Stuck!!

Parked in the big barn at The Farm at Prophetstown were two large hay wagons stacked with recently baled hay.  

 The kids quickly realized that something was underneath those wagons.

 Chickens! (They're hard to see, but look in the upper left hand corner in the shadows.)

Ian and Mila got down on their hands and knees and crawled right under the hay wagon to see if they could look at the chickens a little more closely.

This left Lukas behind. He hesitated a few moments, then crawled under the hay wagon after his siblings.

And promptly got "stuck" - when he realized he could not stand up when he wanted to, he froze in place and began crying.

Boompa to the rescue! Since my knees have been replaced, it is very uncomfortable for me to kneel, so Craig crawled under and helped Lukas out from under the wagon.

No harm done - Lukie's tears dried and he was off again in search of other farm animals.

 Like barn cats...

...and even better, miniature horses!

Pony Pals at Prophetstown

Craig and I took Ian, Mila, and Lukas out to The Farm at Prophetstown this week. It's a working 1920s farm located in Prophetstown State Park which is just a few miles from our home. There are all kinds of livestock at the farm, including things that make Pony Pals (and their Grammy) very happy.

It was no surprise that Pony Pal Mila gravitated right away to the miniature horses. This mare is named Hope.

And this is Bojangles. All the equines on the farm are from Indiana Horse Rescue (which is where Abby is from, too.)

My sister, Leslie, is the director of the farm, and she loves to have Ian, Mila, and Lukie come out. They believe that the farm is her home; I cannot convince them otherwise!

The Gibson Farmhouse, a Sears & Roebuck home, where we go visit "Aunt Leslie's house to see the animals" according to Ian and Mila.

Might I have another budding Pony Pal in Lukas? He had no hesitations in reaching through the bars of the gate to pet Hope.

 Both Hope and Bojangles are excellent animal ambassadors for The Farm.

There are also two Standardbreds.

 Daisy and Ryder, both off the track trotters who have found a new purpose in life.

Like the kids, I was hanging around the gate, too, and watching the horses.

After touring all the animals (chickens, ducks, turkeys, sheep, hogs, and cattle), we cooled off by going into "Aunt Leslie's house." It is decorated with items from the 1920s and you are allowed to touch things, sit on the couches,

and even try out the kids' rocking horse. Lukie loved it!

The kids hope we can go visit Aunt Leslie again soon. So do I.

Thanks, Aunt Leslie!

Tennessee Fun

Here are some last photos of some of the fun we had with Cole, Emily, and their girls earlier this month.

When did Cole get so tall? Sure love this guy!

Julie and me.

Kate and me.

Susan and me.

This girl resembles Craig's mom a lot.

She's a happy little girl.

Julie and Kate were fascinated by the gold teeth that Craig and I have. We told them we had them because we are pirates, and Julie exclaimed, "I have the perfect hat for you, Boompa!" And she did!

Since it was Cole's birthday, I'd brought birthday hats for us to wear.

The girls loved them and since I had brought twenty, there were plenty to play with.

Apparently Kate has a bit of a sweet tooth! We all had a laugh about the cake - when the sprinkles were added to the frosting, they frosting had already set, so when Cole blew out his candles, he blew all the sprinkles off, too!

It was so much fun to spend the weekend with them. 

Stepping Stones with Julie and Kate

I love my stepping stone garden - it is one of my favorite things and I joke that it is going to the nursing home with me. It's chock full of stones with baby hand and footprints along with other stones made just for fun or to commemorate certain family events.

I realized recently that I had not made a stone for Kate, and since we were heading down to Tennessee for Cole's birthday and I was already planning to make Susie's baby stepping stone, I brought materials to make one for Kate, too.

I also brought enough concrete and decorations for Julie and Kate to make their own stones to keep at home.

I decorated Susie's two little footprints with orange and blue stones to acknowledge her parents' Illini roots.

Emily was a big help - making four stones at once is not easy.

You have to press the stones deep down into the concrete. Otherwise, they may pop out later.

Kate loved all the colored stones and had quite a pile that she wanted to put into her personal stepping stone.

See why I chose Illinois colors? Just look at Cole's tee shirt!

Julie was able to work independently and made a lovely stepping stone to keep.

Susie's finished stone.

Kate's stepping stone for my garden (the round one) and the one she made for her own yard.

Julie's stone for home is next to the one with Susie's footprints.

The girls were very proud of their efforts, and they should be!

I can't wait for them to dry so they can be displayed in my stepping stone garden.

A Major Curve Ball

Sometimes life throws a curve ball at you, and I had a pretty major one lobbed my way in June. I now know more about the pancreas than I ever wanted to know.

In early June, doctors discovered that a mass on my pancreas had begun growing. We found it by accident three years ago and it's been checked annually from then on. The tumor had been unchanged until this year's CT scan in June when it was discovered that it was now 4 CM in diameter. 

June 24 I went down to Indianapolis for an endoscopic sonogram and had it biopsied, and the mass was even larger, having grown another centimeter in just three weeks. It was determined to be precancerous and had high cancer markers within the fluid. (It's called a Mucinous Cystic Neoplasm.) 

I have discovered that when your pancreas starts going awry, you get a lot of attention from people in the medical field and things happen fast. We got home from our trip to BreyerFest and Tennessee Monday night and then turned around on Tuesday at 6 AM to head south to Indianapolis to meet with my surgeon at 8:00 and then do my preops. We thought we'd be at the hospital two hours; I was with the surgical team for six hours! 

Because the tumor continues to grow, it is now too big for laparoscopic removal so I will need the open incision surgery to remove it. Within the mass is a smaller nodule with hard walls, and Dr. Schmidt, the surgeon, said that there was a 10% chance that the nodule was cancer. (Overall, those are good odds.) 

He discussed cancer protocols with me, just in case, and what he would do to remove any cancer that might be found. Along with half of my pancreas, he is also removing my spleen and lymph nodes, which means I will have lowered immunity for the rest of my life and need to be careful when I am ill. 

 After meeting with the surgeon, I had to have three vaccinations to boost my immunity going into surgery, blood work done, an EKG, and X-rays. I met with the team social worker who will coordinate home health care for me after I go home, and the team nutritionist who spent an hour going over what I need to be eating to build my body for surgery and recovery. I have exercises to do, a new vitamin regimen, and daily breathing practice to build up my lungs. I even have to brush my teeth four times a day to make sure my mouth is as bacteria-free as possible.  

The nifty case on wheels I was given to carry all my surgery prep items in. If I were still teaching, it would be a good way to bring things to and from school!

The surgery will be done in Indianapolis on July 31 and I will be in the hospital for 5-7 days, possibly more. Recovery at home will be 2-3 months. I had to cancel my entry to the August GLC show in Chicago as I won't be able to drive that far or carry tubs of model horses. But I will be able to help out at The FAMulous Collectibility Show I am holding with Allison Pareis on September 14. 

I am more than a little overwhelmed by what is ahead but I LOVE the team that is in place to care for me - in fact, I got a call from one of them yesterday and was called "honey" twice and "sweetheart" three times. I also have the surgeon's and head nurse's cell phone numbers and been told to call any time and to not worry about bothering them. Clearly, pancreatic surgery is a big deal, bigger than I ever imagined.

 But I think I am almost ready to go. Wish me luck.

Let It Be

Every now and then I drive to my parents' home on the Wabash and check on it. It is vacant and owned by Wabash River Enhancement, a group dedicated to preserving the Wabash River corridor. My parents' home is being allowed to return to nature, something that my parents wanted.

This is the concrete staircase down the side of Whiskey Ravine to where my horses were corralled.

A closer look. You can see the red handrail better in this photo. I used to carry hay, grain, water, and tack up and down those stairs. Now they are pretty much impassable.

The house is being overgrown with vines and other things. It did make me sad to see a place I had lived in and loved in such a neglected state.

I used to short cut right down the side of this moraine and go to the neighbors' barn down the road. I cared for their horses until I went to college.

That stick in the middle of this photo is not a stick - it's actually the handrail of another set of concrete stairs leading up to the top of a beautiful bluff.

This is the back door and porch with the kitchen window. It was the entrance we used most.

I also took my horse, Pokey, up on that patio once and into the house - just to see if I could!

The house is becoming more and more obscured by vegetation.

Recently a huge tree fell during a storm and across the driveway. (You can barely still see the gravel of the driveway.)

It narrowly missed the power lines and is blocking the driveway so you can no longer drive all the way up.

The barn is being overwhelmed, too. I used to store my hay and tack in there.

This is part of the trunk of the tree that fell and is blocking the drive. It's huge!

Sometimes it is difficult to honor and carry out someone's wishes. I will admit that seeing my former home in such disrepair dismays me. There are so many happy memories here.

But, it is what my parents wanted, and so we let it be.