Jarrad's Quilt Re-do

Jarrad's Quilt

For those of you who know me and my family well, you are already aware that our oldest son, Jarrad was recently diagnosed with lymphoma over Christmas.  While I was in Florida with Jarrad I had my husband mail me an old quilt of Jarrad's that was in desperate need of repair.   I needed something to do with my hands as I sat with Jarrad at different appointments and his first chemo.   But first I need to give you some history behind the quilt.

My first quilting lesson was back in 1987.  We were living north of Kansas City at the time in a little town called Parkville.   Downtown Parkville was very quaint and had a few shops, one of them being a quilt shop.   I was so excited after my first lessons and proceeded to make this twin sized quilt for Jarrad's bed.

Well, fast forward several years......Jarrad went in the Navy and unbeknownst to me he took the quilt with him.   Trust me when I say that the Navy laundry was not kind to Jarrad's quilt.   I believe it had bleach water thrown on it at least once, if not more often.   And the binding had become nothing more than shreds from the rough laundering.

Fast forward several more years......now Jarrad is married with 2 boys and I spied the quilt folded neatly in a basket on the floor of their living room.  The basket held several quilts I had made for Jarrad over the years and they got plenty of use covering the family while they laid on the couches and watched TV. 

Three years ago I whispered to my daughter-in-law that I was "stealing" the quilt back....with the intention of repairing it and giving it back to Jarrad ready for another 25 years of use.  Well, the quilt got put into a UFO(unfinished objects) bin and then we moved twice.   Fast forward to this Christmas and I remembered the quilt lanquishing in a bin in my new sewing studio.

So, Joel sent the quilt to me in Florida where I began making the necessary repairs.  I'm not sure why, but somehow I had thought to save all the leftover pieces of fabric from when I originally made the quilt and they were all together in a plastic bag in one of my bins.   Thank goodness I had them as I used those scraps to make new binding, an applique and a quilt label.

When I took my first quilting lesson, I was taught how to piece the front of the quilt together.   They also showed me how to layer the front of the quilt with batting and then a piece of fabric on the back.    This is called the quilt sandwich.   Well, the sandwich needs something to "hold" it together.   That is usually hand quilting(back then that was the only way to quilt) or you could put embroidery thread "ties" thru the three layers at regular intervals to hold the sandwich together, like the navy ties in the center of the cream blocks above.
 
All those years ago, I had "tied" his quilt, but the rough handling in the Navy all but destroyed those ties and the three layers were hopelessly flopping around.   I knew it would take me way too long to hand quilt this quilt, so, I decided to do "big Stitch" which is something fairly new in the quilting world.   It is still done by hand, but it goes much faster and is decorative and works well to hold the sandwich together.  As shown below, the stitches are quite large and cover a large area quickly.

This is what the "big Stitch" looks like from the back.  As you can see, the quilt layers are now securely sewn together and the entire quilt will hold up much better to many more years of use.  I altered red, cream and blue threads.......using number 8 Perle Cotton thread which sewed beautifully thru all three layers.

There were some areas of the quilt that had ripped and instead of trying to make the quilt perfect once again, I decided to highlight the age and distressing the quilt had taken on thru the years.   Here I did  simple "X" stitches around an area that had lost the cream and navy fabric.   Who knows how that rip happened?   But I think it adds to the charm and the "story" of Jarrad's quilt.

I do need to backtrack a bit.   At some point during his Navy years, Jarrad brought the quilt home and I attempted to machine quilt waves on the border.   I say attempted because that was before I knew anything about machine quilting.   Now I cringe to look at my first try at what was a new art form at the time.   Trust me when I say my machine quilting has come a long way from that first primitive attempt.   But I am leaving it, as it is also a part of the history of the quilt as well as a history of the progression of my quilting skills.
 
Here is some more of my early attempts at machine quilting.   Sigh......I was trying to make a center medallion.   Oh, well.

Jarrad has become very involved in renovating VW buses and is in the middle of yet another renovation.   I knew I had to make an applique of a VW bus in the hopes of putting a smile on his face as he uses this quilt during his chemo sessions. 

And I finally did what I should have done all those years ago......I made a label for the back of the quilt giving it some identity for years in the future.

Here it is.....with all new "ties", red, navy and cream big Stitch, a new sturdier double binding around the quilt, a fun applique for the front and a label on the back.   This was a labor of love and I pray it will bring comfort to Jarrad and that he will be able to feel my love as he lays under this during his recovery.
 

As I watched Jarrad trying to get comfortable during his first chemo session, I realized he was wishing for a more comfortable pillow.   Ta-da.....I dug out a soft down pillow leftover from my home dec business and made a cover for it complete with the Bible verse I am reciting over and over during Jarrad's battle with cancer.

The quilt and pillow are going in the mail tomorrow so he will have it to use as he wishes.  I'm so grateful to have sewing as an outlet to show my love and care for our son.  This was a true labor of love that helped me feel like I was doing just a little something to ease Jarrad's suffering.

So glad I'm a quilter,
Debbie

Cupcakes and Mountaintops

So, yesterday was another cloudy, dreary day.   And then this morning I woke up and peeked outside to see the most spectacular sunrise.   Yup, clear blue skies, calm minimal breeze with 24 degrees reading on the thermometer.    A really pretty day here on the farm.   It's gorgeous outside and I took my camera out to the orchard to show you this:

Our farm rests at 1900 feet above sea level, but not too far away is a mountain range that sits much higher.  When we get a dusting of snow like we did yesterday morning, invariably the mountaintops get much more snow.   Isn't it beautiful?   I just love living here and fully experiencing the four seasons.

Anyway, as it was a little gloomy yesterday I decided to try a new recipe.  I love to spend cold days in my cozy kitchen whipping up something new.   Oh.  My.  Scrumptious.   These are Zucchini Coconut Quick Breads....

Remember all the zucchini we harvested last summer?   Well, I shredded a lot of it and prepackaged it and froze it for use during the winter.   So now when it came time to bake, all I had to do was thaw the bag, drain the liquid and drop the shredded zucchini in the mixing bowl.   The recipe for these little jewels is on King Arthur Flour's website:  www.kingarthurflour.com. 

And they got baked in......are you ready for this?......they were baked in a popover pan.   How weird?   But they are so cute and stand nice and tall.   Making these in the popover pan was a change-up from the typical cupcake pan.   They're not too sweet which makes them perfect to pair with a steaming mug of tea.

This was what I saw as I rounded the corner from the kitchen last night.   Joel busily reading up on wood stoves while Winston slept on the floor behind the love seat and Molly "guarding" Joel from her perch up above.   She just loves lying up there, sandwiched in between the back cushion and the love seat back.

Even her little paws are squished underneath her body.   How can that be comfortable?   I have no idea, but she spends a lot of time up there.  Occasionally she'll wake up and lick Joel's ear.   What a funny dog.

That's how we "do" winter,
Debbie

Winter Skies

After weeks of dreary rainy weather the clouds broke and the sun came out.   The other morning I walked outside and as I looked up in the sky this is what I saw.

 The beautiful blue sky was absent any clouds, but I counted 12 jet streams from planes that had flown overhead.   I've never seen so many streams in the sky at one time.....and we hardly ever see them here on the farm for some reason.   It was just kinda weird....but pretty at the same time.  I watched them for several minutes and they just hung there in the sky......for a really long time.

The atmosphere must have been "just right" to allow those white trails to remain in place for so long.  I know there is a scientific reason for what I saw.....I just don't know what it is.   But it was pretty.

Not much has been going on here on the farm the last few weeks since Pork Chop and Bacon went to freezer camp.  We've been experimenting with some of the different cuts of pork out of the bounty in our freezers and so far have really liked the flavor of what we've prepared.   Yesterday Joel took a Boston Butt out of the freezer so after it thaws this weekend I can put a dry rub on it and smoke it all day long in our Big Green Egg.   Yummmmy!   Can't wait to see how that turns out.   Nothing like pulled pork to put a smile on your face.

Speaking of putting a smile on your face....how about cake?  Our chickens are producing anywhere from 9-13 eggs a day, forcing me to come up with more and more ways to use so many eggs.   One great way is to make homemade angel food cake.  One of our family's favorites.   And.....it takes a full dozen egg whites to make one cake.   Win win!  And it's so delish, too.   Fortunately, we have several friends who have begun buying our eggs from us, too.   I think I'm gonna need some more friends.  ha!

For someone like myself who has been used to puttering around in the flower beds and gardens year round in Florida, this first full winter has been a real lull for me.   I finally got around to pulling out all the dead plants from our two planters that flank the back screen door of our rocking chair porch.   Hmmmm, now what do you do with empty planters until Spring?

Ta-da!    I dug around in the storage room of the studio and found these two faux evergreen wreaths that fit perfectly on the top of the planters.   Now what?   I went to our crepe myrtle bush and cut 2 similarly sized branches and just plopped one in the center of each planter.   Done.   Almost.

A shiny silver star on one stark branch was all my little re-do needed.   Yup, that'll have to do until warmer weather allows some living breathing plants to take up residence in the pots once again.

Well, there you have it.   Life in the winter on the farm.   Kinda quiet.   Kinda boring.   You know what?   I'll take it!   Sometimes boring is good, especially when the rest of the year is jam packed with activities and to-do lists.   Plus, this time of year is perfect for settling into my new studio and knocking out some projects that I would otherwise not have the time to finish.

Yup,   I'll take boring for a while,
Deb

Got Pork?

Giggle.....well, we do now.  And lots of it, too!   I already told you about the ordeal of loading the pigs into the trailer to go to the slaughter house.   Well, the friendly folks there called us Thursday morning to say that the meat from both pigs was ready to be picked up.  Yikes!  I thought we were going to get one at a time so I could figure out where to put it all.   Oh, well, may as well just jump in with both feet and figure this out as we go.

It was a little chilly out Thursday and we had snow flurries most of the day.  At least we didn't have to worry about the frozen meat sitting in the car as we worked on unloading it all into the freezers. 

At the slaughter house we watched in amazement (and with a little dismay) as 2 men and 1 of the women kept walking into the huge walk-in freezer and coming out with filled grocery bags of our pork.  And then they wheeled two 3 foot square dollies out of the freezer, loaded with even more pork!   Oh.   My.  I have to admit it was beginning to be a little overwhelming.

They all helped us load the pork into the back of my Tahoe and when we were finally done loading, the car was full.  Seriously.   Full.   The entire back of the car was pork heaven.    Now what?  Joel and I nervously laughed as we pulled out of the slaughter house, wondering if we were going to have enough freezer space to keep all this meat.

Well, we drove home and I put on my organizer hat and we made a plan.   Joel brought the bags into the pavilion where our trusty old freezer and refrigerator stand.   We weighed each bag and recorded it in a tablet so we know for future reference how much meat we netted from 2 pigs.

Our old refrigerator's side by side freezer became our overflow....thank goodness we had this.  Yup, those are all packages of sausage patties on the left hand door.   They are the ones I couldn't fit into the big upright freezer along with the other sausage.   You see, we had 4 grocery bags of sausage alone.    All 92 lbs. of it.   Yes, you read that right.   92 lbs. of sausage patties.   Yikes!

Yup, this freezer started out empty before we picked up the pork.   It's pretty full now.   We have everything from sausage patties to baby back ribs.   Tenderloin to ham steaks.   Smoked backbone for soups and hams.   Thin sliced ham for breakfast to boston butt.   And picnic roast to shoulder cuts.   Our Big Green Egg is going to be put to good use this next year, that's for sure.

We even have tons of bacon, already smoked and ready to cook up.   Here's our other freezer in the house.   At least now the meat is all arranged in an orderly fashion so I know where the different cuts of meat are on the shelves.   That should make it easier to locate what I need next time I want some pork for a dinner recipe.

Speaking of recipes......Saturday morning we three decided it was a good time to finally do some taste testing.   Nothing like a hearty breakfast on a leisurely Saturday to bring the family together.    I brought out the waffle iron and made up a batch of waffles while the bacon cooked in the oven.

I despise cooking bacon on top of the stove as it splatters all over everything within  a three foot radius.   To make bacon I turn my oven on at 425 degrees, line a baking sheet with foil, put a cake rack on top of the foil and lay the bacon strips on top of the rack. 

Now the bacon cooks up nice and lean as all the fat drips down onto the foil lined tray, leaving crisp bacon on top of the rack.   Clean up is a breeze, too, as all I have to do is remove the foil from the pan and wash the one rack.   Ta-da!  And no more bacon splatter all over the stove, counters and floor.

Ok, our concensus is that we love the sausage.....great flavor and we like the recipe they used to make it.   It may be a little salty, but that's ok.   The verdict is still out on the bacon.   It cooked up really nice, and we like the flavor but it's not as "bacon-y" as what we are used to buying from the grocery store.   I think it needs to be smoked again in our Big Green Egg.  I'll be experimenting with that over the next few months.   For the next year and beyond we will continue to try different cuts of the pork and experiment with recipes, both old and new.

Here are the stats for our first attempt at raising pigs.
Pork Chop weighed in at 388 lbs.   Hanging weight(after gutting, ugh!) was 297 lbs.
Bacon weighed in at 378 lbs.   Hanging weight was 274 lbs.

Total hanging weight was a whopping 571 lbs.   After the slaughter house removed bones, etc. and processed the pork, we carted home just over 421 lbs. of meat.   Yikes.   By the time the weather warms up we should be ready to have a real humdinger of a barbeque.   We certainly have enough meat for one!

I think next time we only need one pig, don't you?
Debbie

Our Loss is Heaven's Gain

Not even an hour after driving home from Florida last Tuesday, my cell phone rang.  It was Linda.   You know, Steve and Linda the couple that came up here to visit us last May.  Steve is Joel's cousin and is more like a brother to Joel than a cousin.   They used to joke that they were brothers from another mother.  

 

Linda was really upset and explained that Steve had gotten sick a couple of days earlier and ended up going by ambulance to the hospital.   His condition deteriorated quickly and within 24 hours of being hospitalized, he went Home to be with our Lord and Savior.   Joel and I were in such a state of shock.   It's just hard to believe we won't see him again here on this earth.

And so, today was Steve's funeral.   Family and friends gathered at the church where he and Linda have been members for 44 years.....gathered to say their good byes.  For us, the memories of all the times we spent with Steve and Linda will be sweet ones.  

They were our camping buddies for 20 years.   They were the ones that introduced us to "The River" and our camp at Astor in the Ocala National Forest.   They watched our kids grow up and get married and have babies of their own.    Sometimes we didn't see each other for 6 months or so, and wouldn't you know........if Joel bought a new F-350 truck to tow our latest camper, Steve would grin and taunt Joel that he was going to buy an even bigger truck.  

And so it went for years.   Each of them sharing the virtues of their latest acquisition.....whether it was a new RV, a different truck, or a boat.......they were always jovially in competition with one another and beating their chests over how cool their newest toy was.   One of the funniest jokes between them was competing to see whose RV had the most slides.  

 

For those of you who don't RV, old time campers were just narrow metal boxes.   But the new RV's have entire rooms that expand out from either side of the camper, creating a ton more room inside and making the RV more like a moving home away from home.   Those moving rooms are called slides as they slide out of the RV once you are parked at a campsite.  Well, Stevie would call them "pooch-outs".   And the taunting never stopped about whose RV had the most "pooch-outs".  

Steve was bigger than life.   He loved his RV and being at the river.   And he loved his wife, Linda, ever since their college days.

He loved his dogs, especially Higgins the poodle.  And taking Joel and I out on his boat riding up and down the St. John's River, in and out of hidden inlets.

When I got my Nikon camera, Steve took me out for a few hours on the river so I could practice getting wildlife shots.   We darned near froze that day as the temps dropped and we hadn't brought any warm jackets with us.   Our hands were like ice by the time we returned to the dock, but I got over 350 pictures that day.  Thanks, buddy, for jump starting my love of photography.

Steve had a stroke a couple of years ago and fought back to regain his speech and to be able to walk about on his own.   Joel and I were tickled to pieces when Steve and Linda made the trip to our farm this past May to see us.   I can still see Steve sitting out in our pavilion, drinking his cappuccino and soaking in the peace and quiet.   He just kept telling us how much he loved being up here and seeing our farm firsthand.

In the Bible, Jesus says he was leaving earth to go and "prepare a place for us".   And that place is heaven where the streets are paved with gold and the mansions for His loved ones are beyond anything we can imagine here on earth.    I know one thing for sure.    Steve is resting right now in a huge, beautiful gold plated RV with more slides than we have ever seen.   And grinning from ear to ear.    I'll bet he's thinking, "Just wait till Joel sees this one!"

We love you, buddy,
Debbie and Joel

Squeals in the Night

Oh.  My.   Gracious.   I wish you had been here on the farm last night.   The sounds coming from our farm were horrendous and our neighbors may never speak to us again.......wondering what ugly rituals we were performing in the dark. 

Let me explain.   Wednesday evening, a guy from the local slaughter house came to pick up our pigs, Pork Chop and Bacon.   Well, it was bitterly cold that night, 8 degrees with a terrific wind making it feel more like 10 below zero.   I couldn't stand the cold on my face so I went back into the house while Joel, Jeremy and Slaughter House Jeremy tried to wrangle the pigs into his cattle trailer.  

It took them over an hour and a half to get Bacon in, but Pork Chop was having none of that business!  Slaughter house Jeremy came back with the empty trailer Thursday and he and Joel positioned it so the open door of the trailer fit neatly into the gate opening of the pig pen.   Joel placed the pig's food bowl in the trailer and even laid out a trail of food, hoping to entice Pork Chop into the trailer sometime during the day.  

Ha!   She was too smart for that and never ate a bite all day Friday.   Well, Slaughter House Jeremy came back after work last night (Friday night) with 3 other men.   Joel, Jeremy and I joined them and it took the 7 of us to round up Pork Chop and get her into the trailer.   And it still took us almost an hour!  

Joel and I stayed outside the pen and used flashlights to give the men light to work by.   At first they had to rouse Pork Chop out of her comfortable home.   Then, they used large sheets of plywood and an extra gate we had and used them to attempt to corner her.   Oh, how I wish I could have videotaped the antics of her squealing and running in between the men.....doing her very best to avoid getting cornered.  It took many tries using the wood and gate to narrow the space in which she had to work, and then she made the fatal mistake of going toward the trailer and they had her trapped.

Pigs don't like to be trapped.    At all.   Just trust me on this one.   She refused to go up into the trailer and three men held firm using a piece of plywood up against her so she couldn't retreat back into her pen while one man stepped into the narrow space beside Pork Chop.  After a few minutes of struggling, trying everything to goad her into going into the trailer, Slaughter House Jeremy yelled for me to get his rope from the back of his truck.

Ha!   Remember when we tried to lasso the pigs months ago and I said we needed to buy some rope?    Well, we bought rope, but nothing like Jeremy had.   This guy was the real deal.  He had an authentic, stiff roped lasso like a cowboy uses on cattle and another longer rope that was built of much sturdier stuff than the loose rope we purchased. 

With much exertion, one of the guys was able to tie the lasso around Pork Chop's neck and Joel ran the other end up through gaps in the trailer walls so when the end was pulled, it made the rope taut.  Then the other looser rope was tied securely around Pork Chop's belly and I ran that rope through a gap on my side of the trailer.   Joel held onto the lasso rope and pulled when Slaughter House Jeremy yelled, "Pull!".   Another man held the rope on my side and he pulled as the lone guy straddling Pork Chop did his best to "shove" her in the right direction.  

THAT was when the blood curdling screams and squealing began.   Holy.  Cow.   It was truly ear splitting!   I mean, really, imagine it for just a moment.   It's pitch dark out.   Temps in the 20's with a light breeze.   Stars are shining brightly above but we had no moon, so outside our sphere of flashlight the night was solid black.   And this pig is pitching a royal fit, squealing loud enough to be heard a mile away.   It was definitely a new experience for the three of us.

One more final shove and pulls on the rope and suddenly she was in the trailer.    Everyone hustled to get the gate to the trailer closed and secured and once inside the trailer, she stopped carrying on.   No problem.  Don't know what you folks were so excited about.   Harumph.   What a pig!   Slaughter House Jeremy hitched his truck up to the trailer and we thanked the 4 guys profusely for all their help and acknowledged that there was no way the three of us city folk would have EVER gotten these pigs into a trailer alone.

Well, yesterday Rita called me from the slaughter house and said that Bacon weighed in at .......wait for it.......378lbs.   Seriously?   And now this morning she called to say that Pork Chop weighed in at 388lbs.!    I think we're gonna have a lot of pork real soon.   Good thing we just bought 2 new huge freezers.  We even got to pick what kind of cuts we wanted from both animals.  

So next week we'll be picking up boxes of smoked and cured bacon, tenderloins, whole and half hams, sliced ham(both thick for the grill and thin for the breakfast skillet), boston butt for smoking on our Big Green Egg, and shoulder roasts, baby back ribs, and the remainder will be made into sausage patties.  

I even asked them to save the fat so I can render it down into lard.....lard makes the best biscuits ever!   Anywhere you use Crisco, I use lard....and it doesn't have any hydrogenated fats which are so bad for you.

We have friends who have been asking us when we were going to have some pork, so, I guess we'll give them a call next week.   It's going to be interesting to see how much meat this translates into.  I have no idea at all how much space this is going to take up in our freezers.  And I'm very curious about the flavor of the meat.   I'm sure I'll be posting about that in the upcoming months as we try the various cuts of pork in the pan, on the grill, and in the smoker.

The moral of the story:   Take your pigs to the slaughter house early in November when they weigh closer to 250lbs.

Lesson learned,
Debbie  
 

From 80 to 8

How's that for an intriguing title for the first post of 2015?   Three days ago I left Florida very early in the morning where it had been 80 degrees the day before and I drove 11 hours home to the farm where the next evening it was 8 degrees with a brisk wind chilling the temps down below 0.   Brrrrrr......

But I believe I need to back up a bit and fill you all in on the events of the last two weeks.  My last post was just before Christmas and we had gotten the news that our oldest son, Jarrad,  had cancer.  Ever the one with a sardonic wit, he called me the afternoon of my birthday and said, "Happy birthday, Mom.   I've got cancer."   

Needless to say, Christmas Eve was a whirlwind for us as Joel, Jeremy and I had an abbreviated early Christmas dinner and opened our presents and then the guys helped me load my Tahoe for the drive to Florida.  I felt torn leaving my family here to rush to Florida to see Jarrad thru the next few weeks, but I just had to go.  I spent Christmas day alone in the car with my thoughts, making the drive in only 10 hours, praying for a good outcome for Jarrad and wishing away the miles so I could see Jarrad's face.  

Early the next morning Jarrad and Dawn and I met at the hospital where we were taken back into an O.R. holding area.   We were soon joined by Jarrad's sisters, Julie and Gina and Dawn's dad, Larry.  I was surprised that they would let all of us "hang out" with Jarrad as he waited to go into the O.R. to have a biopsy of the tumor.   In typical fashion, Jarrad kept up a running dialogue which completely entertained the nurses in the unit.   

Who else, under the circumstances, would say things to them like, "Nothing like cancer to bring the family together for Christmas!"   Yup, he said that ......with a wide grin on his face.   

He even brought his goofy "doo-rag" thing to wear on his head.    Personally, we girls thought it clashed horribly with his lovely gown.   But he was undeterred.    The biopsy went well, and he was brought back to us and asked to not drink anything as they were thinking of taking him back to another O.R. to insert a port in his right front shoulder area which will be used to administer his chemo.

That procedure took a bit longer as his anatomy moved a bit from the huge tumor pushing things around in his chest and it took a few tries for the docs to insert it.  By evening he was admitted to a room for observation overnight.    He was pretty sick from having anesthesia twice and in some pain from the insertion of the port.....not a fun night for any of us.  

Julie stayed overnight with him and made sure he was comfortable and ran interference when the hospital chaplain arrived shortly after Jarrad was medicated and Jarrad proceeded to "preach" to the chaplain with his eyes closed.    Ummmm, yeah.....drugs are a wonderful thing.    Needless to say, the big sister had the giggles watching the whole scene unfold before her eyes, helpless to stop his rambling.   And since Julie's husband is a pastor and has made countless visits to folks in the hospital, she had the added perspective of how he would have reacted in the same situation.

Ok, I'm rambling.   Jarrad was discharged the following day, in much better shape now that the nausea was gone.   The oncologist visited us for the first time and said the initial look at his biopsy seemed to indicate lymphoma but further testing would be required to be certain.

We hung out at Jarrad and Dawn's house and tried to relax and recover from the stress of the previous week.   Things are kinda a blur after that.    At one point we had a tentative diagnosis of thymoma, but that was quickly dismissed and Jarrad had a PET scan and was set up to start chemo Jan. 2.  

Yup, this is what chemo looks like.   Sitting in a comfy chair(unless you're 6'6" and your feet and calves hang off the end of the footrest), letting the chemo start to do it's job, and vascillating back and forth from hot to chills.  

All in all, it was a long 9 hour day.   Dawn went home to tend to the dogs and get Jarrad's new meds while I stayed with Jarrad.    We "closed the joint down" as we were the last people to leave that day at 5:30.   The nurses were fantastic, tending to Jarrad's every need.    He was able to sleep thru some of it because of the meds they gave him.  

True to form, when he woke up mid-afternoon he asked me to take a picture of him with all the bags of meds that had been put in his body that day......he said he wanted bragging rights about how many bags there were.    Silly kid!

Doesn't everyone want a picture taken with their mom during chemo?    Well, this guy does.  
By the following Monday we had an appointment with the oncologist so he could check on Jarrad and fill us in on any details.   Jarrad will be getting up to 6 rounds of chemo and then radiation.    His prognosis is looking good and we will continue to covet your prayers for he and Dawn as he goes through this ordeal.

I want to sent special love and thanks to Susan Marie for taking my frantic call asking her if I could bunk on her couch.  She graciously opened her home to me on Christmas Day and for the following week as I left her house in the dark and returned in the dark, spending all the time I could with Jarrad and Dawn.   And for listening to my anguish over every day's events.

And also to Joyce and Dick for giving me 24 hours of respite at their serene home on Anna Maria Island.   Watching football with you both was a slice of normal I needed that day!  And thanks for taking me to your church.......I loved being there with you guys.

Thanks so much, also, to Melissa and Jim who graciously opened their arms and their home to me for as long as I needed it.   I loved sleeping in the "princess bed".   

Chip was adorable and made me feel right at home while I loved on him like he was Molly's substitute.

Well, that was how I spent my Christmas vacation and began the New Year.   I hope you and your family had a much less eventful couple of weeks.  Thank you all for your prayers, phone calls, texts and emails.   We appreciate them, every single one.    Please continue to hold Jarrad up in prayer as he has some hard work ahead of him to rid his body of this cancer.

Blessings and thanks,
Debbie