Overdue again!

hi all, Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. We were in the mountains of North Carolina with a big chunk of the family at Dad's ranch.it was a great time including snow on Thanksgiving. Some of the crew had their first experience with the cold stuff. It was so fun to see teens playing and throwing snow balls! Michael hiked the hill behind the house with dogs in tow, while I stayed indoors mostly cooking for the crew. But I could be sure of staying warm! One of our furry kids, Maggie had her first encounter with a skunk the first night we got there. Thankfully the barn is rigged with warm water in the wash stall! Health update: I have had some new rumors show up on my spine above the previous ones. The location is actually good as it means that they can be treated with radiation which resolves them much quicker. If you will pray that the treatments focus just on the rumors and that all the other tissues around them are protected. I have absolute confidence in the folks here at UF Health Cancer Center but appreciate the Lord's healing hand on this even more. Clarifying that would be tumors not rumors on my spine! Ha ha! Anyway all my love to you and hope you have an anticipatory Advent Season followed by a Joyful Cheistmas! Wendy

Fall is Here!

Hi friends, Well the calendar saw the arrival of Fall a few days ago but today we are having a front come through with cool temperatures and lots of wind. So it really feels like Fall. A nice welcome to November, which includes one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for that probably we should celebrate this every month (maybe without all the food!) This year Thanksgiving will find Michael and me at the ranch in North Carolina with most of our family. That is always a great time and when we can get together for a whole week it is really special. Last week we got the start of the winter garden planted so we should be harvesting collards in about a month. Yummy! There are also beets, carrots and onions and I am planning on adding a heirloom vegetable called salsify. It is a root like a carrot, white in color and supposedly takes like oysters. We will give it a try. The seeds came from my neighbor Beverly who remembers it from her childhood. In another week I will add more carrots, beets and onions in order to stagger the harvest some. I hope that this message finds each of you well and happy. Love you, Wendy

Another easy saturday morning

Hi there everyone, Saturday mornings are certainly one of the blessings in life. We had a nice breakfast and just puttering around doing light chores (well that is I am, Michael has been slaving away roto-tilling the garden!). I had treatment this past Thursday and Friday so that is my excuse. However it doesn't hold water right now as I feel pretty darned good! Yesterday I also had the privilege to share my cancer journey stories with a class of nursing students at Orlando Tech. My dear friend Nancy Welch is their instructor and invited me to talk with her class as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. What a great group of students! They had lots of questions and were very engaged and interested. That is really all the news today. Hope this finds all of you healthy and happy. One shout out to Vicki Owens. We had a computer crash and for some reason I no longer have your e-mail address Vicki. Please contact me at wendy_may@gate.net so that we don't lose touch. Love to you all, Wendy

Still getting into the swing of routine!

Good morning friends, I am still settling back into routine work etc. it was a quiet week which is always good following treatment. I certainly am no ball of fire. Yesterday I had a PET scan and the result was good in that it showed no new activity. I was hoping to see some improvement in the soft tissue mets but the scan showed that they are stable, meaning that they have not changed since the last scan. That is good and a sign that the treatments are working so we stay the course and continue the chemotherapy I am on through the end of the year and then check again. Today I am going back to the last two vacation posts and adding more photos so check them out if you like. May God bless and keep each of you, Wendy

Heads up

I am adding photos to the previous blog posts now that we are home and I can work from the desktop computer. So browse through the previous postings and you will see photos from those days. :) Hope you enjoy them! I am adding the pics to the older posts first so you may have to go back a few. Wendy

Red Lodge Montana

So today we took a circuitous route to Red Lodge, Montana. We drove through Yellowstone NP to the NE entrance and then drove down the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway east to Wyoming and out of the Rockies down to a completely different landscape. It was dry small buttes and washes as far as could be seen. Amazing how much a little time on the road opened up new vistas. The scenic highway followed some of the route of the Nez Perce Indians as they escaped from General Howard. Chief Joseph's band were non-treaty and had fought a battle with the army in their homeland in east Oregon. Expecting retaliation they fled east through the Rocky Mountains in the Yellowstone area and ultimately then north towards Canada. Thinking about traveling by foot or horseback through this country is intimidating. As it was a long drive today and the speed limit on most of the highways in Montana is 70 mph. Tonight we are staying in an old hotel in Red Lodge and then heading early to Billings to begin our flights home. This has been a remarkable trip and we have seen and done so much but I will be glad to get home. Hope all is well with each of you. Wendy Okay this is the last set of photos to add. We drove through YNP to the north eastern entrance and then down the Cheif Joseph Highway. I am including a picture of cottonwoods that lit up in the Lamar River Valley that morning and the last bison hold up we encountered, those are both in YNP. Next is Sunshine Canyon, one of the odd road signs and then vistas of the terrain as it changed becoming much more arid. The last photo is of the old Smith Mine, Google it to learn about the Smith Mine Disaster in 1943.

Rainy day so we went to town

Hi all, Today it is rainy so we decided to go explore the town of Livingston. We have checked out all 2 1/2 streets in downtown and stopped for lunch at the Pickle Barrel Cafe. Lots of locals here but then it is end of the tourist season and they are thinning out. It has been a great trip and I am still looking forward to the drive to Red Lodge tomorrow. Head home on Wednesday and then I will finally load some photos for you. Love, Wendy I am including some photos from the Town of Livingston: the train depot, a main street and a residential street. Then some shots from the drive back to the Smith Ranch: a schoolhouse that is in use, and old red barn, a vista of the Paradise Valley and a couple of deer. Enjoy!