Clinging to summertime

If you're familiar with weather in Ohio, you're aware that there can be 30 degree differences in a day. Last night the low was predicted to be 48 while today's high is to be 84 with temps only making it back down to 70 tonight. That means the kids begin to freeze at the bus stop in the morning while determinedly wearing shorts and sandals that they know they'll want to be doing recess in. Layers, layers, layers.

However, the afternoons have been just about perfect, so we sneaked in some R&R this weekend.

Someone hijacked my hammock. I spent a little bit of time fully equipped to stay for an extended period, but the middle child took advantage of a "move your feet, lose your seat" moment and I didn't have the heart to bump him back out when I saw him cocooned in, bookworming. I brought out snacks instead.

A smaller boy was in and out of his own hammock like a bumblebee dipping in and out of blossoms, therefore I didn't snag any photos of him. I loved that they were both reading and in the fresh air instead of on screens under artificial light. It's already getting dark seemingly much earlier, so I hope to take advantage of every drop of sun that fall bestows on us!

Shenanigans

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Happy one year flat-iversary to me!

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day

I'd like to say that Liam takes breakfast seriously, but if you've ever been in the tri-state area when he's supposed to be eating breakfast, you'd more often hear my voice reminding him to eat than you'd actually hear him chewing. I suppose I should be grateful as I hate hearing the sound of chewing. Licking is even worse. 

Anyway, Liam does however take the making of breakfast very seriously. He loves weekends so he can putter about in his robe (and sometimes hairnet, of his own volition, don't ask) and whip up pancakes and French toast and his favorite meat, bacon. An added bonus is that PaPa gave us his old griddle; you'd have thought we'd handed Liam the moon. 

                                          

At least we know that once he's out into the real world he won't starve to death when there are breakfast ingredients at hand. Dinner is a different story, but one thing at a time. 

Ist not none fiction

No, our youngest has not begun taking German lessons, though that's not a bad idea. We are back in the throes of school and someone is having a rougher-than-expected time remembering to submit fourth grade level work. This is a copy of the weekly language arts expectations:

This is what the stinkwad tried to get away with. He's supposed to write three to five sentences, with corresponding capital letters, punctuation, the usual requirements. He thought he'd work the system. He chose the box that instructs, "If your book is non-fiction write three facts you learned."

To which he responded, "ist not none fiction" in case you can't read it because it's sideways. What he meant was "It's not nonfiction." He figured he then didn't have to write any more. What am I going to do with this child?

End of summer visitors

For those of you reaching for the pumpkin spice, you can just cut that out. Until next Sunday night, it is still officially summer. 

I was stealthy and got close to a groundhog who had his back to me, contentedly munching away on our apples out back. He wasn't quite sure what to do when he did figure out I was there, haha!

Pap came with his dog, Precious, to celebrate his 76th birthday. We love having both of them around. Pap gets into mischief with Dada while Precious helps wear Bosley out. Everybody wins! Except Pap, who then ends up in the doghouse...

I told Aunt Chris we were borrowing her monsoon. We received warnings on our home phone and cell phones about "severe weather alert" and "severe thunderstorms in your area" and sure enough, it came down pretty hard for about two minutes. 

Then the sun showed up again and I scurried outside because I just knew there'd be a great chance for a rainbow, and I was right! Woohoo!

And then it rained some more.

We decided to take off with an idea our friends Randy and Jess had success from and started Friday Night Games to kick off the fall season for small groups. We want to be a fun, safe place for kids of all ages to hang out, especially the ones who aren't interested in sitting through football games. Two families came over to play with us so we got some Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan action along with snacks and fellowship. I should have taken pictures...

Anyway, bring your favorite games to Lalaith Havens at 6:30 on Friday nights. Or you can play some of ours. Or both. Just come play with us!

Then the almost full moon came out in all its gorgeousness.

Sunday we had to almost call the fire department over Pap's candles...

We had a chuckle over Pap being the one on the smartphone while both the boys were reading actual books. Don't despair for those Generation Z kids; they're better than you hear.

Happy birthday, Pap! We're glad you came to see us and that you're home safe, too. 

Everybody enjoy your last few days of summer!

For those keeping score

Last week I had some milestones that I'd like to share. I hit Day 100 of Nerlynx, the med I'm taking for 365 days that is supposed to decrease the chance of cancer recurrence. My body is acclimating well (though those first 50+ days had me very glad for my BFF Imodium) and I haven't needed any Imodium at all for about 2 weeks now. I've weaned down from 2-3 daily to one a day to now none! Woohoo!

Secondly, I got my port out! I'm no longer bionic. I'd been a bit nervous about getting it out as my surgeon said it's just done in an office visit. I quipped to a friend, "what is it, like a "here, bite this. *snip* *slurp* *slap a bandaid on and boot me out the door* kind of thing?" She laughed and said, "this isn't the Wild West!"

Except, it kind of was!

When I got to the appointment, my surgeon came in and made a funny face when I asked how things were going. "I've been here five months and had hoped to have things a little more to my liking... At my former practice (where I'd been seeing him) I had everything I needed and just the way I wanted it. I wasn't aware we were doing this today. We can still do it, but they don't have these rooms equipped the way the last place was, so someone from the OR is coming with everything we'll need and we can just kind of MacGyver it."

I was fervently grateful my sweet husband wasn't in the room. Not that he couldn't have handled it, but I'm glad I didn't have to talk him down and convince him that I'd be okay. Haha! "Okay, let's go for it!"

Sure enough, a gal from the OR came in with a metal box. They unfolded one of those blue, thick paper towel-ish papers and draped me with it. He cut a out a space to work and swapped disinfectant all over me. It took more numbing stuff than he expected to get me where I couldn't feel the needle poking me, but then it was smooth sailing where he sliced an incision, pulled out the port (which was way longer than I thought, and didn't look at all like it had been inside me for 15 months), and stitched me shut again. I confessed to the young woman that I had grilled him while under general anesthesia when he was placing the port. He added, "there were a lot of questions." Too bad I don't remember even seeing him in the room, but oh well. He also shared with her that he'd had an attending who taught that if you (a surgeon) take good care with your stitching that you shouldn't need steri-strips or tape or whatever, and that he internalized that. I do have beautiful, clean incisions and scars from his work, I'll grant him that.

So all in all, I chatted them up (naturally) throughout the procedure, giggled when he cut a bandage down from "massive" and walked out to the waiting room where my Mommee was waiting for me. I'm glad I'd made the conscious choice to not obsess over how bad the procedure was going to be, and I'm glad that I got to help keep his surgical skills sharp by his having the opportunity to improvise. Ha! He will check in with me in the spring but foresees no issues.

I had a follow up appointment with my oncologist the following week. She said my white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets, and tumor markers were all "perfect" and that I was doing "fantastic" and that I was the icing on her morning. She plans to see me back just before Thanksgiving but is thrilled that I'm doing so well and also expects no problems. My PET scan results were clear and she felt nothing out of the ordinary during my physical exam. 

Long story short, thanks for over a year of prayers and support and cards and love, you guys. Thank you for being part of my medical adventure. A friend was asking me if I'd learned anything throughout this experience and I told her that I felt like I'd learned how loved I am. That must sound incredibly weird; that I figured out I'm loved by getting cancer? Yes. I've had people come out of the woodwork to bring meals, take me to appointments, mail cards and packages, send flowers, and pray for me. Some of them I'll never even get a chance to meet. Some I don't even know about! That's what's crazy- that when you pray for someone you can help alter their circumstances for the better and they may never even know you were a part of it. What a fabulous thing! So thank you, all of you, so very much from me and mine. We are grateful for your interventions and for God's faithfulness.

You know what else? You are every bit as loved as I am!