Good weather

Well finally we are having some good weather.  Brian Head got 33 inches of new snow over the weekend and we got about 9 inches.  It is melting very fast now though.  Curt has been working on some paintings and even made another church.  He starts his last session of chemo on Thursday, for 4 weeks then we will go up to Huntsman to find out if its doing any good. He is sure tired of all the drugs that he has to take.  Huntsman took him off of Thalidomide to see if that was the drug that makes him itch everywhere.  He still itches but not as bad.  He wants to go off all of them for three days then re-introduce them one at a time to see which one is the culprit.

-Elaine

Clyde

Clyde, Curt's very faithful dog. He seems to be doing just fine on three legs.  He even wants to play outside in the snow.

-Elaine

Joplin

This is Tishanna's dog, Joplin.  She is pretty silly sometimes and is a great beggar! When she needs to go  out she will come and put her foot on my arm and if I don't pay any attention to her then she puts both feet on me.  She does come running fast when I call her, which Clyde does not do.  He takes his time. They keep each other company and that has been good for Clyde too.  Keeps him active. It is 5:15 P.M. and the storm is coming in.  The wind is starting to blow and we expect rain or snow soon.

-Elaine

Building the Parowan Pioneer church

Curt is building the second church this week and one of his small paintings is in the background.  He has been feeling much better and has kept really busy.

-Elaine

Dr. Te

Today is Thursday the 18th of March.  Curt and I went to Cedar to see Dr. Te, the oncologist. He said that Curt looked really good and wanted to know all about what Curt was doing.  After the appointment we went over to the hospital and Curt got his infusion of cancer drugs.  I drove my own car over there so I could be with him a while. The appointment was at 11:15 A. M. and I left at one thirty to come home to drive my bus.  Curt just now got home and it is almost 5.  Sure was a long day for him.  He hates being plugged into that stuff especially on a clear day.  It really was beautiful today and warm.  The clouds started to come in around three and we expect rain tonight.  He has made another church this week and finished another painting.  He fixed his rock saw (big project) and has cleaned up around the yard a lot.  We still have a lot of mud but it seems to dry out fairly fast.  Spring is coming!!  Curt will be a lot happier when he can get out and work and play outside.  Me too.

-Elaine

The Squirrel

Well I know this is a little late but I thought I would tell you the saga about the squirrel.  This past 6 months Curt has been fixing up his studio so he could paint, work on rocks, and do his pottery. About in October he noticed some movement above his head.  he thought is was a mouse but it sounded too big.  He really didn't worry about it because it wasn't bothering him.  Little did
he know that the little bestow was shredding the insulation, eating through light cords and peeing up there! The last of December Curt went out to the studio to work and noticed a hole in the ceiling, actually 3 holes!  Now he is mad!  Well he tried a coyote trap and that didn't work.  Then he tried a rat trap, like a mouse trap but bigger. It didn't work either. The bail would be gone but the traps would not trip.  He must have been a little guy.  Curt then tried a barrel trap that he looked up on the Internet.  This time the trap was tripped but no beastie in the barrel!  Curt and Tishanna then went to visit Matt and some other friends in California.  He left me here to keep the trap set.  Before he left though he borrowed the live trap from the lumber yard.  He set a couple of times and same thing.  Trap empty no bait and no squirrel either. Curt even put a heavy magnet on the trap to make it heavier.  Bait gone, no squirrel.  I then saw one of Curt's rocks with a flat bottom.  I put peanut butter with white chocolate chips, and put it on top of the magnet. Should be heavy enough now I thought.  Next day I checked and yes in deed I got the rascal!  Curt now has a squirrel tail brush and no beastie.  He had to fix a lot of holes and wires, paint, add new insulation etc.  But Curt is back in business in his studio.

Spring?

Well, Curt and I are still coughing so we didn't go out at all today.  There were weather alerts for most of Utah today and I can vouch for the weather man that it has been snowing 'All' day.  I think we probably got about 9 or 10 inches of new snow on top of the foot of snow we already had in the yard.   The only good thing about having more snow is that it covers up the muddy part of the yard and the dogs can go out without bringing in a bunch of mud.  That is the only thing that I really don't like about Spring.  MUD! Tishanna is the only one that ventured out today.  Joplin and Clyde love the snow and every time we would let them out they would dive in and roll in the new snow. I will add a picture to this tomorrow so you can see just how much snow we have. 
Curt went back to Valley View infusion center on Thursday.  His new schedule is three more weeks of chemo, one week off then another 4 weeks.  After that we will be going up to Salt Lake to see Dr. Zangari and have more tests.He won't have to have a bone biopsy, which he is thankful for, but he will have a pet scan and blood work.