I am Nuts....

We already knew I was nuts.....but now it's completely provable and out there for everyone to see. Ron blames my sister. While visiting Arizona, we enjoyed watching her two dogs play together. So I, of course, thought, "OH! Winston needs a brother! A little doggy to be friends and play with!"

yeah.....sure he does.

I also thought my sister's little Yorkie was super cute. And a Yorkie would be such a cute little brother to a Schnauzer....because they can't be an obnoxious breed at all! ;) (For the record, my sister's Duchess is such a cute little toe nibbler!)

So I started looking at the local online classifieds every so often.....and found something....and acted.....possibly rashly....

Yep.

Nuts.

Meet Winston's new "little brother", Willoughby. (You ask if he is named after the Jane Austen Sense & Sensibility character? Why yes, he is, although hopefully he won't be a love 'em and leave 'em rouge.) I thought since Yorkshire Terriers originated in England, that of course he needed a proper English name. The longer and more pompous the better.

The meeting went well. We met over on the church lawn in a "neutral" location. Winston was wondering what the heck was wrong with this little spastic puppy that was jumping all over wanting to play. Then he finally figured out what was going on and joined in....well, tried to! Then Willoughby was wondering what the heck was going on with this giant (to him) dog jumping all over wanting to play. Hopefully as they get used to each other and Willoughby gets older he won't feel overwhelmed. Keep fingers crossed they keep getting along!

Cool....not so Cool

***Found this in my drafts.....written in June! Guess I got a little sidetracked. This is a bit of a gripey/complaining post, but hey, if you had ANY idea of what we were going through this summer, especially early June, you'd just be glad I'm still sane. Read on if you'd like, and any additions I've added today are preceded by asterisks...and bolded.


I'm borrowing this lil' feature from a bloggy friend I've had for a while, the one and only Crazymama. Hers is Rad/Not Rad.....but I'm afraid I'm still too stuck in the 80's so I'm sticking with cool.....also because I think I lack in the radness department, and only rate on the cool scale....but now I'm rambling.

So there has been a lot going on around here, and the easiest way to play catch up might be to put it all in this random little funfest.

Cool: My mom only has ONE MORE CHEMO TREATMENT LEFT (June 16th)! She also had one of her chemo drugs discontinued, which will be explained below. She has also move in here with us, so we can make sure she is getting proper meals (she lacked energy to do it for herself) and be taken care of. ***Her last dose of chemo ended up being cancelled. It was literally killing her, so the doctor said enough is enough, and she got two units of blood instead. Felt much better after that, and ended up feeling well enough to return to her home the end of June.

Not So Cool: After 4 doses of Taxotere, my mom had a reaction to it that less than 5% of patients have, and it caused the soles of her feet to blister and slough multiple layers of skin.  It was awful. I have pictures but won't share them. Think burn unit stuff because they were pretty much severe 2nd degree chemical burns. We/I changed dressings a couple times a day, and her oncologist, as mentioned above, discontinued the Taxotere. He felt good that he got 4 doses in her before having to get rid of it. Also not cool (a little bit) is that she had to move in here. She's bored. It's hard because I'm having to shush the kids alot and having friends over is harder, but in the long run it will be a good learning experience in sacrifice for them....I hope.  ***She also lost her fingernails and toenails. It was awful. I hate cancer.

Cool: School is out!  No more projects, no more studying for spelling tests, no more getting grumpy sleepy kids off to school. No more checking grades to make sure they are passing. :)

Not So Cool: School is out.....they are bored already. They want to eat ALL THE TIME. I'm thinking of getting an open/closed sign for the kitchen! There are constant requests for multiple playdates or friends over.....it would be much better for me if this was reciprocated and my kids could go to their friends houses sometimes too, but it isn't happening.

Not So Cool: The other day, the dog came in from outside and layed down, pretty soon, when he did walk around, he lifted his back leg and wouldn't use it at all and there was horrible yelping if you touched it....I was worried that the kids had stepped on his paw and broken it or something awful and expensive to fix....

Cool: After closer inspection of the dogs paw, I found a bee stinger still in his skin! Poor puppy. We removed the stinger and put ice on it.  He had the most pathetic look on his face. But by morning it was forgotten and all was well. And it was free. :) ***We have now discovered that Winston the Wonder Dog chases bees and tries to catch them. Brilliant! Ron pulled one out of his mouth about a month ago. He also likes to chew on live electrical cords.

Cool: All the kids passes their classes, tests, etc. and are all promoted to the next grade. (I know, you are thinking, duh, of course they are, but if you really knew what we went through this past term with a certain one of our kids, you'd be turning cartwheels with us!) Next year we'll have a kindergartner, 3rd grader, 4th grader, and high school Senior!

Not So Cool: For some unknown reason, the kids think that all rules of our home flew out the window when school ended. We have had so much disrespect, yelling, fighting, and general mayhem that I may be insane next week if they don't get a grip. After having a serious talk with them a couple days ago, and really cracking down on the first misstep, things seem to be going a little better. That or they realized that mommy is right on the edge of mental breakdown! ;)

Cool: The kids have a few fun things planned this summer to pass the time and learn new things. Ellie is taking swimming lessons, Jared just finished a basketball camp and has swimming lessons. Hopefully we can get in some BMX races, but we'll have to see. Nicole is also doing swimming lessons, continuing with piano, and taking a sewing class. Riley is at trek as I type, and has girls camp at the end of the month. We're hoping she can go find a job, but we shall see if she really gets out and looks.

***The kids loved swimming lessons, and really excelled. Jared ended up doing no BMX racing. He needs a new and bigger bike, and between that need, and just being limited on time for practicing, we didn't do any racing. He says he still wants to do it, and Ellie says she wants to as well, so we shall see...Riley survived trek, despite the smart move of not putting on sunscreen the first day(or wearing her bonnet) and being fried to a crisp. She also went to girls camp. Surprisingly, the jobs didn't come looking for her(note sarcasm please), so she is penniless and not too happy about that. I'll try and revisit some summer fun we had in a later post. Until then, smile that you're healthy, that school is back in session, and we all remained sane! ;)

November 1st

The long lost blog gets written on? What the?????

It's the day after Halloween, aka continuation of the sugar fest at our house. Because, as you know, there was no way they ingested near enough candy yesterday. No, they were far too busy collecting it.

Jared outdid himself. He and a group of boys in the neighborhood sprinted from house to house not only in our neighborhood, but in the neighborhood next to ours as well. His haul was excessively huge & pretty disgusting in size. No fear, although he doesn't know about this, I will not be letting him consume all that candy. (I have some respect of myself as being a good mom!)

To document costumes:

Nicole and Ellie were renaissance princesses. They both had different plans for costumes, but then we ended up at Cracker Barrel in Flagstaff AZ and found these beauties at 40% off...Hooray! Cute, and a deal.






Jared was a Stickman. Cracker Barrel didn't have big boy costumes, and this was the best costume to be had at Walmart on the Friday before Halloween! (Because I procrastinated. Remember, I said good mom, not great mom.) It was very cool though, fiber-optics powered by battery made for quite the cool effect in the dark. Ron took a video I'll download later, but for now, the picture:







PS- if any of you are wondering about Riley, yes, she does live here, but refuses to pose for pictures. Oh well! One less thing to send her off with when she moves out?! ;)

The Day After Mother's Day....

I meant to post these before the big day to celebrate mom's....but missed the cut-off! ;)

So, for all of us now back in the grind of everyday life, enjoy!  Hope these give you a guffaw!  Or at least a giggle....

Happy Mother's Day!

We'll get it up a little early, as I'm running out of time before we take a little trip out of town....

Just want to wish ALL the women out there, whether you are part of my life, or just stopping by to read, a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Especially this lady:

My MOM!  This is long before I came along, but I love this picture of my mom. (Look at that teeny waist!)

She was her Daddy's cowgirl.
She was my Daddy's wife.
She is my mom, and I love her.

Go mom!  She is kicking cancer's trash to the curb, and we are fully planning on celebrating her 90th birthday in about 10 years!

Happy Easter

Vitamins?

I think I need to get a hold of some of this.....

The Saga of Winston

I haven't properly introduced our newest family member! So here goes, complete with back story....Back in January, in the midst of all the stress of finding out about my mom's diagnosis, Ron told me he really felt like we needed to get a new dog....I nearly passed out at that suggestion!

See, we had a dog from 2002 until March of 2010.  A cocker spaniel that we had adopted from the animal shelter - Joey.  He was a good dog.  He didn't bark, or jump up on people or things. But I wasn't thrilled with him.  Cocker Spaniels shed.....and that nearly drove me insane!  Freaking dog hair everywhere makes me nuts. (Surprising since I was raised with dogs that shed, but they stayed in one room of the house, and were mainly outside dogs. Joey was not.) He also was very bad about bolting if he got out front unrestrained and ran like the wind until he'd pass out in someone's yard a mile or so away and they'd call....highly irritating.  Anyway, when Joey got old and sick, and was put to sleep last March, we were not planning on ever getting another dog.

But Ron felt that our kids behavior and experience with responsibility warranted, no, NEEDED it....After I got over the initial shock, I started looking.....I think it was also an attempt to do something that felt "normal" amidst all the doctor appt's and worries about my mom.

We agreed that this time we'd go with small, and most importantly, NON-shedding. :)  We also wanted a youngish dog, but not necessarily a puppy. I found a Bichon Frise that someone was selling, we talked about that, but the situation just sounded....complicated...it was the husband that wanted the dog gone, the wife sort-of agreed, but the kids didn't know.  So to come see the dog we had to pretend that we were there for another reason....no thanks!

Then Ron found an ad for a miniature schnauzer puppy.  Honestly, I'd never considered a schnauzer.  Every one I'd ever encountered was either aloof, or growl-y and nervous.  But in reading about the breed, I realized that they make good pets for families, and especially if they are raised around kids, they are nice to them.  We didn't tell the kids, since we wanted to meet mr. puppy first, and decide without their certain begging and pleading.  So one Saturday at the end of January, Ron and I took a quick drive to West Jordan, and met our puppy.  We were able to see his parents as well, so we knew how cute he'd be when he grew up.  Then we brought our lil' guy home.  The kids were beside themselves with excitement.  It was fun surprise.  We named him Winston.

He was a great choice.  He was 13 weeks old, and had been around house-trained adult dogs enough that he was already mostly house-trained himself.  We totally hit the jack-pot with him, as he has had about 4 accidents in the house, and thankfully most of those on the tile. Yep, we've fallen in love.

When we planned on going to Southern Utah for Spring Break this past week, we tried to find somewhere to board him here at home, but everything was full.  Then the landlady of the house we rented said we could bring him with us. (Totally unheard of!) I knew he'd be a good car traveler, but Ron was a little worried.

Saturday morning, driving the family to Spring Break. Apparently Winston wants things done right, and likes to take charge. ;)



He did great in the car.  We got to the house in Hurricane and got acquainted with everything. Evening came along and we were working on dinner.

About that time, we noticed our little pupper-dog was acting odd....stumbling, couldn't keep his feet from sliding out from under him on the wood floor, acting like he couldn't hold his head up....

He quickly got worse: losing control of his bladder and having seizures.....great..... :(

Ron found a vet to call, and they had an emergency clinics number on their voice message. We called and found out where they were, and quickly headed into St. George.  The drive in to the clinic was so much worse.  I thought he was going to die at any minute.  It was awful. Once we got there though, he didn't seem quite as bad, and by the time we saw the vet, he was still not so bad.  The vet said it was classic symptoms of either ingestion of a human medication like an anti-depressant or an amphetamine, or he got into something like gopher bait with strychnine. He also made us feel so much better when he told us he wasn't critical, that we had most likely already seen the worst of the reaction, and 99% chance he'd be perfectly fine by morning.  Excellent odds that we loved!

We called the owners of the house, and they had never put gopher bait down, so are pretty sure he got a hold of a pill that a previous guest dropped and couldn't find, but our nosy Winston did.

He got to stay in the animal hospital overnight for some induced vomiting, activated charcoal, and monitoring.  We called bright and early to be told that he was fine and wanting to go home.  I was never so happy to see our doggy bright eyed and normal when we picked him up.

"Who? Me? A troublemaker? Nah, I'm an angel!"

....an angel who also makes a good pillow.....

Almost 1/2-way Through!

Well....yeah.....for those wondering what is up with my mom, here you go!

Last chemo, 3 weeks ago, went well.  After the 1st chemo, she knew what to expect, she knew what medication combinations to take to help what, and was better about taking them early to stay on top of things.

Like for the bone pain from the white blood cell stimulating medication, she takes Aleve and Claritin every 12 hrs, and she started it before the aches even set in.  Helped immensely!

She was again very, very tired and fatigued, and stayed close to home for the week after chemo.  After about 9 days post chemo, she starts to get her energy back, and will venture out to run errands and such.

The digestive issues were different from last time, so trying to keep things in balance with diet and medications were a day to day thing.  Still no nausea though, which is fantastic.

Her new side effect is skin related....Lots of sores on her face, arms, head, neck....looks exactly like when she would go visit the dermatologist and he would go to town with the liquid nitrogen freezing the "bad skin" spots. She also had an odd reaction on the palms of her hands, and soles of her feet: bright red and super tender and sore.

A little over a week ago she was here so Ron could file her taxes, and she showed me another recent development....she had some odd swelling on her chest (surgery side) from under her collarbone to her armpit.  Rounded and somewhat firm.  I told her it looked like either lymphedema or she needed to get her drain put back in, and asked her to call the surgeon about it the next day.  She did, and luckily her surgeon was back THAT DAY from her maternity leave, and they were able to get her in.  Sure enough, Dr. Tittensor wanted to put the drain back in, and scheduled the surgery for last Friday.  She also noted my mom's skin issues, and wanted the oncologist to see her, and he was able to get her in immediately.

The burned looking spots are exactly that, but instead of the liquid nitrogen burning them like the dermatologist does, this is the chemicals in the chemo burning them from the inside out.  Dr. Bott (oncologist) told her she'll have great skin once they peel and are gone. The palms and soles of her feet thing is a bit more concerning.  It is a syndrome that some patients get from Taxotere, which is one of the chemo drugs she gets. They are going to "watch" it this next time, and if it gets too bad, they will decrease the dose of the Taxotere. At this point, they aren't quite as tender, but they are still red, and peeling.

Last Friday's procedure went well.  She is glad she called the surgeon, because by Friday the swelling had more than tripled in size, and was getting quite uncomfortable and sore.  Dr. Tittensor got the drain back in, and immediately drained off 1/2L (about 2 cups) of fluid.  She will have the drain for at least two weeks.  It is still draining pretty steadily at this point, and my mom is crossing her fingers for it to slow down soon.

Today's chemo went well.  Her blood counts were all down to just below normal levels, but not low enough that she needed any blood products.  We talked about how it was nice to have 3 of the treatments done now, only 3 more of the chemo to go!

Not that you really have a goal to reach your max out-of-pocket on your health insurance, that has now happened. It doesn't take long when you have 2 surgeries, MRI's, and a single chemo treatment costs -- sit down for this -- $22,000 (and she has 6 treatments, plus Herceptin for a year!). *ouch!* At least now she is 100% covered for the year, including co-pays. I cannot imagine what people go through that have to pay fully for this treatment.  Unbelievably devastating.

So that's that. I know my mom is doing well through this because of the power of prayer, and also through her wonderful attitude.  Even her surgeon told her she is doing so well because she just doesn't complain about stuff. Even on the yucky exhausting days in the week after chemo, she knows that it'll get better, and almost has a countdown going to get to the better days.

Desperation Diet