Best Christmas Ever

One week before Christmas our doorbell rang at 9:15 A.M. I asked Lloyd if he was going with Dick that early. On the way to the door I heard jingle bells ringing and when I opened the door we got a great surprise. There on the steps were Adri and her three kids! They had flown in from Virginia and Ashley and Kim had picked them up the night before. All the family had known they were coming and they had all kept it a secret since October.

This is ALS, the youngest.

What a fun Christmas it has been with all of us here.

Just a Normal Life

What do you write that is exciting to read when what we are doing is quite boring and depressing. We go to chemo every other week. Some weeks are okay and others are weeks from hell. It seems like if it isn't one thing to worry about, it is another. But enough of that.

I got my Christmas lights up last week. I know, it was only the last of October, but the weather was beautiful and I knew I didn't want to put them up by myself in the cold. I called Kim and told her that if she would help me put them up I would help her. Lloyd couldn't possible do it this year and CJ never cares about Christmas lights, so she agreed. The weather was great and it took us less than an hour to do it all. Ashley called while we were putting them up. She couldn't believe that I was getting them up so early. I'll tell you what I told her, "I'm putting them up, that doesn't mean I'm turning them on." Besides that, KSL started playing Christmas music Nov. 1st.

OK was our helper. We had to go to Bothwell to get a ladder so I had the truck doors open as I looked for something or other. During that time OK climbed into the truck and donned her grandpa's straw work hat. She thought she looked quite stunning, and I though she looked cute. She really is a bright spot in our life.
K3was over the other day and wanted to take some pictures. These are a few of his pics. I think he has a real future in photography. The big girl in the pictures was proud of herself that day. She came to give me the 'letter to parents' that said she had passed her Hunter Safety Test. Her mom was proud of her, too.

Just one more of K3's pictures. This is how Lloyd spends most of his day--in the chair with a blanket over him because he is freezing. The forty pounds he has lost shows in his face. We are like Jack Sprat and his wife.

Family Foto Fiasco

Hurray! The whole family was going to be here for one week in August, so I thought we needed a family picture. Every one of the girls said let's not do it because they were too fat. I told them that we're all fat, but we're doing it anyway. I made the arrangements for the place, photographer, and made sure that everyone would be here on the arranged night. It was a beautiful night, no wind, not too hot, and no mesquitoes.





The cutest grandkids in the world.


Ashley and Jayden arrived first and instead of walking down the steps he chose to roll down the hill in his cute picture clothes. Then Adri's family came and Lizzie pranced around holding out her dress like a princess. Finally after football practice, Kim's family arrived and Klayson chose to roll down the hill in his good clothes. I guess that is just the thing six year olds do.

The two that I wasn't worried about at all were the two that were not happy at all. Andrew is always the best baby, but I guess he was just tired because he was fussy and unhappy. He cried so hard it upset Lizzie and she started to cry. Miss OK is always so cute and loves for me to hold her, but she didn't get a nap that day so she was ONERY! All she wanted to do was jump on the trampoline.


Even though it was a fiasco, the pictures turned out great. If it were too easy, it wouldn't be a "family" picture, right?

Lizzie Loves New Look -- NOT!!!

All of the "K" children were going to get their school haircuts and since Lizzie was here, she decided to go with them and get her "kindergarten trim." She is always a little hesitant with new experiences, but the K's talked her into it.
Lizzie has a naturally curly hair, so Mandy had to straighten it before she could cut (trim) it.
Sitting in the chair Lizzie was fine with the new look. Mandy straightened it, trimmed it, and then twisted the bang area and put a bobby pin in to hold it in place. Sometime during the process Lizzie didn't like what she saw in the mirror. As soon as she got out of the chair she went over to Kim and put her head in Kim's lap and started to cry. Finally, Kim was able to find out what was wrong -- it was too tight and the bobby pin hurt her head. But I guess that wasn't quite all because by the time she got to my house she was in tears again and went straight to the bathroom to slick the front down with water.
The new look was cute on her, but we all agreed that we love her curls the best. It's curls for kindergarten!

Little Lloyd

If any of you readers have ever seen a picture of Lloyd as a toddler then you would know why I titled this posting "Little Lloyd". This picture of our latest grandchild is the spittin'-image of his grandpa as a baby. Notice the features--they are the same. If I gave "Little Lloyd" some gray hair and put some glasses on his nose you wouldn't know who was who -- maybe!

Sleightly Crazy over Corn

Whoever knew corn would be such a big hit with the Sleights. Lizzie loves it. The other night she ate five pieces. Adri bought some last night and while Kim and Lizzie were husking it, Lizzie and Ry said they were hungry so Kim told them to have a piece. Here they are eating raw corn. Of course, whatever someone does Livie thinks that she needs to do it too, so she grabbed a piece and polished it off.

Adri was worried there were pesticides in the corn because it raw. We need to get that city girl back on the farm.

Bear Lake -- Kids have fun no matter what.

Adri and Craig and their family were all here visiting, so we decided to take advantage of Kim and CJ's toys and spend the day in Bear Lake. They all went up the night before and stayed in the cabin, and Lloyd and I brought Keaton up the next morning.

These boys know that a little cooperations

will get them to the beach faster.

Keaton had football practice the night before.
Linda, my sister, Boyd, and Robyn and girls stayed in their cabin the night before, and then we all met at the beach the following morning. As you can see from

the picture, the boat docking did not go so well. CJ must have picked a spot with soft sand because he could not get the truck and boat to move. The more he tried, the more the wheels sunk in the sand. They got a tractor from Ideal Beach area and he tried to pull both the truck and boat trailer out, but without any luck. The brakes on the boat trailer must have locked because it would not move. With the help of some good Samaritans, they finally pushed and pulled the truck out, then unhooked the boat and got it off the trailer, then pulled the trailer out. It all sounds like it was rather easy, but it was not!


Even though the adults were quite concerned about the truck and boat, the kids ran to the water and enjoyed every minute of the day. Craig and Adri bought a big water trampoline for the kids to play with, and it was the hit of the day--even for the adults.

We really had a great day at the beach. It is always fun to be with family. Even the food tasted good, although every once-in-a-while you'd hit a grain of sand between your teeth.
Adri hopes she and the kids can get up again before they leave.

Short Stay in Sunriver

Lloyd and I were invited to go to Sunriver, Oregon, with Ashley, Nikole, and Jayden. I took them up on the offer, but Lloyd opted to stay home and farm.

Sunriver is about seven miles south of Bend. It was a very ugly ride from Boise to Bend, but really pretty as we got to our destination. Sunriver is situated up in the mountains surrounded by pines. It is by the Deschuttes River.

Nikole had meetings, so she rented a house, which as you can see, had a hot tub. That is where Jayden spend most of his time, and we frequented it quite a bit, also. It got rather chilly at night and was very chilly in the mornings so it was nice to warm up in the hot tub.

The first picture was the back deck with the hot tub, and this is the front deck. You can see that it is heavily wooded with pines.

Ashley and I would take a walk in the mornings while Nikole and Jayden would ride down to the bakery and get their treats for breakfast. The next picture shows the "spare tire doughnut" that Jayden chose for his breakfast.

There were several miles of bike paths which were paved and flat. Ashley, Jayden, and I rode about 10 miles of it one day which took us past the golf course, stables, swimming pool, equestrian park, and the airport. It was fun and Jayden was a trooper, (of course, he was on a trailer bike in back of Ashley so if he got tired all he had to do was to stop peddling and let her do the work). It was nice and flat and we all enjoyed the ride.

Before we left we stopped at Trader Joe's and stocked up on a "few" things. Two of which were foot-high basil plants. They made the car smell good, but we were pretty tightly packed on the way home as you can see by the picture. Nikole and Ashley were troopers. They took the back seat with Jayden while I enjoyed a nice, quiet ride in the front all the way home. It was a fun get-a-way.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

I decided we all need something else to look at rather than Lloyd's stomach. My yard looks good this year so I decided I would share it with others.

Our neighbor used to have a Trumpet Vine that climbed a telephone pole in our backyards. It always attracted a lot of hummingbirds. It was fun to watch them fly in for the nector. But, the vine died and now there are no more hummingbirds to watch. I do have another little two-legged creature that frequents my backyard and is a whole lot more fun to watch. She is quite entertaining.

"I love living, I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far."

Neil Simon, Last of the Red Hot Lovers

As Good As It Gets

There were a couple of things we got when we left the hospital. I got a water pitcher which I can fill and make sure I'm drinking enough water during the day. Lloyd got another fine scar which is added to the others from the diabetes needles and the open-heart surgery. This one is a little more decorative with the staple marks.

If Lloyd had any idea I was viewing his fat tummy he would kill me. Lucky for me he knows nothing about computers.

Bad News/Good News

After five years Lloyd needed another colonoscopy. Not so good news this time. :( (Kim tells me this is a frowny face. She also said that most people know this and it doesn't have to be explained.) The doctor said he had found a mass so arrangements were made to have it removed. All went well with the operation, but there were three lymph nodes with signs of cancer.
The good news was that there were only three, but the bad news was that there were three.
After talking to the oncologist, we found that there would be chemo--bad news :( --but, the good news is that the chemo will take care of it :). So, just today, we made arrangements to start on August 11th. A port will be put in that morning and the chemo will start directly after that.
Sometimes with Lloyd it's a bit hard to distinguish the bad new face :( from the good news face :)