Today

Had lunch at Ashland house today with Chris. I had the veggie plate, which had collard greens, fried asparagus, sweet potato, tomatoes and black beans. Mmmm. I really don't care for sweet potatoes, but they are chock full of vitamins and anti-cancer hoohah, so I just pulled up my big girl panties and ate it anyway.
Which made me feel justified in having the peach cobbler afterward -- the first sugar I've had in several days. Goodness, it was good. Right up there with my mom's peach cobber.
DH is still puny. Stayed home from work again today.
I worked out today, and set up an appt to start meeting with a trainer on Monday.

Nice Guy

I was Office Depot today picking up some stuff, including some paper. I bought a couple of reams of paper, the kind where they donate money to BC research if you buy it. The guy ahead of me in line noticed that, and bought a couple of reams of the same kind of paper, too! I thanked him, and he said, "Hey, I've got a wife and a mom..."

It's Christmas Time

...the girls decided they wanted to make a gingerbread tree tonight, and wanted to listen to Christmas carols while they did so. This can mean only one thing to me: The Ray Conniff Singers. We had one Christmas LP growing up, and it was of the Ray Conniff Singers. So I always make sure we have that playing on Christmas day.

Friends

Y'all, if you don't have a friend like Dragana, get one. She came by last night and dropped off low-sugar banana muffins to help me feel better.

Melange

There's so much in my head I'm not sure what to write about today, so forgive me if this is a little hodge-podgy.
* I got a v/m today from DD1's school, saying she'd missed 9 days this year so far, and if she misses 9 more, she might be held back. Is there anything the school can do to help her? Considering she's making straight A's, i think we're good for right now.
* Had a cavity filled today. Ouch.
* I went to DD2's school around 8:40 today, to sit in on chapel. I'm supposed to be the speaker in a couple of weeks, and i wanted to see how it's done. As I was walking in, they stopped me and told me DD2's skirt was too short for dress code, so I had to take her home and have her change. Whoops!
* Indian food for lunch today. mmmmmm. I had lunch with DD1 at her school, and she wanted a meatball sandwich. this s'wich contained 3 meatballs, one of which landed on the floor.
* a friend of a friend was diagnosed with stage 4 sarcoma recently. she's in high school. i have a bit of a messiah complex, so of course i emailed my friend with a summary of what "Beating Cancer With Nutrition" says. Her name is Chelsea, and her mom is a court reporter, so she only gets paid when she's there. please pray for Chelsea's healing. i hate cancer.

i'm kind of sad today. with Jacque's death, chelsea's diagnosis, carrie and mia's going thru cancer treatment, me dealing with the fear of recurrence (and mets, and dying). it's a lot. if you can't find me, look under the covers on my bed.....

The First One

Jacque, a wonderful, warm, funny, kind woman died of BC on Thanksgiving. I knew her through breastcancer.org, as we started chemo the same month. She could always be counted on for some positive thoughts, or something funny. She was diagnosed a year ago -- this was her second goround with BC, and by the time they caught it, it was in her lungs.
Here's her blog.
http://www.jacqnielsplace.blogspot.com/
I miss her.
I hate breast cancer.

The Promised Land

Trust must be an act of the will, never natural. God will always keep some major urgent need to keep us depending. God is dependable, and He wants us to live our lives in complete dependance on Him. We can depend on His plans and promises, that He will remain true to His character.

Found the above just now. It's notes from a bible study I took last year.

I may have ruminated about this before, so if I have, just skip this and go on.

i was talking to a fellow survivor Sunday -- she's a two year survivor -- and asking her how she dealt with the fear of recurrance. Because now that all the excitement and busyness of chemo and rads is over, there's nothing. Nothing to protect me from recurrance. A relative sent me "Noon At Nordie's", which is an account of 4 young women's journey thru BC. The problem is, two of those 4 women have since died from BC. So, it's a very real fear, esp with my kind of cancer, which was very aggressive.

So God and I were talking about this, and He reminded me of the story in the Bible of the 12 spies. God had promised the land of Canaan to the Hebrews, and they got to the border, and Moses sent out 12 spies to see what the lay of the land was. Ten of the spies came back and said, "No way. Those guys in the Promised Land that we're supposed to defeat? They're HUGE." Two of the spies said, "Yeah, those guys are big, but God is bigger."

Sp, Cancer Free Land is scary, and there will be challenges, but I need to trust that God is able to take care of me, and that He is dependable. And, of course, make wise food decisions. (See below: Give Up Sugar Or Die).

Give Up Sugar Or Die

We exchange gifts with my parents and clan on Thanksgiving, so I got quite a haul last week, including:
an air popper
a new briefcase
cookie sheets
a book on salads
scrapbooking stuff
"Beating Cancer With Nutrition"

I started reading the latter last night, and I haven't gotten very far into it, but they have a summary at the front for those people who are Stage 4 and need the basics. And one of the tenets is No Sugar. Apparently cancer cells feed on sugar, and sustaining a high blood sugar level is bad, bad, bad.
Sigh.
I do love me some Coke. And pastries. And donuts. And cookies.

Recap

We're home from Kansas now. Whew! We left at 7 a.m. Saturday morning, as we needed to pick up Bella TMSM from the kennel by 6 pm. It is a ten hour trip normally, from Kansas to Houston. We stopped for brunch at 10:25 a.m. at Braum's in Ardmore, OK. DH and I wanted b'fast, the girls wanted lunch. Those poor people at Braum's could not wrap their heads around that. It took about 5 minutes for them to key in the order, and even then they didn't charge us for my drink.
Then, their computers went down, which apparently prevented them from fixing our food. I asked for my money back, and so it all ended with us getting our food around 11, AND our money back.
We made good time till around Hillsboro, about 30 miles north of Waco, where traffic was down to one lane, and then with the rain and heavy traffic, we slowed down. We stopped in College Station for lupper at 4 p.m. Subway. One girl working. She did not multi-task well. She got all the bread out -- ours and the guy behind us. Then did the meat one at a time. Then did the toppings one at a time.
So, we got home at 5:50. I'd called the kennel to tell them we were running late, so we'll pick up Bella TMSM tomorrow.
We got inside the house, and Winston had left several little presents in the bathroom, bedroom, and living room. Sigh. I'm so glad we're getting new flooring. Nothing like coming home after an 11 hour trip, and spending half an hour scrubbing up cat poop.
I unpacked for a while, and then had to rest.

Friday afternoon, we went to see "Enchanted" with my sis and nieces. I LOVED that movie. I want to see it again. I hardly ever say that. It was fabulous. Apparently, it was in development for ten years. I'm glad they waited, because I thought it was great. Amy Adams plays the main character, and she strikes just the right tone.

Day After Thanksgiving, Sing That Song, Doodah, Doodah

So, I got up at 5:15 a.m. and went shopping! I was going to go to Walmart, but the parking lot was full to the street, so I skipped it. I went to Best Buy, found what I wanted, and stood in line for 45 minutes. The best part was there was a shelf of books after I'd stood in line for about 20 minutes, so I got to start that book by the guy who wrote "The Kite Runner." It was good -- I find myself wondering what happened to the main character.
Then I went to Michael's, and got a few things. They were having a 20% off your entire purchase sale.
Bed, Bath and Beyond was my last destination. They were also having a 20% off everything sale.
Picked up donuts and coffee and came home by 9 a.m.

My Hair

So I've heard from a lot of people that my hair might be curly once it is long enough to curl. That's fine. It's certainly soft -- like having a chinchilla on my head.
The weird thing is the color. If you remember, my long glorious locks were brown. A nice chestnut brown. Yes, I dyed my hair to cover the gray, but I dyed it as close to my natural color as possible -- brown. I've had brown hair since I was a baby. And now it's kind of a silvery darkish kind of color. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'll take any kind of hair line. I'm not going to dye it any time soon, as i have heard horror stories of people dying their hair too soon, and it all fell out again.

My Perfect Thanksgiving Meal

Most people eat too much on Thanksgiving. Me, not so much, as I don't care for much of the traditional dishes. So, in case you were wondering, here is my perfect Thanksgiving meal:

cheesy cauliflower
broccoli rice casserole
warm yeast rolls
green bean casserole
devilled eggs
black olives
sugar-free chocolate pie

you will notice that there is no turkey, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes on there. I know, I'm weird.

Uh...

So, I'm in Academy Sports Store the other day, and I see a lady with a baby. I go over to coo at the baby, and she looks at me and says, "How are you?
Great, I say.
You're all done with treatment?
Yes. Doing good. How are y'all?
Doing good, she says.

We say our goodbyes and go our separate ways.

I have NO IDEA who she was.

The. Ugliest. Tree. Ever.

I Just Remembered

so I'm in the security line at LaGuardia, going home, and the guy in front of me is having his boarding pass and ID checked.

Check-In Guy: Everything looks ok. Have an nice flight.
Guy In Front of Me: OK, you, too! (walks off)
Me: Did he just tell you to have a nice flight?
CIG: (rolling his eyes) If I had a dollar for every time someone's said that, I could retire.

Ow.

After church and lunch today, DH decided he wanted to go shopping. Fine. I did not realize, however, that he meant hours of shopping, and i wore fabulous shoes rather than shopping shoes.

Traffic Woes

I got stuck behind a Moped today. Are you kidding me? A moped? Chugging away at 20 mph.

Fashion

I bought a new purse a few weeks ago. It has fake animal skin on it, and a big silver buckle closure. And when I'm in Texas, I get compliments on it once or twice a week. When I was in NYC, however, at the Hard Rock Store, the guy checking me out looked at it and said, "Wow, that's really...Texan."

DD2 Is a Funny Girl

We go into a restroom the other day, and she opens a stall door without checking to see if it was occupied. It was, and the lady, who was getting ready to walk out, was a trim lady with short white hair. DD2 looks at her and says, "Well, you're a cute little grandma!"

I Am Becoming An Old Lady

The proof?

1. I need my reading glasses more and more.
2. I just bought my first pair of SAS shoes.

One More Pic

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

She's Growing Up

Madam La Princesse informed me that she would prefer to do her own packing in the future.

More NYC Pics

at Ellis Island

at Ferrara's

Amy, Danielle and I at Marseille

Pics From NYC

Amy & Me

My First NY Hot Dog

Me and the Lady

Going Back to College!

My beloved oldest niece is in her first year of college, and is struggling in this one class. So I have been helping her in her construction of a paper. Not writing it for her, I hasten to assure you, but giving her things to think about so she can write it herself. I asked her for a copy of the actual assignment, and here it is:

The personal ethnography paper will require you to identify and analyze how your cultural identity is influenced by gender class and or race. By the end of this assignment you should be able to: demonstrate awareness of how people are positioned as members of particular cultures. Identify how identity is influenced by the structures of gender, class and race. Narrate a specific experience that is relevant in illustrating cultural identity. Use descriptive strategies to vividly create impressions for the reader. Analyze implications of social systems in your life, particularly as revealed in your experience

.

I am considered relatively intelligent by some of my acquaintance, but i have to tell you, my response to some of the above was "wha...."?

Tuesday

An alien has apparently inhabited my younger daughter. Not that I'm complaining. A normal morning for us goes something like this:
Me: Good morning, angel. Time to wake up.
DD2: (groans and pulls pillow over her head)
Me: (singing) Good morning to you, good morning to you, good morning dear booboo, good morning to you.
DD2: (from under pillow) I don't want to get up.
Me: Sorry about that. Now I've laid out your clothes for you, so after you go potty, get dressed, wash your face, brush your teeth and hair, and then you can have breakfast. I'm going to go take a shower and get dressed.
Then I come back after getting dressed to discover her sitting on the floor of her bedroom playing with her stuffed animals.

Today, however, I was awakened by the alien inhabiting DD2's body, who informed me that she was completely dressed, she'd washed her face, brushed her teeth and hair, and could she please have breakfast? It was awesome. We were actually early to her school. Made a nice change.

I went and camped out in the doctor's waiting room this morning for 2 hours, so they could fit me in and get me some drugs. The dr ended up giving me some free samples. Yay for free!
Soup and sandwich for lunch, then recycled some newspapers at dd1's school, where apparently people believe in recycling, but Abitibi doesn't believe in picking up the recycled materials -- all three bins were full, full, full.
Returned DD1's library book to the school as well. It was seriously overdue, as I got this letter from the librarian last week -- my first notice -- that I needed to pay the school $20 for a lost book.

One Souvenir

Among the things I brought home from New York City is an upper respiratory infection.

Sunday

In the morning, Amy and I went to the Met, where I saw some lovely paintings, including some Vermeers, which were luminescent. I looked for any Andrew Wyeth, but those are considered modern, so they'd probably be at the Museum of Modern Art. As Amy said, yet another reason to come back to NYC! I bought a book on Vermeer, and some postcards. They had a book on Wyeth, but it was $40, and I'd already spent enough, so next time.
We bought a couple of slices of pizza at a little shop. Yum. Then we went back to Brooklyn, and went to the Gospel Music service of Brooklyn Tabernacle, which was great. Great music, a great spirit about the place. They had several women come up and give their testimony about how God had delivered them from addictions, or the effects of abuse.
One lady, from Cambodia originally, said at one point during her testimony, "In my country, if you want to kill yourself, they say, 'How can I help you?' Here, they rush you to the hospital and save you. It was so frustrating!" She was very funny, despite having gone through some horrific things.
I appreciated Amy coming with me, even though she's not a Christian. She said at one point she hoped I didn't mind that she didn't sing along, and I said no, I didn't mind, God wants us to be honest, and He wouldn't be impressed by her singing lyrics she didn't believe in.
We took the subway back to the apartment, Amy called for a car, and I finished packing up. I left close to 6:30, and got to the airport around 7. The poor guy driving the car is from the Ukraine, and is a mechanical engineer by trade, but he can't find that kind of work here.
I got checked in, went to Au Bon Pain for a mushroom sandwich, where Moe and Curly were doing their level best.
Went thru security, ate my sandwich, and as soon as I finished the sandwich, it was time to board.
Slept and read on the plane, got home, and had to tidy the house, as today is housekeeper day.

Saturday

Well, we made the best of a bad situation, and went to Wintuk, a Cirque de Soleil production. I had never been to a Cirque de Soleil before, and Danielle, my friend who lives in upstate NY who came in for the day, got us great seats -- 6 rows from the stage.
I ate my very first knish b4 the show -- it's a kind of fried mashed potato thingy -- very nice.
Afterward, we went to the Times Square area, and went to a Broadway souvenir store, where I bought Spamalot shirts for me and DH. Mine says, "I'm Not Dead Yet", which I thought was really funny, considering. Then we went to the Hershey's store, and the M&M store, where I bought some sleep pants.
For supper, we ate at Marseille, a French restaurant Danielle had heard good things about. I was going to have the bouillabaisse, till I saw it was $28. So, both Danielle and I went for the prix fixe menu, where you chose an appetizer, a main course and a dessert for $35. Amy ordered a la carte. The food was very nice, and the conversation stimulating. Amy and Danielle are both liberals, and of course I'm a conservative, so it was interesting getting their point of view on things.
Amy's a Wiccan, Danielle is Jewish, and I'm an evangelical Christian, so we had an interesting discussion there, too. Danielle asked me one of the most perceptive questions -- something along the lines of: "How do you reconcile that, being friends with us, but thinking we're both going to go to hell?"
I explained that Jesus said people would recognize his followers by their love, so I wanted to show them love and acceptance. I know Amy at least has been hurt by Christians in the past, and I was willing to bet Danielle had, too. So, I'd prefer to show them love, and if they ever had any questions about Jesus, to answer them, and go on from there.
After supper, Danielle tried to see a movie but they were all sold out so she just ended up going back to NJ, and Amy and I went back to the apartment, watched a bit of TV, and went to sleep.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Dear Broadway Union Workers,
I understand that you haven't had a pay increase in ten years, but, you couldn't have waited ONE MORE DAY to go on strike?

Love,
ChemoGirl
holder of now-useless tickets to SpamALot

Brrrrr!

New York, she is cold. We had to stop at one point today so I could buy some gloves. I'd brought a hat and a coat with me, but i really didn't think it would be this cold. i was wrong.
we got up this morning, and went to the TKTS line and bought tickets for Avenue Q tonight and Spamalot tomorrow afternoon. ThenI bought a hot dog from a street vendor, and we wandered around a bit.
We stood in line about 45 minutes to get on the Liberty Island Ferry. We walked around the island, and then went on to Ellis Island.
We had dinner in Little Italy and dessert at Ferrara's, wandered around Times Square a bit, and then went to the show, which is like an R-rated Sesame Street episode. Songs include "It Sucks to Be Me", and "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist." Very original show.

Greetings From Brooklyn!

Well, I made my flight yesterday, despite staying up late doing laundry the night b4, and getting up early to make devilled eggs for the teachers' luncheon at DD2's school. ( i KNOW, but i volunteered back in August b4 i knew i was taking this trip.) We walked DD2 into school, DH and DD1 carrying the devilled eggs, DD2 carrying her backpack, and food for the charity drive, and me carrying the snacks, as DD2 was Snack Lady yesterday -- bananas and those little cheese and crackers things. Went home, got DD1 on the bus, finished packing, kissed DH, and then went to Kohl's to get the sensor taken off the pants i'd bought last week for the trip (all my other pants aren't fitting yet), and then went to THREE differenct ATMs before I found one that would take my card.
Zoomed to the airport, parked at the Park and Ride, and got to the airport an hour b4 my flight, checked in, walked the 2 million mies to security, stood in line and then took off shoes, belt, jewelry and all my carryon bags for security, got dressed again, walked another million miles, got a pretzel and some marinara sauce, got to the gate just as they were boarding. got settled in my supposed seat, and opened my marinara sauce so i could enjoy my pretzel, only to find that the guy n front of me was in my actual seat, so i had to gather up my purse, my carryon, my pretzels and open marinara sauce and my bottle of water and move one row up. needless to say, the marinara sauce got all over me.
and the guy sitting next to me liked to use both of his armrests and extend his elbows beyond them, so i spent most of the flight hunched away from his elbow. i slept a bit, but was awakened by "lunch": a cup of iceburg lettuce, and The Worst Pizza Ever. I took one bite, and that was it.
i tried chatting to Elbow Man:
me: so, do you live in Houston or New York?
EM: Houston.
me: are you going for fun?
EM: a seminar.

given the fact that he was not making eye contact, i decided he was not interested in chatting with me. the guy in the aisle seat seemed nice, but i knew EM would not want us talkng over him, so i gave up, and read my bible and eavesdropped on the three sisters sitting behind me who had a lot to say.
i arrived in la guardia, and stopped to buy a pair of sunglasses, as i'd left all three of my Walgreen's sunglasses at home, and Amy was right there to greet me. We picked up my suitcase, and got a cab to her apartment. Taxi driver was a bit bemused at my request to take his picture, but he complied readily.
Amy and I chatted for a while, and then went to a nearby restaurant that served homemade fries with curry mayo. oh. my. goodness. they were good! i had a vegetable pave as well, but those fries were awesome! we came home, chated some more, watched "Grey's Anatomy", and then went to bed as i was really tired.
today we plan to get tickets for a show, see the Statue, and who knows what else.

Morning

DD1 got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. She greeted me this morning with a complaint that I didn't tuck her in last night (untrue), and before she got on the bus complained that I had packed snacks She Didn't Like. It wasn't much better in between, either.

Tuesday

I taught a drama class today to the local Home Schooling Co-op. That was fun.
Went to the local Christian superbookstore, and got some long-sleeved t-shirts for her to wear when (if) the weather gets colder. Went to Sur La Table, and used my $10 coupon to buy a pie crust guard, and a Christmas present for someone who reads this blog.
Ate some of that yummy yummy soup at Le Petit Paris, and then looked at used exercise bikes. I am starting DD2 on a Fit Kids program, which is a 12-week program to increase kids' activity level and get them to eat healthier. One of the things they recommend for kids to do is cycling and swimming. As it gets colder, it may not be convenient for us to go swimming at the Y or go biking outside, but if we got an exercise bike, she could bike inside.
Picked DD2 up from school, and then spent some more time talking to Dodge dealers.

I am going to NYC this weekend! I'm going to see my friend Amy and my friend Danielle, and see as many Broadway shows as humanly possible. Anyway, DH and the girls are trying to decide what they're going to while I'm gone. I think they have decided on staying home and watching lots of movies.

Monday

I spent most of today researching the inventory of Dodge Chargers in the area. And since we live in the 4th largest city in the US, there are a plethora of Dodge dealers around. 19, to be exact.
So, I have calls or emails in to 7 of them, asking for driveout prices on the Chargers I am interested in. In case you don't know this, there's a difference between the price they quote you and the price you end up paying. When we bought the minivan in '04, I had two quotes from 2 different dealers that were exactly the same upfront, but differed by $750 when they got to the drive-out price.
In our family, I am the negotiator. I do all the research, and then narrow it down to a few choices, which DH then chooses from. Unless he doesn't care, like which shade of beige carpet we're getting. Because to him, beige, taupe, and off-white are all the same.
Tonight I went to the new HEB grocery store that just opened up. And I am exhausted. Because it was CROWDED. Like Christmas time at the mall crowded. And I have gotten spoiled after 7 years of being a stay-at-home mom. I am not used to crowds.

The Weekend

The only things of note from this weekend are:
* I went to buy some more follicle booster, and it was only $20. This was a savings from the first time I bought it, of about $4 or so. At first, I was pleasantly surprised, to think that prices went down for once, instead of up. But ha! ha! Naive litte Chemo Girl! The first follicle booster I bought for ~$24 was for 100ml of liquid, or over 3 oz. The one I just bought for $20? 30 ml. Or just around 1 oz. So! Thanks, Nioxin! For tripling your prices!
* DH went to church with us on Sunday! For the first time in three years! (I don't count when DD1 got baptized, or the time, I got sick and he had to come pick me up.)

Memory...

Today I forgot:
1. to have DD2 bring a pattern to show and tell
2. to give DD1 her homework
3. to remind DD1 that she could bring a stuffed animal or pillow to school today

DD1 apparently got a conduct mark because she didn't have her homework. We had to leave early this morning to get to school on time for the Fun Run, so I forgot. I tried to tell DD2 it was her responsibility to remember, but I don't think she bought it....

Friday

Today was a fun run fundraiser at DD2's school. The elementary kids run around the track for 30 minutes, and get pledges from friends and family for how long they can run. I went with DD2. She started off strong, but then stopped, so I went with her, and we walked the rest of the time. We did 5 laps!
Some of those kids, though, did ten or eleven laps. Man!
Today I meet with my cancer posse. I am very excited.

Dirt! Going Cheap! Sort Of!

So, I'm trying to get all my Christmas shopping done b4 Thanksgiving so I can maybe focus more on Christ and less on All I Have To Do. And I go to reds.com to see if there's anything there that DH might like. And! For $30, plus shipping and handling,I could get part of the "actual infield playing surface from a game that was played on by the Cincinnati Reds during the MLB season. The playing surface is displayed in a hand crafted acrylic case and comes with a laser engraved Cincinnati Reds team logo."

In other words, dirt.
In a box.