Memorial Day for the Boucher/Johnson household

Memorial Day has been a part of my family tradition, and when Bill joined the family we included his family in the yearly ritual.

The day started out rather chilly. On our way to Astoria we stopped at a Lava Java in Ridgefield, WA for a latte & mocha. One of the Barista’s there won the world championship in 2005. It was very good coffee (Stumptown) and right off the freeway so on we continued to Astoria.

First stop the “old cemetery” which is where the Pentilla side of my family is buried. The Pentilla’s are my Mothers, Mothers side of the family. It’s a pretty old cemetery along the River or maybe it’s the end of the Young’s Bay. Not sure which. Anyway, there are five family members who are resting there. I created the floral arrangement and Bill cleaned the stones.

Next stop was the cemetery in Warrenton, where we met up with my brother Bob to attend to more of the family. This cemetery is also along a pond or slough and is very scenic. Bob gathered all of the vases for the first stop and I began the floral arrangements. First to receive flowers were my Grandma & Grandpa, Eleanor & Carl Verschueren. I always create an arrangement in Yellow & White as my Mom has thought it very striking. Bob bought a rose as roses were one of
my Grandpa’s favorites and he also brought a few razor clam shells as Grandpa LOVED to dig razor clams on the beach.

Next of the list was the Hoefke family stone, which my great great grandfather & great great grandmother are, Charles & Anna Hoefke, and then we moved on to the Verschueren stone where, my Great grandfather & great grandmother are, Charles & Elise Verschueren and also my Aunty Garner (who is my Grandfathers sister) are.

Then it was off to the Furhman stone where Edward and his parents are resting.
I once again did the floral arrangements with some help from Bob and Bill cleaned up the stones.

Then were changed location and went to visit Dagmar and her family. Two more flower arrangements as well as more stones to clean. And we were off to the last stop which was my Uncle John and Aunt Lydia are. Uncle John is my Grandfather’s brother). There we met some “live” relatives. Susie and her family. Susie is my Mom’s cousin as her dad is my Grandpa’s brother.

As we wander though the cemetery I gave Bill all kinds of tidbits about family members that he won’t ever have a chance to meet and many that I had only heard stories about but never met.

We bid farewell to Bob and then went back to Astoria to the Maritime Wall, where Bill’s father, James Johnson and his Uncle Edward Johnson are listed. Bill’s father & Uncle both passed away in a boating accident on the Columbia River in 1971 and Bill and his Sister Cheryl had them added to the Maritime Wall. It’s a place that we always stop when in Astoria. As there isn’t much space for a floral arrangement we placed a single red rose next to each of their names.
I thought this was a cool photo as you can see the reflection of both Bill & I looking at The Wall where his Father & Uncle's names are (right next to the roses).

Next stop was to find a new coffee spot in Astoria. We stopped at one, but didn’t like the coffee they served so stopped in a little bookstore and asked the owner if she knew of a good coffee shop. She directed us to Astoria Coffee House a couple blocks away. It was our kind of funky little shop and the Barista did an excellent job with our coffee, Stumptown yet again. A few months ago I would have said ick to Stumptown but now I’m finding that I quite like it, and I also find it interesting that the Barista’s at the shops that serve Stumptown always do latte art.

Last stop in Astoria was the Home Baking Company where we had to get some prune tarts for my Mom (us too of course)….Then we headed back towards Beaverton for our last cemetery visit of the day.

In Beaverton both of Bill’s parents rest, James Johnson and his wife Maxine, and right next to them are his Aunt Virginia and Uncle Mac. Once again I did the floral arrangements and Bill cleaned the stones. Visiting family at the cemetery isn’t something that Bill did before he met me, but as with me telling him stories about my family at the Astoria and Warrenton cemeteries, it was now my turn to listen to stories about Bill’s Dad & Mom.

There is always much to reminisce about on Memorial Day weekend when visiting the family a reminder of this or that story. It’s a reminder of where we came from and a reminder that no matter what, our family resides within us in memories that will never be forgotten.

Happy Memorial Day, May you remember something about one of your family members that brings a smile to your face.

Bonnie Has a New Job

For those that have not heard, I have a new position at Con-way. I moved to a different division, Menlo Logistics and am now a Software Engineer. Monday was my first day on the job which resulted in chaos as I received many 1000’s of e-mails and it shut down my email system so I spent the next two days recovering. Wednesday was the first day of actually doing work and I think I will like it. The people all seem to be nice and I’m looking forward to a change. More later.

Portland Fit Week 6 & Meals on Wheels Bike Ride

There are times when to go go go and do do do is not exactly what one should really be doing.

Friday was the trip with Lacey down to Corvallis and to say it was an emotional trip would be an understatement.

Saturday morning was Week 6 of the Portland Fit program that we joined and it was a 8 mile run. Also on Saturday at 10:00 was a 18 mile bike ride that Bill was helping promote for the Meals on Wheels program.

There are times when we are slightly nuts, and because of this we decided that instead of doing our group Portland Fit run, we would just run the Springwater Trail early Saturday morning so that we would be able to do the bike ride afterwards.

We were up and out the door at 6:00 to drive into Gresham. Our plan was to run the trail as they have regular mileage markers and we would be able to easily determine how far we needed to go.

The plan was a little off as it appeared that many of the mileage tags had been removed from the trail so it was hit and miss to determine our exact mileage. If you haven't been on Springwater before, it is fairly flat and goes on for 20 miles from downtown Portland to Boring. Lots of the trail is in desolate area's so Bill kept kept by my side just to be safe. We finished our run and headed for the car, to our chocolate milk and nut butter & jelly sandwiches. A marathon runner that I met at work said that chocolate milk has all of the good things for an after run drink that Gatorade has and tastes better. As weird as it sounds, it really appears to be true.

After our 8 mile run we headed home to shower and change from our running gear into our biking gear and off to Sandy we drove.

Have I mentioned that we might be a little crazy at times?

The bike ride was hosted by the Momentum Bike shop in Sandy and was a benefit ride for Sandy's Meals on Wheel's program.

We decided it would be fun to get the tandem out for this ride. Hmmmm while it wasn't a mistake, we haven't been on the tandem in months and had forgotten that it takes a bit of coordination to work together. The first thing that we remembered is that the back seat is a tad bumpy, and I'm not afraid to let it be known.

The ride overall was a nice ride and if we had not just finished a 8 mile run perhaps it would have been a great ride. The first ten miles weren't bad, the next five miles were a little harder and those last three miles were not pleasant.

There were treats and a raffle after the ride and we won a set of road tires and a lock.

Overall I'd have to say that it was an exhausting day and we are both very glad today is Sunday and it's a rest day with nothing more planned except to drive up and deliver some flowers to my Mom for Mothers Day.

Lacey's One Year Check up

April 30th was the one year anniversary for Lacey's Pacemaker surgery and she goes to OSU for a check up every six months. May 8th was that check up.

We went down to Corvallis looking forward to another good check up as Lacey has been doing great.

The results were quite what we were planning on. Her student Jamie did the exam and then brought in Dr Bulmer as our regular Dr was unavailable.

Dr. Bulmer let us listen to her heart and said Lacey has a "musical" value leak. It was amazing to listen to as it did indeed sound musical.

There are a few more items going on with her heart that didn't appear in November when she had her last check up. Lacey is now on some heart medication and we are in the wait and see mode to determine how everything will go. It's very amazing after looking at her ECG & EKG and seeing all kinds of stuff that wasn't there to actually look at Lacey standing around wagging her tail and smiling you would never know that anything was wrong.

While the trip wasn't what we expected....Lacey is happy and doing well and what more can we ask than that?

Portland Fit Week 5

All I can say this week is that we actually ran 7 miles up into Forest Park and back, and We both ran 99% of the way. This is a huge commitment but so far we are on track.