Where Am I Today?

Today I am sitting in my motor-home wishing I had a fireplace sending off lots of heat. It is rainy outside.

We recently had to make an emergency trip to Laughlin, NV. My niece, Christine, telephoned me on Friday, 9/12 that my sister, Kathy, had passed away in her sleep. She was only 54. Needless to say this was a shock to all of us. Ron and I made the decision to drive to Laughlin (24 hr drive straight through) to be with family. After some long conversations we decided to drive down. Patrick & Patricia (from The C Shop) graciously loaned us their car for the trip. It got 30 mpg whereas the suburban only gets 15 mpg. After making arrangements for Charlie Brown (thanks Lynn and Tanya for keeping him) we decided to get a few hours sleep before making the trip. We left Bellingham at 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning and arrived Sunday morning at 3:30 in Laughlin, NV.

We spent time with Christi & Ron (my niece and her husband), Marie & Russell (George's daughter and husband), Joanie (my younger sister) and George (Kathy's husband). It was good to be with family even under the sad circumstances that brought us together.

Sunday afternoon we all drove to Oatman, AZ. It is an old western mining town that has kept the theme of Old Western alive and well. They have donkey's that run loose in town, you can feed them carrots but not the babie as they don't have any teeth. It was fun and relaxing to watch the donkeys nuzzle up to trying to get the carrots. Marie had a bag of carrots in the basket on the scooter and one started eating right through the plastic bag:) We did find some cute baby outfits for Christopher and Opal and a cute t-shirt for Max.

We left Laughlin on Monday afternoon and went to Las Vegas. We spent two nights there, staying at WorldMark - Tropicana. On Tuesday we went to the cemetery where Royce is buried and visited the three churches we attended while living in Las Vegas. We met at Desert Hill Baptist which was a tiny church with only 30 or so members. The church is growing and has a great high-school and college group. There are 4 remaining charter members on the rolls. Our next stop was at Lamb Blvd. Baptist Church which we where we were married. We were not able to get into the church but did see that what was the original sanctuary is now Sunday School classrooms and there is a large building that looks like a new sanctuary. The fourth stop was at College Park Baptist Church which is where we dedicated Jamie and held Royce's funeral. We were able to visit with one of the secretaries and share memories of times past. College Park has a new sanctuary along with the 2 story classroom building that was just being built when we left in 1977.

We also did the tourist thing in Las Vegas and went to M&M land - found an Indiana Jones t-shirt for Max, a football for Christopher and a purple bear with purple M&M's for Opal. We had lunch at the Harley Davidson Cafe - sometime you need to ask Ron about the biker mama he saw there:)

On Wednesday we drove to Boise, arriving close to midnight. We spent Thursday in Boise. Ron helped Brandon with something with the roof and gutters and I played with Christopher most of the day. Max went to school and Danalyn was working. In the evening we all went to a Thai restaurant and visited together. It was good to get some Grandma and Grandpa time in. The interesting thing about our time there was Max was trying to come up with a name for me since he calls Danalyn's Mom, Grandma - it is just too confusing having two grandmas. He decided that my new name is Gramsdude! Christopher can call me Grams. I ruled out Granny - Brandon's choice, Diva - one of Max's choices. I suggested Nanna but that got vetoed by everyone so Gramsdude it is!

We drove home from Boise on Friday, getting home around 8:30 p.m. Saturday found me in bed for the whole day fighting a horrific headache. I have been fighting the headache off/on since Saturday, 9/13. I have seen Dr. Moore and he prescribed a muscle relaxant which has helped somewhat. I have spent the last 3 1/2 weeks battling this headache. For the most part I have spent at least half of almost every day sleeping/resting trying to get rid of the headache. Right now I am waiting for a call back from Dr. Moore.

Since returning home from Laughlin Ron has finished up the roof at The C Shop along with a few plumbing jobs. I have worked for HomeConnection and also at Northwood.

All for now, back to snuggling under the blanket and waiting for Dr. Moore to call me back.

Alice