Fox Hollow Farm

Mike, Emily, Graysen, and I spent a couple of hours at this place, and it's so neat.

It's planned to look like a real farm with barns and animal pens and a pumpkin patch, but there are other things to interest children (and adults), like the maze, a couple of bouncy houses, and pony rides.  There is also on the second floor of the barn a huge bin of shelled corn for children to jump in and play around.  It was too crowded for Graysen to get in there, but one day she can enjoy it.

There are horses, cows, goats. sheep, and pigs in the outside pens along with chickens, roosters, and peacocks running around everywhere.  There are bunny rabbits and cats and kittens in cages in the barn

When we got there, Graysen was too busy looking at and pointing to other children to notice pumpins or stay still for a picture.  She did better on the way out.

I don't have too much time, so I'll just post a bunch of pictures I took that day that are pretty self-explanatory.

Looking for chickens - bok-boks.

 Watching the cats and kittens was so much fun.

Until two of them started to fight.  Guess that kind of living situation kind of takes it's toll on cat moods.

We wanted to spend the afternoon here.

 Graysen had been in a bouncy house before and loved it but not so much this time.  Just a little crawling around with another little boy.  I think she liked it better when it was full of children.

Mom had a pretty good time though.

 Goats were not so charming this time around.  They were a little big - and chewed your hands and shirts.

 We were trying to figure out how we could copy this room.

Yay, a slide without a big of big kids on it.

This is the interactive pen where you could actually get in the pen with the animals - old and lazy ones.

Emily and I laughed at this chicken with the dirty legs.  She never stopped running and pecking.

The best part of the day for Graysen - and the only one to cause tears - when we made her leave the wagon pulling and go home.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and enjoyed every part of it.

MRI Day

As I mentioned before, we were able to get to the place we were supposed to be with no trouble.  We got there in time to have lunch.  It was a beautiful sunny day - but chilly.  Emily had mentioned a Mexican restaurant and a sandwich shop across the street that were close by.

We decided on the Blue Water Taco Grill.

I'm not too adventurous with my choices and usually order cheese enchiladas, which I did, and they were about the best I've ever had.  Half the plate was lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole, and the best fresh-tasting salsa.  Yummy.  Mike had steak enchiladas.  We found it interesting to people watch - and people listen.  We hear a couple of different language up here, Russian and Chinese (or maybe several versions similar - we have no way of telling!) besides Hispanic.  The only negative was that the door was open, and I was freezing.  So what's new!  When we walked out into the sunshine, we decided it would probably have been warmer outside even with the breeze.  

The radiology department was in a building in the next block, and we found it okay.  Ninth floor, beautiful view - for me.  Mike went on in pretty quickly and was there for a long time.  He doesn't talk much about his "procedures," but I think it went well.

There were only a couple of people at a time in the waiting room, and I worked on my cross-stitch a little.  I did have an interesting encounter.  A man had been sitting across from the me whole time I was there, and I heard him tell someone on the phone that his wife was having an MRI.  She came out and almost lightheartedly mentioned that they would have to wait because they found that her lung had been punctured during her biopsy the day before.  

She was on the phone to various people, so I didn't pay much attention, but something later on got us talking, and she told me that she had just been diagnosed 2 days earlier after she had an "incident" at work.  A sweet pretty lady probably in her 50s.  Turns out she has lung cancer with metastasis to the brain, and they're figuring out how to treat the brain met first.

She was so comforting to talk to.  Even with her situation being much worse than Mike's, she was offering upbeat plans.  She gave me her name and the name of a book to read that had helped her so far.  The book is by Billy Graham, "Nearing Home."

Her name is Christine, and I'll never know what happens to her, but with that one encounter she is on my mind daily, and she has one more person praying for her.  She also took Mike's name for her church prayer group also.  

I truly wasn't expecting (nor was Mike) for me to get a hug in the waiting room in a strange town where I know no one.

Fox Hollow Farm next, then Salmon Festival, and then shopping with GG.

This Week

Looks like I'm going to have to just list things and hope to find time to talk about them or post some pictures.

Mike had a pulmonary function test one day - Tuesday, I think.  He was able to have it done in Swedish in Issaquah instead of Seattle, so that saved us a lot of miles and time.

This is a beautiful hospital.  The first time we saw it was the day after Graysen was born, and it was really beautiful then!

Emily works just across the parking lot from the hospital, so she is able to meet us for lunch easily.

The test went well and quickly, and waiting for Emily was not problem, since there is a Starbucks right outside the cafeteria.

No problem at all.

We got the MRI moved up and went there Thursday (again, I think, the days just kind of flow together).  We have got this down now, driving to the hospital - or at least he has the driving part, and I have the riding part - without holding on too tight.  It's really very easy, and even getting home is easy when you know where you're supposed to go.

This was in front of us as we left Snoqualmie and headed to Seattle.

It's time to "go somewhere" so I'll add more later.  This always happens.

Celebrate

Wonderful news!  Mike's doctor called this morning and said the chemo had done it's job on the lymph node and that he was cleared for the lobectomy whenever the surgeon said.  It's hard to believe, even though we've been so positive the whole time!  Just to hear the doctor say, "Best case scenario."  Wow.  The surgery is not a piece of cake, so that will have to be gotten through, and no one knows if there is more chemo and/or radiation on the other side of surgery, but again we have to do things as they come and pray for continuing good things in the future.

We're about to leave for a pulmonary function test at Swedish Issaquah where Emily works.  We already had plans to meet her for lunch at the hospital, so this will work out nicely.

This is my early morning view while I'm getting ready for the day.

And if I can share it with this little fuzzy head, it's even better.

She's working on her zipping skills with my suitcase.

Time to go.  I'll add more this afternoon.

It was a Great Birthday

Well, it's just impossible to write on this blog.  Impossible.  I wrote this title yesterday, wondering if I could remember the day before, and now it's 2 days later.  I just don't have the time.

Briefly, on my birthday, almost everyone was gone during the morning, so I worked a few hours, stopping only to receive a couple of deliveries.  I'm not sure what we did the rest of the day, but we had dinner at an Indian restaurant that Emily and Ryan love.  It was amazing, really the first Indian food I've eaten, and I have no idea what I ate.  We just let them order for us - four different dishes.  Yum.  Every one of them was good.  Graysen especially enjoyed her mom's mango lasse.

Another thing she enjoyed was standing between her parents and surprising the man in the booth behind them with sticky little hands on his neck.  I'm not sure he enjoyed it as much as she did.

Afterwards, we went to Fred Meyer to get Emily a fishing license for their fishing trip this morning, and it was so much fun to push G around in the Halloween and fall decorations and see her reaction.  She exclaimed at all the owls and turkeys and even the witches.  The only thing she hated was a huge furry spider hanging from one of the shelves.  Nooo-nooo with a lot of head shaking.

Yesterday afternoon, Emily, Graysen, and I took a short walk, and Emily tried to show Graysen how to roll down the hill in the grass.  No deal, Mom.  She loves the new park across the street and is almost TOO brave about climbing the steps and going down the slide.  She's so ready to start playing with the other kids.

This morning while the others were fishing, she and I walked to town and back.  A perfect morning, just chilly enough to seem fall-like but not cold.  The leaves are changing so nicely, and the town seemed dream-like.

She likes to hold a couple of leaves while we walk - but only 2 and only dry ones!  She hums and sings and talks to the cheep-cheeps and doggies she meets.

We came home and had just a great morning, unloading drawers, playing, and reading books.  I got a little housework done - but very little.

 And then this afternoon 4 out of the 5 of us had nice long naps.

That's just a quick summary of the last few days.  We really are happy up here and just wish we weren't having to stay with Emily and Ryan so long.

We're about to go for another walk, so I'll take my camera and try to remember what happens.

The usual walk but fun--

 Same route - past the gardens where we saw huge brussels sprout plants and pumpkins.

Then around the corner and up to the big hill where Graysen practiced running up and down, Mom did some working out, and Griff and Mimi just enjoyed the evening.

We avoided the park because it sounded like it was full of big kids and retraced our steps.  We saw a huge raccoon cross the street in front of us, but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture.  Guess he had been in someone's garbage.

We got back home and unloaded the pantry, made taco soup and studied the new Halloween glass.

Pumpkin Shirt

Graysen outgrew her pumpkin shirt from last year, so I had planned to make her at least one for this year.  Debby and I saw this color combination in a local store and thought it was so pretty and original, especially since there was a shirt with the same blue rick-rack on it.  I found some similar orange fabric and just pretty much copied it.  I guess that's not a nice thing to do, but I'm just not that creative. 

It seems a little early for fall fashion, but it's already pretty cool up here.  We were swinging on the front porch yesterday morning at 63 degrees, and we were a little chilly.  Then I talked to Mama, and she was talking about how hot it was and that she had let Darby in early.

I have good intentions of writing every day, but it's harder than I thought to get upstairs to my computer.  If I bring it downstairs, I have little fingers trying to poke the keys or asking to see pictures of "the baby."  Then last night when I tried to write, there was no internet connection upstairs.

So briefly yesterday,  I was planning to babysit while Emily and Ryan worked and Mike, Larry, and Jo went to Seattle to visit various places.  Larry and Jo have stopped to visit for a few days on their vacation.  Mike ended up not feeling like the trip, so they ventured off themselves with the GPS to guide them and I think had a pretty good time.  Pretty pictures and videos anyway.  

I can't say that I did more than putter around the house and enjoy Graysen.  I did work 3 hours while she napped yesterday afternoon.  Sounds boring, but it was a wonderful day, doing just what we wanted to.  Mike felt a little better as the day went on but is up this morning not doing that well.  

The rain is horrible closer to Seattle, and I'm glad they didn't decide to wait until today to go sightseeing.  There might be some closer trips today, maybe to Issaquah to a Thai restaurant, and one other place where I might be able to go with them. 

We'll see how the day unfolds.  Right now, breakfast sounds pretty good.

Contentment

I'm sitting here in Snoqualmie drinking a big cup of coffee, having made my departure from Montgomery feeling relatively good about things and having pulled off another flight by myself without doing something stupid.

I'm making a rash decision to write something on this blog every day before checking emails and looking at Facebook or doing anything else.  Unless Graysen wakes me up, and then, of course, she comes first.

Sherry and David are off on another outing with the kitties, this time for her to attend long-arm quilting classes in Springfield (ha, I don't even know which state yet), and she said she was going to keep up her Tails from Tennessee blog.  I figured I could do as much myself, so let's see how it goes. Although - I just went to get the link, and the last entry was 2 months ago.  I need to call her out on that.

Yesterday halfway to Seattle, I started thinking about how the day had gone so far, with the object of writing it down, and it took me several minutes to even remember my seatmate from a few hours ago.  That may be because she didn't speak English or chose not to speak any language.  I've come to appreciate people like that a little bit, although the elderly Asian lady on one side of me on the other flight kept glaring at me, even when I smiled at her, and clutched her purse tighter if I turned her way.  I knew I was going to be in a middle seat and was worried I would have 2 no-nonsense suit-wearing guys who wouldn't be tolerant of having yarn draped all over them and having to pick up dropped knitting needles.  But the glaring lady and (I believe) her granddaughter on my other side ignored me completely and let me knit or sleep all I wanted to.

Last time waiting in Atlanta for the flight home to Montgomery, I was cross-stitching and attracted the interest of 3 other ladies who were headed to Montgomery also.  Four completely different people of different ages and stages in life were drawn together by a hobby, and we had so much fun talking we hated to get on the plane.

This time in Atlanta, I met a grandmother waiting for her daughter and 4 grandchildren to come from Nashville so they could fly to Seattle and then on to Hawaii.  She was interesting to talk to and a little anxious about them being late.  It was priceless seeing her expression when the children ran up behind her and surprised her.  I was knitting, and this opened up a conversation with another grandmother from near Seattle whose daughter and granddaughter live in Columbus, GA. We had a lot in common to talk about, and I now wish I had gotten her email address.  She loves to garden, and if we ever get a chance to move here, she could give me some ideas.

Ok.  So I wrote the above at 7:00 a.m., and it's now 10:18.  Where did the day go?  First a sweet little girl with striped pajamas came down to play, and I have not seen my computer since.  Such a fun day.  Friends from Lubbock, Jo and Larry, flew into Renton and are spending a couple of nights.  They have their own plane, and we're their third stop on their trip to the West Coast.  Lots of things planned tomorrow, but tonight we're all tired and getting to bed early.  Ryan smoked some brisket and pork and made an amazing potato salad, so we're all full and ready to sleep.

I'll have pictures tomorrow because I took a lot today.  Have to sleep now.....