It's a 3 State Day

We started the day in South Dakota, Drove through Wyoming and ended up at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana. Here I am standing with the place they call "Last Stand Hill", which was where George Armstrong Custer Died.
It's very educational, At this National Cemetery they put the Markers where every soldier fell when he died. These stones are scattered over a 5 mile radius! And the Indians, Red Cloud of the Lakota, the Cheyene and the Sioux Indians were all against Custer and the 7th Calvary. This battle took place while the rest of the Country were celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Independence and the unveiling of the Telephone unveiled by Alexander Graham Bell!

This is the car driver, he is a good driver, doing 80 most of the time, standing in front of the Monument erected for the Battle.

Mt. Rushmore Trip

We got to Keystone, South Dakota about 5 pm tonight. Just long enough to see it was a cute, touristy little town. We stopped to eat, after we checked into the Super 8 motel, at a place called Ruby's, decorated up as an old fashioned Brothel, we had ribs and they were delicious.

Then we heard about a Rainger Program located at the Ranger station below Mt. Rushmore, so we went. Its a beautiful place, They had a 10 minute talk, then a 20 minute movie on the 4 presidents who are carved into the mountain. At the end of the program, they invited all Vetrans who were in the audience to come up on stage to help lower the American Flag. Thats The picture below.
This next photo is of all the Veterans who were in attendance.

After the movie finished, they light up the mountain, so, here is a photo of Mt. Rushmore at night, pretty cool!

Disneyland a la Family

On Friday I was going to Disneyland with Lisa, John, Caleb, and Davis. We got a babysitter for Beckham because he doesn't like Disneyland yet. Larry was supposed to be tracting with the Youth and meeting with the Stake President, which gave me no end of grief because I was worried about Beckham being passed around. I volunterred to stay home with him rather than traumatize him. It was only Lisa crying and saying "This will be your last time at Disneyland with me".

So we went to Disneyland and as we got on the gate, Lisa asked me where we should go, of course I always start at Adventure land and work my way around the park.

As we were walking around the entrance, under the overpass of the train, I'm hoofing it right along, because there is nothing wrong with my legs yet! We get about 50 yards into the park, right before heading down Main street, and I hear a noise, it sounded like Ashlynn screaming Grandma. I looked over to my left, still walking and there were people over there on a porch waving their hands at me. So, I slowed and then I recognized Ashlynn running toward me and my thought was "What is she doing here?" Then I started recognizing people, my whole family was there except Beckham Henderson, and my sister Pam, Rick & Peter Daut.


The first thing they did was surprise me with a special Gift that Kelly got for us to use. It saved the day because the park was crowded.

Then they presented me with my own special Micky Mouse hat with my name on it: Yep, they call me Grandma Silly and I wore the hat all day long. It was the best surprise and day at Disneyland I have ever had, we stayed till Midnight and it was so fun!

Thank you Lisa & John Henderson, Larry Rober, Kelly & Brian Rogers, Brian and Kate Rober, Mark & Lisa Rober and Matt Trelatsky for the best day since I was diagnosed with ALS. I love you all dearly!

What do I really have?

It's anyone's guess. After that awful shock & pin test they ruled out any motor-neuron diseases which included ALS. YEA!

What they are looking at now is either A) a neuromuscular disease or B) an Auto-immune disease.

The good thing is that I'm pretty sure I don't have AIDS. Thats what I think of when I hear Auto-immune disease. So, next Tuesday we have another appointment with Dr. DeSilva- the neurologist.

I still have trouble with my speach when I get tired and at other various times when I don't expect it. My left hand is almost useless, my typing is getting harder.

Other than that I'M GREAT! Thanks to all of you sweet people who read my blog and care about me. I ask God to bless all of you for your support of me and my family. We love you all!

R & R for the Weary Soul & my symptoms

This weekend was the weekend that Larry planned to take Mark and Brian to SLC for the UW and BYU games. He left Thursday afternoon, so I left too!

I went out to my sister, Pam's Palm Springs home and we had a blast just pampering ourselves. We really splurged, getting yogurt at 9:30 pm and then getting a foot reflexology foot massage after that!

She took me to see "Celtic Woman'' in concert at Aqua Calentie? We got fully body massages and went to a Lobster Fest at her Club. It was all you could eat, and we ate!

We also had amazing breakfasts each morning at their club where for $5 you could get Lox and bagels or Eggs Benedict or Waffles or Steak and Eggs and everything was delicious.

We watched 3 movies at different times: The Blind Side and 2 Legally Blond movies.

I had a great time with my sissy. It was just what I needed after the roller coaster I've been on.

It's hard to come 'back' to life when you have resigned yourself to dying in the next 2 years. So, I don't have ALS, then what is it? Here are my symptoms..... There are 3 of them:
1. Loosing my hair (and I mean loosing lots of it, even my hairdresser said something)
2. Lose of strength in my left hand and arm.
3. My voice comes and goes with slurring of speech.
4. Fatigue

The really odd thing is that my fingernails are stronger than they have ever been in my life!

And I noticed that people were a lot nicer to me when they thought I was going to die. Why is that?

I'm the Mystery Woman

OK, bottom line, I'm not going to die anytime soon from ALS because I don't have it!

I don't have any of the Neurological diseases! They can't tell me what I have, so they took 5 more viles of blood in order to try to find out.

On our first visit the Dr. said that I EITHER had ALS or XCXCXCXCZZZZZ. Because of my family history of ALS running in my family, we all assumed it was ALS because it started with me in the left thumb, just like my Aunt Peggy who died of ALS.

The one thing this month has taught me is to take one day at a time and to enjoy the journey. I need to start taking care of myself before I spread myself so thin in trying to serve everyone else. I also discovered true friendship and love with the ones I care about the most, my friends who cried when I told them the good news and some of my family who were elated at my good fortune.

Was it the Priesthood Blessing I received at the hands of righteous men? Or, was it the heartfelt prayers of so many righteous people? Or was it that my name was in at least 3 Temples? Whateer it was, I'm Thankful that Heavenly Father has given me a second chance.