How a Mom does (not)get some sleep......

     We come home from a small group gathering.  My sinuses have been bothering me a lot lately so I head up the stairway for a dark, quiet corner of the house.  It ain't long before the chocolate lab comes bouncing into the room.....and onto the bed...... flopping himself upon me to garnish some attention.....then the hubby comes dancing into the room, sees the dog, and says, "Who invited you?"  I thought to myself, "The same person who invited you." Shortly the husband leaves and 14 year old son comes into the room with dog.  He sees the compress on my eyes and runs to get himself and the dog a compress so they can lie on the bed and make fun of me.  They both disappear down the steps and are followed by the 10 year old daughter who proceeds to ply me with 101 questions....... finally left alone, I remove the, now cold, compress on my eyes and fall asleep. An hour or so later I hear the dog come bouncing back despite being scolded by the 10 year old daughter. He decides enough is enough. Mom must be awake. 

*****

     Next week we bring my oldest home from college.  We(hubby, 10 year old & I) went yesterday to a concert and brought home some of her things and spent a little time with her. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

*****

SPRING!From my garden...

It's Been a long year

     We moved back into the house after the flood and tried to resume a life of normalcy.

      Nicole graduated from high school in June. So hard to believe!

     Lexi's bunny, Snuggles, died on July 4th from the heat.  Friends got her a new bunny that she named Lucy.

     Nicole started college in August.  She is a music major and hopes to go on for a degree in Music Therapy.  Here she is with the color-guard.     

     Norm and Tyler built a fire pit and  lot of time is spent having cook-outs and enjoying the outdoors.

     Lexi donated her hair to Locks Of Love

Crazy Tyler keeps life interesting.....

Got Lexi a cat for Christmas. We got him from a Rescue organization and his name is Tyson.

Lexi's basketball team won the Championship.

     Nicole will soon be ending her first year at college and it is so hard to believe!  We will be going to pick her up next Thursday right before Easter for the weekend and then she comes home for the summer in May.

     In January Norm had to have more surgery to repair his hernia. I am hoping we don't have to go through this again.   

And that would be the highlights for the past year. I am hoping to  start blogging again and maybe even revamp this a bit.  

2 and one half years

Today I went to my oncologist for my 2 ½ year check-up.  He didn't do a whole lot.  I asked, "No blood-work? No CT scan?"   He said, "Nope.  None of those for you...because you see, the type of cancer you had, if it was going to recur, 90% of the time it will recur in the first two years.  You are past that mark, almost at three years and you are doing great."  It's hard to know how to feel after hearing that.  I wish I could forget I ever had cancer, but unfortunately it is something I will have to live with the rest of my life.

School has been out a week and a half and yet it seems like time is flying by and I have not gotten a thing done that I wanted to get done.  My time has been full with appointments and now a new aspect, college visits! Yikes, am I old enough to be taking my child on college visits?!!!  It has been fun, though.  I could never go to college so it is all new to me and I will have to live it vicariously through my daughter.  Last Friday we went to Moravian College and Marywood University.  It was a long day as we had to travel quite a distance and, unfortunately I had to do the driving as Norm was not able to get off work...and I do not enjoy driving!  I put Nicole in charge of keeping my mind occupied.  We had to stop every sixty to ninety minutes of road travel because my leg was throbbing.  The colleges were interesting.  We discovered while driving that if the turn signal was on too long, an alarm went off.  That majorly messed with my head till I figured out what was causing the alarm.  We had three "wrong turns" or missed turns in which I figured out instantly what was wrong and corrected myself.  Yesterday we visited Elizabethtown College in which the girl presented us with an entire carrot cake. Sold!  LOL.  We also got a free all-u-can-eat lunch and I have to say, the cheesecake was heavenly!  Nicole liked that college the best so far because there was so much to do and they offered her the course she wanted.  So far Moravian is running second.  We go on Thursday to visit Valley Forge and Immaculata.  

     We have also had many appointments.  They found a polyp in Norm's colon (which is normal) and two in his stomach which is not normal.  They were not cancerous but they wish to keep a close eye on the stomach ones.  Tyler goes back to his doctor in July for another test for a minor issue and tomorrow we are going to an Ophthalmologist for a spot on Nicole's eye that has been there since birth.  We went to the opt. for that before but it has been several years and our family doctor asked that we have it looked at again so I thought we should before she goes to college.  I also am having some minor things being taken care of with her as well.  

Lots of other things going on.  This week Lexi is at church camp.  Next week Nicole leaves for creation and then Tyler is going with my in-laws to New York over the holiday.  After the holidays we have a family reunion, vacation Bible school and then Tyler goes to church camp and Nicole leaves on a mission trip to Philadelphia.  We are hoping to sneak in a trip to Pittsburgh to visit more colleges at the end of the month and then in August Nicole goes to two weeks of band camp and Lexi goes to girl scout camp.  Lots of activities in between as well.  I was hoping to get my house housecleaned this month but between college visits, doctor visits and getting our bathroom redone, it has been near impossible.  I wanted to work in our church library and I thought maybe I could do that in July while Alexis is at a school-run camp during the mornings.  I am hoping to get all the books I am currently storing in my basement processed and put on shelves before July and time is quickly running out.  Somebody asked me if I could relax having the summer off from work.  I just laughed. 

I know I have been behind in my blogging.  Sometimes lately it is hard to even get in the mood for blogging although it was something I enjoyed doing.  I am starting a Bible Study with the women at church that I am really enjoying.  It is just what I need lately.