Catchin' Up

Hey folks... sorry it's been so long. Lots going on around these parts as we try to deal with all these setbacks. First of all, my kid sister Angela is recovering from all day surgery, the double mastectomy. Well as if that wasn't bad enough, there always seems to be a curve ball thrown when it comes to my family. Sure enough, it turns out that they found more cancer in her lymphnodes. So radiation and chemo are the order of the day. I am just dumbfounded and numb right now. I'm so sick of this crap! You ever just wonder when enough is enough? I am sooooooo tempted to fall into that pity party. It is very tempting. But I'm not going to give in... I can't. It's not going to be that easy, but I'm determined to keep my faith. I'm not about to abandon ship now. As for the kid sister, she's still in la-la land so I'm not sure about her emotions right now. But she's got my other sister Terri to help her deal with the chemo and radiation issues that will need to be dealt with. There's not much to say right now as far as what's happening. I will get back on here in about another 10 days to two weeks to touch base and update what's going on in my completely warped and topsy turvy world...

Reconstruction Period

Thanks again for prayers and good wishes. My kid sister got the final confirmation that she'll need to lose both breasts but she's going to have reconstructive surgery done afterwards. She seems to be alright. She knows that she doesn't have much say in the matter. She's putting her energy into the Susan Komen "Race for the Cure". Something she had never done before. But now she's throwing herself head first into it and it seems to be helping her deal with things emotionally. I can only hope she keeps it up and keeps going. Having Terri there to help her navigate through everything can only be a help and a blessing. I went back over to her place cause her son was selling Entertainment 2011 books for his school fundraiser and she figured she strike while the guilt factor was hot. (did I mention that my family is very wacky?) While I was there, I overheard her talking with her friend on the phone about putting money together to get team t-shirts for the Race for the Cure event in our area. I just walked over and tossed some money to her and said "buy some shirts" and left. She yelled "thank you" and that was as deeply emotional as we got. I reckon neither of us wanted to sit there and cry or something. Why cry when you can laugh?

An Attitude Adjustment...

Here I sit and I gotta tell ya, it's more than a little humbling. It's funny, every time a bitter pill needs to be swallowed by someone in my family, God puts people in my path that without even trying, flip my world upside down. Got a beautiful email from a very sweet person. Carolyn, thanks so much for lifting my family in prayer. Your continued endeavors as a prayer warrior have been such a blessing. I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you so much my friend. And thank you to all my wonderful friends online who have been keeping me and my family in their thoughts and prayers. They're being answered.
Did two major things to get my mind back on straight and feel a whole lot better. First, I went and spent the weekend with the gal pal. That woman is so far out of my league, that it's just plain silly. She has absolutely no clue as to how beautiful she really is... She was there for me and listened to me on Saturday night while I fretted, expressed fear, and felt helpless. She was so incredible in that she didn't judge. She didn't say that it was all going to be okay. She just held me close, let me vent, and comforted me and gave me some advice and absolutely alleviated my fears and frustrations. She'll deny it and I'm glad she does, but I am so unworthy of that woman. She is simply amazing...
The second big thing I did was to go to my youngest sister's house yesterday and I got a chance to talk to her and see how she was really doing. She is a wacky one that kid sister of mine. She was very talkative and we sat and talked for over an hour. She asked some questions of me and I of her. She never cried once and even considering the subject matter, we spent a majority of the time laughing. Then her oldest son who is starting high school this week, brings over a neighbor friend and fellow freshman to the house. Now I'm not one to judge, but my nephew tells me that he is not a fan of this kid and confides to me that the only reason the kid is over is because he feels sorry for him. That the kid is really annoying and aggravating is a mild overstatement. The younger nephew is in 7th grade and is quite the witty one. He was telling that he was working on his Mathematics homework. Now this dear freshman (I think his name was Scott), who is in that delicate stage of reaching puberty (as in his voice is changing), decides to demonstrate his superiority over my younger nephew Bren. It went something like this:

Dyl: what are you doing?
Bren: Mathematics homework
Scott: You call it mathematics? At my school, we call it 'math'. (at this point, captain obvious begins to aspirate from a piece of pizza going down the wrong pipe).
Bren: At my school, we call that 'choking'...

My week has turned for the better.