I was recently given the book, The Shack to read by a pal. Without giving any plot spoilers away, it is the story of a man dueling with his faith and his place in life after a tragic incident. The resulting pilgrimage he undertakes after a strange invitation brings him closure, understanding and greater faith as a result. This book will put your own faith into question, give you some good questions to mull over and change the face of your personification of ?, whatever you call Nature, higher power, God, The Force of the Universe.
The question I have been considering for days is: "When you use your imagination as an adult, is it to deal with the past, the present or the future?" Find a favorite point to ponder and we'll hash it out in future posts...
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle ;-P
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
LAST Medical Update - I hope
Baby Jack - living temporarily at Grandma's house in Tacoma with his mom. Respiratory is normal and he's gaining weight. Home for them is Ocean Shores and they feel need to be near a Neo-natal ICU for a few more weeks of good check ups.
Ian - has had several chemo doses by spinal tap. Has lost his hair, gained some weight due to steroids and is generally taking it all pretty well. Next steps are chemo into his port every 10 days so they are spacing out his doses. His #'s are increasing so the chemo is doing what it is supposed to.
Michelle - had 6 mo mammo check up yesterday and no surprises. I DARE them to find anything weird at this point. I've been scanned, scoped, ultrasounded and probed deep wide and often. Good riddance! I've had my fill of docs for 2008. Meet with nutritionist the 13th and then I'm DONE!
Boys are well and have their check ups next, so the most they should need is immunization updates. FINGERS crossed!
Hope all is well with you and yours, we are at 22 good colo check-ups!
Peace and blessings ;-P
Michelle
Ian - has had several chemo doses by spinal tap. Has lost his hair, gained some weight due to steroids and is generally taking it all pretty well. Next steps are chemo into his port every 10 days so they are spacing out his doses. His #'s are increasing so the chemo is doing what it is supposed to.
Michelle - had 6 mo mammo check up yesterday and no surprises. I DARE them to find anything weird at this point. I've been scanned, scoped, ultrasounded and probed deep wide and often. Good riddance! I've had my fill of docs for 2008. Meet with nutritionist the 13th and then I'm DONE!
Boys are well and have their check ups next, so the most they should need is immunization updates. FINGERS crossed!
Hope all is well with you and yours, we are at 22 good colo check-ups!
Peace and blessings ;-P
Michelle
Sunday, July 27, 2008
BRA Chix hit the Books
I found a few books during my recuperation time to recommend. Not a romance novel in the bunch - some have small semi-plots of near-romance, but no bodice-ripping, heaving, studs of raging passion to be found here. I'm still pondering a passionate parody...
The Alpine Mystery series by Mary Daheim. The Emma Lord mysteries are a good read, entertaining, not requiring too much thought and an endearing look into the fictional town and residents of Alpine, WA. A real place in the dawn of railroad time, that has since faded away in upper Snohomish County. So it has local appeal, good plots and characters we welcome into our reading respites. The main character Emma is the editor of the local weekly paper and in her "spare time" finds herself helping the local law enforcement do their job as well all in the name of news. It is an A-Z series, the Alpine Advocate through the Alpine Quilt, I believe is the most current addition. Not necessary to read in any order, the stories stand alone.
Mrs. Perfect was recommended by BRA Chick Kathleen as we all have one or more of them in our life, the women we love to hate or would like to hate them if they weren't so fun to be around. Taylor Young has a closetful of designer togs, a Street of Dreams home, great sex life and is the IT mom of her girl's school chairing the auction and getting it all done better than anyone else. Her life falls off its pedestal and instead of crumpling, it's tempting, she finds her bootstraps, tightens them and becomes part of the solution instead of part of the problem, much to the surprise of her friends, enemies and her family. It sounds cheesy, but has some good heart to it. I kept wondering when she was going to come to the realization that her closet is a vault and take her clothes to consignment and discover "a whole new world," but it never happened. Can you imagine if the Bellevue set discovered "consignment"? Oh, the horrors.
By Jane Porter, she also has Odd Mom Out which is next on my list to find.
The last one is the Queen of Babble series by Meg Cabot, Queen of Babble in the Big City - I'll be looking for the rest of the series at the library. Wanna-be wedding dress renovator Lizzy found a remote prince on her last vacation to France and is living with him in his mother's Manhattan apartment. She needs to find a job, an apartment and herself, not necessarily in that order. A high profile wedding in New York brings her opportunity and benevolent friends and neighbors make things click for her amid some major snags in the system. Well-developed characters, decent plot - this is a good by the pool, on the beach, last vacation of the summer read.
Happy reading, let me know what has been in your bag while you shuttle and wait for kids. For isn't that our passion from June to August? The secret bliss of a good novel to indulge in while we wait for our charges to emerge... and wait.
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle ;-P
The Alpine Mystery series by Mary Daheim. The Emma Lord mysteries are a good read, entertaining, not requiring too much thought and an endearing look into the fictional town and residents of Alpine, WA. A real place in the dawn of railroad time, that has since faded away in upper Snohomish County. So it has local appeal, good plots and characters we welcome into our reading respites. The main character Emma is the editor of the local weekly paper and in her "spare time" finds herself helping the local law enforcement do their job as well all in the name of news. It is an A-Z series, the Alpine Advocate through the Alpine Quilt, I believe is the most current addition. Not necessary to read in any order, the stories stand alone.
Mrs. Perfect was recommended by BRA Chick Kathleen as we all have one or more of them in our life, the women we love to hate or would like to hate them if they weren't so fun to be around. Taylor Young has a closetful of designer togs, a Street of Dreams home, great sex life and is the IT mom of her girl's school chairing the auction and getting it all done better than anyone else. Her life falls off its pedestal and instead of crumpling, it's tempting, she finds her bootstraps, tightens them and becomes part of the solution instead of part of the problem, much to the surprise of her friends, enemies and her family. It sounds cheesy, but has some good heart to it. I kept wondering when she was going to come to the realization that her closet is a vault and take her clothes to consignment and discover "a whole new world," but it never happened. Can you imagine if the Bellevue set discovered "consignment"? Oh, the horrors.
By Jane Porter, she also has Odd Mom Out which is next on my list to find.
The last one is the Queen of Babble series by Meg Cabot, Queen of Babble in the Big City - I'll be looking for the rest of the series at the library. Wanna-be wedding dress renovator Lizzy found a remote prince on her last vacation to France and is living with him in his mother's Manhattan apartment. She needs to find a job, an apartment and herself, not necessarily in that order. A high profile wedding in New York brings her opportunity and benevolent friends and neighbors make things click for her amid some major snags in the system. Well-developed characters, decent plot - this is a good by the pool, on the beach, last vacation of the summer read.
Happy reading, let me know what has been in your bag while you shuttle and wait for kids. For isn't that our passion from June to August? The secret bliss of a good novel to indulge in while we wait for our charges to emerge... and wait.
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle ;-P
Joe hit 6' and learns to beat the economy...
Well, I don't know who wins the pool, but we measured Joe yesterday and he is 6'.75" at 13 years old. We had a bet whether or not he would hit it by his birthday last month or by the first of July. Not quite, but this week I went out to buy pants for school. Noted his current pants size and brought home some slim fit jeans - too short and too tight. That puzzled us, how can the same size jeans be too short. Don't know but they are. Cleaned out all of his drawers and rooted out clothing and shoes that no longer fit, so our local Goodwill is going to have some good finds unless Joe decides to photo the items and put them on Craigslist. Our whole main level of our home came from Craigs list over time.The clothes in this photo no longer fit and he hits the top of the panel above his head now... new photo due, I'll add later. He thinks he wants to do cross-country running team at the new school so running shoes are next on the agenda for him. $$$ I made him a deal on school clothes, I buy pants and shoes and he buys t-shirts since he's picky about which ones he will wear. We had an economics lesson on Friday night - $15 buys one to two shirts at Fred Meyer, but 7 at Value Village, I may have a newly-minted follower. Recent articles in the newspaper are signing the praises of thrifty spending and recycling for housewares and clothing, nothing new to me, I've been a VV faithful for YEARS. The thing that cracked us up in a recent Parade article was that the family looks forward to a big tax return for home improvements and scrimps and saves all year - the money they "loan" to Uncle Sam would be better used to pad their budget and they would get more investing in their own savings. How is that a benefit?
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle ;-P
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Prayers and Blessings
New prayer request - my cousin Wendy had a son, Jack, Wednesday night by c-section and he inspirated some amniotic fluid in the process. He now has a lung infection and is in the neonatal intensive care section of Tacoma General. Very stressful for a first time mom and her family. He is a 9 pounder so he has some resilience and they have requested prayers for his recovery, mom's recovery and for successful breastfeeding which will bring him needed antibodies. We racked up the miles for me and know it works...
Ian is responding well to his treatments. He gets a spinal tap of chemo every Thursday and needed a blood transfusion last week, so that was a new experience for his family - 9 hours at Mary Bridge. They are assembling a hospital survival kit for those trips b/c who knows how long they will take each week. It's a roll of the dice. He's much cooler with is new hairdo to boot.
Nick spent the week at tennis camp with 2 buddies and Joe worked wrangling 40 kids at Vacation Bible School at church. He seemed to enjoy himself but learned he doesn't want more than 2 kids when he is an adult, so it taught him things on a variety of levels. Boys have a week off of activities until August 4-8. Joe in b-ball and Nick... we'll find something to occupy him.
We are well. Had a busy week last week and another coming up, so I've been a couch potato this weekend. Our washing machine is on its way to a quick retirement. The main issue is we bought the house from a single occupant and it came with a front load small capacity washing machine. With a family of 4 and two boys, right?! So it's days were numbered. It's been peeing on the floor like a geriatric puppy for months and Dan took it apart this weekend. Brilliant design, plastic compartment to hold the drum in place and steel screws. So the plastic housings break and you are ... screwed. Just what I need this week. Fortunately, Friday was 7 loads of washing day, which may have been the straw that broke this swaybacked camel. We'll do our part to stimulate the economy. The boys are off tomorrow for a M's game with the g-rent's and overnight. I'll work a long day and then take a pal to her colonoscopy on Tuesday - I'm everyone's butt buddy now; required ride home from the light at the end of the tunnel.
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle
Ian is responding well to his treatments. He gets a spinal tap of chemo every Thursday and needed a blood transfusion last week, so that was a new experience for his family - 9 hours at Mary Bridge. They are assembling a hospital survival kit for those trips b/c who knows how long they will take each week. It's a roll of the dice. He's much cooler with is new hairdo to boot.
Nick spent the week at tennis camp with 2 buddies and Joe worked wrangling 40 kids at Vacation Bible School at church. He seemed to enjoy himself but learned he doesn't want more than 2 kids when he is an adult, so it taught him things on a variety of levels. Boys have a week off of activities until August 4-8. Joe in b-ball and Nick... we'll find something to occupy him.
We are well. Had a busy week last week and another coming up, so I've been a couch potato this weekend. Our washing machine is on its way to a quick retirement. The main issue is we bought the house from a single occupant and it came with a front load small capacity washing machine. With a family of 4 and two boys, right?! So it's days were numbered. It's been peeing on the floor like a geriatric puppy for months and Dan took it apart this weekend. Brilliant design, plastic compartment to hold the drum in place and steel screws. So the plastic housings break and you are ... screwed. Just what I need this week. Fortunately, Friday was 7 loads of washing day, which may have been the straw that broke this swaybacked camel. We'll do our part to stimulate the economy. The boys are off tomorrow for a M's game with the g-rent's and overnight. I'll work a long day and then take a pal to her colonoscopy on Tuesday - I'm everyone's butt buddy now; required ride home from the light at the end of the tunnel.
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
SD trip - final days!
I need to stay on track, I've left you in suspense with the final days of the SD trip. Heavens! On July 1, we rode into Hill City and ambushed the Alpine Saloon for a great lunch of more German food, got to observe a thunderstorm outside while we ate and then explored some of the merchantiles in the burg. The boys and I ended up at the end of town in front of an old time photo studio. I sent them back to roust the troops and all 8 of us partook in a 1/2 hour of revelry posing as the outlaw in-laws. J was less than enthusiastic and N was all over it because he was equipped with not 1 BUT 2 GUNS!!! Talk about a s**t-eating grin on his face. The photo shoot was a hoot and I thought we'd have to twist arms to get my parents to participate. Not so. I've been trying to get a good scan of the photo, but it always comes out sideways. When I get it right, I will post. We took the 1880 steam train from Hill City to Keystone through the lower Black Hills of SD and lots of rustic homes, ranches, old decrepit farms and mines. Some new and interesting construction in the mix as well. A brief stop in Keystone and we saw we should make a return trip in the next day or two.
We arrived back at Palmer Gulch in time for a potluck to eat up any remaining leftovers at Rick and Mary Lyons cabin. This is one of the PLUSH cabins with several rooms, a big porch and large dining table which heard many great stories and much laughter that night - and saw a few empty wine bottles as well. We did a good job clearing out the leftovers - like a hoard of locusts.
The morning of July 2, Dan wanted to get us up early to go to Mt. Rushmore, into Keystone for some entertainment and onward to Custer State Park to our next lodging so he and Joe could run down to the Badlands for the sunset. The Presidents were foggy, so we skipped the tour and saw them later in all their glory in the tunnel view in Custer State Park. We had seen them at night all lit up due to several wrong turns the first night in so the novelty had worn off at that point. In Keystone, the guys tolerated some shopping with Mom then wanted to do the Alpine Slide. A ski lift takes you to the top of a small mtn., and you ride down on a luge sled in a concrete track. You really get zipping. Dan took a film of one of his runs and if I can get him to post in on YouTube, I'll post the link here. It was a hit for all 3 boys and I found my commemorative t-shirt "Don't make me open this can" of Whoop-Ass. Well worth the cost.
We headed onward to Custer State Park and found our cabin to be cozy but quite plush with a heat pump and satellite TV, much to Nick's amusement. I had a nap, Nick watched an informative outer space show and Dan and Joe headed for the hills. Moseyed in to Custer for dinner and caught a street corner Indian dance performance with the rents and the newlyweds, and returned to the lodge for pie for dessert. While walking back to our cabins, the forward group grew suddenly quiet and moved rapidly. There was a bison the size of a mini-van 25 feet from D/D's cabin, so we watched him for about an our out the back windows, 1/2 of us in the bathroom and half in the bedroom. So nice to have a close family. At 10:00 it was too dark to see if he was lingering and we used camera flashes to return to our own cabin. Joe and Dan returned about 11:00 and Joe had sat on a cactus in one of their hikes, he wasn't hurt but his jeans were handled gingerly. They stopped at Wall Drug and Joe drove for a bit in the middle of nowhere, so they had a bonding experience.
Early on the 3rd, we ventured back into Rapid City for our return flight home via Salt Lake City. We found cooperative flight personnel who cut our layover time by 5 hours and got us in to Seattle by 5 p.m., so the return trip kept me a happy camper without spending much time in SLC. I'd learned my lesson and napped from Rapid City to SLC. I sat next to Joe, who is not a social flight partner. Overall, the trip was good, we made some cool memories for our parents, ourselves, our relatives and the boys. Safe travels, no major mishaps and good times.
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle ;-P
We arrived back at Palmer Gulch in time for a potluck to eat up any remaining leftovers at Rick and Mary Lyons cabin. This is one of the PLUSH cabins with several rooms, a big porch and large dining table which heard many great stories and much laughter that night - and saw a few empty wine bottles as well. We did a good job clearing out the leftovers - like a hoard of locusts.
The morning of July 2, Dan wanted to get us up early to go to Mt. Rushmore, into Keystone for some entertainment and onward to Custer State Park to our next lodging so he and Joe could run down to the Badlands for the sunset. The Presidents were foggy, so we skipped the tour and saw them later in all their glory in the tunnel view in Custer State Park. We had seen them at night all lit up due to several wrong turns the first night in so the novelty had worn off at that point. In Keystone, the guys tolerated some shopping with Mom then wanted to do the Alpine Slide. A ski lift takes you to the top of a small mtn., and you ride down on a luge sled in a concrete track. You really get zipping. Dan took a film of one of his runs and if I can get him to post in on YouTube, I'll post the link here. It was a hit for all 3 boys and I found my commemorative t-shirt "Don't make me open this can" of Whoop-Ass. Well worth the cost.
We headed onward to Custer State Park and found our cabin to be cozy but quite plush with a heat pump and satellite TV, much to Nick's amusement. I had a nap, Nick watched an informative outer space show and Dan and Joe headed for the hills. Moseyed in to Custer for dinner and caught a street corner Indian dance performance with the rents and the newlyweds, and returned to the lodge for pie for dessert. While walking back to our cabins, the forward group grew suddenly quiet and moved rapidly. There was a bison the size of a mini-van 25 feet from D/D's cabin, so we watched him for about an our out the back windows, 1/2 of us in the bathroom and half in the bedroom. So nice to have a close family. At 10:00 it was too dark to see if he was lingering and we used camera flashes to return to our own cabin. Joe and Dan returned about 11:00 and Joe had sat on a cactus in one of their hikes, he wasn't hurt but his jeans were handled gingerly. They stopped at Wall Drug and Joe drove for a bit in the middle of nowhere, so they had a bonding experience.
Early on the 3rd, we ventured back into Rapid City for our return flight home via Salt Lake City. We found cooperative flight personnel who cut our layover time by 5 hours and got us in to Seattle by 5 p.m., so the return trip kept me a happy camper without spending much time in SLC. I'd learned my lesson and napped from Rapid City to SLC. I sat next to Joe, who is not a social flight partner. Overall, the trip was good, we made some cool memories for our parents, ourselves, our relatives and the boys. Safe travels, no major mishaps and good times.
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle ;-P
Running at normal chaotic speed
Well, life is as much back to normal as it is going to get - boys running to concurrent events in separate parts of the city, mom trying to squeeze some work in and the housework going to pot as usual during the summer. Sounds like nothing's changed at Chez Meeker. Appt with my PCP the naturopath yesterday and we scheduled a session with a nutritionist in August. So that should help me figurer out a plan for the future that won't tax my system. I've been erring on the side of excess caution. Oncologist put me on calcium, low dose aspirin daily and vitamin D, specifically for colon health because I have no more tubing to spare. I'm assembling the associated costs of having colon cancer just because I find it astounding what medical procedures cost and think others would too. So, when I get the final bills in, I will post. Just getting the pre-diagnostics in now from early May.
N's had a busy week of 3 hours of tennis camp daily with 2 pals, J has been helping with Vacation Bible School as a crew leader (kid wrangler) and comes home pooped. We've been baking for a Friday night church fund-raiser carnival cake walk and we're in high 80-90 degree weather. This weekend N goes to NW Trek for an overnight event and he's pumped!
Glad to be out of constant dr. appts., no need for a wheelchair and released for normal activity. Now how do I catch up on the two months that slipped by while I was otherwise occupied?! My doc yesterday asked, "But how are you doing mentally with all of the last two months you've dealt with?" Hmmm, let's just move forward and leave it in the past. Over and onward. Can't believe summer is 1/2 over and if I ask the boys, we "haven't done anything".
Hope all is well in your side of the pond and the tadpoles are hopping!
Peace and Blessings
Michelle ;-P
N's had a busy week of 3 hours of tennis camp daily with 2 pals, J has been helping with Vacation Bible School as a crew leader (kid wrangler) and comes home pooped. We've been baking for a Friday night church fund-raiser carnival cake walk and we're in high 80-90 degree weather. This weekend N goes to NW Trek for an overnight event and he's pumped!
Glad to be out of constant dr. appts., no need for a wheelchair and released for normal activity. Now how do I catch up on the two months that slipped by while I was otherwise occupied?! My doc yesterday asked, "But how are you doing mentally with all of the last two months you've dealt with?" Hmmm, let's just move forward and leave it in the past. Over and onward. Can't believe summer is 1/2 over and if I ask the boys, we "haven't done anything".
Hope all is well in your side of the pond and the tadpoles are hopping!
Peace and Blessings
Michelle ;-P
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