Monica did a lovely job quilting - it's a pretty feathery pattern

although sadly it doesn't show up in this picture. 

Here's a close-up of one of the machine embroidered snowmen 

(they're all different):

The borders are weird because I had planned to miter my corners; to that end, I sewed the 3 strips together first.  When it turned out I didn't have quite enough length for mitering, I figured I'd just do the borders the 'regular' way, but since I already had the strips together (and ripping is such a pain) I decided I'd just add them the way they were.  (Kind of like how cancer changed my plans for the next 18 months or so, right?)  Wasn't until I sewed them on that I realized that wasn't quite going to work, but left them anyway.

Once I scallop and bind the edges, there will be a final picture.  But with my next chemo scheduled for tomorrow, you might not want to hold your breath.

It was wonderful to see all the ladies at quilting, and my new do was well received.  Earlier in the month (during Charity Day) the ladies had been sewing chemo hats for kids.  Joyce brought in a couple that she had made, and I modeled them.  (Certainly didn't have to worry about messing up my hair...)  They're awfully cute, and the kids should enjoy them.  I ended up getting to pick one to take home.

Joanne Woodfill made me an adorable pillowcase from the Lorelei Ladies cancer fabric (same line I used to make Tami's quilt, although different pattern)

Look at this stunning jacket that Sharon was wearing - she does such beautiful work!  I love how Kokopelli's curved Flying Geese make the perfect edge to her jacket.

Now I'm back at home, waiting for my anti-nausea meds to be delivered.  (Not sure why these can't be ordered through Walgreens, but there must be a reason, right?)  Just hope that they're a little more prompt than last time, when our 'afternoon' delivery arrived at 8:00 p.m.; since someone has to sign for them it meant someone (Tom) had to sit around all day and wait.  (I was in Maryland, 'partying'.)

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!  But since

  

 let me also say

Excited about going to quilting today - 

plus should be picking up my Cancer Comfort Quilt that Monica quilted for me, so check back later for a pre-binding pic!

Okay, folks - heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Bobbi!

'Slight' change in plans

After my shower my hair continued to fall out in clumps, so no point in putting off the inevitable.  Alex shaved my head.  I don't think Shelley has to worry about him taking over her job as hairdresser - it's pretty patchy in places.  But since it's all going to fall out anyway it's no big deal.  Here we are before Alex starts:

And here's the video of him 'styling' my hair.  It's pretty funny!

And heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go

Washed my hair this morning, and LOTS fell out.  The chemo nurse had guesstimated 4 weeks in; it's not quite 3 weeks, but then again I'm not quite bald yet!  <G>  No hair (yet!) left on my pillow, so I guess I have a few days before I get Alex to shave my head. 

This afternoon Alex and I visited Helene and met her new Sheltie puppies - 6 boys and 1 girl.  They were born on Valentine's Day, which makes them Arizona Centennial puppies.  Are they cute?  Judge for yourself:

This is the only little girl.  I'm in love!

Almost couldn't blog today :-(

But after putzing and trying everything I knew (which, in reality, is not much), I reverted back to the old standby... just shut 'er down and reboot.  As you can see, that did the trick.

Poor Alex had his own technical difficulties this weekend.  After working non-stop at both Carrabba's every evening and the car wash every weekend (plus going to school) he finally arranged a weekend off to go snowboarding in Flagstaff.  Left here at 3:00 Friday afternoon, only to sit in stopped traffic.  (Sadly, it turned out that the holdup was because a motor home had gone off a cliff.)  Eventually he got moving again - at least for a little while, until his transmission blew.  Yes, the same one he just got put in a couple of weeks ago.  So he sat and sat and waited for the tow truck.  To make a long story shorter, the tow truck guy dropped him off at home around 8:30 before he took Alex's car to the repair shop.  Who knows how late that would have been?  Alex borrowed Tom's truck and continued on to his friend's house in Prescott.  

Saturday morning I got a text from Alex that they were on their way to Flagstaff for a day of snowboarding.  Unfortunately, sometime that morning Lauren had a boarding accident involving her knee, and Alex ended up taking her to the hospital in Prescott.  So much for a day of boarding on Saturday.  He had hoped to make a whole weekend of snowboarding, but gave up on the whole thing and arrived home just as I was crawling into bed to read.  He's one pretty bummed guy.

And speaking of sad puppies, check out this short clip. 
Only runs a minute, but be sure to watch (and listen!) all the way to the end:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFrw3NnoSuM

This morning chatted with my sister Marilyn (in Texas) who is dealing with the latest nasty upper respiratory crap that's going around there; apparently "everyone has it."  She sounded awful, but promises to be be over it by the time she comes to visit in 2 weeks. 

I was actually out in 'real' public last night (we went to a busy restaurant) but luckily got seated after only 5 minutes (love that 'call ahead seating') and ended up in a booth pretty much off by itself.  I had a nice healthy dinner: naked salad, delicious sirloin perfectly cooked, and al dente broccoli.  Okay, I did have a couple of their freshly baked rolls, too.  For breakfast each morning I'm having a nice tall glass of fresh OJ; eventually we'll run through the zillions of oranges of the tree, but in the meantime I'm sure enjoying them! I am really  doing my best to eat well and help my body cope with the cancer and onslaught of cancer-fighting drugs.

Wee Willie came to visit this afternoon

He sure is a cutie, and certainly puts a smile on my face.  :-)

Having fun with the ball and soft blocks:

Such a sweetie!

With Mom, Estera, getting ready to head home for nap time:

The answer is 45

And the question is: 

How many oranges from our tree does it take to squeeze a half gallon of OJ?  

The empty pitcher is once again filled to the brim with juice from downed oranges Tom collected yesterday.  Plus this morning he and Carlo took down the huge olive tree branch that was blocking the sun from much of the orange tree; in the process they knocked down what looks to be another 45 oranges, just waiting their turn in the juicer.

I am a snapdragon

 Wandering around some quilt blogs this morning, came across a "What Flower Are You?" quiz.  I, apparently, am a snapdragon. 

 "Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. 

You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."  

Don't know that I'm much of a prankster, although I do feel like I'm a good friend.  In any event, the quiz was fun.  You may be able to take the quiz yourself via the following link:

http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/flower-quiz

Heather just called with my latest blood results. 

 Happy to report that the numbers are good: ANC is 5.6, WBC is 9, and my platelets (which behaved themselves this time) are 120.  Plus Heather says the numbers should just keep improving until my next chemo.  (Of course will have yet another blood test just before, to make sure.)

My friend Deb has been dealing with MS the past several years.  As if the physical issues haven't been bad enough, now she's dealing with memory loss and thinking process issues.  These Senior Moments (or, as Edna dubbed them, Intellectual Interruptions) can be very frustrating.  

So EXTRA HUGS  going out today to Deb.

I found that for the several days after my first treatment I definitely experienced chemo brain fog - and can only assume that will continue. 

Alex asked me yesterday when I'll start losing my hair.  

I'm guessing sometime after second chemo, scheduled for March 1.

In the meantime, think I'll order up one of these shirts!

Once my hair does start falling out, I had planned to have Shelley (my hairdresser) give me a buzz cut.  However, Alex has that attachment on his electric razor, and has offered to do the deed for me.  He thinks it will be a hoot - plus I'd save $ on a 'haircut'.  So it's a win/win.  In the Silver Lining Department: should be nice and cool for our upcoming summer, plus I'll save on shampoo.

Monica is gifting me some of her head scarves (she experienced the 'fun' of chemo last year) which I'll wear on occasions when I don't want to embarrass the family (like Lisa's graduation), but am hoping much of the time to just go with the Bald is Beautiful theme, and 'flaunt' my status as a chemo survivor!

Uneventful blood draw this morning.  They were a tad surprised to see me back again ("because I had so much fun yesterday!") Happily I was in and out in about 10 minutes.  Wendy commented on how cheerful I was, especially since she'd had such trouble with my rolling vein time before last.  (I told her I was tanking up on 'credits' for when I come in feeling really lousy down the line, which made her smile.)  The waiting room was virtually empty when I walked in, but in just the few minutes that it took to draw my blood it had filled up.  Great window of opportunity!

Now settling down to track down the rest of the MIA tax stuff.  At least Becky gave me an A for being so organized with the stuff that I did bring in on Tuesday.  

 Another glorious day - and it's only 9:30.  

 I foresee another delightful afternoon reading by the pool.

I've been taking my naps later in the day (after Jeopardy, instead of before) which is a good sign.  But yesterday, between a phone call and then a dinner delivery from a neighbor, I didn't get more than 10 or 15 minutes.  Surprisingly, I didn't crash early in the evening.  In fact, I had so much energy that I squoze (love that word) all the downed oranges that I had Alex collect; the ripe ones keep dropping daily, which saves us the trouble of using the fruit picker.  Even having a LARGE glass myself (boy was it good!) I ended up with a very full half-gallon pitcher.  When Alex came home from work at 10:00 I was (amazingly) still awake (reading in bed) and he announced that the house smelled of oranges.  Also amazingly, the jug was not empty when I got up this morning.  :-)

 Wish I'd thought to count the number of oranges it took (a LOT) - Alex said it only took 9 grapefruits to fill the jug the other night!

Bev called last night.  She'd asked for suggestions for a light-weight beach read (they're hoping to head to Aruba next month in-between her chemo treatments) and although I'd picked out a couple, 'somehow' I hadn't actually e-mailed her.  We had a nice long chat before it was bedtime there (she's two hours ahead of us here.)  Bev and I grew up next door to each other in Maryland (I'm 26 days older, which was a biggie growing up, but of course now she's 26 days younger...<g>)  I know I have some pix somewhere of the two of us in our younger days (we sure were cuties) but this one of Bev & hubby John, taken in my first apartment in March of '73, will have to suffice.

Today not too much on my 'schedule' - but do have to round up some missing tax info.  Hope to be able to track down most of it over the phone.  Another glorious day predicted here (which is EXACTLY why we put up with our 'rather warm' summers!)

Just as I finished typing the above ('not too much on my schedule') but before I could hit the 'publish post' button this morning the doctor's office called. My hemoglobin is 13.4 (a good solid count), my WBC is a thrilling 9.2 which makes everyone happy (obviously the shots did their work!), and the ANC test results were not yet available.  The bad news is that my 'platelets had clumped' so I need to go back to the lab and have that test rerun. 

Poor arm. The real bummer is that means I have to actually get dressed. <g>

Carlo, a friend from California, arrived last night (after I'd gone to bed.)  He lives on a boat in Monterrey, and Tom and Alex and Lisa have all had a ball deep-sea fishing when visiting him.

Alex on the boat

Alex & fish, with Carlo

And here's one Tom caught.

I'm sure there are pix of Lisa's catches, but I can't seem to find one my my computer.

Carlo is quite the hunter.  Here he is with some small game he shot while visiting here last year. 

Dinner was quite tasty that night.

Alex learned how to clean and cook quail from Carlo.

Doctor's office called late this afternoon to say that my blood results weren't in yet, but they'll call tomorrow when they have them.  Hope I passed the test this time around. <G>

Another blood test this morning - now just awaiting results.  There was a 3-day-old cutie there, Kallie, having her blood drawn to see why she's so jaundiced.  She was a very brave baby, and actually went back to sleep in Mom's arms and slept through the second stick!  :-)  

Apryle remembered me from before (I'm there every week now, so no surprise), and commented on how upbeat and positive I've been.  Guess I could be gritchy - but what purpose would that serve?  I'm holding on to my positive attitude to get me through the long slog ahead.  At least my veins behaved today, which meant I only had to endure one stick. 

Another GLORIOUS day here in Arizona.  

Think I'll take advantage of it and sit by our 'new' pool and read.