Can't look back...

A week ago, I finished my first 1/2 marathon. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. We started off great, but by about mile 12, I was ready to sit on the sidelines and people watch...needless to say, my running buddies cheered me on, and we finished in about 2hours and 20 minutes. I have already signed up for my next one...the Dallas Rock and Roll Half has teamed up this year with the Susan B. Komen foundation so there will be a fundraising component to it. I'll be hitting you all up :)

P.S. Please keep my college roommate, Stephanie, in your prayers. She's been diagnosed with breast cancer, and will begin chemo on the 29th. I'm pretty done with this whole cancer business!!

The week from hell...

Lots of tears this week. I think that the hardest thing about the diagnosis from Monday is that we just were so taken by surprise.

It started on April 9th when we were admitted to the ER at Medical Center of Plano. They told us that dad had tumors on the right side of his brain that they thought were brain cancer. That weekend they ran NUMEROUS tests. Head CT, MRI with Dye, a contrast CT, etc. What we initially learned from all of that is that there were no other tumors anywhere else in my dad's body...they wanted to do a brain biopsy.

The neuro-surgeon, Jeffrey Cattorini, did the biopsy. He told us that he felt like on a scale of 1-10, it was a 7 that it was cancer. The pathologist in the surgery told him from two different samples, there were no cancer cells.

We rejoiced. He said that it may be viral encephalitis or a fungal something. No cancer cells = no cancer. You would think, right?? He did tell us that they were going to have to send it off to the Mayo clinic for further testing...they ended up sending it to UT Southwestern.

On April 26th, 2010, my dad had a routine visit to the neuro-surgeon to get his stitches out. We (steve and I) found out about the appointment on Friday, and I cleared my schedule to go..so did Steve...that's when the bomb was dropped. Dad has a glioblastoma. The brain cancer that defies all odds and can double in size in 10 days...

We've met the radiologist, the neuro-oncologist, and everyone in between. We just want a little time with my dad.

My Dad...

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/norwynwilliams

Cadenisms from the last week....

On Monday, he asked Memrie..."Why is your toilet paper softer than ours?"

On Tuesday, I took the kids with me to the PISD spelling bee competition at the administration building because one of the students that I teach was the 5th grade winner for Mathews. We sit down (Grace, Caden, myself, and another teacher on my team) and sometime during the competition Caden told my friend that the lady in front of us has "two sets of hair". Hmmm...actually she was a really butchy woman who had the chilibowl haircut. Shaved on the bottom which was brown, and the longer top was blonde.

At this point, I tell Caden that he needs to filter his words. Not everything he thinks is okay to say out loud.

To which he proceeds to say out loud at Grace's piano lesson after the spelling bee, "mom. Are boys supposed to wear Uggs?" I look over and the little boy coming in for his lesson after Grace is wearing Uggs. Really???

Then the topper of the day was during church today, Ash Wednesday. I have been having conversations with the kids for the last couple of weeks about what we are going to give up. Caden immediately speaks up with, "church." Yeah..not really the point, Caden. So he tries again,"CCD." Yeah, still not working for me. We are supposed to give something up that we like. "Well. I'm not giving things up like cheeseburgers and soda." I obviously need to keep working on it with him...

So, it was a crazy day today and I forgot about Grace's volleyball practice. It worked out because we went to the 4:30 prayer service instead for Ash Wednesday. During church, Caden complained the whole entire time about everything. His shoes, how he wanted to give up church for lent, etc. You can imagine that all I am thinking is that God is testing me. So as we leave after the ashes and before the last prayer because I've had enough...Caden says to me in the parking lot, "Whose ashes are these on my forehead?" Wow. Thanks for that one. So then we get to the car and I tell the kids that we are going to Lifetime so that I can do a spin class and Grace says, "We left early for you to go exercise? I think that church is more important than that." One of my Lenten goals is working on positive interactions with my words for my children. I was really silent this afternoon :)

Crazy Happenings

We've had two fires in our neighborhood in the last 3 weeks. Both are total losses. The first family has a 1st grader at Mathews and a preschooler. I'd never met the family before, but had the opportunity to meet them in person at a birthday party two weeks ago. They had a repairman at their house working on the furnace. The mom and two girls were out running errands while the dad was at home. The repairman went to the car to write up everything, and while he was in the car the homeowner turned the heat up...it was at 50 while he was trying to work on it. Well, apparently a current went through the wires and it sparked the furnace in the attic. The attic was on fire for about 20 minutes or so before they even knew it. So sad, but they are all okay. The company is liable, but that's not going to bring their stuff back. Lesson to be learned - fire alarms in the attic...

The one on Saturday was a street north from us and close to the school. It was an older couple who collected antique cars. They started the car and it sparked a pile of oil that was in the garage. They escaped, tried to put it out with an extinguisher in the garage, but the car blew up. They are fine, they got their pet out, but once again...the house was a total loss. The kids and I walked down the street and watched it for about an hour. It was so sad..really makes you think. Do we have copies of all our credit cards, passports, licenses, all important documents? What's our homeowners policy for fire? Do we have a video of room to room in our house? Do we have copies of it with our parents? We now have a few projects to take care of.

Here are some pics of the fire from Saturday.

Seriously Slacking

So much to do and such little time to get it done. One of these days I will update this thing. Had a great 1st day back to school. I really do love my job!