All fixed up!

Sorry it's been a while since I last updated you - Mom has been too busy to sit down and type for me - again.

So, the last time we went to WSU they did another CAT scan. The tonsil tumor is completly gone, and the lymph node had shrunk significantly, so they went ahead and did surgery that afternoon to take it out. It took them a little longer than they thought it would, but they were able to get all of it out, and set it off for biopsy. It was still cancerous, so that means I have to stay on a maintenance drug and go back to WSU every 3 months or so, but I don't have to have any more chemo or radiation - yeah! Unfortunately, the surgery site got infected with MRSA, so I had to get it drained, be on really expensive antibiotics for 2 weeks, and Mom and Dad had to flush the site every day for about three weeks - that wasn't any fun at all. But it's all over now, and I feel really good. The only weird thing is that the fur over the surgery/radiation site is growing back in curly instead of straight!

Anyway, a few other things have been going on...not that they're important next to me. Mom's been gone a lot - she's been going to Tacoma a lot to help get her Mom's old house ready to put on the market. It's kind of sad to give it up, but none of the family can live there. She's also been skiing quite a bit, although my cancer slowed that down. Dad went up one day too with some of their friends from church.

Dad and Mom also finally found a way to make the garage a better place to work - they poured concrete patch in all the really big holes, and then put Garage Tek flooring down over all of it. Dad says it's a lot nicer to work on now. Dad and Mom also planted some trees to help diversify the forest (some blue spruce and austrian pine) and they tried to plant a couple of apple trees, but they both died in about a week. It's either too high a PH here or the knapweed killed them.

Mom also painted the West and East walls in the house. THey are now a nice forest green rather than "old gold". Took Mom about 5 tries to find the right color, and they had to rent scaffolding to do the big wall - even that was a little tricky because she had to put a step stool on the top of the scaffold to get to the very tippy top - it was a little tricky!

We've managed to go hiking only a couple of times - the weather has been really snowy/rainy and wet (it snowed Easter morning!) and Dad's been working a lot! Mom's also been on some hiking adventures without us - boo - she went for a day trip with some friends, and just got back from a 4 day backpacking trip with the Wilderness Institute in the Gallatin Mountains. She was part of a "Citizen Scientist" trip to monitor weeds and wilderness character in the Hyalite Porcupine Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study area. They looked for (and found lots of) noxious weeds, documented the state of the trail system and area, and they saw a moose and a black bear. Mom said she had a great time with a great group of folks.

And one other piece of news - Mom and Dad are not on the Fire Dept anymore. Mom had a disagreement with the new Chief, and Dad never liked it, so they resigned. Mom's still not very happy about it, but the rest of us are thrilled! No more loud beeeps and strange voices in the middle of the night from the stupid pager!

There will be pictures uploaded shortly of all of these activities! Hope you're having a great summer!