D-Day or should I say daVinci Day.....

Either way - I'm ready to get it ALL OUT!  Woke up from a good sleep around 2am and knew I would not be able to get back to sleep.  We have all had our showers now and are just waiting to leave for the hospital.  Page bought me another pair of yoga pants and I'm wearing them, one of my big "men: denim shirts and my clogs.  They told me to wear a button up shirt because that is what I will be wearing home. Guess it will be hard to pull something over my head.  They have tried to prepare me for some significant pain for a few days.  Everyone has been wonderful and I so appreciate all the prayers that have been going up for me.  There is probably a long journey ahead but I am so ready to take this first step - think I will feel much better once I know they got all they could and hopefully radiation will take the rest.  So let's get'er done!  Poor Princess Miya is very, very confused right now. :-)

Visit from Alease, flowers, nice ride in the country.....

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood......it really is. We had a nice surprise visit from Alease - GG's oldest daughter and one of my oldest friends. She came bearing gifts - flowers! She and her hubby had gone to the Farmer's Market and picked up this gorgeous bunch of flowers.  They look so good in the vase Ann brought her flowers in don't they?

Look closely at the picture on the top right - it's the picture Roseanne took at the coast of the moon on the ocean. She used a 10 second delay and it's perfect. I love the moon and I love the ocean - I really love the gold reflection off the sea oats. Alease, BigD and had a nice visit talking about our cats and their escapades. She looks great - she always has and probably always will. She is bringing us a chicken casserole Sunday. After I took my shower, I asked BigD if we could go for a ride - I wanted to see some leaves changing color!

I was a little disappointed in the lack of color but after speaking with Leah on the way home, she said they aren't seeing much in the mountains yet either. We rode out to Lake Mickey and then just kept on going for awhile. I got a few leaves in my back yard and took a picture of the pitiful little rose bush I planted the year we moved here 36 years ago. If we remember to cut it back, we still get roses every year - just a few but hey. So Leah was allowed to leave early today and wanted to let me know the results of a test her grandmommie had - not good results.  Hate it for her - she is 81 but quite strong so now she will have to hurry up and wait.  :( Just got a call from Duke - have to be there for surgery at 5:30AM.  The clock is ticking.....

Roseanne......

Roseanne came to see me today - my dear, dear Roseanne.  We talked, we ate, we talked some more, we laughed and talked some more.  What we do best.  One of the things we laugh about is how we are one of the best kept secrets in our fair city and world.  Only our children actually know how close we actually are and even they aren't totally in that loop. :)

The is a picture taken of us in 1981 - not long after we met and became friends. We had a great adventure that night but that can wait for another picture and story. It involves a mechanical bull and the police department. Yeah - adventure. She has always lived across town and her children are a little younger than mine. Even though I am a little over 7 years older than she is - we clicked right away. We were raised in different environments (she is from the mid-west) and yet - we are sisters in so many ways. I am pretty much an open book on a lot of things but there are parts of me that only Roseanne knows about. I trust her completely. She is a wonderful woman, wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She is also my spiritual sister and has been blessed with tons of common sense. We both love our children fiercely and therefore, love each others children the same way and that includes in-laws and grandchildren. Because of logistics - much of our earlier friendship was via long phone calls. She hates to talk on the phone as a rule so I know I'm pretty special because we had long phone conversations when the children were all younger and I worked long hours with travel times being over an hour to get home some nights. She bought me a lovely gift I will share later. It was taken last week but more on that later. Today was just about US - being together, eating Chinese, sitting on the deck and getting caught up with each other.  Love you Roseanne........

Good friends dropping by...

Slept okay last night - got up kinda early and been pretty easy going for the most part.  Had lots of phone calls and several visitors. Rie and Sister Buoy brought me some flowers Gonzalez had bought for me.

She had left them in the fridge at the hall and didn't come out today so they brought them to me.  Sweet. I had also forgotten to put up the picture of Linda and Leah from our morning in service Monday.  It was a lovely day and I found all my return visits at home except one.  My sister Ruth picked up a nice salad and came over to have lunch with me.  She wanted me to print a copy of one of the pictures I sent her. It is the one I put on my September 27th post.  It printed out pretty good.  She looked at a few more I have scanned and couldn't get over our hair.  I'll have to admit her hair held those styles better than the rest of us.  My hair was thick enough but has always been fine and would slide right out of the teasing. Memory - just remembered it was Ruth who teased my hair the very first time.  I had a date with Tommy and his friends from the band he played in.  We were going to Durham High to listen to another band playing there.  She came into the bathroom while I was trying to comb the curls out of my hair (back then I would wash and set my hair and the curls would be so tight they were very hard to tame).  She made me sit on the commode and teased my hair and picked it for me.  I remember vividly how happy I was because when we met everyone else (I didn't know any of the girls and they were all older and went to the city school) my hair looked as good if not better than theirs and yes - their was teased too.  Wow - I'm thinking that was a first for me - being on the cutting edge of a fashion. :) GG dropped by while Ruth was here and visited for a bit. I can tell she is worried but I don't think she remembers exactly why I'm having the surgery and I think that is best. Vera and Luz dropped by also and everyone has been very careful not to hug or touch me so I do appreciate that.  Of course I had to hug Eileen when she came but I know she isn't sick.  We had a good visit and she gave me a nice gift which was way too nice but I do appreciate it.  We looked at the pictures I took of her little wedding and laughed our heads off at hair styles too.

I also wanted to share the picture Keith sent me via phone of Kurt and Lee from Saturday night. Kurt was raving about a Taco Truck they found.  They all had so much fun with the music and being together. I'm so glad Kurt was able to be with them. Ruth just called and is coming over to visit and BigD is getting ready to go pick up meatloaf, creamed potatoes, green beans, hush-puppies, cooked apples and sweet tea from Home Plate. It has been a beautiful autumn day - bright sun, blue sky, crispness in the warm air and the leaves in our yard are just starting to turn. Another day.......

I sent Kurt the picture Keith sent me and he sent me this one to show the other side of Keith and Lee. Yeah - they had fun...

Surgery scheduled --- check...

After spending all morning at the hospital, we left happy to know we got the date we wanted for my surgery - Monday, October 10th. One person said the schedule was for 300 minutes - 5 hours. Of course I think that includes everything from start to finish. I've been poked, prodded, stuck, squeezed, weighed and questioned so now I just have to wait again. I knew I was going to like my surgeon the first time I met him. He apologized for running late but he had baby sitting duty.  I like that.....

This really isn't a great picture of my surgeon - he looks better than this. Of course, I may be prejudiced since he will be inside my mouth, nose and neck for quite a while next Monday morning. We talked about Dr. Sharpe and how on top of everything she got right away.  If you have read my post about her - you'll know how I feel about her.

This is the Resident who will be taking care of me after the surgery. My surgeon was very honest about everything and I feel very fortunate to have him on my case. He was telling me the da Vinci Robot system is bigger than the examination room we were in. I saw tons of pictures of the system but wasn't sure exactly which one he would be using. I'm supposed to meet the Radiation Oncologist after the surgery and will also find out when I'm to have surgery on my nose by Dr. Cook. They want me to stay away from everyone until the surgery so I don't catch anything.  My Primary Care Physician agrees with them and wants me to curtail my door to door and being in groups of people until after the surgery.  Hmmmm.   I so appreciate all the help I'm getting - especially from my children.  It was so nice having Leah stay over and go with us to our appointments this morning.  She took great notes and asked good questions. Page will be here next Saturday to be with me through the surgery and the following week. Then Leah and Kurt will be back the following weekend.  I do appreciate them all so much - hard being so far apart.  Now it's back to hurry up and wait again....... Be glad when I am not so weak and tired.  Also having some referred pain again but can't take anything that might thin my blood so will be okay with that.  Now I just need to get BigD to stop calling it MelaNOVA and call it MelaNOMA.  Leah said Kurt likes hearing his Dad call it MelaNOVA - said it sounds more exotic. Yuk Yuk Yuk......

How could I forget?

I had a post ready to make on 9/25 about Page2 with her pictures and then forgot to put it up.  If you want to see it, scroll down to 9/25 to see just a few of the beautiful pictures from year ELEVEN!  Time flies doesn't it?

Kurt, Leah and Page2.....

It has been so nice having Kurt, Leah and Page with me this weekend. BigD left for the coast very early Friday morning and they arrived very late Friday night. Kurt and Keith went with Lee to listen to some great bands live out in a big field somewhere Saturday.  Since it turned off pretty cold quickly, Kurt and Leah had to go shopping for clothes that he already needed and felt good about their purchases.

He sent this picture with a message saying all the bands were great and they were having fun. Sadly, they didn't get home until very, very late and then I couldn't sleep and over-slept this morning. We were all up in time to listen in to the meeting and WT study. The speaker was wonderful and the WT was exactly what I needed. BigD got home in time to pick us up some biscuits around 11:45am and then he watched the races (took a nap) while we all looked at a movie I had saved for Kurt to watch. After I finished studying my WT last night, I scanned some more pictures including these three of Kurt and his Dad.

Our kids love both of us and we know how fortunate we have been with them. They have both brought us so much joy since they came into our lives. I never dreaded one moment of their upbringing and can honestly say I totally enjoyed every moment of their childhood. I'll be posting a picture of Page and BigD when I come across it. It was taken the day we came home from the hospital. My sister-in-law had to pick us up at the hospital because BigD (who worked for GG's husband) had to work out of town on an emergency job. She got us home safe and sound and Page was sleeping in the little wooden cradle we had for her downstairs. BigD came straight home as soon as the job was finished, walked into the front door, straight to the bathroom and washed his hands real good, picked her up and sat holding her for at least an hour. Sweet memories. Kurt, Leah and Page left a bit ago to meet her Mom in VA. Then she is coming back by Whole Foods and plans to bring dinner home too. We are planning to get out in service in the morning and then she will go with us to the pre-op and appointment with the surgeon where he tells me just what the tests all show and what he will be doing.