Random thoughts from my brain

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR MAUDIE!

We hope your day is terrificand we love you! 💕🎂🍔

***

Another fact-based life lesson:
#1 Yesterday I went for a long walk.

#2 Yesterday I weeded.... no good deed goes unpunished.

#3 Yesterday I spent a good bit of time on our front porch swing.

Last night before my shower, I counted scores of bug bites. And yes, I sang this song:

Conclusion: I am apparently deliciously irresistible and MUST wear bug spray in the great outdoors. Why this lesson bears repeating is beyond me as you'd think someone who gets as thoroughly devoured as I do would remember to put on the dang bug spray! I wonder if word has gotten out somehow that I'm on blood thinners and can now be sipped from with the greatest of ease. Do insects use their own secret hobo signals, do you suppose? What would the sign be for BUG OFF!?

Ruminating about the essence of sheep

 One of my wool dryer balls hopped out of the dryer and skittered back into the no-man’s-land between the dryer and the washer. Into the dust. Into the dog hair. Where I couldn’t easily reach to rescue it. 

It got me wondering, “is it in the nature of sheep to get lost? Is that the essence of sheep, even once they’ve donated to become dryer balls, to determinedly get themselves separated and lost? Wherefore doest thou thinkest that thou is going?”

It reminded me of one of my favorite kid stories. One of our boys was in the high chair at our old house and we were poking Cheerios, chasing them around the tray of the high chair. I’d purposely pop them to bounce a little and say, “hey! Get back here!” It made the little guy giggle and so I kept doing it. Eventually I had to wander off to clean something up and I hear, “hey! Hah-bat-choo! Hey! Hah-bat-choo!” That was as close as he could get to “hey, get back here” and we still use the phrase regularly at our house. 

I confess to exclaiming it to my prodigal dryer ball. 

Don’t be that dude. Stay with your herd. Or flock. Or whatever you call a collection of dryer balls.

That works in life, too, you know. Find your tribe and bless ‘em! And speaking of tribes, a belated very happy 80th birthday to one of my parents’ besties! Thanks for being part of our tribe for decades. We are better people because of your friendship. Love you!

Happy birthday, Gramps!

 I dunno how old my Dad’s dad would be today, but I always find it funny that his birthday is the same as the amazing Dr. Seuss! Today our preK crowd will be wearing pajamas and we will be reading one of my all-time favorites, the Sleep Book. It’s Seuss week, so there are lots of Shenanigans planned and I’m sure there will be plenty of spontaneous, kid-originated Shenanigans as well!

I will be wearing my minion pajamas bottoms- yes, the ones from Despicable Me- and I will most likely still be wearing them to my PT appointment right after school. Last week we had a silly sock day so I got to wear my Wonder Woman socks- which have capes on them, by the way- to PT and the woman who works on me approved highly. I’m just here for comic relief.

Since it’s March and we will have St. Patty’s Day to celebrate soon, I bought our yearly Lucky Charms so there’s a happy teenage boy munching away this morning. Congrats, everyone, for making it through February!

Have a great day!

Just goes to show

 I wonder if brain cells are the first thing to go once you hit middle age. All day I've been wondering, "hmm, it's July 24th. Whose birthday is it? Who have I forgotten?"

I checked my phone to see a text from my mother about, "happy half birthday!" Then I see an email from my dad, "happy half birthday!" 

Oh yeah. It's me. Happy 49.5 and be glad we are partying NEXT year for 50.5 because it is 93 degrees out there! 😅

Thing One is gettin' oooolllllldddd

A certain Thing One decided to join us so as to not spend spend a birthday alone with the brothers. That will make a lot more sense once you've read the following post. Anyway, we had a good time celebrating Thing One turning 22. Good gracious. How can we be old enough to have children who are old enough to be 22? Sheesh.

Kid knows how to eat, teehee.

And what to do next, haha!

I even got accompanied to treatment. Such a good bean. Happy birthday to our firstborn, who is a delightful, kind and hilarious human. We love you boatloads, as always. Thanks for taking such good care of your old Mum. And your Dada. And for keeping your brothers and the dogs alive whilst we were away. (More on that next.)

 

Radiation rundown- ONLY FUN PHOTOS- appropriate for all viewers, I promise!

FINALLY we are into the fun photo posts! Okay, so here's the deal: proton radiation wasn't here in town. It was in a big city two hours from here so Dada and I would get Thing Three on the schoolbus Monday morning and head to the city where we'd then stay until Friday after treatment when we'd drive back. We put quite a few miles on Gladys!

While it wasn't ideal to be away from the Thingz and I couldn't exactly advertise during our absence that hey, we are absent, there are always silver linings. The biggest one and the one we will be forever thankful for is this: 

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH OUR FRIENDS!

Okay, okay, I was getting treatment that will hopefully help ensure cancer never gets a Round 3 and that's important too, but YAY, WE HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH OUR FRIENDS!

Above is a crew of some of Dada's childhood besties. Some of those guys he played ball with in elementary school, learned to drive with, got into Shenanigans with, and so on. They've gone to school together forever. There's a saying about "you can't make new old friends", and now that we are all turning 50, some of these are golden oldies, ha!

Another saying is "make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other's gold." Everybody knocks social media, but it can be an incredible connector of people you loved lifetimes ago! Above is a gal I used to camp with. Not as a counselor or a staff member- we are talking as 10-year-olds in a cabin together at sleepaway camp without our parents. Not only did I get to reconnect and catch up with her and her wonderful family, she introduced us to one of her new coworkers so I got the old friend AND the new friend experiece! 

Dada had a group of guys he'd been friends with his freshman and sophomore years in college before moving across campus and falling in with a new group. I'd never met the guys of that first group and he himself hadn't seen them SINCE college, so we are talking 30 years of radio silence followed by becoming Facebook friends and maybe some texts to, "hey, we're in town, and you've never met my wife, but wanna have dinner?" It was so great! What a treasure to meet people who were kind when they themselves were students, who invested in a friendship and were willing to reconnect and then to also enfold me!

We also got to catch up with that second group, friends we love but we never get to see because it's just far enough that we can't easily meet for dinner or whatnot. Until now most of us were outnumbered by our kids, so there'd been sports and activities and all the nuttiness, but NOW that we've grown BIG Thingz, we are looking forward to staying in better connection. 

You're probably thinking, "how much eating out did they DO?" Yeah, you do quite a bit on an extended stay like that, AND our friends were happy to host get togethers. It was probably the most retsaurants we will try in a six week block of time for the rest of our lives, and I didn't have a bad meal at any of them. Our hotel had continental breakfasts, and for those of you who worry about money, rest easy: the hospital works with some of the hotels for reduced rates for those undergoing my kind of treatment. The hotel was also a quick walk to an amazing cemetery, but that's an entirely different post.

My team of ladies kept laughing at me. When I'd donned my gown and headed into the radiation room, one of them would ask, "soooo, do you have plans tonight?" Once I got to crack her up completely when I told her we'd been out for dinner the night before, had already had coffee with my camp friend, and had plans for a game night at a different couple's house that evening! We were wasting no chances to spend time with people. 

I hope that some of the intentionality sticks- I tend to turn into a hermit once I'm home- so in case you didn't get the memo yet, Chaos Party at our place this Father's Day weekend! 

What's a Chaos Party? It's us, adding chaos to everyone's schedules by throwing another party amidst the graduation celebrations and Father's Day BBQs. Just kidding. Dada is turning 50 on Friday the 13th and Thing Three just turned 15 and I'm (mostly) done with treatment (the intense stuff, anyway) so that deserves confetti and bubbles and hugs! So come on over!

 

Chemo #2, check!

 Okay gang, I'm officially halfway done with the AC part of chemo. Two down, two more to go. This time I get a three week break before my next one so that I may feel like myself and enjoy my favorite holiday with some of my favorite peeps! Yippie! 

Dad got to go with me yesterday and kept me company through all the sitting around. I reminded my nurse about "a slow steroid, please" and she said, "oh, no worries, I ALWAYS do that one over a 10 minute span- I don't push it!" There were no issues, no turning tomato red, no weird tingles, nothing. I felt like my heart was beating just a little fast during my bag of Pepcid, which I don't remember happening before, but it could just be the massive chemical dump that was happening and it didn't last long sooooo...

My doc was thrilled with both my bloodwork numbers and my range of motion. It's so nice to have a cheerleader like her. I don't know what parts per million or whatever the units are supposed to be, but my white blood cells were 9.9, hemoglobin is supposed to be at least 10 and mine's 12.3, and platelets are to be over 100 and mine were 167, so she was actually cheering when she read those. I guess those are the magic 3 that they keep a close eye on. 

We talked again about radiation and I told her we have our second opinion consult tomorrow morning. She said her very strong vote was for proton therapy. It'll be interesting to see what Dr. P recommends tomorrow.

We also discussed having my lady parts- ovaries, tubes, and uterus- out in the future, but it's not an immediate thing. At this point, I told her I feel like a Mrs. Potato Head just ditching pieces left and right. "Well, don't need THOSE anymore and who needs hair and I don't need THAt and..." My Dad and my doc both cracked up, but it's the best mental image I can summon up to describe my poor old bod at this point! 😄 As if to drive the point home, my period started today and I find myself musing about the absolute indignities of cancer treatment and planning and all of it:

- mosquitoes who bite me don't even have the decency to die thanks to the chemicals in me which I find absolutely unfair.

- I have no body parts capable of feeding an infant yet my ovaries and uterus care not, apparently, and just keep chugging along though that ship has not only sailed but has been used as a funeral pyre, lit on fire, and sunk. Yet here we are. 

- I got to discuss my bowels and my periods in front of my father, poor thing.

All of it is weird. But I have the best team, the best tribe, a big God and far too much food and I am hanging in there! 

AND happy birthday to my precious Mommeeeeeee today! We all send birthday hugs home with Dad. Miss you and love you bunches! 

Happy hump day, everybody. Take good care of you!

Halloween birthday boy

Somehow I didn't get a photo of Thing Two in Halloween garb, but as he was head to toe black as the Angel of Death, I trust you can use your imagination to envision this:

He loped to an open garage to collect a treat and was accosted by what he called "a tiny princess- she was about thigh high" who asked him, "are you a real pirate?"

He rumbled, "oh yeah."

I did have these photos with "his" yellow tree. He is affectionately known locally as "Yellowjacket." I wanted to get one of him in his robe as it creeps ever higher and shorter on him, but we've had some frosts and now those lovely yellow leaves are a sad brown, not the "happy crispy brown leaf" as our friend Sharon coined. 

The rest of us. My wig was trying to bisect my brain, which I suppose was a good thing as it was rainy with a wind advisory, but it reignited my "I have zero desire to wear a wig when I'm bald" mantra...

Thing Three loves over the top costumes and has already devoured the vast majority of his haul. Good thing we put off him getting braces until the New Year.

And the amazing artistry of Thing One:

Hope you all had a Halloween and are not finding candy wrappers behind your couch or in other suspicious locations!

 

Happy birthday, Maudie!

Happy birthday to my Maudie, who celebrates her 95th birthday today! WooHOOOO! We love you! Your gift is in the mail, but here's some early morning Ohio sun photos for you. Have a wonderful day, special lady!

 

"'The time has come,' the Walrus said, To talk of many things:"

 "Of shoes- and ships- and sealing-wax- 

of cabbages- and kings-

and why the sea is boiling hot-

and whether pigs have wings.'"

So says Lewis carroll's "The walrus and the carpenter" which actually does not occur in his "Alice in wonderland" despite being in the animated disney version, which is also why it took me awhile to find it because i was looking in the wrong place. i digress. this isn't about me.

these are the words that have been banging around in my head for a long time. somehow, and i blame may for being the craziest month, i never posted about thing one's birthday last year. or the year before. i don't know how that happened as i know i have photos that were supposed to go on here of the cakes and the smiles and the sunglasses and and... heck! i'm so sorry. my deepest apologies. 

so, thing one, the one who made me a mama, whew. 

how can you be 21 and legal now? 

you came out hollering and the nurse said, "wooooooweeeeeeeeeeee, do you have a temper! where did you get that!?" dada and i looked at each other and shrugged. no idea. but i'm glad for it, because you were a tiny puddin'pop, small and mighty. you turned into someone who knows how to stand up for yourself and others, who gets fired up when people are treated badly, who drags others to get the help they need. i know you say you're not the mom friend, but you kind of are. we are proud of you.

we love your art, especially now that you don't draw on the walls (as much) and we see the joy it brings you when you get it right. we love that you sing along in the car on road trips. we love that you empty the dishwasher unasked. we love that you get excited about skull shaped ice cubes. okay, everyone in the family loves those, but it doesn't negate the fact that we like that it tickles you. we love, and are constantly surprised, when we turn around and you've snuck up right behind us. we love that you are an individual and that you don't merge just to do what everyone else is doing and we love love love that you don't follow along with others' dumb choices "just because we're adults and we can." so proud. you have no idea. nooooo idea!

we love that you're learning to cook and that you're getting better at cleaning up afterwards. we love your patience with these awful dogs. we love your zero tolerance of siblings in your room but the fact that you'll still share the twizzlers. we love that you dive in to help, whether it's hauling puppies down a hall for a stranger or ninja-ing food pantry items around with pap. thank you for being kind and respectful, especially with those who you can tell are having issues, whatever they  may be. you are a treasure and a delight. we love being your parents. thanks for blessing us.

happeeeeeeeeeeeeeee birffffdaaaaaaaaaaaay toooooooo yooooouuuuuuuuuuuu!

Halloween Shenaniganery

Thing Three was a sumo wrestler with some added gloves and his red crocs. 

Thing One headed off to scoop ice cream in costume. Yes, Link. Again.

Thing Two, celebrating his 18th birthday in style,  was the Black Knight from Monty Python. He even tied for second place in the costume party competition. 

And I'm not sure where the Tuscan Raider (Star Wars canon) came from, but you can bet there are snow pants on under the brown pants and a Carhartt under the outer layer. It snowed right before trick or treat and was a fabulously frosty 33 degrees. Grandmama informed me it was 23F with windchill. Very different from last year's balmy warm sprinkles!

Dada was a lumberjack and we visited thing one before taking the boys to their party and trick or treating. We had a great night. pray for teachers everywhere who are dealing with excessive amounts of sugar today!

 

Road trip!

Apologies as this is also not the Scotland post, but as I'm trying to blog photos so I can get them off my phone, you're stuck with it, haha. 

Thing Three finished school May 31 and as soon as he got home, we popped him into the car with Dada, Thing Two, and myself because Thing One had to work and relished the idea of staying home, watching the dogs, holding down the fort, etc. 

First things first, for a road trip you need some essentials; your GPS/map/atlas, your water bottles, "Road Trip Chips" which are Pringles- specifically the Sour Cream and Onion ones though I also grabbed a canister of cheesy ones- and a jar of Goober or imitation goober. You know the stuff- it has both jelly and peanut butter in stripes in the same jar. Grab a bag of buns and a plastic knife and you're all set for quicker rest stops and easy car food to stuff into your face, thus spending less money on vending machines or fast food. Unless you're Liam, who refuses to eat Goober because he insists you don't stir it. In which case it utterly destroys your bread by being unspreadable. Anyway...

I SWEAR we are all turning into Star Trek's Borg. Everybody wears ear buds anymore/anywhere, but I have to say that they do cut down on the backseat squabbles.

We stayed that first night in Lexington, KY because that was about halfway to where we were headed in Georgia. One of Dada's friends recommended the hotel area and we heard good things about the Double Dogs restaurant so we checked it out and gave it 8 thumbs up. We especially liked the "sit, stay, eat" motto. And that dogs were welcome!

 

This is Mr. Darcy, who became one of our bestest buddies almost instantly. Yes, I took multiple photos of him as well but will spare you from his irresistible cuteness overload.

We made it safely to our destination on June 1 and were welcomed with open arms by our friends whom we hadn't seen since 2016 or 2017. Their two biggest kids were both off in separate states with summer jobs, so we had the stair steps of our Thing Two, their Thing Three, their Thing Four, and our Thing Three, haha. They all got along really well and Damon missed them sorely once we were back home.

We did a bit of running around, seeing sights, eating ice cream, goofing off as well as time in their pool and on their porch. Their property is gorgeous and we had so much fun catching up.

Even saw my first Summer Tanager, who was attacking a wasp nest just under this railing. Brave little birdie!

This Honeybee Festival even featured a country music concert, which, as you can see from Liam's face, was absolutely right up his alley. He is my child. It was a fun evening of meandering around and checking out wares anyhow. 

We also took a trip into Chattanooga for more eating and sight seeing and general Shenaniganery. 

Bridge over the Tennessee River. I apologize that I don't know which bridge it is, but it isn't far from the Tennessee Aquarium.

We went to the Yellow Deli in Chattanooga and all eight of us had amazing meals. Everyone was completely delighted with the food, the decor, the breezy outside porch, all of it. Definitely check it out if you are in Chattagnooga! You can learn more about it here (and it will open in a new window.) Liam ordered Belgian waffles and when I looked over, he had demolished it. LIAM! The world's slowest eater. He ordered another round!

Our friends took us to Walker Rocks which immediately felt like camp. We had a wonderful hike and I, of course, took bajillions of pictures. I'll share only a few, I promise. 

Because everyone needs a photo of a dead armadillo. It's the only one I've come across in the wild. Sad.

My first Georgia flat-backed millipede. I have a bug ID app!

And the Damonater is now a full-fledged teenager, turning 13 whilst we were in Georgia. So more ice cream and cake. And someone learned a valuable lesson: don't eat an entire bag of blue Taquis in a single sitting. 

We were so sad to leave and hope very much that it isn't another 6+ years before we see them again! Made it home safe on the 6th in time to unpack, do laundry, repack, prep the kids and house for our Scotland trip. We left June 8. 

To be continued!