Grenada 2009

Grand Anse Beach

children's program in the Coconut

The Coconut

Annandale Falls

Street Ministry in St. George's

Loaded and going to the river of lunch

Work Project -- improving the play ground at LaBorie school

Sophomore Spring Social

A group of guys try to open a frozen tee shirt. I hope the owner doesn't get upset that his shirts are torn to shreds.

Pizza, nacho chips, salad, fruit tray, ice cream cake for supper.

10 bottles of soda, 1 skateboard, 1 rider, # pushers = human bowling

They didn't actually burst any bottles of soda.

Balloon lady

cool whip and cheese curls game that turned into a cool whip battle

stu co got the worst end of the deal

Old Rag Mountain -- 2009

Once again we took the senior girls to hike Old Rag Mountain. It was a good weekend. They had beautiful weather except for gusts of wind. We stayed at a different cabin this year, but it was a very nice one.

At the trail head

the most difficult part of the trail

taking a break

on the trail again

at the summit

Sandwich Sale

Shady had four skids of supplies for us to pick up on Thursday afternoon.

We loaded Geril's truck first with most of the meat and a bit of all the rest of the supplies. Then we put the rest of them in Paul's trailer and Mary hauled those.

These two ladies kept things orgainized throughout the evening.

Snack time

Sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches . . .

The idea was Jan's.


She brought Charity and Priscilla on board to form a committee to make sure it happens. Because Mary and I were there, we became a part of the committee.


The volunteers are numerous.


The goal has been to raise money to cover medical expenses. For example, I am going to the pharmacy for one prescription of three anti-nausea pills and will pay $100 copay. the insurance covers the rest. She needs these three little pills with every chemo treatment.



After two meetings, we were ready to begin selling ham & cheese and turkey and cheese sandwiches. We lined up volunteers for selling sandwiches, making them, and delivering them. We will also be selling them at three local stores on Friday.

We have 4074 sandwiches to make this evening. The girls lined up between 40-50 people to help. We also have about 15 volunteers for Friday to help deliver them. Plus, there are people who bought sandwiches that they will be delivering after they get them from us.

We are very grateful for the work that has been done and that will be done tonight and Friday.

My camera battery is charging right now. I will post more photos sometime next week of making the sandwiches. I don't think I will have time over the weekend.

Much Ado About Nothing

Not much has been happening these days. Chemo treatment #1 is done and the side effects were minimal. We could hope they will all be similar, but we are not counting on that. The next treatment is on Monday. We expect hair loss to occur after this one. She is ready with a selection of about 6 hats to wear. She does think she will have occasion to wear one of the neon green wigs available at Walmart. She informed me that she wants one of the curly wigs, but she wants to wait until after St. Patrick's Day to buy one--they may be reduced then. Nothing like a positive attitude! She said last night, "I may as well have fun with it."

The "new" Jetta was causing some problems and had to be in the garage for about a week. She noticed the one wheel seemed to be doing strange things a few days after she bought the car. She took it to her regular garage. They checked it out and said it was a major problem that would cost about $1500. She called the place where she had bought the car; he told her to bring it to him and he will take care of it. He thought the other garage was taking her across for not buying from them. After about 10 days in two different garages, she finally picked it up last night. We will see how it is now.

School is keeping me busy most of the time. We are just past the middle of the third quarter. Next thing I know it will be summer vacation again--won't be too soon for me though. I love school, but there are other things in life that need to be done too.

So, does all this qualify as "much ado about nothing"? or should I ramble on? I'll refrain from doing so.

Odds & Ends

The Blueberry in the last post has been replaced.

Last weekend we were with a group of friends at the cabin.

It took lots of firewood to keep the cabin warm with the frigid temperatures we were having.

We got the van stuck in the lane and had to get it pulled out before we could leave.

Friday we went to a birthday party.

The "Blueberry" is History

1/23/09 -- I added two pictures from the next day to the end of the post.

Last evening we were home when the youngest member of the household called to say she had an accident. She was a bit disoriented and didn't know where she was. We told her we would meet her at the emergency room at the hospital. When we got near the hospital, we saw all the lights of emergency vehicles and realized the accident was only a couple hundred yards from the hospital. We took a few pictures of the car and then went to the emergency room.

She was fine--just a bunch of bruises and bumps. She will be off work for the next four days to get her limbs limbered up again, take care of insurance business, and begin the search for another car.




We are thankful for a number of things: (1) her injuries are minor (2) we were able to be there for her (3) it was not her fault (someone pulled out of KFC in front of her. She flew across two lanes, hopped a curb, crossed a parking lot, and stopped a few feet outside a building.) (4) she only hit the one car (if there had been traffic coming the opposite direction [as there usually is on that stretch] she would have hit them too). (5) We brought her home with us from the emergency room last night.

deployed airbags that probably kept her from hitting the windshield

the "Blueberry"

the "other" car

Shift in Responsibilities

Since surgery is past and the healing is going well, we have shifted our responsibilities. Mary is now doing most of the housekeeping responsibilities and I am bringing in coal and anything that requires heavier lifting. When the snow comes this weekend, I'll be doing the shoveling.

We have an appointment with the medical oncologist and two weeks later with the radiation oncologist. Following those, we should know more about the treatment plan.

The photos from the previous post are relevant to today also. It looks like that again even before the snow that is forecast for this weekend.

Winter Wonderland

These are from this afternoon. We had ice on Friday; it didn't melt on Saturday; Sunday was an additional coating of ice and snow.

Moving Ahead

Surgery is now scheduled for December 23. To some people, that may sound terrible to have surgery two days before Christmas. For us, it is a perfect time. It is the last half day of school before Christmas vacation. I will be available to bring her home after surgery and be home with her for the next two weeks. If we could have picked a day, it probably would have been that day.

It feels like we are finally moving toward treatment rather than just testing. We realize that testing is necessary to determine treatment, but this is a good step forward. Last night for the first time since the diagnosis, I heard her singing in her print shop. That was a good sign too.

Waiting Mode

We are in the waiting mode right now. The MRI was on Monday and the appointment with the surgeon is on Thursday.

For now, we are just waiting for that appointment knowing that there will be lots of information given and many decisions to be made following the appointment.

She worked a full day today, but we are nearing the end of that for a while. Our guess is that surgery will be next week. She was approved for unpaid Family Health and Medical Leave from work. That means she can be off and will not lose her job. The supervisors have said they will work with her--allowing her to work when she feels well enough to work and not work when she doesn't.

The First Snow of the Winter

It was snowing when we came home from work today. We have had flurries before, but this is the first time there was actually a wee bit of snow on the ground this winter.

Sophomores/Juniors

The sophomore and junior classes had a social on Thursday evening. It was held in the barn of one of the families from school. They played a few games outside before supper: capture the flag, tug of war, pancake toss, etc.

Supper was prepared by Big John's Catering. We had delicious burgers and fries.

One of the after supper games was calf-dressing. Poor calves!