Kowboy is Visiting Us

Tony & Elena & Nikita & Anastasiya arrived Sunday afternoon late. They brought their Lab, Kowboy, with them. They are going to Kiev later in January, so we are babysitting Kowboy for them. He was really good and rode standing up nearly the whole way here from Austin. He was really excited to be in the house when they got here Funny, because he doesn't like it in their house.

Have to get him a lean-to for a house. He's beautiful and is so good-natured. He's going to miss his family while he's here!

A Way With Animals

Saturday afternoon I took the four oldest girls to the park. They had a big time playing at the Kid's Kingdom which is a really neat playground next to the park that has nice paved walking paths. It got rid of a lot of energy.

They played about 45 minutes and then I gathered them up to go walking on the path. Brynna (6 years old) walked beside me the whole way, holding my hand and sharing thoughts with me. I spoke to everyone that we met on the path and she wanted to know if I knew these people. I told her, no, that we're just being nice to each other.

We met a Lab pup when we started down the path and it just took up with Brynna. The owner had to come pick up the dog so it didn't keep following Brynna. Brynna is walking along with me then and she says, "I really have a way with animals." I agreed with her that she did, that the puppy really liked her.

Just a minute or so later, Kora was doing something that Brynna did not approve of at the front of our line of girls, so Brynna yells out, "KORA, stop that!" Kora immediately stopped doing whatever the offense was. Brynna didn't miss a step and quietly tells me with all sincerity, "I also have a way with people." It was all I could do to not just roll on the walking path.

When we got home, I shared the story with the grownups and he all had a good laugh from it. How fun it was for me to be out with those girls and enjoying their silly stories. Several times Brynna & I would cut corners on the path and would beat the other girls to the next switchback. That just thrilled all of them. Fun, fun!

We Shouldn't Have Left The House

David and I went out to eat tonight. I suggested we try out a new Mexican food restaurant here in Rowlett, so we tried there first. The parking lot was full, which is one of my main indicators of the worthiness of a restaurant. They've been working on this restaurant for months, so I was expecting a real elaborate place. The entry way where the hostess greets you is just petitioned off by curtains hanging from bars. The girl took your napkin out of your glass and put it on your lap for you. She handed us our menus. At first I thought there weren't any prices on it, but they are one of the new price places that gives the prices in whole dollars, as in $9 instead of $8.95. I looked around and didn't see very many bowls of chips on tables, looked at the menu and saw that you had to PAY FOR CHIPS AND SALSA. As soon as I told David this, we agreed to get up and walk before we got in any deeper.

Next we tried another Mexican food place here, but there weren't very many people there, so we drove on. And on and on. We eventually wound up in Garland and then drove to restaurant row in Mesquite. There was a new Mexican food place there, so we went there. The chips weren't awful (not crispy and light) and the salsa was too hot. We ordered. One and 1/2 hours later, we asked about our food and were told that they were having problems in the kitchen. Lots of people were looking at their watches just like we were. We decided to walk. We had eaten two baskets of chips and the manager told us that they were on the house.

We had to get home because Kelly, Tami & the girls were due to our house around 9. We drove back to Rowlett and went to a new BBQ place here. The beans were not seasoned, the potato salad was blah. It cured me of wanting it to be a new place to pick up food.

We got home a little before 9 and the kids got to our house about 10 minutes later. It was a horrible night----we clearly should have stayed home tonight!

A Crumb of Bread

A friend sent me this link for bakers. Wow! It is really neat. I would caution you, however, to think about the recipe ingredients. I looked at one for cinnamon rolls (since we're eating salad and I'm dying for something sweet and gooey) and it said to use 1/2 CUP cinnamon and 1/2 CUP sugar. YUCK! That is clearly a misprint and should be 1/2 TSP cinnamon. Enjoy!

http://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/

A Size 5

I picked up my Christmas present today! We bought it last week, but it had to be re-sized down to a size 5. And while I have lost some weight, I'm sure not down on the rest of my body to a size 5!

But all rings at Zales come in a size 7. I had been wearing a plastic pink ring I got at a breast cancer luncheon I went to this year. David took me to Zales to get a real gold ring with a pink stone to celebrate my cancer treatment being over. I only wear yellow gold. Most of the rings we looked at had gaudy huge pink stones and were in white gold. The guy helping us looked at all the rings in the store and came back with just exactly what David was looking for and I love it. I wear it on my left pinky finger. It's a size 5.

Elena's Dad--Update

Elena & Tony learned today that her dad has advanced cancer throughout his body. They are in the process of getting over to Kiev, Ukraine, to see her parents. Elena's passport has expired, so they have to get it updated. Their plans right now are to leave somewhere around January 15 and be gone for a month or so. Tony has lots of vacation time with the APD so that won't be an issue. We may babysit Kowboy, their golden retriever, while they are overseas.

Peter drove a truck and brought workers out of the power plant after the April 26, 1986 nuclear power reactor 4 had a meltdown. As far as they know, he is the last one of the men who worked at Chernobyl who is still alive. Peter is a proud, valiant man who served his country, raised his brothers and sisters when he was only a child himself. Please pray for him and Nadia and the family during this time. Below is a Wikipedia article about the disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Evacuation_of_Pripyat

Elena's Dad

Our daughter-in-love, Elena, is from Ukraine. Her mom and dad still live in Kiev, where Tony met Elena. Elena's dad, Peter, (our spelling--not his) is having serious health issues with his liver and is not doing well at all.

Please put him and his wife, Nadia, on your prayer list. Nadia has early stage Parkinson's and now Peter is very sick. Elena's sister is living with them and her brother is there almost every day helping out. They are special people. We feel fortunate to have gotten to meet them and have them in our home in Amarillo. Peter drove a truck to and from Chernobyl to get people out of there when the disaster happened there. He served in the Ukranain military and was quite a soldier. He and David could really tell war stories together.

The Cantata That Wasn't

To protect the guilty, I won't name names as to the Christmas cantata we attended last night. It was the absolutely strangest one I've ever seen. The premise was that you were observing the choir at its "rehearsal" thus allowing for lots of cute errors. While the choir was grand and raised the rafters on some of the songs, unfortunately the music involved didn't make you walk out singing any of the songs. Instead you left scratching your head going, huh?

Now I just need somebody GOOD to sing the pieces out of "O Holy Night" and I'll have Christmas. That's my favorite.

Back to Boring

Friday we had a followup with Dr. Laidley. It was basically a congratulations time. I go back to see her in 3 months----wow. The doctor appointments are getting fewer and fewer, so life is getting back to a fairly normal routine. I tell you this, to tell you that my blog may get a little boring. Hallelujah! We can use a little boring in our lives.

The Long Hard Year

On December 1, 2006, I had my first chemo treatment. Boy, were we dumb and innocent then! One year later I had my last Herceptin treatment today, ending my cancer treatments. We went out to eat to celebrate after the treatment and reminisced about the many things we’ve gone through this year.

My breast surgeon, Dr. Alison Laidley, told us the first time we met with her “I think we can save your life, but it’s going to be a long, hard year.” Little did we know what all that meant. But I thank God constantly for the medical heroes who have guided us through all the treatments and surgeries and side effects.

We’re still seeing my plastic surgeon, still inserting additional saline into the tissue expander in the right breast until it is sufficiently expanded to accept the real silicone implant to be inserted next year around March or April probably.

One of the blessings out of this year is the opportunity to tell people about breast cancer and have hopefully planted some seeds of action in lives to do self-exams and get regular doctor visits and mammograms. But the most precious blessing is the women who have come to me asking questions because they have gotten their news that they, too, have breast cancer.

One year later I’m glad to be here and be cancer free. Dr. Laidley was right and now the long, hard year is over.