Busy days...

I've been MIA again while I get some things done around here.  The last few years we've kind of let the yard go while we were busy with my Dad and Reid.  Now it's catching up with us and I decided I'd better get to work.

They told us heavy rains would be moving in this week and I decided to try and get the beds all outlined with a small ditch so I could better keep the St. Augustine grass from creeping in among the Monkey Grass and shrubs.  Right now it's not too hot and the ground is soft.  In another couple of months the ground will be as hard as concrete.

 The bushes had gotten bigger and the Monkey Grass was growing under them, so I enlarged the beds and plugged in some more Monkey Grass along the edges.  Last week I trimmed the bushes way back.  They love the heat and humidity here and grow very quickly.  In fact, some of them already need to be trimmed again.  They'll keep growing like this until it gets real hot and then they'll slow down a little.

Reid dug the edge along the side of the house.  I really didn't want him helping because he gets out of breath with physical work, but he wanted to help me with Jim not feeling well.  I plugged some Monkey Grass along there too.

I also dug the edge around the Pecan tree and mailbox.  It will make edging when I mow a lot easier.  I plan to do the mowing until the weather gets hot and then I'll hire someone.

 We were hurrying to get done because they kept saying we would get heavy rain and although the sky looked pretty dark it didn't rain until the next day.  You can see what I mean in this picture.  The Pecan tree is always the last tree to get leaves.

The lawn is full of weeds because we never got any weed and feed down.  I'll try and get that done by the weekend.

Yesterday was a long day down at MD Anderson for Jim.  The weather was horrible in the morning, so Reid drove us down in the truck in case there was high water.  We all believe Jim's cancer is spreading since he's having more and more problems with bone pain.  His PSA had gone way up and the doctor wanted to get another CT scan and bone scan.  They managed to get him a CT appointment for early evening, so we came home to let the dog out, and then Jim and I went back down.  They were running way behind and we didn't get home until almost 10:30 last night.  This morning he had to be back at 7:00 for the bone scan, so he's home now and sleeping.  He'll see his oncologist again next week.  We discussed the possibility of a clinical trial and his doctor was going to see what is available.

Meanwhile, Reid received his next appointments in the mail.  He'll be having all his scans on April 9th.  I was looking forward to him not being scanned again for a while, but the clinical trial he was in requires scans at certain intervals and so he'll be back down there again all day for those appointments.  I'll try and go along and keep him company if I can.

All of our lives have certainly changed over the last several years.  When things are going well you tend to take it for granted until the "you know what" hits the fan.  A wise person once said, "Cancer is something that happens to the other guy until it happens to you."  Who was that wise person?  Reid.