ADDISON & HER STONE

Addison has a kidney stone. She is mortified. She googled kidney stones and was scared out of her mind. They really are grotesque in appearance. She wants this thing out of her yesterday.

Two extremly painful episodes and one trip to the ER and her friend is still with her.

The kidney stone saga will continue because, well you know, we're Roderick's. It's what we do.

SHOPPING MEDFORD STYLE

It was 3:30am the day after Thanksgiving and a I hear small tap on our bedroom door. A faint voice says, "Cindy, time to go shopping". Marybeth is the mother of 3 boys and she was the first one up and ready to go hit the sales in Medford. She knocked on everyone's door that wanted in on the shopping extravaganza.

Small glitch. Addison awoke and her kidney stone was acting up and she quickly downed a vicadin . . . she was not missing the greatest shopping day of the year. Nothing, I repeat nothing, will stop Adds from a shopping spree. Not even a painful kidney stone.

We had a strategy. It was fail proof. Operation shopping deals was underway.

At precisely 4:10am, MB and myself would drive, entering the mall from the back side to avoid traffic issues. We then proceeded to drop the girls off at Target, each with their assigned list of intended purchases. MB and I parked and hurried into said store. MB headed for a rendevoused with girls and I waited in the huge check out line limiting our wait. They obtained items and met me in line just in time to charge it.

Next stop Macy's for clothes. Lines were managable and we continued to leisurely shop.

At approximately 5:40am we headed for Gap where Shae, Addison and Courtney got in line for opening at 6:00am. They were 1,2,3 in that line. MB, Kelsey, Hope and I went to Starbucks for sustenance for all of us and returned to Gap at 6:10am to a swarm of humanity. It was awesome. We maxed out the register for items purchaseed and had to start another receipt.

Next stop was Harry & David where everything in the store was 25% off. Scott met us there for more damage to our charge card. Then on to Fred Meyer where we purchased socks, at a very good price I might add, and bought a vacuum for Kelsey.

Now home for leftovers, rest and more meds for Addison. It was 11:15am. You do the math. Major shopping spree and none of it was for Christmas, well Marybeth's was.

Rested and rejuvenated, Kelsey, Hope, Marybeth and I hit a specialty yarn shop that I adore. Yep, they all now knit.

We are Roderick.

THANKSGIVING FAVORS

A new tradition began on Thanksgiving Day 2010 at the Pearson homestead. Favors at our TG table will now be Christmas ornaments. Not just any Christmas ornaments.

I will search the world wide web over all year long to find the perfect ornament. No store will be left unscathed by my eyes. I will not stop until my goal is achieved. It will not be an easy task and I do not take this challenge lightly. Many minutes of thought will go into each ornament. I will select it with care making sure that it depicts exactly the sentiment I want to evoke. I will dream of ornaments that will adorn our Thanksgiving table. I have already began my search for next year.

Let the scariest, ugliest, ghastliest, oddest, strangest, ornament search begin.

The ornament will be sitting at each place setting on our table on Thanksgiving Day. Every person in attendance must find the ornament that they think represents them before being seated.

We Roderick's are a twisted bunch. Just ask the Pearson's.

A GERSEY THANKSGIVING

Gersey is quite a gal. She made our Thanksgiving intersting.

We had said the blessing and were enjoying a truly wonderful meal when she struck again. She ran to the window, baying and tail pointed straight out. In dog language, she had seen something outside that she was not comfortable with at all.

Greg and Brad (Marybeth's brother) looked out the window, but saw nothing. They both went through the front door and down to the trail.

Greg and Marybeth live in the mountains on 73 acres of land with a fair amount of wildlife. The rest of us stayed safe and sound in the house, including the Gersey, Fresca and Gamble, Kelsey's dog.

The boys returned with the trail cam to see if anything had crossed the path. It didn't show anything on Thanksgiving Day, but had lots to tell of the several nights before.

Of course, Gersey and Fresca were there many times, but so was other interesting mammals.
A fox, a bobcat, several deer, but my favorite . . . a bear mugging for the camera, smile and all. The best picture ever no kidding.

Hmm. I wonder what Gersey saw?

HOPE & ADDISON . . . LAX TO MEDFORD

Addison and Hope flew into Medford on Thanksgiving Day.

6:30am - on the road to LAX
9:00am - took off for San Francisco
10:00am - landed in San Francisco and spent a considerable amount of time wasting
Noon - took off for Medford
1:00pm - I am waiting to greet them with a loving response

Addison looks at me and says "Can we go shopping tomorrow and by the way this is a really small airport".

Hope grabs my arm and says "Mom, our plane from San Francisco to here had helicopter propellers on the wings that were sideways. It was scary. There were only 25 people on our flight and one flight attendant. Can you believe that? When are we eating?"

As we walked to our car I realized that I forgot where I parked. Yeah. Hard to believe isn't it? It's difficult to find your car when there are not a 1000 other cars to choose from, but this was Medford not LAX.

When Roderick's fly it is always an adventure.

WE STILL REMEMBERED

We pulled into Meford on Tuesday afternoon ready to do some northwest visiting. Scott had served with a volunteer at our church that had been so generous with her knowledge that we thought we'd just drop in on the family.

Problem was, we couldn't remember how to get to their house. We asked a few people at a gas station, because I remembered the name of the street they lived on, but those folks had never heard of the location.

Well nothing to do but drive and see if things started falling into place. Table Rock Road, Gibbon Road and a red 49er's car in the drive way and we were there.

Memory is a funny thing.

A BED AND BREAKFAST

Scott found the most delightful B&B in Eugene, Oregon. Nestled in a pasture on the McKenzie River, we enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep and a quaint northwest breakfast.

I awoke at about 5:30am a tip toed over to the window for some early gazing across the landscape. Incredible. It had snowed during the night and some four legged animal was meandering through the trees. Scott snuck out of bed to stand beside me while we watched the deer as she grazed on grass peeping up through the snow.

Later that morning I spent some time in front of the wood burning stove knitting while Scott read. He is trying to finish "The Voyage of the Dawntreader" before going to the movie.

Breakfast was served . . . hot coffee, fresh fruit and eggs to order. We saw about a dozen birds wandering through the field as we sat by the window eating. We couldn't figure out what kind of feathered friends they were . . . pheasants, peacocks . . . we had no clue.

We asked our host Tom what kind of bird we were looking at. His reply . . . "Wild turkeys".

Curious. Just in time for Thanksgiving.

CRAZYHORRIBLENOGOODNOTFUNLOSTSTUFFTOOHOTDAY!

Oh my goodness. Today has been so stinkin' hot I can't beleive we still live at the beach. Seriously, HB is supposed to get cool ocean breezes. No way today.

And I lost my debit card and my sunglasses. It sounds like a little ditty of a loss, however, when it's hot it is not. The sunglasses were precription and I use my debit card all the time.

One great thing that happened was a gal from Cumberland, Md. contacted me on facebook looking for Shelly. We haven't heard from Beth Ann since 1971. Talk about a blast from the past.

1971. Wow, I am getting O-L-D.

PICS FROM THE ATTIC

These pictures invoke precious memories of days long gone. Our girls have been beauties their whole lives . . . outside, yes. But more importantly, they have an inner beauty that far outweighs the outer.

You are always in our hearts, minds, souls.

ISAAC

Yesterday in the Treehouse we talked about Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. I wanted to make it a little scary for the Halloween holiday so we discussed sacrifice and how that has changed since Bible times. We no longer sacrifice animals but we do make other sacrifices. The kids were so mezmerised by that story I was stunned. Who would have thought?

During parent pick up a little kindergartner came up to me and said "Miss Cindy, Isaac is in my class at school."

I had to explain to him that it was a different Isaac.

I love what I do.