Chemo 6 and Christmas Trees

Chemo 6 is now history.  It only took three hours today as opposed to five hours last time.  The cancer center was not nearly as busy today as it was three weeks ago.  I guess some people opted to pass on treatment during a holiday week.  Believe me, I thought about it, too, because I really want to feel good for Thanksgiving (and the Iron Bowl, of course), but, as usual, my practical side won out -- the sooner I have my treatments, the sooner I'll be through.  And in the big scheme of things, I'd rather be less than 100% on Thursday and/or Saturday than do anything that might jeopardize a complete, and final, end to this battle with cancer!  So far I'm feeling fine.  Jenn and Erin went with me to treatment (neither had been there for treatments before (just hospital and home care).  Erin happened to be in the treatment room with me when Dr. Bondly came in to see me, so she finally got to meet her.  I think she was, like me, very impressed with Dr. B.  

We went to Greenbriar to see Gran and Dadaw after my chemo treatment and then to Moe's Southwest Grill for a very late lunch.  We cooked supper when we got home, but Erin and I were not very hungry (Jenn went to study with a lab partner and skipped supper), so we've got lots of leftovers for later.  LOL  Erin and I are going to start our Thanksgiving cooking in the morning while I'm still (hopefully) feeling good.  She and Travis will be spending Thanksgiving in Huntsville with the Dvorak clan, and she's making my sweet potato casserole, pineapple casserole, and Christine Grant's "Green Cake" recipes to take on Thursday.  Ken, Jenn and I (if I'm able) will be going to Ann and Gary's on Thursday.  She's doing the turkey and dressing, along with other things, and I'm doing sweet potatoe casserole, broccoli slaw and the "Green Cake" too -- all things I can get done early. 

As I mentioned in my post last week, my plan for last week was to get my house decorated for Christmas.  I lolly-gagged (goofy name for procrastinated) for half the week.  On Thursday I finally got serious about my proposed "breast cancer" Christmas tree.  My original plan was to put a small table top tree in our bedroom, but after looking and not finding what I wanted, I totally did a 180-degree turn and bought a 7 foot BLACK Christmas tree and put it in the dining room.  It took me
a couple of hours on Thursday night and four or five hours on Friday evening to finish decorating it.  I used light pink and silver Christmas balls, light pink toille and darker pink ribbon shaped like the breast cancer symbol.  I bought a couple of breast cancer specific ornaments.  The light pink actually looks really good against the black tree.  Here's a picture:

On Saturday, with Ken's help getting the trees up and situated, I got the tree in the great room decorated and another one in our bedroom (this is a first).  We've never had three big trees before.  I know after Christmas I'll be fussing at myself for putting three trees up.  I hate to take them down!!!  The breast cancer tree may stay up till my fight is over.   In honor of Bama's football season that will hopefully end in our 14th national championship (sorry, Bill), I decided to decorate the bedroom tree in red and white (with my houndstooth shawl as a tree skirt).  Got to find me some Bama specific ornaments.  That tree is still a work in progress.  (Same with my team, LOL.) 

Okay.  Sorry for the blog overload today.  Two in one day is a bit much, even for me.  It's Iron Bowl Week in addition to Turkey Week, so my wish for everyone is a happy and blessed Turkey Day, and may the best team win on Saturday (or Friday night, in Bill and Gale's case).  Football is just a game, and if my team does not win, the sun will come up on Sunday and life will go on.  As I've been reminded again this year (as in 2009), family, friends and my faith is what's truly important in life, not what 18-22 year-olds do on Saturdays!!

Rachel