On Birthdays, Anniversaries and other life changing events

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned on this mostly unread blog but I share a birthday with my mother – December 20th. It’s an especially hard day for me since she died. My dear friend Cheryl’s mother died on her (Cheryl’s) birthday (12/17) and I’m sure that birthday is hard for her, too.

Our birthday (my mom and me) were never big deals for me because it is so close to Christmas and one of the bad things I did, as a mom,  was not make my kids’ birthdays a real big deal.  I should have been better about that. That’s one of my regrets in life.

We always celebrate our anniversary. We either go out for dinner or to a movie or both. Next year will be 39 years married, both of us, Rich and I, have been married to no one else.

Those are the 3 of the 4 life changing events for me: giving birth to our 2 children and marrying my wonderful husband.

But this blog today is not about birthdays or anniversaries. It’s about my 4th life changing event: my brain tumor.

Next year it will be 10 years since we found this tumor. The prognosis is 7-15 years. So, technically I have 5 years left, give or take a couple either way. I’m sure there are people who don’t like me and probably believe I deserve what I got. (I’ve not always been the nicest person you’ll ever meet.)

In some ways living with this tumor has been a blessing. As a nurse, I had to be compassionate and empathetic but I found that I gained more compassion working as a nurse with this tumor and I also realized that so many people have worse and heavier crosses to bare than I did/do.

It’s also made me realize that there are very few things that are important enough to worry about. Like money. Money comes and money goes and it comes back again. I’ve been trying to instill this philosophy in my kids because they seem to worry a lot about how to pay their bills LOL. I mean, seriously, what’s so important to worry about when you know your days on this Earth are shorter than you want them to be?

I’ve gone back to my church and I pray more. I pray for others, as well as myself. I pray daily for my husband, children, grandsons and my dad and all the people that God knows I mean to include, but can’t list here. It’s a long list, let me tell you.

I have lots of regrets. I hate that part of this most of all. I won’t list them here except to say that I regret the times I wasn’t nice or kind or was just rude to people. I’m trying to atone for all those incidents… the ones I can still remember. I regret the times I hurt my husband, but God love him, he’s forgiven me all that. I regret not being as good a mother as I should’ve been. But, on the other hand, my kids turned out to be great adults. I thank God for them and their dad.

Thanking God is a whole other topic for another blog post that I will get to sooner than later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What We Didn’t Know About the NYC ISIS Terrorists But Should; Strongly Contradicts Obama

Great read here.

Voting American: The Race Baiting President and his Motley Crew

The Race Baiting President and his Motley Crew.

Protesting hypocrites

This chant from the group with the highest abortion rate in the U.S.

A Future Fox News Alert?

I think Megyn Kelly (FNC host) broke a story the other night on her show and I’m mad at myself for not having thought of it myself. Being the news junkie that I am, it might have occurred to me in a week or 2 but this is why I’m not a reporter.

Kelly alluded to a possible deal with Cuba over Gitmo. Just look at the timing of all this: As soon as Obama announces that we are normalizing relations with Cuba, his regime in Washington very quietly issues a low key press release that the U.S. is freeing 4 more Afghan Gitmo detainees.

What’s the connection? Look at a globe and see where Gitmo is located.

Statistics say that 1 of the 4 released will return to the battlefield. I say 3 of the 4 will do so. And resume killing American and our allies’ soldiers.  I also will go on record to suggest that within the next 2 years, Obama will give the murdering Castro brothers our end of that Island, including a state of the art prison – complete with big screen TVs.

So everyone who’s complaining that we got nothing for this move to trade diplomats and open an embassy in Havana, you are right. We,the American people, didn’t get anything but a more dangerous world. But Obama was able to keep a first term campaign promise – emptying and closing Gitmo. I believe that the secret part of the deal is that he will be giving it to the Castro brothers.

Whooping cough back in California

Is anyone surprised that pertussis (whooping cough) is back “with a vengeance” in California? Of course, no so-called journalist has mentioned the sudden, dramatic and illegal influx of Central American and Mexican children entering the U.S. without even minimal screening as possible carriers of this and other diseases and maladies.

If you have children or grandchildren, I hope you get a chance to read the link I’ve provided. Also, webmd.com has a lot of information and advice, too.

An Excellent Read

from Voting American.

Thank you all

Your comments were wonderful and I appreciate your prayers and thoughts more than you know. I also know that many people have gone through worse than I am right now and I try not to wallow in self pity, nor do I ask anyone to give me special treatment because of what I’m going through.

I hate losing all my hair and before anyone says “it’ll grow back”, it won’t. I’ve heard  from 3 doctors that it will not and at some point you have to start believing them. I might have patches of hair, here and there but never will it be even close to the same. And I guess that’s okay. I can live my life with scarves and wigs. That’s the point —- I can LIVE my life, which is more important than hair.

But it’s not cliche to say that every day is a gift from God and make the most of them. I intend to, even with this guy in the White House. lol

Where I’ve been —-

— in a funk.

I am undergoing radiation and chemo starting tomorrow morning for this brain tumor that has started to grow. In other words – it’s now malignant.

I will permanently lose my hair in the places where they direct the radiation beams.Not at all sure I know what I’m going to do about that yet. 

Well, say some prayers for me, if you’re so inclined.

How does a story reach the interest of a national level?

Remember the Dr. Gosnell story in Pennsylvania – the abortion doctor who had a chamber of horrors? The press/media claimed that the reason it was not covered on national news was because it was a local story.

When does a story reach the national level? I guess it’s not enough that this “doctor” had dozens of babies and baby parts in jars and freezers in his office. I guess it’s not enough that this guy jokingly said “this [dead] baby is big enough to walk me to the bus stop.” It’s not enough that the health department was called several times on this guy and his office and he passed muster with them (?). Or that his staff claimed he (and he taught his staff) to cut the spinal cord on live babies.

However, the traffic snarl on the GW bridge in New Jersey is a national story.

I guess you can argue that this horrendous lanes closures thing is dangerous to citizens who have to wait for emergency vehicles and perhaps some died waiting. (So far nothing has surfaced on that front but rest assured, the media is digging harder there than they did/have done on Benghazi.) But does that reach the national news level? Or is it because Christie as appointed by the media is the front runner for the republican presidential run in 2016? Oh, I don’t know but I’m thinking the latter. This story would not have made more than a blip on the news except that Christie is the governor.

Don’t get me wrong. I think closing exit ramps and lanes is a horrible thing to do to a city and citizens. I think there should be some kind of punishment for this action and not just a firing. But seriously, would this have reached the level of a national story, if it weren’t for Christie?

I doubt it.