GO Obama!

Daily routine

Life has settled into a strange routine. Strange because it is far from normal but not bad. Radiation schedules are long and rather relentless, but they focus your energy by simplifying your schedule. Everyday I wake up, get Max to school, come home and work on the house and then we go to radiation. We greet the other patients there, say hi to all the techs and Michie gets treated. As we pull out of the garage we say bye to the guy at the booth who always knows we want a receipt. We go back and get Max from school. Every other day I go and water the grass at the old house. Every week we take out the garbage. Every night Michie (mostly) makes us dinner and we eat in our new dining room. I love that things are simple for just a few weeks in my life. No work. No moving. Time to surf the internet and relax for a few moments here and there.

Soon enough it will all change again. Michie will finish her radiation next week (YEAH!) and then I go back to work as a new Lieutenant. Life will bring change back into my routine before I know it, but for today I am enjoying the calm within the storms of the last few months.

Master Max

Today Max got to go with us to Michie's radiation treatment. He had a great time. Really. The radiation staff were completely amazing. They let him adjust the table (like the one in the photo above) and check out the laser lines. Then he got to go into the control booth while they gave the treatments. They even let him push the button and tell his Mama when to hold her breath and when to relax. At the end of it all they loaded him up with candy and those yellow Armstrong foundation wrist bands. He left happy and very excited about all the big fancy equipment that he got to see and touch.

I was very pleased with how the staff handled his visit. I think it was really good for him to see what we have been talking about for the two months. He didn't have too many questions but he did say that it was very cool to go to radiation. We feel the same way. It is cool and we are glad to have access to such cool machines.

Army of Women

I want to make everyone aware of this organizational effort being spearheaded by Dr. Love and the Avon Foundation. Their goal is to create a database of 1 million women who are willing to participate in research into the cause of breast cancer.

Personally, I am sick of this disease. It has taken two of my dearest friends, made many others I care about suffer, and is now going after my wife. Frankly, I have had enough. I know many of you have as well. Here is a concrete way to do something about it.

Michie and I have joined. We will be called to participate in research studies in our area. It is all voluntary and confidential. You are not required to be part of any study you are not interested in. Go to this web site to learn more and sign up.

http://www.armyofwomen.org/

Sleepy

We are so sleepy these days. I have taken a nap every day for the last three days which is a real record for me. I never take naps. Of course, the funny part is that it is Michie that is having the radiation...not me.

Radiations is going better now that Michie is off work. She is also becoming a champion napper. She has managed the exhaustion well and doesn't seems to be dealing with too much irritation. She says it is about a 3 to 4 on a scale of 1-10.

We have now completed 6 of 19 rads and are becoming buddies with the valet guy in the parking lot. He knows who we are and doesn't even ask how long we will be there any more. It takes us about an hour to get in, treated, and back out. I am looking at it as a way to get 19 dates in a row with my wife. There is always a silver lining to events in life.

Life continues on it's roller coaster but for the most part I am starting to feel like I have a few moments to breath in between the teacher conferences, continued house maintenance and visits with friends. And for those friends/family who haven't heard...I made Lieutenant! I am officially on the list of folks to be promoted in the next few months. Yeah!

Speaking of friends and family: Thank you everyone for your amazing support. We could not have done any of this without you. Everything that has been done for us has helped us get through this wild ride whole and intact. We truly appreciate your work and presence in our lives.

So this is kind of a meandering blog but sometimes that is just what suits your mood. Peace, naps and rest to all.

Full Stop

Well I am back in the current century. We have successfully moved and are now reconnected with internet access and even have a working stove. Despite the trepidations and heart tremors that the current economy is giving me, I am hopeful that our old home will sell soon and we will be a happy "one house owning" family.

In the last month I have worked harder physically than anytime in the last 14 years. I packed and unpacked. I cleaned and organized. Thankfully, we were assisted by a small army of family and friends who did the same and in the process quite possibly saved my sanity. Michie worked hard managing the contractors who were upgrading the systems (roof, heater, electrical, garage door, internet, painters, plumbers) in our new digs. We hired contractors to do anything that required real skill. Everything else we did with our own sweat and muscle. But today that all came to an end for me.

While spraying the deck in our old house I misjudged the step I was on and went down like a ton of bricks, spraining my ankle in the process. Full Stop. Owwww. Oh well. I think I needed something like that just to make me stop from going 24/7. On the bright side, I am glad the timing was good. It happened near the end of the big work push and not at the beginning. It is a moderate sprain I think. The ankle is swollen, but not as bad as I have seen in the past.

Tomorrow we are having a community event for Max's school at the zoo. I will hobble about on the crutches, and then I will watch the kids while everyone moves furniture into the old house for staging.

Life goes on and on...but sometimes you have to stop.

Taking it all in

Yesterday, the fire department released the scores from the Lieutenant test. I have place 111th out of the final pool of 410 individuals. It looks like the first 150 on the list will get jobs in the next year so I am pretty much...well...going to be a Lieutenant.

I am pleased with my score. God knows I couldn't have studied any harder or wanted it any more than I did. I am thankful that I did well and so glad that the process is over.

I did it. I really did it.

Today we close escrow and officially own our new home. We are going to partake in our ritual of pizza in the dark with Mary and her family, which we always do whenever one of us buys a new home. There is nothing like sitting in a house you just bought, eating on the furnitureless floor and contemplating your future in your new vacuous home.

Michie is also getting the molding done for her radiation treatments today. The molding is basically a cast for her body so that she is positioned in the exact same manner each time that she had radiation done. I think we will make a chaise lounge out of it when she is done. We will need more furniture in our living room anyway.

I am trying to take it all in. I am trying to allow myself a moment to celebrate amidst all the chaos and change. Breathe.