Hubby shares his germ

and I got to spend this week in bed. While hubby was out of town on business...and while the kids were still in school. ugh.

I am now on the mend and slept WAY too much today...I'm no longer sleepy ( at 1:30 AM) and my back hurts from being in bed for so long.

Must soldier on and get the kids through finals this week. Then last minute shopping and house cleaning/decorating. If I don't watch it I might relapse.

The flu has arrived

Dang it. Hubby was in San Francisco this week on business and returned today sounding awful. He's pretty sure it's the flu and I have to agree. He's now sequestered in the guest room and I am off to buy soups and juices.

Pray that none of the rest of us get this.

This has put a MAJOR kink in the Thanksgiving plans. :-( But Tamiflu should help...in theory.

October & the sun appeared!

Oh what a beautiful day today! The sun was out after about 2 weeks of rain. So where did I spend the day? In a movie theater with my kids and a friend and her boys. We saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." An o.k. movie. I did like the fact that there was a smart girl who was dumbing herself down to fit in and the guy that liked her convinced her that the 'smart girl' was much more attractive. Hooray! I'm just old enough to remember when you had to dumb yourself down for some guys to appreciate you. Have now learned that those were the guys that should have been kicked to the curb in a heartbeat.

We've been busy since the last post. Lots of routine doctor visits have happened. No major changes with anyone.

Hubby went to Brazil this week to Sao Paulo to present at a conference. He came home with tales of gastronomic delights. WE need to find a Brazilian restaurant methinks.

My parents are doing very well. No doctor visits to speak of, no emergencies. IN fact, Mom had her first CT scan post cancer surgery and all was clear. Yipee!

Here's hoping for another month of low(er) stress and responsiblities.

House update

We finally broke down and purchased book cases for our office/library. The motivation was seeing a friend's house where she'd used the exact bookcases I wanted to use in our house. Hubby & I shopped Saturday and then worked all weekend removing books & old bookshelves; followed by putting in the new bookcases and all of the books.

And the bookcases are 98% full. Bummer. But hubby agreed that he'd have to limit himself to that 12 foot wall of books. So at least when the 8 boxes of books come home from storage, he'll have to really weed out books.

My parents are going to take the largest of hte 3 bookcases we removed from the room. I think youngest DS will take one bookcase in his room. So that just leaves us with one to get rid of. I'm hoping they can use it at church.

We also inherited a dining room table and chairs from my in-laws. That arrived this weekend as well. We still have a couple of things to get from them before their move in 2 weeks. but I am finally inspired to move forward with freshening up my house. Paint and decluttering are on the agenda for awhile to come, but it's a good agenda to have.

Dinner is already in the crock pot for tonight, so today has been a good day.

Recipe Exchange #1

I got this recipe from a friend. My boys LOVED it! and it was super easy to make.


POPPY SEED CHICKEN

6 chicken breasts (baked & cubed)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pint sour cream
2 T poppy seeds
35-40 Ritz crackers (or any crackers you have on hand)
1 stick butter, melted

*Cook chicken and cut into cubes; set aside
*Mix soup & sour cream together & set aside
*Crush crackers in ziploc bag
*Add poopy seeds & melted butter to crushed crackers
*Grease a 2 1/4 qt, casserole dish (9x13 works also)
*Put 1/2 chicken on bottom. Top with 1/2 soup/sour cream mix
*Sprinkle 1/2 cracker mixture
*Repeat

Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

A double batch will feed 10-12 adults.

Serve with rice, noodles or mashed potatoes.

Vacation

We had a wonderful time at our friends' house in Colorado. The weather was cool, had a couple of days of rain, just heavenly.

If you ignore that fact that

on Monday I sprained my left ankle (day one & same foot that I had x-rayed 2 weeks ago suspecting a stress fracture)
on Tuesday Youngest DS scraped his back on the ceiling. Yes you read that right. imagine a boy, a bunk bed and a low ceiling.
and on Wednesday hubby accidentally stubbed his toe on one of those log chairs. The chair didnt' give, his toenail did.

We wondered what the oldest DS was going to do to injure himself on day 4, but he sailed through vacation w/o any physical injuries.

The drive back was long, but it was great to sleep in my own bed again!

I had stamp club tonight and the ladies were responsible for being the creative ones! They had to design a card and bring enough goodies for each of the attendees to make one to take home.

In all we walked away with 7 new projects and had lots of fun doing it!

August

Ah...school will start soon. I guess that sounds awful, but the boys have had too much free time on their hands this summer. Compared to previous summers that is *great*! But, they are getting on each others nerves, and therefore mine.

But I have painted my parents' formal dining room and entryway. Six windows, primer, and three colors of paint later, their place looks clean and fresh. They are getting new flooring this week. Then they'll move their dining room furniture out of storage and into their freshly prepared dining room.

Tomorrow night I'm going to meet my blog buddy. She and I met by following one another's blogs. It's probably not novel for others, but it is for me. She & I will meet face-to-face tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to it!

Also, my cousin, Rhonda & her husband, Keith, are currently driving back home from a trip to Mississippi where he was unanimously called to be the pastor of a church there. This has been a long time coming for them, and I am thrilled that they were patient and that God picked this church for them. I can't wait to go visit them once they are settled in and have time and energy to have us come.

Painting Mom and Dad's house has re-inspired me to get my formal dining room painted. I am about 90% finished with my clean out and reorg. of the room. Once that is done, I guess I'll buy paint and get busy.

Thinking about where I"ve been

I wondered how many of the US states I have visited, and found this website:


visited 23 states (46%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project


so you can see where I have been.

Long time since I last posted

Well...the last time I posted I was at my 25th high school reunion. That was a fun trip. Got to see lots of people I had not seen in 25 years! I was disappointed some of the people I'd hoped to see did not make it (Sherri!) but I understand that family comes first.

When we returned home, we had to do so by swinging by the local airport and dropping off DH for a week long business trip. :-( But he needed to go and the boys and I did o.k. on our own.

Mom and I had a couple of serious discussions with a counselor present and got everything worked out!

Since then, I have been busy with summer stuff. Sent the oldest DS off to youth camp and he came back with the H1N1 flu. Yipee (not). So he missed the Youth mission trip that our church took this week. My DS has not complained too much about not getting to go on the trip, but he's still got an awful cough. May have to take him to the doctor again soon if cough meds don't fix him up.

My mom got the final report from her oncologist. No chemo. or radiation is warrented at this time. Hooray! I know she was dreading treatments.

I am working on going through piles of clutter in my house. Seeing how nice it was in the studio loft on vacation (with NO clutter) and then having the house clean for the weekend allowed me to see that I need to do this for all of us.

I'm working on putting my stamping supplies in the proper places tonight. If I get that done, I'll try to post some photos of recent projects I've done.

Down memory lane

I took today to show my boys where I grew up. Both houses, the elementary school, the farm where my dad made a living. I don't think they were very impressed. But to them we just saw houses and places. To me it was so much more.

We also made a stop at the cemetery where their great-grandparents are buried. As I made the trip up here, I realized that the last time I was in town was when my nana died. That's been 3 years next week. I've never been away from here for that long when I lived in this hemisphere.

We start the reunion festivities tonight. Dinner and a gathering at the town clubhouse. I'm interested to see who all has made the effort to show up.

And the beat goes on...

It has been a very stressful month. Mom & I are still working through all the stuff around the nursing home check-out.

I've been seeing my counselor; I've been doing alot of reading. I've also been praying that God is glorified in all of this.

But my little family has taken a little break...we have traveled to my 25th high school reunion. It's going to be weird to see everyone after such a long time.

What on earth?

This week is unlike any other I have ever experienced.

Mom got angry that I stood up to her when she was verbally mean and insulting to me. I thought we had the entire thing hashed out and that it was over. Boy was I wrong.

She's checked herself out of the nursing home against medical advice. She has constructed a version of our argument on Sunday night that never happened. Never in a million years would it have happened the way she is saying it did. So, now she and Dad are at home, on their own. I don't know if mom is driving or not.

I've talked to my counselor and to one of the ministers at my church about the whole thing. I feel a peace about my decisions that I've made this week. I just wanted mom where she was safe and looked after.

However, I feel very sad that my mom has constructed this elaborate argument with false accusations against me. I feel even worse knowing that she's the type that will never, ever apologize. She behaved like a two year old; took her ball and went home. I'm sad that she's that way. And given her age, she's not likely to change.

Mom has Stage IV Endomtrial cancer

The final pathology results came in last Friday. It was endometrial in nature, the doctors said. That means the cancers mom had in 2001 and 1998 have spread. An MRI was done and no brain tumors were found.

She's been discharged and is now in a nursing home. She needs to regain her strength, lose the nausea, and get better.

The oldest is on a roll!

He competed in band solo contest last Friday and made a 1+ rating. I couldn't be there to hear it as I was moving mom to a nursing home.

Another accomplishment for my oldest

He pulled an envelope out of his backpack tonight. It is an invitation to join the National Elementary Honor Society! The induction ceremony is this Tuesday night. Too bad mom is still in the hospital. I know that she'd love to be there. We'll have to videotape the whole thing.

It's been a great week for my oldest!

Brother is.....??

well....I was shocked and amazed that my brother came to town for my mom's surgery.

I was glad, because my husband was still overseas when the sugery took place. Hubby got home Friday night. Brother called me at 9:30 today telling me he was leaving town. He's tired of hearing mom fuss at dad. I was dumbfounded. Then I found my voice and proceeded to tell him:

I am tired and need his help. He respsonded that he works 8 days and week and misses his family too. I said I'm not talking about being physically tired -- I'm emotionally tired of carrying the entire load of caring for OUR parents. He said, well you live in the same town.

I said I needed him to stay today and care for Daddy so that I could spend time with my husband and my sons. He said he wanted to see his family too. I said, I've done this all on my own for two weeks while my husband has been overseas for work. I've done all the doctor's appointments with my parents leading up to the surgery and I needed a break. I also reminded him that once he goes home, it will all be my responsibility again.

I also pointed out to him that the two times in the last 22 months that he's actually been here have been times of crisis. Mom has been scared out of her mind (for dad and now for herself with cancer). She's in pain and she's on pain medication. I told him that she won't remember any of what's gone on for the past few days once she's better. I told him that she's grumpy because she's scared, in pain and on meds. I told him he has to let it go in one ear and out the other. That when she gripes, he is to go to her bed, touch her, calm her and tell her to remember that God loves her and is in control of all of this.

He made noises like he didn't like what he was hearing. I explained to him that he should be grateful to our mom for not divorcing our dad when dad got so sick. I reminded him that she could have done that and left the two of us to be responsible for dad's care and well-being...BUT SHE DIDN'T! I also told him that she's the living example of what marriage vows mean. The man she married is dead and gone -- mental illness took him a long time ago -- but that because she loved that man so much, she's loving and caring for the guy that our dad has become.

Brother didn't have much to say after that one. He seems to be under the impression that mom rags on him for not being here to help. so I told him a little story....

I told him that in the past few months, mom called me one day all upset and told me how I never help her with my dad. I was speechless when that happened. I now know that it was a medication issue and have had to choose to let that one go. Chalk it up to experience with that medication and know that she didn't mean it. It hurt at the time, but I didn't stop helping her with dad. Brother didn't say anything after that little revelation either.

So the day has ended...my brother is still in town. He actually stayed and cared for our parents today. I was surprised and grateful. He even attended my youngest son's piano recital tonight. And after we'd all had dinner together, he even viewed the videotape that I made of my oldest son's band concert. (I taped it becuase hubby was out of town, so we all got to see it tonight.)

It was sad to hear him say he was going to leave just because it was uncomforatable to be around mom today. I am very glad he 'manned up' and stayed the whole day. I just hope he realizes that we do enjoy his company and that it's not that far of a drive for him to see us all.

Mom's lung surgery

Mom had lung surgery on 5/14 to remove the cancerous tumor that was in her right lung. They got the tumor out and did testing on it. The testing was inconclusive for the type of cancer, so the surgeon decided to treat mom as if she had lung cancer. That required opening up her side and removing the rest of that lobe of her lung, taking lymph nodes and tissue samples for biopsy.

We will not know the results of the testing until late next week.

Mom is currently in ICU and will not be out of there until she is up and walking. I hope that she's mobile within a couple of days because if she's not, she's at risk for pneumonia setting in.

The earth stopped revolving on Thursday....

Just in case you noticed, the earth screeched to a halt on it's axis on Thursday morning. My brother actually came to town for my mom's surgery!

He's not been here to see our parents in 22 months -- and he only lives 2.5 hours away.

My son the musician...

My son is in 6th grade this year. His school has 3 bands for the 7th adn 8th graders. During the past two or three weeks the 6th graders who want to continue with band next year have been trying out for the different bands.

My guy said he was shooting for the middle band. He was required to play all pieces with 80% accuracy. Well, the results were posted this past week and he made it into the TOP band!!!! I am so proud of him. Once he'd started practicing, I think he decided to just do his very best and see what happened.

He's in the top band next year! oh, you might need to take cover, my buttons are popping I'm so proud!

I hate Middle Schoolers

...not my own, just the ones who make my son feel bad about himself.

Seems they've been making fun of his anatomy. I would love to yank a knot in their necks, as my mom used to say -- back when she was teaching school.

My husband is SO much better with this son than I am. Oldest DS and I are way too much alike and that gets in the way sometimes. He doesn't like to be touched when he's angry; neither do I. He shoves the emotions down inside until it hurts and then he lets it out; hmm...so do I.

He does NOT want me to tell anyone at school becuase he doesn't want to be called out of class. He doesn't want the bullies to be called in. But I don't want to sit by and watch these little @#$%s get away with hurting my son.

help.

R&R

This past weekend I was able to get away from the rat race that is my life. I got away on Friday and did not return home until Sunday afternoon. It was just wnat I needed. I got to rest, relax and be creative. I made 50 plus cards and a couple of projects. It was just what the doctor ordered. I made new friends and had time with a very good friend that I don't get to see often enough.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Yes, I live in an area where this holiday is common knowledge. I even know two Cinco de Mayo babies!

This week's update

Well, let's see.

1) met with the thoracic surgeon and have surgery scheduled for mom on 5/15.
2) Mom immediately said she wanted to purchase burial plots & plan funerals.
3) Learned that Dad is (understandably) upset about mom's diagnosis and in her efforts to calm him
4) Learned that mom has told Dad if she dies first, Dad can still live at home alone and I'll take care of him.

Well, well, well....I arranged #1. Was cool with that. Dismayed but could understand #2 & #3. Horrified to learn that my mom has been making promises to my dad about what I will do for him without talking it over with me first.

So...we move to surgery.

My brother was informed of OUR mom's upcoming surgery. His response "He'd try to get off work."

I called him today on the way to get OUR parents to go burial plot shopping. I wanted him to pray that we'd find what we needed and to ask him if he'd found out if he could get off work. He said he could come for the day of surgery and the day after. Then he'd need to go back home to work his other job. I asked if he'd asked off from that job and was told that "if you don't give them 30 days notice, you don't get off." To which I replied, "Well, if you explain that it's for cancer surgery, they might find a way to let you take the next 4 days off."

His response was "I'm not coming for a week. Why should I?"

To which I said "They are your parents too and I need help!"

"With what?" he said.

At that point, I thought well...what IS the point?

Another reason he gave for not wanting to stay longer was that his son has a baseball tournament that weekend. God forbid that his kid go without my brother's presence at a stupid baseball tournament.

You'd think that our parents would rate higer than a s#$%^& baseball tournament.

On the upside of things, we did find burial plots for my parents. Expensive, but very nice. The funeral home here will honor the pre-needs funeral contracts my parents purchased in their previous hometown. So now mom and dad just have to pay for the plots and the stuff that goes with that.

Now we just need to move on to the rest of the stuff on Mom's list that she wants to do prior to surgery.

We've met the Thoracic Surgeon

We met with the surgeon today. He took a detailed medical history & looked at mom's CT scans. He's tentatively set surg. for 5/15, pending agreement from all others involved.

He said that he would attempt to do surgery w/ a throraciscope, to keep the surgery as simple as possible. But cannot promise that larger incision will not be necessary.

If the quick pathology done right then shows lung cancer the entire lobe will need to be removed. He feels that the likelihood of the tumor being uterine cancer is lower than the chance of lung cancer. But we won't really know until surgery & pathology are complete.

Please pray for peace for us all, as I need to help mom and dad get the rest of their legal affairs in order, shop for burial plots, plan funerals, etc. Of course, once we get all of that done, Mom will live to 105 and we'll get to laugh about how we ran around like crazy doing this 'way back when.' ;-)

Thoracic Surgeon appt. scheduled

I ended up calling the thoracic surgeon's office today. We got an appt. for TOMORROW afternoon at 5 PM. Can you believe it? God is good! We'll know more tomorrow night.

Sad news

We learned yesterday that a friend of ours (my husband's age) S died in his sleep. He leaves behind a wife and two sons. The oldest son in a soph in college; the youngest, a 9th grader. Nothing can prepare you for something like this. It's just so very, very sad.

And our SS class has been ministering to another family where the dad is terminal. And yet S seemed to be the picture of health and how he's gone.

I have drafted a letter to my lawyer to get all my legal affairs in order, because you never know what tomorrow brings.

Sad.

I'm calmer today

We have a plan!

The oncologist said he believes that Mom's lung is the only spot w/ cancer right now. We're to see the pulmonologist on Good Friday. I would imagine he'll set up an appt. w/ a thorasic surgeon and we'll get that taken out of mom as soon as possible.

As for the pancreas, we'll monitor that spot very closely the oncologist said.

I am exhausted today -- mainly because I worked myself into a tizzy Tues & Wed. worrying about what the plan for mom would be.

I'm mad

I am grumpy and tired and am currently studying Job in Bible study...and feel like I am relating on some level. I know that Job's sufferings were MUCH greater than mine. But I do relate to his frustration at why things are allowed to happen. At least I know that on this side of the cross, that Jesus IS there in heaven pleading my case to God. I have a redeemer. I have a high priest to be my intercessor. I do NOT have to wonder if I will see God with my own eyes someday, as Job may have. His faith showed that he was confident that he would see God.

I guess if Job can hang in there with all that happened to him (lost all his children, all his servants, all his livestock, and his health) I can survive the wait to see what is coming for my mom.

I just need to splash around in the pool of self-pity today and then get over it.

What a week!

Hubby returned from a quick trip to NC on Tuesday night. Wednesday we did NOT have mom's biopsy; Thursday she & I each saw the endocrinologist and Friday she had her mammogram. The needle biopsy that was to be on Wed. was moved to Mon. of next week. Today it was cancelled alltogether.

Next week on Friday, we meet w/ the oncologist to discuss her treatment plan.

Mom's test was clear!

the Mammogram was clear today.

Hooray!

The Donovans

My sunday School class and church are helping out a family in our community. The husband/dad is very ill -- terminal. He was let go at work 17 months ago; no insurance. The wife lost her job because she had to take off so much time to care for her husband. The house is now in forclosure. They have 3 teenage daughters. The only income they have is the money he receives from SSI and that barely covers his prescription medications.

The house is set to be auctioned off in the next week. if that happens, we don't know where the family will go.

If you wish to contribute in any way to the help that's being provided to this family, please call my church tomorrow:

Hunter's Glen Baptist Church in Plano, TX
972-867-1610

I've really had it...

with the hospital that is in charge of scheduling my mom's needle biopsy! They've called twice and have changed the procedure date. And I"ve had to alter my entire schedule for this. I don't mind changing my schedule being there. I mind these people who seem to think that a needle biopsy on a tumor on a pancreas is not urgent!

Mom is pretty hacked off too.

Complete family again

Hubby has been on the road for 3 of 4 weeks this month. He'll return tomorrow night and to my knowledge, no trips are in his immediate future! He's been home a night or two in there, but mainly to leave the dirty clothes and to pack clean ones. ha

He's been in Virginia, North Carolina, London, the DC area and North Carolina again.

I am ready to have him back because I am spoiled to having him do the morning school routine with the boys. And with the week I have shaping up with Mom's procedures and dr. appointments, I am looking forward to an additional 30 minutes in bed a morning or two this week.

A week of Dr. visits

Mom has a needle biopsy of the spot on her pancreas set up for Wednesday morning. She & I both see our endocrinoloist on Thursday. Friday I think we'll finally get her mammogram done. The medical staff in Lubbock have been anything but helpful this week. Please pray that we get the films from previous mammograms this week.

Amazed

I received a phone call from my S-I-L today to check on my mom. She said she'd been after my brother for a week to call and get an update.

Still an only child...

but birth records state otherwise.

Why, oh why, won't my brother contact our parents? Why doesn't he call my mom? He knows about the possible cancer return becase I called and told him. He even said he'd call. But it's been 3 weeks and he hasn't.

It's no longer about me not having help to care for Mom and Dad. That's a foregone conclusion. But it IS about the fact that he could be just a tiny bit less selfish and put others' needs ahead of his for even 10 minutes per week.

That's all it would take for him to call and say "Hi how are you?" to mom and dad.

Must go read and stop rumenating.

Blessed

I found the blog of an aquainance today. I met this family when they were a family of four -- they're now a family of seven. Their youngest son has several medical issues. I read through their entire blog today and am amazed at what a wonderful testament of faith their journey has been.

If you think your life is too hard, take an afternoon to read their blog: http://thelifeoftitus.blogspot.com/.

No more hot spots discovered!

We met with the oncologist this a.m. The PET scan still shows the spot in the lung to be 'suspicious.' The spot on the pancreas is not definite, so a needle biopsy is being scheduled for that. We are still in the process of getting one more test done (next Tuesday) and are still requesting records, films,etc. from mom's previous doctors.

The pancreas might not be involved. We'll see soon. The doctor did not mention any other hot spots!

Thursday could be "C" Day

I go w/ my parents to get the results of Mom's CT, PET, and other tests Thursday. We'll find out if her cancer had recurred. I pray that it's not cancer.

I hate Western media

My oldest DS was doing homework tonight and needed information about sporting team rivalries. He went to Sport Illustrated to get the information. And there at the top of the webpage was a link to the swimsuit edition of the magazine. Now I understand that this 'edition' has been published for a number of years, but it seems that the photos get more and more provocative.

I am dismayed that a simple homework assignment can lead to viewing soft porn in my own home.

UGH!

Shopping

My mom has decided that if she does have cancer again we are going shopping for burial plots for her and my dad.

Talk about a bummer. I hate shopping for most things. This one, however, will be very difficult and it's not something I even want to think about, much less take an active part in.

I know that life is short. God has a plan and that plan is better than anything I can ask or imagine. I'd just like to see this all be a big mistake on the part of the doctors and no shopping of any sort will be required.

However, when a cyst grows in a lung and a spot on the pancreas grows, I guess it's only prudent to plan ahead.

I'm not ready for this. Who is ever ready for this?

Spring Break Summary

I have visited with my college roommate and with relatives from my extended family this week.

Unfortunately, my mom got sick on our trip to see the relatives and we had to return home earlier than expected. She's seen a GP and has gotten medications. Her CT scan is still scheduled for Monday. The PET scan machine has had troubles, so due to delays in the schedule, Mom won't get her PET scan until Tuesday now. At least that gives her another day to recover from the upper resp. infection.

Am working on taking control of the house, as I"ve been away for a week. It will all be here later if I don't get it all done, but I hope to finish much today and tomorrow.

Inconclusive Biopsy Results

Mom's biopsy was not conclusive. Now we must see an oncologist, get a PET scan and go from there. If no other 'hot spots' are found, then they'll just do surgery and take out that lower lobe of her lung and get whatever-the-heck-that-is OUT of there.

If there are other 'hot spots', biopsy(ies) will be required before any further action is taken.

And I thought this would give us a definitive answer.

Biopsy is over

Now the real waiting starts. However...the dr. said that today when they turned mom from back to front he saw an air bubble in the 'spot' move! To me that means there's a possiblity it's not a solid mass (i.e. cancer). He said he got goopy stuff out of it. I'm praying that it's an encapsulated infection and that mom will just neet good antibiotics to fix it all.

Mom's halfway there...

her CA125 tumor marker test results were in the normal range. The needle biopsy is tomorrow at 9. Hopefully we'll have an answer about what's in her lung very soon.

I'm o.k.

The 2nd sonogram showed that all is normal! Praise the Lord

Needle biopsy...

for Mom is Thurday (3/6).

When it rains, it pours

Well, I've better days, but there've also been worse ones.

I had to go back to the women's health clinic today for a repeat sonogram of my girlie parts. Seems the dr. was not please with things from the last sono. The technician said it looked o.k. today, but I have to wait for the dr.'s report.

Unbeknownst to me, my mom had a CT scan of her lung today. She'd had a bronchoscopy last August because of a spot on her lung. That test indicated that we need not be worried. The CT scan today showed that the spot has grown significantly and the dr. thinks it could be a recurrance of my mom's uterine cancer. (Now my anxiety over my repeat pelvic makes more sense, doesn't it?)

So mom is to have a needle biopsy done ASAP. We'll find out when that will be as soon as the dr. has scheduled it.

Stay tuned.

More Stamping

I had stamp club tonight at my house and we had two projects. One was a very simple card -- what I would call a 'minimalist' card, and the other was a stair step card.

The minimalist card uses the new Stampin' Up! "Just Buzzin' By" stamp set and the striped grosgrain ribbon in Pumpkin Pie.

The stair step card was made with Taken with Teal CS and a retired Designer Series paper -- Petals and Paisleys. The remainder of the stair step card was made using various punches. We also used the "Chit Chat" Rub ons.

Pictures of the Lonely Mountain Project

My oldest DS has to make a project for his English class. They've been reading The Hobbit. He decided to make the Lonely Mountain.


He made a 100 on the project!

Church Library Update

We had a meeting this week with the librarian from another church and came away with renewed enthusiasm and a list of projects to prioritize and get started on.

I am again excited about what we can do with our church library. The new guy (he's been there at least 2 years!) is taking over hardware and software. Yea! Now that he'll do that, he's going to get our database problems fixed and then we'll be ready to rock and roll.

I feel like the Fiction, Biography and Children's sections are what I should concentrate on right now. That's taking up time creating listings of fiction series that we own, but might not have all the books for. I hope to start shopping soon for the library!

Happy Birthday

My youngest DS turned 9 this week. That does NOT seem possible. Seems like only yesterday we brought him home from the hospital.

He had a great week. We stretched the celebrating out. His party was on Thursday and he had a blast. He got lots of goodies and we were so busy with brother's Hobbit project, we've not tackled thank you cards yet.

He got books and board games mostly. I"m thrilled. He's most intrigued with the Wii Fit he got from us and with the Wall*E game he got for the Wii from his brother.

School project

My oldest DS had a project to do for The Hobbit for his gifted and talented class. He chose to create a scene/setting from the book. It took two weekends (no weekdays) to do it. He and his dad created the mountain base out of paper mache last weekend. This weekend they made the top of the mountain, which is removable, and painted everything.

My contribution to the project was to go in search of a small plastic dragon. Hobby Lobby came through. They have a selection fo products called 'Toobs' which is a plastic tube filled with whatever plastic figurines you might need. Our dragon came from the Knights and Dragon collection.

The eldest insisted on the dragon being red, just as Smaug is in the book. I painted him while the guys took care of everything else. I'll try to post a photo later in the week.

January's already gone

Where did it go? We've survived another holiday season and the bills that come with it! ha. My friend's marital situation has not improved, but it hasn't deteriorated any more that I'm aware of. My children are healthy and my husband is still employed. His employer is not laying off so that's good. Unfortuantely, Texas Instruments IS laying off and friends from church are affected. We must pray that they get new jobs quickly.

We had an ice day this week and the boys were off from school. That means one extra day of school at the end of the year, or a lost in-service day for the staff/faculty. I hope it's the latter and not the former.

My oldest attended a youth weekend at our church last weekend. The emphasis was on purity and maintaining abstinence until marriage. My oldest doesn't even like girls yet. He participated in the weekend, but not in the committment ceremony that our youth pastor led. In a year or two, we'll see if he wishes to participate, but I didn't think an 11 yr. old needed to make that kind of promise -- yet.

Not much else to report.

Oh -- I have make valentines for my youngest to take to school and give out. I think they turned out very well. Here's they are: 1) is for his teacher and 2) is a sample of the ones he's distributing. And just for the record, the red card stock has hearts stamped on it. The scan just didn't pick that up.

Disappointed

I am a volunteer librarian at my church. Tonight I learned that we are losing our dedicated space. I am very, very disappointed. I have worked as a volunteer librarian for about 4 years. Our current buliding campaign has fallen short, so we'll not be adding the additional meeting spaces as previously scheduled. So in the interim we will NOT be expanding and therefore the library space is needed for additional Sunday school meeting space.

I am sad that this has happened. I understand how the economy has caused this, and I hope that we are in a better place financially as a church soon, so that we are not without a dedicated library space for long. However, I feel for the previous librarian who workd SO very hard to get the space (that we're losing) planned and built.

We're being shunted to a hallway. Ugh. I wonder how many items will go walkabout before the new library is built. I'm sad, but will help until the transition is complete. I may resign at that point. I"ll see what God has to say about it.

Stamping today

I finally got around to creating a card or two today. I like this one the most. I CASEd it from Andrea Walford's blog at www.andreawalford.com

Feeling slighty better

I've talked to my friend at various times this week. She sounds stronger. She's getting good advice from various people. She has a doctor's appointment set up to insure her health has not been compromised. She's got a counseling session set up for herself and her husband.

I was stunned to realize that its only been one week since this bombshell hit. It feels like much, much longer.

I am out of the shock phase now and have had to return to MY life. Christmas is packed away, house projects are on the calendar, various phone calls have been made to tradesmen that will help complete various projects.

The boys are back in school and we had a great time at our youngest's elementary school this morning. They kicked off college week by having staff and faculty members sing their school fight songs. There is only one staff/faculty member there from my university. She emailed a plea to parents last week and our university had the largest number of volunteers up there to sing the school fight song. It was lots of fun. The kids very attentive all morning listening to all of the songs. I hope this spurs them to think about higher education and to want to be a part of that.

I was proud of my 2nd grader. He sang along when my university reps. were up there singing. He's a hoot.

Feeling awful

I have learned from a very, very good friend that her husband has cheated on her. I am devastated for her. I am so angry at him I can't even speak about it. The shock wore off last night at bedtime and I cried and cried for her. He's broken a sacred trust or bond and knowing him, he's sad -- but because he got caught.

Oh the thoughts and feelings that I've had this week. A good Christian friend, Tena, told me to pray for my own marriage whenever I stop to pray for my friend's. Tena has seen what happens to marriages that are collateral damage from infidelities. She's wise to tell me to pray for my own marriage.

I've talked to my friend, told her I'll pray for her. They have two children, so I'm praying for protection for them -- to not realize what's going on. And I'm praying that my friend's health has not been compromised in any way.

If you feel inclined to pray for them, please do so.

January leads to plans...

many of which never come to fruition. However, I hope that a few of these to this year. I have personal goals which I don't post for anyone to review -- well, just the previous mention about weaning myself off of Diet Coke. I expect that to take awhile, as the hubby likes to have them in the house.

But I have some house projects that I'd like to tackle this year.

The first project is already started since I got a new washer and dryer for Christmas. That required the removal of the old appliances and that led to a paint job over Dec. 23rd and 24th. Ugh. But now that I've lived with the layout, I want to get an electrician and a plumber in to rework the connections in my laundry room. That will allow for a better layout and that will then allow me to put in shelving or cabinetry. Whichever is easiest to put in. I hope to find stock cabinets/shelving to use.

The second project is to get some pull out drawers built into a few of the kitchen cabinets, so my life is easier in there.

And the third project is to finally, finally get bookshelves floor to ceiling in our office. Ikea has some nice bookshelves that we discovered last night. And the total cost of the project using Ikea products would be a fraction of getting built-in bookcases made.

After those projects, the master bedroom/bathroom painting/improvement is next on the list.

I hope to tackle one project per month, and do these on a cash basis. I hate credit cards and the cycle they get people into. Besides, to have the improvements in the house paid for when they are completed is more than half of the satisfaction I'll get from the proejcts.

Realistically, these four projects will probably take the first six months of the year. But if I can do them and pay as I go, that will be wonderful.

Happy New Year..

to everyone!

A day of TV viewing for me....The Tournament of Roses parade, followed by various college fooball bowl games.

A blog buddy has said she's giving up Cokes. I think I need to join her. I have a friend who did that and lost about 15 lbs. just from cutting out Cokes. I'll see how bad the headaches get.