Weekend Highlights

Friday started with Ellie coming into our bedroom around 2:00AM asking for an ibuprofen for her headache - bad sign. I got her an ibuprofen and tucked her back into bed and placed the garbage can at her side. It took almost 2 hours but the telltale cough started along with the vomit. Luckily, all was fine and well come normal wake up time. We picked up some breakfast and headed to Mom's - Dad had the day off and we had some plans. We ate breakfast and got ready for our adventure to Wagner farm - a local farm that usually has a decent amount of animals, an old farmhouse and ice cream. Unfortunately, most of the animals were away at a county fair but the kids still had a blast. We left the farm and went back to Mom and Dad's and said our goodbyes - we were off to Michigan for the weekend and Mom and Dad were off to visit friends in Galena.
We had our usual traffic getting up to Michigan - the kids watched a video and the time went by quick enough for most of us (Ellie kept asking when we would arrive so she could get ready for the clubhouse carnival.) Since Ellie had to be at the carnival early to set-up we opted for appetizers for dinner - I had stopped at the farm stand on our way in and picked up some veggies. We walked down to the carnival and went to the Bozo Buckets - the game Ellie chose to be in charge of. Nick played some games and Ellie joined us before her "shift". It started to drizzle but felt refreshing - Nick asked to go back to the cottage - it was getting too loud for him. We went back and Ellie joined us after the carnival clean-up - I can't even put into words how proud she was.
We woke up Saturday to the rain and decided it would be a good day to go to Holland. We started at one of our favorite thrift stores and found some fall clothes for Ellie, a new matching game, some crafts things and the "Apple Dumpling Gang's" wagon (says Nick). We had lunch at Red Robin and Red was standing in front of the restaurant as we pulled up - the kids were so excited. We enjoyed a nice lunch together and Red circled a couple times before giving the kids their balloons. Rob and I decided that it would be the perfect day for picking peaches - we were on our way to our favorite orchard - Jollay. After a bit of a ride we arrived and were taken out to the orchard in a John Deere tractor - Nick's thrill of the day. We picked 13 pounds of peaches - less than we would normally pick but this is a much warmer summer and baking isn't on my top 10 list. We picked up some corn from the farm stand on our way back home. The sun came out for us and warmed the air enough to go to the beach - we spent a couple hours there. None of us were super hungry so we had a light dinner before heading to the soda bar for some ice cream.
Today we had a pancake breakfast and headed to the beach for a couple hours - the sun hadn't come out and it was pretty cloudy so the water seemed pretty cold to us adults - not to the kids. The water was very calm and Ellie and Nick were able to play in the water without Nick being knocked over or the under-tow pushing them too far. Rob and I actually found a couple minutes to talk while they played. We came back to the cottage and cleaned up and had lunch. I finished another book while the kids played in the playroom. We got on the road early in the afternoon and arrived home in about 3 hours - not bad! Rob set the sprinkler up for the kids and I read the newspaper. We waited for Mom and Dad to let us know they were home and headed over to their house for dinner. Nick fell through a chair and really scraped his back up - he's a trooper and keeps telling me its all better as I apply another layer of neosporin to it. We had a nice time catching up over dinner - Mom and Dad brought back fresh corn from a farm. We came home and got the kids ready for bed - I changed all our sheets and tossed in some laundry.
This is the week my "freedom" from doctors ends - I go for a follow-up CT scan on Wednesday and a follow-up visit with Dr. Marsh on Thursday. I am hoping that what both Drs. Marsh and Nanda suspect is true and that the tumor is just dead skin and not "alive" any longer. Thanks to the beach my feet got a natural sand exfoliating treatment this weekend. The skin is still peeling off but the new skin is soft and I have hope for non callused feet soon. My hands still have the weird tingly - asleep feeling - still no fingerprints and still swollen. My cramps seem to have taken a vacation but I know as I write this it means they will return shortly. All in all - a great weekend, visualising my healthy body, Tree