Chemo

Terry had his last chemo of the year 2012 ..., but that's really nothing to celebrate ..., he will have his first chemo of the year 2013 on the 3rd. 

 

Wanna know how it went?

Well, I'm just going to say that we did some waiting, but eventually got it all done.

 

Blood counts:

WBC = 3.3(L) same as one month ago, pre-treatment and July was 2.6(L)

Platelets = 41(L) last month was 54(L) and July was 35(L)

Lymphocytes = 59(H) last month was 72(H) and July was 45

Ab Neutrophils = 0.8(L) last month was 0.5(L) and July was 1.0(L)

 

So, you can see that nothing is really different enough to claim the chemo is doing anything, except they did mention that the Lymphocytes could be because of the chemo.  Okay, it could be, but it was 59(H) in May.  I hope to see greater change after all this, but I guess we take what we can get.

 

 

:)

I should have posted this last night, or this morning, but I've been busy.  Well, sort of.  I've also been puzzling.  ;)  Completed the last puzzle of the year 2012 - a puzzle we got for Christmas from Terry's sister.

 

 



Have you ever seen a puzzle with an extra piece?  This one has one!  Two of the exact same piece.

 

 

 



Christmas Phone Call

We got our Christmas phone call from Chase ..., and loved it ..., of course!
He sounds good!

I've been spending a lot of time uploading some photos he emailed.   Here is one -
(He's on the far right)

Some fun stuff for Christmas Eve -

Skyler and Lisa brought these out (extra's from her family) ...


this is one of the cute favors (my personal favorite) that was inside with some jokes and a paper crown ...

And,

look at these cute things ...

aren't they adorably sweet!

Lisa called it her "Pinterest moment" - oh the things we can find and enjoy ....

We opened gifts with them a few days before Christmas Eve, because we didn't know better. ;)




 

Nice Surprise at the Clinic

Terry seems to be tolerating the oral med, Revlimid.  At this point, he has had no terrible side affects because of it.

Usually the Rituxan infusion is an all day thing, but yesterday we had a nice surprise.  They decided that since Terry had done so well with his last dose, and previous doses a few months ago, they would speed up the rate.  They did so, and he accepted it fine.  YEA!  Happy Day!  
(We went for chemo Friday instead of Thursday this week because we wanted to attend a funeral of a friend/neighbor. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Allred family during this difficult time. We love them.)

Some of the side affects he feels from the Rituxan include:
1st and 2nd day - a red flushed face where he can feel a sort of heat that lets him know it's red, and he feels sluggish and achy.
3rd and 4th days - much more aching and discomfort everywhere. (Christmas Eve and Christmas day will be painful, but if I know Terry, he will not let that stop him from helping everyone have a good day.)


Look at this cuteness ...
Claire spent a few days with us.  Oh, so did her parents ;).
It has been so fun to see her happy disposition and have them here with us for a few days.  We seemed to have several places to go while they were here, but we so enjoyed having them ..., and look forward to next week when we can see them again.

Lovin' Christmas ...

Decorations are complete ...

 (I'm loving the look of my bowl of snowballs, and I'm loving the few decorations that used to belong to Keith and Idris - they warm my heart.)

The trees are all lit and decorated ...

(I'm loving the ornaments given to us from family and friends throughout the last 32 years, and I'm loving the lights too.)

 

The look and feel of Christmas is present ...

(no pun intended)

and I'm loving it all!

 

One puzzle just completed this morning ...

(I love puzzles at Christmas time.)

 

Gifts are wrapped and those needing mailed are sent ...

(I love giving gifts, just wish I could always come up with the best gift ever. I just wanna help make everyone happy.)

 

Most newsletters are sent, except for a few I need to make sure I have correct addresses for ...

(I usually love writing newsletters, and even have an idea for next year that ..., wait for it ..., could even include pictures of our family ..., yip ..., it's been a couple years since I've sent a newsletter that included any kind of photo.)

 

FYI - If you didn't get a newsletter this year and would like one, please send me your address.  I had a computer crash earlier this year and lost my address data base (and many other things too) and might not have your current address anymore (same for email addresses).  Oh Bother!  But hey, this post is about Christmas, not crashed computers ..., so ...,

We attended the band Christmas concert last night, where Anthony played the drums ...
(I love it when our children perfect a talent or enjoy a hobby.)
[sorry no photo]

 

And, I love Christmas music!
(enjoying it even as I write this)

I'm loving the occasional snow - it's whiteness and pureness is sometimes simple, but other times breath takingly beautiful.  It can remind me of the pureness of that Baby born in Bethlehem, who is still among us now.

I am loving this holiday season and all the joys that come with it.

My heart is grateful for the reason for this season.

 

 

There’s Christmas in the home and church,

There’s Christmas in the mart;

But you’ll not know what Christmas is

Unless it’s in your heart.

The bells may call across the snow,

And carols search the air,

But oh, the heart will miss the thrill

Unless it’s Christmas there.⁶

 

Full message containing this poem found HERE,

Christmas is Love, by President Thomas S. Monson

(image above is from here)

I am grateful to feel

Christmas in my Heart!

 

 

I love wishing you a
very
merry

CHRISTMAS!



Listen ... I think I hear the morning dishes calling me ... yip ... off I go ...
have a great day! 

 

Let Christmas Begin!

We had a fun time last night with a few of our kids ... an early Christmas ...

 

Auger opens his gift from us ...

 

Akleigh opened her gift ...

 

She loved her new baby ...



 

but not as much as she loved the real baby ...

Auger and Akleigh both love Elsie. We all love Elsie.

 

Thomas and Dana opened gifts from us and from Gregory and Adena ...



 

Michael and Tawnee opened gifts from us and from Thomas and Dana ...

 

We opened gifts from Thomas and Dana ...

It's a cool BBQ grill for our fire pit ...

 

After the gifts were opened we were visiting and having a good time. Akleigh was being coaxed to walk on her own, and after a couple times of taking a couple steps on her own, and some clapping and excitement from us, she began to take more.  She finally decided that she can walk on her own and was taking off and turning around and even shuffling sideways a bit.  Once she realized that she really could do it, she was walking all over.  We all laughed so hard because she was so dang cute.  We knew she could do it, and now she knows she can too.  Look out world ... Here she comes!  I guess this was one last gift for the night ..., and a great one at that.  You go girl!

 



Medical Report

Another treatment began for Terry Thursday (13th).  I'd like to say it went smoothly and as expected, but really ..., well, it was a rather frustrating week.

We understood that it was important that Terry begin taking Revlimid (pill form) the day he began the Rituxan (IV). We planned to make it happen, but our plan could only take place if their end of the plan was put into place.

Revlimid is a mail order only medication and we hadn't received it by Monday, so Terry called to find out about it.  They told us that the order was at Walgreens and we should pick it up.  Great - we were in town and went to get it, only to learn that they had no such order, nor could they receive it.  It's a specialty pharmacy order only.  So, he called back to the doctors office.

After four days of calling, waiting, calling, waiting ..., and still no drug nor sign of it coming, we suggested that we wait for the treatment until we had the Revlimid.   They told us we should go to the treatment anyway.

So we went to treatment Thursday and talked again to the case manager about the Revlimid and she said that the company sending the pill to us would call us that very day.  She made sure to ask 3 or 4 times if Terry had his cell on him and if we'd make sure that one of us would answer it, and that it would be sent overnight to us.  Well, we had been hearing that for 4 days now, but tried to not give up hope. 

The Rituxan infusion went well.  No phone call though.  And, no lab reports - they didn't do a blood draw, even though we asked them about it.  I am going to be honest here and say that we are feeling a bit frustrated and concerned at the moment.  We've wondered a couple times, "who's looking out for Terry and are they really looking out for him?"  

We had to go into the clinic Friday too (for appointments for me, Elaine, this time) and decided to go talk to the case worker again, since we hadn't heard from the pharmacy.  She called her contact and then Terry spoke directly to them.  After several minutes on the phone, he finally found out that the pill will get to us on Tuesday. (Sounds to us like we should have waited a week for the chemo.) 

The pharmacy gave Terry some instructions and told him that he should have weekly blood draws - so why didn't we get one Thursday (even after asking about it) and why isn't one set up for next week?  I promise to make sure that he gets a blood draw before chemo starts next week, and to check it before he continues his treatment!!!  We  want to be Christlike in our dealings and are worried about being too rude to our caregivers, but I'm feeling pretty offended myself and finding it rather tricky right now. To me, these are important decisions and they shouldn't be let go as we feel they have been. We want to see more "care"ing.

This weekend has been a bit tricky for Terry - I'm not helping him like I usually do.  The tables turned and he's been helping me.  I needed a driver to and from my appointments Friday, and being the good husband that he is, he took that responsibility and then had to sit in the clinic for several hours waiting for me.  Not so fun when your body aches from chemo the previous day. 

After two days of prep and testing I'm looking forward to a better day today, and hope to let him find some much needed rest.  Oh how I hope that happens.  The good news is that the doctor gave me a good report - no colon cancer, all is well.

Now, on to better days ..., for all of us hopefully!

Disclaimer - this report may seem a bit negative ..., it kinda does to me, but I have written it over and over again this morning and that is just the way it's coming out ..., and in fact it is better now than the first time I began. :)  (If I come to my senses a few hours or days after I post this, I might have to delete it, but for now, it's going up.)
I'm just giving my (shortened) opinion of the events of the week and probably influenced a bit by how my physical body is feeling, and mental capacity after the last couple days.  I'm kinda tired myself, having been up and feeling crummy all but two hours of Thursday night.  I had a good night last night though, and look forward to accomplishing a lot today.  I HOPE!

He's Got Mail!

Connor got a large white envelope today ...,
 

with a call to serve in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission. 

He will report to the Provo MTC on January 30, 2013.

 

 

 

PINK

I was able to pull out some pink stuff again this time for Elsie's blessing dinner.  I didn't get very many photos taken, but here are a couple that will help remind us of the special event. (Confession - I stole the family photo from their blog, cause I didn't get one here.)

 

 

We love our family!

 

 

Shout Out!

Happy Birthday Skyler!
We Love You!

Dr. Visit

We were coming upon two months of no appointments for Terry.  I guess they missed us too much and decided to invite us in on Monday.  We were looking forward to it and grateful to have it because Terry had a cold/cough/sinus issue he has been battling for about a week.  He now has an antibiotic to help him get over it (which he seems to need every time he gets a cold), so better days and nights are on the horizon.

Terry's blood work -
WBC - 3.3(L) - normal is 4.5 - 11.0
RBC - 4.41(L) - normal is 4.50 - 5.90
Platelets - 54(L) - normal is 150 - 400
Ab Neutrophils - 0.5(LL) - normal is 1.8 - 7.8 (no action taken / meaning no shot)

These next two tell us about the liver - these are good numbers for Terry
ALT - 46 - normal is 17 - 63
AST - 47(H) - normal is 15 - 41

Lymphocytes - 72(H) - normal is 21 - 49.    (This count was up from 45 in July.)

The plan at this point is that Terry will begin treatments again on the 13th of December.
He will take Revlimid (an oral med), mostly meant to target the MDS but it may help the CLL too.  He will also have an IV chemo treatment, Rituxan - this is the one we swore off of because of the reaction he had to it years ago, but has been given successfully since then, so we don't have any reservations about it for that reason anymore.  I don't remember how often he takes the pills, but the IV will be once a week for four weeks. 

This is the plan that Dr. Silva from SCCA spoke to Terry about earlier this fall.  Her thought or hope was that this would prepare him for a second transplant.  Dr. Smith seemed to think it might begin an on going, life-long treatment, but still wasn't sure about how often she was willing to give these treatments.  So, I am supposing that we will probably see how things look after the four weeks of treatments and determine what to do after that.

My concern is that these treatments often make Terry feel worse than the disease itself.  When I mentioned that to Dr. Smith she assured me that we must act now because of the Lymphocytes count (seen above).  That number tells us that the CLL is growing.

So, we add these treatments to our family life schedule with all the regular activities and Christmas shopping and decorating ...
It should feel quite normal since we have been doing this type of thing for so many years.
I suppose then, that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

A Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving day!
It always feels best when our harvest is complete by Thanksgiving, and our personal harvest is complete.  Great to celebrate!

We had plenty of food for the weekend.

 



 

The table was set with things that reminded me/us of our parents and extended family.  The gold butter plate (in the center of the upper photo) is one from Terry's parents, and the yams are similar to what she made after their mission to Tennessee.  My parents gave us the goblets many years ago for Christmas, and the little green filled cups are a jello salad recipe my mom makes and we all love - Lime Pear Delight.  We love family!

 

We had some great family time.

(I didn't get good enough photos of the family. They were waiting on me to take the photos and I was in too much of a hurry and the photos I did take didn't turn out very nicely.  Then my batteries died when I tried to take photos of them playing games. Oh Bother!  But the company was great!

 

Auger wanted a photo of his overalls - they are a pair of overalls that our boys used to wear.  The hooks were broken so I replaced them with different hooks, but they wouldn't fit down over the button enough to stay put, so they wrapped some rubber bands around them to help them stay connected.  It worked and he was so happy.

 

 

We missed half of our family (12 here and 12 unable to attend), and look forward to being with them all sometime in the future.

We are lovin' their blogs with the updates and photos.  :)

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

We are now wishing you a Merry Christmas!

(don't those two holidays flow together nicely!)

Then on to Valentines Day - ahhh! lovely!

Then Easter!

(my four favorites!)

 

Okay, I'm not trying to rush things - just sayin' what a great stretch of holidays we have, that remind us of the important things in life ..., even of life itself ...,

 

I am truly grateful for my family and for our Savior!  

... yes! ... lovely!



Baby Girl is Here!

Michael and Tawnee had a baby girl -
Elsie Marie Hebdon
14 November 2012, at 6:00am.

7 lbs. 13 oz.,  20 inches.

Here's the family -





We all love that sweet little gal ...

Can you believe that I forgot my camera?  BrittanyJo saved the day by using her ipad, but that meant we didn't get any of her.  She, and Dana were there, but they escaped the photos.  I think Tawnee might have captured them on her camera though. :)

They are safely home now!



The Hand of the Lord

I feel a need or at least a very strong desire to post about something that happened on Friday, the 9th. 

 

Some may have seen this on facebook - some have told us they have seen it there, but we did not post it ourselves and don't know who did.  We don't know what kind of info was included on facebook - we have not personally seen it - there may not have been much info about it, or even the fact that we were involved. 

Those who saw this take place have a greater understanding of what did take place than those who saw the crumbled mess after the fact. So, I kinda want to set the story straight, and I want to share it, because it is sort of a success story.  It's a terrible situation that includes great blessings.

 

First let me tell you that no injuries occurred - all drivers are fine.  We are so happy about that.  This is one place where I believe that we had the hand of the Lord involved. The driver of our truck (Michael) could have hit head on and lost his life.  And, the drivers wife (Tawnee, 9 mo. pregnant) often rides in the truck too, but this day decided to spend the day at our house working on a scrapbooking project.  That is another place where I believe that the hand of the Lord was involved. There were so many little things that changed our plans that day.  I won't give all of those details because it could sound very confusing, but I am amazed at every little circumstance that seemed to play a large roll in our activities of that day, which led to not having a passenger in the truck at that time.

Here are the photos from Michael's phone

Okay, I'll try to tell what I know about what happened on this intersection on highway 26, in Othello by Burger King and Evergreen Implement.  I want to get it right, but I was not there, so I've asked for details...,   here goes -

Michael was heading east and the other truck was heading west.  Driver of the other truck, confused about where to go, and while on the phone, decided to turn left in front of our truck, right as Michael was entering the intersection.  What's a driver of a full, heavy loaded semi truck to do in that instance?  Well, if not watching carefully enough, he could hit straight into that turning semi and possibly loose his life.  If watching, he could turn his truck left and try to avoid the other truck, which is what Michael did. 

With very little time to think and space to work with Michael swerved left into the turning lane to try to avoid a head on collision with the other truck, but unable to take up all the road space because of an oncoming pickup in the outside lane, he had no choice but to brace for impact as he collided with the trailor of the other semi truck.
The impact of that hit crushed the front right portion of the truck and made steering and braking impossible for Michael after that. The truck continued it's course through the intersection while smashing a transformer box, snapping a guide wire to a power pole and then smashing into that pole, which then broke everything on the left side of our truck. Michael's truck ended up sliding another 75 feet or so in muddy ground until the truck portion of our rig jumped the curb to the Burger King drive thru and continued sliding sideways. Luckily, the weight of the loaded trailor kept it on the ground where it finally came to an abrupt stop.

 I'm not sure what the final decision on the damage is, but we can see that it does not look pretty.  We are glad that the corn in the trailer was not dumped all over the highway and lost.  We are especially glad that all are safe and still living, with no crippling physical injuries. 

FYI -
Other truck drivers that saw the accident happen came over to Michael and congratulated him on a job well done. They didn't think it would turn out so well when it all began.  A few men gave him their cards and contact info and told Michael that if he needed any help in explaining the reasons for the wreck that they would put in a good word for him, because they saw it, and knew it was not his fault, and told him that he handled things in an impressive way.

When Terry arrived on the scene he was also approached by several who said they had seen it and were impressed with the decisions of the driver of our truck.  It seemed that no one expected it to turn out so well, and so much in our favor. 
I know! Look at that truck, but then know too, that Michael is still up and going and he's still trucking, with only some soreness and a small scratch on his hand.  He got thrown around in his seat, but he could have looked a lot worse than that truck now looks.  I know that the Lord had a hand in guiding our truck and helping Michael guide the truck to the best place possible for all involved.

Now, Tawnee might wish that she has already delivered this baby she is carrying, but she would not have wished to deliver it under such circumstances as being in this accident might have caused.  So, yes, I do believe that the Lord had a hand in helping us make the decision that kept her out of the truck that day so that she and her child would be safe and healthy and happy on this day, even though she is still pregnant. :)

More FYI -
This is the stuff that kinda hurts the heart a bit.  Apparently there were so many "gawkers" that came to see the accident (it was there for many hours) that didn't understand what happened.  Our guys did hear a couple comments like, "crazy driver must have fallen asleep"  or other such accusing and belittling comments, that occasionally included some obscene language.  After learning the true story they seemed to be more sympathetic, but it just makes me realize that I too sometimes jump to conclusions and don't get the facts right and I don't like that feeling.  I wanna try to be better that way.

One more FYI -
I guess this whole post is FYI ... anyway,
Terry mentioned that in his prayer and blessing on the food that afternoon he remembers praying for safety with the harvest.  He did not pray that there would be no accidents, but he did pray for safety, and safety is what we got.  All involved in our harvest are safe and sound and healthy and happy and still with family and friends this day. 
We are grateful for the safety given us that day - for the Lord's hand in our lives! 




Once There Was A Snowman

Say hello to our snowman friend ... and to Auger who eagerly invited this friend.

Connor and Thomas helped our friend get here. 

I think the story was that Auger wanted him to have a hat - well, no hat, but how about a mohawk ... or is that one of those Roman style helmet hat things?





 

The snow is melting fast so I'm not sure how long our friend will be visiting, but he is welcome for as long as he can stay.

 



Snow is Here!

We went to sleep with a little over an inch of snow and woke up to more.  Happy Snow Day! 

Halloween 2012

It's been a long time since I've posted anything -  Finally a Halloween post ...

 

Halloween did happen here, but we only had a couple little trick-or-treaters.  Once we started participating in the trunk-or-treat we stopped getting trick-or-treaters. 

Now we don't really have any children to take, which leaves us home alone, unless we decide to party it up.  Ya, that hasn't happened in several years either.

Here are our sweet visitors -

The glasses are not part of the Owl costume, she just loves glasses and didn't want to give them up. And Bob the Builder was so anxious to go trick-or-treating this year.  So much fun!

 



 

We know of some other sweet trick-or-treaters too, though they didn't get to stop at our house - check out their great costumes here. 

 

 



More Medical Update

We don't have a lot of news, but I've not posted about it and feel like I'm hiding something or keeping something from you.  It's a weird kinda, dishonest feeling and I'm going to get rid of that feeling by posting this info.  Maybe those feelings stem because of the way I spoke about SCCA, and this will possibly help restore some faith in the doctors there and their concern for us as an individual.  ;)

The day after I posted the last medical post Terry received a call from Dr. Silva (from SCCA - she was one of the three we saw at our last visit, the not so confused doctor).  She said that they have a treatment suggestion for him.   I don't know all the facts but it would include taking the Revlimid (pill - which targets the MDS) and also getting the Rituxan chemo treatment again.  If we understand correctly this is in hopes of preparing him for the trial he could not have right now and then on to a second transplant, because the second transplant is to be the cure.  Of course each treatment has to work as they hope to make the next one possible.

We will be visiting with Dr. Smith about it, but haven't set up that appointment yet.  This treatment can be done in Wenatchee instead of traveling to Seattle for it.  We'll need to learn more and make our decision. 

Well, just thought you should know :)
Have a great day!

Our Visit to SCCA

It has taken me a while to write this post because of how confusing the day went Monday and because we just didn't have the complete information.   We have had several people watching and checking for a report, and we thank you for your love and concern.  Here is our report.

We went to SCCA to discuss a trial that they thought would be good for Terry.  We discussed it with three different people while we were there. One was a nurse we had seen a couple times during transplant - it was fun to see her.

The trial sounded like a great idea - it would include a drug that was designed to pull the bad cells out into the blood stream so that the chemo drugs would then be able to attack them. We kinda liked the sound of that.   If this worked then he would have a second transplant. 

One of the people we met with was a research doctor who didn't seem to know much about our case. She was the one that needed to sign papers with us.  We asked a few more questions and things got really confusing.  Among other issues, we found out that Terry might not even be eligible because of the MDS that he has. We're not sure why they didn't figure that out before we got there. 

Finally, after the research doctor left, the nurse was able to answer some of those questions we posed to the doctor (who didn't really seem to answer the questions, but just gave us the info she wanted to answer with).  We got a few things straightened out and there seemed to be only one way to do this, if it were even possible to do.  So we signed papers because we didn't want to go back just for that, but knew that we really might not do this trial, and came home waiting for an email from the nurse, which we received last night.

The problem was "due to the deletion 5q chromosome (MDS) [he] is not eligible for the protocol that we discussed on Monday".  We just don't understand why they didn't look at that before we got there.  Good thing we asked so many questions.

At one point Terry said something like "so you want to see the bear even though his tracks are there" when the research doctor said that she didn't know if he has the MDS for sure, she wanted a more recent bone marrow report, as if July 31st wasn't recent enough. Just because our records show that they see it doesn't apparently mean it's there????? We just don't get that one! That is one thing we will have from that strange day - a fun little saying to bring a smile (one of those questioning smiles) to our faces. We are making memories! :)

Hopefully this post makes sense to you, I am leaving out a lot of the confusing conversation we had with the doctor in hopes that it won't take me all day to write this, but it might be more confusing to you, so I apologize.

The email we received last night suggests that we now consider the Revlimid treatment that was discussed earlier - that is the daily pill for the rest of his life.  We aren't sure what we will really do.  We'll study up on that and pray and consider it, but don't feel very rushed to do so.  Really, we are still trying to get over the confusion of that visit Monday.  It was almost comical in the end, and we were trying to figure it out most of the way home. We are grateful for that nurse who seemed to have our best interest at heart and helped make things more clear and tried to make up for the confusion that the research doctor left in the room and in our minds. She seemed so flustered when she left - I think one of my questions really made her feel attacked ... I didn't mean to, but things changed drastically after I asked if this trial was going to be done for Terry's benefit or if they wanted to do it for the research.  I guess I didn't use the right words. That happens a lot for me.  Sorry!  I did apologize to her.

Now, if they would have just checked about the 5q chromosome before we got there this long confusing day could all have been avoided.  Did I already say that ?

So, you might really want to know - how is Terry doing?   I was thinking about this Sunday and the thought came to me - "you can't keep a good man down!" - you might be able to slow him down, but you cannot keep him down.  He is still willing and able to get up, get dressed, and get going (one of his sayings he repeats to the kids on occasion).
Really, over all, he is doing great.  He has been able to work all year with the farm work. He does get too tired on occasion and allows the boys to handle things when the need arises, but many times he just keeps on working.  He has a constant ache especially in his hips and legs (which at this point, on a scale of 1 to 10, he considers about a 3), but again, he doesn't let that stop him. 

Another thing I was thinking about Sunday, as I thought about his condition was this -
For about 8 years now I have driven most everywhere we go, and even taken him places he needed to go because it would wear him out to even drive.  He can drive himself most places now, though when we go together it is habit that puts me into the drivers seat.  I used to stay home from many things because he needed me and my help.  Now that need for me rarely occurs, and I kinda miss it.  I think I stay home because I need to be near him more than he needs to be near me.  I just can't be gone in case he might need me.  I suppose I've become more dependant on him than he has on me.  Oh Bother!  How do I overcome that one? 

I just really love him and I'm so grateful to have him.  I sometimes wish he was retired so I could see him more often, but that wouldn't be good for him - he is one of those good men that you can't keep down - it would be too hard on him if we tried.

So life ... here we come ... still! 

Our Missionary

We received a surprise email last night ... from Chase's mission pres.  It included this photo:

 

 

Shall we play "Where's Waldo" -

To find Chase - look at the last/top row of elders, count four from the left, look down one row and wallah! there is our elder!  (It was just easier to say it that way, because it's not easy to find where that next row - the row that he is in - starts.)

 

 

They also told us about their mission blog ..., though it seems that no one could be more excited than I was when I heard about it, maybe someone else will still want to take a peek.

 

http://nevadarenomission.blogspot.com/

 

 

Rusty

I thought I would show you that old rusty wheelbarrow I've mentioned a couple times now.

It's standing up because I forced it to, but it usually remains on it's side when not in use, because the legs wobble side to side so much, and the two bolts at the front of the barrel are rusted through. 

We still love it, so maybe I'll fix it sometime.

 

 

And, this is our old rusty wagon - just for fun!

It doesn't move very easily either, because the wheels are bent, but it works great for a library shelf for the grandkids books.  I don't think I'll be fixing that up anytime soon.

Auger's Birthday

I thought I'd better post something a little different than that last post - I just didn't want to end there.  Silly!  But I didn't want to add this to that post - so it gets it's own.  We celebrated Auger's 3rd birthday -

He loves the candles, but didn't really want to blow them out.

I had a "snuffer" that we let him use to put each out.  That was fun enough to do again!  :)

He loved his gifts!

What is it?  This one is from us.

It's a wheelbarrow!  We knew he would love it, because he loves the old rusty broken one out in our yard.  This is so much better, and he can take it to his house. We know he will use it, even for what it's made for - weeds (I was going to say "the good kind", but there really isn't a good kind of weed.)

(We wish we could be to each of our grandchildren's birthday celebrations!  But, we do love seeing the photos on the blogs - we send a big THANKS for sharing!  Love you all!)

A Growers Meeting - of a different sort!

Last Monday I, Elaine, went to Spokane for jury duty, but didn't get chosen to stay.  That's okay - I didn't mind.  The case was one of drug possession.  I didn't say it, but thought - if the cops caught him and charged him with possession then he must be guilty.  I suppose we were to decide if the police were honest in their dealings.  Seems strange, but I guess I understand it.

Each juror was questioned and allowed to share any issues that might affect their decision for this case. Some gave info that amazed me - one was a medicinal user and another had a brother who was a legal grower.  WHAT?   I came home thinking that users and growers and those charged with possession were just not good - it seems awful.

What a preface that was to our week.

That same week, the guys started harvesting our silage just up the road by our house.  They ran some test runs one day and were getting ready to start harvesting the next morning when some law enforcement showed up at the field.  Well, Michael and Thomas were there, and called Terry (who was at a circle on a different field) telling him that he'd better get there ASAP.

A helicopter had been flying over and spotted a row of nice green foliage in our silage corn. They knew what that meant! Our guys saw the helicopter but didn't know why it was there or what it was doing.

When the sheriff showed up at the field he began to question our guys.  The questions seemed odd for a moment. Soon they learned that the foliage seen in our field was marijuana and those in the helicopter had called law enforcement to tell them to get here right away because we were harvesting.  

Ya, harvesting silage, but had we not been stopped we would have harvested marijuana and it would have been stacked in the silage pile ready to feed to some awful lucky (or not) cows. Would we have even known what it was?  We didn't even know it was there at that point.  I suppose Thomas (our chopper operator) would have noticed the tall green weeds in the field each time he came upon it, and certainly wondered about it. 

Well, a team of guys came out and pulled it all up and carried it to their dumpster and took it with them to dispose of (where and how I do not know).

Michael helping carry marijuana to the dumpster.

It was interesting to see how fast news travels, but when you have a road block with all these vehicles and men all around, you kinda get noticed.

So, in thinking about my experience in the court room, it's interesting to note that we were growers (clueless, but none-the-less we were growing it) (and what a nice job we were doing at that - they said it looked great - oh great!), therefore we had possession.  WHAT?   That's just bad!  It's a bit disconcerting!  

We are happy it's gone and not harvested by the real growers.   And happily we were and are not users. 

No charges were made, just a few strange thoughts in our minds.

On to silage harvesting ...

This is the field after harvest. 

 Everything looks pretty normal except for the green strip up through about 80 rows.  

To put your mind at ease - that green is night shade and weeds, not marijuana, but it is where the marijuana was growing.  

(FYI - the photos above are courtesy of Michael's phone, except for the last one that I took.  This is the point that I got in on the action. )