School is about to start......

So, the excitement of school is beginning.  Heck, I am excited!  I excite easily, but the new principle at my school said to me (while I was organizing stuff for the new year), "Hey, do you want to say something in front of all the teachers?"  They were in an all staff meeting and they were going to give me a microphone.  I had my baseball cap on, flip flops, but I was pretty sure I showered, so I said, "Heck, yeah!"  Bethany Larsen - you should be cracking up right now!!!!!  So should you Patrick Regnart!!!!  I gave them a brief intro to PTA, thanked them for taking my children soon, and told them about the free gift with membership to the PTA.  Forms to enroll were "right next to the sign in sheet".  "Sign in sheet?!??!?!" teachers proclaimed.  I said, "Yes.  Well.  Okay.  I am not your supervisor, but there is a sign in sheet at the front desk you may want to SIGN IN ON....and sign up for you PTA membership at the same time......"  The new principle was AWESOME and said, "Okay, I do not know what I missed, but yes, she is correct, sign in at the front desk."  I am starting to love her......and yes, it is because she said I was right!  Last time she gives me a microphone.....

Anyhoo.....I should give you the good, bad, and the ugly of the summer.  Good - our Four Corners Trip.  Amazing actually.  I love our family and I feel so blessed to be part of it EVERYDAY.

Bad....when I threw all the boys in the neighborhood out of my house because they were bored.  I was cleaning house, they were in my way, and (imagine) they did not want to help?!?!?  I stuck them in the garage to see if they could find inspiration from the street hockey equipment, scooters, bikes, sand toys, etc, etc. etc.  When I went out to get a mop, they were all propped up against the freezer and said, "There just is not much to do."  So, as I read in a David Sidaris book, I kicked them out of the house and said, "FIGURE IT OUT."  Thirty minutes later, I put out two fishing poles (one in a horrible line mess), a net, and a tackle box.  Remember, I am locked IN THE HOUSE.  I have disengaged the garage door and they keep asking to come in which I ignore.  Kyle says, "I know how to use those (fishing poles)!  Let's go."  Boys follow.  Remember, I live next to a river that has salmon and a bike trail.  I have a huge play structure in my backyard.  There is a tree house in my neighbors yard that is FOR US.  HOLY COW!  Anyhoo......all four left for four hours.   When they came back, they were covered in sand, wet, laughing and talking about fishing.  One of them even quoted, "Best day ever" and two others agreed.  Yes, I worry about them in the river - but honestly it is too low to care this year.  Yes, I worry, about them being gone so long, but I can hear their squeals from my office window.  Yes, I worry, but not enough for them not to live.  This is a young boys play land.....I will not take it away.  No devices, no TV, no nothing, but life.  Pretty cool.

Ugly....there really is none.  I need to get to the gym.  I need to get back to my program.  I miss my friends, bible study, etc.  I miss my life sans boys.  I have gained weight.  I have dealt with family issues, whatever, that is life.  I believe that they blood clots are back in my lungs, which they probably are not, but the mind is a powerful thing.  But the ugliest was when Grant took Mason to work for a half day to do my PTA copies and then a Mariners Game and Nolan was at Camp Barachach all day and I did not know what do do with myself.  That was sad.  I had to research it.  I settled on making breakfast, watching a movie everyone else would not want to watch, and scrap booking (FINALLY) the last eight pages of Nolan's 2013.  But you know the beauty?!?!  The beauty was that I was not the first on call.  The boys were with people that could care for them without me and for the first time in months, I relaxed.  IT WAS AMAZING AND WORTH THE UGLY!!!!  And, I finished Nolan's 2013 - yeah me!

Happy summer, happy school year, happy Wednesday, Ang

Scan results.....

It is FINE.  Nothing to worry about and only to ponder.  I am back on "WATCH".  I have three old sites in my lungs that apparently look "plumper".  Okay, stay with me.....this is in the beauty of the art of survival.

Fact:  Three tiny old spots look "plumper".
Fact:  I have a different Radiologist reading my scan. (I ask every time I get one.)
Fact:  I have been on WATCH before and it has meant squat every time.
Fact:  There is a level of error here because we can only do a CT scan.  Remember, PET scans are reduced to 3 in a lifetime.  I have had 24.  I am a little over,  y'think?!?!?!
Fact:  If I breathe different in the scan, I can have different results.  What do ya think the chances of that happening are?!?!?!?!?!

Do I like being on WATCH?  No.  I also learned that I was having fluid back up into my stomach from my liver.  Okay...okay...I need to do my Milk Thistle, my exercising (My Health App looks PATHETIC!) , and stop eating bread and eggs fried in bacon grease.  GOTCHA!  Summer is bad.  I am awful in the summer.  Need school to start so I have a schedule and stop eating bacon!

So, Hank gave me two choices:  1.  Run around and freak out and get a PET - which would be hard with insurance.  2.  Have another CT in 8 weeks.  Number two PLEASE!  I have been down this road before.  When I was looking at my scan while waiting for Hank, I came up with I have no cancer, but I am pretty sure I have scoliosis.  Clearly, not a doctor, but I am pretty sure that was a curved spine.  Anyway, since I was only eight weeks from a scan, I asked if I could forgo and try a different blood thinner than my shots twice a day.  OMG!  He agreed and said, "Okay, take an aspirin everyday and then we will see what the scan says."  I practically fell over (hard to do on a table), because I have been taking two shots for six years and now I am on a aspirin.  I have paid $4000 a year for those shots and now I can try pennies a day on an aspirin?!??!?!??!  It is like a pay raise - BRING ON WATCH!  The good is balanced by the bad and the ugly is balanced by the beautiful color of money!!!!!!!!

Next scan October 2nd.

Happy Sunday, Ang

So this is what summer is....

The last few weeks have been filled with great stuff.  Mason went to his first overnight adventure camp.  He dumped me like a hot potato....just the Mom.  He was very respectful and kind but he really was ready.  He grew that week.  Like really grew!  We went to the San Juans.  San Juan Island and Lopez with all of Grant's old coworkers (that camp).  The picture is from Lopez. My big blunder was tracking the weather on Vashon Island.  For those of you that do not know, Vashon is really South from the San Juans.  Luckily, I sent the boys with enough clothes, but I am now the proud owner of a Friday Harbor Whale Museum Jacket.  Stylin!  Right now, I am sitting at the pool with what I kindly refer to as my Village:  Mason, Nolan, Kyle and Hunter.  Hey are running past playing something between tag and hide and go seek and soaking (sp). Pretty sure someone should be disciplining them...

One thing that Grant and I did was go up to Kelowna and spend three nights with Rob, Jen, and the girls.  It was Rob's first of six sessions of chemo for stage three rectal cancer.  Chemo was actually postponed because of a schedule mess up but it gave us a day to play.  I shopped with Jen and Nadia and we got our toes done.  The boys got haircuts.  And we ate amazing burgers and drank beer the night before chemo.  The next day everything went as well as it could.
Robin did amazing....wait, boys were disciplined!  Whew, I can stop hidding by the tennis courts.....okay back to Robin, did great and still stubborn which is an asset.  When Grant and I left the next day, I had pretty toes, a new flashy Orange purse, and a lot of weight off my heart.  He is going to be okay.  They are going to be okay.  Five treatments to go.  Exhale.

All my love, Ang