So.....

I'm just not sure how to begin this post...  A picture is worth a thousand words, and we have three.

Yes, this tree fell on top of Mom and Dads house mid-morning July 4th.  Yes, it shook the whole house and woke up a sleeping Brad who smiled knowingly...
"How did it fall?" you might ask.  Dad decided it would be a great idea to chop the tree down by himself.  It ended up falling the wrong way- obviously.  Then Dad decided it would be an even better idea to climb onto the roof, stand on the branches of the tree and, using a chainsaw, trim the branches off the tree.  Did I mention the tree is on the roof?  Can you see his grey little head peeking through the branches?   The tree then decided to slide off the roof, after having been relieved of the heavy branches, taking Dad and everything else with it.  Long story shorter- dad landed on his back, got the air knocked out of him and ended up in the ER to make sure nothing was wrong internally.  That is still debatable.  He's got a few large bruises as battle scars, but other than that he was very, very lucky.  And blessed.

    Now on to Mom.  :)   Mom is doing ok.  She is definitely starting to get weaker.  We are thinking she's having some issues with anemia and some other fun things.  She mostly stays at home now.  If shes having a good hour or two she might try and go watch the grandkids swim or jump or play.  It is uncomfortable for her to sit so she walks around a lot.  If you go to visit her and she starts walking around just know that its not you!  She just cant sit for long ;)
    I have people ask if its ok for them to go visit Mom.  If you would like to visit with her please do!  You can call or text her and ask if its an ok time to come over.  If she doesn't answer she might be sleeping.  She does that a lot, so just try her again later.  Some days she feels better than others.  Some hours are better than others.  She may feel horrible in the morning but feel pretty good by 7 oclock at night.  That's just the way it goes right now.  Long visits probably wear her out, but talking for a little while can be a stress relief.  Sometimes people worry because they are afraid they will say the wrong thing, or they are worried they wont be able to handle their own emotions, or they have a hard time with the appearance of someone who is sick...  all understandable concerns.  My advice is- just don't worry about it. You're welcome.  haha You don't have to talk about cancer or being sick or what the future holds...  nobody really knows- even for someone who is perfectly healthy.  You can talk about things that make you happy.  Mom may cry when you visit with her - and that's ok.  This is a normal thing for her right now- part of it is hormones (the cancer makes those go crazy), partly stress, and being tired.  And part of it is that she is so grateful for all that everybody continues to do.  People are so nice.  Whatever the reason for the tears- know that its par for the course.
     We still get together as a family quite often and try to do as much as we can together.  We had quite the exciting camping trip last month, and decided we had had enough of that.  Thank you to all who are helping out Mom and Dad.  We really appreciate it.