whewww!

Had a really busy weekend. Lots of projects around the house and for the first time in quite some time...we got most of them done. The biggest job on the agenda was remulching our beds and putting in an edge border. Normally I'm not a huge fan of the borders because they're always cracked, kinked and otherwise unsightly. In spite of this - I purchased 160' of said border and went to work.

My mom and dad came down and helped me plant about 20 perennials in a bed just off our back deck. Kris and I are really happy with the outcome which was capped off with an evening water courtesy of our rain barrel.

Here are three pics from the weekend festivities. I'm just happy that I was able to keep my energy up enough to be a useful helper.

Followup

1. Cardiologist appointment at 8a - I gotta figure out why I'm so short of breath.

This visit included an EKG (normal), Heart Ultrasound (will be read next week) and a further diagnosis of anxiety. I like this guy (Dr. Kourany), I feel like he listens and is compassionate. I still think there is something going on that both the Cardiologist and Oncologist are missing, but would agree that the anxiety is probably affecting my overall health.

2. Pull Maris' room apart and paint the remaining walls blue.

Complete. Well, I actually still have one wall to complete but I ran out of paint. It looks sooooo much better and brighter. Hard to believe my little girl is growing up so fast.

3. Laundry - Holy crap do I produce a lot of funky clothes.

Sorta, I got a lot of loads done, but none of them folded. Right now I have three baskets of clean clothes getting more wrinkled by the minute. Kris and the kids just headed to the pool so I should probably revisit the laundry.

4. Lunch

Sorta, Kris brought a Jimmy John's sandwich home with her, but it wasn't until 2 so I had already eaten. I think I may revisit said sandwich in a minute.

5. Run to Fuseks for some hardware...man do I like hardware (slide locks, trimmer line, etc)

After my cardiologist appointment, Kris and I went to visit a new daycare for Eli that better suits his needs. It was a great trip and worth of a blog entry on its own. After this visit, I ran to Fusek's True Value and purchased hardware.

6. Dog food. Apparently pets like to eat. Check for Koi or large comets.

Thank you Kristin for picking this up. Apparently holistic dog food is affected by the flooding and corn futures pricing. Our dog food is now $50 per bag! I'll be picking up 10 comets for my mom tomorrow morning before we head up there for lunch.

7. Clean out frog aquarium (he was sent to my Ma's pond for a more spacious abode)

Yeah, this didn't happen.

8. Eye doc appointment. (Ocular health is an important indicator in your overall health).

This did happen. Turns out my meds may be causing me to retain some water in my ocular cavity and thus are causing my left eye to show signs of Glaucoma. Too early to tell, but I'll be back in a month for further testing to see how good or bad the news is. They even talked about doing an eye ultrasound - I'm sure that'll feel good and be cheap ;-). If there is any good news, a diagnosis of Leukemia prepares you for pretty much any news so I'm not terribly upset about it.

9. Home, prepare dinner for the thundering herd.

We got word Thursday night that we had a showing request for 5:30 on Friday. So we cleaned up, packed up the kids, dogs and toys for the trip to my mom and dad's. Dinner was burgers and the running joke is to put mini-carrots in the cheetos bag as to fool unsuspecting snackers.

10. Pass out.

Mission accomplished.

Gotta go - Macaroni and cheese special on Food Network. The winning dish looks to be a poach lobster/Mac n Cheese cake (a la crab cake).

Dresser: UPDATE

I think I mentioned that Kris and I found a cool, old Mid-Century modern bedroom set last week. Well, I spent most of last night updating it to Millenium-Modern and you can check it out...right...here...right...now!



If you're curious what it looked like before, you can see the unfinished taller version in the background of the picture. I stripped the old veneer off, veneered the drawer fronts with maple and painted the entire cabinet with a zero VOC organic paint (nothing too good for my daughter).There is still some work to do, but I'm really happy with the way it has turned out.

Coming soon: a pair of big girl beds.

eh.

Feeling pretty mediocre lately. Not horrible, just eh.

I'm just going to assume its my medicine mixed with anxiety and move forward.

The good news is...we were finally able to take a family trip in Edith. I don't have the pictures with me, but will get some posted later today. Kris and I loaded the kiddos into the new car seats and we hit the road for about a half hour on Saturday night. The car seats took some searching since booster seats for kids Eli's size rely heavily on the shoulder belt...something that doesn't exist in most cars pre-1980. We finally found a nice seat that Maris can use after Eli out grows it (he's got another 20 lbs to go). Eli and Maris were donning their pajamas and sunglasses for the event and it was a nice way to wrap up Kristin's birthday.

Also this weekend, Eli and I set up camp in the basement for two fun filled nights of sleeping in the tent and roughing it. I managed to find a nature CD online so that we could fall asleep to the sounds of the forest. Admittedly - the owls were a little creepy, but it helped it feel more authentic than sleeping in our backyard where the only nature you hear is some vagrant pissing on my fence.

My mom & dad are officially transitioning to Indy tomorrow. Their house is now empty and the POD will be picked up this afternoon some time. I believe their closing is Tuesday around 11 and they will hit the road to Indy shortly thereafter. Our entire family is really looking forward to having them here not just in the near term but for years to come.

Better get off to work.

I pee'd just a little.

when i watched this.

How in the world did John Stewart get W. to be on the show?

Had a good showing on the house this past weekend. Sounds like they loved the house and are going to make an offer...except they have no understanding of downtown property values. It sounds like we're only about $100K apart. Needless to say, we don't expect much to come of this.

It's nice to have continued interest in our home though admittedly, Kris and my motivation to move has dropped off significantly as we move into spring.

No news is good news.

All is seemingly quiet on the health front. Aside from a little funk and the inability to sleep more than three hours straight...feeling pretty good. I had a follow-up with the cardiologist yesterday and he gave me the all clear. Since getting the green light from him, Kristin and I promptly headed to Mug 'n Bun for corn dogs and root bear.

We continue to get showings on our home so that part of our life is promising and I think we've found a new home that will solve most of the problems we looking to clear up (schools, land, proximity to city, design, etc). Its a late 50s ranch on 2.6 acres only 8 miles from downtown. I probably like it a little more than Kristin does, but I think we could really turn it into home. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll get an offer on our home soon so we can get this one before somebody else does.

Some other good news is the Boilermakers made it past the first round of the NCAA tournament. It's pretty easy to be a Purdue fan because in most every sport, they are a hard working bunch that doesn't rely on superstars to carry them. Tonight they play Xavier and I'm not expecting a win, but give me some Popeye's chicken and the Boilers on TV and I'm set.

Speaking of TV, we had been downloading TV shows from iTunes for the Cayman trip and an unexpected side effect was that Eli likes the same cartoons I do. I had downloaded Road Runner and Pink Panther episodes for me and I'll be damned that he'd prefer watch Pink Panther over all the other choices. Sure is nice to have a 4 year-old with an old soul.

Boiler Up!

Movin' on up.

Whities - 3,500
ANC - 2,200
Hemaglobin - 13 (still a woman)
Hematacrit - 37.7
Platelets - 137,000

In spite of my increased Gleevec dosage, my numbers continue to creep toward the healthy range. I won't go back for two more weeks so don't expect a hematologic update any time soon...I know, you'll be on the edge of your chair waiting.

On the home front, Kris and the kids arrived home safely (but late) on Sunday night. I haven't seen too many pics yet so this one will have to do:

Apparently, one of Eli's new skills is the high five. It looks to me that he has mastered it and somehow managed to not catch salmonella from the ginormous sea turtle at the breeding farm. It sounds like much of the trip was spent in the sand, ocean and pool...though I'd be lying if I said it was all sunshine and sleeping. My wife is a trooper, one who has dealt with cancer of a spouse, running a successful business and now traveling out of the country with two kids under five (arguably her biggest challenge to date). I think I'll keep her.

We had two more showings on our house this weekend. I'm really happy we're getting the traffic and am hopeful that we'll see an offer in the next 90 days. Kris and I are going to look at two homes on Thursday, though right now we're not seeing anything we're too excited about.

I've got some more cool news (not health, house or family related), but need to find out if I'm allowed to put it out on the Interweb. Stay tuned.

One more day.

Wooo Hoooo! Kris and the kiddos get home tomorrow. At least, they're supposed to. Given the theatrics it took to get them to Cayman, I won't hold my breath until I actually see them. So far, its sounds like they had a pretty decent trip. Not terribly relaxing for mom, but Eli and Maris got to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grand-dad and hit the water several times a day. I should also mention that the low temperatures never dipped below 70 and generally stayed right at 82 during the day.

Turns out the fever that Maris had when she headed down was more than just a cold. They packed up and went to the Bodden Town clinic after a morning of crying and found out she had a mild upper respiratory infection and an ear infection. Some antibiotics and drops later and she seems as good a new.

My mom and dad left this morning after visiting for a couple days. It's great to have them here not only for cleaning ;-), but also for support. Now that our house is on the market, I can use all the help I can get keeping it clean for showings. Those two spent the better part of the day on Friday getting this place ship shape and it really showed. We had a showing this morning and have another one Sunday night from 6 - 7. We're glad that we're getting activity but we won't get too excited until we see an offer.

As for me, I'm just taking it easy and trying to stay healthy. I tend to be really sensitive to my body now and whenever I feel a little warm I worry that it will turn into a fever or chills that could send me back to the hospital. I probably need to just accept the fact that its harder for my body to regulate it's heat now which proves to be challenging for my wardrobe.

Better touch up a few things before tomorrow's showing.

Easy like Sunday morning.

Well, so far so good.

I'm hesitant to say that I'm feeling better for fear I'll jinx it - but truthfully, I feel pretty good. Had a little nausea this morning, but I think taking my meds after dinner has helped with my energy level and general well being.

I go in tomorrow for my weekly blood letting and on Tuesday to see my nurse practicioner for a checkup. Hopefully she'll also give me a break down on my new blood numbers. I generally go into the appointments assuming no change, no worse, no better. To date, I've been pleasantly surprised, but I'm sure there will be ups and downs. I don't think I'll get my first FISH (cellular level) test until May so it will hopefully be a lot more of the same for the next couple months.

Oh yeah, we got our first 'NOT A BILL' from Methodist for my five day stay. All I can say is, thank goodness for insurance. Our max out of pocket for the year is only $2K...and this visit was $17,000 for room, pharmacy, ER and lab services. I think this includes the bone marrow test as well - but who knows. I assume the doctors charges will be showing up shortly. Keep in mind we have not seen the bill for the MRI, CT, Ultrasounds, Nuke Meds, ECO, EKGs, blah, blah, blah. I'm guessing we're going to come up on $35K real quickly in the coming weeks.

Can't remember if I told all of you - but we are putting our house on the market this week. The realtor came by for about 2 hours yesterday and shot the first two floors. As a matter of fact, the exterior shots are already up at http://www.flockrealty.com (click on houses). Our basement is usually a wreck so we're working on that over the next couple days. It's a pretty terrible market to be selling an expensive home in an expensive 'hood - but if it doesn't go in six months, we'll just pull it off the market and wait until next year. We're not in any real hurry, but it would be nice to get some interest even if they're just lookers.

Kris and the kiddos are heading to Grand Cayman in a couple weeks and I'll miss them terribly. Right now, the activity in the house really keeps my spirits up and takes my mind off the illness. I'm sure I'll find something to do and we should be able to video chat across the gulf most every day. Luckily - she was able to get their flights to line up with her parents so they'll rendezvous in Charlotte and help manage the kids, car seats, toys, bags, etc.

The snow started to melt today and I'm really looking forward to spring since I can no longer regulate my body heat. I am pretty much always cold and have a new found sympathy for all the women at my office who sneak their space heaters under their desks.

Well, time to get Eli to bed, my best to all of you.