Thursday, July 26, 2012

Home Sweet Home!!

We returned home FINALLY in May after the Valley started HEATING up and it was so wonderful to be back at the higher elevation in the cool pines with their  fragrant scent and where we are surrounded by picture postcard mountains and lots of s-p-a-c-e--not houses stacked on top of each other and side by side. The bright sky at night lights up with twinkling stars that aren't visible often in Mesa. We love being back among our good friends and neighbors--best anywhere. Frank and I decided we are definitely country folks, not city folks--yes, bumpkins, not slickers!! So be it--it's in our blood. There is no place like home.
After having a month of unseasonably warm weather here with no frosts at night, a cold front came through and hit us with 20 degrees or lower temperatures for several nights and our blossoming fruit trees really took a hit as did the new 6" long growing tips on our many beautiful Colorado Blue Spruce. The trees are pretty sad looking now. Hopefully they'll recover by next year.

We have been excited to have our daughter Wendy and her family move here the end of May and living within walking distance of our home and do so frequently. They are also in the same ward with us, so nice. They have three boys registered in school, Clay in 7th, Hunter 10th and Skyler a senior. They're fun boys and seem to be fitting in well here.Autumn is 21 and trying to figure out what she wants to do in life. Summer, their oldest, is married and living in Las Vegas( actually Henderson) and expecting a little boy in August, our first great grandchild.
Frank's myeloma has become active again, his M-spike rising ( that's the indication of the malignant protein in his blood) so the doctor has added another yummy (not)  drug to his regimen. It's called cytoxin (cyclophosphamide) in addition to the thalidomide and Dexamethasone he already takes. The Cytoxin he takes 6 huge pills every Monday morning along with the steroid, and then the Thalomid every other night. It takes he about 4-5 days to recover and feel half way decent, just in time to start over again. It makes him often feel nauseated, no appetite, extremely weak and no stamina or energy and pain throughout his body. He could possibly lose his hair but hasn't so far. The literature said his skin and hair could change color--?? I keep watchful waiting to see if he turns green, purple, black, orange, . . . Looks the same to me as of present, thankfully! He will have a lab test soon to see what effect the "cocktail--CTD" is having--hopefully doing more than just killing off his immune system but also the malignant cells. We'll see his Myeloma Oncologist on the 8th of August at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale.

He gets out and about when he can which isn't too often and enjoys visitors and phone calls.  He enjoys attending church meetings on Sunday and always says he wouldn't feel any better if he stayed at home so he might as well go and feel the spirit and have a chance to hear inspirational messages and see friends.
One of the best family reunions with our kids and grandchildren we had ever was the first week of June in a little town called Junction in Utah where we rented a huge mansion that had been remodeled/restored from a hundred year old + courthouse that retained that flavor. They had turned the county jail room, judges quarters, Parks and Recreation office, etc. into bedrooms including two rooms with 4-6 bunk beds in them each where cousins liked sleeping plus a huge kitchen/dining room with all you'd need for cooking and the original courtroom with the judges' bench still intact. You can see details at Kandra's blog where she posted about it including lots of pictures:  kandjowens.blogspot.com or at this site: courthousevacations.com  or  utahfamilyreunions.com  The kids took turns cooking yummy food,  went on successful fishing trips with the little ones, we learned how to play "Cornhole" and had a successful tournament that everyone liked, had a bouncy house that was popular with the little ones. and had a courtroom drama re-enactment from our personal family history.

In August after his doctor's appointment,  Frank and I are planning to go to BYU Education week in Provo, Utah for a week of motivational wonderful speakers and hope to see our children as we stop at their homes on the way up or home. We also got tickets to go to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City to help celebrate President Monson's Birthday with the Tabernacle Choir and other special guest performers. We're looking forward to an exciting week.