Fourmile Canyon and Tattoos on Foreheads are Cool

Another big event in September was the Four Mile Canyon fire that occurred in a canyon due west of Boulder. The smoke was black and it simply plumed up into the sky sometimes making the sunny skies turn a gray/yellow haze. The smell was intense too and I couldn’t believe that it affected us in north Thornton although we are due east of the intense fire. I wish I could equate the burning stench to something but I can’t…it was just crazy…that’s all. The first picture is from Day One of the fire from our neighborhood park at the top of the hill. The second picture is from Day Three and you can see how the fire was festering along the front range after the first set of hills.Ryan was busy at work dealing with ash falling onto his car, dealing with the HVAC issues affecting all the servers holding maps and working with employees to ensure their safety. One even bought a house in the canyon 4 days prior to the fire so listening to those calls was scary, fascinating and interesting all at the same time.

September was filled with birthday parties…Two on the same day. Jack chose a dinosaur tattoo for his forehead (nice placement) and Eban chose tattoos for his arm. Showing up at the next party was awesome as the boys were all tatted up and Eban even chose a painted shark to adorn his head. Nice. And check out Jenna's, Jaren's mom, culinary creations - - cake in a cone. The boys LOVED it. She certainly showed me up with that sugary delight!

Following Jaren’s party, we headed over to Morgan’s 3rd birthday. It was a princess theme. This was our first princess theme party and we thought it would be great to dress the boys up as frogs but we didn’t go out and purchase those costumes. Darn it. Eban loved the hammock in the back yard and Jack loved playing with a toy air gun (of sorts). Most of all, I had to thwart their quick hands as they wanted to pull the strings to undo the piñata. That would have be great to watch the piñata break as little Morgan howled with sadness as the two Tracy boys dug into the piles of candy.
The dogs are fine. Seamus is aging and it’s sad to watch him move slower and be a tad more needy. He’s leaning all the time on my legs and head butting my legs for attention which is unlike him. He typically is content to lay and snort all day and ignore everyone. This shift has me worried. Harriet - - well - - she’s sweet but eating all the furniture in the front room so Ryan wants to give her away. He hasn’t yet but I feel like those aren’t idle threats as eating furniture is, indeed, problematic.

I recently caught up with my former neighbors in Deerfield and Val Hobbs brought the boys painting toys. We didn’t know how they’d fare at this craft but Eban went nuts for this project. He was SO into it I couldn’t believe it. He even painted the wooden airplane like the airplane shown on the box and his concentration to detail was impressive for us to watch. Jack made a car but we fixed it up for him - - not Eban’s. Eban was completely enthralled and we realized that we needed more activities of this nature as he really enjoyed doing it.

Another first we had in September was a neighborhood block party. Prior to the potluck, there was a neighborhood scavenger hunt and the Stuck’s girls and the Tracy boys were on the same team to collect random items from the neighborhood. We got in second place and we won a $10 gift card to see a movie and the parents won 5 scratch lotto tickets!! What a sweet neighborhood party with prizes like that, huh?! Anyway, the boys didn’t quite get the concept of asking for things and instead wanted to go into everyone’s house and play…especially if there were toys in the house. They would cry when we would leave and it got a little crazy, but hopefully it will ease up for next year and they’ll get the concept of the ‘game.’ It was fun to meet new neighbors and hang out…the Stuck girls even came over to our house after dinner for a neighborhood movie. I think we watched Cats & Dogs 2. Lastly, in late September, we took another trip to the zoo. The boys loved the yellow pufferfish in the aquarium part and loved the choo-choo train. The boys even chose to ride together on the train and had me sit in the seat ahead of them.
This was a first and I liked seeing that they wanted to hang out.
Ahhh…the below quick video is a short snippet of the train ride

Family History and Mama picks up trash everyday

When I was in my radiation solitary confinement, I finally decided to research my family origins. I got caught up on ancestry.com and found some of my roots back to the Civil War and Revolutionary War. On my father’s side, there’s a huge family called the VanMeters/VanMetres who I’m related to
and this side brings me back to Europe. It was really cool to browse and see stories, etc. One of the stories which resonated with me was a story about Abraham Van Meter who was fast enough to run away from a massacre and thus I’m here today because of his swift legs and wherewithal to escape...he's my great, great, great, great, great, grandfather.

In 1783, the wife, infant child, and daughter (Hannah) of John Van Metre were massacred by Indians at their home near Van Metre's Fort on Short Creek in Ohio County (this is in West Virginia). The spring where Hannah was killed is called Hannah's Spring in her memory. Here is an excerpt from family documents:

"His wife and infant were butchered in the door of their home, Hannah was washing clothes as a spring not far away and had a sunbonnet on which prevented her seeing the Indians approaching. They creeped up and tomahawked her as she leaned over the spring getting water. Three other children, boys age 11, 8, and 6 years, were playing in a field nearby, seeing the Indians ran, all escaped (except John, the youngest, not so active as his brothers, was overtaken and carried away by them)...

This was in 1783: In 1805 young John Van Metre was found with a party of Wyandotte Indians in northern Ohio when they were stopping at a trading post operated by Issac (near Columbus). Mr. Zane - knowing all of the history- discovered young John Van Metre 'now as much an Indian as the others', and learned that he really was the one captured in 1783. He found the father was still living, communicated this news to him and the father sent his two sons, Isaac and Abraham to bring John home and 'take up a civilized life'. They found John and were convinced he really was their lost brother and persuaded him to return which he did 'with six of seven squaws, one of whom was his wife'. He stayed several weeks, was glad to see all his people, but could not be persuaded to remain."

Wow.

So I kept researching and researched my mother’s side and found a second cousin in Denver. I facebooked her and we met up and I couldn’t believe it as she was SO nice and down to earth.
Mary had no idea of my existence or the family as her father (my mother’s cousin) died in a train accident when she was young so it was neat to briefly meet her and catch up. I wanted to stare at her as I couldn’t believe I had a real female cousin - - crazy! I hope to get together more frequently so we’ll see how this goes.

The boys are great.
Eban started his last year of preschool at Little Village and Jack is still showing no signs of interest in potty training. Jack loves a little girl at his daycare named Grace. She doesn’t smile a lot but whenever you ask her, “Who loves you?” She immediately replies that Jack does. And when you ask her who she loves, she says, “Miss Tiffany.” Tiffany is the daycare provider until Jack is potty trained so then both boys would go to school together.

The academic year started over for my work and we started off with a day of service.

I brought Eban along with me and he buddied up to a young man named Timi (yellow shirt). Eban loved picking up trash and thought it was so cool that mom works at a place where I pick up trash.
I had to explain that it was volunteerism and not an everyday thing, but alas, he’ll remember what he wants. Eban was also quick to tell me to stay away as he was going to work with the big boys. I did and was so impressed with the college-aged boys who took an interest in Eban to help him with the project. They explained to him why it was important to volunteer and why it was important to be safe while doing so...I wanted to hug these young men but didn't as they had no idea who I was and that would be a tad overbearing...having an administrator hug you.

I was really impressed with his perseverance throughout the course of the day and how much he liked doing this job. It was a four hour project and I thought we’d give an hour of time but we did the whole thing…WITH a good attitude to boot. Impressive!
Eban talking about his magic dog, Bandit

The Beach and Radiation

After the fun of the choo-choo train trips and the graduate degree, we got down to business with our end of summer plans - - namely my radiation therapy and Ryan going to the beach with the boys. Ryan was lucky enough to get a decent deal on some cheap tickets to Delaware so that helped with the fact that I’d only be in isolation for three days at a hotel and then at the house by myself thus no harm would be done to the kids.

While three days was the safety net for the hospital for me to be isolated, it still was weird to know that they told me to limit my work meetings to an hour or less. Well, then what does that mean for the week after I’m home…to limit my interaction with the kids for an hour or less? Anyway, this was the best option and gave me a peace of mind as the kids were far away from me.

The only pictures I have from the beach are the attached ones which Ryan’s family were so nice to post on facebook. The kids had a ball and loved the waves and bragged about seeing dolphins frolicking in the waves.

I, on the other hand, didn’t do much after getting my dose of radiation. I’ll write up my cancer story later, but for now, I’ll just share bits and pieces with you. The little pill came in a ten-pound tin container called the ‘piglet.’ It was so heavy that Ryan and I both took turns lifting it as if it were a weight in a workout regiment. And here’s the kicker, Ryan came in the room with me! This is something I didn’t expect. The nurse didn’t have an astronaut suit on and she didn’t seem worried at all about being in close proximity to the pill and me. She said she’d been doing it for years and she’s still fine.

After the Piglet was opened the little pill was in another container. I then swallowed the pill and jetted off to the hotel to hang out.

I had some visitors to the hotel (less than an hour of course and no hugs) and the best news of all was that I had no side effects from the radiation. And then I was stoked to be off the low-iodine diet as that was the worst for me about the whole thing as I can’t stand the bland diet I had to adhere to prior to radiation.

Ryan got back and to celebrate, we went to our first Rapids game - - they are our professional soccer team in Denver. It was a blast.
Maybe it was because we had first row tickets, but the game was exciting and we also took our good friends Keegan and Lisa who are big soccer buffs.

They explained who the players were and other logistics, but what I loved the most was a rowdy fan who would yell the funniest things at the opposing team. I was totally into listening in to his next verbal jab over watching the game as he was so crafty and witty with his over-the-top outbursts. This man kept me laughing the entire game. I wish I could remember some of what he said, but I can’t - - I can’t even relay a joke so this tidbit shouldn’t be a surprise to you.

And finally, here’s a pic of Eban and his preschool girlfriend, Brea, out in their school’s garden. They were chosen to help water the plants/veggies and I captured the picture real quick. AND to top off the month of August, Radar came in for a surprise trip from Hawaii and we dragged him with us to a charity event. Here's the pic from that and it was awesome to see him and catch up!