Surgeon

I saw my surgeon this morning. I had actually moved up the appointment by six weeks. He says I look good. The hole looks great and so does my right groin. I do not have to go back, unless I feel I need to. He did tell me a couple of things: 1. About once a week, look at the hole, check it out, because if the melanoma every comes back, it will show up first in the hole, where it was originally. 2. Once I am done loosing the weight I want to loose, I can make an appointment, and they can see about doing surgery with the loose skin there in the hole area. That will be a couple of years yet, though.

My goal in loosing weight, is to loose at least 100 more pounds. That would put me at my high school weight, but still more than I should be for my height. I would love to loose more than that, but will take what I can get.

Have had a few more phone calls from NC. Two offers to teach Kinder or first grade, and I said no. Looks like, probably middle school (6th grade) maybe math. Still don't know yet. I will get in touch with a onc down there, when I know for sure.

Birthday Weekend

Friday, was my 37th birthday. I had to go into town in the morning to have blood drawn and receive my Interferon injection. I receive birthday wishes throughout the day. That night, a small group from my class at church met at Panchos (Mexican place) for supper. We had fun at supper. They even had a cake for me. There were 7 of us, five ladies and two men. I received a great big bag of runts and a AMC gift card,a gift card to a restaurant, a new journal, stickers, and a small frame, and lots of warm wishes. Runts are candy, and I carry a bag of them in my purse, for when my fatigue level goes up. Sucking on a couple of runts is better than drinking pop.

After supper, we drove to a bowling alley to go bowling. 8 people bowled, and we used two lanes. We had so much fun bowling. We were basically evenly matched on both lanes. My first game, I bowled a 104, and like a 92 on the second game. I did throw a couple of strikes and a few spares. A lot of us were robbed of strikes and spares. We laughed and got to know one another more. there is a slide show below about bowling.

Yesterday, I went and spent a good hour with my brother. I did the usual, read to him, gave and received hugs, and sang into his ear. It had been a couple of weeks since I had seen him.

I turned on tv last night around 7 pm, in time for the game to start, and received a big shock. The Cleveland Indians traded Casey Blake to the Dodgers. That was a big mistake. I am very upset with them!!!!!! So what, Blake is going to be 36 next month and is a free agent at the end of the season, he can hit and play defense. Marte can't play nor can he hit. He has been showing that for the past 3 years. Sowers needs to go as well, he can't pitch. I like Mastny, but he hasn't pitched well all season. Do we get anybody who can play now for us? No, all we get from these trades, are prospects. We need people who can play now, not prospects. As you can see, I am not very happy.

This afternoon, my sister and family, an aunt and uncle came over for lunch. We had "The Works", whole roasted chicken, dressing, mashed potatoes for lunch. There was also corn on the cob, which my niece loves, and watermelon to eat. The watermelon was my cake. My gifts, a nice Minnie Mouse teacher figurine, stickers, photo album, clothes, and a new necklace.

I had a nice birthday this year. The only low spot, is the big mistake the Indians made. I should hopefully know later this week, if I am moving down to N.C. or not.

Changes

Today is my 37th birthday. I've been counting down like I do every year. I look forward to my birthday. I usually start the countdown two months in advance. My niece and I both look forward to our birthdays.

I received a phone call late Wednesday afternoon, from Charlotte. My name was taken off the list of the middle school I was supposed to teach 6th grade Language Arts. Because I said that was my weak spot, they decided to try to find me a different position. I'm okay with that. If I am going to be departmentalized, then I need to be teaching my strength, not my weak area.

I was trying to take a nap this afternoon, when my cell phone rang. I missed it and it went to voice mail. I called back, and it was a Principal at a different middle school. She did a quick screening interview. This opening is for 6th science. She said the AP might call me back later and do a full phone interview.

Albino Skunk

My dad has set up a couple of raccoon traps. Raccoons have gotten into my bedroom and bathroom ceiling again. They got up there a few years ago, and I can see on a daily basis the proof they left of them living there. I have yellow spots on my bathroom ceiling from the raccoons. There is a trap next to the tree in front of my window out front. My dad caught a skunk last night/this morning. This skunk is an albino skunk, white with a black strip down the middle. I took a pic of it in the cage, and found a pick of one and a regular skunk online. My dad needs to decide what to do with the skunk. As long as he is in the cage/trap, the skunk can not spray anybody, because he can not get his tail up all the way, so he can spray.

I'm moving!!!!!!!!!

Charlotte, NC here I come! I received a phone call this morning from Charlotte. I've been assigned a school for this coming school year. I will be teaching 6th grade at a middle school in Huntersville, NC. I've been assigned to teach language arts. That is a joke! I laughed, while I was on the phone this morning when I was told language arts. I apologized to the lady, saying I wasn't trying to be rude, but writing and grammar is my weak spot. My strengths are science, math, and social studies. I can do reading, I've been big on reading passages when I taught science in Dallas. Hopefully, the subject area is not definite.

There is paperwork to do on my end and their end. My teaching certificate for NC will be for K-6. I was printing up some forms this morning, but I need help in figuring out where they are to be sent to. I've been doing things online, and making phone calls. I've left a message for this onc in Charlotte, because I have to transfer my care to someone down there. I moved up my appointment with my onc here by a week, from the 15th to the 8th. I will take a break again in taking Interferon, don't know for how long.

Will be leaving Friday, August 8, or Saturday, August 9 for NC. I already have word in with an apartment locator so that I can can look at apartments that weekend, choose one and move in, hopefully, August 11 or 12. New Teacher Orientation is August 13-15. Teachers start back on August 18, and students start back on August 25.

There is a lot to do. Have to think about what clothes to pack. Pack up my scrapbooking supplies. Work in the basement, figure out what school supplies and other school stuff I want to take with me. Figure out what other stuff I will need to take with me. Both of my parents will be moving me down there, because of needing to take my furniture down there.

I am excited about this, if you can't tell. I get the joy of looking for a church this fall. I haven't told the school district that I am in treatment for cancer. I have just under 3 months left of Interferon injections. I don't want to go too long without injections, because of teaching all day and getting used to the interferon again is not fun. Won't know until I get down there who will do the injections.

Thank you for your prayers during the past two years in looking for a job and then being diagnosed with cancer. I still need prayers. Father thank you for all of this.

Quick Interview

I had a phone call this afternoon, from a principal at an elementary school in Charlotte. He asked me about my teaching experience, my strengths, relating to my students, and job availability up here. That is it. Short and sweet. Basically, no news about a job in N.C.

July Onc Visit

I saw my onc this morning. I have lost another 6 pounds in the past month. That is now a total of 48 pounds in the past year that I have lost. He made a comment about my weight loss this morning, the first time. I told him that I am trying to loose weight. He said loosing it in the increments I am is good. He also told me, I should switch over to diet pop. I like pop too much to give it up, but I have cut back on it. I don't mind drinking diet Dr. P or diet 7up, not sure about diet Pepsi. I do better some days than I do other days.

For the past few days, I've been worried about getting a bad report on my scans, so I rode into town with mom just in case. Scans are good. They are the same as last time. There are still tiny nodules in my lungs, and they haven't grown. My onc did say that my spleen is slightly enlarged. He doesn't know why, and he isn't going to do anything about it right now. Since I am not showing any symptoms, he will not have it taken out.

I did have a headache yesterday, first one in 10 days. I didn't take anything til about 4 pm. My biggest complaint is the fatigue. I do get headaches, my temp does go up a bit, and my stomach bothers me. Those are my side effects.

From this good news, I am still NED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been NED for almost 10 months.

My counts are doing fine, nothing to worry about. I did talk to the onc about moving to NC. He said it is no problem, if I do. I see him again on August 15, if I don't' move. My next set of scans will be at the end of October, within a month after finishing up Interferon.

July Indians Game

After loosing ten games in a row, the Indians won Thursday night, Friday night, and last night and again today. The Indians swept Tampa Bay. My mom and I went to the game last night. We sat in the bleachers, never again. You can't look at the Jumbo Tron, or see clearly what Grady and Ben are doing in making their catches. Both Grady Seizemore and Ryan Garko hit 2 run home runs last night. Ginter game up from Buffalo to pitch and he earned the win. When Ginter left the game, we were shutting out the Rays. Bullpen came out and gave up four runs. The final score was 8-4, in our favor.

After the game was Rockin Blast 08 part 2. There was a choir singing rock songs. That doesn't work. A couple of country songs were sung. There were lasers and fireworks. We had to move, but had a hard time finding a place to sit/stand to watch the fireworks. I had a hard time taking pics of the fireworks. The Indians put on good firework shows, but I didn't like last night's very well. I've seen them do better shows. The slide show shows some of the pics I took last night during the show.

Akron Zoo

My niece and I spent a few hours at the Akron Zoo today. The weather was perfect, not too hot. We both sprayed sunscreen on before leaving the house. The newest animals at the zoo were jellyfish. I've been wanting to see them. B was able to climb this climbing wall and she touched a sea urchin. Not all jellyfish have tentacles, and they kinda look like flowers. They were kinda cool looking. There are penguins, lions, tiger, snow leopard, jaguar, sun bear, tortoise, komodo dragon, deer, pony, red panda, bald eagle, lemurs, snakes, frogs, sheep, rabbits, and a few more animals at the zoo. This zoo tries to have animals that you might not always find at other zoos. They do have the world's largest rodent. I didn't take pics of every animal, because of the widows and they are hard to take pics through. We had a nice time at the zoo. Down below is a slide show I made of pics that I took today.

Fourth of July

Today America is 232 years old. Happy Birthday USA! Thank you to all the soldiers who are out there fighting for our freedom.

Thursday Morning

Friday morning I had a voicemail on my cell phone from my mom. She called to give me a number that was on the answering machine. It was a number for a middle school in Charlotte, NC. I called and left a message, for somebody who was on lunch break. She didn't call me back until Sunday evening. I felt bad talking to her, because there was an echo on my end of my cell phone. We scheduled a time for the principal to call me for Tuesday afternoon to do an interview.

Tuesday came and went. No phone call. I kept the phone next to me for a couple of hours. I called the school and spoke with the prinicpal yesterday afternoon. He had been out of office, got the note to call me, but there was no date or time telling him when to call. He set a time for 9 am this morning to do the interview.

I took a pain pill for my headache around 9 am this morning. I had the phone next to me, no phone call. I called the school a little before 10:30 am. He was called in for a meeting, and had just walked in not too long before I called him. We started the interview, and I lost connection on my cell phone. He called me back on the home line, and we finished the iterview. He wants to make his decision within the next few days about the 7th grade science position. He said he enjoyed talking to me, and thinks I would fit in at his school. Should know next week, if I got the job.

I made a few phone calls, and had to fax something up to EMU for them to fill out and fax back to me and down to NC. I do not have my NC teaching certificate and have to get it with help from the Human Resources down in NC.

I went ahead and rescheduled my appointment to see my surgeon for the 30th of this month. I was already scheduled for September 10. There are medical decisions to be made if I do move. Will see what happens in the next week.

I guess you can say the morning was kind of exciting. To top it off, a pipe from the well broke and we have no water. That is getting fixed and will have water in a couple of hours.

Texas

A week ago, I left for TX. Yes, my leg did swell up, and is still swollen. But, the swelling is going down. Just chilled Wednesday night.

Thursday, did a bit of running around, got ice cream in the afternoon. S came over and had supper with K and myself, Thursday evening. That was an added bonus, since we weren't expecting to see her until Friday. In the afternoon, K and I played Phase 10. After supper, all three of us played Phase 10. I had a phone interview Thursday morning, at 9 am CST. It went okay. Lasted about 15 minutes. I only have subbing experience at being self-contained and I think that puts me at a disadvantage. My experience is mainly departmentalization. I have another phone interview tomorrow at 9 am EST. This one is for 7th grade science.

Friday morning, got a hour massage, was so needed. I had so many knots that I needed to get rid of. Met S for lunch at Corner Bakery. We sat there and talked. Then the three of us walked around the mall. I got an early birthday present. There is a store, called As Seen on TV. My friend bought me the Pediegg. It does work on the calluses and dry skin on your heels. Won't be throwing away the Callex, because that helps to soften and smooth out the skin. Got to see S's new house in the afternoon. Beautiful house. S and her husband, and myself went to see "Bye, Bye Birdie". It was done at a high school, a cousin of his was in the show. It was good.

Saturday, we went to a wedding. A friend I have known for seven years got married that afternoon. The ceremony was nice. While the Bride and Groom did the unity sand and took communion, the rest of us sang three worship songs. That was a nice touch. As they walked back down the aisle, it was to an Elvis song. That same song was what they sang to for their first dance. I had a piece of the Groom's cake, because it was chocolate. The top part of the cake, was like a Monopoly gameboard, but it was called Pierceopoly. The bride and groom's car was decorated with baby stuff.

Sunday, went to in the morning. I saw a few people, and surprised a few. The sermon was from Exodus 20:7, the third commandment, taking God's name in vain. Good sermon. Yes, who I wanted to hear, did preach. Something I learned, if one goes to church with the wrong attitude, then one is taking God's name in vain. That goes with worshipping God, if your mind is on other things than God and the words you are snging, you are not glorifying God. I would say that goes with reading God's word and having a quiet time as well. I did get to speak to my pastor. I told him, that I had been looking forward to hearing him preach.

After church, had lunch at CiCi's Pizza, my favorite restaurant. K and I rented two movies Saturday night. We watched No Reservations Saturday night, and Freedom Writers Sunday afternoon. Both were good movies. Went for a walk Sunday afternoon. When you spend time away from TX, you forget about the heat. Since the line of dividing arid and humidity is just west of Fort Worth, I think the heat is a combination of arid and humidity. It was hot! hot! hot! down there, hitting 100 degrees. In the evening, we met S for ice cream and sat outside. It was nice then. After getting back to K's house, we played Phase 10 outside and it was a very enjoyable evening.

Monday, I was able to see L and her baby. We spent about an hour together. We had breakfast and a nice visit.

I had labs drawn this morning and my first Interferon injection in a week. I was able to make cookies this afternoon. My fatigue level is up and I have a headache. It is not as intense as it can get, but I took a painpill anyway after supper.