A good day

We finally had a really good day today! Jessica was finally feeling up to going to our local support group, Tu Nidito. They were having a picnic and we had hamburgers & hot dogs grilled by chef Randy! (one of our awesome volunteers who's wife takes Jess and I to lunch every so often). We visited with another family who have 3 girls, one of which is battling leukemia for the 2ND time. :*( They are so cool tho and Jess had fun sitting with them and talking with them. Austin even came! It's been several years since either Brandon or Austin went with Jess and I so it was a real treat for him to come. Everyone made him feel so welcome that he thinks he will try coming back in September after our Summer break. ; They have made some huge changes at the Tu Nidito house (it used to be a home and then was turned into offices and then used for our support group. They received a grant and another awesome building with 4 classrooms and an office in the back, a lot more parking (including handicapped) and a new playground with REAL GRASS! And not that sparse grass where you see a blade or two every once in a while, but real thick grass. Most of you are probably laughing at my obsession with grass but not if you've lived in Southern AZ. Water is expensive and the sun burns grass up. So most people don't have lawns and the public parks usually have the 1/2 dead grass. My CHD friends think I'm nuts when I've gone to KS and CT to visit them and "oooo" and "ahhh" over how green everything is. {that was back in 2001 and 2003 - I used to have somewhat of a life. :-P}

OK, back to Tu Nidito... behind the house is a patio area which has been also been refurbished. It has a small grassy area and nice waterfall with a small pond. I never had a chance to go to the back to see it all during the construction since Jess insists on NOT taking her wheelchair and she can't walk all the way back there. Little did I know that they had opened up the back wall so we could see from the patio a lot of what had been done.

I took a couple of pictures... unfortunately I didn't get the landscaping before it got dark. I'll have to post some later since it's almost 5 am and I need to get some sleep if I'm going to take Jess to her appointment (and I dare not miss this one!)

Thank you for the many uplifting comments and emails I've received here and on facebook lately. My mom called me after reading my last post and my sister has been very worried about me and Jess... yes, things are quite tough around here a lot and I really need the support, but there are still many reasons to smile and many reasons to laugh - and I believe there are still many more to come.

Thanks for stopping by!