A Great Escape

Donny and I were able to get away this weekend to his parent's condo in Lake Geneva.  Technically, it's Lake Como, but Lake Geneva is right next door and more people are familiar with it, so it's just easier to say Lake Geneva!  We really needed to get away from everything and just relax. We love going up there and going to breakfast, it's our favorite meal of the day, going shopping uptown Lake Geneva, and just laying around the condo by the warm fireplace.  Plus, it brings me back to some happy days.  Donny proposed to me overlooking the lake through the great big balcony windows 2 winters ago.

We went up on Friday night after a delicious, expensive, steak dinner at Phil Stefani's restaurant downtown Chicago.  Thanks to my grade school girlfriends and Donny's coworker for the gift cards!!  I have to say that since Donny has been diagnosed, he has been one well fed boy.  Thank you to Kaitlin, Jocelyn, Melissa and Mike, Tessa and of course, our parents for the wonderful meals.  Not that we need that, but let's be honest here, Donny loves him a good home cooked meal!  He's not going to turn that away...unless of course, it's a meal of brussel sprouts and veggies, and even then, he might eat a helping or two :)

The weather was 60 and sunny until later Sunday afternoon, so we really lucked out.  Everyone in Chicago was telling us how crappy the weather was there all weekend.  I got to go for a relaxing run along the lake, got some shopping done, and Donny got some fudge and Jelly Beans.  Donny was cracking me up.  We went into the shop that has all the Jelly Beans and I joked that he was like a kid in a candy store.  He said, "I am.  No, wait...this is better than being a kid in a candy store.  I'm an adult in a candy store.  I don't have to ask my parents for money.  I have my own.  I could really do some damage here!"  So as you can tell, Donny is doing just fine :)

Sunday night we went to my all time favorite restaurant ever, Texas Road House, and came back home to watch DA BEARS!!!  It was a great escape from reality for a little bit that I think we both needed.  On the drive home, we had a chance to talk to Donny's friend who had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma almost one year ago.  He gave us the low down on how chemo went for him, so it was nice to mentally prepare ourselves.  He said that his hair fell out after a couple of chemo sessions, he was the sickest after his first session and the nausea got better each treatment, and that the nausea medication he was on helped him a lot.  Overall, it was a very relaxing weekend that we both needed.

I'll try to post again on Tuesday after the chemo session.  Until then...