Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

The past couple of weeks have flown by...it hardly feels like we missed a week with our regular program of updates. You'd think we'd have some pictures to show for it, wouldn't you? So we had to take one today.

Wayne's art show was pretty well received two weeks ago and generated a lot of interesting discussion. And events. The day of the reception, the huge plasma screen television he was borrowing from the art department refused to display anything. It had sound, but no display. Unfortunately, I was at a doctor appointment with Paela (just a quick checkup, but the waiting room took awhile), so I was of no help to him. But thanks to friends, he was able to get a television on loan set up and running after a few hours. And he still made it to all of his meetings that day.

Paela and I made a habit that week of dropping Wayne off on campus and picking him up at the end of the day, so I could help take the television off the wall and put it in a secure room for the evenings while Paela ran around the halls of the building. Wayne sat in the gallery most of the day keeping an eye on the television and being available for discussion with whoever stopped by the gallery. This arrangement meant a lot of car time for Paela and I, but we found fun things to stop off and do along the way as well. We found the library several times, a park, stopped by to visit some friends, and run some errands. She got so familiar with stopping outside the art building, that she soon was able to chant "daddy-daddy-daddy" as soon as we pulled up, because she knows where her daddy works now.

Friday, Wayne took the show down and checked out of the gallery space, and we all took off for southern Oregon. We took advantage of the long weekend to visit our good friends Jon and Faith. The drive itself was an adventure. I made the mistake of checking a website that reports on the weather in cities along the interstate, instead of finding one to check mountain conditions. I knew we'd face rain, but the "snow" at Mount Shasta caught us off guard a bit. So did the Californian approach to insist that we had to have snow chains to proceed. We ended up having to stop to buy chains and stay over in a hotel before starting up through the snow in daylight.

The next morning, we piled in the car bright and early and went on our way. When the troopers stopped us to see if we had chains, we had the right answer this time. The roads were still clear, but soon we saw a sign saying everyone without 4-wheel drive needed to put chains on their car. Really? Even with clear roads? No way. We didn't pull over. But then a trooper stopped people who didn't have chains on asking them to put them on. Seriously. On clear roads. There was snow on the sides, but not on the roads themselves. Weird. After about a quarter mile we saw a car pulled over because his chain had broken. Because clear roads are apparently hard on chains, and vice versa. We took that opportunity to take off our chains. We never once regretted removing them.

By the time we made it to Jon and Faith's house, Paela was ready to be done with her carseat and never wanted to see it again. Of course, we still piled her in the car so we could explore Grants Pass and the surrounding areas, but we figured some of the places we took her to (like the cool parks) should make up for that. She was so brave running up to the dogs at the park to pet them! She would eagerly shout "DOG!", grab one of our hands, and start after the dog. After we made sure the owner was okay with us approaching closer, she would pat the dog once, and back away to watch it. Then she'd come close to pat it again, and back away again. It was terribly cute.

Whenever she slept, we took the opportunity to play games and watch movies. It was an excellent weekend and ended much too soon.

The drive home proved uneventful. We didn't have to put chains back on the car.

Paela was very excited to get home though. As soon as we walked in the door, she shouted "kitty!" and literally ran towards Star Cat. Star was equally excited to see us, and didn't even hesitate when she saw Paela running towards her. I was amused to see that, though she'd been tired of the toys we brought in the car moments earlier, the first toy she turned to was one of the ones we had just carried in the house with us from the car. Silly girl.

While Wayne worked on his resume and teaching philosophy, I took Paela to play group for the first time. She stuck to the toys right next to me, but seemed to enjoy rocking on them. We also made it to the duck pond, where Paela learned the joy of chasing ducks to make them run and fly. It increased her awareness of ducks in her books at home as well.

The last few days I've been sick, so Wayne took over taking care of me and Paela. I'm sure I must have been feverish, because I kept insisting it was freezing and Wayne assures me it was not. It might be an infection; so I'll try to set up a doctor appointment for tomorrow to see. Though the fever is gone, so perhaps the pain will go away soon either way.

And today was stake conference...a joint stake conference with 68 of the 170-some odd stakes in California. We saw a broadcast, which meant not only could we go to our own building, Paela could sit in the auxilary rooms instead of screeching in the main room. And the last ten minutes, she and I hung out in the nursery room and I still got to listen some. That was nice. Of course, Wayne and I both walked away from the meeting feeling guilty for leaving California, but we still think it's the right choice.