April 17th, 2008

April 17th, 2008 will be a day that I will always remember. That is the day my mother was officially diagnosed with breast cancer. She was extremely fortunate to find it very early on and so there is a very good percentage that she will get through this ordeal completely cured.

"Amen and Glory!" as Ryan says at the end of his prayers.

Amen and Glory indeed. I have much to be thankful for these days.

I have always been a person that avoids the thought of not having my parents around. I watched my grandmother die of colon cancer...and until the last week I kept telling myself that she would live for another six to twelve months. I knew she was terminal, but my mind had just decided it wasn't anywhere in the near future. Then one day I went to visit and there was no denying she was near the end.

I miss my grandparents very much, but I know they are much happier now because at the end their bodies couldn't let them do the things they wanted to do with their time. And I know that they look out for our family on a daily basis. And I'm sure my grandfather is telling my children to EAT SLOW and WALK SLOW and TEASE YOUR MOM. How else would a five-year-old and a two-year-old be able to do the things they do???

As much as I miss my grandparents, I cannot fathom losing my parents or Tracy's parents. I understand that eventually someday I will have to face this, and it will be a good thing as they will be with other loved ones and our Father - but selfishly I will miss them beyond measure.

So, even though it sounds like a happy ending, there is still a long road ahead, and I would ask everyone to pray for my mom, her doctors, and our family as we go down it together. And mostly pray for me to be strong for my mom. She has been there for me more times than I can count, and I'm sure many times I am not even aware of - so I hope this time I am there for her in the many ways she may need me.

And be ready for me to bug you to start walking for the cure!

Morning Time

This picture is on the side bar as well, but I just think it is so funny that you needed to see it a little bit bigger. Obviously mornings are more fun when you are four months old.

It's April Already?

The kitchen is done...well, almost done. We still need to paint all the new trim...but it is all put together. It looks so different.

And you say, "Yeah - where are the pictures?!?!"

I know - I'll try to get some taken and up tomorrow (now that I remembered I have a blog and I really need to make entries on a timely basis). Meanwhile, we have a 75 degree day and we realize that our air conditioner isn't working the way it should, like AT ALL, so we call in someone to service our furnace and AC unit. Now, keep in mind that our furnace is a 30-year-old oil belcher.

The man looks at the furnace for a while and tells us not to waste any money on it. Plus, it is leaking CO2. GREAT! On top of that our AC unit needs about $500 plus worth of work. Guess who is using space heaters until our new furnace/AC unit is installed next week? That'd be us.

Ah, but the home improvement doesn't stop there. We also have an electrical panel that doesn't flip the doohickey when you, for example, stick a screwdriver in an electrical outlet. No, this time it wasn't me who tried this but our contractor. He melted his screwdriver and it still didn't flip to turn off the power. That's safe. So we are getting our electrical panel switched out on Monday.

Finally, we decided that maybe it was time to have the ducts cleaned out, since not only did we remodel the whole inside of our house over the past two years but it is a safe bet that the previous owners didn't clean them out since they were installed, oh, thirty years ago. (The furnace guy thinks our furnace was installed around 1972...that would actually make the belcher 36 years old...that would be seven years older than me since I am still 29.) I called the duct cleaning place and told them under no circumstances, no matter how interestingly strange it was, did I want to see what comes out of our ducts. I'll sleep much better NEVER knowing what resided in there for the last 30 years.

The kids are doing great, though. Ryan has started T-ball and Kinder Kempo. They both are helping quite a bit with increasing our attention span. That is as much as you can increase a five-year-old's attention span.

Chase is talking up a storm. He has some very unique pronunciations of popcorn and horse. I try to make him say those two words all the time because you know, soon he won't be two anymore and he'll just say "popcorn" and "horse".

Karis is smiling all the time now. She has the biggest smile I've ever seen. And she is quite talkative. She has also realized that if she laughs, her deep belly laugh works the best, her mom will keep talking to her. So she laughs for up to five minutes at a time. It's like a drug...I can't leave her alone when she is laughing. So she laughs, then I laugh, then she laughs, then I laugh. And if I stop laughing...she starts all over again. Don't tell me babies don't know how to work the system.

Lots of things to talk about. I'll have to get my camera out (my NEW camera!) and take some pictures of the kitchen and other things (like the huge 5 month old puppy that doesn't fit into her crate anymore). Until then, I'm going to go put on my long-johns and go to bed!