Summer of Bubbles

[Closes eyes] There's no place like home, there's no place like home.

Above is an accurate depiction of how we've felt this week.

We've had a constant wave of friends and family visiting this weekend. It's been so good to see everyone. I have a feeling we'll remember this as the "Summer of Bubbles"... [lowercase subtitle] "and that one time Nicole had cancer."

We came home from the hospital last Friday to a lovely surprise waiting for Nicole. [Queue song] Millions of peaches, peaches for Nin, millions of peaches, peaches for din.

Her family surprised her with a peach tree, which she's wanted for years. Her 8-year old nephew Boen had the idea to get her the tree for a service project and the whole Call Family rallied together to get it before she came home. That is way more thoughtful that I ever was at 8 years old. I was too concerned with Space Jam and rollerblading to be thinking about other people. Just a real class act. Not me. Boen.

Speaking of farming, we farmed out the kids to family for the better part of the past week. It was hard to be away from the them but it made us really happy when each time we picked them up and Penny would see us she'd immediately growl, "NNNOOOOO!" It's such a relief to know she is having so much fun that she forgets we exist. When she's 14 that will hurt but this week it's been quite comforting.

Penny is typically a heavy sleeper. For the first few days she was with her cousins and would wake up early (8-9am being early for her) because she knew there were toys and cousins to be played with. All those strenuous days of waking up at such an ungodly hour (for her) caught up to her and she crashed haaaard on Monday. Here is the evidence. Keep in mind this isn't a nap. This is her still asleep from 9:30pm the night before. Check the clock...

That's not a typo. Penny slept in until 12:45PM. That is basically like four hours before old people go to sleep. She then napped from 3-6:30 then went to bed at 9:30. It's tough being Penny.

Congratulations, you made it past my nonsensical ramblings. As a reward I will share the GREAT news we just found out today. The pathology results are back from surgery and the cancer DID NOT SPREAD past the single lymph node they discovered during surgery! This means she remains Stage 2(B).  We're soooo relieved.  Wasn't that a nice surprise? It's like getting two egg yokes in one egg or the fruit at the bottom of your yogurt (if you're a rebel and don't stir it up before you eat it).

Nicole will have a few weeks of recovery, then chemo.  We'll know more details once we meet with the Oncologist. Probably towards the first of June. We'll be expecting all of you to buzz your heads. Mainly the women.