Life's a Dance

Bedrooms Update

2008-08-18T09:51:30Z

I’m getting closer to having everything picked out for the kids’ rooms. I realize now that I should have done all the shopping before he left instead of waiting until he was already gone–too many choices + shipping means I’m not going to get it done in time. So I’m going to save it all and do it one day when he is at work.

I decided to scrap the border idea for E’s room. The ones I picked weren’t the wall-cling type, so I’d have to worry about how it would come down, etc. So I ordered two rolls of wall cling border–light pink & lavender. Depending on how far that will actually cover, I’m going to do two stripes near the middle on at least two walls. Plus I have the cork board I already ordered. I’ve been looking at lots of art prints and I think I’ve decided on this one.

Now I’m trying to decide between these two lamp shades. Preference?

Now to Ben’s room. I found this wall cling border, so I’m ordering it.

I can’t decide between these two lampshades. The coloring is a bit off in each of them compared to the border. I could stick with a white lampshade (I have that). Or a solid color one to match the border. But these shades are cute!

I’m going to attempt to find locally (eBay if not, I already have a seller in mind) some raffia grass skirt material that I can use for a valance in each bedroom plus over the top of the mirror in the bathroom.

A Year Ago

2008-08-14T10:37:14Z

I never do this kind of thing. So please bear with me.

The personal…
One year ago today, my step-dad Gary died of pancreatic cancer. It took him quickly, just under seven months from diagnosis. But it was better that it went quickly. There was no hope of remission. At the time he went into the hospital, we had a good idea he would not come out alive, except to go home to die.

My last two blog posts about Gary are here and here. I thought I wrote about his funeral but can’t find a post about it. It was really a nice (if you can call it that) funeral. The night prior, there was a visitation at the church. Mom didn’t want his body there but older relatives did. So his body was in the church and the celebration of life (as it was called) was in the fellowship hall. And it truly was a celebration! Lots of tears, of course, but tons of smiles & laughter as well. The next morning was the funeral. Again, Mom didn’t want the body there but older relatives did. Gary almost always wore a baseball cap, so there were a couple in the casket, including the one brought back from China that said ‘grandpa’ in Chinese. Mom had a few people get up to talk about Gary. They shared good stories, brought smiles to our faces and tears to the eyes. We sang a few of Gary’s favorite hymns. And the pastor gave a wonderful dedication and memorial. Gary was to be cremated, so there was no burial. But there was a cookout at Mom’s house afterwards. All in all, its just about what I’d want in my own funeral.

My mom is doing well. The last couple weeks have been understandably rough. But she’s good.

The nitty gritty…
97% of patients die within six months of diagnosis and less than 2% are still alive at the five-year mark. If the cancer has spread beyond the pancreas and/or can’t be completely removed during surgery, there is virtually no chance for survival. Less than 10% of patients have pancreatic-confined cancer at the time of their diagnostic surgery.

The signs of the disease often don’t show up until the cancer is in an advanced state. And the ones that DO show up can easily point to many more-benign conditions. PLEASE take these signs seriously, especially if you have a family history of pancreatic cancer. If you or anyone you know are diagnosed with another condition and symptoms don’t improve, PLEASE get a second opinion.

jaundice
diabetes
pancreatitis
unexplained weight loss
loss of appetite
nausea or vomiting
abdominal pain
diarrhea

For more information about this disease, visit:

Cancer Compass
Wikipedia entry
Johns Hopkins info

And, if you care to and are able to, please consider donating to pancreatic research. Three foundations are the Hirshberg Foundation, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and the Lustgarten Foundation. With the recent death of Dr. Randy Pausch (of The Last Lecture fame), I pray that more attention will be given to this terrible disease. While it may not effect as many people as other forms of cancer, its among the deadliest.

Help me shop!

2008-08-14T09:21:34Z

Trying to choose a border for Elizabeth’s bedroom. You can see her bedspread & the cork board I already ordered for her here:

Bedroom Pictures

The two borders I’m debating between:

Border #1

Border #2

I love the more vintage look of #2 but I’m thinking the shades in #1 would better match her bedspread.

I think I’ve pretty much decided on this one for Ben’s room.

(Links fixed!)

Nothing to say

2008-08-09T02:36:51Z

I know its been awhile since I posted. I just don’t feel like I have much to say lately. Let’s see…

My night bible study is over. It was such a good study. Beth Moore’s Breaking Free. But it was also very hard emotionally. Those hard emotions, though, were shared by many and I’ve come out of it feeling much closer to the ladies in the study. I love that God is bigger than my anger.

My day bible study on base is also over until the end of the month.

I’m working on redecorating the kids bedrooms & their bathroom while Jim is gone. I can post my plans & pics, if anyone is interested. I’ll definitely post when they are all done.

Ben started sitting a couple weeks ago. He’s also *finally* broken his first two teeth through.

Jim is gone for the month. Missing his birthday at home yet again. He’s in California near Death Valley. Says its hot and ugly. One of my top bases I hope to NEVER get stationed at (it took over the spot of Hawaii LOL)

Elizabeth is going over to the hourly day care for two mornings next week. And I’m counting the seconds down!! Yes, yes, I know that sounds terrible. But, truly, she talks from the moment she wakes up until she’s asleep. And then IN her sleep as well. I need S-I-L-E-N-C-E!! I’m one who used to crave noise. It helped me stay focused on my task. Now I crave every second of silence I can get.

Elizabeth starts back at AWANA in a couple weeks. She loves it and can’t hardly wait for it to start back. She had my iron her vest already. :) I’m thinking I may start doing my grocery shopping those nights with just one (non-talking!!!) child. At least once Jim deploys. Until then, I think I’m going to snag those nights for myself.

I haven’t been sewing much but I plan to spend the weekend on my machine. When we go home in September, I’m planning to hit some fabric stores. I have yet to find a good one here. I found one that has a HUGE variety but it makes me nuts to go in there. There is little organization to it. The flat bolts of fabric are stacked on top of each other (rather than standing on end like books @ the library), so in order to see what is under the top one, you have to pull the stack out and look through it. Like I have that time with two kids in tow!! HA. I’m hoping to go to Hobby Lobby and Jo-Anns, at least. I have a list of projects.

Thursday Ramblings

2008-07-18T09:45:34Z

I don’t have much to say, really, but I wanted to post tonight. So let’s see…

Elizabeth has been in VBS this week. She has loved it. Our church is really into getting the teenagers to serve in the church, so they are leading all the classes. In the 3yo class they have two male teenagers. Quiet ones at that. I love that they would take on the 3yo class but these two also seem like an odd choice. Tomorrow they are doing songs & skits for the parents. I was reading the sheet about it and E wanted me to read it to her. So I did. She then says to me “Parent, let’s wait and talk about this tomorrow. Its too much for me right now. Just too much.” Okay, then. Where in the heck did that come from?

Jim is off tomorrow. Yea!!

They put a playground in our front yard. Not directly in front of our house but a couple houses down. Its nice to have one close. The other closest ones were 10 minute walk and a 20 minute walk. On the other hand, it can be a little annoying as well because she sees it and wants to be down there all the time. We go down every evening after dinner and I try to get her down there a few mornings as well. There’s another mama who is down there most evenings. She has a little girl a little older than E and a little girl who’s a little younger than Ben. I really like her. She’s a cloth-diapering mama too! She’s really nice and we seem to have similar parenting styles. Thought I may invite them over for a play date.

Today I met a mama from LLL at Starbucks. I don’t know her well but, after last month’s meeting, we exchanged numbers. We didn’t do anything though. LLL was Tuesday night and I mentioned I’d be in her town this week, so we met up today. I had a good time with her, very relaxed.

We booked our trip home for September. We’ll be home just barely a week. It’ll be nice. But it also means that this deployment really is happening.

We’ve decided we’ll tell E about this deployment after we go to Indiana. She has no real sense of time, so telling her now would be nuts. And she gets SO anxious about things that are a long way off. So we’ll tell her when we are 3-4 weeks out.

This morning I woke up to her crying in my doorway. It was a 3yo whiney cry, so I told her to go find something to play while I slept a little more. She broke down. She wanted Jim. I told her to go find him. She said she looked everywhere but didn’t know where he was. Then I remembered he had to go in early today. I told her. And she really broke down. She was hungry but needed HIM to fix her breakfast. And she couldn’t eat cereal because he may want some. And he may be sad if she ate cereal without him. She didn’t want to eat at all but I finally got some food in her. And I just cried. I called him but he didn’t answer. And that made her cry even more. And me too. Its gonna’ be a long year.

My baby has a tooth! He’s been teething on and off for a couple hellacious weeks. One tooth has barely broken through the gums, just enough to feel the sharpness. And the other too is getting ready to break–you can see the ridges of it just under the gums.

I took a two hour nap this afternoon. I have a feeling I’m going to be awake late tonight!!

Truly, I have the cutest kids ever. Ever!