Blood Test Results...

...are NORMAL! Not only that, they are more normal than they were three months ago when I was told if I hadn't already been diagnosed with cancer, I wouldn't be newly diagnosed based on those fantastic numbers.

So, yeah, these new numbers are lower than great.

AWESOME! We. Are. So. Blessed!

If you are someone who has ever prayed for us, thank you so very much. Both Greg and I feel very confidently that God led us to this solution and healing, that He is pleased we are healthier, eating mostly the manna He has provided. I don't know where we would be if we hadn't found this "crazy, irresponsible, alternative" method to cure this cancer. I imagine I'd have either died of the chemo and radiation by now or at least I'd be a very, very sick mom these days.

As it is, I'm enjoying the calm weeks before school starts as well as a little rest before the AukeMan Triathlon on Saturday. (Goal: Finish without hurting myself and with a faster time than last year when I still had the newly-discovered but yet undiagnosed tumor.)

Regardless, the prayers and intercessions you have made on our behalf have made a huge impact, a huge difference. God has answered our prayers! He had taken this sickness away and made something very good and very beautiful grow in its place.

May God's grace and healing come to you in whatever way you need it, right now, today.

God is so very good!

Blue Mussel Cabin

Well, I'm pretty certain that there are some fun excursions I'm forgetting to add, in between my last post about Sticky and this one. But these pictures are so great and we had so much fun that I am preempting order in favor of chaos and joy!

Okay, so to get to the Blue Mussel cabin we first drive out to Echo Cove which is at the very "end of the road" in Juneau. It's about 40 miles from our house. We took a 12-ft inflatable raft with a 5-horse outboard and loaded way more than we needed into it, plus ourselves and the dog.

Off we go!

The weather was sketchy as expected, but some sun was peeking through.

Home Sweet Home for two days and nights.

Saturday morning we took a hike to a meadow about a mile away from the cabin.

Lots of interesting trees, rocks and vegetation along the way. Giddyap!

Skunk cabbage and Amy.

Fairly fresh bear scat. Hmm.

Gwen named this 'Thunderstorm shelter rock" which was kind of odd since we live in Alaska where thunder is very rare.

In front of the meadow, there was a huge tidepool for a wealth of exploration.

Sea urchins on the march.

Amy's hermit crabs are fighting for dominance of the palm.

Since my lymph node removal surgery, this is how I hike.
I look like a Gomer Pyle-esque POW.

Might I also add that the exact pose I need to maintain to keep the fluid from pooling in my finger and wrists is the same one I use to praise God for this life I live and enjoy? I am often marching through the forest singing at the top of my lungs! :)

At the cabin, someone left me a bit of luxury to enhance my stay.

Beautiful views surrounded us. This is a mountain on the north side of Berners Bay called "Lion's Head".

Nope, that's not an eagle. It's a dragonfly! There were hundreds and hundreds of these guys flying all around, keeping the other biting bugs away. We never used a drop of spray to keep us from getting all' ate up'.

We could have, however, used some sunscreen. The dog is demonstrating how difficult it was to find some shade.
Good Keta.

Sunday morning, I woke up to Greg and Amy snuggling on the picnic table overlooking the water. Precious!

The girls had their own loft to sleep in. Here they are yelling, "Photobomb!"

So, there's a lot of emphasis in nature photography on waterfalls. What about the poor "landfalls" or "sodfalls"?

We could hear dirt trickling all night long.

Patootie!

Greg and the girls took a hike above the sodfall on Sunday morning. What a lovely way to honor the Sabbath day.

Greg engineered up a seasaw after Gwen found the wood and the rock and the idea.

Here's Gwen with her "cancer ribbon". She was excited to share this picture on the blog.

While we did not see any bears, we spooked one out of its bed after our Saturday hike. On Sunday, the dog was doing this brown bear imitation in the rocks.

We think Keta (rhymes with cheetah) was a little sick on this trip what with the vomit and other issues. She is better now that we're home but still lethargic. Maybe she's as wiped out as we are! It's a lot of work to go camping all the time!

All packed and loaded up, waiting for the tide to come in so we can launch. We must've looked like the marine version of the Beverly Hillbillies! :) Gwen's cringing from the sun - we're not used to it in our rainforest!

Two girls happy to be heading home, but also happy with yet another Alaska adventure!

We'd like you to meet Sticky

First time ever geocaching and we not only got soaked (I fell in a creek and it was pouring rain to boot), we also got skunked! Boo! Well, I'll amend that to we got half-skunked. We did find one spot (creek); the other must have been stolen, neglected, carried away by bears, or other.

But we did have a great time and even got to explore an area of our very own town that we had never known about. So thanks to Greg's mom for introducing this new fun activity to us. We had tried letterboxing previous to this outing (by only a few weeks) and we do love it, plus it fits our low-tech lifestyle quite nicely; we'll continue with that for sure.

The geocaching is a whole different set of clues and treasures, so we may have to get a GPS if we run out of letterboxes.

In any case, I feel that each activity accomplished its goal of getting kids outdoors. While geocaching, we found stumps that beavers had chewed, saw a Great Gray Heron, and made the acquaintance of Sticky, who ended up coming home with us since it was too wet for him to fly.

Lots of hours of enjoyment just observing Sticky and his wings, his colors. Never could determine if he was really a he or not though. Sticky's funeral was yesterday. His final resting site is quite the ornate shrine to a life well-lived.

Crafting like crazy!

After the girls decided they wanted to be in the 4th of July parade, we had some stuff to accomplish. I brought out the beads and some safety pins as well as some stretchy cord and we made bracelets.

Each girl had their own unique idea about the design they wanted and they were all beautiful!

Fireworks

At their request, we rousted everyone form their bunks for the fireworks show on the eve of the Fourth. We huddled up in blankies and made the trek down, found a spot, and saw a really pretty and dazzling display.

Can you tell they're a little sleepy?

 

The last two years we've had virtually no wind on the night of the third so the smoke cloud tends to hover and obscure the works a bit, but we still enjoyed every minute. Thanks CBJ!!

 

 

Camping with Grandma and Cuz

We picked up Greg's mom and niece at the airport not quite two weeks ago and headed almost directly out on the boat to an Alaska State Parks cabin for two days.

We're only moments away from the dock, but the snacks are already out...

I see I was remiss in my duties of banning all things frilly and pink from camping. Not sure how this one snuck by me in such inappropriate gear - lace tutu and matching pink flipflops. The horror!

We had lots of great help from all campers, even the usual whiners. The sun had just gone behind the hill when we pulled up to the dock. Still beautiful and so protected that the water was like glass both nights we were there.

Goin' swimming with Dad/Uncle Greg in wetsuits. Greg (also in a wetsuit but not pictured her at his ballistic insistence request) ended up catching several crabs by hand and we kept the biggest (and legal-ist) one for dinner.
Gwen is on the left - she's nine. Amy is on the right in the red PFD - she's six and just lost her first tooth. Their cousin from "down South" is in the middle. She's still a little shy at this point, but she warmed up to us all eventually.

Home Sweet Home for two nights.

Greg brought the kayaks with us so the girls could paddle around in the cove. They just goofed around and hooted and hollered until we finally called them in for the evening. It was very fun for them even with the no-see-ums and mosquitos. And black flies. No white sox, though. Whew!

More adventures to come! Soon.