Parties, Condos and Warm Weather!!

If I haven't written on the blog, please know it's because you can't keep me down on the couch long enough to write!!!  I have been feeling so good the past five weeks, I've taken little down time except to sleep at night!  Every day I have a breakfast, lunch or coffee date or specific errand to attend.  I have driven the car a couple times, but do feel more comfortable as a passenger!

To recap the past two weeks, we celebrated our son, Ryan's birthday weekend starting with lunch at the Fish Market after picking him up at the airport!  Saturday July 9th we had about 40 people here at the Shong's residence.  It was a great success, lots of food, drink, roaring fire in the fire pit in the garden, visiting with cousins, reunions and lots of smiles.  We loved seeing all his friends as adults now, visiting with Ryan's Aunt Cin, Uncle Mark, Uncle Gary, cousins Ross & Garrett and Grandma Ann that traveled from Kenwood/San Jose for the

day.  Our friends Rick, Judy, Elena & Jody(celebrating his actual birthday that day) joined us with flowers and gifts for me, too!  Lots of good friends and thanks to my sister Debbie and brother in law David for all the work and opening their home continually for our use.  Ryan surely welcomed in his 30th birthday well!  Sunday I spent the morning with Ryan and Chelsea going to IHOP for breakfast and running some errands together.  We were all pretty pooped and just enjoyed the day.  Monday we took Ryan to the airport, but his flight was delayed due to the fog, so we stopped at Starbucks and continued the visit!

The rest of the week was busy with signing the never ending paperwork/recovering documentation for our new condo, but now we can honestly say, we are homeowners as of July 29th!  We received our mortgage loan and will sign the final papers next week.  The seller plans to rent back the month of August so we will not take occupancy until Sept.1st.  August is very busy for us with our daughter Jenn visit Aug 4-10, then we drive to Coos Bay for the 15th-22 for her wedding!!
July 13th we attended a Genetic Counseling appointment with Tricia Benjamin NP at the PAMP Mt. View Oncology Center, next door to the Infusion center.  I had prepared our family history online ahead of time, so we had a long overview of the process to determine whether I carry the mutated BRAC1 or BRAC2 cell to pass down the generations.  We decided to have the testing and that would involve drawing blood tomorrow at chemo.  Chemo on July 14th was Cycle 4 Week 1 which is the longer day with Taxol, Carboplatin and Avastin.  Tricia was able to have Laura draw my blood through my IV port before chemo and again after chemo.  The results will be here in three weeks from draw date.
I spent a fun day with Chelsea on Monday shopping and tire hunting for her car.  It's so fun to just have that time together, getting a Starbucks and hearing about her work and friends.
We are happy to have some sunshine again since that foggy weather is depressing and COLD!  John continues to ride in any weather and always comes home with a smile after a good ride, even if he's getting tossed off the mountain bike into poison oak!!!  He's had some work done on both bikes and he spends lots of time maintaining his bikes.  We shopped and ordered our new living room couch, chair with ottoman and recliner from Macy's and they will deliver Sept 13th.  It's so fun decorating a new place!
We are asking for your prayers for our nephew Kurtis White and his wife Katherine, of Austin, TX.  Kurtis has been diagnosed with esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare cancer of the nasal passage and  he will have surgery August 4th in Houston,  He is in his early 30's and hopefully he won't require chemo or radiation as it has been detected early.  They will clean out his nasal passage and rebuild it, but being close the eye and the brain is always tricky. We are sorry they won't be able to fly to the wedding in August but we wish them healing and lots of love. We have special memories of them with us on DLB in St. Thomas USVI last year.

Yesterday was Cycle 4, Week 2 chemo, Taxol only so it was a short day!  We arrived and 9 and were home by noon!!  I love seeing all my chemo nurses, they are all so special.  It's a fun day, in spite of!!!
This morning John and I will meet Ryan for a quick breakfast date.  He is driving up from LA with another couple to be ushers in their friends Matt & Alison's wedding this weekend in Campbell, so we have a two hour window to see him.  This weekend we continue to look at furniture and ideas for our new condo!  When we close we'll try to post pictures.  The beautiful part is we are on an inner lagoon, so all our windows look out on the lagoon.  There are fountains that move the water so it's always a peaceful sound.  There are patios off the dining room, living room and our master bedroom.  We plan to spend most of our relaxing time on the patios!  I am so excited!!!!  It's not our Lagoon 380 but it's still a lagoon!!
Monday my sister Debbie is having laser surgery for glaucoma, so we will be turning the tables and taking care of her!!  I am so glad she is having this procedure done before it becomes more serious than it is!!  Please keep her in your prayers, too.  It's great to be with Family!  Best wishes for the summer and keep the warm weather coming!!