The End of the Blog

All, I have decided to end my blog. I have started having a lot of trouble editing posts. Particularly getting pictures in the proper place with the text. I am on Facebook now and am going to do more there instead. Some of you I am already friends with others of you I would love to join me on Facebook. I am just getting too frustrated with Blogger to continue.

Fortuna Rodeo Part 3: The Carnival

We just couldn't let the rodeo come to town and not go to the carnival. Steven was pretty excited that he was big enough to ride the "motorcycle" this year. You can only ride on it if your feet can touch flat footed. Doesn't he look proud?

Here's Mackenzie and Rob enjoying the gorgeous weather:

We ran into our friends, Tamara and Mike Dennis with their family. Their son Drake and Steven are two peas-in-a-pod. They has so much fun going on rides together. Here they are riding the Dragon:

The Dads took turns taking the boys on some of the bigger rides they wanted to go on. Rob took the boys on the Spinning Dragon Cups (took some photos but they didn't come out). Here Mike is riding the Ferris Wheel with the boys:

Here's Steven "driving" the Batmobile:

Both Dads took their respective boy on the Scrambler.

That ride really moves!



This picture is just too cute of their son Robbie, he's two months younger than Mackenzie, watching the big boys on the Scrambler:


The boys also went multiple times on the Super Slide. This year they were big enough to go up the stairs on their own. That sure saved wear and tear on us grown ups.

What a great time had by all!

Fortuna Rodeo Week Part 2

To see Part 1 you have to scroll down past the Medical Update entry. I had started it before the medical update so it posted it earlier.

On Saturday, the 18th, I took the kids up to the Rodeo Parade. The kids dressed festive for the occasion.

Then it was time for the parade!

We ran into my friend Ann Marie and her family so we scooted over a few families to sit with them. Here's Steven and his "wife" Raquelle. They've gotten "married" several times in the last month. It's so cute.

The kids all thought the quads were so cool.



I wish we'd get a Trader Joe's too. I heard our area is just too small and they won't even consider us. I hope these guys in the parade prevail:

You can't have a small town parade without the Shriners in their little cars!



It was fun seeing our friend Clif in the parade. He's been so busy since becoming our district's supervisor we haven't seen him for a while. We got a good wave from him. Steven made sure he saw us.


The kids just loved this clown. My favorite part of the parade followed him...the Marching Band!

I thought this was just crazy. This guy is riding a real horse on top of a moving trailer in the parade. Yeah, no joke.

Another great Rodeo Parade!

Medical Update

I thought I should update you all on the results of my fine-needle aspiration biopsy of that thyroid nodule...inconclusive. They had a lot of trouble reaching it and got some cells that appear normal and none that looked malignant but, they really got too few cells to say for sure. So, I emailed Dr. Damrose who is going to be fixing my left vocal cord about possibly just taking the nodule off during my little surgery next month. He emailed me back and said he could.

However there are risks. If he took it out during my surgery I'd be put totally out instead of given that twilight drug. Also he would have the nodule sent to the lab and looked at while I was still opened up. If they found it to be cancerous they would take my entire thyroid. With that, there's a 7% chance that I'd get some paralysis on the right vocal cord. If they fixed the left vocal cord and I got paralysis on the right side I would have difficulty breathing and that would lead to a tracheotomy. He would then have to remove my vocal cord fix on the left side. That would totally stink. He wants me to have the slides from my biopsy sent to his lab to see if his guys can get a more conclusive read on it. If his guys see cancer he would just remove my thyroid and wait on the vocal cord fix.

I'm going to have the lab send him the slides and I'll see what his guys come up with. So far nothing points to malignancy so I'd probably be fine having the nodule removed. And, even if it was cancerous I would want it removed so, I'm leaning towards have the nodule removed. The risks are pretty low even if it is cancer.

Fortuna Rodeo Week (Part I)

Oh my gosh, it has been a week since I started this post. We've been busy around here living life. I'm going to try and catch up here over the next few days of relative calm.

We went to several events in town during Rodeo week, third week in July. One was the Fireman's games at Redwood Shopping Center.

Here is Steven waiting patiently for the games to start on one of the fire engines.

Here's Mackenzie on Daddy's shoulders. She was not happy about not being able to crawl around and splash in the water on the ground.


The first event was one in which a team of kids had to work to attach the fire hoses together with one kid holding the end of the hose. When all the hoses were attached together a ball had to be shot off a cone with water from the hose. Here's Steven signaling he has attached his hose link:

This next event speaks for itself:



Here's one very wet but proud little boy!

Mackenzie Walks!!!

For several weeks Mackenzie has been walking while holding our hands. Over the last several days she has definitely been thinking about walking on her own. A few days ago she took one step and then stopped while we were in the kitchen. She did that twice that evening. Then yesterday, she took a few tentative steps at the school because she wanted to sit on the swing. She did what I called the "step and squat." She took a step and squatted then stepped again and squatted.

Tonight she full on walked while we were watching a movie. I had to search around for the camera and then a few minutes later she did some more and caught her...twice!

Way to go Mackenzie! What a big girl!!!

A Couple of Found Treasures

I just couldn't wait to share what I found today at the local antique shop. When I left the salon today and was starting home I had a sudden urgent to cruise through the antique shop a couple doors down from the salon.

Look at this!

Yep, it is what my father refers to as, "the old beat up edition of Betty Crocker." It is actually the 1972 edition of Betty Crocker, for those of you who don't know, this is the edition that contains the best chocolate cake recipe ever! I recognized the cover as being very familar from my childhood. I quickly flipped to the cake section and my mouth watered when I confirmed I had found "the old beat up edition" of Betty Crocker! The chocolate cake recipe in this edition is not the same one that is in the newer editions. This chocolate cake recipe makes my kids parties the ones not to miss. I was even told at Steven's 3rd birthday party that one of his friends was invited to another party that day but, that it was the easy choice to decide to come to Steven's because we have the best chocolate cake they have ever had! I got it for $8 and some change since it was 15% off. The lady who works at the place said the lady who has that booth just brought it in last week.

I also picked up a pretty runner to use on the dining room table during the summer and spring. Here's a picture of the detail on it. I tried to take a picture of the entire thing but it didn't show any of the detail.