cramp in my thigh. We nearly ran into an overhanging tree because the wind was blowing a bit and the paddle boat wasn't going anywhere even though we were paddling as fast as we could. It's definitely a fair weather craft. Sean and Andrew set out in the two kayaks and went all around the area of the lake we can see from here. You can go to google maps and type in Mercer Lake Oregon to see the lake and surrounding area.
At some point the kids decided to jump off of the dock and go swimming. Sean has very good judgment much of the time, but he wanted to dive off the dock without first checking out the water below. Sometimes I forget they don't have much experience in outdoor things. I made him swim around there for a while before diving off. Turns out it's at least 10 feet deep. Kimmi and our friend Mike were afraid of the spiders on the dock. There were several of them, but come on! They are just spiders. At one point Anna said, "We are such city kids."
All in all it was a wonderful day.