Family reunion, transplant & school update

Well, well, well. Haven't been here in quite a while. Things have been pretty hectic recently.

First of all, we went to Trout Creek, Montana from 7/31-8/3 for Vicki's family reunion. What a blast !!! I REALLY didn't want to come back. It was so much fun being able to just sit and enjoy the company and do nothing! And the weather was just perfect and it was SO beautiful! I fell in love with the place. And everything there is Huckleberry--huckleberry jam, huckleberry honey, huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry pancakes & scones--get the picture? I did have 2 huckleberry shakes while we were there and loved them. They are just like blueberries but a little more tart. Anyway we sure had fun. Josh & I tried to be able to fly home (thanks for the efforts JoAnn & Roger) but Marlin ended up driving us home and then turning around and driving back up to go work on the cabin up there with Vicki's brothers. He's probably going to be there for 10-14 days and then he's going to Idaho with Lynn to help him build a deck for one of his friends.

School starts next Weds. Josh is SO not ready! I did manage to get him to go shopping for clothes and shoes and to get all the "essentials" such as paper, pens, pencils, backpack, etc. Now I just have to get him to get his clothes out of the bags and hanging in his closet and get his backpack and stuff all together. I still can't believe he's going into the 8th grade! He's now wearing size 10 shoes, weighs 114 lbs. and is almost as tall as I am.

The most recent update on my sister and her liver transplant--we've since learned that the U of U has never done a live donor liver transplant and want to have 3 surgeons there if they were going to attempt it. The head surgeon has told her that 1 of the other surgeons is sick and they don't know when he'll be returning; so he suggested to her that we plan on going to either a hospital in CO or to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ. He told her that the transplant surgeon at the Mayo is one that he trained himself and felt that would be the best place to have it done. WHEW! So, there will be no more testing for either of us here as all of the tests have to be done wherever we decide to have the transplant done-Debbie is really leaning towards the Mayo. Anyway, it looks like the transplant won't be happening for a while down the road as there has to be some fundraising done and scheduling and other things. I thought it would have been good to know all of this before we got to this point but oh well.

I hope this post finds everyone doing well!