Round 8 Take 1

We are growing accustomed to Marc's counts being low the first time he goes in for chemo. It seems that his body isn't ready in two weeks. We are hoping his count will be up next week.

When he was there on Wednesday there was a student nurse who needed to interview someone so she could practice planning treatment for patients. They felt she should talk to Marc since he is "interesting." He said he'd met lots of interesting people there. What it came down to is Marc is MEDICALLY interesting.

Because he was unable to have chemo, our Thanksgiving was easier. I know it was far more pleasant for Marc. Steph, Mike, and Masen came over. They actually cooked the turkey and brought it over. We made everything else. We weren't sure we'd be able to bake anything as our gas range is temperamental these days. Sometimes - ok most of the time - the ignition won't light the burners or oven. We can light the burners with a match, but no one wants to risk hair and eyebrows to light the oven. We went Wednesday and purchased a new one, but they can't deliver it till Tuesday. Hence, Mike and Steph cooked the turkey. Fortunately, the ignition decided to work on Thanksgiving so we were able to bake the stuffing, green bean casserole and some cranberry bread in the regular oven rather than in the toaster oven.

Steph was so disappointed that she had to work Friday and we wouldn't be able to shop the Day-After-Thanksgiving sales. I had heard on the radio that the outlet mall south of Portland was going to be open Thanksgiving night so I asked her if she wanted to go. She did, so we headed out. I was sure I'd heard the stores opened 10:30 so we arrived about 9:50. The parking lot was mostly empty except for a couple news crews. The stores didn't open till midnight... We decided to stick around and see if anything opened early. Sure enough about every half hour a couple stores would open. Up till midnight it was really fun. After that - not so much. Marc heard on the news the next day that the 2000 car parking lot was full by 11:30. It was a zoo. People are crazy. I know I was there. We finally headed for home about 1:30 (that's a.m.). As we crossed over I-5, the cars lined up in either direction to exit and come to the outlets stretched as far as the eye could see. We checked. The one coming from the north was THREE MILES long. We will not be doing that again next year.

Brett and I went to the Billy Joel concert tonight. Brett wasn't sure he'd like it. We BOTH loved it. Billy Joel is an amazing performer. On the way in, I made some comment about the crowd being older. Brett said he wondered how many other parents "dragged" their kids to it. When it was over, he was glad his had.

We have so much to be Thankful for this year. That sounds strange in light of cancer, mom dying, and a range that wasn't reliable enough to cook the turkey. More important than those things, we have fabulous friends, great colleagues, and amazing family members that have shown us how God works in obvious and not so obvious ways.

Thank you all for being part of this crazy, scary, frustrating, wonderful journey.