Dear Internets

I come to y’all with hat in hand…

I need your assistance. My husband has Multiple Meyloma, it is a blood cancer. We have been dealing with it fairly well for 7 ½ years. During the last few months he has been on a Chemo that has been specifically directed towards the Meyloma cells.

Here is what I need your help with, we found out about 3 weeks ago that we are now entering the Stem Cell Transplant stage and I’m sure I don’t have to mention the extreme cost that are associated with it purely from a medical standpoint, but there are other costs besides the medical bills. We are required to live no more then 10-15 minutes from MD Anderson Hospital in downtown Houston for 2-3 months. We are on several waiting lists for reduced housing, they usually take 3 – 6 months to get to the top of the list. The Reduced costs per day range from $12.00 a day to $89.00. Parking fees are about $15.00 a day. He is expected to be in the hospital proper for at least 2-3 weeks then in housing nearby with daily appointments at the hospital for 1-3 months. Some places are rooms in a facility, others are actual apartments. So we could end up with our own kitchen or not. IF we can’t get in one of the housing places we will need to stay at a Hotel / Motel.

We are scheduled to begin this phase of our treatment in mid October. I am hoping that some of y’all can help us financially. It is not mine, nor my husband’s style to ask and we really hate to, but none the less are.

What Stem Cell Transplant basically is …

He will be given shots of a special medicine that will make his bone marrow release Stem Cells into his blood stream.

Then he will be hooked up on a filtering machine for 4 hours a day over a few/several days to harvest these Stem Cells.

Then he will be given massive doses of Chemo, that’s to kill all his bone marrow. (he will be very vulnerable to infection as the immune system will also be killed) IF any infection or other not good thing happens it would require visit(s) to the Emergency Room.

Then he will be given his Stem Cells back; which his body should integrate back into good functioning blood producing bone marrow, or could reject. It could take up to a month to find out well it worked.

Then the Best expected result is Total Remission {please take a moment to pray in agreement with me that this is what will happen}. Otherwise he could have very little cancer cells, they call this a partial remission and that would require a steady dose of some pill to help stave off the cancer. And at WORSE he could die when they do any of the above procedures or as a result of any infection. He has a couple of other medical conditions that raise his risk factor.

I am very, Very, VERY grateful for any financial assistance y’all can give, whether it is pocket change or dollars. Even If you cannot spare anything Please, Please pray for my husband that in itself means so much.

I will do my best to keep y’all updated on his status over the next few months, however please bear in mind I am his caregiver and he is my first priority. Please find updates on my Art Blog Should you wish to contact me directly: ArtistPoet dot Girl @ gmail dot com

We place our trust in God, for the highest and best outcome and thank you all for your prayers, good thoughts, healing vibes, love, peace and all that you send our way.

Attention!

Attention! I say...

has been brought to my total lack of attention to this blog.  Hah, I wonder if this is what it feels like to fall and not be able to get up. I won’t bore y’all, my dearest internets (still?) with my lame O reasons and excuses etc. etc. etc.  Just know I am WELL, thanks for caring y’all dear internets, My Life is GOOD, thanks to all y’alls prayers and such. One can never really have too much of that ya know.

Oh, I almost neglected more than this Paradise Valley 2…Hell’s Mountain – guess what time it is??? That’s right November (not just day of the dead celebrations) the November Poem a Day Chapbook Challenge. Say that without wondering what your gonna write. Tune in to Robert Lee Brewer’s blog for daily prompts and fine poems by some of the players.

And gosh I hope it’s not this long till I tune in again. 

Cheers to a super holiday season that is approaching really really fast, eh.

Fired

Well if I didn't know better I can sooo see where some of y'all, my dearest internets, would think I had been fired from my own blog...

But surprise I have not been nor were we in the recent wild fires. The biggest one in Magnolia was about 20 miles away. We had some friends that were evacuated and praise God their home was spared. We did a few grass fires near by that were brought under control before leaping onto the many (hundreds) of dead trees around here. It is very sad to see so many of our woods dying. If the wind blows too hard huge limbs fall as if they were leaves in autumn. I suspect that the first ice storm / freeze (if we get one) will bring down lots of the barely surviving limbs.

I have been doing stuff that has me away from the computer often. New leisure (lol) classes at the college. I spent this past weekend in Oklahoma with a friend. We took a Healing Touch International class. OMG - I mean really OMG!!! was it ever wonderful. But the real reason I brought it up was so many of their rivers, yes rivers, were dry and had grass growing in them. ~CRAZY~

And now back to our Dryness: I know y'all have been sending prayers of rain and I personally thank you super very much, we had a shower yesterday. Please continue the prayers and please add Oklahoma to the rain request.

love y'all my dear internets

Generating Power

No my silly dear internets I’m not going to tell y’all how much electricity the solar panels are producing, although they are…too bad we are using soooo much of said electric power to run the AC. I mean really, it is like way too hot here. At our house it was 109 degrees F. Oh the F, for my other country dear internets, stands for Fahrenheit.

Ummm really this post is not about the solar, no it is about the lack of electricity. So there we were all settled in to watch TV and some UStream one bright and hot ozone laden afternoon… no it was more like evening or dinner time, only I was so not going to cook. Cue windy digital music, y’all know the kind it blows in and out sorta wavy like. Yes, well Beloved was surfing and watching Two and Half Men. Baby Girl was sit/laying on the sofa watching Beloved surf and watching the TV. I was sitting off to the side in my comfy Cindy Crawford – lady stylish – rearback chair, watching Ustream and the TV (I can sooo multitask) When all of a sudden the wind begin to twitch and the cable began to pitch and my laptop screen dimed and I felt someone staring at me and just how many times can I use the word and in one sentence. (laughter is permitted) Then sorta all of a sudden again…

The generator kicked on. Hummm that’s funny I thought. I looked over at Beloved and said, “Why is the generator coming on? Did the auto run cycle get changed?” Really that is what I said. Beloved laughed and told me, “No the lights went out.” Well bless my stars and stripes I was so In The Zone I didn’t even realize it. Really I’m sure y’all understand…

There I was all comfy with ear buds in, chatting and laughing at something I typed while watching ikerrilove stream. I suppose because I have a little battery life and the phone line didn’t quit, well I never missed a beat.

What? I didn’t tell ya? Yeah, y’all know how my beloved likes projects, well he had this whole house generator installed back at the end of June. It took a while as the contractor didn’t get permits before the work and then they used the wrong kind of wire…Not really the “wrong” kind but the type that is not allowed “Per Code” in our city. Once all that was taken care of, we passed the final inspection and we recently we had our first true test of success.

Beloved is determined that we will be okay if a hurricane should come to Texas again. Speaking of hurricanes I’m glad my dear internets up the East Coast are okay and I know that y’all are praying with me for the quick and full recovery of all the states and Canada where Irene caused havoc.

And that leads me to surmise that I suppose y’all could say we are prepared for disaster, well that is as long as we don’t get flooded. Humm wonder if that is gonna be Beloved’s next project? Y’all know to build a boat and now that makes me wonder too…what kind of permit will we need for that?

Merlotte the yard Cat

And it was all...

Bam like. Hole E Mole E, another weekend of blistering heat and an A/C that could barely keep up, ya know?. Rhetorical question...meaning not really a question more like a statement in question form...ie needs no answer...but I suppose you may if you want to. Answer that is.

So we left the confines of our semi cool, yet comfy domicile. Are you impressed with use of fancy vocabulary words? Haha rhetorical (insert grin) Where did we go? What did we do? Just hold your horses and I'll tell ya. We went to the theater. Say it all fancy and uppity like. Thee-Ate-Tah, yeah like that...only it was the movie theater.

I know this has been out for a little while but hey it's worth giving y'all, my dear internets who have not forgotten me, my review of... Cowboys and Aliens. See there was something more to that dance dream I told y'all about after all.

Anywho we enjoyed it. It had good graphics! The story line was a new (for moi) spin on Visitors from Out of Space not the kind of alien that crosses the border without the proper paperwork. You know that is funny...now laugh -- dagnabit! This movie gets a five thumbs up from us. Five because there was a couple of those jiggly camera shaky "what ta heck" kind of scenes in it.

Now onto yet another day of pure Texas hotness and I don't mean where my Beloved just admires me. Nope. We went to the movies again! I know! TWO DAYS IN A ROW! We saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. And it too had good graphics, who would have thunk it? ReeeToreAhKul. Interesting story line about the, DNA, why to play with it and OMG...really the end of humanity as we know it! And yes we enjoyed this one too. Although we think they (writers/directors/actors) could have played up a bit more of an emotional attachment to Cesar. And although this is yet another remake of the 1968 Ape Planet series, we once again give a five thumbs up.

Oh, the unusual number of thumbs. Okay I'll explain that for those of y'all who asked, for those that didn't... don't feel obligated to read the explanation. My little family has dwindled down over time from seven children to only one left at home and that gives us three sets of thumbs. A rating of six up would be really good cause that would mean we all LOVED the movie and it needed no improvements from our standpoint. Where as one thumb or a negative thumb would mean you are crazy insane to spend your very hard earned money on seeing it at all in any form. 

Sooo bottom line is both of these movies were worth the matinee price we paid to see 'em

OH my!

Lions and tigers and bears! Well not really…

But HOLE E MOLE E it’s next month already.

Thanks for missing me y’all, my dear internets. I have been busy. Duh, right?

BTW It is now officially the Dog Days of Summer. Super Crap-ol’la as if it hasn’t been hot enough around here now here we are in our HOT and DRY season.

We have had several people knock on the door asking about the Solar. It has saved us $$$$$. I say that even thought this last electric bill was up…well I did run the AC in the studio almost every day. But I hate having to pay over $40 dollars now. I mean WOW the “fuel sur-charge” was like $28. It ain’t right I tell ya.

It is soo hot here that the milk turns to cottage cheese before we get home. It’s okay you may laugh if you so desire.

Speaking of cottage cheese. Oh my goodness in the month of July I bought the following items, which I seldom buy…

Cottage Cheese

Sour Cream

Ground Turkey

Guess what the Cottage Cheese was recalled! The sour cream was recalled! And now maybe even the ground turkey will be recalled!!! I feel like such a crazy a$$ because I already ate the Cottage Cheese, most of the Sour Cream and feed the Ground Turkey to my family! Oh, here’s the good news We survived. 

Trouble in Paradise!

OMG and HOW SAD, for me. It has been 10 days since my last post, my dear internets, and not one of y’all have called or emailed to check on my well being. Humph! (thanks for the snail mail card Deanna)

So what’s going on and all that you may want to know, or maybe not. {insert sad face here} I have not had any leftover MoJo / Inspiration / fodder to share with y’all. See it’s all because I was abducted by a space ship. Not the typical silver saucer with lights all around it, nope. It was one of those cigar shaped ones, no sillies not a Zeppelin but close, I guess if I had to make a reach for what it looked like…other than a cigar but way bigger, no huge’r than a cigar.

Sadly or fortunately I don’t remember much, not really. It was all like one moment I was dancing naked in the backyard trying to conjure up some rain and swoosh I was in this vast room. I mean hole E cow can y’all image! There I was all naked and junk in a colossal, too brightly lit room…all and I do mean ALL of me exposed. {shudder} Oh wait I forgot something {Cue: spooky space or techno music} So again there I was like all Nake Ed and so I just stood there looking around and thinking, What happened? Did I fall and hit my noggin in my wild foray of a dance routine? Did lightning strike me and now I’m in a coma? What!!

“No”, echoed this tiny voice.

Yeah, weird as I expected, and why did I expect, this big booming voice to answer too. So I twirled around trying to see who or what said that. Nothing, I saw nothing but empty space. Then I heard the tiny echo say, I’m up here. Duh!” I snapped my head up - Hole E Mole E! Standing on this weee witty bitty platform thingie was a little dude. At least I guess it was a dude, it had no…umm… well he had no boobs okay. So yeah, dude. Now picture this (oh you can kill the music IF you want) he was wearing a striped shirt of red, white and yes blue and had on pants, no not blue jeans, they were these green plaid, yellow and black. I know how crazy is that? And Orange tiny shoes, sort of Italian leather looking or made from Nagua’s (Naugahyde, umm yeah they are real).

I said, “Just what is going on here and who ta H E double hockey sticks are you?” While in my head I was all like whoa (as Joey says) and my legs were feeling a little jello’ie and not from my super and duper dance routine either. Then he shook his butt, at least I guess it was his butt it was behind him anyway and said something, it didn’t echo so I don’t know what it was. My hearing is not as good as it used to be ya know.

And next thing y’all and I know, I was in my bed and it was thundering and raining. No - not inside my head Silly, Outside and by that I don’t mean inside my house either.

To wrap up this post that went nowhere {along with me} the moral of this…the point is to…awh heck Don’t NEVER EVER do a rain dance when you are naked and “they” are cruising the night skies on a joy ride.

Have you ever been Abducted my dear internets?

Hello are you there?