Whew, these last few weeks have been a blur for me! Seems like we have been constantly on the go. Oh! Wait! WE HAVE! Let me start at the beginning.
Two weeks ago we headed to Spokane for the day to see our little great (grand?) nephew Joshua. He belongs to Kali, which is Gary and Jeannette's daughter. Kali and Scott were relocating from Louisiana to Olympia, WA and Gary and Jeannette kept Josh for two weeks. He is just a little over a year old and a real cutie. He sure has captured our hearts.
Joshua and Grandma Jeannette
Then on Sept 11 we headed back to Seattle for another round of doctor appointments and to support Ric, Jennifer and Sherrie in the 3Day Breast Cancer 60 mile walk! First, just let me say how proud we are of these three....they have been training for this walk since January and logged hundreds of training miles. Their dedication to this cause is wonderful.
Friday morning up at o'dark thirty for the Opening Ceremonies. Sherrie is a 5 year survivor of breast cancer and she was in the survivor circle. There were over 3200 walkers and six were chosen for the survivor circle. It was very emotional to see her up there. And my thoughts had to stray to Cindy, our niece who lost her battle with cancer three years ago. Anyway, back to the Opening...it was sure moving to see all those people, men and women, who were walking to support the breast cancer research cause.
Sherrie
THen while they were walking their first day, 22 miles in all, I had an appointment for an endoscopy in downtown Seattle. Daughter-in-law Janet took me to this appointment and good thing she did...I was wiped out for the rest of the day.
Saturday we were up early again. Denice, Sherrie's sister and our niece and I took off to meet Janet and "cheer" on our walkers. We were at the cheering station in Kirkland for over 3 hours, cheering on not only our walkers, but the other 3200 as well. What a experience....I can't really describe how you feel seeing all of these people walking for this cause and the thousands of people who turned out to cheer them along the route. It still really amazes me!
Part of the crowd at a cheering station
Then we headed over to the lunch spot for the walkers and met up with the kids. Jennifer was suffering from bone bruises on the bottom of her feet and gave up walking for the rest of the day. I took her with us to the next cheering station and then to camp and the medical tent.
Sunday Denice and I headed over to Green Lake for the first cheer station and was there at 7:30 a.m. UGH! Janet met us there and we set up our little cheering station along with some other early morning people. I must add that the weather in Seattle that weekend was amazing. Warm, sunny and beautiful. A LOT of people were out walking around Green Lake and they turned into cheer supporters as well...unintentionally. Jennifer was doing much better today after Ric "doctored" her foot.
Denice and I spent the day following the walkers in my car and finally wound up at Memorial Stadium to cheer them in to the finish line. TO see the thousands of people there to cheer in the walkers was amazing.
Ric, Jennifer and Sherrie crossing the finish line and the victory tunnel.
We were joined at the closing ceremony by several of the kids friends, plus granddaughter Cammie and our good friends Rowland and Kathy Brasch. Closing ceremony was very emotional...just looking down on the stadium field and seeing the 3200 plus walkers and survivors! WOW! And most importantly, over 8.6 million dollars was raised for breast cancer research...our kids raised over $20,000 themselves. So I say thank you to all of you who donated to them!
Monday was full day doctors for Al. He got good reports from all the doctors. Then it was my turn. I had an appointment to do a sleep study for sleep apnea. Oh goodie. I got to sleep overnight at the hospital, hooked up to all these machines. I had enough wires on me that I could get all TV and radio channels in the world! My goodness, how was I suppose to sleep with all these wires attached to me? I don't know how I did it, but I did sleep and the next morning I saw the doc and yes, I have sleep apnea. Oh goody! Of course I can't have the normal sleep apnea where your throat muscles relax and collapse when you sleep causing you to quit breathing...no, when I get into the REM sleep I just quit breathing...throat muscles have nothing to do with it! So, the next night I get to go back and do another sleep study and this time I get to wear the CPAP as well. Let me tell you, THAT did not go well. At any rate, to make a long story longer, I came home with a CPAP and I am not happy about it. I am having a horrible time adjusting to it...it still makes me feel like I am suffocating. Hopefully I will get used to it...maybe.
We had doctor appointments again on Tuesday and Wednesday we headed home. We decided to come over Stephens Pass through Wenatchee. The weather was still beautiful and the fall colors were just starting to appear. There was a feeling of "fall" in the air. We got home just in time to see our friend from Arizona Bob Grabow pull in with his motor home. He will be here for the weekend and possibly longer if we can convince him to stay a while. Bob and Al went to high school together here and have been life long friends.
Thursday was spent getting ready for our annual yard sale. What a job! The weather was hot, hot and hot. This is not unusual for this time of year here.
Friday Deutschesfest began in Odessa. This fall festival is always fun and this little town of 1,000 grows into 20,000 or more. Friday is the official start of "fest" and the campers and tourist were already rolling in. Our house was holding Denice, Jennifer, Sherrie, their friends Margo and Bob, and our good friends Kathy and Rowland. Denice and Sherrie went to high school in Odessa and lived here while growing up so it was like a mini reunion for them. Friday was in the 90's and we were all thinking it was going to be a warm weekend. Boy, were we fooled. Saturday turned out cold and windy. OF course, I had the yard sale going on, trying to keep things from blowing all over. The weather held down the people coming to the yard sale and we didn't have many purchaser's.
Saturday brought more of our family to visit. It was good to see them all. Niece Penny was here with her little granddaughter Riley, who is 10 months old and really cute. Nephew Jeremy was here with his family from California, including 3 year old Peyton; niece Michelle and grand (great?) niece Cameron were here as well. Gloria, our sister-in-law was here from Spokane, so our house was full yesterday. Last night we hosted our "rib fest" for 11 people...Al did his great bbq ribs..yum.
In some way, they are all Wraspir's!!!
Today dawned cold and rainy! What the heck? So I closed up the yard sale and went to breakfast with the crowd. Our church hosts a "farmers breakfast" at the high school every year for Fest so we enjoyed a good breakfast. Then it was time for all to leave....boy was this house quiet all of a sudden!!! Both dogs looked so forlorn...only two people to pet them! Too bad.
So, we have had a busy two weeks. Loved seeing all the family and friends. Now it is time to settle down a bit and start seriously thinking about packing and heading south. We plan on leaving for Tucson around the end of October, after Al goes deer hunting and I go on the "girls" week to San Francisco with Jennifer, Janet and Kathy. I do have my work cut out for me in the next few weeks getting the 5th wheel packed and ready to go. If this weather stays this way, I will be more than ready to head south -- probably before the end of October!
Hope everyone is happy and healthy and enjoying life...until next time we are the
"UN-WROAMIN' WRASPIRS"
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