Highs and lows of 2012

Highs: 
Grandbabies: Miss Tess blessed us with her arrival this March. Such a calm, happy baby! And for an extra blessing, I can see her almost any time that I want as she and her brothers now live in Michigan. No more 760 mile trips across occasionally icy terrain.. My grandbabies in general are a joy. It is so much fun watching them discover the world.
My children: Ramy was able to find a job in Michigan that pays more than what he had in Massachusetts. Late 2011 was a scary time for them. Just after they bought a house in Arlington, his contract ended without warning. And Shanna was pregnant. Not good. But it all worked out in the end for the better. They re having a house built that should be completed in a few months. Josh's job is going great though he seems to be working around the clock.
My health: The scary cancer did not come back. And as time goes by, the chances that it will become more remote. I am still dealing with a few minor issues but they are very minor. I am able to run, however poorly and bicycle for miles. Between running and biking, this body managed to travel more than 2800 miles this year.
My friends: Love them. They keep me amused.
My husband: Yeah we are very different people but we manage to make things work. I feel loved.
Travels: Covered the other day.
The world didn't end:

Lows:
Divorces in the works: Think back to when you were 18. Would you have considered being married to your boyfriend (or girlfriend) you had then? I remember visiting the boyfriend I had when I was 18 about 15 years later. All I kept thinking, Stupid 18 year old Sue, What were you thinking? And in general, I was quite cautious but he clearly was not a winner. Josh and Julia have been together since they were 17. People change in 13 years and not always for the better. I don't worry too much about Josh. He will emerge from this happy. Naomi is another story though. Lots of stuff to work out.
Falling apart house: This is minor and theoretically fixable but where do we start? Do we just bail and start over somewhere else? Too many decisions to be made.

Today will be the warmest day in a 2 week period. It gasp! went above freezing. I have been able to run but I have to run gingerly as there are patches of ice all over the place and the amount of semi-clear paths is relatively short. I am eagerly awaiting warmer weather. Can't dare hope for the mild winter we had last year.

I've been baking today. First a pecan pie. Steve doesn't care for sweets in general but loves two things: cherry pie and pecan pie. So that was for him. For me and whomever chooses to visit me: a chocolate pear clafouti. A clafouti is a cross between a flan and a torte. It usually is made with cherries though I was recently watching a Julia Childs episode in which she made it with apricots. This recipe I found this weekend called for Comice pears.  I couldn't find them. I am making do with Boscs, a pear that a recent NYT article rated as The Best. As it turns out, they are NOT the best for cooking as they never cook down. Also the recipe called for Pear Brandy. What I have on hand: Mirabelle Eau de Vie. What is that you might ask?  Mirabelles are yellow plums that grow in Alsace where I bought this stuff. Haven't tasted this concoction yet.

The chocolate clafouti

Happy New Year!!!!

Fiscal Cliff Solution

From Campanastan blog

To help save the economy, the government will announce
next month that Immigration & Customs Enforcement

will start deporting
seniors (instead of illegals) in order to lower Social Security
and Medicare costs.
Older people are easier to catch and will not remember
how to get back home. 

 

I started to cry when I thought of you.
Then it dawned on me ... oh, shoot ...
I'll see you on the bus!

Travels and travails of 2012

I love to travel.  I had ample opportunity to do so this year.

February: Cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to The Turks, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin. We were supposed to stop in the Bahamas also but that didn't happen.

All of March: We were  in Massachusetts waiting for Tess. Lots of side trips being careful not to go too far away in case we were called into duty.

April: Another East Coast trip: NYC, NJ and Philly.

May: Quick trip to Boston and back.

July: Bike ride in NE Michigan

October: Northern Michigan

November: Northern California

Favorite Photos from above trips:

I guess I forgot to mention my travails: plenty. Some other time maybe.

Let's get organized

With all this time on my hands, I should have perfectly organized closets, photos, drawers, computer screen, right? And I don't have my garden right now to distract me.

Yesterday I put a small dent in the chaos. Apparently Josh was embarrassed about my silverware collection (rather my stainless steel collection: I rarely use the 'good' silver), a mixture of maybe 4 sets of unmatching utensils. So my X-mas gift from him was a complete set that probably was not cheap. I redid the whole silverware drawer, which frankly was rather disgusting. Then I tackled the pantry which had some boxes of stuff so old that flour moths had drilled holes into the cardboard. Out with all that. Out with outdated jars of who knows what in the refrigerator. I also thoroughly cleaned the pantry shelves along with the contents of the silverware drawer. Still to tackle: my many junk drawers.

Then back to winnowing down all my father's slides.  I had done a good deal of this already but then new boxes arrived. I kept maybe a tenth of the total. This time however Steve was home. He pulled some stuff out of the trash. How could you throw this away? Well we have 50 copies of it. He retrieved many of the photos. So much for that.

What we really should be doing is hanging things up. I have made several canvas prints that are just laying against a wall. We also have numerous framed pictures that are all stacked up. It's not that we are lacking for wall space.

Shanna and the kids did not come yesterday as they had colds. Too bad. It would have been a beautiful day for sledding. Not too cold, sunny, and calm. Between the 2 snowfalls, we have close to 9 inches of snow. The sledding hill near us was packed, probably too busy for little kids. I've been able to run for the past few days but it hasn't always been pleasant. Today was very cold and all the melted snow from the day before left ice on my path. Yesterday Josh came to visit us. He is working overtime on some project.

Today Shanna's family had recovered enough to visit but it was too cold and icy for sledding.

I am not sure how things have gotten so disorganized. Yes we were really stretched for time when we were working and dealing with kids in travel sports. We really didn't have much spare time. And then I had my mother to take care of for several years along with a very messy estate left from my father that involved stressful court appearances. And for the 8 months or so I was dealing with cancer, I went into hibernation mode. I didn't even cook anything much less clean up the mess left from 25 years of neglect.

Sometimes I am just too overwhelmed thinking how much needs to be done that I end up doing nothing. I am trying to tackle it now bit by bit.

We did get some of our old slides organized:

Brothers: from 1982? The ones below are Shanna when she was 3

The Last Blog

The danger of reading cancer blogs is that you become attached to people you never met in person and then they disappear. Yesterday I read the last blog of a brave young woman. After years of fighting Stage 4 BC, she has decided to live the last moments without doctor's appointments. You might have seen Bridget as she is featured on Susan Komen ads on TV. She was diagnosed when she was only 21. She will not live to see her 30th birthday. (from http://mybiggirlpants.blogspot.com/). How does one live when life has been so unfair? This is her answer:
My story scares people, especially fellow cancer patients. I am the worst case scenario.

I was diagnosed way late. By the time someone sent me for a mammogram five years ago, the cancer had traveled from my breast to my liver. One doctor gave me a 16% chance of celebrating my 30th birthday. Over the past five years, I have had three recurrences and 5 surgeries. I have been on nine different types of drugs. My cancer just won't quit. The doctors can sometimes be quite grim about my "prognosis"

But I am living well. I am living fully. I am happy. I am one of the happiest people I know. I just got married in August (best wedding ever!!) and some days I call my husband in the middle of the day to just thank him for the amazing life that we have made together. I created a song that I sing (way off tune!) while cooking dinner about how much I love my little life. I think these facts can help people, even though my situation might scare you.

It is this happiness that keeps me motivated when life isn't very happy. This day to day happiness makes me a fighter.

Yesterday our big snow came. We haven't had significant snow in 2 years. I got Oliver a sledding board the shape of a penguin for X-mas. Maybe we will use it on the local sledding hill 2 blocks from my house. I have a sled suitable for babies too in my garage. Maybe I will try to X-country ski. I used to do it all the time but with my balance and greater fear of falling, the skis haven't gotten too much use lately (also no snow last year).

Crazy, invasive medical histories

My health care provider system decided it needed a new format for medical histories. Before I could see my oncologist for my check-up last month, I was asked to fill out this this 6 page, small type opus. One page was devoted to the health histories of my relatives: the 4 grandparents, a space for a paternal aunt and a paternal uncle, a space for a maternal uncle and aunt and of course my parents.  I asked what would happen if I had more than one maternal aunt and uncle, which is the case. They offered more sheets. What do I know about their health anyway?  Missing were questions about my own children, the health histories which I  at least, have some familiarity with. Wouldn't the health history of my children be more pertinent than that of my aunts' and uncles'? They listed at least 50 conditions that these people could possibly have. I just drew lines in the I don't know columns. The only thing I thought they needed to know is that my mom and aunt had breast cancer too. And this same aunt had had Graves' Disease as I had.

They wanted to know about my drug use, which was in a separate category as medications that I am currently on.  If I were taking illegal drugs, would I admit to it on this form? The same goes for questions about my sexual partners..how many and of what sex.

Every time I get a mammogram, I am asked when did I first  and last get a period and how long did I breast feed. In the past few years, I have had at least 8 mammograms. I doubt that they ever even read the answers to their questions. All they really need to know is whether I am pregnant.

They also have some form for me to indicate what medications I am on and whether I need a refill. Once I answered, why yes I DO need a refill for my Prilosec. She, the oncology radiologist, refused to give it to me. She said that for all she knew I could be gathering multiple scripts from various physicians  This is for a drug that I needed as a direct result for cancer treatment (Adriamycin shredded my stomach lining) that has zero abuse potential. It is also available over the counter but it is cheaper if I have a prescription for it.

Anyway, that annoyed me being accused of being a Prilosec abuser.

I am assuming that it will be some person's job to input all this data, which I very scantily provided, into their database.

My favorite invasive question of all times was one asking of my 'frequency of sexual intercourse'. I left this blank as I could not see any reason that they would need to know this. This was way back when I was 18 trying to obtain birth control  pills at the UM's Health Service. I was not yet an adult (that would happen on Jan 1, 1972: I would still be 18 but the law changed). I had severe menstrual cramps that would incapacitate me. I had read in my grandfather's medical journals that birth control pills would get rid of them but I thought if I told them that, no pills for me. Th doctor ended up asking me in person. I replied that I didn't see why that was important. She said that BC pills would not be appropriate for those who who only occasionally had sex. I then said that given that I do not have BC pills, I haven't been able to actually calculate an accurate "sexual frequency". But maybe, if I had them, I could acquire an acceptable baseline of sexual activity.

  Please just give me the pills.
They worked. No more cramps. No more dreading each month afraid that I would be experiencing end stage labor, which is what it occasionally felt like. I took them until I was trying to get pregnant with Shanna. I experienced only one more bad set of cramps. After the babies, ibuprofin took care of any cramps. Too bad it wasn't available when I was in high school. A lot of misery could have been averted.

I just read that a UM worker's computer was stolen containing many unsecured patient histories.

It is snowing hard. The city never got around to cleaning up after the Xmas Eve snow so I didn't run yesterday. I found a neighborhood near me that has private roads that had been cleared. Not a pleasant run with the 35 mph gusts and icy patches but I felt good when it was done this morning.

Xmas 2012

Poor Oliver was sick so he stayed at home with his dad

Lots of presents

Maya  and Tess under Josh's tree

The kids enjoyed unwrapping their presents. Maya and Daniel kept coveting each others' toys. The grass is always greener.

It was so nice to have all the kids here this year.