Took a few photos from our trip to Canada. First from our visits to my Mom, hope you see these Marilyn, she sent her love to you and your family. She looked so much better by the time we went back home so it was a good visit, she is prepared for the worst and told us that our visit was to say goodbye but is hanging in there, she reminds me of Nana with her stubborn strength to keep going.  I think our visit perked her up in order for her body to be able to fight the infections and heart problems a bit better. She has already had about 3-4 more years than they thought she would have when she was diagnosed so I am trying to stay positive and hope that  if I hurry and save up then just maybe I can visit her again. I seem to be the only one in the family with denial and that is holding on to the hope that she may be around for a little while longer, but I guess since I don't get to see her day to day and don't know all the facts that I am probably just not as realistic as everyone else is. I won't give up hope though and I told my Mom that. When we first got there she could hardly move, was very yellow and cold with extremely low bloodpressure, if I remember correctly somewhere around 50-60 over 30-40. Then she got a little bit better colour and mobility, yesterday when we left (4th June) she was looking so much better and her bloodpressure had gone up as well as she was able to walk to the WC in her room by herself (she actually has to do that alot during the day unfortunately because of the virus) with her walker but she has the infection again that she had before called if I'm not mistaken c.dificile or something like that. It is a virus that people get in the hospital and it has killed a few people, antibiotics have little effect, some kind of superbug. So for the past few days of our trip she was back in isolation but of course that meant a private room so that gave us a chance to fool around and laugh alot together. Mandy and the girls came down on the weekends for one night at a time we got to see them twice so that was great. The most fun was that Chris came down from Vancouver and stayed with Dad too so we got alot of quality time together, we haven't seen him for a few years. Chris always has a joking nature and never takes life too seriously so the three of us visiting a couple times a day and kept Mom in stitches (laughing that is LOL) because neither of us wants to sit around and be negative or depressing for her sake. We may be depressed on our own but Mom doesn't need to know that and I also kept the news of the earthquake from her so she has no extra worries about us over here.

The first photo is our first visit the day after we arrived (we got there late in the evening) and you might be able to see how yellow mother was. She was a bit swollen, was on a liquid restriction,  couldn't even move or lift herself up, her fingers were white and cold and she couldn't move them to hold anything like ice cubes or a spoon. A couple days later we could see a very big difference and she was very tired but she could start to move her hands again to hold a cup and spoon. The next two are from the weekend (we visited first on the Thursday), then two photos of us in our isolation gear. Chris fooling around with Mom's walker and me out in the hall before we went in. She had a few good days and a few bad days but overall she improved greatly over the two weeks. Although I have to accept that she will not get better to the stage of being her old self because she has been told she is in end stage heart failure but I refuse to give up hope that she might get a new heart. She decided to say yes to the waiting list but it's no guarantee she will be accepted.

Here is Mom the day we left with a Teddy Bear we got her. I really wish I could have stayed longer but we needed to come home and take care of the dogs, it's quite expensive to have them in a kennel and with the earthquake last week we had no idea what awaited us. I am so happy and thankful to have been able to see Mom while she is still doing okay, it looked very bad there for awhile but now they think that in a few weeks she should be over her infection and then will most likely go to a nursing home where she can have full time care. Chris said she had been able to get up and sit on a chair today (the 5th) when he was there and he will be there over the weekend yet to be able to visit her.

Other great moments from our trip. We got a wonderful visit from our friends Scott and Laura with Soley and our grandpuppy (Töfra Hrói Grettir aka Max's daughter) Solhundur Tindra. What a cute  puppy she is around 7 months old and I think she is very promising. I just love her mother as well, what a sweet dog. The first photo is Soley on the left and Tindra on the right, they are so alike but I also see some of Max in her as well.

We went a couple times both to a driving range so Dad could practice (he plays golf on a senior's league once a week) and to play mini golf just for me. I don't know why but I've always loved mini golf from the time I was young. I always lose but it's fun anyway especially when the weather is nice.

The rest of the time we either sat outside or inside when it was raining which it did quite a bit unfortunately while we were over. We had a couple thunder storms too. It was very typical to see Chris and Rúnar outside with their computers since they could smoke out there. LOL

Now here is a rare occurance that I had to catch on film, Chris doing his laundry. LOL  And Dad grilling, he used to let Donna do that job.

A few photos for my family because they knew how nervous I was to come home and wasn't looking forward to it at all. So when we got home remarkabley our house was pretty much untouched by the earthquake so we were very very happy and so lucky compared to many that we know. I think it's because our house is at the far side of town in the opposite direction of where the earthquake originated. Here are a few photos, you can see only a few objects fell over or broke and although many things had "moved" most had just stopped at the edge of the shelves and didn't fall off. Rúnar's mother had come in the day of or after the quake (can't remember) and picked up the larger pieces of glass and the things in clear sight that had fallen to the floor and checked for us to see there was no serious damage before she drove into Reykjavík to stay, so we only had to sweep up a little bit of glass before the dogs could come back home. Drawers had opened in a couple other rooms too but nothing serious. The photo of my mother and late step-father Lennart had fallen down but the glass had not broken on that strangely enough however a photo of my late grandfather that fell down from the shelf right underneath on the same bookcase was broken. We are still finding a few things where they are not supposed to be like when you open a cupboard for the first time you have to make sure you check to make sure nothing is up against the door first. I think the outside shed was more messed up than inside the house but Rúnar hasn't had time to clean up and find out exactly what went on in there yet we just peeked in and saw a huge mess on the floor. We had a small quake tonight that I felt while Rúnar was sleeping but I'm a bit sensitive to movement (my inner ear was ruined in a car accident many years ago) so I often feel slight movements that most people don't and often I ask if I'm just imagining it since I have dizzy spells pretty much non-stop. This time however it was on the news so I guess it did happen. The first photo here is just to show my beeswax candle that is usually in the middle of the stand has obviously moved as well as the coaster in front of it.

A couple small speakers were tipped over too but I am so happy we were blessed with little damage, now let's just hope that we have no more big quakes.