My mom has been going stir crazy at home these past couple of weeks, so much so that she has begun remodeling various rooms in our house, so Ash and Damian very generously got her and my dad a hotel room in Santa Monica for Saturday night. She told us that she may as well have been going to Europe because she was so excited for this mini-vacation and even woke up at 3:30 Saturday morning cause she just couldn't wait to go.
She and my dad went to lunch at Shutters and watched some football and then Ash, D, and I met them to go to dinner. We went to a great restaurant on the Santa Monica Pier called Lobster and after, we headed to Westwood to go to this place called Diddy Riese that Ash and D knew about. Oh. My. Goodness. I have never tasted anything so delicious! You can choose any kind of cookie and any kind of ice cream and they make you an incredibly yummy cookie sandwich! We were in heaven.
This morning I picked them up at their hotel and we drove through Brentwood looking at houses (our favorite thing to do) and then walked around Santa Monica. It was a great weekend and we're all so happy we have a wonderful new member of the family who just happens to accrue a gazillion Starwood points thanks to his job and was able to get our mama out of town :) Thanks Damian!!!

We did the math...

and we were wrong. Her last treatment isn't Decemeber 22nd and we aren't sure how we came up with that date. I think my mom just didn't want to buy Christmas gifts so she started spreading it around ;)
It's actually the beginning of Novemeber, so we're feeling pretty lucky!

Yesterday my mom spent her birthday hooked up to an IV, of course without a single complaint. Today she has the chemo and I'm so sad I can't be there with her. School is back in session so I'm no longer able to sit through her insanely long treatments with her. I'm going home tomorrow to relieve my dad from nurse duty for a little, so I will let you know how she is doing then.
We got a little prematurely excited by her doctor's appointment last week and were brought back to reality the following day. Her other doctor at UCSD said that she would in fact finish the 6 rounds of treatment, bringing the chemo to a close the week of Christmas. We were really liking her other doctor's plan of only one more round after today, but the UCSD doc said that she is handling the treatment so well that she may as well go to Decemeber. Handling it well?? I think my mom would argue otherwise :)

Happy Birthday!!!

This is a day late (blame it on my 6am flight back from NYC and exhaustion), but my wonderful mom celebrated her birthday yesterday!

This picture is from our trip to Italy a couple of years ago. The whole family went to Positano and my mom and I stayed longer and drove around Tuscany and toured Rome. She is my favorite travel companion and one of the most FUN people to explore new places with! We all agree that it was the best vacation we ever went on and we're looking forward to a time in the near future when my mom is healthy enough to travel again.

Happy (belated) Birthday to the most beautiful, funny, generous, loving, and creative woman I know! You are so incredibly strong and your positive attitude amazes so many of us every single day. We love you!!!