Going Home!

I am going home for Thanksgiving! I am so excited! I am going to cook everything my mom used to make and hopefully no one will go to the ER. Wish me luck, better yet, wish my brother and our guests luck! I promise to post pictures and yes, daddy in heaven, I am buying the pies so the fire department can have the holiday off!

Then, after I get back from Montana, I will have to work 4 count them FOUR days and then I will be OFF TO MEXICO! I can almost taste the margaritas!

Love you all, hug your family close and have a wonderful night!

I can has pazzport

The world is my oyster. Life is good.

San Diego, the last days

My friend Melissa and I in Spokane Airport getting ready for our trip to beautiful San Diego!
The trip was to our companies Celebration, but the pictures below are of the last day we spent in SD. We had a blast. I will write about Celebration at a later date. The pictures are courtesy of Melissa, I, gasp, didn't take my fancy camera, because I wanted to live this event, not photograph it.

The Weston Gaslamp. Our home for 5 days.

What I'd been waiting for...my feet in salt water. Does it get any better?

Tarra and I astern, see how I'm getting a hang of the pirate talk? Yar Matey!

Tarra, Melissa and I (I'm in the middle with the huge grin--I'm on water, woohoo!)

Landing at Coronado

The end of the US!

Sea Lions lounging.

Submarine

The boat used in the Pirates of the Caribbean

Star of India

Naval Museum in San Diego Harbor

The last stop on the trip, Salt Lake City and then we were home, again.

What a difference a few months makes!

Pretty surprising what eating the best food on the planet can do for a gal, eh?

I can't believe the difference in, well everything, since i started my wellness program. I am happy ALL the time, and it's not because of the weight loss, it's because I feel so darned good. Something has happened on a cellular level and it feels AMAZING! I have energy every single day, my mind is clearer, my thoughts are brighter, it's like a big cloud had been hanging over my head and NOW IT IS GONE!

The "after 6 months" photo was taken a couple of months ago. More changes have happened since then. My skin is SO much nicer now, my hair is back to thick and healthy after the wild chemo ride, and my body is getting into a proper shape (I always said round is a shape, but I'm pretty sure it's not a proper shape for the human body). It feels like the real me had been on an extended vacation and now I'm back!

Anyway, more later! I'm off to enjoy this amazing weekend!

Daddy's Ashes

It's been over 2 years since Dad died. Not an hour has passed that I haven't thought of him. He was a great man. My mom was a great woman. They were fantastic parents. We were truly blessed in every way. In fact my brother and I often say we hit the parental jackpot.


Daddy was raised at Mystic Lake Power Plant. Dad, my brother and his crew often worked at the power plant facilities after dad moved to Absarokee and started his construction company. The picture above is of the power plant itself, which daddy and the crew re-roofed many years ago (that is copper roofing by the way). Dad loved doing jobs at Mystic, and he did a lot of them over the years. He loved it there more than anywhere, so that, of course, is where Mike and I decided to spread his ashes. We waited for over two years to do it...for many reasons, including the biggest one; we weren't ready to let go of him.

But finally, we were ready, and as we walked up the mountain today I remembered all the awesome times we had on the trail in years gone by. I could almost hear daddy asking if I needed a ride (when I was just a tot he would hoist me up on his backpack and I'd ride up there through the rough spots and on the switchbacks. I was utterly fearless because I knew my daddy wouldn't let anything happen to me). The memory was sad but more importantly, it was beautiful.

Mike and I at Fish Rock

Often during these trips, he told us stories about running up and down the steep trail to the lake. He and his siblings fished and hunted as often as possible during his childhood in the high mountains of Montana. He often mentioned a place he called Fish Rock, which was just up from the river on the trail where they would clean the day's catch of Rainbow Trout. He spoke with such joy of those days, and that is where we thought he should be.

Mike spreading daddy's ashes

It was hard to see daddy go, though I knew it wasn't really him. I always was daddy's girl and that hasn't changed in the 2 years he has been gone. But I know he is where he was meant to be. He loved that place with all of his heart and he shared that love with us and we will carry it with us always, just as he did. Thanks for everything, daddy. You may be gone, but you will never be forgotten.

Thanks, also, to my brother's college roommate and best friend through all these years. He and his family were there with us through this hard day. Fred was "adopted" by my family after college and my parents both loved him very much. I know daddy was happy today to have them there with us. I only wish Wolf had been there as well.

Who'd a thunk it?

I've decided I don't want to go into detail about what has gone on during the last 2 years, it's in the past and I'm all about right now. I will give you the extremely brief version, though, as it may give some insight into why I am where I am right now.

Not long after dad died, I reconnected with a friend from high school and needing a change of scenery, moved to Idaho. Yes, I said Idaho. Really, the parts I've seen have been beautiful, but who moves from Montana to Idaho? Apparently my high school friend and I,` but I digress.

I got a job and a half and things on the surface were good, but inside I was grieving and sad and it began to take a toll on me. My half job required me to be on my feet for 4-8 hours at a time on concrete floors and my rheumatoid arthritis, which had been tolerable for the past 20 years, became quite intolerable, which added to my depression. During my "every six month" CA 125 test, the levels were significantly elevated, so I began a short 6-month course of treatment. As you might imagine, it was not the best of times, though it was nice to know that it was caught extremely early and was quite curable.

I chose not to share this information with my brother, son and cousins, but have done so recently. :) My two best local friends helped me through it and I was able to continue working both of my jobs. As I said, it was completely curable, but it was scary and hard and miserable and I am so glad it is over! It was difficult enough going through knowing the end result would be good, I can't imagine not having any idea what the end result was going to be.

Anyway, the big C was gone, but I still had the RA to deal with. Not liking the remedies offered by my rheumatologist, I turned to a more natural approach. My body was toxic from a lifetime of yo-yo dieting, eating the wrong foods, drinking the wrong things, working in a very chemical environment (scrubber operator at a platinum smelter), being around second hand smoke, eating foods that were laden with chemicals, meat that had hormones and steroids added. I had been through 6 months of chemo and could feel it in every part of my body from my brain to my swollen, gnarled up little toe. I was a ticking time bomb and I knew it.

By the grace of the universe, I was introduced to a woman whose life had been changed by a health and wellness program and she was kind enough to share her experience with me. After I heard her story, I started her program. I replaced two meals with pure healthy nutrition. Four days a month, I did a cellular cleanse to detoxify my body, and it was (and is) SO easy! The program provides the best nutrition on the planet and a way to cleanse the toxins out of the body, It worked for me, better than I could ever have wished for.

Good nutrition makes for a healthier body, go figure.

Two years ago today...

I was sitting with my dad at the hospital. I truly believed he would survive his second bout of pneumonia in six months and go back home to the nursing home in a few days. I believed that so strongly that about midnight, I went home to get some rest. At 2am, the hospital called to tell me he was gone. I so wish I had stayed.

You call THIS Progress(ive)?

My cousin Kay (we call her the Mother Theresa of our family because she gives until she bleeds) had just gotten her new car when a kid (cop's son, go figure) trying to run a yellow light, hit her at speeds way above the limit. The car was twice totaled (front end damage and rear end damage) because he was going so fast it pushed her into the truck in front of her. Her injuries are bad, she can't work and Progressive is jerking her around in every way possible.

Through NO FAULT of her own, she is now homeless (they won't pay for lost wages because she had a contract to provide services), the exact same car as she had is now $2,000 more because we got a good deal on the first one and there are no good deals now with the Libya fiasco going on, and they wouldn't pay the difference despite the car only being weeks old, and has a whole host of medical issues including badly broken ribs, shattered teeth, and a very bad back injury they are trying to say was only aggravated by the accident because she had back surgery before. So tell me this...she was able to lift and care for a 10 year old boy who has CP and can't walk at all, but the accident only aggravated the injury? C'mon people...

Moral of the story, DON'T BUY PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE and if you are ever in a wreck that wasn't your fault in any way, pray to God that the other person doesn't have Progressive Insurance.

Flo, you should be ashamed!

Emily, the best furchild in the universe

Hugs and Loves...

I know I promised to tell my story and I am trying very hard to put it into words. Since I last posted much, it's been a wild ride and I am still processing it. I know one thing for certain...life is short, and life is precious. LIVE IT TO THE FULLEST!

More soon, I promise.

Hugs and loves and I am so happy you are still here...

I guess it's time I tell my story...

I haven't really blogged much since daddy died. His death took a whole lot out of me. I was always a daddy's girl and the last many years before he died, we got to spend a lot of time together. I cherish that time and I expected there to be a lot more of it. Like when Dale died, I just knew there would be more time and was heartbroken when there wasn't.

So enough of that for now...I've decided it's time I tell my story. It's been so long since I have blogged, I will probably have an audience of none, but I'm going to tell it anyway. But not tonight. Tonight I am going to crawl into my warm, cozy bed.

There's always tomorrow for blogging.