Happy Belated Saint Patrick's Day

Yes, I know I'm a couple days late, but I had to have something as an opening. I hope O'Neill's annual celebration was a good one. Dave and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, Cassidy's, where I had Irish Stew and he had a Reuben sandwich with cabbage mashed potatoes. We didn't have any green beer. . . I like a good beer but there's just somethin wrong with green beer.

Suzie, glad you were able to get on and pass on your news. Quite a bit of changes for your family, but I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. So the universe must have some good things a head for you and John. I know you love living in the country, but I'll bet you'll adapt real quickly.

Just to make you smile a little and for some of our other family bloggers, I'm posting a picture of Suzie and Uncle Roy.



I think that's supposedly Christmas, 1958. Isn't Suzie just adorable. And Uncle Roy, as always, a handsome devil!! Actually, Suzie looks kinda mad. I don't think she wanted to play cards.

More later. Love to all. Stay safe.

Mitch

Here is a rear-view of Mitch; he was always waiting for mom to come outside :)

It's Wednesday night...

Hi everyone! I'm really kindof fascinated by this blog business. But I do have to fess up that I've been doing quick sneak peeks to see if anyone has posted, without posting myself. Told Annie that this was my week to communicate, so here I am! Just finished "my night" -- I'm here till 8p.m. on Wednesdays, but have Thursdays off so figure my day off starts now. Promised myself a trip to Lincoln to sell (and buy? after all you always get more credit than cash...) books, use some Christmas gift cards and get a new pair of jeans last Thursday, but like Annie said in her postscript, we had quite a snowstorm and the interstate was closed till 3:30. Tomorrow is my snow date and I'm really looking forward to it.

John worked construction for a few weeks after he quit the bus garage, then helped his friend pick up a CO2 pump in Georgia and hauled it back to the oil well in Kansas over Thanksgiving weekend. Then when we went in to check on health insurance the first part of December he took a bunch of papers out of his folder and a resume came out with them, to make a long story short he accepted a job as a field rep for Thrivent Financial on Dec. 12. So he's been studying for two months for his licenses, got insurance, takes the exam for securities this Friday. I think he'll like it when he gets through all this studying stuff (it's been a long time). It's pretty much different than what he's used to but he's looking forward to it, I think maybe partly because of that. I do feel underdressed most days now that he's wearing a jacket and tie everyday.

We put our acreage on the market in January (by owner), had quite a few calls, six or seven lookers, keep telling ourselves that it just takes the right person. I'm more apprehensive than he is about moving to town. Agreed that we spend most of our time in town anyway, but I'm the stodgy one. I keep dangling carrots out in front of myself...little things first, like new towels...then bigger, like, we're young enough, we can find another place in the country in a few years. Guess I'm not much into life changing. We lost Mitch, my (all of ours) dog buddy for 13 years the day after Christmas to failed kidneys. That kind of got to me. He loved it out there. So John buried him on the hill overlooking the pond. Hey Annie, could you post his picture for me?

I've been reading like a fiend so Steve will try to get you any new favorite books or authors like I promised months ago. One that fell into my bag at the book sale that I liked and can think of right now is Homer Kelly by Jane Langton. He's a professor detective.

Looking forward to a True Value trip to Chicago on the 22nd of this month. Only Thursday through Sunday, but they're fun as well as work and it helps to get some enthusiasm worked up for the job, (and some really nice meals!)

I won't wait so long to write again. Jason, be safe! Love you all, Suz

Health updates ... and snow.

Thanks, Steve for the re-invite ... as much as I am online I'm not very good about getting around this website very easily!
So, I was meaning to post, but kept getting here and not knowing what to write. I was told by my mom that I was requested to post an update on my health, so here we go. :)
Ever since I went to Houston, the first thing they told me after the ultrasound was done was it didn't look like it was urgent to perform surgery on me and they suspected some of it could be scar tissue. I made sure I got a surgeon's opinion as well and he assured me that this wasn't life threatening and it would be alright to "wait and see" so if it did get bigger, they could do something. Well, my endocrinologist back here in Lincoln informed me that they may have not had one of the previous ultrasound reports that was done in March of '06 and showed no scar tissue, even after three surgeries. So she believes the lymph nodes that are in my neck right now are cancerous, because some of them also have cysts. The good thing is they haven't grown too much in size, but have changed sizes a bit, like morphing into different shapes little by little. But she too, as well as a very reputable doctor in Omaha, still think that it needs to get bigger in order to have a successful surgery and not three. (That way they know they can get it all at once). Hopefully.
I am told I can get a second opinion because it never hurts, but I trust my doctor and I just have to hope that it stays in my neck and doesn't spread anywhere else. I recently studied up on thyroid disease and the most common types (which I'm supposedly experiencing) are very slow and passive. However, it was not passive at all when I was first diagnosed because it came back twice in the matter of a two-week time span ... so I'm thinking it is a combination of two types called Papilary and Follicular. I am diagnosed with Papilary, but after reading what I did, it seems like it could be a combination of both? I'm no doctor. I am just trying to figure out why it would multiply so fast.
With that, I also found out that some cells that grow in areas they are not native to, like abnormal cells, and can actually act like the cells in that region (a weird cell can pop up in your thyroid and start producing hormones just like the thyroid, but is not a true thyroid cell). Or, if you get one of those abnormal cells and it doesn't know what to do, you could say it's just dumb, it will reproduce twice as fast as a cell that's being productive. It's kind of opposite from people ... if you are a couch potato you're probably not going to get anything productive done, but these "couch potato" cells just feed off of eachother and reproduce like crazy because they don't know how to produce any sort of hormone or do whatever they want to immitate. I think this is what happened in my case. What a coincidence ;)

Okay didn't mean for this to sound like a science lesson, I am in the stage where I'm trying to figure out why it did what it did because I don't even know why I have it. I might have a few explanations for that too, but there are lots of factors.

I'm scheduled for an ultrasound next week, Wednesday the 7th. Then on the 30th I go for a follow-up with Dr. Bell (endocrinologist). I wondered why there was such a gap in these appointments, but I think I figured it out (because they didn't tell me) ... it took her a long time to communicate with the doctor in Omaha so I believe she wants to go over it with him before talking to me so we can setup a game plan if I have to be having surgery soon. Which I will have to eventually, but we just keep waiting to see when.
I will let you know what happens! Thanks for reading and all your concern.

Love,
Annie

p.s. Oh yeah, and we got quite a blizzard early this morning. No work today :) Yay!