Death

The friend that was so sick has died. This morning, actually. I will miss her terribly, as will so many. A wonderful woman in so many ways. Today is a sad day.

Her best friend sent an email today announcing her passing. Its ended with something Marsha would say..."Cancer Smancher, let's dance and decorate". A life cupcake for sure.

Dogs and Decades

Like so many couples, my husband, Skip, and I adopted a Golden Retriever puppy before we had any children. Before marriage. Before we knew what responsibility really meant. Boomer was our first baby, and like all new babies, quickly became one of the most important things in our lives. Skip flies model airplanes in a big way (more on that later). Boomer loved to watch Skip fly his planes at the soccer field, barking and circling on the ground, tracking the plane until Skip would land, at which time Boomer (all 100 lbs of him) would come barrelling up to the fragile plane... about to grab it and bring it back to us like a tennis ball. Skip would yell "OFF" and Boomer eventually learned to halt before biting the fuselage. If Skip ever lost site of his plane in the air, he knew all he had to do was look at Boomer to get an idea of where it was. It ended up being the method we used for exercising Boomer. I would say to Skip, "can you go fly the dog?"

Eventually Boomer's eyes started to fail, his muscles began to hurt and he grew older. The chasing of the planes stopped.

Boomer lived for 14 years and we finally had to put him down last winter. He came into our lives pre-children. He left our lives a decade and a half later. When I held him as the vet put him to sleep, it was as if I was watching a video of the last 15 years of my life. Memories flooded my head...marriage, the birth of all three of our children, building our house, potty training, starting school, changing careers, travel, surgeries, illnesses, new friends, old friends, family. Boomer was there through so much, and then he was gone.

7 moths later, we brought home a new Golden puppy and named him BEAU. He is the new photo album with lots of unfilled pages, unwritten memories of the many years of life ahead.

Our children, now 6, 6 and 10, will have this new dog there through another decade of changes. Growing up to adults, changing schools, jobs, girlfriends and boyfriends, tears and laughter.

How many of these incredibly memorable dogs do we get to have in our lifetime? 2? 3? It gives me a sense of life's rapid pace.

Our daughter Grace comes home from school everyday and screams "Beau! Oh Beau, how Ive missed you today", wrapping her arms around his head and holding him on the floor. What a wonderful thing...for both the dog and the child.

Illness

I just found out that a friend is dying.

She has accepted Hospice into her home to help her with the transition.

About 12 years ago she developed breast cancer. I remember so well what she called "the fight of her life".

She had been working with us and left the company to manage her health. She reported back to us about her time in the hospital, her chemotherapy experiences, her surgeries and her new found outlook on life. She told me about a book called "Home Safe Home" that talks about the toxins in almost everything we use. She told me about her newly shaped body and how it felt after a double mastectomy. She would giggle and say her figure after reconstruction was better than it was before the surgery.

She has always had an incredibly positive outlook on everything, and is one of those people that sparkles as she walks through a room. Her glow and laugh is infectious.

After her recovery from breast cancer, she went on to continue to raise her two teenaged sons, and started a non profit that has now grown into a significant change agent and resource in our community. She never stopped, never looked back and continued to help others after she had helped herself through that illness.

The cancer came back. She has been fighting again for about a year. During the most recent fight, she received a community award for her past and continued participating in so many community organizations. She stood up and gave a speech like no other, beautifully poised, well spoken and dressed in her typical ultra-classy style. She shined... all 80 pounds of her frail, struggling body just glowed.

Our world is a better place because she is in it, and it will be a lesser place when she is gone. I will miss her. I will try to remember to think the way she thinks, to make positive change whenever possible and to smile through adversity. What a legacy.

Bites

From Boulder, we drove up highway 77 through Nebraska, passing fields of corn like we had never seen. Living in Colorado we thought we live

d in the middle of farmlands, horses, corn fields, peach stands, farms with squash and pumpkins as far as the eye can see...but Nebraska wins the prize for most acreage without trees, lots of sun, and a lot...A LOT of corn.

It's amazing that this expansive lake (100 miles of shoreline!) with white sand exists in the middle of Nebraska. We turned a corner in our 36 foot RV and caught our first glimpse of the beautiful body of water. It was so hot that we imagined we could hear the lake yelling "come in Millers! It will feel so good to swim".

Found a wonderful campsite in the state park campgrounds, right next to the water. Skip hadn't even parked the RV before the kids were getting suits, towels and bug catchers.

After 2 days, 3 frogs, 7 card games, 1 boat rental, 15 different bugs in the bug catchers, 2 fabulous dinners cooked on the grill, a few short bike rides a lots of swimming, we went to bed feeling pretty relaxed and happy. Then, the

y came. And they came in spades. I could hear one of them buzzing over my ear at about 1am ... mosquitoes. The love me, hate my husband. We had been bitten a little throughout the last 2 days, being near water, but nothing outrageous.

I swatted at the one buzzing in my ear. Then I felt the itching over my eye. Maybe 20 minutes of swatting and itching in the dark, half asleep, i realized i couldn't open my eye. I went to the bathroom to see what was happening to my face. The light was left on in the bathroom for the kids as a pseudo night-light, so i could easily find my way in there. As I closed the door and looked in

the mirror, i viewed the damage that had been done. My eye had been bitten, maybe 3 times, and was swollen closed.

Cursing the mosquitoes, I caught a glimpse of lots of movement from the shower stall. As I opened the door to see what was in there, I saw a commune of them. They had built apartments, garages, even a city hall. There were probably 60 (no joke) all hovering in the shower to find the light. I took our swatter and stared hitting them. I knew it was kill or be killed. They was no way they would get out of the RV, so if i didn't get them i was a goner.

i swatted and swatted until it was mosquito carnage. I stood in that bathroom for probably 35 minutes. My 10 year old came in at one point and asked "mom...what is that smacking noise?" "go to bed honey. I'm just killing mosquitoes". She didn't even blink. turned around and went back to bed like it was just another typical night. I was in the heat of battle! There were about 20 left. I waited, hiding, until they thought I was gone...then they would start to move and...SWAT! Waited longer, SWAT. I literally waited, until they were all dead.

I came back to bed and did the classic, "Skip, you up?" no response. "Skip...You AWAKE babe?"

no response. "BABE. I was totally attacked by mosquitoes and we need to leave tomorrow! Can we talk?" I retold the story of the mo

squito battle, down to every last detail, including even the story of the little baby-sized bugs that thought they could get away. "Babe, so can we leave tomorrow?" he said "Lets talk about it in the morning" "But BABE! I am one-eyed and itchy and its just gunna get worse!" ...silence. I waited for some comforting words form my husband that would reassure me that they wouldn't be there in the morning, that we would leave, that somehow it would all be OK. Was he asleep again? Then, I hear something...its him! Here it comes! "Babe" he says "yes?" "Do you know where the IZZY sodas are?" WHAAAT? I thought...Is he kidding? WHO can think of a soda at 2am with mosquitos loose all over the RV!?

Well, we left first thing in the morning. I was a happy, itchy person headed to the cooler tempatures of South Dakota, where there are NO mosquitoes.