Happy Turkey Day

I must admit that this Thanksgiving was a great improvement over last year. I spent most of last Thanksgiving in the MDACC emergency room with a fever. This year we joined some of Son-in-law & daughter's friends for a pot-luck Thanksgiving dinner. I ate till I was more stuffed than any turkey. Everything was great! I'll be back to my diet tomorrow, today was a vacation, and I had more sugar and carbs in one extended meal, than I've eaten in a month.

I'm Thankful for my return to health,
my 3 healthy, grown children and 2 children in laws,
my grandson,
my husband of 34+years
my extended family, and good friends.

Husband Mike is returning to Spain on Monday. He will be returning right before Christmas, as the boat yard is closing down for the holidays. We will be planting a memorial tree for his mother over Christmas, when both he and our older son will be home. I'm working the next 3 days, so need to sign off and head to bed.

Busy couple of days.

This was our second stop, at the "glass bridge skyway", pictured to the left in this picture. What a rip-off! You aren't allowed out on it with either a camera, or a cell phone,(you must lock them in a locker)and they charge over $30.00 per person to walk out on it. They will take a picture of you on the bridge, and sell it to you for $25.00 more. I didn't bite.


Looking down from the edge makes you a little dizzy.


Another view over the edge.


If you click on this image, it will enlarge, and you will see where I drew white lines on it. There are rock formations that look like a sleeping dog, on the top of the butte, and an eagle with it's wings spread, between the peaks, below and to the right of the sleeping dog.

We just spent the last 2 days at the other house, packing up and sorting out stuff to be moved. I discovered that the carpet in the family room is damp-to-wet under the cutting mat and the chair mat. I have a large, plastic cutting mat for fabric that is in the middle of the floor, with fabric and other stuff to be packed on it, and a chair mat, for a rolling chair, in front of my sewing center. When I moved them today, I discovered that the roof had leaked, and the carpet is wet. I sprayed it with a disinfectant spray, to kill any mold, and had a fan blowing on it most of the day. I did get the sewing stuff mostly packed up and shifted to the storage container on the driveway, along with the 8 ft tall sewing center built by my husband Mike. We also set out out 2 old sofas to be freecycled, and a pair of large speakers. The speakers were gone in less than an hour, but the sofas were still there when we came back to the farm this evening. I've got someone picking them up tomorrow.

Mike spent a good part of today driving back and forth to Drs. He needed a physical for work, so went first thing this morning. That Dr said, due to his being 55, that he needed a stress test EKG, but they couldn't do it there. He came home, called our regular Dr, made an appointment for 3:00, and helped move and pack for a couple of hours, then he was off to see this Dr, who ordered his stress test for Monday.

I'll post some more of my pictures from the Grand Canyon now.

pictures from Grand Canyon...

from the bus, on our way to the grand canyon.





The strange looking tree I'm beside is a Joshua tree. They only grow about 1" per year, and are protected by a stiff fine if you damage one.



Here is a close up...


we changed buses and proceeded to the canyon by 14 miles of dirt road to save about an hour of travel time...



Our first stop at the canyon was at the airport. Some of our party were flying over the canyon by helicopter, and this was where they disembarked. These ladies were dancing on the patio of a gift shop...



First view of Canyon...

I'll post more pictures later...

...try try again.

Hurrah!!! The picture posted!!!

I'll post more later. It is well past my bed time now.

Pictures, I hope...

I'm still not able to upload pictures to this site. I'll upload them to my My Space account.

I'll keep trying every couple of days...

It has been a very busy weekend. We returned from Las Vegas on Thursday, and slept that night at the house in town. My daughter had been driving my truck while we were gone, but had gotten it stuck in the mud on Tuesday, and since it had started raining on Monday and didn't quit until Thursday afternoon, it was still stuck. She picked up my husband from the house on her way to work. He drove the Bronco back to the house. We packed more stuff into the Pack-Rat storage unit, washed some clothes, and headed to the farm to meet the horse shoer at 1:00. While he worked on Indy and Miss A's feet, Husband and son-in-law got the truck out of the mud, so I could hitch it up to the trailer, to take 2 horses & 3 dogs to the vet by 3:00. The horses needed their teeth filed down, and Miss A and the 3 dogs needed their rabies shots. We made it right on time. When we finished there, we stopped at the feed store, which is right next door, to pick up 5 bags of feed for the horses. Then it was back to the farm, unload the animals and the feed, and go inside and sit down for a bit.

On Saturday my husband and I went to the Texas Ren Faire. My good friend Janet, who died in May, was having her ashes spread there, after the fireworks, and we wanted to be there. We had a good time at the fair, said our goodbyes, and got back to the farm around 9:30PM.

Today we spent the day in God's wonderful outdoors, fixing the fence between our property, and the next door pasture, trying to keep the cows on their side of the fence. We also rode around for about an hour on 3 of the horses. My Grandson has finally gotten tall enough to really control his pony. He learned to back him up, and how to ride a trot. He trotted more than he walked, and had a wonderful time.

I'll be going back to work tomorrow.

Still...

can't post pictures. I don't know why. I'll keep trying. I thought it was my computer, but I was able to upload to My Space, so it is a glitch in blogger. I need to do some outside work today, so I'll try again this evening. If blogger still won't work, I'll post to my space.

Home again, home again...

We returned from sin city Thursday night. The convention wasn't over, but Mike's company's part was, so we are home. Between us, our net loss at the casino was about $200.00.($169.00 after the player's credit) I played the slots, and earned $31.00 towards our meals, that we charged to our room. Mike played poker, and they don't give player credits for that.

I took a bus trip to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday. It was my first time to see it, and it was awesome!!! We drove across Hoover dam to get there, so I also had a mini-tour of that, without leaving the bus.I'll post pictures from the trip later. Blogger isn't letting me do it now.

We are going to the Texas Ren Faire today. They are having a wake for our friend Janet', and scattering her ashes, so we are going to say a final good-bye.

monday 11/10

We are on our way to Las Vegas today!!!

I'm Back...

This is Arthur. He belongs to a friend.

I was carrying my 2ND lance to the far end of the list before the first run.

These aren't in order, and two different people took pictures at the same time from different angles.


These two horses are keeping each other calm, while others are jousting.
This was from the earlier segment of the competition. I had speared a small "pig", and was discarding the lance.




I love this picture. You can see the intensity on both our faces...


I really only made 3 jousting passes, but, as I said, 2 different photographers posted pictures...


I guess I can say I'm all the way back. I went to an SCA event last weekend. The competition was in three parts. I didn't win, but I made my presence felt, and had a wonderful time, as you can see from the pictures...

I spent today at MDACC, having blood drawn, seeing my oncologist, and having my boobies squished in a mammogram. The technician said that everything looked fine, but I'll get the official word later. I go back tomorrow to see my radiation oncologist.
Mike gets home tomorrow. He has been in Spain for 4 weeks. He will be home for 4 weeks, then back to ...

We are going to Las Vegas next week. PGS is sending him for business, and I'm tagging along for fun.

Busy week...

It has been a busy week. Worked 3 ten hour shifts, Tuesday, Wed. & Thursday. Friday I nnloaded, cleaned out and reloaded trailer, did laundry and packed for SCA event. Left farm at 2:00 PM with 2 horses in the trailer, headed for Austin. Arrived about 6:00. Settled horses, and set up my camp, then visited other friends around the site. Had a friend from work joining me later, and camping in my trailer with me. She didn't arrive till 1:30 AM Saturday morning. We needed to be up by 6:00Am so that I would be ready to ride at shortly after 7:00 AM. She wasn't riding this weekend as she is recovering from back surgery. She used to be in the SCA when she was in college, but hadn't been active in about 15-18 years. She has been trying to get to an event for about 2 years, now, but there has always been a conflict. She had a wonderful time, and is looking forward to recovering, so she can start competing at events.

I didn't win the competition, but had a wonderful time.

I have appointments at MDACC on Wednesday and Thursday this week.Wednesday with my oncologist, and for blood work and a Mammogram, and Thursday with my radiation oncologist.

Mike is coming home on Thursday. I'm working Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday. On Monday 11/10, Mike and I are flying to Las Vegas for a week. Mike is going for work and I'm going to play. Woo-Hoo, vacation!!!