Oops, I did it again

Gotta love it when the photos are all out of order. I'll let your smart brains figure out the sequence of PaPa and I scraping off the remnants of our bathroom wallpaper border before using almost every last scrap of the leftover stuff to repair what we could. For those who missed it, years ago when we removed wallpaper in our foyer and sunroom and kitchen as a family, a certain family member got carried away and continued the process into our bathroom, destroying my very favorite part of the wallpaper. So PaPa graciously helped me redo it and did the vast majority of the work on his last visit here. Thank you SO much- it looks tons better!

I especially love this one. Tell me how you feel about peeling off wallpaper without saying a word...

 

Thank you

 Y'all are amazing. 

Thank you for all the support and love that you send us in each way that you send it. The texts, the posts, the calls, the hugs- we are so blessed to have each of you in our tribe. If everyone had a tribe like you guys, the world would be pretty darn near perfect!

I have good news that you all have earned with your love and intercession for me:

One, I have the MRIs scheduled back to back week after next so two, it'll be only one stick (provided veins cooperate, so keep praying about that, haha) and three, one single appointment and four, they've already called in a sedative for me. Can you FEEL that weight fall off my shoulders? Could you hear it as it hit the ground and crumbled? I almost cried. I was so relieved when she told me she had a spot for back to back MRIs that it looked like I was doing Snoopy's suppertime dance. Thank you, Jesus, and everybody who is covering me! 

You guys are amazing. Don't just pray for me- turn your attention and power to Gaza, Ukraine, the Caribbean islands destroyed by Beryl, a local shelter; pick a crisis and send some of your love that way as well. There's never a shortage of need and I think we all underestimate our power to affect change. For starters, you could be praying for safety over kids this summer as they head off to camps or that they have enough to eat without two meals at school, summer boating safety, Fourth of July activities as they generally involve explosives and alcohol, and so on. Adopt a cause and go be a champion. You won't be alone and we are so much stronger together. 

The next step is the surgical consult next week. I'll keep you posted, but I am very much looking forward to upcoming posts about people other than me! 

Thank you for everything! Be safe celebrating July 4th!

Note to self...

...when one has graduation photos on one's phone, one should deal with them BEFORE adding bazillions of vacation photos to phone. 

*face palm, scrolling, scrolling, backtracking, scrolling*

Anyway, away we go!

Of course I have fifty bajillion photos on my phone (roughly a bajillion of graduation related ones) but I'm trying to be sensitive to things like location reveals, the privacy of other people's kids, and so forth. It'd be easier to just dump it all and attempt to sort it out, but I don't have a good program with which to do that anymore, so I'm being intentional in the picking and choosing. There were lots of friends who came to support Thing Two, but I don't know how they all feel about being splashed all over the internet. I'm trying to restrain myself.

So here he is as a part of the choir. They said he added an entire octave, haha!

While subbing, I had a conversation with one of the teachers earlier in the year and he asked if I had any kids at the school. He apologized for being not great with names. I told him who my kid was, he pondered a moment, then lit up and said, "OH! With the HAIR! And the VOICE!" That pretty much sums up this guy right now. A second teacher mentioned the same attributes when speaking about Thing Two. Roughly paraphrased it sounded like :"The kid is kinda intimidating when you first meet him. He's so tall, he has all this hair, and then he opens his mouth and his voice is DOWN HERE. He's always polite, always respectful, but geez."

He fit in perfectly with his group of guys this year. This is one of my favorites. This photo cracks me up every single time.

Some of our excellent tribe:

Thank you for the cards, the well wishes, your attendance, but mostly for showing up in his life and in ours. None of us would be who we are without you pouring into us!

Thus endeth the high school career of Thing Two. Way to go, Hair In His Face! We're proud of you. Now get off the couch and go find a job. 😆

 

Veterans' Day snow

Thank you to all our Veterans, far and wide, who have served or are serving our country presently. Thank you to your families who hold down the fort and try their best to hold things together while you do what you've been called to do. Thank you all for the ridiculous amount of time and love and honor you pour out for those of us who do indeed take it for granted and often forget your sacrifices. We are put to shame when we stop to remember. Thank you for forgiving us.

Pap is here. He is one of those Veterans. Liam invited him to join the assembly to thank veterans at the high school today. It is November 11, and we are experiencing our first snow of the season. When Pap went into the assembly, there was a layer of gritty-yet-slippery hail-ish yuck. Now the snow is blustering about, looking like someone shook us. The powers that be are calling for 2-5 inches and I am wondering where in the garage I may find my ice scraper for Pepe the Pilot; I haven't yet made the switch from sunshade to scraper. 

I prefer the sunshade.

Muchly, much much more, as they say in Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? 

Now we shall see how easy it is to "lose" a Great Pyrenees in the snow. We've read that they shouldn't be let off leash as they tend to experience wanderlust, and "your neighbor may be surprised, especially as they appear out of the snow, to find a huge dog..."

I'm not ready!

Granted, I'm never ready, but substantial snow before Thanksgiving truly doesn't sit well with me. I don't even care of white Christmases. I'm more of a "if it has to snow, it can wait until the New Year- we already had enough this year" person. I will not say "fan."

So here we are with three kids and three dogs and hopefully school will be on time tomorrow because as early as the snow is, it is waaaaaaay too early to be starting with the snow days and delays!

This is why the rum is always gone...

Liam, the Squirrel Whisperer

A week ago (already!) I doo doo doo looking out my back door (sorry, it's how my brain works, haha) and saw Liam and the Bos just sitting there, chillin'. I saw front feet on Liam's hoodie and thought, "that's a really large frog...? Waitaminute. That has a tail." 

Yes, folks, Liam is indeed petting a squirrel.

The story as I heard it was that Bos was not clipped into his tie out and grabbed a squirrel's tail as it tried to scamper up a tree. He dragged it back down by its tail, Liam intervened, and the pictures are of it clinging to Liam for dear life. After being told multiple times that it is a wild animal and that he needs to let it go, he informed me that it wouldn't get off him, he was trying, it didn't want to leave him, he was trying, it won't let go, he was trying...

He finally made it back inside sans squirrel and was sent to wash his hands under supervision. He announced it had bitten him when he finally got it off of him, but there was only a tiny pinprick and no blood so I asked if it could have been a nail scratching him as it left. "Oh, could be." 

So I did what any good mom would do: I texted a nurse friend and asked about rabies. To her credit, she chuckled as she researched and didn't just laugh. According to the CDC, they are almost never to be found to be infected and haven't been known to cause rabies in the US among humans. 

Liam isn't any weirder than usual, so I guess we dodged that bullet. His finger never changed in appearance and he's no different than any other day, so all's well that ends well. Whew. Like I need any more crazy in May. 

And happy nurses' and teachers' week! I shudder to think where we would be without all y'all. Thank you for taking such good care of us!

Health, one year later, and assorted teasers

*photos, so viewer discretion advised if needed*

I promise I am not this color in real life, haha; dunno what is with looking like this! So this is what my skin looks like 4 months post-radiation. I'm trying to remember to lotion it daily. There is still a patch on the back of my shoulder of darker skin as well, but I couldn't get a good shot of it in the mirror with my phone. 

Overall, I'm feeling really good, for those of you who are keeping tabs on me. I'm on the other end of allergies/sinus/cold; around Easter weekend I felt like I'd walked into a sliding glass door. All that pressure and underwater gunkage feeling like your head is a bowling ball and you don't dare lean over to tie your shoes for fear you won't be able to right yourself again. Then it headed down and I started coughing. Soon I sounded worse than I felt for a few days and now I'm rarely coughing. Yay!

My hair is back, another yay! People keep asking if I'm going to grow it out again or keep it short. Time will tell. My friend who trimmed and tidied it told me it takes awhile for the top of your head to catch up to everywhere else. She said once my duck fuzz turns back into real hair it'll cooperate a little better, haha, and that I was to wait eight weeks before seeing her again or I'd feel like I was making no progress at all. My mom said, "your hair has always been attractive but now it is CUTE!" Thanks, Mom =)

Friday was my one year anniversary since the official "yes, you have breast cancer" diagnosis. I want to take a minute to thank everybody who sent anything physically like mail or blankets or cookies. Thanks for carving out time to run that errand. Every single one was appreciated. And not one less iota of thanks to those of you who prayed for me and sent me good juju throughout this year. I seriously would not be in the good shape (round is a shape!) I'm in if you hadn't invested in me. Thank you for checking in, for letting me know you were keeping track of the blog, for the facebook encouragement, all of it. Thank you, Tribe!

And now another minute to remind everyone to not put off those doctors' appointments. That goes for you, too, men; I'm not only preaching to the ladies here. There are trained professionals who want to help you be your best you! Fixing problems when they're small or early can save you tons of time and money and aggravation and heartache later on. AND LET PEOPLE HELP. For goodness sake, you are a human being, not a burden, so stop suffering in silence and ask for what you need! Be specific. You matter!

Last Thursday, just before my one year anniversary, I had my last infusion of Herceptin and Perjeta. Hooray! My blood counts looked good (WBC 3.96, HGB 12.3, PLT 123- that was for my nurse friends) though white blood cells were down a little bit because of my germs. My fabulous nurses hugged me and made me cry, of course. I'll be back in six weeks to check to see how the new oral meds that I start in three weeks are working. I have the best nurses. *beam*

And life just keeps going on!  The house is an absolute wreck as we were busy doing projects all weekend. You know, little things like planting seeds in the garden, sunny patch out back  who am I kidding, the swamp that is supposed to be a garden. And huge things like the big kids passing their fight test to become certified second degree black belts, wahoo! Toss in church, a hike through the closest woods with Bosley the mud-dog, Carrie having a friend sleep over, actual sunshine to play catch outside in, and apparently a lot of snacks judging by the wrappers and crumbs strewn everywhere. Shake, add more mud, and you pretty much have it. Grandmama helped a ton last week but it already looks like there has been no parental supervision for a week. 

Some idiot (I blame Delores) took too many pictures during the fight test (and the other two tests, as usual) so once I'm done sifting through my own mess I'll get those posted. 

For anyone interested, graduation will be Saturday, May 11, so let us know if you'd like to come see the big kids get their new belts! Liam and Damon have decided they do not wish to continue training right now (here's where you feel free to channel Iago from Disney's Aladdin, "this is me about to die from NOT SURPRISE!") but Carrie really, really wants the sword that comes with your official third degree black belt and since she's working there anyway she might as well keep training. If you need a butt kicked, she's your girl. Haha!

And for all of you, May is right around the blessed corner. I know. Moms everywhere just burst into tears. Remember, May is only one month. School is almost done. Before you know it, all those projects and papers and presentations and book reviews and wax museum days and spring sports and field trips and school lunches will be things of memory. Breathe. You've got this.

And then they will be home all day, but that's another post altogether.

Lest you be kept in suspense

Hello! This is your PSA to stay on top of your physical exams, especially for those of you who tend to Procrastinate. Just wanted to get that out there.

And now for the good news: I'm out of surgery, out of recovery, out of the room they put you in after recovery, and I'm home!

That's right. I'm home. Lots of the medical staff polled were of the opinion that I'd sleep (and therefore heal) better at home. I was sent home with instructions on how to empty and log the amount of fluid in the drains (oh yes, good times ahead) and the meds which went home with me and all kinds of fun advice. 

Rest easy, sweet friends and family. I'm in good hands with Dada and my Mommee and I'm behaving myself under orders of all my nurse friends. I promise! Thank you thank you thank you for the prayers and all of the support you have showered on drenched us with. YOU guys are amazing! Thanks for "storming the castle" for me. I'm betting God was delighted on my behalf over all the help he could bestow on my medical staff because you enabled it. Thanks for praying powerful prayers and for being my safety in numbers. 

I'll keep this post quick and get back to "the hard part" of resting and recovery, but I promise to do another gory detail post for those of you who'd like one. Thanks again!

And Dada has been excused from his grudging assignment of guest blogger, though I think he did an excellent job. =)

Christmas in July 2016

I'd like to thank the 77 of you who showed up for our Christmas in July shindig. We were so blessed by your friendship and fun fellowship and food!

Just look at all those cars in the yard! 

We had a lunch rush about noon, some downtime around 2:30, then at 4:00 I looked up to see my entire downstairs packed full of people. I had a moment of panic as I realized that it wasn't even dinner and we were pretty crowded, but then folks meandered outside and it looked more like this

Of course the tree was up and decorated by the kids:

That cracked some people up, but how could you possibly have Christmas in July with no tree? I'm stymied.

"And there was far too much food!"

There were some activities for kids:

And some for grownups, like reading in the library:

There was even green eggs and ham for breakfast for our out-of-town-and-overnight guests, especially to ones who brought along their own holiday cheer:

77 people (not counting us) was a lot, but we're sure there would have been more had it not been ridiculously hot with even more ridiculous humidity. Thanks to all of you who braved it to come check in with us, we missed those of you who couldn't make it (and there were quite a few of you, so don't feel like you were alone in missing out), and we'll see you next time! Merry Christmas!

Thank you

Thank yous go out to lots of people for the ongoing help in our basement. Thanks to Dan who's poker table sitting while we're under construction. Thanks to Pap who came out the night of "the flood" and helped bail, etc. Thanks to Pa Pa who came to help bleach the wood clean. Thanks to Grandma Barb who helped watch kids during cleaning and wisdom teeth removal and who even gave us a free night away from home w/ no kids! Thanks to Rita for taking the kids for a morning so we could clean up immediately after the damage. Thanks to the plumbing & heating guys, the reconstruction experts, the guys from work who lent us dehumidifiers, to Dada's boss for helping us redo the outlets and wiring. Thank you to Grandmama and Nana and Kay for the more than generous donations. Thank you, thank you, thank you all. We really appreciate all of you and all of your work!

The kids & I have had a good weekend at Pa Pa and Grandmama's. We got to see Hinrew & Muggin both yesterday and today, and we even met their dog, Betsy. What a sweetie! Today they joined us at Nana and Pap Pap's as we celebrated birthdays. Nana turns 21 this week *ahem* and Pap Pap will have his birthday later this month. We got to see my aunt Kay and uncle Mark too! We're going to have breakfast with Mar tomorrow and then head home. What a busy weekend. Glad we could see so many of you in one trip! =)

Have a wonderful week, everyone. We love you all lots!