Happy New Year! We are so excited for a new year, we celebrated the night away! I had part of my liver removed the day before, and thanks to morphine was feeling no pain! Paul, Tyler, Levi and I went to Sarah and Eric's. We played games, did a photo shoot, and totally trashed her living room at midnight with confetti and silly string. Then we danced in a train through the house, out the door, and to the park. It was crazy fun. We laughed so much and were all so happy. I was so full of joy that night...the cancer was removed, they got it all FO SHO! Thank God...2010 was over!!! I am cancer free and ready to start a very happy new year. It's funny, people just say, "happy new year!" But for me, it isn't a mere cliche statement, I was saying and FEELING it with all of my heart and soul! lol.
I have so very much to write and post.
I am so far behind. I will explain with

my next post. This draft has been on my computer for about 3 weeks now and I finally have the time/energy to finish it and get it out there to you.

That's enough for tonight, my pain pills are kicking in. I am happy I finally finished this post! From the bottom of my heart HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY New Year to you :)

Well, I was the life of the party all right! 1 glass of wine and I fell asleep. hahha. Guess radiation is starting to kick my butt. I am so tired all of the time. So I have a medical update: I now have 2 metastatic tumors in my liver. It was quite a shocker. I had a liver biopsy a couple of weeks ago, assumed it would just be fungus/histo again since that is where they found it 3 years ago. lol. We didn't tell anyone so we could have a joyful Christmas...which we did! Jessie got engaged last Thursday at the Clifton Mill lights display. Awwww, how romantic! I am sooooo happy for them, they were made for eachother. Zack is already my son anyway! Marriage will just be a formality. I have no doubt that my baby girl will always be taken care of and adored by him. And same for him. So anyway, I think these liver tumors are a blessing in disguise, because they are encapsulated and they can for sure get them totally out and the blessing is that they are going to test them with different chemos to see which one/s work. Hallelujah! No more guessing game. Watch out thymic cells, I am going to kill you off for good this time! I have joy in my heart that they found a surgical oncologist to do the operation so quickly. Guess it was good I worked there for 10 years. Actually, all the credit goes to AMAZING Dr. M! He was on vacation through all of this and came in on his days off to see me and handle all of this. He personally spoke with other physicians and made this happen. I love that man!!! He is my angel, and I pray often for God to bless his mind & heart and to work through his hands. Enough on all the cancer crap! I have to get to bed, I am being admitted to the hospital tomorrow early am and surgery is Thursday at 2:30 pm. So if you happen to think of me at that time please say a little prayer for no complications. I am a little nervous because my blood is thin right now, so I hope I don't have any bleeding issues. I try really hard to cast my cares on God (psalm 55:22) but I know too much as a nurse. lol.

I can't believe it's Dec 17th already. One week till Christmas eve. I love this holiday so very much, excitement is rushing through my soul! I am so thankful for this beautiful life God gave to me, and for the guarantee of my next one, thanks to sweet lil baby Jesus! It is just such a happy, joyful celebration! Speaking of joy, we have a party to go to tonight! Paul's sister Lisa had planned a party for her son, Tobi, coming home from where he is stationed in Louisiana, but at the last minute his leave was denied. Which sucks so bad, we miss Tobi so much! But, she is still going to have some people over, and she was basically begging me and Paul to still come. She's worried it will be boring. WHAT? Boring with Janet in the house! hahaha. So, today after my radiation, 1st I'm having lunch with Jill. Then I am on a mission!!! heeheehee. I am going to the Salvation Army thrift store to buy the ugliest most ho-ho-ho-rendous Christmas sweaters I can find for myself and Paulie. Funny sidenote, one time Jill and I went thrifting there, and her daughter Rachel was with us and said, "Isn't this the place where veterans shop?" Bahahaha. Woweee, really Rach?! We laughed so hard! She is soooo blonde! She got a huge eye opener that day, was a far stretch from Hollister! Anywho, I also have a karaoke machine I borrowed from Greg. My vision is to walk into Lisa's house with music blaring and me singing, "I'm coming up so you better get this party started!" (By Pink) And let me tell you, I have a beautiful singing voice! Especially since radiation has destroyed my vocal cords and I am permanently raspy. I can make it really low though, ya know, like the guy who sings the Grinch song! Hmmm, maybe I will sing that one next! "And the three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote, STINK! STANK! STUNK!" Thanks Dakota, now I know those words by heart! Hahaha, Paul just told me to look for some old school plaid party pants too. I am giggling out loud right this very minute! So, I have all kinds of tricks up my sleeves for tonight... dance-off for sure, (Considering the older crowd I'm pretty sure I will win!) singing competition, taboo, etc. Should be so much fun. I just love parties. Nothing gets any better than having fun with the ones you love! Well, I have to go...too much to do today! HOLY CRAP! Paul just told me he is going to shave the top of his head to leave a big ol hula skirt! HAHAHAHA. I love it that he wants to get into character! I wish the back and sides were longer so it would be a really good hula skirt! Thats great, he's gonna look like Chester the molester with his dyke date. hmmm...i may just have to pull out one of my wigs. At least for the grand entrance. lol. CANNOT WAIT. Woop Woop! I'm gonna be singing Pink all day! :0) Have a wonderful weekend! God bless!

So, top picture is my lil bean! Isn't it precious? Our little grandbaby!!! Woop! Woop! It actually looks like a little monkey. When we were gettting the ultrasound I said, "Jess, look... it has little alligator arms and its waving at grammie!" As I did my own imitation. I don't think she thought it was as funny as I did. heehee. And I keep trying to kiss it goodnight and talk to it, she says I am a freak and to leave her belly alone. I love it so much! Btw, Amy, I got the date wrong, she's due June 25th, so looks like we are on a race! I think it is awesome we are going to be grannies at the same time! Will be fun to be going through the same journey together. OK, so the next 3 pictures are hilarious. Let me preface this by telling you that I am a Christmas psycho! It's my favorite holiday (and Easter) for obvious reasons... thank you God for sweet baby Jesus! Well, at our old house we had 10 or 12 ft ceilings, and I ALWAYS got the biggest, fattest tree that would make our huge rooms look small! I had always dreamed of having a live tree since I was little, so, as many of you know... I don't do anything small... I tend to be a little extreme with decorations, parties, etc. I always go way overboard. So, now at this house we have 8 ft ceilings, and the past 2 years have not felt like Christmas with my Charlie Brown trees. I was on a mission this yr. I am not going to let a house structure steal my joy for large trees! I had finally convinced myself that short was ok. I can no longer have an 11 ft tree. I said to myself, " Self, you are just going to have to make up for height with width!" Yay, I figured it out! But as I shopped, all the 7-8 ft trees were so horribly skinny and pathetic. Then, I saw it, there she was! Fate brought us together, it was love at first sight. The only 12 ft tree they had! It was magnificent! And there was so much stump on the bottom. Paul could just take his chain saw there to trim it down. PERFECT! Btw, Paul is actually Scrooge! hahaha. I drive him CRAZY with my Christmas shennanigans and singing and excitement. I tend to be a little obnoxious about it all. He just takes a deep breath and says, yes dear with my ridiculous requests, or just rolls his eyes at me. But, this year he promised to help with decorating and to be filled with joy about it. (I love the cancer card, heehee) So, I made the purchase and he went to pick it up. 1st pic is Zack, who is 6'4" holding my beloved tree. 2nd pic, Paulie starts widdling away and this is the first attempt to get it in the house. First of many as Paul quickly lost his "joy". HAHAHA. I believe that this pic is when the 1st hole was made through the ceiling. But, we finally got it in and decorated after 2 holes were made through the ceiling (quick fix-lol) and we ended up having to cut both the top and bottom off. So I fixed the top with my bush trimmers in order to reshape it back to the original tree shape. There were so many pine branches in our living room, Paul said it looked like a forest in there. But we did it, and I'll bet you that I have the FATTEST tree any of you have ever seen! It is 6 feet fat! YAY!

The bottom picture is on OSU/MICH game day. I spent it with my sissy and brothers and the rest of my family, except Don, he had to work :( Left to right.... Jillie, David, me, and Doug. We had so much fun. Okie dokie, got to go. I am dying my silver hair 2day! I finally have enough, I think, without staining my scalp. We will find out! lol

Congratulations jess and zach!!!


I am going to be a granny! I am finally allowed to tell. I am so excited, my baby girl is going to be the best little mamma ever! And Zach is going to be the bestest daddy. I love him so much and I am thankful that he is part of our family. Jessie is due July 4th! What??? I told her she better not have it on the 4th, because we will be out on the boat at Indian Lake watching fireworks. lol. She already had an ultrasound and I saw our litlle "bean". He or she is going to be Beautiful!!! They both have blonde, curly hair and blue eyes. I mean Zach has a FRO when his hair is long and eyelashes that just about touch his forehead! I cannot wait to meet that little face and kiss and hold and smell it. This little soul is going to be so adored and loved! WOW, my bg (baby girl-thats what i call jessie) is preggers! We have our 1st OB visit today. Can't wait! Since Zach is finishing up his last yr at college I'm going to go with her. Thank you God for this amazing, PRECIOUS gift! New life is so wonderful! I will update you on our little bean as we move toward july!

Wellllllll, what a weekend! My best friend, Laura, came to visit from the Akron area. We were so excited to spend time together and catch up. She arrived Friday night, with her son (Levi's best friend since birth) Connor. We were both tired, so we stayed in. Saturday...let's go window shopping! Laura has never been to Ikea, wohoo! We had plans to come home and take Levi to his football banquet, go to Sarah's housewarming party, church the next morning. We set out on I-75 southbound. Free from the boys, singing our hearts out to Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas," Clay Aikin's "Don't Save it all for Christmas Day," etc., feeling like fun, silly teen girls. Paul was to leave at noon to go to his nephew's 30th birthday party, we would be back by 1pm. The boys would be fine for 1hr by themselves, right?! So we get south of Dayton, dead stopped traffic for an hr, should have been our first sign to turn around and go home! But nooo, we can get there and speed shop. So after FINALLY getting there after much singing, we wonder through Ikea. I don't know if you have been there, but we are talking 2 floors, a mall in itself really. And, instead of following the arrows, we turn off to another section. Therefore, now we are lost. My cell phone rings, it's home. I am thinking, gosh, can't I just have a couple hours? So, I ignore it. It rings again, grrr. I answer, and on the other end I hear my little boy hysterical, can't understand him. Great, I am the worst mom ever! Oh my gosh, I am in fricking Cincinnati and Paul already left for the party. I call my friend Sarah who lives less than a mile from my house. She rushes over, Gus (our 3 legged amputee) had snapped at him and caught his bottom eyelid and ripped it all the way through right at the inner corner. THANK GOD FOR SARAH & ERIC!!! After turning white and gray, passing out a couple of times, and being clammy they rush him to the ER. Meanwhile I contacted Paul and he met them there. To make a long story shorter, we ended up at Childrens and having plastic surgery! His lacrimal duct was spared, thank God. The Dr. said it was 1/10th of a mm from being torn, which would have been very bad. So, now we have a tripod and a cyclopse! lol. That's Eric's line. Not really funny, I guess. But I was laughing all day yesterday, because I do have a little Stevie Wonder now. Levi "couldn't" open either eye, so he used a cane to feel his way around the house and I was also his lead/seeing eye companion. heehee. So, basketball season is now over for us and Levi is barred from gym/contact sports for 6 wks, ugh! That kid loves and needs to be physically active. But I'm just thankful that it wasn't worse. It could have been really bad. BTW, we think that Gus, who is the sweetest, most affectionate dog in the world, was just trying to warn him and protect himself. He hadn't had any pain medicine, and Levi went to lie down with him, must have hit his wound. Connor fessed up later that Levi had also been antagonizing Gus & rough housing with him. But, I am not cool with any aggression in a dog. So we are going monitor him closely, and any further change in behavior or signs of aggression then he is gone. They said in the ER it was not an attack wound, looked like nip/warning that happened to catch his eyelid. So we will see. I think Gussy will be just fine. And I think Levi learned a lesson. I have been telling him since Gus's surgery to leave him alone & quit being rough with him. And poor Laura~ drove all the way here to spend the weekend with her son alone at my house. My middle name should be drama! lol. So, I start radiation today, lung fungus is all better, yay! CT last week no changes, life is good! I feel so different this year in regard to Thanksgiving. I feel profound gratefulness for my many blessings! Happy turkey day to you! p.s. Don't do it...black friday is soooo not worth it! hahaha

GREAT news!!! The biopsy was negative for cancer! Thank you God! That would have been really bad. It came back as fungus...remnant of the histoplasmosis I had 2 1/2 yrs ago. So, I have to get IV treatments through my port for 2 weeks to beat it back down. Then repeat CT, then start radiation/tomotherapy 2 wks from this coming Monday. I was in tears when I found out that I had to do IV amphotericin again, it was awful when I had it before...and I was having a panic attack about pushing back radiation. I am in REMISSION and I do NOT want the cancer to have a chance to grow again! But, I was a very sick girl back then when I got it before and I have gone through massive chemo treatments, this is just a bump in the road! lol. Got my 1st treatment yesterday at MVH, wasn't so bad. Just felt like I had the flu, and this morning I feel much better. Home health is coming tonight to "teach" Paul to do the infusions. He's a pro already! I swear, I do not know what I'd do without him, he is such an AMAZING human being. He does it all; works, takes care of the house, yard, dinner, kids, and me! And is so sweet about it, never complains or acts tired of it. He is very loving and makes me feel so protected.Anyway, Lisa, Paul's sister, talked to me and got me back on track (emotionally). I have to get back to... trust the Lord with ALL of your heart! I am just soooo thankful it is not cancer! Enough on that! So, our baby Gus is doing pretty good with just 3 legs. And Levi is gearing up for football all star tournament next weekend in Troy. Tyler is doing well at Ashland, all though he needs to text me more!!! I hope you are reading this Ty! I know you are busy, but I miss you!!! And I am going to get a poster size picture of us that says "mommy & me"! It better be hanging in your dorm room like you promised. lol. Jessi is doing well, she got a supervisor for grad school next fall, awesome! It will take her 2 yrs to finish, I am so proud of her. My other baby boy, Zack is studying hard at BG (his Sr. yr.)...not! He is taking a walking class and some other BS classes. Makes me laugh. Oh, and I am in the process of making a princess crown cake for Karson, her 5th b-day party is tonight! Actually Paul baked the cakes for me last night because I felt so yucky. Thank you saint Paul! I plan to decorate it today sometime. I am so bummed that I will miss the party tonight :( I hope the cake doesn't end up looking dumb. I watch all the cake boss, ace of cakes shows, and I have a vision in my head...hahaha. But I don't have fondant or other necessary supplies.People will probably be like, what the heck? Maybe it is a good thing I can't go. lol. I am exhausted from all of this typing, nap time for my grandma butt! BTW, Amy Ritchie! wow, so good to hear from you. I hope life is treating you well! I just love to hear from old friends. And Deaton, I miss you so much, sorry I haven't made it out to Greeneville... I will, I promise! I love you & I hope you are happy at your new job! Can't wait to catch up with you :)