Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Speaking of legs ...

OK, commenting on the comments ---

Leeann, thanks for the compliment; I ordered the duster from the JC Penney plus-size online shopping site. It is crinkedly-crushy velvety-like, and I love it. Already had the crinkedly-crushy velvety-like pantsuit, so they went perfectly together. And ok, I'll confess, the pantsuit is a maternity pantsuit I bought for a fancy Christmas celebration one year while I was three months pregnant. I figured I could just cinch up the waist real tight for the cruise and things would be fine. Sadly, by the end of the cruise, there was no cinching necessary.

No, my legs are right there .... but you're right, a little hard to see due to the white pedestal I'm sitting on in front of a white background, and the fact my black pants and shoes are directly in front of Renee's black dress. But I swear, they're there.

Tomika, I certainly do remember you and am glad to hear from you! You didn't include your personal e-mail anywhere, but if you'd like to e-mail me privately (kristieokc@cox.net) I can connect you directly to Blaine ... you guys (sadly) have quite a bit in common. He hasn't used anything for dry mouth until recently but does struggle a lot, especially while trying to sleep. I guess the rest of us take drooling on our pillows for granted! Actually, after the evening of my 40th birthday, ah, "celebration" (code work for drunken karaoke fest) I woke up with the worst case of dry mouth ever .... felt like my tongue was permanently attached to the roof of my mouth and someone had poured sawdust down my throat, and I was pretty sure I would never have enough spit to swallow again. Then, suddenly realized, *this* is how Blaine feels every night and every morning. Quite depressing, actually.

His biggest recommendation is to drink Gatorade by the bucketful, and he gets up every night in the middle of the night, several times, to drink more. And then wonders why he's not getting any rest. His doctor recently put him on Salogen (sp?) and he says he doesn't notice any real improvement, but he's going to keep trying it and hope for more. I'm serious, though, if you want to talk to him, just e-mail me.

And as far as my skin cancer goes, things are fine. Just the one excision, which left me with an impressive scar, and which sadly took away my enthusiasm for tanning beds. Since tanning is the non-medicated method that best keeps my dry skin/eczema under control, I'm not sure what I'll do in the future. Give myself skin cancer from tanning, or mutilate my skin with my scratching and clawing until I bleed. Which is the lesser of two evils, I wonder?

As far as books .. I read a LOT this summer. The book store at the mall was having a buy three get one free sale, so in between that and the box of books my friend Lisa sent me, I've been in reading heaven. I actually enjoyed My Sister's Keeper, although had I read it earlier in Kendrie's treatment I think the subject matter might have been harder to take. I love anything by Jodi Piccoult and read The Tenth Circle on vacation, along with ...

The Mermaid Chair (didn't like it) but did like The Secret Life of Bees by the same author (Sue Monk Kidd)

Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston

Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (which I am scared to tell all of you that I didn't like because everyone here loves her so much ...)

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (enjoyed it)

Um, HP6 and 7, of course, and a bunch of other I can't remember since I left them all behind in OK for my mom. Basically, no-brainers that were intended for light-hearted vacation reading and served their purpose wonderfully.

I'm still using the reading list I compiled from all of ya'lls suggestions earlier, want to thank you for them again, and I'm always up for a new, wonderful read if you have another one to recommend.

And, speaking of legs .... in all seriousness, please visit Tyler's Page as today is a huge day for him. (Pam, I had gotten behind in my Caringbridge trolling since vacation, so I appreciate the reminder!) Tyler is a fellow-Georgia cancer patient that we met through some of the various social organizations in Atlanta. He's a great kid, and has the heart and strength of a lion. Today, he is having his leg amputated in an attempt to improve his quality of life and hopefully rid himself of cancer forever. What a huge thing for an 18-yr old to under go ..... please visit his site and leave a note of support for Tyler and his family!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeanne from Philly
Wow....for the last two weeks I have been complaining about my legs hurting (just run of the mill everyday kind of soreness)...I will just shut my mouth forever now. These incredible kids just never cease to amaze me with their unbelievable strength. We will definately add Tyler to our prayers.
From the bottom of my heart I want to thank you for all you have done to help me through my son's cancer journey. If I didn't have you to turn to on a daily basis...I would just be completly CrAzY!
My "moose" just had his "1 yr. off chemo test" and did great. I am releaved but still terrified. He starts first grade this year and has put so much of this behind him already. One day in kindergarten he told his teacher " I had cancer before but it was a long, long time ago, years ago."
Keep up the great job of keeping us out here from going too CrAzY!

M said...

Funny, I first thought you had cropped out your legs with Print Shop...and then I realized you were not THAT short!

Glad your trip was FUN! I saw the photo of the ship and it looks just like the one we went on for the Make-A-Wish trip...and then had to come home and face the fact that I had to cook, clean, work, make the bed and there was no chocolate mint on my pillow each night!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kristie-
I too want to thank everyone that posted their favorite books because I have been reading alot of good books lately. I especially like Jodi Piccoult (My Sister's Keeper & Picture Perfect plus one more I can't remember the name of.) By the way, I bought myself Harry Potter 1 and decided to take the plunge and started reading them!!
Kristina
Brookville, Ohio

Anonymous said...

PS.. I found your legs!! After relooking at the photo I can see how you are leaning against the white pillar! Thanks for updating on that!!

Kristina, Ohio

Mixed Up Me said...

I am a Jodi Piccoult fan too!! Right now I am reading Harvesting the Heart while I anxiously wait for Nineteen Minutes to come out in paperback, because I am that cheap!!!

Have a great day!!

Anonymous said...

Frankly I thought you were SO very vacation happy that you were just floating on "air" during your Alaska high!!!

So happy that your vacation was all that you hoped for and MORE.

We actually went to Alaska on our honeymoon en route to Hong Kong - ummm I mean we had a stop in the Alaska airport when we lost an engine - and yet still married:) Guess that was my husband's lame attempt at memorable!!!

Lots of road trips since then...
Randy

Unknown said...

If you enjoyed Confessions of a Shopaholic, you'll probably enjoy some of Sophie Kinsella's other books...I have two of the other three Shopaholic books and a couple of her other books. Let me know if you're interested -- you're welcome to borrow them!

Leeann said...

Hi Kristie!
Thanks for letting me know where you got your duster (see, I didn't even know there was a word for that!). I'm gonna go see if I can find something like it. It looked great on you!
Leeann