Arrival of Summer

Maybe.  I did get a little warm yesterday walking home from the park.  The walk to Community Park (the one with the baby swings - which the baby didn't use) seems short, but the way home is a little long, and Graysen and I were ready to be there.  Katherine went to sleep about 5 minutes after this picture and wouldn't wake up even in the noise of the park.  She kept her hair bow in only because I distracted her with shoes, but once she found it, she took it out, and at the end of the block, I saw her asleep with the bow halfway in her mouth.

Graysen enjoyed the park mainly because of the older kids who are in a YMCA camp-type thing.  The teenagers brought them up, and Graysen wanted so much to be a part of the big kids and their little games.

I got this warning on the walk over:  "Mimi, these blackberries have STORMS.  They will stick you, and you have to be careful."

 Today was a beautiful day for a drive to Seattle to the oncologist.  Blue skies and fluffy white clouds with a noontime temperature of 71 degrees!   This was my first morning rush hour, and I didn't get sighed at too much for my reactions.

Our driver and her work place, always so beautifully landscaped.  I don't think I've ever seen geraniums set out in flower beds like this in the South.  I wonder why.

Once we got parked, Emily and I decided to walk across to Starbucks for a coffee while Mike checked into the lab.  Except it wasn't there any more.  I'm sure there was another one within a block or so, but we went on up to the lab and found this neat little setup in the waiting area.  I'm probably way behind, but I've never seen little pouches like this.  So neat.  Just stick it in, push a button, and you get your coffee or tea, and the little pouch disappears.  Good coffee too.  It doesn't take much to please us!

 All we need for a morning of waiting around.

Emily made use of her waiting time by working all morning.

From the lab, we went to Dr. Kaplan's office where we didn't have a long wait.  There's always plenty to look at in the little rooms, interesting books and magazines and photographs.

Computers to meddle with.

More work to do.

And then down to serious discussions.

Even with all the fun, we did get a better understanding of the Opdivo program and expectations.  It seems that the drug is doing what it should, keeping the spots in the lung stable with the hopes of having them get smaller and hopefully disappear with time.  We weren't sure if Dr. Kaplan would keep on with the Opdivo and for how long, but he was very positive about it and said he has patients in remission for years on it.  So we'll go on with a treatment every 2 weeks and scans quarterly to make sure there is no spread or growth.  That was welcome news and better than we expected.

Emily and I left Mike to his nurse Leah to cross-examine her about her life, and we went to the little waiting area outside.  I'm not sure why more people weren't taking advantage of the sunshine and warm (ish) weather.  

We left Emily in Issaquah and came home, and I did some quilting.  I love having something fun to look forward to sewing for a change.  I completed Lesson 1 of the Evening Sky.

I got all 6 log cabin blocks made and the correct size.

It was a little nerve-wracking to follow the instructions and cut each one of them diagonally to make half-square triangles - and one of them cut twice for quarter square triangles.  It worked though.  Whew!  The iron-on interfacing was a good idea to keep the bias edges from stretching as I cut.

The last thing in the lesson was to sew 13" and 13-1/2" squares together in different ways to get these.

On to Lesson 2 tomorrow, which looks a little intimidating, but I'm looking forward to it.