"I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes..."

Greetings!

Wow. The weekend went by fast. One minute it was Friday and now it's Monday already (sorry for saying the "M" word for all you work-goers).

Friday fondue was fantabulous. It was fun to get together with the girls and pig-out on fondue, twice-baked potatoes, and pumpkin pie. I finally got to play the game "In a Pickle" that Mom and I had bought a while ago. I give it a thumbs-up, though I think I may need to read through the rules again. I think everyone had a good time, which is the goal for such gatherings, so all-in-all the night was a success.

Saturday was Western Days. We (the family, Ben, and I) headed to Chatfield to watch the parade and eat festival food. The parade was pretty good. The Budweiser Clydesdales were there and pretty much put the other horse exhibits to shame (no offense to anybody- the other carts and horses all looked and behaved wonderfully as well). The Legion go-carts were there too and re-sparked my cousin Brianne and my inner ambitions to someday join the go-cart ranks and do fancy routines at high speeds for parades (though by the end of the evening we decided we're going to train a team of goats to pull us in a cart for the next Western Days).

Later in the evening we were at Deb and Gary's for buffalo burgers, hayrides, and fireworks. The hay-ride was...entertaining. My aunt, cousin, Ben, and I ended-up on the wagon with a man who was drunk enough to continually speak in third-person, brag about he had hunted rattle snakes since he was nine (a story which he repeated on several accounts: basically any time a grass hopper sounded), claim he ruled the world, and believed it when we told him that my mom was dead and that the person he was seeing was a ghost. Annoying, but amusing. We really should have shoved him off the wagon. =P

The firework display was awesome. About 40 cases worth of fireworks were lit directly overhead. There were times where it seemed you could hold out your arms and catch sparks. It was sweet. The night became even more entertaining when the cops showed-up after they got a call about gun-shots. It's funny since it's the first party I've ever been at with cops; even funnier since my parents and family were there. =D

Sunday went by super fast. Jaselyn, Laura, Mom, and I went to LaCrosse so we could hang-out at Irishfest and Mom could go horseback riding. There wasn't as much there as I thought there would be, but it was still fun. We got to listen to a story-teller, a couple harpist, and we learned some Gaelic. I can now say, "God be with you" in Irish. It's pronounced "Dee-ah gitch," but it's spelled "Dia duit." Crazy Irish spellings.

We got home Sunday evening and Grandma and Grandpa Tri were over to visit. Unfortunately I was dead-tired by then and slept most the time. I felt bad about that, but I couldn't help it.

I suppose I should have put this first since I said my blog wasn't going to be a diary, but here is a medical update:

This morning I went to see a psychiatrist. She was really nice and surprisingly has an obsession with Ireland, Irish music and dance, and photography- very much like myself. I liked meeting with her and will probably do so again.

Oh, by-the-way, I'm not crazy, suffering from depression, or anything like that. I'm just seeing a psychiatrist in order to have a professional third-party perspective and someone different to talk to (which is not to say I don't like talking with any of you; I like talking with all of you and knowing I can helps me cope a lot).

Continuing the medical update...

I got prescribed some sleep-aid medicine since I'm having problems sleeping at night. It's easy enough to fall asleep since I've been pretty tired, but staying asleep is a different matter. I wake-up several times a night and as the doctor says I have "vivid dreams." So basically I'm remembering everything I'm dreaming and sometimes I'm still dreaming when I wake-up for periods during the night, which is stressful. So the doctor game me some meds and I'll see if they help keep me asleep at night and don't make me groggy during the day. Hopefully they work because I would really like a good, full night's sleep.

Lastly, I got blood drawn today to check if I'm still anemic. I'm hoping the shot they gave me during my last chemo appointment helped that problem and I won't need to get any more blood drawn because of low hemoglobin counts. Guess we'll have to see though.

This post is getting kind-a long. You can stop reading now if you want. I'm just going to ramble about what I've done today and hope to do for the rest of the week.

After all the running-around at the clinic buildings, Mom and I came home and I got to take a nap. It was a good nap. It made me happy.

Then, this is the best part of my day, I got to go to school! That's right, I went to the high school and I got to help soon-to-be fifth-grade clarinet and flute players put together and play their instruments for the first time. It was awesome. They were all so clueless. They would try to put their clarinets together upside-down and backwards and had no idea which way to put the mouthpiece in their mouths and the flutes would hold their instrument out to the left instead of to the right. Sometimes it got a little scary when they'd carelessly put their instruments on the floor in a heap and there were a few times I thought the clarinets were going to mutilate their reeds before they even got to play their horn. It was so fun though. I liked having something busy like that to do. Something where I got to feel useful. Made me really happy. And I get to do it again! The "camp" is through Thursday so I get to work with the kids through then and hopefully see them improve.

That's about it, I think.

Oh, I have about a zillion thank-you's I owe to several people:

Thank you Bart and family for the flowers; they're beautiful.
Carla, Scott, and Sam- thanks for the blanket; I've already used it during my naps and it works wonderfully. =D
Sami, I had no idea they made bags with only one color of M&M's in them; it's cool they do though. Thanks for the blue M&M's and the TY-kitty.
Last, but not least, I wanna thank Marie at Crossings for the lucky-cricket pendant; it's gorgeous.

Maybe I should explain my method-of-madness for online thank-you's. When I can't thank someone in person for a gift, I usually post it on my blog, otherwise I try to get a hug and a thank-you to anyone else who presents me with a card or gift.

So thank-you to everyone again for the comments, cards, and gifts and for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.

Much love,
Cheryl