tagged...again

i was tagged by the inimitable hannah.

first, i'm going to talk about hannah. hannah's like a leather sofa. you're pretty sure that you're not lucky enough to have one. and then you get one. and it only gets better the longer you have it. only with hannah, unlike the sofa, she speaks. and what comes out of her mouth is usually funny, sometimes poignant, and always bare naked.

here are the instructions for "eight things":
. mention the person that tagged you
. complete the list of eight things
. tag eight of your wonderful blogger friends
. go tell them you tagged them

eight things i look forward to:

1. dennis learning to drive. this means a stepping stone for him...a grocery-getter for me;

2. our trip to cancun in august...sort of;

3. having a baby some day. really. i'm almost there;

4. my parents being well;

5. going to heaven.

6. writing a book. i will do it...someday.

7. figuring out exactly what i want to be when i grow up

8. buying this new bedding from pottery barn.

eight things i did yesterday:

1. volunteered to host a cocktail party for my entire office.

2. genuinely missed my husband.

3. read a couple of pages of the mermaid chair...for the third time.

4. cried over melissa's post.

5. played wii boxing...and did 10 squats every time i k.o.'d someone. and super hula-hooped.

6. drafted swine flu memos

7. was really thankful in a sordid sort of way when my son fell asleep during the president's speech. and i didn't wake him up. i then proceeded to watch american idol instead of lost. and cheered for kris allen when he stayed.

8. wished the swine flu would go away (reference #2 above).

eight things i wish i could do:

1. fly. seriously.

2. live in arkadelphia, but keep my job.

3. convince jon that he is the best ever at what he does...both at home and at work.

4. host flawless parties every night of the week. with nothing to clean up. in a dress. with pearls. and heels.

5. find a community group.

6. work out 5 days a week and not whine about it. OR just magically lose 50 pounds.

7. have raised my son since birth. only i'm pretty sure he wouldn't have turned out as well.

8. turn my house by about 90 degrees so i'd have morning sunlight flood through the house. only then i'd be facing the neighbor's house. that would be bad. so i guess in my next house, i'll make sure that there's morning light.

eight shows i watch:

1. desperate housewives

2. grey's anatomy

3. 24

4. the office

5. medium

6. jon and kate plus 8

7. every show on the food network. marathon-like every saturday and most sundays.

8. all the CSIs

i tag: jessica, laura haywood, kristen black, dayle carozza, and heather wolfe. i have no idea who's even reading this any more!

parental updates

it's been awhile since i've posted about the cancer. i think in some way, i was hoping it would just disappear.

my dad completed the 6-month round of chemo initially prescribed. he got the results of the follow-up PET scan today. and the news, well...the news was good. it wasn't what my dad wanted to hear, but it really was good.

so, initially, his oncologist told my parents there were "multiple lesions," to me, meaning numerous...too many to count. and when he got his halfway checkup, the lesions were "20% percent reduced...some as many as 50% reduced." this, to me, means that he had a. lot. of. tumors.

and today, he and my mom heard that he has 4 tumors. 2 of them could be cut out today. and 2 of them have not quite shrunk enough. since that halfway checkup, one of the tumors has gone from 7 centimeters to 6.

y'all. that is a BIG tumor. possibly TWO BIG TUMORS.

there is no way my dad should have made it this long. his liver was just plum eat up with lesions. but my Almighty Father, the Great Physician, saw fit to spare him. to shrink those nasty tumors. and put doctors in our life that know just what to do for him.

not only did those tumors shrink and all but disappear, but the CANCER HAS NOT SPREAD.

y'all. merciful days. the cancer that so easily spreads...the liver is practically a conduit for cancer. spreads cancer like cheerleaders throw candy in the christmas parade. and that cancer is contained. praise the Lord.

please join me in lifting up praise to our God for sparing my daddy thus far. for shrinking those tumors. for knitting our family together. and for teaching us all that He truly does know the plans he has for us...no matter what that entails.

so we've got six more months of chemo - 12 treatments. the other good news is that the doc released him back to work. i truly believe that will be good for him, too...being able to have a reason to get out of the bed and into the shower and into the car. it's a different drug, and i sure couldn't tell you the name of it. but i can tell you that he is NOT excited about the chemo. it pretty much just makes him feel like crap. but i'm not going to pray that it doesn't make him feel bad. basically, you're pumping poison in your body to kill the foreign stuff. and that's not supposed to feel good.

and please lift up a little prayer, that this new chemo drug will shrink those last two tumors to a managable size, so that we can whack them out of him ASAP. i'm ready to NOT count white cells.

vocabulary monday

this evening at dinner, jon and i learned a new word. not really a word...an acronym. dennis is usually pretty quiet at dinner. there's usually something on tv worth watching (i know, i'm a bad mom for allowing tv during dinner, but really, we sit down and have dinner together almost every night. how many families really do that? we'll work on no tv with the next one...right.)

so dennis hollers, "oy tay! you will never believe what happened today at school." and we waited. he said, "this girl, she made a strange sound from a strange place." and i got nervous, because that sounded a little shady. 

and then he said, "t.o.l."

pregnant pause.

"she tooted out loud."

and i almost shot cilantro out my nose. seriously.