In Memory of My Sister Kay, November 8, 1949 - June 24, 2018

Some of you may know that I come from a big family. My parents had six children. There were two boys followed by four girls. I am the fifth child of those six. 

I want to tell you about my sister, Cherilynn Kay. She was the fourth child and was four years older than me. Kay was born in 1949 and it was clear early on that something was not right. Since I wasn't born until 1954, I'm not sure exactly when they first realized there was a problem. For as long as I can remember, she was labeled "mentally retarded" which was what they called it in those days. My earliest recollections are of her on the floor, flailing her arms and legs while screaming for hours and hours. She could not talk or communicate at all for a very long time. 

Cherilynn Kay Skelton, November 8, 1949 - June 24, 2018

As you might imagine, my parents were devastated and desperate. I remember them taking her to specialists in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Shreveport, and anywhere else they thought someone could help. The diagnosis was always the same and they all recommended that she should be placed in an institution and basically forgotten. I don't think that was an unusual recommendation at that time, but my parents would not hear of it. 

When I started school in 1960, she was in the same school as me but in a special ed class. I'm not exactly sure what year she started school. Let me just tell you that in the early 1960s, special ed was vastly different than it is today. There was not much consideration of what was best for those kids nor of what they needed. Her class was in the school basement and I don't think they ever even took them outside for recess. They were kept totally separate from the general education kids. There was no such thing as mainstreaming. By this time Kay was just starting to be able speak, but she was always difficult to understand. She had a severe speech impediment. Most people could never understand her speech. I was probably the person who could best understand her and when I was a teenager I would work with her every summer to improve her pronunciation. Over the years, with a lot of practice, my name evolved from "Bicki" to "V-V-V-Vicki." I loved that once she learned how to say it she very carefully pronounced my name for the rest of her life. 

In addition to her other challenges, Kay was legally blind. Sometime around 1961 or 1962, Mom and Dad placed Kay in the Texas State School for the Blind in Austin. It was basically a boarding school. She didn't do well there and I think she was only there for one year. Shortly after that, she was placed in the Texas State School for the Mentally Retarded in Mexia, Texas. While it was a full residential program, my parents treated it like a boarding school. She went to school in September and came home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and every summer. She made tremendous progress in this home and slowly learned to read and write a little bit. A speech therapist worked with her to improve her speech with limited success. In 1964 when our family relocated to Corpus Christi, Kay stayed in Mexia until the Corpus Christi State School opened in 1970. Kay was among its first residents. After she was relocated to Corpus Christi, she came home every weekend. 

In the mid-1970s, there were a series of problems at the CC State School which included allegations of abuse and neglect as well as several instances of residents who wandered off. When Patrick and I got married in 1975, Mom made the decision to move Kay back home. While that did protect Kay from all of the things that were going on at the State School, she immediately started to regress because she was not getting reinforcing therapy and classes.

When my Dad died in 2001, Kay took it quite hard. My parents already had cemetery plots and had previously had headstones set for themselves and for Kay. When she saw her own grave she assumed that meant that her own death was imminent. It took us a long time to calm her down and I'm not sure she ever understood completely.

After a few years, Mom was no longer able to take care of her and we moved Kay into an assisted living group home in Corpus Christi.  After Mom died, my sister Bylinda and I took over shared responsibility for Kay.  

We later moved her to Seguin near Bylinda where she lived for the past several years. In May of this year we moved Kay to a group home in San Antonio, about six miles from our home in Converse. She liked the new home because it was all female. (Her home in Seguin was coed.) She also liked the fact that the residents of this home go to church on Sunday morning. She really missed that in her other homes. 

Mom was never willing to talk to us about Kay's diagnosis. None of her brothers and sisters knew what caused her problems or whether they were genetic or related to something else. Mom had told us that she almost miscarried with Kay and was given a medication to stop it. She kind of led us to believe that medication might have caused Kay's problems. Once we took over her care, we were able to do some research in her medical records and discovered that her actual diagnosis was Dandy-Walker Syndrome. Dandy-Walker Syndrome is a congenital brain malformation involving the cerebellum and the fluid filled spaces around it. 

I have long contended that if Kay had been born later, her diagnosis would not have been "mental retardation." She could do many things and had an amazing memory. She could not live on her own because she could not handle money and was way too trusting of strangers. But she could take care of her personal grooming. Her memory was almost at a savant level. If she ever met you, she would never forget your name. She never forgot her nieces and nephews birthdays or wedding anniversaries. She could remember every single one of our cousin's names and birthdays. She knew all the lyrics to almost every song in the Baptist Hymnal. She rarely forgot anything. More than anything else, Kay wanted to be like the rest of us. She wanted to fall in love and get married and have babies of her own. It always broke my heart when she would talk about that.

On Sunday morning, June 24, the ladies at Kay's new home got ready for church and were heading out to get in the van. Kay was excited to be going back to church. On the way out the door, Kay collapsed with a heart attack. The caregiver started CPR and called 911. The paramedics worked on her for about 30 minutes but were not able to revive her. To say we are shocked is an understatement. She had just recently had her annual physical and was given a clean bill of health. She had no history of heart problems. She didn't have any of the classic warning signs. 

After a lot of discussion and some scheduling problems, we have decided to have her remains cremated. We will hold a family memorial service at the gravesite in Bryans Mill, Texas sometime this fall. She will be laid to rest next to Mom and Dad, just as they wanted. 

BACK TO BLOGGING

It's time for me to get back to blogging. I've been gone a long time. It's been 580 days  since my last blog post. So much has happened in the past year and a half. Over the next few blog posts I'm going to give you a brief recap to catch you up.

The biggest news is that we have relocated to the San Antonio area. Needless to say, it has been quite an adventure. We lived in the same house for 32 years. Patrick lived in Sinton or Corpus Christi his entire life except for a couple of years during college. I lived in Corpus Christi since I was 10 years old.

This was a move that we wanted to make to position us for retirement, but it has not been painless. We are learning to live in a new city. We love San Antonio ... the history, the culture, the restaurants, and being two hours closer to almost everywhere.

The bonus is that Katy and her family live in San Antonio.  Plus, we're an hour closer to Nick's family in Houston. We're able to spend so much more time with the grandkids.

Here's how it happened so fast.

The company that Patrick works for moved into a new facility in San Antonio early last year. Since we have always hoped to retire to the San Antonio area, he mentioned to his boss that he would be interested in transferring. His boss indicated that a transfer would be a good possibility within a year or so. He suggested that we get ready to put our house on the market, but said "don't do anything yet." Fast forward to March, less than three months later. He calls and says "We're ready for you in San Antonio. Put your house on the market and move."

We called our friend, Katy Groth, and listed our house on a Sunday afternoon. She put it on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) on Monday morning. We had our first offer by noon that same day.  If you are buying or selling in the Corpus Christi area give her a call. She's awesome! They eventually withdrew their offer, because a home inspection identified a couple of problems and they weren't comfortable with that even though we were having the problems repaired. We accepted the second offer less than two weeks later with the caveat that they wanted possession immediately after closing. WHAT?!

I immediately started looking for a home in San Antonio. We were very fortunate to find a fantastic real estate professional who was a huge help. If you are looking to buy a home in the San Antonio area, Chris Martinez is your man. Over the next month, he showed me at least 24 houses. We wrote offers on three before we found the one that we bought. The housing market was crazy fast. I would find a house and call Patrick to make the two-hour drive so he could see it and we could make an offer. By the time he would drive up, before we could make an offer, it would be sold. When I found the house we bought, I made an offer without him and he drove up the next weekend to see it. He didn't think it was perfect, but he was happy with my choice.

Meanwhile, we had to move out of our house in Corpus Christi on April 10. Lucky for us, Katy and Travis have a spare bedroom that they graciously let us live in for about a month. We moved into our new home the weekend of May 5th with the assistance of our kids and their spouses. Basically we moved twice, once into storage and again from storage into the house.

Immediately after we moved in we had to do some renovation in the kitchen. More about that in a later post.

Both of the real estate professionals I mentioned in this post went above and beyond what we expected to assist with buying and selling. Katy and her husband actually removed the hurricane shutters on the bedroom windows so it would pass inspection. Christopher was very hands on in making sure all the items on our home inspection were taken care of and getting the house cleaned and ready for move in. I had no idea that Realtors were this hands on. I thought they just sold houses.

On the subject of blogging, I've decided to try to give it another go. It may not be as frequent as it once was, but I'm going to try. I miss this creative outlet and occasional chronicling of our life.

North To Alaska

Day 5

Day 5 of our vacation brought us to Skagway. We woke up to a view of the train and Skagway's well know ship graffiti. For years, ship's crew members have painted the ship's names and flags on the side of the cliff alongside the dock in Skagway.

If you've never been on a cruise, you may not be familiar with the huge variety of excursions when the ship is in port. We are not big on excursions. They can really run up the cost of your vacation  higher than you planned. Plus, we enjoy getting into the towns and doing what we want to do on our own schedule. Our Alaska cruise had an exceptional number of excursions available and it seemed that everyone was doing excursions at every port. We were warned that, in Alaska, excursions go rain or shine. If you book in advance, you can't cancel even if the weather is bad. They will not refund your fees if the pilot decides to fly or the captain feels like it's safe to go out on his boat, you are stuck.

The only excursion we booked in advance was a trip on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. We chose the White Pass Summit Excursion. It's only a 40-mile round trip and it takes a couple of hours. Cruise ship passengers get dockside service which is very convenient. We literally walked off of the ship and onto the train.

The White Pass & Yukon Railroad is a historical civil engineering landmark (so is the Eiffel Tower). It was built during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 and was an amazing fete of engineering. There were two crews working, one from the North and one from the South. It took 26 months to lay 120 miles of tracks. Thirty-five thousand men worked on the project and used 450 tons of explosives. They worked year-round in deep snow and temperatures as low as 60 below.

The scenery and views on the trip are nothing short of spectacular. When the train topped out at the summit, we were actually in Canada. We were not allowed to get off the train, but we were parked there for about 15 minutes while they changed engines for the trip back down. On the way back, Patrick and some of the other passengers saw a bear eating berries along the side of the track. I didn't look fast enough.

The most interesting part of the trip was that you can actually still see the trail that the gold miners followed into the Klondike. So many men climbed the trail in the late 19th century that the trail is still visible today. We were very interested to learn that Canadian officials required each prospector to carry 2,000 pounds of food and equipment with them on the trip to the gold fields. This was to ensure that they didn't starve. So many pack animals died along the way that part of the trail became known as "Dead Horse Trail."

The center photo on the bottom row shows the original wooden bridge next to the new steel bridge.

We were back in Skagway around noon so we got a ride into town on the S.M.A.R.T. which is the municipal bus system. You can ride all day with a $5 pass. The cruise ship dock is so close to town that we really could have walked. It could not have been half a mile.

Downtown Skagway features boardwalks and restored buildings. One of the most interesting places is the Arctic Brotherhood Hall which is covered with 8,883 pieces of driftwood. It is the most photographed building in Alaska. Skagway is also home to the oldest hotel in Alaska, the Golden North Hotel.

Skagway was the gateway to the Yukon Gold Rush. During the Gold Rush the population of Skagway swelled to more than 10,000. Today its population is less than 1,000 and it's economy is totally dependent on the tourist and cruise industry. One of the shopkeepers told us that they basically have to earn their entire annual income in the three month summer season.

We did a little shopping and ate lunch. There are some really nice shopping options that feature local artisans. We were also interested to learn from one of the shop owners that some of the scenes from the old movie North To Alaska were set right outside on the street in Skagway. It was easy to imagine John Wayne walking down that street.

We really enjoyed the day in Skagway and our trip to the White Pass Summit. We were also delighted to find a coffee shop that served Starbucks Coffee. However, it was not actually a Starbucks outlet. We did sit and enjoy a hot cup of coffee before catching the bus back to the ship.

Some Personal Notes & Adventures in Alaska

I continue to be so far behind in getting my travel stories published. Since we returned from vacation, we've been crazy-busy. We spent a weekend with Katy's family in San Antonio. We've been to Houston to see the boys for a long weekend. We try not to go more than a month without seeing them in person. We want them to know us and be comfortable with us. We've had the princesses down for a visit. I've had a couple of really big sewing projects to do. I went back to Houston to take care of the twins so the Aggie Engineers could get away for a long weekend. It just seems like time gets away from me.

We also had to make a trip to Waxahachie to celebrate the life of Patrick's sweet Aunt Carrie as she was laid to rest. She was an amazing cook and raised a beautiful family. I never once saw her when she didn't bring a smile to my face. I will miss her at our family gatherings. I'm not sure what Uncle Paul will do without her, but I know his family will be there for him. Rest in Peace, Aunt Carrie.

Only two days after that, we celebrated the life of my good friend Beverly's husband, Tim. Tim was an Alzheimers patient who had been in a full-time care situation for a while. Beverly was completely devoted to making sure that Tim was taken care of. I know it was hard on the entire family. Tim and Beverly were so much fun to be around. They always had a gentle "war of words" going between them. They played off of each other like only couples who have been together for many years can do. He once told me I didn't have to worry that something was going to break Bev's heart, because she didn't have one. I will always remember how they gave each other a hard time, but he was always at her beck and call. Anything she needed, she only had to ask. Tim is the first of our group of friends to pass. I guess we've reached that age. Rest in Peace, Tim.

So now, back to our vacation.

Day 4

On Sunday we arrived in Juneau, the capital city of Alaska. Even though it is the second most populous city in Alaska, it's still kind of a small town with a population of around 32,000. It is also the second largest city in the USA in terms of area. It's larger in area than both Delaware and Rhode Island. One of the unique things about Juneau is that it is not connected to the rest of Alaska by road or highway. The only access to Juneau is by boat or airplane. Since our trip mostly hugged the coast, we found this to be the case in a lot of places. Often the houses we saw along the coast had a boat or seaplane parked with no indication of a car or driveway. It's definitely a different lifestyle.

Our first order of business was trying to get my camera repaired or buying a new camera.

Right in the port area, just where we got off the ship, is a Visitor Information Center. We headed straight there to ask about a place that might be open on Sunday. The visitor's center was staffed by two really nice and amazingly helpful volunteers. It turned out that one of them was the mailman. He knew everyone and he knew where everything was right down to their actual address. When I told him what I needed he said, "I'll find someone who can help you." He took out his cell phone and started calling people. Then he marked two or three locations on the visitors map and told us how to get to each one. All were within walking distance so we headed off down the street.

We got help at the very first one, less than a one block walk. He took a look at my Nikon and knew immediately what the problem was. He explained that the Nikon J-1 has a sensor that often goes bad. Nikon will fix it, but in his experience, it doesn't stay fixed. He recommended not putting any more money into that camera because the problem was likely to recur.

He showed us several inexpensive options for a replacement camera. We bought a little point and shoot and were on our way in less than thirty minutes.

We had several things we wanted to see and do while we were in Anchorage. First thing was a trip out to Mendenhall Glacier. We took a shuttle bus which was very inexpensive and only about a ten minute ride. On the trip out we saw dozens of eagles along the waterfront. Our bus driver was a local artist whose work is displayed in the Anchorage Museum. He was very entertaining and funny. He gave us our first lesson about the Tlingit Indians. Tlingit is actually pronounced like klink-it. All members of the tribe are either Ravens or Eagles. He explained that Eagles marry Ravens and Ravens marry Eagles. Whether you are an Eagle or a Raven is determined by your mother.

Upon arrival at the glacier, we took a short hike on the one of the nature trails. When we arrived it was about 60 degrees and drizzly. We were hoping to see some wildlife, but didn't have any luck. But the hike was quiet and peaceful. We only saw a couple of other people on that trail. Next up was a hike out to the waterfall and glacier.

It's roughly a mile hike out to Nugget Falls and Mendenhall Glacier. A two-mile hike didn't seem like very far, but it was very tiring. We were definitely ready to sit down when we were finished. This trail was fairly crowded with a lot of people making the hike. I'm a slow walker so we got passed a lot. It was definitely worth the hike. It was the closest we got to any glacier; we saw about five glaciers during our stay in Alaska. The waterfall was beautiful. What doesn't show up in any of the pictures is that there were dozens of little birds who kept flying right into the front of the falls. They were small, about the size of the purple martins we see in our neighborhood. We could not figure out what they were doing. The native flora was so different from what we see in South Texas. I really enjoyed seeing it everywhere we went.

We took the shuttle back to the port area and took a tram ride up to the top of Mt. Roberts. It's an 1800 foot ride up one of the most vertical trams in the world and runs right through the rain forest. At the top are trails, a gift shop, a theater, and a restaurant. We had planned to do a little more hiking, but just as we got to the top, a thunderstorm blew in. It was rainy and windy. Instead of hiking we decided to have some lunch at the Timberline Bar and Grill and take in the movie. We split an order of crab nachos which were delicious and more than both of us could eat. The views of downtown Juneau and Gastineau Channel are spectacular. There is also a Raptor Center for the rehabilitation of injured eagles on this mountain. The theater features a show about the native Alaskans and how they have worked to preserve their language and their heritage. It was very interesting and we learned even more about the Tlingit culture.

Because it was raining, we did not get to explore the area outside of the restaurant and visitors center. With a good wind blowing, the ride back down the tram was rough. At this point, we decided to head back to the ship and get out of the rain. It was a good day.

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Our Alaska Adventure

Day 3

The third day of our vacation was a sea day with no port of call. The highlight of the day was a sail by of the Hubbard Glacier. This was the only day of the whole trip that was not sunny and warm at least part of the day. The day was drizzly and cold. This was the view from our stateroom as we approached the glacier. The clouds hung low over the mountains and the water was littered with ice.

One of the reasons we chose Celebrity for our cruise was that it offers an educational component with a naturalist on board to provide information and answer questions. The evening before we visited Hubbard, we attended a one-hour presentation about glaciers by Celebrity's resident naturalist, Milos Radakovich. He also provided loud-speaker narration as we sailed into Disenchantment Bay past the Hubbard Glacier.

Hubbard is the largest tidewater glacier in North America. It flows 76 miles from its source in the Yukon into Disenchantment Bay and is 1,200 feet deep. We sailed quite close to the glacier and then the captain cut the engines to allow us to hear the glacier. I had no idea that a glacier makes noise, but it does. It creeks and crackles and groans as it moves and calves. The naturalist told us that it's not unusual for it to be rainy or drizzly in this locale because, in his words "the glacier makes its own weather."

Just a reminder that, at this point in our trip, our photography was limited to our cell phones and Kindle Fire cameras. Some of it is not too bad considering.

I was very surprised by the amount of color visible in the glacier. I had read some tips for photographing them and trying to capture the beautiful blue that is the dominant color, but it was more beautiful than I expected. We were lucky that it was an overcast day which made the blue easier to capture with a cell phone camera.

One of the most interesting things to me was the line in the water where the glacial melt meets with salt water. It's very delineated and interesting to see.

Here we are on our balcony sailing past the glacier and the icebergs.

 One of the concerns I had in booking our trip was that I wanted to be sure we got a cabin with a balcony where we could be sure we had a good view. It turned out not to matter at all. The passages that we sailed from Seward to Vancouver were narrow enough that there were beautiful views on both sides of the ship. And, at the glacier, the captain made a turn and sailed in both directions so it was visible from both sides of the ship.

The rest of the day was spent having fun on the ship. Every afternoon between 3 and 5 o'clock, if we were on the ship, they brought hors d'oeuvres to our cabin. It was always something very light and savory. We really enjoyed it. In the evenings we had dinner at 7 o'clock in Blu the ship's Aqua Class restaurant. The top picture is our stateroom on deck 7 of the Celebrity Millennium.

Both the food and the service were amazing. I could get used to this kind of life.

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North to Alaska and Home Again

Days 1 & 2

We've been home for a little more than a week from our amazing adventure to Alaska. It turned out to be one of our best trips ever. It truly was great.

We started out early on Wednesday morning with a drive from Corpus Christi to Burleson where we spent the night with Danny and Jeanne. We left home for the five and a half hour drive as Texas was in the midst of one of its worst rain and flood events ever. We were very lucky to make it all the way without encountering any bad weather.

We got on the road early and stopped in San Marcos for a little shopping and lunch at Centerpoint Station. We love their hamburgers. We shared one of their cheeseburgers and an order of onion rings. They were delicious and sharing a burger left us room for kolaches later.

This was probably the most leisurely drive we've ever taken to the DFW area. Traffic was light and we were trying not to arrive before Danny and Jeanne got home from work so we took our time.

If you drive through this part of Texas, you probably know that stopping for kolaches in West, Texas is almost obligatory. We usually stop at the Czech Stop. This time we decided to try a place we have not stopped before, Slovacek's. Oh my goodness! Their kolaches are outstanding. My favorite was peaches and cream. We picked up a dozen to share with Danny and Jeanne. I will also note that Slovacek's has very nice facilities and very clean bathrooms. That's a big plus for me. We liked it so much that we stopped again on the way home.

We got to Burleson shortly after Danny and Jeanne got home from work and we all went out for Mexican food. We enjoyed a nice visit with them that evening.

On Thursday, Danny drove us to DFW around lunch time and dropped us off for our 3:15 flight to Anchorage. This is where our trip took a turn.

We were pleasantly surprised not to encounter long lines at the TSA checkpoint. The TSA Pre-check turned out to be a very good investment. But at DFW, even the regular checkpoints were not too bad that day. The boards were showing that our flight would depart on time. So we went upstairs and had a nice lunch before heading to the gate. As I mentioned before, Texas was in the middle of a weather "event." Shortly after we boarded, there was an announcement that the flight was holding for passengers whose connecting flights were weather delayed. We waited about an hour on the plane. The other passengers arrived, boarded, and we were all ready for take off. But not really!

The next announcement was that we were now delayed because the plane had mechanical problems. They were working on it and expected to be underway in a short time. The next announcement informed us that they had tried to locate another plane but none were available. The problem was with the plane's water pump. The plane would operate fine, but there was no water for drinking or washing hands. After another wait, we saw them bringing cases of water and boxes of hand sanitizer on board. In total, we sat on the plane for about three and a half hours before we finally took off.

We finally arrived in Anchorage at 1 a.m. Thursday. Taking into account the time zone changes, our bodies felt like it was 4 a.m. We got a taxi to the Hilton, checked in, took showers, went to bed for what was basically a nap. We had to board the train at 6 a.m. So we were up at 5 a.m., dressed and out the door by 5:30 for a three-block walk to the train station.

Our travel books said that it is an easy walk, which is true. We weren't too worried about the walk because all our luggage rolls.  What the travel books left out is that the last part of the walk is a large staircase down the side of a hill.  We made it, luggage and all, with time enough to grab some coffee in the station, snap a couple of pictures, and board the train. We were happy that our luggage was checked from this station all the way to the cruise ship. That meant we could spend the afternoon in Seward without having to keep up with our luggage.

The train ride was gorgeous! We took the Coastal Classic and booked Adventure Class tickets. That gave us access to a domed viewing car. This stretch of railroad is considered the most beautiful in Alaska. It runs along the Turnagain Arm into the Kenai Mountains from Anchorage to Seward. The train provided a "tour guide" who provided narration along the way.

We saw dall sheep and our first bald eagles from the train. We saw many more eagles during our week in Alaska.

One of the most interesting things we saw from the train were stands of dead trees that were the result of the Great Alaskan Earthquake (also known as the Good Friday Earthquake) in 1964. The earthquake registered 9.2 on the Richter Scale and caused the ground around the Turnagain Arm to drop as much as 8 feet. The salt water that covered the ground around the trees both killed them and preserved them. In other places the ground was thrust upward more than 30 feet.

I had never heard of this earthquake, but was kind of fascinated by the small bit of information they provided. I have since done a little research and learned that it was the second strongest earthquake ever recorded. It caused tsunami waves is more than twenty countries. More than 139 deaths were attributed to the quake and tsunamis in Oregon and California as well as Alaska. It wiped out several native villages and caused a large number of landslides. If you want to read more about it check out the Wikipedia listing for the 1964 Alaska earthquake.

About this time is where the second (and thankfully last) problem of our vacation occurred. About two hours into the train ride, my two-year-old Nikon 1 J1 DSLR camera stopped working.  Every time I turned it on I got a lens error and it would not take any more pictures. So we were reduced to using the cameras on our phones, potentially for the rest of the trip. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed.

When we arrived in Seward, we got our first glimpse of the Celebrity Millennium. We were happy to see that the cruise line provided buses from the train to the ship. The travel books had indicated that we would have to take a local shuttle which runs on a 30 minute schedule. We were also pleasantly surprised to be invited to board the ship early and have lunch aboard before venturing into Seward. It was only about noon and our staterooms would not be ready until 3 o'clock, but the main dining room was open, which was nice. We ate lunch and hopped on a shuttle into downtown Seward in search of a camera shop or electronics store. No luck. You could buy jewelry, gems, t-shirts, and souvenirs, but there was no place to buy a camera or to have one repaired.

Seward is "the mural capital of Alaska" with somewhere around 35 murals located in the city. They paint a new mural each year during their annual mural festival. You can see all of them at the Seward Mural Society's web site. They were really interesting and beautiful.

Seward is a small town of only about 2,500 people. There is approximately one coffee shop for every resident. I exaggerate, but seriously, I counted more than twelve on the main drag alone. We found this to be true pretty much everywhere in Alaska. There is always coffee. It was also here that we first encountered Alaska's amazing vegetation. It doesn't really get dark this time of year, so the plants just absorb all that sunlight and produce really big flowers, fruit, and vegetables. The poppy in the photo below was roughly the size of a dinner plate and, no, that is not an exaggeration. It took me a day or two to figure out that I needed something else in the photos to give some idea of the size.

After looking around a bit and enjoying some of that local coffee, we caught the shuttle and returned to the ship where we checked in to our room for our first evening on the ship. As we boarded, we were greeted with champagne and welcomed aboard.

I was quite impressed with Celebrity's security. They took security photographs on that first day which were loaded into their security system. They used a scan card system any time we got on or off of the ship and we had to remove hats and sunglasses so they could look at the picture on their monitor and confirm our identity. Anything we brought on board had to go through an airport-type security every time. My bionic husband with his artificial knee, metal plates in his leg, and titanium heart valve, set off the metal detector every single time both on the ship and in the airport. It's no big deal, he's used to it now.

Celebrity was also quite serious about cleanliness. Free-standing hand sanitizer dispensers were located all over the ship in every lobby and outside every elevator and dining area. Upon returning to the ship each day we were greeted by crew members holding large sanitizer dispensers. They used it on every single person, always saying "Happy, happy, washy, washy!"

The flight delay from DFW to Anchorage and my camera failure were the only things that went wrong on a trip that totaled about ten days. I can't really complain about that. I'll tell you more in the next few days. And, yes, there are lots more photos coming.

Our Bags Are Packed

I'm sitting in my living room with my feet propped up. My laundry is done and my house is clean. I spent most of the past two days getting ready for vacation. I don't ever remember actually being ready to go this far in advance.

We depart Corpus Christi tomorrow morning. Our first destination is Burleson where we will spend the night with Danny and Jeanne. On Thursday afternoon, we fly out of DFW to Anchorage, Alaska where we will spend the night. Very early on Friday morning we will board the Coastal Classic Railroad for a scenic trip to Seward. In Seward we will board the Celebrity Millennium for a seven night cruise.

Ports of call are Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Vancouver. Our cruise route will include Icy Strait Point and the Hubbard Glacier. We have also booked an excursion on the White Mountain Pass and Yukon Railroad.

As long as I can remember I've dreamed of going to Alaska. This is a bucket-list trip for us. We'll be gone a total of 12 days. By the time we return we will have traveled in cars, planes, taxis, buses, trains, cable cars, an inclinator, and a cruise ship.

I will take my computer along so I can keep a daily travel journal, but I won't be publishing a blog while we are gone. While the cruise line does offer an internet package, it is expensive, and other travelers report that it is spotty at best. So, other than an occasional picture from my phone when we're on shore, I will be unplugged for the next two weeks.

We Blinked

Wasn't this just yesterday?

All of a sudden this happened.

Lookout world, here comes June! She's definitely ready for kindergarten. Is kindergarten ready for her? She does everything with gusto and enthusiasm. There is no doubt that she thinks she can do anything her big sister can do. Most of the time she can. I'm pretty sure she's going to be running the world some day.

Hello Again

I know it's been months since I posted. So let's start with a little bit of catch up.

Since I was here last Ezra turned 7 years old in February. This was the first year we didn't go for her birthday party. She had a roller skating party. We did, however, go for her actual birthday. That day was just a family celebration. She has now lost several teeth and is finishing up first grade. She is the spitting image of her mother in looks and temperment.

June turned 5 in April and had a cowgirl-themed birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. She's about to graduate from Pre-K at her private school to kindergarten at the same public school that Ezra attends. She is a firecracker. She thinks she can do everything her big sister can do ... and she usually can.

We did go to San Antonio for June's birthday party which was followed by their school's spring carnival. The weather was perfect and we spent the entire afternoon on the playground.

Ezra and June, along with their friend, Arabella, made their karaoke debut. They actually did very well. I really thought they might have stage fright, but they didn't. They stood in front of the crowd and sang the entire song.

Last weekend both girls learned to ride their bicycles without training wheels. Katy reports that they used a "balance bike" and it took less than 24 hours for both of them learn.

The twins are four months old. They now weigh in at more than 15 pounds each. They are hitting the usual milestones, sleeping well, and laughing a lot. I have finally learned how to tell them apart, most of the time. But I have to see both of them.

No matter where they start out, they end up sleeping close together.

Marie has returned to work in the past two weeks. The twins are cared for at home by a nanny. Nick gets about an hour of Daddy time with them in the afternoons before Marie arrives home. We face-time with them a couple of times a week and we try to see them in real life at least once every 4-6 weeks. We want them to know us and be comfortable with us.

Last weekend we celebrated with family when our niece Camey graduated from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi with a BS in Environmental Science. She has worked hard for this accomplishment and we are all so proud of her. Graduation was held at our local convention center which, for security reasons, doesn't allow bags inside. Therefore, I arrived without my glasses and without my camera. This is the best picture I could get with my phone. We were seated in the top tier of the arena.

TAMUCC is known as "The Island University." Their team mascot is Islanders. The leis worn at graduation  are part of that Islander tradition. Camey graduated Cum Laude and has now moved on to job hunting. We are confident that she'll find a great job and her future will be bright.

Patrick and I are still doing great. This weekend we will meet Danny and Jeanne and some of the Valenta cousins in central Texas to visit a couple of wineries and enjoy some down time. Nick and Marie will come over to Moulton on Saturday afternoon to join us for dinner and bring the twins for a visit. We're looking forward to that.

I'm seven working days from the end of another school year. We'll finish up at noon next Friday. On June 1, Patrick and I will leave Corpus Christi for a vacation trip to Alaska. It's a long way, about 4,500 miles each direction. We'll be gone twelve days. The trip will include planes, trains, cruise ships, cable cars, and automobiles. This is the trip we gave each other in celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary last November. We are so excited. Don't worry, you'll be getting a day-by-day recap at some point. This is one of my "bucket-list" items.

I am committing to resurrecting this blog as much as possible. So look for more entries soon.

That Was Fast

Last Thursday, I was enjoying my January vacation, known in our neck of the woods as "the stock show break." My next-door neighbor and I were having a girls day out. We had been to lunch and were browsing some of our favorite artsy-crafty type places when at 1:52 p.m. I got a text message from Nick that said "Prolly having boys today!"

I texted back "WHAT?!" And he replied, "Liam didn't grow too much this past week so we are prolly having them today we see the doctor shortly."

Mary Lou and I immediately headed home, about a 30 minute drive. I called Patrick and told him to let his boss know that he was leaving. There was some discussion between us of whether he should work until five o'clock and then take the rest of the week off. I'm sure you can guess that my reply was something like I'm packing when I get home and we're leaving. Make arrangements now and meet me at home.

By the time he got home I was packed. He only had to add his things and we were on the way. We were on the highway by the time Nick messaged that the c-section was scheduled for 7 p.m. Without traffic, it's approximately a four hour trip from our house to Nick's house. The hospital is a little bit closer. We were traveling northbound with no problems until we got to the Richmond-Rosenburg area where traffic came to a screeching halt. We sat on the highway without moving for about 30 minutes. I seriously considered getting out of the car and yelling at somebody, but I decided it wouldn't help.

We were pulling into the hospital parking lot when Nick texted that they were taking her back to delivery. We made it to the hospital five minutes ahead of Liam and Logan. Here is their first family picture. We got to see them in their bassinets as they rolled them out of the delivery room and up to the NICU where they spent their first few hours.

Both Mom and babies are doing well. I am so proud of Nick. He was there with her all the way. I really thought he might be one of those dads who just couldn't hang in there for a c-section birth, but he did. He documented every moment with photos.

Here are the vital statistics. Liam (on the left) was born first at 7:34 p.m and weighed 5 pounds 8 ounces. Logan was born at 7:35 and weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce.  I have a whole lot of trouble telling them apart. But I'm beginning to be able to see the differences.

They all came home from the hospital on Monday and life is settling into as much of a routine as you can have with two new babies. The Aggie Engineers are both needing sleep. I've been encouraging them to nap whenever they can. We're all working together to get everything done. I'll be here through next Wednesday. Katy is coming in on Thursday and will stay until Saturday to help out and meet her new nephews. When I go home next week, Marie's family will take over. I think, once Marie is able to recover from the c-section, they'll do fine. They seem better prepared than anyone I've ever seen. It wasn't quite as organized as they would have liked, because the babies came earlier than they expected. But it's definitely getting there.

We couldn't be more delighted.

Now We Wait!

You may remember, when I last posted I told you that our Aggie Engineers are expecting twins.  I know, it was a long time ago. I'm sorry. Time just gets away from me these days.

I thought you might like an update. The pregnancy has been progressing well. There have been little or no complications. Wow! A review of my last post reminded me that I haven't even told you that they're expecting twin boys.

The due date is the around the first week of February, so we are down to the wire here. Nick reported yesterday that the boys are now more than five pounds each. I was surprised at how well Marie is still getting around. She's walking around with around eleven pounds of babies. I have been where she is. Nick weighed in at 10 pounds 5 ounces. In my mind it's a miracle she's able to stay upright.

Due to her advanced pregnancy, a road trip for her was out of the question, so we all celebrated Christmas at their house. We had a great time. But, it was the first time ever that we haven't spent the holiday with our own parents. Patrick's Mom is the last surviving parent we have. It was just different to not be with the rest of the family. But, we realize that the time has come for changes. At some point family traditions have to pass to the next generation. Time will tell what we do in the future.

Nick and Marie have done an amazing job of preparing. When we arrived on December 23rd, Marie was washing dozens of little bitty baby clothes and blankets. It really brought back memories of when I did the same thing. I took advantage of the time there to snap some photos of the nursery. It's all prepared for the arrival of Our Little Princes.

I thought you might like to see the nursery. There is a feature wall done in stained wood and the other three walls are a soft green. They did all the installation themselves. They chose a wild animal theme with soft neutral colors. Marie and I collaborated to make the curtains and the bedskirts. She sewed the sheets and quilts.  The fabric is animal prints, arrows, and chevron. There is a rocking chair all ready for late nights and an MP3 player for lullabies.

Since you've seen it in the photos, I may as well go ahead and tell you, the twins will be named Liam and Logan. They will carry their grandfathers' names as well. They will be Liam Patrick and Logan Arthur.

On the subject of grandfathers, Marie's dad, Art, lost his long battle with cancer the week before Christmas. He died knowing that one of the boys would carry his name. Our hearts broke for the Rojas family as they went through the loss of their beloved father at the holiday season. He really was a person who sparkled with love and personality. His family is a wonderful legacy. Nick and Marie were able to get special permission from her OB/GYN to fly to El Paso for the funeral.

I promise to write more soon.

Two for the Price of One!

We've settled into the hot part of a South Texas summer. Temperatures are running in the mid 90s every afternoon with the heat index hovering around the 110 degree mark. Most of the day it's just too hot do be outside.

Patrick continues to recover from his knee replacement surgery. This is his third week back to work. He mostly sits at a desk all day so the doctor let him go back after three weeks instead of the usual four. He has to set an alarm on his phone and get up and walk every hour to keep his knee from stiffening up. He's doing really well and walks without any assistance and with much less of a limp than he had before surgery. He goes for a two-hour therapy session after work three times a week. The therapy is a little painful, but he says it really helps. The hope is to achieve much more mobility than he has had previously in that knee.

Katy, Travis and Our Little Princesses visited us before and after their recent vacation to South Padre Island. They were here for the Fourth of July celebration. We went down to the bayfront to watch the fireworks. It's a very nice place to go for fireworks. There is always a breeze off of the water. This years show was supposed to start with a light show on the Harbor Bridge. However, thanks to some illegal fireworks that were shot right under the bridge, the light show did not go. After that we were a little disappointed. The fireworks show was less than fifteen minutes long. The City of Corpus Christi had all on-street parking blocked off so we had to pay $10 for parking on an unpaved vacant lot. All in all, it was a disappointing evening, but the fireworks were beautiful.

We have some very big news that I've been dying to share with you since we found out. I've just been waiting for the okay from the Aggie Engineers. Nick and Marie are expecting ... TWINS! We are beyond excited. They have been trying to conceive for several years so this has been a long time coming. They waited until they were sure that the pregnancy was viable to share the news outside the family. Here is how they announced it.

Their due date is the first week of February. However, we've been told that with twins we should expect an early arrival. We won't know for a few weeks whether they're boys, girls, or one of each. We're just hoping for healthy babies.

Marie is a twin herself and is just taking it all in stride. Nick is a little bit freaked out about having two babies right off the bat. These two are "our little overachievers." I'm not at all worried about them being able to handle two babies. Besides, Nick has assured me that they're getting my room ready so I can come for frequent long visits. All I have to say about that is "I'm in!"

I'll try to keep you as up-to-date as I can about the progress of the pregnancy while still respecting the Aggie Engineers' privacy. In the meantime, here are our first baby pictures.

More soon! Stay cool and have a great summer.

Here and Now

It has been a while since I've been able to dedicate as much energy to writing this blog as I would like. I've reached a place where "life" has been getting in my way. Now that it's summer, I would like to think I'll have more time, but somehow, with everything that's going on I doubt it. Maybe I should just close it down under the circumstances, but I don't want to do that. Sometimes writing this blog feels like my lifeline. So, for the time being, I will just go along as often and as well as I can and hope that you will stick with me.

Here's what's happening here and now.

Both of our little princesses played soccer this spring. They played in a YMCA league and in their very young age groups, they didn't keep score. Both girls did very well. Ezra took to soccer much better than I thought she would and kept a smile on her face the whole time she was on the field. She had a great coach who gave lots of positive feedback to everyone and made sure every child played and had a good experience. We need more youth coaches like him. June was really good at soccer. She's very well coordinated for a four-year-old. She scored several goals in every game. Her coach was a little less organized, although I appreciate her efforts. Trying to coach a group of four year old kids is like herding cats. At best, it's organized chaos. We made a trip up specifically to see them play and we were able to catch another game when we had to go to San Antonio for a business dinner.

Last weekend I went to San Antonio for Ezra's first dance recital. While I really enjoyed it, it was really long. We sat through 28 performances of ballet, tap, tumbling, jazz, hip-hop, and a few other things I don't even know the names of. The performers ranged in age from 2 to approximately 60 (which included some grandmas). Ezra was in the 20th group. It was so long that my knees hurt when I finally stood up.

I think Ezra's favorite part of the whole thing was that she got to wear stage makeup. It was her very first time to ever wear makeup and, as you can see, she was thrilled and cute as a bug. It also didn't hurt that her friend Arabella was right next to her through the entire performance. Arabella's mom, Andi, and Katy were stage moms for their group. As you can see from the group picture, Ezra is the tallest in her group. It's a position she will need to get used to, just as her mom did. I was particularly pleased with her willingness to perform in front of such a large audience. The recital was held in the Lila Cockrell Theater in the San Antonio Convention Center in front of a packed house.

I was very impressed with what a good audience June was. For a 4 year old, she was amazingly well behaved and patient throughout the entire performance. Did I mention it was long?

There were a couple of reasons that Patrick didn't make the quick trip to San Antonio with me. One of the things that has been keeping us busy is his mother. Friday was her 85th birthday. She has been having health problems for a while now. I have not written about them before because she is a very private person and would not want details of her life on the internet. But, the family has given me permission to share at this point.

Mama Ruthie, as I've called her since our marriage almost 40 years ago, has been in frail health for about two years. On Valentine's Day this year she fell in the entry of her house while opening the front door. As a result of the fall, she broke her pelvic bone in three places. After about two weeks in the hospital, she was moved to a nursing home/rehabilitation center near our home. She made very slow progress and since then has only been able to walk with a walker and someone to assist her.

About three weeks ago, an alert nurse noticed that she seemed confused and unresponsive. She contacted Mama Ruthie's doctor on Saturday morning. The doctor immediately had her transported to the hospital emergency room. At the hospital, they confirmed that she'd had a stroke. After about a week she was responding well to treatment and therapy so was transferred to the rehabilitation center of the same hospital. During the transfer, Patrick noticed that the side of her face started to droop again and she exhibited weakness on one side and seemed confused. He called it to the attention of the nurse who immediately called the hospital's crash team. They were able to intervene quickly and prevented more extensive damage. But, back to the hospital room she went.

After a couple of days, they started therapy again. This time she was not cooperative. Some days she would do part of the therapy, but then she would say she was too tired or just say she didn't want to do any more. Eventually, she completely refused to do any more therapy. After she refused therapy four days in a row, they discharged her in accordance with hospital policy. She declined to return to the nursing home/rehab center, so she went home. She is very weak and can not walk nor take care of her personal needs. The two strokes have damaged her short-term memory. She can't remember things like who has visited or when she last ate.

She has two adult daughters and a teenage granddaughter who currently live in her home. They have assumed the role of caretaker. With very few exceptions, since Valentine's Day one or both of us has gone to the hospital or nursing home daily. Now we visit her at home every few days. She is the last of our parents and I can feel her slipping away a little more every time she falls or has a medical incident. This is going to be tough.

The other reason Patrick didn't go to San Antonio for the recital is that he is having knee replacement surgery today. He is actually in surgery right now and I'm writing this from the waiting room outside the OR. He will be in the hospital at least 3 days and then he will start daily therapy. I will have to drive him to therapy and take care of everything at home. We have told his family that we are out of taking care of his mom for the foreseeable future. I expect that he will be able to return to work in about a month. I really hope that nothing more happens to his mom while he is recovering.

We are also dealing with some issues with our home. When our drought finally broke earlier this spring, we had about 3 inches of rain in less than two hours. It was early morning on a work day and we were having coffee in the living room. Patrick got up and went to the kitchen. I heard him ask me if I spilled something. I replied that I had not and got up to check. We quickly realized that water was coming into the house around the baseboards. Fortunately, we were still at home and were able to use towels and mops and keep the flooding somewhat at bay. Also luckily, we do not have any carpet. All our floors are vinyl planks that look like hard wood. Two or three days later, on Friday night, it happened again. Basically, a cloudburst stalled right over our neighborhood. Again, we had 3-4 inches of rain in just a couple of hours and water came in around the foundation. This time the power failed and we were trying to hold the flooding at bay in the dark. This time every room in the house had water except for the front bedroom.

Last summer, when Patrick lost his job, we seriously considered dropping our FEMA flood insurance. The policy came due right in the middle of his unemployment and it was seriously on the table. We've lived in this house for 30 years and never had any problems with flooding, so we didn't think it would be much of a risk. I feel so lucky that we didn't drop it. Who could have known that we would have so much rain so fast so many times this year? We have not yet received our settlement, but the preliminary paperwork shows that it will pay an amount adequate to replace all the floors. We feel very blessed.

After the second big rainfall, we had a french drain system installed all around the back yard. Again last Friday we had almost 4 inches of rain in under two hours. The drain system worked well except for one drain which was too high. As you can see in the photos below, that one drain allowed water to pool on the patio. We have since had it lowered so it should work in the future. It didn't quite keep up last Friday, but it kept up well enough that we did not get water in the house.

Later this summer, Katy and I will go shopping for new flooring. After Patrick recuperates adequately from his knee replacement, we'll be getting new floors.

So, please forgive me if I don't post more often. As I think you can see, my plate is full. I really enjoy blogging and love hearing from all of you. Please stay in touch. I will do my best to keep you up to date.

NOTE: I just spoke with Patrick's doctor. The surgery took exactly as long as expected and went well. There was much less damage to the knee than he expected. He'll be in recovery for a while yet, then moving to a room. He will be in the hospital until at least Saturday.