Last Chapter of 2009

We are coming to the close of another year and with it the close of another chapter of our lives. This was my 49th year and during this year many things took place and changes were made in our lives that will effect us from now on. My son Adam's battle raged on in 2009 and finally by December a reprieve has come as his tumors have shrunk, are not active and in remission. We had loss with the death of an uncle unexpectedly at 59, and DJ's grandfather at the age of 70. We had wedding engagements, Anniversaries and new babies, as my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July and Dan became an Uncle with the birth of his Nephew, Jayden in August. We also had breakups as my daughter moved back home with her two girls to start off on her own again after 7 years. Health issues continued to rear its ugly head as my diabetes continued to spiral out of control, and finally became controllable only to find out that I may be in the early stages of Andropause...yes that is male menopause and its real, as well as my own scare with skin cancers. We grew a year older and in some cases a wiser. We laughed, we cried and we loved.

Yes many things transpired in 2009, some of them joyous and good, others were not. But, through it all it has taught us that life is so precious, and that family and love are the most important things in this life. If we have those in order everything else will fall into place!

So as we close on 2009, I say thank you and look forward to what 2010 my bring. Who knows maybe I'll get that HDTV this year.... (hint hint).

What Sells?

There is just SO much wrong with this old advertisement! Can you believe it? It would be funny if it wasn't a real ad.

Fall

Yes, I'm back. No the Facebook bandwagon didn't totally take over my body and being and make me some kind of blog-less creature. Almost, but not completely. Yes, I still 'facebook" on a daily basis and keep in touch with all my FB Buddies, but since 2004, this has been my outlet and it continues to be.

Anyway, tell me welcome back and get on with it...

Fall is here in the Queen City. Festivals, harvest parties, and the colors. I love the colors of fall more than any other season. Along with those activties and colors, comes the Haunted Houses. DJ's family are huge haunted house people, and the first of many visits will begin tonight.

So you say welcome back, and I say Welcome Fall!

Where you Been??

Over at facebook, come look me up, and be my friend!

www.facebook.com/mwyatt1960

Celebration!

A lot of great things are happening this next month, and the good news has already begun.  My son Adam had his last radiation treatment on Wednesday and from the preliminary tests it looks like good news!!  We will know more when he has all of his scans, blood work and such later in June but for now he is hospital and chemo/radiation free!!  God is great, and thank all of you for your prayers!

Also next Friday my son Jordan will graduate from High School.  I am so proud of his accomplishments.  He has had a rough time in school, due to his, Asperger's Syndrome but he has stayed in there and worked through it and now will be graduating and is even looking forward to starting college in the fall at Miami University!!  WAY TO GO JORDAN.  Dad is really proud of you 

So as May ends and June begins it looks as though this is going to be a great summer.  We have more graduations, birthdays, anniversaries and new babies coming this summer, so let the celebrations begin!!

Less and Less

No, I am not going to delete my blog or stop posting, but as you can tell the posts are becoming far and few between. One of the main reasons is that I have been bit by the Facebook bug.

Yes, I have been taken in by the FB scourge that has taken over even businesses and schools. I have found several of my High School friends.

So don't quit coming, I will post occasionally. If you are really interested in what is going on and can't wait on the posts find me over at Facebook.

Mother's Day 2009

There are no words that can give you the full meaning of what my mother means to me and my two brothers, as well as our children.  She is one of the most incredible women that you would ever meet.  She is now getting older and fighting Alzheimer's(but thankfully the medicine is working!) but she is still Mom.

Her love is enduring and without expectations.  She loves us unconditionally, each one of us, including the women her sons married, and the man with whom I have chose to spend my life with.

She loves each one of us, and we know it without her even saying as she shows us in her way.

As I reflect back on my childhood, adolescence and teenage years, there are two strong influencing factors as to who I came to be. my father, and my mom.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Seventy and Still going Strong

Dad turned 70 today. On April 25, 1939, he was born in Hamilton, Ohio.  Raised in Hamilton and has lived in Hamilton, but that does not mean that he has had a boring mundane life.  That is not the case.  He has lived a very happy, eventful, blessed and exciting life.  He has worked most of his life and since retirement continues to work, but in other ways.  He is always trying to help others and give to those that need help.  Dad is a very caring and compassionate person.

I didn't always think that of him, but as an adult you certainly see your parents in a different light.  He is strong in his faith, and strong in the love for his wife of 50 years come July, and his love for his family is one of the strongest.  From as far back as I remember we never part company or went to bed as a kid without hearing him say..."Love you!"

He continues to be strong and healthy, bowling up to four or five times a week, and even got up on his roof recently to put on some new roofing after a wind storm.  yeah there is no stopping him, and that is a good thing! One he continues to love strong more every day.

Happy Birthday Dad, Love Ya!

Susan or Julie?

The sensation this week via You Tube has been the "Britain's Got Talent" contestant or The Central Station in Antwerp. I know the Central Station video was staged and Susan Boyle was a real live performance, but I really liked the Central Station one better. What do you think?



or Susan Boyle Britian's Got Talent

Almost There

For those of you that have read my blog and/or my sons blog "Adam's Journey" you know that my son was diagnosed in November with Hodgkins Disease. We have been in and out of the hospital for the last six months, clinics, tests, blood work, you name it, he's done it. Today was another long and tiring day at Children's Medical Center. Scans, X-rays, Blood work, more scans, and clinic. But it ended with news that we have been praying for since November when Adam was first diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkins. Let me see if I can get the exact words of his oncologist...

"From the preliminary reports of the scans today we see no live spots, which means there is no active cancer cells currently in the areas that previously were active. So from these initial reports we can report that his cancer is currently in remission. This does not mean that there are not tumors, as the tumors in his neck are still there in the lymph nodes and have not shrunk from the last scans, but they are currently inactive. The tumors in his chest area are calcified. There are only two "live" spots showing any indication of activity and these we think are from the infection he had three weeks ago and is not cancer activity."

Adam showed little emotion, but then he has showed little emotion from the onset, that is just his personality. He will still have to undergo the radiation which our first "simulation" is set for April 23rd, but this is just an added deterrent to the cancer and hopefully it will remain in remission. Once radiation is complete, then the scans and tests will be completed again and then the doctors will then determine the next course of action, if any.

Today was an amazing day, and an amazing relief, and proof of our Amazing God.

Continue to pray for continued good news!!

April Showers, Hurry Up with the Flowers!

That is what has been going on here in the Cincinnati area for some time now. Showers!! Dreary, cold dank days. If I didn't know any better I would think we were in London.

Not only is it dreary outside, things have been quite dreary since the start of April emotionally as well. On March 31st, my uncle died unexpectedly at 58 years old. He was for all intents and purposes, normal and healthy. He went running that afternoon, which is his normal morning activity and apparently got into his truck to come home, got down the road and had a massive heart attack in the car. He was found dead by the people in the car behind him when they went to investigate why he went off the road. Needless to say the family is completely devastated.

Things at work are good though, or at least from what I can tell. In this climate of dreary days economically we have plenty of work to keep us busy and maintaining our status quo. Tensions are not anxious as I have heard in some places of employment. SO that is a positive here in these dreary April days.

Even speaking athletically here in Cincinnati, it is dreary as it snowed on Cincinnati Reds Opening day festivities, and then the Reds lost.

So if the old adage is true, April showers bring May flowers, I certainly am looking forward to them blooming!...Do you think we could have them a little early???

A Matter of the Heart

The last week or so has been somewhat eventful. Just when we were finally coming to terms with Adam's Hodgkins and dealing with everything that goes with that, I began having some issues. First I started having some pressure in m chest, then my heart began having strange palpitations. Then this continued to all out chest pain. not the heart attack, rush me to the hospital kind of pain, but just "twinges". So a call to the doctor was inevitable.

At the doctor they decided to do an EKG. This showed some abnormalities so a stress test was ordered, which then lended the doctor to advise more tests. Another EKG along with more tests. The doctor said that there is some problem with how i am "wired" and I may need a pacemaker.

Fortunately, a pacemaker was not needed and it looks as though i will be ingesting more medicines, and I guess I am going to have to cut back on the caffeine. I'd say it was mostly stress related, but then I am not a doctor. I feel it just boiled down to a matter of the heart...

Happy Anniversary! And So Much More!

On March 23rd DJ and I celebrated our 8th anniversary of our commitment ceremony. In September will be our 9th year together, but the 23rd was the day that we committed ourselves to one another in front of all our friends and family. I was going on 41 and he had just turned 21!! Wow he was young...

Anyway, 8 years later and so much has transpired since then. 8 different living locations, one hospital visit, diagnosed with diabetes, three grandkids, 4 jobs for myself, 6 for DJ, death of a grandparent, living with his mother, and now Adam's battle with Hodgkins. But through it all we have had each other. Yes, there were a few times we had some disagreements, and it has not always been a bed of roses, but over-all I think our relationship has been a very strong one from the beginning. Our mutual respect, love and passion for one another has survived all of those things, and the mis-steps... we have been able to work through them. So on to the next 8 and then the next 8 and so on.

Happy Anniversary DJ, I love you and thank you for loving me!

Another March Madness

Check out my blog posting regarding March Madness in 2007. Well, it is that time again, and much like the 2007 version, this one is very much the same. However, this year I did play the "brackets". I picked the city in each division that I like or would like to live in and chose them. So in the final four I have Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Memphis, which I narrowed down to Duke and Wake Forest with Wake Forest going all the way. I've been laughed at now for two days, but who cares, it was only 5$.

I hate March Madness for many of the same reasons I hated it in 2007, but another reason is DJ works double shifts throughout this entire fiasco. So for the next three weekends I will not see him at all. Yes, the money is good, and being a bartender during March Madness at a very well-known national sports bar chain, is financially profitable, but I miss my own private bartender!!

Another March will soon be over, and so too will the madness of it all.

40 Toys ~ Spirograph

OMG!! Have you seen this yet? The online SPIROGRAPH!!

This toy filled hours of my young life. I was the Spirograph artist of my family. Mom would even post them on the fridge for all the world to see.

I had no idea however that I was playing with this:


Spirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The term has also been used to describe a variety of software applications that display similar curves, and applied to the class of curves that can be produced with the drawing equipment (so in this sense it may be regarded as a synonym of hypotrochoid). The name is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.

Spirograph was quite simple, it worked with a set of plastic gears and other shapes such as rings, triangles, or straight bars. There were several sizes of gears and shapes, and all edges had teeth to engage any other piece. For instance, smaller gears fit inside the larger rings, but also can engage the outside of the rings so that they rotate around the inside or along the outside edge of the rings.

To use it, a sheet of paper is placed on a heavy cardboard backing, and one of the plastic pieces is pinned to the paper and cardboard. Another plastic piece is placed so that its teeth engage with those of the pinned piece. For example, a ring may be pinned to the paper and a small gear placed inside the ring – the actual number of arrangements possible by combining different gears was, as a kid infinite. The point of a pen is placed in one of the holes in the moving piece. As the moving part is moved the pen traces out a curve.

The pen is used both to draw and provide locomotive force; some practice is required before Spirograph can be operated without disengaging the fixed and moving pieces. (That took me while...) More intricate and unusual-shaped patterns may be made through the use of both hands, one to draw and one to guide the pieces.

By playing this game as a kid I learned that math didn't suck. I always hated math, it was by far my worst subject. Yet, the gorgeous patterns you created were based on good old math. The fact fact that you could vary the size of your drawings by using different holes on the geared wheel was an almost transcendental bit of knowledge. You walked away realizing that math could be applied in ways that were pretty cool.

I started out with just the simple Spirograph game, but soon advanced to the SUPER-Spirograph in no time!

I wonder if Spirograph is still for sale, if not I can just play the online game.

Cleaning House

It is almost 70 degrees outside today and it has me in the mood for cleaning! Spring cleaning! I hear you now..."You are kidding right?"

But no I am not kidding, I NEED to clean house. Even though we have only lived here about 4 months (Oh, yeah we moved again, didn't I tell you? Sorry. A bigger place, two bedrooms, same complex) I really need to clean. Even though neither DJ or myself seem to be spending as much time at home, it is a MESS! So most of the morning I have spent cleaning.

I have also been cleaning the blog up a little. I was reading my blog list (that list of blogs to your right) and I am finding out that some of my favorite bloggers have disappeared from the blogoshere. Lost them to facebook or Twitter I guess. So I cleaned house over there, deleting some blogs that have disappeared and added some new ones and brought back some ones that I used to read. I also added (or should I say updated) my picture links. I am focusing the picture links to my grand kids.

Well as I am sure DJ is happy I cleaned house, i hope you are also happy I cleaned up my Blog-House.

March Already!?

It is really hard to believe that it is already March 2009! It could be the fact that it is still cold as December outside. Or it could be with everything going on with Adam and everything else it just seems like it should still be December.

DJ's little sister is expecting her first child in August. This was news that we heard on her birthday, January 2nd, but everyone was keeping it quiet. I never understood that, though. How can you keep a pregnancy quiet? It is going to be obvious sooner of later. Maybe it was because she is 18 and just graduated High School. It may be they wanted it quiet because she is un-married. That no longer seems to be the taboo it was back in the 1950's, so why all the "hush hush". Who knows, but it drama seems to be prevalent in his family, so maybe they just wanted it for the "drama". Anyway her baby will be here in August, then talk about drama!!

Not much happening really, Adam is moving along pretty well. There has been some bumps, but nothing that he can not get over. Other than that it looks as though March is going to be another uneventful month that just passes us by too quickly and we will soon hear me saying...December, Already!?

Happy Birthday DJ

He is turning 29 today! His last year of being a twentysomething!

Happy Birthday to my husband, partner, lover, & best friend!

Get Over Already!

Winter, I just want it to get over with! I have had a sore throat for several days and decided that I should finally go to the doctor. I thought I had strep, as it hurt so bad, but thankfully it wasn't.

Unfortunately however I had some other issues. My diabetes seems to be doing fine and my counts were good, now it seems I have an irregular heartbeat. (Which I think I've had a murmur since I was a kid) My regular doctor is out on a medical leave so I got to see the nurse practitioner and she was somewhat alarmed. So an EKG was done in the office and I have to schedule a stress test sometime.

DJ turns 29 on Friday and his mother turns 50 so we are all going out Friday night for a family dinner. Dan chose Applebee's it sounds like a good time, just hope i an shake this cold before then so I can enjoy it.

40 Toys ~ Fisher Price People

I got the idea for this posting, (and hopefully some more in the future) from my blogging friend Steve over at Defying Despondency. He turned 40 and is looking back at 40 toys in those 40 years that made his life a little more exciting. As I read this posting I began to remember these certain toys that my brother and I would play for hours in the winter months. Well I played all year round, he would not be caught dead in the house playing games in the summer.


The toys were actually our youngest brothers, but we played with them more than what he did. It was my first introduction to playing "God" so to speak, and it also explains my fascination with WoW and SIMS today.


It was those cute little (first made of wood, then to plastic) Fisher Price People! OMG we would set up houses for them, use tonka cars for their modes of transportation, have weddings, funerals and even birthday parties for them. Families would all have names and they would some how always be related. The children would grow up, get married and have families of their own.


Now, remember there are almost five years between my brother and myself, so he would have been about 5 or 6 when we played this game. I would have been about ten or eleven. Hell, I remember playing this game when I was 13 or 14 even!


okay, that is too much information....

A Little of Nothing

Not posted in a while, but been pretty busy actually. Adam had clinic last week , so it was a day in the hospital, and then with the weather being bad last week as well and missing work I had a lot of work to catch up on.

We had a crazy ice/snow storm last week, and the drive home which normally takes me 30-45 minutes depending on the traffic took me 4 hours! Yes, FOUR HOURS. It was just crazy. Fortunately by the next morning things were cleaned up at least a little better and it only took me ab hour to get to work.

Adam goes back into the hospital Wednesday-Friday for his next round of chemo and things are going as expected there. He is doing okay, just really tired and is beginning to actually look sick. I think the chemo is finally taking it's toll on him. You can read more updates about his progress on his blog Adam's Journey. Tomorrow is his 16th birthday and I am planning to post a retrospective entry. We celebrated his birthday Saturday, with lunch with Erin at Red Lobster and then Dave and Busters with Silver and his son.

Well that's about it for now, nothing real exciting to share, but make sure you come back, I know soon something will stir around here. It can not go this long without some kind of excitement!!

Let it Snow

Home again today. Two days in a row due to the weather. Yesterday we received about 4 inches of the white stuff, then last night freezing rain headed in as it rained most of the night, adding about an inch of ice to what was already on the ground. Now this morning I awaoke at 5:55 a.m. and looked outside to a sheet of ice in our parking lot, and freezing rain still falling from the sky.

By 7:00 a.m., the ice was now snow again and they are saying that we could see another 4-6 inches of this stuff on top of what we already have. Due to the ice there are broken tree limbs and yes, power lines down all over the place. We are currently on a level 3 snow emergency, so that means, no one is to be on the roads.

I am not getting out, so I say...

Let it Snow!

Long Week...

It's been a very long week. Monday was a holiday, so that was a plus, thanks to Martin Luther King! But from that point on this week has seemed to have flown by. Tuesday we moved into our new office at work. It is very nice and accommodating, and has all the amenities one would need for a safe, pleasant and enjoyable work experience. At least it will have once all the kinks have been worked out. With a move of that magnitude there were some issues. Mostly electrical and to do with our IT Department. Overall they have done a tremendous job, it's just somewhat unsettling this week at work.

Thursday Adam had to be admitted back into the hospital for his third session of chemo, and that was an ALL day extravaganza. See his blog for his current status. Friday night I stayed all night at the hospital with him, and yesterday was a half work day, and then home. It really seems like home has not been a place where I have spent much time this past week.

We did receive some good new this week. Adam was selected for the Make-a-Wish foundation and he gets to make a wish, and it is granted. Well besides a car, he already asked and they don't give those as gifts. He is currently looking at a possible Hawaii vacation for himself, his mother, stepfather, myself, Dan and his brother J2. Once his treatments are completed he will make the decision and finalization will be made. We are looking to the future and this makes it a little brighter for all of us, especially Adam.

Ninety-Five Days

95 days is the amount of days that I have been smoke free! Yes, I have actually stopped smoking! I have not said much about it on the blog as I did not want to jinx myself, but I really feel I have quit once and for all!

No, my son being diagnosed with cancer did not prompt this move, I had decided long before we knew about that to quit. It was just becoming an obsession with me. Every time I got into my car, I lit up. Every time i ate, after eating I lit up. While playing on the computer (which is almost 24/7) I would light up. I was up to smoking two packs a day. Not only was it an obsession, it was truly effecting me in ways I knew, but didn't want to see.

I would walk up the three flights of steps to get to my apartment and I would be out of breath. I was diagnosed with diabetes last year, and you can not tell me that smoking did not contribute to that. I felt tired all the time, and food was disgusting...well not that disgusting.

It is amazing how better I feel and how much better food tastes. And I don't smell like an old nasty ashtray anymore. Now I am called a born-again non smoker, as I can not even handle the smell of it.

How did I do it? I'd like to say I did it through my own will power, but unfortunately I had to have a little help. I call them my happy pills. Wellbutrin, really helped me overcome the desire and the cravings for the tobacco. Hey whatever it takes, right?

Thomas the Train

Saturday night I received a lesson in engines. Train engines that is. From my two-year old grandson. I learnt all about Thomas, James, Gordan and Henry, just to name a few! It amazes me that a two year old is so engrossed in a cartoon show.

But then that should not surprise me that much, I mean it was Sesame Street in my day, now it is Thomas the Train and Spongebob Square pants.

My Grandson let me know right away when he arrived at my home what our agenda was going to be. When I turned on TV it was on HLN (Headline News). His response to the was..."What this crap?" and then was proceeded with.."We watch Thomas!" Wherein at that point he pulled out his DVD collection.

Yes, Thomas the Train it was.

I See Dead People...

In my dreams. Not like right now, here in front of me, but in my dreams. The last week or so I have been dreaming about people I once knew that are now dead. In my dreams they are not dead and it is not a dream where it happened before they died, but in the current time. I am the age I am now, regardless of how old I was when they actually died.

Normally dreams are not a big deal to me, but many times I have had dreams of loved ones that have died, and then I hear that they actually have died, like a premonition. But these are different types of dreams, these are of people that are already dead, some of them for a very long time. So I decided I needed to have these dreams interpreted, so off to the world wide web!

Each link I found regarding dreaming of dead people, told me a different reason as to why I was seeing dead people in my dreams. Some said that it was my mind telling me I no longer needed these people or the relationship I once had. No shit?! They are dead, I certainly do not have a relationship with these people any longer.

Another said that I was dreaming of these dead people to warn me not to make the same mistakes they did. Okay...one lady was killed by her husband, another lived to be 92, what mistakes did they make that I need to avoid? Living to be 92 or being with a psychotic?

Overall after reading these many interpretations of why we dream of dead people I come to the conclusion that no one really knows why. So I am going to take my grandmother's interpretation (yes, she is now dead, and yes she was one of the people I dreamed about) She always told me that "When you dream of someone who has died, they are just paying you a visit."

I know that sound kind of eery, but I like it.

2009 Update

I know it has been a month since my last real post, however with Adam's diagnosis and hospital visits, the holidays and moving, time has just not allowed me to post as much as I would like. So for a quick update...

ADAM: He is doing very well. He has had two sessions of chemo already and is tolerating them extremely well. The tumors have already went down considerably. At least the ones we can see, the ones in the lung we are not sure of yet. A pet scan is going to be done on the 12th of January and once we get the results we will know if the chemo is doing what it is supposed to be doing. You can follow his journey with Hodgkins at his blog ADAM'S JOURNEY

HOLIDAYS: The same as last year only we are all another year older. Actually Christmas was very nice and it was good to have all the family together again. My daughter came down from Columbus on Christmas Eve, so all four of my kids were here as were my grand kids. It was very nice. DJ and i did not exchange gifts this year, however we did buy some new rings for one another. they are titanium carbide, and look very nice with one single diamond in the center. This is the first time in the almost 9 years we have been together that we have really nice rings.
New Years was uneventful, well not really, but i can not share right now. I will let you know in a few days what the "secret" is. We had a little get together New Years Eve with DJ's family, which is always nice. I enjoy his family and the bond they seem to have. It is good to bring in the new year with them.

MOVING: Yes, we have moved again. Just down the street into a two bedroom apartment. With Adam spending more and more time with us, I felt it was time to get him and J2 their own room to share when they are here. The place is very nice and has not only two bedrooms but two baths as well! That is almost a necessity with four "almost" men in the house.

Welcome 2009!