Treasure's Appointment Today

Treasure had her appointment with Dr. Earl today. As is customary, he ran an ultrasound to see what the tumor is doing in her bladder, and also to check her kidneys. When he walked into the treatment room smiling, I knew he had more good news. Her kidneys are clear and the tumor is not growing! In spite of some bad days when her tummy is upset, she is still thriving in spite of the cancer. On Thursday it will be a full year since her diagnosis. She has lived ten months longer than expected and shows no sign of the cancer taking her down! Yippee!

Dr. Earl check her "goopy eye" and confirmed that she does indeed have dry eye but also has an autoimmune process going on in her right eye. So now we have added yet another eyedrop to her stack of meds. This one should clear up the "goop" within a week.

She's sacked out on the floor, taking a big nap after her excitement at the vet. I'm sure she's dreaming about all those other doggies who were there, especially one Westie-poodle mix who was so cute, Treasure just had to bark at her! Ready or not, Bible study, here we come!

Overdue Treasure Report

August has turned into a very busy month for us. So much so, that we even took a leave of absence from choir just to maintain our equilibrium.

Right smack in the middle of August is Adrian's birthday (on the 14th) so energies start focusing in that direction early. We kept his celebration within the family this year, hoping to minimize any "excitement trauma" to his two-year-old psyche! We all had a ball with him.

Then we had a special wedding to prepare for. Special weddings, for me, require something handmade to honor the occasion, so I carved out some stitching time to make a sampler.

On the same day as the wedding, we celebrated another member of the Wilson family with a baby shower for their first-born, and that required a specially handcrafted baby quilt.

So guess who gets left out of the loop? Me! Me! It's my birthday too!

We don't know exactly the day of Treasure's birth, just the month - August - and the year. So she gets celebrated at various times each year, according to the busyness of the month. And because of her health issues, I try to make an effort to celebrate her every day, just being thankful that she has survived the cancer for a whole year.

Reflection:

It is amazing to me that almost one year ago - August 28th to be exact - we were given the crushing news that she might live only two months with bladder cancer. I am so grateful to good friends who encouraged me to seek another vet's opinion and get some treatment started that I am convinced has preserved and extended her life. And not just life but a quality of life that she can enjoy. So here's my Treasure report:

On her good days, she eats well, gets two good walks, visits with family (including evading Adrian's advances!), and sleeps a lot.

On her bad days, she doesn't eat, gets two good walks, and sleeps a lot.

Right now she has a recurring eye problem that requires an eye wash and some drops. I can
sense that her sight is failing as well as her hearing. She is sensitive to my whereabouts in the house and naps as close to me as she can get. I'm feeling a greater urgency to stay close to her now and to postpone any extended time away from home. She will see Dr. Earl next Monday for an ultrasound and evaluation. Let's see, that's ten good walks from today!

Somebody Has a Birthday Today!

I'll keep this post short and sweet and let Meredith post her favorite pictures over on her blog. But I can't resist sharing just two precious moments from Adrian's birthday today.
We went to Taco Taco for lunch and had some delicious Mexican food there. Cristian took the day off to fully enjoy this momentous birthday with his son.

We came home to the allure of chocolate birthday cake! His smart Mommy took some precautionary measures before letting him dive into that chocolate! But you can tell from this "squinty grin" that chocolate is his favorite! And no, one slice was not enough!

After a quick clean up, Adrian opened his Ludee gift to discover a train track set and some really neat trains that make noises and light up! What fun for this budding engineer. He and his Daddy will have hours of play with the trains.

It was a very good morning and soon it was time to take Papa Ludee home for a nap! Happy Birthday, Adrian!

A Special Wedding

Graham and I went to a very special wedding yesterday. A little over ten years ago a brash, young Romanian man walked into the church where I worked as I was casting roles for our Easter passion play. He took two roles as I recall and endeared himself into our hearts thereafter. You see, our daughter was moving to Romania, to the same city this young man was from and he gave us a visible connection to where she would be.

His name was Razvan and for ease in pronunciation, he shortened it to "Raz."

One thing Raz deeply desired was to find a wife. He prayed for God to send someone to him, and we joined him in that prayer. He soon obtained a good job with a large engineering company and, before long, was being sent out to different cities across America. Every time he would be back in San Antonio we would reconnect, get caught up with his life, and continue to pray for God to send him a wife.

We met Razvan's parents on one of our trips to Romania and, through Meredith's able interpreting skills, learned of their pride and love for their son, as well as their deep desire that God send Razvan a wife. And we joined them in asking God to send him one.

So last December we were overjoyed when Razvan called and asked if he could come to the house and introduce us to a very special young lady who had stolen his heart and whom he would soon ask for her hand in marriage. And when we met Anissa we knew she was the answer to Razvan's prayer. She is the perfect life partner for a special young man who was willing to wait on God's perfect choice for his wife.

And we were privileged to witness the vows and introduction of Mr. & Mrs. Razvan Pavel!

The wedding took place at the Little Church of La Villita in San Antonio.

The Quilt is Finished!

Hooray! Hooray! The quilt is finished!

I wouldn't say it was particularly hard, but it was definitely challenging and gave me some new skills to put on my resume.

Because I can't quilt "freestyle", I ended up doing "stitch-in-the-ditch" on the straight edges and then sewing buttons inside the triangles, the middle square and the outer border.

I decided not to use the teddy bear buttons (might be too abrasive for baby faces) and the ribbon didn't work well.

All in all, I think I am satisfied with this one and probably won't have the need to do another like it! Next pattern I'm going to try is called Birds in the Air. Stay tuned!

It's Coloring Time!

Adrian has been "into" coloring for a few weeks. His mommy has some colors and colorbooks for him at his house, so I figured he could be entertained in the same way when he's over here. I found a great big colorbook featuring trucks over at Big Lots and brought that home with some fat crayons. Now, when he walks in the door he heads straight for the coloring book!

I've never seen a child so serious about coloring as Adrian! He gets right down to business and then selects a crayon and invites - no, insists -one of us to come color with him! He picks the color and the spot and we go to town with him! He gets the biggest kick out of this group participation. And, we never go to a new page until the current one is fully finished, like with absolutely no white spaces left! Serious, serious business!