The Kindness of Strangers

Aly has become obsessed with riding horses, which hasn't brought her any closer to her goal because we've been short on opportunity.
On Friday, things changed and the girls got to go horseback riding. We were on the last leg of our vacation and visiting our friends, Ron and Tina, who live in Idaho. We were laughing a little about her fixation with the concept. The next day, they surprised us and said we were taking the girls riding. 
   It turned out that Ron's cousin was getting ready for a memorial rodeo that his family started a few years ago after their 19-year-son, Daniel, died in a terrible bull accident. Not long after this, the Dopps family organized the rodeo and they raise money each year for different illnesses such as leukemia and cancer research. I didn't realize any of this until after the girls had gone riding. We met Dave and Ramona Dopps just briefly as many family members and friends ran in and out of their house getting ready for the two-day rodeo event and others loaded horse trailers. From this tragedy, they've created a family reunion and a loving memorial.
   You could really feel the warmth of family kinship as the kids all traded off riding the tamest horses and the adults busied themselves with all the other tasks at hand. If you would like to visit their website click here:
Daniel Dopps Memorial Rodeo 
   Lois and I were both a bit overwhelmed with the kind hospitality the Dopps had to offer during this obvious busy time. They stopped to welcome complete strangers into their house so our girls could go riding and they were some of the kindest people I have met.

 Aly

 Jeni

 Lois

Update

   I went to see my dermatologist and we are going to do the Enbrel treatments again. I'm not really looking forward to this, but if it gets rid of the psoriasis, then I guess that's what I need to do. This time they are going to have me take the shots twice a week instead of once, and there is a pill I will be taking that has some awful side effects. One of them is severely dried chapped lips. If this happens I have to wing myself off the pills one by one until it stops. The second one is that I may have bad headaches that won't go away. I get rid of the headaches the same way.
   The swelling in my feet came back again and now it is in both feet. My clinic seems to feel that the edema and the psoriasis are aggravating each other and causing the swelling. My ankles are very swollen and I am wearing my house slippers to work. My dermatologist looked at my latest outbreak and agreed with what the doctors at the clinic had to say. He said that what is probably happening is the blood is only flowing so far down my legs and then backing up and the water is accumulating in my lower legs. All I know is that it's uncomfortable.
   In other news, the Bells Palsy is starting to get a little better. I notice it mostly when I sleep because I drool. Plus when I talk I still slur my speech. It is the weirdest thing ever to feel your face all scrunched up like this.

   The girls just got out of school this week. The oldest got honorable mentions in the Kiwanis Club's terrific kid award, a Presidential certificate and medal for Academic Excellence, A certificate in Language Arts and received another certificate for highest GPA average between 3.8 and 4.0. along with 9 others. She had straight A's this last quarter. Pretty darn awesome.
   Aly's school didn't have all the awards because she just graduated from 7th grade, but she also received A's and one A minus. I am very proud of the two of them.

   That is all.