June here and gone

June just feels like a distant memory. A blur.

There didn't seem to be any time for anything. I look back at our calendar and see that life was mostly busy with managing Victoria's health. You'll see in a minute why.

I love this lilac bush that came with the house. I love to put my face in the blooms and just inhale.

It is very calming to me. They are beautiful to look at too.

We started the month with Church Camp. Cache Cowboy Church paired up with Wasatch Cowboy Church for a weekend of fun. We were supposed to actually camp but Victoria had her infusion that Friday and then we just couldn't get our act together. So we drove home and came back the next morning. I love these people! Our lives are better because of Pastor Larry and Lily.

And Jerry of course. Jerry is an amazing musician. Kirk even got up there and sang along while Jerry played. 

You can't have Church Camp without a craft. This was a hit! We made string art crosses on old wood. 

Alex hasn't been doing very well. He's really weak. His blood was so thin it was like Kool-Aid. It freaked me out. I looked at the Vet and he said "yep, it's not supposed to look like that". His x-ray showed Calcium balls in his gut. He is supposed to have surgery on them. I can't fathom him having surgery. He's too weak for surgery so being a reptile, we are giving him a fighting chance to see if they move out of his gut. He's 37 years old this year. I'm not ready to part ways with him yet so I am researching all that I can to help him.

4H Dog Camp was a huge success. We had so much fun!

Farm Kid knows how to drink out of the water jug!

Cleo has completely bonded with Victoria. She is amazing. She is glued to Victoria's side. This is Victoria's last summer of being a 4H youth. She is aging out after 10 years of being in the 4H Dog Program. And she has a wonderful new dog to finish out the last of her shows.

Victoria and I saw this and found it ironic. Victoria looked at it and thought it was stupid. She said, "Have you seen my LIFE? it's a MESS!"

My little Lightning Bug always up for a hug and a squeeze!

I love these Peonies. They are so pretty

We had so much snow this past winter and in to spring that I heard that Green Canyon had water in it. I have NEVER seen water in Green Canyon, Victoria can't quite hike with an abdominal drain in place and Daphne's got complications of UC so Doug and I went on our own. I could have stayed up there for hours and just never come home. It was beautiful and refreshing to be up there.

I have such a need to be in the trees. I would much rather be in the mountains than anything else.

That's a lot of water coming down from snow melt.

Doug is funny, he will sniff EVERYTHING on the way up the trail. If it's a down and out type trail when we turn around, he barely sniffs anything on the way back. He's already smelled it all I guess. So hiking up the trail, it takes us FOREVER because he has to sniff everything. On the way down, it takes us no time at all to get back. He makes an amazing companion. He's well loved.

Victoria baked Jasper a Birthday Cake for his 6th Birthday. He is quite the character. He's totally waiting for her to say Okay.

Here, he's huffing because she is taking too long and he wants to have a bite of his cake. He's like, come on!

Victoria has started with infusion of IV fluids several times a week now. So now we go in to the infusion center at the hospital for 3 hours at a time. It has definitely helped but trying to make time for this 9 hours out of the week is something else. It is helping with the nausea and abdominal pain though so it is completely worth it.  Not quite how I thought this summer was going to go.

Doug likes to hang out with me in the morning while I get ready for the day. I think he doesn't understand how big he really is. I'm surprised that he actually fits on the bath mat.

God always has a plan. And it is always a good one.  Victoria started with Home Health to get her IV fluids now. Chad, an RN, stops by once a week to check on things. I just give her the fluids at home. SO much easier now. It can be done around her schedule. No more spending hours in the infusion center. She is so much more comfortable too. What a blessing! It comes in handy with me being a nurse too.

Cache Cowboy Church was in the Pony Express Days in Clarkston. It was fun, got to meet lots of new people. The kids loved it.

Cleo is obsessed with toys, especially balls. She's too tired to play but determined to hold her toy.

I was sitting at the picnic table eating my lunch, reading a book and Merk jumped up on to the table, and layed his head on my book. I'm thinking that he wants my attention.....what do you think?

Another beautiful Peony. This one is my favorite. It's very frilly

 

April Randomness

I never know what I am going to find in photos on my phone. Someone gave us Girl Scout Cookies and this one was stamped "I'm a Risk Taker". We all felt it appropriate for Kaleb since he was wearing his vaccine hoodie that says "Come and Make Me". I guess you can tell how we all feel about vaccines!

This is how I do my Bible Study sometimes in the morning, Merk making sure that I am looking at him. He is the sweetest guy! He knows how to manipulate your heart.

Daphne has had a rough year as well with complications of Ulcerative Colitis. She rarely has energy to do much having autoimmune disease. It really is frustrating. I happened to look out and saw her making a path from the front walkway to the driveway. Not sure exactly why, but she is doing it.

Poppa, I think, dressed himself for Good Friday service at the Catholic Church. It was Jared's idea to go, half the service was in Spanish. We stayed and listened. It didn't matter. We are all God's people. I think we stuck out amongst all these short little mexican people. It was actually kind of funny.

Farm Supplies.......Twine

When you feel like Crap, you go shopping. Something new to wear always makes you feel better. 

I really don't know what happened to Kaleb. I guess coming home filthy dirty is just part of the industry of being a carpenter. As long as he is happy, that is all that matters.

Victoria's new dog Cleo is loving the bed. She has spent her first 12 months of life in a kennel outside with her previous owner. The owner contacted the Dog Program to inquire about rehoming her. With Jasper retiring from showing due to his physical health, we just knew that this dog was going to be Victoria's next show dog. Now she has a pretty turquoise bed in Victoria's room, her own toys, she can sleep on the bed with Victoria whom she feels that she needs to protect when she is sleeping. The first few days that we had her, she didn't want to go outside. We think she was worried that she wouldn't be let back in. After about a week she realized that this is her forever home and she can go in and out as she pleases. She is a sweet little girl.

Doug cooling off in a patch of snow. 

We had to pull out Doug's pool, now that all the snow has finally melted. What a long winter!

Cleo is obsessed with water! She's waiting her turn.

Kaleb hanging out with Merk at the FAST CAT trial.

Merk trying to convince us that he really is a good boy and deserves all the treats that Kaleb has for him. He has barked his head off non-stop at all the other dogs. He has got to be exhausted!

Both Merk and Cleo had qualifying runs in FAST CAT. They did amazingly well. It was a fun weekend!

We had 3 other handlers from our 4H Dog Program here as well in Idaho. It was fun. All their dogs did amazingly well.

I washed out Merks crate. While it was drying, Jasper wanted in. He loves his crate. He has one just like this except Merk's is sewn together in multiple places because he has ripped out of his multiple times. We refuse to buy him a new one and I just keep sewing it back together. 

 

March Events

This has been one heck of a year! 

I feel like we can barely keep up at times. 

For a while there, Victoria was in and out of the ER every 5-6 days and each time was a new diagnosis to add on to her Crohn's Disease, Talk about being punched when you are down, Some days I don't know how she does it but she gets up every day and just pushes forward not knowing what is going to happen, She never whines or cries. She just gets mad and sarcastic. A taste of my own medicine.

In between all the hospital visits, she pulls it together to do her 4H Ambassador work of planning out events all over the State of Utah. She and her Dad designed the back drop for 4H Prom with a 007 theme. Being a 4H Ambassador this year has pretty much given her a reason to go on living in spite of this disease that has overtaken her life. We are pretty proud of her. She has matured so much through the program and has gained tons of Skills.

This is a great group of kids. The best of the best! 

More 007 action. This group has tons of fun when they are together. They come from 7 different counties over the state. They teach workshops in leadership, plan State events for 4H kids, planned and taught Winter Retreat. 

Capital Day on the Hill. They look so serious!

Our 4H Dog Program went to a Showmanship Workshop in Box Elder. I love these kids. They work so hard with their dogs and have a great time together. Poor Jasper isn't doing very well. Victoria could tell at this workshop that he is getting closer to retirement in 4H

Victoria recently became a certified Trick Dog Instructor and for Canine Good Citizen. So she judged several kids CGC for the first time at the Workshop. She's really good at it.

Douglas taking up the entire foot of the bed.

MERK, what are you doing sitting out in the middle of a snow storm??

We had our 4H Dog Spring Show. Victoria showed Jasper for his last show. He barely made it through. His lower back and extremities were really struggling. She showed Merk too. He did great!

In the midst of everything, Victoria got her infusion of Remicade that takes almost 3 hours to infuse. She is a hard stick for IV's so she usually gets stuck a couple times. This one guy who once worked in NICU can usually get her IV on the first try. She kicks back in a nice recliner and watches a movie on the big screen TV or sleeps. Either way, pretty spoiled.

Now Doug chillin' in the snow. It always amazes me how the dogs prefer to lay in the snow.