My nephew Shane is here from Wisconsin!  YEAH!!  He just got a new job and will start it next week so he decided to come out to SJ to visit with family and friends before he begins the new job.

Scuse my absence people.  I have no idea what has happened and where I have been.  I think I was abducted by aliens.    I can't believe that it's been over one week that I have done a proper entry.  DOH!

Last Saturday our family got together at Debbie's house to visit with her former foreign exchange student Kenichi from Japan.  The last time we saw him was in 2002 when my mother was terminally ill.  He got to see her before she passed away, thankfully.  He really liked and respected my mother.  Anyway, he finished college in Australia and decided to visit friends here in the U.S. before he has to join the real world and start working.

Kenichi originally lived with my brother Richard and his family before he lived with Debbie.  My brother was going through marital problems so Debbie offered her home to Kenichi so he could finish out the school year and not have to go back to Japan.  Here are Christopher and Kenichi when he first moved into Debbie's house (taken in 2000):

Kenichi could not BELIEVE how big my nephews Nick and Jon had gotten since the last time he saw them.  I wish I had a before/after photo to show you - Unfortunately I just have the pic from Saturday:

Here are Sue and Kenichi (Kenichi asked if Sue was still crazy.  Psst...yes, she is!):

Kenichi with my niece Wendy and her family:

Kenichi's American parents Debbie & Robin:

My brother Richard and his family (my brother David is on the right):

Kenichi, Pierce and I (Kenichi was going to school here when Pierce was born.  Pierce was the first baby Kenichi ever held.  He said on Sunday that at this time he is the ONLY baby that he has ever held!):

Breakfast on Sunday morning - Saying goodbye to Kenichi:

On Sunday afternoon I became a Godmother to Giada (Sue's grandbaby), so now Sue and I are officially related!!  Remember, she claims to be my mother's daughter and her favorite!  I was so honored when Kari (Giada's mama) asked me to be her daughter's Godmother.  When I told my nephew/Godson Jon that he was going to have a new Godsister on Sunday he said, "ANOTHER ONE"?!  Yep, I'll take as many as I can get!!

Here is Giada:

OK, maybe I'm partial but is she the cutest thing in the world or what?!  Heh heh.......

I started writing this early this morning and it is now 8:30 p.m. and I haven't finished it yet.  I am babysitting Abbie and Emily right now.  Their mama is in the hospital having a hysterectomy and she will be home tomorrow.  Her husband Paul starts his radiation on Monday.  Hopefully Dora will heal without any problems. 

Right after Dora and her husband left for the hospital I took the girls shopping.  I bought them matching dresses:

Survivor is on, I must catch up with what is going on.  You all have a GREAT weekend!!  On Saturday Sue and I are going to garage sales in a citywide sale that is going on.  Sunday is a get together with Shane.  YEAH!!

Ciao for now!

 

Nah, not the food kind of leftovers....I really can't stand them, but leftovers meaning photos that I still need to post from Easter at my sis Debbie's house. 

My niece Brianna surprised everyone with a TATTOO.  Yep, she got a tattoo to memorialize her brother Christopher. 

 

 

The tattoo reprents a song that reminds Brianna of Christopher.  The original little girl was drawn by a "street artist" named Banksy.  Check out his artwork here.  Here is the original drawing of the little girl:

 

Random photos from Debbie's backyard:

Here is Christopher's Corner:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You all have a Happy Hump Day.  Time to go hug the furry children.

Good Evening Folks - It was a very quiet weekend for me and my furry children.  We basically just chilled all weekend. 

My little girl Mandy is doing pretty good considering she had major surgery less then 1 week ago.  We went back to the doctor today and he checked out her incision.  I told him that I wanted to see her after he took her bandage off.  I could not believe how huge her incision was.  It's at least 8" long.  Poor little girl.

SO, after the doctor checked out her incision and said it looked good, he told me the bad news.  He had the pathology report from the tumors.   This is exactly what it says: 

• Microscopic Findings:  Mixed mammary carcinoma with lymphatic invasion.


• Prognosis:  Guarded


• Comments:  The masses are discrete, multinodular, well circumscribed, encapsulated, and appear completely excised.  However, a solitary lymphatic contained neoplastic cells.  The regional lymph node should be examined for any evidence of metastasis.  Mammary tumors tend to be multicentric.  Therefore, the mammary chain should be closely monitored for development of new tumors.

It doesn't sound too good, does it?  The doctor suggested getting in touch with an oncologist but I'm not going to make Mandy go through chemotherapy.  Poor little girl.  I've just got to keep an eye on her to watch for tumors in the lymph node area:

    

There ya go folks.  That is what is happening with my little girl.  The above picture and more information about Mandy's cancer is on this website.

Mandy is doing well, getting back to her spunky self.  She is eating good too, thankfully.  Thank you all for your kind words and prayers for my furry little daughter.

 

Good Morning Folks - My little girl is doing really well.  I didn't hear her cry at all during the night.  I kept the TV on all night long just so I would have light in the room to see where she was at.  At one point in the evening she moved right next to me so she was pretty much plastered onto the side of my body.

The Dr. said that he got all of the cancer.  He is sending the mass to the lab to check it out and to see if it's spread to her muscle?  Don't know how they do that but OK, do what you've got to do.  She isn't going to receive chemo or radiation, I just don't want to put her through that.  Poor baby.

SO, now we just take things one day at a time and give thanks for each day that I have my furry children in my life.  I guess we should do that with everyone, shouldn't we?  Not just furry babies......<sigh>

Here is Mandy at work today:

I will only be at work for 4 hours today.  My bosses are VERY understanding thankfully.  I am really blessed in THAT department. 

Time to give Mandy her meds for the morning.  Thanks again for all of your support (again) and have a wonderful weekend!!!  Be sure to hug your families - furry and human!

 

EDIT:  1:57pm - I just heard from the Vet and the surgery went "Very well".  I can pick up my little pooch after 4:00pm. 

 

THANK YOU ALL for your sweet, loving and heartfelt comments regarding my little girl Mandy.  You guys have such a way with words, it blows me away.

I just dropped off Mandy at the vet so they could do the surgery to remove the tumors.  The doctor that is going to do the surgery did see her on Monday aferall so he knew how big the tumors were.  The good news is that the cancer has not spread to her chest so I feel better about them doing the surgery.  I had to wait until 8:00am to find out if she was going to have surgery or not depending on how her blood test results came back.

GOTTA love the furry children.  There is a cat that lives at the vet's office that is VERY friendly.  I was in the room all by myself (Mandy was being x-rayed) when I had a little visitor walk into my room:

The furry creatures name was Stormy and he was so sweet, visiting me twice while I was waiting for Mandy.

I brought Mandy into work with me this morning so I could take her right to the vet when he gave me the green light that all was well with her bloodwork.

Here she is sitting on the chair next to me in my office (she was SO happy being right with me).  One of my guys said it looked like she belonged there:

OK, back to work.  Now I must wait for a phone call from the vet.  This is the hardest part.  <sigh>

THANKS again for your love and support during this horrible time.

 

 

     Good Morning Family & Friends - If you have been reading me for a while, you know that I do not have human children of my own.  My furry children Chili and Mandy are the loves of my life.  I even have a personalized license plate that has to do with poodles.

     Some of you already know this as I e-mailed you on Tuesday morning.  After getting home from work on Monday I found that my little furry daughter Mandy had a lump on her chest.  It was pretty large so it really scared me.  I got right on the phone and called my vet.  They gave me an appointment for Tuesday morning at 10:30am.  I immediately called Denise and asked her if I could bring Mandy over so she could check her out too.  On the way to Denise's I was talking to Sue and she convinced me to call the vet back to see if I could bring in Mandy sooner.  Thankfully they said to bring her right in.  Denise didn't think that I was able to drive as I was visibly upset so we got into her van and went to the vet.

     You are all not going to believe this.  Denise and I arrived at the vet's office and one of the clerks asked if we had been helped yet.  I told her that I called earlier a couple of times and was told to bring Mandy right in.  The clerk then said, "Oh, you have lumpy Mandy".  Yep, that was what she said.  I looked at Denise and said, "WTF"??? 

     Anyway, once we got into a room Mandy was weighed.  She weighed in at 5.11 pounds.  Down 1 pound since the last time she was there.  The Dr. checked her out and said that she might have mammary cancer.  The Dr. took a needle biopsy of the lump and told me that he would have the results on Tuesday evening.

     Before I left the office I asked who the clerk was that made the "lumpy Mandy" comment was.  I had never seen her before.  I told the gal what she said and she told me that she would talk to her.  I know she didn't mean any harm in what she said, but sometimes you have to really think before you speak.  I was quite upset when I walked into that office not knowing what was happening to my little girl.

     Tuesday afternoon after work I took my children to the photo studio around the corner from my house.  Some of you might remember that my little man Chili has a mass surrounding his liver that is noncancerous but if it grows too large it can stop the functioning of his liver.  Thankfully he has been doing ok.  BUT, I know in the back of my mind that I won't have my children forever and Chili is 15 1/2 years old.  I've been wanting to get their photo taken professionally for a while now so I decided that it would be a good day for that.

     After our photo session I called the vet and got the news.  Mandy does indeed have cancer.  It is soft tissue sarcoma.  The vet wants to do blood tests to see if she is able to have surgery and also a chest x-ray to see if the cancer has spread.  The Dr. that I spoke to was not the Dr. that Mandy saw on Monday so he has NO idea how large this tumor is.  It is REALLY big and there are four smaller ones surrounding it.

     I adopted Mandy in August of 2001 so I have NO idea how old she really is.  At the time of her adoption I was told she was 5-7 years old.  At this time she is quite spunky, has a great appetite and is eating and taking care of her business without any problems.

     Mandy has an appointment for her blood work this morning at 11:30am.  I will be speaking with the Dr. at that time to see what her options are.  Oh yes, she also has a heart murmur.  I forgot about that.  <sigh>

     Here are the photos that we took today:

     Thank you all for your support, love and prayers.  I truly appreciate it.  I am doing ok as I write this but I know there will be tough times ahead.  Mandy and Chili are the first pets that I have had.  Most people that know me well, know that I treat these two furry babies as if I gave birth to them.  I love them with all of my heart.  They both have been through some good times and bad times with me.  

     On a happier note.........If you can, please go visit my Xanga friend Emme402 and wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I was able to meet her last year when I went to Oklahoma City.  She is a very sweet, loving person that I am glad I was able to meet.  I hope to visit with her again this July when we are on our way to the Compassionate Friends conference in Nashville!

 A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.
-- Josh Billings