Great Marine Corp Ball

Had a suite at the Marriott (thanks Lynda) with and ocean view, 2 rooms etc. Totally fun night!

Fantastic Halloween Party- Casa Westcott

Better late than never! The Montgomery's, The Gamble's and us co-hosted a great Halloween party. Already planning for next year. Maybe we should have it somewhere else. Cleaning up while feeling a little rough is no fun.

A little story about stress during the holidays!

Just received this one from my friend Kim Carlson.....Awesome.....

Feeling a little stressed?????
>A Christmas Story for people having a bad day:

>When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not
produce toys as
>fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas
pressure.
>Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which
stressed Santa even more.
>When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them
were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven
knows where.
>Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards
cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.
>Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a
shot of rum.
>When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all
the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped
the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the
kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all
the straw off the end of the broom.
Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the
door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas
tree.
>The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this
a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to
stick it?
>And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the
Christmas tree.
>Not a lot of people know this

Had To Post This

My MIL was recently made honest woman....I asked her, "Lynda what is going to be your first dance song"? She says, "It's a secret, but we love the show True Blood". Isn't this great? LOVE IT!

Mi Gargola....hecho por mano por Salley

We took advantage of a long weekend to visit the central Andean region of Huaraz. Beautiful mountains, rain (haven't seen that in forever), snow and the prettiest colored lagoon water I have ever seen. We hiked up to a very impressive lagoon at approx. 15,000 feet with all the accompanying high altitude side effects. All told it was a great trip, but a bit more acclimatization would have been nice. One other occurance of note would be the family that jumped out of a combi (van type taxi) with their very own sheep. You don't see that everyday. I highly recommend this trek.

We threw Gracie a "Peruvian Style" birthday party for her 11th bday this year. Lots of people, bouncy for the kids, lots of food, loud music, cotton candy machine. A good time was had by all. We'll see what next year brings....

Iquitos and the Peruvian Amazon

Connie and Dave joined us for a trip to Iquitos and the Amazon. Heath travels to Iquitos on a monthly basis and says this was the only time that it was cool. We actually wore jackets. That said, the jungle did not disappoint. Mosquitos, piraunas, monkeys, sloths, blow darts, native dances and big bugs.


Floating cities on the Amazon


A home along the Amazon


Betty the sloth


Piranha fishing is FUN! We ate this little guy for dinner. They come out of the water looking for a fight.


Amazonian school



Sitting on the trunk/roots of a huge Ceiba tree


Great trip....will probably make another short trip there....

We're Back

5 months between posts! Que horible.......I am constantly telling myself that I won't fall behind concerning such important as "Blogging". I promise, I promise and I promise to be better from now on. Lots have happened in these past months. Now I just need to tell you about it. Be ready...

8 Years Today

I never really thought I would be able to say that it had been 8 years since I was diagnosed with cancer. I remember March 19, 2002 like it was yesterday. I am sure some of you have heard this story and you are going to hear it again. Bear with me.....You know how you sometimes you have a vague feeling that something could go wrong? Maybe not for yourself, but just something out of the ordinary. Well....I remember going for my mammogram appointment that particular Tuesday morning thinking to myself, "I wonder what women do when they get told they have breast cancer". So...I follow the mammogram tech, Deidre, into the testing room. She says to me (in a somewhat nasty tone), "So where is this lump of yours"? I replied, “I have no idea, no one told me I had a lump". All the while I am thinking..."Why don't you look at the chart and figure it out for yourself". Anyway...squish away, both sides and off she goes. Now, I have been in the biz for long enough to know when things are headed south. Well we were headed south as Deidre reentered the room and said, "Ok sweetheart, we are going to need to take some more views". Did she just call me sweetheart? Crap....this can't be good. I knew right then that I was going to find out what a woman does when she is told she has breast cancer. The radiologist told me he thought I had breast cancer that day. I saw my surgeon the day after and had my mastectomy the following day. Whew....We joke (in a somewhat macabre manner) that Heath got his MD and Oncology specialty in those following 48 hours. I think I was almost catatonic at that point and without Heath I might not have made it through those first few days. One bonus though...I did get out of jury duty...just so happens that the one of the town judges lived next door and he excused me. Another bright spot in this whole ordeal was that I really found out how many people loved me and would do anything to make my life easier.
Fast forward 8 years and many adventures later and I think I am doing pretty well. I think my general attitude is pretty good, though of late I could probably be a little more gracious and a lot more thankful. The farther one gets away from a life changing event the harder it seems to channel the good lessons one learned from said event. Instead of New Year’s resolutions I am doing March Musings. This is the best time of year for me to sort myself out, pull up my boot straps and remember that I was one of the lucky ones. I have a plastic container that I kept all my cancer stuff in and on my “Cancer-versary” I look through it, do some boo-hoo’ing, and then pack it away for the next year. One last thing…..I remember asking someone why I had to be the one with breast cancer. She said to me, “It was your turn”. That was something I could understand and it got me through some very rough times.

You Know You Have Had These Thoughts...

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN GUILTY OF LOOKING AT OTHERS YOUR OWN AGE AND THINKING, SURELY I CAN'T LOOK THAT OLD.

WELL . . . YOU'LL LOVE THIS ONE.

MY NAME IS ALICE , AND I WAS SITTING IN THE WAITING ROOM FOR MY FIRST APPOINTMENT WITH A NEW DENTIST.

I NOTICED HIS DDS DIPLOMA ON THE WALL, WHICH BORE HIS FULL NAME. SUDDENLY, I REMEMBERED A TALL, HANDSOME, DARK-HAIRED BOY WITH THE SAME NAME HAD BEEN IN MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS SOME 30-ODD YEARS AGO.

COULD HE BE THE SAME GUY THAT I HAD A SECRET CRUSH ON, WAY BACK THEN?

UPON SEEING HIM, HOWEVER, I QUICKLY DISCARDED ANY SUCH THOUGHT.

THIS BALDING, GRAY-HAIRED MAN WITH THE DEEPLY LINED FACE WAS WAY TOO OLD TO HAVE BEEN MY CLASSMATE.

AFTER HE EXAMINED MY TEETH, I ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ATTENDED MORGAN PARK HIGH SCHOOL ..

'YES. YES, I DID. I'M A MUSTANG,' HE GLEAMED WITH PRIDE.

WHEN DID YOU GRADUATE?' I ASKED.

HE ANSWERED, 'IN 1975. WHY DO YOU ASK?'

YOU WERE IN MY CLASS!', I EXCLAIMED.

HE LOOKED AT ME CLOSELY.

THEN, THAT UGLY, OLD, BALD, WRINKLED FACED, FAT-ASSED, GRAY-HAIRED, DECREPIT SON-OF-A-BITCH ASKED,

'WHAT DID YOU TEACH???

Cusco, Lake Titicaca and Arequipa with the Fam

It was a long time in the planning with a few ups and downs. The torrential rains of late January caused floods and mudslides to the point that Machu Picchu closed (for the very first time) and all of our train routes needed to be changed. Anyway, it all came together and we did southern Peru. We saw a ton, we drank more and we ate even more than that. We stimulated all of these economies with the amounts of money we spent. We took lots of pictures, did tons of talking, played some great cards and generally had an epic time. Muchas gracias a todo y hasta el proximo viaje.

Wow......pretty crazy.......earthquakes everywhere.....Haiti, Chili and Okinawa. I guess we left just in time. That said....we moved to Peru and it is definitely known for it's earthquakes.

What Would You Do?

"Of course I won't laugh," said the nurse.

"I'm a professional. In over twenty years I've never laughed at a patient." "Okay then, "said Fred, and he proceeded to drop his trousers. Revealing the tiniest 'man thingy' the nurse had ever seen. Length and width, it couldn't have been bigger than a AAA battery. Unable to control herself, the nurse started giggling, then fell to the floor laughing.

Ten minutes later she was able to struggle to her feet and regain her composure. "I am so sorry," she said. "I don't know what came over me. On my honour as a nurse and a lady, I promise it won't happen again. Now, tell me,what seems to be the problem? ...

"It's swollen," Fred replied.

She ran out of the room.....

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Oh my......I didn't realize I hadn't blogged at all in December. Well....I am going to do my best to catch everyone up on the Westcott happenings.



Over Veteran's Day weekend we took a trip to Trujillo in northern Peru. We visited some very interesting pre-Inca ruins. This is the God of the Moche people. He was called the "Beheader God". Human sacrafices included beheading, skinning and bodily mutilation. Sounds like a bad deal to me.....



The four of us went for a hike up this HUGE sand hill next to Huaca Luna. It looked steep before we began and it looked really steep while we were climbing. We made it about half way up before we turned back. It was actually dangerous and not just a Sunday stroll. Note to self...don't wear Keens while hiking in sand as they fill up with sand with every step.



Parque Reserva with Mom and Dad while they visited for the Christmas holiday.



Peruvian hairless dog vs. llama......Pachacamac, Lima, Peru



My empleada, Fidela, and her daughter Kiara. She allows me to do very little and still have a clean house and food on the table. It's a good gig....I wonder if I could include them in my household goods shipment when we PCS next time.



Paracas, Peru for lunch....on our way to Ica, Peru for the weekend. Enjoyed watching a Peruvian duo playing guitars and pan flutes sing "My Way" by Frank Sinatra.



Tacama winery Ica, Peru. We stayed at Las Dunas Hotel and it was great. Very relaxing. I would recommend it. The kids and I got to take a horse ride for an hour out on the sand dunes. The horses actually ran......Ouch....



My new thing....lighted holiday blocks. Dad and I had a great time making them. They made some great gifts. Get ready for next year.



2009's Christmas tree



Heath with his new charcoal starter. Apparently Peruvian charcoal doesn't want to burn very easily.



A very nice Christmas dinner.

Thanks for the great visit Mom and Dad.....we miss you and the house is quiet (well kind of...Garth and Grace are still here). See you in February for the "Southern Peru Trek".