Merry Christmas 2018

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

                            


Greetings everyone,
This past year has been a very different kind.  In July I (Anna) was diagnosed with DCIS Breast Cancer.  Through the biopsy, two excisions, MRI and a third excision and more found in each excision, Kevin and I discussed the desired treatment of radiation and hormone replacement therapy and decided that neither of them would be the best choice for the long run.  My doctor talked with us and agreed to watch and see if more should show up on a future mammogram.  I also decided to seek out a traditional in which I went and was treated.  I feel better and happier than I have in years! 

Kevin went out to work in Hardy, VA.  He left in August, was there for about three weeks, was laid off and called back to work for September 10. Because of our decision for Kev to stay working, my sister Paula, came to be with me and took me to almost all of my treatments.  I have been termed 'Cancer Free' after the last excision, even tho they found more DCIS, the margin was not what they wanted, however neither one of us wanted to keep chasing the margin lines.

Kev spent some time up in Canada, with Chad this spring/summer and really enJOYed helping out and most of all, fishing.  Now that he is laid off, he hopes to get up there again!

Below are some images of our tree and to the two newest additions to our family...as our two fur babies, Cedar and Zuni, are starting to show signs of their age, we figured with a new brother and sister, life would be so much better. At least they could entertain each other lol!

***edit***
Originally, we only wanted one puppy, a male.  There were two left, a male and a female. My cousin Mark's wife Mary, fell in love with the girl.  We told her that if Mark was receptive, she could have the male, if not, we would keep her and give her a good home...on Christmas day, when little Ode put her paws on Mark and he scooped her up, it was an instant bond...we gifted the little girl to her new home and the decision couldn't have been better!  

Ode is the only fur baby and is really excelling at learning tricks!  

Little Migizi is now playing and rough housing with Cedar quite well and Zuni has now started to take a little interest.  They all love to go outside together and run around...we are grateful. 
***

We are wishing you all a wonder filled holiday season...smile, because you can and the world really does need it.

With much love and gratitude, Kevin, Anna, Cedar, Zuni, Migizi and Ode.

                                                     

10 Rules for Being Human

                                   

Geraldine Ann Dresser - Cline/Martineau

Here is fuel for thought...these are things my mother showed me in her life through a variety of ways...my father was the teacher of a few as well. I actually believe them all to be true...What are your thoughts? 

10 Rules for Being Human

from “If Life is a Game, these are the Rules”

by Dr Cherie Carter-Scott

 1)    You will receive a body. You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

 2)    You will be presented with lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called ‘life.’ Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

  

3)    There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.

  

4)    A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.

  

5)    Learning does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

  

6)    ‘There’ is no better than ‘here’. When your ‘there’ has become a ‘here,’ you will simply obtain a ‘there’ that will look better to you than your present ‘here’.

  

7)    Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

  

8)    What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

  

9)    Your answers lie inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

  

10) You will forget all of this at birth. You can remember it if you want by unravelling the double helix of inner knowing.

Merry Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas ~ Happy New Year!!!

This year has been one of many changes…Kevin is still working as an Inspector and spends a lot of his time out of town working.  This past year he worked in three states.  It is very nice to have him home for a while!

I decided to make some bigger changes in my life as well…I started working at the Family Dollar Store, here in Iron River.  I helped to build the store from the floor up, then was a cashier there.  I had also applied for the Business Clerk position at the Red Cliff Community Health Center, on the Reservation in Red Cliff.  I got that job as well and work T-W-TH.  I told them at FD that I could only work F-S-S-M and I have not been called back…so I guess I am not employed there anymore lol!  I really enJOY the Business Clerk position and am learning all kinds of new things…and LOTS about credentialing providers. We are only one of four in the country that serves not just the Red Cliff Reservation community, we also serve ALL native people, enrolled or not, AND we serve the non-native community as well.  It is great to watch the Health Center grow.

I have let the portrait/wedding/people kind of pictures go from my Misty Pine Photography business go.  I still do nature, landscape, flowers and such, just taking people pics for family and close friends…just tired of some of the drama.  The stress caused this past summer caused me to get rid of that which was stressing me out…I feel so much better and am much happier!

This past summer/late fall has blessed us with running water and a working sanitary system!  I know, SURPRISE right!!!!  It is so nice to not have to haul water…we also got new windows and sliding door along with insulation and a new tin roof for our addition…sure is nice and cozy in there now!!!

We hosted Thanksgiving here in our new addition with my brother Farmer (Arthur), sister Paula, longtime family friend, Gene Baer and us.  It was the first holiday in many, many years where we didn’t have a huge house full of folks…it was wonderful to be able to actually sit and listen to Gene tell stories of his worldly travels and some the people he painted for and sights that caused him to stop, take out his painting materials and create a masterpiece.  He gifted Kevin and me with a wonderful oil painting he created of a mountainous autumn scene.  We will treasure that for all time.

We said good-bye to several friends and some family members this past year as well…some with extremely memorable moments and passing’s that we will cherish…sending loving prayers out to my cousin Caroline’s family…this is their first year without their mom/grandma/aunt/cousin/friend…

May the 2016 season bring you lots of good health, love, joy, forgiveness and peace ~ the change we seek in the world!

Many blessings, Kevin and Anna

~  Cedar and Zuni too

Cedar hates his picture taken

Zuni thinks he is a lap-dog

I will NOT look!!!  hehehe Cedar and Zuni

While I am at work, Kevin plays with my camera...

Here is my Silly~Santa!

Thanksgiving...

HAPPY THANKS~GIVING!

At our home, Thanksgiving has always been a time to be thankful...for food, family, friends, the true fruits of our lives...well, this has me thinking about a lot of things.  I had paragraphs of things to say, thanks to this one and to that one, for this and that...This year, I am going to share my thanks.

My parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and on, are the ones who in combination, have passed on the genes that I wear.  The more immediate being my parents...growing up our house was always full.  Every holiday our table was filled with family, friends, extended family...all taking part in the merry making memories.  Sometimes we had so many people that we needed every room in the house and on the porch to fit us all.  The kids were usually mixed in with the adults as the parents didn't believe in a "kids" table.   Laughter was the loudest talk amongst the adults and kids...usually there was an adult, my dad or one of his brothers who would be chasing the kids around, playing tag, playing frisbee, hide and seek, cards or any other game of choice...

I grew up with my dad always saying, "The good Lord shall provide!" and by goodness, we always had enough.  Dad walked on early in his life at 51, I was two months from 16.  Life changed drastically.  However, the holiday's did not...every one was met with many familiar faces and always a new one or two...some became return eaters and some moved on to their own homes with their own families and new traditions.  I am truly, deeply full of thanks for my father and the lessons I learned from him and his family.

One of the Thanksgiving's after dad walked on...was at the Trailer home my mom rented from Dwayne and Doris Linden...it was a lean year and a small basket from the church with a turkey and the fixins for the meal...so we had one pumpkin pie to be divided between mom, my brother Tom, his wife Janette, their three boys, Gerry, Jeff and Tommy,  Kevin and myself.  My mother was sitting in front of the kitchen window, to her left was, Janette, Tom, myself, Kevin, Gerry, Jeff and Tommy being the closest to grandma Gerry (my mom).  We had just finished with a spectacular meal put on by my mom.  Tom passes the Reddi wip to me, I used it and pass it to Kevin.  Tom says, 'Kevin, I will give you my piece of pie if you can hit ma with that."
Kevin shakes it, sprays my mom and hits her face and the window behind her.

Silence.  The boys start to giggle, their parents scold them to be quiet, mom reaches up to wipe her glasses in that classic way that only comedy on TV can do.  Immediately I start to laugh, Kevin reaches over and grabs Tom's piece of pie, mom starts to laugh, the boys fall on the floor laughing and the day goes down as one of the most memorable gatherings ever!  We laughed about that every time the story was told...we still laugh, even tho mom has joined my dad on the other side...I can still see her face and hear her laughter...

I chose the picture at the top of the page in honor of my mother, father, family and laughter...it is because of the way I was raised, and a little help from my mother herself from the other side, that brought even more family together. It was her desire to locate and have a relationship with her grandchildren and for them to meet their siblings that they didn't know and for cousins to meet and to form long lasting relationships.  She asked me if we couldn't find them before she walked on, if I would be sure to continue the search after and to be sure they met.  The year she walked on, within six months, I found all of them.  Every time some searching mechanism worked out, I could hear her giggle next to me.  A year after we buried her, we all gathered at our home and great relationships were made.  Our family truly grew and the laughter multiplied by a hundred!  That picture of the dreamcatcher tattoo is to represent her dream, the bear is to represent family and the feathers are for our prayers of love and thanks to always go to the Creator of all that is...As mom said, I continued to search for my sisters.  Within a year after the gathering, through a string of interesting events, Teresa, my sister Bonnie's daughter found me.  Through this meeting, I was able to connect with Bonnie and once Teresa supplied the last name for my sister Paula, and a location, I was on facebook again and found Paula...my family grew again and the laughter is now even ten fold...

For me, I am so very, very thank~full and grateful for my family, friends, extended family and our fur kids, Cedar and Zuni...and those that have walked on to the Rainbow Bridge to wait for us there. Our time here is so very short. I sit here writing this and think...wow! I am 50!  Where has the time gone? Makes me even more grateful for those family lessons early in life...

Live, Love, Laugh and most of all, enJOY every second you can spend with your family.  May you all be blessed with peace, love, and joy...eat lots of feast food, share your good fortune because the Good Lord shall provide enough for you and to share.

Kevin ate Tom's piece of pie the whole time he was saying, "I didn't mean it..."  LOL "I did" was Kevin's reply...

A few family pics to share...some I know/knew and some I never met...

Geraldine "Gerry" Dresser~Martineau & Earl "Marty" Martineau

Bob and Vicki Cline

Aunt Sis, Jonathan and Aunt JoAnn

Brothers Clem, Bugsy, Paul, Wally and sister JoAnn (Martineau siblings)

siblings: Bobby, Farmer and Donny Cline and Anna (me)

Sister Bonnie, Elsie Martineau (Bonnie and Paula's mom), Paula and Teresa

Paula, Teresa, Anna & Bonnie

siblings, Farmer, Tom (cline) Anna Martineau, Don (Cline)