Happy 25th Birthday Baby

My Teddi turned 25 years old on Sunday and is now officially a big girl. She can even rent a car. HA Happy Birthday Day Baby Girl and many more to come, Love Ya

Alecia's Birthday Party

Alecia's Sweet 16 Party was a smash hit. Lots of friends and family. We had a blast. Everyone dressed in their 1950's finery and it was really fun and cute. Of course we came as the "Bad kids" from Grease. Big Daddy came as Elvis in the 1950's, I was Cha Cha DiGregorio from Grease, Cha was a Pink Lady , Tony was a T-Bird. Alecia and Traci were the traditional Poodle Skirt girls and looked really cute. The cake was the hit of the party and was really good to. Alecia wanted marble cake and it was really moist and good. Along with that we had sub sandwich's, chips assorted salads. I think everyone had a good time
The party girl with her birthday cake

Grandpa Cole can still "cut a rug" He always dances the girls, He is a wonderful grandpa!!!


Elvis and Cha Cha

Daddy and his Birthday girl on her big day

The pink lady with T-Bird Tony and the Sweet Cheese
The whole gang. Some on made the comment that we were the "Bad Kids". Oh, you have no idea!!!!Traci and Ryan "At the Hop"

Tearing Up the World

Here we are with the whole front of our house tore up. We had to dig up the driveway and run new power wire under our driveway. What a mess. We did not have power for a couple days but everything is up and running and we even have the hole filled back in . Now we just have to have new concrete poured where they removed it. I can tell you this whole thing has really turned into a lot more time and money than we ever anticipated. Oh well we will have a beautiful new room. I have to thank all our friends who came and helped . Especially Gary Nielsen who saved our bacon on the electrical and refused to take a dime for working two straight days. We would have never made it without him. What good friends we have!!

Good Day

Well I had a hard weekend but today I feel like a human again. I finally have a little energy back and have been busy all day. Got up and mowed most of the lawn, Cliff got done with what he was doing and saved me and mowed the front. But we got all the construction junk cleaned up and even went over to Charlee's and loaded her junk and took it to the dump. Then we went to St George and picked up my car at the mechanic (yeah I have air conditioning) and went to lunch at the Crackers Barrel. I had chicken and mashed potatoes. It wasn't good but it didn't taste like poison so I ate enough so my tummy wasn't hurting. Then we took my car to Big O and got the tires rotated. Came home and finished watering the lawn and went and picked up Alecia's birthday present. I still have to find Cheyenne a gift as her birthday is Thursday and Alecia's Saturday, then Teddi's is Sunday.

Then I went to Cancer Support group. It was kind a depressing, lots of old people who have been through it over and over and just are sick and have sad stories. It sure gives you perspective quick on no matter what you think you are suffering , you are not even on the world map for suffering. So quit yer bitchin' as Grandpa would say.

So the I came home and planed a lantana bush finished watering the lawn, cleaned up out side and cooked Cliff some spaghetti for dinner. I had watermelon cause I knew better than to even think of putting that spaghetti in my mouth. Boy I miss food tasting good. It is surprising how much joy we get from eating and how depressing it gets when you NEVER get anything good. Oh yeah that's the rest of the world outside our spoiled USA and a few other privileged countries. I have a question, Why does Jesus have to come again before we all stop acting like retards. Can't we all just be nice and share without our Big Brother coming back and kicking our asses? I guess not it is probably easier to just blame someone else, I know let's blame Obama, that will be easy and no one will disagree.....................

Freaky Friday

Got up early and went to St George. I had a 9:00 am appointment with the radiation doctor. His name is Dr Hyde and is really nice and professional. We got everything set up and all my measurements done as well as my tattoo marks. They acted like putting the tattoo marks on was going to kill me but I just laughed. I barely felt it. The head radiation techs name was Joe and he was really funny. I was sure he was gay and then he started talking about his wife and kids so ?. I liked him a lot and so he made it kind of fun. If a CAT scan can ever be called "fun". Anyway it was $7,000.00 for today's appointment and the money is just adding up. I really don't worry about it as I have paid all I can and I can never pay the rest cause it's well over $200,000.00 and counting so whatever. That part is of very little interest to me as we are so pathetic as a country that we fight against taking care of ourselves over giving money away to the rich. It is so ignorant to me that I can barely stand it. So I just laugh and go to treatment and see the scores of other patients in the same situation that I am discussing the problem and shaking our heads at the lack of real understanding in this country as to what is actually going on.

We came home and Cliff worked in the new room awhile. I got us a sub sandwich for lunch and was going to mow the lawn but sat down for a minute to read the paper and fell asleep. Cliff reminded me that just because I just had my last treatment on Wed I still have the meds in my system so I am not really done. You know me always trying to jump ahead. Anyway maybe I will get it done in the morning. I made dinner and was able to eat a little potato and corn and a couple bites of meat. It didn't taste good but it didn't taste like poison so I felt lucky. At least I am not hungry.

We haven't had our little Gordy for a few days and we both miss her sweet face. I was at my energy end in caring for her but I sure miss her sweetness. Teddi has been sick for the last few days with an ear infection. Hopefully she is better soon. She went to work tonight which I hated cause she is still sick and dizzy. Hope nothing happens she has to respond to quick. Anyway, the NASCAR race in Phoenix is getting ready to start to so I am going to watch it. Happy Trails

Last Day of Taxotere

Hooray, I made it through 12 treatments of Taxotere and I am so happy it is over. One of my treatment buddies Nora, was there for her Herceptin treatment and she said it only took a couple weeks till she felt lots better and within the month she was 100%. I hope I am as lucky. She said the metal taste was pretty much out of her mouth in 2-3 weeks so maybe there is hope. We compared hair and she has been off chemo for a month and a half and I still had twice as much hair. Mine is really coming in thick and is salt and pepper gray. Anyway it is a day to celebrate and I am happy. Seems like my hair is coming in a lot thicker than it was. I hope so. I spoke with one lady, Lila who is on her third trip down the chemo path ( she is 70 and diagnosed 5 years ago with stage 4 breast cancer) and she said the first time, her hair came back in blond and curly, second time, jet black and curly, so she is interested to see what she will get this time. She was amazingly calm about the who thing, I could tell dreading the Taxol cause it's so evasive, but said she feels good otherwise and can stand it again. I tell you these woman are such inspirations and I will miss their great spirits and how up beat they all are in dire circumstances. They have been a great blessing in my life and I thank God for making them such fine examples of strength for me. Remembering their courage under terms much worse than mine have made me pull on my big girl pants and solder on many nights. So here' s to my girls Salute!!

I do start radiation on Friday. They wanted me to wait a month to start since it supposedly makes you tired, but I said no let's go I need this to be over with, so they agreed to start immediately. My theory is I can go home and rest if I am tired. I have to do 5 days a week for 5 weeks so then it will be another 'Have to" crossed off my list. I will have to continue Heceptin till this fall but that's every 3 weeks and just gives me a few hot flashes and makes me bitchy but that we can deal with. Then it's on to the good part, new boobs. Nothing to make a girl feel better about herself like a nice new pair of perky boobs!!!

Rainy Monday

What a rainy windy nasty day. The high today is 58 and it's hailing and snowing on the mountains(remember people it's April 5th in the desert)We drove to Las Vegas and filed some papers for Charlee Ann and then picked up the flooring for our new room. It was so windy that it about blew us off the road. We haven't had much wind for a long time so it really seemed like it was howling. My eyes have watered and run and my allergies have just been out of control. I'm not sure if it's just the wind or a combo of that and the chemo. Anyway, we made it back about 1:00 and just chilled out all afternoon. It kind of seemed like a weird day.

Teddi got moved out over the weekend. She was lucky that she had Donnie and he helped and got a trailer and all that stuff. We hardly had to do anything except Cliff did help them unload the heavy stuff. Anyway, that's done. Don't know how much time she will spend out here as her and Donnie seem thick as thief's but that's another story.

So I go to my last Taxotere treatment on Wednesday and I cannot tell you how relieved I am. I will still have Herceptin treatments every three weeks for a year but I can handle that (not sure if everyone else can cause they make me such a bitch-ha) I just want this horrible metallic taste out of my mouth and the sooner the better. You would think I would be happy to just stop eating but I guess that that is my addiction!! Anyway I tried to be a big girl this weekend and eat Mexican food and drink a coke and it's still about to kill me. So back to fruit and tomato soup I guess. You would think the weight would just fall off me but with the steroids it just goes a pound or two at a time.

Happy Easter

I made this tort for Easter Dinner with the kids today. I am cooking a turkey and dressing with all the trimmings and we are going to hunt eggs for the little girls.Well it seems like forever since I have blogged. I don't know where the time went. It seems like once I go to treatment, tend the baby, and then just do what I do it takes all my time and energy.

It was Tony's birthday this week and he turned 13. I cannot believe it. A teenager. I had his picture taken with his guitar for my music room. I have all the kids with their instruments or a mic if they are our singers. I love that wall. We got several poses and Cliff said this was his "Rock n Roll" Pose. The one that made the wall was his "blues pose". I had Alecia's done also but I am going to wait til her birthday to post it . Charlee took Tony and his cousins to Vegas to see Lance Burton's magic show for his birthday last night. Hope they had fun.

We went to Vegas yesterday and ordered our flooring for the addition, had lunch, and we were going to go to the Viva Las Vegas car show at the Orleans but the tickets to get in were $30 and I am way too cheap for that . It would have been $240 for us all to get in. No way. So we just messed around for awhile and then came home. It was fun seeing all the girls in their Betty Page outfits. There were some really cute pin-up girl costumes.

Mom was here last week and spent the week. It was really good to see her. I didn't feel so great so I think she got really bored cause I go to bed about 6:00. But I really enjoyed seeing her. She is trying to decide what to do and where to live and I know it's hard. We are going up in June and visit her and Toby so I can't wait for that trip. I will be done with chemo and need to get away. We are going to take Tony and go to Alcatraz so I am hoping I feel good and that my taste buds come back by then. That's the worst part, everything tasting like metal. It is hard to eat anything so I can't wait to taste food again. So Happy Easter everyone!!!!!