A Few New Things

It has been a little crazy for the last month.  Many doctor appointments and trips to the hospital.  Charlie's blood counts got so low that he had a blood transfusion a couple of weeks ago.  That is probably due to all the radiation and the drug Xofigo which is radioactive.  After getting two units of packed red cells, he was a new man.  Amazing how bad you can feel when you are anemic.

                                                    

We are continuing to enjoy our new life in the mountains, and trying to get our house organized.  It has taken awhile because of all the furnishings we brought from Raleigh, and because the new basement was just a big room that I am trying to make into a usable studio/laundry room/office.

I managed to make an Auburn Angel for my daughter-in-law Melissa's birthday.

My brother Jeff and his family from Florida came up for a week in August.  We had multiple family gatherings.  They are the ones we stayed with in Ft. Myers for three months when Charlie first had radiation at the Dattoli Cancer Center.  We love them bunches!

We celebrated Jeff's birthday while they were here.  I gave him a little remembrance of the North Carolina mountains to take back to Florida with him.

My sewing stuff was fairly organized in bins even when we lived in Wake Forest, two houses ago.  It has been easy to find stash fabrics.  Everything else, not so much.  I recently tried actually sewing an eight-inch Sister's Choice block for a quilt for a friend, and it took me eight hours by the time I found the power cord to the sewing machine, some rulers, cutting mats, etc.

Here is a little watercolor sketch I did in my art journal.  It is the Sarasota skyline as seen from across the bay at Longboat Key in the last afternoon sunlight.  The city looked golden in the last rays of the sun.

My littlest granddaughter, Layla Grace, turned one on Saturday.  She had a rubber ducky birthday party.  I made painted a yellow duckling for her birthday card, and a little one with blue and green highlights framed in a floating frame.  Both paintings were inspired by photos on Pinterest.

And here is my little Ducky!

A Great Long Weekend

We are sad that this weekend is over.  Our sunset cruise around Sarasota Bay was magical.  It started out rainy, but the clouds soon parted and the music started playing.  We saw dolphins, gorgeous sunsets, and lots of birds.  We definitely recommend LeBarge Sunset Tours!

Charlie finished his fifth week of radiation on Friday.  He is feeling some fatigue and also loss of his sense of taste.  We are considering acupuncture if the problem continues.

Friday night Charlie' brother Richard and wife Phyllis flew down from North Carolina to spend the weekend with us.  Their son Chris lives near Tampa, and he and his girlfriend also joined us at the beach on Saturday and another boat ride on Sunday.  We left from Marina Jack Yacht Club.

Here are Richard, Phyllis, Chris, and Elise on board the Mako Me Nuts, a deck boat that Jeff rented from the Freedom Boat Club.

We saw the Ringling Mansion from the bay side.  Very impressive!  Charlie and I visited there in 2015 when he first came here for radiation.

 Here is LeBarge in port, waiting for its evening departure.

Everyone has gone home now.  When you are away from home and going through something as stressful as cancer treatment, it means so much to have visits from family members.

Treatment Update

Charlie has now finished two weeks of radiation for his recurrent prostate cancer at Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota.  He goes in at 1:00, and it usually takes about forty-five minutes.  Most of the time is spent trying to position him for the radiation to the back of his head and his neck.  They made him a new mask/helmet to protect his face and keep his head still, but they will be making him a new one next week.  They think that by adding a mouth piece and breathing tube, they can have more control.  Sounds like torture to me.

He finally got to start one of the new medicines last week, Zytiga, and it made him sick as a dog the first day.  After that, he took it at night, and he has not had much problem.  He will get the second new drug, Xofigo, by IV on Thursday.  This is the one containing radium.  It sounds scary.

Meanwhile, we have been trying to amuse ourselves and pass the time.  We have been to two nice restaurants, one on Phillippi Creek in Sarasota, and one on the bay on Longboat Key.

Our 46th anniversary was Monday.  The Table at Creekside was beautiful, serene, and very special.

The first time we went to Dry Dock Waterfront Grill was with our new friend Bill from Dattoli.  He recommended this place for the great view of Sarasota Bay.  It did not disappoint.  We liked it so much that we went back today when my brother Jeff and his wife and son came up to visit from Ft. Myers.

New friend Bill and Charlie at Dry Dock

With my brother's family at Dry Dock Waterfront Grill

View from Dry Dock 

We also finally saw our first Gulf sunset.  We went to South Lido Beach Park.  It was very entertaining to see the pelicans dive-bombing the water for fish.  The sunset was great.

Sunset at South Lido Beach Park

Again, if we have to be going through cancer treatment away from home, it is nice to be in such a beautiful location.

Happy Easter!

We had a very enjoyable Easter with our family this year.  After church and brunch with family on Sunday, we brought our two grandsons to the mountains with us for their Spring Break.  They have been enjoying a lot of fishing and Gator rides.


Here are some Bible journaling pages that I made for the Easter season.

 

Cooling Off on the Parkway

While my son's family was here this week, we spent a day exploring the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway in Northwestern North Carolina. It is a scenic drive through the mountains, with lots of scenic overlooks and hiking trails.

One of the stops in Doughton Park is Brinegar's cabin.  I had not been there in years.  It happened that the cabin was in the process of getting a new cedar shake roof.  They were actually cutting the shingles from a pile of cedar.

The drone came along for the ride, and my husband sent it off to explore the mountains at several stops along the way.  

We had a line of storms come over the mountains and have had some spectacular rains during our week up here.  But mostly it has been beautiful and delightfully cool.  Temperature forecast today:  79.  In Raleigh:  90.  Much better!

Happy Birthday, America!

It's an old-fashioned family Fourth of July here at our North Carolina mountain home.

We spend lots of time at the creek.

We had a homemade fireworks show last night.

We also went to the Christmas in July festival in West Jefferson on Saturday.  This area grows a large supply of America's Christmas trees.

And the drone flew over and captured some of the family, friends, and dogs who were here yesterday.

God bless America!

Life's A Beach!

Our beach vacation has come and gone!  How could two weeks go by so quickly?

It was great to have our whole family together.  We celebrated several family birthdays (including mine!) and Fathers' Day together.  Charlie and I took two of the older grandchildren on an excursion to the North Carolina Aquarium in Fort Fisher, NC.  That involved a ferry ride that we all enjoyed as well.

This summer they have a special exhibit of animated dinosaurs on a nature walk outside the museum.

I took many projects and art supplies with me, but did almost no art work the whole time other than coloring with the kids and making Fathers' Day cards with them.  I have gotten a few new Bible journal pages done, however.

This is one of my favorites, and was inspired by a video lesson by Gina Lee Kim titled The Versatility of Blue (available from Interweave.com.)

I tried collaging a paper napkin onto the Bible pages for this one, and added watercolor background and stamping.

This one is just ink pen drawings and watercolor.

A Trip to Annapolis

Last week we had the pleasure of traveling to Annapolis, Maryland, home of the United States Naval Academy.  My nephew Ryan Turner graduated and was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy.  He is on his way to flight school in Pensacola, Florida.

Here is Ryan with his mother, Patti, and dad, my brother John.

The Turner family was well represented, as quite a few of us traveled up for the week's events.  One of the most spectacular was the Blue Angels air show on Wednesday afternoon.

They also did one more fly-over at the graduation ceremony.

Before we left Raleigh, I painted a Blue Angels graduation card for my nephew in watercolor.

It got very hot as the proceedings and speeches went on and on.  Charlie and I hopped a bicycle rickshaw on the way back to the motel.  I had to share my seat with Lewis, the pug with the batman cape!

We loved being on the water.  Some of us enjoyed a boat tour of the harbor and a water taxi ride to dinner.

Dinner on the waterfront was a nice treat.

My brother Jeff and his wife Anna came up from Florida.  It was great to visit with them without having to go for cancer treatments!  (We stayed with them during Charlie's treatments in Sarasota.)

It was a fine way to spend Memorial Day weekend...and to see the making of a new officer and a gentleman!