Biggest event was Zachary's graduation on June 16th. It was a wonderful family time and a tremendous milestone for Zach. Daughter Laura came to visit from Montana so I got a day of girl time with her. She came along with me to my radiation treatment (1/2 way through...yeah) and then we met son Jim for lunch at Benji's, a local New York style deli. Great corned beef!

On greaduation day we all met up at Renee and Tom's for snacks then headed out to claim seats at the graduation for our clan. We arrived 90 minutes before the ceremony and it was none too early. Evan was not real thrilled with the whole thing, nothing captured his attention. It "took a village" to keep track of him!

It was a short ceremony given there were 500 plus graduates. After the meet and greet on the field we headed to Renee's for a buffet and gifts. I have to say that I sometimes sit at these events and just marvel at my whole family. What a group! A few of Zach's friends stopped in and joined the noshing and singing.

The "DJ" selected Queen's Greatest Hits and suddenly the whole crowd is singing Fat Bottom Girls and We Will Rock You! Four generations enjoying the same song! I wish I had a video of that. Little Evan, stomping and clapping, singing all the words and looking around at everyone with a big grin. "Look at me! I'm doing just what the big kids are doing!"

Here's the lineup! Evan knew just what he was supposed to do....

Zach was speechless when he opened gifts. Top of the heap was a Canon Rebel SLR from Renee, Tom and Uncle JIm. Grandma and Grandpa Nehls sent a generous check to help him through first year of college. We contributed some camera accessories and the kids gave him a new cell phone. Lucky guy1

No more school events for us until Evan starts a couple of years from now. Let's see...I'll be 83 when he graduates. Probably we'll still be singing Fat Bottom Girls!

All the choir groups were very good and the special solo performances were excellent. I think students ask to be a special performer and select their songs. That was Zachary's surprise. He belted out his Mom's favorite song, Live Like You Were Dying....a Tim McGraw ballad. Wow!!! We were awed, amazed and all in tears. Even the guys choked up. Zach is a great performer and being in the second row we got the full benefit of his smiles and eye contact plus his beautiful tenor voice. We were so very proud and touched by this performance.

The other very emotional part was the final senior presentation to the music teacher, Mrs. Morrison. Each graduating senior, probably 20 of them, gave her a rose and told her how much she had impacted their life. Well by the time this was done the whole audience was in tears. Our Zach said she taught him how to "embrace life." We know this to be true because we watched Zach blossom and grow during his two years in music and theater.

The finale of the concert is always the Hallelujah Chorus. Mrs. Morrison invites former choir members and parents to come on stage and join in singing. The stage was jam packed. Former students bring their kids just to participate in this one song.

The evening was an example of the power of one person. Every year this teacher sends out another bunch of kids who will forever love music and who will pass that love on to their families. Like ripples in the pond, teaching the world how to sing in perfect harmony.

The kids surprised Jim with a Nintendo Wii. We've all enjoyed the bowling game at Renee's and thought that it might be a lot of fun for us. Jim hooked it up this morning and after 2 games of bowling a 3 holes of golf we were pooped! I am really out of shape when this bit of activity leaves me winded. So it's a very good thing for us to be doing and it had us laughing a lot....another good thing.

Here's a picture of the birthday boy and his girl.

Here's Great-grandson Evan, now 3.5 years old. He was playing baseball with the big boys.

As always, we enjoyed family time and watching the antics of Evan who alternates between Mr. Sweetness and Puck's Bad Boy. He was very helpful in gift opening and candle blowing. When Naomi told him they were going to Grandma's for a party he asked, "Whose birthday is it this time?"

Next big gathering will be for Zach's graduation and we'll be ready to bowl a 300 game!

The layout of this park on our street puts the back ends of coaches overlapping about four feet with about ten feet between coaches. For privacy this seems to work well.. But the neighbors coach had the water heater right by my bedroom window. So if I was sleeping lightly it would bounce me awake off and on. Well that's pretty minor, just an irritation.

What really got us going was the Sunday morning that we're enjoying a lazy breakfast and the guy fires up his generator which is right next to the water heater! So we think....give him a break....maybe 5 minutes. When it's going on 15 minutes, Jim goes out and asks him how come he's running his generator?

"Oh, I just like to run it for an hour or so once a month, for maintenance."

"Don't you know your gassin' out the neighbors?"

"Yeah, but I need to....OHHHH is that bothering you?"

"Well Yeah!!!!!!!"

So a few minutes later he turns off the generator. Not only is there a "rule" against running generators in this park, it's just plain neighborliness not to do it. A few weeks later he had to run his deisel engine for awhile. We were just about ready to knock on his door for that when he shut it off.

This same couple had two little dogs that barked all the time when left alone. We are soooo glad see them pull out.

I guess I was very apprehensive about this but the actual radiation sessions are almost non events. I had two pre-appointments where the radiation therapists do scans, take pictures and mark up the chest (aka boob) area to indicate where the radiation beams should go. So when I look in the mirror I am not a pretty sight. But in a few days they will put on small permanent tatoos and all the magic marker spots will go away. At least that's what they say!

The actual radiation session is just a few minutes. No loud banging like an MRI, no beams flashing, just a few soft buzzes and the machine moves around and buzzes again. I couldn't believe how quick it was. The only downer is that I have to go in every day for 33 days. I just go on weekdays so it works out to about 7 weeks and I'll be done around July 10th.

Hopefully, in that time frame, my hair will start to grow back and the light at the end of the tunnel will grow brighter :)

We would often have students come to us after class and ask if they could get a copy of the assessment to have their spouse or significant other take it. Why? Because understanding your own personality style and that of your SO can open up doors of communication and lead to a much improved relationship.

Jim and I know this from personal experience. In one of our Amway adventures we did the style assessment as part of our team. We'd been married 20+ years at the time but it was a marriage changing experience. Suddenly we understood that aspects of our personalities that irritated each other were actually strengths.

The first time I took a style assessment and got the feedback report I told my boss I felt like I'd been to a psychiatrist. No one ever understood me like that report did :)

So yesterday I was cruisin' the internet and found that I could take a style assessment based on Myers-Briggs on line and get a free short report. I wondered if after many years and a lifestyle change....would I come out the same style? Yep! Still the same.

So what am I? An Idealist or in Myers-Briggs terms and ENF(J/P). I focus on what could be over what is. I am a peacemaker. I want everyone to be happy and fulfill their potential. I'm quite amiable and nurturing. I focus on the best in people and have a strong desire to help them achieve their goals. All sounds good. But to some, I'm a woos, a doormat. I hate interpersonal conflict and go to extremes to avoid it.

I get a real kick out of taking the assessment and finding that I'm still the same...and it's OK. You can take the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (based on Myers-Briggs) and get a free two-paage report online or pay if you want more info. Click on the box in the upper right corner. Who knows? Might be life changing for you.

If you'd like to contribute to this walk you can click here and make a pledge in honor of someone you know or love with breast cancer. If you want to send a check just leave me a comment and I'll forward mailing info.

I often thought of making this walk when we lived in CA but never had the absolute motivation to do it, to make the training commitment. Little did I know where I'd be in 10-20 years! Thanks, Jan, for honoring me in this way and for walking for all of us.

A few weeks ago we had our April family birthday party and Tom captured a couple of good group shots. I've been wanting to post this so you all can see my wonderful family, support team and cheering section.

There was a bit of party silliness going on so I was amazed at how quickly the group got together and said "cheese" for this shot! Thanks to all :)

Of course, I did get a red cell booster shot on Monday because my red count was low. So that helped me out. Today I felt very good and ready for the final chemo. Now it's done and I've got the ball rolling to get the radiation started June 1. 30 days (6 weeks) of that and I'm done.

Another thing I realized after yesterday is that I must get out of the house every day. Put on my lipstick and wig, got to the store, the mall, whatever....and walk, be with people, have a snack. I babied myself a lot during the fever time and lost energy and will. Time to shape up :) I think walking the mall might be a good thing for me. I get bored walking around the park, but the energy in the mall seems good to me right now...as long as I don't spend any money!

We were packed up and over at the Ford dealer by 10:30. They said they'd be done in and hour and darned if they weren"t. Hardly enough time to recover from packing it in!

While we waited we hit the Main Place mall to check out new pillows. Last week, when doing laundry, we took off the pillow cover and ...yikes!....the foam is falling apart after about 3 years. So we're shopping for contoured foam pillows. We really love the S-shape that gives good lift to the neck when sleeping on side or back. Pretty pricey things though so we'll keep looking.

We stopped for a snack to tide us over. I had a Cinnabon (bad stuff) and Jim had a hot dog with an Orange Julius. We agreed that the OJ and the bun are not what they used to be...too bad!

Unfortunately, Jim found the dash AC is not working again. The first thing we'll do is take the switch out and see if there is any "schmutz" in there mucking up the works. You can read about our last AC/schmutz adventure here.

After our active (for me) day we were set up by 3 PM then watched a couple of old Startrek Enterprise shows we'd never seen with a little liquid refreshment. Then we popped over to Katella Grill where I had a delicious pot roast dinner. It's your typical American Dinner with Blue Plate specials. We have a frequent diner card so my roast was free!

Tomorrow is my last chemo. It's all uphill from there!!!!!!

In the third round of chemo I got a "gut" infection and fever. I couldn't bore you with all the details...I couldn't even find the energy to push the keyboard keys! Ten days of fever around 101 was very draining. So was the diahrea. I wound up getting IVs at the doctors office and felt better. We hoped I'd get through the bug without antibiotics because of my allergy issues but finally gave in and started on azithromycin four days ago. So far no issues with that and I'm feeling quite a bit better.

Cultures did not show any specific problems and my blood counts were ok throughout this episode. I'm glad to be on the upswing....just in time for the fourth AND FINAL chemo infusion next week. I'm apprehensive about what new wrinkle may crop up. I do just thank my doctor that I've had no nausea. She's taking very good care of me!

A couple of you dear readers have complimented me on my good attitude and I thank you. I do try. I guess that's why I just couldn't put hands to keyboard...because I felt like a whiny baby. Who needs to read about that :)

Jim, the Energizer Bunny, just keeps going on with barely any side effects. Man, were we naive, thinking that we could get through both of us having chemo with little help. If we both felt like I do we'd be having one of our kids stop in every day!!! Lucky for us it's working out OK.

Our feet are itchy for travel but that's not in the works for several more months. Only travel in the future is to get the oil changed. That will be an adventure :)

Tom called and wondered if we’d like to join them at an Angels’ game on Saturday….Field Level seats! Sure!!!

Naomi called and said she wanted to come over Saturday morning …Evan needed to see his Nana! Well sure! Makes for a busy day but that’s great. Luckily, it was a weekend when we both felt really good.

So Saturday morning Naomi drives up with Evan, we go outside to greet them and around the corner comes daughter Laura, all the way from Montana and Hilly who was videoing the whole thing!! I was absolutely blown away. Usually I have some inkling when the kids are planning a surprise but I had NO CLUE on this one.

After the tears stopped flowing we had a great visit and then Tom and Renee came and whisked us away to the game. Seating was 6 rows up from the dugout between home and first! Wonderful. Angels’ lost but it was a very exciting game.

Son Jim volunteered to make pasta for dinner so we headed out to Renee’s where everyone gathered for the evening. Almost the whole family was there!

Sunday was our planned April birthday party for Renee and Brad so we all collected in the early afternoon for another party. About 2 PM I looked out the window and here comes Jimbo. Another long trip for him from San Luis Obispo but he couldn’t miss the party! Wow!!! It’s been a long time since we had this much family together. What an amazing, incredible feeling to be surrounded by so much love!

Tom cooked up a wonderful beer-can-chicken and ribs BBQ and everyone added a dish. I think we ended up with 16 or so for dinner. It was especially delicious to me because I could actually taste the ribs!

Kudos go to Naomi for being the elf behind the scenes making lots of arrangements and keeping lots of secrets! I couldn’t figure out why she was so insistent on coming down for breakfast on Saturday morning. I wasn’t the only one surprised! Laura arrived at Renee’s on Friday night and blew her away too!

Lots of laughter and tears of joy this weekend! Lots of hugs! AND a couple of great group pictures which I”ll post and a video that Hilly shot and Zach edited! More on that later!

Here's the birthday girl and her parentals...

I couldn't wait to get my wig off after dinner because my scalp was very itchy. Middle of the night I was up putting cold compresses on my itchy head. By morning, I realized it was more than my head and by noon on Sunday I was covered in hives!! Half a dozen times in my life I've had severe hives but his was about the worst. I thougth it wasn't serious as long as my breathing was OK but it was pretty damn uncomfortable. I considered going the the ER but couldn't bear the thought of sitting in the waiting room itching and scratching! Dumb move!!!

I took Benedryl every four hours, dozed through most of the day, trying to keep my hands off the hives, and called the doctor this morning. When I saw her at noon she got almost teary eyed and gave me a little lecture on waiting too long to do something. Seems she (or the ER) could have fixed me up pretty fast. 30 minutes of IV drip benedryl and steroids and I started feeling better. I actually had a 99 degree temp from the hive activity. By 4 PM I could barely feel the stinging, burning, itching, nasty hives.

What what caused it? Our best guess is the antibiotic I took last week (Levaquin). That makes four antibiotics I'm allergic to. We decided to drop the antibiotic regimen from the next round of chemo. It's given as a preventative measure but seems to give me more grief than benefit. I'll just need to monitor my temp closely to be sure I'm not getting a fever/ infection because my immune system is compromised for several days during chemo.

I'm feeling about a thousand percent better tonight and look forward to a good week!

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, with ten being "I feel great" ....I probably never go below a 6. And that's only for a couple of days. Jim has been a rock, maintaining that he was just fine, until last night when he sat down and admitted to being very tired. So we just chilled out watching TV and reading; today we're ok.

I have to get some projects going here! I read a few fluffy books, then started in on another Outlander saga but I can only read so much. And TV is such a wasteland of nonsense to me. So what shall it be? Edit old movies? Scan slides? Crochet something? Ahhhh....decisions take such energy! Think I"ll just read!