A Fountain In the Center

 After church on Sunday Beth and I decided to go get some frozen yogurt. Our city has a small center of town where the city actually began (it's grown to over 42,000 people) but 'downtown' is still small and quaint. We have a fountain in the center, a movie theater that opened in 1924, it's a fun place to walk around and shop.

 

Lot's of outdoor seating now due to covid and thankfully the weather was beautiful. Beth bought a new wallet and a canvas to color, the yogurt was so good, it was just a nice relaxing afternoon. 

Saturday Snippets - Empty Pallets, National Parks, Speeding

 Chuck got me the Legacy Box for my birthday this year. It's a company that restores old photos, reel to reel films... and puts them on DVD's or thumb drives. I went through everything and finally decided what I wanted, (10 items) packed it all up and it's ready to go. I have film from when my mom was 12 years old, some from when my sisters were little before I was born... I can't wait to get it back and see it all!

A police officer knocked on our door the other day and asked if they could put a speed radar thing in our driveway. (It's not the driveway we use.) The speed limit is only 35 but cars go so fast on our street, some of them really fly by our house, it's scary! We'll see how many of them will slow down when they see this thing.

I'm slowly making progress on my puzzle. Sharaya came over the other day and did most of the black lettering on the bottom. I'm doing a little more each day but I sure have a long way to go!

 I'm in charge of Purchasing at work so I've been scrambling to find disinfecting wipes. We have disinfectant in spray bottles that the custodians use in the bathrooms and on door handles, push bars, etc. but the staff has been disinfecting the seats and arm rests in the Sanctuary after every service and these are easier to use. We were down to our last container when a friend texted me and said Costco has a pallet of the wipes! It's only a mile from me so I was there in less then 20 minutes and this is all that was left!

It was a limit of one (one pack of 5) so I got mine and left. The next day another friend said the Business Costco had some so I flew down to that one and they had 4 pallets completely full! Whew. I got another pack of 5 and now I'm a little relieved. We have enough to last us a little while now. So what's it like where you are? Are your stores still out of certain items? Are things hard to get?

A Different Thankful Thursday - Cancer Update

 

 

Join us over at Rebecca Jo's blog!

 

 We check in on the 1st floor, get screened for covid then Chuck goes in for a blood draw and to have the IV port put it. 

 

 

They wrap his wrist in a bandage and we head to the 3rd floor. We wait for a while until they get the results of the blood draw and we meet with the oncologist to talk about the results.

 The doctor shows us all the scans and we actually talk for a while. It's really nice to get all your questions answered, I always leave there feeling good. Then it's up to the 4th floor where he has his infusion. Today we had another great view from our room.

 Floor to ceiling windows!

Right after surgery in April the cancer really began to spread fast. The spots on his face and head showed up quickly and a nodule appeared behind his ear.

I took this on June 5 and I've drawn black arrows that point to the cancer that appeared after surgery and before treatment.

(The two largest black areas are from a biopsy)

The scan he had yesterday showed the cancer hasn't shrunk but it also hasn't spread. The treatment seems to have just stopped it dead in it's tracks. It's not gone, but it doesn't seem to be actively moving. His blood work looks really good: blood counts, liver, spleen, heart, lungs... all look normal! He feels great and hasn't had any side affects!

 We're taking this as a good report and will continue treatment as normal. Even though we wish the cancer was shrinking, we're so, so thankful it hasn't continued to spread! 

The Sequel

A couple weeks ago I posted about Beth and Sharaya's nickname for each other - Bobin. Time for Part 2. 

 

Beth heard the phrase, "What's Up Chickenbutt?" and thought it was funny to say to Diana. That started a life-long, affectionate pet name between them, they've called each other Chickenbutt for as long as I can remember. 

 

L-R Beth, Diana, Sharaya. I caught them outside like this one afternoon. 

Pretending they're on a roller coaster? Riding horses??

By the time Sharaya entered Jr High, Diana was 8 and Beth was 15. Sharaya had her own room by this time and really was outgrowing her sisters.

I've always claimed that Beth's mental age was about half her actual age. Nothing clinical to back that up but just the things she liked, the way she acted, dressed, all seemed to confirm my theory. So by the time Sharaya was 13 and Beth 15, they had less in common and Diana and Beth were becoming close. 

 

 

 Diana volunteered on the Special Olympics basket team at her high school. She seriously pursued ASL and even considered becoming an interpreter. She also volunteered in our Special Connections Sunday school class for many years. She became somewhat of an advocate for Beth and anyone who had special needs.

 

 

 And now both Bobin and Chickenbutt have flown half way across the country to care for an Aunt who is home from physical rehab and can't be by herself. They're helping her with physical therapy, and they're cleaning and organizing and shopping... 

 

Do you ever sometimes just think about your kids and the kind of people they've grown up to be? 

 

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of these two.

Saturday Snippets - A Foresty Walk, Help With Mowing, Need Some Help!

Chuck is still walking a few times a week. He went by himself last week and did 5 miles! On Wednesday we did about 2.5 miles on the Burke-Gilman Trail. He's got so much energy lately!

 

Sharaya and Allie have come over a couple times recently and I have Allie this weekend, well, tonight anyway. She helped me mow the lawn by doing a few passes with the mower and she used the broom to clean off the lawn chairs.

 She beat the pants off me at Monopoly! We put on our fuzzy socks and slid on the kitchen floor a while. Have you ever tried it? It is so much fun! 

She's such a goofball! 💓

 

 

 

 

Do you do puzzles? I'm finding I'm just not that good at them. When my sister was here Rachel (her 14 yr old granddaughter) would walk over to the table, look at all the pieces, then pick one up and place it in the right spot! What?! How?! We would try every single piece we thought would fit and even then we wouldn't find it and have to try them all again.

I recently spent about an hour on a puzzle Sharaya bought me and this was as far as I got...

After an hour! Is there a trick to this?

 We're slowing making improvements to our house. We've spent our whole marriage traveling, road trips, National Parks. Now the kids are grown and we're putting money into our house. The next big thing is our fireplace. When we bought the house we learned it wasn't up to code so we've never used it. (19 years!) But now we're in the process of getting a gas insert. I can't wait for winter now!!

This is what we have now. I keep a large green plant in front of it to try to hide it. It's so old! 😄

This is the model of the one we're going to get. Our logs will look a little different and the back will be black bricks. I can't wait to be able to flip a switch and have a real fireplace!

 

Do you have a fire place? What kind do you like?

Are you good at puzzles?

Thankful Thursday ~ Family, Cobbler, And An Old Dog Learning New Tricks

 

 

 

 Time for more joy and smiles!

This week has me thankful for:

 

Going on walks with Chuck

Pizza for dinner

Hanging out with Allie

Small upgrades on the house

Learning new things at work

Blackberry cobbler

Fresh cut grass 

Family coming together to help family

Our jobs and finances

My Bible - the Written Word

The Lord - the Living Word

 

Have a great start to your weekend!

Doesn't Matter

 Back in March Chuck and I were planning to fly into Nashville, rent a convertible and cruise around Tennessee, Alabama, through Mississippi and into Louisiana.

Well, you know what happened to those plans. Like so many other people this year we had to cancel our vacation. I guess it is a first world problem.

 So when things began to open back up we decided to stay local and road trip it over to Eastern WA. Chuck rented our convertible, we reserved our hotel room and we started to pack. 

Then the car place called two days before we were to leave to tell us they actually didn't have any convertibles and would we like something else. Uh, no thank you.  😭 

The day before we left a reviewer posted on-line and said the hotel elevator was broken. Lovely.

We went anyway.

And had a fantastic time!!!

We drove north and just happened upon Diablo Lake. Never heard of it before but decided to stop. Oh my gosh the color of the water was spectacular! Of course we were in the Cascade Mountain Range so it was definitely glacier water but the color was stunning!

 

We stopped for lunch in the tiny town of Winthrop and then headed on to Wenatchee.

We checked into the hotel and got right back in the car again to meet up with Sharaya, Allie and Beth. They were meeting us in Yakima to see the Milky Way! We finally found a perfect spot at about 11pm and Sharaya pulled out the lawn chairs and blankets and we spent the next hour just looking up. I have never seen the Milky Way before! In pictures yes, but not like this! It was incredible and something I will never forget. Unfortunately your cell phone won't capture it and Sharaya even brought her SLR but that didn't do it either. This one's from google and looks identical to what we saw. We even saw 3 shooting stars!

 

 

Got to the hotel around 1am and just crashed! Come to find out the elevator wasn't broken (they had 3 of them) and in fact they were glass elevators with a view of the city!

 

 

We registered for the pool when we checked in, for a certain day and time and had it all to ourselves! (Course we're always conscience of covid so we ended up not putting our faces in the water but it was still nice and relaxing!)

 We went out to lunch, walked along the Columbia River, had sundaes at the cutest little soda shop... it was really fun!

While we were there we celebrated our 38th Anniversary. 

New Orleans, Louisiana? Or Wenatchee, Washington?

Doesn't matter as long as I'm with him.