So, there’s this thing going on with my 3-year-old grandson Noah. He has his Mom take a photo of him and then text it to me. Then I send him a photo back. The thing that has captured his interest lately is signs – not just plain old signs, but signs that have figures drawn on them so he can “read” them. It started with this one.

Noah: “Send this to Grandma Heidi”

This was my response.

As I thought about it, I was sure I could find a better sign than a fire truck, so the next day I recruited Mom to drive up to Blue Mountain with me to find a bear sign. We couldn't find any bear signs up Blue Mountain, but we did get this just at dusk.

We both decided that we really needed a bear sign for Noah and that the best place to find one was Pattee Canyon. If you know my Mom, you know she makes lists of things she’s going to do the next day. As I looked on her list that was printed on the back of an envelope, there at the top of the list was, “10:00 – Pattee Canyon, find bear sign”.

The next morning, off we went to Pattee Canyon to find a bear sign. We left at 10:00 and should have been back by 11:30 at the latest, but as we arrived home at 7:00 p.m. we chatted about how we are going to drive all over Montana taking photos of signs and then compile a book entitled Signs of Montana. This all started with sending sign photos to Noah and now we have several road trips planned when she starts feeling better.

We drove all the way through Pattee Canyon and then on to Rock Creek in search of a bear sign. We drove all the way out on Rock Creek road until the road was getting too narrow for the big old Buick. We finally found a bear sign. We took lots of sign photos that I will send to Noah at a rate of one per day to make them last until we can capture more signs. Here is a preview of our upcoming book and a glimpse of what our day entailed:

I am so glad we had that fun ride on Monday because Tuesday brought us the news that Mom will be having her surgery on Friday for sure. Mom is ready to get this done and start the healing process so we can be out driving the back roads of Western Montana again.

The surgery will be a “colon resection”. She will have about a third of her colon removed. The section being removed is called the ascending colon and is on her right side. Mom said, “The way Dr. Richards explained it makes it sound so easy.”

I hope that is the case. Basically, he will take out the section containing the cancer and sew the end of the small intestine to the new end of the colon.

The surgery is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on Friday, October 17. She was so excited to hear she could eat until midnight on the night before. She thought she couldn’t eat all day, so this was an unexpected pleasure. She hasn’t decided what she will eat on Thursday, but in the running are things from The Mustard Seed, Jakers and the Bucksnort Café up in Evaro. (I’m for the Bucksnort because we should see some good signs up by Evaro.)

The expected hospital stay is 7 days. She should be able to come home after that. However, it is possible she will transition out of the hospital through The Village Health Care Center for a short time. Mom is determined to come straight home from the hospital because Zeb and Megan will be arriving from Bellingham and Emily and Ella will be arriving from Cleveland on the 24^th. Mom will be meeting this great-grandchild for the first time. Thank you to Holly Hurst for flying out to Cleveland from Bountiful to wrangle Dan and Emily’s three very active little boys so Emily and Ella can come to Montana.

Through information derived from the surgery, the doctor will determine what stage the cancer is and if the lymph system is involved. Depending on this information, it will be determined whether she will also have chemo therapy.

Mom remains calm through this whole process. There has been much poking and prodding going on and she is ready for the surgery. She is ready for chemo. She is just plain ready. She wants to get on with this because after all, we have photos to take all over Montana and Hannah and Xavier will be welcoming a little boy into their family at the end of the year, so that is another great grandchild she has yet to meet and she still needs to buy curtains for her apartment. So, so many things to do.

And again, I ask for your thoughts and prayers.