Life While Parked in Texas (Cont'd)

Well, here it is - almost two months after my last post!!.  Time does go by so fast even when retired.

To update you, Judy had a mammogram right after the first of the year and they found a lump again. So it was biopsied and of course was cancer. So on 1/19 she had surgery (mastectomy). They also did a scan of her entire body (neck and lower) and found no evidence of cancer anywhere else. So that was good. There were positive receptors so the Oncologist was going to recommend chemo, but since she had had chemo before, he decided against that because there is a slight chance to getting leukemia. So he gave her a prescription for an oral drug that she will take for five years.

Unfortunately, she has also started having problems with her right eye again in that it would not move. So we had a MRI of her head and found that a growth of some kind was intertwined with her eye muscles. And a biopsy showed that that was cancer (from the breast, which is very rare). So she is now getting 4 weeks (5 days a week) of radiation. She will begin week 4 tomorrow. It only takes about 30 seconds to get the treatment and there are no side affects so far. And the Dr. didn’t really expect any either so that was good news.

After the radiation is completed, then she will have another MRI to see if the growth is gone. If it is, then we may be able to leave Dallas and get on the road again. We had planned to go somewhere down in South Texas for a few weeks in Feb/March and maybe even all the way down and visiting Harold and Edith but that got cancelled with Judy’s medical problems.

We are still hoping to go to Alaska this year but we will have to wait and see what happens with her eye first. If we do go, we plan to leave here and either go up thru California or take a more direct route from here, depending on the time that we have.

For now we are parked at a campground that we have used before that is about 25 miles north of Plano but is only about 5 miles from Julie and Ken so it works out good for us. And the campground is real nice; the couple that run it make sure that there are no ‘problem’ campers here. Seems like there is more activity lately – I guess people are starting to head back home after being in So.Texas for the winter.

Speaking of winter, we have had our share of it!  We had this snow on February 1st.

On March 19th Emma was over and wanted to climb the tree next to our trailer.  Notice the nice weather we were having:

And last night (March 22nd - second day of Spring!!)  we have this:

I was too chicken to go outside myself so these pictures were taken out of our door and that is not our truck or camper.

Julie sent us this picture of Emma on their back patio this morning:

Tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 60's so the snow will be gone by tomorrow!

Not much else to report it this time, but when we do decide on our future travels, I will post again.

Life While Parked in Texas

1/28 Gee, here it is, 2010, already!! We got back to Melissa, TX. just before Thanksgiving. We celebrated the Holiday at Julie and Ken’s house. Belinda, Bryan, and Bailey, Ken’s Dad and Carla and Chad were there as well as Carla’s parents. Jan Gray and a friend of hers were also there. It was a time for great company and great food!

On December 8 we left TX and drove up to Chanute, KS. to finally get the trailer fixed. Got there about 3PM and got parked and hunkered down for the cold and wind. (Did I say COLD and WIND??). I think the wind was blowing between 30 and 40 MPH all night and then temp the next morning was 7 degrees.

Bob and Chris Risberg were having their trailer worked on at the factory that day so when they were done, they pulled in next to us. (I think we blocked the WIND for them!!). Anyway, we had dinner and played cards.
The next morning we took our trailer to the factory for repair and service. They said it would take two days, so after we left there, we checked into the Super 8, got situated, and then drove over to the CG for a breakfast of pancakes and sausage with Bob and Chris. Spent the day with them and then retired to the WARM Super 8 for the night. The next day we spent with Bob and Chris as our trailer would not be ready until after lunch. We made arrangements to meet up with Bob and Chris at a state park in Oklahoma on the way home. The work took longer than expected so it was after 3 PM when we finally got on the road. We did get to the SP around 5 PM (getting dark) and parked next to Bob and Chris. They had taken a walk in the park and saw over 50 deer. We had dinner with them, played cards, and retired early. The next morning we drove back to TX in time for a Xmas get-together with the Florida group at Vince and Nora Leone's house in McKinney.

We flew up to Larry and Jacky’s on December 16th and stayed with them thru the 21st. We had a great time – celebrated Hannah’s 11th birthday and our 45th wedding anniversary. We went out to Bertucci’s and they had ordered champagne so we toasted both the birthday and anniversary.

On Sunday, the 20th, Hannah had several friends over and they sledded down the hill behind their house. Had just enough snow and the weather was good.

Since then we have been busy with DR appointments and meeting with friends.

Also, the Choir Director at Church asked if I would be interested in coming to choir and singing with them for the Christmas Concert. Since it was pretty easy music (and all in English!!), I went back. The concert was on Christmas Eve, and, of course, it was snowing hard. We drove in for the 7 PM service, and, since it was no longer snowing after the service, we went out for dinner and then back to church for the 11 PM service. Got home about 1:30 in the morning. Had to get up early to go to Julie and Ken’s for Christmas Day and opening gifts. Emma called before we left to ‘prod’ us along. Had a very nice day opening gifts and watching the kids with all of their new things. Julie had prepared a brunch which was fantastic (she would probably deny it, but she is a great cook).

Ken got a great gift from the dogs, but, unfortunately, we didn't get a picture.  (Sorry, Ken).

Pam and Steve (Judy’s sister and brother-in-law) decided to have a “empty nest” party Jan 8th so we flew up to Minneapolis on the 6th and came back on the 10th. As usual, it was a great time and we were sorry to have to leave. (But, we were glad to get back to some decent temperatures, weatherwise). While we were gone, the temps here in TX were COLD a couple of days, so when we got home at about 9PM, we found out that we were out of propane. So we drove back into McKinney and spent the night at the Quality Inn. (Sorry, Julie, we didn’t call you because we knew that you and the kids would already be in bed!). The next day we got our tanks filled again and are back in business.

Judy had a mammogram and a growth was found so she had a sonogram. The DR was pretty sure it was cancerous so she also had a biopsy which confirmed it. So surgery was on the 19th and she came home on the 21st. Pam came down on the previous Sunday (THE DAY THE VIKINGS BEAT THE COWBOYS!!!!) and spent a week with us. It was great having her here and I think she enjoyed it as much as we did. The lymph nodes that were taken out and analyzed were clear so that was good news. Now we are scheduled to meet with the Oncologist on the 2nd to see what treatment, if any, will be necessary going forward.

We'll keep you posted...

 

 

Nashville (But it could be anywhere!)

Well, here we are - almost to the end of our first journey.  There were a couple of afternoons where we spent time at the CG.  Pictures pretty much say it all.

What could be better than a roaring fire, leaves burning, a good book to read, (and my best friend - who took this picture!!).

We now make our way back to the Dallas area for the holidays.

Nashville - Bailey's Birthday

11/6 Today is Bailey’s birthday. We watched Bailey in the morning and when Belinda came home, we went out for lunch at CrackerBarrel.

Then we went grocery shopping for Bailey’s birthday at Walmart. While we were waiting to checkout, the lights went out. We waited for about 20-30 minutes before they finally told us that we would have to leave the store since there was no estimated time for the lights to come back on and there was no security. So everyone left their carts full of groceries and left. Turns out that a bird flew into one of the area power stations. A lot of businesses were affected. We had to go to three different stores before we finally found one that was not affected.
Later, when we got home, Bailey helped Mom with some of the baking.

In the evening Bailey and I put her new table together.

And later she opened a few family gifts.

11/7 The big birthday party was today. There were about 30 people altogether. Not sure if there was a theme or not, but here are a few pictures.

We all had a great time!!