Don’t you just LOVE the sunrises we have up here? (Even if it comes at 9:28am?!) Hey, it means we have about about 9 hours of sunlight, so you don’t see US complaining!!
The website and booksite and new email address are all up and running:                        Loose Screws and Skinned Knees:  www.caretuk.com          Book info/orders                    My new email address is:  [email protected]   (Mail from the old account will get forwarded, but the new one is easier to remember!)                                                  Website/blog: www.carescorner.net (but you already know that or you wouldn’t be READING this!!)
Off  and running to go stack some firewood and do some snowmachinging with Bill!       Catch you later!

What better way than to celebrate all the GREAT news we received this week – from being cancer free right now, to the book is on the way, the blog is up, the website is working and we got a wonderful fresh dump of snowmachining snow than to run VICTORY LAPS around the property/front yard and out to Care’s Corner. Wish you were here to ride as my passenger!!

Many of you know I share a special friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada….not only does our friendship go back a couple of decades to the first Family Retreat at Cannon Beach, OR,  (check out Joni’s site a www.joniandfriends.org ) and  we’ve had fun working together over the years, but Joni and I have both been battling cancer together.  Great news lately brought out a flotilla of pink ducks in her fountain at work to celebrate a clear PET scan showing NO cancer!!
Celebrating on Frozen Chozen Pond
 I told Joni’s and her co-worker Francie (my “Rose Bud”dy), that when I get MY good news, we’d be on Frozen Chozen Pond out at Care’s Corner and there wouldn’t be ducks but puffins and penguins! So: here you go!! And I even found Joni a purple (the cancer SURVIVOR’S color!) duck to celebrate!! So here’s to you, my chemo companion and our bundles of friends and prayer partners!

Well, it’s S.O.S.D.D. around here! What does THAT mean? (Same old stuff, different day!) It means it’s there’s never a dull moment! Snaffu’s and glitches with shipping the book up to Alaska seem to be resolving. It won’t be the ‘usual 3-5 days’ but more like 10 days, as it will be trucked/shipped and then deliverd by Feb. 1/2. The website should be up by Jan.27th – http://www.caretuk.com which is where you can get the book, available Feb 1. So you know how to pray!!
We have GREAT NEWS! No new active cancer per the CT! We don’t have the tumor count back yet, but I will know on Tuesday and will let you know. I am fighting strep and upper respiratory bug right now, so that’s why you haven’t heard from me.
The attached photo are from 2 days ago. Thought you’d like to see snow feathers – the are about the size of a nickel in real life. And, a photo of Kula, our missions mutt, who we are keeping for Bill’s boss who has been in Peru on a missions trip for 2 years. We think that even when they come back we will ‘share’ Kula. She has been a real blessing for me and was my side chemo-companion. As I was reeling and reefing the last couple days Kula stayed by my side. I’ll tell you more of Kula’s story later – you’ll love it!! We took the photos the one day I could rally and take a walk to Care’s Corner to thank God for the book being done and on it’s way. Care’s Corner is where I go to “be still, and KNOW”…..so with that in mind, we know ALL things will work out, and the book will be here in God’s time.
I was interviewed for 2 publications that will come out on Jan. 27th and will be part of a 20 page glossy insert about the American Cancer Society. They gave me 2 pages – what a humbling gift to promote the book! It will be in the Anchorage Press and Frontiersman. The 2nd is for the Alaska Journal of Commerce – not sure when THAT comes out, but I’ll keep you posted.
Stay warm this weekend! We finally got 4” of new snow and warmed up above zero!! Yipee!! No more skate-walking on ice!

One of our infamous family sayings is “The call never changed, the place just did.” This saying came into being after we realized that our life dream (and acceptance) of being on the long-term foreign mission field would not be realized due to medical, rehab and family issues. After I had been hit by a drunk driver, the various medical challenges, opportunities of adding to our family through adoption plus other work opportunities, we realized that, OK, so the call never changed, but the place did……
What does that mean – “the place did”. In my husbands clear and consice words: it means the place is wherever the end of our hand is. And WOW!! The places those ‘end of the hand’ experiences have taken us!!
The end of your hand. Where is that for you? Not just as a New Year’s resolution, but as a daily committment to what you believe and who you are. Will it mean you will spend more time with what REALLY matters? And just what DOES really matter to you. Have you spent time thinking about that?
I know what really matters for me…..my faith, my family, my friends, and yes, even fun. It means that each day is a Matthew 6 day for me…taking one day at a time, making choices to consciously look at the end of my hand as a reminder of the tenents I believe God is asking me to be “at the end of my hand.” 
I hope you will check back from time to time on this blog to see where ‘the end of my hand’ takes me this year, and that you will feel free to leave comments for me as to where ‘the end of your hand’ takes YOU!! It’s a great day to make a difference in this world that is changing before our eyes. It will be exciting to see the differences we EACH make the choice to make this an amazing and incredible adventure! At the end of your hand!!