Last one!

This morning I am taking Gregg to the oncologist's office for his last chemotherapy treatment! YEAH! Soon, I will be doing some writing about this whole experience and all the things I've learned from it. But for now, I am absolutely thrilled that all the medical tests and treatments my poor husband has had to endure are about to be a thing of the past!

And by the way.....FU, cancer.

Long weekend

I am about to have three days off in a row. I haven't had a three day weekend since before the holidays, unless you count the week I took off in January when my husband had surgery. I don't think time spent in the ICU with a seriously ill loved one really counts as any sort of holiday, though.

I requested this weekend off months ago to attend the wedding of one of my dearest friends. The wedding, I'm sad to report, was cancelled a few weeks ago. This has left me with a three day weekend, and no real plans. I would love to get away, but it's a bad time for it. GB has one more chemotherapy treatment (next week) and is not feeling well enough to do much. Money is also tight, and we don't have extra cash for frivolous things like weekend trips. I'm thinking of spending the free time spring cleaning, and doing some of the chores I kept putting off all winter. I don't really want to do chores for three days, but I know I would love the end result!

 Maybe I'll do just do chores in between taking naps and reading in the hammock. To keep everything in balance, of course.

Hunger Games, the lost art of letter writing, and other assorted random tidbits

So was that the longest blog title ever, or what?

Updates from my life lately:

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins is, to quote a recent facebook post of mine, like juicy literary sugar coated crack! I resisted reading these "kid" books for quite a while.  I mean, honestly... I am a woman in my mid thirties! Even though I worked in a bookstore, even though they sold like hotcakes, even though several adults said they were very good...I felt above all that.  Then the movie came out, and I saw all the awesome movie photos in the entertainment mags at work, then a coworker (my age exactly, by the way) challenged me to read just thirty pages...then I could quit if I wanted to without any further words from her.  So I took her up on it.  I read the 30 pages on my lunch break that afternoon...and 4 days later, I had read all three books. Oh, the shame. I kind of hate admitting it to the blog. Especially since it seems kind of warped to say that not only do you like kids books, but you like books about kids being forced to murder each other for food.  Nice!


Next up: I have decided to stop buying so many cards for people (it's expensive!) and start sending handwritten letters instead. I bought some pretty stationary, and new multi colored pens, and a book of stamps. I sent the first one to my mother in law. She has been especially kind and thoughtful to me recently, and I wanted to let her know. I hope she enjoys getting a real, honest-to-goodness letter in the mail! I haven't gotten one of those since high school. These days, with the prevalence of text messaging and facebooking etc etc..I wonder how many kids (and adults) write letters anymore?  I'm willing to bet not many. That was a really nice thing about growing up in the 80's and early 90's...my friends and I (especially when some of them either moved away or went off to school) would write real letters back and forth. And I still have handwritten love letters from boyfriends, and notes from relatives and teachers, and then there were a few (short term) grade school pen pals..those were good days.  I am looking forward to writing some real letters again and sending them to the people I love!

Last, but not least:  As Gregg is slowly finishing up chemotherapy (one more treatment to go, then he is done!!) I have been looking for ways to cheer him up. He has not been able to go back to work yet, and he spends a lot of time at home alone when I'm working.  I know he is lonely, and sick, and isolated.  We have hung several bird feeders in the backyard now that the weather is so nice. I believe it's really, really good for someone recovering from a serious illness to spend plenty of time outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air. He loves sitting on the back patio and watching the birds and squirrels eat the abundance of seeds, nuts, suet, and cracked corn we leave for them.  Ginger always keeps him company, and usually can be found lying at his feet, keeping a close eye on the squirrels.

The mighty squirrel stalker!

Ginger hates having her picture taken.
Normally she is a dog that smiles a lot.

In the spirit of brightening up our patio for Gregg, I bought several pots of gerbera daisies and planted them in a large planter. They are mixed colors: brick red, orange, and yellow. He really likes gerberas for some reason, they may even be his favorite flowers, so a big bright potful of them made him smile! I would love to post pictures of our beautiful new flowers but the cord on my camera's battery charger is chewed almost in half.  Guess who would be responsible for that?

Marco T. Barlow

The last time Marco chewed a cord up (on my bread machine) my neighbor John was able to replace the cord for me and it was as good as new. It looks like I may be going to see him one day in the near future.  Aggravating bird!!!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

My lucky egg

This is the egg I found in the little wooded lot in the churchyard near our house. Gregg and I were walking Ginger through there, and I looked down and it was nestled in the pine straw, waiting for us. It had candy inside.

Sweet!

Happy Easter and a joyful Spring!

We are having such a beautiful spring. Everything is vivid green with bursts of color....deep blue sky, pink and red azaleas, purple iris and clematis, potted plants of every kind appearing on doorsteps and porches. The weather has been wonderful. Warm, plenty of rain, plenty of sun, and longer and longer days to enjoy.

We've set up the hammock. Nothing is better than decompressing in it after work, sipping something cold and reading a good book(or watching the birdfeeders). The local strawberries are especially delicious and juicy right now, so the first daiquiri of the season is waiting beside the hammock this afternoon, with a book of garden writings and a pillow to make everything cozy and comfortable.

I've boiled some organic brown eggs this afternoon, and tonight I plan to dye them pretty colors to celebrate the holiday. I will of course post pictures of the eggs when they are done. Yesterday, when Gregg and I were out walking Ginger, we took a shortcut through a wooded lot behind a church. Underneath a very large pine tree,  I found a plastic Easter egg filled with candy! It seemed like a special omen of good surpises to come.

I hope everyone has a happy Easter and a most joyous Spring, filled with lots of nice little surprises!

Birthday!

Today I am 37 years old! I cannot believe how quickly time goes by. I am hoping this will be a good year for me and my family.

My sweet husband made secret plans with his mom to get me a birthday gift-a nice (and desperately needed!) new set of pots. My mother in law and sister in law drove down from Raleigh, NC the other day just to deliver my gift...and a delicious chocolate cake, too! It was so very thoughtful of them to help Gregg out with the gift, not that I needed (or expected) anything.

Today I go in to work for a few hours, then I will be taking Gregg to a doctor's appointment. Tonight, I plan to get together for Japanese food and drinks with my best friends. It will be partly a birthday celebration for me, and partly a going away party for my one friend who is moving away next week. So it will be a very bittersweet celebration. Still, I'm looking forward to a good time tonight with the girls!

Can't get a break

These days I feel like I just can't get a break in life. Hello? Universe? It's me...the girl you've been hammering with crisis and woe for months now...is there some lesson in all this I'm not getting? Haven't I had enough crappy luck and stressful life events? Go pick on someone else awhile, why don't you?!

Sigh.

With all the major drama in my life over the past few months, you would think something good and positive would finally happen for me. I can't seem to get a break. The latest items on my "how much does my life suck right now" list seem relatively minor, but it is beginning to feel like the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I am almost at the of my rope.

I just found out that one of my best friends (that I've counted on for lots of emotional support recently) is moving away to Texas. Her husband got a job offer, and things are happening fast....she will be gone by the 30th or 31st of this month. Not only is she a very good friend, but I have also gotten attached to her little daughter. It is making me feel very sad, even though it is a wonderful opportunity for my friend and her family...they want to be back in a bigger city, and they're moving to Houston. The job the husband got is a good one. They have been hoping for something like this to happen. I am happy that they're getting what they want, and I know that with the internet, facebook, text messaging, etc., that we will still have lots of contact. But still. Internet contact isn't the same as a flesh and blood friend whose shoulder you can cry on if need be.

Then I've been having some mild troubles with certain coworkers at my job. It's not a big deal, but it's irritating and mildly stressful on a day to day basis. While I am so grateful for my job and the benefits it provides my husband while he finishes cancer treatment....I really, really don't like it very much. I want to find a job that suits me better and makes me happier. But to say that now is not the right time to look would be a very large understatement.

Then there is the ongoing stress of my husband being sick. He's been out of work for months, so money is very tight. His first chemotherapy treatment ended up affecting him so badly he wound up back in the hospital for three days. They got the side effects under control (or so it seems) this past week when he had his second treatment. So far he is ok, thank goodness, but he is taking lots of pain pills (the chemo was triggering severe nerve pain in the site where he had surgery)and lots of other pills, besides. So he sometimes doesn't seem like himself...not in a bad way, necessarily, but he's definitely foggy most of the time. And that's kind of lonely for me. I want the end of April (the end of his chemo) to hurry up and get here. I want my husband back!!

And I'm ready for some good things to start happening in my life. Surely I've used up several years' worth of pain, sadness, and plain old bad luck these last few months. I sure hope so. Things sure seem hard these days.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Early Flowers