Surgery

Not a fun word but yes it happened!

After Jaime was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, I went to get checked out even before Jaime had her surgery last Nov - and the dr found a nodule in my thyroid!

I did the mandatory ultrasounds and a couple of biopsies  - along with the required blood work (which came out just fine) - but the biopsy showed suspicious papillary cancer, exactly what Jaime had.

Thyroid cancer is a very slow growing cancer (usually) and I didn't even know if I had cancer but the dr said at least 1/2 had to come out and if the preliminary report showed no cancer, then that would be it.  I wasn't happy to have 1/2 of my thyroid removed (when it seemed to be working just fine) but there is always that chance that it IS cancer and I certainly didn't want it to spread!

I set the surgery date for April 23rd and we went out on our Mexico trip without a care in the world!!  But as soon as Easter was over, it was time to head to the hospital for the surgery!

Jaime was there with me along with Glenn and they kept me laughing till it was time to head into the operating room!

I was NOT happy when I woke up in recovery to find out that the nodule was cancerous and the dr and pathologist felt the other 1/2 needed to come out since the cancer margins were so close to the other 1/2.  Oh well - not much choice I guess.............

I did have to spend the first night in the hospital which is never fun but was home the next day by noon - Jessi and Gwyn were waiting for me and Jaime came over for the rest of the day!

The picture below was actually taken the morning BEFORE surgery as Jaime brought over beautiful plants and goodies for me!

One of my gorgeous flower arrangements!

Jaime and I had fun doing the "cute" pictures that afternoon and you can see my incision.  Sure wish I had this nice smooth face!!

Jessi, Gwyn and Jaime took excellent care of me - I'm not used to being waited on so it was a real treat to just ask for something and it would be delivered to me!!

Jill came down for the weekend and took over my care!!  It was so nice of all 3 girls to help me out along with Glenn who was more than willing to help also!

I am doing great - still sleeping in the recliner as lying flat doesn't feel good yet but I'm off the pain pills and will see my dr on Friday!  In the meantime, I'm getting lots of reading done and will probably go stir crazy in the next couple of days!!

Easter 2019 Cont'd

Our Easter feast is usually late afternoon but since 5 of the family had to leave by mid-afternoon, we pushed our big meal up to lunchtime!  The hams and baked potatoes were done by the time we got home so we finished up the other details and had a great meal together!

Next up was the Easter Egg Hunt in Jill's back yard - always a fun time!!  We still use the "one color per kid" and it works out great!!

Gwyn loved her Easter bucket filled with goodies - I knew this cute outfit would look darling on her!!

The other kids usually don't get a gift from us but this year I decided to give each family a new card game that I just love!!  My friend had brought it to Mexico and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to order it for everybody, including myself!!  They all love it now too and it's a great game for all the ages!!  In case you don't have it, it's called Skyjo.

Coloring eggs was up next - they all had fun!!

And the eggs turned out great as usual!!

Jessi had made pistachio dessert (aka My Green Heaven) and we always snap a picture and send it to Cindy and Rene' - our wonderful friends who we used to always celebrate Easter with!!

Jessi and her girls left later on after a wonderful day!!  Robby was STILL pretty much under the weather but we did watch some TV and enjoy the evening together!

Easter Sunday dawned cool but sunny and we snapped a few pics before heading to church!

What a wonderful Easter weekend with family - it was great to see everyone and catch up after our trip to Mexico!!  Thanks Jill for hosting an awesome Easter get-together!!!

Easter 2019

It was great to be home again, get unpacked and tackle that pile of mail before we headed out that next Friday morning to Jill's for Easter!  Life does go on.......

We did have to stop at St. Francis Hospital (which is north Co. Springs anyway) so I could get a blood draw for surgery the next week - of course it took MUCH longer than anticipated and then on the way to Denver we decided to stop at Jessi's work.  Her chiropractic table was broke (wouldn't go up or down) and before she bought a new one, Glenn decided he wanted to take a peek at it and see if there was any way he could fix it!

As we know, Glenn is VERY good at fixing things and he decided he could probably fix it so showed Jessi how to get a part off and told her to bring it to Ft. Collins so he could work on it!  And in case I forget to finish this story, I'll just do it now!  Glenn worked on it in Ft. Collins over Easter and we stopped back at her office on the way home.  Gary and Jessi drove over to let us in the office and by golly, he fixed it!!!  Jessi was SUPER happy and we celebrated with ice cream!!

So we got to Ft. Collins a little later than we expected on Friday - the Smiths (minus Rayna) arrived and we all enjoyed pizza!  After the kids were in bed, it was time to stuff the Easter eggs with candy!  Usually it's just Jill and I doing this so we were happy to have Jaime to help this year!

The next morning Jessi and the girls arrived in one car and Gary and Evan came in another car.  Unfortunately, Evan had a basketball tournament that afternoon so him and Gary had to leave after lunch.  As did the Smiths as Kylan had a soccer game..........It's easy to see that this could happen virtually every year as the kids get older but at least we were all together for a little while - except for Rayna of course who had a track meet!!

Once again, Jessi had found matching dresses for the girls - they still love dressing alike!

The boys looked pretty cool too!!

We headed to Jill's church for the church program and Easter egg hunt - check out the 3 good looking daughters!!!

Not very often I get a picture of these 3 - Robby was feeling quite under the weather and ended up getting worse while we were there so he wasn't able to come!

It was a great program as usual and the magician was awesome!!  Once again there were huge quantities of eggs for the hunt!  Check out Gwyn's cowboy boots with her dress!

It's fun to watch the little ones pick up eggs - even though there might be 5 or 6 right in her path, Gwyn would be on a mission to pick up a particular egg!

The girls did great too and had fun looking for the "golden" egg but it wasn't found by any of our kids!

The weather was gorgeous and the kids were able to be outside once we got back to the house - stay tuned for Easter Part Two!

Back To The USA

As the sun was just starting to rise, we headed out!  The roads seem very familiar now and not quite as narrow as the first time we drove the Baja!

Lunch (served out of the ice chest) was at this beautiful cove!

Our stop for the night was in San Ignacio at the "yurts".  We had tried to stay last year but didn't have reservations and it was already full!  This year it wasn't as busy but I had reservations anyway!!  We stayed in the "Howard Johnson" yurt and it was pretty cool!  It was round of course with a large opening at the top which was covered by a screen and a "lid" that you could open!  An attached bath was added onto one side through a doorway!

The place looks just like an oasis!!  It was gorgeous with all the palm trees which I later found out are date palms!  There's a little place to sit by the river with benches so I took my book and relaxed while Glenn napped!

We went into town that evening and ate at this cute Mexican place right on the square called Rancho Grande - there was even live music which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Here's a picture of the mission church although it was too late to go in.

Breakfast was included with our lodging price and although we should have skipped it and headed out, we decided to stay for it!  It was served inside with a brightly decorated Mexican theme and our meal was ham, bacon, eggs cooked to order, fresh new potatoes with herbs, homemade bread and homemade jam - the best part was the freshly squeezed orange juice - YUM!!!!

So we got a later start and paid for it!!  There were 4 more checkpoints (which all went fast) but the 21 miles of gravel took us an hour and 15 min. (that's a record for us) - we also have the "small" detours, 9 of them and the LONG detour took 40 min!  After all this, there is a long stretch of solid potholes on the pavement which was exhausting for Glenn!!

Glenn wanted to cross at a different border and come out at Yuma!  Luckily our GPS worked as we would have NEVER found the border without it!!  After going through town we ended up out in the country for quite a while and I thought for sure we were lost!  But after checking with a couple of people who spoke limited English, we discovered we WERE on the right track and finally ended up in the town of Algodones - this is the place where my dad used to take us to "walk" across the border into Mexico when he stayed down around Phoenix!

The streets there are VERY narrow and after lefts and rights, we finally got into the line at the border and it only took about 15 min!  When checking into our hotel at Yuma, the gal asked how long we had to wait at the border and when I told her 15 min she said she crossed on the Sunday before and was in line for 3 hours!!

So it ended up being a 13 1/2 hour day drive that day which was just TOO much for Glenn - we've decided that next year we MUST spend another night on the Baja if none of the detours and roads are done (which I'm sure they won't be!!).

Our final night was at Winslow, AZ again and the only bad weather we hit was outside of Pueblo, CO going into Co. Springs where we hit some bad snow!!  We were home by 6:00 Saturday night and what a great feeling to walk into our house!  An awesome trip!!

Our Final Days at Spa Buena Vista

Can this really be our last day here as I'm writing this?  Boy did that 5 weeks go fast!  Of course when you add on the 4 day travel time each way and the 4 days we stayed at San Lucas Cove, I guess it HAS been awhile since we've been home..........But this year was different and better than last year concerning the rental!  The last couple of years we were in a 450 sq ft casita that shared a large patio with the big house - we enjoyed both sets of people that were in the house!  But the neighbor on the other side sometimes drove me a little crazy!!

This year with the LARGE rental house we are in made for a much more enjoyable time here and we wished we would have booked 6 weeks - but no fear, we've already booked it NEXT year for 6 weeks!  The price of it was amazing and even though we had to pay for internet and the electric bill, it was still way below what we've paid the past couple of years!

We sure had fun picking up the sea glass this year - I always pick up little shells (but it's not a shell beach so they are rare to find!) but adding the sea glass made it so much more fun on my walks!!  Here's what we ended up with - 2 photos, one on each side of the post!  I want to put some in a clear glass jar with lights inside - Glenn has more serious intentions of making some jewelry - we shall see!!

We rode the ATV one final time out to the beach bar, El Gecko!  Glenn ordered some clam chowder which came in a bread bowl and it was excellent!!  The guacamole was plenty for me, along with my mango daiquiris!!

And now it's time to journey on back to the mountains to see the kids and grand kids, prepare for Easter with the family and unfortunately surgery for me!!  But more on that later.........  Vacation isn't quite over yet!

Charter Fishing / Sunrises

A friend of mine just emailed me this picture of Joleen and I on the beach in the early dawn hour!!  Yes, the alarm was always set for 5:30 to get up to see the colors, stretch and then hit the beach long before the sun actually came up over the ocean!

Glenn finally got arranged to join some guys for a fishing charter over at the Bay of Dreams - 3:30 wake up call as the drive over there is an hour - I was glad Glenn didn't have to drive!!

They had a great time and got back late afternoon - here he's holding a jack creville he caught - they're not great for eating so it was handed off to a Mexican - they make soup out of them!

And here's a huge needle fish!!  Glenn says it's the longest one he's ever caught!!

2 more sunrise pictures that I just had to post - I never tire of looking at them!

Glenn and I headed to town on the ATV one day to get some fruit at the market - they have the best blueberries and strawberries - you pay a pretty penny for them but totally worth it!!  While in there, a gal came in munching a fresh baguette from the deli next door - after tasting it we HAD to go in and get one, along with a couple of cinnamon rolls that were great with coffee the next day!

Next up was the smoothie place that we hadn't tried yet - glad we only ordered one!!  It tasted great with that hot bread!

All the fisherman that went fishing together met at Rancho Vista for dinner as the place cooked the fish for us.  It's just up the beach a little ways and such a peaceful setting, listening to the ocean waves!  The fish was not only cooked a couple of different ways, but they first brought out the raw fish in the form of sashimi fixed 3 different ways - not my favorite but I tried a piece at least!

It was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed meeting the others!

Food and Fish

And the week with Joleen was somewhat a repeat of the week with Patty's!  We love going out to eat and we love the beach - but unlike me, Jo loves to fish!!

One morning we woke up to a gorgeous sunrise with that sliver of a moon!!

Boy the water was hot coming out on the day we did the hot tub - took about an hour for it to cool off enough so we could get in!!

An evening walk is always fun too - since the sunset is over the mountains on the opposite side, we just get the color in the sky and on the ocean - pink, pink, pink!!!

Glenn took the boat out early one morning and came back with 10 trigger fish I think - here he is with the gardener for our place!

After a brief rest, him and Jo headed back out!

And came back in with more fish!!!  Jo took a couple of pics on the boat and she was thrilled to have caught fish!!  She even saw a whale!

On her final night, we went to town to eat shrimp!  This place wasn't as good as El Pirata but still a good place!

All too soon, it was back to the airport to drop Jo off with many memories!

A Week With Joleen

We dropped Patty and Leonard off at United Airlines and then walked downstairs to meet Joleen who was due to arrive in about 10 minutes.  Boy was I surprised when I looked at the monitor and saw that the plane had landed (early) 1/2 hour ago - within 5 minutes she was through the door!!

We waved goodbye to Patty's as they were still in line and stopped for lunch with Joleen at the same place we had stopped with Patty's over a week ago!!

ATVing down the beach - Glenn fishes, we walk the beach!!

Happy Hour at Smokie's - and YES, we had to order the nachos once again!!  And there was enough left for lunch the next day for all 3 of us!!

The place where we stay in Mexico is very safe - a lot of Americans are here and you never hear of ANY crime here - until this year!!  Apparently there is a lot of building going on at the small town past Los Barriles and they're bringing in workers from out of town - and that seems to be the problem.  Every day we were hearing of something being stolen and gas being siphoned out of gas tanks!  Because our house is right by the beach road, there is some traffic and a very small parking area right close.  One night Glenn woke up as he heard a car and looked out about 3:00am and there was a black SUV sitting in the parking area - he turned on the BIG floodlight that lights up our front yard where the boat is and the car left.  We started locking everything up tight at night and leaving outside lights on all night (which did make it a little hard to sleep with all that light!!)  And then Glenn decided to make "Leroy" to sit on our couch as there are no curtains or shades along the living room, just a slider and huge windows!  We left the lamp on so people could see directly in!

And for an update, the police DID catch 4 banditos a few days ago - they rammed their black SUV (yup - was probably them in the parking area scouting out places) and arrested them!!  And so far, no more thefts - hooray!!  The police used to patrol a few times every day and now there are several that are around!

One of our favorite photo spots!!

We loved walking the beach every morning around sunrise (and that darn sun just keeps rising earlier and earlier every day!!)