A better day today!

Tom had a much better day today, and we are all so thankful for your constant prayers!

This morning Tom's parents arrived and Tom knew exactly who they were.  I got there and he knew me as well.  He was awake and alert, had gone to the bathroom (with assistance) and was asking for drinks of water.  Doc came in and spoke with us.  I asked to see the CT scan from Wednesday since I've seen all of Tom's previous scans, I wanted to see this latest one with my own eyes.  It wasn't pretty.  It was obvious to me (a non-expert reader of CT scans) seeing the big grey blobs where they shouldn't be.  They are all surrounding Tom's abdomen up and down his spine on the inside (not backside of his spine).  The melanoma is in the lymph system causing the nodes to swell significantly, which in turn, causes a great deal of pain and discomfort.  We're still trying to find a good pain management plan to help Tom feel better and not be so confused.

Tom took good naps today, and his best buds come up to visit.  He was in and out, but this afternoon he really had some fun with us.  Our real Tom came out giving the nurse a hard time, saying odd stuff, and realizing it, but making us all laugh.  I about pee'd my pants at one point.  He gave me a funny look trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with me, why I was laughing like that.  I told him he was being silly and making me laugh, and I thanked him for that.  A couple of times Tom woke and we could tell he wanted something.  When asked, he said, "My Mom...?"  Melt my heart!  He wanted his Mom!  Later in the afternoon he asked where his mom and dad were.  I explained they were here and they will be back in the morning, it's ok, get some rest.

This evening Jason and Ava arrived in town.  Nathan and Ava had fun meeting and being goofy together.  Ava had a long day traveling and she was getting tired of my camera. I loved seeing these two together!  Two of the cutest kids ever!!

Jason and Ava

what a Daddy's girl!

Ava is just 4 days older than Nathan, and lucky Ava seems to have inherited her Mama's height gene.  Poor Nate's Mama doesn't have this gene-make-up.

What a doll!  I am in love with her!

Nathan suddenly decided to give Ava an unexpected hug.

AWE!!!!

Ava's holding Nathan back from squirming.  Thanks for the help, darling!

Riding the tiger, yeah!!

Sweet little loves   xoxoxo

After everyone was gone, Nathan and I headed up to the hospital to see Daddy before we all went nite-nite. Nathan repeated what I reminded him.  "Dada sick," "Dada hurt," "Dada ha-pi-tal" (hospital).

Tom was glad to see little dude and Nathan was sure glad to see his Dada, too.  We stayed for a little bit, Nathan gave Daddy a nite-nite kiss and we headed back home.

Tomorrow Papa will come play with Nathan for a while, then Gma Sheila will pick up Nathan for lunch and nap before Auntie Sasha gets into town.  We'll have a busy weekend, but all bases are covered.  I'm looking forward to Jason coming up to see Tom.  He knows Jason is in town now and looking forward to seeing him as well.

Nite all.  Thanks for your wonderful prayers, and all the help that's been going on.  I appreciate and love you!

xoxo,
Roxanne

Violated

....that's what happened to me today.... I was violated. My personal property violated and stolen. Here's the story:

My friend Nikki was off of work today, so she and I (and Nathan) went out for a late lunch at a new-old restaurant. The new restaurant is Solea, a Mexican cuisine. The building is the old Gulliver's. Jamie will remember good ole Gulliver's! Solea has been open for about a month. The food was really good, and we had an enjoyable lunch-date. Nikki even fed Nathan his lunch. She's such a natural, she needs to have a little bundle next!! So we're walking out to my truck, which is parked in the first stall of the parking lot, right in front of the building. I open the back door and fasten Nathan's carseat in the base, just as Nikki says (from the passenger side of the vehicle) "Oh my gosh!" I could hear her plain as day, but she hadn't opened the door... I look up to see her in a frame of broken glass. Someone broke my passenger side front door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH is right!!!

My first reaction was that the car parked next to me, which wasn't there when I parked, somehow opened their door and the corner of their door busted out my window. I commented to get the liscence plate, but we look and there is no apparent damage to the body of the door or anything... Just then, Nikki looks up and notices my Garmin Nuvi GPS system is missing out of the front windshield. No SHIT! I couldn't believe my eyes!! Nothing like this has ever happened to me before! I just bought the dumb thing, and only bought it for the use of my business (Pampered Chef) for when I go to shows and am unfamiliar with addresses, and driving in the dark on unfamiliar roads. I only put it in my truck cuz it was kinda fun to see the familiar roads on the little screen. I really could care less about actually having one just to have one...I never got a chance to use it for the purpose I had intended when I bought it.

So we went back into Solea to make the necesary calls. First the cops, then husband, and then insurance. Tom couldn't believe it either. He told some guys at work and then called me back to tell me the guys said they had heard of these getting stolen, the theif finding the home address programed in the thing, then going to the house and robbing it. So now I'm really freaking out, tears streamimg, this is the last thing I want to worry about....I already felt so violated by my truck being broken into with a busted out window. Both my insurance guy and the cop said they hadn't heard of this kind of thing happening, and the kind of thiefs that steal these really aren't that smart. They steal them cuz they are an easy quick sell...$100 or so to get the drug/alcohol money they want. still... bastards!

Well, the Glass Doctor is coming out on Monday to replace the glass. At least it's only $100 deductible, but the feeling of being violated will probably never go away. When I do get a new Garmin, I won't EVER EVER EVER leave it visible in the windshield like that. So here's to warn you all if you have one of these devices..... DON'T LEAVE THEM IN VIEW! Even little old Neenah has hoodlums that will bust out your window just to get the darn thing.

It's just past 11:30 pm, and do you think I'm tired? Yes, I'm tired. But do you think I can sleep? I don't know, we'll see. Tom's working 2nd shift, he gets home around 1:30am. It's only a few more hours, but I'm leaving the kitchen light and living room lights on. Theo is home, so I know he will alert to anything or anyone attempting to come in the house. I don't think we have to worry, it's not like we have a big beautiful house or anything, but still, it's our home. If someone were to break in here, that kind of violation would hurt even worse.

I suppose... I suppose I should put my baby in his bassinett and lay my head on my own pillow.......

Good night,
Roxanne
.

First...

Hello loyal readers!I hope you are ready for a real doozy-of-a-story today. This weekend, I had my first uncontrollable emotional breakdown. You ready for this?

Well, first of all, I had a great weekend. The breakdown was just yesterday afternoon. Let's first recap my fun weekend... Our friends J & Nikki came to town with their dog, Daisy (Theo's girlfriend). Nikki and I did a little shopping Friday night, then Sat the guys went disc golfing for Jeremy's bachelor party, and Nikki and I took a Totally Clear Acrylic Album 2 class at Archiver's.

We also did a little more bumming around before heading to my parents for a cookout. The dogs had so much fun running around outside, playing with eachother, barking at squirls running on the fence, and playing toys. They were SO pooped at night! Ok, so after J & Nikki left for home, I crashed out on the couch until it was time to meet my parents for a little shopping trip while they had an open house.

Here it comes.... After the shopping trip with my parents, I was on my way home and called Tom to let him know. In the same conversation, I warned him that I was feeling super crabby... and I was really hungary... but didn't know what for. Tom's appologetic, "I'm sorry babe" must have been my ticket to the breakdown cuz I just started sobbing, uncontrollably. I was SO hungary, SO crabby, and I didn't know what to eat. I wanted him to make up my mind for me and have something delicious waiting for me when I got home, but I couldn't get over myself. As Tom laughed at me, it only made the crying and uncontrollable sobbing worse! Not being able to pin point WHY I was so cranky, I sobbed even harder. I just couldn't handle it, I just wanted something TO EAT! ugh, is that so much to ask for?!! Against Tom's suggestion, I did not stop the car. I just wiped my eyes, with sobbing short breaths, and proceeded along my way, watching the traffic lights. Suddenly, a food idea crossed my mind--ARBY'S Rescue Brigade. As I started to speed up to get there as fast as possible, with tears still running down my face, I figured if I were to get pulled over it wouldn't be too hard to get out of the ticket. Just to think of an unsuspecting cop walking up to an emotional, pregnant lady balling her eyes out... he should let me go. Yeah, he would let me go--fast! So on to Arby's I went, got my food ordered with a half-way normal voice, kept my sunglasses on as I paid, and rushed home.

As soon as I got home, and ate my pick 5 for $6.95, I was feeling better. Didn't talk much, just ate, and Tom even gave me some much needed space/time to calm down. Thank goodness he didn't bring it up to me how crazy I probably sounded on the phone. He must have read something in his "father-to-be" book that instructed him what NOT to do in these cases. So there you have it, I had my first, unannouced, uncontrollable emotional breakdown. Thank you, baby, this is so much fun...! LOL :)

I hope you all got a good kick out of my first experience with this. You're probably recalling your first breakdown. I'd love to hear about your story! Please?! Then I'll know that I'm not the only one, and it IS normal... :) *HUGS*

The Surprise!

This past weekend was the ever-anticipated SURPRISE 35th BDAY for J De Los Santos! His wife, my dear friend, Nikki, had been planning this event for the past few months. She got Tom in on being a con for the whole surprise leading J right to the event! Tom had so much fun feeding J lines on the phone setting him up for the weekend, for which he had NO CLUE anything was up!

Surprise #1 was the arrival J's "present" which had been on backorder (this is the 'story') and the tracking that Nikki got didn't have a valid link in the email to know when it would arrive. We were expecting a phone call about 10am Saturday from Nikki's mom at the bar saying the "present" had arrived. When the phone rang at 9:15am, we looked at eachother with eyes the size of pizza's! They were here - uh-hum, I mean "it" was here!

We (me, Tom, J and Nikki) walked down to the bar to get the present, but J had to be blind folded walking up the driveway and into the bar. Nikki got into her position behind the bar with her camera and Tom stood next to her with the DVD video camera, while Diana (Nikki's mom) and I walked J into the bar. He was sat on a seat right next to and facing "the present." When the blindfold came off, and a familiar voice charmed, J's face lit up like a the NY Times Square Christmas tree! It wasn't just ANY present, it was his best friend Jason! (or 'breast friend' as it was later pronounced throughout the night). Jason made the journey up from Atlanta, GA to surprise J for his birthday. What a great present!! After breakfast, the guys (J, Tom, Jason and Ryan) went disc-golfing to a new course about an hour away. Tom knew he had to get J back to the bar by about 4pm for the second surprise... a party! Tom had faked phone calls with me, took their time golfing, drove the speed limit, and even stopped to buy fireworks on the way back to the bar.

In the meantime, Nikki and I prepared a spread of food, including a birthday cake complete with a set of 3D boobs!! hahaa...Too funny! We got showered and decorated a little just in time to sit for a minute with guests when the boys drove up....

Surprise #2 was The Party!! We had balloons blown up in two big garbage bags, which were thrown in the air on top of J as he walked into the bar and we all screamed HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Again, he had the grandest smile on his face and I think he was floored by his wonderful wife's preparation to give him a wonderful birthday!! Lots of food was consumed, the pickles were especially juicy, and I enjoyed talking with J's step-mom about babies, cookies and my crab dip that she loved.

As you can imagine, the party started early, with surprise #2 around 4pm.... beer already consumed on the disc-gold course, and even more beer to be consumed throughout the night... I got quite the kick out of watching my friends get more and more drunk, slurring words, attempting to make sense, and showing off their skills to the video camera as I chuckle with a smile and agree with whatever they say. no point to really 'discuss' anything at this point for fear of a debate... haha! Around 11pm everyone decided it was time to light off the fireworks. They were really pretty, loud, and a ton of fun. I got video of some of them, with shots of the guys across the parking lot deciding which to light off, or lighting 3 at a time. Some people got really cool snap-shots of the fireworks. I have a couple here, and also some other fun, random shots I caught!!

J putting on his light-up glasses

The wife who planned, organized, and pulled off a Surprise Party for her hunny!

The Three Amigos... J, Tom, and Jason... taking shots (and not the only one of the night...)

Kristen (taking a "break" from the beer) and myself (the ONLY sober one)

Cool fireworks! (and loud, too)

This is just funny! J was eating one of his "boobs" from his cake, Tom is video taping him, and Jason is in the background with TWO beers in ONE hand! Talk about some talented men! :)

The party eventually made it's way back down J & Nikki's backyard for a bon-fire. I was ready to crash (like 5 hrs ago), but I managed to keep my eyes open and my head up. After catching some random babble at the bon-fire on the video camera, I called it a night. I think it was around 1am when I went to bed. Tom said he crashed in bed about 3am, and the birthday boy, wifey and Dave were up until 5am! I woke up at 9am ready to pack up and get to McDonald's in Crivitz (an hour away) for a breakfast sandwich before they start serving lunch. Soon after I was up, everyone started moving around the house....slowly. hehe :) As the morning went on, breakfast plans changed so we could spend the last few minutes with Jason and Ryan before they had to head back to Neenah, and onto Milwaukee to catch Jason's flight home.

Once Tom and I got home, I was pretty tired, so after getting laundry and the dishwasher started, I took a 2-hr nap and it felt great! We both would love to have at least one more day for the weekend, as I am sure the rest of the party would as well! :) All in all, it was a fun weekend full of surprise and enjoyment!