On Sunday afternoon, my sister, Holly, flew in to spend the week with me, and it was so wonderful to have her visit!

Her flight came in just in time for dinner, which Lily cooked for us, and it was perfect to start things off with dinner all together. After dinner, we talked and talked, which is always wonderful.

On Monday morning, we started things off with my morning walk at the park, which was something she got to do with me every day of her visit. We would watch the sunrise and walk and talk. Sometimes Kevin joined us as well. It was such a wonderful start to our days together, and sometimes we would be laughing so hard, that I am sure that people thought we were crazy.

I also got to point out to Holly how the vultures all like to gather and sleep on one of the powerline towers – always together and on the same one. This picture is after half of them had already flown away for the day, and there are still so many on there! It is like the Alfred Hitchcock movie, “The Birds.” And one day, I had to take this picture of this lone vulture sitting on a dead tree with the sun rising behind him – it looked so cool!

One of the adventures that Holly and I went on, was to go and find me a cowboy hat. I put on jeans for the first time in months, and I wore me awesome boots so I could see how the hats looked with them, and we headed out. Luckily, I live in San Antonio, and so there is no shortage of places to buy cowboy hats. We found the winner at the second place we went to on my list, and I love it. The hat guy even shaped it some more for me so it was the perfect look.

Holly ended up buying it for me as a gift, which was the sweetest. And when we got home, we did a mini photo shoot.

I also got a new belt that I could wear with my belt buckle that I won as a kid in 4H, and so I put that on, along with a plaid shirt, my boots and new hat, and Holly took pictures. Pretty funny. I love how they look together, but I would much rather be behind the camera than in front of it.

On Tuesday, we may have dragged Holly to all of Arthur’s special activities. He had a special choir performance at the Veteran’s Day assembly at Bush Middle School, and I was so happy to get to attend. (Last year I was teaching and couldn’t come.). Holly loved getting to be there for all the amazing patriotic and military salutes, especially when she got to stand up because her son, Paul, is in the Army now. So cool.

Somehow we packed all the things into one day, because after we finished at the assembly, Wendy came to visit from Austin. The three of us sisters went to lunch and loved getting to talk and spend time together. What a blessing!!

That evening, after I rested up to get more energy by napping and then watching a movie with Holly, Kevin and I took her to go and see Arthur in his middle school production of “The Little Mermaid Jr.” Arthur played the “pilot,” essentially the person who steered the ship, and he had a bunch of lines and a really fabulous solo in the song “Fathoms Below.” It was so fun to share the experience with Holly (even if she did take a picture of me completely exhausted and collapsed on Kevin as we were waiting for the show to begin – ha ha!).

On Wednesday, we took it pretty easy after our walk, sticking around the house, other than working on a few small projects. And our Aunt Linda stopped by to say hi and see Holly since she was in town. It was so great, and I feel so blessed that Linda lives so close.

One of the projects from the day, was that Holly helped Derek and Lily decorate the Christmas tree. I never decorate this early, but the week before, my friend Candice came and helped put out my nativities. I knew that with treatments and Thanksgiving coming up, I was not going to be able to do it all in a day like I normally do, and so it has been slowly coming together. While she was here, she also helped with a few other projects, which were so great to get done. I would do the little bit that I could, and then just try and give guidance if necessary.

One super fun thing that happened, was that we had the missionaries over for dinner. One of our elders, Elder Teeter, is from Twin Falls (and actually lives a few houses away from the one that Kevin grew up in). It turns out that Holly (who lives in Twin Falls) is good friends with his mom! What a small world, and we had to get a picture for her to text to his mother. So awesome and fun!

Once Arthur was finished with his performances, and so was actually getting home at the normal time after school, he loved getting to spend extra time with his Aunt Holly. She even made him his favorite meal for dinner one night – overnight French toast. And when he wanted to play with her, she took him outside and they had a great game of catch. So much fun!!

On Friday morning, I had a doctor’s appointment, and after it was over, we took a quick road trip to take Holly to Buc-ee’s, so she could get some fun things for her kids. While we were there, I found the cutest Buc-ee the Beaver Christmas ornament that I had to get.

Since we were already halfway to Austin, I decided to have the three of us check out the wig salon that my oncologist had told me about. On the way, we stopped downtown so Holly could check out and chop at the UT bookstore, which was a highlight for her. Then we went to my appointment to try out and check out wigs. It was very emotional, and I was so grateful to have both Kevin and Holly there to give me support and advice. Unfortunately, it also meant for a very long day in the car, especially because of Friday afternoon/evening traffic, but we stopped along the way for tacos at Torchy’s for dinner.

When we finally got home, we had family movie night all together, and we made milkshakes, which was super fun. Such a great way to finish out last day together, as Holly flew home on Saturday. The kids were all so sad to see her go, but not as sad as me. It has been such a miraculous blessing to have so many wonderful visits from people that I love during this crazy and difficult adventure we have been on.

It has been such a miraculous blessing to have so many wonderful visits from people that I love during this crazy and difficult adventure we have been on. Definitely a huge tender mercy from the Lord.