Mondays

Wouldn't you love to have a nickel for every time you have said or heard a statement about Mondays? You know the comments...Monday mornings are tough, I hate Mondays, everything is so hectic on Monday. I think most of us would have a nice savings account if we just had put that nickel aside. The thing about Monday today takes me back to when I read a book named "Wheels" I think (please don't quote me). It was a story about automobile manufactures' and when the best time to order a car. According to the story the best time was to have them build your car on a Wednesday because they weren't hung over from the weekend, it wasn't hump day until they got off work so the workers were still feeling pretty good. Also, they weren't all excited and sidetracked about what they were going to do for the weekend. I feel the same way about surgery on Mondays. I worry that the Dr. may have had a bad weekend, his wife ticked him off, or he just doesn't want to come to work because it's Monday. And here I am in pain from a kidney stone and have no choice but to do it today.
Thank God I believe that He guides the hands that will do the work and keep me safe. He hasn't brought me this far just to drop me now.
Guest were flowing in and out of the house all weekend and the Duke is keeping busy just looking for diet Chocolate Soda. He did get all the leaves up that were on the grass and the yard one more time looks good. That Chewy dog has given it a rough go this summer. We have our new Cliff Harris/Randy Mann calendar in place and life is good.
Even if it is a Monday and I'm on my way to the sand and gravel pit....oh, Joy!

What A Difference A Day Makes

Well, I guess all the laughter, tears, prayers and good wishes are working for now. The good news is that the tumors have shrunk to about 50% of their original size. The Duke and I are happy about it in different ways.
His comes from the fact that I will be around longer, mine is from the fact that I now get to remodel the kitchen because I'll be cooking in it for a while longer. Some times you just have to negotiate for the right things. You see, I am truly ready whenever the Good Lord thinks it's my time. No worries there. In the mean time, I have some things to do that are important to me and probably me alone. One of the most important is trying to mend a relationship with my oldest daughter. I'm not sure I will ever see that happen, but let's face it, prayer works.
Another is to travel. When the Duke and I were honeymooning in Yellowstone we bought one of the Passbooks to the National Parks. I'm looking to fill it up if we can. Anyone have a great motor home they are looking to see go somewhere else? That's the next plan after the holidays.
This is the second time I have learned that I really do get to live my life one day at a time, and I really am blessed that I get it. Plan the plan and not the results they say.
Well, the Duke is doing dinner tonight. What a great life, I have 2 men cooking for me. How lucky can one lady get.
Keep Laughing....

Round Tw0 & 2 Days till Round Three....

This is what chemo can do for you too! Someone said recently that they would like to blog about some of the funnier things that are happening in their life, but were afraid they might offend. Who in the right or left mind could be offended by this reworked photo. I wonder if Cheryl Burchell recognizes the real me. After all, she sold us our wedding rings also. I was even seen lunching at the Red Lobster on the day of offical hair loss with a sweet silver haired old lady. What fun I had and I hope the man I bought the coffee for knows how much I appreciated his reactions. It was like watching a movie on someone's face for about 20 minutes. Thank you for the laughter you brought to my friend and I.
Seriously though... I would rather have a 100 stares of "what the He__!" than the stares I get when folks realize that you don't have hair and they rightfully assume you have cancer. Bet most of them guess breast cancer....Wrong...it's adenocarcinoma....stage 4. And there is no stage 5 as they say. Tomorrow we find out if the chemo is helping or not and I won't lie and say I'm not nervous. I am. But for one of the few times in my life I am not afraid. The Good Lord has been watching over me all this time and what will be, will be. In the mean time I am going to live my life like I love it and encourage all of my friends (including the ones I haven't met yet) to do the same.
I watched with envy the other day at the marvalous people on "Oprah" the other day that seem to look at it like I do. Enjoy and celebrate what we have. Not what we think we deserve. Life is good.

Round One

Oh, Happy Days...I just got through my first round of chemo and celebrated the next day with that huge birthday...the Three O. Now MamaJD did call and made mention of it being another year, but since she was out of town at a resort, I told her to go take a hike. A girl can only handle so much truth in a 24 hour period. Don' t you agree?

The chemo went well even though it was 6 hours, but snooze time was allowed and that passed quickly. The Duke amused himself with 'Ladies Home Journals'. He says now he knows every thing there is to know about waxing. Wait till the shock of chemo hits and no waxing will be necessary! I strongly suggested that he bring something else to read or at least go out for lunch. What a trooper he is. God has really blessed me.

This past couple of weeks we have found that there are some truly wonderful people in our community and we know a lot of them. The are the flower bringers, the handy man who cooks wonderful meals, the teddy bear senders and the house cleaners and last but not least the wood cutter. And to think that they are all friends. Our puppies were taken care of while we were in Pendleton for the Round-up on Tues. and Wed. Chewy went with the cook and 'Bear' and Chico stayed with his cousin Casey at my daughters. The cats stayed home and I think so did the skunk. We haven't seen much of Flower since she was house sitting that night, but there are telltale signs that she is still in the area. I have the seen Rocky Racoon a couple of times. Back to the Round-Up for a moment, if you haven't been down there, it is something to see. We attended the VFW's Cowboy breakfast on Wed. and they had the best pancakes. I am not too fond of them as general rule, but I ate 3 of them that day. They separate the eggs, whip the whites and fold them back in, add a touch of beer and my oh, my....the best. They say on a windy day they have trouble keeping them on the plate as they like to take flight. I was glad we were there on a calm morning.

Till next post..Ciao

Keeping Time

Do you ever wonder why we have statements like 'keeping time', 'time keepers', etc? I guess I have been doing some of that lately. Mostly I have been asking how can I keep time from slowing down or speeding up. For instance, when you are having so much fun having 'animal' scans as oldest daughter insists on calling them. (I personally think the bone scan needs to be renamed 'dog' scan as in 'doggie wants a bone'.) It goes along with PET Scan, CAT scan, and other such names. Anyway, time just crawls when you are laying in the MRI machine with all those wonderful noises going on around you. I am not claustrophobic so I have no problem with the confinement, but I do wish they could cut the noise level a bit. It seems to interfere with my naps that I take. Which by the way is one way of speeding the whole process up.
Next comes that time when you have to talk to your doctor for the results. Time seems to slow down for days on end. Could it be that's because it is days on end? Nah! But, that is when you want time to hurry up so you can get in to get the results, only to see the Doc for a short period of time. (Which, of course, goes lightening fast.)
Then there is the coordinating of the these new people who are directing your life, and you have no clue of who they are. It doesn't take long for me to find out they are people just like me who have families, troubles, jobs, school and all, but still manage to put you into their schedule. Which brings us to time management. It all belongs to them now and I have decided to just go with the flow. My friend DC says to save the energy for the good stuff.
I suspect that MamaJD and PapaJD have very similiar days. (I was fortunate to see PapaJD in action last week. He's very good!) Or as MamaJD says and I quote, "Same road, just different bricks".
Perhaps walking in the sand would be pleasant to a while. These cobble stones are hard to walk on. How did horses do it? Well, at least my brain is wandering all over the place and keeps me busy and off the streets.
Till next post.

Time Marches ON!

Sometimes it's hard to understand why time flies when we are supposedly having so much fun. It just seems like it's flying by and I'm not sure how. I don't think I am having a lot of fun right now. I am meeting some of the best people in my journey through the Cancer Center/hospital.
I start chemo on Friday so far and that will be an interesting experience. I do know that the Diva and MamaJD are going wig shopping with me just in case. That will prove to be a hoot with those 2. At least I will think I am having fun for a bit. They have failed to make me laugh yet. Out of the mouths of Babes.
I have more to add, but since we are installing new carpet in the office, the Duke says I need to unplug. Interesting wording, eh? The eh is for my Canadian side of the family. My one cousin that live in Drayton Valley thinks it is rude to use the American 'huh'. I have been leaning towards agreeing with him on that on a regular basis.
I think I will write about my long lost sister and brother next time. That is such a wonderful story that I can't hardly not share it. It's good enough for Oprah!
Till then.

Circle Of Life

Okay MamaJD...here goes.

Some days are just better than others. I think having 'Flower' in the kitchen at 2 AM was one of those days that was better. I was sound asleep when I heard a scraping noise coming from the kitchen. I had accidentally left the kitchen door to the garage open just enough to encourage a night time raid from my puppies' playmate. Fortunately, Chewy stayed asleep under our bed. Duke was sleeping soundly along with the 2 house cats. It was up to Chico and I to encourage our 'Flower' to head back out to the big barn and get some sleep. Fortunately, Flower left under very pleasant terms. Her tail remained in the down position the whole time she was in the house. Perhaps finding a new home for her is high on the list of things to do.

I think this might have been a pre-cursor of things to come.

Shortly after this I was admitted to KMC with chest pains. I just thought it might be time for another stent. I had one put in 4 years ago and things have been well since. Imagine my surprise when they took a chest xray and discovered that perhaps I had lung cancer. WOW, did I receive excellent care at KMC? I now have my own male nurse that likes to tie me up and one that says he is going to keep me in bed. Ladies, they are cuties and I'm here to tell you that it doesn't get any better than that. They certainly kept my mind off of the immediate future. In the nurses defense, they were superb and totally above board. We just happened to hit a couple of moments in time where humor seemed to be the best medicine. If they read this, they will know who they are, and I want to thank them again for all the kindness that I was shown. That goes for the women nurses also on the 3rd floor. Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

After more tests and a biopsy, it has been confirmed that I have adenocarcinoma. What a trip. So life is coming full circle and I am truly blessed. There has never been a time in my life that I have felt so loved as I do right now. I have such a wonderful family and great friends and a loving God, that there is no way any of this can go wrong. It doesn't matter what happens.

It seems to me that we get so few chances to have a moment of clarity and this is one of those moments for me. I learned a long time ago that life is truly what we make of it and I certainly know that I can open up a lemonade stand with this one. The only thing I want to do is walk through the future tests, the chemo and whatever comes down this road with grace and dignity. Humor is my way of dealing with it right now and that feels pretty darn good. Skunks or no skunks, good news or not...life is what it is and it RIGHT now.

It has certainly helped me to write and I am grateful I have a place to do that. Thanks MammaJD.

Huckleberries Online

A Big thanks to dho for the nice welcome to the land of blogging. What an exciting adventure this is turning out to be.
Also thanks dho for allowing me to keep track of MamaJD. As you know, some days that can be a chore. I sure don't have the energy to keep up with all in her busy life.

After Wedding Reception's Blues

It never ceases to amaze me the effects weddings seem to have on people. Yesterday we had a small reception for my daughter Puff and her new husband. They got married a couple of weeks ago in Bonners Ferry and then had a church ceremony in an old church in BC. Fortunately, they double checked and found out getting married in Canada wouldn't have much effect here in the States. Hence, the two ceremonies.
The Duke decided when she was here one day to talk to her about a reception. She said she'd talk to FSil (future Son-in-law) and get back to him. I was shopping at the time. (That's a future topic here).
The next day she had called and the Duke said she wanted to talk to me, but when I asked him what about, he claimed he didn't know. When I called her back and asked her what she wanted, she said she didn't want anything. Ughhhh!!! She then stated that she had called Duke to talk to him about the reception. That was the point at which I found out about it.
Sometimes my idea of entertainment is not necessarily the same as most people. Thinking quickly, I informed the Duke that he had to do the planning, cooking, decorating, etc. It was sheer pleasure watching his face go from horror, to 'I'll show you', to that ever so bold end all statements from husbands....I Can Do That!
I have had about two months of thinking of the wonderful time I would have watching him work his way out of it. I assumed (correctly) that he would be willing to go to any lengths to avoid all the fuss. I was not disappointed. In between the 'oh, sure, right away' which translates to 'do it yourself' and the fun daughters and I had teasing him about it, we had lots of fun.
I must admit he puts on a pretty good show. He did do all the grocery shopping, he did the grilling, he cleaned up the patio and got the tables and chairs set up and signed the checks. I loved going with Puff to order her wedding cake and BlondieJr to get the decorations that Puff didn't know about.
All in all for us, we kept it simple. Although Sil (son-in-law) doesn't think so. Oh well, he's in a matriarch family now and that's the way it goes.
As we all relaxed and had a good time in the warm afternoon sun, I think we all realized that life doesn't get much better than this. Also in attendance were my granddaughter-in-law and my future great grand daughter. (At least these finger are crossed). Grandson is in Iraq and we are all very proud of him and missing him as well.

Napoleon HAS Returned From St. Helena!

Way to go Mamajd! This reminds me of "The Full Monty" a couple of weeks ago at the Cd'A Summer Theatre...only more. Or was it less. I forgot to tell Mamajd and Diva to catch the show, but this more than makes up for it. I'm thinking that they will be asking for donations for seat belts by next season. (They all did a great job and gave a wonderful performance.)
It was hard to fully enjoy the show as I have two broken ribs since the 4th of July, but I gave it a 2 thumbs up.
It's nice to know that Napoleon has finally made it back from exile and is among us once more. Who (or it is Whom) among us hasn't missed his genius and presence? Should I make this a poll question?
Anyway, thanks for the wonderful welcome Mamajd. You get a 2 thumbs up too!!

Curiosity Overcomes Fear?

Well, that seems to be the case this time. I'm not even sure it's good sense. Either way, here it is...my first post.

Fear has stopped me from doing many things in my life that I perhaps wanted to do. Things like writing that best selling novel, going to law school, continuing with my painting, hiking in the back country....ad nausium. But this time the curiousity has won out and here I am blogging.

I am not sure what the fear was yet, but it was there...so, I bit the bullet, so to speak, and signed up. Learning a new language is supposed to be fun as well as some effort. Right?

I learned many years ago that people who have courage have just said their prayers and do it anyway in spite of fear existing in their rapidly beating hearts.

Who knows where this will lead, but a least it's the first step.

Let me introduce you to Chewy...My youngest of 3 grandsons wanted to call the pup that when we got her, but the Duke won out day to day, but in my world she is Chewy. That is very apprapo as she makes some of the most interesting sounds when Chico and her play. Chewy goes to see the Dr. today so that we don't have any more little Chewys. Those little feet aren't so little any more either.

Gotta go and take her away. It's too early to think on these things.

Ciao