Happy New Year!!

Wishing you health, happiness, and all good things in the New Year!

Snow Snow Snow

Snowy Day!

Dad and I cleaned up snow this morning, lots of it!  I shoveled and he ran the snowblower.  It's very pretty but very cold and windy.  It was funny how so much of the snow had blown off leaving bare ground in places while there was a foot or more in other spots.  One can only hope that this will be our one and only big storm.  :-) How nice it was to have my car in the garage throughout the storm--the first time I've been able to garage a car for more than twenty years.



Tomorrow my friend Alan Nyiri visits from Vermont.  He is a professional photographer.  You should check out his work at http://www.alannyiri.com/.  Barns, covered bridges, Acadia, landscapes ...

Late in the afternoon tomorrow I take my car to the garage in Farmingdale for an inspection sticker, oil/filter change, and new tires.  I have a crafting bag packed so I'll have plenty to do while I wait.

Blizzard Warning and Pajama Days

With a blizzard warning posted for the next twenty-four hours or so, with up to a foot of snow or more expected, I'm hoping to get some time to work on the projects I've been stockpiling for pajama days.  I'm just hoping that we don't lose our power, in which case I lose my heat and Olive the Cat and I will move into my parents kitchen to be nearer the woodstove.

It really feels like snow outside.  I went to town and got gas for the snow blower and my car.  I keep waiting for the snow to start...Dad's watching the Patriots; Mom's watching an old movie...I know I should be more motivated to do something, but I don't have much energy today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I've been working on my 2011 calendar kit from Kellie, using Memory Box and PoppyStamps images and papers.  Only four months to go!  This has been a really fun project.  Thanks, Kellie!  I took the kit with me to Spa Day #6 last Friday and got all of the little calendars mounted and the decorative papers added to each month to set a color theme.  Yesterday I worked on adding stamped images, embossing, glittering, and embellishing each page.

Snow here overnight and a lunar eclipse!  Possibly sleet and freezing rain later.  I have a doctor's appointment today in Wiscasset but will change that if the weather gets awful.  Tomorrow I meet with the radiation oncologist in Bath to plan the next stage in my treatment plan.  Thursday I drive to Portland for blood work.  Sometime this week I need to do laundry and pick up a few groceries for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.

I hope to finish wrapping presents later today and get everything into the dining room and under the tree.  I'm finding it hard to believe that Christmas is on Saturday!  I'm not ready yet!  We're planning a quiet celebration because I'm anticipating my usual side effects and fatigue.  I'm thinking Pajama Day for Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Spa Day #6

Spa Day #6 is Friday the 17th!!!  Am I excited?  You betcha!!!  My bags are packed and I'm ready to go...just need to finish this post on Thursday night and get some sleep first.

This will be the last Spa Day where I get the full treatment.  After this, the Friday treatments will be only with Herceptin and without a lot of the not-so-nice side effects.  Hooray!!!  I imagine I'll have most if not all of the month of January to get acclimated to feeling good before the radiation therapy will start.  Once I know that schedule, I'll post it here on the blog.

I've been creating a lot of artsy things lately--shadow boxes, Christmas cards, framed mini watercolors, and working in my journal.  I'm taking a lot of that with me tomorrow.  I have a shadow box to finish "snowing", cards to finish and get into addressed envelopes, and my art journal--well, I have tons of ideas for the blank pages.  And since I hope to start a new one in January, I'd better get this one finished up!

I made peanut butter cookies this evening.  Yum!!!  Soft and chewy, just the way I like them.

Not much planned for my Portland trip tomorrow other than going down and back.  Christmas shopping is done.  There's not much I need for me, though I would love some new pajamas for Christmas.  Hmmm, that might mean a trip to the Mall after all, although I'd rather find a nice small store on a quiet street somewhere...maybe Cuddledown in Freeport has something I'd like.  Guess I'll have to check their website before heading out.

I'm expecting to feel kind of yucky by the first of the week for a week and a half or two weeks.  Christmas will be a quiet day, then.  And by New Year's I should be feeling better!  At least I know what to expect and know that there is an end in sight!!!

Happy Spa Day to me!

Can't Wait for Friday!

Friday is my last chemo treatment!!!  I can't wait!!!  I'm feeling pretty good and am heading out to a Christmas party/luncheon today.  I had a crafting day yesterday and finished Andrew's Christmas gifts.  Now to just get everything in a box and mail it out to him!

This is another busy week with lots of appointments, but that will help to make the week speed by more quickly.  I've got to plan my craft project for Friday, too, and pack that up to take with me.  I should have something, too, for anyone else there who wants to play--maybe gift bags and tags.  We'll see.  Have to go through the Christmas box and see what's left that needs to be used up.

I'm already thinking ahead to January and the possibility of teaching a paper crafting class or two.  I have missed my regular Monday group and hope to get back into the groove of creating on a regular basis.  I have so many ideas rambling around in my head and filling my notebooks!

Two more weeks until my final chemo treatment!

So the blahs have kicked in this weekend and everything is starting to taste awful.  I guess the only thing I can do is to try to eat either really bland food or really spicy food that might wake up those taste buds of mine.  I'm down to doing one thing each day and taking it easy the rest of the time.  Saturday I did some grocery shopping.  Today I visited here with my sister Barb and her husband and I worked on my blog post for the Outside the Box blog (which goes up at 6 AM tomorrow).  Tomorrow has to be Laundry Day--I've been putting it off for two weeks now.  I've got acupuncture later this week and a visit to the Lymphedema Center in Portland as well as blood work.  (I'm hoping to combine those last two on the same day so I only have to go to Portland once this week.)   I'm hoping that the worst of the side effects will be over by next weekend so I'll have one good week before the final chemo dose.  We've pretty much decided as a family that we will celebrate Christmas after the new year when both Barb's husband and I should be recovered from our various medical ordeals.  Barb and I did exchange Advent Calendars today--she refilled the little boxes of the one I made for her last year and I placed an ornament a day for her in little white numbered bags.