Do you ever feel like a country hick?

{gum ground at Josh & Kelly's school}

No, I did not say country chick, but rather country hick. Country chick sounds like some graceful country hottie, and I am neither graceful nor a hottie :)

The doctor gave me permission to go to the grocery store Saturday night. Right now, with the baby's low blood counts, it really can be life-threatening to go in public places. She said because I am here alone, I could go, but to "sanitize everything." So, the closest grocery store was medium-glitzy. We used to live in the "big city," but I don't remember ever feeling so out of place! It's nice to remember that we're 1 week into treatment, so there's 7 fewer days we'll need to be here (but that's not saying that here isn't nice too). I miss our nice, simple life back home...

Andy and the children all visited this weekend and just got back home. It was so good to see them after 2 weeks. The children were awestruck at getting to go to the arcade room, teen room, Internet room, etc. At home, they're almost always grounded from doing electronics, simply because I see a direct relationship between cranky, selfish behavior and electronic usage.

Plus, a volunteer group made dinner for the families here yesterday. Ham and all the fixin's. Today, a different volunteer group made dinner again. Again, it was ham because Christmas is coming. People are so kind to families in a tough situation. We have been given so much amazing support, from friends we know and friends we've never met. Thank you for helping when you've seen a need, whether it was for us or for others. I'm just awestruck.

Last week, I was watching the news and saw KOMO news in Seattle. They were doing special coverage of the memorial service for the officers killed in Lakewood. At one point, Dan Lewis commented, "What is this world coming to?" He was meaning all the awful, bad things that happen. At that moment though, I was surrounded by good things and people. All I could see was good. I know that those killings were tragic and horrific, and that childhood cancer is awful and unfair. But, so many people are making a point to do good things to spite the bad happenings.

In the past, my friend and I made quilts every year for a few years to keep the homeless in our community warmer on freezing nights. Where I am staying right now, there is a quilt room. People donate quilts so that whoever stays here gets to pick one to keep! Being a quilter (albeit decent at piecing, but not quilting), it was pure heaven just looking at the different fabrics, colors, patterns, etc. My children picked simpler fleece blankets that were tied on the edges. They were so excited to pick their own! That will help Josh, Lilly, and Maggie to feel more at home next week when they come to stay for the rest of the 5 months.

I now have my new computer! Does anyone know how to download all my purchases from iTunes that I can't access in the old computer? I only have been able to load the songs I had on the Shuffle, but I didn't have my entire music library on that.