More Family Time

This has been a fun and busy week so far since my family is here (and more coming) for our family reunion this weekend. I can't even remember what we did on Sunday and Monday but on Tuesday, Mom, Lloyd and I went to Mom's friend's house for a Tek get together. Mom and several women worked together at Tektronix for many years and they continue to get together at least once a year. They are like the Lunch Bunch I belong to. There were six women there and some husbands, daughters and one sister came. So there were about 16 of us there. This a picture of (right to left)Mom, Shirley, Madeline and myself.Shirley and Madeline are daughters of June, who passed away several years ago. Shirley and I worked together at Hilhi for almost 20 years and she also is part of the Lunch Bunch. Madeline recently had surgery on her leg for cancer and is doing fantastic.

Yesterday, I went to my support group meeting and visited two of the gals that are in the hospital there. (St. V's) Another one of the gals in our group passed away. She was one of the original gals who started the group, almost three years ago. I didn't know her well since she seldom attended our meetings. She was a go-getter and loved to travel and lived each day to the fullest. In fact, she was scuba diving while on a cruise and became ill and had to be life flighted home. She died about a week later. I think that would be a good way to go..................enjoying your life almost to the end, instead of being bed ridden for months. We will pass a candle for her next week. After the meeting, I had my port flushed, which I have to have done once a month.

Then last night, my brother Richard and Tony arrived. They will be here until Monday. They both live in Vegas, like Mom and my sister ( who will be here tomorrow). I had a nice dinner for them...turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, etc. Today I am relaxing at home. Mom and Lloyd are off to visit several people and Richard and Tony are going to Mt. Hood. Michael and Jeanne have been at the beach for several days.

Tomorrow we will pick up my sister, Carol, from the airport and head to Newberg. Like I wrote in my previous blog, we are all going to "walk the streets" of Newberg and reminisce about the good old days. Then we are going to eat at Little Coopers Town, a fantastic sports bar there. We will then go to Scott and Julie's so everyone can see their new beautiful house.

I got the results back from my blood tests and my white blood cell counts are up (but still below normal) so my oncologist wants me to have a blood test monthly to keep an eye on things.

Hope all of you are having a great week and have the opportunity to spend some time with your family.

Love to you all,

JO

Family Time

Mom and Lloyd arrived last Friday afternoon and are staying with us. Denny and the Olympics entertained them while I attended the memorial service for Etta.

On Saturday, my brother Michael, and his wonderful lady friend, Jeanne, flew into Portland and are staying at the River Place on the water front. They have stayed there before and loved it. They are both anesthesiologists in Asheville, NC. I really value their opinions and always make sure they get copies of my scans, tests, etc. They came over for dinner last night, as did Julie, Scott, Kyle and Tori. I was busy making dinner and entertaining so I didn't take many pictures. I kick myself for that. But I will make up for it later! We had a nice dinner (chicken lasagna) and then had ice cream cake to celebrate Jeanne's birthday. I am glad that they came early (our family reunion is next Saturday) so we could all have time to visit. My other brother, Richard and Tony will be here on Wednesday and my sister, Carol, comes on Friday. I'm not sure what everyone's plans are yet for their time here, but I do know that on Friday afternoon, we are all going to "walk the streets" of Newberg like the "good old days." It will be fun to try to remember which stores were where, since so many of them - like 99%- are now gone! We'll drive by the houses that we liked in.....think there are three still standing. All us kids had a great time growing up in Newberg. We were so fortunate to live and grow up in a small community. We had lots of wonderful relatives that also lived there. We'll be seeing some of them this weekend at our family reunion. The other thing I loved about growing up in Newberg, is the friendships I made during my school days.....life long friends!

Kyle has been begging for a hat with a flat brim............like all the "cool" guys wear. So here is a picture of him with it on and his new "cool" sweatshirt. Grandpa had to get in the picture with a crazy hat, too. Kyle (and of course, Grandpa) doesn't usually wear it cocked to the side but Grandpa thought it should be for the pictures.

Then, Tori had to get in the picture.................... Michael and Denny played a game of basketball with the basketball game we have for the kids. They are both so competitive but Denny won. But I am sure if Michael would have had more time, he would have played until he beat him! Aren't these two gray haired guys good looking?!

Hope all of you have a great week. Lots happening this week but I hope to blog later.

Love to you all,

JO

Fort Stevens

We went to Fort Stevens at the beach last Thursday and came home on Monday. Our timing was perfect since the weather was so hot at home. Scott, Julie, Kyle and Tori were in their trailer right next to our campsite.Randy and Lori Ann (Denny's sister) were camped across the road from us in their camper, identical to ours! Randy dug this "couch" in the sand.
Their daughter, Mindy and her husband and two children were in a tent next to them. This is Mindy with Riley, about two months old. What a good baby and cutie!

This is Griffin. He is two and is a wonderful little boy who always has a smile. And talk about smart..................Craig and Angela (their other daughter) were also in a tent. Good thing the weather was nice! This is Angela with Riley.

Randy took the guys and Tori out fishing in his boat. Tori had a Barbie fishing pole that looked more like a toy than a fishing pole. She caught the biggest fish and Kyle caught the most (3).

Here is Grandpa showing Kyle how to clean the fish. Tori wanted nothing to do with it! Guess it didn't matter if they were cleaned or not since the raccoons ate them that night!Denny, Julie, Scott, Kyle and Tori played football on the beach.

Everyone enjoyed playing in the sand, since it was such a nice day.

We rode our bikes to Battery Russell and took this picture.

Tori without her front teeth.

Randy, Julie and Kyle unloading the fishing boat.Kyle eating his foot long hot dog.We all had a great time. I love Fort Stevens because there is so much to do there. We didn't even have time to go into Seaside to play. Guess we will just have to go back sometime.

Hope all of you are having a great week.

Love to you all,

JO

Will Miss You, Etta

One of the gals in our metastatic support group died the first of the week. We had been camping and got home on Monday and I was planning on visiting her at The Peace House on Tuesday. So I felt bad that I did not get to see her. But I feel good about having spent some time with her recently. I picked her up and drove her to one of our meetings several weeks ago. It was right before she really started to "fail." Shortly after that, she went into The Ray Hickey Hospice House. I visited her there one day for quiet a long time. I thought she was doing pretty good. She was even at our meeting last week, thanks to Sheryl, her very special friend. I can't believe she was with us all on Wednesday and died five days later. I really didn't think she looked that bad. It is kind of scary. Just makes you realize that you have to live each day to the fullest. Here is a picture of our precious Etta. I was lucky enough to work several times with Etta on our quilt that is hanging in our meeting room.

Etta was from New York and I didn't know until today that she was at one time, an actress. I will be going to here memorial service on Friday evening. It will be interesting to see some pictures of her in her early years. I am sure she was a "knock out" since she was so attractive, even at age 74!

I will miss you, Etta. Thank you for being part of my life in our metastatic support group. I feel so blessed to have known you.

Love to you all,

JO

More Fun With The Kids

Kyle and Tori were here for the weekend. We rode our bikes to the school a couple of times and they love riding their scooters around our block.

They play so well together. But not once did they play with our new Wii. We thought they would use it a lot but apparently, their neighbors now have one, so I think they are getting "their fill" of the Wii while playing it with them.

I wanted to take a picture of Tori by my hanging basket, so she grabbed the small plant sitting next to it to add more color to the picture!

Tori always sleeps with us when she stays here. She and I always go to bed earlier than Denny so we can read books and watch a girlie movie. Denny walked in while we are watching a Hannah Montana 3-D movie with our 3-D glasses on. He thought we looked so funny that he had to take our picture. Notice Tori without her top two front teeth.When I had my appointment with my oncologist a couple of weeks ago, she had me get blood tests since she noticed at my yearly appointment with my primary doctor in February, that my white blood cell count was low. (2.6) She emailed me on Friday to let me know that it is now 2.2. A normal count is 4.0 - 10.0. She didn't seem too concerned and just noted that my white blood cell count was still low. So I emailed her and she said that I should have it rechecked again in 3 months when I meet with her again and at that time she will have a pathologist look at my blood. Since I am not on any chemo drugs, my counts really should not be going down. I am feeling good so I am just not going to worry about it (since my primary doctor and oncologist don't seem to be concerned!). Besides, we have too many fun things planned for me to be having problems. I find myself worrying more about some of my cancer friends who are going through some tough times now, than myself. And that's a good thing.

Love the weather we are having. Hope all of you are having a great week.

Love to you all,

JO

Great Time With The K's

We went to Lake Billy Chinook for a few days to spend time with our friends, Dick and Jan. They have a great house up on the rim rock that overlooks the lake. The view is awesome and you can see several mountains but can see Mt. Jefferson the best.

We rode 4-wheelers to see some friends (The T's) who we don't see often enough. Ron taught and coached with Denny and Doug played basketball and baseball with Justin. They updated us on so many people that we used to spend lots of time with while living in Forest Grove. Darn, I didn't get a picture of them but here is Jan with Toby and us on their 4-wheeler.

They took us for a couple of boat rides on their new pontoon boat, which is awesome. It is the perfect boat for a lake. One night we BBQ'd dinner and had blended margarita's on it. What more could you ask for? It was perfect. Here are Dick and Denny on the boat.

There are deer that come onto their property to drink water and eat apples, etc. As you can see, one is a buck.

We drove home through Redmond and Sisters. We hadn't been that way for a long time and I wanted to check out some of the awesome shops in Sisters. (Amy and Carolyn, that should be our next trip!)

Thank you, Dick and Jan, for sharing your wonderful place with us. We really had an awesome time.

We are going to have Kyle and Tori here for the next couple of days and are looking forward to it. Hope all of you have a terrific weekend.

Love to you all,

JO

Relay For Life

Yesterday I arrived at the Sherwood High School football field at 10:00 AM to participate in the Relay For Life, an American Cancer Society event. It is an overnight experience designed to bring together those who have been touched by cancer. People from within the community gather to celebrate survivors, remember those lost to cancer, and to fight back against this disease. Relay participants help raise money and awareness to support the American Cancer Society to eliminate cancer. During the Relay For Life events, teams of people gather and take turns walking or running laps. The event is held overnight to represent the fact that cancer never sleeps. Through the survivors' lap and the luminaria ceremony, they honor the people who have faced cancer first hand, and remember those who have died from cancer.

Here are Nancy and I walking with the survivors at the start of the Relay. She is a nurse in the oncology office and a 14 year survivor. It was great meeting her and her husband.

Angela, Denny's niece who is the receptionist for a Meridian Park oncology office, was the captain of our team. This is a picture of her (on the right), me, and Lori (her Mom).........love you two!

The theme this year was, "Places around the world," so the team chose "Oregon" and made this cool banner. Each team had to have at least one team member walking/running on the track during the entire 24 hour period. You could buy white sacks and decorate them to acknowledge the people you know that have had or have cancer. The sacks are then lined up along the track and at 10:30 PM a battery operated candle is lit so they glow in the dark. All the survivors walk one lap around the track together. It is an awesome sight. I wish you could see how beautiful it is when it is dark. It is an awesome experience to be walking at 2:00 AM and looking at the glowing sacks around the entire track. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Here are a few of the sacks that I decorated to honor family or friends who have died from, or once had, or now have, cancer.

The sacks with just the names, (sorry I didn't have pictures of these people) really didn't look this bad when they were on the track. I had their last names on them but when I post names on my blog, I like to use just first names. I would have liked to have had each name on their own sack, but the sacks were $5 each. Kind of sad that I know so many people with cancer, huh?! Plus, I could have named all the gals in my support group instead of just putting the picture of the quilt on the sack......which would have been another 50 people!

Survivors were treated to lunch from Sweet Tomatoes. There was a DJ there, plus live music. There were lots of activities for kids, including a big screen TV and they showed two movies. Different teams sold things (like glow sticks that looked so cool when you were wearing them while you were walking at dark) and there were lots of contests and different activities going on. There were several tents and many people stayed all night. I slept in a lounge chair with a quilt and sleeping bag (but only had about 2 hours sleep!) and some people had their campers and motor homes there. It was well organized and I hope to be able to participate in it next year. I think the grand kids would have fun there, staying all night in a tent, walking at night with the luminary bags, etc. Justin and Vickie took part in a Relay for Life in the Hermiston area last year and liked it also. So, thank you, Angela and the team for allowing me be part of this fun event. I loved it!

Hope all of you had a nice weekend.

Love to you all,

JO