Well, dear friends, I've been casting about wondering what direction this blog can possibly go now that I have completed the worst of my treatments. I don't know. I just feel somewhat at sea right now as far as any commentary goes.
I feel incredibly blessed to have weathered the treatments as well as I have and am thankful that my life can resume some semblance of normalcy. Of course there are the herceptin infusions every 3 weeks and I am continuing physical therapy for the time being.
Cary and I plan to go to our place at Fanning after VBS is over. We will be taking Olivia and Ana back to their mother after this trip. Ana plans to live with her mom. This will be a major change in all our lives, but we are praying for Jenny and Brian to make a family with the girls and their new baby boy due in August.
Perhaps when it cools off in the fall, I'll grab my camera and share photos and a little descriptive prose to go along with the pictures. I've seen so many things lately I wanted to take shots of but didn't have my camera along. One shot I missed was the banners the new owners put up on the old Christian-Reber home during the 4th of July. They took them down before I could get back with my camera. Those banners gently rippling in the breeze just seemed to be whispering a promise to that old house and all passers by that better times are on the way!
Love to all,
Linda Gail
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
One more!
Dear Ones:
My oncologist thought my skin so improved today that I should go ahead with the two lost chest wall treatments. I had one today, so tomorrow is the very last one. For real, for sure, this time!!! It is amazing how much better my skin felt after 8 solid days with no treatments. Conversely, it's also amazing how tight it already feels tonight after the one treatment today.
I finished "One True Thing" by Anna Quinlan. It is also a very good read. She is a gifted writer, though her story lines are serious. I am currently reading a short biography on Winston Churchill. I like biographies. I am always amazed by details of people's lives that I wouldn't learn otherwise. I have Lucille Ball's biography and have had for several months. For a real change of pace, perhaps I'll read that next. Although, Cary and I were at our place in Fanning last night and I brought home "Armageddon" by Leon Uris. It's a rather thick paper back and the print is quite small. If it's interesting into the 2nd or 3rd chapter, maybe I'll stick it out and finish it. When we bought the place over there, the lady who sold it to us left a few things behind including a little hall bookcase with a collection of books. One she left behind that I really liked and want to read again is Mitchener's "The Source".
I don't know if you all can keep up with which chicken is which, so if I repeat information you already know just remember it is in the interest of keeping my chickens identified properly. I had two Samatra hens left when I gave The Sultan and his favorite hen away. One is Freckles, the alpha hen. She has 3 half grown chickens (2 pullets and a little rooster - so far all unnamed). The other Samatra, Francine, had tried to set once before and was run off the nest by The Sultan. About a month ago she began sitting again. Only trouble was, the eggs were not fertilized. Lindy brought me 4 beautiful chocolate brown eggs that I put under her. Of the 4 eggs, only one produced a biddy. That old saying that a hen will scratch just as hard for one biddy as she will for a dozen is really true! Francine clucks and scratches and runs the other chickens away from her biddy. Freckles likes to mess with her, though. She is either very curious about the biddy or has designs on stealing it. That little chick is so bonded with it's mom, though, I don't think Freckles has a chance! Dolly (the Americana) has laid every day since she began about 5 days ago. Her first egg was a beautiful blue but they've become more green as they increase in size. Today, Daisy (our white leghorn) gave us a nice white egg. Now if Freckles would start laying again, we'd be getting 3 eggs a day.
The little half-grown rooster has started training the two little pullets to come to him when he clucks and acts as if he has something to eat. I got a chuckle yesterday when he clucked, Dolly ran over and smacked him as if to say "Now we aren't going to put up with that!" It is interesting to me that the of the two pullets left that Lindy brought me, they both hang together. The 3 half grown chicks hang together. The only brood mates that don't hang together are the Samatras. I expect that's because Freckles is so hard to get along with.
Francine and little Wheatie
My oncologist thought my skin so improved today that I should go ahead with the two lost chest wall treatments. I had one today, so tomorrow is the very last one. For real, for sure, this time!!! It is amazing how much better my skin felt after 8 solid days with no treatments. Conversely, it's also amazing how tight it already feels tonight after the one treatment today.
I finished "One True Thing" by Anna Quinlan. It is also a very good read. She is a gifted writer, though her story lines are serious. I am currently reading a short biography on Winston Churchill. I like biographies. I am always amazed by details of people's lives that I wouldn't learn otherwise. I have Lucille Ball's biography and have had for several months. For a real change of pace, perhaps I'll read that next. Although, Cary and I were at our place in Fanning last night and I brought home "Armageddon" by Leon Uris. It's a rather thick paper back and the print is quite small. If it's interesting into the 2nd or 3rd chapter, maybe I'll stick it out and finish it. When we bought the place over there, the lady who sold it to us left a few things behind including a little hall bookcase with a collection of books. One she left behind that I really liked and want to read again is Mitchener's "The Source".
I don't know if you all can keep up with which chicken is which, so if I repeat information you already know just remember it is in the interest of keeping my chickens identified properly. I had two Samatra hens left when I gave The Sultan and his favorite hen away. One is Freckles, the alpha hen. She has 3 half grown chickens (2 pullets and a little rooster - so far all unnamed). The other Samatra, Francine, had tried to set once before and was run off the nest by The Sultan. About a month ago she began sitting again. Only trouble was, the eggs were not fertilized. Lindy brought me 4 beautiful chocolate brown eggs that I put under her. Of the 4 eggs, only one produced a biddy. That old saying that a hen will scratch just as hard for one biddy as she will for a dozen is really true! Francine clucks and scratches and runs the other chickens away from her biddy. Freckles likes to mess with her, though. She is either very curious about the biddy or has designs on stealing it. That little chick is so bonded with it's mom, though, I don't think Freckles has a chance! Dolly (the Americana) has laid every day since she began about 5 days ago. Her first egg was a beautiful blue but they've become more green as they increase in size. Today, Daisy (our white leghorn) gave us a nice white egg. Now if Freckles would start laying again, we'd be getting 3 eggs a day.
The little half-grown rooster has started training the two little pullets to come to him when he clucks and acts as if he has something to eat. I got a chuckle yesterday when he clucked, Dolly ran over and smacked him as if to say "Now we aren't going to put up with that!" It is interesting to me that the of the two pullets left that Lindy brought me, they both hang together. The 3 half grown chicks hang together. The only brood mates that don't hang together are the Samatras. I expect that's because Freckles is so hard to get along with.
Francine and little Wheatie
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Sheba leads the way!
This is pretty much the way Sheba and I spent our day yesterday. I'm not sure if I was so tired because of the atmospheric pressure or whether after getting done with radiation treatments my brain just called for it. Whatever was going on, I laid around most of the day.
Just finished Anna Quinlan's "Every Last One". Quite a story, but sad. I do recommend it as a good read. I had her "One True Thing" on hand also, so I started it yesterday.
I plan to clean today. Cary is driving down to meet Jenny and pick Ana up. Ana will be in church camp next week. She's very excited about it. She will be with a group camping out, planning and cooking their own meals, etc. I'm a little concerned about mosquitoes because she is so allergic to the bites. We've bought "off" spray and Off now puts out a battery operated bug repellent I thought might be good to use at night while she sleeps.
Wow! The rain yesterday was something else. Best we've had in quite some time. I probably need to fertilize again. I'm sure anything I put out earlier this year was washed to China! I did manage to dead head my hydrangeas yesterday. That's an easy job that doesn't take too long. I'll miss their beautiful blooms in the garden. Sister Teresa continues to shine, however. She's white and the blooms change a little but are very resilient.
Bobbie sent me a little plastic thing that resembled a douche bag. It has two suction cups. I had to call her to find out what to do with it. Seems she bought it when she visited Butchart Gardens. They used them to display fresh flowers on the windows! It is open on the top and has 3 sections to it. Oh, heck! I'll just take a photo and show you! The photo with my china cabinet is the first place I put it. I have blinds on my windows which creates a little problem. But then I decided I wanted to see how it looked in a window. Brighter flowers would help a lot, but right now I have only Sister Teresa hydranges. Well, that's not true exactly. I could cut some of my Black Eyed Susans. But, I want them to reseed for next year so I've left them entirely alone. Anyway, isn't that a neat way to display flowers?
Let us all pray that our 4th of July will be celebrated without any crazies out there trying to make a statement!
Love to all,
Linda Gail
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