Friday, December 31, 2010

Christmas is past...

So much life has been happening around here that little blogging has occurred!  We are having a wonderful Christmas with Ben, Elsa, Tim, Nikki and Emma all here. Here are a few glimpses:

Ben and Dave help finish off bean bags for Tim's Cornhole Toss game.  I had to capture them sitting together and sewing...

I completed these elephants for Emma, and she liked them!
I also completed this quilt for my sister, a stained-glass crazy quilt:


Elsa completed Emma's first pair of running shoes:


And they look adorable on Emma:


And here we are on Christmas Eve at church.  We enjoyed singing "Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light" together, and also Ben and Elsa and I sang Ben's arrangement of Coventry Carol. 


Monday, December 20, 2010

An irritating health update

I had decided to skip health updates and keep posting Christmas pictures this week- much more fun in my opinion.  But I had an irritating medical day, and thus, have to whine-er-share about it.

To make a longer story fairly short, I am iron anemic-- enough so that the oncologist is insisting on me taking 5 treatments of IV iron, and then follow up with tons of tests in the new year.  That is all irritating enough.  But today was to be my first iron infusion.  Dave and I showed up at the ATU (Ambulatory Treatment Unit- the place they give chemotherapy) today for my appointment.  They started my IV, and gave me lunch, then discovered that the hospital did not have the medicine I needed. Now, isn't that irritating?  So, instead of taking Elsa to Santa Fe tomorrow, i'll be going back to the hospital, and getting another IV.  And Did I mention I need 5 treatments, and can only have needles in one arm?  Irritating.

My sweet husband, a faithful man, and especially good at finding silver linings in gray clouds, pointed out that we hadn't had a chemotherapy lunch date in many years.  That made me laugh.  Then he reminded me that God does all things well, and wanted me back there the next day, so maybe I should release the anger, and go with God's plan.  Did I mention he is both godly and wise? 

So tomorrow I return.  At least I know now that they will feed me lunch.  And then I'll return on Thursday, and three more times in the coming weeks. I would appreciate your prayers that things would go off without a hitch, and that this iron boost would get my blood levels where they need to be, and that I would feel improvement because of them.  And if that's not enough to ask for, please ask the Lord that I would tolerate the treatments well, and that we would uncoiver the problem quickly and easily.

Thank you, Gentle Readers, both for letting my whine, and for lifting me in prayer!

Christmases past... 1984




Friday, December 17, 2010

Christmases past...

A high school choir concert, Loveland Hurst High School, Loveland, Ohio, sometime in the mid 1970's.  Yes, I am the one in the striped scarf and hat.