Well, Emily and Rachel have returned to the Halls of Academia. Noah is the final holdout. He has a weird form of this illness. He has nausea and stomach cramps and a low grade fever that comes and goes but that's it. Last night he was lamenting that he wished he could just throw up already! It's funny how constant nausea makes you want to throw up when it is normally something that you would want to avoid.
My mom and dad have been visiting (but not staying with us) for the last ten days and they are heading home today. Hopefully things will go back to normal...whatever that is. (I'm pretty confident that our "normal" would probably put the average person into a stress-induced coma.) Mom and Dad will be back at the end of February for six weeks. Thankfully they have quite a few friends that live in Phoenix so they don't spend the entire time with us. They've never been in town that long before so it should be interesting to see what they do to keep themselves busy. They can only handle being at our house in small bursts because the constant frenetic activity of my children makes them hyperventilate. That and the 463 question quota each child has per day. That could send even the most sane person over the edge within about 23 minutes.
Tommy's latest: "Hey Mom, remember the other day--not tomorrow--but the other day...?" It's a good thing he clarified it because I might have remembered something he did tomorrow--and that would have been weird.
Ok, so Rachel was feeling yucky all weekend. Her stomach has yet to recover fully from her night of fun on Thursday. She still has stomach cramps often and has to lay down until they pass so she stayed home from school today to avoid the embarrassment of having to lay down on her classroom floor throughout the day. Luckily I was able to go get her work from her teacher so she can utilize her time wisely (i.e. not just watch movies and play video games).
While I was getting her work I got Noah's work for the day because he too is not feeling well. Stomach cramps and a temperature. It's just a matter of time before we get to see the contents of his stomach, but for now he is able to do his school work and giggle with Rachel.
But wait, there's more...Emily is home with a temperature, stomach cramps and vomiting. We like to have someone in each stage of the illness to keep us on our toes. She really doesn't feel good--just one look at her confirms it.
And did I mention that I can't really handle vomiting? I used to be able to catch it with my hands if necessary, but after 4 months of chemo induced nausea and vomiting I have NO tolerance for it. It takes everything in me to clean it up--and being in the same room while it is happening is completely out of the question. Thankfully Emily is old enough to make it to a receptacle of some sort without my help.
So as a result of this plague, I've become obsessive-compulsive. If I even walk past one of the kids I wash my hands, and I've been frequently wiping everything down with Clorox and Lysol. I'm seriously considering a surgical mask. I know it's just a matter of time before my number comes up (along with my lunch) but at least I'll go down swinging!
...barfs. That's right. There's nothing like a little stomach flu to round out the holiday celebration. We were busy cleaning up the kitchen when we heard Noah yelling down the stairs, "Mom!! I think Rachel just threw up!!!" (My question is: why didn't he "know" that she threw up. It's always very clear to me when someone does!) I got upstairs as fast as possible and discovered that, yes, indeed she had. And she had been laying on her bed (because her stomach was hurting) and didn't quite make it to the trash can in the corner. Yay, something else to clean up.
My friend Kelly graciously came over with her Kirby vacuum/carpet shampooer and helped us clean up the mess. Hey, if our Thanksgiving was going to be capped off that way we figured we should share the joy!
Prior to that we were having a lovely day. Sam has won the husband of the year award for making the ENTIRE Thanksgiving dinner. Well, to be honest I did help a little--I opened the cans of cranberries and put them in a bowl, put the rolls in a basket and warmed the gravy in the microwave. Sam makes a fantastic (and very moist) turkey so if anyone needs any tips I'm sure he would let you in on his secrets.
Last night the kids spent the night with my parents at the condo they are staying at. They had a great time with Grandma and Poppa and we had a quiet house. Very quiet. Amazingly quiet. I've decided that we need to make this a family tradition--regardless of how my parents feel about it.
I'll leave you with today's Tommyisms:
"Did Daddy kill the turkey yet?"
Upon seeing the table being set: "Are we having a party?"
"May I have more chicken?" (After doing nothing but turkey projects all week in school and being reminded umpteen times at the table that it was turkey and not chicken.)
Sam: "Tommy, tell me what food you ate--but please don't use the words 'this' and 'that.'
Tommy: "I had some turkey, potatoes, and some of this and some of that."
I don't really have a reason to write today. Not like I ever do, but today no specific thoughts are coming. The guilt over having not written anything for over a week is too much though so I will fill this space with something to attempt to soothe my guilt.
We had a fun moment with Tommy last night at dinner. (Tommy is very helpful in giving me stuff to blog about) Here's the basic story line: Noah was sticking his hands into the opposite sleeves of his shirt and they got stuck. Sort of like one of those Chinese finger toys that always gets stuck and yet everyone still sticks their fingers in them. So, while I was helping Noah get his arms out, we were explaining to Noah why that was a poor choice (especially since he was doing it while his dad was trying to speak to the children at the time). Understand that this took several minutes because I had to physically separate his arms as well as examine the hole he created in his sleeve as a result of his shenanigans. Everyone at the table understood our position on what he had been doing. Well, not everyone. After the diversion with Noah, Sam continued with what he was saying and after about a minute, he and I both happened to look at Tommy at about the same moment only to discover....yep, you guessed it--his own little Chinese sleeve trick. The entire family sat and stared at him with their jaws on the table. "How did...?" "What were...?" "Why...?" "Didn't you...?" Sam and I couldn't finish a sentence for a full 3 minutes. The upside is that we do have a great sense of humor about some of these things. In hindsight that is.
Yesterday I also got to enjoy my annual mammogram. I think the technician had some sort of a fight with her husband just prior to my appointment because I'm thinking she applied just a bit more pressure than was medically necessary. Clearly she has some agression issues. And she had to come back and do 2 more shots after the first round of punishment! Get it right the first time you crazy woman!! It's a good thing I only have to do it yearly so I can have the chance to let the memory fade and the emotional scars heal. I know who I will be having nightmares about for a while though.
On the health update side of things, I seem to be having a lot more tired days from my medicine lately. (Hence the lack of blogging.) The fatigue is competing with the frequent yucky feeling in my stomach for "Gleevec Side Effect of the Year." And there are unfortunately a lot more days when I am not happy about either of those side effects keeping me from living my life as I want to. It is a much greater temptation to grumble and complain the longer I feel like this. And no one should tell me that I am entitled to. Doing "everything without complaining" means everything, even feeling yucky. I am not entitled to sin any more than anyone else is. There is a difference between acknowledging that I feel yucky and screaming out loud "I am so tired of feeling tired and yucky! I don't like this!! Make it stop, it's not fair!!" Thankfully God is a patient and loving God who listens to my whining and comforts me regardless of my bad attitude and graciously reminds me of his sovereignty.
And I can only give the credit to Him if I have a good attitude in the face of a bad day. Left to my own devices I would spew nothing but complaints. He is graciously giving me much joy and faith in the face of difficult circumstances. The reality is that most everything in my life has gotten more difficult because of how I feel. Being so tired makes even the simplest of tasks overwhelming on some days. It's usually that I lack the mental energy required to even think about doing something. I can go through the motions and get things done, but I feel like a zombie while I am doing it. However, I need to continue to try to do things because a life lived laying on the couch is not really a good choice. I also have a hard time staying focused mentally and no one can really help me with that--believe me, if someone could I would take them up on it!! Please think for me!!!
So, whenever there is a huge gap in blog entries (like the last week), we can just blame it on the leukemia. It's already got a bad rep, but we'll just add "blog prevention" to it's list of evils. It'll add to it's street cred with the other diseases.
Yep, that's right. I'm officially 39. Now I realize that is the fictitious age of many women, but I am actually 39. My health being what it is I'm excited to be 39 and I will be excited to be 40 next year, Lord willing! It's all a matter of perspective.
This morning Katya put up signs saying Happy B-day and Birthday Moms Only (on my chair--sort of like the birthday throne). Noah made me an egg sandwich and served it to me on a tray in bed. Then they all went to school.
Other than that my day has been pretty standard. Although I have to admit that I woke up feeling my gleevec this morning. Gleevec takes no holiday apparently. There is no birthday clause in the side effects pamphlet. So, I have been dragging all day. I forced myself up and out but to no avail. Gleevec wins today. I did manage to go get my free lunch at Joe's BBQ though. Very nice birthday perk. It's a tradition in our family at this point--it's not a birthday unless you've had your Joe's. I also did a little shopping after Joe's and found myself a birthday purse. Alas, even the shopping could not eliminate the gleevec yuckies. You know it's bad when shopping isn't a cure! :-)
We are going out for dinner tonight. Steak. Mmmmm. Everyone in the family gets to pick what they want for dinner on their birthday. I want something that is cooked in a restaurant. I want food to just appear before me. I want the dishes to just disappear behind a wall to be done by some unknown, unseen person. Birthday dinner perfection.
Oh, and my favorite present was the green card that Tommy got for his behavior at school today. (Green card=good) He said he worked hard to give me that for a present. Of course, the fact that he was an island and separated from his posse all day probably helped. Mrs. D said that he was "so quiet" all day. He said it was easier not sitting at a table with everyone else. Welcome to Solitary, Tommy.
My friend Robbin says that I don't have to cook dinner for 2 1/2 weeks because I cooked a freaky combo vegetable. Works for me. I like Robbin's way of thinking. I actually ate said freaky combo vegetable as well, which in my very vanilla world is bigger than huge. I think that qualifies me for a few more days off.
Last night I "prepared" dinner. But it was a planned prepared so I think that is somewhere higher on the scale than "gee, what can I make for dinner that takes less than 20 minutes?"
Tonight I am making chili. Well, I should say I am planning to make chili. A lot can happen between now and dinner time. I have one thing in my favor though--I remembered to take the meat out to thaw. That's one step closer to an actual meal! Yeah for me.
In the land of gleevec, it's the little victories that count.
I just put a new tag on Macy. The old one got mangled because one of the kids (who of course shall remain nameless) hooked the leash onto it and when Macy pulled on the leash, off came the tag. We hadn't really found a tag necessary in the old house because Macy was a homebody. But here in the new house she is quite busy.
A few days ago, I let my guard down. I was letting Macy out in the back yard unsupervised. I really thought that the fence jumping thing was a fluke, a one time thing, only brought on by the presence of the visiting dog who was now gone. I was wrong. You see, there was an evil cat sitting up on our fence taunting Macy. She did what any self respecting dog would do--she whined and barked and clawed up the side of the fence at the cat but to no avail. The cat just stared at her mockingly. So then, remembering her incredible jumping skills, she scaled the wall, balanced at the top momentarily and then proceeded to jump over to the other side (the opposite side of her earlier leap). Now, her goal of killing the cat was not quite achieved since she went up onto the wall next to the cat and over just as quickly. I'm sure the cat was laughing an evil cat laugh. If Macy thinks she is going to catch cats that way she will have to work on her aim as well as walking the length of the wall. So, anyway, I had to run next door and retrieve my dog from the neighbors' back yard. She was running around smelling it and having a grand time. Luckily they weren't home to hear me screaming at my dog in their back yard.
Macy has also had a few jaunts out the front door. Two people (who will remain nameless) have (accidentally) left the front door open after leaving in the morning. Macy, ever the opportunist, decided to take a walk in the neighborhood and check out the sights and smells. Just what I wanted to do first thing in the morning--chase the dog throughout the neighborhood.
So, I'm guessing the new tag will prove to be worth the cost as Macy doesn't show any signs of voluntarily giving up her vagabond ways. If she's not careful I will start looking into those electric fences. Maybe I'll get a brochure and leave it laying around where she just might happen to see it.
Big night here at the Macrane homestead last night. Are you ready? I cooked dinner. Ooooo. Are you impressed? Now in most homes this would not be big news, but for me it was momentous. I'm not really into cooking in general, but as of late I have not even had the energy to plan my menus and so I have been mainly "preparing" (throwing together) meals at the last minute and not actually "cooking." But last night I cooked! Yahoo for me. I made chicken tetrazzini, much to the amazement of my family. And that's not all...I cooked fresh broccoflower, a vegetable that we had never tried. And I'm a frozen veggie kind of gal--I don't usually, okay, truly, I never cook fresh vegetables unless it is corn on the cob. So all in one night I cooked a new, fresh vegetable and I cooked an entire dinner. That should cover me for a week or so, right?
What's Tommy up to?
Well, he's having fun in P.E. at school, as attested to by the presence of the P.E. teacher at our Parent/Teacher conference last Friday. Tommy is great--he continually gives us new experiences each day. We've never, in 8 years of having kids in school, had a P.E. teacher show up to a conference. And, just to assure you, it wasn't to tell us how incredibly athletic he is.
On the way to the church picnic on Sunday he was talking with his friend Thomas who came with us. They were talking about their phone numbers. Tommy recited his with ease and then said, "Thomas' is so easy...what was it again?"
He came home the other day with obvious spills on the front AND back of his shirt. He had spilled his fruit cup down the front and a friend had spilled down his back. I still have no idea how it got on the back and at this point I don't want to know.
At his class' Halloween party he was playing with a bendy straw in his mouth. He was pushing it in and pulling it out (because that is what the bendy part is for). At one point when he pulled it he pulled too hard and pulled it out of his mouth. His brain didn't get the message to his hand to stop fast enough and so he continued with the push motion and jammed the straw into his eye scratching his eye and drawing blood. I rushed him to the school nurse and we checked it out, but there was no major damage. Just another thrilling moment for mommy.
And, we got a letter from school this week saying that Tommy had failed his hearing screening in one ear. Now, before you get all worried for him, we are going to the ENT in a couple of weeks to have it checked out--it could be nothing--wax or fluid. I'm not banking on it though with the way things usually go in our family. :-) Even if he is losing some of his hearing I'm sure it won't phase Tommy. Life is one thrill after another and nothing will slow him down. It would just add to the full Tommy package!
Never a dull moment with the Tomster!
