All's Well that Ends Well

I finished off my last post after our trip to Cincinnati and mentioned the rest of the month was not so good.  I had gone to my primary care doctor the middle of January and since I had lost so much weight and was having some stomach problems, and he ordered a bunch of tests and had me make an appointment with a gastroenterologist.  Meanwhile I had an appointment with my gyn. for my yearly appointment.  When I went to her she ended up leaving for a delivery and so I made an appointment for a few weeks later.  

Then I went to the gastroent. and he ordered a colonoscopy and endoscopy.  I went back to my gyn. on the 13th, and right away she felt a large tumor in my pelvis.  I went and had an ultrasound the next day and they found a mass the size of a five-month fetus.  She told me I could be relieved I did not have to have another colonoscopy and endoscopy.  She recommended an oncologist, but it took me two weeks to get in to see him.  He scheduled surgery for St. Patrick's day, so I had to wait a couple of more weeks.  I had the surgery last Monday, and they removed a tumor the size of a football and did a complete hysterectomy.  He did not see any malignant cells outside the tumor, but he took some lymph nodes and tissue to test, because the tumor itself had cancer cells inside it.  I was glad to have the tumor removed but still pretty worried whether the cancer had spread.  As I was being discharged Friday, the doctors came in and told me they had gotten the lab reports back and there was no sign of spread.  Now I can plan the rest of my life.

Where am I Going, Where Have I Been?

It's been over a month since I posted.  February started out great, but ended not so great.  We went to Cincinnati on the seventh for Stephanie's second birthday party and Julia's christening.  We had the car packed full; I found a little kitchen for Stephanie that really was not as little as I thought it would be. Wayne had to take it apart to fit it in the Jeep, then reassemble it when we got there.

We were about an hour out of St. Louis when I realized I had forgotten the christening gown.  I had made it for Stephanie but it had a stain on it so I took it home to get the stain out.  So there we were, in Illinois and the traffic going in to St. Louis was backed up at least ten miles--there was a truck on fire in downtown St. Louis.  Needless to say, Wayne was not turning back.  I called our neighbor, who had a key to our house because her daughter was watching the dog, and left a message asking her to unlock the house and I would get a hold of Amy and ask her to overnight the dress to Cincinnati.  I had also made a dress for Stephanie that was with the christening gown.  She called back and said she was not busy and she would send it.  It got there Sat. afternoon; what a relief.

So the weekend went well.  John and Chellie had not gotten married in the church, so their priest said they would have to have their marriage blessed before he could baptize Julia.  So they got married at noon, and afterwards we went to their friends Polly and Bill's for Stephanie's party.  On Sunday we went to a nice restaurant for brunch, and had the christening at 1:30.  It was really a fun weekend; Kate and her two came in from Boston because she was the godmother, so it was fun seeing them again, too.

 

The rest of February to follow in the next post.

Snowed In!

Here we are in St. Louis snowed in again.  I think we got five or six inches, but it was through the night so there wasn't time to clean the streets.  There were 840 school closings this morning.  Wayne was bummed out because his history class was supposed to be at 10 today and he loves the class.  This is his fifth history class he's taken at Meramec, and he's running out of choices.  

I went out to Meramec yesterday to visit, and it was fun seeing all of my old work friends.  My replacement seems to be doing fine.  Then I picked up Abbey and Erin at noon because their school closed early due to the weather forecast.  They are nice kids, and really pretty easy.  They play really well together; they'll go up in the playroom for a couple of hours and we don't hear a thing.

We've had two birthdays in the past couple of weeks, my son-in-law Dave's, and my grand daughter Abbey's.

55 Days Until Spring

It's finally the last day of January, and only 55 days until spring.  I don't feel like I've accomplished much this month, except playing on the computer, reading Goldfinch, watching Girls, Downton Abbey,  True Detective, HG TV, and going to doctors.  It has been so cold and snowy here, so I don't even like going out much.  We do go out to eat a couple of times a week but I haven't even gone to thrift stores much.  The one in our neighborhood closed a few weeks ago, and I used to go there every week when I went grocery shopping.  I like one in South County which takes about 25 minutes to get to, so I only go there every couple of weeks. 

I also have been doing some sewing and embroidering.  I am so anxious, though, to get outside and work in the yard.  We'll need to landscape the front yard since everything was torn up with our addition.  We'll probably just move some of the stuff we have in back, some hydrangeas and astilbe.  We did plant a couple hundred tulip bulbs this fall;  that should be so pretty in front of the new porch.  I also want to rearrange some of the flowers that I'll be able to see out of my new kitchen window.  I haven't had a kitchen window since we moved here, and now we have a nice big one so I can look out over the back yard.

Oh yeah, I also got finished cleaning out the basement.  It is so nice being able to walk around down there.  Next is the attic.  Ugh!  I guess I did something in January, but it was really my first month since retirement and I've never not worked, gone to school or raised kids.  I feel really unproductive.  Wayne is taking a history class three mornings a week, and I might do that in the fall.  I also might teach a class a couple of days a week.  I'll see how I feel once I get to work outside and don't feel so confined.

Tomorrow night we have an engagement party for my niece, and Sunday is grand daughter Abbey's tenth birthday.  I got her a new Kindle because hers quit working.  Then next weekend we are going to Cincinnati to celebrate Stephanie's birthday and for Julia's christening.  My birthday is that Monday, and one of my sisters is having a Fancy Aunt Lunch the next weekend for me, my youngest sister (who was born on Valentine's Day and a niece who's birthday is the day after mine.  February should be a bit more interesting.

Wordless Wednesday

New Year's Resolution

I'm not real good at keeping New Year's resolutions, so I usually don't tell many people what they are.  The past two years my resolution has been to lose weight, and I've lost 25 lbs in the past year.  Not because of the resolution, just because I don't like my doctor writing "obesity" on my list of ailments.  I went for a checkup last week and he did not put "obesity" as one of my ailments, so that felt good.  I still want to lose 15 more lbs., which I can probably do.

This year my resolutions is to get rid of stuff.  We could barely walk in our basement, and our attic is piled three feet high with stuff.  Every closet door upstairs can barely be closed because of all of the clothes and junk in them.  I started on the basement last week, as I was putting away Christmas decorations, and I got rid of about 15 trash bags of stuff.  Now we can walk in our basement again.  Next I will tackle either the closets upstairs or the attic.  I need to stop saving stuff in case someone needs it some day.   I could probably be a candidate for the TV show Hoarders.

The Holidays

We celebrated grand daughter Katie's birthday on the 21st.  She's the one who made us grandparents.

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I just finally got all of our decorations put away.  We had a good Christmas; Patrick was here from New York and John and Chellie and the babies came from Cincinnati.  My daughter who lives in town had the family Christmas Eve, and Christmas day we went to one of my sister's houses for brunch.  We ended up having the family come to our house Christmas night.  There were probably about thirty people, but with the addition it didn't seem that crowded.

John and Chellie got up very early the next morning and went to Tampa, and Wayne and I watched the babies.  It was a lot of fun but kind of tiring.  I'm not as young as I used to be, haha.  They are having Julia Christened Feb. 9th, so we will go to Cincinnati for that and they will celebrate Stephanie's second birthday on Sat., Feb. 8th.  Her birthday is actually next week, the 23rd of January, but she is little enough that she won't really know the difference.