Hair "doos" and other stuff...

Kelly started getting her hair cut shorter and shorter until one day she got it this short.

It was funny because when She got to Brian's house after she got it cut, he looked at it and was WOW.  She laughed and said he kept trying to figure out why it was that he actually loved it so much. :) We all love it and evidently, so did my spiritual daughter, Linda who wanted to see a picture of it. So Kelly took these one day in her cubicle at work hoping no one would walk by and catch her. Linda had noticed how short she kept getting it in some pictures I had put up on my blog while we were on vacation. It was funny because when we first met Linda, we loved how short she wore her hair back then.  So Linda got her hair cut and then Kelly wanted to see how hers turned out so....

Ain't technology grand?  And YES - they are both absolutely beautiful inside and out. I'm beginning to think they could go bald and still be beautiful - NOT that I'm giving them any ideas! :) My Mom always said I was a good baby and I believe it since my head is flat in the back. I asked her one time if I laid in the bed on my back too much since I was so good and she would swear my head wasn't flat because of that. :)  I would definitely wear my hair this short if my head was shaped as pretty as theirs are.  Sweet Linda and her babies brought me home from the meeting last night.  She is such a smart, talented, wonderful young woman - "sister" - wife - and mother of three beautiful, smart and wonderful children.  I was able to stay for the entire meeting last night and could not believe how cold it got. I am definitely not ready for colder weather.  I was going to walk today but got side-tracked.  Vera came to pick me up earlier today because we were supposed to go see her daughter and her new house. We were just waiting for Dafina to call when she got home from the dentist whose office is very close to us.  She kept sending text messages saying she was still waiting to be seen - even after they took her in and put her in a chair.  After quite some time, Vera had to go or be late for work so we will try again next week.  I know Dafina must have been fit to be tied because she had planned on our coming.  She also had to get away from the dentist in time to pick her boys up from school.  I think I would change dentist.  I've got a busy Monday coming up - Dwight and I are getting flu shots and picking up a prescription for a shingle shot at Dr. Manning's office followed by me going to the dentist up the street from him for a checkup and cleaning followed by me getting my shingles shot at the pharmacy. No acupuncture next week - she will be out of town the entire week.  Dwight is going fishing Wednesday so I will be having sleep-overs with some girlfriends while he is gone.  Ate some potato soup today and did pretty good with it. Dwight is grilling hot dogs tonight and I'm going to see if I can tackle one. We'll see. Snatched some wonderful pictures from FB. Young friend is on a fishing trip with her Dad and Uncle at the coast this week.

I wish I could share all of the pictures she has put on FB of their trip so far.

We all love the wild horses across from Beaufort's waterfront area.

Check out this "bird in flight" picture she got! I think it is great!

I'll close with this wonderful picture of two sisters enjoying the State Fair. Going to go sit on the porch with Dwight while he cooks before it gets too cold. At least I will not have to worry about the mosquitoes!

Radiation appointment and fused palate.....

I was actually looking forward to my appointment with Dr. Brizel (Radiation Oncologist) today. I had some questions for him as well as one Kelly wanted me to cover. She has been concerned that I'm still taking the oxycodone after a year but he and the resident both said to not worry about it. When it is time to come off, it will be gradual but the fact that I still have pain shows I still need it. It is true that I sleep through a dose from time to time but as Dwight pointed out today, most of the time I wake up. When he examined my neck, it was still quite painful; especially on the left side which is numb from the outside unless you put a little pressure on it. It might stay numb

since the feeling hasn't come back yet. I'm talking about the actual feel of touch to the skin. Before he examined me, I told him about how my tongue as been contracting (spasms) as well as how I can breathe in through my nose but can not breathe out through my nose or blow it. I blamed it on my the issues with my tongue but after examining me, he told me my palate has fused almost together due to scar tissue from the surgery and radiation. When he put the scope up through my nose and down to my throat, he almost couldn't get it through that area. He showed us a picture of how it works - when I breathe in through my nose, it pushes the palate open a tiny bit but when I try to breathe out, it slams it shut completely. He assured us that the pain and the palate are because he and Dr. Scher "whupped up on me pretty hard" between the extremely aggressive surgery AND radiation BUT how it was necessary because my diagnoses was a VERY, VERY MEAN cancer. I assured him that I would learn to live with it because I am so happy that I am still HERE and I give them both all the credit for being so aggressive. They had both tried to prepare us for it and now it is just going to take time. As far as the palate goes - I told him I can always breathe out through my mouth and thank goodness we have Kleenex to help me "go up there" for anything that needs to come out. He laughed at that and said, "exactly".  I had to mention how proud we were of how he saved the little girl's life on the airplane and he smiled real big.  I will see Dr. Scher in 3 months and Dr. Brizel again in 6 months. He wants me to get my flu shot and shingle shot right away. Oh joy.

encouraging news and old friend

I know - two entries on the same day! Hard to fathom isn't it? I just wanted to share a picture I received from an old friend today so Kelly can see it too.

He sent an email to some of their friends asking us to get them caught up on what's been going on and sent the picture with the message. I told him I love the moustache and I do. It was so good hearing from him and his dear sweet wife. I also got some great news from my neighbor whose son is at Bethel and has been most of his adult life. I really appreciated him sharing the information with me and everyone else will be hearing it soon. Dwight turned the heat so that it will come on if it gets below 68 degrees which I'm sure it will. I'm so glad we have our new system. We have not be disappointed at all. Have saved tons of money. My neighbor mentioned they might turn their gas logs on and it hurt my heart. I know we had decided to not get them for all the right reasons but I've been wanting them so long. Now that GG doesn't live here any longer, we can't even go down and enjoy her huge wood burning fireplace like we used to. She would always call us for the first fire and we really loved it. I miss her and can't wait to see her next month.

cold rain, flowers, family and motorcycles.....

Woke up to a cold, rainy and dreary day today. Alice called me and asked me to listen to her meeting over the phone because her dear hubby was doing the WT so I did. I let Debbie know that was what I was doing so she wouldn't worry. It is supposed to be pretty cool today and tomorrow but start warming up a little bit on Tuesday with the high being 66 degrees that day. I guess we can say Fall is "officially" here.

I snatched a few pictures from my nephew off FB and love this one of Sidney with Ryan Kelly at Duke. It is so funny because my nephew is a Tar Heels fan and his dad Sidney is a Duke fan. What was nice is my nephew took him to a game at Duke that day and took the picture. Look at his smile.

He also took these two pictures of my sister Alice on his motorcycle, Beauty. He and his sister call her Big Al - the funniest part of that being just how tiny she is. She has watched her weight her entire life and now can't gain a pound to save herself. Dwight went to Costco today to pick up some Ensure for next week. When he got ready to leave he said, "do you need anything?" and I said "No, but you can buy me some flowers if you want to" and he said, "Yeah - right".

He walked in the door about 20 minutes ago and said "you need to start checking the toilet seat". I'm like - "Why"? He said, "because I bought you flowers" and I'm like, "are you kidding, that is so sweet!" Then he said - "why? you told me to" and that folks is about as romantic as it gets around here. LOLOLOLOL I was still thrilled though because I do love fresh flowers - any kind. I used to order flowers and have them sent to my office just to brighten up my day. Of course everyone was asking who sent them and I always told them the truth...I did. The last time I had flowers delivered to someone locally, I was very disappointed in the flowers for the amount of money they charged. Anyway, I guess I had better start checking the toilet seat now. 

iPhones.....and stuff.

Okay, Kelly is going to die laughing when she reads this. My sister Faye text messaged me Thursday and told me she was picking me up and taking me to buy an iPhone yesterday. She said I deserved an iPhone more than anyone she knew. I called her and told her I loved my little phone and didn't really have the money to buy an iPhone. She went on to tell me she felt the same way but her son-in-law walked her through it and she LOVES it now. She told me how they had a special and with the charger, case and everything, it wasn't but a little bit over $200.00. She also wanted to take me to lunch for some soup.  Dwight encouraged me to go with her and look at them since one of his friends and his wife had just bought them and loved theirs.  Mind you - the reason there is a deal on them is they are the iPhone 4 and not the new iPhone 5. I guess they will be cheaper until they are gone.

Anyway, she and her daughter took me and convinced me to get one. Since the contract on our phones was up awhile back, guess what? I got my iPhone FREE! Yep - bought the expensive case, a charger for the car and a few other things and only spent $117.00. I started having second thoughts right away. Then I got home and realized they had not given me my old phone back. Evidently they recycle them now. Yikes - I've had that sweet little phone for years and my whole life was in it. I could text messages without even looking at it. So I guess I'm going to have to get used to it. Yeah - I decided to go with the white one. I am so hoping Matt will have time to help me next week so I can use it fully.   I was also very excited to have some visitors today!

My beautiful Katrina, her handsome hubby and two beautiful children came by after a funeral they attended. It was so nice to see all of them. She is 5 months now and looks radiant. She always does anyway. She and her hubby assure me I will eventually love my new phone. We'll see. We have had some really warm days this week but according to the forecast, that will end tomorrow. It is supposed to get only to 61 degrees tomorrow. I had already decided I need to take the small brown lap throw with me to the KH for the meetings. I get so cold in there it isn't funny. Thursday I ended up with my pashmina across my legs and feet, Linda's pashmina across my arms and chest and Abi's little denim jacket across my stomach and I was still cold. I started feeling quite sick so Debbie brought me home a little early.

A few last pictures before everything starts turning brown. We seem to have much more grass toward the back yard this year. There is still one bald place toward the back of the yard but the rest of it is really green.

This just might be the best picture I've captured of Rex next door. I've told Alton I would love to meet him up close one day. I wonder how Miya would react to me having the scent of a dog on me? Little KK fell totally in love with Miya today and for once, Miya seemed to be on her best behaviour.

Sister and niece.....

My sister Faye and her lovely daughter came to visit with me today and I truly enjoyed them. They brought their lunch and I had a few bites of Faye's Taco Soup and a few bites of her BBQ pork. They also walked the driveway with me before heading back out.

I pulled this picture of Faye and her hubby from pictures on Facebook taken at the rehearsal dinner of her grandson a few weeks ago.

I pulled this older picture of her lovely youngest daughter from some old family pictures I had scanned. I showed them a lot of the pictures I've scanned so far. They both want to come over when Kelly is here a few days in several weeks. I did let them know she will be here only a short period of time though. The weather is a little yucky right now - hot and very humid. I got cool earlier and put my bathrobe on but now I'm sweating and getting ready to strip.

I also "snatched" this picture of Marlan from FB. I thought it was a really good picture of her with her friend/co-worker/boss Sherry.

And this is sweet Miya's back while she was sleeping on me. I love the colors of her hair which is a good thing since I wear it everywhere I go.  So today was an okay day all in all.  I also heard from my dear friend in Hawaii tonight.  She is going to have surgery on her hip because the pain has finally gotten so bad, she can't endure it any longer - even with drugs.  They had their house torn down and re-built and they are back in it now.  She lives downstairs and her daughter, son-in-law and grandson live upstairs so it works out well for her.  She hopes to be able to come see me next year.  We'll see.  I would like to see her.  She has been a loyal friend through the years.   

Good friends........

So here we are on the second day of the 10th month of the year. Autumn has always been a great season of the year - a welcome respite from the oppressive heat our area experiences during the summer months. Our neighbors asked us if we wanted to go with them to visit Ennis last night. We had already decided we were going today after my acupuncture appointment so Dwight said we would wait. I am so glad we did. Evidently Ennis has been non-responsive for awhile now but today she was wide awake, smiling and talking. You have to get down close and listen really good but she answered me and I understood what she said for the most part. Especially when she told me she loved me. She even ate some ice cream and applesauce they said. I know it can change again on a dime but I'll just be happy and appreciate it for what it was to me - a wonderful gift. To see her beautiful eyes light up as she smiled and tried to answer made me very happy.

This is another thing that made me smile today. I got a card from my sweet friend Katrina from when they were all at the beach last week. It was so sweet of her to think of me.

As you can see from the picture, her little baby bump is really starting to show. She had pictures of her latest ultrasound on her blog this week. I can't wait to meet her little girl when she is born. I don't think they have a name planned yet but I'm sure this little one will be just a special as her other two babies are.  My friend Marlan has truly been blessed with a wonderful family.  I'm still scanning pictures and finally finished with the first box.  Dwight was just telling me he is starting to get excited thinking about our upcoming week in November down
at Outer Banks. He talked to GG on the phone for a little bit tonight and said she sounds really good. He told her we were coming down and she was happy to hear it.  I'm looking forward to my appointment next Tuesday with my Radiation Oncologist. I'm going to start trying to come off the oxycodone.  Kelly thinks it is time and I have to agree. Hopefully I can do it in a way that doesn't cause me too much distress. I love the picture on the left I scanned of Jen and Kelly when they were down at the cottage one weekend some years ago. They pulled the sofas closer together, put all their junk food and "drinks" between them and watched a lot of TV together. A perfect girls weekend.

Another picture that makes me smile is this one of Max. He belonged to Douglas and Jessie and was absolutely the sweetest cat in the world. Everyone loved him as soon as they met him and he loved them right back. It was so hard when he died and I was actually very concerned for Douglas for a few weeks. I love all animals and especially cats but every once in a while, one comes along that steals your heart.

And this would be one of them - our dear sweet K.C. who was such a love from the day we got her. Dwight and I both cried like babies when she was killed. She is buried out back with so many others we've had through the years. Another Tuesday has come and almost gone....good night.