Dear Friends and Family – been hectic few weeks and so many of you call us or come by, but for the ones that are not near I will give a brief update. Rick is on the third week of chemo/radiation therapy. All is going well medically, his labs are good, but he is weak and tired of feeling bad, the loss of appetite, and staying nauseated most the time. He is pretty fed up with this lying around all the time – Rick is usually on the go so the past couple months of just lying around watching TV or sleeping has him so ready for this to be over with. Unfortunately we are still in the beginning, but I know him – he will tough it out. Only two and half more weeks of therapy then he has an entire month of nothing but getting ready for surgery. Thanks for so many of calling wanting to get with him but I am sure all of you understand that it just has not been timing to go out a lot. He is lucky that he has two days a week that he is up to being out. But soon he may be able to accept those invitations.

We are looking forward to the surgery to know we are getting the cancer out and one more step on recovery, but then as with any surgery that is scary also. At this time we have the first of November as the target timeframe – should be getting a date soon.

We are looking forward to mountain trip soon and that will be a really good pickup for us – we love the mountains and just can’t wait to get to the old familiar farmhouse that we have enjoyed for over 25 years. The location is just about as perfect as you can get – surrounding by hundreds of acres of mountains, Blue Ridge Parkway up on the hill (away enough that we barely can hear the traffic), wild life visiting every day and gorgeous views from the porches and kitchen. We got the favorite haunts we go to – antiquing, country store with the blue grass bands and of course a trip to the local hardware just to see what is going on in the town of Floyd VA. Rick really enjoy's going over to the Woods Bros Racing Museum in Stuart VA. Rick and Mr. Wood chat and it is great seeing the old memories of the Butner Speedway - yes folks - for you younger crowd Butner and Franklington use to have a very active speedway. I got some pics below. We usually trek over to Hillsville for the huge annual flea market; we will just see what the family wants to do once we are there. Last year we had a brief rain storm and then a “double” rainbow (pic above), hope we get one this year. If we don’t we still have many more things to smile about. Just remembering each day the blessings we receive. As one of my favorite quotes goes “Each day is a gift, that is why it is called the present”

 

Enjoy the pics and we will be thinking of each of you. Thanks for the many cards, calls, visits, emails and let us not forget Facebook – omg!, Rick has enjoyed that – Fb was not his thing till his buddy Johnny encouraged him – he has enjoyed connecting up with people that he has not spoken to or seen for years. But then it is somewhat overwhelming at times, so be patient if he does not get back to you.