Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas everyone!

I had my 4th chemo session yesterday and all went well. My blood work came back fine only a little anemic. Dr. D was so excited. He said it was the first time he had felt needed in my treatment cause everything had gone so well, he thought I didn't even need him. I just laughed. I asked if I needed to eat something different since I was anemic, he said "No just keep doing whatever you are doing." I said, "Great my diet of cinnamon rolls and cold cereal seems to be working well" Just joking. I have been eating too many sweets and carbs but have TRIED to make my quota of fruits and veggies. I really love them but when you have to do anything you tend to not do it. Weird

My first day of chemo I am so amped it is hard to sleep. Last night about 9:30 Cliff and I started putting together Gabbi's little kitchen set. We finally got it done about 11:00. We played Alabama's Christmas album while we worked and it was the first time I really felt like it was Christmas. Her kitchen turned out really cute I am sure she will enjoy it. This afternoon we have to go to St George to pick up Charlee Ann's car so we are going to have Gabbi's picture taken with Santa. Teddi said she had Olivia's taken so I hope I get a copy of that. I set the Santa photos on the edge of the bar in Christmas frames and they look so sweet.

We are going to make Minestrone soup and a good bread for Christmas Eve. Cha and the kids are coming over and Teddi has to work so we won't get to see them until Sunday. Cliff will be back from Colorado with the big girls and we will have our real Christmas dinner on Sunday night. Looking forward to it all and feeling strong, lucky, thankful, and happy.

To Our Daddy's

Happy Birthday Daddy

Today is my Dad's birthday, the first one without him. I think of him almost every day and miss him a lot. Last night we all got together and took white balloons and each wrote a birthday message to Dad/Grandpa and then took them outside and sang Happy Birthday to Dad and let them go. The kids loved it. When they got out of sight, Oliva said, "He got them!!!"

We all had dinner together and I made one of Dad's favorite dinners. Roast Beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and a green salad. I could just see my Dad fixing his plate and loving it. He had a lot of hunger as a kid so he LOVED a good meal and a full table. It was so nice having the babies here but boy does it wear me out. They are so funny and have so much fun together. They are still getting the "sharing" part down but they are so sweet.

We went to the doctor yesterday morning and he gave me an all clear so far. I don't have to go back to Dr Wintch until the end of April. Then we will do the first MRI . I am feeling well and pretty strong. I do have my 4th round of chemo tomorrow, but I think it will all go as usual cause I feel real good. Hopefully by the time Cliff gets back from Colorado with the kids on Sunday I will be over the worst of it and feeling good. He is leaving Saturday and I sure hope the roads have cleared by then cause they are snowy and bad right now. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Sky High

Ron came by yesterday and took me flying in his flying machine. I am not sure what it is called kind of a motorized hang glider or parachute glider. Whatever it is, it was really fun. He was the pilot of course and I was just along for the ride. It has a front and back seat kind of like a motorcycle (only bigger) so I just sat behind him and he did all the work. We started out out at the roping area in Scenic and flew all over Mesquite and then kind of followed the river down to south of Bunkerville. We buzzed all the livestock on the way and even ran into Vay Mickelson who was flying his machine also. It was really fun. Ron showed me a tree in Bunkerville that he said gets blue herons in it every spring and that they nest in it and have their baby birds. Who knew!

Ron right before he got me all strapped in and we took off. He has helmets with microphones so you can talk to each other which makes it really nice. After we ran in to Vay I had Ron take me back to Scenic as I was starting to get a little nauseous. I took my meds before I left but I was just a tad bit sick and didn't want it to get worse. It was a lovely Christmas present and I really enjoyed it so much. Nice to see the community from the air. It gives you a whole different perspective

Beautiful Sunday

We has a storm blow thru about 4:00 in the morning that I thought would blow us away. It just rained and the wind really whipped around. When I got up about 6:00 am it was calm and as the sun came up it just turned into a beautiful day. Sunny and warm. I was ready for it I had had all the rain and gloom that I could stand. Now it's back to the Nevada I love. Sunny and nice

Teddi came out today with Olivia and so we go to see our big girl for a bit. Cha and Ted took the little girls to see The Princess and the Frog movie. I think Teddi is going to spend the night with Cha. I was just too tired to go to the movie, plus Dallas was playing at home and I wanted to see the game. Right now they are playing like crap and I might as well have gone to the movie.

I made cinnamon rolls this morning that were yummy and fixed us all a hamburger for lunch. Tony came in late from playing paint ball with his cousins and I had to make him one after the mess was cleaned up but I really didn't mind. I love my boy. He was a hungry teenager so he had already eaten two cinnamon rolls by the time his burger was done so in the end he only ate about 1/2 his burger and a 1/2 a bag of Doritos's. Just like a boy.

It's Still Cold

Well it has been cold and dreary all week. It seems like neither Cliff or I could get warm all week. We have mainly just laid around. We did go to Las Vegas to Cowboy Christmas on Wednesday and had lunch at Lone Star. We weren't in Vegas very long and just kind of wandered around at Cowboy Christmas. I did buy a mug and some note cards but it's just the same old stuff we have bought every year for the last 20 years so it's getting kind of tired. Plus their prices are stupid. I was looking for a pair of red dress boots and did find one pair of Ariats but they were $30.00 more at the show than on the Internet. It is really stupid. We did go by and look at the dress coats Cliff likes so well and they did have one made out of a beautiful heather colored fabric but he has 3 that he barely wears now so we just looked. Seems we just don't care that much about "things" these days. I did buy Cliff a ring, figured it was time he had one. It's really nice, a gold nugget ring, very manly. He seems to like it.

We baby sat Gordy on Friday for Cha and really had fun. She is such a sweet little girl. The weather was so nasty we could not go out side like she wanted to. so we stayed inside and watched the movie "Annie" over and over. We did switch to Cinderella for a minute but then back to "Annie. As long as she has a movie she is pretty easy, that and her babies, she has to push them around in their buggies and tuck them in . It's real cute.

Cliff went bowling last night but I was tired from watching Gordy so I stayed home and went to bed. Cliff said he bowled the worst he had ever bowled and they got their butts kicked. He got home pretty early but I was already asleep. We got up this morning and went to breakfast with Gordy and Cha. Tony was over at Carmen and Pollo's. They had some kind of Virgin Mary's birthday celebration and march at the Catholic Church and then they were going to play paint balls.

I just made some cinnamon rolls and of course immediately ate one even though we just got back from breakfast (what a fat ass pig) but it sure was good. Now we are just sitting around watching Celebrity Ghost stories. Watching the dreary clouds. I need sun and I need it now!! They say to will clear up by the first of the week.

Cold and Dreary Sunday

It is so cold here today, the high has been about 40 degrees and it's overcast. I have about froze my butt of all day. I wanted to go back to bed all day but I have managed to make it till now, 3:00 pm and I am still up, HA

Charlee and I went to Walmart for a few minutes and picked up a few last minute gifts, then we came home and got all her stuff wrapped. I had to hand tie all the bows cause that's just what I do. I got a few up dated addresses for my Christmas Cards and want to get them out this week. Talked to my Mom for a few minutes and she seemed fine.

Cliff and I have just kind of laid around all day. He has been watching football and I have tried to read but I don't have my prescription glasses back yet from being repaired so I am reading with those over the counter ones and they give me a headache so I finally just stopped.

Charlee, Gabbi and I went to Vegas yesterday and met Queen Olivia and Teddi at Chuck E Cheese for lunch with the mouse. The girls were so cute. Gordy just loved the mouse and kept waving to him. They enjoyed all the games and had fun running around. They go their wiggles out. We had to go by Sears for Cha to pick up a pair of boots she ordered but then we headed for home. It's too damn crazy out there this time of year.

I have had a harder time this round of Chemo. Just really felt crappy and tired. I have been sleeping about 12 to 14 hours a night so that has helped. Thank heavens I have been able to sleep. I do feel lots better today so hopefully it's up hill from here. I really struggled yesterday in Vegas, the girls could see it and were really concerned and helpful. I sure have good kids, better than I deserve I am sure. They are tops!! I am just worried about being on my game when the kids come for Christmas. I want them to have a really good time and I hope I am not sick while they are here. Hopefully I will be on my way to OK by the time they get here. I take my next treatment on the 23rd and they will be here either the 26th or 27th depending on if Cliff stays over one night, so I should be on my way to better at that point. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I am really looking forward to seeing them, it seems like they have not been here in ages.

We got our tree up and it looks real pretty. I love to see the lights at night. Also got a few new Oranments when we were in Texas. Here is the tree and the new ornaments, one in horonor of Texas (yellow rose) and one for our Mexican contingency.

QUEEN OLIVIA'S 3RD BIRTHDAY

Friday is Olivia's third birthday. We had her party a few days ago and it was so much fun. She was so excited about the whole deal and loved the cake. presents, etc. After the party she said "thank you for coming to my party" It was so damn cute.
She wanted everything to be for a princess, so that's what we did. She had a princess cake and a dress that she could dress up like a princess. Aunt Charlee got her a set of princess high heels and Mima & Big Daddy got her a rocking throne for her prissiness's.
She got all dressed up in her princess attire and then closed her eyes and twirled around in a circle and said "Now I want my dream boy" We about died laughing. What she meant was she had gotten a princess barbie and prince charming from her Mom and Marty and she wanted the doll but it was so funny.

Sweet Queen Olivia with her Uncle Toby. She was so excited that he was at her party. She had talked about the fact that he was coming for a couple weeks before. They were really cute together
Queen Olivia and her birthday haul

Gordy Cheese sneaking some birthday cake frosting
The princess cake that we did not eat one bit of. It sure looked cute but everyone was so full after dinner we didn't eat a bit, other than the bite Queen Olivia took when we played "Bite it"

3rd Round

Well I went for my third round of chemotherapy yesterday. It took longer than usual, but everything went like clock work. Dr D Said my blood work was excellent in fact my white blood count was 47, higher than it was last round which is unusual. He said , You are making my job easy," To which I answered, I am just tough as old shoe leather." I hope it stays that way.

I have one more round of this type of treatment then we change to the new drugs. On those, I take the Taxol every three weeks for 4 rounds, and the Herceptin once a week for a year. After the Taxol I can start radiation that will run daily for 5 weeks and THEN I can have my reconstruction surgery. I just goes on and on. I told Cliff, if we go through all this and then this crap jumps up again, I will scream. Makes me kind of wish they had taken the other boob in the beginning just to be sure. But, that's water under the bridge so oh well. Either way I guess I get to see how tuff I really am. (insert a photo of me flexing my muscle in my flabby arm, the good one)

After we got home we watched the Gordy for a little while. She is so cute and so sweet. Here is a picture of her pushing her baby around in the baby buggy. She would push the buggy real slow, like she was being careful not to hurt her baby, then stop and go check her baby and tuck in her blanket and make sure her bottle was near her mouth. It was the cutest thing ever. If you notice Digger is in every picture, he thinks it is his job to protect her and every time anyone comes near her , he tries to get between her and who ever it is like one of us is going to try to get her or something. It's pretty cute and he is a good protector.



Then we came in the house and watched her new favorite movie "Annie" which in her Little Spanish accent she calls "Anna". While we were watching it, I got a hot flash and pulled my wig off. It took her a few minutes to notice, then she started backing up on the bed like she was afraid. I said, " It's still just Mimi, and patted her. She finally quite backing up and scrunching up her shoulders like she was scared. I said, "Do you want to touch Mimi's head?" She didn't act scared so I reached over and got her little hand and rubbed my head with it. She kind of smiled and then stared to come to me. I said, "Give Mimi a kiss, which she did and then she looked over at my wig which I had hung on the bed post and made a claw of her little hand and reached toward the wig and went grrrrrr like it was a monster or something. It was so funny. My sweet cheese. She still likes Big Daddy best and spent a lot of her time cuddled up on his lap while he played video games.

Monday

Went to Vegas to get my school records today from Clark County. I hope it has enough information included in it for the Justice Department to write me a check for $50,000.00. The Mormon Church cannot seem to find me on their membership roles as a child so, I went to Clark County and they found me in 2 minutes, I am just crossing my fingers that it is what they want.

Went and took all my old gold jewelry to be repaired at the Jewelers. I am hard on jewelry so about once a year I take everything in for repairs . Not bad this time. Everything repaired for about $75.00, well worth it with gold prices today.

Then I went over to see my Queen Olivia and get my Mima kisses. Then Teddi and I went to lunch while Marty watched Oli and then went and shopped for Teddi a formal dress for their company Christmas Party. She bought a really cute black/red/zebra print cocktail dress that she looked really good in . Now she just has to find the zebra shoes. Who ever thought that she would turn into a girl, and I will go farther, a flash and trash girl.

It was a nice day but I was tired when I got home. I had spaghetti sauce frozen in the freezer so we had a nice easy dinner with some yummy garlic bread that had big chunks of roasted garlic and spaghetti. Now we are watching the Saints/Patriots game and hoping that the Saints keep kicking the Patriots butts. I willprobably have to wait to know what happens cause I can see I am fading fast. A day in Vegas wore me out.

Wet Weekend

We had a nice day today.Got up late and then made a trip to St. George to buy a new washer. Had lunch at Applebee's that was not too bad, then back home to install the washer. It rained a little this afternoon and although it was not really cold, it looked cold so I made a pot of clam chowder for supper. It tasted pretty good to me. Cliff hasn't had any yet so that will be the test. He has been napping and I didn't want to wake him up.

I am done Christmas shopping and so glad to have it all done. I even have a few things wrapped and would like to get it all finished the first of the week. I go for my next chemo treatment on Wednesday and every round makes me a little tireder so I am trying to be proactive in making sure things get done. I would like to get the tree up but Cliff would just kill me. He is already complaining about how long they drag out the holidays. I understand, but since it's here, I say enjoy it . He is just being a crabby patty. Besides just to see Olivia and Gabbi's sweet little faces is worth anything.

Here are a few pictures that we took over Thanksgiving.

Hat's Off to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had so much food. We cooked two turkeys, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, and everything else you could think of including pumpkin-chocolate pie.
Our sweet cheese trying to see inside the camera
Tony serenaded us with lots of songs and he sounded so good. We also had a jam session with the guitars all the boys played, even the Gordy played one for a minute she thought she was so BIG.
This is Toby boning a turkey. I am not kidding. He took all the bones out and then put a sausage, leek, macadamia nut dressing inside. Then rolled the whole thing up and glazed it with pure maple syrup and spices. It was so damn good. Then we made a traditional turkey and dressing so we would have left overs for turkey sandwiches. My tummy is so full I look like a starving child with a big belly!!!
Big Daddy and his little girls. Gabby likes him way better than me and will tell me , No, Dad-Dad and run to him. Oli still likes me but she needs her Daddy-Daddy hugs
Of course, we had to do our traditional Thanksgiving hats. Here is my beautiful baby girl in her Thanksgiving Pilgrim hat. Marty had to work so she was doing Mama duty solo like Cha.



It was pretty funny everyone made something different this year and look, Cliff even got Grouchy Old Digger to wear his Halloween Yoda hat for a minute!!

Gabby was not too happy about having to wear her hat, her Mama made her an Aztec Princess hat but she did not want to be an Aztec Princess. She is so sweet
Oli loved her turkey hat. Her and Mima had kind of the same hat so she thought that was funny,
Toby's hat was so funny we laughed and laughed at it's "arms.
Here is my Aztec Princess. Isn't she beautiful. My poor baby had a hard day. Poor ole Leonard was sick and in bed all day, her car broke down, and her washer went out. But she was a champ and of course we are working it all out, and Leo feels better today.
This Big Mama wearing Toby's Thanksgiving hat and giving the "finger" to cancer!
Toby came out in one of my wigs and said"I will have to get one of these. I told him he could have that one.
Olivia was playing with our stuffed animal horse that we call "horse" and part of his mane came out. She looked so shocked. I said maybe he is taking chemotherapy? Teddi said to Oliva, "Maybe we can take horse's hair and put it on Mima's head and then she can have hair again. Olivia looked at me for a minute really serious and then said, "Well, we could try." We all just died laughing!!

Landslide

I have been working on an article for the local newspaper concerning this journey thru breast cancer. It is kind of a comedy/tragedy thing that may convey some much needed information. I think they are actually going to do it as a series over time. I am meeting with the editor on Wednesday to formalize the format, so I will know more then. The idea actually started as an idea for a book and after I had the first 8000 words, it just kind of took on a life of it's own. I love starting to create something and then watch it just take over and become what it is meant to be.

Just trying to get the house clean and things ready for Thanksgiving. Really looking forward to it this year. As you know we always make everyone wear a gay Thanksgiving hat to eat dinner. It is just a family tradition that keeps us from getting to serious about the day. Plus the little kids love it. Big Daddies hat is aways the "crowning glory" and it sounds like he is opting for a Pilgrim Hat this year. I wanted to make a combination turkey/pig hat with bonky eyes. We will see. We are going to St George tomorrow to get the items we need for the hats, Mesquite is very lacking in artful ingredients for gay Thanksgiving Hats. Should be a full day of creating nonsense.

Toby will be here Wednesday night and I am so looking forward to seeing him. It always seems like it's too long in between. We are planning a trip to Portland this spring to see him so maybe it won't be as long this time. Hopefully he and Tony and Cliff can get a jam session going on the guitars and then of course there is my family picture that I am planning. Everyone hates to take my family picture but I think I may get it this year and have them actually pose and take their time and get a good picture, see I am pulling the "cancer card" on them and they are not quite sure if I mean it, so they will fall under my spell and I will get my picture!!

"Older? It's who you have always been, only later."

Well everyone came out today and we had the Mima Birthday Party. The little girls were so excited that it was Mima's birthday. We found an old candle from someones 4th birthday and used it so the little girls would have something to blow out. It was really funny. They were so excited for it to be a "birthday party for Grandma".
Me and Big Daddy just loving it up as always. Ain't he summpin!!
My girls, minus the Colorado contingency. Loved the party but missed the big girls from Colorado. Aren't my daughters and granddaughters so unbelievably beautiful!!!!!!
My sweetums. Olivia has not seen me without hair but Gordy is terrified of me without my wig. Even with a scarf on Gordy will not let me hold her. She will kiss me but only if Charlee is holding her.Later in the day I did take the wig off for Olivia. She starred at me for a long minute, and then said, "Put it on." My sentiments exactaly.
We were plaaying "Bite it" and Gordy was not too pleased. This cake was amazing. Charlee Ann made up the recipe and it was soooooooo good. She knew I loved pecans, so she got a butter pecan cake mix and added chopped pecans, then baked it in a medium size spring form pan, ; when it was out and cool, she cut it in three layers, and filled it with a mixture of, cream cheese, real whipped cream, powered sugar, a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. Then she put chopped pecans all over it. OMG, not too sweet just light and creamy and tasted just like fall.
All the gang after dinner hanging out for a picture with Grandma. These guys are nuts with their hats on like thugs. Oh, hell they are thugs!The infamous Abuelita Gang.

We had rib steaks, baked potatoes, salad, rolls, and butter pecan cream chesse filled birthday cake. Yummy!