Catching Up

Hey all.  So sorry my posts have been so sporadic lately!  I have been working a lot and have deadlines breathing down my neck.  Let's catch up right quick...starting with a health update on the parental units.

Lana completed her second round of chemo last Thursday.  It went smoothly.  I think she felt a little better just because she knew what to expect.  She had her blood checked before they started the treatment and the nurse just went on and on about how great her numbers looked!  Good sturdy Polish stock, right there!  She walked out after her treatment with her auto-injector full of Neulasta on her arm this time and it worked like it was supposed to...started pumping into her system at exactly 27 hours and finished in 45 minutes.  She did shave her head this morning and that was difficult.  She sent a few pictures of before and after and it made me want to reach through the phone and hug her neck hard.  Stupid cancer.  She is bracing herself for the side effects of the chemo over the next couple days, but happy that there are only two treatments left.

Bob is done with his two cataract surgeries and his eyesight is great.  He has a regiment of drops all through the day for the next several weeks, but I think the worst is behind him.

They are both weary from a calendar full of doctor appointments, procedures, treatments, check-ups.  September/October has been a whirlwind.  Praying the next few weeks are uneventful and easy.

I have another three NFL training camps under my belt and feel great.  I am still new and don't really understand the exercises when I hear initially hear the directions, but everyone is so nice and happy to explain or demonstrate all the moves. And this past week I did start jogging instead of walking and only took two baths in Epson Salt instead of three.  Baby steps!  I mean, I have been dragging tires loaded with weights and swinging kettle bells and doing pushups and squats and shuffle runs in a parking lot at 5 a.m. so I am definitely sore. Next week is high intensity interval training.  I almost wish I didn't know.  Sounds hard. All I am going to do is keep showing up. Even when it is hard.

I went out to dinner with some of my gal pals on Wednesday night.  It was a lovely night, with great company and yummy food.  A much needed recharge in the middle of the week.

Harry hasn't heard back on his job interview and is still applying to positions all over the place.  In the meantime, he is sharpening his kitchen skills and made beef stroganoff this week.  It was a multi-step, meat searing, gravy making recipe and he rocked it.  It was delicious!  He has also stepped in as Chip's chauffeur and is regularly picking Chip up from school when I am tied up with work.  Good brother time.

Chip is doing okay. One of his football coaches from freshman and sophomore year unexpectedly passed away last week at the young age of 33.  Chip was understandably upset and sad. He sent a sympathy card to the coach's family and it was hard for him to put into words what a great guy Coach Roberts was.  I was proud of him for doing the hard thing because I know it will mean a lot to Coach's family.  Chip is eating a little healthier because he has signed up to play in a rec basketball league with his friends.  He has been a dribbling machine trying to get into basketball shape.  It has been a hot minute since he played basketball, but I think it will be fun!  He said he didn't think parents would go watch since almost all the boys are driving.  I may have to sneak in!

This Saturday has been absolutely gorgeous!  We are drying out from a ton of rain and the sun just feels magical.  Me and Sheri went down to Town Lake this morning and walked about five miles. We were not in a big rush, stopped and took pictures, visited with a giant swan and commented on all the dogs, had to traverse steep slippery paths through the woods to avoid flooded paths, got lost then found our way back to the car.  It was great!

Then we went to eat brunch at Snooze!  It was an hour wait, but we grabbed a couple of drinks and stood outside soaking up the vitamin D.  We were absolutely starving by the time we ate, so everything tasted AMAZING! 

It was a fun morning!  I have to work a little the rest of the weekend, get caught up on laundry, run a few errands and watch some football!  

I hope you have been able to enjoy the weather where you are and that you have some fun planned for your weekend! 

NFL Training Camp

Good Thursday morning to you!  I have just completed my first Camp Gladiator exercise class and my face is still beet red, and probably will stay red for another hour or two.  Camp Gladiator is an outdoor exercise class where you do 7,000 lunges, squats, push ups, side shuffles, etc.  So basically, it was NFL training camp.  I arrived super early to meet the instructor and she was great and even after I told her all the reasons I would be slow and awkward she just told me to get going.  I did.  I didn't die, but I did mostly low impact modifications of all the exercises and hands down my favorite part was the pencil stretch at the end. I am supposed to go back tomorrow morning. If I can walk, I will try it again.

Bob is having his second cataract surgery this morning!  His first eye surgery last week went great so fingers crossed that this one goes as smoothly.

Lana is feeling better after they pumped her full of fluids at the ER last Friday.  She had a couple of doctors appointments this week and they have been good.  White blood count is in a good range....she is eating...diarrhea is under control.  Her hair has started falling out, which was expected, but still the pits.  She ordered a couple of wigs, I think the wigs were named Cagney and Lacey so she may look like a movie star cop from the 80's.  I can't wait to see.

I made a big pot of Jambalaya on Tuesday night and the boys were not big fans.  They ate it, but didn't love it.  During dinner conversation, I told them how hard it was to come up with something to make EVERY DAMN night.  So, we decided that they would start taking a turn at the stove. Chip is cooking on Wednesday nights and Harry will cook on Mondays.  Last night, Chip made this amazing stuffed cheese pull apart bread with meatballs.  He also put together a quick power point slide show about the origins of pull apart bread that was hilarious and probably not very accurate.  He also made score cards for judging his meal and I gave him 25/25 points.  Harry was not as generous with his scoring and took off a few points in the "comfort" category.  Chip asked Harry to sit in a chair at the table that was not his regular chair so his comfort factor was waaayyyy down.  Super fun and I think Chip was really proud of his creation.  A ton of carbs and gluten - but really tasty. Isn't it pretty?

Let me close this post with a few pictures of these super cute little ghosts cokes we made for our upcoming Fall Festival.  These will be prizes at one of the game stations.  A little cotton ball, Kleenex a rubber band and a marker.  Aren't they precious?

We made lots of other things, but I thought these were adorable! 

I have a ton of work to do, so I better get after it!  Have a beautiful day and if you happen to see me hobbling and wincing when I walk or stand or breathe, please remember I am training to be a football player in the NFL and it is hard. 

What a Week!

This has been a super busy week!  Let's just take a quick glance back so we can remember how living my best life feels!

First - work is work.  No joke.  Working hard and fast and furious and hunched over that computer for way too many hours!  I did get in three early morning walks with Martha and Cooper.  Even though we have to walk out the door at 5:00 a.m. - it makes the rest of the day so great!

Sunday morning I went to brunch with my friend Missy at this cool place called Piknik.  Everything on the menu is 100% gluten free, corn, soy and peanut free.  And they have butter coffee and it is served in a giant white coffee cup.  Heaven.  I had this amazing hash with sweet potato, spinach, brussel sprouts, currants, onion, sage, apple, pecans and a poached egg.  Missy had pancakes.  So good!

I took the leftover hash home and poached my first very egg the next morning!  Look at what I did!  Poaching?!?!  Who knew how fun it would be to swirl water and drop and egg in!  It was just as good on day two.

I did a little Halloween decorating on Sunday and it just feels festive around here.  See that jack o'lantern with a light shining brightly?  It doesn't shine brightly any more because my favorite dog drug it off the table and now it doesn't work. The Worst Dog in the World retains his title.

Sunday afternoon, we had a little planning pow-wow to get organized for a rehearsal dinner coming up for Martha's son in November.  It was so fun!  We ordered everything we needed on-line and it was on my front porch by Tuesday afternoon!

I snuck out on Tuesday night to go see "A Star is Born" with some of my girlfriends.  I left the house without my phone, went to the wrong movie theater, and still recovered in time to find the right movie theater and see a terrific movie.  It was really, really good!

Wednesday evening we had a Mom's meeting for our Young Men's Service League organization.  As the VP for Philanthropy, I had to present and fill in our members on what we have accomplished so far and what we have coming up.  Although I still jot down some notes, it is getting much easier to speak in front of a crowd.  The wine helped.

Friday morning, Harry had a phone interview with the baseball team he worked for last summer in Wisconsin. The interview went great and now he waits to see if he gets it and also if he really wants it.  It isn't quite in the line of work he really wants to pursue so we will just have to see how it shakes out.

Friday night, we had a fantastic Halloween get together with our Love Box family.  In addition to their six kids, they took in two little brothers on Friday. The boys were five and two.  My beautiful tribe sprung into action to make sure the little boys had costumes and goodies like the other kids.  It was a heart wrenching night.  The boys had a blast, but to know that they have just walked into a new family and probably don't understand what is happening or who all these people are or where their family is...it was a lot.  They could not be luckier to have landed in this family.  The girls were so loving towards them.  I just wanted to scoop them up, rock them to sleep and never, ever put them down.  We had pizza, made Halloween treat bags for the kids to share with their classmates and then we gave them all their costumes and we had a costume parade.  It was so sweet.  Filled my heart up to the very brim.

So, let's get to the update on Lana and Bob.  Lana has been really struggling with some severe diarrhea from the chemo that has left her very weak and depleted and landed her in the Emergency Room yesterday.  They gave her tons of IV fluids and she felt soooo much better.  She got home last night and hope and pray today is a better day!

Bob had his cataract surgery on Thursday and it went great!  He can already see so much better!  Still have to get the other eye done next Thursday but feeling good about some seriously improved eyesight.

So happy it is Saturday!  I am off to refurbish some outdoor furniture at The Settlement Home with our YMSL group!  Hoping the rain holds off!  Then going to watch some college football with my boys!

Have a great weekend!

Cancer Battle Begins

Thursday, October 4th, 9:00 a.m. - Mark it on the calendar as the time and date that my mom started her battle against cancer.  It is on!

She was anxious the night before her first treatment, but it could not have gone any better.  The nurses and staff were wonderful and put her at ease. She was there for five hours, had no adverse reaction to the medication....although she did say at some point her forehead felt like waves of something coursing through her blood stream.  ACKKK!  I sent her all the text and email messages I had received from my friends that were praying for her. That was a sweet distraction and made me feel like I was helping.

They sent her home with this auto-inject contraption on her rib cage area.  It is a small square vial of medication that is taped to her side.  It has a timer and is set to automatically release medication into her body at the 27 hour mark.  The medicine helps ease aches and pains that chemo patients experience.  Isn't that cool?

After she got home, she crashed and took a three hour nap which meant she was up really late that night.  Wouldn't you know that when she finally got sleepy and turned off the light, there was a blinking green light coming from under her nightgown. She said it looked like a lightening bug was trapped under her shirt.  It scared her a little bit so she woke up Bob.  Together they determined it was coming from the auto injector and figured it was probably fine.  After her heart stopped racing she went back to bed.  She packed lots of blankets on top of it so it wouldn't light up the room!  Who would have thought that would have been what scared her?  Hilarious! 

The auto-injector went off like clockwork yesterday evening and dispensed medication for about 45 minutes and then they were able to remove it.  Now she just rests and hopefully stays feeling pretty good. 

My lovely friend Sandy sent my parents a card in the mail that was so sweet. Callie and George delivered some gumbo to them this morning.  Appreciate all the love and prayers! 

Keep them coming!  

Lana Update

Hello beautiful people!  Thanks so much for the kind emails and texts checking on my momma.  She is doing well. The biopsy results from last week came back as cancer, which was kind of expected.  They believe the second tumor they biopsied last week is the origin of the cancer. No change in her treatment plan.

Speaking of treatment plan...we have some dates.  Lana goes in on Tuesday this week 10/2 for an orientation kind of meeting. She will meet with the nurses who will explain what happens when she comes in for her chemo treatments.

Her first chemo treatment will be on Thursday 10/4.  Don't know what time yet, but hopefully that will all be ironed out when she meets with them on Tuesday.

Also, when she spoke with the doctor it turns out she goes in for chemo every three weeks...not every week.  That feels like a relief and at least time to catch her breath between treatments.

If you could all continue to keep her in your prayers, especially for Thursday's first treatment I would appreciate it so much.

She was such entertainment to the doctors and nurses working in the operating room last week that they all requested she come back.  Not as a patient - just as comedic entertainment.  She may go on tour. Stay tuned.

On a much more minor note, after getting home from dropping off Chip at school this morning I walked back in my house and my laundry room smells like burnt popcorn.  Assume it is coming from either the dryer or washer - both of which have already been busy this morning.  I don't even want to deal with that so I did what any responsible adult would do....shut the door and ignored it.

Have a wonderful start to your week!