The cancer train

 I should start a new blog, but this one is still here, the old posts are interesting.  Times sure have changed.  My older 3 are grown, my youngest will be a senior in high school.  I had a career as a speech language pathologist, which I loved.  I had to go out on disability though due to my cancer diagnosis.  I'll start with a short summary of how that all came about

In 2019 I had symptoms, rectal bleeding.  Gross, yes.  Took me a couple months, but when my hemoglobin showed up as crazy low, I got to the doctor.  I got a Colonoscopy ("only" 3 years late, I was 53) and voila, that day got diagnosed with colon cancer, stage 3c, that's FIVE lymph nodes positive.  It had not spread beyond nodes, or at least so they could tell.  

I had surgery to removed it and then started chemotherapy, they call it "clean up" or "adjuvant" designed to prevent a recurrence.  I also did chemo-radiation to prevent local recurrence.  It was not a fun process.  I finished in November, 2019 and in January was pronounced "cancer free."  We celebrated by going on a five day trip to Disney World! 

Getting close!

I always forget I have this blog, but it's fun to read back, so I'm going to update again.

I'm close to finishing my MA in Communciations Science and Disorders.  Essentially, I'll be a Speech Pathologist.  My grant requires that I be school based, but I'm getting no interviews, so that doesn't look likely.  I'll work in a nursing home, I have a job offer already for that, so no worries.

My kids are growing up.  My oldest is 6'6 1/4 and just finished his sophomore year.  The twins just finished their Freshman year.  They are all playing sports, soccer, baseball, wrestling, track.  My youngest is going into 4'th grade and is more into music than the rest of them. 

My husband is working at a new sales job, which seems to be going well so far.  Sales is his 'thing."  He's traveling, so that keeps me busy with the kids.

That's about it, just a boring update. 

It's been a long time!

I haven't posted in 2.5 years. Wow, that is a very long time. It's fun to read back though, so I'm posting again, even though nobody reads this.

I have returned to school myself. In my former life I was a Chemist doing R&D for a consumer products company headquartered in Cincinnati. I quit when my twins were born and never looked back. I hated my company and was bored by what I did. I vowed to switch careers when my kids were older. Well, my youngest started first grade in the fall of 2010 and I started pre-reqs for my MA program in speech pathology. I started the MA in January of this year and just finished my third term. It is a part-time distance learning program, but it's been fairly intense. I'm hoping it's less intense now. I'm also working in a preschool on my practicum. I'm enjoying that. I really love being able to make a difference in these kiddo's lives. I'll be done in August of 2013, it seems a long ways away, but I'll make it, I don't really have a choice now, my field is in demand and I know that I'll be able to work once I'm done.

My kids are getting older. My oldest is a Freshman in high school, he's still crazy tall and is 6'4.5" tall. He plays football, wrestles and plays baseball. The twins are 13 and in 8'th grade. Still skinny and into soccer. Bradley also wrestles and plays baseball. Alex is 7 and in 2'nd grade. He likes soccer and baseball and wrestles as well. He broke his wrist this past summer and that killed baseball for him completely. We'll try again next summer.

I don't have tons of time to myself, you can imagine. But I walk for exercise with my neighbor and lift weights. Oh, yes, and had a breast reduction and lost 75 lbs this year! I'm working on losing 20 more within the next few months. I'm thrilled at my new profile and improved health. My doctor treated me like a poster child for unhealthiness when I went in last Jan, it's all much different now, although I actually had no health problems then, but whatever. I was just lucky. It was just a matter of time.

Laundry and more laundry

Well, the time has come to fold the mountains that have accumulated. I finally found a DVD to watch (Mama Mia.) My laundry room just doesn't have the storage I need so I really should keep up with it better. Not to mention, it gets wrinkled! I always have big plans to fold more quickly and they only sometimes occur. Wouldn't it be nice if instead I could go get a massage, meet a friend for lunch, workout, anything? Kind of pathetic really. But I enjoy getting the house in order, so I don't mind too much. I did go to lunch, Bee's Buffet, I've been wanting to eat at a Chinese buffet lately, so there you go!

H2H and Cindy Day

Just posting this in case anyone thinks of joining this homeschool group in Cincinnati Ohio. Heart to Heart it's called. More like "A Group Run by a Doctor's Wife who has too much money and too much time on her hands." She will ban you if you cross her. She runs the world in her opinion. Even if you do something on YOUR OWN time that she doesn't like and somehow finds out about and you have the misfortune to subscribe to her mailing list of homeschool activities, she'll ban you. Then your poor child who has made friends with the other children in the group will be left with a severely diminished social life, as will their mom!

So my advice is, join another group! Do not join this one. Join HSN, Catch, AMHEA, CHEC, anything but H2H. That one is run by a deluded woman who uses it for her on personal vendettas.

The outcome

Well, I got a lot done, but my BIL didn't end up coming over for Thanksgiving, and I couldn't get everything done, sadly, but it didn't matter. It was just us for lunch and I did a turkey et al. Then we went to my parents for a dinner and more turkey. Many of my aunts and uncles and cousins were there, and we have a huge family, so there was much variety in food and people. So it was fun. What a bunch of partiers. We left at 10 and many were still hanging out.

So I didn't shop on Friday at all. There was nothing compelling me to get up early, so I slept in. I've had a busy weekend though with a basketball tournament for Nick and then soccer for the twins today. Nick lost every. single. game. It was very sad. They were in the top bracket though in the tournament and I've been assured that the team does well in the regular season. I sure hope so. FTR, Nick is extremely tall, 5'11' at the age of 12. He's the tallest child in his grade in the district I've been told. So of course the powers that be are interested in him for basketball. Up until this year, he'd never played in a competitive league. I got to thinking and realized that we needed to get him and his brothers better training, so Nick made a select team in the local league and the twins are on a rec team (we missed tryouts and Nick only got on because of his height.) The good news is that the twins won their indoor game. They are the number one and number two goalies. Figures, doesn't it? So tonight I had the priveledge of listening to my twins talk trash with each other about their supposed mistakes at goalie. Nothing like brotherly love.

Christmas/Thanksgiving plan

This week I'll focus on Thanksgiving. Today I plan to straighten the downstairs. Tommorrow the upstairs. Then Wednesday we will clean and grocery shop. Thursday AM will be all cooking. Christmas planning will start Thursday.

I have many other things to do this week, so this will be a challenge.