Update, better late than never

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted anything. This radiation thing is every day, 5 days a week, except for weekends and holidays for 30 treatments! Everyday I head out about 1 p.m. and I'm normally home within an hour and 15 minutes. It does take a plug out of the middle of my day. We have had Olivia with us since last Wednesday. Also, I had, up until last Friday, been going to Katie's in the mornings to help out with daily chores and getting in my Linda Grace "fix".

Speaking of Linda Grace, she is such a good baby. She's sleeping good stretches at a time so Mama and Daddy can get their rest. She hadn't lost any of her birth weight when she visited the doctor last week and she's filling out very nicely!

My chest is really, really burned and painful. That explains why I haven't made it to yoga. I called in today to see my radiology oncologist before my treatment time because I felt I just couldn't take another treatment on the same area. I only had two left of those, then I was slated to do 5 days on my scar tissue. After a long wait and a short talk with the doctor, she agreed to let me go ahead with the 5 days on the scar tissue and we'll revisit the issue of the 2 days left on the chest wall. There will be some overlap with the scar tissue treatments but hopefully it won't overlap over the worst burned area. The skin has thickened so medication is not being absorbed. The aloe gives a temporary relieve to the area which is a wonderful plant to have around! Laurel and Frank brought me a trio of them because I didn't have an aloe plant.

We went to Brunswick, Ga. over the weekend to help Cary's oldest brother, Charles, celebrate his 80th birthday. Silas came along and drove for us, so with Cary in the passenger seat that left Ana, Olivia and I in the back seat. We actually did pretty well, all things considered. The girls got to know cousins they had never met before and I got a photo. These McCollum girls are 3rd generation from Cary's parents. They had a great time together eating and then taking a swim in Uncle Charles' and Aunt Caroline's pool. We spent the night in a hotel which Olivia pronounced "hellatella".

My cousin, Madelin, is coming for an overnight visit Thursday. She lives in Tallahassee. She has always been very close to my mother and will come by to visit her before coming here. Madelin is my senior by 12 years and has always been like another older sister. Her mother, my mom's oldest sister,was my favorite aunt and served as my surrogate grandmother. She made cute dresses with matching bloomers for me, saved empty powder boxes and other little trinkets to delight a little girl.Aunt Lola will always hold a special place in my heart!

I had a surprise visit yesterday afternoon from my cousin, Kendra, and her husband. They drove over from Jacksonville. She recently had a bad fall, a concussion, and is having a time recovering. She is younger than me but we enjoyed each other as children and have been close since we've been grown.

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath to hear the update on the chickens! Right? Francine has been sitting on her nest for about 2 weeks. She has what we hope are fertilized Wheaton eggs under her. Her sister, Freckles (You remember her. She's the "bitch" mother hen.) started laying again as soon as she got sick of her biddies. Being the bitch that she is, she would jump up in the nesting box with Francine and run her off to lay her egg. Take into consideration there are 5 other nesting boxes to choose from. Francine, not being too bright, would just jump into another nesting box. An empty one at that. She didn't seem to notice there were no eggs. So I had to go run Freckles and Francine off the nests, steal the egg Freckles laid, separate her off in the chicken pen, and without fail Francine would get back on the nest. At least Freckles was keeping the eggs warm while she sat there. Cary came up with the idea of placing a wire screen over Francine so Freckles couldn't get in the nest. So what does Freckles do? She gets in another nest and proceeds to go into setting mode! So now she is baned from the nesting boxes entirely except for roosting time at night. Hopefully she will pick a spot in the chicken run pen to lay her egg. The 3 pullets Lindy brought me have been eating laying mash but not laying. I really think Francine keeps them so rattled with her proprietary attitude, they can't settle down enough to lay. Would anyone like a nice hen for chicken and dumplings?

Tata,
Linda Gail