Sunday musings....

Well, here it is, Sunday already! The time flies too fast when there's so much to do - ha ha... I'm at the church bookstore right now and it's service time, so I've got a few minutes to blog.

Let's see...we'll start with Thursday and go from there. Floyd and I went to an appointment (our first) with the doctor at the Cross. His name is Dr. Peterson and he is wonderful, knowledgable and compassionate. He reviewed everything for us, wrote stuff on a whiteboard so we could digest the figures he was talking about, and covered the whole scenario in depth. He had time for questions, but what he told us was so unexpected, all our questions we had brought with us were null and void. He gave Floyd another exam and then laid everything out for us. Basically, things have accelerated - at least, beyond what we had thought. We went in there with the expectation of hearing: "It's a slow-growing cancer; we've caught it early; it's very common among elderly men; etc., etc." That's what we've been hearing all along... Now we were being told that his levels have increased - even since February - and that it may have spread to the other parts of the prostate gland. It caught us by surprise, but there is a God to whom it was no surprise, and we are learning to give it to Him and trust in His timing and wisdom. They are going to do a CAT and bone scan this coming week and then we will meet the following week (24th) with the doctor to hear the plan for treatment. It's just another bend in what we thought to be a straight road, and that's okay. While just the very fact of being in the Cross Clinic is scary, we know that it is the best place for us to be at a time like this. They are so supportive, helpful, and giving of their time, to answer any questions we may have. So, we'll keep you posted... Yesterday, my supervisor again assured me that I can take off any time I need, to be with Floyd during this process - no questions asked. They said I need to focus on my family at this time and work should take the back burner. That is such a blessing to us - to know that I can take time off to just be with my Honey if I need and/or want to, and to be able to do so without feeling guilty or having to make excuses.

Anyway, moving on to the rest of Thursday. We left the Cross at noon and hit the highway for Lethbridge. Adriana and Erilyn were doing a ballet recital at 6:30 p.m. and we had tickets!! We were really praying that our appointment in the morning wouldn't drag on so that we would be able to be there to see them dance. It was going to be a quick overnight visit as we both had to be home by early Saturday morning - myself to work and Floyd to play with his harmonica group in the afternoon. Sooo...we were heading out of the city and realized it was lunchtime, so we decided to pull off at Leduc (about 1/2 hr south of Edmonton) at the McDonalds there, as it was really close to the highway and, hopefully, we wouldn't lose much time. Lethbridge, at the best of times, is about a 5 - 5 1/2 hour trip and that's without hitting too much traffic or stopping, etc. Our plan was on schedule as we pulled off in Leduc and hit the drive-thru. Then, as we were coming out, we decided not to retrace our steps to where we got off as there were no signs to indicate that we might be able to get back on the highway by going that way. Knowing that there were about 4 exits in Leduc, we decided to go through the city to the next one. Ha ha... Well, that really backfired. Every time we came to what we believed to be a street going to the highway, there were signs posted saying, "Highway 2 North". Never anything about going south!!! What the heck??!! Sigh. Well, we left Leduc on little 2-lane Hwy 2A (which does parallel Hwy 2) and still no signs. We didn't want to waste time exploring dead ends, yet at the same time we were putzing along on a back road, constantly getting behind good ol' Albertan farmers in their pickup trucks who had nowhere to be, apparently!! Through Leduc, through Millet, through Kavanagh - arghhhhh!! Wetaskiwin! There had to be a road there to the highway. Sure enough we saw a sign - Hwy 2 North!!! Still north, but we decided to chance it as it was at least going towards the right direction! Ten kilometers later (Floyd was keeping track, trust me!!), we reached the highway and got on the southbound exit. Why on earth it wasn't posted as such is beyond me, but guess where we'll never eat again??!! Ha ha....

Despite the slowdown, I fell asleep and woke up to Calgary traffic. We were making really good time (it was only 4 p.m.) but Floyd assured me the cruise was only set for 120 (ha ha...sure, Honey...). We pulled into Lethbridge at 5:30, just as the mad rush was being made at the Lister house to get the girls ready for the big night!! I didn't realize that the two little ones weren't coming (should have thought about that!) and so they had a major meltdown when, five minutes into our visit (they were so excited to see us!!), we were walking out the door - without them!! Poor babbies - I felt so bad for them. But Amelie was promised that she could stay up until we got home and Erin (their babysitter) bribed her with Playdough and we were soon forgotten...

The recital was wonderful. First of all, Tanya and I went into the changing rooms and helped the two girls get ready. They were so excited. At one point, the lady in charge clapped her hands to get everyone's attention as the noise levels were pretty intense. "Everyone," she called out, "I know it's really chaotic in here but..." That was all I heard. Chaotic??? I turned to Tanya who was dressing Erilyn and said, "Tanya, did you hear that? She said it was chaotic in here!!". Now, before you think I've lost my mind, you'd have to know that on our Photoblog Challenge (link on left), we've had a contest going for over a week now - the challenge is to photograph "chaos" and, for the life of me, I've come up with nothing...until NOW!! Tanya laughed and said, "Go for it, Mum" and that was all the okay I needed. Yeah, the next 5 minutes were spent photographing all the hubbub of the changing, makeup, etc... I discovered, though, that when you photograph chaos and look at the still, silent picture of it, it doesn't really look chaotic at all! You can check out my entries if you're interested. Back to the night... Our two granddaughters were the most beautiful, talented, and well-behaved ones out of the whole group!! Incredible, eh? Yeah, I couldn't believe it as well, but it was true! There were no photographs allowed during the show, so I don't have actual in-my-hand proof of that - you'll just have to take my word for it! But, if you have any doubts, you can ask Tanya, Tom or Floyd, all of whom can testify to the fact! We were allowed to photograph the grand finale and you can see some of those photos in "My Photos" link on left. Click on May 2007. The whole thing was very professionally done and all the girls (and couple of token boys - LOL) did an outstanding job. The littlest ones were priceless in their little tutus and their lack of interest in what was really going on....

After all was said and done, we wanted to celebrate! So, Tanya and I took Erin home, then stopped in and picked up some pizza. Everyone was still awake except for little Kellen, so we had pizza and visited with the girls before bedtime. Poor Amelie was so tired... After they were all tucked in, we four just sat and talked. We decided it was too late for Carcassone - that'll have to be next visit when we have more time.

The next day we played games with the girls (Pit and Chutes & Ladders). Tan and I talked about our cameras and lenses (tee hee) and she tried my camera, with its fixed 50 mm lens, as she's getting one for her camera as well - it should be in the mail soon. We took lots of photos of Floyd with Amelie and Kellen - there are some good shots (you can check out my photos to see those as well...) - as they were talking and having tea at the kitchen table. We then went to Ricky's for lunch and had a good time. I taught the girls how to play a join-the-dots game (can you believe I remember playing it with my Dad??) that passed the time until their food arrived and then we had to finish it after we were done eating.

We left Lethbridge (it seems to get harder every time we leave!!) around 2. Little Amelie was camped on the doorstep as she'd been trying to convince us all morning that she was coming home with us. Poor baby. We'll have to have them up for a week or so once summer comes and we find out more about what's happening with Floyd. I wasn't sure (until now) that Ami was ready for a sleep-over with us (she's only just turned 3) but this trip convinced me. She'd miss her Mom like crazy at times, I'm sure, but I think she's ready. Maybe it's Tan that's not ready. Not that I blame her - it was always heart-breaking for me when I realized my babbies didn't need me - ha ha. You long for it but hate it when it happens... such is motherhood. By the way - Happy Mother's Day to Tanya and all the other mothers out there - keep up the good work, and "never give up; never, never give up" (to quote Churchill...I think...).

The trip back was uneventful (okay, okay...I slept most of the way!!) and we hit some traffic in Calgary (good old Friday night rush hour) but that just afforded me more opportunities to photograph chaos! The guy in front of us may have thought I was his personal stalker but that's too bad - LOL!! We stopped in at Blackfalds and had pizza with Kristy and Bob. Then they showed us their Wii game and we played baseball and bowling. Kristy and I actually beat Floyd in bowling!! Only in a video game does that happen.... We left their house about 8:30ish and got home just before 10. Time for bed as 4:45 comes early....

I may be losing all but the die-hards by now with my long-fingered (as Tan calls it) blog. I apologize. I need to do it more often to avoid your snoring as you read.....

Saturday was back to work, no new news there (okay there was, it was busy) and then home by 7. We had a MSN date with Mandy and Jorge at 7:30 but the silly internet kept disconnecting us! In the end , though, we did talk for probably an hour and that was really nice. I love that we can do that with them - it makes the distance seem not so far.

To bed, then that brings us up to date with Sunday morning. I was at the bookstore, home by 1:30 where Floyd was bbq-ing chicken - yummy!! Better than any restaurant meal and a fraction of the cost. Now it's time for a quick nap (maybe) and some knitting (ha ha) before nightshift tonight!