Photo frenzy

I'm playing catch up with my photos before things really start getting hectic around here. Why, you ask. Because I'm going to grad school, people. (See the cute pens and notebooks? I LOVE school supplies!) I decided I didn't have enough on my plate with a full-time job, a toddler and a husband, who happens to have cancer...

Seriously though, I'm taking a full graduate course load in elementary education at the University of Central Florida. Two of them are online, so I only have to go to campus once a week. And man, on the first day of class, being surrounded by all those young co-eds sure made me feel like a granny.

I had to rearrange my work schedule a bit, and give up my Sundays off -- my only day off with my family -- to make it work. That is going to kill me, I know. But hopefully at the end of the semester, I can switch back. I was hoping to cut my hours at work, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.

But this is something I really have to do. I've been miserable in my job for the past four years. It's starting to get to the point where I don't even recognize myself anymore. I kick myself for letting it go on so long, but sometimes, life is just happening all around you and there's no time to stop and think about it. It's not that I don't still love journalism, it's that I don't like the environment I'm in right now, and I especially don't like working nights, weekends and holidays. It's really hard to do that and be a mom.

So I decided to stop complaining and start doing. And here we are. Hopefully, I can wrap up my degree in two or two-and-a-half years, so that when I can be on the same schedule as Julia when she goes off to school. Wish us luck!

More good news

Mike had scans last week and after an excruciating wait, we finally got the phone call from the doctor. Things look good!! The lump in his neck shrunk from 3.2 cm to 2 cm and the largest spot in his chest shrunk from 3.2 cm to 2.7 cm. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds significant to me.

There's a spot on Mike's liver that his doctor has been monitoring. He says it's tiny. But it grew 3 mm. Dr. Neel says it's not a major concern in the grand scheme of things. In fact, the liver was not scanned back in June when Mike started back to treatment. He only has April scans for comparison and in that time, things got worse, then got better. So it may have actually been bigger. If that makes any sense.

We're not too crazy to hear about any spots getting bigger, but overall, the picture looks good. Mike is continuing with a half-hour treatment of Avastin every other week, and is handling it pretty well. We see Dr. Neel at the end of September and plan to talk to him more about the situation in the liver. But the way it was explained before is that the primary cancer (as close as they can tell) is that in the neck and chest and that would have to grow before it grows in other places.

Anyway, I've been saying thank you to God for whatever bit of good news we can get. And thank you for all of your prayers.

Baby bumps

My friend KrisWiseMaramba (all one word, just like that) has gone and gotten herself knocked up. Finally. I couldn't be happier for her and Philip. Or for me, because it meant getting rid of those old maternity clothes once and for all!

So Philip posted a super cute picture of Kris' tiny baby bump, while she was wearing one of the dresses I sent.



That was my favorite maternity outfit, and toward the end, the only one that would fit me. I wore it every other day. But as my due date approached, I could no longer wear cute strappy heels with it because my feet and ankles had tripled in size. I wore ballet slippers. To work.

Anyway, Kris and I have been friends for years. We are so much alike it is scary. We are both only children, which we think make us superior beings. And we are also serious smart asses. Neither of us really like people. Which is why we like each other. So it cracked me up when I found this photo Mike took of me, wearing the same dress, standing in the same pose. Only I was much much much further along than she.



So rest assured KrisWiseMaramba, that dress has plenty of stretch!!!

Giving props to preps

(Photo by Craig Rubadoux, FLORIDA TODAY)

Check out my super cute sportswriter husband! And his co-worker Brian (who isn't too bad himself). Mike may kill me for posting this but the editor of our newspaper wrote a column about this super preps duo on the eve of the super-busy football season. Check it out here.

Happy, happy

These pictures make my heart happy. How cute is my girl?
I just want to eat her up.







These pictures were taken by my co-worker and friend Andrew, who happens to be a really good photographer. Check him out. He mostly shoots cool storm photos and shuttle launches and Florida wildlife and the like. I tried to convince him that if he really wants street cred, he needed to shoot a toddler. And he took me up on it! The plan was to get photos outside, but of course, it was gray and stormy. I think Julia charmed him though, because he's going to come back on a sunny day and take some more pics...

(I'm choosing not to publish the photo of Julia with her finger up her nose, but it does exist, and I will keep it for blackmail purposes in the teen years.)