Monday, August 29

All good things must come to an end, at least temporarily, so I head back home to Ohio. Before leaving though Trish, Luke, Lily and I went out for breakfast. Not a conventional one but a fun, last day with Grandma kind. First we went to Fifer's Farm Market for their home made cinnamon spice donuts (I also picked up some apples, peaches and a cantaloupe) and then we headed to Byler's (the equivalent of Yutzy's Market only bigger). They have a huge outside display of play sets that kids can play on and several tables. We took our donuts and drinks and ate and played for a while before going inside to get Pop Pop's cherry danish and Luke and I had ice cream. So our breakfast was donuts and ice cream. Only my friend Sharon could truly appreciate a breakfast like that. I got away at about 11:15 and luckily had very little traffic or construction. I was a little worried about downed trees or flooding but there was nothing. I pulled into our drive way around 8:15. Headed to bed now as I have to get up at 5 and be at the zoo at 7 am to work in the Bear Kitchen and then I am doing a watch for the 3 new baby moose. Can't wait to see them!

PS No word from Lily's oncologist yet.

Sunday, August 28

Eating our Cone Head sundaes at Friendly's

Restaurant with patio seating, gives new meaning to water front.

There is a statue and some park benches to the right of this photo, all under water.

Luke is showing me the horses on the farm.

It is pretty amazing that last evening we were anticipating the high velocity winds and heavy rains of Hurricane Irene and this morning the sun was shining as though nothing had happened. Dover did get off pretty lucky with only 50 mph winds at the most and 8 1/2" of rain, we could barely see any signs at all that she had passed through. There were lots of small limbs and branches in everyone's yards but we only saw one tree down and that was in a park down town. The only flooding we could see was in the old historic section near the post office, a restaurant and small park gazebo and statue were under water as a tributary had swollen and was raging out of it's banks. We were very lucky but we felt we were prepared for the worst and glad we did not have to see it. Trish lost her cable service for a while but we never lost electricity. Friends, Carlo and Nancy and their son Cody came over last night for supper and we had a "Hurricane" party. Well really all we did was eat and enjoy each other's company and it helped to keep our minds off of what we thought might be a really scary night. Cody, a high school senior kept Luke and Lily entertained while Chad and Carlo made one last trip out to the farm to feed and check on the horses and we just cleaned up and enjoyed the evening. Trish and Chad are really lucky to have such good friends.

Luke and I went out for a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon to see how things looked but aside from an abnormal amount of green leaves on the ground everything looked like it did before Irene moved through. I am leaving tomorrow and hope that I don't encounter any flooded roads near the bay bridge. If I can get past Baltimore it should be fine for the rest of the trip. We went out for dinner tonight at Friendly's and made sure we had ice cream for dessert. We picked my car up from the farm and then Luke and I spent the rest of the night watching the Super Heros fight crime. Looking forward to getting back home to Molly and Mr. B.

Friday, August 26

Lily gets very intense while watching Dora the Explorer.

Love that smile.

Yesterday and all of today we have spent getting ready for hurricane Irene that is predicted to reach the Delaware and New Jersey shores around 2 am Sunday morning. The rains are expected tomorrow afternoon. This morning we went to the grocery to pick up a few things and quickly found out that water and batteries were the two things in short supply. We have everything picked up, packed away or tied down here at the house and Chad has been getting things ready at the farm. Tomorrow we will turn the temp down on the refrigerator and fill the bath tubs with water just in case the power goes out. Trish has a gas stove so cooking won't be a problem. I think we are as ready as we can be. They are evacuating any one within 3/4 of a mile from the ocean, bay or any water way. That does not include us. Everything is closing down by noon tomorrow. Now we just wait and see what Mother Nature has in store!

Wednesday, August 24

Our tent, thank you Aunt Sara & Uncle Matt for letting us use your tent. We left some souvenir sand inside.

On board the Cape Henlopen.

The Cape May lighthouse. We will have to go back and climb to the top, 199 steps.

After our pizza at Mario's, we had some gellato (ice cream), chocolate oreo.

Standing under the bell of the USS Cape May. Luke was a little disappointed it didn't have a clapper so he could ring it.

Time out to play in the fountain.

Walkway along the beach at Cape May.

The Cape May Inn across the street from the beach. Also some very pretty Victorian houses that were B & B's

The ferry terminal at Cape May. The glass walkway took you to the ferry.

Our night sleeping in the tent went better than I thought. I had visions of Luke crying for Trish in the middle of the night but once he fell asleep it was lights out until about 7:30. After our climb to the top of the tower we came back and made S'mores and watched the fire. Before going to bed we got our flashlights and walked to the bath house to go to the bathroom and brush our teeth. That was an adventure in itself and Luke thought it was really cool. The stars were beautiful and once we were in the tent and were quiet we could hear the ocean waves. We read PJ Funny Bunny goes Camping, twice and then told stories. We started with some pretty tame ghost stories and then moved to Batman stories that Luke and I would make up. Before long Luke fell asleep. He had his own sleeping bag but somehow ended up in mine and I swear we only used about 1/4 of the air mattress. We had a healthy breakfast of donuts and cereal, had a hot shower and folded up camp before heading to the Ferry Terminal. We left the Lewes Terminal at 10:15 and arrived in Cape May, NJ at 12:00. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great time. We took a shuttle bus into Cape May after we landed and had lunch, walked to the beach and checked out a Christmas Shop before returning to the ferry at 3:30. We were back in Dover by 7, tired but happy with lots of great memories of our little adventure. Lily did really great at her MIBG scan today, much better than the injection fiasco yesterday. Now just waiting to hear the results.

Tuesday, August 23

Building the Joker Cave seemed to be of up most importance in Luke's book

A giant sunfish and others mounted on the wall of the Nature Center

Horseshoe crabs in the touch pool

Supper takes awhile, maybe our hot dog sticks were too short.

This Sponge Bob was fashioned from pine needles and pine cones and looked really neat from the top of the tower

This tower was right behind our camp site.

So much to write and so little time to blog. I arrived in Dover on Monday around 3 pm. The trip out was uneventful, very little traffic and not much construction so I made pretty good time. I left at 6:15, stopped twice, once for breakfast at the usual McDonalds near Wheeling and again for gas and a sandwich in Cumberland, Maryland. I pulled into Trish's driveway at 2:45, 524 miles later.

Lily's appointment for her radio active isotopes was scheduled for Tuesday so Luke and I took off for our camping adventure. Some how we were on the road driving to Cape Henlopen and missed the big earth quake. Trish said they felt it while they were waiting in Children's of Philadelphia. She thought someone was kicking the back of her chair. Lily had a really tough time as they couldn't get the IV line in and had to call a specialty team to get the line in. Thankfully, Wednesday, went much better. They left the line in overnight, so they didn't have to redo the line. Lily slept while they gave her the anesthetic so they didn't have to sedate her quite as much as usual which in turn meant she wasn't as groggy as she sometimes can be.

Luke and I got to the campground Tuesday afternoon, found our site and immediately began setting up our campsite. We had a little trouble getting the air mattress into the tent but we had to blow it up next to the car so we could use the compressor. We squeezed it in and had much fun while doing it. We decided to go to the Nature Center before it closed because we were told they had a touch tank and could touch some sea creatures. It was very nice and Luke touched a horseshoe crab and several snails. We saw a hognose and a corn snake and several turtles but most importantly we purchased a set of pirate figures in the gift shop. Expensive but a very good buy as it kept him occupied on the 80 minute ferry ride the next day. We went to the beach for an hour or so before heading back to the camp site for our cook out and supper. Hot dogs and watermelon were on the menu. After supper we climbed the nearby tower that was left from WWII and was used to watch for enemy ships. Luke fairly flew up the steps. Either he was energized by supper, since I had to carry him at the beach, or he was just really excited. We got to the top just as the sun was setting and it was a beautiful view of the surrounding beaches but Luke's favorite was the Sponge Bob. (see picture)

Lily is up so I will continue the blog and our ferry ride to Cape May as soon as I have a free moment!

Friday, August 19

Lily got an A+ report today from her oncologist!!

A much younger Andy with his Aunt Sis (circa 1974)

Mr. B, Mr. Jeff Mere and the ever classy Mrs. Virginia Mohr.

Great News! Trish called this morning to share the e-mail she received from the oncologist concerning Lily's MRI results. His words were: "the report says no sign of the residual tumor, this is great news." Lily still has one more scan scheduled for next Wednesday to check on the spot on her leg. Hopefully the news from that test will be as positive as this one. Poor Lily is gaining an awareness to her hospital visits and is beginning to fight all attempts to put her IV's in. Trish said the nurses are awesome but certainly have their work cut out for them. She is hoping that they can leave the IV port in on Tuesday from the isotope injection so they can use the same one on Wednesday when they give her the anesthetic for the MIBG scan. They did that the last time and with a splint on it she kept it in and it saves her from an additional stick.
Last week Mr. Bichler learned that his favorite aunt had passed away. Aunt Sis probably knew him about as well as any one as evidenced by her pet name for him, the "little pisser". I'm not sure where that originated and maybe I don't want to know. Aunt Sis has not been well for quite a while and we kind of lost touch with her when her son moved her to upstate New York so she could be closer to him. She was 93 years old and I think she has been in a nursing home for the last few years and I suspect she had dementia. This comes on the heals of another devastating loss last month of a dear teaching friend, Virginia Mohr. We learned of her death on our return from Alaska. They were very special people and we will miss them very much.
I will be heading out to Delaware next week to watch Luke while Trish and Chad take Lily for her scan. Keep checking the blog, we have some special things planned. A possible camping trip to Cape Henlopen and a ferry ride across the Delaware Bay to Cape May, New Jersey. I'm sure that I am much more excited about these ventures than Luke, but that's OK.

Wednesday, August 17

My 2 little cuties!

Lily playing games on Mommy"s phone.

Aunt Sara and Lily sipping a little Gater Aid.

Not sure where time has gone since my last post. It certainly has quieted down since everyone left to go home. Even Mr. B is talking about how quiet it is without Luke and Lily and I know he misses having Trish and Sara here at the house. It was a wonderful two weeks. We are having trouble keeping up with the mowing, can't believe that we have to mow almost twice a week and it is the middle of August. Usually it is so dried up and brown that mowing is unneccessary. The well guy finally came back to try to re-seal the old well. It has been bubbly up and we have a huge mud hole in our yard. Hopefully, he will get back to grade the mounds of dirt from his trenching. I have been doing some cleaning and purging of all those things that accumulate over the years but you hate to throw out. I have been watching the Hoarders: Buried Alive show to motivate myself to get rid of all that "stuff". Today our church had their School Clothing and school supply give away. We had tables of clothing set up and we were giving every child a backpack filled with school supplies. They could also pick up new socks and underwear. We had 50 backpacks and they were gone in the first 15 minutes. After that we had to give the school supplies in grocery bags. The line was clear outside the church before we even started the give away. It felt good to help so many families but we were saddened at the number of those who were in need of this service. There will be a second give away on Saturday, August 20 from 10-11.

Sunday, August 6

Baby shower #2, Sara opening gifts with her sister in law, Sarah in the background.

Lily and Luke with baby Will, Lily is quite interested in other babies.

Good friends, good food and a great time.

The cake was from Cake Creations of Hilliard, formerly Bev's Cake Creations of West Jeff

Best friends from high school, Katie Kelly, Sara and Christin Harris.

Lily napping with Pop Pop after an exhausting baby shower!

It certainly is a lot quieter around the house today. Luke and Lily are back home in Dover and I'm sure Trish and the kids are really glad to be back home with Daddy. The baby shower yesterday went well and Sara enjoyed seeing friends and family and she received lots of adorable baby clothing and gifts. We packed her extra suitcase as full as we could for the trip back to Hawaii on Tuesday. I think we are going to send the rest in a flat rate box. It has been a very pleasant and relaxing visit and I think it was a good trip for Sara. She is excited to get back to Honolulu to pick up her pets and start getting that nursery ready for our new little granddaughter. She had her ultra sound right before she came out and the baby looked fine, everything normal and the right size for 22 weeks. Wednesday, she has her doctors appointment with her OBGyn. Mean while, here at home, the pace will slow a little and we will get back to our usual routine. Zoo day on Tuesday and mowing twice a week!

Monday, August 1

A clean fish pond, at least for a little while.

Swimming, the only way to beat the heat and humidity.

Very productive day today. I finally got around to cleaning out our fish ponds in front of the house. You can actually see the bottom of the pond and we found 7 fish that we had never seen. Trish put 7 new Koi in the pond while we were in Alaska but when we got home we never did see them so we thought something must have gotten them. I guess they were just hiding. Had lots of help with Luke here. He loved catching up all the babies and was pretty good at it too. We counted 25 little ones of varying sizes. It is going to be a great week with Sara, Trish, Luke and Lily here. Pop Pop is really happy to have the whole family here with us. Going to enjoy our time together.