Some facts about my mom

My mom didn't learn to swim until she was 55. Now she loves water aerobics. We teased that when she beats this cancer she can be a spokesperson for pancreatic cancer and hold a water aerobics tournament to raise money like Lance Armstrong.

My mom just learned how to use a computer when she was 71 (last Christmas). Does she look 72 to you?

My mom had melanoma 41 years ago and survived beforn I was born.

She loves children more than anyone else I know.

Dream

Last night I had a dream that I took a Math class and the assignment was to write a paper. I was horrified!

What did you dream about?

Back in Kansas

Just got back last night. My mom is still waiting for the doctor from Minneapolis to call her. She decided she wants to do the most aggressive chemo/radiation regimen for her pancreatic cancer. We are going to see if she can do the recipe for the study trial in Bismarck. If not, she would need to spend six weeks at a time in Minneapolis, probably twice. We don't have family there, so that will be tricky.

She needs to have chemo/radiation before they will consider surgery because the tumor is too large and the portal vein is involved. If everything goes great and the tumor shrinks, she will be able to have surgery in 3 months.

My mom says she has a peace about all this and can feel people praying for her. She is "ready to go, but not ready to leave" is what she says.

I will be posting pictures soon.

Edit--They are willing to do the chemo in Bismarck so Mom will have all the support she needs there! She has to wait to call the doctor in Bismarck for an appointment because the office is closed. Then she can ask if insurance pays for it which we forgot to ask before.

Mushka

When I started this blog I tried not to put too many pictures of my dog on here so people wouldn't think I was obsessed with her because we don't have any kids...Well I changed my mind. You can think I'm weird.

White on white

This was on December 31st. Most of the snow is gone now.

Photo Friday--Best of 2006

I picked this as my best of 2006 for Photo Friday.

May you feel renewed this New Year's and not bring the baggage of 2006 with you!

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him. Colossians 3:10 NLT

Vietnam POW quotes

"Hate does the hater more harm than the one who is hated. I consider myself one of the lucky of the unlucky. I"m a better person for it."

Just saw a program on the Veitnam POWs...Wow!

Wedding card

I'm done with the outside, but need to finish the inside. I'm so scared I'm going to mess up the inside that I think I'll put an insert in for a layered effect. The picture is a wedding picture of MY great-grandpa and great-grandma from 1899, so it will be Nathan's great-great-grandparents. After awhile of fiddling on the computer getting the picture purple, I printed it out and played with embossing powder and distress inks and ribbons for the rest of it. The color turned out funky on the scanner, but you get the idea, right?

Playing with fire, literally

I opened up the exposure to 2+. That's why there are little lines on the last two pictures....interesting. Did you know I love to move the logs around and am fascinated with the flames and coals and the colors, etc? So I guess you could say I like playing with fire.

Christmas Eve party agenda and surprises

First we ate, of course. The first suprise was my brother-in-law wearing a polo shirt. He's usually in a colored plain T-shirt and his Converse high-tops--his signature look. He went to church with his girlfriend for the first time in boo-koo years, so he said this was him dressing up. But then he wore bunny slippers. He said he didn't wear those to church, though.

Surprize #2: Little did I know, the kids were entertained by a stuffed chicken with reindeer antlers that plays the "Chicken Dance" that I got on clearance last year. That lasted for at least 45 minutes.

Then we played the left-right game where someone reads a story and everytime the story has left or right, you pass the prize in the respective direction. Mom brought a cool present, but the next surprize was that Shay won the reindeer candy pooper that poops out jellybeans. I guess he's never seen one before, but he and the kids loved how the jellybeans shot out of the back of it. That's what Alex is laughing about in one of the pictures below. She's the girl with the long blonde hair.

Then we played our white elephant game. I ended up with the present I brought which was "Tommy Boy-Holy Snikes Edition" DVD. I was happy about that. In this paragraph, I will mention another surprize which is that Manon actually started talking to me towards the end of the evening. She's shy, and I was shy when I was little so I can relate. Kyndal promised me that when she grows up she will talk to me right away and remember our bonding time (she's the baby in the pictures).

Then we played this game I made up where I put a lot of different questions in a hat and everyone had to pick one and answer it--kind of like "Truth or Dare" without the dare. My mother-in-law approved of it when I told her the idea. I put in questions like "What's your favorite restaurant? What's Star Wars character would you want to be? What was your most memorable Christmas present? What accomplishment are you most proud of?" etc. I thought it would be fun to get to know things like that about our family. I thought the adults might enjoy it but the kids might think it was boring. To our surprize, Blake and Carson loved it and wanted to keep playing and playing.

It was good to see Uncle Byron and Aunt Dee. They are living in an RV now, so I guess it wasn't a surprize that they didn't host the party.

Mom and Becky and I went to the 11 p.m. candlelight service at Aldersgate UMC after everyone had left. When the service was over, it was officially Christmas Day. Surprize--you'll have to wait for another post to read about that!

Christmas Eve pics

Please click on the picture to make it bigger. (This message is mainly for my North Dakota mom. Hi Mom!)

Mason

Mason is my next-door neighbor (Melanie's son). These were taken on Saturday...I might eventually get to posting my Christmas pictures, but don't be surprized if I don't.

Snowperson humor

Speaking of Mom

Regarding my mom and her pancreas, my mom has an appointment in Minneapolis on January 4th with a gastroenterologist. It was the earliest they could get her in. We're not really sure what will happen.

So the plan is that I will meet her in Minneapolis and then we will go to Fargo for my nephew's wedding on January 6th (which I was planning on going to anyways).

I normally wouldn't post that I will not be home just in case someone I don't want to know is reading this, but my husband will be home and knows how to use a weapon and scored great on the "Zombie Survival Quiz" in case anyone wanted to break in my house. My previous "Stupid, not stupid" post will explain that.

What's the story

Hey...I've been frequenting this blog I wandered upon, and you should check it out. It's What's the Story. Are you wondering why I posted the photo above? It's on the blog on the December 24th post. I took the pic when I was in Lawrence last spring. Be sure to read the comments, as they are pretty funny. Just click on the "comments" under the picture, and a little box will pop up where you can read other peoples' comments and add your own. This last sentence is for my mom's benefit. Hi Mom!

Advent candles

The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. Dennis Bratcher

The Advent Season is over per the calendar, but may the spirit of advent still remain with you.

Crenulate

Learned a new word this weekend...Crenulate means having a margin of small rounded teeth. Shay's flashlight had a crenulated rim. The word is also used to describe leaves.

Use it in a sentence this week and people will think you own one of those "Word-A-Day" calendars or play too much Scrabble.

Still alive

My dog survived sharing her house with 22 extra people on Christmas Eve! We went to my mother's-in-law on Christmas day. I worked on December 26th and then slept, slept, slept.

Random thoughts

I love March of the Penguins movie and any movie I've ever seen with talking animals in it...

Yes, I'm procrastinating and should get my butt in gear and finish getting ready for Christmas...I also should've gotten on the treadmill already today.

Also, don't expect me to organize my posts with this new "label" feature on blogger beta, because I don't like organizing. I'm learning more and more about myself. I also don't buy as much when I go shopping because I discovered my satisfaction is when I'm at the store checking out and I hate putting things away when I get home.

Am I stupid? I'm smart, but stupid

My husband definitely thinks I'm 100% weird, though. He said I didn't need to take that quiz.

But he took the "Zombie Survival Quiz" and he scored 86--A Zombie Killa and would survive until authorities could arrive. I feel much safer now if the Zombies ever attack.