Happy 67 th Birthday Ardella!
Yesterday was a great day and although it was chemo day, it was the LAST treatment and the doctor had some good news. Her newest blood work is stable and the liver tumor appears to be shrinking. We partnered with Teena and Randy to decorate the house with birthday crepe paper and Ardella’s daughter, Valerie brought a huge bouquet of helium Happy Birthday balloons (and two homemade lemon meringue pies) before her mother returned from the treatment center. Grandson Rick was busily installing their new front door on the porch and Randy was replacing the old toilet with a newer model in son, Jason’s bathroom. Phil and Don with Teena’s help finally corralled the fiber-optic Christmas tree that had been sitting on the porch since the holidays and put it away in the garage the day before so all her “to do” projects were getting done. That brought a big smile to her face when she came in the door!
Teena worked off and on during the afternoon preparing her famous hamburger stroganoff and my job was baking two pumpkin pies, cooking the fresh asparagus in the steamer, making a huge fresh fruit compote and heating the delicious potato rolls. Phil chipped in washing several sinks full of dishes and pots and pans during dinner prep and afterwards as well. Fortunately, Safeway is only a block away because Phil, Randy and Don made several trips for additional and forgotten ingredients but it all came together as planned and the house was full of Ardella’s friends, family, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren by dinner time, about 25 people in all. When we left about 9 PM, Ardella was at the kitchen table playing cards with Randy, Teena and Valerie while they listened to her beloved Phoenix Suns play basketball on TV. She was so happy to be feeling good enough to enjoy this perfect day.
Here are a few pictures … not the best quality but I was so busy and the light was so bad, this is as good as they get.
Yesterday was a great day and although it was chemo day, it was the LAST treatment and the doctor had some good news. Her newest blood work is stable and the liver tumor appears to be shrinking. We partnered with Teena and Randy to decorate the house with birthday crepe paper and Ardella’s daughter, Valerie brought a huge bouquet of helium Happy Birthday balloons (and two homemade lemon meringue pies) before her mother returned from the treatment center. Grandson Rick was busily installing their new front door on the porch and Randy was replacing the old toilet with a newer model in son, Jason’s bathroom. Phil and Don with Teena’s help finally corralled the fiber-optic Christmas tree that had been sitting on the porch since the holidays and put it away in the garage the day before so all her “to do” projects were getting done. That brought a big smile to her face when she came in the door!
Teena worked off and on during the afternoon preparing her famous hamburger stroganoff and my job was baking two pumpkin pies, cooking the fresh asparagus in the steamer, making a huge fresh fruit compote and heating the delicious potato rolls. Phil chipped in washing several sinks full of dishes and pots and pans during dinner prep and afterwards as well. Fortunately, Safeway is only a block away because Phil, Randy and Don made several trips for additional and forgotten ingredients but it all came together as planned and the house was full of Ardella’s friends, family, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren by dinner time, about 25 people in all. When we left about 9 PM, Ardella was at the kitchen table playing cards with Randy, Teena and Valerie while they listened to her beloved Phoenix Suns play basketball on TV. She was so happy to be feeling good enough to enjoy this perfect day.
Here are a few pictures … not the best quality but I was so busy and the light was so bad, this is as good as they get.
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