Fixing Fence and Mark Graduates

Saturday Dave spent the morning reinforcing the chicken coop and then we met Jed and Kyla in town and headed to Vancouver for our nephew, Mark's, graduation from high school. We had a great day and Emmy had fun playing with her cousins and Spike, Karen and Tony's dog.

Sunday was spent cleaning house and planting more flowers around the pool. Kyla and Jed came and Kyla thinned her carrots and beets. Everything is growing so great right now. We had dinner and a relaxed evening. Dave and Vonda see a mama skunk and her fours little babies in the driveway. Cute but stinky!

Betty, Eggs and Run-Around-Sue

Joanna and Craig have Vonda and Dave over to pick up Betty, the hen that is laying on four eggs. We are "borrowing" her so that we can watch the eggs hatch and hope that we will have four new little chicks sometime around the second week in July. Betty is a sweet chicken. No wonder Joanna likes her. We had a great salad and bread with Craig and Joanna on their deck and a nice visit.

But the great mis-adventures of the Evans household continue. When we got home, we went to put Betty in the coop and Run-Around-Sue was missing. Zoey (the mama with the two chicks), Petey and Patsy were still there safe and sound. Couldn't figure out what happened. The only thing that we can think of is that something like a raccoon must have climbed the fence and squeezed in at the top. Run-Around-Sue was no where to be seen......Sorry Joanna!

Home

Kyla and Jed arrive home in the afternoon and come bearing goodies. Emmy was pleased with her new teddy bear which Kyla and Jed watched be made at the Brown Bear Factory in San Francisco. They toured the Jelly Belly Factory and got her a new shirt along with a couple of cool paper hats. They tried to see a few different things while there this time. They drove around and saw all four Mel's Diner locations. The brochure said "see the original Mels", however, it did not say that the original was in Los Angeles so they decided that was a bit far to drive. They went through Cannery Row and Ghirardelli Square and brought back yummy chocolate covered caramels and a big bag of Jelly Belly's.

Jelly Belly Hat Models

We are just glad to have them home safe and well.

A Sigh of Relief

Kyla met with Dr. Chang today and called with obvious releif in her voice to say that the scans looked great. Of course it is still soon but for now Dr. Chang said she thought everything was working like it should. Everything else in her checkup went well and the side effects from the steroids are the regular things and Dr. Chang reassured her that her knees hurting were part of that. She is being weaned off the steroids slowly so she still has about one more month. Then it will take a little bit for all of the side effects to go away. They are headed back as far as Redding and will stay there for the night.

Newspaper Article Features Kyla

Woke up to see Kyla and Emma's picture on the front page of the Register Guard. The story was pretty good....just a few discrepancies but nothing serious and when isn't there a discrepancy in reporting? Reading it makes the reality of the situation come back all over again. Kyla's wish is that maybe someone else going through not only her type of cancer but others as well can be helped by sharing what she is going through.  She has an MRI today in San Francisco but won't know anything until tomorrow.

Emmy, grandma and Brian have fun feeding the chickens bread,lettuce and strawberries. Each day they are becoming a little calmer and getting used to their surroundings. Brian lets Emma help him water the raised bed gardens and she wasn't too happy when he made her come in the house because it began to rain. Jill went to Seaside with Dez for a few days so Kelli took care of Charlie for Kyla and Jed at night and Brian took care of him during the day (for those of you who don't know, Charlie is Kyla and Jed's beagle, aka first child, Emma's brother).

Charlie....how can you resist those big sad eyes?

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all of you terrific dads. I cooked Jed (the only dad there....Dave, you snooze, you lose!) a fathers day breakfast of sausage, eggs and french toast. So WE all enjoyed eating what should have been Dave's breakfast. It was a nice day and Kyla and Jed left to start on their journey back to San Francisco for a scan and an appointment with Dr. Chang. Emma gets to stay with Grandma and Grandad for a few days. Dave did finally arrive home from his fishing trip but not until late afternoon and with a pretty good sunburn. He seemed to enjoy the trip even if they didn't get to bring home much fish.

Jed's REAL Birthday and The Great Chicken Pick-up!

I got up early and finished mowing and weed eating before going to meet Joanna and Craig to pick up Run-Around Sue, Zoey her two baby chicks. As usual nothing is simple. Joanna and I planned on meeting at the intersection of Coburg Road and McKenzie View Drive to make the switch at 9:45 a.m. Joanna and Craig are, of course, there early and waiting as I peel up in my new Toyota Camry at precisely 9:45 a.m. Trunks are opened, the boxes cackling and cheeping were exchanged with great skill. Of course Joanna was so organized, she brought samples of the different feed and such that she was using so the transition would be easier. I, raised on a farm with many animals, siblings and chickens, always thought that you just went out and threw some scraps to em and that was good! But of course as a kid, I didn't really care how they were raised....just liked plucking the feathers during butchering and gathering eggs. Left the rest up to Mom and Dad. Well along comes some guy speeding up and told us in a VERY RUDE way that this corner was private property up to the highway...didn't even hardly slow down and kept on driving with his trunk flapping in the wind. I haven't seen Joanna this mad ever before and I still laugh when I think of it. She was so mad about his rudeness she wanted to leave a little gift (I won't mention what). However, she was a good gal and left peacefully. I was so tickled by her I couldn't even get mad. But gosh, you would think our meeting was a drug exchange or something!

When I arrived at the house with the chickens, Kyla, Jed and Emma were there to pick up Jed's bike to have some work done on it for his birthday. So we all got to experience the release of the chickens. Jed reached in and tried to pet Run-Around-Sue and she left him with a little red spot where she squawked and pecked him. Nice birthday present! After putting their feed and water out, we let them out in the chicken coop and they are adjusting well.

Run-Around Sue

Later that evening, we had birthday dinner of lasagna, asparagus, salad and strawberry shortcake for Jed. He got lots of gift certificates....we all know how he loves to bargain shop! Actually he couldn't think of what he wanted this year. We won't even go into the shoe shopping trip for him I tried to do....another story

Birthday Lunch, Shirley Temple and Dave Goes Fishing

Jed, Kyla and Emmy have lunch to celebrate Jed's birthday with co-workers from the graduate school. I think Jed might be milking the birthday......after all it isn't until tomorrow. I guess an early start is better than a late one. Emma decided to give her Shirley Temple routine in the aisle of Dairy Queen singing "Animal Crackers in My Soup" and dancing. I think that T-shirt Kyla and Jed bought her fits perfectly....a Dairy Queen emblem with the words "Drama Queen".


Dave, his brothers and Dad all leave today to go Sturgeon fishing for Fathers Day and a last outing for our nephew, Mark before he graduates from high school. Bet Mark had a bundle of fun with all those old geezers out on a boat all day. Not really guys.......you're young geezers.

But it seems as though they got a little skunked on the fishing trip. Oh well....it's the bonding that counts, right?

Register Guard Interview and Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDMA FUZI AND RALPH! Double birthdays today....we seem to have a lot of those in this family.

Kyla was interviewed by the Register Guard newspaper today regarding her medical treatment at UCSF. So look for a story in the future.

We are getting ready for Fathers Day, Jed's birthday and some new baby chicks and a couple of hens this weekend. Joanna and Craig Molitor sweetly donated the chickens. Of course one of the hens has no tail or wing feathers after being mauled by a dog, so we will see how many eggs she can lay. It seems she can't stay upright because she tries to fly and topples upside down. She has no wing feathers to help her get upright so she apparently looks like a cartoon character, dead with legs straight up in the air. Poor thing! But with all the ladybugs we have for her to eat, she should be ok in no time.

Fund Raiser and Dr. Appointment

The fund raiser held by the Psychology Department on Friday was an outstanding success. There were so many wonderful goods and services provided and so many great people who bid and donated to the cause. The entertainment by our own "et al" and "et cetera" (Rebecca Brand, Sherrie Brunell, Jennifer Simonds, Kristi Klein and Lesa Ellis) was wonderful and the poems by Holly Arrow and Sara Hodges were great. President Dave Frohnmeyer, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Joe Stone, Associate Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, Gary Seitz, Head Women's Basketball coach, Bev Smith and owner of Ritta's Burrito's, Ritta Dreier, were the guest celebrity auctioneers and put on a great show as did the Institute Director, Bertram Malle, Bill Harbaugh from Economics and several of the graduate students. Our heartfelt thank you to everyone for all of the cash contributions, item donations, hard work and organization involved. Words really can't express how we feel...I know that I am still overwhelmed by all of this. A special thank you to Becky Goodrich and Marjorie Taylor, who spent many hours organizing this event. One of the great items auctioned off was this quilt of the brains by Marjorie Taylor. The Lewis Imaging Center purchased it.....what talent! The grand total was around $7,000. WOW!

Marjorie's impressive needlework

Saturday was spent moving all the furniture out of my office and getting that room ready for Brian to move into. Since being laid off at Sony, he has decided to go back to school and work toward his degree in Romance Languages.....maybe to interpret in the future. Dave and Brian worked on building a fence around Kyla's raised beds to keep those pesky deer, turkeys and cats out. It is looking pretty good and all the vegetables are popping up. Kyla and Jed came out with Emmy and had dinner with us that evening.

Today Kyla, Jed and Emmy had lunch with all the folks at the graduate school and then a doctor appointment with Dr. Kokkino. He ran all the tests that were needed by Dr. Chang in San Francisco and is supposed to send the results to her. Kyla was pretty tired in the afternoon and also after the Friday night fundraiser. When she becomes fatigued, she has more trouble with word recall but we hope it will get better in time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KRISTI! WE LOVE YOU.

Stitches Come Out

Tuesday evening Kyla and Jed left for San Francisco for an appointment with her surgeon, Dr. Kunwar, on Wednesday. The nurse removed her sutures and Dr. Kunwar examined her. He said she is doing very well and that all the symptoms she is feeling are quite normal. She can feel kind of a sloshiness (I don't know if this is the best term to use) in her head from the treatment and frustration at problems with word retrieval. This should get better in time and was a relief to Kyla that what she is feeling is normal. She had kind of a bad day the day they left but came back feeling much better. I don't know how she has managed to keep as positive as she has all this time....I know I would have felt frustrated quite a bit sooner than she is.

They did manage to go have a little fun while there. Of course they had dinner at Villa Romano, that great Italian restaurant on Irving Street. Kyla had a craving for their fresh clam Fettuccine. They decided since there was so much food left over they would be kind and find a homeless person to give it to....however, not so easy to just stop in the streets of San Francisco where the panhandlers are. So it kind of leaked on the back seat of the car instead. But no problem.....a little spot shot didn't take care of. They also went to Alcatraz Island and took the audio tour. Kyla is a history buff so she found that very interesting.

Emmy stayed here and Aunt Jill watched her during the day and her nights were spent with Gram and in her words, "kinda old" Grandad. I don't know where she learns these things! She and I watered the flowers and vegetables, picked daisies, gobbled at turkeys and just had a great (but busy) time.

Last weekend Jed, Kyla and Brian planted a bunch of different varieties of tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, peas, pole beans radishes and cucumbers. Things are taking off growing well now. Brian spent one day making a couple of corner frames for the fence we are putting up around the raised beds to keep the deer out. We saw seven does the other evening grazing outside our living room windows and then two bucks the next morning. So it won't be long before they try to eat up all the plants. We have already had them munch the strawberries and walk through the beds leaving kind of a mess. Hopefully we will have that taken care of this weekend.

This Friday, the Psychology Department at the UO is holding a silent auction fundraiser for Kyla and Jed. We really appreciate all the kind and supportive people we are surrounded by. Thank you to everyone who is donating items and to all of you who have put in the time and energy to organize this. I will try to report on it later. Assessment and Taxation where Dave works organized a fundraiser at Papa's Pizza during the time we were away in San Francisco for Kyla's surgery. A huge thank you to all those special people for the time and effort spent on that and for all the people who purchased the pizza that night. We were sorry to have missed the event but do appreciate all the support and kindness.

Happy Birthday Justin!!!

Congratulations on not just your birthday but you and Travis are now officially graduates of Baker Senior High School! Yay!