Grandmother Update

My Grandmother had her surgery today and the surgeon was very pleased with how things went. We'll know in a few days what the tissue samples will tell us about how advanced her cancer is.

I did get some more bad news though. A good friend of mine was talking with her husband in her living room when she colapsed. She had a massive stroke. She was in ICU for 3 days and died Saturday. She was only 51. She was a great lady and will be missed by a lot of us.

I have an appt. on Thursday with a surgeon to find out if I need surgery. I'm going with no surgery...we'll see.

Hug/call/write your loved ones!

And on the lighter side...

Yippie!

You're Bettie Page!


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Updates

I'm meeting with a surgeon on Thurs. to decide if I need to have my gall bladder removed.

My grandmother found out today from her surgeon that she has stage 3 cancer not the before mentioned stage 2 and that her surgery will be extensive on Monday to see how much it has spread.

My sister is coming down and we're going to visit her tomorrow. My aunt doesn't think that she understands what "stage 3" means. Since she found out she has cancer, she's been a little spacey and confused about things. She isn't normally like that, I think she is stressed beyond comprehension. Not only does she have to deal with her illness, her sister is also seriously ill and my grandmother has been taking care of her albeit only for extended visits. She always thought as herself as the "healthy" one.

So, any extra warm and fuzzy thoughts you can spare, would be greatly appreciated.

And the week rolls on...

I had my ultrasound yesterday morning 7:00 am (thank-you very much!). I got to see my aorta woosh, woosh, woosh. And my liver, and my kidneys, pancreas, spleen, & gall bladder. The Tech's never tell you anything. She only said, "This is your gall bladder, it's supposed to be all black." That's it! Of course it was 2/3'rds black the rest looked like a mountain range. Probably not good. I'll found out in, "1-2 days from your Doctor".

I didn't mention this last week because well I already had bummer news. My grandmother, whom I feel as close to as my mother, was diagnosed with uterine cancer. It's stage 2 and she is 75yo. She has quite a few other health problems despite this new one so we're all worried. She goes for surgery on Monday.

It's not that I'm surprised by her mortality. I'm just not sure if I'm ready for it now that it shines in my face. I remember talking with someone about death one time. They explained it very interestingly. We are connected to people we care about. When they are dying or very ill, the connection starts to pull apart kinda like velcro ripping. It's not that your surprised, I mean that is what velcro does, connects and separates it's just that you want to hold on with all your fiber.
Well, it sounded better when they said it.LOL

Chloe, my 12yo dd, has become a card shark. She has relearned to play poker(we taught her when she was 5). She's is surprisingly taking to it like a duck to water. Her bluffing skills kinda freak me out. We've been using poker chips as $ but now she's talking nickel, dime, quarter. I had better brush up on my skills and quick! She really wants to play my dad. He's really good and wins tons of money from his co-workers during lunch time play. Well tons when you realize it's nickel, dime, quarter play. So we'll see how they do against each other.

Henry has been be-boppin' around a lot doing Henry stuff. Playing playmobile, cars, diggers, etc.. He really like to play online at www.pbskids.org. There are a lot of kid games there and he feels like he's hooked in to the web like everyone else.

And that's about it, what a boring week.

Hope yours is more exciting.

Ok, so who needs one anyway?

I'm sorry that I've been a nonblogger lately. I've been feeling kinda icky and busy with Chloe's birthday party week. I'll post about that next time, with pictures.

I went to the Doctor yesterday and found out I have a bum gall bladder. The great thing is, "You don't really need the gall bladder". So why is it that we have things that we are born with that we don't really need?!! My grandmother was trying to answer this question by saying, "Well, you know, we don't use a lot of things. Take our brains for instance, we only use a small portion."

My reply:"Yeah grandma, but I'm not going to voluntarily ask to have it removed!!"

So I go in next Tuesday to have an ultrasound to see how sick it is. If it's really bad, I have to have surgery. I've never had surgery and really don't see why I should start now.

Until a decision is made, I have to eat low fat. Apparently, fat is what makes the gall bladder want to work and we are trying to keep it from working until we know why it's behaving the way it is.

Aren't we special?

Busy

Sorry, too busy to post.

Will post this weekend.

Not ignoring blog.

Come back Sunday.

Monkey Robot?

We've been doing a bit of thrift shopping lately. Mostly because we're broke and find it entertaining. We don't really need more crap in our house, but it still finds it's way here. What can I say, I'm a recovering pack rat.

We got to adopt a new monkey yesterday. His name is Paul.

He's a nice quiet monkey who is very excited to have a family who appreciates him for his monkey-ness. He's put together a bit differently than the other monkeys. His tail is really fat and short, and he suffers a bit from "balloon head".

I got this picture the other day from a friends house. She started radiation therapy a while back and they said there would be side effects but I had no idea...


She's half finished with treatment, WooHoo!!!

Monkeys, I see Monkeys

For some of you this may be a surprise, to others, it may be new....I LOVE sock monkeys!

I'm not sure when this fixation began. I think it may have started when my brother was born (I'm seven years older than him). He got one when he was born and I never had gotten one, ever. I never tried to steal it or covet it in any way. I might have actually abhored it and feigned dislike just because that was the kind of kid I was.

It wasn't until my daughter was born this childhood regression took place. I decided that my little girl needed a sock monkey. So poof one appeared. Then my son was around, he needed one too.

Finally, my surpressed urge for my own surfaced. So what, I was an adult. I want a sock monkey DAMN IT! So was born the most beautiful of all sock monkey divas.

Her name is Sylvie and she sits on my night stand most nights. She likes to go on vacation with us (as do all the monkeys). Henry's monkey is George and Chloe's was Frank but he may have changed his name to Julius(something about a deal gone bad and the monkey protection program...).

If you haven't noticed, my husband doesn't have a monkey. He feels really left out actually and has been harping on me to make him one too. What he doesn't realize is that monkeys aren't made, they just happen. Geesh!

Here is a photo of the box they spring from magically:

Doesn't it look magical?

One of my favorite things to do is make sock monkey clothes. Here is Sylvie in her original frock made by moi.

She leans toward retro fabrics and design. She's been begging for new clothes lately. She really wants some sort of knitted garment. I'll have to add it to my list or it'll never get done. I think she needs some sort of Geisha outfit with black wig. We'll see.

Maybe for her birthday.

Winners of Best Motion Picture

I decided that it would be interesting to watch all the movies that were awarded best picture oscar awards.
Below are the list of motion pictures that we've watched that were awarded best motion picture by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Science. If the title is underlined you can click on it and it will take you to my review. There are other movies that I have seen already and didn't list beacuse, I want to watch them again because it's been a long time. To see a full list of movies who ever won and to do your own search, click here.

1929/30- All Quiet on the Western Front
1931/32- Grand Hotel
1934- It Happened One Night
1935- Mutiny on the Bounty
1939- Gone with the Wind
1940- Rebecca
1945- The Lost Weekend
1951- An American in Paris
1953- From Here to Eternity
1954- On the Waterfront
1958- Gigi
1960- The Apartment
1961- Westside Story
1963- Tom Jones
1965- The Sound of Music
1969- Midnight Cowboy
1971- The French Connection
1972- The Godfather
1977- Annie Hall
1982- Gandhi
1984- Amadeus
1991- Silence of the Lambs
1994- Forrest Gump
1995- Braveheart
1998- Shakespeare in Love
1999- American Beauty
2000- Gladiator
2001- A Beautiful Mind
2002- Chicago
2003- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2005- Crash