Entries from August 2007 ↓

(payu2blog assignment)

I don’t know if you’re like me, but when I read the magazines and gawk at the beautiful jewelry the models are wearing, I always think it’s such a shame that it’s so friggin’ expensive! Even the stuff that doesn’t have any real jewels or anything in it. Just because a Hollywood designer made it or the stars wear it, or whatever.  This place has really cute designer inspired jewelry. Not bad prices either! It makes me wish I had an endless clothing/acessories budget. Alas, I do not. But it’s fun to dream!

(payu2blog assignment)

Growing up we always had bunk beds. Of course I had the top, since I’m the oldest. My little sister had the bottom. I can fall asleep in a split second. I’ve just always had that ability. My sister has the opposite problem. She can’t fall asleep for a loooong time after she gets in bed. You know what she thinks about when she lays there? Or at least what she used to think about back when we shared the bunk beds? How she needed to go to the bathroom, that’s what. She would get up 458,128 times a night to go to the bathroom BEFORE she went to sleep. Do you know how annoying it is to be woken that many times in the first hour? It leads to a very mad teenaged girl. Which we all know is not a beautiful thing. I guess my parents agree, because it wasn’t too long after we started sharing the beds that my parents built me my own room. In the basement. I guess basements are a nice place for angree teenaged girls. A whole story to themselves. Hmmm…

Do you know why this post is untitled? Because I have no idea what to write, that’s why.

I went through a streak where I had tons of ambition and creativity. That meant good blog posts every day. Now I am going through the opposite streak - no ambition nor creativity.

Maybe it is because I’m so dang tired lately. We have been running like crazy all week. From trips to take Gramma to the doctor, to going to the McDonalds that has a great playground about an hour from here, to trips to the Deer Park (and also we mined for ‘gems’), to visits from the kid’s great aunt, to the dryer repair man coming twice this week, to hubby’s first day back to school, etc….  I don’t know what is planned for tomorrow, but I am sincerely hoping - N O T H I N G!

Oh, a first this week — we took a family bike ride - our first ever. Okay, technically it wasn’t a family bike ride since hubby nor myself rode a bike, but each of the boy’s did! (We were each busy doing bike patrol for the kids.) We went around 2 blocks. Forest on his tiny bike with training wheels, and he never complained or got tired once! The only time he whined was in protest to coming back home. Warrior rode his tricycle. I pushed him for the first few minutes (I did it scooter style with my leg on the back of his trike, but boy, that is quite the exercise for a poor leg!). Then when I let go of him he started using his feet to propel him forward. Not on the pedals. But with his feet on the ground pushing forward. The child rode for 1 1/2 blocks that way (all the way back home)! I tried to push him and help him over the small hills and bumps in the sidewalks but he literally had a coronary anytime someone would so much as lay a finger on his trike. At one point I had to pick him up and literally carry him, attached to his trike, over a big puddle, because God forbid he let me push him around it. Picking the whole kit-and-caboodle up surprised him enough that he didn’t scream. Anyway, it was really fun! It just struck me how old they were… us going for this walk with no stroller, no hands to hold, nothing like that, just two little boys making their own bikes go. Wow, where does time go???

Well, I guess for a post where I had no idea what I would say, I’ve used quite a few words. So I guess I’ll stop now. I’m going to read my book that I just started to night (one by Christian author Karen Kingsbury and some other person) that hubby’s Grandma lent to me. The night’s still young… but I have no idea how long I’ll last until I’m in dream land!

I got a sling when Forest was first born, because I thought it would be great. Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to use it, and ended up selling it on eBay. I heard more and more about them during my pregnancy with Warrior and bought a simple ring sling. I loved the thing and used it a lot, especially when he was an infant. I still whip out the thing when I am going someplace that he’ll want to walk half of the time and then will want held the rest of the time. It so saves on my arms. I have always wanted to try some different kinds of baby slings, especially the pouch style. I was very excited to find www.slinglings.com. There prices were not bad, and the colors and prints of their fabrics — ohhhh la la! (Check out their new fabrics they’ll be getting soon http://www.slinglings.com/vote.php) The sling I ordered is bright and fun, and would for a boy or girl (in my mind). It came just in time as today I had to take my Grandmother to her check-up at the Doctor’s office. She is kind of wobbly so I have to hold her hand, and I hold Forest’s hand with my other hand, and sling Warrior for these types of outings. Couldn’t do it without my sling, since I don’t have enough hands! I give this new sling two thumbs up for comfort. On long outtings, especially since Warrior has gotten heavier, the ring on the ring sling sometimes digs into me since it’s metal, this didn’t, and I found that it distrubuted the weight really nicely as well. Now I wish I had a newborn to try this out on….. yes, I’m talking about borrowing one, not actually having one right now just to try out the sling. lol But one day in the future when I do have my own, I know I’ll be using this sling a lot!

Here’s my new sling:

So, my mom got accepted to a wonderful clinic specializing in her specific cancer. It’s the only clinic of that nature in the entire world. A lot of people try to get into this place, and a lot of insurance companies deny the requests to pay.

We prayed and prayed that God would somehow work things out so that my mother could get in there. Finally, after a looooot of work on my mom’s doctor’s part, she got in. But they said that they would only cover the visit it’s self. All tests the doctors wanted to be done, had to be done at her doctor’s office locally, because it was in-network.

So they requested she have a bone marrow test. It was the first one that they did since the initial diagnosis. They have been monitoring her progress since chemo through simple blood tests, and watching to see what the counts do.

Where we stood last, the Oncologist told her that due to the fact that her blood levels haven’t come up a ton, and aren’t moving very quickly that he believed her to be in partial remission. He wasn’t sure to what degree, unless they did a bone marrow test. He has given the option to my mom since the beginning, but they are very painful, and it was up to her. He didn’t feel that the test was really needed as they wouldn’t be giving her anymore treatment at this point anyway, since she just had it, and wasn’t in desperate need of it yet. Long story short, the cancer clinic she got accepted into requested on. So two weeks ago, she goes in and gets it. It was super painful, but it was over.

Waiting for the results was the worse. We definitely knew not to expect the results to be superb, because her blood levels were not. We were just hoping at best that it would not be horrible. That she would be on the better end of partial remission, rather than the worse.

So she goes in to the doctor the end of last week. He sits her down and tells her…..

We can’t find any cancer cells in your bone marrow.

Did you hear that????? No cancer cells in her bone marrow, people!!!! Which means the chemo did EXACTLY what it was supposed to do!

Now he was careful not to let her think that she was cured forever. The nature of a blood cancer is that they can knock out all of the bad cells, but they will continue to grow back because that is the kind of cells your DNA is producing…. It is not like a tumor that you can hack out and it be gone (I am not saying that can be done to all tumors, just trying to explain….). He said to her "It could be 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years. I don’t know. But right now you are in a type of remission!".

I’m taking what I can get, that’s what I’m doing! No, we don’t have the future guaranteed, but we do have right now . I am not going to think about what her prognosis will be in 10 or even 5 years. I am going to think about the fact that right now my little Momma is a living, breathing, miracle! I am so thrilled with this! I never thought in a million years that after this test I would be posting these results!!

She is still going the specialized cancer clinic. She is hoping for some answers and help for the chronic pain she is living with. Nerve pain to be exact. Her doctors right now are not sure if it’s from the disease it’s self, the chemo, or what… she also has terrible insomnia and sleeps very little.  These are hard things for her to have to endure. Although nothing is too big for God, so I am praying for either some answers from these doctors, or a miracle!

Please continue to pray for my mom… that she can remain cancer-free for a good, long period of time, and that she may be healed from this pain, and be able to rest peacefully in her bed!