A Sense of Humor

Something that I am very grateful for is my sense of humor. Having one, enables you to see the good in life, even when things just seem to suck. ( yes mom, I used a truck driver word.) When you are able to see things that are sad as funny.... it takes the sting out of some of the pain.

My dad is full of things to say the last few days. Things that are silly, because that is they way his mind works. The way the words come together for him is making him a comedian. Now we could take these things, and say.... oh it is so sad, look at the way his mind is failing him.... he can't even talk right..... and we could become more and more depressed. Instead, we choose to write them down and share them with each other, and crack up laughing.... because being sad, wouldn't be true to our family's nature.

Here are some examples:
"Dad, would you like an orange?"
"No, I don't think so, I mean it sounds good and all, but they don't know their head from a hole."
or
"yuck!!!!" (he was talking about something he was eating) "what kind of lie are you trying to tell me?"

There are many others.... Amy is trying to write them all down in a notebook kept in the kitchen. What a treasure that will be as time marches on and things change..... little moments immortalized forever, that will make us laugh and smile.

A matter of degrees

I don't know how to answer people.........

I don't' know what to say when they ask "how's your dad?" " any news?" "update?"

I am sure to anyone who has a loved one in the middle of an illness, these questions become harder and harder to answer. I know I have friends that have been through so much, and are still in the midst of it, so I might just be venting to the choir here.....

I tell you that the flippant, sarcastic side of me wants to say " Fine, he is great for a guy with three tumors in his head..." or, " still breathing"..... there are others, but really I am sure you get the point.

Then there is the clinical answer.... his tumors have stopped growing.

This is indeed good news, but it gives a false picture, because "how he is doing" is based on so much more than the fact that those vile bumps in his head have stopped growing.

I wish, no, I ache to be able to say " he is all better, back to work and doing great".... but I may not really be able to say that until the Lord calls him home....

The things that we see, that will cause us to tell you he is great.... or doing better, or doing fine are...

He remembered some one's name right without being prompted.
He was able to smoothly speak a sentence without being frustrated over not being able to "find" the words he is trying to say.

He didn't stumble too much today.

He was able to communicate to you what he wanted or needed.

When you tell him, " I love you dad." He is having a good day if he says, " i love you too" instead of " i know you do".

If he is able to comfort my mom when she is sad.

If he doesn't lose his way going from one room to another.

He ate two full meals and a snack, and he didn't tell you his food tasted like crap.

So when we say "fine" know that we are measuring even the smallest of accomplishments.

It is very hard to have to watch someone who you love be overcome by disease and all the side effects that go with it. It is hard to see them trapped by their own mind. To be held hostage as it were, by his brain.

It is even harder to watch your other family members care for him day in and day out with such tenderness and love, and to wish that you were there to help more. Yet, it is comforting to know that God answers your prayers, and has used His church, the members of HIS body, to encourage, uplift and support your family in ways far greater that you could ever hope for.

So for all of you who call, write, message, pray,... when you ask us how he is doing, and we pause.... we are searching for a way to tell you how all the small sweet things mean so much, and if we have a casual response, it may just be because we can't find the words to express it very well ourselves.

Garden is growing!

here are some of my 18 bell pepper plants.... they are growing very nicely and starting to flower and produce fruit.
This one is some of my rainbow chard. The seeds that came up gave me orange, yellow, and some variations of red

here is a couple of my 11 tomato plants. They are planted along the fence and i am training them to grow up the fence so i don't need to have a cage for them... so far so good. It can get really windy here and in past years i have had staked cages blow over, so i am hoping this proves to be a good alternative.

Hierloom red onions.... these i can't wait to see and eat!

these are itty bitty potato plants that are desperately trying to poke through we had to block them off from the ones that are growing so tall other wise they would drown when we added new dirt and never grow

Some more tatoes....

We decided to grow our tatoes in a 30 gallon trash can so that they could be harvested easier. I like potatoes, just not the digging to get them all out of the ground!!

So far we have had swiss chard, and squash from the garden this year. We can't wait to get more in the ground and have more to eat!!

Jeremiah Sleep Eats his lunch

it is super short, because the camera battery died.... but he did this for 5 min. it was hysterical

MacGyver ......to save the day....

I always say he is my hero.... but this time other people got to see it too.............

This last weekend Jody had Drill. This means that he goes to Spokane for the weekend and then comes home on Sunday evening. This weekend started out like any other one, he left on Friday and he and i spend most of the weekend communicating through our phones via texting.
Jeremiah had been having a pretty tough weekend so on Sunday i had texted Jody to let him know how the night had gone... ( it wasn't really good, so i will spare you the details ..) Weird thing was Jody never responded to me.... not a word.... So i thought he must have forgotten to bring a charger for his phone.... and didn't really think another thing of it.

When we got home from church, Jody was home and i noticed right away that he had a big swollen raspberry on his right arm near the elbow.... so being the totally nosey wife that i am.... i asked him what happened to his arm.

He looks sheepish and then proceeds to ask me : "well....ummmm..... did you try to call me or text me at all today?"
"yeah, i did... i texted, but when you didn't answer i thought your phone was dead"
"did you call it to see if it went straight to voicemail?"
"no"
"i did, and it went straight to voicemail"
"um.... what does this have to do with your arm?"
"well, you see.............................."

He proceeded to tell me that while he was walking back to his hotel from having dinner with some of the guys in his detachment, he heard a scuffle and some things that didn't sound quite right coming from the path that was under the bridge he was on, and next to the river.
So.... being Jody.... he decided to walk down and see what was going on. Upon arriving at the path way, he sees an older couple ( mid 60's he guesses). This couple is being harassed by these two thugs. The one thug has the lady by the throat, and her arm extended and he is yelling at the man. Jody asks him what seems to be the problem. The thug at this time tell Jody very colorfully to leave, and to mind his own business. Jody tells him no, his language just made it "his" business. Out of frustration, the thug then HIT the lady he was holding..... and her husband got mad! He said he would kick the kids &^* if the odds were different. Jody looked at him and said. "sir, your odds just got different." and with that... Jody went for the second thug.
Knocked him down... when he did... his sun glasses, wallet, and cell phone all went flying.... they got up again... ran some more, Jody tackled him again..... then when they got up... thug tried to take a swing at him.... Jody lowered his head, and they guy hit him in the top of his head.... and then started wailing and holding his very sore hand. This allowed Jody to hit him in the side of the head and knock him out cold.... and leave him for the other people who had started to come see the commotion, and wait with this guy for the cops to come..... Jody ran back down to check on the couple who had been left with thug #1.... they had him on the ground and they were kicking and punching him till he begged for them to stop, saying that he would wait for the cops if they just stopped hitting him.
Jody got his wallet back, the lady had picked it up for him, and she told him his cell phone went in the river she thought.... he said ok.... thanks... and then headed back to his hotel.

The next morning he got up early and went to see if he could dive and recover his phone, as he was doing this a cop walked up and started asking some questions.... turns out he was on duty the night before and as soon as Jody said he was looking for his phone, the cop knew he was the mystery helper from the night before. The cop thanked him from the couple who really had wanted to say thank you, and thank you from the police for helping someone in need.

so a few bumps and scrapes later.... and one cell phone deductible later.... all is well, and that is how MacGyver saved the day!

Daebo reads

This was supposed to be a video.... but it wouldn't ever load... so i gave up and put in a picture instead!!.....

Here is a little shot of mom reading to Hunter and Jeremiah. She was reading the Bernstein Bears: The great pumpkin detective. Papa was really watching and into the story. This was taken the second day of our visit to California. Not sure if she had more fun or the boys did.

Thanks mom, for being such a good grandma !

things i have learned

there are a few interesting things that i have learned over the last few days... i thought that you might enjoy it if i shared them with you.

#1..... yogurt, when eaten out of the bottom of the container, with one's hands of course,.... can then be mussed through ones hair... creating a FABULOUS substitute hair gel.... your hair will even have a nice fruity blueberry smell during the day. ( i mean really... it was like the stiff stuff you have to pay extra money for!)

....he also deemed it "woh-chen" ( translated to lotion...) and spread it ALL over his face like moisturizer.

#2.... Diaper pails ( empty ones ) are fun to stand in and pretend they are mini swimming pools

#3..... even a two year old can succumb to peer pressure. His little friend ate a few peanuts today.... so did Jeremiah.... he has spit or picked peanuts out of his food since he first tried one... guess he didn't want to feel left out.

#4.......Hunter saw a cliff while we were driving home and said.... "woooooohhh" ( at the top of his lungs and nearly causing me a heart attack...) " that is a HUGE cliff.... if i climbed it and fell off, i would die"..... he is so pragmatic about is possible death.... he then continued to munch his chips and look out the window as calm as before.

#5.... weird things get in children's ears.... and neither they or anyone else can seem to explain to you HOW that got in there....


i think.... really... someday they will get so big i really will miss this stuff..... i will keep you posted, on if or when it happens.

Northern Return

Well,
We made it home again.... and as a bonus we are still in one piece.

more later....
i have to go load chickens into boxes, so as we can go and get them kilt' in the morning... well not me, but Ryan...

any who...
bye