MERRY CHRISTMAS – 2024
What a year!! New knees for three in our extended family – Tom’s sister, my sister, and ME! But just before my new knee we were looking for a place to park in winter that we could continue to afford and which would be closer to the doctors, hospital, and PT needed after the scheduled new knee - A lot in a subdivision of RV folks perhaps? While driving around looking for new FOR SALE signs I spotted a blooming cactus and asked Tom to back up so I could get a photo. It was one that I had not seen before! The owner of the property was outside (waiting for his REALTOR to come and list his property!) It was an Easter cactus I was told later and this was “coincidentally” GOOD FRIDAY! When I asked his price – I mentioned that it was more than we had intended to spend but could we see the Park Model on a small lot totally landscaped with pavers and ROCKS, and of course cactus? We BOUGHT the blooming cactus and the four year old fully furnished home and moved in a month later, just five days before my new knee!! Great place to recuperate - just fifteen minutes from PT three times a week. And as soon as I graduated we were ON THE ROAD AGAIN.
OUR loop for this summer and fall included several family members needing moral support due to OPERATIONS including our son Allan who had been having back problems causing “no feeling in his legs” as well as breathing problems, and had lost weight in the past two months! It was a puzzle but in all the testing someone noticed an enlarged, cancerous kidney. As ALLAN said, “Well, I have two of those, get it out of there.” So we were encouragement for his daughter Amy as she helped him deal with all the “befores.” And everything worked out well so NOW he is back to the leg problem and the COPD that they discovered in all the testing before the surgery. Thank you Jesus for the answers to our prayers for Allan, our sisters and brother Byron who had a triple bypass!!
We did enjoy seeing the Weathers families at a Celebration of Life and a Celebration of NursePractitioner training completed - a niece who is now seeing patients in Yuma Colorado, where she has been a nurse for ten years!! We also enjoyed seeing Ryder our youngest GREAT grandson in KS where his dad works on Chinook helicopters for the USARMY. They had moved off base to a home they purchased in Junction City. We went to a Pumpkin Patch with the family, and pumpkin patches are NOT what they used to be when the farmer laid out the pumpkins and you picked and purchased one. This was a day’s entertainment for the entire family complete with food to purchase. What fun!!
We were hunkered down in La Junta Colorado for six days waiting out a snow storm which deposited 8 inches of snow on our steps TWICE, accompanied by high winds! But we were in a secure location and not out on the highways and byways with those folks who “had to get somewhere?” We prayed that they made it safely!! So we ended up at Congress AZ before Thanksgiving, however, we also had a second look – a second thought – as to just what was going to go in the UHAUL out of the shed in son Tom’s “back 40!” Our WINTER PLACE in AZ is only twice the size of our COUGAR, obviously the dining room table and even four chairs were NOT going to fit!! So we headed off to Tuolumne CA for Thanksgiving and loading of the UHAUL!! While there we were pleasantly surprised that our son had PLANNED to drive the said UHAUL but had to fly back on Monday to get back to WORK!! All is well that ends well!! It only took us oldsters a week to recoup.
The HOLIDAY provided great time with our two sons and most of their offspring. Kathleen was prevented from coming due to the winter weather in Boise and between her and us!! But she promised to come down to Arizona on an airplane sometime soon, just not on a HOLIDAY!! Smart Lady!! We enjoyed AUTUMN colors in Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico (which included a visit with our former Strawberry neighbor) And it was still gorgeous in California when we arrived for Thanksgiving!! GOD is a magnificent artist and we are so thankful for eyes to see!!
We hope you had an exciting year whether you put 13,000 miles on your vehicle as we did, or just enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing year close to home! May GOD bless your Holidays and each day of 2025!!
Love Tom and Martha
