Life’s a Dance

I don’t have much to write but I wanted to write something.  So this is something I’ve thought about sharing for awhile now….

A lady at my PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) group participated in the high jump Olympic Trials.  That, in itself, is pretty impressive.  But consider this…18 months prior, she was an alcoholic, a pill abuser, cigarette smoker, deep in depression, 80 pounds heavier and hadn’t high jumped in seven years.  Oh, and the wife to a deployed soldier and mother to three small children!  Something got to her and now she’s so much more than her former self.  She is SUCH an incredible lady! You can’t walk away from her and not know that there is something special about her.  And you also can’t walk away from her and not know that she lays herself at the feet of God.

First Blog Post w/Intro
One about her jump that got her to the trials

She has a couple articles linked on her blog that detail her trip to the Trials.

She recently moved away for training.  I really wish I had the opportunity to really get to know her while she was here.  She left quite the impression on me in the short time I was around her.  Whatever your religious beliefs, her physical changes alone are inspiring.

We’re back from a wonderful trip to Indiana (I’ll try to post pictures & write about it in the next few days).  We actually got back a bit ago but its taken me awhile to get back into the swing of things.  Jim went back to work the end of last week.

Ben is full-steam into crawling and moving onto cruising the furniture.  Jim has him on the deadline to walk before he deploys.  I’ve laughed at Jim with the crawling.  He was so anxious for Ben to start since he was deployed when E did.  Now I think he’s regretting that! LOL  It doesn’t help that, with the layout of this place, its harder to do some babyproofing.  In our place when he was a babe, the living room & kitchen were completely separate, so it was easy to keep her out of the kitty food & water.  Plus we spent most of our time upstairs in her room (the computer was in her closet & there was a TV in her room).  And it was obviously totally safe for her.  And she had no big sister to chase after!!

Elizabeth is doing okay.  Turns 4 next week.  I don’t even know how that is possible!  She’s developed a lot of fears & separation anxiety.  We’re muddling through it but not well.  I expect it will only intensify when she finds out about the deployment and it actually happens.  *sigh*  I got the name of a good child psych if we need it.  They’ve recently hired a few new ones because of the demand with the upcoming deployment.  *double sigh*

I did the kids’ bathroom and it looks cute!  I need to take pictures.  I haven’t done the bedrooms yet.  I need to find a couple picture frames still.  I’m planning to do them one day while Jim is at work.

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.

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.

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!)