Boy Scout Picnic

Brian and Paul invited us to join them at the Boy Scout pig roast and picnic last weekend for bluegrass music, rides and great food. The band was a special treat for Ralph because it featured Andy Carlson, a fiddler and music professor at Dennison University in Granville.



Pictured are Emily, Paul and friend William.

Favorite Pastime

A book is never far from reach for Norma, as most of you know. She enjoys sitting on the deck, overlooking a wooded lot, surrounded by potted flowers and a new garden that she and my dad carved out this spring.

Norma is on a 2-week break from chemo, while her body digests and responds to the last dose of treatment. Last Monday, she needed an injection to boost her white blood cell count. She's also taking a drug to help support healthy bone growth during this process.

Granville Farmer's Market

Dawn and Norma at the Granville Farmer's Market, held every Saturday. We load up on cinnamon rolls, pecan pie, peaches and whatever else is in season.
A favorite vendor is an English baker (second from the left) who's beautiful scones, lemon pound cakes and blossom-shaped shortbread cookies are perfectly placed on doilied-cake stands and wrapped in satin ribbons. A visual delight! Also pictured are Ralph, Lisa and the baker's assistant.

Community Garden

Here's Norma posing in front of Emily's junior garden, filled with sunflowers, cosmos, poppies, zinnia, mini pumpkins, and a tomato plant in there somewhere. The Emily sign was lovingly made by Grandpa Ralph. My mom's hair is starting to grow back so she's going wig less. Below is the first harvest of carros just picked this weekend. The pumpkins are growing nicely and there's one watermelon that Emily has her watchful eye on.

Norma's Birthday - July 23, 2009

Emily and Paul in front of the sign they made for Grandma's birthday back in July. She started her morning with a chemo treatment and then headed to Lisa's house for a picnic in the afternoon.

Another round starts tomorrow

Tomorrow, Norma starts another round of chemo treatment. She'll have a treatment each day for five days. Last week, her test results showed that the chemo was effective because her "cancer marker" was lower than the week before. Lower is better in her case.

The good news is that she's not losing her hair this time around and she has very little nausea. She is however experiencing pain in her lower back and legs, another common side effect. She has to rest more and put her feet up. Difficult for Norma -- she likes to be on the go! My dad has to force her to take naps.

She didn't let any of this get in the way of participating in the Crock family campout at Lisa and Brian's house this past weekend. She was right in the thick of things...helping prepare dinner, making s'mores with the kids, stoking the fire and then she headed for bed...in the house!

Quilt Bingo - Damiansville Church Picnic

Sharing a few more photos taken at the Damiansville Church Picnic in July. Besides the fried chicken dinner with homemade noodles and desserts, quilt bingo is another special part of the annual event. Each church family donates a homemade quilt and they are given away as bingo prizes.

Lisa and Brian are pictured here early in the evening. We played for almost 5 hours and never won a quilt. Brian won a round, but it was a money round.

Grandpa/Ralph and Emily played too. Below them is a scene of the bingo playing area. Notice the beautiful quilts hanging in the background.

Emily, Paul and Dawn

This photo was taken when the Ohio gang was in St. Louis. This is visit #3 to Ted Drew's for another treat of frozen custard.

The Ohio gang is back in Ohio. We had a wonderful visit.

I just talked to Norma and she and Emily were playing a new card game. They both share a love of games and reading. Grandpa Ralph (aka Peepaw) was out with Paul for ice cream.

My mom's been feeling more tired this week. Not sure why. Could be the new chemo treatment. She's also a bit achy. The good news is that on Monday, her test results indicated her cancer marker had gone in the desirable direction. Let's hope this continues because it means the treatment is beating the cancer cells. Every Monday, she is tested, so we'll know more next week.

Cross your fingers.