A bump in the road of life

Well we are in this for the long haul. Jules has esophageal cancer and fighting that will be our life for awhile. If I can suggest one thing at the start, you all should go right down to your doctor and talk about your indigestion and acid reflux. Insist that they look at both ends. When you get that dreaded colonoscopy insist that they also do a upper endoscopy- in medical terms (esophagogastroduodenoscopy, EGD).
This has been a tough pill to swallow. In fact I'm amazed that he has been able to swallow at all because the bottom inch of his esophagus is finger size because of the tumor. We go together to his primary care doctor tomorrow afternoon to start planning our attack and asking questions. Next Tuesday is a CT scan and PET scan. I think they will tell us the stage and see if it has spread. Then we see an oncologist.
A blessing from the biopsy is that it is not melenoma (which he had a removed from his back 10 years ago). We are very thankful for that.

This is Jules holding on as best he can, struggling to eat, but determined.
These are all our friends and family gathering around to support us.

For the love of Trees

I think that love of trees are in my genes. Mom when she was little (6 months to 11 years) lived at "The Cedars" in Ballarrat, Australia. You see above a picture of the cedar trees which my Mum loved so much as a child. She tells a story of climbing up high into the cedars and I wrote the below poem about her story.

Climbing the Cedars

She climbed up in these cedar trees

She climbed so high she felt the breeze

She felt so grand as she climbed higher

The view was a sight, she was inspired!

However when she looked around

She discovered that she couldn’t get down

A little voice from high above said,

“Help me for I’m filled with dread!”

“I’m up so high and I can’t get down.”

“Is anyone here or are you all in town?”

Mum came out and looked high above

“Hold on tight!” she said with love

“Where is Coral?” Grandfather asked

“When I find her, I’ll take her to task.

“I know that she is only ten”

“But she’s been in my tools again.”

Mum said, “Finding your tools will have to wait.”

“She’s up in the tree again, in quite a state!”

Brother Laurie helped her down, he saved the day

Coral dried her tears and ran off to play

By Carol A. Ayraud

We planted this Maple tree in Flagstaff and it is alight with a red fire for a short time in the Fall. Arizona really does have seasons contrary to popular ideas. When I was a kid we lived next to one of our Phoenix canals which had a lot of Cottonwood trees which turned yellow in the Fall and rained white cotton seeds in the spring. Mom and Dad planted a lot of trees. We loved the fruit trees best. We had 2 Apricot trees. I used to sit up in the Apricot tree for hours, reading and eating the best tasting apricots ever. They spoiled me for store bought apricots which are tasteless. Right outside my window was a Tangerine tree, next there was a pink grapefruit, next to it a naval orange, then 2 plums and a pecan.
Aspen trees in the Fall
I like standing below, looking up into the tallest branches of a tree. I think that some of my best pictures are from the ground looking up.
These are Arizona Cypress in a side canyon of Oak Creek
This is a Ponderosa Pine. One tree in the largest stand of Ponderosa pines in the world.
Gum tree in Australia from the bottom up
There's a track winding back to an old fashioned shack on a road in Kangaroo Island. Actually, I grew up singing, "Road to Gundiguy". We liked the verse, " There's water in the petrol tank and sand in the gears, she hasn't seen a quart of oil in over 40 years, but Oh Lord, how we roared in that old fashioned Ford On the Road to Gundiguy." You see Eucalyptus Trees elsewhere in the world. Well they all came from Australia. Did you know that there are over 500 different kinds of gum trees? Koalas eat only 48 of these Eucalyptus and the trees supply all their food and water!

Snow, Rain, moon glow and baby bun

I'm having trouble keeping up with my life! Our friends Julie, Jeff, Jacob and Jack joined us in Flagstaff last weekend for a snow day. We had great fun and our snow hill preformed famously. The snow was somewhat icey and the older kids had made bumps and holes that sent us flying. We used a shovel and filled in the holes so we had no broken bones. Which made me happy since I ended Friday at work with taking care of a 14 year old with a dislocated elbow and broken arm. That was my 2nd broken bone last week! That was enough for a few days! I took Monday off. Extra time to play in the snow and time to go with Faye and Javier to see the baby via ultrasound. It was the most amazing sight! The little bun's heart was beating! Arms, legs, nose, chin, spine and even ribs were clearly visible. She is cute as a button. Yes, I said she. The doctor said, "It's a girl!" He sounded pretty sure, but will check again next month. I am excited!
This is Jack 3 years old, fearless and funny!
We celebrated Jeff's 40th Birthday and Julie made a snow man cake with was enjoyed by all.
This is the snow on our porch. As you can see it is up to the railings. The other end where the icicles were flowing off the roof, we had a mini glacier a foot or 2 of pure ice!
Back to Phoenix with the full moon closer to the earth and so larger than it's been for a long time. I was driving home and saw it soon after it rose. Ran into the house told Jules, I'm going to take pictures of the Moon. I then drove around the neighborhood looking for a wonderful shot and didn't really find it till it was a little higher and so not as large appearing, but in reality still the same size. On the Phoenix end of my life, we got 2.8" of rain over 24 hours the end of the week before last. Arkansian's and Brisbanian's may scoff at this but when you remember that it was almost half of our normal yearly rainfall it is a lot! There was flooding everywhere and lots of snow in the high country.
Here is Jules digging our way into our Flagstaff homestead
These 3 pictures are Oak Creek Canyon under snow, Love those reflections. Both the blue skies and trees are shown in the reflections.