A Week Late but Not a Dollar Short

Do you remember me telling you that I would post pictures of our trip to Ogden to see the horses on the 4th of July?  I wanted to make sure that I had everything done for Brave Girls camp before I started editing the photos.  All I have left to do now, is to figure out what I want to where and pack.  Yay!!

First off, I took the photos of this horse just for Stef, you know, Glitterbabe!  She has bling incorporated in her mane.  And look at those kicks!!!

I said that I was going to show you a photo of me on a flag horse.  They had several horses with flags but this rodeo one was my fave.  The horses were a little to big to crawl up on though.  When I lived in Nebraska, a rodeo in town (or even close by) was always a must see, so this was a favorite horse!  Although it didn’t have any Wrangler cowboy butts.

This, of course, was another fave!  Trisha is pointing to her favorite, Reese's Peanut Butter cups… and Alice’s fave Twizzlers.  Rose took a photo of me pointing at my fave Hershey chocolate bar but it’s still in her camera!

I couldn’t resist a photo of this ice cream… Spumoni Pony.

And how about this beautiful American Paint horse.  It took me a minute to realize what image the horses spots formed.  Do you see it?  See Alaska on his neck, Hawaii on his front leg and the US Virgin Islands on the back leg.  I think Trisha was trying to crawl underneath!

This was one of my very favorite.  Don’t you just love all those flowers!!!  Rose and Trisha are trying to hold him down for me.  Speaking of him, Rose pointed out that there were girl and boy horses.  I don’t know if I would have really noticed except… all of the horses that were raring up, were boys.  I took a side picture so you can use your imagination!  This was my favorite horse.  The photo doesn’t do it justice but it’s an impressionistic painting of a Utah mountain scene.  You can see the snowy mountain under his shoulder with the pine trees under that and on his bum.  It was beautiful and definitely the most artistic!

They have a few fun statues around Ogden as well.  This little guy, who had dropped the ice cream off his cone, was sitting outside an ice cream shop but it was closed so we didn’t get any ice cream!

  And I couldn’t resist taking a picture of my family on the bench next to these little kids.

There were so many beautiful horses  but these were my favorites!  I hope you enjoyed.

I have a McMahon Five Designs post scheduled for Wednesday but you won’t be hearing from me again until Sunday!  I know you won’t be having as good of a week that I will be having at Brave Girls camp, but I do hope that you have a good one!!!!

Blessings,

Christine

I’m Home …

…and so happy to be home.  It was a long week in Utah but everything turned out great.  First of all, my tests were all normal.  No sign of rejection which is always the best news.  As transplant patients, we take our small victories!!!  I got two this week. 

First of all, I don’t have to go for another appointment until April.  When I first got out of the hospital two years ago, I had twice a week appointments.  Now I have twice a year appointments!  The next stop is annually.

And the second eventful thing is that they decreased another one of my medication levels.  If you have normal exams for the first two years (which I have), they decrease the Prograf level.  This may be the medication that is causing my migraine headaches so that’s good news!

However, everything didn’t go perfectly.  They did a right heart catheter as part of my tests.  They use the catheter to “take a little piece of my heart, now baby” to check for rejection.  After the test, they had problems getting the bleeding to stop.  All that meant was that the nurse had to put pressure on the incision on my neck for 20 minutes – 5, count them, FIVE times!  That means almost two hours – with a nurse leaning on my neck!!!  That left my neck is quite sore.  It feels better each day and it doesn’t really keep me down but it does hurt!

My sister, my niece and I had a great time on Friday evening and Saturday.  We went to Hobby Lobby Friday night.  I don’t have a Hobby Lobby where I live so this was a treat.  I didn’t spend much but found some great stuff.  We also went to the S.E.I. store and I didn’t spend too awfully much there.  They were having a special day with a bunch of stuff on sale for $1 and some giveaways and door prizes.  I got a call from them on Saturday and I had one a door prize.  It is one of the kits from their monthly kit club.  I can’t wait to see what I receive!

On Saturday, my niece was kind enough to push me around the zoo in a wheel chair.  My niece worked at that zoo during high school and college breaks so she has a lot of “back stage” knowledge about the zoo.  She even interned at one of the nations best zoos, Henry Doorly in Omaha, while in college.  (Can you tell that I’m proud of her accomplishments?)

The zoo had a baby elephant that was so cute.  I’ll post some of those pictures later this week.

Saturday evening, I met my good friend and fellow transplant patient, Jim, and his wife for dinner.  We talked so much that they had to kick us out of the restaurant because they were closing.  It’s so nice to see them and I can’t wait until they are able to return home to Boise.

That’s it for now!  I’ll be working on some DT stuff at the beginning of the week but hope to check in with a new creation tomorrow. 

Blessings,

Christine

I Love Fall

While in Utah last week, my sister and I took a drive on the “Alpine Loop” above the Provo, Utah area.  Anytime of year (except winter when it’s closed) it is a beautiful drive.  In the fall, the scenery and colors are beyond amazing!!!  At times, it has even brought tears to my eyes to such beauty.

 

 

Alice hates most pictures of herself but I think this one turned out well.  Although it would be to ruin a picture with the beautiful colors and mountins in it.

 

 

In most areas, we were to early for the leaves to have started changing.  But we found a few place to take photos. 

 

 

There were some beautiful pockets of color here and there!

 

 

 

 

We stopped for several photos in an area where, several years ago, there was a forest fire.

The oak brush comes to life before most of the other trees after a fire.  This area has mostly oak brus with some aspen and a few pines.  The aspen and pines are still quite small.

 

I always hate to see burn areas but you have to remember that it’s usually and act of nature and fires keep the forest healthy.  However, this are is close to the road so it was probably caused by faulty brakes or a cigarette being thrown out of a car window.

 

 

The contrast between the burnt trees and fall colors is striking!

 

 

I just wanted to share a little of the beauty of Utah with you.

Blessings,

Christine