Indio

We landed in Indio (Palm Springs CA area) on the 23rd. Despite this and surrounding areas having had torrential rains, we arrived to sun, warmth and dry conditions. In fact the drive down (2,000 miles) was uneventful as compared to last year which was totally treacherous! We just have not been doing too much of anything exciting hence no post until now, just relaxing and getting settled.

I had to take a shot of our high class campsite where we stayed the day before arriving in Indio. Truck stops come in handy when it's late and you really don't want to pay for a campsite for a few hours of sleep.

Yep, this looks much better doesn't it? This is a shot looking from the back of our site. Through the greenery you can see the mountains. In fact the mountains are visible no matter which way we look.

We are enjoying our time with our our friends Mikey and Jan. While with them there is never a dull moment or lack of yummy food. Even though they live in their motor home Jan always has good stuff in her fridge.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a great meal of turkey and all the fixins at the clubhouse in the park and then Christmas Day Jan made brunch. Here is the centerpiece for our picnic table.
And of course there were gifts. David is wondering what this particular gift was. It's a handy dandy sewer hose holder, something that is much needed for life on the road.
And then there were games of Mexican Train. This is one of those games that poor David just can't seem to win.
It was a nice Christmas on the road and made missing our kids and grand kids much easier to take.
We are here until January 4th and then off to Yuma. More from the warmth and sunshine later.

An Early Christmas

Once again Lenny and Kelly opened their home for our Christmas get together. We are a small bunch but we do have a nice day. We had Great Grandpa Bob, Auntie Kelly and Great Grandma Loi with us again this year. Despite illnesses, both girls were on antibiotics, it was a very relaxing enjoyable day. Thanks once again Leonard family for making this another memorable holiday.

Christmas in Minnesota this year was chock full of snow which gave Lenny plenty of opportunity to 'play' with his new snow blower. He enjoyed it that round but given all of the snow that they have gotten and are going to get I suspect 'enjoyment' will not long be the name of the game.

An absolutely gorgeous winter sunset.

This year Julia was old enough to enjoy Christmas. When I woke her up from her nap the first words out of her mouth were, "Is my party ready"? We had told her that after her nap we were going to have a party and open presents. Julia was the official present opener and gift passer-outer. And of course there is always a curious cat near by.
The girls in front of the tree with their matching pj's on.
Julia explaining to Shelby how to work one of her toys.
I love this....Julia, her grandpa and great grandma Loi playing with my little Pony. I think grandpa may have braided one of the ponies tails.....
The best for me was to be able to attend Julia and Shelby's Christmas concert. Here is Julia and her best friend Macie wondering what in the heck they are supposed to be doing...or perhaps they are a bit intimidated by the audience.
The reward, treats and juice.

Daddy sharing a moment with his littlest girl
And Shelby with one of her teachers. These two girls are pretty darned lucky to have such caring daycare providers. I am impressed and grandma's can be pretty critical when it comes to those that take care of their grand babies.
We took off for parts south that Sunday. The roads were great all the way down to southern California. We just beat yet another winter storm that was barreling down on the Nicollet area and instead drove to an area that has been hit with horrific rains. More from now sunny California later.
Merry Christmas to you all.

Black Friday

It all began at noon Thursday November 25th when I left the warmth and stability of our home to go to my friend Chrissy's and then Black Friday shopping! On my way I stopped for a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch of Holiday gas station smoked turkey and cheese deli sandwich and a pumpkin spice latte...yummmy...not.
The roads were not the best since it had just dumped a boat load of rain turned to ice the day before and snow on top of that but I was determined to make the Black Friday shopping event.
I arrived at Chrissy's at 5pm to find her and Kim making their list...list I said, I thought we were going just for fun not to shop! How dumb was that, after all I have known Chrissy forever and I KNOW how she loves to shop..what was I thinking!
We took about an hour snooze and got up at 11pm leaving for Mankato at 11:30 because after all Walmart had sales at midnight! Did I say that it was colder than cold that night as well? Not at all a nice night.
Much to our surprise Walmart was relatively calm at midnight..phew. I actually picked up quite a few things...but then....Target at 4am. Now that was a madhouse where Chrissy almost got herself smacked by the husband of a women who was bitching belligerently at a Target employee. Chrissy saw fit to say outloud, so that the husband could hear her, "It's not the check out guys fault leave him alone". Oh dear here we go I thought. But nah the big burly guy just looked like he was going to deck Chrissy, smarted off a bit and then walked away thank goodness.
We shopped from midnight Friday until 7:30 that morning and after a much needed breakfast back to Chrissy's for a few hours sleep because I had to babysit the girls (Julia and Shelby) at 6 that night! It was a whirlwind but was a blast.

The before preparation-Chrissy, Kim and Kenya


The during

And the after
Kenya didn't even know that I was taking her picture
And Chrissy told me to get out!
Alrighty then the girls. Babysitting went well on very little sleep. Poor Shelby did not want to go to sleep and Julia the trooper kept herself busy all night while Grandma rocked and held Shelby. Yep, that Julia is two going on four I am sure!
She does love her little sis and always wants to help. Shelby is just starting to eat cereal and Julia wanted to help feed her.

I would love to know what was going through Shebly's mind at this moment!
Mommy and daughter pedicure time. I asked but Kel wouldn't do mine.
Oh and the addition....David got the metal ceiling up in the new living room, the rooms are painted and we had our second set of guests a few weeks ago. Jess and Kim spent a long weekend and gave a thumbs up for the addition.
While 'down south' I had my second ST scan. Doc C wanted to see if the nodule was still in my lung and if it was he talked about sending me to a pulmonologist. We knew that it was not cancer, in fact I do not have a single cancer cell in my body, but he did want to know what the heck it was. The nodule is still there but the radiologists all agreed that it is just a nodule and needs no follow up at all. AND I found out that I also have a nodule on my adrenal gland. That one is nothing as well, they are both just there but nothing to worry about.
So, it's cold up here and I am done with my Christmas shopping, bring on the holidays!

Where Oh Where Have I Been?

I received an email from my friend Jan reminding me that I really need to update my blog. Problem is is that it just been kind of boring around here, for me anyway. I have not felt good, really good, since the end of September when I had a sinus infection that seems just never cleared up and in fact got worse. I just haven't had any energy to do much of anything except what absolutely had to get done. I've been wondering what in the heck was wrong with me, no energy, didn't want to really 'get off the couch' etc.....been wondering in fact if I was depressed...the symptoms were there. Well last week the sinuses almost exploded and the doc diagnosed a horrible infection. I have been on Z-Pak since Friday and just called the doc today to tell her that the ole sinuses are still very painful. NOW I am going on Levaquin (sp?) and if not better by Wednesday back to the doc I go. I do feel like getting off the couch though today and am happy to know that it is an infection and not depression :) So there ya have it, that's why I haven't update....aren't ya happy ya asked Jan?

Despite not feeling the best, we had a fun (but deerless) opening deer hunting weekend. Len, Kel and girls were up and were the first to stay in the new suite. Julia was excited to stay at 'Grandma's house' and we were excited to have her and her little sister. The suite is not totally completed but worked out just fine.Pictures pictures.....
Julia discovered 'Grandpa's monies'. Nope not Grandma and Grandpa's monies just 'Grandpa's monies'. And yes it was 'monies' She spent a large part of every day playing in the money basket and may even hauled some home...ya think? She really had no interest in the dollars despite Daddy trying to educate her about the value of a 20 as opposed to a nickle.
Here she is, if you look closely you can see that she found the casino chips (they weren't as fun as the change either).

And when Grandma discovered her she turned with a 'Who me' look on her face.

Uh oh...busted.
And away she goes with that little purse heavy with coins.
Julia so loves her little sister Shelby. Here she is blowing on Shelby's tummy and of course Shelby loves it.
We so just shook our head the entire weekend with the phrases this little girl would come up with, I swear she is two going on four. Wish I could remember some of the stuff she would come up with but of course I can't;(

Julia fell in love with Roscoe as long as he didn't jump up and kiss her face. All weekend long she would say, "Come on boys let's go" or "Come on boys chase me". She also let them out when they had to go potty and here she is waiting for them to finish in order to let them back in the house.
Grandma had tatoos for Julia to put on while she was here and of course Daddy was a good sport and got one as well.

Shelby seemed to have a good time as well laying on the floor watching the antics of the rest of us.
That tongue of hers has one heck of a curl in it and I caught a few pictures when she was laughing.


We loved having them but were reminded once again why we have children when we are younger. These two girls are good girls but kids just have so much energy...phew.
Speaking of Roscoe: We got about 3 inches of snow with the latest storm and because Roscoe is about 5 inches tall it was hard for him to do his business in the newly fallen snow. So I shoveled a path, in the grass, around the fence line so he doesn't have to even walk in the snow. Guess what, he does his business on the cleared part but then trounces through the snow anyway...ahhhh.

Morning Sky

The pond was frozen

The clouds were cool

They sky was pink as the sun began to show through
It certainly was a pretty few minutes this morning and a tad cold. Winter is here?????

Our addition progresses. David and Dan should be working me thinks. Chatting does not get the job done:)
Yesterday they started putting the stucco on the new living room wall. The color will not be gray, it dries lighter and then will be painted. They ran out of product and will continue the job tomorrow. By the end of the day the basement and living room walls should be complete. That is if the boys work rather than talk. David has decided that applying stucco is just as much fun (not) as taping and mudding sheet rock.

Reason To Celebrate

Five years ago today Dr Deaconson came into my room telling David, Lenny and I 'We got it all'. Yep I am a 5 year breast cancer survivor. Happy birthday to me. Thank you Doctor's Deaconson and Cockerill you saved my life.

PET scan updated: The PET showed no signs of any such nodule, fatty tissue or otherwise. To coin one of Julia's favorite phrases, "How cool is that"! Dr Cockerill is a bit befuddled about the entire thing however. He and the radiologist wonder if perhaps the nodule is too close to the heart to be picked up by the PET and he wants me to have a second CT scan end of November. If the nodule shows up on it he will refer me to a pulmonologist in an effort to ferrot out what this ononmoly may be. He did not seem worried about it just more curious I think and he is very very very thorough and perhaps over cautious. When it comes to my life I will take over cautious anytime:)
The additional "How cool is that" point is that the PET would had picked up any cancer cells in my body...there were no hot spots to be found, at all!

Closing with the joys of being a grand parent...how cool is that!

Well Huh

I hardly know how to start this post so I guess what the hell let's just jump right in. Friday was my regular oncology appointment as well as blood work and a chest x-ray. October 27th is the day that I will be a 5 year survivor however I was waiting until after this appointment to officially celebrate. Damned good thing I waited.....my chest x-ray shows a dark spot on the left mid lung. Because they could not tell for certain what it is, or is not, I had a CT scan. The CT scan was still inconclusive in regards to what in the hell I have in the ole left lung. One thought from radiology is it may be just a fat nodule...I said 'what the hell I have fat in my lung too?' Although a fat nodule would certainly be preferable to another type of nodule. Soooo Tuesday I go back for a PET scan. A PET is used to find cancer in that if there are cancer cells they will show up as hot spots on the scan. I have attached the link
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=PET
I will actually get the results Tuesday which is good. It could be a number of things such as I had an upper respiratory virus a few weeks ago and in my opinion that it likely what is remaining in my lung.
So any good thoughts you may have feel free to through em my way:)
Positive thoughts positive thoughts positive thoughts.

A Tirp To Iowa and Addition Updates

But first bragging time. Of course I made my stop at the Leonard motel to see the girls. Shelby has grown a ton in just a few weeks.
Here she is smiling at Daddy

And a touching family time reading books....

From Northern MN to Central Iowa. My cousin Shelly and her family live in Iowa and their daughter Krystin got married last weekend. Not that the wedding wasn't wonderful but the best part of the trip was spending the drive down and back (about 10 hours total) in the car with my Uncle Eddie who is my mom's brother. It was just he and I and I picked his brain the entire time. We talked about their lives as kids (they were poor as could be), about my Grandpa committing suicide (Ed and his brother found him) and just life in general. It was a great informative trip.
Here is the wedding party. Krystin was gorgeous and her husband Chad (who is behind her right arm) has been her best friend forever.

My cousin Jane and her husband Barry


And my cousins (two of Eddie's girls) Kim and Kari. Not to worry Sharon and Kelly, I wont post the pictures that I took of you guys...nice gal that I am.

One of the best moments of the night for me was to see the sincere affection that both Krystin and her brother Ryan have for their parents. They are not afraid to display that affection and it was touching to watch.

OK on to the addition. The upper walls are poured, the roof is on and the windows are in in the upper level. This past week's task was to pour the cement for the patio out back as well as color and stamp it.

Here Dan is spreading the color (he used three colors) on the still damp patio


He then uses a trowel to work the powder color into the cement
And getting ready to 'stamp' design into the cement. If you look closely you can see the color swirls.
We are using a random pattern (the basement floor is colored and stamped as well) however you can stamp cement in almost any imaginable pattern. For instance you can have it look as if it is layed brick or do a deck to look like wood planking. Yet another very interesting piece of this project.


Here it is from the back of the house. I love the retaining walls. They and the entire house will be stuccoed next spring.
Lookin nice from the side. Dear Mary notice that I have way less plants back here. They seem to have disappeared. Ah well I will just have to design new I guess.
We haven't yet opened up the wall between the existing house and the addition. We will be insulating the ceiling next week and will them be able to open it up. More as we go:)

October Is

Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the wearin of the pink month :)
Get your mammogram (mine was found an an annual mamo) and do your self checks every month.
And yes, real men do wear pink!

And speaking of 'real men'. Have ya heard that Randy Moss is back..........