In Patti's Words

Patti was my Mom's dear friend from Texas that came here for Mom's memorial service. She lost her voice the morning of her flight and asked me if I would read her words. I was thrilled to, I couldn't come up with the right words and as soon as I saw what Patti had written I knew that it was the right thing.

Patti’s Words

I met Jeanne three years ago. She was a shy, quiet little woman who sat 2 or 3 seats from me in Sunday school at our church in Rockwall, Texas.

It didn’t take long to realize how wrong I was. Yes she was a little woman, but definitely not quiet or shy. Jeanne was funny, lively and had a gleam of mischief – all while being kind and thoughtful.

What started out as a casual greeting, turned out to be a friendship few know.  Jeanne turned out to be one of the dearest friends I have ever had.

Jeanne and I had grown up in the 50’s and 60’s – Jeanne in NY, and I in Texas. Kids were the same in both places. Jeanne and I had a lot in common. We played the same games, watched the same TV shows and movies and listened to the same music. We both loved horses and dogs. Once when we were reminiscing, we talked about string games. When “Cat-in-the-Cradle” was mentioned, we took some string and began playing string games.  Jeanne was as fun-loving a person as I had ever known. Our time together was spent goofing off and laughing constantly. It was like we were in our second childhood.

We would do silly things like decorating pumpkins with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head parts. We decided to make orange rice Krispy Treat pumpkins. That didn’t work very well and we had to eat all the pumpkins that didn’t turn out.

Jeanne and I both loved NCIS. When I would say something really stupid, Jeanne would lightly slap the back of my head and say “Ya Think?”

One day we decided to name the 7 dwarfs in Snow White, between the two of us, we were able to name them all. We then tried to name Jesus’ Disciples. Oh were we shocked. We couldn’t do it. We named some who were disciples and named some who weren’t! We spent a lot of time memorizing the correct 12.

Jeanne once asked, “Why in the world would God make a hippopotamus?” Neither of us could come up with an answer. She said she would ask God when she got to heaven.  She had a list of 4 or 5 things she was going to ask.

When Michelle came to visit in Texas, Jeanne and I wondered how long it would take for Michelle to say, “Ma, I have to get you away from this crazy place!” It didn’t take long. (and in my defense – it was because you two were going to get into a lot of trouble with your silliness! But I was so very happy that she was happy and laughing and found such a great sister friend.)

Jeanne and I went to Arizona for a week. She loved Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and even talked me into a hot air balloon ride. She found beauty in everything wherever she was.

Jeanne did have a serious side – when it came to her health. Her treatments for her cancer were tough. Everyone in our Sunday school class rallied around Jeanne. Our “sistas”, as we refer to each other, volunteered to driver her to her radiation and chemo treatments.

Jeanne told me that her cancer was a blessing. Without it she wouldn’t have been able to really know and love each of the “girls”.

I am representing each of them today. They wanted Jeanne’s family and her friends to know how much they loved her and how they are better people for knowing her.

Jeanne would say, “I’m not dying from cancer, I’m living with cancer.”

Some other health issues were serious, too. Whenever she was scared she would recite the 23^rdPsalm – one of her favorite Bible passages.

I was with Jeanne when the doctor used the word “terminal”. After leaving the doctor’s office, we sat in the car and cried and talked. We decided all of us are “terminal”.

Our Sunday School class gave our teacher a Bible 2 years ago. The teacher asked each of us if we would find our favorite verse or verses, underline them and put our initials next to it. Jeanne marked Matthew 25:34-40. Not only did Jeanne like these, she lived them.

I learned from her friend Grace, that even years ago if Jeanne saw a homeless person and it was cold she would buy a coat and gloves for him/her. In Rockwall, she would buy $5 gift cards from McDonalds. Whenever she saw a homeless man she would have me drop her off and circle around the block. She would give the person a hug and talk to him. One man said he hadn’t had a hug in years. Jeanne would give some gift cards to him and tell him that God loved him.

At church, Jeanne started a group (she wanted to call them the “Knit-wits”). Several ladies met each week and knitted or crocheted lap blankets for shut-ins and nursing homes.

Our church had an auction last year for missions. Jeanne made a beautiful quilt. It made more money than any 1 item ever.

Once Jeanne re-united with George, she would talk about him like a giddy teenager. She had finally found true happiness.

Jeanne loved her children and grandchildren so much. Even though I hadn’t met all her family until today, I felt like I knew them well. She was so proud and bragged on all their academic and sports achievements.

Now Jeanne knows the answer to “Why did God make an ugly Hippopotamus?

January 9, 2013

My mom passed away yesterday. While it may not have been the cancer specifically, it was one of the tumors that caused a blood clot that is the likely culprit. It doesn't really matter, she isn't in pain anymore - no more pain, no more radiation, no more chemo, no more needle sticks, no more shingles, no more CT scans, no more xrays, no more bad news...she finally gets peace. And she died in the best possible way - in her sleep, at home and happy where she was. I'm including part of the obituary - omitting the names of survivors out of respect to them.

I pray for peace for my family and George and his family - this has been hard on all of us.

Jeanne Britt, 65, of Fly Creek, went to heaven on January 9, 2013 after a valiant battle against cancer.

She was born in Cooperstown and through the years she had resided in many places. Her true happiness came when she moved to Fly Creek to be with, in her words “the first and last love of her life”, George. Our Mom's greatest accomplishments were; getting her degree at Utica School of Commerce, working at Rinehard, Fitzgerald, & DePietro, raising the three of us and learning how to quilt, one of her favorite past times.

Jeanne was a very loving woman and thought nothing of sharing that love with all she knew. She was a caring, compassionate and giving person who would give the clothes off her back, her last dollar or anything that might help a person in need. She will be greatly missed by her children, grandchildren, George and his family, all of whom gave her such joy.

We all want to thank Dr. Leonardo, the 3rd floor staff at Bassett Hospital, and Lamar, for taking such excellent care of her. Dr. Leonardo went the extra mile for her and cared very much.

In lieu of flowers please consider the American Cancer Society in memory of Jeanne. 

Memorial calling hours will be Sunday, January 13, 2013 from 1-2:30pm at Wolanin Funeral Home Inc. 266 Main St, New York Mills with a service at 2:30pm.

End of 2012

So this year ended with a huge bump. Bad News. Something no one ever wants to hear. My mom has been fighting cancer off and on for 11 years. Lung cancer, throat cancer, a different lung cancer, a cancer found behind her breast bone, and then one that was found in some of her lymph nodes. And now it's in her left hip bone. That was the news on Friday. It's horridly painful for her and she's in the hospital right now, they are trying to get the pain under control so that she can continue living. A bone scan today will help the radiation therapists figure out what spot to hit. From what I understand the radiation will help with the pain, which is really good because the oxycontin and fentynal make my mom loopy and she can't go on like that. She falls asleep while in a conversation, when eating, when just trying to read. It makes me cry just thinking about it. Her life is finally getting on track, she is so in love with and loved by George and this is so very hard for both of them. I was joking with her on Christmas that she and George are attached at the hip and she admitted that it's hard to be away from him - so this hospital visit is not good for either of them emotionally either - on top of all of the other stuff happening.

Here's to praying that 2013 is better. That the radiation helps with the pain. Mom and George need time to spend together - to stuff a lot of love and adventures into a small period of time.

And I pray that 2013 is better for everyone! Even if your 2012 was awesome - it can always get better right?

Merry Christmas

There is so much sadness and anxiousness this year, but I feel that we Americans have really shown our best side. The Newtown Connecticut tragedy is one of those horrible tragedies that will forever be part of our history but the amount of love, support and goodwill that has come from this has been wonderful. Americans are a wonderful group of people - we love each other, stand up for each other and always show our best side.

I guess what I'm getting to is that this Christmas should be celebrated by all with their families, friends, close ones like it's your last Christmas ever. Give of yourself, love your neighbors. Ann Curry started a wonderful thing with the 26 acts of kindness - even if you only do a couple - it's the spirit behind it. I haven't done anything yet - trying to come up with some ideas.

Merry Christmas and a blessed, peaceful, loving New Year to you all.
Michelle

Christmas season

Merry Christmas to you all!

I've been shopping, shopping, shopping for weeks - and no not that much for gifts. My mom has been sick so I did all of her shopping yesterday and a little today, then RB and Grace and I drove down there to deliver it all. Grace is the newest member of the RB family - and she is such a sweet little girl! Second Generation puggle!

She is a sweet little girl, very smart and has RB and I wrapped around her paws!

The queen of all she surveys. Such a sweet little thing!

RB has had her since the first week or so of November - she was about 7 and 1/2 weeks, flea infested, stinky and wormy. We got her cleaned up - Dawn does wonders for getting rid of fleas. She has grown quite a bit, learned to let us know when she wants out (for the most part). She's awesome in the car - she goes to sleep within minutes - except today! She had to go to the bathroom and we didn't know exactly what the issue was - then she farted! LOL - she stinks for such a little thing but we pulled over and we got everything all settled and got back on the road and she passed out. She got to meet Mom and George's dog - Bruno - he's huge! He wasn't in the least interested in her, but she found his tail amazing!  She goes with RB everywhere - knows lots of dogs and she is getting very well socialized. Can't wait to go camping with her and see if she will go kayaking with me! How fun!

I have my tree up! First time it's been close to the ground - but found that the cats think it's a party to sleep under it when it's on the table and help me redecorate it.

I put it on a milk crate with a beautiful red and green table cloth. The present that M, R and I sent to RB, Me, Grace, Einstein and Henry is in front! Can't wait to open it! 

Took some cool pictures of the fall leaves in Cooperstown and Utica.

Otsego Lake in full bloom.

City of Utica from the Val Bialis Ski hill. 

That's just a quick trip on the roller coaster I've been on lately! :) all over the place - new puppy - lots of pictures and loving life!

Went up north today with RB and brought my new (stunning, awesome, wonderful) Nikon D3200 camera that RB gave me for my birthday. Below are some of the pictures that I took. I'm still learning, but it's hard to take a bad picture with this camera.

RB pointed this out to me - color in the middle of nothing...

So pretty - and the bokeh worked!

I love the texture in this

Sticky web and sticky sap...love the amber color

Love the texture of the wood. This is the leaning tree.

Heart of the leaning tree

More soft moss....pretty pretty

More sap - loved the amber color

It was cold up there today - we went up to make sure no trees had fallen. I seriously thought about getting the kayak out but it was seriously too cold, there was snow in the air a few times too. 

Windmills in the North Country

Actually - I'm not sure if it is truly the north country - but it's up near Newport, Middleville, etc. These windmills are all over the place and I'm of two minds about them now after this weekend. They are beautiful in a strange way, I've always been fascinated by them and wondered why people didn't like them. Well after being at R&L's this past weekend I better understand. They make a low whoosh whoosh sound that seems to go through your body. The camp is probably a mile or so as the crow flies from any of the windmills but I could still hear them, it was similar to a huge waterfall. I am not sure if I've ever mentioned it here but my mom swears I could hear a "mouse fart in a thunderstorm" and I could hear these. At one point when RB and I were far from the camp on the four wheelers - we shut them down, walked up a hill to a small clearing and I could see the blades spinning through the trees and hear the thrumming whoosh whoosh - I think if I had to live to close to them I would go mad.

They look deceptively small in the surrounding country.

This is as close as we could get without trespassing.

Some information about the windmills -
320 feet tall, about the same height as Big Ben in London or the same length as the football field at Giants Stadium. The blades are 131 feet long, and although they seem to be rotating at a lazy Sunday afternoon clip, they are so large that their tips are actually racing around at 138 miles per hour.
This amazes me - but if I were to do the math it would work out. I hope that in the end that they are worth it. 

"How to Take Down a Tree in 3 Easy Steps"

On Saturday RB and I headed to R&L's camp - actually it belongs to multiple family members but I can't keep it straight so in my book it's R&L's. Well we went up to do some four wheeling and drink some beer and have some fun! We did it all and then some. When RB and I got there R&L where behind the house filling up the trailer with wood - not just tossing it in either - L was stacking! So RB and I helped them finish up with that pile then we went and got the splitter and split up a tree and L and I loaded the trailer while RB and R ran the splitter. Nothing like hard work to make a cold beer taste really good. While we were working on that J showed up with a Skid Steer - yeah - I'm not quite sure what all it can do - but let me tell you that it makes short work of trees.

J left again - he had to get a Back Hoe - yeah they have big tools! LOL - so when he got back they discussed the tree they wanted down and started working on getting it down as quickly as possible. J is the one who said that they could get it down in "Three Easy Steps" hence the title of blog.

The "horny tree" - in it's glory.

First though - they had to remove all of the deer horns from the "horny tree" as J called it. R&L's little tractor was good for this - as RB removed all the horns by being in the bucket - (note** - this is the same tractor that RB drove while R&L and I sat in the bucket late at night up at RB's Camp - we were silly and it was a lot of fun!

RB in a bucket!

Digging up the roots of the "horny tree"

Skid Steer hooked up to the tree - roots dug out on the back side.  I'm backing up!!

Going Going...

Going Going... Gone in 1 more minute.

Big Tree - leaves Big Hole!

It's good it came down - if you look in the root ball you'll see an indentation - there was a huge boulder in the hole that would have made this very weak if a big storm hit it - and most likely it would have gone towards the camp.

Hook the tree up to the Skid Steer and start dragging it...

Couldn't use this for inside firewood - the creosote would have been incredible.

Dragging it into the woods.

Disappearing into the woods as R watches it.

Amazing to me that in about 8 minutes that tree was dragged into the woods and J was back with the skid steer.

Cleaning out the stump and other debris.

The end product - no tree - no stump -  no mess - and then we hit the trails on the 4 wheelers!

On Sunday we did more tree work -but the 'old fashioned' way, J cut them down with the chain saw and then into pieces. We, RB, R, L and I, then loaded it into the bucket of the tractor and then stacked it in a pile - it will have a year to dry out and become good wood for burning next year.

Four Months

How did the summer go by so fast?

We've been busy, RB and I, together and separately. He's been working on home improvements - I've been 'heppin' when I have been able to really help and not hinder. I've been baking and cooking, fruit smoothies and veggies are a staple now. Driving all over it feels like in the new Soul that has almost 10K miles on it already!

We went camping up at Stillwater over July 4th - it was wonderful - weather was perfect, fishing wasn't, water was cool and inviting, sun was hot. RB's friends joined us up at his camp one weekend with the tractor and we cleaned up, sorted out and all in all had a wonderful time getting the outside ship shape. I bought a kayak and have enjoyed that thoroughly! It's up at camp so I just head up there, pull it out of camp and put it in the creek and enjoy the day! RB's even joined me! We went up there again last weekend just to relax - I brought my bike up and rode, went for 3 kayak rides, had an awesome fire and enjoyed some wine and good times.

Work is going very well. Travelled a couple of times for them so far and this year I've been on 4 trips that required flying - and I have two more to go! Woo HOO!

I'm sitting in my living room right now, enjoying the peace and quiet. The sun is shining through the leaves into this room - the leaves are blowing in the wind so there is a dance of light and shadows happening in here. Beautiful and peaceful.

This was the sky last weekend up at camp but it was so peaceful wanted to add it to this blog. 

Too early

Well it was way too early to plant our seedlings - I knew it but also knew that there was so much going on coming up that it may be worth it. It wasn't...we will have to do it all over again on Memorial Day weekend.

Today was a glorious day. Bright blue skies, warm sunshine. Washed my car - finished up some chores at my house and RB's house. Drove to Fly Creek - wonderful day for a drive - thank goodness for better gas mileage.

Heading to California for a vacation - will put lots of pictures up and Georgie and Vera will once again be blogged about. In case you are wondering who they are - well you'll just have to wait and see who they are. They have both traveled quite extensively - Vera a bit more than Georgie - but they have stories!

Camping trip is planned too! And time up at camp on the Creek - woo hooo! I'm ready for summer! Cookouts, clams, fish, burgers, beer! Awesome stuff and always comes with good company.