UPDATE: The winner is…Tianna Toups!
*~*~*

This is the sky right now (my dd took the picture). The clouds look like a pretty, cottony, baby-blue blanket, although the forecast is for heat and sunny skies today. Thought I’d share since I haven’t seen clouds like that covering the entire sky before. 🙂

Just to catch you up… I start chemo on Monday. I had hoped to get a port installed this week, but it didn’t happen. So, I’ll get my chemo on my arm, which I hope doesn’t interfere too much with me using my hands. I had a call yesterday from the nurse at the cancer center to go over what I should expect to happen during and after my chemo.

• The drugs they give me to help my body tolerate the treatment.
• Side effects.
• How shitty I’ll feel afterward and for how long—basically for 5 or 6 days following treatment.
• How soon my hair will start falling out—perhaps as soon as 2 weeks.
• The blood draws I have to have Thursdays before my Monday treatments to see how my white blood cells are doing.
• Drink tons of water/juice/sprite to keep hydrated because that’s a real concern.
• It looks like chemo will continue into December, once every three weeks, followed by immunotherapy every 42 days after.

Hopefully, I’ll respond well to everything. She didn’t say it, but you all have said that attitude is everything. I’m ready to kick ass. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions of what to pack for my first chemo treatment on Monday. I’ve settled on…

1. 🧦 — socks, fuzzy ones
2. 🛏️ — I couldn’t find a blanket emoji!
3. 🎧 — my dd ordered me a pair to use with my iPhone
4. 📱 — my iPhone
5. 📚 — a paperback book in case the Wi-Fi sucks
6. 📔 — a notebook with good paper that I can write in or draw/paint
7. ✏️ — pencil for sketching
8. 🖊️ — pen for writing (I hate putting thoughts down in something erasable!)
9. 🎨 — a tiny portable paint palette with a water-brush
10. 🥙 — food

Maybe I’ll add one of the 11-year-old’s Squishmallows to use as a pillow. For sure, I’m going to wear a superhero T-shirt.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, what snacks should I pack?

I almost skipped posting today. I didn’t feel like doing my weekly summation with the plans for the coming week. I don’t want to think about what’s coming. Tomorrow, I meet with the oncologist. I’ll know more then. I’m hoping he has a plan. I love plans.

I didn’t want to post, but then my SIL shared this picture of the sky he took tonight. It’s so pretty. We have storms rolling in. Some rain, finally. All that purple is dreamy. I’ll smile as I fall asleep tonight thinking about that pretty night sky.

Have a great week, y’all. ~DD

Yesterday was…interesting. I had a very strict diet to follow for the PET scan this morning (they changed the appointment from late afternoon to early morning at the last minute. Yay! I don’t have to starve for long.

There was a rush of phone calls. My sister, Elle James, is coming down to Hot Springs to sit with me while I’m getting my insides all sparkly with radiation. That’ll be nice. Everything so far has been on my daughter. I feel for her.

Then, last night, the 15-year-old came to us, pulled off her shoe, and said, “I think I got stung by something.” She was bitten while she was doing my usual job of cleaning out the pool filters. From the look of the bite, with its tiny twin punctures and purplish swelling, we thought it was a tiny snake bite. Off the emergency room, she goes. She was bitten by a brown recluse. So, she was sent home without treatment to wait to see whether necrosis sets in.  She’s the most chill person in this house, so she shrugs and says, “I can live without a toe.”

Anyway, I’m up early to get my last tiny sip of water before the procedure. While I’m there for all those hours today, I’ll be thinking of this—me in the pool with the other “water baby” of the family.

UPDATE: The winner is…Beckie!
*~*~*

I’m one of those people. I love Mondays. Monday, not Sunday, is the start of my work week calendar. It’s always a day filled with optimism. I have a countdown of items on my calendar/To-Do list and strive to accomplish as many of those items as I can during the week.

Some folks hate Mondays. The kids, once school starts, will bemoan every single Monday until the following summer. It’s a given. Even as a school kid, I loved Mondays, though. I always had my notebook cleaned out, fresh paper added, pens and pencils refilled/sharpened. I loved a weekly “fresh start” to make things better.

This week, on Wednesday, the kids will be back in school. It’s going to be hard adjusting to those early morning wakeups again, the scrambling to get the animals taken care of before everyone heads to the car. We’re good organizers, though. We manage to get everything down to a tight routine so there’s time for everything–chickens fed and released from the coop, goats and horse fed, bunnies fed and water replenished. Breakfast out of the way. Girls’ hair prettied up and outfits sparkling. Then there’s the silence when they race to the car for the trip to school. That’s my time to take a deep breath, drink a cup of coffee, and wander over to my computer to begin my day.

This Monday is a bit different. I begin a low-carb diet for the next couple of days before my PET scan tomorrow afternoon/early evening. The 20-year-old has promised me sticky notes all over the kitchen, with messages to prod me into behaving. Things like: “Only meat and veggies on Monday and Tuesday.” “No coffee past 4 P.M. on Monday.” “No food at all past 10 A.M. on Tuesday!” There are too many rules for me to follow on my own to make sure my PET scan is as accurately recorded as it can be, so they (my dd and the 20-year-old) decided to sticky-up the kitchen for me. It’s so funny, actually.

I’m hoping next Monday’s only worry is making sure all the alarms are set to get us out of bed for the morning school scramble. I like the normal hubbub. Tomorrow’s is…unsettling, but we’ll get past it.

So, that’s my bit of oversharing for the day. Let’s get to the contest!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what your favorite day of the week is and why!

I posted the next “In One Picture” blog on the Collections website, and then had to open a blank white screen for my blog. I don’t have anything to talk about today. I’ll be doing some editing, maybe take care of some administrivia, resting when my body tells me to, eating when I get hungry. Nothing ambitious for sure.

I wish everyone good health, happiness, and the love of family and friends—I say this as the 10-year-old lets out an enraged scream somewhere upstairs. I can tell a “help, I’m hurt” scream from one of her frustrated, louder screams. I’m ignoring it because mama is up there and can handle it. It’s the last week of summer for the kids. They should be chillin’ and making the most of it. Youth is wasted on the young. LOL

So, here’s a pretty blue flower for you. I looked for a calming image, something I wish I could sniff. The flowers in our yard, other than the evening primroses that bloom at the end of day, are gone for the most part, dried up by the heat. Leaves are raining down like it’s Fall because it’s so hot and dry. The one good thing is the heat is keeping the pool warm. I’ll swim after the sun is behind the trees this evening. By swim, I mean ride a pool noodle as I bob around the pool. Again, no ambition, just chillin’.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Today’s my sexy date with the oncologist. Afterward, I might pop in for an update, but we’ll see. I’m a little nervous. No stiff upper lip here today. I didn’t sleep well, despite a nice dose of codeine. Sleep is the ultimate elixir, isn’t it?

Anyway, there’s fun stuff happening over on the Collections website. Be sure to follow the link and enter to win. Ava’s story was the first one I read when going through submissions when I said, “Hell, yeah! I have to have it!” It’s that good. Funny, sexy, and just the kind of alien invasion story I adore.

This past week was basically all about keeping things together. Soldiering on. The busier I am, the stronger and more positive I feel. Lots happened last week, and this next week will be another rollercoaster.

Report Card

Last week…

1. I celebrated and promoted the release of Secret Identities anthology! I hope you all picked up your copies! There’s something for everyone inside that volume!
2. I worked on edits for one author.
3. I revamped my release schedule so that my book, Built Like Mack, is pushed off to September. Sorry, I know some of you were looking forward to it, but I’m not in the headspace at the moment.
4. I swam every day for the first part of the week. The next two items describe why that happened…
5. I went to the doctor for abdominal pain on Monday, thinking maybe it was my gallbladder or appendix. I wish. I was sent for a CT scan immediately and afterward was scheduled right away to see an oncologist.
6. My daughter and the girls returned from their vacation in Virginia with the flu and promptly gave me the bug, too.

This next week…

1. I see the oncologist on Monday. I’m sure he’ll schedule a biopsy and we’ll go from there. I hate waiting. That’s the worst part. I like action, solve it, figure out what I have to fight. Or maybe, it’s something other than cancer (I can hope).
2. I will finish editing one author’s manuscript and begin editing the next one in line.
3. I’ll work on finishing the next Delta Fire novella, Ignition. I only have a couple of chapters to write, and I think I can get through it while I wait for whatever procedures I will be going through.
4. I’ll continue swimming and trying to watch what I eat, although I am finding it hard not to want to eat my favorite things!
5. I’ll continue working on some small art projects while I declutter my art room.

Open Contests

On the Delilah’s Collections website!

1. GETTING TO KNOW N.J. WALTERS (CONTEST) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. GETTING TO KNOW M. JAYNE (CONTEST) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. GETTING TO KNOW GABBI GREY (CONTEST) — Last Day to enter! Win a FREE book!
4. In One Picture: Michal Scott’s “My Heavenly Phantom” (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!

Here, on this site!

1. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: While the cat’s away… — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. July into August (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Gabbi Grey: What a Difference Seven Years Makes (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Cecilia Tan: A Recipe for Steamy, Steamy Steampunk (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Cottagecore Aesthetic/Trad Wife…? — Win an Amazon gift card!