Winding down

Well, it has really been a month. I feel like I've ignored my friends and family and have just put a shoulder to the wind and leaned in. Finishing my job at church required cramming all the work of the busiest month of the year into a week - and it happened to be the same week as VBS. Then starting at school feeling at a deficit already (with Pete's cancer stuff on top of already being exhausted) with a steep learning curve and the work I would have done over the course of the entire summer being crammed into the last two weeks before school starting...I think I can safely say these have been some of the hardest times I can remember in a while. Mercifully, we tend to forget the worst of it, and I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Pete's surgery is scheduled for Monday, and I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off work to get him there and home and cared for. School starts Wednesday. In order to be ready for school to start, I went in this morning for about 3 hours and got at least 6 hours worth done in three thanks to the excellent help of Heather who is a WHIZ. We drove through MacDonalds and headed straight to church for Emily's bridal shower. Heather was the photographer (see below). It was a lovely shower and Eric and Emy got lots of wonderful gifts.

Here's a shot of the happy couple: As you can tell by the backdrop, the theme was "Happily Ever After" and featured several Disney fairy tale props and Emy's mom's amazing talent at rewriting the words of just about any song to fit the need of the moment. This time it was their love story to the tune of "Bippety-Boppity-Boo".

Eric showed up towards the end to help pack up the loot, and got to help open presents besides.

Here's a picture of their cake:


















A closing cancer thought before I wind down for good tonight...Emily's dad is a physicist and works on the cutting edge of medical technology. He was also at the shower for awhile this afternoon and told me something I hadn't known before (which happens almost every time I talk to him). Did you realize (I sure didn't) that in 1977 there was no such thing as a CT scan or an MRI or chemotherapy or radiation therapy? Back then if it was suspected that you might have a brain tumor they just drilled a hole in your skull to have a look see. It's really amazing to think how far we've come. It was fascinating to look at the scans this week with Pete's oncologist - we saw "hot spots" on his neck, indicating degenerative arthritis (but no cancer!). And we saw unbelievable pictures of every part of his insides. They had one "slice" view of his leg that looked like a ham shank. And they could determine a prognosis with a high degree of accuracy and create a plan of action. It's a good time to be alive.