Mom Has Cancer...

...words one hopes to never write. There has been a few things I'm not writing about.  It is time to write about this one to ask for prayer on behalf of my Mom.

The week before the wedding Mom had a biopsy and we were sent to see her doc. We were referred to a surgeon who told us Mom had a stable, slow growing breast cancer. They expected it to respond well to chemo and planned a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation.  The surgeon requested an MRI to confirm the results of the mammogram and biopsy.

Mom opted not to tell others about the cancer until after the wedding.  That night she told our kids - and reminded us all God is a healing God. We were praying for the MRI to show healing. Yesterday, Mom, myself and Sherri (my sister in law) went to see the surgeon again to hear the results of the MRI.  The MRI revealed more cancer than first thought. Mom will have a double mastectomy and chemo. We are hoping to avoid radiation. Surgery is set for the 24th of January.

There is, of course, much I am not communicating here. My great-grandmother, grandmother and Aunt have all succumbed to breast cancer.  We've been quoting II  Timothy 1:7 and Joshua 1:9 a lot around here in this season and they hold us well in this trial as well...."God has NOT given us a spirit of fear - but of power and of love and of a sound mind."  "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, neither be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you WHEREVER you go!"

 Our Parkinson's verse applies here too,  "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'" 2 Cor 12:9.

Favorite Workout Shirt

Jamin spent quite a bit of time with Nolan and Alex while he was home talking about life goals, personalities, and setting up workout plans.   He spent the most time with Alex designing a plan and prodding him to go out daily with him to run, walk and such.

Friday night means pizza and games or movies. Krista called to see what we were doing as we were on our way to Mom and Dad's with Papa Murphy's.  She joined us, with a gift for Alex.

I love Jamin being concerned enough to discuss the whole plan with Alex. And Alex being willing to take the plan to heart. And Krista keeping it fun. This is now Alex's favorite workout shirt! I love some Gherkins!

PS - the pizza and games were pretty great too.

RV Pantry Solutions

Every move involves new organizational solutions.

We have much more storage in the motor home than we did in the trailer. Unfortunately, much of it is in the storage bays/basement. This isn't a problem when it's 70 degrees outside, it's a considerable problem in icy rain and snow. One does not want to stand outside for great lengths of time searching to find, for instance,  one schoolbook.  We have extra kitchen appliances, school books, winter gear - all stored in the bays.

I also store some of the "extra" food in a big tub in the basement and under various seats with built in storage.  Weight is always an issue and I need to EAT DOWN the stuff in the basement. This week, before I made up a menu plan, we pulled all the food from under the seats and under the home out and inventoried.

In my defense, some of the things we store are specialty items not readily available at each location we visit (i.e. Nutritional Yeast, Agave Nectar, Rapadura, Wheat MT Prairie Gold...). However.....I'm not sure WHY we needed so many Ritz crackers or honey.  I'm open for meals and uses for both. I THINK some of the crackers were bought with an eye to make wedding munchies.

We'll have Chicken Divan this week....and the honey goes quickly if I bake bread and make ice cream....the problem being I've not gotten brave enough to try to bake bread in the convection oven...and it's FAR TOO COLD to stand outside with ice and salt watching an ice cream maker!!!!

Now that I know what is there, I need to REMEMBER what is stored in the various pantry locations. I made a pantry page in my Bullet Journal. I listed each item and drew a little square to show how much of each item there is. As we take out an item, the item is "x" out. We have some big storage cans of items that it is nice to have if you are boondocking far from stores....hash browns, fruit I dried...Those cans are stored under our seats. I put a "\" in the square when those items are opened and "x" when they are empty.

This system will work well for a variety of storage needs....I first used it when I needed to keep track of what was in the bottom of a 21 foot chest freezer. LOL

Dumpster Diving

You will NEVER guess what I caught my daughter doing!

What in the WORLD?????

Well, it seems earlier in the day, while playing in the snow, she threw a ninja kick...and ripped her pants.

When we arrived at the Campground, she threw her pants away, as I determined they were beyond mending.

Thirty minutes later - THIS.

Three years ago Jamin gave her a Trac Phone for her birthday. She loves texting and keeping up with everyone via her phone.

You know where this is going, right?

Her phone was in her pants pocket!!!!

We retrieved her pants and found her phone! All is well in the motor home tonight.

SNOW DAY!!!!

Sixteen months ago we set out on a journey to "chase the sun," "see America," "chase 70 degrees." Stacia has repeatedly bemoaned the fact that she  misses the snow of Japan.  We kept pointing out we did NOT have winter clothes and we didn't want to encounter snow.  They've been predicting snow off and on for the past couple of weeks... we FINALLY woke this a.m. to SNOW.

View from wind shield

We scheduled a move from Krista's driveway to a county park today. She had a SNOW DAY due to the schools being closed. This was GREAT. We got to enjoy the snow with her - and laugh at the sights and sounds of a snow day from her windows.  Lots of skidding and one into the ditch. Krista made us Dutch Babies - we sat and ate and watched the show....

Honey - Ingredient of health - almost seemed like a sign we should eat more honey

These guys were LOVING the weather

Michael went to a men's prayer meeting. I kept doing the jobs we needed to do to move. Arielle called and asked if we were still at Krista's. Cory dropped her off on his way to work. What a great idea! She blew in and said, "Let's go have snow fun."  It was fun to see the kids enjoy their first snow since Japan. 

Stacia was so excited

Nolan seemed to be the target

Planned to take the tree to recycling today - but didn't want to venture out too far

They made a "snow thing." 

 She's really not sleeping. We heard Japanese in the other room and peeked around to see this. 

Arielle had her first ride in the  motorhome as we caravanned across to the county park. Nolan made a snow animal and a castle on our picnic table. 

We're snug, cozy and warm here in our little slice of the Pacific NW. 

I can't wait to walk along the snow river tomorrow...and I have an AIR HORN to sound off if needed. I'll be fine.

Mystery Thriller Puzzle

Isn't it ironic how many GREAT things one fines when cleaning out their things to MOVE? Krista was no exception. I'd never heard of this - but it was GREAT. It's a mystery thriller puzzle. There is a story to read, and then a 1000 piece puzzle to  put together. There was NO PICTURE to guide you. The picture is a clue to solve the murder mystery. 

These four worked on the puzzle for a couple of days....

I helpfully pointed out saws, shotguns and forklifts as the puzzle came together. 

Michael and Nolan worked on throughout the day when they had breaks....we wanted it done tonight. 

We texted the photo to Jamin so he could be in on the solution. 

 Checking the photo for clues! 

The best thing is she found the puzzle at a thrift store for $1 - $2. I must go thrifting while we are here! 

Krista's Crazy Winter Vacation

Whew! Krista's Winter vacation has been a whirlwind. Her last few weeks have been "full". Some of the craziness was expected - Arielle's wedding, family visiting, roommates moving out - some was unexpected -  sprained collateral ligament in her knee!  

I KNOW having all of us in her driveway and Jamin in her roommate's old room was both a blessing and a stress. I do pray it was mostly blessing. We LOVED spending time with her, being here to help during the days when she wasn't mobile, taking her to doc appointments, shopping together, cooking together...and WE got to help her move!  It is fun to be the helper and not the  main movee. 😊

She had planned to be ready to move by the time she went back to work - but her knee injury slowed her down, just a bit. She's sorted things to give to sisters and friends, donate, store until she moves to Virginia, store until she goes active duty, take with her to Mexico.....it's all getting done. Before this beautiful, live tree came down, she hosted family dinners, two game nights, one Christmas Party, one New Year's Eve party and will host a birthday party tomorrow night and another on Saturday. This is "slow" Krista. 😀😉😁

She's been BUSY - though she says she stayed home most her vacation. ::snort:: She HASN'T played any more soccer. Her knee is still giving her trouble and she will be starting physical therapy soon. 

Krista went back to school today, Jamin flew back to College Station today. We moved a few more things for Krista, took a load to storage for her, and generally tried to get things "in order" for her. We also washed ALL our bedding - I can't even get all of the queen sheets in a load in the motor home. It took FIVE HOURS when I tried. 😜We're working to remove all trace of "us," as we'll pull chocks tomorrow. 

Her bedroom is nearly empty. Two rooms ARE empty. The living room furniture is gone. 

People have been coming by for days to buy things. Frankly, as a mom, I'm HAPPY we are here with all the characters from Craig's list dropping in and out.  Can you guess what the boys are doing? 

 Krista asked Jamin to make sure her checks were destroyed...um....they are!Another pile is growing to be donated. This may not end until she is driving down the highway. ::snort::

I had one of her favorite meals ready when she got home from work, Veggie Pot Pie, we've played games and answered the door to Craig's list folks...it's time for vacation to come to an end and all of us to get back to reality.