Spring in the Desert

Larry's mom Dorothy arrived for a visit in February and his sister Linda from Wichita and brother Wayne and his daughter Sophi from Portland were all able to come for a long weekend visit while she was here.

Friends Virginia and Dennis traveled from Lake Havasu to visit us allowing for our first ever picture of us, them and Mike and Sue.

 

We were able to make it to Bartlett Lake for some spring flower enjoying and kayaking!

Speaking of spring flowers...the desert is in bloom.  I love this time of year!

Larry throws bird seed on the ground for the Quail and turns out Javelina like bird seed too! so we've seen a lot more of them than usual.

March returned Dorothy to Wichita and I soon joined her.  About a week after Dorothy left, I flew to Wichita and Linda and I drove Dorothy back to her home in Harrison by way of Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney.  We remained in Harrison for a few days and reversed our trip but skipped Lincoln and Omaha.  I'm not sure how many miles we put in but it was a great road trip and allowed us to see nieces and nephews and a whole lot more of Nebraska and Kansas than I care to see in the winter!

Larry and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary on April 17th.  We were living in Battle Mountain, Nevada, and were married in the Methodist church in Chadron by Larry's dad.  Our wedding was a simple gathering of friends and family celebrating the official joining of our lives.  Oh the places we've gone since then!

Our next trip takes us to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in May with friends Mike and Sue - always look forward to that trip! 

On the health front, my April doctor appointment resulted in me starting oral drug therapy again - Temodar.  It is an easy therapy.  I take the drug for five days every 28 days with what seems to be only good side effects.

December 2014 & January 2015 Activities

We've now lived in the Phoenix area for, WOW!, almost four years!  I love it!  One of the things I particularly like about life in Phoenix is the opportunity to gather with our friends - especially the annual event of the Christmas baking exchange. 

We spent Christmas Eve and birthday #59 for me and Jim at Jim and Liz's home - I love our tradition of prime rib for our birthday dinner.

Friends Mike and Sue and Allison and Brian came to our home for dinner on New Year's Eve and we were treated to snow!  Made for some pretty pictures the following morning.  Happy New Year!!!!

Friends Virginia and Dennis from Chadron traveled to their "winter" home in Lake Havasu in
January so we headed their way to welcome them to Arizona and enjoy the balloon festival.

Friend Dan from Rapid City arrived in January for several days of golf.  For the most part, weather cooperated.  I guess we can be assured, it was better than in Rapid.


We did go to the Fleetwood Mac concert in early December - it was great! 

February will bring Larry's mom, Dorothy, for a five week visit.  His sister, Linda, from Wichita and brother Wayne and daughter Sophi from Portland will pop in for a long weekend visit as well. 

On the health front, looks like February will bring radiation therapy for me.  I continue to not be on the oral chemo drug.  However, there are a couple "spots" that have proved to be resistant to the oral chemo drug so we've decided to go the radiation route to see if we can eliminate those problem areas.  I'll most likely start the first part of February and last I understood, I'll receive 15 sessions covering three weeks.  I continue to feel great and feel like I'm doing great - I'm out hiking at least twice a week - what a blessing!

October & November Activities

Following our most excellent trip to Telluride to see fall colors, we acquired an Organ Pipe cactus from my brother Jim's yard.  Luckily Jim and Larry had the assistance of nephew Jimmy in retrieving the cactus from Jim's yard and replanting it in our yard. 

 

Does Larry look happy or what!

 

Over a long weekend, we traveled to Wichita to visit Larry's sister Linda, her husband Jeff, and Larry's mom Dorothy who had been there recovering from knee replacement surgery (and doing very well I may add).  In my focus to pack light for the long weekend trip, I found I had forgotten to bring my camera along so no good quality pictures to record the trip but must include this one we took with Larry's cell phone camera.

Upon our return to Arizona, Larry left for a business trip to Lima, Peru.  He was a keynote speaker at a conference so he celebrated turning another year older there - I missed him.  Friends and family came over when he returned and we celebrated his birthday then.

We gathered with friends in the far east valley for a pre-Thanksgiving potluck the weekend before Thanksgiving.  I do believe other parts of the country were experiencing winter weather while we enjoyed temperatures in the 70s!  I love winter in Arizona!!

 

Sue's mom, Dagny, from Iowa and Larry have their birthdays on the same day (November 13) so I had to get a picture of the both of them.  Dagny turned 90 - she looks great!  Larry is a little younger.  

We celebrated Thanksgiving at friends Mike and Sue's and were grateful we could join their family on that special day!

We've spent every Friday we've been in town this fall going to nephew Jimmy's high school football games and very much enjoyed those experiences culminating in playoffs and then the championship game the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Friends and family gathered to cheer the Sabercats (and Jimmy!) on.  They won!  We're already looking forward to next season when Jimmy will be a senior.  My has time flown - wasn't he just a little guy?

 

 

 

Interesting news on the health front.  The drug that is controlling the cancer, Temodar, can possibly cause leukemia down the line.  Therefore, since the cancer is in "control", my doctor suggested I take a rest from the drug for awhile - she referred to is as, "active monitoring of non-treatment".  So! after three years and two months, November was my first month in taking no medicine to treat the cancer!  I'll still see my doctor again in December for bloodwork and the scheduled three month scan.  The bloodwork and scan will determine whether I can take December off as well.  I'm not sure what to think...there is a certain comfort in taking a medicine that works and that old saying, if it isn't broke, don't fix it comes to mind.  I decided to go with the trust the expert factor. 

 

Oh, went to the Eagles concert with sister-in-law Liz because Larry was in Peru!  We had a great time - great concert.  Larry and I see Fleetwood Mac in December! 

October Fall Color Trip to Telluride

Upon Larry's return from his business trip to Chile, we loaded up the car and headed for southwest Colorado - destination: Telluride.  We were there July 2013 and talked about returning in the fall - we were just a year late but well worth it! 

We did a hike around this lake - just beautiful!

 Gotta love a stroll in the fall!

 



 

 

Hike to Bear Falls.

 

 

Telluride is about an 8 hour drive from Carefree.  We left on Saturday stopping in Cortez, CO, for the night.  Sunday morning we drove to Durango, Ouray and arrived Telluride mid afternoon - in time to check in at the hotel and walk downtown to a bar to watch the Broncos and Cardinals play!  The next morning we took several drives and did two hikes for a total of 7 miles.  We ended both days with a ride up on the free gondola to Telluride Village enjoying that view and seeing the moon rise over the mountains.  Tuesday we headed back home - what a great long weekend get-away.

 

We continue to very much enjoy nephew Jimmy's Friday night high school football games. 

 

We gathered at friends Allison and Brian's for dinner to celebrate Brian and Mike's birthdays.

 

 

And gosh, we've had a lot of rain!!

 

So life continues to treat me very well!  My last scan shows the drug continues to work.  Gad I'm lucky!