Wild Weekend

It's been one of those days - all weekend long!  Busy, exhilirating, fun, and scary all wrapped up together.  I'm needing Monday just to catch my breath...

Let's start with last Thursday.  Chemo day for mom.

Here we are with Lance, one of our favorite chemo nurses.  And we're all smiles because Lance just gave mom her tumor marker results from last week.  Are you ready?!

174!!!

So exciting!  At the end of June, mom's tumor marker was sitting at 630.  Now it's 174.  This is a huge nosedive!  We're thrilled and thankful that the Gemzar is hitting the cancer so hard.  Makes the side-effects a little easier to bear.  We still have a ways to go, normal for the Ca19-9 tumor marker is 0-35.  But we're headed in the right direction.  Nothing better than that!

After chemo, we grabbed a bite at the Corner Bakery, stopped for some groceries, then got mom home and tucked in on the recliner with her foot propped up.  The left ankle is still swollen, and looked particularly moody (puffy, red and peeling) by the end of the afternoon.  The doctors are not alarmed, seem to still think it's just part and parcel with the cancer and chemo, but we keep it propped up whenever possible.  Does seem to help.

Once mom was settled in, I headed over to my brother's and picked up my niece, Sami, for the weekend.  Dean and Lisa were headed out of town and Sami was staying with us.  She's 12 years old, full of mischief, and cute as can be.

She loves the farm and was such a big help:

Here she is helping with chores.  She's so sassy!  Choretime with attitude.

Making her own jewelry.  So classy!

Beautiful!!

Then it was off to the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and Natural History to catch the Wild Oceans IMAX show!  Great way to beat the afternoon heat!

Back home to make some pizza!

Top Chef look out!

Yum!

Busy, fun weekend with Sami.  I think we were all exhausted by the time she headed home.  And she hadn't been gone long, when Leroy came running in the front door and hollered that the neighbor's field was on fire.

I don't think I can describe the sheer panic those words evoked.  As Leroy ran past me I could smell the acrid aroma of burnt grass and wood.  I raced outside and saw the billows of gray smoke rolling across our land and felt a blinding fear.  I could hear the sounds of fire engines and men's voices shouting, but could see little because of the smoke.

In minutes we grabbed what we could and packed the car, all the while just praying, "please, please..."

And God saw fit to answer that wordless prayer.  As we were preparing to drive out, the wind shifted and we could see that the fire fighters had contained the wildfire to just the other side of the road.  One spark, and our field would have been next.  As the sharp edge of panic lifted, I finally grabbed the camera and began shooting these pics:

Bless those firemen.  They worked fast and furiously.  Today we learned that the fire started at old Tom's place, just over the hill in the tree line.  Looks like his house is a total loss, but he made it out okay.  The fire got a good foothold in the dry tinder, and it took off with a vengeance.  All total, 10 structures (sheds, well houses, barns) were lost and probably between 30-40 acres.  Before it was all over, they had called in 20 fire departments from around the county, many of them volunteers.  We are so thankful for their dedication and quick response.  It could have been so much worse.  The winds were mild, but still we had ash and cinders floating down around our place for several hours.  

None of us slept too well last night....Kept checking the windows for smoke and flames.  I'm still jumpy today.  But all that remains is a blackened scar across the road and the faint smell of smoke when the wind shifts. 

What a weekend.  Think I need a vacation....