December highs and lows

I'm not sure that I even took a breath in December.  I thought about writing my blog, but I was so busy  living life that there was no time to write.

December was a month of highs and lows. But I guess a lot of people may feel that way about the holiday season.

The month started with my outpatient breast surgery. I was anxious, nervous and afraid, and it brought back many emotions from my 2010 breast cancer surgery. But the surgery went as planned, and the results were awesome-NO CANCER!  And with that news I began to heal, both physically and emotionally. Once you've had cancer, I'm not sure you ever escape the "fear zone" of whether cancer will recur.  It's always in the back of your mind. But I'm able to say I'm 4.5 years cancer free!  And I realize how fortunate I am...

Recovering with my trusty duck...

But the most difficult news was that our friend, Mary, has ovarian cancer.  She had her first chemo treatment on her 55th birthday on December 5th.  And one week later, she had a stroke and was hospitalized.  She experienced many more strokes in the days to come, but the great doctors at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis found a way to stop the strokes with a powerful anti-coagulant.  We visited her twice in the hospital, and we believe she recognizes us and is able to understand our words of hope and love.  She has a tough road ahead: recovering from the strokes and resuming chemotherapy.  She is now at a rehab hospital/bootcamp receiving physical, occupational and speech therapy.

We pray for her daily, and I welcome your prayers and positive energy for Mary.  She is never very far from our thoughts...

Mary and her husband Stan during our trip to Kansas City in August

And my mom continues her treatment for lung cancer.  She is very tired from the radiation treatments, but that doesn't slow her down much.  She has an amazing attitude and ability to bounce back.  

We celebrated her 83rd birthday weekend in December with a cooking baking extravaganza!  

Mom with my brother Gary and sister Pam

Lunch with Mike, Pam, mom, niece Alex and sister-in-law Peggy

Cookies

Cookies

And more cookies!

 The month has been an odd mixture of sadness and joy.  We are painfully aware that we can't take a single day for granted.  And we realize how blessed we are to share Christmas with wonderful family and friends.

Here is some of the joy we've experienced this Christmas season...

Nephews Dane, Jeff and great-nephew Rhys in the middle

Rhys, Iron Man and Dane

Sister Jude, brother-in-law Ron, sister Ange and mom opening gifts

Enjoying a moment with niece Diane and great-nieces Violet and Alice

An evening with Kevin and Kathy at the Little Nugget in Danville IL

With nephew Adam

Annual Christmas Event at the Red Key Tavern with Pat, Bryan, Melanie and Chuck

Sharing Christmas Day with my sweetie

It's a new year now.  Though we don't know what it will bring, we live, love and cherish every single day.  And we know that faith and prayer will help us through the tough times.

Diane

Happy Valentine's Day

Where's the pink icing?

 Happy Valentine's Day!


Ah yes, one day closer to Spring.  Today it was 40 degrees, and it felt like summer time with puddles of water on the road instead of snow and ice.  And though the forecast is for more snow tomorrow, I am dreaming of 50 degree days next week.  Maybe it's finally the big thaw...

Go Pacer's!

Last weekend we went to the Indiana Pacers-Portland Trailblazer's game, and it was the first time I ever saw Mike excited about basketball.  Nothing like the Pacer's getting a 3 pointer to tie the game and go into overtime.  From then on the crowd went wild cheering the Pacer's to victory.

Enjoying the game at the Varsity Club with other Rose-Hulman alums

Niece Diane and great-niece Violet

On Sunday we met our great-niece Violet.  She is a cutie and was enjoying a lazy day of sleeping and eating, which I guess is what most infants do.

Alice telling me the facts while Diane looks on

It was fun playing with her sister Alice who was dancing and singing and generally bouncing off the walls.  Nothing like a small child to give you permission to dance and act crazy.  Gotta love it!












I've been enjoying long leisurely days of reading.  If you haven't been to your local library lately, check out their eBooks.  Finding a book online and downloading it onto the Kindle app on my iPad is so easy.  After years of not having time for books, I've read three books since the first of the year...

And then there's my hodge-podge of crafts this winter.  I pulled out an unfinished embroidery project from the mid-90's, and I'm re-learning cross stitch while watching the Winter Olympics.  Given my pace, I'll probably finish these quilt squares when I'm 75.










 I've had an urge to oil paint lately so I pulled out the paints and canvas and went to town.  Now, I've never had a painting class, but I love how you can blend paint colors and even paint over mistakes.  I saw a picture of this stylized tulip in a catalog, and I decided to try it.  Ok, it may look like a 3rd grader painted it,  but the painting makes me happy.

And yes, it took me 4 days to get the blue paint out from under my fingernails...
















And I decided to make another clutch purse with some of the designer fabric my friend Melanie gave me.  The handle is scavenged from a Goodwill purse.  The only thing I paid for was the zipper.  Can't beat it!





 








You know, once I decided not to fight this awful winter, I'm enjoying it more.   It's now my excuse to spend more time on hobbies...

I hope you enjoy a great Valentine's Day with your loved ones!
Diane

Music and Memories

Reflection and the sunset...

It's been a whirlwind Christmas week with friends and family.  And the music and memories linger on...

Starting with Mike's work party last Saturday with other chemical engineering professors and their families, when Mike sat down and began playing Christmas music on the keyboard, it was as if he was the Pied Piper.  The kids gathered around and began singing along.

On Monday evening we had a lovely dinner with friend Atanas and Elena that ended up in their music room with Mike playing piano.  It is  amazing what live music does to a small dinner party!  Smiles everywhere, singing along, playing drums and generally acting crazy!

Mike and mom

Since he was now in the swing of providing entertainment, he took his Yamaha keyboard to mom's.  We enjoyed our own private concert when Mike set up in the living room.

Christmas dinner

A wonderful Christmas dinner at mom's was followed by opening gifts and playing a board game that had us laughing like crazy.

Dane and Adam opening white elephant gifts

Mom and Adam

Rhys, Jeff, Dane, Adam and Angie

The great potato chip experiment

And I got quite the kick out of watching mom and Mike try to make potato chips with a fancy new kitchen gadget.  Let's just say that after experimenting with several potatoes, I still prefer potato chips that come out of a bag in the grocery store.

Alice, Andrew, Diane and Ron

We were excited to see my sister Judy and Ron, Diane, Andrew and Alice when they stopped by earlier this week.  

Judy picking fabric

Chuck and Mike

And we have a tradition of spending Christmas Eve with our friend Chuck and his family.  It's a wonderful time catching up with  our second family.









Hope you are enjoying the music and memories!

Diane

The rest of the story

Mike's idea of humor

about those evil hickory nuts.

I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, but here's a quick recap.  I went out for a walk, and I slipped on a hickory nut and hit my elbow and arm on the curb.  I felt lucky there were no broken bones (after a painful x-ray where they twisted my VERY SORE arm back and forth for the perfect picture), but it was majorly bruised and hurt a lot!

Happy band of hickory nut gatherers

My family arrived a few days later for an early Thanksgiving, and due to my arm being in a sling, I was forced to tell them the story about my stupid fall.

Well, much to my surprise, my mom recalled picking up hickory nuts when she was a kid, and she said they tasted great.  So, mom and other family members re-traced my painful steps to find the hickory nuts mother lode.  My arm was very sore at this point, and I couldn't quite bring myself to join in the fun(?).

Mom and sister Pam with the harvest

Pam and Alex taking a break

And yes, it was a bit difficult to smile...

Well, after almost 2 weeks of healing,  my bruises are fading, and my arm feels better.  And so Mike gets this brilliant idea to pick up more hickory nuts.  Now, never let it be said that I am a poor sport or that I can't laugh at my own bad luck.  So against my better judgment, I accompanied Mike down the street to pick up hickory nuts this afternoon.  Careful not to step on any, we got a nice little harvest!


And imagine my own evil smile when finding a Google article saying you need to crack them open with a brick!  Ah yes, I'm going to enjoy eating those little hickory nuts...

On a separate note, I want to thank Tamara Reddy for including my recent post "What I've Learned in Retirement" on her blog.  Tamara's blog, Early Retirement Journey, chronicles her experiences traveling, hiking and biking.  I enjoy her writing and live vicariously through her amazing experiences. I encourage you to check it out.

Have a great week! Diane

Note:  Thanks to my sister Angie for photos 2-4 above.