I'm Home!!!!

I got home just a little bit ago. I've been trying to go through the phone tree and let people know. If you haven't received a call from me please know that it's me. Well, ok, it might be you, but it probably isn't. I was trying to remember time differences and work schedules and it just got all muddled together with doctors coming and going, pharmacy stops (for my 'just in case I need it tonight' medicines) and a riff-raff of things. I'm just impressed that I sort of remembered that one of you was teaching pool aerobics tonight and one of you had twins that might need a nap this afternoon, and some of you had kids at church camp this week...Go G!!!!

Now for the run down. I had a procedure (called something like a sensory nerve overload) today where they blocked the nerves from sensing pain. It is suppose to be similar to the old-fashioned pregnancy blocks. (Something like a saddle-block or some such horse-y sounding name.) But the nerve damage is, hopefully, permanent...or semi-permanent. This will allow me to not have to use medication like I have been over the past two weeks. It will also allow me to work and drive without being compromised in any way...ok, hold on to the snorting, coughing, and chuckling. I know you can, big deep breath - in through the nose - out through the mouth. Anyway, I should be back to my great ole self soon.

I am planning on taking it easy as school gets started where and when I can just to make sure I don't overdo or overtax myself. For those of you who don't work with me, you should know that this will be harder for me to do than for anyone to ask it of me. I really enjoy/love/infatuated/have the best job in the world and get so wrapped up in it that I tend to maybe/slightly/tend to/do more than I probably should. But all of you should know by now that that is what I tend to do with the things I love so much...over-do. It doesn't much matter what it is - Austin, Brenden, Sophi - School - Worship - Sticks - all of it - if I'm in love with it, I'm way extremely committed to it. So I will be learning a little bit more about setting boundaries in my work - home - church - friends - life over the next few months. Won't that be fun for me!! or Won't that be fun for me?? or Please, please God, let this be fun for me.

I haven't been treating my cancer over the last two weeks because the priority has been trying to identify what has caused me all of this intense (and trust me if the thesaurus could find more words I would use them) pain. We've been ruling out drug combinations and things. So in the last 2 weeks my cancer counts have gone up (FYI - not good). I will begin my cancer treatment again tomorrow in combination with the pain stuff and hopefully we will have a knock out winner.

Tomorrow some time, I plan on sharing my personal victory plan through my blog. This is one that I have been praying about and I will share with you exactly what I (& my poor volunteer brother-in-law) will be doing over the next couple of months. This is the one I alluded to before that you can participate in in what ever way you feel that God might be leading you. Trust me, it isn't for for everyone, yet there is something everyone who wants to can proactively do if they chose.

I love all of you and am so excited for the prayers that I know are said daily on my behalf.

Sorry about the sans pictures - hopefully, by the weekend I will be back to sharing the cute stuff!!!

Love & Blessings to you all!

G

Hospital Visit - Day 12 ish??

Hey Guys! Thanks so much for all of your love, words of encouragement and compassion.

Tomorrow, I will be having a minor procedure that will help to block the pain receptors. This will help bring my pain level underneath the control of God's Power and Spirit. Just in case you might wonder...God has always had control, but I do believe that His Will and Power are perfect and while His perfect plan is often beyond me (Go ahead and snicker Marc, I know you want to)I do recognisize that His P&P are still there awaitin our recognition of it. Just an FYI, it happens tomorrow.

Now, many of you have commented on my unique language and word choice. It can most simply be described as: laptop keyboard, too long nails, & a cracker shoved underneath my keyboard. Now, I have no idea how the cracker ended up where it did (equal kudoos could be given to a princess-complex 18- month old
or a warrior wanna-be-7 year old, but I don't want to ascrible that placement just yet). What I do want you to know is that it makes typing TOUGH!!!

If all goes well, I will be hopefully be headed home tomorrow (or to my sisters anyway, who knows?) and back to work on Thursday.

I will probably not post again until Friday or Saturday...so if you don't see anything, don't worry!!

I love you!

G

Hospital Visit - Day #324

Well jell-girls and Guys, Guys, Guys!! Life is... What shall we call it....hmmmm....ummm. I don't know. I'm fresh out of words, you pick a word.

If you are short on some words I will throw some out at you like... Gorgeous, beautiful, tall sexy and skinny "both before and after the Y" (cough, cough). Intelligent

Okay--okay--lets get real. How about obnoxious, prissy-dork, stubborn, and well, come on - you can figure out the rest by your self. I have mostly smart friends. 'Cause I'm just like that that way.

On the Amy scale we have had two episodes in the pissy range or beyond! (beyond, beyond, beyond) and the rest of the day has met or exceeded general expectations.


The highlight of my day was lunch with Miss Sophie G. She ate all my strawberries and I ate all of the chicken. And no it wasn't strawberry chicken, it was Hawaiian chicken with strawberries on the side.

The boys left for camp today, woohoo-who I think or maybe not. I'm not sure I'll let you know Friday when they come back how much I really did miss them.

Love ya Bunches!
G

Cancer Update

Ok...today has been both a goose and a ghander kinda day, iffin' ya know what "ai jamean."

There has been some terrible pajaihs and some normal types of one as well. Of course, it goes witout saying that pain, with or without an objective scoring system, is a prjorative realative system.

Gotsta Go!

Love,

g

Amy's Tet

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Love,
G

Hospital Visit - Day 8, 12 hours

After I posted last night, I have had three seperate extreme episodes of pain. We are talking incredibly-extremely-way past the point of pissy pain. However, interspersed were some ok times as well.

I just wanted to hop on and quickly leave you guys a message to let you know how much I appreciate and covet your prayers, love and freinship.

In a few days I will be giving you some information on how you can help me if you would like. It doesn't take any money, just a true faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, a belief in divine miracles, and a 10 minute per day real commitment in prayer. I will lay out all of the steps for those of you who are interested and a way that you will be able to respond if you would like to partcipate.

Love you Bunches!
G

St. Francis - Day Four, Hospital Visit - 7 Days 2 Hours

Hello, Friends, Neighbors and Strangers! This picture was taken of me an hour or so ago here at St Francis.

I am doing fairly well. Dr. Kellar is not looking to release me today or tomorrow even though on the Amy scale I am between an "__X__ ok & a __X__ kinda good" & the pain scale is a 4-5. He is wanting to get the pain issue much lower before I report back to work on Thursday...because trust me, I will be reporting to work on Thursday. We're just trying to avoid another trip to the ER.

The problem last Friday was that the pain level got out of control. So off to the Cox South Er Amy & I went This snap shot was taken at the end of ER visit 1, when the pain was gone & I looked at Amy and said, "I should have brought my camera." Hence, both of our phones came out.

We went home (she & Marc's) around 10:00 pm ate watermelon, took some medicine and was going to get some rest and come back home (mine) on Saturday am. Hah, hah. Like I told Marilyn later, John Steinbeck may have had the filthiest mouth on the planet, but he had one Spiritual concept aptly put..."the best laid plans of mice and men." Loosely translated, if you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans.

ER trip 2 to Cox took place around 5:30 Saturday morning. This visit changed to Hospital Admission #1 later Saturday morning and my sister & BIL came up. Here's my cute lil' sister posing in my Hospital Room

It took until Tues morning to get my pain stabilized. I was discharged, my BIL drove back to SPFD to follow us back to Tulsa. We went straight to St. Francis where Dr. Kellar (who should be nominated as the world's greatest oncologist had my orders waiting at the admitting desk. So three hours after I was discharged from Cox I was admitted to St Francis and was sitting in my private room connected to my new pain pump.

Since, Thursday my pain level has been fairly consistent below 5 with just a few forays at 6 or above. I really thought that Keller would have discharged me, but it seems that even though I feel my pain is tolerable, he wants it under more control. I will be here at least another night and possibly Saturday as well.

I have had several tests, met with a pain management RN (she is working with my med list and some other things), a gastrointerologist, a dietitian, and a neurologist. These guys are working with Dr. K to develop a pain management plan that I feel will be manageable for me at work and they feel comfortable with the actual pain level.

Believe it or not I think we will be there by Monday afternoon and I will be ready to work part of Wednesday, so that I will be ready to start my contract on Thursday.

Love You Guys!
G

Sorry -- No Pics

FYI ~ I promise that no dictionaries, keyboards, or fingernails were harmed during the making of this post. Loosely translated, I plan to type fast and not use the backspace. So please consider the following errors pre-planned for your reading enjoyment.

Let's see...I've been kinda sick lately...ok, ok, I don't have time to be coy...I'vd been in a ton-abuncha pain spending time crying whiled the dr would look at mmemand say "if i took this much iv narcotics it would kill me. you must be in a a lot of pain" luckily i woulod havde to sday anything generalyy Amy or Dee would make some smartm incitefull - please notice I said incitefull, not insitefull - comment 'ya think?" ir "you know she's got cancer." Then I wouls enter the lAND of low pain, but nI woul walso make comments aaout fyling cereal only eating vegetables if you take your children out to eat. And those where apperatly the comments that kinda made sense.

I have a tone of info to share, but i'M MUCHLY needing to go to bed. I will try to tell you the new when I care a 'itty bitty more care and attentikn to editing rather that just prentending I don't but I do at least run spell check.

if you are planning on vidistintomrooe plrsdr call me first. The chanced of seeing me are very slim at the momement.

For the Amy Rating System I have created 5 new scoring addtions before "really pRissy" they are 'increadibly pRissy", 'yeah, I sure its at least a 9!' 'breathe, pause, tear......oh, yea rememeber to breath, let tear drop.....oh, yea rememeber to breath"

Current rating----X 'increadibly pRissy"

G

Hospital Visit

Dr. McNichols is discharging me from Cox South. I'm driving to Tulsa (well not me)...to see Dr. Kellar immediately, and they were going to finally let me take a shower this afternoon...maybe I should stay here...guess I'll go anyways. Dr. Kellar is going to figure out how to titrate my medication so I can go home! Yippee...with minimal pain. My sister keeps telling me to push my meds button..apparrently she wants me to be "good" on the way home. Have I ever been difficult??? I think not. I promise I will be completely fine by next Wednesday...promise. So, all my love

P.S. As soon as everything is under control, and I have had a chance to rest...I mean real rest...not the kind where you see cereal bowls flying through the air..I'll blog and let you know. Then, you can call me (supposing you want to) and see how I'm doing! Thanks!!! G

Hospital Visit

Thursday morning I went to see my friends Marc and Amy...are you paying attention? Amy keeps yelling that at me. It must have been Amy's cooking 'cause I ended up in the ER Friday night. Ok...maybe not her cooking but.... As I was saying, I ended up in the ER (however, before hand we managed to get a few gorgeous items at the mall!) So, back to the ER. I was at Marc and Amy's parents house...watching the kids swim...again...Amy asked me if I was feeling ok. I was not feeling ok (very pissy). However, just to be more like the difficult me that I can sometimes be, I decided to tell her, "I'm fine...please eat your dinner and don't worry about me". Amy finally told me, "GENEVA" would you please stop being rediculous, so off we went. We walked into the ER and I told them, "hi, I am hurting, oh, by the way, I have cancer". It was actually quite amazing, they were not busy at all and got me right back into a room. After much pain, and telling them all of the 500 meds I'm on, they gave me a bed. Amy took part of it, and we sat there waiting... Actually they got me some meds pretty quickly, and I went from very pissy to kinda pissy to not as pissy as kinda pissy in a matter of 10 minutes. That's when Amy and I took some rather funny pictures, (I mean why not...I was "slightly drugged" and Amy was rather encouraging! After I was under control, we left with the hopes of never entering their doors again. we entered their doors again 6 hours later. Fortunately most of the same people were working! They took me back again...My machines were not working very well (the ones I was hooked up to...so Amy kept punching me telling me to breath. It could be abuse, however, since she was the only one there at the time, I decided to listen to her! Since then, (Saturday morning) I have been at the hospital. My sister drove up the next day, and she and Amy have been bothering me ever since. Actually, they have been the most wonderful, fabulous, magnificent, BEAUTIFUL two people I have ever seen. Did I mention that Amy is writing this for me and my sister is sitting right next to her! We are in the midst of getting my pain regulated so I can make the trip back to Tulsa, so I can rejoin my fabulous family. It has been an up and down battle, In and out of making sense, laughing and crying, crying and laughing...scans, and more scans, changing that think that hangs out of my side to another thing that hangs out of my side... Miss Dee, my lovely sister, has been quite fabulous...even when she went to the mall and bought clothes without me. I think she needed it, she has not seen the outside of my door in quite some time; however, I do expect her to share her cute new underware...and shoes, and shirt, and pants, and perfume...oh, and socks (I wonder if Tony (bro in law) knows she bought all that stuff!!!???) Anyways, she has been wonderful and I am thankful for her, and she is thankful for me and we are thankful for each other. I love you all, love my family and I have the softest feet in all of Springfield. What else can you do in this hospital other than have people rub your feet with lotion and, have them do it again, and again. That's all from Geneva...

P.S. If the unusual candor of this post has sent you reeling, it's because it was written by Amy, and not Geneva. It's the least she can do after making me come see her and then not even let me stay at her house. G has taken part in it. However, she often begins the sentence making sense...and ends it in a field in Australia. Therefore, here you are!

Much love, Geneva, Denetta, and Amy

Smart Friends

I told my friend Jennifer the other day that she needs to update her blog more than once a year. Please feel free to check out her blog and leave her a comment suggesting the same... Jennifer's Thoughts. Her excuse is that she doesn't have anything to blog about. She doesn't think her life is interesting enough. Now I ask you...has that ever stopped me?? Nope, Nada, Not really. As we both know, when nothing is going on I just make stuff up. A perfect example of this is today's blog entry.

Now to be fair, I do have things going on. I'm visiting two of my really good friends in Springfield, Marc & Amy, and their family. Marc & Amy run The Lashon Institute. Their company provides educational opportunities, including Study Tours throughout the Mediterranean world. They also personally teach seminars and have multi-media resources to assist religious educators, students, pastors, and lay leaders in the study of Ancient Judaism and the origins of Christianity. They also offer continuing education credits.

Wait a second, that makes them sound way too smart to be my friends. They're not. I'm mean not too smart to be my friends...not, not smart. Because, well, they really are really smart. But they occasionally go slumming with an unorganized, haphazard, pays her bills late way too often, prissy, dork of a girl like mean. Ok, ok, not like me - specifically me. But they do deign to condescend to be my friend.

Last night, we went to Marc's parents to grill out. This is me being a prissy dork (or as I like to secretly think of myself 'hot chic', but if I just told you then I guess I'm out of the closet not - hold on, don't go there, not that closet) next to the pool

while everyone else is having an esoteric conversation about the decline of the western hemisphere. Ok, well, maybe that's not true, but it makes for a cute story. We were really laughing at Elie who was running around the pool being incredibly cute like this while the boys were swimming.

I guess that's enough of nothing for now.

Oops! Forgot the reason you guys really log-on
Attitude/Emotionally well-being - YEAH!!
Pain Level - Kinda Pissy

There we go.

Love,
G

Man Ingenuity

On Saturday the house was full of cute little dorks. Several of the under 12 crowd from church were over for a swim party. During this time Sophi, my niece with the princess complex, would wander back and forth from the deck to beg to be put in the water (see Sophi the Swimmer 6/22) and back to the living room to visit mom.

About 4:00 my sister went to change a must-be-changed-now diaper to realize that they were out of diapers...oh, the sad fate of being a third child. When she realized she was out she did the seasoned mom bit and just put her shorts back on sans diaper. Well, it seems that Sophi-G wasn't quite finished yet and without going into the shrieks and laughs and details her shorts were no longer an option.

So my dad, the John Deere wanna be, simply and effectively solved the problem.

Do you see his solution? Look closely now... Yes that is exactly what it looks like, a burp rag and electrical tape.

What more can I say? I guess I come by my dorkiness genetically.

Love,
G

Hospital Visit

Today, I went to the hospital to have my, as Cheryl puts it, "oil changed." It is a fairly routine non-invasive, well as non-invasive as you can get when someone slides a wire between two of your ribs, procedure. We left home aroun 10:30 & got home around 4:00.

oops forgot

x ok

When I got home I went to bed to sleep of the after-affects off my date will prescription medication. When I got up I realized that the cap on my tube is leaking. While this may not seem like a very big deal to anyone else, it is! You see, in the process of leeking it got on my cute Nike skirt =(.
Do you see all of those yellow spots?? If I didn't have 101 fever I would edit that picture and add arrows to make sure they were as obvious in the photo as they are to the naked eye. They're on my cute red sheets as well. Of course it isn't as big of a deal for the sheets since they're dark red, but it is the principal of the thing!!

My sister is coming over later and we are going to have take the cap off and attempt to put it back on. Hopefully, we will be successful because otherwise instead of leaving town tomorrow morning I will going to the doctor to have this little issue corrected.

Love,
G

Dr. Visit #637

Quick update:
Sunday AM

_____ really pissy
X kinda pissy
_____ ok
_____ kinda good
_____ really good
_____ YEAH!!! for me

Sunday PM

X really pissy
_____ kinda pissy
_____ ok
_____ kinda good
_____ really good
_____ YEAH!!! for me

Monday
X really pissy
_____ kinda pissy
_____ ok
_____ kinda good
_____ really good
_____ YEAH!!! for me

Today
_____ really pissy
_____ kinda pissy
X ok
_____ kinda good
_____ really good
_____ YEAH!!! for me

As some of you may know, ok...so actually you only know if you specifically asked me or if you talk to my mother on the phone or you stopped by when I was indisposed...I have been having some recent issues with nauseous. Let's get real, nauseous is way too genteel. Let's try projectile vomiting. Still, too kind. How about throwing up like-a-teenage-boy-who-thinks-he-can-defy-the-laws-of-physics-and-biology-and-eat-a-banana-then-chase-it-with-an-entire-can-of-Sprite-without-taking-a-breath vomiting? Yeah, I think that about sums up what my 'bouts of nauseous' are like. Anyway, my latest episode began Sunday and lasted through until today. Of course the 'bouts of nauseous' are also accompanied with rigors and a high fever, say around 101.5 to 102.

At my dr.'s visit today my doc seems to think that I have some inflammation in my bile ducts causing pressure to build up behind the drain. This causes blah, blah, blah, but ends up putting me at risk for going into septic-shock. I'm also quite jaundiced. So, tomorrow I am going into have a quick (say 1/2 a day or so) procedure done at the hospital to drain the bile externally and check the internal drain. I did have the option of bagging it myself immediately, but that would mean I would have to go to the ER to wait for the same procedure on an emergency basis so I opted to wait. Look an entire somber paragraph, treating Cancer with respect as opposed to my off-beat humor. See I'm being serious. I didn't even make a comment about how white my teeth look when I'm jaundiced. Of course, now I have. So I guess that blows my whole 'somber paragraph' thing that I had goin'. I guess in the words of Swiper the Fox, "Oh, Man!"
__________________________________________________________

Now this is a really cute picture of my friend, Abigail, & I...or is it Abigail & me when you refer to yourself as an object rather than a subject of a sentence? I know, most of you aren't interested, but this is one of those burning-keep-you-awake-at night-questions I will need to find the answer to.
Please note I am on the right wearing that incredible cute red dress that I can't fathom could make it to the sale rack at JCPenny's because it is so incredibly cute and comfortable so how in the world did they not sell out.

Love,
G

Amy's Scoring System

FYI ~ Do Not read this post aloud to young children, or any child for that matter, I use a "you'll get your mouth washed out with soap" word.

Amy has brought to my attention that I don't speak clear enough (well, actually she said I didn't tell the truth, but I disagree) with regards to my health and treatment, blah, blah, blah. (I guess I could have just used etc., but that doesn't effectively communicate the dullness like blah, blah, blah.) So she has suggested I institute the following rating system regarding my health:

_____ really pissy (that's the "you'll get your mouth washed out with soap" word)
_____ kinda pissy (there it is again!)
_____ ok
_____ kinda good
_____ really good
_____ YEAH!!! for me

So, each day I would post the list with the appropriate mark checked before I ramble on. That way those of you who just want to know how I'm feeling could find out quickly without having to find out what my cat ate for breakfast (FYI, I don't own a cat. In fact, I think cats are spawns of satan and their one value to this earth is to be a mouser in the barn.) or what cute pedicure I just got. Then at the end of the month we can chart & graph how I feel.

So, let's vote. All in favor of the new reporting system say, "Aye". "Nays?" Ok, it looks to be a tie. Since I'm the deciding vote, I'll have to think about it before a decision can be made ('cause I'm just thoughtful like that). If would like to weigh in on the decision, you can leave your thoughtful opinion - like yes or no - in the comments section.

Blessings!
G

PS I would have posted a picture of Amy, but I don't have one. Amazingly, I have lots of pictures of her children, but none of her. This isn't unusual. I noticed the other day that I don't have many pictures of adult friends...but if they have a child under 18, bingo, got one. What does that say about me?? I think I'm a freak.

Double Church Day

This is my adorkable nephew, Brenden. Brenden has an especially unique personality, which lends him to viewing the world...in...well... unique kind of way

Case in point, yesterday for the rest of the world - ok, ok, the rest of the world residing in North & South America - was Sunday. But not for Brenden. For Brenden, yesterday was double-church day. That meant, eating out for lunch & hopefully getting invited or inviting someone to spend the night since it is Summer. It meant, not getting to spend very much time with dad, since he's a pastor. It means attending church twice and knowing that in one of those services you will be with the grown-ups.

It makes me remember Sundays when I was a kid - you know, back when I couldn't understand why in the world people took a Sunday Afternoon Nap. And I'm not sure that my views of Sunday as a child were all that different from Brenden's...except I never coined a cute word like 'double-church day.'

Love,
G

SF Seeks...

The other day one of my friends who will remain nameless, Tori, asked me if I was dating anyone. Because, apparently, according to my nameless friend, Tori, the only thing this blog should be used for is communicating my dating life. At least, it's the only thing of interest to her. But, you see, if I were using this blog to communicate my dating life, then, well, I wouldn't have anything to write about. Of course, if you follow my blog at all, you know, I never have anything to write about but I do it anyway. But if I were to use this exclusively for dating, well...then..ummm...nothing, nada, zilch, zip.

Of course my sister promises me that I am not one of those people that you walk away from and say, "Well, there's a reason why she/he's single." Of course, my sister is, well, my sister and thus is biologically required to feel that way. Ok, let's be honest. She isn't 'biologically required to feel' it's more like 'free babysitting so she will say', but let's not argue over tiny details. She says people don't say it, so we will just go with that. Denial works for me.

So, we'll go with the fact that I work in a field where all the single guys are...well...ten. That, and the fact they think I'm a library goddess, just throws the breaks on any potential relationship.

What about church? That would be a great place to meet a good christian guy. At least it would be if there were any single guys between say 25 and 45 who attended my church.

Surely, you say, there has to be some single doctor. I will say that I attract a lot of medical attention where ever I go. Somethin' to do with this crazy/unique/rare diagnosis of mine. But for some reason the romance is gone when they lean in and with a serious and expectant face ask, "Do you mind if I look at your belly?" Then you know all the interest has to do with the fact that they want to see the scar of a famous surgeon. It has nothing to do with my stomach cute-ness, or lack thereof.

So I thought I would write my own singles ad.
SF with slightly strange sense of
humor, blog that doesn't say much
of anything, and large medical debt
seeks SM with good sense of humor and
strong faith in Christ.

Yah, I'm pretty sure the offers will just start rolling in now. So Tori (hold on was I keeping your identity a secret?) I hope this post will satisfy your 30 something, 2 children under 5, sense of vicarious living. I love you girl!

Love,
G

Addendum ~ It was pointed out to me that some of you may need to understand that if I were dating someone, I still would not be posting anything about it on this blog. Call me strange, (cough) and I know you do, but some things really are to personal to share until loooonnnnnnnnnnggggg after the fact. =) Love you!

My Friends...Part Deux

These are my friends Rhonda & Pammie...or should I say Pammie & Rhonda since Pammie is the cutie-patootie in green & Rhonda is on the right with a camera around her neck.

Now that camera is the reason why there are so very few pictures of Rhonda floating around. And what a beautiful camera it is (sigh). Not that I have camera or lens envy. Because I don't. Well, I do. But I went to confession and said my 'Hail Marys'. Well, that's a lie. I'm not Catholic, so I didn't go to confession, and I didn't say any 'Hail Marys'. But if I were Catholic, I would go to confession about this camera/lens envy thing. And if the priest told me to say a 'Hail Mary' I would. Well, maybe I would. 'Cause true repentence would mean that I would intend to stop having camera/lens envy, and I'm not sure that I'm really to the place of real repentence yet. Not that I won't be there at some point - just not right now. Moving on...

I met these two beautiful ladies through my brother-in-law. Rhonda is married to his dad and Pammie is his little sister. Rhonda is an amazing person. She is so down to earth and real - no pretense, no facade. She is who she is. She has this confident way of accepting people that validates who they are in Christ. Rhonda is one of those people who seems to have the knack of seeing past what people appear to be and seeing who they really are and who they have the potential of becoming.

Now Pammie is a sweetheart. Before I go on, I need you to know that I am highly biased against children, because I have such amazing dorks for nephews and an incredible niece with a princess-complex. But, if I were going to nominate a child not directly related to me for an award, Pammie would have to win it. She is a normal 3-4 year old, don't get me wrong. Amazing as she is, I'm sure her momma would attest to her 'I'm a child under five' syndrome. But this is a little girl who is truly lovely. I'm not sure there are words to describe her...of course, that's never stopped me before so there's no reason to let it stop me now. Pam is precious. She is the type of little girl that you hope grows up to be the type of lady your son marries...sweet-spirited, gentle, generous and kind.

Love,
G

Cancer, Pain, Blah, Blah, Blah

This is one of those boring health updates sprinkled with ridiculous information that no one really wants to know. Of course, maybe you would rather hear about the ridiculous & skip the boring, hence the reason they will be sprinkled together and be equally annoying to both the serious and ridiculous among you.

This picture is purposeless (but cute)...kinda like my Monday was.

hmmm, I think I might see a pattern emerging with my summer...

Anyway - I woke up about 24 hours ago (1:30 am CST, Wed 6/9) in pain...you know the kind - intensive, incredible, I'm crying & not pretty tears - pain. It felt like a vise wrapped around my torso. Ed, I'm sure you can appreciate that comparison - BTW since I'm a bad friend & haven't checked up on you how are you feeling??? You want to do lunch Mon??? And with that aside, anyone else want to do lunch Mon?? Mere, are you in town? Moe, Joni, Cinda, Jeanne, Nancy, Jennifer, Anyone, Anyone, Anyone? We'd have to call Marilyn, because she has a life and doesn't get on the internet...not that all of you fine people don't have wonderful, fulfilling, beautiful lives, but you care so much about me that you read this silly blog of mine on occasion...not that Marilyn doesn't care about me, just in case you start to think badly about her. She does. She just doesn't care on-line like you do, unless she does, then oops! sorry Marilyn! Ok, I think I've dug myself a hole. Where is that edit button?? Moving on...

Back to pain like a vise...I took a high-powered muscle relaxer and used Dad's massage chair, no relief. So half an hour later I took 2 narcotics (I like calling pain medicine 'narcotics' because it sounds so whimsical), added moist heat, no relief. Twenty minutes later, took 1 more narcotic, no relief. At 2:30 am, I had maxed out my medication so I went on a scavenger hunt in Mom & Dad's house looking for a vibrator and accidently woke up Mom. Then she started doing the alternately moist heat & ice. Around 3:30ish, my pain level had come down to tolerable. For those of you who like the pain grid...it went from a 10 to a 7. For those of you who like the description...it went from 'suicide sounds good if it weren't a mortal sin' to 'please don't ask me to have a coversation, I can't think or sleep'. For those of you who are thinking..."Idiot, why didn't you go to the

not that you would actually call me an idiot. Or maybe you would. But I know you would say it with love!

I didn't go to the ER because by the time I realized that nothing I had was going to work it was 3:30. It would be 4:00 by the time I got to the hosiptal, 7:00 by the time I got to triage, 8:30 by the time I saw a Dr. So I waited until 8:00 and called the Dr's office, had an appointment at 9:30 and started a schedule II hand carry pain med quickly thereafter. I spent the majority of today in bed.

But on a lighter note, the baby book I made for Sophi came in the mail today & it is incredibly cute!!!!!

Love,
G

MONDAY, MONday, Monday!!!!

Yes, I know today is Tuesday. But...well...I finally decided to post about Monday and it didn't happen until today - Which, of course, epitomizes my Monday. Does that make sense to anyone besides me? I guess it doesn't really matter, because I already said it and my keyboard doesn't come with an edit function, so I guess I'm stuck with it. Anyway...

I didn't do anything productive on Monday. I didn't get dressed...
My clothes for yesterday hung in the closet just waiting for me to take off the plaid pajama-pants-my-sister-wore-when-she-was-pregnant-with-Austin-and-I-stole-9-years-ago pants and put them on but it didn't happen.

I didn't brush my hair...but I did brush my teeth with my cute snoopy tooth brush.


I didn't make my bed...
but to be fair, I haven't unmade my bed in a week or so to get in it so I could get up and make it. I've been using that blanket at the end of my bed and just sleeping on top of the duvet...oh, the joys of being single =)!

I didn't get a pedicure...

but I did cut the cute french polka-dot design off my old pedicure so that maybe I could get a pedicure on Thursday. See, I plan ahead that way...

I didn't watch TV...
but I did read these trashy novels. FYI by trashy I mean of no literary value or benefit to my job as an elementary librarian...get your head out of the gutter Jennifer.

I also didn't
*go to the Y,
*wash any dishes,
*vacuum or dust anything,
*go further than the front porch in front or the pool deck in back,
or as I stated previously anything productive!

Today, I have high hopes for the whole getting dressed thing!!!

Love,
G

PS...I'm praying for your dad Joni. Hope the surgery (& Miss A) is going well.

Where do these kids learn these things?

One day last week when I was feeling human - is that opposed to non-human or non-feeling do you think? Anyway, when I was having a good day last week I took these two dorks-in-training

along for the ride.

Austin, cutie wearing GAP, really wanted to buy a book on Meteorology/Weather Forecasting at Barnes & Noble. But, being the book critic I am, I convinced him to wait and to let me help him search on-line and find a better book. Please listen (OK, read for those of you who don't understand poetic license) to a snippet of their conversation on the way home.

To preserve their identities Austin will be known as GAP Kid & Brenden Nike Boy. Darn, I guess I just blew their secret identities. Bad G...Bad G...Bad G...

GapKid When I get this book on how to forecast weather, I won't need to watch the news anymore because I will be able to look at those maps and be able to make my own forecasts for mom & dad.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Really, I will. As long as I keep reading and learning, I'll be able to measure air pressure, track wind patterns, and forecast.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Really...pause...so what do you want to learn about Brenden.

NikeBoy I don't need to learn anything. I all ready know what I'm gonna do when I grow up.

GAPKid What?

NikeBoy A Hurricane Hunter

GAPKid So you should spend your money on books about hurricanes and stuff.

NikeBoy Nope. I already know everything about Hurricane Hunters.

Ya gotta love being six!

GAPKid Brenden, they learn new stuff about stuff all the time. Ya gotta keep up.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid But, Brenden, you don't understand. When I was looking at the meteorology books at Barnes & Noble, I saw this stuff about a new barometer that they just invented.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Really! And I didn't check the copyright date so all of that information could be really old...like from 2001 and they could have invented a whole bunch more cooler things since then!

I don't know where children hear these things these days. For all my Blog Stalkers - hey, it could happen...in fact, I might just create myself my own secret identity and leave myself a message as a blog stalker just 'cuz, so there - I have been known to discuss copyright date and their importance to book selection with GAPKid.

NikeBoy silence

GAPKid Brenden!

NikeBoy I'm still gonna be a Hurrican Hunter.

Yep, six is a great age!

*************************************************************************

And as a side note, Sophi-G let me hold her this afternoon in the presence of her mother

and she smiled. For those of you who may be confused, Sophi is wearing pink & I'm in red.

Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that momma was taking the picture and daddy was doing the 'smile Sophi' dance behind her while dangling a binky just out of her reach. Nope, nothing to do with that at all. She smiled 'cause she likes me...at least that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

Love,
G

My Friends...Part I

I thought I would introduce you to some of my friends. We will start with Keisha.

Believe it or not, Keisha & I attended the same college as undergraduates, but we really didn't know each other well until we became partner teachers. Keisha is a beautiful gal - inside and out - and has a gift for teaching Communication Arts. She is an incredibly generous person as well as having a great sense of humor. Hold on now, is this beginning to sound like a singles ad? Hmmm...I need to think about this. Keisha is single. I wonder....

Anyway, Keish is a great friend and she has the best friend quality that a girl could ever have...she's low-maintainence =). FYI, In case I have a blog stalker (excuse me nay-sayers, I can hope), Keisha is the cutie-patootie on the right in the blue jacket and I am the dork on the left in the white sweater & glasses.

Love,
G