CAT Scan G-R-E-A-T!

We just arrived home from my appointment with the oncologist and my CAT scan was great! It was the same as the previous one that showed "no evidence of disease." I haven't seen the actual scan yet because she mailed it to me yesterday, so I should get it tomorrow. I always like to read it over and I like to have a copy for my notebook. Plus, I always send a copy to my brother, Michael ,who is a doctor. I always feel more comfortable after he has read it. He has helped me so much during my cancer journey. I can remember a couple of times when I wasn't feeling well, due to my chemo, and I would be talking to him on the phone (he lives in N.C.), and he would say to me, "winning isn't for sissies!" I had that slogan embroidered on my sweatshirt. And he is right. And I am no sissie!

I feel so blessed to have another good CAT scan. It has now been 19 months since I have had chemo. I was hoping for two months off and look at me now! Going to my support group each week, makes me realize even more, how blessed I am. See what all your prayers and support have done?!

I will have another scan in three months and my oncologist said if that one turns out good, I will probably wait 4 or even 6 months before I have another one. WOW.

So I am "good to go" on my yearly trip to Reno with THE GIRLS in October. Jan, Lynne, Leslie and I have gone there for probably 10 years. I had to miss two trips because of chemo. Unfortunately, Leslie died a couple of years ago (from that damn cancer), so this year her daughter, Tara, and Lynne's daughter, Shauna, are going with us. Plus, this is kind of a bachelorette party since Lynne is getting married a couple of weeks later. It should be a fun trip and I am so glad that I will be able to go.

We have been busy working on our house. Denny washed the back gutters (we had the front of our house painted last year) and I washed the windows, inside and out. Yesterday, we painted/stained our fence. I need to start a thorough cleaning of our house. Can you tell that we are expecting company?! We are having a family reunion the end of August. It is going to be so nice to have all my family together......and especially when I am doing so well.

Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support. You all did a great job since my CAT scan was terrific. I owe it all to you!

Love to you all,

JO

Dakota and Bella

Justin sent us some pictures of Dakota (10) taken during the baseball all star games. He looks so tall and it looks like the weather was really hot.

This picture was taken at the 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Dakota played fantastic. He is the one shooting. Justin also played but his team didn't do as well as Dakota's.

Here are some recent pictures of Bella. Cute, cute, cute.

I just found out that a dear friend of mine was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I am getting darn tired of so many people getting cancer. They discovered hers early, so I now she will be fine. But she is going to have to have chemo and radiation. Like I said in my previous blog, "sometimes life just isn't fair."

Hope all of you have a great week. Our weather is again, fantastic. We went for a Harley ride this afternoon and it was awesome.

Love to you all,

JO

"Sometimes Life Just Isn't Fair."

I hated hearing that Randy Pausch died yesterday. I loved his book, "The Last Lecture" and I loved watching him on TV while giving, "The Last Lecture." It is certainly one of those times when I find yourself saying, "Sometimes life just isn't fair."

And I hated that Tony Snow died recently. I was diagnosed with metastatic cancer about the same time as he and Elizabeth Edwards were. She said the following about Tony Snow's death: "And when he died, I cried. I know I cried not just for him, but—filled with fear—for myself as well. The diagnoses of our cancer recurrences tumbled out upon one another by days."

I have not heard how she is doing recently, but I hope she is doing very well. Again, I find myself saying, "Sometimes life just isn't fair."

I hate that Leroy Sievers (Ted Koppel's friend who he did a documentary on along with Elizabeth Edwards and Lance Armstrong.) is not doing well. I receive his blog each week day and he now has Hospice coming to help him. Again, I find myself saying, "Sometimes life just isn't fair."

Cancer sucks, but metastatic cancer really sucks. But, "Sometimes, life just isn't fair."

Love to you all,

JO

Tooth Fairy Again?!

Today I had my CT scan. I hate drinking the two 16 ounce glasses of barium sulfate but "a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do!" I know a couple of you that read my blog also have to drink that icky stuff and here is a great suggestion: Prepare the drink the night before and put it in the refrigerator. Shake the cold drink well before drinking and it is so much better than drinking the "just prepared" drink with the lumps and bumps. I will get my results back on Thursday. I have to admit I DO get a little nervous thinking about it and the reason is because I know that you can be feeling good and still have your cancer growing. I will never forget when I was at Tammy and Jeff's wedding, I felt and looked good and two days later I found out that I had metastatic cancer. But I truly feel like I am doing great and DO plan on receiving good news. By the way, it has been 19 months since I have had chemo! When I went to Kaiser for my CT scan, my friend, Janii was there getting her chemo so I got to see her. She is doing awesome. Her tumors are shrinking tremendously. Way to go, Janii. I am so happy for you! Keep it up.

I received an email from one of the facilitators of our support group with a copy of the article about our group and the quilt we made. It was published in the Providence/St. Vincent newspaper. I couldn't figure out how to copy it from the article onto my blog so I had to scan it and as you can tell, it didn't turn out too good.

We have had Kyle and Tori here with us this week and will take them home tonight. Tori lost her other top front tooth last night. I really didn't think it was that loose, but when you are being rolled up in a rug by your brother while you are brushing your teeth, I guess anything can happen! So the Tooth Fairy came and she seems to be more generous at Grandpa and Grandma's house than her own!

We have ridden our bikes to the school several times. It is nice to live only 2 blocks from it. I had my camera sitting on my bicycle seat and raced to get to my spot in 10 seconds, so the picture isn't the best.

Hope all of you had a great week and will have a super weekend. Our weather is suppose to continue to be terrific.

Love to you all,

JO

The Tooth Fairy Is On Her Way!

Tori finally lost her top front tooth. It has been ready to come out for weeks.

She attended a soccer camp last week and had fun even though it was pretty hot.

She also went to a birthday party for her friend, Zora. Tori has met so many nice little girls since they moved to Newberg. She is the one in the middle.

Hope all of you are enjoying the nice weather we are having. Aren't we lucky? Mom's weather has been about 108 in Vegas.

Love to you all,

JO

Rockin' Boy's Camp at Rockaway

I went to my support group meeting on Wednesday and on Thursday I met Amy and Carolyn for a little shopping before meeting Eileen and Julie for our monthly luncheon. I ended up buying a lime green denim jacket. It is a little out of character for me to buy something that isn't black and white!

Denny drove up to the area where we go hunting each year. It was so hot that he only stayed a couple of days. But he enjoyed it. He always likes riding his 4-wheeler around while looking for deer and elk.

On Friday, we rode with Julie, Scott and Tori to Rockaway to pick up Kyle from the boy's camp he attended.

He had a ball. He loved his counselors and met a lot of neat kids. He definitely wants to go back next year.

We all played "putt putt golf."

We had a tour of the camp, saw a slide show of all their activities and then they had a nice hamburger BBQ for us.

On the way home we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for ice cream cones. As you can see, Tori missed her brother!

It was a fun day. Hope all of you are having a great weekend.

Love to you all,

JO

Keepin' Busy

We went to Capital Lake in Olympia, WA for Denny's boat race over the weekend. It is our favorite race site because the park has beautiful green grass where the racers "pit." The lake is within walking distance of town so we were able to walk there and look around. Hundreds of people walk/run around the lake each day because it is such an awesome place. HOWEVER, the lake is now so filled with weeds (milfore ??) growing from the bottom, that it is an eye sore. It used to be such a beautiful lake and now it is ugly and smells. I can't believe the people in Olympia wouldn't be upset about how it looks, especially since so many people see it every day while walking/running around it. The racers spent Friday and Saturday cutting the weeds and hauling them to the side of the lake. So by Sunday, at least some of the racers could race their boats. Unfortunately, the larger/faster boats could not race because they could easily damage their equipment. So, Denny did not get to race. But we did have a good time and enjoyed the nice weather and visiting with the other racers.

One of the gals at the race had two 14 week old puppies. They are springer's like our dog and Justin's new dog, Bella. Well, these two dogs look so much like Bella AND one's name was Sophie and the other one's name was Bella!

Kyle, our 10 year old grandson is at a Boy's Camp in Rockaway. It is his first "overnight" camp. He went with three other boys that he knows and when Scott and Julie left, he was so busy having fun, that he really didn't even care if they left. But it wasn't so easy for Julie to leave him. We can see photos each day on the Internet of their activities. Here is one of Kyle on his first day. He is the one on the left. I think the guy on the right is probably a counselor. Kyle's counselor is a student at George Fox College and is fantastic. We are going to camp on Friday to pick him up, have a tour of the camp, and eat dinner. I can't wait to hear about his experiences.

Tori is at soccer camp this week. It is only a couple of hours in the morning. She loves it but Julie said the first day she spent the entire time holding hands with one of her friends! Needless to say, she didn't kick many balls! And after Julie talked to her, she didn't hold hands the following day!

Today I went to lunch at a gal's house that is in the support group. There were six of us there. It was nice to get together outside of our group meeting and get to know one another a little better.

My Mom and Lloyd recently went with his kids for a fun weekend to ride 4-wheelers. Here is a picture of them. Mom is 83 and look at her....she is having a blast! Aren't I lucky?!

Hope all of you are having a nice week. Our weather has been hot but is suppose to cool off tomorrow. I will be going to my support group meeting and .................................who knows, I might have to do a little shopping!

Love to you all,

JO

Clown 'n' Around

I just looked at Julie's, our daughter's, blog and she wrote about my picture being on Leroy Siever's blog. I loved what she wrote so I copied it and here it is:

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Our Grandma, Super Star!

NPR Blogger and Morning Edition commentator Leroy Sievers was the subject of a Discovery Channel documentary about his struggle with stage 4 cancer. The documentary was produced by Ted Koppel, who is an old friend of Sievers and an ABC News colleague. Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Edwards were featured in the short film. Mr. Sievers writes a blog for NPR.org and has been an inspiration to those fighting a daily battle with cancer. My mom has been following his fight and receives a daily email updating his condition. Several weeks ago he asked his readers to finish this sentence: "My cancer . . . . . ." Hundreds of comments poured in and some of the responses were published on his blog. My mom was one of them!! Click on the link below and select the right arrow to view the 'photo gallery.' I believe she is the 13th picture in; we are so proud of her!!! What a wonderful role model for us all; we love you, Grandma Jo!http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2008/jun/mycancer/gallery/index.html
Posted by Julie

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Just in case some of you are not able to bring up this website, I wrote: "My cancer has taught me to LIVE each day to the fullest." I wore this clown outfit to my support group meeting. One of the gals in our group had her camera and took this picture of me. In fact, it is in the photo album that our group has with members pictures in it. I will have to admit, I am the only one that looks a little weird.
I had only been going to the support group meeting a couple of months and one of facilitators said that we could dress up if we wanted to since our next meeting was going to be on Halloween. Well, Shauna (my good bud) and I were the only two to dress up. There are usually about twenty of us there. But we were both glad that we dressed up and hopefully, we brought a little joy and fun to the meeting that day.

When I was working at Hillsboro High School in 1986, we decided to dress up for Halloween. I didn't have anything to wear so I decided to make a clown outfit that night. Luckily, I had the material. I finished it an 2:00 AM. Here is a picture of some of us from the vice principal's/attendance office. (MaryAnn, Betsy, Jan, Judy, myself, a guy doing an internship, and Rick.)

I think I wore this clown outfit to work almost every Halloween. This picture was taken in 2000 at Century High School. It is Linda (from the main office), myself and Kathy who worked with me in the attendance/vice principal's office.

I have gotten so much use out of my clown outfit. Guess it was worth staying up until 2:00 AM to make it!


Hope all of you are enjoying our nice weather.


Love to you all,


JO

Happy 4th of July

We got up early this morning and drove to St. Paul to watch the parade and to go the carnival with Scott, Julie, Kyle and Tori. The weather was perfect but the parade wasn't that great. We usually go to the Hillsboro parade but decided to try the St. Paul one since it is closer to Newberg. Denny's sister, her husband and their grandson were there, along with several friends of Scott and Julie's.

The kids were so busy catching candy that they really didn't see much of the parade so I guess it didn't matter that it wasn't as good as Hillsboro's. There wasn't a marching band. Of course, there were lots of "pooping" horses. They didn't even clean up after them. Luckily, we were sitting in the right spot so the kids didn't have to dodge the poop.

The carnival was okay. There were lots of rides for the kids and they were $1.50 each. Tori was afraid to go on the faris wheel at first but then decided she should "conquer her fears" and go on it. She loved it and went again. Then she went on the carousel, rode a pony and went in the fun house where you got out by going down the slide.


I took pictures of Kyle going on the tilt-a-whirl and down the slide but didn't get any of him going on any other rides. He was moving too fast to me!

We parked our car in front of the the Catholic Church in St. Paul. It is the oldest Catholic Church west of the Mississippi AND it happens to be the church Denny and I were married in 43 years ago. We lived in Newberg at the time but the Catholic Church there was round! I had always dreamed of walking down the aisle as a bride and the round church didn't have a center isle. That just wouldn't work for me so we decided to have our wedding in St. Paul. I love the looks of that church and it was neat that it was such an old church.

When we got to the kid's house after the parade and carnival, I took off my wig because it was hot and I was tired of wearing it. So Denny put it on and the kids got a real kick out of it. I sure hope I look better in it than he does!

We have so many fireworks going off right now in our neighborhood that it sounds like a combat zone! Good thing our dog, Sara, can't hear very well!

Hope all of you had a nice 4th of July.

Love to you all,

JO

WE Bought a Wii

Tori is staying with us for a few days. She usually can only stand to be away from her Mom for two days but she said today that she could stay here for a long time. She didn't even cry when we drove away from Julie. Guess she is more mature now since she is going into the first grade!

We stopped by Wal-Mart on our way home and she picked out a couple of toys. She bought a doll and some doll accessories. And WE bought a Wii. I just happened to ask if they had any in (they are hard to find) and the guy said they had gotten eight in that day but he didn't know if they had any left. When he looked in the case, there was one left. He said people call all the time to see if they have any and they sell out very fast. It came with a sport disc so we can play tennis, baseball, boxing, golf and bowling. We have a lot to learn about it but so far we really like it. I want to get the exercise disc. Here is Tori bowling.

Tori and I rode our bikes to the school yesterday and played on the equipment.

Grandpa fixes the kids fun breakfasts when they stay with us. Here is a picture of the breakfast he made Tori. There is a waffle for the head, scrambled eggs for the hair, a fruit roll-up around the "face"and some candy on the face for decoration.

This one has a waffle for the face, whipping cream with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on it for the beard and candy for face decorations. The kids love it when Grandpa makes them their "DTD" breakfast. DTD stands for, "Don't tell Dad" breakfast. Scott prefers that the kids don't eat a lot of candy................!

Later in the day we went to the movies and saw Wal-E. It was okay but not nearly as good as Shreck, Finding Nemo, Cars, etc.

We had a great time while Tori was with us. We are taking her home today and will spend the 4th with them.

Hope all of you have a wonderful 4th of July. Drive safe if you are traveling.

Love to you all,

JO