Head-Shaving Party!

Yemma got her head shaved yesterday as planned. My grandparents, Aunt Lisa, cousin Jordan, BFF Josey, and friends Tracey and Kristina were there. She's not Mr. Clean, just buzzed short. I think she looks adorable!



L to R: Tracey, Kristina, Yemma, Aunt Lisa, Jordan, and Josey. How fun!

He Who Must Be Named

This past Thursday, I went to Petsmart to look at kitties because I am ornery. We hadn't been planning on getting another kitty, at least not anytime soon...but I kind of accidentally fell in love.


The nail in the coffin was actually holding the kitty (after being coerced by another lady, who did nothing to help my infatuation). The kitty immediately snuggled up on my shoulder and starting purring more loudly than I've ever heard another cat purr in my life. Sooooo sweet! I sent a few pics to Ryan, who, understandably, got a little upset because he'd gone off to work that morning like it was any other day, and here was his wife sending him pictures of a big commitment out of the blue.

However, we talked about it and the next night, he told me that I could go to Petsmart and apply for the cat. (When we got Caspian, we had to apply for him and I was a basket case all weekend while we waited to find out whether he'd be ours.) I was so excited! We got to Petsmart a little before 5pm on Saturday and held the cat again. While I was witnessing Ryan falling in love, too, the lady was explaining how the adoption worked. "....And you'd be able to take him home tonight." We were floored! All we had to do was fill out a paper with our names and address, pay the fee, and the baby was ours. Ryan drove home quickly to get the cat carrier while I waited with baby, and then we were on our way home!




Now, here's the funny thing. When I first saw this cat, the employee was sure it was a female. When we went back on Saturday, another employee was sure it was a male. No sex was marked on the info sheet on its cage. So...umm....we kind of aren't terribly sure whether we have a boy baby or a girl baby. BUT...we are 90ish% sure it's a boy. Maybe.

I already have two names that I like if it's a girl....but we've been trying to come up with boy names all day and we still haven't reached anything we definitely love enough to commit to. With Caspian, I wanted to name him Neville but sadly, he just didn't look like one. Ryan and I threw out a few names, then Ryan said, "What about Caspian?" Instantly I knew that was his name. It was like it was his name all along; we just had to realize it. I'm waiting for that to happen with this baby, too. But it's kind of important to find out baby's sex first.

Caspian and lil' bit are currently chasing each other around. They're still hissing and growling at each other, but given the fact that we've only had the baby for one day, I'm impressed that they're interacting instead of still avoiding each other like they did at first.

And so the family is one creature bigger :)

Home from the Hospital

Yemma got to go home from the hospital at about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, her stomach got very upset and she vomited before she left, but she told me she felt a lot better after that. (I don't plan on detailing everything like that, by the way.) She also has the beginnings of the infamous metallic taste in her mouth. This is common with chemo. I know that it could be so much worse and am grateful that things HAVEN'T been worse so far and that she is still in high spirits, but I ache with concern for her. I think it's because I feel powerless being so far away. (Yes, I could be a lot farther than six hours, but that is a long distance when your mommy is sick.)

I know I'm speaking too soon as one "round" of chemo is apparently defined by the time it takes to infuse the drugs AND go through the cycle of rescue drugs, but I'm praising the Lord that one round of the chemo actually being infused is OVER. Five to go. I'm not sure if we can expect her reaction to the drugs to get better or worse from here on out. Will her body be more used to the drugs the fourth, fifth, sixth times around? Or will each round weaken her more and more so that the chemo takes progressively more of a toll? I do wonder these things, but I need to remind myself that God is in control and that my job is to pray for and love my Yemma the best I can.

As I said in the last post, Yemma was told to expect to feel the full effects of the chemo about 5-7 days after it was infused. Right now she's very uncomfortable because there are two liters of fluid just kind of sloshing around in her abdomen. I guess after the Cisplatin is infused, it takes a few days to soak in. My grandma said that early this morning, she was having to turn from side to side every fifteen minutes in order to let the chemo bathe the whole area. Hopefully she will sleep more soundly now that she is at home with her kitty cats. (Random shout-out to cats - all you haters take for granted how easy they are to take care of and how much their calming presence can mean. Haha, I know that's out of the blue, but I know WAY too many people who have quite uneducated hatred toward cats!)

Today is the "head-shaving party." Josey and my sister's two best friends, Tracey and Kristina, will be there. I'm admittedly torn between happiness that she'll have her surrogate daughters there and jealousy that they can experience this with her and her own daughters can't. Just being frank. However, I am SO grateful - as always - to everyone who has been supporting Yemma. EVERYTHING means something. So thank you very much for even reading this.

Chemo #1

Yemma started her chemo yesterday. Early in the morning, she had a small surgery to insert a port-a-cath that is now being used to inject the IV chemo, Taxol. She came out of the surgery fine, then was sent to the oncology floor, where the drip began immediately. It should be finished around now (24-hour drip), and then they will use the port in her abdomen to infuse Cisplatin, the other chemo drug. She should hopefully be able to leave the hospital tomorrow, and if all goes well, the other rounds of chemo will all be outpatient.

I spoke to her yesterday afternoon and earlier today. She states that she's feeling fine, just tired. Her doctor and nurses have told her that she will feel the full effects of the chemo about five to seven days from now, and that mostly she will feel very weak and tired. She said she'll take that over any other side effects. I hope she doesn't get too nauseated. She hasn't been nauseated at all yet - thank God!

This Saturday is when Josey is going to come over to shave Yemma's head. Like I said, I love that she's getting it all over with in one go and on her terms. My Pi will be taking pictures and sending them to me, so as long as I get Yemma's permission, I'll post them here.

Yemma has lost 25 pounds since she was diagnosed in April. She's been trying to lose weight and this is obviously not the way which we would have chosen for it to happen, but she might as well enjoy it! Here is a picture of her with one of the many blankets that have been made for her. She is - WE are - so richly blessed with great family and friends.

Thanks so much for the continuing prayers.

Rhema and Zane

I met Rhema last summer on the float trip from the bottom layer of Hades ;) We rode in her car to the river and back and got to know each other along the way. Let me tell you, this lady is incredible. After doing her own research about God and deciding that she wanted to follow Him, she moved from California to Tulsa purely on faith. She started a whole new life. She's quite an inspiration. At the end of that day, I was so glad to have made a new friend. Nobody in that car knew that less than a year later, she would have found the love of her life and married him! God is truly faithful.

Zane and Rhema started dating last fall and were engaged in February. They got married Sunday night, May 31st, at Tarp Chapel in Broken Arrow. It was a beautiful, beautiful wedding.

The groom awaits his love.

Stunning bride.


Putting on the ring!

Married!

Gorgeous :)

The reception was at a beautiful home in Broken Arrow.


We welcomed them to the reception with sparklers :)

Zane's father, the best man.
Congrats, Zane and Rhema! I hope you have an insanely happy life together :)

I'm gaggin' on it.

Shortly after 11pm, I got a text from Ryan that said, "Want McDonald's iced coffee?" I danced with glee (in my head, anyway) because I love McDonald's iced coffee. It is truly delicious. Ryan often brings it to me during a shift as a special treat. (The coffee is actually a mere excuse for the real treat, which is my loving husband visiting me at work.)

The following conversation ensued. (Note the times between the texts.)

Finally, around 1:30am, Ryan got here with the coffee. I felt so bad that he'd waited so long just to get me a drink. He handed me the cup. I thanked him and said, "Hmm...I wonder why it's so dark?"

His face wrinkled and he said, "They didn't seem like they had any idea what they were doing." I continued to peer at the beverage and I noticed some dark stuff at the bottom. Oh, he got me an iced mocha! How sweet. Must be chocolate syrup. I swirled it around with the straw. Nope.

"Oh, there are coffee grounds on the bottom," I observed. (I am not a brat like this post is making me sound! First of all, there was a phone conversation in which I thanked him repeatedly for offering the coffee and told him how sweet he is; second, I'm a horrible liar/faker so I couldn't ignore the obvious fact that this iced coffee had problems. It was mere observation, not complaining :) Besides, I was too excited to see Ryan to be upset about the coffee.) But back to the story. Ryan said, "Are you serious?!" and was adorably angry at the wrong that had been done his wife. I nodded and took an adventurous sip.

He asked, "Is it the worst thing ever?" "Mm-hmm," I confirmed sweetly, never breaking my smitten glee. His shoulders slumped and he gave a dejected sigh and began the story of his McDonald's experience, complete with a disturbingly skilled hick accent when speaking as the employee. It had been a long and somewhat frustrating trip. Poor, generous husband of mine.

"I want you to take a drink," I said with a mischievous grin. "No!" was his immediate, inevitable response. "Please? For the experience," I implored. He sighed and did it.

"AGH!" He immediately jumped backward, then started stepping this way and that, looking as if he had no idea what to do with himself. I laughed. He wiped his tongue off on his arm in desperation. I laughed some more.

We continued our conversation. He had premiered the "Greyscale" trailer at the showing of another locally made film and it had been very well-received. I wanted to know every detail as I was so sad to have missed an important event for him. He paused and smacked his lips, staring with hatred at the coffee. I said, "I know, this stuff is going to haunt us." He agreed and we talked some more, then said goodbye.

I went into the dining room on our unit and began to doctor my drink. I poured the liquid into another cup, rinsed the coffee grounds from the McDonald's cup and put sugar packets and whole milk in the bottom, then poured the coffee back in. That was much better. My additions had somewhat lessened the arugula aftertaste. I texted Ryan, assuring him that I'd salvaged the drink, and bravely downed the whole thing - although it took me two hours.

It was yummy, though. I promise. But oh man, if you could have tasted the drink they originally made...*shudder*.

Ba-dop-ba-ba-barf...

UP.

Go see it. I don't want to give anything away or build up this movie so much that it's a letdown compared to how I make it sound. Just know that it will affect you in ways you didn't realize from the previews, and that if you don't absolutely love it, you have problems. ;)

With every new Pixar movie I see, I think, "Wow, they've really outdone themselves this time." Everything they make is so clever and has at least SOMEthing that is relevant to people of all ages. (I wasn't a huge WALL-E fan, but that was one of those that people built up to be the absolute SQUIRREL!...best movie I would ever see, and when it wasn't that, it seemed "ehh" to me, which is unfortunate.)

"Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc." are two of my favorite movies, but "Up" topped them. I went expecting a simply cute and funny movie and got the surprise of finding my new very favorite Pixar film. (For the record, it offers "cute" and "funny" in spades, but also so much more.)

Just go see it. Please!