Class of 1970

I graduated from high school in a small mountain mining town. Every summer the town celebrates its heritage with Old Timers/Miners Days. Class reunions are often held at the same time. This weekend was my 40th (gasp - is that possible) reunion.
So Kaiden and his parents whose graduating classes were larger than our entire school K-12 and Tito who grew up in LA staked out their spot to watch a parade

led by Grand Marshalls in a bulldozer;

and children and dogs walked;

classic cars lined up;

fire trucks joined in ;

with a rusty truck whose owner joked he only had 11 more payments;

and the best of all - the flat bed carrying the classes of 1960 and 1970 (the seats are from our school's auditorium).

Then everyone headed to the park for lunch -hamburgers and hot dogs - you bring a side dish and catching up with your classmates and others.

Twelve of us attended (2 are not pictured). It was so much fun!

Classical Music

I love classical music. I love to go to the symphony. I love other kinds of music as well, but not concerts. They are too crowded and too expensive. I don't ask Tito to go the symphony anymore. Not that he wouldn't go, because he would. It is because I wouldn't go to the Santana concert with him, so he went with Jose. And I wouldn't go to James Brown with him, so he went with Jose. I try to be fair in everything I do, so I stopped going to the symphony. Except, in the summer when the concerts are in the park and they are free. I pack a picnic supper and grab chairs and blankets and off we go. We arranged to meet Carrie and Dave last night.
We also grabbed our umbrella and hoped the rain would stop.

The stage was covered in plastic and they kept sweeping the water off, but the clouds started to clear

and the sun came out and everyone sat back to enjoy the music.

It was a wonderful concert - opera's greatest melodies - including The Barber of Seville, Carmen and the Can Can. I can hardly wait until next summer.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

It was hot here this weekend. Yesterday we broke a record at 102 and we turned our A/C on for the first time this year. Haven't heard what it was today, but this picture was taken at about 1:00 this afternoon. But of course, like they say here, it is a dry heat!

My dear friend Lynda was here from CA and we were able to get together for dinner on Saturday night. We have been friends since we were in our early 20's. We do not get to see each other often enough and don't talk often enough, but we can sit down and pick up the conversation like yesterday was the last time we saw each other. We shared a bottle of wine, dinner and had a good talk. Love you Lynda (Jim too!).

I picked over 10 pounds of rhubarb yesterday. Today I made a batch of jam. I have never made rhubarb jam before but it looks like my mother's. I still have over half of the rhubarb left. I need to cut it up and freeze it, but I ran out of time....

I had to go to the airport to pick this little guy up (his Mommy and Daddy too). They came in late this afternoon after a week in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. We sure missed them. Sounds like they had some great adventures. Welcome home!

Girl's Bike

I've had the bike for a couple of years. The basket was my mother's day gift from Tito. I just got the flowers put on.

Clever

Have you seen these? Pretty clever little gadget - when it is knocked over or dropped on the floor the cereal doesn't dump everywhere.

But not to be outdone - Kaiden figured out quickly you can hold the side down and shake it and cereal flies everywhere! Pretty clever little boy!

Vacation

He's in New Hampshire on vacation and we miss him! (Thank goodness for e-mailed pictures!)

Exercise Ball

Tito has one of those large exercise balls to use in balance exercises. Kaiden saw him doing his exercises one day and later that night....
he tried it with his little ball

and got pretty good at it. He also figured out how to back the ball up against something and sit on it - just like Tito.

Day Off

Saturdays and Sundays are days off , but Saturdays are always filled with laundry, cleaning house, grocery shopping, errands. Last Saturday we decided we really needed a day off, so we packed a lunch and headed to Boulder.
It was a beautiful day and we really didn't have anything in mind. I just needed to relax and I always head to the mountains to do that.

We walked through the Farmer's Market

enjoying the colors and sights and sounds that are Boulder. We then headed up the canyon and found a nice place by the creek for lunch

This was our view while we ate.

For me it isn't summer until I get my feet into a mountain stream. It was still pretty cold. Sometimes I wonder how I ever learned to swim in a mountain lake-they never are really warm.

Tito thought it was really cold! After lunch we went back to Boulder, walked around the Pearl Street Mall, people watching and had coffee before heading home.

I really enjoyed the day and should take more days off.

Balloon Fight

The kids played inside the church on the 4th waiting for the rain to stop. They had a ball.

Learning the ropes

Getting the hang of this

Gotcha

You're on your own Dad, I'm tired

Rained out

Our church is across the street from our town's rec center where the fireworks are held. We always have a parking lot and hot dog concession as one of our major fundraisers. We have found if we are not there monitoring our property it is trashed - a sad fact. This year my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are here from CA and we were taking them and meeting the kids for dinner and the fireworks. It is great because we have front row seats on the church's lawn. The picture above was taken after the first rainstorm and just before the big rainstorm that came in and canceled the fireworks. We spent a very wet and chilly evening waiting. It will be one of the 4ths we will always remember.

Kaiden wasn't too happy to be in the picture - he wanted to be off playing with the kids.

Life Changing

Five years ago today, our lives changed forever. That was the day the lab results on the "cyst" which had been removed from Tito's leg eleven days earlier came back. I was already on an emotional roller coaster. My brother-in-law had died a week earlier and circumstances prevented Tito from being at the funeral. My sister and my brother-in-law were married a year and half before I was born, so he had always been in my life and it left a void that I had not expected. Then came the call - the cyst we had been led to believe was just a harmless cyst was actually soft tissue sarcoma - a rare form of cancer. The roller coaster ride was just beginning.

Eight surgeries, two amputations, a month in rehab, four rounds of chemotherapy and seven months later, we got the good news, he was cancer free.

But life as we knew it would never be the same again. We had to sell our tri-level home with its huge yard we had worked so hard to get "just right" and move into a ranch style home. Tito had to retire from his job. We had to purchase a new vehicle so it was easier from him to get his wheelchair in and out. Everything we did was different.

But we were blessed. We were referred to an excellent surgeon who was out of our insurance system but was approved. She was kind and caring and tried everything she could to save at least part of the leg. We had friends and family rallying around us to help with anything we needed. We were able to sell our house in a short period of time - at a time when the market was beginning to slow down and homes could be on the market for over a year. We were able to purchase a home that was still under construction and make changes in the layout and doorways that would allow a wheelchair.

And Tito was blessed with a wonderful attitude and a determination to be able to do what he wanted to do. In addition to doing most of the housework and cooking during the week (which is a blessing to me) he


works in the garden



clears the snow

travels (this was in Mexico and he had tears in his eyes the first time he was able to go to the beach and put his toes in the sand)

attends the annual camping and fishing trip with his brothers

and rides his motorcycle. He had his motorcycle converted to a trike and even rode to California by himself last year. I don't have a picture, but he also has a recumbent hand petal bicycle.

He is truly amazing, his can do attitude is remarkable. I am not sure I could have done what he has.

Our life did change, but God has stayed with us and has blessed us in ways we could not imagine that day five years ago.