March 12 thru March 18, 2015

Current:
Took Vivian to her radiation treatment again today and she made it all the way through! Two down, three more to go! While I was in the waiting room, I saw my friend Cheryl from work and her husband Dan. He has been getting his radiation treatments here, too; Monday is his last day. Yay! Considering all that they have been going through (Cheryl is also going through treatment for cancer) they were still pretty upbeat and cheery.

Aunty Daisy is stable and out of the ICU. She is on a regular floor. Her son Scott has been sending updates to the rest of the family. He says she will likely need physical therapy later. Her other son Mark will be flying out to see her soon. Then they will begin the long process of figuring out what to do, how to convince Aunty Daisy to do it, and when to do it.

Aunty Daisy & Tomiko getting ready to go out for dinner, November 2014

Happy Birthday, Ratna!

Previous:
03/12/15 Mom Visiting in WA
After Uncle Orv returned to Washington, his health took a turn for the worse. The anti-cancer drug he was on for prostate cancer was no longer working. The only other option left was an experimental drug; he decided to pass on it due to the impacts the drugs were having on his quality of life. (He had some memory issues that reminded me of early stages of dementia.) So Mom decided she wanted to visit him. Curt and I coordinated a trip based on when we were planning on being in Hawai'i for the annual 442nd commemoration. They flew in tonight, Karen picked them up from the airport.

03/13/15 Dinner with Aunty Florence and Uncle Orv
Mom and Curt spent the day visiting with Aunty Florence and Uncle Orv. After work we went down to dinner at their house. Karen and the girls were there, too. Justine and Ursula think of Mom as another grandma! Mom and Curtis came back up to spend Saturday with us; Curt collects chips from casinos he has been to so he asked us to take him to several of the Indian casinos nearby. Mom borrowed Uncle Orv's walker for the casino tour.

Justine, Mom, Ursula, and Uncle Orv

03/14/15 Historic Flight Foundation and Whirlwind Casino Tour
We started out the day by taking Mom and Curt to Kate's Greek and American Deli, our favorite breakfast place. Mom and Curt got to try Greek food. Since Curt is also a World War II aviation geek like Kai we visited the Historic Flight Foundation at Paine Field. Mom kept saying Dad would enjoy seeing the old planes also.

Kai, Curt, & Mom at the Historic Flight Foundation

For lunch we headed north to Boondockers Restaurant, owned by our friends, the Balas. This was the first time Mom and Curt had Pakistani food; they enjoyed it very much. We tried to meet up with friends Bick and Ron for lunch, but they were busy running errands so we invited them to catch up with us somewhere along the casino tour. The next stop was the Tulalip Casino; Curt has a certain amount he is willing to lose while getting the casino chip for his collection. He and Mom seemed to reach it in about 30 minutes. We then went to the Angel of the Winds Casino, where Bick and Ron met us. When we left for the Skagit Valley Casino Bick and Ron stayed at Angel of the Winds since they were winning. Turns out, Bick and Ron won about as much as Mom and Curt lost for the day! We ended with dinner at the Diversity Diner at Mary Ellen and Michael's house, where Mom and Curt tried Persian food for the first time. We weren't able to stay for the evening's speaker because we had to be back at Karen's house before the girls went to bed. We were also going to pick Tomiko up from the airport but her flight was delayed. We left Curt at Karen's since he was catching a plane out early next morning but Mom came back with us.

03/15/15 Tomiko Is Back in Town!
Karen took Curt to the airport bright and early and picked up Tomiko. We headed down to lunch at Aunty Florence and Uncle Orv's, picking up David along the way. (During the ride Grandma grilled him about any ladies in his life since he did not bring anyone to Hawai'i with him in November.) Since David had been unable to stay for Dad's surprise birthday party at Thanksgiving, this was the first time he had seen Aunty Florence, Uncle Orv, Karen, and Tomiko since about 1993, and the first time he met Justine and Ursula. Everyone had a great time. We left Mom there, she would spend the next few days with Aunty Florence and Uncle Orv while I went back to work.

03/17/15 Subaru Still Going Strong
The casino run helped our trusty 1992 Subaru to get up over 240,000 miles!



03/18/15 Sleepover at Karen's
Since Bick had client visits nearby she picked us up and took us down to Karen's house. In the meanwhile, Justine and Ursula knew Mom liked butterflies and the color purple so they decorated her cane with butterflies and purple rhinestones. Karen took Mom, Kai, and me to the airport the next morning.