The Mallory Todd

This morning started with a gentle shake from my husband. Squinting my eyes I tried to get my eyes to focus on the clock. Why is he waking me up at 6:30? Ohhh...the Mallory Todd day. Ahhh! She does not sail until 9:30! I roll over. Please let me sleep another half an hour. Please....

Down at the docks we can not find any ship to match the description of the ship we are to sail on. We are sure that we got the instructions right. We get back into the car and go down the road a little and check another dock where we think it might be. It is not there. With sinking hearts we head back to where we were before. It is past the time that we were supposed to be there. We are sure that we have missed the boat! We decide that we might as well look around seeing as how we are there. David spots a tall mast. He thinks it is pulling away. I suggest we go a wave goodbye to it. We go to do that and find that our ship is just pulling in. We could not find them because they had gone down the lake somewhere to empty the head! We made it after all!

Here she is. She is a beauty. It started raining as we got aboard. It quit raining just as we were docking. Go figure!We did not get to see her in all her glory with the sail unfurled because it was too windy. We had to go with motor power.

The person who owns this schooner regularly gives free cruises to many different groups. The crew are all volunteers. there were only five of us passengers on this trip. There were just as many crew. I think that they love doing it though. Who would not like a chance to go out in this boat?

Down below. It was very cozy and we were welcome to hang out there as well as above.

John get to be at the helm for about thirty seconds. I know that he would have loved to have been there longer. It was like taking candy away from a child. I think that he looks handsome. He is growing him cookie duster back. Soon he will look like himself again.

The Verdict

Mike's Chili Parlor: Five stars out of five for atmosphere. It was so funny seeing this little place surrounded by large modern buildings. The diner has been in the family four generations. I am sure there is no other place like it, very original. However we gave it only three stars for the chili. John makes better.

Sorry for no picture. I forgot my camera so you will have to go to the link and see for yourselves. They have a very nice picture there.

John loves to watch Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. This place was featured on the show. We had to go and see for ourselves.

Cabela's

A person has to see this place to believe it! I was prepared to be bored but tagged along anyway just to keep John company ahem, out of trouble. Here we are pulling up. There were lots of signs directing us to the place just like it was a great tourist attraction and I guess it is! The parking lot is bigger that the one Wal Mart has back home and the store is huge. It is an outdoors man wonderland. Heaven for a fisherman. Yes indeed.



Inside the store I think they probably have every animal that you could imagine stuffed. If you don't find it on this display, you will probably find it in another of the many displays around the store. They have a huge fresh water aquarium featuring all the fresh water fishes that papa loves to catch.

This is not a picture but a huge display. All the creatures you see are real, dead but real. John was excited but I preferred to shop for cloths along with all the other wives. Smart store to include a large clothing section! I got a pair of jeans that I don't even have to have hemmed! What a great find!

Outside was interesting too.Some of the Sisters on the Fly had their trailers there. You should see these trailers! When I was a girl, I would dream of having a play house that looked like what these trailers looked like. I think these ladies are taking back a bit of their childhood. They are all grown up now and now they can let their dreams come true. They travel about and do outdoors types of things together and no children or men can come. That would have been like heaven to me a number of years ago. Now not so much. I kind of love having the old man along but I really would love to have one of those trailers, although they are very feminine and I really can't imagine John sleeping in one although he did think they were neat.

All in all, we had a nice day even though I hate, hate driving on the I-5 and we had to be one it one hour each way.

I posted the rest of the pictures of our stop on Vancouver Island on facebook and don't want to sit here and wait to upload them again. Most of you can see them there. If you can't and really want to, look me up over there. My name? Chrtistine Braun Saskatoon. Yup, you can be my friend. No problem.

I made a new post over at the John Braun Page. It has pictures of our digs here. I am too lazy to put them up here so if you want hop on over there.

Not much to say today. We are doing well. Hope you all are too. I did manage to get around and visit everybody this morning. Heehee.

Week One

Monday: The trip from Vancouver Island to Seattle was tiring. We had to wait an hour and a half at the ferry but were glad that we did arrive early because that insured us passage on the next sailing. We had to wait two hours at the border. We did not make it in time to get our key so we stayed the night in Everett.

Tuesday: Made it here alright. Got keys, unpacked and did the big grocery shop. Got all settled in. It was nice to make our supper and not have to eat out. Monday night supper at Denny`s left much to be desired even though our waiter kept insisting that we were in for a big treat and that everything we ordered was YUMMY! Let me assure you that it was anything but yummy. It amounted to over priced gut rot.

Wednesday: Wednesday was a whirlwind of appointments. They again forgot to schedule time for lunch. We were very hungry when we got home.

Thursday: More appointments and tests. I packed a lunch to bring with as it looked like we were going to miss lunch again. An appointment was changed so we had time, lots of time, for lunch but was still glad that I packed lunch because the bistro here serves strange food, lots of tofu and sprouts and leeks and other foods that I don`t have a clue about and don`t really want to know about. John is even less adventurous than me so he was very thankful.

Friday: We are up bright and early and at the clinic. John is having his bone marrow biopsy. Pray that it is good. The last one that was taken was somewhat inconclusive apparently seeing as how it was taken so soon after the transplant.

No matter the results, the transplant will go this time. Ian, our nurse, said we won`t be sent home from school this time.

We have the weekend off and so far only one appointment for Monday. If the weather cooperates, we plan to go to the tree park that is known as the Arbouratorium (spell check does not recognize that word). The wiener sticks will hopefully be put to good use. It has been hot up to today. This morning it is overcast and misty. We are liking it as our apartment does not have air conditioning but I do hope for some sunshine on the weekend so that we can get out and enjoy some sun, the fresh air will probably have to wait until we get back home.

Hopefully, next week I will have a router so that I can have Internet at our apartment. Until then I can only post here at the clinic where they have free wireless so I won`t be in communication with you until Monday. Talk to you later. Take care every body.

On The Road Again

QUEENS AND HUMMINGBIRDS

John felt kind of pooky in the morning so for those of you who believe that I never drive, I drove from Radison to Edmonton. He is feeling much better this evening and is back to his old, lively pestering persona or in other words is back to driving me crazy. From there he drove until he got tired which happened to be way up at Mount Robson. There really is not much for facilities up there on the top of the world but I did see a sign that pointed up a little dirt road that said camping and lodgings. Away we went, not feeling very hopeful but lo and behold we found this:

We stayed in this cute little cabin called the bunk house. All the little cabins had names. John would have stayed even if there were no showers. He loved the rugged isolation. The cabins were surrounded by the most magnificent mountains imaginable, mysterious and awe inspiring while at the same time managing to be peaceful and serene. I slept for ten hours. I think the fresh alpine air combined with the sound of rain on the cabin's tin roof is better than any sleeping remedy the pharmacist has!

Our hosts were Asian and their customs were Eastern. We were instructed to remove our footwear at the door and use the slippers provided. When we went to the dinning room for breakfast the same rules applied. They must have had 50 pair of slippers on racks at the ready but they had two pair at the door set out just for us as we were the only customers for breakfast that morning. A young fellow made us pancakes from scratch using his own secret recipe. We ate our pancakes in a dining room that the queen herself had had tea in and who used to own the land while watching the hummingbirds that were flocking to the feeder right outside the window. As well as the birds at the feeder, many were frolicking amid the large, old, overgrown and wildly beautiful rose garden. We could even hear them chirping to each other and could see them close enough to see their little chests fluttering away. There were more hummingbirds in that one place than I have seen in my entire life. I would have loved to stay. What fun it would be to put on a big hat resplendent with flowers and sit in the rose garden and let the little birds buzz around my head. The only thing better than that is if there were squirrels playing at my feet all at the same time! I hope heaven is like that.

I waited until morning to take a picture of the mountains. Can you see them? No? Oh dear!

Taking pictures of each other.

This is the view off the bridge we crossed on the way to our cabin. In the evening we saw a few kayaks go down the rapids. The people in them survived. I did not think they would.

CLIFFS AND WATERFALLS

We managed to have some fun along the way. We took a side trip at Clearwater to go to Wells Grey Provincial Park. We were glad we did. What a lovely spot to have lunch!


There are so many beautiful places in the world. A large amount of them have been admired by visitors. Yet as I looked about at the miles and miles of forest about me, I thought of all the secret places. There are places that no human foot has trod on or that no eye has beheld. There are secret places that only God knows of. Somehow that makes me glad.

Three More Days

Hard to believe that I will be gone from here in a measly three days and won't be back for four months. I love my home, I love my family, I love my pets and it sure is hard to tear myself away. I know that everybody is going to miss us, including the dog. I find it sad as well to say goodbye to the cats. The cats belong to Angela but really have been my cats as she seldom can find a place to live that allows cats. She is looking for new homes for them because they really should not be here when John gets back after the transplant due to his weakened immune system. When I say goodbye to them it will probably be permanent. Please don't laugh but this makes me sad. I should not dwell on it because this is going to make me cry. Bwaaa..... ho boy! Get a grip Chris!

One consolation is that we are not heading into the great unknown like we did the last time.
We will be staying at Union Bay again and I can picture the apartment in my head so it is a little bit like a home away from home. I plan to finish up all the packing and odds and ends as well as get my hair cut and even give the dog a bath tomorrow. It would never do for the people who are going to care for him to have a smelly dog, at least at the start. One whiff of him and they may just send him home, then Angela would be stuck with him and have to stay at our place the whole time which would probably make her be mentally unstable. One nice thing for the dog is the people caring for him own a female collie. He may never want to come back here. I think that will make things a little easier for him as he is a big sucky baby of a dog.

We plan to spend Saturday and Sunday with the kids and grand kids and I don't want to have to do any work. I just want to enjoy them all.

Shameless campaigning

I can say with absolute certainty that I feel not even a hint of shame to do a little campaigning for one of my favorite blogs that I have been following. Momisoides has been nominated for a Scholastic award for best mommy blog. Out of 500 blogs put forward they narrowed down the field to the final ten. She is one of the ten. If she gets through to the final five, she will be featured in Parent and Child magazine. Ummm...she did not ask me to do this but I really would love to see her win so I did it! Eeeeeeeee! Follow the purple links...follow the purplke links....follow the purple links. Ahem...sorry, just my little attempt at some virtual hypnosis. Did it work? No? Close your eyes. Repeat the red words a few more times. There! Away you go to vote.

I was away all last week. I jumped on the bus. I went to help my daughter with the renovations on the new house that they have purchased. It has been so much fun to watch the house come out of the eighties and be turned into a modern bright and fresh home. We got the babies room painted. It is the most beautiful soft shade of pink. The crowning glory in the room is the chandelier with the pink crystals. We were both clapping our hands with glee.


I was expecting to come home and start packing to leave for Seattle this week and to probably be leaving the week after. That was what was supposed to be happening. While I was gone, the people in Seattle decided that they wanted John to do one more round of Velcade, Cyclophosphomide and Dexamethasone. They have proposed that instead of going directly into the donor transplant, they figure that they should do another autologous transplant (using his own cells) and then follow right away with doing an allogeneic transplant (donor cells) . They want to do all of this in Seattle. It is all up in the air at this point. Our doctor is against doing the auto transplant. He is away this week. I think we will be meeting with his associate later this week. We really are confused by all of this change in direction by the people in Seattle. There was no talk of the possibility of doing another auto while we were out there. Both of us are dreading that possibility. It is a very hard thing to go through. It will extend the time we are out there.

The only good news about everything is that we may be able to be here when grand daughter number two is born on April first. My daughter still is having problems believing that this is indeed a girl. Well just a little anyway. It has to do with the date of the C-section. April Fools day! She thinks that maybe....yeah... April fools...its a boy! Oh, one last cute picture! Sammy fell asleep with his head on a ball.

Comfy huh?

We Are Going Home

We will be leaving on Monday morning. They have decided that at this time not to proceed with the transplant. Yesterday it was a go. We picked up David from the clipper. We went to our first appointment in the morning. We got called away from that appointment to go and see Dr. M. Apparently the myeloma has been busy and now there is 30% cancer in his bone marrow. This level is too high for the transplant to be effective. They have decided to send him home for a few rounds of Velcade and dex. Why did it take them this long to figure this out? I do not know! They have had these test results for over a week. Why did not Dr. V. do a bone marrow biopsy last August when he should have? Ask him. If we would have been sent in the half year paremeter that they had told us about, I don't think that the counts would have been so high. If they had bothered to give him the minamal follow up by doing the bone marrow biopsy at the 3 month intervals that they said they were going to do, we would have caught this and he could have had some treatment then the transplant would have been a go. Hopefully the Velcade and dex combo will bring those levels down and in a couple of months come back for another try. I won't even try to say how we feelm right now. The nurse at the clicic told us to be tough. I wonder how long I can be tough. I don't want to be tough.

Merry Christmas to Me And John

I am tired and ready to fall asleep. I love video clips of small children falling asleep at the dinner table with their faces in their spaghetti or mac and cheese. I bet I would look just as funny with my face on the keyboard. Maybe it could earn some money on America's Funniest. I don't think I have seen one like that yet.

We went shopping today and bought each other Christmas presents. I don't see how we could possibly work it out so that we could have any surprise elements at all. I am too chicken to go out and drive to any of the malls plus John really needed to try on his gift! It looks good. I will post a picture at Christmas. John bought me mine at Barns and Nobles. We had fun. It was a very Merry Christmas shop!

On Friday, the Hickman line is being placed into John's chest. The chemo and radiation starts after that. We won't be gallivanting round for awhile. Today was the last day for that sort of a thing. Tomorrow we have an early appointment with the renal specialist. They want him to be seen so they have a baseline for John. One of the anti rejection medications is hard on kidneys and they have no way of knowing how that is going to turn out. He could end up needing dialysis at some point. I am praying that this will not be the case. He has gone through so much and will be going through even more. To have to go through that to top it all off is just beyond too much.

Well, I had better hit the hay so I can get up in the morning with the alarm clock. Good night sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite and all that...

Seward Park

Majestic Cedars

The Mighty Has Fallen

Tree Slide

Stairs To Nowhere

Green Ferns

We had a beautiful walk. Our cheeks are rosy. I have more pictures. It was hard to choose which ones to post. I love the old feel to the park. It is magical. It reminds me of the forest in The Lord Of The Rings. I even thought I saw an Ent. Can you see his face?

The Last Day Of November

We did not go out today even though the weather was nice. We were pretty much cornered in our apartment due to the Seattle Marathon. Traffic down Mercer Street was backed up. It would have been almost impossible to get out of the garage. I went and watched on the roof. I timed it just right and saw the leader fly by. He was lapping these guys. Did he ever move. he was way ahead of everybody else.


John went for a walk and decided to try the pizza place down the street. I will let him post about that. It wasn't at all what you would expect it to be. Check The John Braun Page. He may take a little while to get around to it.

I went up on the roof this evening. It is so foggy that I couldn't see any of the sky scrappers. The sound of the I - 5 is muted. Fog can be nice.

I started a new knitting project. We are watching the Lord Of The Rings marathon.

It really is hard to come up with anything when you just sit around the apartment. This is getting painful. I just can't think of any thing to write except that I made it. I posted every day in November. Now I will return to my regular habit of posting only when I think of something to post.

Almost Forgot

I almost forgot to post today. Wouldn't that have been funny...make it almost to the end and forget to post?

Today is the American Thanksgiving so we had it off too. We did not feel like making ourselves a turkey dinner and did not want to waste the day sitting around in the apartment so we headed out on an adventure.

First we went to a new grocery store, the QFC. Their produce and selections beat out the Safeway up on Capital Hill area. It reminds me of the Safeway we have at home complete with Starbucks samples. yum...mocha mint and a small piece of banana bread while we waited at the till! The store was quiet. I am sure this is because most of the people are at home stuffing themselves with holiday delights.

Second we went to the Washington State Arboretum. This place is a huge forest like area that has about 20,000 trees and shrubs. I forgot my camera! Don't cry...we will be going back there often, maybe even tomorrow if it is nice out. This park puts the forestry farm to shame. It is free. We went for a nice long leisurely stroll. The air smelled so good. There were huge cedars and some kind of a tree that shed leaves that are about a foot long. There were many trees that we have never seen before. We are going to go back when the visitor center is open to get more information about the different species in the park I would love to see this place in the summer when everything is in bloom.

Now we are going to either have left over spaghetti or chicken quesadilla for supper. I am going to have one of these for dessert. I will probably get addicted to them and can not get them in Canada. Hope all my American friends had a great Thanksgiving and made sure to leave room for pie.

Baby It Is Cold Outside!

I am very lazy today. John had an early appointment with a MRI. We came home from there and each had a very long nap. Our sweet housekeeping lady woke us up. She is cleaning today in lieu of Friday. It is nice that she is getting some time off for Thanksgiving.

It is now afternoon and I think that I could have another nap. John is snoring again. He has been watching all day long westerns on TV. I wonder if you can call watching 5 minutes of a show then sleeping half an hour watching. He does. If I go and take the remote away from him he half way wakes up and declares that he was watching that show! I sure hope that he can sleep tonight.

People in Seattle are so funny. John and I have not felt the need to bring out our winter parkas. We do not need our toques or mittens. Our fall jackets are warm enough. This morning while walking over to the clinic a fellow we were passing on the sidewalk said: "Very cold morning isn't it?" as he sped by. He looked like he was in a hurry to get someplace warm fast. This happens often. John just looks at me and laughs! For us Canadians...this is hilarious! We had just been thinking how nice it was outside. The grass is green here. Boggles the mind!

I Can't Think Of A Title!

Does anybody know what kind of flowers these are? They remind me of cabbages.

This building is downtown near Macy's. I think we should get one like it in Saskatoon. All big classy cities seem to have one. I found a streetcar route map. All I have to do is walk 5 blocks to catch a ride to downtown. I have barely began to explore.

I took this picture in Hope. This is the mountain behind our motel. What a beautiful view to wake up to.

Very beautiful. I love this sleepy little town.

I just got back from my nightly routine of going up to the roof to see the night lights. A lady in the hall asked me if I saw somebody orange go walking by. Oh Oh...I thought. Another strange Seattle person! Ha ha...I was relieved when I poked my head around the corner and saw a very large orange cat sitting there. I think most of the people who live here have pets.

I don't have much to write about today. The day was spent going to appointments. I will write about them over on The John Braun Page.

Here...Plus... A Little Of The Trip Here

Roof top garden

with a spectacular view!

Dining room and kitchen is on other side of window. Thank you for the flowers Becky!

An evening view of the Space Needle from our roof top. There are cranes galore, construction every where you look!

On The Way Here

We stopped to stretch our legs and get the kinks out of our knees. This is an apple orchard. I find it amazing how they prune the trees.It seems to me that there is hardly anything left of them but this is how they get them to produce so much. Sorry for the blurry picture. I have some clear ones but I wanted to show you John wandering around out there and what he found that made him happy.

Very happy! He picked that off the ground. Yeash!

On our way to Seattle we had got tired of restaurant food and stopped at a grocery store, purchased some buns, cheese and a little fruit. We stopped at a small park in Vernon B.C. to enjoy our lunch. We decided that it would be alright for us to go into the park seeing how neither of us were ever a dog or a horse in this lifetime anyway.

It was a pretty little park and had a little beach. I couldn't help but think of what fun it would be to spend a day with our grandsons there. I love the giant willows that you find in this area. It reminds me of the willows in Colorado Springs where I grew up. I wish I could have one of them in my back yard.

This is a view of the lake. There were geese there but they were too far to show up well. Next camera that I get has got to have a better zoom lens. I think if you click on the photo, you may be able to see them. This lake runs for 40 kilometers down the valley.


Wednesday we had the first appointment. We filled in lots of forms. Met with Ian who is both John's and David's nurse. He is a Canadian so he alone knew what Gravol was. Seems that Gravol is sold by a different name in the United States. Our cultures are so very much the same but little things like this remind us that we are not in Canada.

Today a guy phoned to sell us a subscription to the Seattle Times. I told him that we would only be living in Seattle for a few months. He asked me if I was a Canadian. I asked him why he would think that. He said that I sounded like one. Get that Becky! Hahaha! I sound like a Canadian. Hahaha! Sorry about that folks. This is an ongoing debate between the two of us. She does not believe that Canadians have a discernible accent. As a former American who visited Canada regularly, Canadians sounded somewhat British to me when I was a kid. I figure that if I have an accent that it would not be as pronounced as real Canadians seeing as how I was American for a portion of my life. Wouldn't that tone it down somewhat? So...for the rest of you Canadians, your accent would be picked up on even before mine. Seriously though...very few of the Americans here in Seattle have an accent that I can pick up on.

Anyway...I sure am going on and on today. For more information about the medical side of things check out The John Braun page listed in my blog roll in the side bar. I will be posting that information over there and don't want to repeat it all here.

Yesterdays Fun

This afternoon we made our way to the Space Needle. After paying a ridiculous sum of money we went up. It was a pretty view of the harbor but it did not come close to the thrill on the CN Tower in Toronto which is three times higher than this tower.

.

We still had three hours of paid parking left so we decided to take a ride on the monorail. This was way cheaper at $4.00 round trip per person. We wanted to see where we ended up

It was a fun ride. I couldn't help thinking of an episode of The Simpsons which featured a monorail disaster. Our monorail driver did not resemble Homer Simpson at all to my relief. It was fun. When we got off at the stop I noticed across the street a cable car that runs from Union Bay Hutchinson Center to downtown. I want to check that out. Parking downtown costs about $10.00 and hour!


We walked toward the harbor and found ourselves at Pike Place Market. We wandered around there for awhile. We stopped to share an order of fish and chips. We went over to a little park over looking the harbor and saw a drug deal go down . I got a little freaked out but John did not seem to think we were in any danger. We decided to move along. Seattle seems to be full of colorful characters.



I loved all the brick roads and all the old buildings. This wall was full of posters of coming and of long past events.

Here is a seagull for Jientje. I think she will appreciate it. I thought of her when I took it.

I will post a lot of pectures over the next few days. When David got here he showed me how to download from my memory stick. It turns out that I do not need a cord. You can quit looking Angela.

Tomorrow we have the first appointment at the Cross Cancer Alliance. We probably won't be able to play tourist again untill the weekend. We want to take a tour of the Seattle underground. I think it is kind of like Moose Jaw underground. The ad says: DIRT - CORRUPTION - SEWERS - SCANDAL and that is the family tour. You can take an adult tour that promises: OPIUM - GRAFT - SEX - DEBAUCHERY for $21.00 but that includes a cocktail! We passed by Macy's on the way back to the monorail. I want to go there to look around. We only had time to window shop. We saw some very large stuffed animals. I liked the very large elephant but sadly do not have the $750.00 with which to buy it.

There is lots to do in Seattle. I think it will be awhile before we run out of ideas.

All Moved In

Everything is put away. The grocery shopping is done. I think that it will take a few days to start to feel like home but already it s better than hotel rooms. The apartment is very nice. It has enough room for the two of us. The furniture and decor is great. We have a king sized bed, DVD player, washer and dryer in suite and a dish washer. We rented a modem from the apartment complex so I did not even have to miss one day of Internet. The roof garden is delightful. There are flowers blooming up there and the view is spectacular. I am going to go up there before bed and look out to see all the city lights. Very pretty. Cross Cancer Alliance is just a few blocks away.

We are in a high traffic area and there is construction going on right next door but I am amazed how quiet it is in our place. The construction shuts down pretty eaarly. I bet the traffic goes on all the time. We have a balcony with patio door in the living room and the bedroom. The view there is not so great but the roof decck makes up for that. Sorry that I can't post any pictures yet. I am having trouble getting a new cord for my camera at a price that John will pay. He thinks that he should be able to get one for a couple of dollars. I wonder where he got that idea from? Yeash!

John is on the phone with David making arrangements to pick him up from the ferry. I don't think it is too far. We are really enjoying the GPS we got before coming. So nice for getting around a strange city.

Overwhelming And Lavish Love

I don't think I have ever been so overwhelmed before in my life. I am blown away. I was unaware of how much so many people love John and myself. The last few weeks gift upon gift has been given to us to help with project Seattle. I can not count how many tearful hugs I have received. My best description of it is lavish love. It is the love of God given hands and feet and arms. It is the love of God in action.

Today a teenage friend of ours cleaned out his savings account that he had been working on to buy his first car, came by our house and wanted to give that us to help. It came from his heart. It was a lot of money. Needless to say we did not accept this lavish gift but I have to tell you that touched my heart. He cried when he hugged us goodbye. I cried when he hugged us goodbye.

I have been crying a lot. It has not been tears of sorrow. The tears flow in response to all the kindness and care we have received. I am undone.

Tonight we attended a fundraiser that was attended by people from our church, extended family and the community at large. They held a bake sale and a silent auction. I was blown away at the items donated for the auction. I was blown away at the amount of people who attended. I was blown away at the amount of baking. I was blown away at the amount of work done to organize and execute these events. I was blown away by the well wishes and hugs and tears. I feel emotionally spent but in a good way.

We are ready to go. Spiritually we are surrounded by prayers and the knowledge that we will continue to be covered by prayer. People all over the provence and even out of provence and even out of country pray for us. Astounding! Through all of this, I feel the love and peace of God and that is what I need the most. I feel his loving arms surround me. We are ready to go in our minds...in our souls...in our spirit.

Now I just have to finish that pesky packing.

Insomnia

It is 6:00 AM and I am wide awake. The closer it is getting to departure day, the more trouble I am having sleeping. There are some positive things that come along with the insomnia. The grand kidlets are snug in their beds. The dog is still sleeping. It is nice and quiet and I can sit and put together some of my thoughts.

Today is the day of the big pack. I have been procrastinating. It seems that maybe if I don't pack, we really won't have to go. I keep hoping that Dr. V's off ice would phone and tell us they have made a mistake and this treatment would not be necessary. I keep trying to focus on all of the things that can make going to Seattle seem O.K. I try hard to make my brain think we are going on a holiday. We will try to have some fun before the treatment starts.

I am not the only one having trouble being gone four months. John has big time trouble. Our children have big time trouble. Our grandkids are going to have big time trouble. I think that this fact is the hardest for me. They are so little and how could they possibly understand this. Ah...pity sake! I told myself that I would not cry when I wrote this. When I think of them, it is impossible not to cry. Becky is trying to prepare her boys. I am sure Jonathan and Melissa are doing the same.

The one thing that keeps me going is the fact that I know we will all get through this. One day it will be behind us as just a memory. We have met the challenges of the last year and a half and with God's grace we will meet the challenges of the next four months. I have an amazing family. My children are great. Can you imagine what it would be like to go through something like this if that were not the case? They have given us so much love and support. That is another thing that keeps both of us going.

Stupid Multiple Myeloma! May David"s stem cells kill every last bit of you! That is the final and most important thing that keeps me going. I am focused very intently on this. I will do whatever it takes for this to happen... even overcome the things that frighten me.

With all that said. I am going to pack.