Farm Bureau Picnic And Pool Party

We recently switched our auto insurance to Farm Bureau. One of the perks of this company is a summer picnic and swim party at the local public pool. It was extremely crowded but fun. The food lines moved pretty fast. They served barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs, baked beans, salad, chips, and cookies. As a germaphobe, I was impressed with the setup. They had Farm Bureau representatives, wearing plastic gloves, serving food at every table. This prevented people from sticking their grubby hands on the buns and utensils. The part I liked the most was the potato chip table. Usually, everyone just sticks their hands in the bags and serves themselves. They actually had someone wearing gloves and serving the potato chips. It was great! No germy chips!

We had a fun time swimming. My husband and I hung out in the shallow kiddie area with our 6-year-old and 21-month-old. I tried not to think about how many of those kids might be peeing in the water. That's what all the chlorine is for anyway, right? I had my son in a swim diaper.

I was the only one wearing water shoes. My husband's were full of sand because our 14-year-old had taken them on his Scout camping trip. The rest of the kids had outgrown theirs. I felt a little guilty being the only one with water shoes but I wore them anyway. They made my broken toe hurt a little but I don't like going barefoot. We all hit the showers when we got home.

Night Out Against Crime

Tonight we went to our local city park for the "National Night Out Against Crime" picnic and activities. They served hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, cookies and brownies. Everything was self-serve with people putting their hands on everything. I opened up a new bag of buns that hadn't been touched  and passed them out to my kids. The potato chips were the small single-serve bags which was better than everyone sticking their hands into one big bag. My daughter saw someone lick their fingers and then use that hand to pick up a hamburger patty. That's just gross! I had a hot dog. I don't trust them to cook the hamburgers thoroughly. Overall, it was fun. They had a lot of activities for the kids and it was fun for me to visit with my friends in this great little town that I live in. I'm just careful to practice my germophobe ways the best I can.

A Picnic Up The Canyon

I went on a picnic recently with my sister, her family, and her mother-in-law. My sister lives back east, so it was fun to visit with her. We went to a park up in a canyon close to where I live. The picnic tables were really dirty and we forgot to bring a tablecloth or a sheet to cover the table. My daughter suggested covering it with newspaper since I have a paper route and had some extras in the car. It was a good improvisation. We had to put something on each page to weigh them down. I had my purse sitting on top of a newspaper but somewhere in the clean-up process, it got put directly on the table. After I got home, I took everything out of it and threw it in the washing machine. Fortunately, it is washable.

My two youngest kids had fun playing in the sand, which made me cringe a little to see them getting dirt all over their bodies. I couldn't bring myself to spoil their fun though. They went straight to the bath and shower after we got home and scrubbed from head to toe.

It was a fun visit. I enjoyed seeing my sister, brother-in-law, nephews, my sister's niece, and her mother-in-law. My sister's youngest son is the same age as mine and it was fun to watch them interact together.

Car Craziness!!

We have had quite the time these last couple of weeks! As I said in my previous post, we had problems with our 2001 Chevy Venture on our trip to Oregon. It's still running hot so it can't be driven very far. My husband recently fixed a 1995 Ford Windstar with a bad transmission.We were trying to sell it but hadn't had any luck so far. I recently started a paper route and needed something to drive, so I drove the Windstar. It ran perfectly fine for me but when I calculated the gas mileage, it was terrible. Half of my earnings from the paper route would go to gas, so we reduced the price and sold this van last Saturday and decided to buy a small, more efficient car. When we were out on a test drive, we just happened to see the Windstar we just sold along the side of the road with the hood up. The odds of us happening by when they were way out on the opposite side of town from where we live have got to be slim! We stopped and my husband asked them what was going on with the van. It had actually developed an engine knock in the short time since these people bought it from us! My husband did the right thing and gave them their money back. He drove it to the junkyard today.

We shopped around for a small, efficient, reasonably priced car. You can't test drive a car and not touch anything. We test drove several different cars over the past several days. Since we don't know who the previous owners were or how clean they are, we were careful about sanitizing our hands after each test drive. We also don't know who else may have driven these cars. The car salesmen always shake your hand too. We settled on this 2009 Toyota Corolla that we purchased from a dealership about 60 miles south of where we live. It has been detailed of course, but I doubt it was sanitized. I will sanitize it tomorrow. I'm too tired tonight. The craziest thing is, when we were driving home on the freeway we saw the Windstar that we just junked being towed in the other direction! It's wierd how we keep seeing that van everywhere!

A Trip To Oregon

We took a trip to Portland, Oregon this past weekend. Our Chevy Venture minivan wasn't doing very well in the 106 degree heat in Idaho and started having problems.

We left our van in Idaho and rented a Kia Sedona. Since it's a rental that who knows how many other people have driven, naturally the steering wheel had to be wiped.

Once we crossed the border into Oregon, we stopped at a small town to fill-up. When my husband put the gas pump into the gas tank, a man came running over and said, "You can't fill up your own vehicle here. It's the law!" We thought it was the wierdest law we've ever heard of but at least we didn't have to handle dirty gas pumps the entire time we were in Oregon.

The main reason for our trip was for a luncheon and tour at the University of Western States Chiropractic College where my daughter wants to go after she finishes her degree at USU. It sounds like a really good school. Since there is a lot of hands-on learning there, I was happy to see hand sanitizer everywhere on campus!

We stayed at the Airport Comfort Suites in Portland. The rooms were clean and really nice. The service was absolutely excellent!

I did not, however, give my 21-month-old son a bath. I just can't bring myself to put a child in a hotel bathtub. I took him in the shower with me.

The hotel served a good breakfast. The only thing missing was hand sanitizer. There are a lot of people from a lot of different places there handling the utensils. I was as careful as I could be about not touching any food until I got back to my room and sanitized my hands.

My husband wanted to go see Astoria, OR because one of his favorite movies, "Kindergarten Cop" was filmed there. We saw the elementary school where most of the movie was set. Then we went up to the Astoria Column which has a 360 degree panoramic view of the area.

We had to go up 164 winding steps to the top of the column. It was quite a workout! I usually try not to touch public hand rails, but all the winding was making me dizzy. That's what the hand sanitizer is there for!

After we left Astoria, we went down the coast to Seaside and spent a few hours at the beach. My kids have never been to the ocean before. I don't know that I would have swam in the ocean if that had been an option. I prefer a chlorinated pool. It was only about 60 degrees there and the water was freezing. Just getting my feet wet was enough.

The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and looking for shells. I couldn't deny them their fun, even if it is dirt. We rinsed the sand off the best we could at a water spout near the parking lot. Then we all sanitized our hands. The two youngest kids needed a change of clothes as well. I don't know for sure how he did it, but Riley even had sand in his diaper!

I Have Such Wonderful Neighbors!

My neighbors are so great! I was seriously losing the battle of the weeds in my garden. I've been doing what I can to keep the weeds down, but catching a cold didn't help matters. The weeds were taking over! My neighbors came over with their small tiller and tilled between the rows for me. They also did some weeding around the plants and hoed some irrigation trenches for better watering. They were almost done by the time I saw them out my window. I went out and helped a little.

There are still a conseridable amount of weeds around the plants. I am mostly over my cold except for a lingering stuffy nose. So, what did I do this time? I tripped over a step-stool and killed my little toe! I suspect it might be broken, but I don't want to go spend hundreds of dollars at the emergency room just to have it taped to the other toe. I tried taping it myself but any kind of pressure on it hurts. Since I can't stand any shoes other than flip-flops right now, I had to paint my toenails for fun. I went out last night and weeded the garden for a couple hours anyway. My toe didn't hurt much while I was outside, but it changed colors from blue to purple.

I think I'll take a little break from weeding for a little while so my toe can heal. I'll have to get the kids out there to help me instead. I still believe that growing your own food is worth all the work. At least I know it's safe. The question I had on my mind as I was weeding last night was, "If e-coli is found in manure, and soil is treated with manure, does that contaminate the food that is grown in it?" I don't know the answer to this question. If I find the answer, I will post it. My garden is manure free.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus)

I want to hear your stories! Please leave a comment and tell me about your experience with MRSA, what you went through, how you treated it, etc.