Fluid fugazi and Fireballs

 My oncologist let me delay my third chemo so that I could fully enjoy Thanksgiving. Enjoy it I did! I delighted in everything tasting the way it should. You know that line from "Into The Woods" about "and there was far too much food..."- well, that was surely us. And a lot of America, I bet!

Last week I went in for pre-travel fluids so I'd be well hydrated and plumped up, I guess, haha. On the drive there, I figured, "everything's still tasting right and I don't have any mouth sores yet... let's try a Fireball!" Imagine my delight when I didn't breathe fire and enjoyed my candy while driving! Wahoooooo!

Upon arrival, the nurse was cheerful and we were discussing Thanksgiving plans with family before she grumbled about my port being a stinker. Apparently sometimes fluids can go IN but drawing blood OUT doesn't work, and since both parts of that are important, she had to call someone from the lab to come stick my arm instead. No big, and apparently I was hydrated enough that she got it on the first try, mercifully (especially as I hadn't been thinking about drinking, assuming they'd access my port)! However, I wasn't super thrilled. The entire point of a port is to save my arm veins- no touchie! Grrr!

An option she gave was to administer a blood thinner and then she would check the port every half hour for up to two hours to see if the blood thinner was doing its job. Or we could skip it and just have the lab do it. I went for the second option as I've never had blood thinners and have no idea what they'd do to me, especially right before heading out of town for the holiday. Not It, thanks.

So if all y'all are still praying, please mention that all involved parties would love for the port to do it's darn job (both parts) from here on out. Thanks!

July Fourth

                           Happy birthday, America! 

We've been in our "new" home for almost two years now, but this was the first year we've stuck around for their fireworks show. We had a good time. The best part about living where it's flat, besides the fact that you have a whole lot of sky, is that there really isn't a bad seat in the house when it comes to fireworks. There are plenty of choice spots to spread out and goof off:

The shenanigans began after a gorgeous sunset. Dada introduced the kids to poppers. Damon was a little bit apprehensive, but it quickly turned into delight. Liam, not surprisingly as he loves anything that has to do with noise and surprise, took to them right away. The second picture was especially funny as that particular popper didn't go off the first OR second times he tried and that just astounded him. Damon's did, hehe!

The show certainly didn't disappoint. The neighboring towns were celebrating their bicentennials so I'm sure their fireworks were probably above and beyond, but ours were very satisfying. I took plenty of pictures but figured you'd get the general idea from the collage above. Liam commentated the entire show and was shushed by Carrie more than once. 

Dada had pointed the car facing the road for a quick getaway, but he was persuaded to stick around and let the shenanigans continue instead of beating the band outta there. 

Up next were the sparklers.

Again, Damon was a bit unsure at the beginning as you can see from his stance as Dada lights his sparkler. However, the inherent magic of sparklers is how they win everyone over, and soon enough he was sparklering (new word, everybody) like a pro!

I told them, "stand together and face me." Well, you can see how that turned out. No Christmas card pictures here...

Happy Fourth of July!