This was great for me, probably will bore all of you

Friday night we went out eat in Indiana,  just across the Ohio River from Louisville.

 

Not a bad view of Louisville 



Saturday we had a wonderful day.  We gathered friends and family from all walks of our life.  No we couldn't have everyone we wanted.  But we did get most of our family together. I have pictures of my family.  Marty hasn't shared his pictures of  his family yet.  So maybe later I can get those posted.

I as always have lots and lots of pictures.  I am going to put up way more than you'll want to see.  But this post is for me.  This is for me to remember that special day.  Feel free to skip through it.

 

 

The party has begun.  Marty, nephew A.J., me, and Holly.  This was the room with the champagne punch and the ginger ale punch.  Guess which one I drank.

 

 

Dining room table with some of our "light" hors d'oeuvres

 

 

Ann ordered a chocolate cake with butter cream icing.  I cut the first piece, a corner piece. This icing was wonderful, rich and gooey.

 

 

Little Brother and his pal Louie

 

 

No Belinda and I are not sitting down.  Kiel is my tallest nephew, 7 foot.   He just signed a contract to play pro basketball.  Belinda was excited to meet him.  She had had college classes with his father, who also played pro ball. 

 

 

Friends Marty grew up with.  Left to right, me, Ronald, Beverly, Billy, Marty

 

 

Friends I grew up with.  Left to right, Joyce, Wanda, me, Peggy.  Joyce and Wanda drove several hours to come visit me. Peggy lived within an hour or so from Louisville.  They are part of my Corbin Prayer Warriors. 

 

Below are several pictures of my side of the family.  We had nieces, nephews, spouses, great nephews, great nieces, Papa Jack and Yolanda, partners, and Friend Mark.  Did I forget anyone?  Oh Marty was there too.  Love my crazy loud family.

 



 

We laughed, told tall tales of family happenings. We told tales of my late sister, Maryann. Story were told that were new to some of the family.  Like one person had eloped and her children didn't know that.  It was such a wonderful day. 

 

Sunday we were again doing a family tradition.  Church and then out to breakfast at The Big Boy.  After breakfast we had to take pictures, lots of pictures.  And where did we take them?  In front of the Boy of course.

 

This should have been a video.  Getting this group together was like herding cats. 

 

 

 

This is all without me.

 

 

One of the waitresses came out and took a picture of all of us with me. 

 

The last few days have been a huge love fest for me to them, and them to me.  I do love these wonderful crazy fun people.  Hope you got through most of the pictures.  You can see how happy we all are.  

 

If I can get Marty and Mark to send me the pictures they took, I will post them and bore you all some more. Two more days and we go home.  Then we will be back to health updates.  Not as much fun but just as important.  Much love to all my friends, family, and Prayer Warriors.







No chemo this week

Monday I  had lab work.  I always get the results almost before we get home.  I check the platelets because if they are low, no chemo.  The other tests, and there a lot of them, I don't understand or don't think they are a huge factor in whether I take chemo.  Well that afternoon the nurse called me and said no chemo this week.  My white blood cells are too low.  I do know that one.  In the past they have given me shots to improve the white cells and talked about blood transfusions.  So this became an off week.

We are to leave Tuesday for Louisville and I was afraid they would want me to stay home.  Would they change my August schedule? Would I have to do chemo on my planned off week? The trip was planned around my off week and when Mark (our giver of frequent flyer miles) could take vacation with us.  I still get my off week.  Tuesday I will have chemo if all is well, and we take a redeye that night. 

When I asked the nurse if this would mess up our planned vacation, she said, "again a trip?"  ( yes this will be our third trip this summer:  Dallas, San Diego, and now Louisville)  I told her I have a limited time I will be able to travel and I have family and friends to visit. 

The rest of the week I did normal things.  I cooked more than usual and when I didn't cook I did the dishes.  I walked 30  minutes every day.  Wednesday afternoon Erik, our son, came to visit and to help out with domestic duties.  I had broken beans the day before and put them on to cook and fixed a chuck roast in the crock pot.  We all agreed it was a fabulous meal.  Nothing better than fresh green beans cooked low and slow, with just a little bacon grease and other Southern secret ingredients.

Friday I went to brunch with Kirsten and later Pat joined us at my home.  We had a gab fest and caught up on what each was doing. I am so lucky to have these ladies in my life.  

I have lots of friends that check on me, visit me, Facebook me, call me.  Another dear friend, Janet R (so you know it isn't me, they call me Janet A) texts or emails me nearly every day.  Janet R checks what is going on, how am I doing, am I happy, do I need anything.  We ask Janet R to join us, but since she owns a business, she can't get away often.  So we don't see her much. 

Today, Sunday, I went to church.  That is a big deal.  It is a 35-40 minute drive.  I have to be up and dressed earlier than usual.  Meds must be taken early. And there is the emotion of the love I feel from my church family.  When we get in the car to drive home I am pretty well whipped.  But it is worth being tired. 

So normal is good.  I felt good most of the week, not as tired, and very little nausea.  I am not sleeping very well, but I blame the bed hog I live with.  I love Marty so much, but this week he has royally ticked me off.  He is sleeping on a diagonal, that would be with his head on MY PILLOW.  He also stole the prop my arm up pillow.  He took all the covers, and then complained how hot he was during the night. My complaining about him is an indicator I am feeling better.  For some reason when I feel better I feel justified in being ticked at the best caregiver ever.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can take chemo on Tuesday.  I get scared when chemo is put off.  I am afraid the tumor will get ahead of us.  So never ever do I want to miss a session. 

Just a little info for you all

I am sure you regulars are asking where did Guest Blogger Joe vanish to?  Why no wedding reports?  Well, Joe sent me word why no dispatches from the Marriage Factory for the last two weeks.  I believe this is a direct quote: "They were all boring."  I think that translates to of the wedding ceremonies he performed none were strange, none were  funny, none had wonderful shoes or outfits.  Joe had high hopes for today's group of couples.  I sent back word to him, if nothing is worth blogging about, make something up.  Maybe he will write about some of his early weddings. 

I may not have many posts the next week.  My brother and his wife (these are the parents of The Colonel) arrive tomorrow morning from Louisville, Kentucky.  The four of us plan to tour San Diego.  We will see gardens, pandas, museums, sea views.  We also plan to drink, eat, and be merry. I will try to post about our tourist stuff.  But you notice I said drink, eat, and be merry.  The drink and be merry part could hamper my ability to type.

Louisville trips make us think: KY or CA

Some background:  my family moved to Louisville while I was in college; Marty grew up just outside of Louisville;  Marty and I have been transferred twice to Louisville; except for about 4 years in Louisville and Baltimore we have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1977.

After a visit home we feel unsettled.  Should we move back?  Where is the best place for us to grow old, or truthfully older?

When we go back to Louisville I get house envy.  My brother and his wife live in a gorgeous Victorian that is 6000 square feet.  They paid about what we paid for 1400 square feet.  We drive through Louisville and see the lush yards that are huge to go with the large beautiful homes.  We visit friends and their homes inside and out are examples of gracious Southern living.  Here there aren't big yards: little water and crowded subdivisions.

Then I think, they have to heat and cool those big homes.  I rarely have to use the AC and the furnace is used mainly for a couple of hours in the morning and three or four hours at night.  Our climate is very gentle compared to Kentucky.  Cutting grass, been there done that.  Not a favorite activity.

We have close friends and family in Louisville.  We miss them greatly between visits. In California we have friends that have become our family.  Plus our son and his wife live 15 minutes from us.

Medical coveragae at our age is a huge issue.  We have Kaiser, the bench mark for health care in America.  How could we give up that? 

There are other issues to think about re Kentucky.  Marty building a client base in Kentucky, no farmer's market in winter, having to buy winter clothes, would memories and vacations be true to what daily life would be?  Lots more things to consider.  We do this every trip back.  I am pretty sure once again we will make the same decision, California remains home.

I MADE IT!!

We made it safe and sound. I know all of my faithful readers kept the planes up.

The first leg Oakland to Salt Lake City I traveled on 3 hours sleep and Valium. That works pretty good. I even slept 30 minutes. Salt Lake to Cincinnati was on a Bloody Mary. And the last leg, the worst, Cincinnati to Louisville was on wine.

All was smooth until about 45 minutes from Cincinnati. Traffic control had us drop down a few thousand feet into storm clouds. The pilot had no idea why. It wasn't awful, but I was nervous.

But the last leg of the trip we were on the runways taxiing and landing longer than in the air. A 16 minute flight. Straight up to cruising altitude and then you start dropping in order to land. Lots of thunderheads to make it bumpy. And this plane only holds around 40 passengers. If you are over 6 foot your head hits the ceiling. Really hate puddle jumpers.

Now the funny thing was who we met on the plane. As Marty and I are walking down the aisle, we saw my brother. My brother who we are visiting. He was on the way home from NYC. I knew he was flying home, but no idea we were on the same flight. That was fun.

We dumped luggage at Little Brother's, picked up his wife and met my Mother and Papa Jack for dinner. And where did we go? White Castle. Two years since we had had them. Heaven.

We are pirating wireless from the people next door. So I will be able to post fairly often.

A JUMBLE OF THINGS

Mother Nature is mad at Louisville. Today they had 60 mph winds, and tornadoes in the area. Think about it: an earthquake, IKE, the worst ice storm in history, and today winds. This has happened in just the last year. This time my folks are without power. Right now it is warm for February, so they aren't going to freeze, but still not good.

Tonight Marty proved again why he is a keeper. Janet Rudolph ( book group moderator, 2 blogs on the side of this blog) was hosting an AT HOME. That means she had authors coming to talk to our group and other invited guests. Last night she had heard from maybe 4 people. Not a good showing for 3 authors. I did not plan to go for several reasons. But I asked Marty to go with me and we went. This is so not his thing. But he went so the room would look full. I went because I care about Janet R as does Marty. Turns out, several showed that hadn't said they were coming and we really weren't needed. It was a nice evening. I was proud of Marty staying awake. As soon as we got home he sat down to watch TV, and was immediately asleep. He is a keeper.

This was marrying day. One wedding I had a Momzilla. Everything I asked the couple, Mom would answer. And then she would tell us what to do. The couple just stood there and waited for her decisions. I started the ceremony and Mom walked up and pulled a flower out of the bride's hair. The bride objected and Mom told her how bad she looked. Then she played with the bride's hair and repinned the flower. When Mom had everything the way she wanted it I started over. I sure hope the couple lives far away from her. Not a nice woman.


And then there was my last couple. I called their names, no answer, I called it again. I know I am standing next to them.( there are no other couples in the lobby) Finally someone said just a minute we're taking pictures. And there were 5 women on the bench with crossed legs, skirts hiked, and Paris Hilton smiles. The picture was taken and I called their names again, and they said just a minute, one more picture. This ticked me. They were just rude. I said let's go. Finally I got them upstairs. I really did not like anyone in the room. They all were phony, the bride was talking to me about the ceremony, stopped and did a Colgate smile for a picture, then continued. They just rubbed me wrong. All through the ceremony she posed, fake smiled. In the middle of her vows she checked where the cameras were and posed. It also felt like they treated me like lowly scummy hired help. And we all know I am the Queen of Marrying.


One couple made up for the two above. They were mid forties. The clerk, Miss P told me the bride wanted me to hurry and get them into the wedding room. She was afraid the groom would walk. And then I found mistakes on the license and we had to correct it. Miss P called to them only 2 more minutes. I got them on the elevator and realized he had had a little fortification. He was sober but had had some nerve tonic. I started the ceremony and realized the bride is a bouncer. The happier she was the more she bounced. I almost got the giggles. After the wedding they both hugged me, they were so happy. I commented on her bouncing while she was so happy and he said the perfect thing. "That's why I love her." And that is why I love doing weddings.

BABY, IT'S SNOWING OUTSIDE

I check Yahoo weather every day for Louisville, KY; Dallas Texas; and my town ,Oakland, CA. It's January, Louisville and Dallas have had and are having some serious weather. Ice storms, snow, sleet, winds, and waaaay below freezing temperatures.

Those people are cold and miserable. They are driving in dangerous conditions. We lived in Kentucky for a long time. Snow and ice was normal. The hair in your nose freezing was normal. Your glasses fogging up everytime you went from inside to outside or outside to inside, normal. Didn't like it, but that was just winter.

California in winter is another animal. I am not talking about the mountains. I mean San Francisco/Bay Area, San Diego, LA, The Valley. We might have a frost. It snows maybe every ten years and melts by noon. When we have a frost, by noon it will be in the 50s. Our coldest day (that goes to 50 for a high) might be Louisville's high. Our flowers bloom all winter, the trees start blooming in January, daffodils are a foot tall, California poppies are blooming. It is good to live in California.

This year the middle part of January has been really cold weather (for us). We had frost, it was down in the 30's and only got up to about 45. Our furnaces cut on in the middle of the day. We have no heavy winter coats, we have no long johns, we are cold. We are freezing, And we get no sympathy from friends and family in the rest of the country. We are cold and no one cares!!! We know the rest of the country is sub zero. But we are Californians, we are sun people. We don't do cold.

As a friend said at church, Sunday, "We are winter wienies."