Sunday Walk

Having been left at home by ourselves today, Mike and I took our morning walk into town.  We ended up at the grocery store and bought toothpaste and parchment paper.  This is some of what we saw on this cool sunny morning.

There are community garden spots that you can rent near Em and Ryan's house.  We love passing by there to see what people have done.  Some are lush and filled to the brim, and others have squash the size of watermelons because they've been forgotten.

I think it's interesting that Snoqualmie and Montgomery are pretty close to the same hardiness zone.  There are things grown here that I never see in the south, but some things do well everywhere - like squash!

Here are some raspberries.

 Pole beans, we think.  Some kind of beans on a nice teepee.

 Sunflowers.

 Bunches of tomatoes, but Emily says they don't taste the way she's used to having them taste.

 We're guessing these are regular blackberries and on public property, so I picked a handful of the darkest ones, planning to have them for breakfast, but they were way too sour.  I'll try some more next week and see how they taste.

This big rabbit kept running across our path near the gardens.  I stopped to take some pictures, and he didn't seem to mind at all. 

 These were at the entrance to a service station.  

 And the view looking across the street as we walked.

 Mike has already discovered the library and gotten a temporary card.  We're going to try to take Graysen to the toddler story hour on Wednesday morning.  I think she will love being around other children.

 Beautiful hanging baskets on the street corners downtown.

 On the way home, we were surprised to see a Texas vine just like ours - much taller though.  I think it's a trumpet vine or something similar.

 This is the little sitting area where we sat a little bit.  There was a dog trainer's car at a house across the street from us, and we were wanting to see him/her come out, but we never did.

Tonight Mike and Ryan went fishing while Emily and I took Graysen in her wagon and Griff down that little secluded trail to the park.  It's so beautiful with the trees making a canopy and all the ferns growing that I kind of forget to be afraid.  I have a lot of pictures of that outing but too tired to upload them.

Mike felt good all day and had no symptoms except for minor heartburn.  I guess if he went walking and then fishing, he's not feeling that bad.  

New Direction

It's hard to know where to start this new phase in our lives.  It's totally different from anything we've faced before, but this blog has been about our lives, and so here it is.

Mike was diagnosed with lung cancer in July.  Probably anyone who reads this blog already knows all about it, but I want to keep this journal because it is a part of our lives, and we are not sure which direction it's going to take us.  Whatever it is, we're up for the challenge and will do the right things to get him back to health again.

It's funny to hear someone starting chemotherapy to say he feels the best he's felt in 30 years, but that's the truth.

We're in Snoqualmie, so for sure there is a lot of action with an 18-month-old running the show.  She's changed so much in the 2 months since we saw her last and is repeating words and understanding them and just being totally charming.  We live for that toothy grin with dimples everywhere or that sweet voice saying, "Night night" to her baby.  Except it's not so sweet when it's her turn to go to bed.  I had to be the bad guy tonight and put her to bed, and it was sad.  Even though she snuggled down with her blankets and animals, she has to have that last defiant cry/yell, and it makes me so sad.  I'm sitting in the next room crying because I had to make her cry.  But all will be forgiven in the morning.

This is not going to be a medical journal, but I'm going to try to get a chance to write about our days and the experiences at the Swedish Hospital Cancer Center.  There will be ups and downs, I know, but we've had them before, and we'll do the best we can.

(This was written on Saturday but not published until today, Sunday.)

Mike is the upbeat one.  He didn't miss a beat yesterday and left people laughing in every department.    It was such a hectic day that I didn't take many pictures and none of them good, but here's what I have.

The hospital and cancer center are in Seattle pretty close to the interstate but what looks like to me to be downtown.  It was a long day because he had to have a port put in for the chemo meds to go in every week to keep from having to get stuck so much.  The procedure itself was fine.  He never knew a thing.  But there was a new RN who had a heck of a time getting that needle for the sedation in.  Emily watched the first try and nearly had to excuse herself, and I was back there for the second try.  Poor guy.  Things just didn't go well for him - or Mike, although he doesn't seem to feel pain!  Another nurse came in and got it going, and it was fine after that.

It did put us off schedule though, and the nice receptionist worked with Emily to get word to the oncologist's office what was going on.

When we got there, we were greeted by several of the nurses who were working late.  I didn't get any names this time except for the main one named Shasta.  First Shasta I've ever met.

I'm not sure how they keep their spirits up and especially late on Friday afternoon, but when I say it was like a party, I'm not far off.  They found out we had not had anything to eat all day and started bringing us food.  Which was exactly what Mike appreciates - free food.  

It's amazing how a tuna sandwich and cookie will excite you when you've been without food for nearly 18 hours.  One girl told him she made egg custard that morning and that he could have 2 of them.  It wasn't quite as exciting as getting that first cup of Starbucks coffee after the port procedure.  

Looks like a simple hospital machine for dispensing medications, but the stuff in there was not so simple and is not something we're welcoming too much except for it's ability to get rid of all the cancer cells that are lurking.  It's Taxol and carboplatin.  I still haven't looked them up and made sure I was spelling them correctly.  The combination might change after 3 weeks if it looks like it's not doing it's job, and they can switch to something else.  I think it will though.

So the first chemo was not traumatic at all and actually quite pleasant with all the feeling good and nice people.  We don't fool ourselves that it will be this good every time.  We're realistic, of course, but why not enjoy every experience we can right now?

This tired girl has been at it for over a week, taking Mike to appointments and a surgery and coordinating everything.  I'm not sure where I would have been without her yesterday.  No stone will be unturned in getting the best of care for her dad.

During all this time, Ryan was babysitting, but he and Graysen were also at Costco buying provisions, and when Emily would hear a suggestion, she would call or text Ryan to pick it up.  That's pretty good service.

Mike doesn't like hovering normally, but I think he's accepted the fact that we (Emily and I anyway) are going to be staring at him all the time and asking questions about how he's feeling.  The drugs he got before the chemo were pretty nice for keeping him feeling great last night.  He went to bed and slept nicely and felt great this morning.  We went for a walk while the others were out.  I'm the one who ended it finally , not him.  The weather is wonderful for walking though.  It feels like the first week in October instead of August, sunny and fairly warm but with just a little chill in the air and a little breeze.

He took a couple of naps today but then he, Emily, Graysen, and I went for another walk down a beautiful little wooded trail across the street from their house.  I would have enjoyed it except for Mike mentioning bears too much.  It didn't help that as we came out of the trail onto the street, there was a sign with a picture of a bobcat (or some cat) and a bear.  I didn't read it, but just seeing it was enough. 

So that's the first day of keeping it going in Snoqualmie.  I'll be here until the 26th and go home for a week or so and come back and stay for whatever is decided to be the treatment time.  I haven't yet learned to love to fly but flying by myself finally and changing planes in Atlanta gave me a little confidence.  I really loved the trip once we got in the air.  It was clear, and I was able to see most of the country from 32,000+ feet.  There were some beautiful scenes.  I also lucked up and another guy and I got to change seats to an empty row (with a seat between), and he gave me the window seat.  I like a nice seatmate who is silent and watches movies. 

Mike and Emily pointed out Mount Rainier on the way home from Seattle but said it wouldn't do any good to try to get a picture.  It's pretty rare to have as good a view of it, and I tried anyway.  You can kind of see it on the left if you look hard.  So beautiful.

No Graysen pictures yet.  I've been too busy soaking up her sweetness to take pictures.  But there will be some.  Oh yes, there will be plenty!

Too Hot for Anything

Except sewing and drinking iced coffee.

I only allow myself 2 coffees a day, but I've been sewing more than usual this week.

I finally finished the sew-along sunsuit.

I don't know how much it will get worn in WA.  It may not hit that narrow window of summer at exactly the right size!

I did learn a lot though.  I made some mistakes, but I did some things I didn't know how to do before, so it was good experience.  

The green apple top turned out nice too, and Emily actually likes the fabric.  I'll send it on for sizing and plan to make more of these.

Once I determine the fit, I'll do a dress with piping all the way down the front.  This has been good for my self-confidence on the piping because it's been one of my hit-and-miss things.

This time I used my zipper foot and a skewer to push the fabric against the cording and went VERY slowly.  Having something work out so nicely is a thrill.

And I did a whole dress in 2 days - except for the buttons and that only because I didn't have any the right shade of orange.

I used Children's Corner William and Winnie.  

I've had it for some time and never used it, but I will use it a lot more - in fact maybe this afternoon for a gingham one with a monogram or some embroidery.

It's lined and piped, and I was pretty pleased with the results.  Just one place where I maybe should have gone back over - but not enough to do it!

The only thing that slowed me down was the ruffle I decided to add.  Again on second thought, I would have made it narrower or left it off completely.

It took me as long to figure out the ruffler foot and get the measurments right as it did for the whole rest of the dress.

It's a pretty ominous-looking thing, but I've got it figured out, and it won't scare me any more.  

I did more of a pleated look than a ruffle, but its a lot of fun to do and took me only about 10 minutes to do all this - and only because I was scared to go too fast.

So this is the almost finished product.  

I'll go try to match some buttons this afternoon or tomorrow.  One of the fabric shops has notions 60% off tomorrow, so it might be worth the wait.  I'm not sure buttons are notions, but I need needles and lots of other things I'm sure I can't live without.

No, Hancock has buttons 50% off and my embroidery thread 40% off, so it looks like a trip today for that and tomorrow for the 60% notions.

I had a little leftover piping, so I tried it out with some brown fine wale corduroy that I've been saving.  I think a pumpkin will look good on it - or maybe a squirrel or a fox for the fall.  

Farmer's Market

I forgot to post this yesterday.  Not very interesting but it's good to remember a day when I cooked.

Whoever takes Mama to the beauty shop on Friday morning has about an hour to kill.  It's not worth it to come back home.  So this morning I thought it would be a good idea to go to the City of Montgomery Farmer's Market.

It's close to downtown, and we don't venture down that way much, so it was trial and error finding it, although it sits right there on Madison Avenue next to Crampton Bowl - like people told me. It was a madhouse of people and cars, though, and police had roads blocked off.  We just happened to run into the first day of filming of the movie, "Selma."  We saw the place where extras were directed to go, and we kind of thought about going there and checking on a role.  We saw what looked like extras walking down the streets.  We saw one young girl with big pink foam rollers in her hair and cowboy boots, and we figured she must be in the movie as an extra or was trying for a certain hairdo.  Not a look we see much anymore.

Apparently, no one told us that's it not open on Friday, and we didn't think to check the web site before we went, and it was closed.  But we did find it, and it looks nice, so we'll go back on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday.

We used our time to go to the farmer's market near the coliseum, and that was a good trip.  We found lots of friendly people and some good-looking fruits and vegetables as well as plants, which we didn't look at this time.

We found peaches, rattlesnake beans, and a seedless watermelon as well as some already shelled cream white peas and butterbeans.

We were gifted by our neighbor Gene across the street with nearly a dozen ears of corn - already shucked - is that the word?

I made creamed corn for Mama with 3 ears, but Mike might not have left her much.  It might be more chunked that creamed, but it tasted pretty good.

The rest he boiled for corn on the cob.

I had never heard of "rattlesnake" beans and don't much like the name, but they were delicious.

Nice supper and healthy too.  We had our meat for lunch, so this was strictly a veggie plate.
Funny our choice of plates.  I got the little one so it looks like I have more.  Mike got the big one - and did get more if you add a corn-on-the cob to the plate.

Debby and Tom came by for a visit yesterday and brought us a big bag of goodies from Panera for lunch - Italian sandwiches, roast beef, and flatbread with some macaroni and cheese for Mama.  They were on their way to a doctor's visit and didn't get to stay long, but we had such a good time.  We need to do that more often.

Success

I decided to do the buttonholes after all.  Mainly because I needed to change from the buttonhole foot to a zipper foot, and I didn't want to do it twice.

And this time my machine worked perfectly. I don't love the buttonholes the Symphony makes, but these are fine.  And this time I measured better.  Once those cute little yellow buttons are sewed on, it will be perfect!

Then I got to have fun with the new sewing.  

I love piping.  It's lovely when it's done right, and I have struggled some, but I took my time and got this one done the way I wanted it.

Well, except it seems gathered more on the right than the left.  I probably won't take it out and do it again since it's a practice one, but I think I'll just put a few pleats in the next one.  They're supposed to be concentrated in the front anyway and left straight on the sides.  That's why it's practice, I guess.

We're missing a little Graysen time this weekend, but I don't mind.  She has South Dakota relatives visiting.  Ryan's brother and sister-in-law, Shane and Paula and the 3 BIG cousins, Isaac, Lizzy, and Becca.  When I first met them, they were just little kids, and they they're in high school or junior high.  

Yesterday they went to Seattle and went to Pike Place Market where Isacc got to catch a salmon - literally catch  - to bring home and smoke.  This is not him, but I found some random video of the fish-tossing ceremony.

  

They went down to the waterfront and to the Space Needle and I'm not sure where else - all the sites.  I've asked for pictures, but they'll probably be too busy to send any.  It's Snoqualmie Falls tomorrow and I think a ferry trip.  I'm a little jealous and ready to go back.

Obsession!

The latest ones, that is.  I seem to find new things to go crazy over and then gradually grow tired of them.

My latest 2 are drinks.  Debby and Mike can go away because they hate both of these!  More for me!

I had to experiment a few times until I got it just right, and it was worth it.  I tried a few times to add ice cubes to warm coffee, and it was less than delicious.  The trick for me is to make a cup/glass at breakfast and put it in the freezer.  When you take it out a couple of hours later, it has ice crystals.

I love knowing I have some in the freezer waiting for me.

The other drink obsession is La Croix.  There are differing opinions on how to pronounce it - La Croy or La Kwah.  I think it makes it more special to say La Kwah.  It's carbonated water with a little (teeny) bit of flavor.  Lime is my favorite, and Emily and I decided we hated the raspberry flavor.  Mike thinks it tastes like Alka-Selter.

These are nice to have to alternate with water since I'm trying (one again) to give up Diet Coke.  I don't miss them, but since we still have some around, I'll drink maybe one a week.

In addition to the vegetable we got at the farmer's market yesterday, I picked out this seedless watermelon - with absolutely no expertise at all on knowing a good one from a bad one.

Not bad. 

  I hate dealing with them, all the mess and dripping and finding room in the refrigerator - because it has to be cold - but that 15 minutes or so is well worth the pleasure of having a piece any time you want one.  Not bad at all.

I haven't given up sewing, just don't seem to have a lot of time to devote to it.  I did get bogged down with those buttonholes on this blue sunsuit and did them wrong twice - or the machine bunched up on me twice.

So I've abandoned it for a few days to try something else.  I bought this pattern for both a dress and top. 

I'm not crazy about the two-fabric look, but I do like that you can put piping down the front and under the yoke to make one fabric look good.

Instead of spending a lot of time on something and then having it not fit, I decided to take some old fabric and make one to send to Graysen and let Emily try it out.

I got everything cut out and the piping glued to the yoke.

But when it was time to sew it down, I found my sewing chair was taken.  Speaking of obsessions, you can usually find her there if I'm not in it.  It doesn't work for long to put covers there because she just wiggles them off.

I decided to go outside and check on things.  I've been seeing this for a few days on my lovely sweet potato vine.  Holes  everywhere.  I did a Google search and got a few answers.  Not Japanese beetles but flea beetles.  When I've looked closely, I have seen some tiny black bugs - not many though, and they always disappear.  I guess I'll try to find something to get rid of them.

One answer I saw was that wasps eat leaves and make their nests from the chewed up leaves.  I would have thought that was far-fetched, but just this morning I found this on the underside of one of the cucumber leaves.

Looks like a wasp nest to me!

Next time I plant seeds, I'll try to space them better.  I knew I was getting them too close but didn't figure on every seed coming up, and that's what it looks like now.

This cosmos is the tallest I've ever seen.  I would think it was a weed except that I know I planted it, and I see one little bloom on it.

The equally crowded one in front of them are marigolds, and there are asters kind of hidden between them.  I looked really hard and found a marigold bloom.  If they do all bloom, it's going to be beautiful.

And--

I have a dog that I'll give any to anyone who wants her.  I'll even throw in food and toys.

This is a bed where I've been babying a clematis.  She dug up one earlier but didn't get the message I didn't like it.  I don't think she got it this time either.  She looked proud of herself and kept looking at those rocks like she knew something dangerous was hiding in them that she needed to protect me from.

I might keep her if she's as dedicated to hunting down legless things as she is hunting lizards and bugs.