365 Project - Day TWENTY NINE

This morning, one of the PTA moms who was supposed to help the PE teacher at Jack's school with the Jump Rope for Heart jump-a-thon today, came down with a crazy cold. She sounded awful when I talked to her on the phone. I told her she had the swine flu. She laughed and asked if I would fill in for her today. I told her I would and told her to feel better soon. She squeaked out a few words which I recognized as, "I can come help you for a little while...". I told her to stay the hell away from me because I didn't want to get sick too.

Anyway, I was the chief banana cutter. The kids needed a snack while they jump-roped and I was the one to dole it out. The PE teacher was able to get two cases of bananas and 4 cases of water donated by our local Albertson's (thank you Alby's!). I cut the ass and top off each banana, cut it in thirds and then scored the peel down one side for easy peeling. The kids said they were the best bananas in the world...I told them all I grew them myself.

The stars of the show? The banana people that came from Jamba Juice to support the event. There were two employees that came dressed as bananas and they participated with the kids and were jump-roping in their banana costumes. It was quite comical and they were good sports.

My guess is there was a lot of plugged-up kids tonight because there was some serious banana buffet going on...

365 Project - Day TWENTY EIGHT

So, my dad and I have been anticipating the arrival of Sonic for a long time now. While my dad's job takes him all around this country and he has plenty of Sonics to choose from on his travels, I have to wait for the occasional trip to Texas. There are Sonic Drive-Ins all over the southern states. They have planned a clever marketing campaign and have blasted our Washington airwaves with commercials for yummy items. It left those who don't know thinking, "Where the heck is Sonic?" For many years I have been patiently waiting for one to go up in Washington. About 5 years ago, my dad contemplated opening his own Sonic Drive-In. The franchise fee and amount of money you needed in liquid assets was just the right thing to keep that dream from happening.

So, we're blessed with a Sonic now. Since the restaurant only opened on Monday, there's lots of people trying to get in to eat there. Most Sonic restaurants only feature the car stall drive-up, but this new Sonic has a drive-up, drive-thru and walk-up. The lines for ALL of them were long. Long enough to require a gravel staging area and a post-it note with a number on it. Quite a production.

The food was just as I remember, tasty and worth the wait and experience with my dad. The picture? Taken out of the sunroof of my mom's Subaru with my cell phone.

365 Project - Day TWENTY SEVEN

Today was an emotional day. I went with Kelby, my mom and dad and Brian's family to a ceremony honoring those who have died while on the job in 2008. While I don't see 81 names on this pamphlet, the people speaking from the Department of Labor and Industries stated there were 81 workplace deaths this year. Several mucky mucks spoke and offered condolences and assured us they are striving every day to make that number ZERO. I feel they have come a long way with safe labor practices and laws and I hope they continue to improve things so families don't have to suffer over the death of someone they loved. One of the highlights of the event was a presentation by the governor of our state, Christine Gregoire. Since the building we were in was not a large auditorium by any means, the governor was literally 15 feet away from me. It was a terrible event to see the governor in person at, but nonetheless, I can say we were in the same room.

At the same time, Brian will never be a statistic to us. There on the big screen was a slide show with pictures of some of the people listed. It took my breath away to see Brian's bright, blue eyes and signature grin up on that screen every time the slide show cycled back to him. I know he's all around us and seeing his daughter reminds me of him each and every time I see her.

Love you Brian.

After that, Mazie had her first t-ball game tonight. Her team is called the Muckdogs, which I hear is a farm team for a MLB team. Ironically, when Jack was playing t-ball, he was a Muckdog as well. It was hard to decide which picture to post from today for Mazie. She was cute as hell out there among all the other ball herders. When she played the pitcher position, she was on it - grabbing grounders and throwing them to the appropriate basemen. While she is not an accurate thrower, she felt she did her job by getting it into the general area of the appropriate base. Doing this quickly allowed her to go back to her 'in-between batters' duty, which was cleaning off the rubber bases, hopping in circles, picking clover flowers and finding the occasional worm. The batting tips I provided her were wrong (according to her), but she should improve by the end of the season (fingers crossed).


Serious in the huddle


Lone pitcher...

365 Project - Day TWENTY SIX

What did I do today? Well, I went and took a placement test to see where I rate for entrance to TCC (Tacoma Community College). I would like to pursue their radiology program and I'm in the very beginning phases of getting to that point.

I was very nervous about this test. Why? Well, because they call it a test. If they would have called it an intelligence survey, or a 'how much you retained in high school' survey, maybe I wouldn't have been thrown off. It's appropriately named, AccuPlacer Test. So they can place you in the accurate classes to help you succeed.

Just as I expected, I did relatively well on the English and Reading Comprehension phases of the test. Not too shabby for 18 years out of school.

What happened after that though...well, I bombed the math part. Hmm, I guess I can't say bombed. I did very poorly though. I at least had a score, which meant I must have got some answers correct. As you can see on the document, I scored a 32. This was out of a possible 120. The man proctoring the test tells me, "It's really not a bad score." WHAT? They have me slated for Math 85, which my sister tells me doesn't even count towards college credits.

*sigh* The proctor gave me some websites to refer to and told me to come back after 48 hours to take the math portion over again. Maybe I will. My brain goes into lockdown when my eyes view anything that has a combination of x's, y's and parentheses...

365 Project - Day TWENTY FIVE

She came! The Tooth Fairy made good on her promise. She left $5 for Mazie's first tooth, just like she did for Jack's first tooth. Last night, we hurriedly made Mazie this TF pillow, which had a pocket that was just the right size for a folded piece of 'paper money'.

Whew!

And now for your viewing pleasure, an interpretive dance by Mazie to the song, "Conquest" by the White Stripes.

365 Project - Day TWENTY FOUR

Today was tooth-losin' day. Mazie's first tooth!

Well, not technically. A couple of months ago, the dentist pulled one of Mazie's molars because it was pretty decayed. It couldn't be filled or crowned. So, the Tooth Fairy left Mazie a pack of flossers and told her to take better care of her teeth. Mazie used the entire pack of 30 flossers in one day. In her teeniest, tiniest cursive writing, the Tooth Fairy also promised money on the first tooth she lost naturally.

Fast forward to yesterday. We had a Mt. View Co-op Preschool Alumni and current student family fun night that we were invited to. Before we left, Mazie's tooth was barely hanging on. We tried to convince her to pull it before we left, but she was adamant that we weren't doing that.



Once we arrived at the event, she got herself some cookie dough ice cream that was generously donated by Ben and Jerry's. Not two bites later, she's running up to me with something in her hand and a mouth full of blood. She's finally lost her tooth!



I'll continue the post tomorrow when and if the Tooth Fairy comes!

365 Project - Day TWENTY THREE

Today was a significant, nerve-wracking day.

It started out ok. Got the kids off to school today without a hitch. As usual we were running behind. Out of habit, Jack kissed me before he got out of the car and said, "Goodnight Mom, love you..." like we say every night. We three had a good laugh and Jack corrected himself before he went in.

Went home after I dropped off Mazie and got ready to start my day. I got some emails done, checked the bank account and went on with getting dressed.

Left the house and went to Joe's Outdoors, which is going out of business. They boast 20-40% off the entire store! I went in there hoping for some bargains. I was able to eke out a bargain and got a pair of shoes for $15 after the clerk couldn't find a barcode for them. Nothing else was really that great of a deal yet.

After that, I cruised to WalMart and saw a few school moms there that I had conversations with. Got some necessities and hustled my way to Virginia Mason for a follow-up mammogram. This appointment was spurned from the mammogram I had on Monday, which showed something in my breast that required follow-up.

They did a more specialized mammogram, targeting the area in question. There, on the screen, bigger than life was the mass in question. I could see it. I'm sure my dad could have recognized the area. It was a large, white area in the middle of all this grey area that was the size of a robin's egg. I started to get nervous as she repeated the test several times, from different angles, different apparatuses all accompanied by the same small talk about the weather and being a stay at home mom. The technician said to me, "I'm going to show these to the radiologist. Go ahead and grab a magazine and I'll be back in 5 to 10 minutes."

This was the longest 5 to 10 minutes I've endured in a while. I sat there in the room, gown open in the back, clutching my sweater and bra. My heartbeat pounding in my ears was the only thing that drown out the humming of the mammogram machine and computer. Out loud, I told myself, "Do not cry. Do not do it. You're fine. Do not cry, do not cry, do not cry..." Alas, I didn't cry. The technician came back in and told me that she'd like me to take my things with me over to another room for a ultrasound exam of the same area.

I got into the ultrasound room and the woman who runs this confusing machine got to work immediately. As I lay on my back with my left arm in the air, she started doing passes with the wand between the areas of 12 and 3 (if you can envision my breast as a clock). Just when I thought she wasn't finding the area (I was scrutinizing the screen as well, since I'm such an accomplished ultrasound reader), she whips out a small ruler and measures the distance from my nipple to the mass. She notes the measurement on the ultrasound and continues to fine-tune the image. She finished-up and tells me she's going to discuss the ultrasound with the radiologist. Would I like a magazine? Because she'll be back in 5 - 10 minutes. Just as I was shaking my head no, the radiologist came through the door to discuss the results with me.

Here's where the crying started.

She sat down in front of me while I still lay on the table. She explains that they have found an area they can't explain. Initially, they thought it might be a cyst, but after the ultrasound have decided it is not and could possibly be some kind of mixed tissues, a benign mass... Her voice started to fade out of my consciousness. When I snapped back into it, she explained a few more things. She said my breasts were not dense, but fatty, which made for a radiologists dream exam because anomolies show up quite well against the boring, grey fatty tissue. Dense breasts create for a nightmare exam because there is more tissue and other areas that show up as 'something'. She explained that in her experience, they are able to view tumors that turn out to be cancer right away. She didn't think that what I have in my breast is anything malignant, BUT (there's always a but) sometimes they are surprised by biopsy results. I feel like this is a loaded statement that they must learn in Avoidance 101. They are all so fabulous at not quite offering entire details of a situation.

Now she explains to me that I'm going to have a biopsy. She tells me that I will be numbed and they will take 8 to 10 samples of the questionable area using ultrasound to guide them. I will be sore and I'm not supposed to take any aspirin or ibuprofen products as they promote blood thinning and bleeding. Then, I'm to do nothing strenuous for 3 days (jackpot!). After that, I will have an appointment with my gynecologist and she will tell me the results.

My biopsy is scheduled for May 5th. Cinco de Mayo. That's 11 days away. How will I ever turn my brain off for 11 days? 14 if you include the 3 days I have to wait for results! There are so many things I can worry about between now and 14 days. I'm not good with my head in 'scenario mode'.

It's going to be manic. And, as Amy Winehouse sings...what kind of fuckery is this?