Category Archives: The Kids & The Girls

Brrrrr…..It be Cold!!

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It took 9 years but his first "real" winter coat.

It took 9 years but his first “real” winter coat.

Brrrrr!!!! It’s cold here in ATL Readers! What’s up with that? The last two mornings The Boy has stated he wants to move to Miami. The ATL is too cold for him. The water in The Girls coop has been frozen the last two mornings and even the door to the nesting boxes takes some real effort to open. Now, I have seen the pictures from western NY and that is why I will now shut up about how cold it is here. But really, why to people live up there???

Me and Calanit

Me and Calanit

The ladies

The ladies

Monday night I got to go out with the ladies for dinner. We celebrated three birthdays, drank wine and had some yummy food. First of all, it was nice to feel up to going out at all. But most of all it was nice to meet and talk about other things than cancer. It was nice to be reminded that I was a mother whose kid isn’t the only one who drives her crazy or a working woman who has concerns about her job. You know Normal stuff. Thanks ladies.

Timber Update

Timber continued to have problems over the weekend and into Monday and Tuesday, although it seemed he was doing a little better. I ended up taking him to the vets office on Tuesday after I picked up The Boy from bus stop. The Vet said he saw a lot of dogs come in with issues like Timber was able to give him some med’s and very bland food. On Tuesday night My Man got up with Timber two times to let him out of the house, so no mess ups in the kitchen. Since the med’s and the bland diet he has been feeling much better. He is back to sleeping through the night. I think he is ready for his trip to the beach! Woot! Woot! Puppy!

Labs Update

I went in for labs yesterday and am happy to say everything is up! Now, not everything is back to normal but since I have had gone through three rounds of chemo they were not expected to be. I am feeling much better. It is like night and day. I think back about how I felt last Wednesday and compare to now and it is mind-blowing. Chemo is some really rough stuff. What it does to your body and mind is so hard to begin to explain it. I guess you must have been through to even begin to imagine.

I will check into the hospital on Dec. 2 for my 4th round of treatment. My Man and I talked about and we both think it is best that I go into the hospital. The treatment will take almost half the time since I will have the chemo every 12 hours instead of once a day. We are mainly concerned about The Boy. He is not happy that I will be going in for treatment. One night he laid in bed with me and just cried on my shoulder. I tried to explain the reasons why I am going to go in but to a 9-year-old all he hears is mom won’t be here. Poor boy.

I will be MIA for a week…do not worry! I will try to post with pictures of turkey and a happy puppy playing at the beach before my hospital visit. I wish y’all (who celebrate, I know we have a least one Canadian out there) a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your family and give them a little extra love next week. Enjoy the food and drink. Enjoy the Football….RTR!!!! Enjoy yourself!

 

Chemo Free…for awhile.

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Timber and I on our way to work!

Timber and I on our way to work!

Readers! Happy Sunday! The sun is out here in a chilly ATL. I won’t complain about the cold, I know it is snowing in other parts of the country so I will keep my mouth shut. How are y’all feeling? Me? So much better. Life is so much better when you are not on chemo. My Man and two friends who had seen me on Wednesday said I looked liked new person on Friday. I felt like a new person! It is amazing what a few days can do to a person. We went to see Dr. D on Thursday and where I felt better, I was still feeling kinda run down. My labs showed it. My white blood cell count was low and my hemoglobin was 8.4. I knew in my heart that it would not go up in a week and agreed to a blood transfusion. I was not going to make that mistake again. We are going out-of-town for Thanksgiving and I did not want to mess up our travel plans and I have a very busy week next week at work. So, I spent my Saturday at Northside Hospital.

Saturday and the hospital.

Saturday and the hospital.

Remote, ice water and hot coco.

Remote, ice water and hot coco.

Didn't think ahead and got my IV in my right arm. Shit.

Didn’t think ahead and got my IV in my right arm. Shit.

Thank you for those who donate.

Thank you for those who donate.

My RN, Georgia, and was pleasant to work with. Readers, why does everything in the hospital have to take so dam long? I was planning on going to Target when I was done because it has been over a week since I had been there, and they miss me. But no. No Target for me. I got to Northside at 10am and did not get home till 4pm. 4pm!!! WTH? Thank God I had a TV but still. My butt was numb by the time I got out of there.

When I got home My Man had lunch/dinner in the oven for me. So nice. He even roasted me carrots (which were very yummy). Today I feel very good. The transfusion worked. I will be heading back to the Dr. on Thursday to get labs done. Fingers crossed that they have improved.

Poor Puppy

Poor Puppy

Readers, Puppy is not feeling well. The last two mornings we have woken up with the smell of shit in the air. Not Good. I can’t begin to describe what we woke up to. Let’s just say after Saturday morning, My Man and I have changed our Christmas gift plans and will be giving each other new carpet in the rec room. Merry Christmas to us.

Last night we made a point to shut the doors to the carpeted rooms downstairs. Good thing we did. When I walked into the kitchen I was overtaken with the smell of shit. OMG. I can’t believe what I saw on the floor. I almost took a picture. I kid you not. I was like “I need to put this on the blog”. Don’t worry, I talked myself out of it. You’re welcome. It was 7:45am and I will admit that I did not want to deal with this. I had just taken two pills for nausea for goodness sake!  So I called up to My Man (who was sleeping in bed) to tell him what I had found. In my defense, I did clean up a little of it but I soon escaped to the bathroom and let My Man clean it up. Yep, I totally bailed and left it up to My Man to clean the poo. He also cleaned up the rec. room mess that day before but I was getting ready to leave for my day at the hospital so I really couldn’t help.

On Monday I am going to try to get him into vet. I hope he doesn’t have a repeat performance tonight. He is going on vacation to the beach and I know he wants to feel his best (and we can’t have an explosion at the rental). Please send some good vibes to Timbers belly.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday Readers. Be good and hug those you love.

Turbo is a Mess!

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Oh. No.

Oh. No.

Readers! Poor Turbo is a mess! She is molting right now and not looking her best at all. I feel so bad for her. Zazzles and Terrance Peterson are not molting right now and are looking very nice and I know this has got to be bothering her. They have yet to ever go through a molting so I am sure they are freaked out by the way she looks. Eek!

New feathers coming in.

New feathers coming in.

This week has been pretty good. I have gone back to the office for work. My long time assistant has had to leave me for a full-time job so all week she has been training my new assistant. She has done a wonderful job. It is so sad to see her go, she has been with me for over seven years! Tomorrow my new assistant will be in the office by herself since I will be heading to see Dr. D about my scans on Monday.  I know she will do a great job. I can’t believe I had my scans on Monday. Seems like it has been much longer.

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My appointment with Dr. D is at 10:30pm. I have been trying not to think of it. I am still worried that the NP didn’t read them right and I won’t be getting the good news I am hoping for. My pain level has gotten much better which makes me think the tumors have shrunk but I still worry.

The Boy

The Boy

The Boy got his school pictures back today. Not too sure what I think about the “wet” hair look but whatever. I think he looks so grown up. How time is flying.

My sister-in-law will be traveling down from MI this weekend to help My Man, The Boy and I out next week. I have warned her that I won’t be at my best. The first two days of chemo aren’t too bad, but as the week moves on, I start to unravel. I am planning on doing a big grocery store run to make sure we have enough food in the house. We have been lucky enough to have friends, Christy and Geri, who have sent us Instead of Flowers. We are able to pick out meals and pick a date for them to be delivered to us. We got one order today. So cool! Thanks y’all.

My friend Lisa also dropped off some awesome dinners for us last week. We froze one of them to eat next week. So we have two dinners down!

The weather has started to cool down just in time for Halloween. If you are the type who dresses up (I am not) have a great time!

Be Good! Be Safe!

In the news…

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Readers! Below is the link to the article that was written by Jackie Tyson in regards to me and Team Hotel Yorba raising money for the 24 Hours of Booty race in October. How cool is that!?! Pretty cool if you ask me!

Team Hotel Yorba Captain 10-year Survivor, Amputee Pedals to Put Cancer in its Place

There is also a chance it may be printed in a local Sandy Springs newspaper.  If so I will make sure to take some pictures and show you guys! Ha! How crazy!

My Man, The Boy and a rabbit.

My Man, The Boy and a rabbit.

Last night The Boys and I got all dressed up (nice shirts at least) and went to dinner at The King and Duke. We really needed to get out and have a fun dinner as a family. It had been a rough week for all of us and we need to spend some quality time with each other. We had to drive through terrible rainstorms and flooded streets to get down to Buckhead where the restaurant is located. It is crazy how much those people pay in property taxes (we are taking $10K-20K here people) and their streets flood at a drop of rain. The Boy was freaking out, the flooding was so bad. His class has been learning about floods and scary weather at school and at one point he was like “Turn Around!” We stayed the course and had a yummy dinner. Glad we were not in a tiny sports car.

Turns out The Boy is a big shellfish fan, he ate half of my dinner. Next time we are skipping the fancy burger and he and I will just share. The Boy did not have any iPad or iTouch with him so we all had to talk to each other. NO! Yep, it’s true. We did. And we had fun time too.

Me and The Boy

Me and The Boy

Working Hard

Working Hard

It was supposed to rain here all day today but the sun came out along with the humidity. Last week when my dad was in town he bought six bags of mulch for me. There is a yet another part of our backyard that the trees have grown over and no grass or moss will grow. the area and trees are really pretty but the dirt pile and trail with all the roots showing is not. So me and The Boy ripped into the six bags and started laying it out.

Does not cover much.

Does not cover much.

We soon discovered that six bags does not cover much ground. Looks like I will need to get at least another 25 bags to cover the area and small trail. It has been a week since Poopy passed away and Turbo seems to be doing ok. She is getting along with the other two hens and I think they still look at her as the head hen. She has been roosting more on the outside roosting bar which is nice to see.

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The Boy and I checked on her last night hoping to find her roosting with Terry Pete and Zazzles for bed but she was in the nesting box. I ended up putting her up on the bar to roost. I am hoping if I do this enough times she will catch on and do it on her own. Since it is so sticky and gross out today I thought they would like some cool watermelon to snack on. They seemed to enjoy it.

Yummy!

Yummy!

Kitty Cam-Petting Panny

Kitty Cam-Petting Panny

The rest of the day was all about watching football and napping. My body is tired and sore and after a big day of racing around Friday I needed the extra sleep. I hope you all have a nice weekend. Be Safe! Be Sassy!

Weekend update…

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Kitty Cam…Bath time.

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Readers! How has your weekend been? Mine has been pretty good other than the passing of Poppy. I have had two good days. The pain level has been low and the energy level high. I am not sure what to think of it and do all I can do not to think about it. It is hard not to though.

Saturday morning I took Timber to the vet to get more heart worm pills (holy $$$, who knew?) and a mani/pedi. He was pretty nervous being there. I have never seen him so nervous before. He did not want to go back with the very nice and happy vet tech. He came back with his paws looking fantastic! However, I was informed that he had gained weight and has been gaining weight since we adopted him! Oh No! Right now he weights 89 pounds. I will admit that we haven’t been playing as much ball as we did in the past. I have been tired this summer and it has been hot. My Man had been taking him running but recently Timber doesn’t want to go. Like he lays down in the middle of the road refusing to run or refuses to leave the house if I don’t go with him. Well, while on our way back home I informed him it had to stop. He had to start running again. We can’t have him become a fatty. It just isn’t healthy for him. With the weather getting cooler soon (I hope) I am planning on more games of catch and walks and runs with My Man.

Just need the fire pit now.

Just need the fire pit now.

Later The Boy, who was feeling blue because of Poppy, and I went to Target. That place will cheer anyone up! I needed to get some household items and wanted to get out of the house since I had energy and the sun was out. I found four outdoor chairs that were on clearance for $11.00 each. I had to buy them, just had too! I have been wanting to set up a fire pit area by The Majestic. The chairs would workout perfectly. Now I just need to fire a low-cost, high quality fire pit. Oh Pickles.

Of course since it was Saturday, there was college football to watch, a house to clean and laundry to do. RTR!! and don’t talk to me about MSU… that is Alabama and Michigan State.

More Chickens?

My Father-in-law, Bob, asked if we were planning on getting anymore chickens now that Poppy has passed. Well, I had been thinking about once I saw her health start to decline. I don’t have plans to get anymore chickens for a while. I think we all need time, especially The Girls. They all (Turbo) need time to get use to all the changes. It has been a big year for all three. Terry Pete and Zazzles, being born, leaving the only home they knew, meeting two new hens and then losing a friend. And poor Turbo. Poppy was her snuggle buddy for a long time. I wonder if she is sleeping alone in the nesting boxes or did she try to jump up on the roosting bars and sleep with Terry Pete and Zazzles. Poor thing.

Small but big enough.

Small but big enough.

I think that next Spring I will look into getting two more hens. I would like to get two baby chicks that are big enough to know that they are hens (opposed to roosters) but still need to live inside with a heating lamp, some fluff and food and water. I want to be able to really bond with them before I would move them into The Majestic. I would probably introduce them the same way I did Terrance Peterson and Zazzles. It seemed to work out ok. I told The Boy my plan and told him he could name one. That made him smile.

Today there is more football to watch and a garden to start cleaning up if it doesn’t rain. If it does rain then and I have the energy (I have been up since three and have been writing this post since 4am) I may do more cleaning and organizing. I am pretty sure there will be a nap somewhere in there and of course more laundry. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! Take Care and Be Safe!

 

 

News from The Majestic

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The new sign looks great!

The new sign looks great!

Readers, I am sad to announce that Poppy passed away today. RIP Poppy. As I had mentioned earlier this week, she hadn’t been looking all that good for the past few weeks. She was losing weight and wasn’t acting like herself. No chasing Zazzles or Terry Pete away from the watermelon and spinach treats.

RIP

RIP

I am happy to report that we were all out there with her. My Man hung the new Majestic sign, The Boy and I cleaned out the nest boxes, I refreshed the food and water holders, I clean out the coop and The Boy and I gave all the girls worms that we found in the compost hippo. Poppy’s last meal was a nice tasty fat worm.

My Man

My Man

Cleaning out the nesting boxes.

Cleaning out the nesting boxes.

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It was The Boy who noticed it first when he went in with another fat worm to give her. We are all sad but are happy that we got to spend three and half years with her. We are happy to know she lived a good life with humans around her who loved her. I am happy that her last year was in The Majestic, a nice comfortable coop. I think she enjoyed living with us and I know her best girlfriend Turbo will miss her as much as we will.

RIP Poppy.

Hair today, gone in a few…

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Well, shit.

Well, shit.

Good Day Readers! It has been a few days. I hope they have been good ones for you. I have been riding the roller coaster that is now my life. I have good days, I have bad days. I have energy, I can barely get out of bed. I have a full head of hair, my hair is getting thinner and thinner. I think the razor will be coming out of hibernation later this week. I knew this was coming so it is no surprise but still kinds sucks. At least this time, since it is so short, it won’t take as long.

Pickles

Pickles

Yesterday was Round 2 Part 1 for me. I went in had my blood drawn and port accessed. We then met with Dr. D. They said my numbers look really good. That horrible shot got my bone marrow back up and my white and red blood count went up. They are very happy with the way my body recovered from the first round. Good news. We did find out that the bump on my back that is sore and hurts is probably one of the tumors. Wonderful. She did say that if doesn’t shrink all the way, that later they can zap it with radiation. Which is good. Cause it hurts. The main problem is its location. Right under the bra strap. Couldn’t be in a worse place. The strap rubs up against it all day. I hate wearing a bra! So painful!

The infusion center was could and packed. There was no room for My Man to sit so he was stuck in the lobby. That sucked. Luckily I was only in there for about an hour. Right now I am feeling ok although I feel a nap in my future. They said it should be day three before I start to really feel bad. Yeah! Great way to start my weekend!

Shout Outs

Tia B.- LOVE the peanut butter!! it is so good. The Boy loves the chocolate peanut butter the best and I have to admit, he is right. Thank you so much for thinking of us!!

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Bob H.- Thank you do much for The Majestic sign! How cool is that!? It is going to look fantastic on the coop. My Man and I will be hanging it up this weekend. I know The Girls are going to love it. Felix too!

Poppy

Poppy

Speaking of The Majestic and The Girls, Poppy is hasn’t been her self lately. She has always been smaller than Turbo (she is a chucky one) but she feels even lighter now when I pick her up. She is in the middle of molting (growing new feathers) and is showing all the signs that she is broody except for sitting on top of the eggs her mates lay. She isn’t eating as much as the others and seems like she is stoned. I am not kidding. They tend to get that way when they are broody but usually if you pick them up, they will snap out of it. Not Poppy. She has been sitting on my lap and lets me pet her, which she has never done before. We are not sure how old she is since we bought as an adult hen. Cross your fingers she will snap out of her funk and go back to her regular self.

Terry Pete

Terry Pete

Zazzles

Zazzles

Terry Pete and Zazzles are doing great. They have grown so much and are laying 4 to 5 eggs a week. The eggs are smaller than Turbo’s and one hasa pink look to it while the other is more tan/brown. Plus at night, they roost up in the coop all by themselves, while the other two are in the nesting boxes pooping them all up! Such a proud chicken Mama I am (of the roosters, not the poopers).

It is going to be a hot and rainy day here in the ATL. If you have any suggestions on what you want me to write more about, let me know. I don’t want write about my condition all the time, it gets old!! I am so over it! :)

Be Good and Be Safe Readers!