my pink toes

I know I owe you a cookie recipe, and a thought or two, but we had another family emergency. My mom had a stroke on Friday. Thankfully they are pretty sure it's "just" a TIA, or mini-stroke, that she should fully recover from.

I literally collapsed into tears when I got the news. Now I understand when people say, "You should sit down before I continue". My dad was home and called out to Mom because the phone was for her. She spun around and waved weirdly, so he knew something was wrong. He ran down to the beach, and she was talking jibberish moving oddly. Dad turned her around to head her up to the house when she collapsed. He raced up to the house with her in his arms and called 911.

After Dad called, I got my ducks in a row, got my children cared for (thanks Katharine and Giseli!), packed and headed up to the peninsula. The ferry service kindly let me go to the head of the line, passing the long wait for a boat to Bremerton, so I could get to the hospital quickly. Mom had a ton of tests, pokes, prods, questions and procedures, and then they sent her home. Paul, Shanti, and I cooked a salmon dinner and we all ate together at the beach. It seemed surreal to have Mom at the table with us.

I had long planned to take all the kids up to the family beach house for this week, and Mom and Dad still really wanted us to come. So I ran home and had a 36-hour turn-around to get us all ready for the week. Whew! We loaded up the bikes (so cute to have 3 little bikes hanging from the back of my van), the kids and headed up here.

So, no long thoughtful posts, just photos of my kids and niece and friends at the beach. My best childhood friend, Hallie, joined us yesterday with her two sweet little boys. Her oldest and my youngest are just a few weeks apart in age and are good friends. (Her youngest is the cute one napping in the photo) We had a wonderful time, getting baked in the (rare) warm sun. The kids surprised us all by jumping right in to the water and hanging out.

The rhythm of the waves is centering and refreshing in this time. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers - my body is holding up well under the stress.