I am thankful for…(part 3)

I try really hard to be thank full each and everyday, and to express my joy for the countless blessings that comprise my life  each and every day, not just at Thanksgiving.

I am full of thanks this year.  Dave is healthy, really that is enough to fill me with thanks, but lucky me, there is so much more. 

I am thankful for my kids, my heart swells with gratitude when I look at them.  I feel an inadequate and incompetent parent many days, but always, always Thank Full.

I am thankful for my family, far away though they are.  I am thankful that they will be together tomorrow and I know that they will miss us as much as we miss them.  How great is that?  To have a family that enjoys being together and loves.  Thank Full!

I am thankful for my friends.  Here, there, everywhere.  It is amazing to me that I have friends at all, so when I stop to think about all the people all over the world  that I care for and that care for me, it is almost overwhelming.  I am not worthy, but wow, am I Thank Full!

Those are the big things.  But still there is more I have to give thanks for. 

Over the last few months, with all that has gone on, Dave’s health, the move back to Alaska, I have been pretty narrowly focused and have felt like I “can’t see the forest for the trees”.   

So, looking closer at those trees, this is what I found, a forest Full of Thanks.  And I am truly THANK FULL for:

dear darling Entropy rejoining our family, our cozy little house, the csa I just discovered that will bring me good organic produce each week, the chance for our kids to learn a 2nd language, the chance for me to learn a 2nd language, Dave’s steady job, an old blue honda minivan, not having a newspaper route, a gym membership, a diverse school for the kids, the beauty of the mountains that greet me each day, rediscovering old friends, making new friends, the time to bake bread, volunteer opportunities, a welcoming church, daily walks with the dog, the park 3 blocks away, the gas stove, water and ice in the frig door, non-hideous furniture, my really funky and warm winter boots, visitors, postcards in the mail, emails from near and far, facebook, my cell phone and  the crazy number of minutes we have a month, the end of the election cycle…

I could go on and on and on…  there is much for which to be Thank Full!

Ich bin trophenfrau..

That was my answer to what my profession is when asked last night at my German class.  Do you know?

Back in September…

I was a model for a local fashion show.  Apparently the pool of “plus size” models is quite small here in Alaska.  There is no other explanation for my being asked. 

Anyway.  It was fun.  Spent the day in some beautiful clothes, had my makeup done by a professional makeup artist, and my hair done about 15 times over the course of the evening. 

A local not-quite-pro hockey team served as our escorts for the evening.  So those adoring, good looking young men you see in the photos, yeah, they had to be there and smile.  But they were very good sports about the whole thing, gentlemen through and through (well, except for the 2 that got thrown out for being drunk and obscene).

A couple of my friends went as they both needed a night of belly laughs, and Julia took a bunch of photos. 

So, here are a couple.  Enjoy.  Giggle.  Make obnoxious comments.  Or just be really insanely jealous because I looked SO good. 

The kids wrote out their Christmas lists today…

and happily, they still think we are living just south of the poverty line. 

here are some of the requests:

pipe cleaners (2 kids)

books (all 3)

makeup (not the boys, you can breathe)

fresh flowers

cranberry splash sierra mist soda

lefse

really, pipe cleaners.  Isn’t that funny?  I am going to get them pipe cleaners.

The dog does not want to be left out…

and so the game of Twister was a little more complicated.

I let the kids play with my camera…

After 3 weeks of company, one bout with a stomach virus and a wrenched back…

I went to the gym this morning.  Yeah, that was brutal.  It isn’t like I have done NOTHING for the last 3 weeks, just close to nothing.  I need to remember it is not starting over from zero, probably more like 2 or even 3. 

I have been walking the dog 2-3 times a day most days, although, he is an old dog and walks very slowly, so I am not sure that counts as activity. 

Now I am home, drinking coffee and eating a chocolate chip cookie. hmmm.  I guess I better work out a little harder tomorrow.

Crying cancer…

one of the features of my blog account is that I can see what search terms people have used to arrive on this site.  The other day someone had searched for “crying cancer” and ended up here. 

So I started thinking about that. 

Crying Cancer.  Like crying wolf.

I feel a bit like that is what happened with Dave. 

July 17th, Dave gets a PHONE CALL, and the Dr says “you have cancer, this is very serious and you need to get this taken care of RIGHT AWAY”.   Most of you know the story, Dave was in Alaska, I was in Wisconsin, all our worldly possessions were loaded on a truck and on the road somewhere between the 2 places. 

I reacted violently and immediately, called my mom, crying, cancer.  Called my pastors, crying, cancer.  Called my friends, crying, cancer. 

I am sure that much of this reaction was driven by my personality, as well as the fear the word cancer brings.  I am a talker (surprised by that little confession aren’t you?), and I draw energy from having my friends and family around me, so it seemed like the natural thing to do.  Call, cry, talk, to everyone I know. 

It was a tense couple of weeks until Dave had his appointment in Alaska, and then the news was a bit better, but still cancer. 

After Dave’s surgery, the news got even better, there were clean margins around the tumor, and no further treatment would be needed, no chemo, no radiation, no surgery. 

And I felt stupid. Still do.  Did I completely over-react?  Probably. Turns out it was nothing but a massive pre-cancerous-on the edge of becoming a life threatening malignancy-tumor. 

 But that is the thing.  It was a tumor ON THE EDGE of being really really bad. 

 It wasn’t really really bad, just really bad.  So Dave had been in doubling over pain at least daily for 4-5 months.  So blood loss was a daily occurrence.  So Dave was totally exhausted and losing weight at the rate of 8-9 lbs a month, it was still just on the edge of being really really bad. 

And now he is feeling great, running and lifting weights again, eating whatever he wants, sleeping less than 9 hours a night.  He has energy and a sense of humor again(I am SO thankful!)

And I can’t shake this feeling that I was ridiculous to get upset in the first place. 

I hope that we never get another phone call like that one we got back in July, and if we do, I hope and pray that I can keep it together a bit better. 

Right now, I will take this as another chance to thank all of you who were so supportive and loving when I called,

Crying Cancer.

13 people, 1 dog…

On Monday, November 3, we had 13 people (including our family) staying in our house.  And 1 dog.  It was a fun night.  My mother-in-law was here, sleeping in our room.  My aunt and uncle took possession of the living room floor.  Our friends Alex and Annie and their baby daughter hunkered down on the floor in the boys’ room, their little boys slept in Kjell and Broder’s beds.  Dave and I took the futon in the “X-box room” (otherwise known as the office).  Our kids and the dog moved into Sunny’s room. 

Our house is not terribly big, and Sunny’s room is TINY.  8×6 feet at it’s widest point.  Thought you might want to see how we stacked ‘em.

 

Makes you want to come and visit, doesn’t it?  Luxury accomodations await!

Fairy Dog…