BACK AT HOME!!!

Hi Friends!

My pictures above are kind of random, so I feel the need to explain them. The first pictures were taken with Bill's parents, John and Linda Bland, at their home in Wisconsin. I took the other pictures today. The first was my laundry project -- as you can imagine, much laundry was generated in my absence. So, today I started on Mount Washmore. I am hoping to catch up soon. I also took a picture of my front flowerbed to show you how happy and cheerful the flowers look. It's my reward for planting them months back and having Nate water them daily! And then I took a picture of Itty Bitty and Molly looking cute. We had to remind ourselves how much we love Itty Bitty today as she came down with a bad case of diarrhea. She probably got it from eating all of the "people food" she finds on the floor. Our dog won't eat what falls on the floor, but she does. And it's not always the best for her! So today she was such a mess that Molly and I had to bathe her. She is very nice when we bathe her in the bathroom sink, but it's still not something we enjoy doing! So, it's a good thing she's so cute!

Today, I woke up around 9 a.m. after Bill had left for work. On my routine morning trip down for painkillers, I ran into Brandon sleeping on my couch. The other kids joined him shortly. I spent the morning resting and recovering my from my jetlag. I had taped two of my favorite shows from TV -- "The Next Food Network Star" and "Design Star" from HGTV. So, I lay around in bed this morning and watched them while the kids all did their own things.

I started being semi-functional around noon, and I made the kids macaroni and cheese for lunch. I did a bit of housework and took a shower before it was time to leave for my doctor's appointment. I saw Dr. Menco, my oncologist, today for bloodwork. Praise God! It came out well -- at least, for someone on chemo. I'm always a bit anemic and off on the white/red blood cell counts, but this time my platelets were better. That is good news, because it means my blood will clot and I may be able to start shaving my legs without having a bloodbath!

I got back from that appointment and Shirlene came to pick up Brandon. We thoroughly annoyed Brandon by talking for a long time, which kept him from getting back to Palmdale to meet up with his girlfriend, Margaret. Oh, to be 17 again! Cameron shortly after had to leave for Scouts with Bill. The other kids went swimming, and then they had baths and dinner.

I seemed to get a second wind this evening after my nighttime pain meds. So, I cleaned up the bathrooms and worked a bit more on Mount Washmore and returning a mountain of e-mail as well.

Now, I'm off to bed. We are going to see Space Chimps at the Free Movies tomorrow morning, and we need to leave at 9 a.m. I'm taking Heather, Molly, Will, and Isaac. And Annie is going to come with us. Nate, Brandon, Cameron, and Justin are staying home with Judi to supervise. They're too cool to go to the movies with us!

More tomorrow ...

Much Love,

Michele