A Marked Man...AGAIN!

Woody spent a good part of the morning at the radiologist's office. He got run through their machine getting lined up and marked for his upcoming radiation. He is now waiting for the radiologist office to call and set up his appointments. I spent the morning next door. Kathy and Nathan went to the hospital for her to pre-register. Getting closer and closer to "baby day!" I'm looking forward to meeting this new little one! We had school while their mother and father were away. Each of the children worked so hard and got a lot done. I came home had a bite of lunch and waited for Woody to get home. It was quite a long appointment...but he did say that a lot of the time was spent in their waiting room. After lunch, I headed to the sewing room and got underway with the next shirt. So Abigail now has a BIG sister shirt. So two down and four to go! I have the thread colors lined up for Joy's. I'm planning to get it sewn out as soon as I blog. We have had an interesting day without a sewer. The city is in the process of updating all the sewer lines in town. We got notified yesterday that we were not to wash clothes, dishes, bathe or shower, flush the potties excessively, etc. And, it was suggested that all drains (especially those not used often) have at least a bucket of water in them so smells wouldn't come into the house! All this was to take place between 8am and 6pm. They started working before 8am and left around 5:30pm. Glad that is over! And, at this point I don't smell any unwanted smells! When I go back downstairs I plan to load up the dishwasher with the mess of dishes that I used when preparing tonight's supper. Funny...something that you don't think about most days...like having sewer privileges...are really missed when they are taken away! Well, turning my chair around to get Joy's shirt ready to machine embroider!

Mid January...already!

Can you believe that it is already the 15th of January!?! I can't...time continues to fly! Today I got up and told myself that I was going to abandon the undecorating and work on "big brother" and "big sister" shirts. The baby is due January 31...so the due date is approaching fast...and Kathy usually has her babies about a week prior to her due date. I need to get going on these shirts! Well, I got going on the sewing, but got bogged down on the first shirt! But before lunch I did have Graham's finished...so one down and five to go (the others "should" go more quickly)! After lunch, I headed off to church to work in the library. While I was at the library, Woody headed off to get an estimate for car repairs. The newness didn't last long! The night before last a large branch fell and landed across the back of our new car and dented both back fenders and I guess did damage to the outside of the trunk and I'm not sure what all...but the estimate shows that there must be quite a bit to be done to it...at least by the high estimate amount (guess these days it doesn't take much damage to up the estimate)! Woody found the damage yesterday when he went outside to put the car in the garage because there was a prediction of possible snow...oops...didn't get it in before that branch fell! Oak trees are notorious for dropping branches and one definitely found/made its mark! Oh, well, I'm sure that it will look good as new once it is fixed. And, I guess we can say that neither of us put the first scratch on it! After I got home from working in the library, I fixed our supper. My streak of energy for the day has worn off so I don't think that I will be heading back to the sewing machine today...so just one big brother shirt to show for today's sewing efforts. As the sun was going down tonight the clouds were just beautiful...so I attempted to capture their pretty color=tonight's photo.

Flew the Coop!

I got up fairly early this morning and went straight to work on the decorations. I worked for a while and then got ready to head out on a "girls' day out." Three friends and I met up and went shopping together and then out to lunch. After we got back into town I stopped at WalMart to extend my shopping experience! One of the things that I bought was a new heating pad. I have had trouble getting up from my nicely heated chair to come in and blog, as I had gotten so comfy! Woody has stayed around the house and done one thing and another today. I can't report on what as I haven't been around! But I did just check and he did walk four miles today.

One Last Carol!

As tonight's photo shows...my carolers have gathered for one last carol before they are packed away. Today has been a day of "ups and downs" for me...up and down the stairs and up and down the step ladder. I have really worked hard at getting decorations packed away. I know that lots have been put away, but I'm not sure if you were to walk in my front door that you could tell! But the process is well underway. Woody and I went next door for a little while today when Kathy and Nathan went for her OB appointment. It was just before lunch and Abigail got the lunch ready for them...their once a month cooking made the process an easy one for her...pop some of their homemade burritos in the microwave. Elijah set the table. Joy said the prayer. And, they were ready to eat! After lunch, I had Graham gather his school work together and we came over here...a bit quieter for him to work and it let me go back to work on undecorating. Woody stayed with the other five till Kathy and Nathan got home. Graham got almost three subjects done before he headed back home. Woody is working on some details that need to be done before his book is in its final form so he has spent quite a bit of time on the computer this afternoon. Well, back to the undecorating...shadow box in the family room is the next thing to tackle.

Doings and Undoings!

The day after getting back from a trip seems to have a lot of "doings and undoings!" First we needed to stock the larder...so Woody went to the grocery store. When he got home I "un"packed the groceries and got busy making a big pot of soup...one of our favorites--Spicy Vegetable Beef. That included a lot of chopping and shredding of lots of veggies. Woody also went to the library on his grocery outing. After he got back home I mentioned a friend who is on the hospital so he went to the hospital for a visit. I got the soup to simmering and then I went back to some of the undoing that I had started when I first got up this morning...undecorating! Definitely not my most favorite thing about our Christmas decorations. But the process has gotten underway. I try to take a box or two downstairs each time that I go down and try to bring up a filled box when I come back upstairs. (The latter happens sometimes and sometimes it doesn't!) But the stack of filled boxes is growing in our upstairs hall. I have also started unpacking...another of my undoings. I am in the midst of doing "big brother" and "big sister" shirts. I've got to get those ready so the new baby's siblings will have shirts to wear to when they go to meet him/her. Kathy got the shirts ready...bought and washed...while we were gone. So now it is my job to get the designs sewn onto them. I did decide what I am going to put on them so next job is to get the designs transferred over to my sewing machine. Since it was such a nice day, I volunteered to go out and vacuum our car after its first trip. I think that this is the earliest that we have broken our usual rule when we get a new car..."no eating in the car!" Well, I don't think that we have taken such a long trip so soon after getting a new car...so that rule didn't last but a few days. Snacking is just part of our trips! I wanted the car to still look like new...so I dragged the vacuum outside and did a bit of cleaning...it really wasn't that bad...we had been pretty careful...but I felt that it couldn't hurt to do a bit of vacuuming...and Woody didn't object. After doing that, I was about worn out so I took a pretty good nap this afternoon. Woody has napped some this afternoon too. All the above is just part of us getting back into a "routine" after a trip. I am always a bit jet-lagged...perhaps it is just the adrenalin stopping flowing! Anyway, it always takes me a while to feel like I am back in the "real world." There are just so many things that need to be done that it can get a bit overwhelming...after spending four days away in sort of a suspended state of being...that doesn't really mimic normal daily life! So I will be doing a lot of "doing and undoing" (flitting from one thing to another...or perhaps floating like these fish in tonight's photo) over the next few days till daily routine/reality settles back in. Tonight's photo is one of the many fish tanks in waiting rooms at NIH.

Home Plus a Birthday Celebration!

Definitely a busy day! We had a longer than usual travel time since we stopped farther north in Virginia than we usually do. We got home around 5:30pm and headed right over to Nathan and Kathy's for Isaac's birthday celebration. Isaac opened his birthday presents, then Woody and I ate our supper that they had saved for us and then we had cake and ice cream. I will try to post a picture later...or at least tomorrow. The laptop seems to be having trouble opening up and I have to post pictures on it rather than the iPad. It's good to be home. Now to regroup and come back to reality! Happy second birthday to our sweet Isaac!

Heading Home!

We got up this morning and got ready and headed over to NIH on the hotel shuttle. We headed to the car and got rid of the suitcase, etc. and then headed back to turn in the trip voucher request. Then it was wait for a while till it was time for Woody to have his PET scan. We ended up being the last patient seen by the team...mainly because they were waiting to have the PET scan sent to them to read. Woody's Fellow came in and told us that all the scans and the MRI looked good that they took yesterday...that the tumors they are watching continue to shrink! Good news! She couldn't address the place on Woody's leg until after they looked at the PET scans. So we waited and waited! Finally Woody's Fellow and another doctor came in. Both were very positive. The main doctor said that scans, MRI, etc. looked fantastic. They said that since they hadn't ever taken "pictures" of Woody's leg here at NIH, they didn't have the best knowledge to work with. They did have Woody's PET scan taken years ago in TN. They did say that the area on his leg was larger now than on the original PET scan. They want him to have radiation on an area of his leg. This will be able to be done in Tullahoma. Then they want to see him in several months after the radiation has been completed. It was a very positive doctor visit. The doctor that we hadn't seen before was super positive about how Woody had responded to the protocol. He liked the word "fantastic." Fantastic is a very good word! We are thankful to have such positive results and be heading home. We were hoping that if he had to have radiation, that he could have it at home. We didn't get away till after 5pm and we drove a ways and have stopped for the night in Woodstock, VA. Hopefully I'll be posting from Tullahoma tomorrow. Tonight's photo is the view above my head at my lunch table.