Friday, August 30, 2013

Just Peachy


what's left of the yellow haul
A tidbit of insight for you on this fine, Friday morning:

Whatever the problem is, coffee is the solution.

And now, onto the next order of business.
Bragging.  Cause seriously, how many of you can say you walked into your doctor's office - no appointment - and he called you back and reviewed your scan disk with you and your 6 year old on the spot?  Anyone?  It was practically drive thru service.  This is a good man.  I love him.  I can't help it.
white
from the farm share

Still, the official report is not yet in - I have a call into my main onc - but my #1 phone-call-returner aka Dr. Drive Thru says he did not see anything too worrisome.  There is some thickening near my aorta.  I'm too afraid to google what that could mean as far as permanent damage from radiation, so for now I'm going to pretend I never heard him say that, and just relax with a cup of coffee.

Plan for the day as we wait out the return phone call with the official word?  Use up our superfluous peach supply, fresh from Tuesday's picking, now ripe and ready to be used in peach cobbler, roasted peach and coconut popsicles, stewed peaches (to be eaten over yogurt), and this almond crisped peach deal from smitten kitchen.

Must keep busy.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Bad Blogger

happy camper
Imagine I'm getting a slap on the wrist for going almost 2 months without writing.  Summer was both busy and relaxing.  Judah loved day camp, and I had some time to myself.  I worked on moving a little bit here and there (my cardiologist wants to get me off of my meds), though I'm not sure I'm ready to wean just yet.  A friend and I started meeting regularly for Writing Club, where I set a goal to work on my book (or rather, turning my first blog into one).  But, as you can imagine, we had too much fun together and ended up doing more talking than writing.

We had day trips to the beach, lots of work done on our house (we were past due on a new front walk, having the chimney pointed and capped, driveway re-finished...), an emergency fridge replacement, visited with family both at home and in Brooklyn,  and even a few lovely walks through Valley Green.

beachy

rainbow loom obsession

what we did with the one day strawberry sale at WF

just a sample of the work done on our property...

Most recently, the past two weeks our family took a monster road trip from Maryland, to DC, Virginia, West Virginia, back to PA.  We visited with family, met up with friends, camped out, cooked over a campfire (2 really successful meals!), saw the sights, hiked, photographed, explored caverns, tubed down a mountain, fed buffalo and elk, pet a million rabbits/goats/sheep, went down water slides and rode the rides at Hershey Park, and on and on...  Dan planned it all and we loved spending x-treme family time together.  No, really, it was truly fun.





we were delirious from the freezing cold temps of shenandoah nights



evidence of at least one campfire success

stunning sunset in Pittsburgh

This lovely elk took a cracker from his mouth
I MADE (edible) FOOD! 
And we are now in the beginning of the end.  Dan started his teacher in-service today, Judah will begin 1st grade in a week (AH!) and soon after that, I will go back to work to find out where I'll be working this year (since the school I was assigned to last year was closed by the district).

I'm kinda grumpy as I have a scan coming up in 2 days and I have a new feeling about it.  I'm not anxious as much as annoyed.  I don't WANT to have a scan.  I don't want to HAVE to have a scan.  I am finally (almost 3 years later) ready to put this cancer business behind me.  Hopefully, if all goes well, this will be my last scan for a very long time (I still can't think in terms of forever).

Not complaining, really, after yesterday Judah finally got me to plug in his "iPod touch" (actually just my old phone) and add new music for him.  Ever since, he has been listening to (aka singing at the top of his lungs) all of our songs with headphones on (think Citizen Cope meets The Lorax soundtrack).  At this very moment, he is belting out a little Indigo Girls, "I went to the mountain, I went to the mountain...", so how can I possibly be grumpy?