busy weeks

Hello all!  Lots of stuff happening (and not happening - more about that below) lately and coming up.  Yesterday I went to a really awesome baking supply store in Saline called Baker's Nook (on Michigan Ave, just past downtown if coming from Ypsi).  If you have any interest in baking you have to check it out.  We just got some supplies to make our Valentine's Day cookies (and a few things for St. Pat's day, too) and I picked up a few things to make some homemade lollipops.   Would you like lemonade, root beer or red licorice?

We also went to see a musical at the Arthur Miller Theater (sorry, Theatre.  They spell it wrong.).  It was God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater based on the Vonnegut novel.  It was really well done; very talented cast, minimal set design and some fun songs.  I had no idea this even existed until I saw the ad for it online but I'm very glad we went!

Tonight is dinner with Nolan and tomorrow is cookie baking!  Decorating won't happen until Wednesday (Baking takes too long to do it all in one day) but I am really, really looking forward to it.  Tuesday is chemo...

We're also expecting a big winter storm this Tuesday/Wednesday so we'll have to wait and see what the rest of the week holds after that.  We'd talked about going to Slows in Detroit (best damn BBQ around!) but it's hard to get there if the weather sucks.  We did that drive in bad weather once (Joel McHale, do you appreciate we took our lives in our hands to see you?  Thankfully you were very funny and made it worth it.) and there were cars in the ditch every half mile or so.  Just frequent enough to remind us to take it slow! 

So, about things not happening:  I tried to get a paracentesis done this past week because I have been feeling quite uncomfortable and could use some relief.  I knew there wasn't much fluid to remove but last time, about a month ago, they were able to get a half liter and that was enough to make me feel better for several weeks.  That procedure was challenging for the doctor because the amount of space they had to get through to where the fluid was located was minimal.  This time, they had basically no room to maneuver unless they went through a tumor.  That is not something anyone felt comfortable about so they called my oncologist to see what she thought and the answer was a very firm no.  So, I'm moving a bit slower and taking a few more painkillers until we can figure out what to do.  I will see my doctor on Tuesday before the chemo and I'm hopeful there might be something she can think of that will help.

Hope you are all well.  Stay warm, friends!

more cookies

Since I had so much fun making Christmas cookies I wanted to continue my education in royal icing and cookie decoration.  This is all in anticipation of getting together with Amy Beth to make Valentine's cookies (which I will repeat with Carolyn the following week when she visits from Portland).  The earlier cookies were done with a cake decoration kit which was OK but not as good as the cookie decoration kit (with smaller pastry bag tips etc.) that Amy Beth is letting me borrow.  Makes a difference!  Practicing makes a big difference as well.  I'm not quite to the point where I can do even modestly fancy stuff like flowers and leaves but I'm going for cute, not professional.

Now you know what I did yesterday.  Hope you're having a great day and a great weekend!

curb appeal

Well, the sewer line issue is resolved and we can flush the toilet as much as we want (not to mention take showers, do laundry etc.).  The front yard is now one gigantic dirt patch (soon to be a gigantic mud patch!) and with the exception of a few periphery shrubs, has nothing left.  Planter boxes I built?  Destroyed.  Lovely lilacs?  One of three left.  All the bulbs planted in the fall?  Who knows - many are likely buried way too deep to survive and the others will be popping up randomly.  Astilbe might come back, the dwarf burning bush is OK (otherwise where would we burn dwarfs?) and the yucca is largely fine.  We are trying to be zen about it.

Health-wise I was feeling well enough to finally take down the christmas decorations this morning.  Chemo yesterday was fine though I wasn't feeling great prior to that.  I can't believe it's already Wednesday. 

Most of you probably know that Borders had more home office layoffs this week.  Dave is still employed (though he would not have been particularly upset to be let go) though a couple of our friends cannot say the same thing.  It's sad because, for many years, Borders was a great company to work for and now it's just a shell of its former self.

Anyway, I'm off to take a nap.  Thanks for reading and, as always, feel free to leave a comment!  :)

Good News, Bad News

Hello to those of you that haven't given up on checking in with the blog.  Lots of people have told me they still check every day so I imagine it gets a little old when there's never an update!

Well, some news this week.  I had another CT scan over the weekend and got the results on Tuesday; no new growth!  The tumors are exactly the same size as they were on the last CT scan and that means that the chemo is continuing to work.  It's as good of a result as we could have hoped for and we're very glad to receive it!  Health-wise I have been tired a lot lately and taking many naps but overall I'm feeling pretty good.  Sometimes I think I'm feeling good and try to do too much which tires me out but I am starting to get much better at keeping track of energy levels and trying not to exceed my daily capacity.  The doctor would actually like me to start going to the gym again (won't be doing any cardio but there is an indoor walking/running track as well as a pool) so that will be interesting trying to get a work out in while not going too far.  I see many more naps in my future...

We also got some very bad news this week; our plumbing is screwed up!  The sewer line that takes waste water away has broken and we had a (luckily small) laundry room flood that was a pretty good indicator that something was really wrong.  According to Mr. Rooter, we need to have the line replaced from the house to the sidewalk which not only means an expense of about $3800 but our front yard will be ripped up with a backhoe and will be one huge freaking mess come spring.  Yuck and yuck.  Making matters worse is the timing.  Since they need to get permits from the city it sucks to be going into the weekend and it really sucks that it happens to be a holiday weekend.  This means we might not get this resolved until Wednesday.  Again, yuck and yuck.

In the near future, we are looking forward to seeing Regina and Emmett this weekend!  Regina is one of Dave's good friends from school and Emmett is her newborn who we will be meeting for the first time.  It will be pretty neat to have a baby in the house for a few days, I think we'll have a good time!  I wish that we could offer full services to our house guests (as in, flush the toilet whenever you want or take a shower if you feel like it) but I know that Regina can rough it for a few days. 

I got a lot of compliments about the cookies in the previous post and I am excited to bake some more ASAP.  Place your orders now...  :)