Halloween

I'm finally going to blog about Halloween. What's that? It's December? Ah crap. I guess I'm a little behind, but isn't that always the case?

My mom had a big business conference in Connecticut just before Halloween, so my dad went with her and then they came down this way to hang out with us for Halloween. Here's sassy little Wes with his grandpa at the mall. (Obviously the only reason I go to the mall anymore is to take Wes on the train)


The weekend before Halloween, we headed out to Winchester to stay with my aunt (my dad's sister). It was great, except for the freak snow storm that hit. Needless to say, I was freezing most of the weekend, even when indoors. But we headed to the local Walmart and got some snow gear for Wes. And don't make fun of the camo beanie. It was the only soft one I could find with a strap to keep it on (otherwise Wes usually rips them off). And camo was quite popular in Winchester. I've never seen so many coveralls at a Walmart before...

Here we are building a snowman.


Wes wasn't a huge fan, until he learned he could eat the snow. Then he had a great time.



For Halloween, Wes, who is obsessed with the Cars movies, was a race car driver. And although I'm not crafty enough to make my kid's costume, I did attempt to make his little car look like Lightning McQueen. Of course after all of the time I spent on it, Wes didn't really care because this kid loves to be free to run. Oh well. Here's my little race car driver...


I made him sit in the car for this picture. It was his favorite thing. I know he looks like he hates it, but that's just his best road rage face.



It was fun to have my parents here for a while. Especially since we did not go home for Thanksgiving (yes, I did the whole meal on my own, thank you) and won't be going home for Christmas either. Brett pretty much used up all of his time off for the radiation trip to AZ. We're sad that we can't head home, but I guess it's a good time to start some traditions of our own.

It's almost over

I usually don't blog because I'm convinced no one reads this half the time and I keep a journal for myself and Wes so I don't always see the point, but I was recently told that I have to keep blogging, so two posts in one week!!!

September 15-October 2, we were in Arizona. The trip was partly because of Brett's radiation treatment and partly an excuse to go home for a visit. I'm not going to lie... it was not my favorite trip. It was great to be home with family and friends, but there were a lot of less fun things going on. Brett felt horrible the whole time (because he had to go off of his thyroid medication for about three weeks and during the treatment he had to drink lots of water, which means going to the bathroom all the time - including all night long, and he had to stay away from everyone for 3 days and couldn't pick Wes up for 11 days). It was also hard getting Wes to adjust to the 3 hour time difference. I think he was up by 5:30am almost every day and since both my parents work, and Brett was quarantined in his parents' basement, it was just me and Wes a lot of the time. At the end of the trip, Wes also got an ear infection. Fun, fun. So there were a lot of unpleasantries (I know that's not a word...) happening. Here's some pictures from the fun days:

Wes and Grandpa Anderson being so lazy in the lazy river. I know it's crazy, but I love the Arizona heat. Or at least I tell myself that when I'm sweating to death.

Good times at the park.

Another reason this trip was difficult was because I guess for the first time I had to come to terms with the fact that my husband has/had cancer (we'll know 100% for sure in about six months after another small treatment to make sure all of the cells in his thyroid are dead). When we sat down with the doctor who would be administering the radiation, he did a great job explaining everything, but the fact that I was in a hospital talking to a doctor about the side effects of radioactive iodine really threw me into "My husband has cancer. My husband has cancer. Holy crap, my husband has cancer" thinking. Fortunately for everyone, I didn't break down and cry... obviously I saved that for when I was over at my friend, Debbie's house, hanging out with some people I had just met for the first time... but I digress...

At any rate, although we received the bad news that we would have to wait 8-12 months, instead of the expected six, before trying to have more kids, we got through the meeting with the doctor and then a couple of days later, Brett had his treatment. Everything went fine and eventually Brett was able to eat all the delicious things he had been waiting for (He had to be on a low iodine diet, which is a little like being a vegan, for a few weeks before and during his treatment).

Although it was a difficult trip, it was nice to have the support of our families and friends while going through this whole ordeal. One week after his treatment, Brett went back for a scan to make sure that the cancer had not spread and we got the wonderful news that it hadn't (obviously I almost cried in the doctor's office again. That doctor probably thinks I'm one of those girls that just cries all the time. Oh well.) In about six months, he'll be checked again to make sure all of the actual thyroid cells are dead and then this should all be behind us. He'll have to be tested about every 6-8 months for the rest of his life, but we are so glad that the hardest parts are over. I told Brett he's not allowed to have anything like this happen to him every again. I hated it. A LOT. But let me just say, thank you so much for everyone that has prayed for us, thought of us, and given encouraging words during this difficult time. I cannot even begin to tell you how much it helped. I always like to close with something good and/or uplifting, so here we go:

New do (old/late post)

I guess changing your hair is something that people blog about... Over the past 8 months I have sort of changed my hair a few times. Some people probably never knew that I got bangs, but I did...

Then they started getting annoying, so I let them grow along with the rest of my hair which I have basically been growing out since I chopped it off my senior year of high school. So here it was at its longest:

(I'm not very good at having serious pictures of myself taken, as you see here and below. I always feel ridiculous, so I end up looking ridiculous. I guess I would never be a very good celebrity.)

Then I decided it was time for a chop. It ended up shorter then I initially was thinking, but it's just hair, it grows back, right? It's a fun length though.

So there you have it. Sometimes I really REALLY just want to shave my head. I applauded Britney Spears when she did it. Sure it was due to a bit of a melt down, but at least she had the guts (or lack of sanity) to do it. Maybe one day I'll be that crazy.

Good News/Bad News

It seems that with good news, there always comes a little bit of bad, right? Well, I'll start with the "good news" because that's just more fun.

A couple of weeks ago, Wes and I were able to go back to Arizona for a visit. It started out a little rocky because we missed our first flight and nearly missed our connection in Detroit. But eventually we made it to sunny Arizona. It was the perfect time to go because our apartment here in Virginia is undergoing a complete exterior refinishing, which means pounding all day long. My little sister came down from Utah, and my mom took the whole week off of work to just hang out so we got to do A LOT together. Living in an apartment here, we don't exactly have a big backyard that Wes can run around in. At my parent's house, there's a nice, big backyard complete with a giant turtle.

Turtles: A perfectly suitable form of transportation. Who knew?

When we weren't enjoying the backyard, we were out and about.

This included a trip to the Zoo,

Tempe Town Lake for a picnic, Freestone Park to ride the train

(which was broken down, so we settled for riding the carousel and wave runner with his cousins),

the aquarium at the Arizona Mills Mall,

the San Tan Mall for some shopping, and we visited the little splash area over by the Gilbert Water Tower. We. Were. Busy. Wes' favorite part about all of these places was the water. He wanted to splash and play in all of them. Here he is at the water area at the Zoo...

When the time came, it was really sad for me to have to leave Arizona, but I wanted to get back to Brett because while I was having a good time in Arizona (the good news) he was back here finding out (and now for the bad news) he would have to have his thyroid removed because he has thyroid cancer. While everyone including the doctors say that if you have to get cancer, this is "the one to get because it's so treatable," no one wants to hear that they have it or that they're going to have to take a pill the rest of their life. At first we were both pretty shaken by the news, but we met with the doctor who will be performing the surgery and we've also prayed, fasted, and Brett had a blessing. So now we're able to joke about it, which is the best way to cope with bad news, right? Brett loves to use it as his universal one-upper. If I complain about something like having a bad day, he listens to my complaints and then says, "well, I have cancer." And once he has his thyroid out, he plans on using "I'm a cancer survivor" as his one-upper. In all seriousness though, we (especially Brett) has felt a lot of peace and comfort throughout this experience and we're grateful that it was caught early on after a routine physical for work. Now to end on a happy note, Brett's mom is coming to help with Wes during Brett's surgery next month and being so far away, anytime we can see family is good news. And finally, this:

Battlefield Errf

Grandma and Grandpa Walker were in town recently. We decided to take a trip to the Manassas battlegrounds. This is what The Google has to say about the area:

"The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, VA, near the City of Manassas. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War.

The Second Battle of Bull Run or Second Manassas, as it was called by the Confederacy, was fought August 28–30, 1862, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of an offensive campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, and a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) fought in 1861 on the same ground."

So it was, on this hallowed ground, that we decided to take some totally hot pics of ourselves tap dancing through history.

General Stonewall Jackson. Apparently he was some sort of southern hot shot tough-guy. All things considered... I could take him.

Wesley has no idea how the confederate soldiers were even able to maintain their attention to the war when there were SOOO many cool flowers and bugs to touch.

Head shot!

One of the Confederate cemeteries in the area.

Turning his cute on, with an eye on grandma's bag of M&Ms.

Wesley completely disrespecting the solemnity of this place

...(see narrative on plaque)

Say hello to Wesley's little friend.

This was a very cool trip. After we got back I discovered that the entire PBS Civil War special is available to stream on Netflix. That's been keeping me busy. There are plenty other Civil War sites to see in this area. Stay tuned.

These United States of America

We recently went downtown and looked at some touristy sites. After experiencing DC on a sunny Saturday afternoon I have observed two important things. 1) Apparently rollerblading is still a thing 2) Segways have a home in the District of Colombia. DC is THE place for Segway riders and rollerbladers of all shapes, of all sizes, and of all lifestyles no matter how alternative.

Here are a few pics from the big event:

There are two things you should know about Wesley's love/hate relationship with Abraham Lincoln. 1) He really doesn't like how historical revisionists have nearly deified a man who tried to wage war in an effort to exert federal dominance over the authority of the individual states. 2) He thinks is beard is hilarious.



Mamma knows her boy's gonna rattle some cages one day up in that capitol building.



Lindsey at the north portico, looking stylish as always. You can't see me in this pic because I'm behind the camera. But I'm screaming at Barack Obama so loud. I can't remember what I was screaming about. It was pretty cold out for being so deceptively sunny. Maybe that was it.


WWII memorial.



We'll go back downtown again probably for the cherry blossom festival. In the meantime it's still freezing cold. It even snowed yesterday. Barack Obama is certainly going to hear from me about that.

Time To Move On. Time To Get Going...

...are not only great lyrics to a Tom Petty song, but apparently our anthem for 2011. We are moving this month. Well I (Brett) am moving in about three weeks. The family will follow soon behind once I find a place to live.

It's time to get down to my real job. Not that I didn't love substitute teaching. In fact, my hipness is razor sharp thanks to the time I've been spending with brain-dead high school kids this last year. OMG high school is sooooo lame, right? So, since we're "so over" that, we're moving to the DC area.

I know that the District of Colombia and its environs can be a scary place for a daisy like me. I hate the thought of moving my family to a place where there could potentially be a threat to my guitars.

At any rate we are all very excited. It's exhilarating to think that all those fat cats in congress might be within earshot of my loud and often extremely violent tirades about The Iraq and Barry Obama's birth certificate.

So there it is! There is a good chance that the next time this blog gets updated, it will include info on how much we love our new lives as sophisticated east coast intellectuals (who own far too many denim shirts and still watch America's Funniest Home Videos regularly).

Here's a small but highly impressive photo collection of 2010's highlights.



I call this one Blues at Sunrise. I spent some of the hottest parts of the summer cutting weeds on the properties that my older brother manages. This pic is of a corn field across the street from a huge lot I was clearing (it's also where I would go to do number 1). I often showed up well before sunrise to avoid working through the hottest parts of the day. Also, Blues at Sunrise is the name of the Stevie Ray Vaughan album I was listening to when I snapped this on my camera phone.

This one is alright, but kinda disappointing in that it doesn't catch the essence of the cowboy boots I'm wearing at the time this photo was taken. I spent much of 2010 playing rock and roll music in some of the skeezier establishments throughout the Valley of the Sun.

This is Wes doing what he does best. Hittin the bottle and mad doggin any stranger, drifter, or pilgrim who gets too close. He started walking at 10 months (easily the worst day of 2010).

Wes and Lindsey at the doctor's office. He has no idea he's about to get a gnarly cocktail of vaccines in a 10 second whirlwind of 4 shots. Mom is good at keeping her baby calm.