A Visit to the Homeland

We are spending part of the weekend in the land of my youth, the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Tomorrow we will be attending a Celebration of Life luncheon for an old family friend.  More about Hildegard in another post.

Today we had our usual Friday morning breakfast with the breakfast group, and then drove south to Oregon.  After lunch we stopped in Wilsonville to visit my Aunt Alma, my mother's sister.

My aunt is a new resident of a memory care facility and is still struggling with why she is there, wanting to be still in her own home.  That won't happen, however, because as a result of a series of small strokes, she is easily confused, forgets, and needs care.  The sad thing is she doesn't remember even the strokes that put her there and doesn't really understand why she is there.

My aunt knew us immediately and was very pleased with our visit.  After visiting for a while we went to the dining room to play Bingo.  She is such happier when she is with other people and not just sitting alone.  Then she told me over and over again, "This isn't such a bad place"  and "This is really a nice place to be".  I hope the positive feelings grow and bloom.

After leaving my aunt, who was going next to a sing-along, we checked into our hotel in Woodburn and then spent the rest of the day shopping at the outlet mall.

After rain overnight, it was great to have sun and blue sky again.

I needed a new purse.  But it can't be just any purse.  It has to have organizers, be not too big, but big enough.

 This is the one I bought.  Originally marked at $120, I bought it for $39.97.  Although it doesn't say Coach of Calvin Klein ( I found those at the mall too) it is a lovely soft leather, and it has what I need.

 It holds my new Kindle Paperwhite, my gift from my kids for Christmas.  Yup, I've finally joined the ranks of electronic readers.

 This evening at the hotel, I moved into my new purse.

Spending the night in a hotel is turning out to be a nice little get away.  There is no work to be done here.  I am not in charge of anything but myself.  I realized how busy I have been and how I needed to just slow down.  Sunday will be another busy day at home.  We have  birthday to celebrate and Seahawks football to watch!