Happy Birthday Bill!

Happy Birthday!

May this be the year in which many of your hopes and dreams come true.

You are very much loved and admired.

Sally

Two Special Request

Surprise! Two blogs in one week. Shocking isn't it? For once this post is not about me. Well it mostly isn't about me. The purpose of tonight's writing is to pay tribute to two special people.

The first person is Daria. She was a blogger like me. I met her when she became a follower of my blog. She was first diagnosed with stage II breast cancer in 2000. Last week she rapidly started to deteriorate and went home to be with her maker on Saturday. I am asking for you to keep her family in your prayers.

The second person is Maxine. She was the aunt to our friend Ron. Three years ago she was murdered while working at KFC. Her children started a blog to help keep her memory alive. Actually, it's an incredible tribute they have done in their mother's honor which has benefited many people. I have recently learned about her blog. I have not yet participated in SMILE-In memory of Maxine but I am looking forward to doing so. Hopefully, I can think of same way that will involve including my kids. I have attached the link to Maxine's blog(actually Sally has, since I am still not computer savvy). I encourage you to read her blog and hopefully you will join SMILE-In Memory of Maxine. It would be awesome if we can get a big following for her cause. http://memoryofmaxine.blogspot.com/

Well that's it for tonight. I went to Omni after work so it's been a long day. Going to spend sometime with my wife.

Good night & God Bless, Bill

Our year end festivities.

Happy New Year! Yes, I am behind, but it still the first of the year so it counts. I hope 2011 brings peace, love, and happiness to all my friends, family, and blog readers.

I could get sappy and write a blog about the great and not so great memories of 2010 but then I thought it's all in the previous postings in the blog (so if that is what floats your boat then go back reread the post). Plus, I am saving the sappy part for the bad parts in life. Hopefully, in 2011 there will not be any. I could also write about the list of appliances that failed,( thanks to Sally) all of Michael's mishaps with his car(none of it his fault, according to him), all the times Sally made me mad(all the time, like now), my award from work(well deserved and about time), more of Zachary's questions about turtles and life(my head hurts just thinking about it), Kaity's fashion or lack of fashion sense(I'm going to be in a lot of trouble in a few years), etc.... I could go on and on but why? We want to enjoy 2011 and not still be focusing on 2010. Time to move on.

I ended 2010 the way we normally end the year. We had a lot of snack/junk food and went to Main Square to watch the fireworks. We did it a little different then normally though. We decided not to end the year on a bad foot and made the junk/snack food healthier then usual in hopes the healthier food continues in 2011. We went to Costco to purchase our feast. Kaity wanted to try a sample of sushi. Of all things there were to sample she was the most eager to try it.She said they looked pretty. So she took a small bite and liked it. She really liked it. She encouraged Sally to take a bite (Sally isn't not much of a fish person). Sally wouldn't until Kaity eyes began to tear up. She took a bite and liked it(Hey Mikey). She encouragement me to take a sample and I was surprised I liked it to. So we bought a tray of sushi, a platter of shrimp cocktails, pita chips, and Kashi frozen pizza (not very tasty in my meek opinion). Besides did I mentioned we had veggies with yogurt dip, humus, seasoned oyster crackers, roasted chick peas, water chestnuts and pineapple bacon wraps, and jalapeno popper dip served with thin slices of bread. I will admit I enjoyed this better this year or I should say last years' snacks better then I have in the past. Except for the chick peas and the Kashi pizza, everything else was really satisfying to my taste buds. In fact they are doing a little jig while I am thinking about the food.

After we ate and cleaned up a bit, Sally and I took Zachary and Kaitlyn to see the fireworks. Yes, there is no mention of Michael. He abandoned us this year. I did call him like every 30 minutes to try to make him feel guilty. It didn't work though, because he didn't come home until his curfew. Yes, he is 20 and has a curfew. What weird parents are we. I bet you are feeling sorry for him as you read this. Don't worry, he feels sorry for himself (regarding the curfew issue) so you don't have to worry since it's covered. Back to the fireworks festivities. Sorry, sometimes I am just scattered minded. Actually, I am more scattered minded than not. Please that is a little secret just between you and me.Now what was I trying to say.OK fireworks and the count down. We arrive with just a couple of minutes to spare. The weather was perfect. It was in the 50's which is unseasonably warm for us. The square was all lit from the Christmas light displays, love was in the air while couples anxiously waited for the stroke of midnight to kiss their loved one or maybe for some lucky people love ones. I guess I was lucky because there were 3 love ones for me to kiss. Zachary's focus was on getting a noise maker. Not that he needed one since he does a good job making noise on his own.I have not a clue where he gets that from but may need to see a doctor about that. Sally took the kids where the crowd was to wait for the count down and I looked for the noise maker. I didn't find them. Not like that was what I was actually looking for. There it was free hot chocolate. I made a dash for my hot cocoa.I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. By the time I got the hot chocolate (which by the way was awful) and found my lovely family and it was after midnight. I really didn't think much about it since we were still in the same place, the fireworks were still going off and so what if the kiss took place a couple minutes later. Sally didn't agree with my thinking. She was a little perturbed with me. I tried comforting her by telling her my hot chocolate was terrible( I thought that would have brought her to tears) but that only made her more peeved at me. I still don't really get what the big deal was. She had the kids to kiss and all I had at the stroke of midnight was a lousy cup of hot chocolate and it wasn't even hot. Zachary was disappointed with me too since I did not find a noise maker for him. We told him when we got home he can hit some pot and pans together.I could just imagine what the neighbors were thinking when we did get home. Your a little late pal, I'm calling the police! The only one that wasn't cross with me was Kaity. So, her and I paled off and I let her sit on my shoulders to watch the spectacular firework display.

So that is how I began my New Year. I should make a quiz to see if anyone paid attention. On that note it would be fun if I made a quiz about me and see how much you really know about me. As for a New Year's resolution, mine is to participate more on my blog. I have been slacking on my writing last year. I hope this year to blog more and have some more surveys, and maybe some other creative things I am pondering in my narrow minded brain. I also am trying to eat healthier, work out routinely and hoping to lose some more weight.

The next Chemo appointment, I will see the Doctor and should have a scheduled CT Scan.Now I am at the point whenever I some a test like this I get very nervous.I still think positive.I still have lots to talk about.Thank you all for visiting and thanks for all the prayers.

A Christmas Story, Done ourway.

Ooops I did it again. I never intend to have so much time laps between post. I always have so much to say but time hasn't been much on my side. Last weekend I was off but unfortunately for me, I was under the weather for most of it. I laid in bed most of Sunday. Zachary had the stomach bug on Saturday and I think I caught a minor version of it. Plus I had a bad sinus headache and the combination of the two left me powerless, weak, and vulnerable.

I feel weird still talking about Christmas in the middle of January but dammit I still have a lot to say and I am going to say it. OK I know you don't have to read it but I am saying it and it will be out there for all who choose to read For those who decide not to, will never know the fun us Ceiga's experienced during Christmas 2010.

I will begin by talking more about the big guy. No not me! In fact I am working out and getting my body into shape. In no time I am going to be one buff dude with a nice tight buttocks. Sally needs to start playing her cards carefully then because someone might snatch the new me resembling Bradly Cooper. In real life I will most likely resemble Lyle Lovett Minus the hair.

Going back to the big guy that isn't me. Although my daughter will remind me " YOU FAT, HAHAHAHA". The one that lives off of milk and cookies (Oh wait that is me) the one that all the kids know, that one. There is a house in Highland that has the best decorations in our area. Last year I posted pictures of it in one of the postings. Santa is often spotted in front of the house. Every year we drive past several times in hopes of seeing Santa. This year was no different. Except for the fact it didn't seem Santa was out as often. Also, this was the first time we didn't see Santa. Well... on one occasion we did drive past and he was outside talking with a family. I turned the corner and parked the car. The kids literally jumped out of the car and started running towards the house. We walked around the corner to see Santa and like magic he was gone. He must of known who was approaching, the guy I mean kids who took all my chocolate candy last year. Needless to say, I was disappointed I mean the kids were disappointed. We walked around looking at the decorations in hopes he would reappear but no such luck. It was a bummer to say the least. Sally found humor in all of this. It only proves she is one sick person.

I tried to redeem the Santa disappointment and took the kids to see Santa in St. John. Every year they have a nice set up with Santa, popcorn and hot chocolate. This year included cookies and a train ride for the kids as well. The kids saw Santa. It always amazes me that when my kids tell me what they want from Santa the list goes on and on. But once they were on his lap they become silent and with some coaxing they manage to stutter a thing or two. After Santa they road the train and then we got hot chocolate and popcorn. Zachary (being my boy) went to take the bag with the most popcorn and dropped it. Then he cried and we all laughed. We told him to get another one and to stop his crying. It was cold and I had lost all feeling to my fingers and tootsies so we went to the car to wait for him. Zachary thought we were going to leave and burst into tears while running to the car. Sally and I burst out into laughter and told him to go get his popcorn. All ended well. He got his popcorn and my fingers and toes thawed out.

My mom had her Christmas the Sunday before Christmas. Someone came up with the clever idea of having the ugliest Christmas sweatshirt contest. It stemmed from all the sweatshirts that she has hidden away in her closest given to her by a certain somebody. We all have sweatshirts taken up space in our closets that were gifts given to us by a certain someone. I didn't want to offend a certain someone (in fear I might not receive another awesome sweatshirt) so I decided to play it safe and create a one of a kind master piece. I will proudly say it was a work of art. I am certain Zachary got his creative drawing talent from his dear old dad. Anyways, those who wore their ugliest shirts had to stand up to be judged. It included me of course, my brother Mike and his wife Leanne and my sister Lisa. The judging took place and while the votes were be tallied we went to have our picture taken. Right before everyone was able to take pictures, Zachary sneaked into our group. We looked and no he wasn't wearing an ugly shirt but he had an ugly Christmas rug covering up his front. Come to think about it, the rug belonged to the same person who is responsible for buying all the ugly shirts. Once the pictures were taken the votes were read. Sally managed to get a vote even though she didn't think her shirt was ugly. I did notice a food stain on it though. Leanne won but I think a recount should have been done since I was only one vote less than hers. To bad I don't live in Florida. Zachary was upset cause he got no votes.I had to explain to him it was a ugly shirt contest and he was holding a rug. So he was disqualified. What will that kid think of next? Read the next blog and you will find out.

Christmas Eve we attended mass because we knew Christmas morning would be hectic. Sally and I went to bed at 2am on Christmas. I was hoping the kids would let us sleep until 6. At 8 Sally was nudging me and the kids were still asleep. I got up to set up the camcorder as Sally got the kids awake. As I sat in the living room waiting, I notice there was one stocking that was missing which meant one of the kids was up earlier snooping. My guess it was Zachary. However, after the investigation I realized it wasn't Zach nor Kaity but Michael. After all he is only 20 and still believes in Santa which allows him to continue to get stockings year after year.

After opening gifts and breakfast the five of us went to help out at a soup kitchen before going to my brother Mike's house. Every year Mike and his wife has a pot luck at their house on Christmas afternoon. To say it nicely, he has Christmas at his house for us schmucks. I guess you can say it was dinner for schmucks, (That was a good movie by the way) who have no where else to go. I use to go there a lot for Christmas in my younger days but since I have been married this is probably the 3rd or 4th time we went. Not only do they have delicious food(cookies and cakes) but they have lively entertainment which consist of bunco. We all concentrate and take the game seriously so we can choose a wrapped gift on a table that if filled with mysterious gifts. I managed to win a bottle of soap gel and a body sponge, perfect. It made me wonder if someone is trying to tell me something. After my mom, dad, sister and brother in law left we played one more game of bunco. I was all for it knowing my chances of winning would be greater. Sally ruined it for all of us. She played lousy all day and then all of a sudden she got on a role and scored 36 points in one round. It was all the cheering and yelping that allowed her to score so high. Her face was as red as Santa's suit by the time her turn was over with.

I will try and write another blog in a week or so. I need to get some of these other nuggets told. Thanks for visiting and God Bless.

December Blog

Since I have been a very naughty boy and haven't kept up with the blog, I figure I will do a December blog. Sally thinks it will take hours for me to write and another hour or two for my fans to try to understand what I have written. Honestly, my wife over estimates the excitement in my life. Really my life isn't that interesting and there really isn't a lot of blog moments in my life. It just seems a lot with the condense version of my life written on the blog. I know everyone doesn't want to read about an ordinary dull life.

So I will begin the blog the same way we began the Christmas season with a parade. To be exact it was the Santa March. It wasn't very crowded like the typical 4th of July parade. In fact it was only about 15 minutes long versus the hour plus long 4th of July parade. Which is good because by the time the parade finally arrived it left my fingers and toes numb. There were some bands, candy thrown and yes my girl friends, the clown posse(not to be confused with the insane ones), had a float as well. My kids gathered a fair amount of candy(as in not enough candy bars). Zachary was in charged of holding the bag. They gathered the candy and waited with anticipation for the very last float which of course was the big man himself. Near the end Zach got a little bored and started to swing the bag of candy around.I had told him a few times,"Zack your going to loose the candy".I turned around to check on him a few minutes later, and he we bending over picking up all of the candy which he accidentally scattered all over Highway Ave, while swinging the bag. He continued to pick up the candy as Sally, Kaity, and I stood there waving at Santa as he passed by and laughing at Zach. When Zachary realized he missed Santa, tears started to flow. Sally and I being the compassionate parents we our could not help but laugh even harder. I finally walked over to help him while his dear mom stood there still laughing. When all the candy was gathered up, Sally told Zach that if he ran he could catch up with Santa. So Zachary started running at full throttle to catch up with Santa. Sally and I were still able to keep up with Zachary's fast speed, by walking a brisk walk.

Speaking of Santa, I was able to full fill my life dream of playing Santa. The family and myself will give our time to help out the Missionary's of Charity. This is a charity that Mother Theresa founded. Well this year after wanting to play Santa for a few years, I got my chance this year to do so for there Christmas party for families with hardships.I got to the party, went next door to the church got dressed up in the room were the priest get ready for mass and fixed myself up to look at act like the best Santa I can be.I looked in the mirror and did my hearty HO HO HO. Did the "Are you talking to me" line. After I was satisfied with the way I looked and sounded I left. As I was leaving the room, there at a pew was a lady kneeling and praying, staring at me and trying not to laugh.I was thinking to myself, this is a great start to a otherwise special day. I got to the secret location and waited for the Ok to come and greet the kids.Finally came the word to release the Santa. I walked out and there was a loud sounds of hysteria. Now I know how Justin Bieber must feel. I walked and waved at all the little kids. You can see the looks of awe in there little eyes. I got to my Santa throne, which was just a...........chair, I peerd at the table I was sitting by and saw the kids knowing all the question that they would ask. Asking what they wanted and that there brother or sister was bad and didn't deserve any thing and what was I going to do about it. Then came the question that most Santa's fear throughout the world. What are the names of your Reindeers. I looked at little Jimmy and said " now lets see, there is Dancer, Prancer( now a lady walks in front of me and obscures my view of him, now here's my chance.So I go into charlie Brown's teacher mode) whaa whaa whaa whaa whaa whaa and Rudolph. The kid just stared at me in amazement. I knew he was trying to stump me and I passed, sort of. Then a sister whisked me away to the kitchen. She said that Santa must eat. I looked at the cookies and pizza and then I looked down at the full beard hanging on my face. I struggled thinking how it is, eating without fronting a beard. I pictured myself walking back out with pizza sauce and punch stains on beard and cookie crumbs hanging on the beard and costume. So I decided to pass and returned to the kids. Then the families wanted pictures with Santa. I can be outgoing with people I know especially after a couple of drinks but people I do not know I tend to be introvert with. There was one family in particular that took at least 10 pictures with me. Then the mom hugged me while pictures were taken. I got a lot of hugs from the kids which made me feel good. I felt like a rock star that day.

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season with your family and friends.

God Bless,

Bill

Who likes Garlic raise your hands and an update.

Sorry it's been awhile. I have been busy working and attending to life's demands(aka Sally's). I am doing well. I have decided to wait until February (after another cat scan) to make a decision on how Sally wants me to have the cancer tumors treated. Hopefully, by the grace of God, there will be no cancer come February.

I am receiving an infusion at this very second. I go to work tonight, then I will be off for the next two weeks. I am looking forward to spending time with my family. Hopefully, I can catch up on the blog as well. I still haven't finished about Halloween. Zachary and I are planning on baking some cookies. I am still trying to lose weight and working out at Omni so I am only making calorie free cookies.

Zachary has taken a liking to cooking. I am sure he will add his special touches to the cookies, like garlic cookies. Which is a scary thought. It's not surprising he tries to make things because he loves food. We never have to worry about him starving. His inventions though, are less to be desired. His latest invention was mac & cheese in a hot dog bun. Pepper and garlic is his condiment of choice. Last week we have left over potato soup. Zachary decided to have it for breakfast. He also decided it needed a little something extra .One of his down falls in cooking is he has NO concept of what is a small amount and what is a lot. He found a jar of freeze dried minced garlic and thought why not. The next sentence will explain the why not. Because he smelled for the next four days is a reason to not. He smelled bad. Not little bad but really bad.I don't think a Vampire would come within three states of him. It was like an old man who spends his days bathing in and eating garlic instead of grapes. It was so bad that we couldn't take it while he was in the car and I stopped the car and made him run home. I thought the 4 blocks left to the house would be long enough for him to run and sweat the garlic out. WRONG He smelled even worse. I don't think the neighbors that were left with dying trees and bushes appreciated it either. I'll tell you though if you have a weed infestation, I got the cure. Luckily, for his class mates, the school was closed for 2 days due to a water main break. Heeyyy, wait a minute. By the time school was back in session the stench was tamed. Honestly, if school was in session, Zachary would have been sent home from school. He has promised from that day forth (after using a tube of tooth paste, a liter of mouth wash, 3 showers, running home naked, just kidding about the naked part and still smelling) he will be sticking to garlic powder. Sally has not yet to cook with garlic since. She made garlic free garlic bread the other day. The thought of garlic still makes our eyes water.

Chemo is almost done and the battery in the lap top is almost out of power so it's a good time to end. Stay tune. I came up with a brilliant the most brilliant pole ever. I have to get a picture posted for it but I am sure you will love to post your opinion in the next pole.

I want to mention something quickly before I go. I hope no one is offended about how I tend to make Sally look like a Battle axe, power angry, do what I say, I am always right, War monger and you talking to me type person. I only say the things I do to add a little a very little in some cases humor to the blog. It is all done in fun and Sally does read the blogs before I post them. I sure hope I wrote this the way she told me too.

Take care and God Bless,

Bill

Update by Sally (his wife)

Bill had to work tonight and the following 3 nights. So this is the reason I am posting for him. Today, we went to UIC to meet with the radiologist. It's didn't go as we expected. Not that it's a bad thing we were caught off guard a little. We were under the assumption Bill was going to have the tumor ablation. It would be a simple out patient procedure and he would be able to resume normal activities the following day. We found out today the radiologist wants to do a different procedure. He recommends selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT). Instead of using radio frequency energy(which is the RFA procedure) to attack the tumor, tiny radioactive beads are inserted directly in the tumor/tumors.

The reason for the SIRT is because there are two cancerous tumors on the liver. One is about the size of a quarter and the other one is about the size of a pea. The smaller one is near the wall of the liver which can't be treated by the RFA procedure.SIRT will be able to treat both tumors in the liver. SIRT is not as simple to perform as the RFA though. SIRT requires two procedures. The week prior to the SIRT an angiogram is done to map out the vessels. If everything looks good then the SIRT procedure will be performed 7-10 days later. The angiogram would require Bill to be in the hospital for at least 12 hours. He will have to be off work for 48 hours and on light duty until a week after the SIRT is done. He will have to be off work for another 48 hours for SIRT procedure itself but the hospital stay would be much shorter as long as there are no complications. In order for the SIRT to be performed, chemo has to be stopped 2 weeks prior to the angiogram.

A concern which we have about the SIRT is the stopping of chemotherapy. Even though the tumors in the liver will be treated, he still has the cancerous lymph node by the heart. Since September, when chemotherapy was resumed, he still has not had a full dose of the chemotherapy. Which is concerning. Could delaying treatment longer increase the chances of the tumor from spreading or growing? Which is one of our major concerns. The oncologist seems confident the chemo will attack the lymph-node so we don't see why it wouldn't attack the tiny spot on the liver as well. Plus the RFA procedure seems a lot less complicated and a shorter recovery time.

If Bill had to pick of course he would pick the RFA procedure. Spending 6 plus hours flat on the back without moving after the angiogram wouldn't be fun. However, Bil wants what is best to fight the war with in his body. Tuesday, we are going to talk to the oncologist. Hopefully he will be able to answer our questions and give us his honest expert opinion on which one he thinks is best.

Please pray that he is guided to the right procedure for him. Thanks you.

Another visit to UIC and than again.

It's been a busy week to say the least. Went to UIC on Monday and spoke with Dr. Warso, the cancer surgeon. He discussed treatment options and what he felt was best for me. He didn't recommend surgery. He thought right now surgery isn't the best option. The location of the lymphnode will pose a great risk to remove. Right now my oncologist feels the best option is the chemotherapy. If the chemo doesn't work then radiation will be the next option and surgery will remain the last option.

As for the cancerous tumor , the surgeon recommended radio frequency ablation (RFA). Tomorrow I will be going back to UIC to speak with an radiologist and to make an appointment for that. It's an out patient procedure and I should be able to return to work the next day.

As for me, I am feeling well. Tired goes with out staying but I am still able to keep up with life's demands. I still haven't had a full dose of chemo therapy yet which might be one of the reasons I am feeling good. The first round of chemo pills there was a misunderstanding I was only taking half of the dosage. Second round of the chemo pills were cut short because my liver wasn't tolerating it. Today I went into start my third round. There was an error with the infusion medicine and treatment was stopped. I go back in Tuesday and start all over again. Stinks I have to have it on Thanksgiving week but mistakes happen especially to me and I make a couple every now and then.Just a couple mind you,But than again It's usually Sally's fault I make them,I think.

A good thing came out of today though. I had to go into work for a couple of hours this morning.We had a fire drill and I was a auditor, but anyways. When Sally picked me up we went to have lunch which is something we normally do before chemo. It's the only time we really get to spend time alone with each other. Sad but true. We have my mother in law watch the kids for my treatments, appointments and when ever we need a sitter so we feel guilty to have her watch them so we can have a night out. Like I was saying we went out for lunch, there is a new Italian restaurant across the street I have been wanting to try. It's called Ciao Bella Ristorante. I was told this is as authentic to Italian cuisine as it gets.That was told to me by the Italian workers that are working on our new Metallizer machine and they should know. I will say it was very good. I highly recommend it if you want a true Italian meal.

I know I said I was going to write part two of my Halloween adventures but with everything going on I haven't had a chance. I was going to write it today but Sally demanded I write about me. I am sure though the Halloween blog would be more entertaining. The real reason she wanted me to write about me is because she still does not have the Halloween pictures ready for the blog. Bad wife. A punishment is forthcoming.

Will try to write again as soon as possible. Take care and God Bless.

The turtle and the butterfly Part 1, and No, I don't mean the Turtle and the Hare

My favorite time of the year has always been and still is Halloween. If I were a wealthy man I would have a huge display of grimace decorations illuminating the neighborhood( I don't mean that McDonald's character either). Unfortunately my fortune doesn't even come close to being wealthy or even poor, it's closer to destitute. Which makes me have to decorate on a budget. However, this year I am ashamed to say I didn't decorate at all. Not one solitaire decoration was up. Not even a Halloween cling on the window, but there was a plastic spider in one of Sally's flower pots left from last year. The time had gotten away from me and going back on chemo didn't help matters.

However, the kids were in the Halloween spirit. Or should I say Zach was in the spirit to dress up and get candy. He doesn't fair well with scary things. Kaity on the other hand, loves everything that comes with Halloween. In September Sally asked the kids what they wanted to be. Right off Zachary's tongue, without any hesitation, rolled out "a turtle". Not just any turtle but he wanted to be a Mary river turtle. Kaity blurted out she wanted to be a witch again( I guess dressing up like mommy once wasn't enough). Through out the weeks, Kaity was a typical female and kept changing her mind. From witch it turned into a ballroom dancer, super girl. Zachary's response to that was , Kaity could protect him since he will be a lonely old turtle. She finally decided she was going to be a butterfly and stuck to that. Zachary was determined to be a turtle. I laughed every time Sally asked Zachary if he was sure. Sally kept trying to get him to change his mind but he wouldn't budge. Devilish me was glad he didn't. I just wanted to see how Sally was going to pull this one off. Zachary had high hopes he would turn in to an exact replica of a turtle. That Sally was the Betsy Ross in costume turtle making. I expected it to look more like something Charlie Brown would wear.

What was also funny about costume situation is that for years Sally has been wanting to sew a costume. Every year Zachary has insisted he would rather have a costume bought from the store. This year though, now that she is going to school full time, he wanted her to make his costume. As Halloween approached, Zachary continued to talk about what he wanted his costume to look like. He even took out the turtle book to look through and show Sally which turtle he wanted to be specifically.I had to tell poor Zach that there wasn't any Merry river turtle in my book(obviously a over site). He should think of another turtle. Ok, Dad I will be A Mississippi Map turtle. I thought that Zach and I may have gone through the turtle book one to many times. Most kids who wanted to be made up after some sort of wild life animal would be happy just looking like a turtle ,bear,lion ect. Not Zach he wanted to be a specific turtle,a Mississippi Map Turtle. I was enjoying his persistence to be as close to looking like a turtle as he possible could be and the fear Sally had on her face every time Zach would discuss his costume with her. I looked in the book with Zach at the Map turtle he wanted to be. I mentioned to him that this turtle has a lot of intricacies in the face. Dad, what is intricacies,never mind, the face would be to hard. Do you have another turtle you want to be, Red Eared Slider Dad!!!! Ok Sally get to work , you heard the boy. I must admit when Sally showed me the costume I was impressed except she left out an important part of the costume, I had to rescue her. I was delegated to make the Plastron(turtles under shell). Sally did the Carapace(the turtles top shell) and it looked very close to a Red Eared Sliders carapace. Of course it's nothing near what you would see on tv but it did look like a turtle. Everyone could tell he was a turtle but they kept asking him if was a teenage mutant ninja turtle which annoyed him. Which really got me going after the hard work that was done making it. One time I had to say something. "Look lady it's obviously a Red Eared Slider costume. I guess you don't know your turtles. "She was just staring at us with her mouth wide open. That is probably when she realized yeahhhh, I see it now, A Red Eared Slider.

When it came to Kaity's costume, Sally had started making it this summer without ever realizing it. My wife through the years has bought many craft projects which she barely started and never finished. She has a sewing machine which has been rarely used. She did have a brain storm this past summer. She was going to start making and selling tutus and hair bows. They are in great demand along with all the beanie babies that are shoved away in totes throughout America and taking up my garage space. She did finish making one. Kaity was so proud of it. I told Sally she shouldn't bother going back to school because she can make millions if not billions selling tutus. I could just see all the Ballerinas lining up at our door, I want a red one, I want a blue, will you autograph mine? Sally just gave me the look and never made a tutu after that. The tutu did manage to reappear for Halloween. Kaity did have one demand for her attire. She wanted a butterfly on her face as well. For all the painting and house projects Sally has made me do over the years, I just felt the kids costumes this year was a tiny payback for all the grueling things she had made me do. When Sally showed me the butterfly wing and said she was going to pair it up with the tutu, I couldn't picture it working. However, Kaity looked really cute and she was proud of the way she looked. Her preschool teachers mentioned a couple of times how they loved her costumes.

Having home made costumes for my kids this year brought back a lot of memories from my youth. I took a lot of pride in my kids this year. Even though I was getting annoyed when Kaity was continually being asked if she was a princess or a fairy godmother. When I was a lad, it was rare to see someone wearing a store bought costume. Now it's rare to see a child in a home made costume. I think kids today's are missing out on a lot of fun. Part of the Halloween fun was making your costume. Now it seems like all the kids are wearing the same costumes. Kids have lost their individuality except for my kids. They didn't mind being unique and for that I loved that about them.

As for trick or treating there is a lot more to write about that. My fingers are getting tired and I am sure your eye balls are getting tired from reading my ramblings. So I will give us both a break and continue tomorrow.

Another Bump

I am doing well. So far the major side effect I am experiencing is being tired all the time. I am sleeping more which helps. If I could I would sleep all day. I am trying to live my life like I did before "D" day or should I say "C" day. I want life to go on as normal as possible. We elected not to tell Zachary about what is going on. If he catches on and ask we will be honest. When I was initially diagnosed we told Zachary but it's been a lot for him to handle. Even though it's been over a year that we told him the cancer went away; he still worries. So much there are times he breaks down and cries. He had an anxiety attack not so long ago.

It's been almost 2 weeks since I found it's back. I said it was a set back and medically speaking it is. However, it's not a set back for me in how I live my life. It woke me up again and once again I had to reevaluate my life and the important things. Since the last time I posted I joined Omni. I am making better food choices and Sally went and bought a bunch of healthy food. A friend I use to work with at Sterks mentioned to me about vitamin D and sent me a link to read. I found out in a study colon cancer patients who took vitamin D supplements during treatment up their chances of survival 48%. Even though I am not suppose to take any vitamins I started to take vitamin D. It's worth a shot.

I had the PETscan last Tuesday and finally received the results today. Sally talked with the doctor this morning over the phone. He said the scan showed 1 and not 3 cancerous spots on the liver. It also showed some positive lymph nodes around the liver. Not great news but he didn't make it sound like a major set back either. He feels the chemo therapy will take care of the lymph nodes and his main concern is still the liver. I go see the surgeon at UIC in November. He might want to remove the tumor in the liver and the effected lymph nodes. I am praying chemo will take care of everything and no surgery is needed. I found out today that the human body has between 500-600 lymph nodes. Over 20 of mine have already been removed. If I continue to get cancerous lymph nodes and I have to have surgery every time, I am going to look like Frankenstein. Not that there is anything wrong with Frankenstein. I find that he is a handsome fellow.

Honestly, I don't feel defeated since hearing this. Of course I am not happy more cancer was found. However, I feel thankful and blessed it hasn't spread to any other organ or bones at this time and praying it won't. I was looking at a cancer support group site that had other blogs from cancer patients posted. I saw the title "Every Problem Has A Gift For You In It's Hands". Without a question I know this is true. I was a blessed pre-cancerous man and now I am an abundantly blessed man who has cancer. On one hand it's sad to have to experience a life changing event to learn some of life's greatest lessons. On the other hand, most likely, I would have missed out on some of life's greatest lessons if it wasn't for cancer.

God Bless