special K

our best, wonderful, most specialist friend kathy hanawalt came to visit in june. we both lived with her in tacoma, WA during separate semesters in college at the parthenon-- our somewhat delapitated rental with giant greek columns looming over the front porch. kath traveled to see us from tacoma and left behind her hubby, Bill (Guillermo) with their adorable daughters Nora and Maryn. 

it was a blessed reunion.  

among many chores, kath picked all the sour cherries off our trees and made martha stewart's sour cherry and pistachio crisp. tasterific! 

 we also spent a wonderful saturday on a short hike in 90 degree heat where I turned into a tomato and had to baste myself in all the icepacks I could dig out of the grocery cooler. we then drove slowly up upper canyon road all the way to the randall davey audubon center. we enjoyed vast conversation topics while eating fruit and stopping to take pictures on this historical calle. it was soooo relaxing... and we followed it with burgers and milkshakes at flying star. happiness...

we ate lots of good food at home, too,  including green chile enchiladas.

on monday i had to work so kath busied herself pulling  some monster weeds, and then...

making us a special dinner of blackbean and quinoa salad and a side of watermelon/jicama/lime/cayenne salsa so we could watch emily date a bunch of superdorks on the bachelorette. totally my kind of day. 

 ... and paco now has a new auntie.

i was so blessed these guys could reunite as it has been seven years since N left our beloved tacoma.


thanks Jesus for such a special friend and such a refreshing visit.

amigoful weekend

our dear, dear buddies, tim, abby and avery isaacson visited last 

weekend.  

 we went to bandelier national monument on the pajarito plataeu!

li'l miss avery is an EXCELLENT hiker...

...just like her momma (pictured goin' up the ladders to the alcove house).








meanwhile, back at the ranch...

 N was heartily cheered up by his best friend, Dr. Bro.

and my co-worker, kevan and his fiance alex joined us for burgers on sunday! so especial.  

this is my burger... my gramma always says it's like feeding a marine... hmmm...thanks.

 i was sooooo blessed that kevan and alex could finally meet nathanael AND take a walk with us!!!

 public health nutritionist divas just rappin' away. so cute.

 my little buttercup poohead

 prayin' for the man

 she really has a romantic, little face when she puckers up for her goodbye kisses... kind of adorable!!!

but enough is enough!

that's all folks... it's so fun to have summertime visitors to make our hearts glad!

hello out there...

sorry for the delay after the last post!

the last batch of stem cells did not go well. N was so sick and fluish for a few weeks that it was all-consuming for us.

since it did not go well, and there was a hold up in the time-sensitive delivery (not on our part), we have agreed to have the doctor re-administer the treatment. right now he still needs time to stabilize with the yucky symptoms.

the upside is that he has been able to take mini-walks down the driveway and up the culdesac. that is incredible and blesses me to no end. i only hope it lasts...

the downside is that he has been losing weight and still feels weak, in pain, and battles the litany of indescribable lyme symptoms that only those who deal with it understand.

thanks for thinking of us and for praying for my N. sorry again for the delayed update...

y

....felices días de las madres...

love, chief big butt's mom

stem cells for my hero

back in the day

n and i were recalling a cute story a little over 8 years ago, just before we were married...

one afternoon in fall 2003, nathanael visited me for lunch at jennie reed elementary school in tacoma, washington where i worked as an ESL specialist. he was walking down the dim, linoleum hallway back from my classroom to his car (pictured above) when he came in step with a cute, african-american first grader. they walked silently together side by side when the conversation broke out.

"hey, spiderman," the little boy said as they marched on.

it must have been the sandy blond hair and glasses on the tall, white guy, or maybe it was his black oakley shoes with the white, web stitching!

"is that a complement?" nathanael replied as they continued in stride.

he finally looked up at him in surprise: "no, it's a superhero."

tomorrow spiderman receives a new and more powerful batch of stem cells than ever. he's nervous about going off his meds so thank you for praying for him.

C is for kookie

new mexikookie art by fee bird, hills, franco and rockie

nathanael is 34!

viva tubbery the bear

n turned 34 on december 5th! sorry for the delay on updates.

he had stem cell #7 in november and many have been asking how he's doing.
in brief, it's hard to say.

he got suuuuuuuuuper sick going off his lyme antibiotics and did not have the visible boost he experienced with the first 5 stemmies when his weight soared from 85 pounds to over 100 lbs. the winter has been very difficult for n as it is for anyone with autoimmune disease. there is constant pain and discomfort to work through as a result of co-infections and deterioration from the osteoperosis. however, n's red and white cell counts remain in the normal range. totally a miracle. his weight is standing strong competing with mine. he is also walking around the house... and sometimes he wears pants! phew.

all i know is that i don't believe n would be here today without this miraculous treatment.

in other news...

as you recall, in august 2010 n was totally bedridden with a fractured sacrum among other dangerous issues caused by aplastic anemia and lyme. now that he is stable, we were able to FINALLY get an MRI two weeks ago to find out about the continuing back pain. the results were alarming.

the MRI noted that there are compression deformities from fractures on ALL of the vertebrae.--some worse than others. this is a classic result of osteoporosis. treatments are bed rest, pain control and all the stuff we're doing sans a surgery he is not eligible for. symptoms include things i've been concerned about such as height loss which i now know is the cause of his protruding stomach...which crowds the organs. that explains the bulgy belly i kept asking him to suck in. i feel really bad about this whole diagnosis. it's a devastating condition for anyone, and the treatment options are limited and the prognosis is grim. we could be freaked out, but i told n we have to be thankful for the choices we have. we have home devices that are good for bone growth, we have a chance to do more stem cell treatments, and above all, we have hope for a totally pain free life in heaven made possible by the gift of Jesus.

we also have our wonderful parents, grandparents, family, friends, and darling dogs who cheer us on.

we pray you are blessed for standing with us.

stem cell # 7

N received stem cell treatment #7 yesterday morning. He has to be off antibiotics which keep Lyme and coinfections at bay. He also can't take enzymes which he depends upon for his severe digestive issues. He has to refrain for two weeks... These could harm the stem cell growth factor.

The procedure went well, but he is entering the hard part where the Lyme symptoms come up along with severe bouts of nausea. Tonight was really hard. I came home to him curled up in bed in pain and nausea. Tried some massage, but he just wanted to skip dinner and go to bed.
I prayed and I know someone else did too because he managed to get up, then eat a little dinner. I was so relieved. It will take a month or two to see what long term effect may be.

Just praying our way through it one day at a time.

Thankful for this opportunity and trying to have hope in God above all.