Joan on the Road

I apologize for being such a lazy blogger! Almost two weeks since I last wrote and my only excuse is that we've had a lot going on AND I'm addicted to Farmtown on Facebook! So what's been happening?

Biggest event was Zachary's graduation on June 16th. It was a wonderful family time and a tremendous milestone for Zach. Daughter Laura came to visit from Montana so I got a day of girl time with her. She came along with me to my radiation treatment (1/2 way through...yeah) and then we met son Jim for lunch at Benji's, a local New York style deli. Great corned beef!

On greaduation day we all met up at Renee and Tom's for snacks then headed out to claim seats at the graduation for our clan. We arrived 90 minutes before the ceremony and it was none too early. Evan was not real thrilled with the whole thing, nothing captured his attention. It "took a village" to keep track of him!

It was a short ceremony given there were 500 plus graduates. After the meet and greet on the field we headed to Renee's for a buffet and gifts. I have to say that I sometimes sit at these events and just marvel at my whole family. What a group! A few of Zach's friends stopped in and joined the noshing and singing.

The "DJ" selected Queen's Greatest Hits and suddenly the whole crowd is singing Fat Bottom Girls and We Will Rock You! Four generations enjoying the same song! I wish I had a video of that. Little Evan, stomping and clapping, singing all the words and looking around at everyone with a big grin. "Look at me! I'm doing just what the big kids are doing!"

Here's the lineup! Evan knew just what he was supposed to do....

Zach was speechless when he opened gifts. Top of the heap was a Canon Rebel SLR from Renee, Tom and Uncle JIm. Grandma and Grandpa Nehls sent a generous check to help him through first year of college. We contributed some camera accessories and the kids gave him a new cell phone. Lucky guy1

No more school events for us until Evan starts a couple of years from now. Let's see...I'll be 83 when he graduates. Probably we'll still be singing Fat Bottom Girls!

Posted by Joan at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been to lots of choral concerts over the years, ever since our kids were in high school....lots of great music. But never the emotional evening we experienced last Thursday. It was Zach's last concert and he said he had a surprise for us.

All the choir groups were very good and the special solo performances were excellent. I think students ask to be a special performer and select their songs. That was Zachary's surprise. He belted out his Mom's favorite song, Live Like You Were Dying....a Tim McGraw ballad. Wow!!! We were awed, amazed and all in tears. Even the guys choked up. Zach is a great performer and being in the second row we got the full benefit of his smiles and eye contact plus his beautiful tenor voice. We were so very proud and touched by this performance.

The other very emotional part was the final senior presentation to the music teacher, Mrs. Morrison. Each graduating senior, probably 20 of them, gave her a rose and told her how much she had impacted their life. Well by the time this was done the whole audience was in tears. Our Zach said she taught him how to "embrace life." We know this to be true because we watched Zach blossom and grow during his two years in music and theater.

The finale of the concert is always the Hallelujah Chorus. Mrs. Morrison invites former choir members and parents to come on stage and join in singing. The stage was jam packed. Former students bring their kids just to participate in this one song.

The evening was an example of the power of one person. Every year this teacher sends out another bunch of kids who will forever love music and who will pass that love on to their families. Like ripples in the pond, teaching the world how to sing in perfect harmony.

Posted by Joan at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The family celebrated Jim's birthday yesterday with a BBQ at Renee and Tom's. Ribs, chicken, beans, cheesy potatoes and a Dairy Queen cake were enjoyed by all. Thanks to Tom and Renee for providing another wonderful party time in the midst of all their projects (house painting, gardening, car repair...yikes).

The kids surprised Jim with a Nintendo Wii. We've all enjoyed the bowling game at Renee's and thought that it might be a lot of fun for us. Jim hooked it up this morning and after 2 games of bowling a 3 holes of golf we were pooped! I am really out of shape when this bit of activity leaves me winded. So it's a very good thing for us to be doing and it had us laughing a lot....another good thing.

Here's a picture of the birthday boy and his girl.

Here's Great-grandson Evan, now 3.5 years old. He was playing baseball with the big boys.

As always, we enjoyed family time and watching the antics of Evan who alternates between Mr. Sweetness and Puck's Bad Boy. He was very helpful in gift opening and candle blowing. When Naomi told him they were going to Grandma's for a party he asked, "Whose birthday is it this time?"

Next big gathering will be for Zach's graduation and we'll be ready to bowl a 300 game!

Posted by Joan at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ahhh! The noisy, impolite neighbors are gone! Actually, the people didn't make much noise but they sure were not aware of campground etiquette.

The layout of this park on our street puts the back ends of coaches overlapping about four feet with about ten feet between coaches. For privacy this seems to work well.. But the neighbors coach had the water heater right by my bedroom window. So if I was sleeping lightly it would bounce me awake off and on. Well that's pretty minor, just an irritation.

What really got us going was the Sunday morning that we're enjoying a lazy breakfast and the guy fires up his generator which is right next to the water heater! So we think....give him a break....maybe 5 minutes. When it's going on 15 minutes, Jim goes out and asks him how come he's running his generator?

"Oh, I just like to run it for an hour or so once a month, for maintenance."

"Don't you know your gassin' out the neighbors?"

"Yeah, but I need to....OHHHH is that bothering you?"

"Well Yeah!!!!!!!"

So a few minutes later he turns off the generator. Not only is there a "rule" against running generators in this park, it's just plain neighborliness not to do it. A few weeks later he had to run his deisel engine for awhile. We were just about ready to knock on his door for that when he shut it off.

This same couple had two little dogs that barked all the time when left alone. We are soooo glad see them pull out.

Posted by Joan at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Finally, I'm in the last phase of this breast cancer saga. I started radiation therapy today. It's seems like forever since that diagnosis back in October....words you don't want to hear. Eight months later, after surgery and chemo therapy I get 33 days worth of radiation.

I guess I was very apprehensive about this but the actual radiation sessions are almost non events. I had two pre-appointments where the radiation therapists do scans, take pictures and mark up the chest (aka boob) area to indicate where the radiation beams should go. So when I look in the mirror I am not a pretty sight. But in a few days they will put on small permanent tatoos and all the magic marker spots will go away. At least that's what they say!

The actual radiation session is just a few minutes. No loud banging like an MRI, no beams flashing, just a few soft buzzes and the machine moves around and buzzes again. I couldn't believe how quick it was. The only downer is that I have to go in every day for 33 days. I just go on weekdays so it works out to about 7 weeks and I'll be done around July 10th.

Hopefully, in that time frame, my hair will start to grow back and the light at the end of the tunnel will grow brighter :)

Posted by Joan at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)