Moments with Marie

Just A Trip To Town

2011-02-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

We went to town last Thursday. Left the dock at 10am, went by boat taxi 20 min. Then hiked up the long slippery clay river bank to a waiting car taxi. We crammed 5 of us in the little taxi and drove 45min to the Mission Headquarters. We had made arrangements to borrow a car for the day. Jim forgot and left with our borrowed car. Phil made some cell phone calls and decided to start walking in that direction. We flagged down another taxi. Finally we were with our car borrowed for the day.

We got 3 stops made before we met some friends for lunch. First stop the electric supply for parts, then fan repair shop and finally the most important- gas for the car. Lunch was fabulous. We ate at a wonderful buffet with all kinds of yummy meats right off the rotisserie grill, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and AIR CONDITIONING. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking the crowded down town streets shopping for all those important things for us and other staff members. Including the open air vegetable and fruit markets that are about a square block each. Oh the smells, mostly of produce in varying stages of decay.

At 5pm we were back at the MH meeting up with everyone and loading a van with everyone's valuables. Back we went in the van through the streets. This time we had a Brazilian driver in rush hour traffic. We had more than on close call with horns honking and inches from contact with buses and trucks. Back at the river bank 45min later, our boat taxi driver is late. While we waited we watched a huge truck of 28# propane bottles be unloaded onto a barge. They rolled them down a narrow ramp, banging and slamming into each other. Woh......OCIA would have a fit.

The taxi finally came. Of course by now it was raining and the river banks were as slick as snot. No one fell, but our shoes were gummed with so much mud I almost went down trying to get from one end of the boat to the other. There we were in the dark with no lights on the boat, trying to make it through huge patches of floating grass. At last we were flying along in the open water of the Amazon so close to home. The clouds had parted some and the moonlight was beautiful. I could see the stars and a big jetliner high in the sky. The warm breeze felt good on my face.

Across the water I could see a small light coming out to the dock. What a welcome sight, a flash light. Soon we were making our way across the dock and the narrow plank then up the slippery bank. I was so grateful for the HS boys that made all those trips to bring our goods up from the dock. Home again safe and sound. Thank you Lord. It was 7:30pm. Shower, supper and off to bed. I slept good that. night.

Memories Moving Forward

2011-02-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

Past
I was so fortunate to walk the path of life with Fred for about 40 years. We had the privilege of raising 4 children together. Serving God, we endured all the normal trials of life together. We enjoyed great adventures with family and friends. Every season of our life together was cherished. We all have enough wonderful memories of Fred to last us a lifetime.

Present
Yes, I miss Fred by my side. I can still hear his subtle comments and humorous observations. He spent the last years making sure I was prepared to go on without him. Fred was a planner and wanted us to be prepared for the future. In his last weeks he was planning a trip to Australia. I found the file on his Ipad. I will enjoy the fruits of his planning the rest of my life. Thank you dear.

Future
My plan, at this time, is to keep my home in Alaska and travel in the winters. This winter I left Alaska Nov 30. I picked up my camper and Sadie (Fred's dog) and I headed out. Our first stop was at Shane's. He and Kristi are students at Multnoma University in Portland. I enjoyed spoiling those 4 grandkids for about 10 days. Then I drove over the mountains to Misty's. I spent Christmas there with her family. Carrie came down from Alaska and joined us. One day we had Shane and family, Misty and family, plus Carrie and I all together. We went swimming and out to dinner. It was a great day.

Friends flew in from Alaska and drove with Carrie and I to Arizona the first week of Jan. My camper and dog are happy back in Uncle Norman's camp spot southwest of Phoenix. I have been enjoying lots of time with all my aunts and uncles in the area. We have a great time together.

The past couple of years Fred and I came to Brazil to visit his sister, Cindy and husband Phil, here on the Amazon. So I decided to come down again this year. I have been here for about 10 days already and have about 2 weeks left before I head back to AZ.

Thank you
I just want to say thank you again for all your prayers and support through the years. God has blessed me through you.

2010-10-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

Our house of 20 awoke to fresh snow this morning. Shane, Carrie, Wade, Misty and a lot of family were here to celebrate the life of Frederick L. Lambing. Fred passed away on Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 4:55am. Shane, Carrie, Wade and Misty were by his side for the final 32 hours of life.

Doctors and Nurses marveled at the calm, peacefulness in his room as we celebrated all the wonderful memories together. At times there were up to 30 people sitting around Fred, laughing, praying and just saying goodbye.

Please go to www.fredlambing.com to share stories, memories and thoughts.

Sunrises and Snow

2010-10-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

The sunrise was beautiful over the mountains again this morning as I drove to the hospital. Summer has slipped into fall and soon the snow will be down the mountain.

It is always hard to give everyone bad news, but it is time for me to share with you about the past couple of months. July was good for Fred. In August he was showing signs of discomfort. Labor day he was in the ER with shortness of breath. The next week we had body scans again here in Alaska. There were 3 new big tumors. Fred was too weak to go the DC and we were able to arrange for radiation treatments here. He had 18 treatments over the next 30 days and did very well.

October 15th, just two days after he finished with radiation treatments he was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He had emergency surgery for a perforated bowel. He came through the surgery well but has been in ICU for a week now. It has been pretty touch and go. Please pray for peaceful rest for him in these difficult days. We trust God completely. Fred is in His hands.

There has been a lot of laughter and some tears too in these past months. We have gotten to share some good days with Fred's mother who has been here for about 5 weeks now. We have also enjoyed visits from both of his sisters. Family has always been so important to Fred.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

May, June, July, Oh My!

2010-07-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

May 22, Fred and I arrived back in Alaska, just about a month later than we planned. The word I came up with for being here was overwhelming. Overwhelming in every way.

Fred was pretty wiped out from the radiation treatments and the bad cold he got right after he finished the radiation treatments.

We hired a young man, Hayden, to help us catch up on all the spring clean up. I spent the first 3 weeks keeping ahead of him. We raked and cleaned the driveway and yard, stripped and stained deck, cut and stacked trees that had fallen. Our goal was to get things rid up before company started arriving.

Home just 3 weeks and the fun began. Barbara L arrived from Texas first. The next week Misty and family arrived from Boise. We had a great time even with all the rain. The twins turned 4 the week before they arrived, that made all three of the kids 4 and 5 years old. They loved swinging on the rope swing and exploring in the woods around the house. Sadie loved all the excitement. Go to Scrubbydeer.com to see photos.

Time went by too fast and it was time for everyone to head home. It was great blessing for Fred and I to have this time with everyone.

July 5. Two days after everyone was gone Fred and I headed out for DC and Doc appointments. Fred had body scans and appointments in 3 different clinics in 3 days. The good news is we adjusted and changed a few of Fred's meds. Now he is doing much better, with more energy and less pain. All the Docs were impressed with how well he was doing. His numbers are down and his bone strength looks good. He does have a small tumor that has some muscles in his tush inflamed, but we are hoping that things will settle down soon. If not we will have some treatment done on it.

July 9-11. 41 years, can you believe it. That is how long it has been since I graduated from high school. Fred and I stopped in the Black Hills on the way back home and attended my class reunion. It was so fun to spend time with people that I shared my life with in boarding HS at Sunshine Bible Academy so many years ago. Hope it will not be so long before we gather again.

August, we plan to take some B&B guests.
September, we are headed to DC.
October, we are plan to head back to the lower 48 for the winter months.

Once again thank you for your prayers and support. We are so blessed by you.

Fred's glowing

2010-05-03T14:12:00.001-07:00

Fred getting his morning dose of radiation. Today was the half-way mark.

59 and Counting

2010-04-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

Fred had his first radiation treatment on his head this morning. He will have 10 treatments over the next 2 weeks, finishing up on May 11.

This morning we also saw three of our oncology doctors. They are having blood work done every week now, watching his white blood count. This has to do with the isotope therapy he had in March.

The doctors and I agree that he looks much better now than before his treatment in March. Actually all the Doctors comment on how healthy he looks for as sick as they know that he is.

I am enjoying watching spring bloom here. Everything is lush and green. The azaleas are blooming in every color of pink and fuchsia. I think the white ones are my favorite. The azaleas remind us of when we lived in Japan 38 years ago. Can it be that many years ago?

Speaking of years..... I turn 59 today. What a great gift to be with Fred today. He is telling everyone here it is my birthday. I have had hugs from our motel maids and birthday wishes from all his doctors, plus lots of calls from family and friends. Thank you.

My birthday plan is to go out to a light dinner and enjoy a big chocotate dessert.

2010-04-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

It is way past time for an update on our travels. It seems a whole month has slipped by since I last wrote. Let me get out my calendar and catch you up.

March 22-25 We traveled to DC for Fred's new treatment. He did well and we headed back to AZ a couple of days early. This treatment was to decrease his bone pain and he has gotten a lot of bone pain relief.

March 28 We got news that my Dad was stomped by a cow while he was tagging her calf. He went by ambulance to the hospital in Rapid.

April 2 We left Uncle Norman's camp spot and headed north. We slowed down as we drove by the blooming orange trees for the last time. It has been another great winter for us on the desert.

April 4 Easter. We drove into Boise as the sun was setting. We had every kind of weather that day; sunshine, snow, rain and clear Idaho skies. The closer we got to Boise the better the weather got. It was worth the drive to see all those smiling little faces at the end of the day.

April 10 - I left Fred with Misty and family and flew to Rapid City to see Mom and Dad. It was fun to room with Mom and try and keep up with all Dad's visitors at the hospital. I had 5 days there with the folks. Dad is strong but has had some ups and downs with his lung and rib injuries.

April 19 Fred and I flew to DC. When I got back from SD I noticed that Fred's eye was different. Within a couple of days I got the whole picture. He was loosing some of his vision in his left eye. After some phone calls to DC and Alaska we were on the plane headed to see our Doctors. In the past 4 days Fred has seen at least 11 doctors and I can't count the number of tests.

To make a long story short----
Fred has a tumor behind his left eye that is about 3.3 centimeters in diameter (about 1.5 inch). It is very round so looks like a third eye, but a little larger. It is in both the eye socket and the brain cavity. Our plan is to give him most relief with the least trauma.

We have been in the information gathering stage this week. Once we get all the information the decision usually seems clear. As of Friday evening, it was looking like radiation will be the treatment we choose for now, with possible surgery in the future. We have one more neurosurgeon to see on Monday.

The plan is to start radiation treatments this Thursday for two weeks. We could be back to Boise by May 13th and home by June....who knows?

Oh yes, Dad went home from the hospital this week.

Fred and I are both feeling so well taken care of here and are confident that the Lord will continue to supply our needs, whatever they may be.

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement.

Travel, Travel and More Travel

2010-03-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Has it only been a few weeks since I wrote?

Here is a quick overview.....

March 1 - Monday - We had an uneventful flight home to the Phoenix area from Brazil. It took us a few days to rest and recover. It seemed cool and comfortable in the desert after the humid and hot tropics. It was a great trip and visit and so worth it to once again be with family there.

March 8 - Monday - We had a long day of flying to DC for Fred's Doc appointment. Between the weather delays causing missed flights it took us almost 24hours to get there.

March 9 - Tuesday - Slept in and went to the hospital for blood work. Did a little shopping and went to dinner with our friend Patti.

March 10 - Wednesday - We decided to start Fred on a different cancer treatment. It will take 2 weeks to get everything in place for him to start. Spent about 7 hours and the hospital. In the evening we went to dinner with our good friend Sandra.

March 11 -Thursday - Fred and I had an uneventful flight back home to the Phoenix area. We arrived early in the day, so we spent some time at Peggy's. The Rahn family is our dog Sadie's second home in AZ.

March 15 - Monday, found us working on the travel details for our next trip to DC a week from today. That means; room reservations, airline reservations, medical tests scheduled and everything blessed off by our insurance team.

Today------March 18 - Thursday - We are on the phone double checking with the DC Doctors that everything is a go for the new treatment next week. It is always hard to catch everyone on Friday's and we fly early Monday morning. One more little twist is that DC is a 3 hour time difference from here.

We have been enjoying some quiet days on the desert this week. Uncle Norman and Aunt Connie are gone this week, as well as Peggy and Warren.

Just to mix things up a little around here, I took out the bench seat between the door, next to the table. That gave us a 2' x 4' piece of floor space. It makes our little camper feel soooo much bigger. We bought a "managers chair" (nice office chair) to use instead. I said we should call it the "Master Sgt's Chair". We are having some fun with that one.

We are building a small set of shelves over the wheel well to give us some easy access storage. It is like a 2ft x 2f book case with 3 shelves. We have it cut out and sanded. Hope to put it together and a coat of finish on it today. We will see.

This week we have been having warm sunny days with a little breeze, about 80*. I said to Fred at breakfast this morning, "We could not have had a better life if we had planned it."

God is so good to us.

Raining On the Amazon

2010-02-25T06:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day. It started out hot and muggy, but by noon it was raining. It rained long enough that the temperature cooled right off and we had a cool afternoon. Usually it is like a sauna around here in the afternoon and we just exist until the sun sets and it cools off. But yesterday Fred and I even went out and took a walk around campus. Fred showed me some of the projects that the guys have been working on since we came. We watched the high school kids having their PE classes; guys learning basket ball drills, girls playing volley ball. We walked out to the track where one of the student teachers was running laps. Macy, Phil and Cindy's daughter-in-law, and kids were out walking and had found some ripe mangoes. We picked a couple, they tasted sooo good.We have not had as much fruit this year. The orchard is not producing very well right now.

We have seen a lot more critters this year. Cindy had a 6ft snake on her back porch. We had someone get bit by a black scorpion. We have seen 2 of them, after they were caught in a jar. Cindy had a couple of tarantulas that live just above the clothes line on the side of the house. One of them is about the size of my hand. Someone said that a small alligator was seen walking across the soccer field. I have lots of insect bits.....I never seem to notice when I am getting bit but the nice welts and itching later I do notice. They say I am fresh flesh.

This morning we are sitting out under the covered porch. I was such a nice cool night and is still cool this morning. Now it has started to rain again. The first week here was cool but the last 10 days have been hot and muggy. Cindy says they are just cooling us off so we will be ready to come back next year.

Phil and 6 or 7 guys have been up river working on a house all week. They have been camping out with hammocks and cooking their own food. Heard they are pretty tired and ready to come home. It is a 24hour slow boat ride back. The plan is that they will be home on Sat. night.

We fly out on Sunday night at about midnight. Monday, Phil and Cindy start their monthly buying for the base. It takes 3 days to do the buying each month. They stock a coop grocery and house hold supply store. They also keep 2 dorms stocked with cleaning supplies, shampoo, soap and paper products. There is also a full time laundry facility for the dorm that they keep stocked. They buy for the cafeteria that feeds 3 meals a day for 50 people. Phil is also in charge of all the maintenance on the base, with 30 buildings, 2 diesel generators, a 50 passenger launch and all these people (85 live here full time) there is always maintenance supplies that need to be found and bought. Cindy says lots of lists from lots of different budgets.

My observation..... these people live very well here because of a all the work and preparation of Phil and Cindy.

Some Photos

2010-02-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

Fred's favorite passtime.

Vegie day... Cindy and Macie in the store picking up their vegies for the week.

A big beetle found in one of the houses nearby.

Phil is holding this half gallon jar with the bug inside.

Fred on the front porch watching it rain and rain..

90 Degrees and Ice Dams

2010-02-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

This morning it was 85* with 85% humidity and now it is 90* with 60% humidity. That is the lowest humidity I have seen since we arrived here a week ago. Most of the time it is between 70-85% with the temperature about the same. A breeze is blowing today and I think that brings down the humidity. Needless to say we are melting in the middle of the day. Most days I take 2 showers to cool off. Some days it is 3.

Today I got up and had some breakfast, did some laundry in Cindy's automatic washer, hung it out to dry, helped make lunch and emailed Carrie. We are having problems with an ice dam on our roof in Alaska. Kind of funny........two extremes with the weather. She is having a couple of friends help her chip some ice on the roof today.

I have been fussing with my camera and computer this week. I wanted to put up some pictures. Shane asked me to take 4 or 5 pictures every day. Maybe I will work on that again when I finish with this. I have been so spoiled the past couple of years with my girls taking and putting up pictures for me. Guess it is time I figured it out for myself again.

Cindy and I have been finishing up some sewing projects she had started. I brought some patterns and fabric to make some cool blouses but we haven't got to that yet. Today the vegetable man came. He delivers a canoe full of vegetables each week. He came a day early today because it is a holiday week (like USA Mardi Graw). Most of the businesses are closed for the week.

It sounds like we are going to town with Phil and Cindy on Wed. We plan to go out to lunch and do a little shopping. Phil is going with a group of men to work on a house in a town for a missionary couple on Friday. It is just a 12 hour speed boat ride away....a 24 hour ride by regular commerical boat. He will be back just before we leave here at the end of the month.

After a hot afternoon, about 5pm we take our showers again. As it starts to cool off Fred and I go out and sit on the covered porch and watch families go down to the dock on the Amazon River to play and swim. It is my favorite time of the day. We watch the birds fly over the water and small dolphins jump and play. Soon the bats are flying by to feed on the bugs.

Dark comes quickly and we head inside for supper. After we finish cleaning up the dishes we get out a card game and usually play until the generator is turned off at 9:30pm. It has been another good day.

We are so blessed to be here with family again.

Happy Birthday To You ....Mom Lambing and Seth, only 78 years apart.

Back on the Amazon

2010-02-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

We left Phoenix on Friday, Feb 5, after a 4.5 hour delay for mechanical problems we were on our way to Atlanta. We knew we would probably miss our Brazil flight and we did. Delta put us up in a motel and we flew out the next night at 10pm.

After a short 6 hour flight we landed in Manaus, Brazil. It was 5am. It took us and hour or so to get through customs and collect our luggage. When we walked through the door Cindy & Phil were standing there with big smiles. They were starting to wonder....we were some of the last ones on our plane.

Phil & Cindy had hired a taxi to take our 4 trunks to the boat about an hour drive away. We rode with P&C in a small car they had barrowed from a fellow missionary on furlough in the states. Their son , Jeremy, was waiting for us at the river (Amazon river) with a little 16ft aluminum speed boat. It was pourrrring rain. I am sure we were quite a site flying down the river. We had covered everything as much as we could with a blue tarp and black plastic. The 5 of us all had some rain gear on (ponchos, rain jackets) and were holding umbrellas over us or in front of us, anywhere to keep the most rain off.

I was so tired from being awake all night that I just closed my eyes and prayed that I would not let go of the umbrella if I went to sleep. Just 30 minutes on the river and we were pulling up to the dock. They just left our trunks in the boat and loaded it onto a boat trailer. Soon they were pulling up to the back door with a tractor pulling the boat loaded with all our stuff.
It is quite a hike up the river bank and I was not looking forward to hauling everything up. Fred and I did good to get ourselves up that bank.

High Winds and High Water

2010-01-29T09:30:00.000-08:00

We have been having rainy weather in the desert the past week or so. If any of you were keeping up with the weather in AZ, it was all about high winds and high water. We had a lot of little country roads around us washed out here and there.

What a week end of family we have had. My brother Dan and wife Alaine flew down from WY on Friday. We had a big meal waiting for them along with a bunch of our family that is here in the area. There was Norman & Connie B, George & Sharon B, Dale & Marie I, Dan & Alaine, Fred & I, plus sister, Peggy who picked them up at the airport. Norman & Connie are such great hosts. We all visited together most of the afternoon.

Well, that was not all. In the evening my cousin Tom R called, he is from SD and traveling in this area with his folks, Neil & Elaine. They came and joined us for supper that night. To make a long story short I had one first cousin, one sister-in-law, 2 siblings, 4 pair of aunts and uncles here to visit us in one day.We could not have planned a day filled with some much fun family if we tried.

We have our tickets for Brazil. We leave a week from today, Feb 5 and come back on Feb 28. We will be able to get email while we are there. We will not have our traveling photographer but will try and get you some pictures too. We look forward to seeing all the family and friends in South America.

Fred pulled a tummy muscle getting out of bed this week and had a few down days. He is back to his perkier self this morning, fixing his own breakfast, out walking with his dog, and going next door to collect some drinking water.

Uncles Norman and George took the bus to Mexico to spend the weekend with their brother Art. If we get a chance we would like to go down for a week or so too before the winter is over. Time is flying by so fast. I don't know if we will make it this year.

Wade rolled his truck this week. He walked away with a scratch on his ear. His company truck did not fair so well. He drives thousands of miles each month. We are so thankful he is okay.

Speaking of the kids.... Shane is into his second semester of grad school and very excited about being a TA for one of his professors. Misty is still being Mom to a busy bunch in Boise. Carrie is enjoying her Alaska winter and happy with her photo business.

I am busy visiting with family, keeping Fred fed and watered, doing a little sewing and shopping for are SA trip.

Today God and the sun are shining down on us here in the desert.

It is so good to be back

2010-01-15T14:15:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying..........for all of you that have been checking to see what we are up to, I apologize for not keeping you better posted on our travels.

We have missed having Carrie with us, but we do have a useful new traveling companion named Gabby the Garmin (GPS). Gabby tries to keep us out of traffic trouble and spends a lot of recalculating when we ignor her directions.

Since we last wrote we have had great roads and wonderful visits with family and friends as we drove accross Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, back to Kansas, through Okalahoma, pausing in Dallas and Fort Worth, accross to El Paso, and finally accross New Mexico and Arizona to land here in Maricopa.

Here it is January 15. We just got home (to our camper in Maricopa) from DC about 5pm last night. We have had 3 appointments in DC since we left Alaska. To make a long story short, Fred is holding his own. His numbers are rising, but he has very little pain and his quality of life is great. We are not changing his treatment at this time. The Doc's are shocked that he is not in more pain. They do have 3 different treatments we are looking at in the future.

Now for all of you that want a more detailed description of our last 2 months I will get out my travel calendar and fill you in.

Last time I wrote we were stuck in Rawlins, WY waiting for the wind to die down.

On Sunday, November first we arrived in Denver and parked at our dear friends Bruce and Jan B.'s home. We spent a couple of days catching up on each others lives. Our families used to do a lot of camping and rafting together when we lived in Idaho Falls. We had some great times cross country skiing to cut our Christmas trees.

Wednesday, November 4....The Ingalls Girls Party began......
Peggy, Beth, Laila, Eleanor, Annadeidra, Kyrstin, Alaine. All my sisters, my mother, a daughter-in-law, a granddaughter and a sister-in-law all gathered at a mountain top cabin called Eagle's Nest. What an awsome view we had looking accross at Pikes Peak. We spent 4 days together, sharing great meals, games, family stories, reading together, snowy walks and sledding. Leaving our normal routine, it was an unhurried sharing time, with all of us coming from different places and times in our lives. We were so blessed to be together for these few days. Fred, Wade and Ashton were camping nearby. We appreciated their support, they were always ready to help out and.......they came and ate dinner with us every night.

Sunday afternoon we headed fo Kansas and made it as far as Colby. The next day we drove to Fred's sister Sandy's farm near Tawanda, KS. We had just enough time to tell Fred's mother hello and then Wednesday, November 11, we flew to DC. Fred had body scans on Thursday and then waited for his appointment on Wed. The tests showed more small tumors. The Docs gaves us some more options for treatment. We are not changing treatment.....Fred's quality of life is very good right now. It was a long week waiting for Fred's appointment. Sandra I did come and spend most of one day with us because she had Doc appointment. We went to some of the places we used to go with Skip. It is hard believe he is gone.

We flew back to Kansas and before we knew it was Thanksgiving here.
We spent the holiday sharing meals and games with Fred's family and I got in a few visits with my sister, Laila and family in Wichita. We had a great treat of getting together with Larry and Suzie, our B&B guest last summer, for an evening. They took us to a chuch wagon supper and concert at the Prairrie Rose. What a great time we had with them.

About the time we were ready to head for South Dakota to see my family there, we decided to have the suberban looked at. We had a couple of times where it wouldn't start when it was warm. We were so glad we could get into Fred's sister Sandy's mechanic. We ended up putting in a new fuel pump.

December 5 - We headed for Nebraska to spend a couple of days with my brother Kenny. Fred had not seen him for 8 years, I think it had been 4 or 5 for me. The weather turned cold about the time we got there, but the roads were dry. Kenny has a feed lot and trains horses, so there is alway something going on at their house. I spent about 3 hours watching a vet give chiropractic treatments to 3 horses. He also gave them accupucture treatments and did dental work on them. It was fasinating to say the least.

December 7 - We drove an 8 hour day and arrived at my folks ranch as the sun was setting. The weather was very cold that week.........near 20 below. They were just starting to feed hay for the winter, so were getting that routine up to speed. They were trimming heads on the bulls, I enjoyed watching that.

December 12 - Fred and I went over and stayed with my sister, Beth, and her family. It still was staying COLD. They have been remodeling Terry's parents house for a year and have just moved in. Beth and Terry were still doing some painting and unpacking. We did not envy them at all. We know how much work it is to move. We stayed and extra day to go to my nefiew, Blane's Christmas concert. It was the best concert I have ever heard for such a small school. The termometer was bouncing around 20 below zero as we drove home that night. Brrrrrrr....

December 15 - It was off the Spearfish to stay with cousin, Janie and family. Both Janie and Lonnie and Beth and Terry are graduating their youngest from High School this year. Hummm...that was a very long time ago for us- 1995. We had venison stew, watched them babysit their grandsons and had a lot of laughs as we caught up on our families.
the next morning the weather was a warm 4o degrees, it felt so good. The next couple of days we ran around and saw Elaine and Neal, Dale and Sandi, Tom and friend, Levi and family and Lukus and family. I think that is everyone.

December 18 - We headed back to the ranch for a couple more days. This time they were trimming bulls feet. That was the biggest cattle table I have ever seen. It had great hydrolics. The last night we gave Dad his 80th birthday present early (BD December 29) and had a good visit. Looks like weather is coming in so we need to hit the road soon.

December 20 - We spent the night and Kenny's again as we passed through. We met him in town for supper. Dana was in SD at her mother's. Tomorrow will be a shorter day of driving.

December 21 - Back at the farm in Kansas. We missed sleeping in our own bed but the camper is getting colder. I did not do as much winterizing as I did last winter. We spent this week enjoying family Christmas celebrations. The Dirty Santa Gift Exchange is always a hoot. Fred and I made out pretty well. No gag gifts for us this time. All of Sandy and Rodney's girls and families were home, so there was never a dull moment. The last couple of days here we spent having our Suburban worked on again......this time we did shocks and tires. It drives so much better.

December 30 - Our camper has been parked at the farm since November 9. Today we headed south. We camped about 3 hours down the road, but we got started anyway. The next day about 2 pm we arrived in Dallas, TX at Barbara L's house. Once again Gabby got us through some unknown territory. We had a great time with Barbara and family........we played a lot of hand and foot, put a puzzle together, went to church and Fred picked up pecans out of the back yard.

January 4 - This day we drove to Fred's cousin's Bill L in Fort Worth, TX. We had a great visit with Bill and Lynda while they were having new tile layed in their kitchen. The next afternoon we were on the road again. It has been cold and windy most of the time we have been in Texas. We are ready for warmer weather. We stayed in Sweetwater, TX, in Jan. 5.

January 6 - Tonight we are in El Paso. We are parked at Marty and Jenn H. We had a yummy dinner of tacos, some good converstaion and then off to bed. These long days of driving make me tired. Fred drives for an hour or so and that really helps. Jenn made us waffles for breakfast and then it was back on the road for another long day of driving.

It's starting to get warmer.........

We made it.
It is so good to be back in Uncle Norman's campground.
Our plan was to be here for a few days before we had to fly to DC for Fred's Doc appointment.
We had clear roads all but 2 days of our trip.
God is sooo good to us.

High Winds and High Times in the High Country

2009-10-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

Has it been 2 weeks since I updated this blog? How time flies when you are having fun.

Let's see.....we got to Boise just in time for Lizzy's birthday party. If you check out scrubbydeer.com you can see some pictures of Fred and I enjoying the indoor kids playground where the party was held. Everyone had a fun time, kids and adults alike.

We spent about 10 days with Misty and family. The time went way too fast. We had trips to the zoo, a corn maze and, oh yes, and to the Cabela's Store, to see all the stuffed animals too.

Fred and I delayed our leaving by a day because of high winds across southern Idaho. We left Boise on the 28rd. We got as far as Rawlins,WY, on the next evening. Today is Oct 31 and we are still here. I 80 is closed because of high winds and blowing snow. We are seeing clear skies now, but there is still a lot of wind. We are hoping to get back on the road in the next 24 hours.

God has such a sense of humor. I have been saying that we need to spend more time just camping by ourselves. Well, God is giving us that here on a windy hillside in WY. We are in a such a good place. It is a nice campground with full hookups, hot showers, and a laundry room.

Yesterday we put a roast in the cock pot, watched a movie and played some cards (Fred won). I talked to Carrie yesterday and she said they are having high winds in Alasaka too.

Today I think I will get out my sewing machine.

Next week some of my female family members are getting together at a cabin in Colorado Springs for a few days. Glad we will have a this bad weather behind us. It is supposed to be in the 50's next week.

Treatment and Travel

2009-10-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

We have been here in the DC area now since last Friday.

First, we spent some time with our friend Sandra. There was a lot of eating, watching bad movies, laughing and along with a few tears. Saturday we even got in on some old fashioned garage cleaning. Sandra said she can do anythings she needs to now that she has conquered the garage. You go girl.

It was a beautiful fall day on Monday when we went to Arlington National Cemetery to visit Skips grave site. We enjoyed the time we got to spend there and I am sure we will find time to stop again.

The Doc appointment went well...no big surprises. Fred's numbers are still rising some but no change in treatment for now.

With all the appointments and tests for this trip done we will be flying back to Portland early tomorrow morning.

Fred and I plan to head for Boise in the next couple of days. Sunday is Lizzy's birthday party and we would like to get there in time for that.

We have already been gone from Alaska more than 2 weeks. How time flies.

Back in the Lower 48

2009-10-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

What a great summer we had at home in Alaska!

The past couple of weeks we have been getting the house and yard ready for the winter months. Carrie and Barb will be living at the house this winter. So we feel like everything there will be well cared for.

Fred, Sadie and I flew down to Portland on Tuesday, September 29. Looking at the calendar it is just 1 day later than we left the state last year. This year the trip was so easy that it is hard to even compare with what we did last year. Fred was very involved in our travel. Loading suitcases on the cart and taking care of Sadie. I smiled a lot. It was such a short flight and we left and arrived in the daylight. Last year we could only get seats at night.

Shane and kids were there when we arrived and it was a short drive to their home. It was great fun to watch Fred sitting on the floor with the kids and dog, keeping everyone entertained with all the goodies in his travel vest's many pockets.

After supper I went with Shane to his evening class. It was great for me to listen in on class for a few hours. Soon the body was starting to slow down from the excitement of the day. During break Shane walked me home across campus. I was ready to hit the hay.

Wed. morning, Shane drove us north to Mary and Paul H. where we had stored our camper for the summer. When I walked in the camper it was better than I remembered. Fred says it feels like we are home.....well yes, our second home. We have so many great memories from last winter's travels. We will miss you Carrie.

Yesterday we spent the day settling in. Trying to find things and remember what we had left here. It will be a few days before it all comes together. And then Fred says I will be changing it again anyway. Hum...... probably so.

Today we are headed back to Shane & Kristi's for a week. Oct. 9 we fly back to DC for Fred's Doc appointment. We plan to be back in Portland on Oct 15 and on the road to Boise within a couple of days after that.

Once again we are staggered by how God continues to care for us.

The Deck

2009-09-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a few deck photos I took a couple of weeks ago. It was fun to have this all finished for our last few weeks of beautiful summer. Everything is cleared off now and put away for winter. Mom and Dad leave on Tuesday for the winter so I get the honor of shoveling all the snow off the massive space this winter and watching the birds land at the bird feeder.

Happy Sunday!

~ Carrie

The August Rain

2009-08-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

I remember when we moved to Alaska, 16 years ago this week. We never saw the sun for the first 2 -3 weeks. Well, here we are today and it is rainy and overcast. We can almost feel fall moving in. Mushrooms are popping up all around the yard and it is time to mow the grass, but it's way too wet. The days are getting shorter, sunset at 10pm and sunrise at 6am.

August 4 we flew to DC. Yes, 3 months has passed since our last Doc appointment. We had body scans plus the usual tests done. Fred continues to do well. His PSA has started to rise slightly. We are keeping an eye on it, but we are most concerned about how he feels. His energy is good and he does not have any nagging pain. He did spend the night in the hospital a couple of weeks ago with heart issues. With some medication adjustments everything is back to normal. He keeps me on my toes.

About the deck. Yesterday, Fred and I were putting a fiberglass ceiling over the basement patio in the rain. It was so funny. We finally figured out that it was best to lay on our back on top of the scaffolding and reach up to screw up the fiberglass. One time I had rain running down through the deck boards above in my face. Fred couldn't figure out what was taking me so long. I said, "It is dripping down my nostril, just give me a minute." We decided that it was better if Fred laid on his back and I did the fetching. It really was comical.

It was raining again this morning and I said I did not want to work in the rain again today. I was wet, cold and stiff when we quit yesterday. He agreed. We have a couple more hours to finish that project. Surely we will have a few hours without rain in the next couple of days.

Tuesday we finished engineering the steps down the side of the deck to the patio. We have not worked on them much for about a month. The biggest reason was that our help moved on to other jobs and family vacations. Brice and I had put in 4 platforms before he left and it has taken us some time to figure out how we were going to put in stairs to connect them. We have had several false starts and had figured out what would not work. Tuesday we figured out what "did" work and got it all laid out in one day.

We have had a great summer. We have had the best weather of any summer since we have lived here in Alaska. What a great summer to build a new deck. Yes, we have been tired and sore a lot but it has been great to be build something together with some great young men. Now we have a beautiful deck that we will enjoy for many years.

Oh yes, we did work in some B&B guests too. We had people from Kansas, Florida, Canada, Minnesota, Oregon, North Dakota and more. I heard tourism was down about 30 percent. I was careful about the guests I took because of all the construction. My goal was for Fred to have a good summer and to meet the B&B expenses. We did that and I am very satisfied.

We plan to spend the winter outside again this year. Like Fred says "We just didn't get to everything that we wanted to." Our estimated date of departure is the last week of September. Looking it up on the calendar the other day, it looks like 6 weeks. I counted it twice and it still seems to be 6 weeks. We plan to move our dog and stuff down to the camper and then fly over to DC for a Doc appointment the first week of October.

Carrie will be living at the house this winter and the teacher that was here last year is coming back too.

Fred and I continue to look forward the future God has laid out for us.

At home in Alaska

2009-06-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

We are having and wonderful summer here in Alaska. It is hard to describe summer here for anyone that has never been here this time of year. Like Carrie wrote on her blog, "Summer in Alaska is akin to a spiritual experience." We cherish everyday, knowing that it will end too soon. It's so lush and green with crazy long day lit hours. All the gardens are showing color now. Fred's peonies are blooming, the bleeding heart is about shoulder high and loaded with blossoms. Everywhere you look something is blooming.

Our goal when we got home was to replace our deck on the south side of the house. Well, we have been home 7 weeks and today we have 2 young men about to screw on the last boards of the deck. We will have only the railing and the ramps left to finish. It is turning out better than I expected.

Carrie has a couple of slide shows on her blog of us working on the deck. Check them out. Her link is to the right on this page. I left my camera in the camper........so I have an excuse for Carrie to come and take pictures.

Fred is continuing to do well and keep all the construction on track. He thinks the deck project is a great excuse for more new tools. We go to DC in Aug for another check up.

We did receive sad news a couple weeks ago that our dear friend, Skip, lost his battle with cancer on June 13. We are planning to go to his internment at Arlington in July. Sandra and Skip were so encouraging to us over the past several of years. We often spent a couple of days staying with them when we went back to the DC area for Fred's Doctor appointments. Fred always referred to Skip as his brother and cancer buddy. Their friendship was quick and close. Sandra and I felt like it was a privilege to watch them be together. They had so much in common: their military experience, the books they both read, their love for their families, their faith in Christ and, oh yes, cancer too. We miss him, but there is no more pain for Skip.

On to Washington State

2009-05-31T23:02:00.001-07:00

Mom & Dad with their hands full of fun.

The guys taking a break.

April 26, 2009

What a spectacular drive along the Columbia River. The bright green of spring and trees blooming everywhere. I have never seen so many trees blooming outside of an orchard.

We stopped south of Seattle at my cousins Mary and Paul H for the night. We visited them the week they moved into their house 20 years ago. We laughed about helping them unpack boxes and keeping up with kids. How time flies.

Sunday evening, April 26, we drove into Shane and Kristi's driveway in Lake Stevens, WA. I think Shane wondered if we would ever get to his house. It had been about 6 months since we had seen them in Boise.

We were thrilled to meet Seth, the latest grandchild. He is a big happy boy. He reminds me a lot of Shane when he was a baby. We all agree that he looks a lot like his Grandpa Wayne. Kelli, Daniel and Dakota have all grown so much since last fall.

Shane and Kristi are getting ready to sell their house and move to Portland. Shane will be going to college full time this fall. They are excited about the future, but a little overwhelmed with all that needs to be done before then.

May 4, 2009
Fred and I flew back to DC for another Doctor appointment. All the doctors had big smiles for us. Fred's numbers continue to go down and his energy continues to go up. We do not have to go back for another appointment until August. Can you believe it? We are so blessed.

We fly back to Seattle and spend a few more days with Shane and family before we head home to Alaska.

The Boise Stop

2009-04-24T13:19:00.001-07:00

Papa and Katie sharing popcorn.

Joe headed for the train depot & keeping up with big sister.

Papa keeping track of everyone.

April 24, 2009

Next we spent some fun in the sun with the Niesen gang. It was a fast week. Fred and Misty put up a picket fence across the back of the yard. Really it was Fred that had his heart set on putting it up and Misty was a good sport about helping him see it to the finish. She was planting garden and flowers while we were there. Spring has sprung.

I felt like we watched spring come all across the country as we drove north. The oranges were blooming in AZ. The cherries orchards were blooming in Utah. In Idaho the trees were blooming too before we left.

The photos above are of us at the open house for the Old Boise Train Depot near their home. The Depot is rented out for wedding and other special events. It was a hot afternoon, but we all had fun.

We praise God that Fred is so much healthier than when we left Boise, the middle of December.

Twin Falls, Idaho

2009-04-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

April 16, 2009

We hooked up the camper and headed north on April 14. We have enjoyed our time in AZ and look forward to spending some time there next winter.

The Grand Canyon was our next destination. We opted to bypass the South Rim and check out the North Rim instead. Well... the North Rim is closed until late May. Guess we will have to put that on our list for next year. As we came North most all the State and National Parks were closed. I guess we were too early in the spring for camping.

We stopped to see our daughter-in-law, Kristi's parents in Twin Falls, ID. They offered to take us sight seeing in the Twin Falls area. What a great idea! We lived in Idaho for 15 years before we moved to Alaska, but had never been sightseeing in the Twin Falls area. The Snake River is very high this spring so the falls in the area are quite dramatic. Some are higher than Niagara Falls.

We had a great couple of days with Wayne and Ann seeing the sights, playing some games and sharing some time. We also share 4 of our grandchildren with them.

Thank you for your generous hospitality. Hope we get to do that again.... Maybe in Alaska?

Heading North

2009-04-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

April 15, 2009

Can it be that we have been away from Alaska for 6 months? It has been a wonderful time of healing and rest for both Fred and I. We have been so blessed all along the way.

Now we are heading north to spend time with our daughter, Misty and family in Boise and then on to Seattle to spend some time with our son Shane and his family. Shane and Kristi had a little new little son, Seth, while we were in Brazil in Feb. We look forward to meeting him.

On May 6th, Fred has an appointment with his Doc in Bethesda. We are expecting it to be just routine. We should be in and out in a couple of days and then home to Alaska. Not sure what day we will actually get home yet.

Norman & Connie

I just want to let everyone know how well my Uncle Norman and his wife, Connie, took care of us this winter. We parked our camper in their back yard for 4 months, then came and went from there on our other travels. We shared so many sunny days, beautiful evenings and wonderful memories with you this winter. Thank you for your care and generosity.

Baby Calves & Blizzards

2009-04-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2009

Note I said Blizzardsssss. My folks had a major blizzard for 2 days before we arrived in Rapid City on March 25th and 2 more while we were there. I think we had 4 days with some sunshine while we were at the ranch for 2 weeks. We originally planned to be in SD for 1 week, but I could see that the last thing my family needed to worry about was getting us 100 miles back to the airport that week. So we changed our ticket to the next Wednesday. Then I made sure we headed to town a day early so everyone would be less stressed about the whole thing.

One of the good things about the weather was that we got to see more of my relatives in town. Aunts, uncles and cousins shuttled from one person to the next trying to get us from the airport to the ranch, to and from town, and to and from the airport.

My sister, Beth, ended up being the one that drove us to and from town. I have never felt like I might get stuck in the mud and gravel in the middle of the road in 4 wheel drive before. We were glad that the road was still a little frozen the morning we headed back to Sturgis.

With so much snow and wind, the cattle were feeling the stress, especially the new baby calves. Day after day I saw the cattle with their tails to the wind, heads down and their black backs covered with a heavy white coat of snow. Not only was it hard on the cattle it was hard on the ranchers trying to keep them fed, watered and together. Plus trying to keep all the new babies alive. Dad and his hired men took turns every 3 hours all night keeping watch over the cattle ready to calve.

Fred and I helped trail mothers and calves in before the last 2 storms. The last day we were at the ranch we enjoyed helping trail them back out of the crowded corrals to the pasture. It was great to see the calves kicking up their heels in the sunshine. It is easy to forget how unforgiving those South Dakota winds can be.

It was great to spend so much time with you, Mom and Dad. We appreciate you. Mom thanks for letting us win a game or 2 of "Hand and Foot".

Thanks Carrie

2009-03-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Well, last night we sent Carrie off to Boise with plans to land in Alaska shortly. She has been a great sport spending the winter with her parents and slowing down to our pace. I think she said the other day that we have only driven about 2600 miles this winter. Of course that does not count all the miles we have flown. Thank you, Carrie for all your care this winter. I am sure we will be able to finish up this road trip and see you in Alaska in a couple of months.

Speaking of flying. Fred and I are flying to Rapid City, South Dakota today. They have had a bad blizzard there this week. So guess we will get to see a little cold winter after all. I need to make some phone calls to see who can come and pick us up at the airport. We may be spending the night in town and go out to the ranch in a couple of days, if the roads aren't open yet.

Our days in Arizona are getting short. We have enjoyed our camp site at uncle Normans, where there is still natural dessert with lots of grease wood bushes, iron wood trees, barrel cactus, prickly pear cactus 6-8-10 tall and just as wide. We love the beautiful sunsets, cool nights and warm days. We loved listening to the doves in the morning and evening. We saw tiny little grouse with feathery top nots, zippy road runners, long tailed lizards, birds and scads of goffers or ground squirrles. Did not see any snakes and that was fine by me. Sadie ran around and had the freedom of 3 fenced acrea.

We spent the night here in Pheonix with my sister, Peggy and family last night. This morning we are going to plant some flowers in her yard before I take off at noon to the blizzard in SD. Quite fankly I have been calling winter, summer, all winter. I don't know what I will call summer in Alaska.

Once again be sure and check out Carries pictures.

Such a good winter

2009-03-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here we are in DC again.........Fred had a Doc appointment today and his PSA continues to go down. His next appointment is in 2 months. The last 6 weeks Fred has had better health than than he has had in the past couple of years.

We have had such a good winter traveling and seeing family and friends. We are not sure when we will be heading home. Someone told me the other day that we could save some things to do for our trip next winter. We will have to see.

I can't hardly believe that we have been back from Brazil for about 10 days. It was a great trip. It took us a couple extra days to get back to AZ because we had a snowstorm in Atlanta on the way through.

Our flight was canceled out of Atalanta, so we took a day and drove over to Birmingham and saw Wade and Annadeidra and kids. While we were in Brazil we were sad to learn that Anna's mother passed away unexpectedly. They were all there for the funeral. It was a very short but good visit.

We fly back to AZ tomorrow afternoon. Then who knows what is next?

Thanks again for your continued prayers.

Congratulations Shane and Kristi

2009-02-18T09:58:00.000-08:00

It's Wednesday and we are back in town today. That means we have a couple of hours of air conditioning and wireless internet. We appreciate the air conditioning the most. This morning we left the base at 7:30 am for a 30 minute the boat ride, then had an hour drive in the 4 door truck across the city to go to the Zoo. We got a good look at some animals that we hope not to see too close in the jungle; monkeys, jaguars, snakes, tapirs. And some animals we would like to see a little closer; eagles, parrots and turtles. It was starting to get hot by the time we left.

Next we did some walking, shopping, dodging cars, trucks and people. The sidewalks are narrow and very uneven and broken in places. I keep busy just trying to keep track of the person leading and watching that I don't trip on anything. Cindy was great helping us dicker with the shop keepers for the things we bought. Then we walked and sweat all the way to the air conditioned restaurant, where we met up with Fred and Phil for lunch.

The food here is wonderful. Today for lunch I had chicken breast, turkey wrapped in bacon, and pressed cottage cheese barbecued over a flame. I also had a little potato salad, green beans, pickled beets, coleslaw, rice and beans, tiny hard boiled quail eggs and some great tasting salsa. They weighted our plate and we paid by the gram. It was about $6.00, plus the couple of bottles of water that I drank. After about 30 minutes in the restaurant, eating and drinking, I started feeling like I might make it through the rest of the day.

We have fruit here every day. Some we buy and some we pick off trees around the base. The pineapple is sweet and mild and `mango melts in you mouth. This morning for breakfast we had the best papaya I have ever eaten. We have had at least 3 different kinds of banana's, all sweeter and smaller than the US. We have been making fresh juice out of passion fruit, star fruit, koopasu (sp?), lemon, orange, lime and some other fruits I don't remember. Will have to get that from Phil and Cindy before we leave.

Right now Phil, Cindy, Chuck and Laurel are out trying to buy a wireless portable internet modem so that they can have better internet access at their home on the base. That will be so great for them as all they have now is shared dial-up access. We will all be greatfull if they can get it today.

For the next hour or so Carrie, Fred and I are staying here at the mission head quarters in a guest room with air conditioning. Fred is napping. Carrie and I are banging on our computers trying to give all of you something interesting to read.

Congratulations Shane and Kristi! Sunday, February 15, we were blessed with another grandson. Seth Jacob Lambing. We have not talked to be Shane and Kristi yet, but did talk to Fred's Mother Joy and got the news. He was born on Joy's birthday. Please check their blog for the details. Shane and Kristi we love you and are so proud of you and the parents you have become.

Yesterday morning Phil and Cindy took us out on the "launch", the base passenger boat, for a pleasure ride around the local area. It was a beautiful day for it with the sky a little over cast and only one short rain shower. The Amazon is about 3 miles accross to a long series of islands in the middle. When I asked Phil how far it was to the other side from the islands he said that he didn't know because he had never been there. Amazing, he has lived here about 40 years and he has never been all the way across. The river really does divide the country. People travel next to the shore up and down their side of the river.

We traveled up the river toward Manaus and then across and along the islands. On the island side we saw a lot of farming and cattle. It looks much more prosperous than on our side of the river. They say the soil on this side is not as good. It is a lot of clay and sand and does not grow things as well. I saw some black cattle.....they didn't really look like angus, but they were black. I saw a couple of monkeys in a tree next to the river too. The trees had been cleared some for farming and cattle. On our side of the river it is all jungle.

This is the rainy season here. The river has risen at least 3 feet since we arrived about 10 days ago. It will continue to rise until about the middle of June. Then the rains will stop and it will get hot and dry and the river will start to go down. Our seasons revolve around the daylight in Alaska. Here the seasons revolve around the rain and the river. The sun sets about 6pm every evening and rises about 6am every morning all year long.

Our typical day goes like this. Phil starts the generator at 6 or 6:30am, depending on the day. At about 7am we start showing up to enjoy a self serve breakfast of eggs, toast, lots of fruit and/or oatmeal. Actually Cindy says it's a self serve breakfast, but she is usually standing there serving us. Over breakfast everyone decides what they are going to do for the day. Cindy starts some laundry, we have sweaty clothes at the end of every day. If it is sunny we hang the cloths on the big lines out front. If we are not so sure we hang them on the lines under the large roof eaves of the house.

By noon Cindy has made our main meal of the day. This usually includes some kind of fresh home made bread and fresh veggies in a salad, plus a meat and rice or potatoes. Most days she even has some kind of dessert; cookies, pie, shakes, or chocolate bar. We are all ready to take her menues home and use them. We may put together a cookbook of the meals we have eaten here. We can't match the fresh fruit here.

We get real hot and sticky in the afternoon, unless it rains. When it rains, it literally pours. It is amazing. You can't here yourself think let alone talk to anyone when the rain is pounding on the tin roof. Everyone starts slowing down about 5pm. We try to get our showers taken and change into clean dry cloths for the evening before supper. We eat a light supper at about 6:30pm and then play games, read or just visit. At 9:30pm the generator is turned off for the night. We all try and be in our rooms by then. Quite often we finish our game by flash light and then head next door.

One night last week Fred and I saw a huge tarantella on the wall just outside of the door to our house. We both jumped. I was going to go back and warn Chuck and Laurel, but Fred said, "No, I'm sure they will find it." It wasn't long and they did. Since then we have found a couple of smaller ones inside the house.

I think that I told you we are staying in a guest house next door. Well we do not have any hot water in our place. The first day I went next door for a shower, but that is kind of a hastle. So I decided I was hot enough that I could handle a cold shower. First let me say the the water here is not as cold as it is at home in Alaska. After the first 10 seconds, the cold shower feels real good. It is kind of like when you first jump in the swimming pool. I have a whole new appreciation for a cool shower after living in the tropics for a couple weeks. Clean fresh dry cloths feel great. It isn't long before you feel yourself and your cloths beginning to wilt, literally.

Sorry this is such a long blog......
Just a reminder, check out Carrie's photo's.

Here We Are In Brazil

2009-02-13T10:22:00.001-08:00

The last 24 hours before we left for Brazil was a little crazy. For one thing we found out the we were leaving 24 hours ahead for the original time we were to fly. One of the last things I was going to do was update my blog before I left.........didn't happen with the flight change. So I recommend that you always check Carrie's blog when you check ours. She has more updates than I do.

We arrived in Manaus, Brazil at about 12:30am on Sunday morning Feb. 8. It took us about an hour or so to get through customs and get our luggage. All the luggage was there, with one bag split open. I don't think we lost anything out of it.

Fred and I were the first to get through customs and get through the doorway were we expected to see Phil and Cindy. No one was there that we recognized. We laughed about how we had cut it close picking up people from the airport and maybe they were in the same boat. By the time Carrie, Chuck and Laurel were through the doorway they were smiling and waving. Yes, they were visiting with friends and the time had gotten away from them.

By the time we all loaded up in a 4 door pickup and drove across town another hour and a half had passed. Cindy called ahead on her cell phone for the boat to pick us up at an aviation mission post outside of town. It started raining as we loaded all our luggage on a long narrow boat with a little fiberglass roof that they call a canoe.

Someone pulled the rope on the outboard motor and we were off, down the Amazon river at about 2am with no lights on our boat and an overcast sky. It was amazing how well we could see the trees along the bank as we glided down the dark river. Most of the time we were in a channel between the mainland and an island. We could see the lights of homes scattered along the river. I kept asking myself "Are we really here....?"

Sooner than I expected, we broke out of the channel and there was the massive river that I had expected. The river is so huge that it makes you think that you are on the ocean, except there is no tide. In just a couple of minutes we were at the base and pulling up on shore. We unpacked the canoe in the rain and got all the baggage up to the house and sorted everything out, chatted a little bit and went to bed.

Laurel, Chuck, Fred and I are staying in the guest house right next door to Phil & Cindy's. Carrie is staying with them at their house. Sunday morning no one moved very fast. Fred and I got up just in time to go to the dining hall for lunch. My, did that ever take me back about 40 years, to all the meals I had while living in the dorm at boarding high school, Sunshine Bible Academy.

Monday-- we all moved pretty slow.
Tuesday-- we took a hike on some of the trails in the jungle near the base.
Wednesday-- I started making new curtains for their living room.
Thursday-- I spent time sewing again and Cindy and I had some great laughs playing Hand & Foot Canasta

Carrie has been busy teaching some photography class to the high school kids. Tomorrow she will teach one for adults. I may go to that one.

Fred has been doing a lot of reading and keeping track of the guys and their projects. Yesterday they worked on the launch (big passanger boat) and put it a couple of outdoor electrical plug-ins on their house plus, another outdoor light. Monday they went down river and worked on something. Over all Fred is continuing to improve. He is tolerating the heat better than I expected.

Today we all took the canoe to Manaus. It was great to see the trip in the day light. We went to the open market and did some shopping for fruit, veggies, fish. I am sure Carrie will have some good pictures to share with you from this morning. This afternoon we are at the mission house were we have Wifi and an airconditioned room to work from. It is great to have a hour or so of cool air.

The heat has not been as bad as I expected. This is the cool time of the year here. We have rain every day at least once and when it rains it downpours. The rainwater pours down the slope of the base to the river. We watch the the river rise more every day. We have seen a lot of awsome lightning storms and cloud formations.

One other little interesting note. The jungle is not quiet, especially at night. When it starts to get dark at night the real noise begins with toads and frogs crocking and some other animal making noises that sound like someone running a stick over notches on another hollow pipe. I can't remember all the sounds, but it is sooo noisy. In the day time we have loud birds and rubber nuts that explode and bang on the tin roof and sound like gun shots. We are right on the Amazon, which is like living right next to a busy highway with all kinds of boats: house boats, fishing boats, one man canoes, huge fuel barges, boats halling cattle from the interior, giant container ships, fast passenger ferries, slow passenger canoes, even a Princess Cruse Ship.

Today is day number 7. That means we have 14 days to go.

Thanks for everyone's prayers and support on this adventure.

Ten Days and counting

2009-01-28T16:51:00.000-08:00

Here we are back in the DC area again for Fred's Doc appointment. He is doing so well...his psa is still dropping and we like that. Please pray that this treatment continues to work for him.

I can't believe that I haven't written since the first week of Jan. The day after I wrote we left Kansas and headed toward Texas to visit friends and family. We spent about a week in Texas. Barbara L came and spent a couple days with us at Fort Richardson State Park. Fred's cousin, Bill & Linda came and spent a day with us there too. We drove across Texas and up into New Mexico' to the Carlsbad Caverns. We enjoyed seeing those awesome underground caverns.

Then we were off to El Paso, Tx, where we spent a couple days with Marty H and family. Marty lived with us for 3 years when we lived in Idaho Falls, ID. That was a few years ago. We enjoyed getting to know his wife and little girls better.

Our next destination was the Pheniox area. I have lots of aunts and uncles wintering in the area. Plus my sister, Peggy and her family live there. We are parked at my Uncle Norman's place. He has put in 5 full RV hookups in his back yard. We have enjoyed a week there visiting with George & Sharon, Jean and Chuck, Dale & Marie, Peggy & Warren and Ryan. We share our evening meal together and spend a couple of hours together telling stories and laughing. We are having such a wonderful time.

10 days until we fly to Brazil. How the time flies?? Hard to believe that we have been gone from Alaska 4 months this week. God has certainly blessed us all along the way. Thanks again for all your prayers and words of encouragement.

For more pictures and a different perspective check out Carrie's Blog.

Christmas in Kansas

2009-01-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

Is it January 7 already? What a great Christmas Season we have had. We have been here in Kansas for about 3 weeks now. I suggest that you go on Carrie's blog to see some her pictures.

We have had a good time of rest and renewal these past weeks here in Kansas. We have been parked on Fred's sister, Sandy & her husbands farm outside of El Dorado. We enjoyed the Christmas holiday surrounded by their daughters & husbands. Most days we came into town and spent part of the day with Fred's mother. We shared a lot of great food and lots of fun "Hand & Foot Canasta", Upwords, and Domino games. Carrie stayed in town with Mom and cousin Julie, who was here on school break from New Tribes.

So many family and friends have come by to see us. Let's see, we saw Cousin Kathy, Terry & Connie Hinnen, Joyce, Dan Lambing, Mike Lambing, Tom Lambing & family, Harry Kennedy, Kirk & Gaytha Bolton, Bill & Alene Bolton, Joel & Angela Ketcham and family.

We also spent some time with my sister, Laila and family in Wichita. Oh yes, we also saw 3 of my (Marie's) old high school classmates; David & Liz Maude and Rita Fae, plus her husband Ken. We had a lot of good laughs about the days gone by.

Tomorrow we are pulling out and heading toward Dallas, Texas for the weekend and then on to El Passo and Phoenix for some warm weather. We have a lot more friends and family to see along the way.

Yesterday we purchased our tickets to fly to Brazil to see Fred's sister, Cindy and her husband Phil. We are flying out on Feb 8 and back on March 1. Fred has wanted to do this for 30 years, so there is no time like the present.

Fred Update-- He continues to get stronger. He has an appointment in DC the end of January. We had blood work done again this week.

We continue to move forward expecting good things. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

On the road

2008-12-17T06:35:00.000-08:00

Well bet you will never guess where we are? Yep, back in the DC area. Fred had Dr appointments and tests for the next couple of days. His numbers were coming back down last time we checked just before Thanksgiving. Pray that continues to be the trend.

About the Family photos of the Thanksgiving week. Here is a little slide show and there is a different slide show on Carrie's blog

A week ago today we headed out of Boise to El Dorado, Kansas. The first night we stopped in our old home town of Idaho Falls and parked the camper in the driveway of our friends on the edge of town. We had a nice visit with some of our dear friends that we have know for more than 30 years. Did I really say 30 years? My how the years have flown. The next morning we had breakfast with Reid, our next door neighbor for 13 years when we lived in Ammon. It was so good so spend a little time reconnecting with those people and places.

After breakfast we started driving through the area were we spent so many weekends camping and white water rafting in the 80's. We have such great memories of our times there. It was fun to hear Carrie's take on memories of our family history. We pulled into Cora, WY about 1pm and spent the afternoon with Wade and cousin Ty. We watched them work on a remodel project and after supper we played games and had some good laughs.

Friday morning Ty made us breakfast and we headed out hoping to get as far down the road as possible. We had been watching a winter storm headed our way and were trying to stay ahead of it. It was a good travel day and we made it to Sidney, NE. Carrie had seen a sign for Cabela's campground on the highway and thought that might be a good spot for us. It was a great place to stay. We got long hot showers and a good nights rest.

Saturday, our goal was to get to El Dorado for the night. I forgot how far it is across Nebraska and Kansas. We were still watching the storm closely. My sister and her family were headed to our folks in SD, into the storm. We missed crossing paths by a couple of hours. I told her at least we were heading away from it. The last 4 hours when we headed south, we were driving into high winds. It was terrible.

About 9:30pm we landed, okay, we arrived at Fred's sister's farm and parked the camper. We were surprised what a warm wind it was. We parked next to a barn to break the wind and plugged in. We had made it. When we woke up the next morning the sun was shining, it was a beautiful morning. I thought maybe we were going to miss this storm. Then about 8:20am, it was like someone turned out the lights. The sky turned dark with heavy clouds and the temperature dropped about 40 degrees.

More than once in the past week I have been glad that I took a couple of afternoons in Boise and added some insulation to the camper. We have been keeping snug and warm in our little home.

Before we knew it we were on the airplane headed back to the DC area. There were a few weather issues yesterday but we arrived here just 2 hours late. It is pretty warm here compared to where we have been in the past week. If all goes according to plans, we will be heading back to Kansas on Friday.

We plan to spend a couple weeks in Kansas with family and then our next move will probably depend on the weather. South is looking better all the time.

Fred update. He is getting stronger every day. His appetite is improving and nausea is much less of a problem. I gave him his second haircut this week and there is a lot more dark hair coming in. So much for white hair. He has also started growing back his beard this week.

Once again we praise God for His tender loving care of us as we go forward.

Thanksgiving Together

2008-12-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

So much has happened in past couple of weeks...let's see. Two weeks ago I left Fred here and flew out to Seattle to spend some time with Shane and family. Kristi and the girls left the day after I got there to drive to her folks in Twin Falls. Shane, Daniel and I spent 5 days together shopping, visiting his work and school, plus driving back to Boise.

On Tuesday the 25th of November all of our kids and their families started to gather in Idaho City to spend 4 days together at the Knotty Pine Lodge. What a bunch we were. We had 4- two year olds, 1 - three year old, 1 - four year old and 2 - five year olds. With all our kids and spouses plus grand kids and Fred's Mother, Joy, there were 18 of us. This Thanksgiving week all together was truly a gift from God.

Our days were filled with cooking, eating, keeping track of kids, visiting, and playing games with lots of laughter. Joy, Kristi and Carrie even got in a drive one afternoon. We had lots of cameras going off so will add some photos soon. We were so blessed with good weather and plenty of room for all of us to be together in the lodge. Fred and I took our camper up so we had our own space too.

Yesterday the last of family flew out of Boise. I guess that makes about 10 days of fun. Now we are making plans for the next phase of our Quality of Life Tour.

The night I few into Seattle I tripped and fell in the parking lot of the train station where Shane parks his car. It was amazing that I did not get hurt too badly. I did jam 3 fingers on my left hand but no other broozes. Someday I will be able to put my wedding ring back on. It was pretty humbling, but I survived.

Fred has come up with an infection in his right armpit. They think he probably picked up in one of his hospital visits. The Dr had to lance it several times and keep it packed for the past couple of weeks. He just has a few more days of medication.

Fred is gaining more strength every day. He was able to win his share of games and keep up with all the grandkids this week. He is off lifting restrictions but being pretty careful about it. He is laughing more and even had an argument with me the other day. I thought it was a good sign.

We plan to hit the road next week.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. Happy Thanksgiving.

Idaho rabbit food....

2008-11-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

Fred finished his radiation treatments a week ago today at National Navel Medical Center. He had an MRI at 8pm that night and we flew out the next morning at 8am. We were so ready to move on. We have been in the DC area about 30 days and so much has changed. Fred came to DC in a wheel chair and in terrible pain. He left pushing the wheel chair with his luggage in it, with no back pain and weaned off all his narcotics. God is good.

Our first focus when we arrived here in Boise was to get our Suburban and camper out of storage at Mountain Home AFB. The girls had tried to get it a couple of weeks ago, but could not get it started. Wade drove over to see us on Friday night from WY. Saturday morning Misty got a babysitter and we took 2 vehicles down hoping to bring the camper and truck home one way or another.

First we tried jumping it, not luck. Then Wade went to check the spark plug wires and one fell off in his hand. He took off the air filter and there were pieces of wire everywhere. He said, "We've had a varmint of some kind in here." Misty and I headed to town 8 miles away and left Wade and Fred there to figure out what parts we needed. The more they looked the more chewed wires they found. We were at the parts store telling the guy behind the counter about our problem and he just smiled and said, "That is rabbits, we have it happen all the time." We had never heard of such a thing. When we got back we told the guys it was rabbits and Wade said that he knew it had white fur. It makes us laugh a lot.....rabbits in the desert must be hungry.

Wade and Misty spent the next hour or so putting in new spark plug wires and replacing or patching other wires. Before you know it we had it running and going down the road to Boise; Misty driving our patched up Sub, Wade in his truck towing the camper with Fred, and me driving Misty's vehicle. It started to sprinkle as we drove and I was thankful for God's timing once again.

The next morning they worked on it some more and it seems to be running pretty well. We will probably have it checked out before we head out in the next couple of weeks.

We have been unpacking and trying to find places to put everything in the camper so that we can find it again when we need it. Now that I am unpacking the suitcases I packed six weeks ago, I wonder why I brought the things I did and why not others. Oh well, there is always the thrift stores.

The first night here I woke up and it was so quiet and couldn't figure out where I was. We do not miss the noise of the big city.

Just a few more days...

2008-11-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, just a few more days here and we will be heading back to Idaho. We have 3 different Doc appointments tomorrow. The next couple of days should not be so full. Fred and I are both really ready to get back to Idaho and move into our camper.

Wade is driving up to Boise to see us next weekend. The girls didn't get our Suburban started last week, so his first project will be to help us get it started. Then get it and the camper moved out of storage. We are ready to move into our own space. We have been gypsies for 5 weeks now.

Today Fred and I went to the Chapel here in the hospital. It was my second Sunday in a row. We really enjoyed it. We met a people from a lot of different places and circumstances.

This afternoon we took the Metro to downtown Bethesda and had a late lunch at a nice restaurant. Fred did real well. We took the wheel chair but he did not use it very much.

We have been enjoying the sunny fall weather the past 3 days. Hope it stays this way until we leave. Alaska has been below zero lately.

One week to go

2008-10-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

Our weather here is starting to remind us of what the weather was like in Alaska when we left, the end of Sept. Cool, cloudy and windy.

Monday, Fred started physical therapy. He has some exercises to strengthen his back muscles because of the surgery and leg exercises for the weakness from the nerve being compressed.

One week from tomorrow Fred will finish the radiation treatments. His biggest struggle with the treatments is being at the hospital at 8:30 am. When he finishes we usually stop at the coffee shop. I have a cup of coffee and we read the paper for awhile before we walk back to our room.

In the afternoon I usually get out of our room, take a walk or go window shopping. Today Fred went with me. We took the wheelchair because he was worn out from the morning walk. We stopped at the BX and got him a light fleece to wear under his rain jacket. He has lost so much weight that he gets cold quickly.

You will be thrilled to know that I got out my art supplies and have been using them the last couple of days. Hummm........I can tell it has been while since I have picked up a paint brush. Today I worked on a bright red maple leaf with yellow veins.

I think that a few more days and Fred will feel better. Being weaned off narcotics has been a slow hard process . I am proud of how well he has handled it.

Once again we want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. We are very blessed by you.

Pain Free...things are looking up

2008-10-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Fred and I were at the hospital waiting room early and Dr M came walking through. He asked Fred how his pain level was. Fred said, "I have no pain just a little stiffness at the surgery spot." To say that Dr M was smiling was an understatement. He said, "Fred, you looked rough when I first saw you a couple of weeks ago and you look so much better today. I am so glad that we could help you." It is great to have another Dr in our corner as we travel down this cancer trail.

Fred is having 10 days of radiation treatments on his back. This should stop the tumor from coming back again. We will have him weaned off his pain meds this week. The next challenge is to build up his strength.

We have moved back into Navy housing, where we have spent a lot of time in the past year. We enjoyed staying with Skip and Sandra but it is nice to be so close to the hospital. They have Doc appointments here this week, so we will see them. They are still in the middle of their own cancer challenges.

November 7 - the date of our plane tickets back to Boise. It is also Shane's 36th birthday. Every year I am amazed at how the years have flown by since the day he was born. We look forward to driving out and spending some time parked in his front yard soon. It has been too long since we have been able to spend some time with him and his growing family.

The leaves are starting to turn here and the temperature has dropped into the 50's and 60's. There is construction going on all over the place, so the base has lost some of it's park like atmosphere. The Army Walter Reed Hospital is being merged here with National Naval Medical Center in the next few years. There will be a lot of changes around here.

I keep busy taking care of all the details of travel, lodging, food, treatment, and medications. I did bring some art supplies along but so far I have not touched them. I am glad we are staying in the same place for 12 days now. We have not been in one place that long since we left Alaska. When was that? Let me look that up....4 weeks ago!

Just 4 weeks since we left Alaska and Fred is pain free.... things are looking up.

Post Surgery -- Ten Days

2008-10-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

Fred and I have been staying at Skip & Sandra's for a week today. Fred has been continuing to improve as the days go by. Our latest challenge is to wean him off the pain meds. Today I can see an end to this hard phase.

We have a room reserved at Navy Housing across the parking lot from the hospital starting on Wednesday for the next 2 weeks. They are remodeling in our building so that should be interesting. Fred will be having 2 weeks of radiation on the area were he had surgery last week.

I have been doing a couple hours of yard work everyday to keep myself out of trouble. Sandra goes to work everyday, so I have been doing the cooking and cleaning for her. Skip has been out of town this week but will be back this weekend. Skip has chemo 5 days next week at the Navy hospital.

The weather here has been sunny and warm... it is cold and snowing at home.

Where do we start? It's October?

2008-10-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

Hummmm? To answer one of the most asked questions these days---Yes, we know Sarah Palin. Yes, Fred and I have both worked with her as mayor and governor. She is smart, articulate and approachable. She takes her job of serving the people very seriously. Yes, we are strong supporters.

Health update on Fred. As most of you know he started chemo in March and finished up in July. We did not get much out of that course of treatment except some of the bad side effects. I will say that chemo did bring the numbers down for a very short period of time... I do not see us doing chemo at this level again.

As the summer wore on Fred's physical and mental strength continued to wane. One thing that he wanted, was to spend some time with our children and grandchildren , plus our parents. I presented the idea that we go to the lower 48 for the winter and call it our quality of life tour. Fred retired from the Army a year ago June and all we have done since then has been medicine related. It is time for us to just enjoy life for awhile.

There was one problem with my travel idea and that was that Fred was in terrible pain. A year ago July, Fred had a tumor on his spine radiated to shrink it. He felt that that tumor was growing again and causing pain in his back and down his right leg. It was time to investigate how we could relieve this pain.

To make a long story short, we flew to the DC area a week ago. Our first stop was to see the radiation oncologist (October 6, 2008). The Doc asked if anyone had ever suggested neurosurgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve in Fred's back. We said no, and that we where willing to consider it. Well, here we are 4 days later, October 10, and Fred is recovering from the back surgery he had done yesterday. He is already walking much better. The last 10 days his pain and mobility had gotten so much worse. The surgeons were pleased with their ability to relieve the pressure on the nerve stem. We plan to have that area radiated in a couple of weeks, so that the tumor will not grow back.

Looking forward. Our camper trailer and suburban are in Idaho and we plan to return there to start our winter travel. All of our kids and grandkids are getting together for a few days at Thanksgiving in Boise, ID. I think that will be a great start to our quality of life tour. Who knows we may be in a town near you.

Carrie will be wrapping up her photography training in a few weeks and starting her new career. She plans to spend some time traveling with us this winter.

Once again Fred and I have felt God's guiding hand on our lives. We want to thank each one of you for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf. We are so blessed.

CNN comes to visit.

2008-09-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

Here is an article from this week.

Alaska neighbors love their hockey mom VP candidate.

Fall Feeling

2008-08-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

A few yellow leaves are starting to dot the lawn, berries are ripening and the mornings are smelling like fall. We have had a little more sunshine in recent weeks, but everyone is feeling a little cheated when it comes to summer weather.

My flowers have been a little slow, except for the begonias and they love cool wet weather. Laila said she got some pictures while she was here.....

We also went to Hatcher Pass where she got some more good pictures. (Thanks for adding your pictures Laila.)

Last week I went down to the Kenai Peninsula halibut fishing. It was great to get a fishing pole wet for a few days. The ocean was as smooth as glass. We saw lots of puffins, sea otters, and hump back whales every day. By the time I got home on Monday night Fred was in the hospital in Anchorage. He had gotten dehydrated and needed to be on IV's for a couple of days.

Fred is home now, eating, drinking and feeling better. He is recovering from the chemo very slowly. He is so proud of the peach fuzz he is getting on his chin.... he says it's blond, I would say platinum.....

Barbara L headed back to the lower 48 on Friday. She spoiled us so much this summer... Guess I will have to get back in the habit of doing dishes and laundry again. We will miss our morning coffee with you and those wild games of Hand & Foot.
Thank you dear friend, for sharing the most precious gift of your time. We are so grateful.

Is it the end of JULY?

2008-07-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

This summer has gone by so fast.... The weather here has been cold and wet. We have had about 2 days of sunshine. That is if you add together the 30 minutes here and there.

The end of June our friend Barbara L came from Texas to spend a couple months and help us out with the B&B. We have had a great time.....lots of laughs, lots of cards and digging out corners unseen for too long. Just a couple more weeks and she will be headed back to the lower 48.

Last Wed my sister, Laila came for a visit. With all the rainy weather we have spent our days inside sewing quilts, playing cards and just sharing time together. Every night after supper we have had a game or 2 of hand and foot before bed. We have even worked in some B&B guests during her visit. She flies out tomorrow night. Thank you for coming and filling our days with a little of your sunshine, Laila. And thank you Phil & Kids for sharing her with us.

Here is a Fred update.....I know that is what all of you are waiting for. He finished Chemo with good results. He is getting a little stronger everyday and we look forward to traveling to see friends and family in the fall. Fred's plan is to enter another drug trial in the future. Please pray that his numbers stay stable and that he continues gain strength and enjoy good days.

We have been so blessed by the support of all of you.

Wade Came to Visit..

2008-06-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have been sooooo bad about keeping you updated in the past couple of months.

The end of April Wade came and spent 8 days with us. He had not been to Alaska in 6 years and 3 months. He has done a lot of living since he left, including being married and having 2 children. To say that he was excited to be here is an understatement.

He was the energizer bunny.......working on our cars, putting in a new kitchen sink and faucet and the biggest project, plumbing and putting tile in the master bath. Fred and I started to remodel that bathroom right before he was diagnosed with cancer. Has it been 5 years?

Wade came with us to Fred's chemo treatment and got in on all that involves. It was so encouraging for Fred and I to have him come and share this time with us. Wade also got to connect with a lot of old friends. It was a great visit for all of us.

Thank you Annadeidra for sharing your husband's time with us.

Misty's Visit

2008-06-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Fred and I have been blessed again. A couple of weeks ago Misty came to spend some time with us. Now she had heard about all the projects Wade had done when he was here. And she was not to be outdone by her older brother. I don't think that is the real motivation for her visit, but in retrospect it could look that way.

Without her 3 children 3 years and under, under foot, she thought she was a light footed wonder woman. She helped her Dad sort through about 20 boxes of books and took 10 boxes to sell at the used book store. Then she gutted the loft and put in new sub floor, vinyl flooring, and painted it. Misty, with the help of her main cheerleader, Jim, also arranged for a new couch to be delivered. The last thing she did was tear out the old staircase and put in a new one.

Misty's goal was to give Fred a fresh bright new place to hang out when we have B&B guests here. Look for yourself ....thanks Misty for all the work and all the laughs.

Thanks you Peter for making this happen and being such and good Dad caring for those little darlings.

Here He Is

2008-04-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures......they tell the story better than I can.

White World - White Count

2008-04-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

We have a white world today. It has been snowing off and on all day. The big news is that the glacier covering our driveway has melted. We don't mind a little snow, it makes everything look clean and white for a few days. The ice usually goes off our lake from about the end of April to the second week of May.

Fred did very well after his first chemo treatment. There were about 4 days in that week where he was really out of it. He slept most of the time during those days.

Yesterday Fred had blood work done again and his white count was back to normal. Every Friday he has been having blood work done. The first week after his treatment his white count was very low. We were pleased that it came back up on it's own. This coming Thursday he will have his second chemo treatment.

Thanks for all your love & support.

One Down....

2008-03-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Fred had his first chemo treatment today and it went well. He started some new pain medication yesterday that is making him much more comfortable. I was the one that came home and took a nap this afternoon. He was the Energizer Bunny, heading off to the store as soon as we got home. He is napping now for a few minutes before supper.

Tonight I am going to a Good Friday service at church. It is hard to believe that Easter Weekend is here already.

Thanks for all your cards, thoughts and prayers.

Spring!

2008-03-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

We have a plan.....at least for now. Fred will start chemo treatments here in Anchorage on Friday morning and will have a treatment every 3 weeks. Tomorrow morning we go in for chemo training (that sounds like a military term). His new doctor here will be working with our DC doctors, so that he will still be qualified for the upcoming drug trials there. We both slept so hard last night, I think it was because the decision making pressure was off.

It is a very pretty morning here. Today is the spring equinox, that means from now to the fall equinox in September we have more daylight than darkness. All the sunshine lately is great but it sure makes the dirty winter windows and cobwebs show up. Guess if I am home maybe we can get around to getting some cleaning done. I wonder how good Nick is at washing windows?

Our little granddaughter, Elizabeth, is having her tonsils out this morning. She called me last night to ask me about when I had mine out. For me it was a party with ice cream. My hospital bed was in the hall because they were out of rooms. I had a steady stream of people to visit with and all the ice cream I wanted. I was 6 years old not 3. It is amazing how much I remember about that experience and I can't remember what I left across the room 5 minutes ago. Papa and I pray for your speedy recovery, Lizzy.

This weekend is Misty and Peters 7th wedding anniversary. Congratulations! You know what Dad always says, "This is what memories are made of." Lizzy should be feeling better soon.

Unknown Territory

2008-03-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

These past days we have spent gathering information from doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. There is not manual or check list to follow for this process. We just keep asking questions and searching for answers about where and how we should go about the next phase of Fred's treatment.

We are so blessed to have so many doctors and staff willing to help us along this pathway through this unknown territory. We have thought we were close to making decisions several times this week only to find out we did not have the whole picture yet.

Today it looks like we may be able to get all Fred's east coast doctors and his doctors here to work together and come up with a plan for chemo that he can be treated with here in Alaska. Everyone is concerned about the toll it takes on him to travel back and forth from coast to coast.

Tuesday we meet with more doctors here to see what they can offer. A decision should be made and treatment started this week. Just remember, at this point everything is subject to change.

Please pray for us as we work through these decisions this week. May God be praised.

Treatment Changes

2008-03-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

I know we are a little slow getting you all brought up to date. Bad news is always a little to harder to share, so I will just get that out of the way first.

Let me review Fred's cancer over the past 8 months. In July, tests showed 2 cancer spots, one on his pelvic bone and one on his spine. We had the spine treated with radiation because it was pressing on his sciatic nerve and causing a lot of pain, plus we did not want any permanent damage to those nerves.

In September, Fred officially started the new vaccine trial. On his second dose, in October, he had a drug reaction that caused his liver enzymes to be elevated for 10 weeks. He did not have the vaccine during that time.

In January, he was able to continue with the trial and his PSA numbers were starting to rise fast.

Here we are in March. Fred had all the body scans and blood work done that we expected. We knew his PSA has been going up considerably faster in recent weeks and expected some new cancer activity. The scans showed 3 new cancer spots on his bones, two on his skull and one one his ribs. Because of these latest developments, Fred has been taken off this trial.

All the doctors that we have worked with at NIH and NNMC agree that chemo therapy should be our next step. We have calls into several more doctors and medical facilities gathering information so that we can make a decisions on a treatment plan soon. Please pray for us as we work through this information and make these decisions.

We were so blessed to have Shane travel with us last week. I think that he got a pretty good picture of what our lifestyle has been most of these last 4 years. It was fun to introduce him to all our Doctors and the community of people that are part of our DC life. (Thanks again, son.) We were sorry he missed meeting Skip and Sandi as they were out of town on vacation.

In the meantime, we are at home enjoying feeding the birds, feeding the fire and adjusting to the Alaska time zone.

Ready....Set.....Go!

2008-02-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

What a difference a few weeks at home can make. Fred recovered from his injection in about a week this time and has felt pretty good the rest of the month. I was especially worn after this trip. The whole trip was filled with extra struggles that were very wearing on me. I can't believe, that I can honestly say I am feeling rested physically, mentally and spiritually now. I am reminded of that verse that says God will never give us more than we can bear.

The bright spot on our last trip was getting to spend a week with Carrie and Misty plus family before heading to DC. The plan was for us to babysit the kids while Misty & Peter went out of town for a few days of rest and to celebrate Misty's 30th BD. Well, to make a long story short the whole family ended up on antibiotics instead. Praise the Lord Fred and I did not catch that bug. Lizzy is getting to be such a big girl going to preschool and the twins are walking and talking. We had a lot of laughs that week. Nothing like the Grandkids to lift your spirits.

Tomorrow morning we head for the airport again. Fred and I, believe it or not, are really looking forward to this trip. The biggest reason is that our oldest son, Shane, will be traveling with us. I think that last time we had Shane to ourselves for 5 days was before his little sister was born. And we will not say how many years that has been. We appreciate his willingness to give us this precious gift of time. We especially want to thank his wife for her willingness to share him with us, as she will be left at home with 3 small children. Thank you Shane & Kristi!

Thanks again to all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. We are so blessed by all of you. God is good.

New Numbers

2008-02-04T19:31:00.000-08:00

The good news is that Fred's liver numbers were very near normal today. That ment he could have a treatment this afternoon. The bad news is that the PSA is up. The Doctors told us that sometimes it takes 4,5, or 6 treatments before the PSA drops. Fred has only had 2 treatments close together. Fred is also starting to have pain in his leg again but is able to control it with Ibeprophen. He is scheduled to have body scans next month, so they will re-evaluate the tumar then.

We enjoyed Sunday afternoon with Sandra and Skip, plus friends that gathered to celebrate the Super Bowl. Fred and I left early to head to Bethesda and got to our room in time to see the last quarter. It was a fun game to watch..... the only football game we watched this year.

Once again we are headed home on Wednesday. We here it's cold up there humm.......

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.

A Maryland Morning

2008-02-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

My it has been awhile since I updated everyone.....

We had a restful time at home watching the snow fall and feeding the fire. I even did a little closet cleaning. Fred recovered quickly from his injections. I know that he has been feeling better because he keeps thinking of things that I should do.

The last week that we were home I spent my time cleaning and reorganizing the basement because we had a new boarder moving in. Nickolas moved in just a couple of days before we left. I talked to him the other day and he was asking where a few things were in the kitchen. He seems to be settling in. We are so greatful to have someone living at the house and taking care of things since we are gone so much.

This morning I am sitting in Maryland at Skip and Sandra's kitchen table watching a flock of blackbirds coming and going around the neighborhood. I can't believe how many there are. I woke up to their chater this morning. We had good flights yesterday from Boise to Seattle to DC.

As many of you know, we went to Boise to help out with the kids so that Misty and Peter could run away for a few days. Feb 1 was Misty's 30th birthday. Well, to make a long story short the whole family went on antibiotics the day after we got to Boise and no one felt well enough to go anywhere. Sorry Misty, maybe another time. We did enjoy our visit with all of them, espcially when they all started to feel better.

So far, Fred and I are well. We all worked very hard at hand washing and sanitizing around the house to keep the bugs away. We enjoyed sleeping in our camper in the back yard. According to the family in the house, they did not get the full nights of sleep that we did.

Tomorrow Fred is back at NIH with blood work and Dr appointments. We will let you all know what we learn as soon as we can. If all goes well, our tickets home to Alaska are for Wed the 6th.

Happy Anniversary Wade and Annadeidra. Five years and counting...... God bless you both.

Yes!

2008-01-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

After much study, Fred passed his liver exam today and got a long awaited treatment. The first thing this morning Fred went to the lab to donate his blood for the day. It was only 20 vials this time. We went to see Dr G and were in her office waiting for the lab results and listening to all the possible tests they were considering if the numbers did not come down this time. And there it was on the compuer screen.....they are not all totally normal yet ...but definitely going in the right direction.

Everyone was doing a lot of smiling the rest of the day. Doctors even greeted us in the hall with their congratulations. It was a long day at the hospital but well worth it. We don't have another appointment until Feb 4.

About Wednesday at 5pm, we should be walking in the door of our home in Alaska. The time since we left has gone very fast with all the holiday travel but it will be good to be home.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful holiday season we have had! We flew from DC and spent about a week with Wade, Annadeidra and kids. We spent our time enjoying each others company with a lot of laughter, playing card games, dominos, and loving on the grandkids. Kyrstin and I baked a cake and Papa rode the little 4 wheeler around the yard with her. Ashton reminds us a lot of Wade at that age, always on the move with a cute grin and a twinkle in his eye.

After Christmas it was off to Kansas. Mom's car broke down on the way to pick us up so Rodney and Steve came to the rescue. They were having their big family Christmas dinner that afternoon....but we ate in shifts by the time the cars got towed and shuttled around. Fred and I sleep in the recliners in the middle of the livingroom while all the family of 9 visited around us. It was a long day, that morning we had to get going at 3:30 am to catch our flight in Nasville.

We saw a lot of family and friends in our week here. It was great to spend the night with Laila and family. The whole family got in a game of Hand & Foot. Lewis and Elaina did a great job of keeping up with us. I think they focus on the gamve better than we do, we are distracted by the visit we are having. It is wonderful to have a game that everyone can enjoy playing.

No one enjoys playing games more than Mom. She especially loves picking up 7 cards in Hand & Foot and saying, "There are just so many possibilities." It was amazing how many times she pulled it off & won.

We find ourselves at the Wichita Airport this morning on our way back to DC. Rodney and Mom brought us in and we had a nice breakfast at IHOP on our way to the airport. Laila and Elaina came by and saw us. We have internet hook up here at the airport so I thought I would catch you all up.

The next couple of days we will be at base housing remonising about the good times we have had in the past couple of weeks. Monday Fred will be back at the hospital. Our plans at this time are to fly home on Wednesday.

Thanks everyone for a great holiday.

The best news....

2007-12-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, it was a very long day. Fred was at the hospital at 7:30 am and we left the hospital at about 6pm this evening. We were so glad we had left overs that we could just heat up in the microwave in our room for supper. It was a day full of tests, waiting, MRI, doctors and more waiting and more doctors.

Everyone wanted so bad to give us good news and give Fred a treatment. His liver enzyme numbers have come down, but not as much as was expected or needed before he could have his vaccine treatment. He is the only one one this trial that has had this problem and they are very cautious about putting any more stress on his liver.

The best news is that Fred is still in the this drug trial and his treatment has just been postponed until his liver heals. So....we have postponed our trip home from January 6 to January 9. Fred will have blood tests and hopefully a treatment on January 7.

Tomorrow Skip is coming to pick us up and we will spend a couple of days with them. We are going to the crab shack for lunch. Fred and Skip usually make a run to the book store too. We always enjoy our time with them. I think it is time to teach Skip & Sandi to play "Hand and Foot", don't you?

Then we are off to see family for the holidays. It is time to spend time thinking about something besides cancer. It is very important to Fred that everyone treats him like he is normal. He is....this is our normal life now. It makes Fred uncomfortable when anyone hovers over him and tries to protect him. He is still able to make good choices for himself. We all need to let him do that.

It was great to hear the excitement in the air this evening as we watched the staff leaving the hospital for the holiday weekend. Everyone was greeting each other with Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday greetings, sharing holiday plans and excitement.

Fred & I want to wish each of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too.

Remember the best news - Jesus is the reason for the season.

Christmas choirs, trees, trains, and flowers.

2007-12-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

Just had a call from Dr G and Fred's liver enzymes are still high. Yesterday he had blood work and today they did a liver sonogram. Tomorrow he will be at the hospital all day with blood work, tests, Dr appointments and hopefully a treatment. We will see what all the doctors decide tomorrow.

What a great surprise today..... at noon we were at the hospital when the NIH Chamber Singers put on their annual Holiday Concert. They sang 20 songs, all Capella, in an hour. What a treat to hear that concert. The group of 15 was made up of employees and friends of the National Institute of Health. The atrium area where they were singing is a big open area with about 50 palm trees in giant pots. This month they all decorated with red poinsettias at the bases of the pots and a huge Christmas tree plus several tree shaped poinsettia displays. It is a wonderful Christmas display and then fill it with music. What a treat.

More Christmas tradition.... the first Christmas season we came to DC (4 years ago, I think) Fred and I went to see the National Botanical Gardens Christmas display. That year it was a 1950's theme with electric train, displays of Alpine Villages, flowers, decorations everywhere. Today we took the metro and went back to see what the Christmas display was this year. There were poinsettias in white, pink, old fashioned red and red with rose shaped centers. The main colors were light pink and white poinsettias and bright midnight blue balls decorating the tree. Also tucked in among the all the plants and flowers were a collection of models of historic buildings of the National Mall and Capital Hill. Maybe I can put up some pictures I took of some of them.

More about the train display... the garden railway features three islands, more than 800 feet of track and a 45 foot suspension bridge. You can stand and watch the trains for hours, winding up the mountains, through villages, past rustic cabins and across the bridges.

We are so blessed to be in DC during the holiday season.

We're Back...

2007-12-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Yes, we're back in the DC area... seems like we were just here last week. No it's been 2 weeks. Our flights were good. We got first class upgrades for the long flight from Seattle to DC. Today we moved into Navy Housing and tried to catch up with the jet lag.

Skip was here for a Doc appointment so we went out to lunch with him at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. He had good news about his cancer today.

We had a nice restful time at home and now we are ready to do the Doc thing again. Fred will have tests for the next 2 days and then hopefully he will get a treatment on Friday. We hope to do a little holiday visiting on the way home....we may be in a town near you.

Our new house sitter is Brad. Hopefully all will go well for him in Alaska. I kept telling him we are only a phone call away.

We want to thank everyone for your help in making our travel and stays smooth. Thanks for your prayers too. God is good.

Home again, home again jiggidy jog.

2007-12-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

No first class upgrades, but our flight home was pretty uneventful. Just the way we like it. Most of the snow was gone, so we didn't have to clean off our car that had been sitting in long term parking. On the way home we stopped on base, picked up a few groceries and filled our gas tank. After we ate some dinner, we were ready to head for bed. We got up at 12:30am Alaska time (4:30am DC time) to get to the airport that morning.

Today we had a slow day - sorting through mail, adding a log to the fire, making a few phone calls, catching up on reading the local newspaper. It's good to be home again.

Sadie does not let Fred out of her site. Right now she is laying on the floor next to the couch where he is laying reading his book. I think they are both pretty contented.

Tomorrow will be busy filling out travel vouchers and finishing up the travel details just 10 days away. Not sure what or where we will be over the Christmas..... A lot can happen before then. Right now it is good to be home.

Tomorrow Alaska

2007-12-04T13:09:00.000-08:00

First the liver news. The biopsy showed that Fred did have a drug reaction from a trail drug he took last month. He will not get that drug again. Fred is the first one on the trial to have this problem. The liver is getting healthier on it's own, so they are not going to give him more medication for that. Healing will just take time.

Time gives us a chance to come home for a couple of weeks, well 12 days anyway. Fred is scheduled for re staging on the 19th of this month. This means body scans and 3 days of tests. He has a ticket for the 17th and on the travel story goes.

Looking at my calendar yesterday, I realized that we have been here about half of the time for the past 4 months. Skip and Sandi asked if we ever thought about just getting an apartment in the area. My answer was no. We feel pretty at home here in Navy Housing......they know us by name when we walk in the door. We have what we need here or we know how to ask for it.

The weather has turned much colder and very windy. Last night when I walked home from the hospital, I felt like I should hold on to the lamp post so I wouldn't be blown away while I waited for the street light to change. I saw a lot of big winter coats today. It made me laugh, I just have a wind breaker. I did wish I had put on my gloves when I walked up to the hill to the hospital this morning.

Fred was discharged from the hospital about 2 this afternoon. He is on some pain medication. His ribs are sore and he is a little stiff. Right now he is napping.

All the motels by the airport are full so we will have take the metro early in the morning. We usually get a motel next to the airport the night before we fly. Oh well, not this time. I have our names on the list for first class upgrades.
We'll see.... tomorrow home to Alaska.

Resting comfortably.

2007-12-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

It was a nice restful weekend. Quite a few people at the hospital commented that we both looked more rested this morning. Makes us wonder what we looked like last week. I know that Fred had better color this morning than he has had for a couple weeks.

This morning we caught a ride on the shuttle to NIH. Of course Fred stopped and gave the lab a little blood to start the day. We headed for the Procedure Unit and there was our liver Doc with a big smile. She does so well with Fred. She is truly a god sent to us. In just a few minutes they were ready to get to work, so I headed out to the waiting room.

Fred said that he didn't feel a thing and it was all over with before he knew it. Doc said they got a great sample. Everyone was very pleased with how good he looks on the inside. They keep telling him what a healthy man he is.

By 11am the procedure was all over. They kept him in the unit and watched him very closely for 2 or 3 hours and then they took him over to a room. He had to lay flat for 6 hours and didn't to eat until about 5pm. He was ready. After he ate, he had a pain pill and I left about 6:30. I do not think he will be awake for long. He was just getting a roommate when I left...I am sure he won't be bored.

We were visiting with to Misty on the phone today and she said we should start calling Dad a guinea pig. Fred's comment was that he felt more like a lab rat. They took more blood this afternoon and did a CBC that looked great. Nice to get good news once in a while.

I plan to be at the hospital about 10am. Fred is not supposed to lift or do anything stressful for a week. Guess we will be checking those bags. We still have tickets for Wednesday and may get to use them.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Biopsy Postponed

2007-11-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

We were in the final stages before having the biopsy when it came to their attention that Fred takes aspirin every day for his heart disease. Fred needs to be off aspirin for 5 days before they can do the biopsy. Now we are scheduled for Monday morning. Yes, we changed our plane tickets again to Wednesday, December 5. Fred is scheduled for his every 6 month body scans, on December 19, so we will be flying back to DC on the 17th. That is if we get home by then.

Our plan now is to go to Skip and Sandi's for the weekend. They called again last night making sure that we understood they have a place waiting for us at their house.

We need to contact our Alaska support team (dog sitter, house sitter, chicken sitter and military health insurance people) and let them know the latest changes. We are blessed to have so many people willing and able to help us.

Fred is feeling good. The cold is almost gone. He would not know that there is any problem if it weren't for the blood work. But that is they way it has been through most of this cancer adventure. The PSA is going up, but the numbers are no where near where they were this summer.

The numbers are up.

2007-11-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well, Fred got up early this morning and went over for his blood tests. I enjoyed a little extra time in bed. He was back home by 10 to take his nap. We knew that Sandra was coming to the Navy hospital for a Doc appointment this morning...so we were hoping to get to see her. She did call us and we got to see her for a few minutes before she had to head back to work.

For lunch today we headed over to the hospital dining room and had tacos. It was a clear sunny day. The locals were complaining about the cold but we thought it was just right for walking. We took the Metro and went to a bookstore Fred likes at Union Station. Each of us got a new book to read for tomorrow. It will probably be a long day.

Our liver specialist called in the afternoon to tell us that the numbers went up another 20 points today. So the biopsy is on for tomorrow morning. We really like our liver specialist. She is 31 years old and very through. She told me that Fred reminds her of her own father and that she will treat Fred with the same care she would treat her own dad. We are well taken care of by the whole team of Doctors here.

Sonogram and Biopsy

2007-11-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful fall morning, we walked to the hospital. It's about a mile or so from our building to NIH. There are still some leaves on the trees and the temperature was about 55 degrees. Walking through the bright colored leaves on the streets reminds us of the fall we were engaged, just 37 years ago. We have had a long fall between here and Alaska.

This morning Fred had a liver sonogram and more blood tests. This afternoon we met with the liver specialist to learn that the liver looked good. Sooooo the plan we have for now is.....tomorrow they will repeat the liver blood work. If the numbers have not come down, he is scheduled for a liver biopsy on Thursday. He will be staying in the hospital for the night on Thursday. Our tentative date to fly home is Saturday, December 2. We have our tickets changed. Any of this could change at any time.

We shared our shuttle bus with another military couple in Fred's trial from California this afternoon. We hope to connect with them again and share the shuttle more often. He has had his own share of problems. Seeing so many very sick patients here makes us realize how good we really have it.

Great Flights

2007-11-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

We had such great flights the day after Thanksgiving with first class upgrades the whole way. Skip and Sandi were off on a cruse so we have been hanging out at Navy Base housing for a couple of days. Yesterday we got up late and took the metro to the next stop and ate brunch at a nice restaurant. I talked Fred into taking a little walk in downtown Bethesda. We found a Safeway and got some fruit and a few things before we headed home.

Today is treatment day. We got to the hospital in good time this morning for Fred to get his blood work done. When we went upstairs they put him in an isolation room because of his cold that he is almost over. Too many sick people around they don't want him to make sicker. We saw our usual round of nurses and doc's, but today they did not have good news. Fred's liver enzymes are way up. That means no treatment until they figure out why or if the numbers go back down. Tomorrow he will have a sonogram of the liver. They took a total of 23 vials of blood today, we should learn something. Thursday we will have more Doc appointments and they will decide what is going to happen next.

One more time we will not be going home on our scheduled day. We will keep you posted when we know anything new. I am not changing my plane tickets today, because I do not know what to change them to.

What day is this & where am I?

2007-11-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

I have a calendar in my purse to keep track of Doc appointments, PSA's and travel info. I usually spend some time catching it up to date while I am in the air. That has been a lot lately.

October 26. We went to DC for Fred's treatment a couple of weeks ago. The Doc's decided to put it off until they treated a rash that he had. Well, he was feeling good, so instead of flying all the way back home, we decided to go see the grand kids in the west.

November 1-4. We spent a few days in Seattle with Shane & family. I think those kids have grown an inch or two since we saw them in July. Shane took a few days off of work, so it seemed like we saw them a lot. We celebrated Shane's 35th birthday a few days early with Sunday dinner at Olive Garden. It wasn't that long ago we were 35, was it?

November 4-7. Sunday night we flew over to Boise and spent a few days with the kids over there. We even got to sleep in out camper for 3 nights. Carrie has been living in it in Misty & Peter's back yard. We went to the park and Carrie brought us our picnic lunch. The last time we saw the Twins they were not walking yet. Well they are now and they have places to go and things to see as you can see on ScrubbyDeer.com. Too soon it was time to get back in the plane and head for DC.

Novermber 7. Our faithful friends, Skip and Sandra, were at the airport to pick us up and take us home. We had a day to rest and then Friday, Skip took us back to Bethesda to see the Docs again. Fred still had some rash, so it was decided that they would see us again in Mon. Well, the fun part was that we spent another weekend with S&S. We just join in on what ever is happening. This week they are getting ready to go on a cruse with some of their friends over the Thanksgiving week.

Monday, November 12, one more day in the hospital waiting on Docs and making treatment decisions. This is the 5th time in 2 weeks come to the hospital. It was a good visit. We got a lot more one on one time with our Doc because it was a holiday and there were only a few patients in the day hospital. It was decided that we would come back for a treatment in 2 weeks, November 26.

Home again. We arrived back in Alaska, Wednesday afternoon, November 14. It was beautiful flying in over all those white, white mountains. Our car had been parked for about 3 weeks in the snow and rain so it took us some time to get it cleaned off and warmed up. I was so happy to hear it start right up when I turned the key. Fortunately I had left a warm coat and gloves in the car when I left.

Friday, November 16. This is our second morning at home and we are enjoying the quiet. Yesterday Marni M brought Sadie home. Marni has been taking care of my chickens and Sadie has been staying at her house enjoying their 4 kids and dog named Sadie. We are so blessed by so many people.

This morning about 7am our case nurse from NIH called to try and work out dates for us to travel next week. With Thanksgiving it will be interesting. After a couple of calls it looks like we will fly a week from today, November 23. Now I have to get my ticket worked out with the travel people here. We are so blessed to have our tickets paid for. Now if we can just keep up with schedule. Fred and I both have sinus colds and jet lag that we hope to be over soon. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

Freasting on flowers

2007-10-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining through the trees covered in white fresh snow this morning. Yes, it snowed again last night. Fred scraped the new inch or two off the front deck this morning. I am so glad that he can do that. We have been to DC several times since I last wrote. We are adjusting to the new drug trial protocol. He is given a vaccine with his cancer DNA in it each month. He is also given immune booster shots. We are wanting the body to learn to have an immune response to the cancer and start fighting it. His PSA is going down, but we know some of that is because of the radiation treatments he had in August. So far the shots make him feel like he has the flu for a couple of weeks and then he feels pretty good for a couple of weeks before we start the whole process over again. This morning he is out helping his friend, Chuck. He went with him yesterday for a couple of hours too. I think it is so good for him to get out and work a little and spend time with another guy.

My latest observation is that Fred only has one soldier left and he thinks that it is me.

I am sitting at my dining room table enjoying my morning cup of coffee. Out my window the birds are busy at the feeder and the trees look like and old fashioned Christmas card. When the snow started falling this week every thing seems blanketed in peaceful silence. Another long winter has moved into stay. Just one more day and we are off to DC for the week. These past weeks at home have been great. We finished putting away the lawn furniture and put the flower pots to bed for the winter. I cut off all the plants, took them to the chicken yard, and watched my chickens feast on the last blooms of the season.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that Fred gave me a dozen chickens for our anniversary. Yes he did. I think he was looking for some normal activities around here. We had chickens for years and butchered them at Carrie's request when she lived here. She was tired of taking care of them when we were gone. So it has been a couple of years since we have had any. Our new chickens are just starting to lay. There is nothing like fresh eggs.

A couple of weeks ago Fred pitched a rotten apple over the deck rail at the chicken yard. He heard a chicken squawk and didn't think anything about it. The next day he came in and told me I had a dead chicken. So I went to check it out...nothing wrong with it that I could see. I don't know why it has died. A couple of days later he tells me about the apple and says, " I think I killed that chicken." I told him that was pretty expensive target practice, he said he never even looked he just threw it. We have had a good laugh over that one. He couldn't do that again if he tried.

This has been a restful month at home watching the snow come down the mountains, but we are looking forward to seeing Skip and Sandi again. I called them last Saturday and they were having their usual Saturday lunch at the crab shack. They are so excited that we are coming to spend the weekend with them. It is Skip's birthday and I think there is a party planned. They will be there at the airport in DC to pick us up Friday night. They are such a blessing to us. God just keeps blessing us in the most unusual ways.

This day has finally come.

2007-09-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

After three trips to DC in the past 6 months to try and start this drug trial, I am pleased to announce that today Fred had his first vaccine. So far he is tolerating the vaccine well. We have spent about 8 hours a day for the past 3 days having all kinds for tests and interviews.
Friday, Sept. 14 we flew to DC. Saturday Skip and Sandra came and picked us up and we spent the weekend with them. Monday morning they had an appointment here so we rode in with them. Tomorrow we head back home. All in all everything has gone pretty smoothly this trip. It is great to have our own wheel chair.
In two weeks we will be back our next appointment. After that it will be every 30 days. It is good to know what our schedule will be for the next 7 months or so.
Just a few days before we left last week we learned that Fred's insurance will pay for my plane tickets plus meals and lodging that NIH does not cover. God is taking such good care of us. Now we just need to learn how to fill out all the right paper work. The insurance office in Alaska has never had anyone traveling to DC for a drug trial before. We are all learning as we go. All the paperwork is different now that Fred is retired from the Army.

We're home

2007-08-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

It is good to be home were the weather is cool. A few more days and we will be adjusted to the 4 hour time difference. Sadie was so glad to see Fred, she will hardly let him out of her sight. We are so thankful to everyone that helped take care of our home and animals while we were away this summer. Jane & Jim, Sandy & Rodney, Katya & Katie.

Katie is moving in Carrie's old room in a couple of weeks. She house sat for us several times in the past year and took care of the B&B the last couple of weeks. It will be great for us to have someone here while we are gone. We look forward to encouraging her too along the way. Carrie has been gone a year already.

36 years ago today we got married in a little country church on the prairie. What an adventure it has been. We are so blessed with all our children, grandchildren, family and friends around the world. It is great to spend this day together at home.

I was talking to Uncle George yesterday and remembering some of the highlights of that day. He and Dale stole the bride (me). I can still see Fred standing on the church steps and waving as we went by. They didn't think he was any fun at all. By the time we got a few miles to the Maurine Store, they were ready to take me back. Apparently my Dad had told them that was as far as they could go. Funny how they took that seriously. I remember having a good laugh with them and then going back the the church.

Fred remembers that Aunt Jean kept decerating the car. He was busy packing the car and everytime he went in the house to get something, it was decorated again. He would wash it go back inside and she would decorate again. He was sure she did it 6 or 7 times until there was no shaving cream left. When we sold that car, a 1968 Ford Galxie 500, it still had a ghost of "Just Married" on the trunk.

My favorite mental picture of that day was the trip to the church. You see it had rained for the first time in six weeks that night and Dad didn't want our 2.5 mile dirt driveway torn up by driving on it wet. So when it rained we would drive on the prairie. Fred & I were in the car ready to head for the church when Dad came over and said, "Ahhh Fred, I don't want to offend you or anything, but you need to drive on the prairie. I think Marie should drive, cause she should know where to go to stay off the gumbo." Fred said okay and I got in the driver seat. No pressure!!! Usually when I drove the prairie I was following Dad. I really wasn't too sure where to go. Dad and I chatted a few minutes about where I should drive and we took off. I have this picture in my mind of the 4-6 foot sage brush flying by the window along with a lot of mud and water. Fred is hanging on to the dash board and the arm rest for dear life. The wedding dress is flapping on the hook in the window behind me and we are flying across the prairie. I kept the gas peddle pushed to the floor most of the way. The only thing that I could think of was that I did not want to get stuck this day. We got there safe and sound but after the trip, I don't remember a lot about the rest of the day. We still work at trusting each other.

Headed Home

2007-08-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

Moving on. After 11 days in base housing we moved to a hotel near the airport today. It was a little sad to leave our space we have enjoyed so close to the hospital. Sandy dropped us off with our luggage at the Metro station. She and Skip have been so good to us on this trip. We look forward to visiting them when we come back next month. Tomorrow morning we head for Alaska. We hear that the weather is beautiful at home. The thermometer said 90 today and with the breeze it was very pleasant.

Just a short shuttle bus ride to the airport in the morning and we are headed home one more time. Thanks for all your prayers for us. God has been very good to us on this trip.

So how is Fred?

2007-08-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Fred has one more radiation treatment on Monday. He has had no side effects of the radiation except fatigue. He is always ready for a nap. The pain caused by the sciatic nerve being pinched is much better. He is just taking Motrin now for pain when he needs it. He is walking much better too. He uses a cane and gets around real well. This week he walked to treatment every day. When we go for long walks he does ride in the wheel chair part of the way. He tires quickly.

Monday we have an appointment with his radiation Doc and the Doc's at NIH. We will learn the dates of our appointments next month. It looks like we will start the next drug trial after Labor Day. It will be good to get all the dates set so that we can plan our life around them.

We have had such a hard time deciding whether to go home or stay in the lower 48 for the next couple of weeks. We have been planning to spend some time with Wade and family on one of these trips. To make a long story short we have decided to go home on Wed. Fred & I are both ready to get out of the heat and be home for a couple of weeks. We will come see you soon Wade.

Marie's haircut

2007-08-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

My hair has been driving me nuts. You see the last real haircut I had was in May or June. I keep trimming it up myself every couple of weeks and getting by. Last Friday I bought a pair of kid’s paper scissors, they are pretty sharp with about a 2.5 inch blade. After I washed my hair I started trimming and that soon turned into seriously cutting of what I could reach. I even considered coaching Fred on cutting the back, but I chickened out on that idea. When I quit, it felt better, well I felt better.

Then yesterday I woke up with a haircut on my mind… Maybe it is those 100+ temperatures. Maybe it is that my life has slowed down enough to notice my hair. Anyway, I was ready to find a haircut. I looked in the base directory and there were 2 barber shops. I called one and they said that they would only cut woman’s hair. Hummmmm… After Fred and Sandy’s treatments we went to the BX and I sat in the barber shop for 5 -10 minutes waiting while the women barber gave a young sailor a “high and tight”. Skip came in and asked me how I was doing. I said I thought it would be ok. He gave me a big smile and said they would wait for me in the store. I kept looking around and only saw clippers, no scissors. This might not be good. I do not want to tell her that I don’t trust her. She is almost done with that haircut……..ok, I am out of here.

Everyone was sooo glad that I had changed my mind. I put up with haircut jokes and “changing your mind” comments for the rest of the day. They were very happy to take me downtown and find a hair cut. We found a shop right away. I got a very nice hair cut from a beautician name Maria. Nothing feels as great as a good hair cut.

Time flies when you're having fun...

2007-08-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, Skip and Sandy. We spent 4 nights with them waiting to get into base housing. I seems like we have known them forever. Skip is active duty Air Force Guard and has been in the military a couple of years longer than Fred. He and Fred talked non-stop for hours about all their similar experiences. He even reads the same authors as Fred. Sandy and I do so many things the same way that she is sure we must be related. She even has dinner plates with fruit on them. Both Skip and Sandy have cancer, so the Doctors are alternating treatments between them so they can take care of each other. Right now Sandy is having radiation for breast cancer. The clinic arranges Fred’s and Sandy’s treatments so they are one after the other. Everyone is so good to us. Everyday they come by and we go to treatment together. Then we have lunch together and get groceries or whatever.

Sunday I got together with Nancy C., a distant cousin I met at the Boe reunion last month. We spent most of the day together at the American Indian Museum at the Smithsonian. We had a fun day getting to know each other, she is a graphic artist and works in advertising. Fred had a little break from me, and took a walk to the BX. I remembered that I get free minutes on the weekend so tried to call some of you in the evening.

One person I called was Barbara L. There was no answer so I left a message. Monday morning she called me back and you will not believe this, but she is in the DC area visiting family. Her sister dropped her off at the Metro station that afternoon and she came and spent the night with us. We had a great time. I had made a pot roast and fixed a salad in my little kitchen, so we had a nice meal and some great laughs together. Then Barbara and I had a good game of Hand and Foot. She won by less than 200 points. It was just like old times in Alaska. Barbara and I have gotten together 3 times in 3 different states this year: April in Kansas, May in San Diego and now here in Aug.

Where do we start?

2007-08-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

This is a summer for the record books. Don't feel bad if you can't keep track of us we can hardly keep track of ourselves. We had a great trip to SD for 3 weeks visiting family and arrived home in AK on July 11. Four days later Fred's sister, Sandy and family of 8 started arriving. We spent 2 weeks playing tourist with them, driving up to Hatcher Pass, salmon fishing on the Keani River with the Smiths and on the Deshka with Bruce plus lots of meals filled with good food and lots of laughter. Before we knew it the kids started heading for the airport to go home with lots of fish and stories to go with them. July 29 we left Sandy and Rodney with instructions on how to run the B&B and flew to Washington DC.
Now we have been here for a week and this is the first day we have had no Doctor related appointments. Fred spent the day hanging out in our room, sleeping, reading and watching TV. I fixed us some food and cleaned up our tiny kitchentte, then made a list of things we needed. Yesterday I bought groceries expecting our unit to have the basics; silverware, plates and a few kettles. We have a small frig, micro wave and coffee maker that is all.... I am now on an mission to keep things as simple as possible and yet be able to make meals for us. It is amazing what you can find in cheap plastic. I even found ceramic mugs for 79 cents apiece.

Cancer. Yes, that is the real reason we are on this adventure. Fred has a tumor on his spine that is pinching the siatic nerve and causing him a lot of pain and affecting his ability to walk. He was sceduled to start a new drug trial at the National Health Institute on Monday, but his Doctors there wanted him to have radiation treatments to shrink that tumor and make him more comfortable before he started the trial. He will finish the treatments a week from Monday, August 11. As I understand it, the Dr's want him to wait another couple of weeks to recover before they start the drug trial.

God has been going ahead and preparing the way for us so may times on this trip. After 3 days of tests and doctors, Tuesday afternoon Fred started radiation treatments at the National Navy Medical Center accross the street from the NIH campus. I needed to find us some long term housing that was near the hospital and not so expensive. Normally that would not be so hard, but because of the war there are a lot of families needing housing near their wounded soldiers. I had to go outside to make the calls on my cell phone, it was a small quiet garden surrounded by tall hospital buildings. Finally, I found some housing on base near the hospital starting in 3 or 4 days. I was praying and asking God what He wanted me to do next...because whatever it was, I wasn't getting it. A few minutes later I went back inside and was standing at the counter in the radiology oncology office asking the clerk about other military bases in the area. He didn't know much. A woman from accross the waiting room asked what exactly I was looking for. I told her that my husband was having radiation treatments and that I needed housing and turned back to ask the clerk another question. She said, "Excuse me, but you can come home with us we come here every day for treatments." I was stunned.....are you sure? I said, "I have a B&B in Alaska and you can have a free stay any time." I walked over and introduced myself and they introduced themselves.

Sandy and Skip Meet our new best friends.

To be continued...

Our Kids Are So Great!

2007-08-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the mad skills of our youngest... which the three older children take credit for... we are now hooked up to THE BLOG world. We hope you enjoy the updates whenever they actually happen. Maybe this way we will not repeat ourselves quite so often and everyone will be in the loop of our crazy adventures.