What have the Terry's been up to?

Answer is a whole lotta nothing. We have been keeping busy, but not doing anything exciting. Right now i am trying to catch up on "Lost" for this season while people are pounding and ripping out our kitchen lights. Yes our ugly panels of light surrounded by nasty wood will be gone today. We are getting recessed lighting today and crown molding in the little box that is cut out of our celing where our old lights were. It should look really nice and with this bad economy we got it all for half off. This is our last home improvement for a while (years). Over Tristan's christmas break we installed 2 bathroom fixture lights which we got for free from our citibank points. We also got some toilet paper holders with a wedding gift card we just got. Then with our christmas money we bought new door handles for all the doors and painted all the doors and door jams (actually my dad did the painting). It all looks so nice. And of course i love it cause we did not really have to spend any money to do it. I am a saver, so it was really hard to spend the money on the lights and not save it. However, we had to take advantage of this economy and get this kitchen spruced up. We have decided to post pone getting new windows and painting the outside of the house. Our goal is to save enough money to pay for most of Tristans grad school. A lofty goal, but if we can realistically pay for half of it that will be wonderful. Besides, once we got the new garage door, the house looked so good it doesn't need to be painted yet.

Tristan passed his EMT class he took over Christmas break. It was a challenge and there were weeks we did not know if it was going to turn out well. Yet Tristan stepped it up and on the last test he got a 96% and then he passed the final with 80.6%. YEAH!!! Now he is preparing for the national test to be an EMT. He takes it on Monday Feb 2nd.

As for me, I got another job. Yes that is three jobs on the tally sheet. My friend Sarah text me while I was on the way to the interview. I told her I was interviewing for a job and she wrote back asking me how many jobs a girl needs. Well in this economy it is more than one. In november we found out that my CHOC job was cutting our night call for the nurse practitioners. I was to start in november taking call from home one night a week for 300 bucks a night. We were counting on that money as our savings but they cut that program due to the debt the hospital is in. The month we bought our house, they cut my hours from 40 a week to 36 which cut our income and left us with no savings. THat is why we were counting on the night call money so much. To make up for this I am continuing to teach for Cal State Long Beach one day a week, but that will end in May. I needed to find a job for the summer so we can keep saving for Tristan's schooling. I called up Cal State Fullerton and they are looking for peds teachers for this summer. YEAH AGAIN! I went and interviewed and I will be teaching two summer sessions to total 11 weeks this summer. I am really excited to have this search out of the way.

I still have Christmas pictures to post and hope to do so this weekend. Sorry it has taken so long to write. I will also be updating about Heather as she just had a scan this week and we will find out on monday feb 2nd how it turned out. She had been very sick lately with the chemo and is loosing weight now from it so the doctors stopped increasing her medicine. HOpefully the scan will show that the cancer has not spread any further. It would be nice to have it show it improving, but i won't hold my breath.

Happy New Year!

Well, I have a bunch of pictures i need to post about our December adventures. There were not many due to Tristan's busy schedule, but we had some great times. I know how to post them if they are already loaded on the computer, but of coarse Tristan has not had time to and i don't dare try on my own. So those pictures will have to be on my next post. For now you will be stuck with the usual writing only posts. One of my friends Heidi B. did a really cute post where she listed all the months and put a few highlights from 2008 under each one. I thought about doing that, but was not sure that i had more than a few highlights for the whole year. But i do want to share some of the funny things i have learned in 2008.

1)Never tell anyone you play the piano, not even if it is the Bishop asking, or this will be your calling for life. (I was able to avoid this until i sat in the Bishop's office and couldn't lie to his face, but next time perhaps I will have the strength to do so...OK probably NOT).

2)If you think some of the people in your ward are strange that are inviting you over, they probably are. We have had some very interesting experiences with this.

3)Surely my parents must have bought Tristan and I our house, or atleast I am finding out that lots of people think we were helped out. This is really funny cause if you know my parents this is so far from the truth.

4)My favorite hospital story of the year is : There was a patient name La-ah. Everyone was making bets on how to pronounce it. Most decided it was lauh or laay but nay nay. Mother informed the doctors that you "pronounce the dash", it is pronounced ladashah. I laughed so hard i was crying. Who would do that. Oh yes, a fifteen year old having a baby that is who.

5)Top favorite quote of 2008: One of my friends i made from when i worked at UCI always says this. Her children moved to virginia at the beginning of 08. It was quite a shock to them at how backwards and hickish people were in the area they moved to. To comfort themsleves that they were not so badly off and that it could be worse, they made up the following slogan: "Virginia, its better than Bakersfield." Ok lets face it folks, what isn't better than bakersfield its pretty much the armpit of california. I have some great friends from there that i love dearly ,but i can't help a good laugh eveytime i hear this saying.

Well, that is just a few of my random thoughts on 2008.

Where in the world is Mr. Terry???

If anyone has seen my husband, can you please return him to me. He claims to be at school, studying, and taking an EMT class all the way at UCLA. I have not seen him in days. I think some nights he does come home or perhaps i am imagining another body in my bed. But when i wake up there is nobody there. I have run out of Christmas movies to watch, laundry to do, cleaning to do, and even decorated the house and tree by myself. It is no fun I tell ya. You will not be getting a Christams card because I really don't feel like sending a picture of myself out, and i can't find Tristan to include him in a photo shoot. I don't like this single life, so if you happen to see him or talk to him please tell him to come home (preferably before 11 pm so i can actually see him). Thank You!

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family. It was the off year for all of my siblings, meaning they all go with their in laws. Tristan's parents went out of town which means we got to go with my parents and we will again next year to keep on schedule. Tristan is not used to big family things as he is from a family of two children. He was a bit overwhelmed as it was my aunts, uncles, cousins and their children and their children. Yes that is confusing, don't even try and make sense of it all. Tristan hung out with my 20 year old nephew that lives with my parents. They were in hiding (playing computer games). I have had to endure family parties with all of his cousins, and i let him know that next year that will be expected of him. But little does he know that he won't make it that long cause we are having an even bigger family christmas party with my dad's whole side of the family in a few weeks. His excuse for hiding was that he did not know anybody. So i asked him how he proposes to get to know anyone if he is locked up in a bedroom all night (I asked nicely).

After dinner my sister Heather was able to come by and chat with everyone. It was fun to sit around the table with my cousins and chat. I blog quite often about Heather as all my friends like to keep up on what is going on with her. Most of my friends are also friends with Heather because we were all at BYU together. I just feel like this blog is the blog of depression and bad news. But that is how it is cause everytime Heather goes to the doctor it is always bad news. When Heather changed doctors a few weeks ago he wanted to do a PET scan which is a full body scan using dye that is drawn to the tumors/cancer in her body and is a much better test than a CT scan. The doctor felt that since the cancer spread to her liver he wanted to see where else it was. Unfortunately a couple of days before Thanksgiving she got the results that the cancer has spread even further and is now in her bones. The doctor told her it is pretty much everywhere. At least she still has a good brain. It was another disheartening blow to heather and the family. She continues to take her chemo pills, increasing the amount weekly and is now going in for monthly iv infusions of a bone strengthner since the cancer is eating up all her calcium etc in her bones. I went with her today for her first treatment of that, I met the new doc and he is way on top of things and Heather will have another full PET scan in a month. This is because her cancer is so rapidly growing and had been unresponsive to chemo lately. Hopefully that will be better news cause i am about out of optomism and could sure use a boost.

On a happier note i finally saw tilight. Loved it but thought some of it could have been better. If only they had asked me to direct it. Some of the characters were exaclty like i pictured and some, well my imagination was way off i guess. I really want to see it again and usually i am to cheap too do that, but i HAVE to see it again. Today at the doctors there was a 30 year old man sitting in the lobby reading eclipse. That is the first man i have seen reading it. My first thought was maybe he is gay. Why am i thinking that? Cause i heard Ryan Seacrest is reading it, need i say more?

Preparing for the unexpected

I feel that this weekend with the fire situation and all really made me want to get prepared. I have always known it was improtant and the smart thing to do, but i never seem to get it all together. We have 72 hour kits and remnants of some emergency kits in our cars (Tristan just had a can of chili for dinner that has been in my trunk for 2 years. YUCK!). But when i was single i did not have to worry about the big stuff like food storage and a months supply. I could just eat my parents and if i were going be single and living with them another year i probably would have thrown myslelf into the natural disaster anyway (just kidding) so not much to worry about. When we got married i made 72 hour kits but we did not have enough room for food storage and now we should if i can just make everything fit into this house. I have been trying to research exactly what we would need, and even have signed up to do some dry canning and such, but then it is always when i am working. This weekend just made me see how i can't put it off anymore. Also, i have this cool binder thing i made at my sister's homemaking night and it is so organized and such for all your emergency needs. BUt i have to fill it in with all our records and information and of course it has been two months and I have not done it. Over thanksgiving break i will be searching for several items that i currently have no clue to their where abouts.

As for updates with the fire. We are ok and Heather and her family were able to go back this morning to their condo. School was cancelled for her daughter. Her bishop completley lost there home as did some others in there ward who lived in apartments that caught on fire. The park next to Hannah's (my niece) school is completley gone. But we are glad they are ok and were able to make it to my parents. Some women in Heather's ward who also have breast cancer (remind me not to move into that ward) spoke with their physician and he agreed to meet heather for a second opinion. So as of this week she has a new doctor and is on oral chemotherapy. No more weekly trips and ivs. She is sicker with this in some ways as her IV chemo never made her throw up. But she is hanging in there. I still wish we could have the big docs at USC or UCLA or city of hope check her out, but for now i am glad that we have changed up some things in the hopes of changing our outcome.

I need to post some pics, but i dont know how to get them from the camera to the computer. How sad is that. I thought i was good with computers until I married Tristan and realized i really only know how to write a paper or email. Promise some will be coming soon.

Help, we're on fire

Well, we have had quite the adventure this weekend. We woke up a little late on Saturday (9:30)and i immediately went to eat while Tristan got ready for his english proficiency test he has to take to graduate (that is a whole other blog about the inner workings of Cal State Fullerton, they just love to find things you have to do to graduate that you have to pay for. They love to take your money). So Tristan sees that traffic is bad and decides to leave at 10:00 even though he does not have his test til 11:30. A little bit later her calls me saying there is a huge fire right where we live and he is in a traffic jam just trying to get to the freeway. Turns out they would not even let him get on the freeway and he was very upset cause he needed to get to his test. They forced him to get on the 91 east so i suggested he get off at the next exit heading east and get back on going west there. He did not really want to as it was a complete parking lot going west but i assured him it would be worth it to sit for one exit and then he would have a free flowing freeway. This did happen, he sat for 30 minutes to get to the next exit, but then he started flying and called me to tell me as we were on the phone he starts yelling about how there is another fire and it is right by my sister's house.

I did not see any of my neighbors moving or evacuating, so i turned on the news and turns out the fire was on the other side of the freeway from us and we were safe as long as it did not jump the freeway. I was in the middle of cleaning and just continued to do so. I probably should have stopped and packed up my car in case i had to evacuate, but that would be to practical. If this house was going down, it was going down spotless. I called heather and she said only the rich homes on the hills had been evacuated, but that meant lots of people in her ward had to leave their homes. Right after i hung up the phone the news announced that anyone west of gypsum exit must evacuate. I called heather back up and told her and she said that everyone in her condo complex was running around like crazy so they all must have just heard. As heather was in her car with the kids trying to drive to my parents the national park on the left of her caught on fire and she had to drive in bumper to bumper traffic with huge flames just on her left. She just kept saying if you were seeing what i am seeing. Poor thing, i wanted to go help her but i had no way out of my area it was all closed off.

By the time Tristan finished his test, the fires were out of control and the freeway had been shut down. He had no way to get home. The fire jumeped the freeway at that time, but not in our area. I was nervous that it would and so i continued to clean on my hands and knees, washing walls, vacuuming the car etc. It kept me from thinking about it. I was worried about having to evacuate all by myself and not being allowed to go west toward any of my family. I would have to go east and got to some shelter all by myself. FREAKY! I finally rented a bunch of chick flicks Tristan would not want to watch and settled down for the night with hot chocolate. Around 11:00 they opened the freeway heading east only. YEAH Tristan got to come home. I have never been so happy to see him in my life.

Moral of story: Maybe i need a natural disaster once in a while to get me to clean the walls, mop boards, and other places i don't clean routinely. Oh yes, and i need to get my food storage in order, don't really have any cause we keep eating it.

Heartbroken

I don't know how else to describe the last couple of days as anything other than heartbreaking. My sister Heather had a repeat scan last week since she completed her chemotherapy. At the last scan just a few months ago the tumors in her lungs had shrunk by 70%, but she was having questionable spots on her liver. Appartently that was the point where her body was no longer responding to the chemo. I guess i should say the tumors were no longer responding. In just three months, despite having weekly chemo, the tumors have grown. This is the first time we have not had a good response from chemo in this whole battle for the last two years. THe tumors in her lungs are now bigger than they were when they found them in march of this year only two months after she was deemed in remission. In addition, the spot on her liver was indeed cancer, as it has grown in size also since her last scan.

So now what?????? Well, surprise we are heading for our third round of chemo in less than 2 years. Add that to a couple of months of radiation and a double masectomy and you have quite a busy two years. Heather will already undergo treatment starting next week. THey will be using two different chemo agents that are platnin based such as cysplatnin etc. (for any of you out there familiar with chemo drugs). I am spear heading the get a second opinion team and realize that i will probably have to call the insurance company my self and get it approved and then sleep outside UCLA or USC's cancer centers until they let her in. But i am ready to do it. I just want to make sure that this is the right treatment for her and that she is getting the best treatment she can get.

Unfortunatley I have been working the last two days and only got a few minutes with heather yesterday on my way home from work. She seemed to be holding it together when i got to her house so i did not want to discuss the issue and upset her. However my parents said it was a really hard blow for her as she was expecting it to be smaller and hoping it was gone. I love my sister dearly and it is so painful to see her like this, but mostly my heart is breaking for her two children that i love more than anything in this world. And it is breaking for Heather as i cannot imagine what it would be like to go through this while worrying about the future of your children. Thank you to everyone who has kept her in your prayers and has asked about her and shown your concern. I really apprecaite such wonderful friends. MUCH LOVE!

And Heather if you are reading this, I love you and won't give up until you are cured