Gobble Gobble

Ahhh Thanksgiving! Today is my absolute favorite day, let along holiday of the year. I awoke, as I do on may days, when the sun hadn't even thought about coming over the horizon yet. The house was quiet and gave me time to reflect on everything I am most thankful and grateful for. I let the minutes tick by and decided to see if I could catch the start of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Satellite and by golly I could. So with my feet kept warm by sock monkey slippers (a great gift courtesy of Kami from a few years ago) and a fleece blanket wrapped around me I sat in the living room next to the crackling fire drinking coffee with cocoa enjoying the same parade I've always managed to watch year after year since childhood. There was something very comforting about watching the festivities. I can remember always getting up early as a child to catch the start of famous parade and an hour or so later mom and dad joining me down in our basement with their own mugs of coffee or cocoa. Its a tradition I just can't get past. It definitely made me miss spending Thanksgiving with my family though, but I'm trying to stay lighthearted today so I wont go there in this post. So as I'm typing this I have a break in cooking. The stuffed turkey is in the oven. The pies are already baked and cooling (apple, pumpkin, and mince meat... I couldn't resist). Jello salad is setting up in the fridge. All I really have left to do is mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole. I am definitely a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving day meals. Mom and I would always go all out even if it was just the three of us having the meal together that afternoon. We couldn't help ourselves I think. Each time we'd start to plan out the menu we'd remember things we liked and would just keep adding to it. Cooking would take hours but it was so much fun and so rewarding in the end... not to mention the weeks worth of left overs that always resulted. So if you can't tell today is a happy day and I do sincerely hope that you are all enjoying it where ever you are as well. Love and God's blessings to you all.

New News on the Dad Front

Well I'll be buggered. For those that didn't know already dad is back in the hospital for like the billionth time, or at least so it seems. The docs were still worried about how much weight he'd been dropping so they admitted him yet again and started up a pump that runs 24 hours full of a nutritional suppliment called TPN. I'm sure its not the best tasting stuff in the world so its a good think they are running it through a Pick line in my Dad's upper arm. He ended up having a series of X-Rays the other day with Barium contrast and they found that his intestine has a nice kink in it which could be part of the reason that he still isn't able to keep any food down that he's tried to consume. If its not one thing its another. So how are they going to deal with this. Well thats a fabulous question actually since it hasn't really been long enough since his last radiation treatment to do surgery they are kind of tentative about their plans. Obviously they need to get the kink out and as soon as they can at that. Soooooo the skinny is that on Wednesday afternoon his surgeon is going to put Dad under anesthesia, make a small incision and see how things look. If dad reacts poorly to the incision and look about, the doc will sew him right back up and they'll try again in another 10 days or so. If things look good he'll continue on with the surgery and unkink the part of the gut that needs unkinked (is that a word???). So if you have a few extra minutes on Wednesday and the thought crosses your mind, please keep my dad in your prayers and hopefully things will start getting better for him after everything is said and done. Have a great week folks! Love ya.

Skating anyone?

Okay I know that I was begging for snow in my last post so this one may come as a contradiction, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE ICE!!!! We've been having a ton of rain lately which means there is a lot of standing water on the roads, both paved and dirt. Well I had to drive up to Kalispel for a meeting yesterday which typically is no big deal and I usually enjoy the 2 hour drive going up through Plains then cutting through Hot Springs where I generally wave at the town since Scott still lives there (I think). I really should stop one of these days when I'm off the clock and see if I can hunt him down to say hello. Anyway I digress, I got out of Kalispel around 5pm which again isn't too bad except the rain had slowed down, the temp had dropped like crazy and all the standing water on the road was now just a sheet of ice. If you ever take the short cut between Plains and Polson, remember not to do so on an icy day since the road is about as curvy as a coiled up snake. Lets just say that it was a long, dark, tense drive back home and I was happy when the day was over.

So far... Not so good.

I have officially declared that we need a bunch of snow. Why you may ask? Well that would be because I want to shoot a deer. And I know my vegetarian sister who may or may not read this at any point would be screaming "no no... don't shoot Bambi" but to no avail since I'm gonna do it anyway despite her vehement protests. Its not because I'm some horribly evil person that wants to kill things. Its because I enjoy hunting and also enjoy the venison jerky, roasts, and back strap steaks that come from a successful hunting adventure. So far however we haven't been seeing much in the line of "shooter deer". Seen plenty of does and little spike bucks and if it gets toward the end of season and I haven't gotten anything they will be fair game but for now they have an official Tracy Pass Slip. But as for the snow, we need some to push the bigger bucks down into the open and to also push the cow elk down off the high country so that Frank and Mace get a chance at a shot. It will be nice to have a freezer full of wild game. People think I'm weird for thinking that but then again they didn't grow up in my family where elk burger and steaks were more commonly cooked for dinner than chicken or beef. My brother, sisters and I were all raised on wild game and never thought anything about it. It was yummy and so much healthier for us than anything that mom could have picked up from the super market. So my preferences have remained toward wild meat and have missed having to available. So anyone and everyone who reads this, start praying to the snow gods for me and maybe I'll start having some luck.

Well thats an ixnay.

So much for going to the Griz game tomorrow morning. Mom I took dad in for radiation and his normal Friday follow up appointments at the hospital this afternoon and he ended up being admitted for the next 5-10 days. The game plan is to keep him there until he stabilizes and hopefully quits losing weight. Maybe even gain a few pounds in the process. So instead of going to the game I'm going to try and bring it to him. Most of the UM games are broadcast over the Internet and the hospital has high speed wireless. So I'm going to take advantage of it and make sure dad sees his Griz kick some hiney tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers. We're all pretty worried about him right now. Hope everyone has a good weekend. Go Griz!

In the Tummy of the Grizzly Bear.... GO GRIZ!

It has been an excruciating 3 years since I've been in the awe striking presence of the University of Montana Grizzly football team. I tell you those are a long 3 years. But by tomorrow that will have all changed. Yes thats right. I'm going to go watch our Grizzlies kick some serious UNC butt tomorrow up in Greeley. Dad has been talking about this game pretty much non-stop since the beginning of football season when he found out the Griz were going to playing down here in Colorado. He has been looking forward to this game all through his treatment and told me that no matter what he was going to go to it. So we himmed and hawed about how to make the event as comfortable as we could with dad being such a hurting unit these days. Thankfully Brenda works in a Nursing home and therefore got us both a sporty wheelchair and handicap decal that we can use over the weekend so that at least dad will be warm and cozy in that rather than on the cold aluminium bleachers of the stadium. I'm seriously thinking I should decorate the wheelchair this afternoon with appropriate maroon and silver streamers. I figure if he has to ride in the thing he should be doing it in style. Don't you think? Lucky for me I was down in Colorado at the right time to go as well. So we'll have two huge Griz fans at least cheering our little lungs out at the game. Mom's coming too and she of course gets excited but its not quite the same as the annoying loudness my dad and I share at the games. I'll be sure to fill in the details of our extravaganza tomorrow at some point. FIRST DOWN .... MONTANA!!!!

Just another day in paradise.

I realized today that I had been very neglectful of my blogger page over the last few days. I've constantly been checking Kati's page to see what she is up to (as usual) but just didn't seem to have the mood strike me to write. And in all honesty I still don't feel up to it but what the heck I have nothing else going on at the moment.

Mornings are slow here at the Hancock Bungalo. Thats not to say they aren't nice but it seems like a far cry from hiking the vast terrain of the Cabinet Wilderness by 5 in the morning. I still can't seem to sleep in past about 5 but I guess thats a good thing since I have to get back to it in less than a week. Typically I wake up and the house is absolutely silent. Mark isn't even up yet rummbling around. So what do I do... lay in bed, wide awake, staring at the umbrella that has been decorated to look like a hawaiian hut over my nieces bed. Sometimes I plug the little lights that Rebecca has carefully wrapped around the underside of it and sometimes I don't. Its a quiet and reflective time for me. I find myself having a very frank and humbling conversation with God at thesetimes of the day. Once I hear Rachel's alarm go off in the room next to mine, I start getting with the program. This usually means getting up and listening to all my joints and bones creak and crack a bit. There certainly are days that I feel much older than my 25 years. I blame it on those years of competitive sports and now beating my body against the landscape I love so much. I have a cacophony of sounds from my knees, ankles, back and neck as anyone who has been my roommate can testify to. Mark, Rachel, and Brenda are the first to go out into the world while Rebecca's school doesn't start until an hour later so she and I get to do breakfast together. Its pretty nice having our own little time together. Once she is gone the house is again so very silent. Mom and dad take their sweet time coming upstairs in the mornings though when they finally are up and about Dad and I break out the coffee as I've mentioned in a previous post.

After morning rituals are done, or as dad would say, the 3 S's. We head down to the hospital for Dad's radiation treatments. The treatments themselves really don't take very long, maybe 15 minutes at most but for dad they are excruciating. A few years ago he broke his back and he's had trouble laying on hard surfaces ever since. Most of the time he goes in pretty chipper but by the time he is done we can see how tired he is. It definately takes a lot out of him. But the good news is that Dad is down to 4 more treatments and we're definately having a countdown. There is hope and light at the end of this tunnel. I keep teasing dad about the hair he has coming back... his normally silver fringe of hair is actually darker than it was before he started the whole ordeal. I keep telling him that he's going to have less grey hair than I do by the time everything is said and done. Thank god for dye.

By the time we get back from the hospital and picking up prescriptions and what not, the girls are back from school and our evenings of cooking dinner, the girls going to swim practice,helping out with homework, and watching the normal barage of politcal commentary on Fox News ensues. I must say that I'm really sick of all the hype about the upcoming election. It seems like for the past 3 years that is all that has been on the news. Its not like its honest reporting either. Both sides are skewed so much that its more of a comedy routine than actual news. Thats me on my high horse there if you cant tell. I do get a kick out of watching Fox News with Dad though. He keeps getting so fired up whenver something about Obama is discussed. Can we say that I come from a conservative republican family or what? I like it though because its nice to see dad get worked up about it, its almost as if he saves up his remaining energy just for that purpose in the evening.

So thats my days down here in Denver. Its nothing really exciting but I have to admit that I'vc enjoyed my time with my folks and family. The time has gone by so very fast and its not exactly fair. But I'm sure there will be days in the near future that I come back down to see everyone again.