Busy Days

Wow, doesn't the time pass quickly? That's my excuse for not writing. My days are chuck full, especially now that mom is here. She is so sweet and patient. She has a dynamite therapist that won't let her slough in any way. He told her she has the muscle tone to walk and, in spite of all, SHE WILL! So he has been working with her and, what do you know, she is walking! It is halting and requires assistance, but she is on her feet and moving. It is a joy! She feels quite proud of herself.

Several mornings ago, as I was helping mom get up, she said to me, "You'll think I'm crazy, but Dad visited me last night. He cuddled with me all night." "How do you know it was him?" I asked her. "He cuddled me in his usual way", she said. It was a sweet moment and there is not a doubt in my mind that it happened. I feel sure that Daddy looks out for her on a regular basis.

Carmen's cancer is not gone, as far as we know. She has had one radiation treatment and one chemo treatment, so far. She seems to be hanging in and is a happy little girl. We have struggled to determine where to put our faith. Does the Lord want Carmen back, or can she be healed and stay with us? I think we are going to invest in healing. So we are putting our faith in that. We will see where that takes us.

Our Christmas decorations are up and we are almost ready for Christmas, I think. It has sneaked up on us so I feel a bit out of control. Actually, I feel out of control generally. All of our family will be here this Christmas, except Ger and Fran. I'm excited to have us all together. It would be perfect with our Taiwanese bunch.

Ben and Jes are all moved into their new home in Palo Alto. We are excited to have them near to us. Ben has started a new job with Mozilla. He's excited. Times are busy but with good things.

The picture at the top is mom walking with her therapist, Jim.

A new home for Ben and Jes

A New Home for Ben and Jes
We have had a wildly busy time since returning home during the Halloween weekend. Ben and Jes have been staying with us while looking for a home. They found one in Palo Alto and will be moving there this coming week. I had a ton of fun with the kids tonight. We played for a long time on the computer, drawing and taking goofy pictures. It is such fun to have the kids around. Jes flew back to Salt Lake to oversee the packing of their things for the move here. She'll return on Tuesday. In the meantime, Ben is here with us, along with the kids. It should be a busy and fun time.

Mom is doing fine. She is standing for longer periods of time and even walked with her therapist, Jim. Her goal while here is to be walking by the time we return her home. I worry that she might be bored some of the time. When we have lots of people around I don't have as much time with her. But she is such a sweet-spirited person and doesn't seem to mind. She enjoys the kids. She is, in general, such a noble soul and always such pleasant company.

The picture above is of mom relaxing in her motorized chair; Below are Ben and Jes on the left; the kids on the right, playing chess.

We spent a happy day with Reed and Dorothy also. You know that troubles seem to come in bunches. Carmen's cancer is back and Dorothy's kitchen feels like it is falling apart, all at once. Her dishwasher isn't working; the microwave quit and Friday the oven broke. She was just about at the end of her rope when we arrived Friday morning. Layne brought his tools and went to work, with the able assistance of Ben. Together they fixed the oven in time for us to bake 6 pumpkin pies. They fixed a couple of other things also. We had tons of fun baking, with the help of the little girls (Ben and Jes were there also). Carmen seemed in good spirits. How I hope we can get her a miracle and see her returned to health. She is such a lovely little girl. I also enjoyed a great visit with Reed earlier in the week. We had lunch together and talked quite a bit. I am warmed to see how well their family is functioning. They are a wonderful bunch.

So, even with this difficult year, we feel blessed.

A Busy California Household

It has been awhile since I've written. So much has happened! Layne and I flew to Colorado the end of October to pick mom up. We drove her home California in her red SUV. Ben caravaned with us from Salt Lake. He and his family are moving to California. We arrived home the day after Halloween to a full house. Ben, Jessica and their 4 children, along with mom and us, set up house in our house. It is a crowded, busy household! Mom is now pretty settled in the guest room. Ben and Jes sleep in the living room and the kids sleep in the study. It's crowded but it works. Ben and Jes are looking for a home near Mountain View, where Ben will begin working for mozilla in December. They are excited and it looks like they will be here for a couple of years, at least.

In addition to that we have had a couple of visitors. Brynn, our Mongolian daughter, visited last weekend. Daddy's cousin, Joan Galloway, her hub and son, also visited us a couple of days ago. It was great fun to spend time with them.

We are settling into something of a routine now, as mom will spend the winter here with us. We have some therapy going for her and she appears to be happy enough to be here with us. It is hard to leave home and friends and I appreciate her sweet nature and willingness to be gone from home for so long.

I find arranging pictures on this blog very frustrating. I can't seem to put them where I want them to go. But, for your information, the pictures are, from top left to right: William (Ben and Jes' oldest son), Layne and Brynn (our Mongolian daughter), Mom and Joan Galloway (daddy's cousin). The pictures at the bottom are, from left to right: Jacqueline and Alexis (Ben and Jes' two girls) and Zachary (Ben and Jes' youngest son).

A Colorado Weekend

We are in the midst of our longest visit with Mom. The days pass quickly, as always. Mom makes daily improvements and is even getting some of her emotions back.

Gerald and Frances came to visit over the weekend. Ben and Jes also came at the last minute. They stayed through the weekend and both families returned home on Monday. What a wild time we had! The kids frolicked through the house and yard. Mom loved it. She wanted to be in the middle of it all so she continued to relax in her living room chair and enjoy all the action around her. Ben and Jes' girls gave her an especially frequent amount of attention, trying to cheer and help her. Each evening we all gathered in Mom's bedroom for a family prayer. That was an especially warm and sweet time.

This past weekend was General Conference and Apple Fest in Cedaredge. Apple Fest is a yearly celebration of the apple harvest. The town turns into a festival of booths of all sorts. Food, including apples, are abundant as well as booths selling all sorts of arts and crafts, clothes, books and etc. The center of it all is the park, which was full of fun for the kids and offered live music by various groups throughout the day. It was cloudy, drippy and cool. All of us bundled up and went. It was lots of fun but the cold shortened our time there. I would have liked to shop through the booths but came home with everyone else instead. Layne was happy for that!

Sunday we watched Conference on the computer. All of us, kids and grown-ups, gathered in the living room to watch and listen. Ben set things up to work very well. The kids were quite good throughout the first session. They were playing together by the second session. All in all I think it worked fine. I'm grateful to be able to watch it all again on the computer whenever I desire. We live in a magical time.

By Sunday afternoon Alexis was throwing up. It was hard to call her really sick because she would be off to play as soon as her sick session was over. The kids checked out the calves in the pasture and played in the barn. By evening just about all the rest of the kids were throwing up and/or feeling sick. It was quite a night! Monday morning everyone left, with sick kids in tow, and the place fell quiet. We all missed the happy noise, even Mom.

It is Thursday now and we are once again adjusted to our peaceful days. Mom receives regular therapy from visiting therapists and our time fills up with care of her and general home duties. We don't see very many people except for the occasional visitor for Mom and the therapists. I like these peaceful days. Layne provides great help and wonderful companionship. We took Mom and drove up to the Mesa to see the color of the changing leaves. I was disappointed that we seem to have missed the peak color of this season. But it was still beautiful!

Pictures: top is Angelica, Jacqueline and William on the hay; middle are kids watching General Conference; bottom is Angelica, Jacqueline and Alexis with the calfs. Just above are the aspens on Cedar Mesa with Surface Creek Valley beyond.

Trouble for Carmen

Not long after arriving in Colorado, Dorothy called to say that doctors have found a new, small tumor in Carmen's brain. The cancer has returned! My heart absolutely sank. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't sleep all the following night. I was so invested in her recovery; I have made no room in my mind for a recurrence of the disease. The doctor thinks the tumor is not a result of cancer cells missed in the original surgery but rather a whole new tumor. That puts in my mind the idea that Carmen is growing the stuff from scratch; not a good sign.

After a day of thinking and praying I calmed down a little. Dorothy says that the doctors are recommending a much milder form of radiaton and oral chemo to kill the tumor. Carmen could still function as normally as before. I am feeling calmer now that a little time has passed. I wish I knew what is in store for our little girl. I believe our family can adjust to whatever happens; even to losing her if that is to be. But it would be nice to know how to invest our hopes and feelings. I am not inclined to lose hope for her. Not at all. I still feel that she can be cured and made well. But will she?

Radiating Beauty

We've been home a week. It's funny but being home just a day makes me feel that I've been there for a much longer time. Today we are back in Colorado and it feels like we never left. We've attended the temple twice; a very good feeling. One of my friends from there sent me a sweet e-mail message, where she told me that I "radiate beauty". I thought that such a sweet thing to tell me!

We spent our week cleaning the house and working in the yard. I have complained before that we are surrounded by dirt. I'm getting tired of brown all

around. It seems to take such a long time to get things established sufficiently to support plant life. There are a number of things working against growing things here. One is the almost continual wind. I believe that could be solved with trees, especially evergreens that shied from the ground up. Layne is against evergreen trees but I'm hoping to wear him down. The second problems is clay soil. We are in the process of mixing good stuff into the soil to soften it, but that takes time. The third problem is water; ours is full of boron and salt. Most plants don't like that much. So we have installed cisterns to catch the rain water.
That'll help quite a bit for some of the plants. Others are tolerant of
our water. It is trickly to get the right plants in the right places. So we haven't; at least not yet.

We have been busying ourselves getting the front yard ready for planting. The guys have finished the walk-ways and I am building a dry creek bed. I'm hoping to create something that will "radiate beauty". It curves nicely and I'm now filling it with the many stones that lie about the ground all over this place. They are quite pretty so I think they will look lovely. The days at home have been hot! As I worked on the creek, the heat was almost overwhelming. I even found myself sweating! That is something for me. In fact, for two days I could not stop sweating. Layne found it quite attractive!Here is the progress on the dry creek bed.

Friday night we had the pleasure of attending a special, fund-raising, golf tournament, sponsored by our investment company, Valentine Wealth Management Corporation. They found out about Carmen and donated some of the funds from the golf tournament to the family for Carmen. What a marvelous evening! Isn't it wonderful to see how good-hearted people are. It makes me feel so good about the American people; we are a caring bunch, for the most part. Reed spoke at the dinner following the tournament and was very well received. Many approached us after the celebration to meet Carmen and offer various forms of help. How inspiring to be among such giving people. We met and bonded with many of the Valentine family, especially the young daughter of John Valentine, Alexis. She was Carmen's age and sought her out. She talked to Carmen and hung around until our shy girl opened up and they formed a sweet bond. "Meet my new best friend", Alex told us. How sweet it was, for all of us.

We found a bed and a chair for Mom on Craig's List. Both are in good condition and do more things than the items mom is now using in her house. So I'm hoping that she will feel comfortable when we bring her home in November. Ah, it's good to be home! I love our home, it embraces me. There are easy visits to be had with family as well. I love it here!

We arrived back in Colorado yesterday, where we found Mom to be in good condition and functioning better than when we left. I have mentioned her lack of sparkle in previous writings but now understand that her stroke has caused her emotions to "flatten". Apparently, strokes on the right side commonly have that effect on people. She shows little emotion now and I miss it. I miss the mom that used to be even though I still enjoy her as she is now. But I miss the passion.

Pictures above are of Allegra on the left top and Layne on the right top. Family bonding is happening at the kitchen table.

Come on Little Hand

Layne and I have just spent another week with mom, who continues to make progress. With Physical, Occupational and Reading therapists and bathing aids coming regularly, mom is being stimulated and cared for effectively. Here she is at left trying hard to read all the way to the right of the page; one of her greatest challenges. On the right you see her exercising her legs. She is becoming more animated and taking more and more of an active role in exercising her right side, especially her right hand, which is still unresponsive. But she is working it gently and talks to it by saying "come on little hand, move!" She doesn't seem to be discouraged at the challenges before her; she just keeps trying. It is paying off.

My cousin Michael came to Cedaredge while we were there. He has an old house in town. He brought his girlfriend Rose along. He visited with us one day and stayed for 6 hours! We had a great visit. We spoke a little about God; he considers himself an agnostic. As we discussed the creation of the world I agreed that it could have happened by chance through evolution but it was far more likely that the wonder of the life on this earth was created by an intelligent force. He had to agree. I cannot understand why the scientific view of the creation must conflict with the idea of creation by God. Can He not use scientific methods? I believe He does. Anyhow, I felt that our conversation offered me a chance to express my faith in God in a way that Michael might consider. He has a good heart but has lived a life that has not made him happy, in my opinion. We spent many hours in philosophical conversation when we were young. He seems now to have given up his idealism and lost himself in the pursuit of things; especially properties. They are his babies. He cares for them and has trouble letting them go. I hope he is still in Colorado when we return in a week.

Mom has agreed to come home with us for the winter! I'm excited about that. Layne suggests that we rent a small trailer and bring her bed and chair with us when we drive home with her in November. I think that is a good idea. My mind is filling with ideas for making our space here fit her needs. I believe we can have a good experience with her and that she will enjoy her time on our little hill.

Speaking of little hills, Cliff has laid the groundwork for our front yard pathways. I like it! Soon the guys will get the stone in place and we can add plants. Things don't grow easily here. I hope we can get the hang of making a furtile field out of our surrounding grounds. Layne refuses to be frustrated by this challenge. He just keeps on trying things until he finds a system that works. I love that quality in him (it is generally contrary to my own!).

Our trip home from Colorado on Saturday was an adventure. We flew from Montrose to Denver without any problem. In Denver we found that every flight west was oversold! Fortunately the airport offers free internet service so we used my laptop to access the United web page and searched every flight out of Denver that could possibly connect us to a flight into San Francisco. We wound up in Pheonix! Layne discovered that the flight to Pheonix was wide open. The SF flight out of Pheonix was also wide open. We took a leap of faith and it worked! It took us all day but we made it home Saturday evening.

It is always good to be home. I feel such peace here. The house is organized just right to serve our needs in great comfort and convenience. I'm grateful for it. This crazy time of flitting back and forth between Colorado and here is a bit jarring. I am beginning to feel confused about what is here and what is there. I'm glad we will be bringing mom home with us for awhile.