Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part III - GAGWTA!

[CherylDan]

I'm having trouble with photobucket.....let's hope it works this time!

From our balcony, looking straight ahead

looking a bit left

and looking all the way left, we caught a wedding one afternoon

ETA......I see they are still small and blury. I keep trying to change size, but they only get smaller. LOL....I give up.

 

[MerryPoppins]

Sale over. Still need to pack up and empty the house. Some we move here, other boxes to storage, charity and other family members. So we're far from done, but huge hurdle passed. My other mother, Ann, passed away yesterday. Hoping we can figure out how to get to the funeral in KS. I'll try to catch up tomorrow. Taking a day off.

 

[Sha]

Sorry about your other mother and hope you can get there safely. I go back to work today. Was very hard to wake this morning.

 

[snappy]

Sorry about your loss, Merry. Please be careful going to Kansas, long drive.

Glad you have the sale behind you.

Sha, hope you have an easy re-entry. It is hard when you get away from your usual routine.

I am hurting soem from overdoing everything but housework this weekend. Had a wonderful late brunch with my beautiful two daughters yesterday. They had yummy crepes with shrimp and merliton (Italian squash like veggie) filling. We were able to mosey on to the vendors side of voodoo fest and retrieve DD15's wallet. Nicest vendor held it for us, googled us to get our home phone number, DD21 called the vendor and arranged meeting the vendor and Google maps got me to right intersection to make the meet. All the money was intact. Yes, there are honest and good people in the world.

I am resisting going back to the grind today. Have to get going though I can fit in picking up DD15 from school and preparing for Halloween. I wish DS23's car was fixed already. I am spoiled with him picking up DD15 everyday from school. I should not complain though, as the entire circuit only takes about 45 min (maybe longer today due to the holiday), and we have NO SNOW!!

Good luck to yall int he northeast with the early snow. Hope no one lost power. This is not a good omen for the season, having snow so early.

Happy HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!

 

[snappy]

Thanks for posting the pictures, Cheryl. I love the Epcot hotel area, especially during Food and wine.

Have any food favorites?

 

[Candy30]

Lisa- I am sorry to hear about your news. We all were worried and thinking about you. It wasn't like you to be missing. Totally understand. We missed you and you are in our prayers. I hope the chemo is not too harsh on you. When you feel good, let us know how things went and what your Miami Doctor said.

Snappy- It is nice when siblings are getting along. It warms my heart. They probably loved being together. It is so nice when you encounter honest people sometimes.

Merry- Sorry for your loss! You have a lot on your plate. Be careful.

Cheryl- Great pictures. Cool that you caught a wedding!!

PatsMom adn Ollala-I can't wait to see some of your pictures!

Sha- Thanks for update on Miss Lee! Send her our

LMP- Yeah! Now you have Disney to look forward too!!!

Smilie- Thinking of you.

Weekend flew by as it usually does. We had a Vacation meeting that went well. We flew through it because the Steeler game was coming on!!! LOL We have a good group I think this year. No Whiners yet!

Have a good day!

 

[snappy]

Candy, what is a vacation meeting?

 

[CherylDan]

Merry, sorry for your loss.

Anybody do anything special for Halloween? Nothing here, we don't even have any trick or treaters at our house....all the kids go into town. I always buy candy anyway, even though I know we dont need any.

Had lots of favorites at F&W.....hmmm, some things we even had twice, and some three times! My favorites were the pork slider from Hawaii, ravioli from Italty, the fruit smoothie from Italy, the beef dish from South Africa, and the dessert from Ireland and all the desserts at the dessert booth. Yum, yum, yum!!!! DH really liked the lobster and scallop pie from Ireland, as well as several of my favorites. He also got into quite a bit of beer sampling....not so much wine. There was only one food item that went into the trash, and that was the cheese fondue from the cheese booth. It was super sharp and had a grainy texture.

Most stuff was really good, and just a few were not so great but still edible. All in all, we tried about 50 different items between the two of us (not counting what we had more than once )....lots of food in a little time, but it sure was a lot of fun! I posted pictures of the things we remembered to take pictures of over at the food picture thread on the restaurant board.

Would be interesting to hear about what everyone else's favorites were!

GAGWTA!!!

 

[snappy]

Oh my, the sausage polenta from Canada was my favorite savory item, and I loved the rice pudding from Scandanavia. That was the only dessert I tried.

I also had a to die for crab cake appetizer at the Flying Fish, a wonderful lunch at Sanaa, and I treated myself to sushi (the dragon roll) and the ****ake mushroom ravoli both at Cali Grill.

I also really liked the snails and the Coq au vin at France.

I did not try as much as you, obviously.

I also did not have time for any of the demonstrations.

My husband and i attended a wonderful one back in 2008, it was so good, I am afraid to do another as I suspect I will be disappointed.

It was the chef from Commanders Palace in New Orleans, arguably "the it" restaurant there, and definitely my favorite where I have had my special celebrations at over the years.

The chef is very personably, demonstrated the cooking of a duck dish on top of the line appliances on a dias, served food for 100 to 30 of us (we were stuffed) along with specialty beer that is made nearby.

There were fresh flowers and table decorations on the tables.

It was awesome., and we each got a copy of his cookbook to boot for the $75 per person tab. It was a steal.

 

[Candy30]

All that food talk is making me hungry.

Snappy the book alone was worth the price. Vacation meeting. I plan the family vacation each year and every other month or monthly as we get closer, we have a meeting to discuss: payment updates, rental car, food, price change, next payment etc. It's also an excuse for us to get together and have some fun. After the game we all played the Wii and a game Just Dance. My 3 year old nephew was getting perfect on some of his moves!! He was soooo cute! When he couldn't get a move he would lift his shirt and do a belly dance!!!!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good morning sistas

Lisa - thinking of you and wishing you all the best at your apppt. today

Merry - sorry for the loss of your other mother. Hope you have safe travels.

Sha - hope you can rest after you complete your catch up mode. You are so busy!

Laurie - glad they got your dd's wallet back. Yes there are some nice people in this world. I too loved that crab cake at Flying Fish. Actually it was the only good thing I ate there during that one meal.

Cheryl - great pictures. We saw a wedding there once when ds was with us. Bad thing was he wanted to go out on the patio and we were right by the pavillion, so he just stayed inside and and danced around the room listening the violin music etc, pretending to be the bride and groom.

Candy - like that you are the vacation planner and organizer. I am it just for our immediate family. When dh takes the ds somewhere its a group thing revolving around his work pans etc. Your nephew sounds too cute.

Just wondering what your ds ate after the wisdom tooth surgery. I am going grocery shopping tonight and thinking of getting him stuff like yougurt, ice cream, pudding, jello etc? Later I am thinking of doing meatloaf and mashed potatoes as probably that requires not too much chewing?

Survived Halloween. We had enough kids. Ds19 even went out with his friends. Too much. One little boy was a dalmatian and his mom was Cruella. So cute.

GTAGWTA.

 

[snappy]

Made it through mom's colonoscopy. She had one pollyp that was most likely benign, area of collitis that is in the process of healing, and diverticulosis that also appeared to be healing.

Actually very good news. It took a lot out of her though, and she seems frail. My sister and I are going to have to be much more involved than before. It is easier for me as I am only a mile away, while my sister is 30 plus miles away.
Hard to see her living in depends, but good that she is so totally not fighting it.
Troubling to me though since she has really taken good care of her self all her life, ate right, exercised, no real disease until breast cancer in 2008.
I guess it is a lesson that life is not really fair.

My brother Tom is coming in on 11.11.11, to visit. Mom is looking forward to that very much and is talking about making a shrimp gumbo since he loves her gumbo. Mmmm, I think I will be making a gumbo.

DD turned 16 yesterday, I am resisting taking her to get her license. I am just not ready yet.

I got the first notice of info about DD21's graduation from Tulane, next May.

Hope there is a job out there for her.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good afternoon sistas

Lisa and smilie - thinking of you both

Laurie -glad to hear your mom is recovering from the procedure. At least you have answers, but I am sure it is hard seeing her not at her best etc.

Happy B day to your dd. I am sure that is a special age. The big thing here is for the girls to have a party. Some of these families go all out while others go budget and most are in the middle. I cant tell you how many sweet 16's my ds went to. And also the graduation news. I am sure your dd will find a job, might take a while, look what happened to my ds. Interning is great too as that was his resume experience and then the one place hired him full time after temporary interning. Wishing her all the best.

Well tomm. ds21 gets his wisdom teeth out. He was up all night studying for a test today, so I think it will be hard to wake him up tomm. Gotta be there at 8:45 am. I made a appt. for the blood test sat and I got the last one, 11 am, so I have to fast until its over. Its gonna be busy there for sure. I think last weeks weather made everyone delay to this sat. etc.

GTAGWTA. Thinking of you all.

 

[Candy30]

LMP- I hope DS procedure went well. But the things you listed are great. They have flavor mashed potatoes. Just want to make sure he keeps it clean and does the slober rinse. They don't want you to spit. Best way I know to describe it.

Lisa- Praying for you.

Smilie- Hope you are ok.
Snappy- GREAT! I am so happy your Mom came through well. I must say Gumbo sounds good. 16!!! Wow. I know what you mean about driving. I have a nervous nelly in my son.

My DS interviewed here for an internship for animals. I know the lady here and it is so hard not to email her. Lisa, I know you would tell me to cut those apron strings. Just have to wait and see.

 

[wdw4us2]

Merry - So sorry for your loss.

Laurie - Thanks for the F&W review. Almost felt as though I was there.

MaryAnn - Hoping your DS's extraction is uneventful and not too painful.

Candy - Have faith in your DS! I'm sure the interview went well.

Cheryl & Sha - Thanks for all the pics!

Interesting few days for me. Saw the Miami doc yesterday and my local oncologist this morning. My usual good news/bad news scenario. Miami doc says, "You really need a break." So, no chemo or anything else treatment wise through the end of the year. I still have to do labs every two weeks and will probably need a few more Prokrit shots, though. I have a return appointment to see him on January 3rd and he will probably put me back on the chemo roller coaster. He doesn't want to do the debulking surgery because he feels there's only a 50% chance of getting everything, so that's off the table for now. He is also against any type of radiation because of the side effects vs. how much it will actually help. He is having me take Megace along with the Femara to hopefully keep things from becoming any worse in the mean time.

So, I am happy for the break and looking forward to feeling decent for the holidays for the first time in three years. My entire family will be here and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm trying not to think of what I'll be dealing with in January - I will just deal with that when the time comes.

 

[snappy]

Glad you are getting off that roller coaster for a couple of months, Lisa, and will be able to enjoy the holidays. Hope you start feeling good now and it remains that way.

MaryAnn, good luck t day with your son's oral surgery. You need to get this behind you so you can concentrate on your upcoming WDW trip! You are staying at the beach club again?

Hope your son lands the internship, Candy. Seems like it would be good to be working at same location? The vacation meeting sounds awesome. I love to vacation with my sister and her DH, and my brother who lives in NYC when we can plan it. Does not happen often enough although I have been to the beach at Sandestin with my sister, her husband and my mom a number of times (the rest of my family can't come because they only want to go off season during the school year)

More often we drive over to Mesquite near Dallas for a family function with my dad's family. We are in a rut, but we are clearly older than you guys. Before we had kids we did an annual trek to one of the beach locations in the Florida panhandle with two other couples who are like family for many years (we started our family late).

Care free days, those beach trips. Those were the days.

I took off from work to take DD16 to take her driving test yesterday since she gets out of school an hour early every other Wednesday.

I told DH afterwards, it is not fair, when I took my driving test in New Orleans in high school, some big old mean cop took me out and scared the living daylights out of me. I actually flunked my first one, then waited until I was a senior and actually had a car to do it again.

DD16 had a jolly middle aged woman in civilian clothes who we joked with since she called DD16 by her first and middle name and did not attempt to pronounce the last name (most people are scared to attempt it, lol).

DD16 said they went around the block and that was about it, no parallel parking.

These kids are getting off easy.

Now she is bugging me to drive solo. But I have to go to work. ARRGGGHH!

 

[wdw4us2]

Laurie - I agree with you 100% regarding the kids and today's driving test. Much, much easier than what we went through. I made DD Meg learn how to parallel park even though it's no longer on the test here, either. Funny how quickly they think they're ready to be on their own behind the wheel once they pass the test. I still make DS text me when he arrives at his destination and before he returns home and he's had his license for over a year! (I did the same thing to Meg, too.)

 

[snappy]

Lisa, did you let either Meg or your DS drive with a friend on the car the first year? I am trying to enforce that.

 

[wdw4us2]

We let Meg after a few months because she was transporting someone from school to bowling practice. With Chase, we waited six months and he was only allowed to give someone a ride home from church youth group. He still hasn't had more than one person in the car with him and he's had his license since June of 2010. We also have rules about no cell phone unless the vehicle is parked and no fooling around with the radio unless the vehicle is stopped at a traffic light. Ah, the joys of having teen drivers.

 

[snappy]

Thanks, Lisa. It helps to know I am not being ridiculous with my restrictions. Lots of very bad LSU student drivers around. DD16 is just too naive about driving with nuts on the road.