The Borland Family: An Oregon Adventure!

(Forgive me in advance...this post is going to be long! LOL)

So I had gotten a phone call a couple of weeks ago from my parents telling me that my Grandma was not doing well. I was told that she has a massive hernia on her stomach and that they were going to be running more tests to determine the growth rate, size, and eligibility for surgery. Apparently the doctors said that if the hernia had wound itself too much around her intestines, that they would not be able to do surgery and she would eventually pass away. If they were able to do surgery, she was told that because of her size and age, she most likely would not make it through surgery. Outlook was not so good either way :( When I heard this news, I was devastated, to say the least!! My Grandma is so special to me, and we are alike in so many ways! I called my parents to see if they would be around during the Memorial Day weekend (easiest for me to drive down to Eugene and make the most of a weekend). I was told that they would be around but it wouldn't be a good time (they were going to be painting grandma's house and couldn't entertain), blah, blah, blah. So I hung up and called back after her test results came back the following Tuesday. Results came back that the hernia was not wound around intestines (good!) so they would schedule surgery for July sometime (scary!). In the meantime, the CT scan showed a growth of some sort on her adrenal (sp?) glands. They want to run further tests to see what it is, and process for removing it. Grrr... So now we wait and see.

In the meantime, my parents called back and said since it would be raining over Memorial weekend, they would not be able to paint, and so if I wanted to come down still..I could. So I took a half day on Friday and drove the 5 hours...or at least it should have taken only 5 hours. Who knew that once I hit the road, that a MAJOR adventure would be awaiting me!

The trip down was certainly the start of a crazy weekend. A trip that should only take 5 hours max. ended up taking me 7 hours. The weather had not been typical May/springlike and was a challenge on the trip. Part of the way it started raining sooo hard that everyone came to a standstill on I-5 because no one could see. Then at one point, I was giving my mom an update as to where I was. I remember distinctly telling her "it's pouring rain, but semi-warm out at 66 degrees." I hung up the phone with her and continued the journey. Well, about 10 miles South, I looked down at the temp. gauge and noticed that it said 46 degrees...a 20 degree drop in just 5-10 minutes!?!?! Weird, but dismissed it and continued. 2 miles further South, people were spun out into the guard rail and there was hail so thick on the freeway that it appeared to have snowed. Even stranger! (I learned Saturday morning from the Eugene newspaper, that a tornado had touched down in Napavine, WA the afternoon before....um....that's exactly why those cars were spun out, the hail, and the major temp. change. Hailey and I had just missed it!!!!! Talk about freaky!)

Anyway, the visit went pretty well...Hailey and I went out to breakfast with my Grandma and her "old lady friends" on Saturday. What a riot that was, lol. Talk about the mixture of sweet old ladies and the old crotchety ones, lol Now I haven't told Hailey much about my Grandma (though she new she wasn't feeling well from a nasty flu bug a while back) but all Hailey kept saying is that she wanted to take her puzzles down so that she could put them together with "Monkey Grandma" to cheer her up. (such a sweetie!) The 2 of them had lots of fun doing that. Sunday night, my Grandma came over and watched Pinocchio with all of us. Grandma started falling asleep on the couch and so Hailey went and asked my mom for a blanket (she was confused by this as we were sitting on the floor on a blanket). When mom wouldn't give her one, she took my mom's sweatshirt and went over to my Grandma and covered her up. It was so heartwarming to see!! <3

Anyway...most of Saturday was spent bike riding...my parents surprised Hailey with a bicycle with training wheels (they say it's an early bday present since her bday is in the Fall and weather would prohibit her riding it too much) She had a blast with this and picked up on it quickly...though the watching where she's going + steering is still a work in progress, LOL

Sunday was an added adventure for me. As I was coming down the stairs with my purse, I somehow missed step #2 and took a nasty fall down about 8 or 9 of their stairs. It was extremely scary, and I am just thankful that I was not going down the stairs with Hailey, or something like that. Nothing is broken (99% sure of this, lol) and most of me is feeling back to normal, with the exception of my back/ribs...that is still extremely painful. My leg is also fairly colorful from the giant bruise that I received! I'm still moving a bit slower than normal, but with the help of Ibuprofen...I'm getting better! :-)

Monday morning we headed back home and finished our 3-day weekend adventure off with Hailey throwing up off and on all night long. We ended up going through something like 2 sheets, 3 pairs of pajamas, and 3 pillows/pillowcases. Ugh! Luckily she's already starting to feel much better!

If you made it through this novel...congrats! Here are some pictures from our Oregon Adventure :-)