I received this story in my email today. It still shocks me that my daughter has ROHHAD. It's a horrible disease that destroys a child's life. There is no cure. Most doctors, if they take some time to learn about it, pass you around until some specialist says yes, they'll take you. Our daughter, Haven, is now 19 and has been living with this for almost 17 years. She was also diagnosed with Neuroblastoma Cancer, which is how we even found out about her ROHHAD. She's done experimental treatments to stop the progression. We believe it has helped tremendously but ultimately there is no stopp ..read more

 A super HAPPY BIRTHDAY happening this week! Great Grandma (GiGi) Bist is turning 100!!!!  We're so excited to celebrate such an amazing birthday. ? We wish we could visit. It's been so long!  I have photos from our visit right after Weston was born.  Haven and GiGi.  2012 Baby Weston ? Little miss Rohnin and even Deezy got to join in on the fun.  We love you Grandma!  We hope you have a wonderful birthday  ..read more

Kevin Barkley 1974 - 2021 Wow. I never expected to receive the phone call I received on Valentines Day morning. Your sister called me, I've never talked to her in my life.  Instantly I felt my heart being ripped out. Every word was a blur after she said you passed away.  But I can still see you smiling and laughing when I close my eyes. There is no way you can be gone. A song in the grocery store made me stop and smile because I felt it was you. We had just talked last week. We were talking about Kendall being a mom, you wanting to make sure her husband knows he's lucky, and that o ..read more

 So....with the new mindset of not relying on stores (for everything) and an overabundance of eggs we started pickling. We pickle everything now....onions, pickles, eggs....as much as we can. Well...then pickling led to sprouting. Now I sprouting everything. It started as a way to give the chickens healthy treats.  Now we eat them with everything. The below was my first go at lentil sprouts.   When you sprout lentils the phenolic content  increases by a whopping 122%. Phenolic compounds are a group of antioxidant plant compounds that may provide anti-cancer, ant ..read more

 COVID-19 made 2020 almost unbearable.   Almost.  Remington came to live with us right before my birthday.  My niece was born!  Isn't she a beauty.  Then...I became a chicken mom.  Seriously. No one would have ever thought I'd love and snuggle chickens. Not even me. I was terrified of them when we first got them. No clue what we were doing.  We went to Cal Ranch for dog food and bam...I suddenly have 6 baby chicks. We talked with the guy at Cal Ranch for a very long time. I wanted nice chickens. I got two Sapphire Gems, two Americaunas, and two Bu ..read more

  Couldn't say this any better. After 2 1/2 years of trying to find out what is wrong with my body I was being kept a prisoner by pain. At 27 I was diagnosed with endometriosis. I fought my body to have three kids. At 42 the endometriosis was raging with tumors all over my ovaries yet I wanted to stay a "woman" so I refused treatment. At 43 I was fully in menopause and now suffering more with endo and tumors. So at 44 in 2020 I had a full hysterectomy to eliminate it all and keep cancer away. Then a few months after covid hit I was again struck with debilitating pain like a wildfire it ..read more

Before we could have the surgery on her spine we had to have a sleep study to make sure she was completely ready for surgery and she could handle being put under.  Of course getting ready for a sleep study is always a major process ..read more

In June 2020 I started feeling "odd" and began my journey of feeling nauseous every time I ate.  Then around August noticed my blood pressure which had all my life been around 110/70 was now at 147/105 pretty consistently.  I started having sharp pains in my back and shoulder/elbow joint of my right arm.  Slowly everything started multiplying.   By October I was throwing up "nothing" at least twice/three times a day every single day.  My PCP was trying to help me figure out everything.  I went on Olmasartan for my blood pressure only to end up in the urgent c ..read more

So it's been a while since I updated this thing.  Since October 2015 Haven did have surgery.  She had surgery to removed the tumor in her abdomen.   We ultimately found out that it was not another Neuroblastoma tumor - which made us extremely happy.  We did find out that her reproductive organs had somehow floated up out of place and that is actually what had the tumor on it.  So the tumor was removed and she made a nice recovery from that.  We were very lucky on this one ..read more

First. I have to say this is an amazingly beautiful couple.  We are so happy to be able to see them and watch their family grow. Max and Kendall you are absolutely astonishing.  Then to find out you two were expecting.  Aaahhh.  Now to the most wonderful event that happened in 2020 - the birth of our granddaughter Lena Willow. Wow. Such a beautiful, precious baby.  Kendall and Max had baby Lena on December 17. What a perfect present for mom and dad. Omg. She is just the cutest baby ever.   Every photo of this angel is truly adorable. She has the ..read more