The start of September

 

I ha an appointment with my radiation oncologist on Tuesday, September 1st.  It was a routine six month follow-up, but my first time there since COVID.  They had an automated thermometer that scanned my forehead temp just by standing in front of it. 

I wore a dress to the office, but changed into a robe in the exam room.

My doctor thought my robe was a stylish wrap dress, which totally proves my theory that a wrap dress is just a socially appropriate robe. 

 

A little gift I gave my doctor.  There was soap and lip gloss inside. 

I used the Baby Yoda mug for my coffee on Wednesday, September 2nd. 

I ended up going into work that day just to pick up paychecks.  I stopped at Jo Ann's Fabric on my way back and saw these incredibly awesome Halloween Wreaths.  I want every one.  I bought none. 

I had an appointment with a neurologist to get nerve conduction testing done on my arm on Thursday, September 3rd.  

My nerves are fine, but the lymphedema in my arm is causing all sorts of issues. 

I had seen this meme on Instagram earlier in the week.  When I looked at Owen Wilson I seriously thought it was me because of the hair.  

So, I had to do a side-by-side!

I took my monthly hair pictures on Friday, September 4th. 

These are Sep 4, 2019 to Sep 4, 2020.

After those pictures I changed my shirt and went to my six-month follow-up with my oncologist.  It was the third cancer related appointment of the week. 

I had this stitch family made for her and gave it to her. 

She loved it!

I stopped and got a coffee when I left the appt and then went to three grocery stores. 

Despite this oppressive heat. 

My parents came up from Tucson that evening to spend the weekend with us.  There were matching wine glasses for the occasion. 

Up next: My birthday and Spencer's birthday!

Closing out August

It happened again!  I completely fell behind, but this time it's because we were celebrating our birthdays.  We're going to power through the end of August, I'm going to get my act together, and we'll go full force into September. 

Our roof was finished on Monday, August 24th.  They came back two more times to fix little things, but this is pretty much the end product.  It looks exactly the same. Ha!

A little project I did with succulents in the living room.  They are all fake. And it looks different now.  I'll take an updated picture sometime. 

On Tuesday the 25th I let Spencer sit in the front seat for the first time and we went to Starbucks. I took all neighborhood streets and lectured him on never putting his feet up on the dashboard. 

Pumpkin spice was released that day. I think the lattes are way too sweet, but the pumpkin cold brew, no sweetener, with the foam......delicious. 

Elliott drew this for a school assignment on Wednesday the 26th.  I think it's marvelous. 

His motivation

I was at Aj's on Thursday the 27th and was just really impressed with these two cakes. 

I was sitting in my dining room office on Friday the 28th when I saw our lazy delivery person had left this package in the front yard. It didn't even make it to the door.  

That was also the day that Chadwick Boseman passed away from colon cancer.  I was pretty upset about it because cancer is stupid, so we watched Black Panther that night. 

I made this little graphic too.

We had a tropical themed family zoom happy hour on the 29th. 

I took these pictures of the backyard for my friend Sarah on Sunday the 30th. 

Cool sky that night.

Michael went to school in St. Albans, VT, so when I saw this cheese at Trader Joe's, I bought it for him. 

We had a little nosh/snacky dinner that night.

And that is it!  Twenty-seven years later we are finally in September!

All messed up

 Sorry for the big gap in blogging.  Somehow my photo storage got all messed up and when I try to transfer pictures from my phone to the desktop it says that all of the files already exist, even though they don't.  I've been having to open and save under a bunch of new folders, and it got obnoxious to the point that I just stopped transferring photos for a while.  I hope to have a fresh start now that it's September. 

We're going back to August 16th.  It was the one year anniversary of when I finished active treatment, so it was my one year survivorversary.

Checking out the lighting for a picture. 

One year survivor

This is what I looked like the day I finished radiation last year.  I didn't realize at the time how horrible I looked. 

One year comparison

And the one year comparison on my chest.  My arm pit radiation had finished a week earlier, so that spot in my arm pit is already a week healed.  It actually looked way worse, if you can believe that. 

A year later I still have skin that is darker. It's visible, just hard to photograph. 

There was a dust storm that day.  It was so long ago I remember no details about it. 

Elliott's 8 year 8 month photo.  I haven't cropped it yet because, lazy. 

We got a big rainstorm on Monday the 17th.  I actually caught a lightning bolt, but it was above me so it turned the sky purple, but you can't see it. 

Poor broken tree the day after the storm on Tuesday the 18th.

I was at Target buying new shirts for the kids.  I used to be able to buy them whatever I wanted, but now they have opinions. 

There is nothing to report from Wednesday the 19th.  I got the stitches out of my face, but no pictures.'

The roofers showed up at 6 am on Thursday the 20th to finally replace our roof. 

We've needed to have this done for almost a year. 

I got my hair cut and colored on Friday the 21st.  The lady who does my hair is a cancer survivor, works alone in her own shop and she wears a mask, so I felt like it was safe. 

We had a plaid themed zoom on Saturday the 22nd.  Nick is still out at sea and had no plaid, so I gave him fake plaid curtains.

OK!  I am hopeful that with the start of the new month my photo issues will be better and I can be back on track.  If not, we'll blame 2020.