Cancer Update

2013 has been an interesting year health wise.  I've always been so very healthy that this year's cancer diagnosis has been quite a shock.  I have heard it said that thyroid cancer is a 'good cancer'.  I'm not sure that any cancer could be considered 'good'.  I will say that to this point it has had very little affect on my life.  I feel 100% normal with my usual energy.

Because Medullary Thyroid Cancer is so rare the primary directive is to get to a 'Center of Excellence' where they treat many "Meddies", as people with this type of cancer call themselves.  I thought that would mean trips to MD Anderson in Houston or Mayo Clinic in Minnesota or Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Amazingly a doctor who is considered an expert just moved to Oregon Health Sciences University right here in Portland. I won't have to go anywhere for consultation or treatment.  That is happy news.

I saw her a couple of months ago and really liked her.  While my cancer marker numbers have never gone to 0 (and according to her, won't go to 0) they have stayed quite stable at around 30. Patients with a spread of the disease have counts of into the 10,000 and even higher.  For now all I have to do is to have regular blood work and neck ultrasounds every six months. If the numbers start to rise or something shows up on the ultrasound, then more tests will be warranted. Most likely places where it would spread are the lymph nodes of the neck, the liver, or lungs.  Even if the cancer does rear its ugly head somewhere else, it is normally a slow growing sort. Medullary Thyroid cancer is treated more like a chronic disease than a normal cancer.  So for now we just wait and watch and pray.

One of George's mother's favorite hymns was "Lead Kindly Light".  A phrase from the 1st verse has become my mantra.

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene - one step enough for me.

Blazers - Heat - Lebron

We've seen Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant play basketball so I thought we should add Lebron James to our list.  Since the Miami Heat came to play our Portland Trailblazers on the 28th of December we decided to get tickets.  Unfortunately Lebron was hurt in Sacramento the night before so he didn't play.  Oh well, what are you going to do?  I took plenty of pictures of him on the sidelines! Maybe we'll try again next year.

One of the Blazers lived in our apartment complex for a year.  When the manager told me that he had moved in, I asked what he looked like.  He just laughed and said, "When you see him, you'll know."  True!  There aren't too many 7 foot one guys walking around here!  Other clues were his Porsche Panamera ($100,000- $175,000) and new jeep.

The game was exciting, although it ended with the Heat winning on a 3 point shot just at the buzzer.  The packed arena got really quiet when that shot went in.  Blazers got the ball back with .5 seconds on the clock but their final shot missed.  It still has been the best season they've had for awhile. People are really hoping for a championship run this year!

Fun outing with some of my favorite men!

Sick for Christmas

We've been passing some sort of bug around here and it was my turn on Christmas.  If you don't believe I was sick and to dispel any thoughts that I am a vain person, here is how I looked on Christmas morning! Yikes, I really did look terrible!

 Christmas happened anyway though!  Here is Matt with his Catalan Independence shirt…..

And Johnny with his Spanish National Team jacket.  We're hoping for another Spain victory at the World Cup this summer.

 Scott and his new swim suit.  I think he liked it better than this picture indicates….I hope he did!

If you notice a trend with George's new suit, it is because we are going to take a family vacation to Hawaii!

We didn't forget our favorite four legged family member, Jackson.  The edible card definitely made him happy!

While all the guys went to see the 2nd Hobbit movie on Christmas afternoon, I enjoyed TV, a warm fire and a long winter's nap.

Thankfully by the 27th I was alive again and able to enjoy a nice walk to see the Lake Oswego Christmas lights.

It was a Merry Christmas after all!

Best Barbecue in the World

The best Bar-b-que in the world?  No question, it comes from the White Pig Inn in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Barbecue the way it is supposed to be! And they've been making it since 1920, first grandpa then son and now grandson know the secret to the perfect sauce.  Then add good meat and cole slaw…..talk about good!  I often stop here on my way to Lonoke from the airport!  And I have been known to go 3 or 4 times during a one week visit!

Rain in Lonoke

No this isn't a lake!  This is the result of a torrential downpour in Lonoke, Arkansas when I was there.  Since it had been a rainy fall, there was just no place for all that water to go.

 Notice the water in the driveway.  If we had walked through it to get to our Class of 1971 girls' party we would have have been wet up to our knees.

So how did Pam solve this problem?  With valet parking, Arkansas style!  Our very own classmate Hugh Amos Pack, decked out in the perfect clothes for a rainy Arkansas afternoon parked our cars!

Perfect solution to the problem and it was fun to visit with Hugh Amos too!  He didn't have too many complaints about being the only guy there!

Golden Friends

You know the song

Make new friends

But keep the old

One is silver 

And the other gold!

When you live in a small town and attend a small school you get really close to your classmates.  That is especially true for the Lonoke High School Class of 1971!  We have had reunions at least ever five years for the last 40 years!  These two ladies can take much of the credit.  They work tirelessly to keep us 'golden' friends!

 I seriously don't remember when I didn't know Pam Cordell.  She lived down the street from me and I know we started playing together before we even started to school.  Shelia was one of my very best friends too, although she didn't move to our town until later.  When I see them now I still see those little girls and feel such a rush of thankfulness for our friendships.

During my recent visit, Pam and Shelia got a whole group of us together for a girl's reunion!  Love these ladies!  We look pretty good for a bunch of 60 year olds!  Or course, you see 60 year olds….I see high school girls and am filled with memories….riding around, Beatles concert, marching band & majorettes, proms and dances, football and basketball games and cheerleaders, making fudge, spending the night together, boys we liked, yearbooks, classes and teachers and always talking and talking!

Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life!

One of our class cheers was "We're the best class under the sun.  We're the class of '71"  True even now - 42 years later!

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Cousins

My recent trip to Lonoke was to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Ross's son Josh to Erica.  Here they are with my Uncle Dick, his grandfather, and his sweet wife Virginia.  Dick married Virginia after my Aunt died.  I'm so glad that they have had each other in the years since their first spouses passed away.  Dick is the last of my Daddy's generation to be with us.  

I stayed with my cousin Jane and her husband Pat.  I don't know why I didn't get a picture of Pat.  I love that he always asks for my 'preferred foods list' before I get there so that he can make all my southern favorites, like black eyed peas!

 Cousins are the friends you keep forever!

Charlie Cummings, married to my cousin Joy, who was not able to attend the wedding; me; Janie Derning; Brenda and Ross Moore, the parents of the groom; Robin and Chuck Lewis.

A cousin is a ready-made friend for life!

Pa Amb Tomaquet

Pa amb tomaquet in Catalan, Pan Con Tomate in Spanish, Bread with tomato in English….delicious in any language!

And it is simple to prepare!  Use some sort of country Italian loaf of bread.  Slice to go in your toaster and toast.  Then rub as much garlic as you would like on the bread.  Next rub with tomato, as much or as little as you like; drizzle with olive oil and top with a bit of salt.  A taste of Spain!  Yummy!

Home for Christmas

"'ll be Home for Christmas.  You can count on me.

Please have snow and mistletoe and presents 'neath the tree"

When I think of 'home for Christmas' many different things come to my mind:

• A beach house on the Oregon Coast
• A busy Christmas Market in Barcelona
• Our house crowded with people for a Christmas Eve Celebration
• Reading The Polar Express and Luke 2 with our now grown up children
• Breakfast pizza, hot chocolate and fruit on Christmas morning
• My boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations, many of which I've had since I was a little girl
• Steaks and potatoes for Christmas Dinner
• A Christmas afternoon movie
• 4 children, a son-in-law and a husband
• Piles of presents 'neath the tree
• The stockings, lovingly made by my mother, hanging by the fireplace

Home for Christmas is wherever my family happens to be living the traditions we cherish and making new ones as our lives change. 

But if I have to think of one PLACE that means 'home for Christmas' to me it is a small, one stop light town in the south - Lonoke, Arkansas.  I've spent more years away from Lonoke than I did living in Lonoke but there is a special place in my heart for this town that means HOME to me.

And this year I'm going to spend a part of Christmas in Dixie as I fly down to attend my cousin's son's wedding.

It's Christmas in Dixie, snowin' in the pines

Merry Christmas from Dixie to everyone tonight.

God bless ya'll, we love ya.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas ya'll!

When Joseph went to Bethlehem….

Years ago while shopping at the Christmas market in Barcelona I saw a nativity that depicted Joseph holding baby Jesus.  I feel in love with it but didn't buy it because I had already spent way over my budget that year.  For several years after I searched but never saw it again.  After we moved back to Boise, George went to Barcelona in December and he also had no luck finding it. 

Last month when I was taking pictures of the Christmas market I zoomed in on one stall and there it was - the scene I had remembered for all these years.  George was good enough to buy it for me!

One of the reasons I love this scene is this song:

When Joseph went to Bethlehem I think he took great care

To place his tools and close his shop and leave no shavings there.

He urged the donkey forward then, with Mary on its back,

And carried bread and goat cheese in a little linen sack.

I think there at the busy inn that he was meek and mild

And awed to be the guardian of Mary's sacred child.

Perhaps all though the chilly hours he smoothed the swaddling bands,

And Jesus felt the quiet strength of Joseph's gentle hands.

And close beside the manger bed, he dimmed the lantern's light

And held the little Jesus close upon that holy night.

Go Cars

Driving in Lisbon in our rental car was an exciting challenge for George.  He did admirably well.  I would have pulled to the side and cried! Hardly anything ruffles that man including busy multi lane traffic circles with tons of cars going at high speeds.  I am sure there is some Portuguese in his blood somewhere!

So taking a tourist spin in a 'Go-Car' seemed like a sensible thing to do.

A 'Go-Car' is a three wheeled cycle with two seats and yes you do go right out in the traffic like everyone else, including big trucks!

As I expected, George remained calm and in total control.    I have read that Lisbon is a bit reminiscent of San Francisco since both are cities built on hills by water.  I think this looks like it could be the Golden Gate Bridge in California, rather than the 25th of April Bridge in Portugal.

Portuguese Cathedrals

"Why do we have to see all these cathedrals?  They are all just alike."  That was the frequent complaints we heard from the back seat on trips during our years of living in Europe.  I'm here to testify to the fact that the cathedrals in Portugal are different.  Portugal wasn't blessed with the marble of so many cathedral building countries.  What they were blessed with was gold, lot of gold from Brazil.!

Yes, lots of gold!  Lots and lots of gold!

Portugal also has beautiful tiles everywhere including in their cathedrals

And sometimes they combined the gold and the tile to stunning effect!

 King Manuel started his own architectural style, called, interestingly enough Manueline!  It's nice to be the king!  The ornate, elaborate and intertwined carvings most notably around doors and windows  are distinct to this style.

King Manuel was the ruler when Vasco De Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and Portugal was at the pinnacle of it power.  

 Manueline carvings also were used on the columns.  Many of the symbols are from the sea.  I couldn't understand why artichokes are part of this motif until I learned that sailors ate them to prevent scurvy.

 I think even our children might have been impressed with these cathedrals!

Sunset over the Atlantic

Cabo da Roca - The westernmost spot in Europe

"Where land ends and the sea begins"

It was cold!

But watching the sun set over the Atlantic was worth it!

Sintra, Portugal

Years ago when we were traveling in Northeast Spain I wanted to drive the 10 km. to the border with Portugal just so we could add another country to our count.  From the back seat came a chorus of "No, no we don't want to drive anymore" and that sentiment was seconded by the handsome guy doing the driving so we didn't get to add Portugal to our list.  Now I'm glad we didn't because we had a perfect excuse to plan a quick trip to Portugal on our recent jaunt to the Iberian peninsula and we loved it!  We spent two days in the quaint little town of Sintra.  A wonderful tourist destination!

A Moorish Castle built a thousand years ago and taken by Christian forces in 1147

 A magical hilltop palace built by King Ferdinand,  a cousin of "Mad King Ludwig" of Disneyesque Neuschwanstein fame.

It is a crazy neo-fortified fantasy castle with Gothic towers, Renaissance domes, Moorish minarets and a disney playfulness.

 And finally the 15th century palace of King John with its, according to my guide book, Madonna bra chimneys!   The whole kitchen is essentially the fireplace with a spit large enough to roast a whole cow.

Loved this unique ceiling.  It seems that King John was caught kissing a lady-in-waiting by his queen.  Frustrated by the court's gossiping, he had this ceiling painted with magpies.  But just to show what a good-spirited guy he was, around each magpie is painted the king's slogan -'por bem', "for good".

 We thoroughly enjoyed Sintra!