Memorial Day - May 25th

When I was little, we would gather grandparents, aunts & cousins and spend the day cemetery hopping. We would meet more aunts, uncles and cousins in the cemeteries and along the way have a picnic and if we were really lucky go to the Alpine cometary up in the hills. Along the way we would hear lots of stories and just have a good day. Here in Boise we are blessed to be able to visit Gil's father's grave and this year we had Thelma along for the visit. It didn't take long to pick some Iris and syringa and a couple of poppies to put by his grave with an American Flag - to honor his world war II service. Maybe next year we can do the Utah trek and record mom's stories for a memorial day from years past.

Ringing the Bell

As I left the Cancer Care Center yesterday, I got lots of hugs and got to ring the bell 3 times -because this is my LAST CHEMO TREATMENT! It's not quite over yet, I still have 24 hours and 2 minutes of infusion and 3 g-shots to go. (the blue dilly bob is for the tubing to hook into for the infusion pump to send those chemicals directly into my heart to be instantaneously distributed into my system. Another good (for me) is that the Dr. dropped one of the chemicals from the regimen. It causes nurapathy in the nerves of hands and feet and mine is getting quite interesting as now the palms of my hands are tingling and etc etc etc. So I am happy to not have one more dose of that drug! Even though Penny (the nurse who took my photo) cut off the top of my head- she is short - you can see that I still have sufficient hair and a smile!

I am very grateful for the prayers and love and hugs sent my way. I have been extremely blessed. I have for the most part felt good and haven't been sick. My side effects have been manageable and I am thankful for that too! I am thankful to be almost done with chemo-therepy and I am not planning to ever do it again!

dedicated to mothers and daughters

my daughters - Carlee, Kristen, Jessica, Kim, Maria
Above: Kathy, Kim, Ellie and Margaret Below: Thelma

This is a late tribute to mothers- My mother, Gil's mom, and my wonderful daughters and daughters by marriage. I love and respect them and am so grateful for the love each gives to us. Our mothers for the years of sacrifice and patience and teaching and love. All 5 daughters for the wonderful wives and mothers they are. Thank you girls for being as precious as you are. I am grateful for you all.

Sheep Drive

We were headed to Cascade with Tyler, Christy, and Jake to see Oma Great, and got stopped at HWY 55 because the sheep have the right of way. The guy out in front is about 15 feet ahead of the sheep. He was walking making a whirring/clicking noise and the sheep were following him. I would call him the shepherd. And the sheep that could hear his voice didn't stray into the green side of the road. As you can see the sheep in the back of this group got somewhat sidetracked. The sheepherders and the dogs did a great job of keeping them going forward.

I like this shot because it shows the light on the back of the sheep and the little ones mixed with the big ones. There were about 3 herds of sheep, each led by a shepherd and with several sheepherders and a couple of well trained, fast moving dogs. In all over 1000 sheep. They were headed into the high country for summer pastures.A pretty picture for a pretty day. Up the road a ways we saw 3 ELK - we've never seen Elk that low or in this area before. 2 were bull elk, just starting to grow antlers. We also saw ducks and geese and had a great visit with Oma and Uncle Neil.