Week six in quarantine

Sunday, April 19th

Since 2020 had a leap day all of the one year anniversaries of my chemo treatments fall on Sundays, because all of my chemos were on Fridays. 

This was the one year comparison of my fifth chemo, which was my first taxol chemo. 

I chose to ice my hands and feet for 15 minutes before, three hours during, and 15 minutes after each treatment to prevent permanent peripheral neuropathy in my fingers and toes.  It was so painful that I had to get doses of morphine throughout the three and a half hours. I did this for all four taxol treatments. 

We had our last dinner alfresco by the pool that evening.  It was a beautiful, temperate day, but things started heating up after.  

I had spent the day cutting out hearts to add to the front window display.  I took pictures after dinner.  

 Nothing at all happened on Monday the 20th, because I don't even have any pictures from that day. 

On Tuesday the 21st, we had another friend drive-by.  This time it was Spencer's friend Julian.  

Elliott finished reading the second Harry Potter that day, and we had received our sorting hat from Target, so we had another Harry Potter party night.  

The Sorting Hat actually sorted us into the same houses we had been sorted into by our pretend sorting hat the week before. 

Ravenclaw for Elliott 

Slytherin for Spencer 

Gryffindor for Michael 

Hufflepuff for me. 

Michael and I were drinking bellinis because Uncle Vernon serves champagne at the beginning of the second movie. 

Wednesday the 22nd was Earth Day, so we had a special Earth Day Yoda.  

Quarantine, week 5- part 2

When Spencer turned 100 months, back in January of 2016, he had been looking forward to it for several years.  100 months just sounds cool.  We found a sweatshirt with a big "S" on it, went to the park, and took his picture. 

Elliott, who was four at the time, still remembers when we did this and he has been looking forward to his 100 month turn for the last four years.  Since we're in quarantine and we can't be out going from store to store looking for a shirt with a big "E" on it, I put a sticker on one of his shirts and headed to the same park. 

We went the morning of Thursday, April 16th, but the sun was terrible, so we drove back home.

We went back with Michael and an umbrella later in the day, but there were still issues with the sun.  See the umbrella over in the corner trying to block the sun.  I am not a professional photographer. 

We ended up going to a different park to find some shade. 

100 months.  Official. 

Comparison of the brothers

Elliott said it was too bad his "E' was so small, so just for fun I gave him a digital "E". 

My friend Amanda brought us some eggs from her mom's chickens on Friday the 17th. 

They were farm fresh, so we washed them with vinegar water.  

I needed to take a picture of myself for my school's FB page, so this is what I came up with.  I got a little happy with the graphics.  

Some friends were out doing a waving drive by that afternoon, so we waited for them in the driveway. 

I thought our neighbor's blooming ocotillo was pretty, so I took this picture while we waited.  

Elliott's friend Malcolm, with his mom and his sister. 

We had a family happy hour that night.  There was no theme like we had for Easter, so Nathan suggested we all hold up something to make it a theme.  We settled on a screwdriver. 

I gave everyone (except myself) haircuts on Saturday, April 18th.  This is the second haircut of quarantine, actually.  

I used temporary conditioner- based hair color to give myself pink hair.  

And along with his haircut, Elliott got blue hair.  

Spencer got the same pink as me, but his hair is too dark so you can't see it.  

Up next: week 6 of quarantine

Slow blogging

Something very unique has happened.  I'm completely caught up in the blog time line and I'm also in quarantine, allowing me ample time to stay caught up in the blog time line.  So, for the first time in a long time, I have to slow down on my posts.  I decided I'm just going to make them much shorter so I can post more often.  Are you SO EXCITED to hear SO MUCH about our quarantine life?

Monday, April 13th

Elliott saw a YouTube video about Fairy Bread- white sandwich bread spread with butter and doused with sprinkles- and he had been begging me to make it for him ever since. 

What's better than bread, butter and sprinkles for breakfast for a growing boy?  I used whole wheat bread though, because we don't have white bread, and gave him extra sprinkles to make it extra hearty. 

His honest opinion was that he has never had that many sprinkles in one meal before, and it wasn't a great idea.  

Elliott finished reading the first Harry Potter that day, so we decided to make it a fun themed movie night that night. 

First we put on our shirts.  Then we sorted ourselves into houses with our very own Sorting Hat.  

And then we ate dinner and had drinks in our house mugs while we watched the movie.  It's a good thing we have all of these supplies from Spencer's 11th birthday party. 

I wore my Hogwarts bow too!  I had enough hair to wear it!

Tuesday, April 14th

I did that FB challenge to post your senior class photos.  Might as well share them here too. 

Class of 1997

Wednesday, April 15th

I put on a wig to do a video IEP that morning, and then Elliott asked if he could also wear one of my wigs to do his work. 

He lasted about 30 minutes in it, actually.  

I had learned that the newest front window challenge was to paint a rainbow, so I added one to Paddington and Corduroy.  I actually painted it the day before, but took pictures on Wednesday. 

I was reading posts in one of my FB breast cancer support groups that day and someone was talking about the lymphedema they got after accidentally having their blood pressure taken on their breast cancer side.  I took a picture of my medical alert bracelets to share with her.  I haven't been wearing them (except for when we walk), but what else am I supposed to talk about now?  

Up next: more slow blogging for the rest of last week.