OOOHHH kAITY!

Today started out as most days with Zach saying "Mom ,Dad time to wake ups!" Ok we will be right there. "Come on Mom Dad wake ups"! After this was going on for about an hour , we did finally get up. We got our act together and got ready to go to church. When we were ready to go,I told Zach and Kaity to get in the car. I was getting my shoes on and then I went outside. As I approached the car I heard "DADDY DADDY, KAITY GOT A TOY STUCK IN THE CAR"! I looked at him and said "what do you mean stuck in the car and were is it stuck in the car" "It's in the key part"!I went and looked thinking it was a big bulky toy just sticking out of the key hole. I made my way to the car and I said KAAAAAAIIIIIITLLLLLLLLNNNNN, NOOOOOOOOOO, WHAT DID YOU DO! She had the plastic piece that was from Michael's graduation cupcakes in the keyhole. I thought maybe it is still intact. I pulled it out and half the stem part was missing. Again I say "KAAAIIIITTTLLLLLYYYNNN NOOOOOOOOOO, WHAT DID YOU DO!" She gets in my face and says something like na na da poo poo! So here we are all dressed up and no car to get into to go anywhere. Our neighbor and myself spent a good part of the day playing with the key hole to get this piece out. Sally called the lock smith and he said that he would come over in about 2 hours. We did finally get the lock open after we changed the battery for one of our remotes. We had to solder the metal part that holds the battery in also. We always had to play with it to get it to work because of this. After we did this it now works like a champ. when we got this done the hot son really done me in.Sally told me to go and lay down for awhile and she will wake me when the lock smith came. I woke up about 5 after laying down since about 2:30. I woke and Sally told me the guy never called or came. I guess I will call someone else. If he doesn't have the nerve to call and give us a reason why he couldn't come then he doesn't need our business.

Sally and I took Kaity and Zach to see Ice Age. It was Kaitys first time to a movie theater. We first went to the Kerosotes theater by the Target near West Field Mall.I went in and ask the good man for4 Ice Age tickets. He looked at me for a moment and said 'Sorry that's not playing here". I looked at Sally and said "What did you do" Before she can respond he said that it was playing across the street. The movie was going to start in about 5 minutes , so we scurried across the street as quickly as we could like there was a sale on Hostess cupcakes at Sam's Club. We got to the other theater and told the good lady 4 for Ice Age.I put up our 5 buck club cards on the counter. Expecting to pay 20 dollars for the 4 of us to see the movie with the use of the cards, the good lady chimes in and says that will be 12 dollars. I didn't say anything. I thought I better get the family in the theater fast before she realizes that she made a mistake possibly. I felt like that lady from the Ikea commercial. But only I was saying as we were going to the theater START THE MOVIE START THE MOVIE!I looked at the ticket stub and saw that we each also had a coupon for a free 46oz popcorn. Now I was waiting for the confetti and balloons come shooting down from the ceiling and someone announcing that I was the 1 millionth patron at the theater. That was not going to be. Sally and I said now we will go to that theater instead since it was so much cheaper that the other theaters. There are allot of restaurants in the area ,so it is perfect when we have date night.

Now for the movie. Before we actually got to the theater we went to Walgreens and got some theater sized candy. With the bounty we had I was all set. The movie was really cute and funny. One of the stars of the movie was Sid the Four Toed Sloth.I mentioned in an earlier blog that if I could be any animal I would want to be a Three Toed Sloth. So now I was looking forward to the movie. The one problem I had was that this sloth was pretty quick moving. They can only swim fairly fast but, very slow on land. I think the Motion Picture Association of America is sending the wrong message about sloths. The average Sloth could only move as fast as about .15 miles an hour.I feel there should have a disclaimer at the end of the movie stating there are some false information about the Sloth for special movie effects. I think Sloths everywhere should get together and write. They should write Hey, we are sloths we are very slow so slow in fact that algae will grow on us.That's all I am going to say about that.

Kaity enjoyed the movie and for the most part she was good.She was always talking during the movie. At one point I actually thought I heard her say, HEY, that's a Sloth they don't move that fast! She is so smart for her age. Zach was very quiet and totally into the movie and his gummys.I think he was waiting for a Dolphin to appear in the movie. So he can do his Dolphin noise.No, Dolphin I don't think he was to upset about that. At least not as upset as I was about the Sloth situation.

I am going to bed now. I have Chemo tomorrow and then working at 3pm. Thanks and God Bless.

I wanted to ask for prayers for a family in Highland. They lost there Dad this day (Saturday) and later in the day the there Garage blew up. Nobody died from this explosion. They had allot of pets that the Fireman saved. At this time they do not exactly know the cause except that it originated in the garage. The house will have to be razed and of course there isn't any more garage. Houses around this house have allot of damage too. So prayers are desperately needed for this family. Thank you!

Woo pah!!

As everyone who is a regular reader of my blog, I went back to work on Wednesday the 5th of August.Work has been going great, and everyday so far someone has come up to me and wished me well. I really appreciate all that.

I am still doing paper work, coming up with questions for new operators on the Metallizer and Dusenbery slitter.Then I have to type this all out.If anybody knows how fast I type, that in itself is a chore.I am a two finger pecker.It takes about 10 minutes for me to type na na da poo poo.

One of the days that I worked, the computer system was down. So I was asked if I wanted to I could go back to the Metallizer and work with them until the system came back up.So I took the chance and went to the machine to work with Dan B.and his shift. When we were getting ready to do the changeover,I went in my work bin to pull out my apron. It was the same apron I wore the last day I worked some 6 months ago.I just wanted to hug and hold it for awhile, but with Dan and Hector watching me I decided not to. I'll just wait until I am alone.It is the dirtiest and wrinkly looking apron, but it's is mine. I believe it was Hector who said we should have a memorial for it.At first I thought it was a good idea,but than I thought a memorial for it. I was thinking that is something you do if something dies. So I wasn't to keen on that. So instead we danced around the Metallizer singing woo pah and holding hands. Actually that didn't happen,but it would have been darn funny if it did. Maybe some other time.

Sally and I took Kaity and Zack to the splash pad at Wicker. It was a very fun time for the kids until Kaity fell down. Zach stayed in the splash pad and continued to run around like a kid who was being chased by his father because, he took the last piece of cake. Kaity wanted to come out and wanted to be comforted by her mom. The splash pad is open for two hours and closes for a half hour and open for two hours again. This starts at about 9:30 am and the last one is at 4 and ends at 6pm.When our time was up we went to Micky D's and got Hot Fudge Sundaes for everyone.(there only a dollar a real bargain) Before I left the drive up window I made sure that they were actually sundaes. I was thinking maybe they could slip in tartar sauce instead of ice cream or maybe old coffee grounds for the hot fudge. All I know is I won't order coffee from them anytime soon.

Sally and I and Kaity and Zach went to see Elvis impersonator on Thursday. It was really nice and I enjoyed it. Sally took the kids to the play ground. I stayed and watched the show.The only problem I had with it was that Elvis has allot of great songs and many of which were hits. Well anyway, I was wondering why he was playing other songs by other artist. It seemed like at the beginning of the show he was singing songs from Chuck Berry and Roy Orbison to name only a few. It was still a pretty good time.

I am doing really well with work and all. I think going back to work really helps with everything that's going on with me. It makes me feel allot better to be back. I am going to sign off and I will have another blog tomorrow. We took the kids to see Ice Age today and I will talk about that. Sally and I just got done watching a movie and it is late.So we are going to bed . We have Church in the morning and later going to my brother Mike's to go swim. So I am sure there will be things to talk about.

Thanks for visiting and God Bless.

A quick post for prayers

This a quick post asking for the safe return of a 14 year old little girl. I was at Central Park in Griffith with my Friend Hector and his Daughter Martha and my kids. We noticed a cop car come in the park looking around. Then a lady a few minutes later came up to us asking if we seen a little girl named reba. At that point she was missing for only about an half hour. Hopefully she was just trying to scare her parents because maybe she was mad at them for something. Obviously, by this ladys actions this is something that this little girl doesn't do. To give you a visual of the girl she has dark black hair and a light tan complexion. The picture wasn't a close up so this is all I can explain to you. Thank you , and God Bless.

I quick blog against my wife's wishes

This picture is from yesterday. My niece Stephanie went with us to the picnic yesterday. She was a huge help with the kids. I got to relax a little more while she chased around Kaity at the picnic.

I wanted to do a quick post of a few things that I forgot to mention yesterday. At the picnic they had a few guessing games .One was for the adults and one was for kids. The one for the kids was guess how much candy was in the jar. The adult game was guess how much money is in the jar. Well, I don't want to brag but, I was the one who won that game. I guessed $24.02 and there was $25 something in it. I was glad that I won that money. As soon as I got home the family and I went to Western Days at St Mary Church in Griffith. They had some games you can play for 35 cents a ticket or a bargain deal of 3 for a dollar. I spent all my efforts on trying to win a Gold Fish for Zach. Between Zach and I we went through all the money and all the money I found in the couch and car cushions. We still didn't win a freak n Gold Fish Zach wanted so desperately. It was only about $32.50 we lost.It was fun trying and it went to a good cause, the church.

At the picnic I was approached by An Avery Employee named Anne. I was never formally introduced to her. I just knew who she was because at the monthly meetings she had her own presentations to give. So I knew who she was but, with all the people at these meetings how would she know who I was unless we were introduced. To make a long story short, she came up to me and said,"Hi , Bill I'm Anne." She just started talking to me about my illness and wishing me well. It really made me feel good that a person that I really never meant and knew who I was, that was really special to me. She hasn't been in the Avery family long but, she made an impact on me, and God Bless her for that. She is a smart lady and I know she will be a good part of Avery. Thank you Anne for taking the time to wish me well.

I want to tell you of a little mishap that happened to me. I went to Strack and Van Tils (the official grocery store of Bill's Life with Cancer Blog) to get Sally a bag of ice for her Iced Tea Maker that Zach got her for her Birthday. I was turning the corner by the quick check out making a right turn. There I was greeted by a young chap making a very quick turn around with his cart. He clocked me with the corner of the cart in the belly , that I so much cherish. I said ohh h$&&*$*$*&^ nooo! Or something to that nature. To everybody that saw the cart assaulting my belly ,I probably sounded more like Charlie Brown's Teacher.

I really had a very good day. I love the heat and enjoy being outside. I felt good all day and had no issues. The only minor problem I had was I fell a sleep saying my prayers at O.L.G. Yes , I was tired due to the heat. I still really like it, I just need to be careful not to over do it and rest when my body tells me to and that goes double for my belly.

Thanks and God Bless you all.

The Ice Cream Bandit

This is Zach trying to climb up the wall during my companies picnic. I was there to give him a boost up. As much as I tried to help him ,up this is as far as he got. I felt bad that he was having such a hard time. I thought maybe have him on my shoulder and I would climb it myself. This thought didn't last long in my head. I told Zach lets go eat some ice cream.

I most of you are wondering how things are going since my return to work. Everything is going quite good. Now I am doing paper work. Everything I am doing is dealing with our work instructions and finding test questions for new operators for the Metallizer. To be honest it is hard to stay awake sometimes. Going back to work and waking up at 6am to be at work at 7am. I have to get used to do this. I am use to being up more around 9-10am. I have one more week of 7-3's than a week of 3-11's and one week of 11-7's. Hopefully after that I will be back in production. I do feel tired when I get home but I just need to rest more. It will take a little time but I know I will be like a fined tuned car in no time.

Like I mentioned today, was my companies picnic. I really love to go because, my kids really enjoy themselves. I like seeing the smiles on there faces. There was lots of food and games for all to enjoy.It was a really fun time and we all enjoyed it. We got permission to bring our niece Stephanie with us. We were watching her for the day and thought she would have fun there. She was real helpful in helping one of the workers with the kid games. I think she had a fun time and I know this because , she told me. Kaity was getting ice cream and I don't know all the time were she was getting it from. I know we have given her some ice cream our self but, a few time I don't know were she got it from. I asked Sally were is she getting the ice cream from. I know she can't get it her self because, the box the ice cream is in is on the middle of a table that she cannot reach herself and there isn't anything else she can hop on to reach her frozen treat. One time I watched her walk to were the ice cream was. I told Sally lets see what she does.She was just standing by the table with the ice cream on it not saying a word. She would just stand there and stare at people. Finally after a few minutes we saw one of the people that helped entertain the kids at the picnic reach into the box and pull out a drum stick and handed it to Kaity, mystery solved. I hope she at least said thank you.

I am glad Sally brought some extra change of cloths for Kaity. Before we were leaving for the picnic ,I saw Sally packing some cloths for her. It was ,what I thought a little excessive. I asked her if she was planning on having kaity spend the week at Stoney Run County Park. She said be quiet and get in the car, I know what I am doing. To be honest I am thankful she did bring all the cloths. After Kaity got done with all the ice cream she ate she needed to change her cloths a few times. So was this Divine intervention. NOOOOOOOOO,! It was Sally being a good mom and knowing what her daughter is capable of doing.

I will not be posting the blog daily anymore.With work and being with the family I will not have as much time anymore. I will at least for now be able to do some on the weekends during this month. When I go back to the machine , I will work some weekends and have more postings during the week. They definitely won't be daily anymore but may be a little longer and possibly posted earlier.

Thank You and God bless

Today was my first day back at work. It felt really good to see everyone and the warm reception that I got. It was hard to do my work cause of all the people coming to see me. It is so good to be back to work. I will be working days for two weeks(7-3) and then one week 3-11 and than a week of 11-7. Everyone on my machine are on 12 hour shifts but, I will be doing 8 hours for a month. After that I will talk with the plant nurse and two of the management people from my department. They will talk to me to see how everything went during that time. If everything goes the way I believe it will than I will go back into production.The work I did today was going over the test papers that new operators will be tested on to see how much they know about the machine and the process. I am also going over work instructions and ISO audits and compare them with the test. I am basically going over all this looking for flaws or updating this stuff. Its allot to go over but somebody has got to do it.

I want to thank Debbie K. and her daughter for getting my box spaghetti for me that I have been wanting for a while. After eating them I now realized why It has been so long since the last time I had them.

I am going to get off now. I have to get use to be back in the work force. I am getting really tired and need to be in bed soon. Now that I am back working I my not post daily. I will try and do my best but I know that it will be hard with work and still doing things with the family. I really love doing the blog and hope to continue doing it for a long time. I will try and have more pictures posted to add to the postings.

Thanks and God Bless.

This is my 184th post. This the last post before I return to work tomorrow at 7am.I am looking forward to it. I know that it will be hard ,cause I will miss the kids. I feel that I am more then ready to return to Avery Dennison. They have been in my opinion nothing but, A GREAT company to work for in my 5 years and 5 months that I been there. It bothers me when I hear some of the older employees complain about the company. All I know is they apparently haven't worked for other companies like I did. Yes, there is allot of pressure working there. Why wouldn't there be, when we our world wide and have allot of competition to beat. So we have to be at our best at all times never slacking.We do get some frills to show us that they appreciate our hard work. I worked at places that you would be lucky to get a thank you. Hopefully we will over come this economy crisis and the company will flourish again.I know the management is doing the best they can for the company. I know all the choices won't be popular but, right for the time. I went through the company starting out as a warehouse worker, than a floater operator yellow band in the metalure dept, Than a floater op. blue band and then asked to be a lead operator on the metalizer.I truly love my job and hope to be there for many more years.

Today I did allot of driving around getting a few things for Sally for her Birthday. I haven't been able to go out sooner cause of the past two weeks,with the graduation and yard sale. I first took all the kids to the Mall. We were there for a few hours and then I took the kids home and then I went out by myself. I had to go to my moms and went to say my daily prayers and went to a few more places. A few places that I went into I felt that I was being watched.I don't know for sure but, sensed that I may have been. I think that it is because of the pump that is under my shirt. It sticks out a little under my shirt so I am sure that it looks like there is something under my shirt.

I am going to tell you the best and the worst of myself personally dealing with cancer (now in remission). The worst is obviously having the Big C. Having chemo isn't to bad but, I hate going home with the pump. I have to have it for two days before it is taken out. I am very self conscience of it and afraid I will get the tubes caught on something. Which I have a few times but, have been lucky not to get them pulled out. I will stick the tubes in my pants so it really doesn't happen much. Being thirsty and not being able to have anything cold to drink. My mouth will it's kinda hard to explain will sorta throb and feel like I have a mouth of mints without the mint taste if that makes sense. I don't have a taste if what I put in my mouth is to cold. That includes Ice Cream or anything else that is refrigerated and not heated up. This feeling will start to taper off in a few days after the pump is removed. The feeling will be gone about 4 or 5 days before the next chemo session. My finger tips and feet are always numb. Not very severely but enough were it is bothersome sometimes. My feet If I am on them for long periods of time will feel like they are on fire. I have learned to deal with that. I don't have any other issues with the chemo. so this is really it for now but, that could change.

The best part in a weird sort of way is having the Big C. It has changed my life in so many ways. I have spent 6 months home with my family. I have had allot of fun spending time with them which I wasn't doing before the illness struck me down. I felt a closeness with them I hope will continue when I go back. I have met allot of great people who supported me and my family. I truly felt loved during this time. I have felt more closer to my family too. We talk allot more than we did before I got sick.I have more of a appreciation of life. I don't take anything for granted. I am closer to God. I know that God is the reason that I am in remission. All the prayers that I have received from everyone. I truly felt blessed and that is a great feeling to feel. Thank you all! I can go on and on.There truly have been more positives than negatives.

I am going to get ready for bed to get ready for my first day back at work. I will tell you all about it tomorrow. Thank you and God Bless!!!!!!!

One more quick thing. If you go to www.cubs.com/fanfoto and click on the game which was july 28th with Houston.and then gallery 54. You will see the family and I at the game. We our at the bottom of the page. All of us in our Cubs shirts.

Bad Day for Coffee!

Today I had chemo and it went fairly well except for my attempt to have a cup of coffee while minding my own business while doing so. As I was saying the chemo went well except I did have a brief moment of nausea. It started when I looked at the bag of granola, that was across from me.After I stopped looking at them the sickness went away. Now for the coffee issues I had today. Sally dropped me off and she had to take Micheal to St. John Hammond Clinic to have him looked at for his stomach problems. He will have to see Dr. Auerbach(same Doctor that did my colonoscopy) to have a tube inserted in his throat to see what his going on. After that Sally took Michael and the kids home. I asked her to bring me a cup of coffee from wherever she wanted to get it from, it really didn't matter. She chose the McDonalds on Ridge Road. She brought me the beverage that I have been waiting for so patiently for, or at least I thought. I opened the lid to put in the creamer and sugar. I looked in the cup thinking my wife was pulling a prank on me. I was able to see the bottom of the cup.I was thinking boy this is going to be some weak coffee. I said ," Sally they gave me very hot water, what gives." She was as surprised as I was , and felt really bad. She said she will go down stairs and get me a cup of coffee from the coffee shop. She went down and got me the coffee and I started to drink it. It was terrible. I had some bad coffee in my day but, this was bad. I will usually drink coffee allot of different ways, strong,a little weak, with or without sugar whatever.This tasted very bad. So Again she felt bad and told me she wanted to go to Staples and get school supplies anyway. She would than go to the Star Bucks in Target and attempt to get another cup for me. I said she really didn't have to but, she insisted. She came back with the coffee and I quickly grabbed the cup to smell the aroma that I have been waiting for all day. I go to take a drink and the coffee dribbled all down my white almost brand spanking new Cubs shirt.The worst part it didn't happen once but twice. I finished it with a straw. When chemo was over Sally and I went to the McDonalds that cheated me. We went to the counter and told them our plight and they were just as baffled as we were. They asked Sally if she remembered what the person looked liked and she didn't. All she told them was it was about noon and at the drive through. Of course I got a new cup of coffee and they threw in two apple Pies.( They must of remembered me from other encounters). We didn't make a ruckus. We just wanted to know how that would be possible to do. Was the person possibly blind or near blind.You would have to see what you are pouring and also when you put the lid on. Before we left I put in the sugar and cream. I than took a drink and the coffee was at best room temp . Clearly stated on the cup was caution very hot. I told Sally that I give up and we walked out. The picture above is the shirt I wore when the coffee spilled on me. It is a blurry picture, but if you look at the area where the buttons are you will see the brownish area on the shirt.

As mentioned in Saturdays blog my brother Mike treated me and Zach along with his son Eli to a tour of the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. It was a totally awesome experience that all Cubs Fans should try and partake of. Even the non-Cub fans, just for the historical purposes. It Started out with a film , then we went to the left field bleaches and heard allot of the history of Wrigley Field, that was very interesting. We saw the visitors club house, that was very small.We then tiredly walked up about 4 or 5 ramps to see the press area, the radio , TV and organ booths. We than sat in one of the suites that the cub brass sit in during the games. We had another history lesson that was very interesting.Then we went to the Holy Grail of all of Baseball, the Cubs club house and then on to the field. I took allot of pictures or so I thought. The reason I thought I got more but didn't is because, as I was taking my pictures I noticed in some instances that I was actually turning the camera on and off. Who would think they would put the on and off button so close to the actual picture taking button.I was like what the heck. I did take allot of pictures in the same area so I still got a good amount of pictures, and I did catch it a few times. I felt like such a Jack Ass that I didn't say anything until this posting. Sally is going to do a slide show with pictures that were actually taken. That will be in a day or so.

As always thanks for visiting and God Bless.

Wanted to let everyone know everything is fine. There will be no blog tonight. Bill and Zachary went on the Wrigley Field tour. They got home a little after 9. We spent the evening with our neighbors having a bonfire. We just got in the house and trying to get Zachary in bed. He has chemo in the morning.

Sally

Hopefully back to Normalcy

I felt good today and made sure to keep my shoulder away from anything hard. I did managed to do this and the pain is very slight now.This was the last day of the Yard Sale. We didn't do nearly as good as Friday. It started to rain around 1pm. Sally and I had to put all the tables in the garage. After that the rain stopped. Now I was waiting for the birds to start chirping and the sun to come out. It was really slow so we were thinking about closing shop anyway. After we counted the loot, Zach made 45$ from both days and he wanted to spend his money like yesterday.

My brother Mike is taking Zach and I along with his son to Wrigley Field for a tour.I know that will be unforgettable. Also Tomorrow we are planning on having a bond fire with the neighbors. That will be my last hurrah before I go back to work. I have chemo on Monday. So I want to be sure that I will be OK.

We took Zach to Toys R Us so he can get his Star Wars legos. We were there looking at all the Star War Legos that any little boy can handle before his head explodes from excitement. We must have been there what seemed like an hour. I looked at my cell phone for the time and it was only 15 mins. "Oh man", I said to myself. Come on Zach we have to get ready to go. He asked me about all the expensive ones. Now I knew that he wanted to spend every cent and possibly more, if I let him. After about another 15 mins he finally made a decision of one that was a little more. I got him what he wanted,because he helped us by watching Kaity when we were doing the sale.

While we were in Toys R Us Zach and I caught up with Sally and Kaity in the doll aisle. Sally later took Kaity to the bikes area to look at them to see how some of them measure to her. Zach and I were straggling behind. I decided to see what would happen if I set off as many of the dolls I can. I go in one aisle and told Zach that I had something to show him.As soon as he was not paying attention to me , I set all the little dolls that I could and left the aisle.Daaaaaaads ,why you do that?," Do what?", I said."Make all the babies cry"."Your going to get me troubles. I just wanted to make sure they all worked.

We went to the mall afterwards to get Kaity a Build a Bear with some of the money she made. As aways when we were in the parking lot getting ready to park the car, Kaity started to get all excited. I thought she was going to break the harness to her car seat. When we got into Penny's and started the track to Build a Bear , Kaity started shouting and pointing to the northeast top corner of the store " Buil Bear, Buil Bear! Sure enough as we exited Penny's the store was just above us.I couldn't get her up there fast enough. I get her to the store let her out of her seat and she runs to the noise makers. I said, "What about the Bears,"Noooooooooooooo. I knew it was going to be a long time in Build a Bear. Sally's birthday is Monday and I didn't get a chance to get her anything yet. She told me to go ahead and go look around,Yesssss. I knew she would have her hands full with Kaity. So being the obeying husband that I am I booked. I came back a little later than an hour and they were still in the store. She did finally make her choice and it was an Owl.

Wednesday I go back to work and I hope for good and with no extended time off. I am excited to be back but,on the other hand it will be tough. I really enjoyed my time with the kids and Sally too.

Thanks for visiting and God Bless.