The Smoky Mountains in the Fall!

     We spent Halloween in Gatlinburg! We've been helping Maggie and the kids for a few weeks and we decided to run away from home! We sent the grandkids Halloween cards with money and we hit the road! The colors were beautiful and we drove to Clingman's Dome and Newfound Gap. Had a lovely picnic at the Chimneys and played in the river. Did the Roaring Forks motorway and stopped at Eli's Mill. Found a quaint little seafood bar off the beaten track and had oysters, shrimp, and too much to drink! A wonderful time!! We decided to ride the aerial tram to Ober Gatlinburg and we took the skylift to the very top of the mountain. Then we rode the Alpine Slide down to the bottom! I won! Brian said he was being a gentleman! :-)

October Already!?

     Hi and Happy Fall, ya'll! It has been unusually warm...still in the upper 80's most days! It doesn't feel like Fall or Halloween at all! We are buying mums and pumpkins and apple cider anyway. We will also be decorating the house for Halloween.
      There have not been any new travels as Brian has been feeling quite exhausted and weak. We even had to take an ambulance ride and spent the day at Vanderbilt!  I tease him that he sure knows how to show a girl a good time! The Dr. let him go ahead with his Nivolumab treatment even though it's wearing him down. The plan is to continue infusions every two weeks until March. He'll have another CT scan next month to see if it's all still working. Say an extra prayer for him, please!
     Our nephew, Andrew, got married Oct. 1st! Lots of family flew in to celebrate...and then they wouldn't go home! LOL! They really had a good time visiting and eating and visiting some more. Brian felt good enough to play a couple of songs at the wedding and then gave us a short concert the day everyone was leaving.
    Our next long adventure is going to be early November in Florida on the Gulf side. We are meeting my dad and step-mom for a two week vacation at the beach! We will be staying at a new place on Redington Beach. We are looking forward to being in Florida again. We may look for a retirement home while we are there!
     I tried to add a couple of pictures but something isn't working right! I'll come back later and try again.

Endless Summer!

    Everyone went back to school....except for me!! Yay! I loooove being retired! We have traveled all over the place! We have been to Chattanooga, Charleston,  New York, Cape Cod, & Arkansas! We have reservations in Florida in November. Our nephew is getting married in a couple of weeks and we are entertaining company from New York and Tennessee and Florida. Add Brian's immunotherapy every two weeks and we don't have time to work! Lol! More later!

Summertime!

Wow! What a crazy ride! I have officially retired! I got my LAST paycheck (GULP!) this month and now my pension kicks in. Kinda scary, but we have everything worked out.We have been SO busy since school got out in May. Family came to celebrate our niece's graduation and we enjoyed a four day weekend at the lake. In June we met brother and sister-in-law in Gatlinburg. We enjoyed rest and relaxation and family for five wonderful days in a secluded mountain cabin! Early July found us in Chattanooga for a long weekend. We saw Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, we rode the Incline! We spent one whole day enjoying the Tennessee Aquarium including the River Gorge boat ride and the IMAX theater! Wow, what a busy few days! We celebrated grandkids birthdays and went on several day trips to state parks. Our next event is Charleston, SC later this week. Then we will stop to do some gem mining on the way home. We are headed to Troy and then on to Cape Cod in late August. We will follow that up with a quick turn-around to Hot Springs to meet Texas and NY family! Whew!
Brian had another episode on Memorial Day that sent him to the hospital again for several days. We finally got to see the Endocrinologist so hopefully we have all that under control now. He is almost finished with his second round of immunotherapy! He sees the dermatologist tomorrow and has his last infusion on Tuesday. Then we have to set up CT scans and an MRI. The hope is that the melanoma continues to shrink and no new ones appear. Prayers are welcome!

Ruby Falls

Smoky Mtns.

Chattanooga Choo Choo!

Almost Retired!

     Sooooo this is the last month of my teaching career! Sometimes I have mixed feelings about that - but mostly I'm pretty happy and excited! Education is getting absolutely ridiculous and there is no joy in it anymore. Testing, testing, testing! It's time for me to go!
    On another note: Brian started having really bad headaches from the immunotherapy. He got three doses of the combo drugs and then ended up in the hospital! They decided to discontinue the combo drugs and switch him to just the single drug. Nivolumab is the newest and best treatment for his kind of cancer. So he will have a CT scan on Sunday May 15th and then start infusions of that on the 17th. We had hoped to finish all four treatments but it was too risky. The Dr. says that three treatments with the "vigorous auto-immune response" had very good results. I guess the CT scan will show the truth. Regardless, he will start the Opdivo on the 17th.

Vanderbilt Emergency Room

     Our niece, Shelby. graduates on May 20th and a whole bunch of family is coming in to celebrate. We will have a weekend at Dale Hollow Lake! It will be great to see everyone. It should be a great weekend!
     Last Tuesday was my retirement reception at the Central Office! I got a certificate and a marble apple. My friend Kitty is retiring, too! We started together and are finishing up together!

Director of schools, me, Asst. Director

Sad Day

     Today Brian lost his mother to a sudden illness. She got the flu and her lungs just couldn't handle it. We flew to NY on Wednesday when we got the news that she was sick and going into ICU. Brian had an MRI that day and we got the call on the way home from Nashville. We got plane tickets and packed in an hour and a half. We got to Troy at 12:30 am and went straight to the hospital. She never knew we were there. She never regained consiousness and was on a ventilator. The difficult decision was made to take her off life support today and she passed away peacefully. We had to come home to see the oncologist tomorrow. We will return to NY for the services as soon as they are set.

Spring Break 2016!

    There are just a couple more days to enjoy the very last Spring Break of my teaching career! We sadly said goodbye to Brother and Sister in law this morning as they trek back to cold NY. We all spent an amazing three days in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN. We had a cabin with an awesome view! We saw deer, turkeys, and bears! We went to Clingman's Dome, Cades Cove, and the Chimneys picnic area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We sampled wine from two winerys and got lemon cake from Ely's Mill gift shop. It was a wonderful time spent with family.
     Monday we had a dermatologist appt. Tuesday Brian had his second infusion. We saw Dr. Sosman who was very pleased with how well Brian is handling the treatment plan. He scheduled the next CT scan for late May. He also let us know that, regardless of CT results, Brian will have an additional 12 weeks of single medication treatment. This medicine is Yervoy and is administered every two weeks. Hopefully he handles that treatment as well as he is this one.

The Chimneys

Living Room

Pool table in Loft

View from cabin