Emi's Outfits

After Emily takes a bath she loves to wrap up in warm clothing. Her favorite item is her robe; tonight she is also wearing socks and her favorite hat even though it is too small for her. After she got dressed, she asked me for popcorn and hot chocolate - she is definitely my girl. I love to crawl into bed with the electric blanket on (wearing socks of course), open a book and sip hot chocolate, I'll even take the popcorn.

Another one of Emi's outfits - scuba diver?
Our latest traveling companion, doesn't "binkie bear" fit nicely in the cup holder?

Dear Family

I hate to tell you this as you are in midst of winter.....but spring has sprung here in Merced. Our daffodils are blooming, the summer garden is ready for planting,and even in the rain our backyard looks so pretty. Come and visit when you get tired of the cold and the snow.

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

This week I made penuche frosting. I can't remember ever making it myself, but I remember watching you standing at the stove stirring in the brown sugar. I wonder if I just have one vivid memory or if it is your favorite frosting and you made it often. Hmm. I needed a tan color for Tommy's hamburger cake, for the Blue and Gold Banquet.

Tour of Merced, I mean California

This is a bragging blog and I use the word "cool" a lot. I don't care, how can you NOT brag about this? It really was so cool to have the Tour of California come through Merced. Who would have thought that 8 professional teams and 8 continental teams with all their most famous riders would land here in Courthouse Park? By 8:30 in the morning the boys and I were headed downtown to enjoy the first day of sunshine in the race and it was evident that everyone's spirits were lifted. Matt came quickly from the office (as soon as he could dismiss his last patient) and made it in plenty of time. Luckily, the large crowds were drawn to the large cities and we practically had the streets here in Merced to ourselves. We walked around checking out the scene. You will notice that we are now Bike City, USA. We'll add that to our accomplishment of Tree City, USA. Security and Media motorcycles are lined up in front of the Civic Center. ><
Here is the starting line and some team cars.
We ran into Bob Roll, wearing cowboy clothes and prepping for a "color commentary".
The buses started arriving an hour or so before the race and parked in about a 3 block area. We waited outside the team buses hoping to get a glimpse of some of the riders. Here I am with Thor Hushovd, he won Stage 3, the previous day, that finished in Modesto. Watch for him in the Tour de France.
We don't know who this is riding for Garmin-Slipstream, maybe someone else can identify him.
At the last minute the Astana bus deviated from its' assigned parking space and pulled into an alley way. Go figure. Oh well, one of the security guys for Astana whispered in my ear where the bus was. The largest crowd, for obvious reasons, was around this bus. But really here in Merced we had front row seats. Here is V. Ekimov the famous Russian sprinter now team support personnel.
Check out the positioning here, it will be important in a later photo. So, while Doug, Scott and I waited out front for the famous Lance and Levi, Matt and Tom slipped to the back of the bus where the famous but less-popular riders were exiting towards the Start. Here Thomas is getting autographs and photos with Jose Luis Rubeira and Steve Morabito.
Here is Christopher Horner signing autographs, he was followed out by Levi and Lance. All 3 of them took a long time to sign autographs and visit with individuals in the crowd. It was really cool. Lance worked his way towards us. See how close we are? In this picture Lance is getting on his bike and Doug and I both pat him on the back and wish him good luck. You can't see me but from the previous picture, you know that I'm there.
After they left Merced, we raced to get ahead of them and waited for them at the top of the highest mountain climb of the day. We drew good luck signs on the road, played in the snow, ate lunch, and waited a little bit longer. Even Coloradoan fans were there. Finally, the CHP cars and media cars/bikes started to arrive. They had race radios and were able to give us the updates. We knew that there was a breakaway group of 3 which included Tyler Hamilton, so we were ready to cheer for them. Matt had prepared two flags which he and Stuart(a friend) carried up the mountain running next to the cyclists. We were all on TV, did you see us? Did you see them running with their flags? About 3 minutes later the peleton came through. So cool!
Then we jumped in the car and raced down Highway 41 trying to beat the cyclists to the finish and we made it, barely. We parked, and ran several blocks to the finish and were able to stand and catch our breath for about 5 minutes before they came sprinting down the street.
Mark Cavendish was the winner of the day. Here is Levi on the podium as the overall race leader.

Wow! This was so much fun. The drive was beautiful, the race was thrilling, and the company was excellent. For a long time, Matt and I have wanted to see the Tour de France. How lucky that they came to us.
I'm going to send Lance a note telling him this: I remember where I was when I first heard that he had been diagnosed with cancer. I was driving on M Street, just crossing the bridge at Bear Creek. Now he has crossed that bridge over a decade later. I think that is cool.

Alas Babylon Review

I actually really enjoyed this book. At the beginning I felt the propaganda from my elementary education returning, but the story was interesting so I kept reading. Do any of you remember the films we used to watch about building bomb shelters in the backyard and how to recognize a "radioactive fall-out shelter"? Well this book will take you back. It was hard to read it knowing that the book was written in the early 60's and that many of the theories from then have now been proven either false or worthless. Yet at that time we were directed by authoritative voices on how to survive a bomb and really I think they only promoted fear of the Russians. But alas, I drift, the story is good. Knowing that there is a real possibility of a disaster in my lifetime, natural or man-made, this book inspired me to work on my storage of food and other necessities. It also made me want to be a better gardener. I also look back fondly on the days of the cold war being over. I wonder if we all felt that with Russian power collapsing and the wall coming down so to speak we were living in a safer world. I don't think any of us believe that now and we also know it won't take a nuclear bomb to significantly disrupt our lives. It also makes me think about what is necessary for peace in the world. It seems like the gospel is the one solution. Would I recommend this book? Yes. Matt is currently reading it, then it's on to Jennie. You may borrow it if you like.

Happy Birthday Doug!

Yesterday Douglas turned 13. I now have 3 teenagers. From day one, as you can tell, he has been wide awake. In the hospital picture for all of my other children, they were sound asleep, but not Doug. When he was younger he loved puzzles and legos. Now he likes playing the piano and saxaphone and baseball. He probably likes girls but he'll never tell me. Doug is very kind to his younger siblings and very helpful to his parents. Here he is playing church basketball on his birthday and then cooking green beans with mushrooms and onions (his favorite vegetable).

Missing You Karin

Wow, only 3 weeks gone and to me it seems like forever! I'm so glad you are taking advantage of this opportunity. To be honest, I didn't know if you would really do it. Do you remember in 5th grade getting so homesick at Camp Green Meadows that I had to come and pick you up after two days? Here is your 5th grade picture to remind you. You've come a long way - in many ways. Love you tons!!

Children's Hospital

Today we were back at Children's Hospital with Thomas. Here is the orange grove we pass by, this time the fruit is ripe and ready for harvest.


The road leading to the hospital passes through grape vineyards, fruit orchards, nut tree orchards, citrus groves and other agricultural fields. Today, bee boxes by the truckloads were placed in the almond orchards. In just a couple of weeks those orchards will be in full blossom. It's a small road and only 20 houses, 6 farm buildings, 2 horse ranches and 1 nursery fill the space not used for agriculture.

When you come around a small bend in the road the hospital stands out like a castle. It was too foggy this morning to take a good picture from a distance, so these are close-ups showing only a small part of the hospital.


Thomas did great. He is so trusting and positive, even when it hurts. Here he and Emily are enjoying chocolate pudding and chocolate milk after the procedures. We are in the Jellyfish Cafe. Thomas loves the painted walls.

Here are some pictures from 5 years ago, just following the surgery.



Here he is today.

Here he is giving blood. You've never seen a braver boy. He is even braver than ALL of his older siblings.

And finally we're saying good-bye to Children's until next month when we return to see his Nephrologist.