Remembering my Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday ... well, it was his birthday ... well it still IS his birthday, on this side of the Veil. In Sarah Menet's near-death experience book, "There Is No Death" (http://www.thereisnodeath.com) she talks about there being another celebration in the spirit-world: the day we cross back over when we die. She mentions what it's called but I can't remember at the moment (Ack! Brain Cell Loss strikes again). They celebrate their "rebirth" into the Spirit World like we celebrate our birth here into the Mortal World. It made me wonder if my dad now celebrates two special days: his mortal life birthday and his death-day Spirit World birthday? If so, I guess he can choose the age he wants to be: 85 years old or 1-1/2 years old. Hah! Here are a couple of pictures I scanned:


(Sorry about the big white space - I'm not a pro scanner, as you can see.)

I can't believe it's already been 1-1/2 years since my dad passed away (December 2006). Since today is his earthly birthday I've been thinking a lot about him -- missing him and wondering about how he is. That's one of the hardest things about this necessary earthly Veil -- we don't get to visit with our loved ones in the Spirit World (unless we're darn lucky). I wonder, what is he doing now? Who is he associating with? Does he spend time with my husband, Nathan and his family or with past friends and other family members? What about people he knew in this life? Does he get to spend much time with them? Is he on a mission, teaching people about the Gospel (which he so dearly wanted to do again in this life) or is he in school, learning new things? Questions ... I have sooo many questions! But I DEFINITELY don't want to go through the associated pain that would accompany a near-death experience so I'll have to content myself with waiting until it's my turn to cross over (which I have to admit I hope is a long time away - I love this earth life).

(That one picture above of Dad and his family entitled "The Musician" is during the Depression ... they traveled as a family orchestra around the West -- Dad was 5-8 years old and he played the trumpet, led the family and sang. One of my greatest regrets is that I didn't interview he or my Grandma better (and soon enough) to get quality information about this unusual experience. There were many families who did this and I should have written an article on it, during my college years.)

I've also been thinking about what a GOOD man my dad was (and is). He was never a flashy or high-profile man, but one of the Lord's "worker bees" who always did what he was asked to do, always stayed true to his values, and always stood stead-fast in the Gospel. Of course he had some negative points too ... he could be stubborn and sometimes emotionally remote. But that's okay - that's what made him human. Negatives are part of us, yes? One of the greatest things my dad taught me was to love my ancestors and be proud of my heritage. He consistently told me, "Always remember that you are a Daughter of God, and you are a Rich" (and of course Iverson & Workman & Alldredge too). My direct great-great (-great?) grandfather is Charles C. Rich and my other family lines go way back to the beginnings of the church also. It wasn't a boastful or prideful thing for my dad -- it meant that I had a heritage of good people behind me and I should live equal to my ancestors. AND I should never forget about them. I often worry about getting my act together and doing more family history work. Who is missing that needs to be linked in?

My dad was also a great example to me of courage and perseverance. He never made a lot of money and he changed careers three times: first as a barber, then as a welder, then as a full-time custodian for our church building. But there was usually enough to care for us properly and to keep ice cream in the house. OF COURSE! Who could live without ice cream?! And he LOVED the 4th of July and any celebration. He wanted birthday cakes and cards and presents and all the Christmas trimmings clear up until he wasn't able to function, and then I'll bet you anything he was longing to be a part of the celebrations even when he couldn't communicate that to us.

Dad bore his "last-years illness" with great dignity. I always thought it was terribly ironic that my dad would be so healthy his whole life (hardly even a cold) and then be hit with such a terribly debilitating illness such as PSP (Progressive supra-nuclear palsy) [http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/psp/psp.htm] ... sheesh. But even while my dad's body shut down and he moved towards immobility, he bore the whole experience with humor and grace and rarely, RARELY complained. I learned a lot watching my mom and dad go through this experience. Who knows, he may have complained loudly to himself, but I never heard it much. (I, on the other hand am a vociferous complainer - one of MY negatives.) Dad had some pretty cool guardians from the Spirit World too: during those final years he consistently saw four girls in white who would come and be nearby. He would be sitting at the dining room table and would suddenly say, "Well there go the 4 girls! They're leaving now" ... or he'd make other references out of the blue about them. I truly believe that they were assigned to help him through this experience. I can't wait to meet them and find out who they were (and say thank you). I think there were lots of family members from the Spirit World who helped my dad through his illness ... you should see some of the family pictures we've taken -- LOTS of orbs in the pictures sometimes! I'll have to find my favorite picture and post it in someday -- it's a picture my brother, Scott took one Christmas where a bunch of us were in the front room playing a board game and just laughing away. The picture is filled with orbs. It's really something.

Well I'm rambling ... and my lunch hour is over (way over). I just wanted to say that I'm so grateful for my dad, for what he taught me and for his steadfastness and surety in Gospel truths. He taught me everything I needed to bring me great happiness and put me on a good course, and I love him very much. I hope he's celebrating today in the Spirit World! And I hope he gets a HUGE cake to eat!


(My dad - surrounded by some of his sketched cartoons)

WHOOO-HOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES YES YES!!!! We heard from our vet today and he told us that the pathologist found NO CANCER in Brizzy's biopsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHEEEEEEE!!!

Who says prayers don't work?!

Of course he did add the caveat that it's possible there's something deeper in Brizzy's bone that wasn't reached, so we're not totally out of the woods yet. BUT we choose to think that the Lord has decided we could keep our little woof around for a while longer. He'll be on strong antibiotics for another week and then we'll see what's next ... another biopsy, or something else.

But for today ... TODAY is a GOOD DAY!!!!!

We soldier on

Well there are lots of other things I want to write about (Super Saturday will be next!) and oh my goodness! I'm really behind the times in creative stuff I can do with this blog (I can't believe some of the cool stuff I'm seeing on you, my friends' blogs), but right now our sweet little Brizzy is still very heavily on my mind. So here's a quick update before I head on home (and to bed):

We haven't gotten The Word yet on the biopsy - still waiting. We are both hopeful and anxious and I'm not sure if "no news is good news" as Ruth keeps saying, or if no news means "We are reticent about calling and giving you the bad news." We keep hoping for good news though. The Briz has been given a pain reprieve thanks to all of the wonderful prayers offered on his behalf, the power of the Priesthood, and the "quiet" he's been forced to endure (lots of staying in the house, no running, jumping, etc.). Even getting into the car for some rides has been easier thanks to our wonderful Home Teacher, Brother Bennett who came over and cut some board down for us to use as a ramp from ground to car seat. Ruth glued carpet down onto one of the boards and it's worked like a charm.

Ever since last week when everyone began praying in earnest for Brizzy and some of Heavenly Father's power was offered on his behalf, the little woof has acted almost like his normal self. It was evident the pain had receded and he felt better. He even wanted to play. It's been such a gift and I have felt deeply grateful. Today he's hurting a bit again, though not too bad (I hope). He certainly did attempt to exert his independence though when I got home! Hah. He has had enough of our crazy rules. Here he is -- Brizzy making a statement:

"Hmpfh, make me stay in that house any longer?! I don't think so! I'll just show you by going into MY house to work on my basement for a while." (Notice how a tree has taken over the next-door apartment? Gotta pull that baby outa there someday ...)
"Okay, let's get some good dig on!"
"And I'm just going to sit here for a minute ..." (you can't see him very well, but he's in there) ...
"And it's hard with this darn foot, but I'll just dig a little bit more because I want to."
"Okay, enough of that. NOW I'm going around to the back yard and don't you try to stop me!"
"And to REALLY make a point, I'm sitting myself down right here and not budging."
Even when I tried to coax him with "Go for a ride?!" He wasn't havin' it. He just sat there and looked at me as if to say, "I dare you." I finally got him with food though. He's always up for "Want a treat?!" (Thank goodness for peanut butter and carrots!!!!!) And THEN we went for that ride. Cowboy was going manic -- we had to.

A side note: You may think Ruth and I are a little crazy, but we've chosen to use everything we can think of at our disposal, to help Brizzy. We have even visited a natureopathic (is that a word?) healer-lady who reads irises, and who gave us a very interesting regime of homeopathic products to follow. AND I wire-wrapped two stones for the Briz to wear. See this?

That's amethyst and lapis lazuli. Both are healing stones and have very positive vibrations. Okay I know, that's just waayyy weird (to some). But hey, everything on this earth is made up of the same protons, neutrons and electrons, true? It makes perfect sense to me that the electrons in stones could vibrate to the same frequency as some of our cells and generate energy. Why not? In the end, isn't that how we utilize food energy? At any rate, I agree with the iris-lady who said that the Lord has given us all the tools we need on this earth to take care of ourselves. I have learned that the power of prayer and the power of the Priesthood are the greatest of all and should be our main focus, but there's nothing wrong with utilizing some of these other tools as well. I plan to add rose quartz and citrine very soon, too. And you want to know something odd? I was recently drawn to all four of those stones (the two in the above picture and the two I'll be adding) at a recent gem show. I just had to get them. Who knows? Maybe it was a foreshadow of my need for them. Or maybe I just got lucky. All I know is I'm happy to add them to the arsenal. :-) Sweet Brizzy aside, I do love gemstones. I've always been drawn to them.

A Horrifying Possibility

We had some terrible, terrible news on Tuesday evening. Here we thought we were only dealing with arthritis in Brizzy's shoulder and maybe a pinched nerve, and instead our vet told us he was 80% sure our sweet little woof has ... I can hardly write the words ... bone cancer. The horrible C-word. I'm a mess -- Ruth's a mess -- it's too awful to believe.

It came on so fast. Only just a few weeks ago Briz was fine and then the next day he was limping a little. When it didn't improve we took him to our vet who diagnosed arthritis ... understandable since when you lift Brizzy's leg you can hear the little click-click in his leg. He gave Briz a cortizone shot for the pain and sent him home with a full array of drugs, and told us we had to keep Brizzy quiet (QUIET!!) for three flippin' weeks. THREE WEEKS?! What was he, nuts?! You tell me how to prevent an Aussie-Healer from running, barking, jumping, etc. for any length of time?! Hah. And this for a dog who doesn't even know the meaning of the word "crate" or "cage". THAT was not an option, obviously. Instead Ruth and I worked out an elaborate system: the bank is letting her take 2 vacation days a week and for the other 3 days I'm working 4 hours, going home for the afternoon, then going back to work in the evening for 4 more hours after Ruth gets home. For the 4 hours I'm at work we have to keep the Boyz locked up in the house and pray they'll be peaceful, be able to "hold it," etc. Not easy, but we're all dealing with it. Brizzy thinks we're crazy -- especiall when we make him go into his own front yard on a leash (of all things).

This picture is of the spot where they shaved Briz and gave him the cortizone shot. Looks bad, but boy was he feeellliinnn' guuuddd when the shot took full effect. I wish it had lasted ... only two weeks later and he's hurting pretty badly again.

On Tuesday morning I noticed that Brizzy was completely dragging his front paw, and that really worried us. Ruth took him back in to our vet and this time he took an x-ray. Some of the bone has been eaten away ... a pretty deadly sign. But he said it's possible he could be wrong -- it could be a bacterial infection like Cowboy had last year and miracles do happen, yes? Prayers are powerful things. Maybe it will turn out to be an infection, or if it is cancer maybe the Lord will be merciful and will stop it from metastacizing, and maybe there'll be something we can do for his quality of life and he can stay with us a couple more years ... Maybe, Maybe, Maybe ...

I hate the idea of Brizzy having cancer. He is such a sweet, SWEET dog. I especially hate the realization that he is hurting. And I can't even bear the thought of him not being here for much longer. I am really struggling with this. For any of you who may think it's slightly silly to love an animal this much, let me just say that ... well, I hope you don't think like that. It is absolutely possible to love these marvelous beings as deeply as we do a child, a friend, a family member -- and losing them can be just as deep a hurt. At this point (as I told a friend), I'm trying to prepare for the worst while hoping and praying for the best. Pray for a miracle! Or if there isn't supposed to be a miracle, I'd appreciate your prayers for strength.

Who said corn on the cob was just for peoples?

Recently I was telling Debbie how Brizzy and Cowboy have been enjoying Ruth's corn right along with the rest of us. She thought it was hilarious when I told her that they ate it much like we peoples do. I promised her some video shots the next time we ate corn so ... HERE YA GO!

Brizzy is better at eating corn than Cowboy is ...



But Cowboy isn't bad either ...




Aussie-Healers are such intelligent woofs ... gotta love 'em.

Green Things

I can't believe that we're seeing September already. WHERE did the summer go?! In fact, where has this year gone?! Before we even blink we're going to be singing Christmas songs and slogging through the snow (well, some of us will be snow-bound ... the rest of you will probably just be cold!). Several of you know my personal theory (I really believe it's true): I think the world is spinning just a bit faster than it used to and therefore a second isn't as long as a second used to be. I was talking to my brother, Scott yesterday and he gave me another interesting theory: he thinks the earth is tilting a bit too. That could help to explain why the light is changing from summer light (yellow light) to fall light (a bluer light where everything looks a bit sharper) almost a MONTH early these days!!!!!!!!!!!

"Sigh."

Well, in honor of summer I wanted to talk about my "granola months" (I've been doing all sorts of hippie-like things such as sprouting, herbs, etc.) but that'll be next post. Seems like everyone around me is canning, freezing, putting things up, etc. and for the first time in my life I'm feeling just a little envious and a little left out. I never had a canning urge in my life until this year. Isn't that odd? But FIRST I want to talk about Ruth's garden.

I've so enjoyed watching it grow this year. Ruth always grows green peppers and banana peppers every year, and she has a huge strawberry patch she's cultivated in an old swimming pool set up on cinder blocks (darn, I forgot to take a picture of it). I usually don't pay a lot of attention to the garden, either. But this year was different. A good man in our ward helped Ruth build a raised garden space in the middle of our big, dusty, lawn-free backyard where there was good full sun. Ruth decided to try her hand at some new stuff: corn and white bulb onions, PLUS her usual green peppers, banana peppers and one zucchini plant (which is PLENTY - that sucker is producing like crazy!). She even let me plant my one lone tomato bush in the corner of her garden plot. I try one tomato plant each year, to see if I can actually do it. I haven't had much success but I keep trying. Most years Ruth takes over because I just flat-out forget about it. Last year I was too diligent and over-watered the poor baby (and all the little tomatoes got bottom rot). This year I decided to try a Roma tomato plant and I'm only watering once a week, deeply, at the excellent suggestion of a good friend.

But I digress (to myself, wouldn't you know it?). Here's the crazy part: Ruth also ended up planting a bunch of potatoes! She said she was cutting off a bunch of potato eyes one evening and she thought, "Hmm, I wonder if these would grow? Awwww, I don't want to deal with all that work." But before she could even stop herself she had propelled herself out the door and found herself planting all those eyes in a little plot right next to her garden. It's so funny -- she said one minute she was thinking "No way" and the next minute she found herself on her knees, digging in the dirt! Hahahaha. Well shock and of all shocks - ALL those eyes grew into potato plants. She hasn't dug any up to see if there are actual potato roots, but that's coming. I hope there are!

So ... everyone got such a late start here this year because winter lasted so long, and many of us have wondered if our gardens would grow. Last year we didn't get to grow food-stuff at all in our area because the city sprayed a powerful poison to eradicate the Japanese beetle bug. This year (bless them!) they used a pesticide that allowed us to eat our fruits and veggies. But then the weather stayed cold longer than usual. Still ... we're seeing rewards at last and it's soooo satisfying. Here's my picture chronicle -- enjoy!

RUTH BEGINS ... new dirt, new space ...

Notice Brizzy ... he (and Cowboy) have to "help" with anything we're doing:

All those little plant babies just waiting to stretch their root-toes ...

Do you see the dots of yellow? Those are marigold plants ... they're supposed to keep away some of the pesky bugs (not to mention mosquitoes). I LOVE marigolds. I've decided they're my favorite flower. They are so bright and colorful and happy-looking AND hearty.

There were some anxious weeks when I kept wondering if anything would really grow (I don't think Ruth ever doubted, though), and then ... like a miracle ... everything just started to expand in a very short time:


The following picture should show you Ruth's potato patch. It's right in front in its own little box. Just LOOK at how high the potato plants have grown! All from eyes. Amazing. You also notice the spiky wooden posts and the big white vinyl siding? That's to keep Cowboy and Briz out, if you can believe it. Ruth was afraid the Boyz would tromp through the middle of the dirt (they would) and maybe even lie down among the greenery (again, they would). But one thing we didn't expect: Cowboy kept eating the corn stalks. He had a bad bout of "I-think-I'm-sick-and-I-MUST-eat anything-green-so-I-can-fix-it". Sheesh. He even ate all the green leaves off one of Ruth's plants in the house (but again I digress -- that's a story for another day).

Everything continues to grow ...

And just look at how high the corn is getting! MAN it was exciting to see those puppies shoot up. So pretty and so ... REAL! Real corn!!!!!!! Wow.

Here's my tomato plant ... it's not easy to see - just looks like a big bush. It sure is thick but it has a LOT of green tomatoes (still ... they keep ripening one or two at a time, which is very odd but a relief):

And HERE is Ruth and her successful garden (well, you get a good view of the corn anyway. It was so pretty with the late afternoon sun shining through the leaves and a storm-darkening sky in the background, I ended up going for an artsy picture rather than a "see this," like I was supposed to be doing):


At last - some of the bounty! I couldn't decide which picture I liked better so you get them both:

We just have the zucchini and corn pictured because the peppers are still growing and just getting ready to be picked. Every time I look at these pictures I laugh, because that one zucchini looks like a big honkin' worm crawling up Ruth's shoulder! Hahahahahaha. But let me show you MY bounty (hah):
Not quite as impressive as Ruth's foods but still I'm proud of myself. I added a green tomato in there because they are just staying green for the longest time!!!!! Longer than is usual.

And lastly, just for fun I've thrown in a picture of Ruth's mimosa tree, which is actually growing:

She has one in the front yard too but it's nothing but a stick. She's going to have to admit defeat with that one and take it down before winter sets in. I want to tell you about this mimosa tree though ... these are special to Ruth because when she was a little girl growing up in southern Louisiana, her dad decided to bring in mimosa trees to sell. All the mimosa trees you see growing in her area are directly connected to her dad. So when we saw one at the Water Conservation Garden in Riverton a few years ago she freaked. She had no idea they could grow here in this desert climate. But they do! She found two and planted one in our backyard, one in the front. This lovely little guy has survived ... and each year he's getting bigger and stronger and bushier. Really wonderful, yes?

So there you have it: Ruth's garden. I have promised Debbie that the next time Ruth eats one of her corns I will take a little movie with my camera of the Boyz eating her corn (they eat it just like we humans do, with our front teeth). The corn she grew is very sweet, by the way. YUM!