Catching Up

Okily dokiliy I'm going to start doing this more often...(so she says)...

I live in Seattle, where we have been under siege by torrential rains. Our basement flooded somewhat, but other than a bunch of my husband's work clothes, nothing was ruined. I rescued the power tools and $2000 worth of cherry wood we bought for the trim in our tv room, which we're in the process of remodeling.




On Saturday we had a day of beautiful snow.
This is a picture of our front porch just as it started snowing.
That's what I miss the most about living in Juneau, the first year I lived there (1991) was one of the snowiest winters on record. Imagine my surprise the subsequent years when the weather did not live up to my Alaskan fantasies and just pissed rain for three months straight.
I've only written once before, so a little background: I'm 33, married since 1994 and have two boys who are currently 6 & 8. They are a great deal of work, but I must say I've never done anything quite so rewarding.


When my 6 year old (Austin) spontaneously gives me a hug and tells me, "you're the best mom" my heart swells and I immediately tear up. He's the accident magnet, he's already had two hernia surgeries, stitches in his head twice, on his hand once, and when he was three he fell in the bathtub and broke out his front tooth. Last week he had to have two teeth pulled. He had an abscess and the dentist thought it prudent to go ahead and pull the baby teeth surrounding it. Here's a picture of him at the dentist after they administered the Novocaine, his lip doesn't always look like that!

My 8 year old (Jacob) is the coordinated one, everything seems to come natural to him, which is completely foreign to me, as I can barely put one foot in front of the other without falling down!
He is very musically inclined-he can hear a song once and whistle the tune forever. He remembers everything, and seems to have supersonic hearing, except when I'm asking him to do something. I attribute that to being a guy, selective hearing seems to be an epidemic problem with men!

These are my boys with Santa this year. I called him "Bad Santa" because he said mean things to my 8 year old. I was completely astounded that a Santa would lecture a child about wanting too much for Christmas-especially when he's working at a store that sells $300 children's shoes! I complained to the store, but haven't heard anything back. It wasn't exactly the start to the holidays I was looking for.





I have had some serious medical challenges over the past few years. I've beaten cancer's ass for almost two years now. In 2005 I was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer, a shock to say the least. After surgery and enduring 9 months of chemo, I can say I am cancer free today. I still see my oncologist every three months and have CT scans every six months. I'll have to do that for 5 years, after which I will be considered "cured" if I have no recurrence of cancer. I've got some ovarian cysts at the moment which I am closely monitoring. I keep telling myself it's not cancer, but it's hard for my logical side to win out over my emotional side. I have an ultrasound tomorrow, hopefully it will ease my anxiety.
My best girlfriend Tracy is pregnant, she's the one who lives in Juneau. I miss her very much, but we keep in touch much more now that she's pregnant. I think we've both resolved to communicate more, and not to feel bad when we don't. I miss her, but I don't miss that it was 2 degrees up there today! I'm excited to travel up there again when she has her baby shower. She, like her mom, is very crafty and has a great little fledgling business making custom journals, notebooks, notepads etc. Here's a link to her blog and her products.
http://simplyblissful.etsy.com check it out, they're really sweet.