A Busy Birthday Weekend - Part 2

       On Sunday we had planned a trip to the Hunter Valley with our friends Tom, Nikita & Alex to celebrate Tom's Birthday! Tom and Nikita just moved down to Jindabyne, so it was fun to catch up with them again.

       After all meeting at our house, we all excitedly jumped in the car and Jake began to pull away from the edge of the road a little too excitedly, as poor Alex wasn't even in the car yet. Don't worry, she didn't get left behind. Although Jake did run over her foot! She barely made a fuss though, "Jake, you're on my foot" she said in a calm voice. We all laughed. Then we realised she was being serious. Luckily she had boots on, and her foot was only a little numb for awhile.

       It only takes a little over an hour to get to the Hunter Valley so with all our chatting in the car it seemed we were there in no time.

       First stop was Chateau Francois, a lovely little winery atop a hill. Don Francois, the wine maker was a lovely old man, who had unfortunately suffered a stroke which impaired his speech a little. His wines were lovely and are rated very highly by wine critic James Halliday. Don Francois bought the land his winery is on in 1969 for $1000!

Chateau Francois land

       From Chateau Francois we headed to Piggs Peake Winery. Jake and I love their wines, so we were all very excited to get tasting. We must have sampled about 15 different wines, and they were all beautiful. I recommend Piggs Peake to anyone!

       Alex really wanted to get some photos of a winery up close, so as we were leaving Piggs Peake we came across a winery that was near the road. We took this opportunity to take some (crazy) photos:

       And then we stopped for a group hug (we aren't weird at all).

       Just before lunch we went to Keith Tulloch's Cellar Door. It is in the most beautiful building, and we sat out on the deck sampling wines in the sun, telling funny stories, and laughing at my appalling math skills (we were getting a little giggly by then).

       For lunch we walked across the courtyard to Muse Kitchen. We sat in the garden and had the most amazing food.

We sat at the white table

So fresh and beautiful. Look at the crispy skin on that duck leg!!

(Nikita's Photos)

     
       The rest of the day was spent going to the champagne house, Chocolate shop, buying a large cheese platter for dinner and lastly, the brewery. It was such a beautiful sunny day and we all had a great time together!

A Busy Birthday Weekend - Part 1

       This weekend I had the pleasure of celebrating the birthdays of two lovely people!

       Saturday was Mum's birthday. We kicked off the celebrations with a sunny breakfast at my sisters place, filling our bellies with fruit and croissants (a common birthday breakfast in our little family). The seven of us chatted away as we nibbled on pastries, our conversation eventually turning to funny childhood memories - the time my sister, Steph got a new Baby Born doll, and when I carefully nursed it for the first time, it (somehow) managed to do a little vom on me. And when I was jealous that Steph's Baby Born could go in the pool with us, when my dolls had soft fabric bodies, so I took them in the pool anyway, and then hung them on the washing line to dry afterwards spinning it 'round and 'round and 'round. Funny doll memories.

Georgie was excited to wish Mum a Happy Birthday too.

              That afternoon Jake and I prepared a huge roast lamb for dinner. We warily left it in the oven as we headed off to Jake's soccer game. It was the first time that we had left something in the oven while we were out, and to me it felt like leaving our child at home alone for the first time. However, the difference between a child and a roast is that the roast can't answer the phone when we are checking how it is going. (I'm sure there is other differences between children and roasts as well).

       Jacob's soccer game was a great one to watch, he even scored a goal which he headed in!

       After soccer we rescued our roast (which was doing just fine) and transported it over to Mum and Dad's house to finish cooking. Had a beautiful three course meal, nice wine, and so many laughs I began to feel sick!

       One of the presents I gave Mum was a really interesting book plant. I got it from a cute new florist  called The Octopus' Garden. It is a really unique store and has a lot of great gift ideas.

Part two of our busy weekend to come soon!
x

Sleepovers & Red Dresses

     
       I have such great friends. They keep me entertained while my husband is away for work. This week I had an old fashioned sleepover at my friend Emma's. The only real difference to the 'old sleepovers' was that one of the members of our little slumber club group was an 8 month old baby. My little friend, and Emma's little daughter, Alexis. She loved having a big girl sleepover. I think. She didn't tell me, but I kind of got the vibe.

      We started off our sleepover with some good old shopping. We checked out the op shops along Long Jetty. Emma and I both got some gorgeous vintage dresses from The Glass Onion Society. They sell Oh Deer brand dresses which are truly one of a kind. I got a lovely red one, made out of flowy polka dot fabric. I don't usually wear red clothes, but I decided it was time to be bold!

       Below are some pics, but excuse me now while I lounge lazily on the couch, and recover from eating way too much chocolate...

Radiotherapy Prep

       Last week got some greatly welcomed news from my Haematologist. I was told that he and his other colleagues decided that radiotherapy would be the best treatment for me and my lymphoma, and chemotherapy is now only a back up plan. Sweeeet!

     

Celebratory tea with Leisl, Mum & Nan

       I also forgot to mention that my beautiful friend Leisl came and stayed with me last week (all the way from Queensland!) while Jacob was away. It was so lovely and we had such a fun, relaxing time that we didn't take any pics of the two of us together! Silly. We swapped stories of hilarity, had many laughs, drank numerous cups of tea, reminisced of 3 hour kayaking expeditions and 6 hour mangrove explorations plus many more strange adventures. I was so sad to see her go at the end of the week, but was so grateful she gave up her time to come visit me! So here is a collage me and the lovely girl.

       After the celebrations (we didn't go too wild), I had my prep appointment at the brand spankin' new Cancer Centre at Gosford Hospital. I wasn't really aware of what was to come that appointment, and it turned out to be quite interesting.

       Firstly I was introduced to the Radiotherapy Specialist Doctor who will be looking after me. She looked at my CT scans, PET scans and all the other documents I luckily brought along. The PET scan results are on a CD which the doctor put in the computer and it was amazing (& hugely hilarious), because there, on the screen, was a little skeletal version of me spinning around slowly! When the Doctor was out of the room, I made mum stand guard while I took a video - check it out ----->

        Hilarious!

       After it was recommended I eat some Banana Bread (my stomach was rumbling so loud the doctor could easily hear) I was sent into a CT scan room where they laid me on the bed and prepared a face mould for me. They make a mould of my face and then each time I have radiotherapy, I have to wear the mask so that I'm always in the same position. It wasn't the most comfortable thing to make. The mould is a net kind of material and they wet it in warm water to make it malleable and then lay it on my face. It felt like a hot towel at first, but after about 10 minutes it started to harden up around my face and neck. It was slightly suffocating, and I'm really not sure how somebody with claustrophobia would cope with it. Once it had set they scanned me.

This is not me, but this was almost exactly what it looked like. Mine went down to the top of my chest though. And see how they clip it into the bed, There is no escaping it easily, that's for sure.

       Finally they took the mask off and I was ready to leave. All the prep work done. Just before I left the room, I just happened to glance in the mirror to discover my new 'mask mould accessory' had given me some nice features on my face. A sort of reptilian pattern on my skin. I suppose it was expected after having a bit of net stretched over my face for 50 minutes. I had many nicknames that afternoon. Lizard Lady, Honeycomb Head, and one lady said I looked like a Mermaid. I'm not sure which I prefer best?

This was taken when it had started to fade, it was much worse. Trust me.

       I have a date and timeline for my actual treatment. I start the 3rd of June at 9.15, and I have 10 sessions. One a day for two weeks.


Honeycomb Head x (I think I prefer this one)

Diagnosis & Decorating

       Well this week I finally got a diagnosis, which is partly good and bad. Good - finally we know what it is and what's ahead. Bad - there is actually something wrong and it wasn't a mistake.

       The diagnosis I got on Monday was a type of Hodgkin Lymphoma. It is called "Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin Disease" There are 5 different types of Hodgins Disease, four classical types and one non-classical. I have the non-classical type. I'm not quite sure what that means, only that it is pretty rare. In the last five years I'm only my oncologists second patient with a non-classical Hodgkin Disease.

       In the coming weeks I will have more tests, get started on hormone injections for IVF, and then start chemotherapy - probably in about five weeks time. I'll have six cycles of chemo, a cycle twice a month. So with all this coming up, and knowing that it is now a definite thing, and not just hypothetical, I'm actually quite scared and very nervous. I wish I could just fast-forward the next few months and get it all over and done with.

       Anyway, in the last few weeks, as I've been anxiously waiting for the final diagnosis, I decided to prepare the spare room and turn it into a guest room (rather than a store room). With my friend Leisl coming to stay with me next week, it was the perfect opportunity, and it kept me distracted as well.

     So here it is...

I bought this little bed side table from a 2nd Hand Store at Long Jetty for $15. It was painted with a kind of red lacquer and it had little wooden knobs, and one had been chewed by, what a imagine, a child dog. I sanded it back, painted the outside white gloss and then clear lacquered the drawers and attached 'vintage style' knobs. I'm now jealous of it, and want it in my room instead!

This sweet little owl is from Pillow Talk $14.95. The glass cloche and greenery is also from Pillow Talk $24.95.

I cut these cute and random pictures out of old Frankie Magazines.

Bunnings, $6 each

Paper Bunting, made with paper from Spotlight and Hemp Cord.

My Wicker Chair from when I was two years old.