First things first.  I am fine.  No real changes in my treatment nor the long range outlook for my Cancer battle.  The past three weeks have been filled with the normal oncologist visits and chemo treatments.  There has been lots to do around Church as we get ready to celebrate Christmas and the blog has taken a back seat for a few weeks.

I have had a few interesting experiences over the past few weeks…

PRETZELS

One of the joys of living near Philadelphia is the pretzels.  I used to buy them from the street vendors.  You should have heard my mother in law protest as I would roll my window down to pick up a few pretzels at a traffic light.  Who knew where they had been?  Boy did they taste good.  Today we have a better alternative than buying pretzels off of street vendors, we simply go to Philly Pretzel Factory.

The smell inside the store is amazing.  Hot pretzels at the ready.  Nothing better on a cold, dreary day.  A few Sundays ago I stopped and got some pretzels on my way home so I could enjoy them as I watched the game.  I ate a few but there were some left over so I put them back in their bag and left them on the kitchen counter.

Monday night rolled round.  I was halfway through the football game and I started craving a hot pretzel.  Part of the genius of these Philly Pretzel Factory pretzels is that you can take an old, cold pretzel…place it in the microwave and bring it back to life in a few seconds.  I headed to the kitchen but could not find any of my pretzels.

I asked Rayann if she had eaten the last few.  She claimed she had not.  I asked Nancy if she had seen my missing pretzels.  She assured me she had not done anything to my missing pretzels.  I hunted high and low with no success.  Finally, with a hint of desperation I looked in the garbage can.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear, the eight Philly Factory Pretzels that had mysteriously disappeared! [Read more…]

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE

Our Christmas tree is up!

I always like our Christmas tree, this year it takes on a special meaning.

Every time I go to see my oncologist I get a special bracelet.  It has my name, birthday and other important information on it.  Before I am to get any treatment the nurses match my bracelet with their orders.

After a few visits it became clear I was going to keep getting these bracelets.  It seemed a waste to simply throw them away once I left the office.  I came up with the idea of using them to make a chain to decorate our Christmas tree.  There are 41 loops, representing 41 office visits since May!  If you are into math you quickly realize that is more than one visit per week.  I was busy when my treatment first started.  Now we are down to one visit per week.

As I sit in my chair and look at our Christmas tree I am amazed and thankful for the way God has helped me navigate those 41 loops.  It has not been easy.  Nancy is nothing short of amazing.  We look at the tree and laugh.  Last year at this time those 41 loops were the furthest thing from our minds…and yet God has met us in the midst of chaos in powerful ways.  By the time we take down the tree there will be another five or six loops to the chain.  I can’t wait to see our tree next year, there will be close to 100 loops!

NATIVITY SCENES

Nancy loves this time of year.  Our home has six full Nativity scenes out on display.  I am told there are more in storage.  Apparently we need a larger home in order to display them all.  Along with the full Nativity scenes there are random Mary and Joseph images throughout the house.  Just when I think I have seen them all another one pops up.

I give her a hard time about all the Nativity scenes but they are a nice reminder of what this season is all about. [Read more…]

TUESDAY WAS MC ROUND 2

It was still dark early Monday morning when we left Locust, NC.  It was a long drive home.  Traffic was lighter than it would have been Sunday but I was tired going into my chemo day.

Tuesday morning I was just not into this chemo thing.  I woke up feeling as if it was going to be a long hard day.  It was damp and rainy which did not help my spirits.  I reminded myself that God is Good All the Time and headed off to my oncologists office for treatment.

I arrived a few minutes late.  Sat in the office for fifteen minutes (which is unusual) when the nurse appeared.  “I do not have orders for you!  You can wait here or you can come wait back with us but I am not doing anything without orders!”  She promptly disappeared back into the chemo room.  I looked at Nancy and said, “What am I doing here today?”  “I do not do well with her and I am not in the right frame of mind to deal with her all day.”  She is the one nurse in the whole practice who I do not do well with.  We have a history. [Read more…]