Normal?

I've actually felt normal the last two days. With the optimistic oncologist report on Tuesday, and the beautiful fall weather, things seem to be pretty normal again. Sometimes I even forget about the cancer. I love that.

I've started to feel creative again and the need to try a project or craft has skyrocketed into the forefront of my brain. My fingers are itching to paint something. I don't know how to paint anything really (except I can paint walls pretty good), but I really want to learn how. I'd love to get a large canvas and play with different mediums to see what I could come up with. That could get expensive though. I'll have to figure out how to re-use them if I mess up. I also dreamed up something I want to do in my living room finally. The room goes all the way up into the 2nd floor where the upper floor has a balcony looking down. The walls that are there have a lot of angles and ledges, so I've been somewhat stumped on how to decorate the room. Currently the whole room has drab flat beige painted walls which, in contrast to the beautifully textured kitchen walls, look quite boring.

Yesterday was a 90 minute MRI. It is a good thing I'm not claustrophobic. The MRI should tell the doctor whether the rest of the cancer is localized and can be easily excised with another surgery, or if it is wide-spread and requires a mastectomy. I will get the prognosis on Wednesday when I have my next appointment. I'm hoping for the former followed by the 6 weeks of radiation. It looks like I won't have to have the 5 years of Tamoxifen, which can have some bad side affects, because I can simply stop my hormone creams which will essentially do the same thing. Nice. Though James is concerned for himself about the possibility of me getting all cranky on him.

So, all in all, this week was a good week. Things are looking up. I'm starting to look up and take note of my beautiful life again.

December News

Life is good. We're settling into our new home in Sumner (see photo), only two houses from my sister Linda and family. My dad moved in with us too, which is working out great. We all have our own offices and a huge beautiful kitchen to cook in. The main downfall of the house is there is not a 3rd stall in the garage and the yard is awfully small, though that means there is less yard work. We are desperately trying to figure out how to merge two households into one house and have lots of extra furnishings, books, kitchen stuff, and the like. We still have a lot of organizing to do.

I'm looking forward to the Boeing Christmas break as I'm hoping to do some faux paint treatments on some of my walls. It is imperative that I do something in the way of color on the walls as the entire house is beige. It is driving me nuts. I spent years in off-white rooms in many of the homes we've lived in; however, in the last decade or so, have gotten enamored of striking colors and paint techniques that liven up a place. I'm not afraid of color anymore.

Shhh, don't tell my sister Linda, but she actually started my decorating bent back about 6 or 7 years ago when she painted one wall of her dining room burgundy. It looked so good I decided to give it a try. It didn't work out so well though; the living room ended up being a pinkish-maroon, but I kept at it and am now pretty good at color selection and decorating in general.


We have heard there is a family very interested in purchasing our house in Kent. Everyone who reads this: PRAY! We really need our home to sell. We moved to our new Sumner home one month ago and really can't do two house payments for long. We've lowered the price so that it is the lowest in the area for the price, quality, size, etc., so we've been getting showings, even in December which is notorious for being the worst month of the year for house sales.

We also have a great house for sale in Centralia. It is on Diamond Street. James bought it when it was truly a "diamond in the rough." It was probably the worst house we've purchased and renovated to date. He got it for under 60K range, and had to put over 60K into it. It pretty much is a brand new house, but with about 1900 sq ft, it is a lot of house for under 200K. It looks great now. We had hoped to rent it out, but getting financing for investments is tight right now and we are going to sell it instead. So pray that one sells too.