South Padre

It’s been a long time for an update, sorry, but we have had tornadoes, rain, cicadas, and even an earthquake here in Missouri! But we are all fine. In early June on a Saturday afternoon I realized my lips and tongue were not cooperating so the doctor on call suggested I get an emergency MR. So we spent several hours doing that. Apparently my brain is still having some residual effects from the radiation and a few steroid pills reduced the swelling. Then we were off to a much needed vacation. Ellie, our in house speech pathologist suggested I get some OT and Speech therapy added to my list of things to do. I agreed to look into it. I know my fine motor is not what it was, my memory is not so good, keyboarding is difficult and I know my spelling is worse than ever! Please be patient with me!

It was hard to pull together with different schedules and living in different states. But John did a great job putting it together. and kept me on my strict pill regime. We flew on 2 small commuter jet planes. One to Houston, the next to Brownsville Texas and then we rented a car to go to the Pearl on S. Padre Island. Ellie met us there since she has been living and working in Houston. It was a nice two bedroom condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and the pool. I was pleasantly surprised at how family oriented the place was. Ellie has been a life guard and Christian just passed his lifeguard training, so we were in good hands. The warm gentle breezes were a wonderful relief from the humid heat in St. Louis. We found a great bookstore called Paragraphs and relaxed on the beach and read, and enjoyed a few seafood meals out. Christian did some parasailing and saw dolphins swimming below him. We also visited a wild turtle refuge and saw lots of baby turtles released early Sat. morning into the gulf. We all cheered them toward the light and wished them every success! It was just what we needed, time to relax together. Traveling is exhausting for me, but it was worth is because all we did was relax when we got there. I want to thank my neighbors for taking care of the plants and animals at home. Now that we have returned I am doing laundry, grocery shopping and looking forward to seeing how my kiddos I watch down the street are, basically getting back to a normal routine. And normal is a good thing here! Hope you all manage to make time for family and friends this summer,

Sarah