Choir and Cancer

We haven't had choir since May, so it was wonderful to have such a great turnout today! Whether they felt sorry for me because I have cancer or they just enjoyed the long break and were ready to start up again, I'll take it! We went through Thanksgiving and Christmas music and they sounded great!

Counting myself and Suzanne at the piano, we had 20 people! Ed says we might need more chairs next week! I hope so!

Thanks to Ed, who not only set up all the chairs and helped collate the music, but also went on a boxelder bug killing spree before everyone arrived! We're hopeful he forestalled the invasion before the little buggers snuck in with the choir!

More Fall fun with Family

We enjoyed a special meal at Brittany's house Friday night. Brittany made grilled cheese, butternut squash soup and pumpkin pie!

Ed and I contributed a fun, colorful loaf of bread that we picked up at Lehi bakery!

Afterwards we went to the Provo Pioneer Village with our monkey and our pirate!

When it got dark we went down to the Provo River and road the pirate boat! It was magical and I got lots of good cuddles from Mabel, who loves her grandma!

Saturday morning we joined the Nuttalls for the children's concert at BYU. It featured the opera department and soloists from Handel's Theodora. It was helpful that we could read the words onscreen as they sang, but Mabel and Clementine were as good as gold despite the fact that they can't read!

I'm grateful to be able to do so much now! My treatments did not make me as sick as the last time, and other than some itching and a few minor side effects, I'm doing very well!

My WBC went down to 2.9 on Friday, which scared me, as it was below normal. The doctor assured me it would bounce back and not to worry about it! We'll see when I get labs Monday morning!

Halsey Visit

Our friends, Mark and Mary stopped by all the way from Maryland Wednesday. It was fun to see them and catch up on the Eldersburg ward. Mark is bishop there now and was wishing cell phones weren't so efficient at keeping you in the loop!

They not only stopped by, but brought us a pot of chili in honor of the Fall Festival this weekend. We enjoyed a lot of chili cook-offs in our 7 years in Maryland! Thank heavens they brought a piece of home with them!

3 Mile HIke

It felt surreal to be out this morning on a real hike! I was expecting to be bedridden from my treatments. For the past two months I've been wondering if the pear tree had produced some edible fruit! I thought we might have missed the window to find out! But this morning we found some perfect little pears on it! They were a little bit crunchy, but delicious!

This tree on High Bench path is the only pear tree we've found in Lambert Park! I was so happy that it saved it's fruit for us!

We brought a few home to let them soften up a little!

I even convinced Ed to try an apple off one of the apple trees along the trail! He said it was just as good as store-bought!

I was amazed that I was able to walk 3 miles today! I'm cautiously optimistic that the next three monthly treatments will not be making me sick! Maybe the worst is over!

Two days of Treatment

I just finished two long days of treatments at Huntsman. We went in at 7 a.m. and were home by 7 p.m. each day. Besides the unexpected delays, everything went well. I had to get three stabs on Monday to finally get my IV placed. Only two stabs on Tuesday! Then, delays in getting the labs ordered slowed us down, as well as a diluted sample on Tuesday, which had to be redrawn before I could be treated.

On Monday we had a visit from Reggie, the therapy dog, which cheered us up!

On Tuesday the entire University of Utah basketball team dropped by. Jason and Parker, here, gave us coupons for free tickets to see a game!

On even better news, my WBC has stayed in the normal range all week at 8k. My other blood components also look very good! Maybe that is why despite the treatment I am still feeling energetic and good!

I even felt good enough to go to Relief Society last night where I found out Tricia is my 7th cousin through our Swedish lines! That was exciting because most of my matches are through English lines!

First Man Movie

We went to see the Movie First Man with Barbara and Kent Saturday. It was interesting, but a little slow for my taste. I believe the director thought that if 30 seconds of spinning out of control in a space capsule was good, then 5 minutes of it must be great!

The company was great, however, and we thoroughly enjoyed going out to lunch with the Stevens afterwards! It was great to have a fun weekend before I return to Huntsman for my big monthly infusion tomorrow and Tuesday.

Friday Fun at Scheels

Brittany has Fridays off work this semester, as she is teaching a late lab at BYU on Tuesday evenings. This means we get to see the grandkids more often! We thought we'd make a big day of it and take them to ride the Ferris wheel at Scheels sporting goods store!

Sadly, the Ferris wheel was out of order, but we all got a game of roller ball comped to make up for the inconvenience! Mabel was the big winner! Brittany thought she should try the same technique she used with Mabel on her turn next time!

We had a fun evening making music with the Pinyon Rats after that! It felt good to feel good all week!