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i'm a mom

Mother's Day 2009

It was a day full of my favorite things...

french toast and bacon for breakfast

picking peaches at the orchard

napping

eating really wonderful food at Roka Akor until

you think you will pop with

this crew...

It's what I do...it's who I am

a mom

I love it!

today...

The desert is blooming

Its beautiful

and colorful

and making me sneeze

It's done!

I'm back

and

got some catching up to do.

Maybe you already know but here is what has been occupying so much of

my time.

This pesky tumor in my head.

It needed some attention before it got any bigger and caused me any more problems.

So,

this is what's been going on

The decision between having the tumor surgically removed (which meant brain surgery)

or attempting to stop the growth of the tumor with a special kind of

radiation, called cyberknife (which meant brain radiation) was left up to me.

Both options have equal pros and cons

probably one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make.

In the end I decided to do the radiation

and I did.

3 days of hour long sessions at BNI at St. Jospeh's downtown

with my support staff at my side

It is all very high tech and sort of sci-fi

hundreds of beams of radiation from all different angles

meet together

at the tumor site

and hopefully

stop it from growing further.

That we won't know for about 12 months.

This process takes

some time.

When you're on the table you have a custom

fit mask that goes over your face

and it is attached to the table

so you can't move.

After I was done 

they let me bring

it home with me.

What an awesome souvenir.

I was amazed at the amount of

thoughts and prayers

that came my way.

So many wonderful people helping and letting me

know they cared.

I am so blessed!

Today it has been 8 weeks since the treatment.

I have maintained the hearing in my right ear.

I am feeling better.

Not perfect

but

considering the situation

I'll take it.

Now it's my job to be patient and wait.

Wait for the radiation

to do its thing

and 

hopefully in 10 more months we'll find

that the tumor is

dying 

and besides

a yearly

MRI

to keep track of the darn thing

it will be a done deal.

If I learned anything

from all of this.

It is

that 

I truly

am surrounded

by amazing and loving people.

Thanks to everyone for 

all the prayers

flowers

food

and well wishes!

dusting off the cobwebs

Chirp-chirp...I think I hear crickets around here, and a lot of cobwebs are hanging around.

But for anyone that cares, I will be back. Just trying to get back into the swing of things and I think that is finally about to happen. 

Stay tuned...

a big surprise and birthday celebrations

Yes, it has been forever since I last blogged. But believe me I have very good reason. 

Where to start?

First. You remember my sick computer. It is no longer. I am the proud new owner of a Mac...oh yeah! I've been wanting to go Mac for sometime now, but just couldn't justify buying a new computer since mine was still chugging along, but then that nasty virus hit. The really smart computer boy that lives here spent many hours fixing the poor old computer and he did get it back up and running, virus free and with an upgrade to Vista, but the family surprised me and decided it was time for me to have a new computer! 

I'm more than just a little excited! Now all I have to do is learn how to do everything the "Mac" way. 

However, while I was sans a computer, we celebrated a birthday.

The really smart computer boy turned 15!

Incredibly hard to believe that my baby is 15 and in high school. It is his tradition to go to Sapporo's for dinner on his birthday and as always we had a great time and such good food!

He requested the traditional Blackley birthday cake...chocolate cake with fluffy marshmallow frosting. This is my Dad's favorite cake and what my Mom always made for him and when Gary and I got married, I made it for him and it is now his favorite and it's Duncan and Jesse's favorite too. (Good thing it's so easy!)

Duncan at 15!

• smart
• funny 
• picky about clothes 
• counting the days until he can get his driving permit  
• loves riding motorcross 
• plays World of Warcraft   
• always has a smile 
• has braces 
• caring 
• still will give his mom a hug and kiss (yay!)  

Happy 15th birthday bud! 

Infected...

Yesterday my trusty computer got attacked by a nasty virus. It got past my Norton anti-virus (thanks for nothing Norton) and now my poor computer is sick!
I've got the boys in the house who understand all this computer jargon working on it, but they tell me it's a real clever and sneaky virus, so it may be a day or two before a clean bill of health will be issued. So, for now all I can do is blog from my phone and that's not nearly as fun!
Get well soon!

it's about love

There has been a serious lack of blogging on my part over the last couple of weeks. Probably due to the fact that the blob growing in my head has been causing me some unwelcome symptoms which make spending time on the computer extremely miserable. Thankfully that very pesky disequilibrium and vertigo has cleared up a little and once again I am able to spend a little bit of time on the computer without needing to throw-up ( I know, too much information.)

I do have some news about my tumor situation, but that will have to come later, because I need to catch up about my second favorite holiday that took place last weekend!

The day of LOVE...Valentines Day! It's all about the love! So in remembrance of this day here are just a few of the things I love!

  Please don't worry, it's just an innocent kind of school girl crush thing, nothing serious. But you gotta love Anderson, Johnny, Larry and Taylor (aka Tim Riggins) ahhhh!

Next

   Now these are serious loves of mine. Strawberries, flowers, chocolate chip cookies and Joe's Jeans. It doesn't get much better than that.

Oh, and I love my family...a lot!

And when it comes right down to it, there's not a single thing I don't love about this

It all about the love, no silly little school girl crush here!

sniff, sniff

Sniff, sniff...

 

It was one of those games that has you on the edge of your seat the whole time, but sadly in the end those rather thuggish Steelers came out on top. (oh, I'm not bitter at all...ok, maybe just a little)

Not a good day for the underdogs

 

The Cardinals have nothing to be ashamed about, they played hard and proved that they deserved that spot in the Superbowl.

Yay, Cardinals! Thanks for the ride, it was amazing!

P.S. It's February...my second favorite holiday is this month, Valentines Day!

 

it makes you say, hmmmmm...

It's Friday...the end of the week and the start of Superbowl weekend!

Yay, the Arizona Cardinals are in the Superbowl this year. We are facing the always daunting Pittsburg Steelers and granted the majority of all the "sports people in the know" are choosing Pittsburg to win but we are not giving up on our team. It's always awesome when the underdogs claim victory!

I have been playing with the notion of throwing all reasonable sense out the window and just taking off to attend the Superbowl in Tampa. Even this morning, I was still working out a "plan". However, as impulsive as I tend to be, I just couldn't get past that gut feeling that perhaps there were more important, albeit less exciting things that the money spent to go to the Superbowl could do.

I'm just trying to behave responsibly, unlike those Wall Street companies that gave out 18 billion dollars in bonuses recently. Really, did these companies not care that the tax paying public (which includes me) would not be upset about the fact that our very hard earned tax dollars just bailed them out of collapse. Perhaps, a year without bonuses for their already highly paid execs would have shown some responsibilty on their part to getting their companies back on track. Their behavior continues to baffle and anger me. All I can say is hmmmmm....

And hmmmmm, is all I can say to this headline...

Exxon Mobil shatters US record with $45.2 billion annual profit despite year-end oil plunge

 

Hmmm, remember this summer...

 

Well Exxon, I'm glad that you are enjoying your record profits. My wallet is a lot lighter thanks to your earnings!

And just one last thing from this week that makes me say hmmmmm

Octuplets born in California to a mother that already has six children ages, 7,6,5,3 and 2yr old twins. Fertility treatments had resulted in the pregnancy of the octuplets. Really, why does a women with six children under the age of 7 have fertility treatment...hmmmmm.

 

And now since I've blogged about all the seemingly irresponsible behavior I've witnessed this week, maybe I'll join in the irresponsible club and just take one more look at getting to Tampa tomorrow for that Superbowl.

Hmmmmm, do my kids really need to go to college anyways?

in the know

I remember the days when I had to call someone and say, "hey, what's up, what's going on with you". It was the only way to keep up and be in the know about friends and family.

But now, now I am so much more in the know.

Thanks to blogging, facebook, twitter...now I can follow the daily doings of many of the people I love and care about. (and even some people who I don't necessarily love but just lead very exciting lives!)

All day long at hourly intervals I can check to see who is at the dentist, having fun, sick, working, running errands, watching TV, going to a movie or any other possibility you can think of, even sometimes things I'd rather not know.

     

I don't even need my computer for this...nope, I can facebook and twitter to my heart's content with my trusty (but frustrating at times) iphone. 

24 hours a day I'm in the know!

I must say that some people on my care about and love list don't share in the cyber world and that's ok...I'll still call you now and then to find out what's going on, but first I've got to check my facebook!