Morning Sky

The pond was frozen

The clouds were cool

They sky was pink as the sun began to show through
It certainly was a pretty few minutes this morning and a tad cold. Winter is here?????

Our addition progresses. David and Dan should be working me thinks. Chatting does not get the job done:)
Yesterday they started putting the stucco on the new living room wall. The color will not be gray, it dries lighter and then will be painted. They ran out of product and will continue the job tomorrow. By the end of the day the basement and living room walls should be complete. That is if the boys work rather than talk. David has decided that applying stucco is just as much fun (not) as taping and mudding sheet rock.

Reason To Celebrate

Five years ago today Dr Deaconson came into my room telling David, Lenny and I 'We got it all'. Yep I am a 5 year breast cancer survivor. Happy birthday to me. Thank you Doctor's Deaconson and Cockerill you saved my life.

PET scan updated: The PET showed no signs of any such nodule, fatty tissue or otherwise. To coin one of Julia's favorite phrases, "How cool is that"! Dr Cockerill is a bit befuddled about the entire thing however. He and the radiologist wonder if perhaps the nodule is too close to the heart to be picked up by the PET and he wants me to have a second CT scan end of November. If the nodule shows up on it he will refer me to a pulmonologist in an effort to ferrot out what this ononmoly may be. He did not seem worried about it just more curious I think and he is very very very thorough and perhaps over cautious. When it comes to my life I will take over cautious anytime:)
The additional "How cool is that" point is that the PET would had picked up any cancer cells in my body...there were no hot spots to be found, at all!

Closing with the joys of being a grand parent...how cool is that!

Well Huh

I hardly know how to start this post so I guess what the hell let's just jump right in. Friday was my regular oncology appointment as well as blood work and a chest x-ray. October 27th is the day that I will be a 5 year survivor however I was waiting until after this appointment to officially celebrate. Damned good thing I waited.....my chest x-ray shows a dark spot on the left mid lung. Because they could not tell for certain what it is, or is not, I had a CT scan. The CT scan was still inconclusive in regards to what in the hell I have in the ole left lung. One thought from radiology is it may be just a fat nodule...I said 'what the hell I have fat in my lung too?' Although a fat nodule would certainly be preferable to another type of nodule. Soooo Tuesday I go back for a PET scan. A PET is used to find cancer in that if there are cancer cells they will show up as hot spots on the scan. I have attached the link
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=PET
I will actually get the results Tuesday which is good. It could be a number of things such as I had an upper respiratory virus a few weeks ago and in my opinion that it likely what is remaining in my lung.
So any good thoughts you may have feel free to through em my way:)
Positive thoughts positive thoughts positive thoughts.

A Tirp To Iowa and Addition Updates

But first bragging time. Of course I made my stop at the Leonard motel to see the girls. Shelby has grown a ton in just a few weeks.
Here she is smiling at Daddy

And a touching family time reading books....

From Northern MN to Central Iowa. My cousin Shelly and her family live in Iowa and their daughter Krystin got married last weekend. Not that the wedding wasn't wonderful but the best part of the trip was spending the drive down and back (about 10 hours total) in the car with my Uncle Eddie who is my mom's brother. It was just he and I and I picked his brain the entire time. We talked about their lives as kids (they were poor as could be), about my Grandpa committing suicide (Ed and his brother found him) and just life in general. It was a great informative trip.
Here is the wedding party. Krystin was gorgeous and her husband Chad (who is behind her right arm) has been her best friend forever.

My cousin Jane and her husband Barry


And my cousins (two of Eddie's girls) Kim and Kari. Not to worry Sharon and Kelly, I wont post the pictures that I took of you guys...nice gal that I am.

One of the best moments of the night for me was to see the sincere affection that both Krystin and her brother Ryan have for their parents. They are not afraid to display that affection and it was touching to watch.

OK on to the addition. The upper walls are poured, the roof is on and the windows are in in the upper level. This past week's task was to pour the cement for the patio out back as well as color and stamp it.

Here Dan is spreading the color (he used three colors) on the still damp patio


He then uses a trowel to work the powder color into the cement
And getting ready to 'stamp' design into the cement. If you look closely you can see the color swirls.
We are using a random pattern (the basement floor is colored and stamped as well) however you can stamp cement in almost any imaginable pattern. For instance you can have it look as if it is layed brick or do a deck to look like wood planking. Yet another very interesting piece of this project.


Here it is from the back of the house. I love the retaining walls. They and the entire house will be stuccoed next spring.
Lookin nice from the side. Dear Mary notice that I have way less plants back here. They seem to have disappeared. Ah well I will just have to design new I guess.
We haven't yet opened up the wall between the existing house and the addition. We will be insulating the ceiling next week and will them be able to open it up. More as we go:)

October Is

Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the wearin of the pink month :)
Get your mammogram (mine was found an an annual mamo) and do your self checks every month.
And yes, real men do wear pink!

And speaking of 'real men'. Have ya heard that Randy Moss is back..........