Been a year already??

Actually it has not been quite a year since we last published. We spent a couple of days on or around Lake Powell this week. Drove to the Colorado River crossing just down from Lee's Ferry, then on to Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Pictures attached for your enjoyment; no charge.

Rainbow bridge is the largest natural arch in the world, at about 285 feet high and 250 or so wide, as I recall. We have the exact numbers somewhere, but I'd have to get up, so...

Even a sick man's work is never done

Had to clean the pool today . . .

Further evidence . . .

With no posts since April, the rumors may have begun to spread again. So here's an update.

We (Grandmom & I) had a great road-trip with our eldest and his wife (that would be Randy and Kathie). We spent a couple of nights in Ouray, and then did some touring around southwestern Colorado. And I had no significant side effects from the chemo treatments during the entire trip.

We visited a portion of "Canyon of the Ancients" north of Cortez, CO, specifically the Anasazi Heritage Center. Kinda boring, but the small ruins (see pic) and lake overlook were good.

Then on to Ouray for Sunday and Monday nights. See pictures from our balcony at Ouray Chalet.

In looking for a geocache (Guston Church) off the Million Dollar Highway we "discovered" whole new sets of mine ruins, including the well-preserved "Yankee Girl", that we had not seen before. Readily accessible; we'll visit them again. We found the geocache.

Then to Yankee Boy Basin for some downtime. Well, I guess it was all downtime.

Tuesday morning was spent in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This was named a NP in 1999, and is well-developed for viewing the canyon. Randy took pictures. He also left his telephoto lens where we were talking with a professional photographer with a $100K photo system. The NP Service has mailed it to him. Whew!

Did a little geocaching on the way to Canon City / Royal Gorge, which has now been developed (?) into a small village with shops, the incline railway, and a sky-tram across the river. We walked the bridge, took both the tram and the incline.

On to Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls.
A side note: we were the only visitors in southwestern Colorado. Well, not quite, but we had no reservations after Ouray and never encountered a hotel with greater than maybe 20-30% occupancy. All rates were negotiable. Very negotiable.

Going back south into New Mexico, we stopped by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial near Eagle Nest which we had discovered with Rick and Denise a few years ago. This is a surprisingly moving memorial done by a family in honor of a fallen son, but dedicated to all Vietnam veterans. It is so well done that the state of New Mexico has now agreed to take responsibility as a state sponsored memorial.

We drove through Red River and got the picture on Randy's blog of the Gostin cabin; looks much like it did then. Walked the squares in Santa Fe, then old town Albuquerque. Got home Saturday afternoon; resting ever since.

"Reports of my demise . . ."

There has been a lot of trash talk on the blogosphere, some by the fruit of my loin even to the second generation, concerning the expected or reported demise of my hair.  Although I may have inadvertently contributed to the initiation of these rumors, you can observe by the attached photo, taken this very morning, that my hair-retention capability has been greatly underestimated. 

Phx Grandad

The Old Folks at Home...

And glad to be here!  Dad has gone through his first bout with chemo.  It was not fun, even a little bit!! None of the meds the doctor gave him for nausea worked. After trying 3, he got out his trusty Meclazine and took that! Voila!! It worked. After that he began to feel a little better each day. We are still not "up and around" (so to speak) but improving!!

Let me explain the "we" reference. Sharing everything like old folks do, I developed a healthy (or unhealthy) allergy attack, so I could empathize properly with my patient. Problem is, now he is getting better, and I am still nursing a sinus headache and nasal congestion!!  We've got to get our act together!!!

The local family has been very sweet about leaving us to ourselves (because we weren't up to much company.)  They did come by Sunday afternoon after church, and brought in Kentucky Fried Chicken for the noon meal.  I went to church Sunday morning and taught our class, and they tolerated my teaching and my squeaky voice.  Paul & Kari are attending our class while we teach the book of Revelation, and this week they stayed for the worship service with me.  At the present time, Dad is planning to teach next Sunday. I hope he does. He's a better teacher than I am.  I am happy to be the sub!!

Dad sees the doctor again tomorrow. Don't know what for...they just always seem to want to see him.  Must  be nice!

Sorry I took so long getting back to blogging.  I sort of got stuck on e-mail. So I hope you find this, and even read it!

We love you all so much.  Our next out of town trip will be to Lauri's graduation, but we will have to pass on Disneyland this trip!

We had a nice visit with Rick, Denise and family before all this....in fact, we were there when Mother died. We came home, arranged for the funeral, packed for travel again, and went to Cotton Valley for the graveside service on Saturday.

. We then went to Valwood Park for church, and saw a lot of old friends there. 

I'll sign off now, hoping someone will realize, when I didn't e=mail, that I might actually blog this time.   Love ya! Ma

October Update

It is sort of Sunday here. It is actually Saturday, but we got up and dressed for church because we had to go to a midday wedding, then we had the noon meal following the wedding (they served lunch to the guests), then we came home and watched a football game on TV this afternoon.  Now, doesn't that sound like a normal Sunday to you?  It feels like it.  

Thought I would let you know Dad is doing much better. And all because Randy went to the doctor!!  His doctor thinks his problem might be acid reflux, so he passed the word along to Dad, who immediately began taking Prilosec once a day, which was Randy's prescription.  So far, so good!!  In fact, he is singing a special at church tomorrow..the pastor asked him to do "What Sin?" because of the message he will be delivering.  So, good news.  

We have enjoyed a few weeks at home, especially since the weather is cooler. It is so good to step outside and not have the heat knock you over!! But this coming weekend we will be in Dallas visiting Rick and Denise. We hope to see their kids while we are there, too. Surely they will drop by, or we will drop by.....

 I spent all day yesterday working on getting caught up on this year's scrapbook.  (I guess when Dad is sick, I can't do anything....???)  He prints up the photos that we choose to include, and then I do the "scrapping".  I am just finishing up our Cloudcroft trip with Rick & Denise.  The fun thing about scrapping is that you can so easily go through past years and see how things and people have changed.   I would never compare my books to Brenda's, or to almost any "real" scrapper, but we enjoy them, and so do Don's siblings when we take them to Louisiana with us.  And I notice almost all of the local kids look at them  when I finish a new one.

Any way.   Will update again after we spend a while in Dallas.   Love you all....... G-mom

Home...and gone again!

We've traveled more this summer than any single summer ever! Disneyland, and Pahrump, and Dallas, and Shreveport, and San Diego, and Atlanta, and Ouray, and Cloudcroft... I can't even remember...what else? but it was all fun, and we got to see all our family, which is so cool!! Just not all at the same time.
We just got home from helping Keith's church in Pahrump celebrate their 40th anniversary. It was good. Most of the former pastors were there, and lots of old members who had moved came back, plus the regular attenders. There was a meeting (in a tent) on Saturday evening, then the big celebration on Sunday morning. We drove up on Friday, and when we were eating in Kingman, our phone rang and it was Zachary, Brenda, and Emily, on their way home via Pahrump, from visiting in Dallas and picking up a car. We ate together, then drove the rest of the way to Pahrump. It was so fun, and Emily is a little doll. She entertained us all weekend!
We forgot both our cameras, so I need K& K to send some photos from their computer so I can include this in our scrapbook.
Tonight we are driving up to Payson, AZ, for a Chorale concert. Actually, the concert is not until Sunday afternoon, but after Randy and Kathie get off work, we are driving up together to spend Saturday and Sunday morning in the cool country of that area!
When we got home Wednesday, we went by the kennel and picked up Charly so she could have a few days at home with us. She was so happy. Today we have to take her back, but only until Monday morning! We are so fortunate that she loves to go there. The staff has loved her since I got her 11 years ago, and she loves them back. Our vet said she is the only "patient" he has that actually likes to come see him!!
We love you all. If we have been in your vicinity and didn't see you, we're sorry. We tried to see everyone we could!
Here's a favorite picture from Cloudcroft.