Sunday, March 30, 2008

My Dad Is Home!

My mom got to take my dad home from the hospital today, so we are all very happy. He got to eat some Chinese food, and sleep in his own bed. Praise God!
They're doing a bit of spiffying up the house this week, and Mom swears he only came home once he found out all the painting and lawn work had been done....

Saturday, March 29, 2008

I Have A Part!

My hair is now long enough that:
a) it readily lays flat on my head
and
b) i can part it!

this is very exciting! DH says I no longer have "pity hair".

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I Swear to Goodness

The guy in front of me at the movie ticket line yesterday asked for a ticket to "The Other Bowlin' Woman" (also known as "The Other Boleyn Girl, a movie about Henry the Eighth).
I do hope he wasn't disappointed when he got to the movie and discovered it was NOT about bowling....

Update on My Dad

The Coumadin (blood thinner) he'd been on was causing the stomach lining to bleed, so they're taking him off Coumadin to give his stomach a chance to heal, then they'll have to put him on a different blood thinner.
I talked to him this morning, he's going home in a few hours. Yay!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

It's Official

I love Lee Pace. He's the actor in the TV show Pushing Daisies. I saw him in Northanger Abbey on PBS a few weeks ago, and he's in the Miss Pettigrew movie, which I saw today. Love him, love him, love him. I used to love Raul Julia, but he died. Then the space in my heart for Crush on Complete Stranger That I've Seen In Movies was empty for years, as I never joined the Pitt/Clooney bandwagon. But now, my new CoCSTISIM is officially Lee Pace.
In a related note, the space in my heart for Sheer Yummy to Look At which used to be occupied by Jude Law -- who has turned a bit skeevy of late, IMHO, has been replaced by Kyle Chandler, that guy on Friday Night Lights, and whose character got blown up on Grey's Anatomy a couple of years ago.

Pray for my Dad

He's in the hospital. He had to have a blood transfusion, because he's been bleeding in his intestine somewhere. They did a scan today, but couldn't find where he'd been bleeding from. They did find some ulcers, so that may have been where the bleeding was coming from.
Anyway, just pray for wisdom for the doctors to know what to do, and how to regulate his medication so he is strong and healthy!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Monday

DD2 had off school, so DD2 and I hung out together. She really wanted to go to a bouncy place, so we went to one near the hospital, where I had a 2:15 appointment with my breast surgeon.
I told him I wanted a CT scan, cuz I'm still freaked out by my online friend who had triple negative cancer stage 1 like me and started chemo last March like me, and they found new cancer in her nodes last month.
So he did an ultrasound on both sides and didn't see anything, so he scheduled another mammogram for June. But! Here's the lesson, folks. Knowledge is power, so while I was waiting for the Dr. to come in the room, I read my chart. When the nurse came in, she saw I was reading my chart, so she handed me a copy of the radiologist's report after my mammogram in December. In the report, the radiologist said that he recommended Breast Specific Gamma Imaging in addition to a m'gram, because I have really dense breast tissue. So, while they were writing up the orders, I said, "Can I have a BSGI as well?" And they added that to the orders.
If I hadn't read the report, I wouldn't have known to ask for that, and it didn't look like the doctor's office would have done it on their own accord. BSGI is good because "[it] is a nuclear medicine procedure that images the metabolic activity of breast lesions through radiotracer uptake.... This technique can help doctors more reliably differentiate cancerous from non-cancerous cells. While ... MRI and Ultrasound image the physical structure of the breast, BSGI captures the cellular functioning of the breast tissue." All that to say BSGI has a smaller failure rate (or whatever) than mammograms. Less than 2%, the nurse said, So! Yay!
Lesson: ask for a copy of your medical records. You may not understand all the words, but it'll give you more information.

Recap

So, we got home Thursday afternoon. I walked in, kissed DH, petted the kitties, changes clothes and went to Maundy Thursday service at church. It was cool -- we had footwashing, where people could both get their feet washed and then turn and wash the feet of the next person in line. I'd never been to a footwashing service before, and I got to wash the feet of James, the worship director of our church, and a friend of mine.
Friday, DH had off, so we went shopping for a while. That night was our Good Friday service, where we had monologues or scripture readings for the stations of the cross. After each monologue or reading, one thing was taken off the altar. It was cool. At the end, there was a bare altar covered in a black cloth, and the pastor draped the cross in black.
Saturday, we went to the Easter Egg hunt at church, and then to see College Road Trip with Katie and her mom. I laughed 2.5 times. DD2 really enjoyed it, though, and turned to me at one point and said, "We need to get this when it comes out on DVD!" Sigh. I guess I can't talk. I used to like Jerry Lewis movies while I was that age.
Easter morning, we went through our Easter baskets, and then I went to church, since I was coordinating both services in the Worship Center. DH and the DDs came to the 9:30 service (neither of the DDs wearing the pale pink dress they'd been fighting over the day b4), and then! DH came home and started cooking Easter dinner! All I had to do was set the table. Awesome.
In the afternoon, we had an Easter egg hunt in the front yard. I put coins rather than candy in the plastic eggs, as I have decided to encourage avarice over gluttony....

Friday, March 21, 2008

Home Again

we just got back from a short trip to Kansas. it was a lot of fun, and we got to spend a lot of time with family. we didn't drive straight through -- we stopped in Dallas both ways.
On the way back, we spent the night at the Omni in Irving, Texas, which has free milk and cookies for the girls. This was a big hit, especially since they gave us four cookies, so we could each have one.
DD1 got to celebrate her birthday with the family -- with a Hannah Montana cake and everything. Now DD2 is determined we shall go to Kansas in June so she can celebrate her birthday with Bapa and Gaga, too.....

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Smart People Learn From Their Mistakes

The girls and I went to the mall today after church. While we were there, my mom called, and said to let DD1 spend $50 for her birthday, and DD2 could spend $25 as a consolation gift, and she would pay me back. After i finished my shopping (2 pairs of capris in my new, slimmer size!), I made the mistake of mentioning the call to the DDs. Nothing would do then but to immediately spend the money.
And how, you may ask, did they choose to spend their money?
On WebKinz. Nothing but Webkinz. Lots and lots of Webkinz.
Here, I would say, cute earrings!
No.
Cute clothes!
No.
A Hannah Montana CD.
No. Webkinz. We want Webkinz.

If you do not have elementary-aged children, you may have no clue what WebKinz are. They are stuffed animals that come with a code. You enter the code at WebKinz.com, and then you can play games and earn KinzCash so you can buy stuff for your online pet. You get to decorate their online room, feed them online food, etc.

DD2 was lucky enough to find a store that had buy 1, get 1 on selected WedKinz. DD1 had already blown all of her $ by this time.

Anyway, the reason for the title of this blog is, I wore my church shoes today. My 3" high heels. By about 2 o'clock, I was limping. Whenever we stopped to look at Webkinz, I would stand there and take my shoes off. So one of our stops was at a shoe store, where I bought some of those shoes that are tennis shoes in a mary jane style. They looked tacky with my black dress and blue jacket, and i didn't care. I was limping no more.
I think I have made this same mistake before, though -- go shopping straight after church. I think I need to keep a spare pair of shoes in the van just for occasions like these.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Latest Bon Mot from DD2

We were at a restaurant eating BBQ, and I noticed DD2 was eating her ribs with a knife and fork. I told her she could pick up the ribs and eat them with her hands, and she said,
"I want to eat like they do in Canada!"

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Smart Girl

I called my sis yesterday while DD1 and I were in the car going someplace, and she and I were discussing plans for when we get together next. She wanted to know what DD1 wanted for her birthday, so I started telling her in Spanish what DD1 would like, since I didn't want DD1 to understand. (My sis has a degree in Spanish, so she understood me.)
But little smart girl in the back seat, figures out I am talking about something I don't want her to know, and reasons that it must be to do with her birthday, so she yells out, "Hannah Montana and WebKinz! I want Hannah Montana and WebKinz!"

Sigh

So, I went on breastcancer.org last night to catch up with the ladies who went thru tx with me. i hadn't logged on there since early February.
And one of the ladies, who had triple negative cancer like me, stage 1 like me, finished in October like me HAS CANCER AGAIN in her lymph node. So she has to go through it all over again.
So, when I go see my surgeon end of this month, I am going to request a CT scan and a bone scan, just to be on the safe side.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Way Things Go

I bought a used copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on CD from half.com the other day, and felt all happy to get such a bargain. I am trying to get all 7 books on CD so I can load them into my iTunes, and then transfer them to my iPod and work out to Harry Potter.
Got a package in the mail today. It contained Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on CASSETTE. Boy, it's going to be tough to leave positive feedback on this transaction....

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Hello, Tuesday

I have a cold. Not a flat-on-your-back-and-groan-faintly cold, but a congestion, coughing and sneezing cold.
Yesterday, I helped out at DD1's field trip, which was at the Science Resource Center. It was a little play, where every child played the part of a plant or animal that lived in or near the marsh. They were supposed to read aloud a couple of sentences describing the plant or animal, but none of them read loudly enough for anyone to hear, so I had to repeat what they said loudly enough for everyone to hear. There were about 80 kids there, divided into 4 groups, and four different stations, so we did our little play four times. Which is why I'm a little hoarse today (neigh!)

Deanna and I went to lunch afterwards, soup and salad. It was at a place called Newk's, and their salads are good, and huge. But their tomato basil soup is nothing to write home about. If you want awesome tomato basil soup, go to La Madeleine.
After Deanna dropped me off, I went cookie delivering a bit, as the cookie money is due Saturday. Then, DD2's school had the US Naval Chorus (or something like that) perform, so I went by to watch. And I expected a bunch of men standing there singing some kind of old-fashioned stuff. But it was a very diverse group of young people, moving and singing gospel songs. Much more entertaining than I had anticipated.

DD2's school called yesterday and today to see if I could sub. Sorry!

Calista has taken to running outside, since it is patently Not Fair that Mordecai gets to go outside and she doesn't. The whole no-front-claws argument holds no weight with her. I got home, and she was drenched from the rain, and Not Happy. Chewed me out up one side and down the other while I let her in....

Today is Do The Laundry In Your Pajamas Day. Staff meeting at church has been postponed until tomorrow afternoon.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Wow

Can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted.
Sunday: church, tidied the house so the house cleaner could clean, delivered cookies for over 2 hours.
Monday: Finished tidying the house, went to the worship planning meeting at church.
Tuesday: Voted. Worked on laundry.
Wednesday: I spoke at chapel at DD2's school, likening Jesus' Triumphal entry to a parade. I had confetti that I threw on the kids, and candy, a balloon, popcorn...as I have discovered that lots of props keeps their attention. Right after that was over, I went to a Maundy Thursday/Good Friday planning meeting at church. I had about 30 minutes after that was over, then I picked up DD1 for her doctor's appointment, and after that we picked DD2 up from school. The lady who took our pic for the calendar gave us a discounted sitting. So after school, we drive clear over there (40 miles away in Missouri City) and are there for three hours. By the time we drove home, I called DH and had him meet us at Luby's where kids eat free on Wednesdays.
Thursday: DD1 turned 8! I had lunch with DD1. I got her a meatball sandwich, per her request, and then I went to Chipotle for me, and got a chicken fajita burrito bowl, which has chicken, veggies, rice, fresh tomato salsa, and guacamole. DD1 ate her sandwich, and then helped me eat my meal. It was a hideous day, weather wise, and DH didn't get home till after 7. We went out to eat at Pappasito's -- where I had a mixed grill with chicken and roasted veggies, and a bit of chocolate bread pudding -- and then DD1 opened her gifts once we got home.
Friday: DH took a vacation day, so we dropped the girls off at school, went for coffee, and then went to Barnes and Noble, as I had a 15% off coupon. DH wanted to eat lunch with DD1, so we went to Chipotle (again) and had lunch with her. This time I got her her own fajita burrito bowl. In the afternoon, I interviewed at DD2's school to be a substitute.
Today: DD1 and I sold cookies at Randall's from 8 to 10. The highlight was a guy driving up and buy TWO CASES of cookies! $84! This afternoon was DD1's school's Family Fun Day, so we went there and rode rides (the DDs), bid on the silent auctions (me), and ate Frito Pies (DD2 and me). On the way home, DD1 informed me that it was NOT as fun as last year, because they did NOT have as many GAMES.

Oh! Some good news! The church has hired me to do the same thing I had been doing for free (yay!), and I am now officially a size 14! Buh-bye, sizes 16 and 18!