Tuesday, Nov. 6

Aaron was home yesterday. He went with me to my appointment with my surgeon. The office staff told me how well behaved he was and so quiet. And then at home with Nate, he just won't leave well enough alone. (And just what does that mean? Anyone know where that saying came from?) Back to the appointment, I had to pick up some records. Aaron told me that he keeps an invisible friend for me. I was telling him that I enjoyed having someone to talk to when I did these appointments. Aaron said otherwise I would just have to talk to my invisible friend. When I told him I didn't have one, he said he had one for me. He said she was about as tall as him and had green eyes. I never would have known.

The surgeon is very well pleased with my progress. She thought I did very well through the radiation, that my skin looks great. I'll see her in another three months. Or at least as long as the insurance will pay. Because I think they may not pay at some point.

Oh and insurance--I need to get my eyes examined. So I called twice for information. The second call was mainly to clarify something from the first call. It turns out that I got two different answers to the same question. Hmm. Now I have no idea where I ought to go for the eye exam. We still don't have the actual policy to refer to for this info. The plan was effective on August 1. The website won't give me the info, I have to use Jay's log-in. The website doesn't even explain what I need anyway. It only gives me the summary of benefits. Regular healthcare shouldn't be this difficult to obtain.

I'm making sweet potato-cranberry quick bread today. It smells really good in here. Like the cooks on the food channel I should say, MMMMMM and yum and totally irritate you.

We didn't gt to see everyone we wanted to see in Massachusetts. It was a whirlwind. I will probably go alone or with the boys the next time. Jay enjoyed seeing some friends but all the running around was not his idea of fun. I was looking up a recipe for some apple cider cake or donuts. We had some at Russell Orchards in Ipswich, MA. I found out that they make some of the best ones in MA! They were written up numerous times. We went to Crane Beach and stopped at the orchard on the way. The boys picked up lots of shells, sea wood pieces and sand. I found that today in Aaron's pants' pockets as I was doing laundry. We had two friend get togethers. One at the hotel at the pool and the second at candlepin bowling at Harvard Lanes. Stow Fastlanes closed 8 months ago. Too bad, I liked it better. Here's what candlepin bowling is if you've never heard of it or never saw it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlepin_bowling The boys are satisfied with the time they had with friends. I know they wanted more as I did but it will wait til next time. Now we'll just focus on writing and calling one another. We also went to a science museum http://www.see-sciencecenter.org/ in Manchester, NH. We stopped there on our way out of town since we flew into & out of MHT. Nathan got a blow up astronaut that he's wanted for years! I wouldn't let him get it when we went 2 1/2 years ago and he would not let me forget it. All is well in his mind now. We went to the MIT Museum. http://web.mit.edu/museum/ Way too much brain power there for me. Not that I don't like all that stuff. Nate told us he wants to go to MIT. Great. I better get a job now so I can pay for it then. The boys also did their first trick-or-treating. We usually go some place where there's a party and games. Last year we went to the Butterfly Pavillion and celebrated Pop-pop's birthday there. Trick-or-treating: Nate was a Boston Red Sox player and Aaron was just decorated in bats with face paint and a t-shirt. The neighborhood was one street and twelve houses. That was small enough for me and enough for Jay to go with the boys and be happy they went. Thanks to Roni and Russ and Meredith for suggesting it. Nate ended up loosing most of his candy because they were running through the bushes. His smallish bag has disappeared from the den. That's good because I threw away some other candy that had sat in the den for 4 days. Not all of it, just some. He wasn't happy when he discovered it missing.

We're just getting back to our routines. Grocery shopping Sunday, laundry today. Not sure what the weekend holds for us. Talk to you soon, love, nancy