A gorgeous glimpse

My poor flowers. They've been mostly neglected, yet somehow this beauty appeared and made me smile. Thanks, Foxglove, for hanging in there and being your vibrant self!

 

Friday funny

One of the other teachers comes into preschool to do art projects when her own students are having a special class like PE or music. The red paper with the black C for cat was the example, but it was not shown to the preschoolers. 

They were given verbal directions.

Maybe that's how Salvador Dali got his start...

*    *    *

The kids were told to color three apples: one red, one yellow, and one green. I received several which were varying shades of red/orange (okay), very pink (hmm), and most definitely blue (BLUE!) 

One of our students who didn't use red, yellow, or green looked right at me as I assessed her blue, purple, and magenta apples and asked, without batting an eye, "isn't that hilarious?"

*   *   *

Take your teacher friends out for ice cream and let them tell tales. You'll be hard pressed to hear funnier stories. Have a good weekend, everyone!

 

Rambling

 I think there's probably a reason that the human race generally has children when parents are younger versus older, and it is directly related to the energy level of those little ones. Whew! Preschoolers are hardcore, let me tell you. Especially ones who have started school determined not to nap. Ever. Silly little peeps have no idea they're missing out on one of the highlights of life. Ah well. With age comes wisdom.

That's what they say, anyway.

The students I'm working with are adorable, precocious, ridiculous, sweet, funny, earnest, enthusiastic ... and are wearing me out. I don't want to use the word "exhausting" because it's still early days, but I am amazed by their determination to stay wiggly at nap time and chatty when they should be quiet-ish and, despite announcing repeatedly that they're hungry, much more interested in entertaining their friends than eating their lunches! 

AND, for the love, why do they have to go to the bathroom 15 minutes after they were just reminded to go?

Anyway. We've been going on dot hunts when discussing circles and releasing butterflies and making alphabet books and God bless these brilliant women I work with because I am sheerly there for backup as they present all these incredible and adorable ideas. Letter B's that we've turned into bumblebees, D's that have become donuts, you get the idea. I love that I can quietly whisk the old supplies away and prep the new things while the teachers are explaining what will be happening next. Even if we have to repeat it. Many times. 

I love the staff where I work and these families. I'm having a really good season right now and I'm almost afraid to jinx it by saying anything, but I know some of you wonder so I want to keep you in the loop.

Not sure which kids are allowed to have their photos displayed or not, so you'll just have to envision little people yourself. We have three year olds on Tuesday and Thursday and 4s and 5s on MWF. Last week, one of the 3s decided she wasn't pleased about being dropped off and therefore wasn't going to sit or join the group or sit by herself and stood and stood and stood, only to fold herself in half physically, face down in my teacher friend's lap. Bless the teacher, she adjusted and kept reading to the group right over the top of the little flower's half-prone body. The little one eventually came around and was participating later on, so all's well that ends well.

We hosted Donuts for Dads and are gearing up for Grandparents' Day in a few weeks. We even survived our first two hour fog delay, which means nobody is there long enough to offically have to take a nap, so we had a lovely picnic outside and got to see many airplanes, some butterflies, AND two bald eagles! 

Healthwise, I'm mostly good. All cleared from the hysterectomy, attempted to get back into yoga last week, lamented/raged how much range of motion and flexibility I lost over the summer because of no yoga, and am back at it today. There's more neuropathy in my right arm than I'd like there to be- it often feels fizzy- but I'm not dropping things or in pain from it, so I guess either it'll get better or I'll get used to it. My armpit/pec(?) whatever on that right side has been really extra tight the last several days which is not making me happy, but at least it doesn't feel like a cough will kill me anymore. Sneezes were also terrible, but my body has apparently figured that out because most of them have been aborted, haha! You just don't think about what is connected until something goes wrong. I'm sure it's fine. It's already better than it was late last week. 

Thank you all for praying me/supporting me/loving on me to get me to this point! I think this has been my favorite back to school yet!

Hot and crispy... yet foggy

The above photos were on my walk yesterday. While fall isn't my favorite season, I'm learning to appreciate the russets and golds. 

Below, some of our mornings. I dunno how we get any fog when things have been as dry as they've been. Doesn't seem like there's enough moisture to MAKE fog, but I guess that's why I'm not in charge of such things.

 

Happy first day of fall, y'all

 

It has been hot enough that I still haven't wanted to bake, and that's saying something because I LOVE cookies. I owe some to some friends, so no, you guys, they're not lost in the mail; they're still ingredients.

Anyway, here's hoping we get slightly cooler temps, but more importantly, RAIN. It's been dry for... months? Things are sounding quite crispy and today is only the first day of fall. Could have fooled our yard!

Oot and aboots

Tell me it's hot and dry without telling me it's hot and dry. Cue the toad in Bosley's outdoor water dish the last two mornings. He keeps looking at me like, "what?" Completely unconcerned with the loud, ferocious beast I'm tying out there with him. 

These were all taken this morning in the mist. We found a huge spider and I kept maneuvering around to get the best shot. Personally, I like the above one where he's on the right, looking roughly the same size as half a wren...

Thing Three spotted the deer crossing the road, fortunately sans traffic at the moment, and he whistled at them to get their attention. So kind of them to pose!

 

School shenanigans

I'm so excited to be back to school! I'm having a blast in preschool most days, and we've even had two butterfly releases. The open one, above, had about three days of containment before we let him go, and of course, his neighbor had erected the chysalis right under the zipper of the container we needed to open to release the first one! And when we removed the remaining Very Hungry Caterpillar to use his container to corral the first butterfly until we could get him outside, said Caterpillar made a break for it. Fortunately, everyone ended up where they belong and it looks like our caterpillar is done gorging himself and is now upside down, contemplating his perfect spot on the roof of his container. Here's hoping the temps don't drop tremendously during the two weeks he's doing his thing out of sight before his release....

Here's me on my first day as a preschool aide. We've decided to take it month by month as there's a lot of moving parts like kids who need one on one attention now who may not later, thus shuffling personnel around. For now, I'm thrilled to be part of this team, loving on these kiddos, and having a ball singing songs, supervising lunch, lamenting that children don't always want to nap though adults usually do, helping with crafts, reminding that we go UP the ladder and DOWN the slide, and so on. It is a LONG day for small people. Don't forget to tell a teacher how much they are appreciated! There really are heroes without capes- I work with a bunch of them!

"First" day of preschool!

 

Sharing the gorgeous

I love my time with Thing Three at the bus stop. Sometimes it's foggy and we can both see and feel the approaching mist. Sometimes it's windy and we sneak glances for the bus over our shoulders if the wind is in our face. And some mornings are just gorgeous, even when he groans as I take out my phone to shoot "yet another sunrise." Perhaps I need an intervention. Until then, I'll share. 

I especially love it when there is a sunrise ahead and the moon quietly setting behind! 

 

Recognizing patterns.. or not

 Preschool kids have no idea how funny they are. We were going over our calendar pattern for August two weeks ago, red, yellow, and green apples repeating for the entire month and ending on a Friday’s red apple. My coworker asked, “what comes next?” A bright ray of sunshine pipes up, “Saturday!”

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...

 

Fun with meds

I know the saying is "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade,' but when the docs prescribe you meds...

make a face!

The face was actually Dada's doing. The teeth on the edges were Tylenol after my hysterectomy. The huge ones are calcium & Vitamin D. The gel one is also Vitamin D, the small oval is an allergy pill, the white round one was Tamoxifen, and the gummies are vitamins.

The top photo collection only differs in that the allergy pill is one of the tiny white ones and instead of the small circle Tamoxifen, I'm now on another tinier white circle that is Arimidex. The orange gel one is a stool softener, required after the hysterectomy lest I pop any stitches if I became constipated. Possibly TMI, but hey, I try to keep things real around here. The two purply non-gummy circles that taste like I imagine mulch would taste are my CDK 4/6 inhibitors (the 3 year pills). 

So yes, I crack up everytime a doc asks me about drug use. Then they clarify about "illegal" ones. Who has time to do illegal ones when it takes me enough time to get all these down as it is? 

My most recent doc visit asked if I used alcohol. I paused before I confessed, "that break week for that one med... I had a drink that week." She smiled and teased, "you could have two." 

I had no idea adulthood would be so thrilling!

 

Not lost!

 Sorry guys, I'm kindergarten tired, haha. It's back to school! I'm thrilled to say that I'm also back at school, both subbing and for the month of September at least, being an aide. I'm having a ball in the wing that holds our youngest students, but I also do not have the same energy allotment as the 5 year olds. Attention span, maybe, but definitely not the energy! 

Unfair that kids who fight naps get to have them and adults who need them don't. 

Suck it up, buttercup, I guess.

Anyhoo, our high school home team has lost all three of their football games thus far. The band sure is having a good time, and our kid in particular, who is mainlining Pixie Sticks and sour Skittles and God alone knows what else. Dada and I watched in fascination as he dumped sugar into his mouth, washed it down with Coke, played a snatch of a song, and repeated the cycle with more Pixie Sticks. I'm still amazed the entire bleacher section wasn't vibrating from the vast amount of sugar coursing through just him, but then seeing more Pixie Sticks being launched through the air from one section to another and I can't even imagine how they ever sleep. I bet dentists everywhere rejoice; job security fo' sho'.

My Mommeeee came out for a visit and the weather cooperated so we got to run some errands with blue skies and puffy clouds. September is a favorite of hers. I always wish they could stay longer, but she had good traveling weather and made it back home safe. Thanks for all our treats and Wendy's and your company!

Dada and I putzed our way through the Black Swamp Arts Fest (which we call Dark Arts) both on Saturday and Sunday, perusing all the wares, meeting up with friends, making some fun purchases. Tons of fair food, fun live music, and a Main Street full of vendors, we give it two thumbs up! PLUS, there was a book sale at the library so guess who got more books even though she's already at least 6 books behind her reading goal for 2025... yay! New friends!

Labor Day weekend brought yard work, much to the chagrin of the boys, including chopping off tree limbs and burning them, pulling many weeds and yanking out small honeysuckle bushes. Also got as many small saplings of our zillions of trees out as I could, and gingerly removed dead black raspberry canes. Miraculously, I stayed out of the poison ivy! Soon enough we will be raking leaves or mulching them into the grass, I suppose, but for now we are enjoying the cool mornings and warm afternoons. Especially at recess! Any chance to play outside is a chance I'll take!

My PET scan showed nothing, which is a good thing! My EKG also must have been normal because I didn't hear otherwise. Next month I'll have another oncology check up, and later this week is my 8 week post-op visit from my hysterectomy. I'm fairly certain she will sign me off. 

My two new meds seem to be doing their thing and only causing dried out eyes and nasal membranes. I hope the week off each month from one of them (planned, so that my lowered blood cell counts can recover. You know, important things like platelets) will bring some relief- I'm a little nervous going into the cold season with all the drying effects of furnaces on top of the side effects. I don't want to have to switch meds. One of these I'll be on for forever and the other is a 3 year gig. I'm almost 2/36ths done! Woohoo! I'll let you math nerds reduce that. 

Already had my first back-to-school germs, so I can check that off my list. I had a head cold before the kids even started back. Definitely must be allergic to school. Hehe!

Enjoy the beautiful autumn weather even if it hasn't officially started yet. I refuse to break out my cold weather clothes until the calendar declares it, so I'll be over here in my sundresses with sweaters and leggings. 

Let’s be bad

I’m not a pumpkin spice fanatic. I don’t ride that train from the first second the temps dip until the Peppermint Mocha comes out for Christmas. I’m not lighting the scented candles and baking the cookies and all the things…

But a PUMPKIN ROLL… well, that’s a different story altogether. Cheers!

 

Good news!

 Lots going on to fill you in on, hopefully this weekend, but one big thing is:

PET scan showed no sign of disease! Woohoo! All clear!

Thanks for all your prayers and support though everything these past 17ish months. I would like Bartles and James, “thanks for your support!”

😁

And my kids wonder why I'm weird

My Dad, the kids' PaPa, came out to visit for a few days. You may have already seen that he took us out for dinner in a previous post. 

Here, we were having breakfast and this goofball scoops jelly out of our jelly jar and lands half a mini powdered donut on top. He proclaims, "jelly donut!" I watch him consume that, lick his spoon clean and notice that he has 5 other donut halves on his plate.

"Wait just a second, you are NOT sticking that spoon back into our jelly jar!"

"I do it all the time!"

"Yeah, at YOUR house! You're not sticking a licked spoon back in OUR jelly! You are such a nut!"

"There's nothing wrong with what I'm doing!"

"Dad, you're so weird!"

 I get him a small mug of jelly for him to dip into at his heart's delight. Absolutely brought flashbacks of our hilarious breakfasts before school as a kid when the 4 of us were sharing a bathroom and had scheduled times of who would be in there when. Dad and I often would laugh ourselves silly as he's launching banana slices into my orange juice and my brother barricaded himself behind cereal boxes. 

In case you breakfast at my parents', you might want to bring your own jelly.

I just HEARD my mother roll her eyes.

 

Pepe got loaded

 This is me in the cab of a semi for the first time in my life. That's Pepe the Pilot getting loaded onto the trailer behind me. Let me tell you a story with a happy but to-be-continued ending:

Earlier this week, I think Tuesday but maybe Monday, who knows, I had an oncology check up appointment. I got an excellent report, blood work looked good, and no serious side effects from the first long term, new-to-me medicine that I started two weeks prior. I also got a prescrpition for the second I'll-probably-be-on-forever medication. So with a song in my heart and love from my medical team, I headed home. Until...

One by one my dashboard starts to light up in my 20 year old Pilot. The check engine light pops on, the exclamation point in the triangle pops on, other letters I don't know the meaning of lit up, as well as my TPMS which is often on and off so unless an actual tire lights up on my little car diagram that one gets ignored, but even more concerningly, my speed begins to decrease even though I'm not doing anything different with my right foot. *Side note: I'll be informed later on that this phenomenon is called, "Safe Mode" though how it is a safe mode when your heart is in your throat and you're praying you won't have to get out and push or something is beyond me. Maybe it's safe in the sense of the car is shutting down instead of blowing up?*

I am on the interstate.

Pepe, you can NOT die on the interstate. No, no, noooooo!

That would be not quite the Sound of Ultimate Suffering, for those of you who have seen "The Princess Bride". For those of you who haven't, what are you waiting for, Christmas!?

Poor Pepe gimps along to the next exit where there is a truck stop and a McDonald's, thankfully, and I'm not stuck on the side of the road in August in my new, cute shoes that I'm still breaking in!

Mind you, I've also only had a protein bar, water, and my morning meds. The plan was to do the appointment and go home to get Dad and then go out to breakfast. I haven't even had Elixir of Magic Beans yet.

First call is to the Elite of Husbands, who, naturally, IS OUT OF TOWN because things only go wrong when he is gone. Not because I expect him to help, just to keep him abreast of the situation and so that he can laugh at me. And then go bang his head against the wall, because.... vehicles. Nobody is going to let me drive alone to these appointments ever again between this and the Ori on the Rocks episode.

Second call is to AAA. 

Now, all due respect to the dispatch, he was incredibly kind and respectful and was trying his best. Any comparisons to Flash from "Zootopia" are probably unfair, but as anyone experiencing an adrenaline dump could tell you, please wait to tell me you're sending me new AAA cards AFTER you have sent help for the current situation. I am pretty sure my eyes were getting wider and wider as he tried to find me in the system from what apparently was an outdated membership number and had to hunt and peck in my name and so forth. 

Then we had another whole set of adventures as he tried to locate me because the link he sent my cell phone to ping for my location didn't work and he was in the same boat that I'd be in if someone called from somewhere unfamiliar in my state... it was a whole thing. He found me and sent a tow truck and it may have even arrived earlier than he predicted. So now I wait.

McDonald's it is! Except now I've missed the breakfast menu. I'm second in line when the Elite of Husbands calls me back, so I exit the line to update him and then make my way to the counter to order. The kid taking my order is a young cutie. Pretty sure I heard him tell his manager that he was 14. Is that even legal? Who knows. He asked me what I wanted and I told him a frappe and he asked if there was anything else and I said on an exhale, "I don't even know." I ended up with a box of McNuggets because I figured that'd be less mess than a Big Mac if the tow showed up in the middle of my whatever meal this is.

Back outside, devoured my nuggets, got a brain freeze on my first big sip of frappe, and the tow shows up. Hey, new bestie! Yaaaaay for the rescue! 

He gets Pepe loaded, we start chatting as we head up to our Honda place that's taken care of us for years, and he unloads Pepe and drops me off. Thank you, Matt!

I head in and the guys at the service desk all chuckle and say, "you got to ride in the truck!" I beamed at them and concurred, "I DID get to ride in the truck- my first time!" So then we go over what all is happening and they promise to squish Pepe in whenever they have time to work on him and they get me a shuttle ride home. 

So. He's a 2005. Not getting any younger. Has a lot of rust damage on his back left side so we OFTEN joke about, "hold onto your butt, Pepe" anytime we go over awful potholes, railroad tracks, the high curbs in the town north of us, etc. The tow truck guy thought maybe alternator issue since I had a ton of lights on the dash and my interior lights were dim. 

I picked Pepe back up a few days later. I love that my service guy talks to me like I know thing one about cars. Bless his sweet heart. I'm also thankful he types stuff out for me so I can hand it to anyone who actually DOES know things about vehicles and parts and whatnot. They cleaned out a ground throttle body (?) and cleared the code and one of the guys test drove it to the next town and back and nothing lit up on the dash. Not alternator as my battery light was one thing that did NOT light up. *Side note, my kids call those "achievements" like in a video game when you level up* 

They said to see how it goes from here, reminded me about the terrible rust damage, and to call them if we need them because they didn't want to sell me a bunch of stuff on a vehicle that is that old. So not Last Rites, but pretty close to a Good Luck and God Bless Until We Meet Again. 

Hopefully not next week. 

 

Good times, food times

I have two lengthy posts to edit tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's a fun photo from dinner last night. PaPa came out to visit for a few days, so I've put him to work, and he took us out to eat!

 

A question for the internet

Anybody know what this is? I found it (them?) on a front porch post. Anyone know if it (they?) need to be removed, posthaste?

 

Semantics

 Full disclosure: Thing Two is a direct relation of Slow Poke Rodriguez, the cousin of Speedy Gonzalez on the old "Looney Tunes" cartoons. They used to crack me up, those two, because to have family members that different struck me as being hilarious.

Then I met more people.

Anyway, Thing Two has been... nontraditional... in his milestones in the late teen years, not unlike, from what I hear, a lot of his peers. Kids seem to be delaying getting drivers' licenses, dating, and so forth. He's dabbling in the driving, but as yet hasn't had the First Job, etc. It's become quite the topic at our house. In fact, Dada asked:

What're you waiting for? Divine intervention? I'll be your divine intervention.

Thing Two: Divine intervention is "divine." You are not.

Dada: I'll help you MEET the divine intervention!

Thing Two: That's not intervention. That's.....................shipping.

Two of everything, including skin pictures (viewer discretion advised even though things look amazing)

Two weeks post-hysterectomy, here's how things look. Still chigger bites hanging in there, figures, but my glue-covered incisions are healing well. I saw my doc for the first follow up appointment and she said everything looked great and to keep doing what I've been doing, with one exception:

 I overdid it a little bit last Saturday with walking 3 miles on the treadmill and then twisting side to side to crack my back. Then I had some spotting, which is always alarming, at least to me. So I quit it and haven't done it again and things have been fine. Just keepin' it real, or honest, or something.

She showed me the photos of my lady parts that she took during surgery and can I just say that I think it's so cool to be able to see one's own insides? So neat!

Also getting plenty of wear out of the abdominal wrap they gave me. Definitely nice to have the support when I'm walking. And wonderful to take it off. My doc and I mused about how that's like a bra, but those ALWAYS feel good to take off, haha!

And it's been two months since my last radiation session. My skin looks fantastic and it only a bit more than than the rest of me. It looks much less burned and the lotion is still going on once a day for the most part. I've forgotten sometimes and other days I've slathered it on twice, so it all evens out. 

I'm staying out of the sun and still wearing my sleeve on my right arm. I have another PT check in two weeks. Here's hoping I'll be done with the sleeve for real unless I'm doing heavy household chores or gardening, and I need to remember to ask if they recommend using it for any flights in case I get inspired to go anywhere. 

Thanks again for all the prayers! The healing is going really well on all fronts. 

Enjoy the cooler weather this weekend!