Living on the Edge

Your Someday List

Some dear friends of ours went through a terrible life and death battle back in 2004.  Chris and Kelly were parents with two young children, just like us.  They had two beautiful little girls that they loved and wanted so badly that they traveled all the way to

China

(twice!) just to add them to their family.

Their girls grew up with our girls in the same schools and the same church.  Some weeks our children spent 6 or 7 days a week together.  They were part of our extended family that we created for ourselves in the community that we lived, worshiped, and worked in together in

Humboldt

County

. 

Our relatives have never lived in a town closer than a five hour drive.  So for us, as with many people these days, family has a different definition than it used to.  It is not necessarily who you are related to by blood, but who you surround yourself with for strength and support.

So life in late 2003 was going hunky-dory…our lives were crazy with soccer and school and work and volunteering to do this and that and just all the piles of laundry and pulling weeds and the every day things that make each day fly by.  We had dreams and hopes, wish lists of things that we wanted to do someday.  But in our day to day journey through life, we hit a sudden bump that stopped us dead in our tracks.

Kelly was suddenly ill.  Not just take some Dayquil and call the doctor in the morning sick.  Dreadfully, earth-shatteringly ill.  She had a type of leukemia.  It was a very aggressive form of leukemia which the doctors did not see right away as leukemia.  They unfortunately treated her for some other possible illnesses first.  So by missing the true diagnosis, she lost valuable treatment time and the situation became grave.  The doctors gave her a very slim chance of survival because she was so ill and organs were threatening to fail and she was too sick to even risk a bone marrow transplant or chemo or anything. 

There was nothing we could do at this point but pray and so everyone she knew, and even some that didn’t know her, prayed. It was a long couple of days for everyone, especially her husband, who silently kept all the grief inside, just praying the doctors were wrong.  That the wonderful family they waited so long to build and nurture, wouldn’t lose its mother. 

It’s always nice to be able to say this, but the doctors were wrong.  They were bewildered because she did get better—better enough to even have the bone marrow transplant (which by the grace of God there was a kind stranger willing to be on the registry and willing to go through the transplant procedure who actually matched her rare blood type.)

I’d love to say that she popped back to her old self, but it’s been a very long struggle, not without its ups and downs.  But God still blesses those two little girls with their mommy 4 years later and her husband still has his soul mate by his side.  And through it all, the doctors were simply amazed.  Those of us that know Kelly are not!  She’s a tough and determined cookie.

So I share this story…because it actually has something to do with the Iditarod… in a convoluted way.  It’s kind of like trying to follow one of the conversations my husband and I have at dinner.  We hop all over the place with topics, picking up and continuing conversations we may have had a week ago. It’s almost like the secret language that twins have when they are young…only they understand it.

But back at the beginning of this story I was talking about how you get busy each day just living life and the list of ‘somedays’ just gets put off and postponed to when you have time to really think about it. Having Kelly being so close to death so suddenly shook me up, because ones life could change so dramatically in just a blink of an eye.  What if there wouldn’t be a someday?  What about all the things we wanted to do in life that would be so much more fun than laundry?  I wanted us to show our children how to enjoy living life and to show them that dreams are important to follow and maybe even important enough to let them lead you through life.

So I went online and bought tickets for the four of us to go to the place on the top of our Someday List: 

ALASKA

Do you have a Someday List?  Make it a Today List because you never know what tomorrow brings!

The Alaska Picture for the Last Post

Apparently my blog has a mind of its own.  These pictures were supposed to be included. So I decided to add a few more.  It was an amazing trip.  We spent 10 days there and we could have spent 10 times that!  It's back on our Someday List. 

That's Denali in the background.  My girls look so young there...well it was 4 years ago.  They were 6 and 8 that summer, and I was still 39 (for the first time!).

Just another gorgeous view.

Pink Fireweed filled this valley.

Calving glacier.  This was cool!

This is Gerald Sousa.  he is wearing bib #10 in this year's Iditarod.  We met him when we were staying in the town of Talkeetna.  It's a town that's one of the Gateways to Denali.  The afternoon that DD went on his dream fishing trip, we went on a ride with a sled team. 

Gerald picked us up at our campsite and we started talking...turns out that he was born in Eureka...where we lived at the time!  Small world isn't it?  We spent the afternoon learning about racing dogs and the girls got to hold the newest puppy.  The dogs have to train in the summer.  They have a special summer sled with wheels.  They train by pulling the sled, sometimes loaded with tourists like us. They can go at a pretty good clip.

At least until they get to the creek. It was a little unnerving as they headed straight into the water.   Thought we were going to go swimming, but they stop at the last minute and cool off and quench their thirst.  Notice the one on the far left laying down?  It was pretty warm in August.   Also notice that Gerald and his helper are holding onto the dogs....otherwise we may have gone for that swim! 

Did you notice that the dogs are a bit on the small size?  This is the kind of dog they use for racing.  They are built for speed.  The bigger Huskies that we picture as sled dogs are not as fast.  They are the work "horses" of the mushing world.  The teams in Denali use the big husky dogs because they pull heavy sleds of supplies in the winter. 

The girls got to hold the newest sled dog pup.  Maybe he's on the team this year in the Iditarod, he would be almost 4 now.

Fun is in the eye of the beholder

So this summer we went on this awesome treck around the Northwest.  It wasn't as long as we spent in Alaska a few years ago...but it was fun just the same.  A few things that we will keep in mind for next summer (keep in mind that I don't usually dwell on the negative--but these are vital travel tips for others!):

1. Don't travel during the hottest part of the summer while camping in a tent trailer without AC.

2. Don't stay anywhere that doesn't include a pool.

3. Don't eat at a place called Asian Buffet, especially if it has sushi and octopus sitting out for who knows how long! (You will live to regret it over and over again for the next 24-48 hours!)

4. Don't stay in a hotel where the paint is peeling, the carpet has big stains, all the rooms smell like they were smoking rooms, there is food left in the room from the last guests, and the man behind the desk is grumpy and rude and you ask him if he's having a bad day and he goes into a long diatribe about how this isn't really the kind of job he wanted, but there weren't any jobs in his field available, so he is stuck checking us in and answering our questions, which he really could care less about.

5. Don't combine a business trip with a family vacation.

But we really did have a ton of fun.  It's just that Salt Lake City isn't the best place in August...at least according to my girls.

Here are some of Q's favorite things:

Seeing her old friend from Eureka and watching the bison in Yellowstone.

CC's favorites:

Spending time with daddy and finding ways to make us all laugh!

Me?  I just enjoyed seeing great photo opportunities:

Now DD's favorite's were:

Actually he  loved Yellowstone just as much as the rest of us, but I had to give him a hard time about going to these places while in Utah.  He's like a bloodhound.  He can sniff them out where ever we go!

Thursday's Quiz

OK, I can't find the picture for the recipe I was going to post, so let's have some fun....

(don't worry it's not too hard...along the lines of "who's burried in Grant's tomb?")

In what state did I find this town? 

No really!!

And you can stay at the Martha Inn when you go there!

Here's a second clue in case you can't narrow it down!

Check back tomorrow if you haven't figured it out.

Montana moments

While on our summer vacation adventure, we actually slowed down and did some touristy stops along the way. 

If any of you know my dear husband, he is very focused on the destination.  We have an ongoing joke about reading those historical markers along the highways.  I want to read them but he DOES NOT STOP for them.  So I've learned to read just the titles at top speeds of 70 mph!  It is a great skill that has actually helped with also being very good at spotting wildlife as we drive.

But we did stop in Montana at this old ranch a couple hours south of Missoula.  It was a neat old place.  Lots of old buildings that reminded me of my Lincoln Logs sets from childhood.

It's not an Ansel Adams photo, but I loved the combination of the modern train cars passing the old farm equipment that they had along the trail to the main farm house.

But my favorite thing on the ranch was this particular bull.  He was long on horns as well as attitude!  He was either filling me in on the history of the ranch or letting me know that he didn't sign the release to have his photo taken.  I was just curious why he was hanging out with all the gals...oooh, maybe he didn't want to be caught nurturing his feminine side!!  He's probably a vegan and wears tie dye too!  That may not go over well in Montana!