Sledding in Seattle ?

Not quite the Winter Olympics but with 8" of snow we were able to turn our street into the neighborhood sledding/snowboarding slope.

Relay for Life 2008

Ok, so it's not the Susan B. Komen 3-Day walk but it was still a whole lot of fun. About 170 teams totaling 2,500 people walk for 24-hours, this year they raised $350,000. Greg, Skyler and I camped out with our good friends The Crowley's and walked as much as we could Friday and Saturday (in between eating, chatting, gossiping, a bit of shopping at the booths, etc). I vow to get serious next year, I'm embarrassed to say how little I walked (only 12 miles, yawn...). Next year I will try to do 20. Skyler made a "lumineria" in honor of Grandma J, she wrote a heartfelt peom for her and burned a candle all night. I don't usually get choked up at these things but sometimes I'll see a young child in a purple shirt (cancer survivors) and that just makes my gut hurt. I don't know why it doesn't bother my that I have it, I mean I don't like it but I'd gladly take it over a child getting it. ugh, makes me sick. Greg and I together have 5-time treatment status, just sick. oh well. Guess you have to pick your struggle. If it's not cancer, it's something else right?

State of the Union

I got the results of my scans this week and they were not too bad. All the of previous tumors are still there but most of them did not grow during this 3-month break from chemo. There are approx 20+ spots on both lungs, and there was only one tumor that grew to 1cm, so now is the time to get back to Swedish Hospital and start up the chemo again. Same program as before, Navelbine and Herceptin, every Monday night.

Skyler and I took this picture one morning before work, the moon was full and reflecting on the ocean.

Hello 2008 !

On the agenda for this year, in this order:

1) Sell the house godammit already!
2) Pass CCNA
3) Stay healthy and employed

Juggling 2 houses and 4 mortgages is killing us, but don't know what to do to move it any quicker other than fire the listing agent (hhmmm... thinking...). We're enjoying the new house and having some extra space to spread out, I have a craft room where Skyler and I can do stuff like make jewelry or paint or whatever, and we watch movies and stuff there too.

I'm studying to recertify my CCNA, testing in March and then I'll be burning this stupid book because I am SICK TO DEATH of studying. 5 nights a week I'm stuck with a 960-page textbook and a bunch of highlighters and a router simulator and when I'm done with this test I'll perform one last big "data-dump" and forget all this useless trivia stuck in my head. ... sigh....

I'm in the middle of a break from chemo and overall really feeling good right now, amazing what a few weeks away from the weekly-rat-poison will do. I'm due back in treatment around March, can't be away from it for too long these days. I have another CT/PT scan coming in March, stay tuned for the "state of the union address" following that.

Good-bye 2007 !

Have to post at least once in 2007, what a loser. It was a better year than 2006 which was full of chemo and growing hair back. 2007 allowed us to settle back in to daily life, still juggling doctors appts and treatment schedules but also sneaked in a Hawaii vacation, Greg changing jobs, and we bought a new house (selling the old house looks like 2008 unfortunately).

I went back into chemo in June 2007, I'm still in it. I'm taking a break in January then back to the drugs again in February, no rest for us METS girls. The spots on my lungs keep creeping up and growing slowly, so I'm "forever girl" in treatment now. I kept my hair this time and just have nausea and fatigue, but I'm working full time and filling every single gap of time with something (girl scouts, home improvement, etc).

Greg changed jobs, he's with Potter Construction and doing home remodels. He's learning a lot and enjoys becoming an expert at construction and detailed finish work like crown molding and cabinetry, etc. He's pretty handy! He still wants to buy a "fixer" and flip it himself, but after what we just went thru "flipping" our old house we just moved out of, my vote is "FORGET IT".

Skyler is 9yrs old and almost as tall as me (not surprising). She just finished up several months of swimming lessons, graduated to diving in the deep end. She is taking clarinet lessons and she really has an ear for music. She sits down to our piano and just plays songs from beginning to end just by ear. She even plays along with commercials and showtunes she hears on T.V. ... impressive. So, I've got to get her in piano lessons so she can grow this. She is a beautiful girl, if you don't believe me, I'll post some new pictures.... hey, I'm not proud or anything, can you tell?

So, the house purchase.... we talked to our next-door neighbor at a BBQ recently and she mentioned she was selling all her possessions and moving to China to teach english to Mongolian/Kazakstan students. So we privately talked to her about buying her house and all the details worked out, so we moved in at Halloween. It has all the details we were missing... 2-car garage, bigger bedroom for Skyler, guest room inside the house instead of MIL, and we got to keep our ocean and mountain view (I'll try to find some pictures to post).

Cheers and Happy New Year!