As many of you know, Grant and I are camping at Greenbelt National Park this weekend. We're home for a little while to feed the cats and get out of the heat! I've made a slide show of some pictures I've taken so far, but here are a couple of the red-bellied woodpecker family that kept me entertained most of the morning. The female is inside the tree, sitting on eggs I assume, and the male visits her often, especially when she calls him.
More pictures and news to come.
Our activity at the White House Easter Egg Roll went off without a hitch. Kids seemed to have a lot of fun and were fascinated with both the bird egg replicas and the live eggs. We were busy the entire time!
Though I didn't get to meet the Obamas, I did see them closer than ever before and it was cool celebrating and having a good time in their back yard. I also was happy to see/hear Ziggy Marley perform. All and all a great event and I hope we are invited back next year.
There are couple pictures below and you can see more if you click here.
Yesterday was long treatment day at NIH. We arrived a little before 8am and the day started. Once they know mum has arrived they prepare the Morab 9 (the antibodies). They don't want to prepare it unless she has arrived because once it's made it has to be used. So while she waits for the Morab 9 to be prepared, they warm up her veins and get the IV line prepared.
The Morab takes a few hours to be delivered intravenously, but it's not painful and mum usually orders some breakfast. During yesterday's Morab treatment she was visited by Dr. Lu a few times as well as Barbara (pic below) to make sure things are going well. Barbara is a research nurse at NIH and she provides us with all the cycle and treatment schedules, helps us set up appointments and pretty much answers any questions we have. Everyone at NIH has been great, but Barbara is pretty special.
After the Morab 9 they change mum over to liquids for a couple hours then they give her two different chemo treatments (Cisplatin and Alimta, I think.) Each of these take a couple hours. Again, no pain during the delivery, but at this point the day is getting long and being in one place for that long has got to stink. After the second dose of chemo they her give lots of liquids again and that takes another couple of hours.
All in all it's a 12 hour day. On this treatment day she is one of the first to arrive and pretty much the last one to leave. Her strength and patience amazes me.
I wanted to share a couple reasons why I'm writing this post, which definitely strays from knitting and vegan cooking, though is has a lot to do with my life...
1) so my family and friends have a sense of what's going on because I know they're thinking about her and sending good thoughts.
2) because when we first learned that mum had mesothelioma and I was searching the internet for any information and the only thing I could find were websites and blogs developed by lawyers. Weeding through all that junk to find what is useful was difficult. I'm hoping these posts will find their way to the top.
It eventually did snow last night and into the morning. Most schools in the area are closed today, but not DCPS. The federal government is opening 2 hours late and my work...ON TIME. Forget it. I'm going in late. I swear the city is reacting to the President's statement a couple weeks ago when he called us wimps when it snows.
All this snow is completely new for Kati. He's enjoying watching it and wants so badly to catch the flakes....
I'm not necessarily advocating that DC become the 51st state, but I want my voice and vote to count. Today we got a little closer. It's a new day...
Today the Senate approved the DC House Voting Rights Act (shout out to Maine's senators who have been kicking some ass lately.) It's been a long time coming and it's a first step down a fair and just path. The legislation is now on to the House where it will hopefully sail through and then to the President's desk where it's expected to be signed. It could hit a wall if it goes to supreme court, but tonight we celebrate.
Yesterday was a great day. We walked down to the Mall and hung out with many friendly and happy strangers. There was a lot of singing and some tears. It's a great time to be in the city and emotions are running high...in a good way.
Later in the day Grant and I attended the All Souls Ball and had a blast. We have so much fun dancing, singing and celebrating with our friends and church community. A wonderful night! Here are some pictures from our day...
It was really nice of him to pose with us at Union Station. He *is* the people's president.
We've stopped in for some coffee and treats at the Willard Hotel. The hotel is decorated beautifully. I've seen at least 5 fur coats while sitting here...that bums me out. A humorous thing about one of the fur coat wearers...she smelled like moth balls.
Here is where it will all take place on Tuesday. We're currently driving around looking at all the decoration and set up. I think mum is having a good time taking in all the excitement.
