In this season of preparing for the Good News to come, I ran into a bit myself last week.
It was check-up time with Dr. O. and the Oncology team. Dr. O. is the physician that orchestrated my whole green-belly, radiation, Bruce Banner, planting seeds in my flower garden thing.
Well the whole ordeal started with a simple blood test, PSA’s and the reading there of. You want your PSA to be low, near zero I understand. My initial PSA of 6.5 sent me to see Dr. O. and I had a PSA as high as 7.5 before my procedure.
Well last Tuesday the good doctor said my newest PSA registered a 1.5. (Yayyy!) I asked him what his target PSA, or my GOAL. Dr. O. says his job is to get it to a 0.2.
So I asked him his time frame for accomplishing his goal? He said over the next 1-2 years. He followed up that he was very excited with good news to start!
PSA Chart showing how ‘Its Not My Time’
But I tell you he was not the most excited one in the room!
With a little luck I should be around for a long, long time he says. And if I can just get the kinks out I can start working on my immortality; again.
But you see…I have kept this news largely to myself for the last week or so, really just to bubbling over with joy to do anything.
So I wanted to ask you, If YOU got good news, such as this what would you do?
How would you celebrate?
I can’t tell you what I actually did and spoil the survey!
Suffice it to say, I was the last patient of the day, it was late, and I pass right by Dunkin Donuts on the way out of the parking lot.
This is a post originally published 12/24/2011. Yes, Christmas eve on my second month of blogging.This was one of the bright spots amid all the stress of preparing for Santa…reliving Christmas past once again:
Yesterday we had to traverse the Mall-WalMart-Best Buy triangle gauntlet on the way to Target. Its our local version of the Holiday frenzy that keeps you from getting to anywhere on time.
The cars waiting to get in the Wal-mart parking lot (let call lot A) were lined up back to the Best Buy parking lot. Cars waiting to get in the Best Buy parking lot (lets call lot B) were stacked up all the way back to Wal-mart. And then there was the mall traffic making traffic come to a standstill.
As bad as it was my wife pointed out trying to make it to the Target today, the 23rd, would not be…
With a great week and weekend of Thanksgiving in the rear view mirror I just wanted to share some things from the past weekend before I go full throttle on more Christmas reblogs. 🙂
We had a wonderful fall weekend here in the Lowcountry. The leaves here finally gained some color and started to fall making a nice back drop for our Thanksgiving meal.
Fall over the chilly coastal waterway on the way to work
I am happy to say that this new house of ours has yet to ask me to rake any of the leaves. It was one of the perks of buying this house over our house we just left that had five 80 foot Gum Trees. Ahhhhhhh!
Thanksgiving week began with Dylan learning about the first Thanksgiving in school and then dressing up as Native Americans one day and Pilgrims the next.
Aunt Sue came down and encouraged them to have some zany fun while Mom and Dad tried to turn invisible over the weekend.
You can tell the girls are getting older as they have gone from dressing as Disney Princesses to now….Rock Princesses!
I was paying some bills one night and these two came walking in like this. I said, “What do you call this? Who are you supposed to be”
Dylan says with authority, “We are Rock Princesses!”
(sigh) I don’t like this getting older thing…not for them or me!
And yes, ‘the Big Game‘ was on over the great Thanksgiving weekend of college ball. Did you see it?
Yes, an unranked Penn State team went on the road to #12 Wisconsin and took them out!
Wisconsin never lose sat home! PSU was 24 point underdogs! Did you see this?
If you were game enough to click on that video, is there anything better than the spirit of college football as shown in the locker room there at the end?
And is there any more boring or dated uniforms than those whit- on-white uni’s Penn State continues to endure. Oh, well maybe Alabama!
Speaking of, to all me friends out there riding the Crimson Tide, Missouri might just take Auburn in the title game this week as the hang over of winning the Iron Bowl may be too great. PLUS, Michigan State has a good chance of shutting down undefeated Ohio States vaunted offense, knocking them from the unbeaten. Where does that put your Crimson tide then? Remember, you heard it here first!
Phew! Yes, all the excitement of the great football last weekend wore Skylar O-U-T, out!
Time out!
Lastly, Dylan and Skylar received a very nice card in the mail from a very special Grandma and daughter. Dylan eagerly tore open the envelope to read the lovely card inside. (Thank you!)
Inside?
Inside was money! Money to buy all of us ice cream the card suggested. Dylan thought maybe some lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant.
So I talked to her about money that afternoon as she didn’t know what to do with it. I told her there are three things you can do with money.
You could spend it on something you like. Or you could save for something really special some day. Or, you might give it to someone who might need it more than you.
Well Dylan held onto that money ALL weekend! Everywhere she went she had those dollars clenched in her hand. She was still searching for some sort of utility for spending her new money.
Monday I drove her to school like normal. She still had the money in her hand if not in her little purse. She said, “Daddy, maybe I will give this money to Aubrey or buy her something today.”
Aubrey is her best friend in school that she met at the hockey game a few weeks back.
Feeling very pleased with the decision Dylan came to I applauded her idea and asked her, “Dylan, how would that make you feel then, to do something nice for your friend?”
Without hesitation Dylan responds, “Sad! I wouldn’t have that money any more!”
From the mouths of babes!
That’s all I have this week! We were pretty laid back here and trying to get a game plan for December. I’ll try to do better next time knuckleheads.
What are you looking forward to in the month to come?
I am thinking about smoking another turkey! That was too good last week and too few a times that we actually enjoy something that good and that simple.
Have a Great Weekend!
Bonus: Listen, I know this post was kinda week so I wanted to offer include this online game as a consolation. Click Here and help Dylan catch the snow on her tongue. (Hint you can guide the snow with your mouse.
Do you see all those leaves at our old house? That was only a week’s worth!
I am sorry…. here is a lost classic of sorts. It is from two years ago when Dylan was still a bit smaller. I was reminded, once again last night, of this lost DYLANism…
To bring you up to speed, we have been working on manners lately in our house, especially in the expulsion of gas, trying to instill that its not as funny as they would believe and to always say, “excuse me”. Mommy says they get that from my side of the family.
Also, Dylan has taken to the habit of falling asleep in my bed when she goes to bed. Its probably wrong of us to allow this right now but its the path of least resistance at bed time.
When I come to bed I pick her up and move her to her bed. She’s usually so asleep I can either cradle her in front of me or put her on my shoulder and she’ll never wake up.
Last night was no exception. I went to bed by first clearing her bed and pulling the covers down. Then, I went…
First off…Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!
I hope you had a great day with family and friends!
We had a memorable meal here, although it was a bit different as my parents couldn’t make it this year. Aunt Sue drove through the stormy rain to make it here though, to the delight of my girls! It was also a bit different as we were starting new traditions for our Thanksgiving, being the first one in our new house.
And so, let the Holidays begin!
It is officially the Holidays in our home when someone from my family comes down to visit. Do you know how you can tell?
Domino’s Sugar starts sending us post cards and thank you notes!
Yes, my family can’t travel unless they bring the treats. And so, now stocked up this morning we had this piled in the corner…..
That is a collection of an Apple Pie, a Pumpkin Pie, a pan of Brownies, a tub of Macadamia Nut Cookies, and my wife’s ever so decadent Cranberry bars.… for three adults and two little girls. That pile would have been higher if my parents made the trip.
So I did fit in a run this morning, knowing what kind of day weekend it would be. I did a few laps around the block and then another as a fav Buffett song came on the Ipod, Pascagooula Run...With the warm and inviting thought of the Gulf Coast of Alabama on my mind I decided to run until the end of the song.
I smoked the bird and my wife did the usual amazing things with dinner. I really enjoyed it this year. I mean I really did! You can tell as I didn’t stop to take any pictures. Right?
We went around the table to say what we were thankful for, starting with Dylan. She said ‘Family’, which touched my heart. It went to Skylar next who said, ‘Pumpkin Pie’. Then Dylan said another and then Skylar. And back and forth it went.
It was nice to see the girls recognizing things they were grateful for, not just taking them for granted. The going back and forth with thanks finally ended when Skylar said she was thankful for God. Dylan couldn’t top that.
Dylan learned a lot about Pumpkins for two weeks prior to Thanksgiving in her Kindergarten. So she was really looking forward to her pumpkin pie. So much so that using the fork just would not do. Before long she just picked the pie up and ate it like a cookie. ….crumbs all over the place!
I ended the meal looking for volunteers to help Daddy clean up all this mess. The room fell silent.
After all it was nap time. So you can’t blame our girls.
So I blamed Aunt Sue.
You see Dylan wanted Aunt Sue to sleep with her. Then Skylar wanted Aunt Sue to sleep with her. Then Dylan. Then Skylar. Then tears.
So after a lengthy debate it was decided Sue sleeps with Skylar while Mom went to sleep with Dylan.
Hello? Volunteers? All these plates? All these cooking pots and pans? Leftovers? Hello?
Stop and think what your kitchen looks like while you eat Thanksgiving dinner. Is it a pile of dirty dishes and empty counters kinda natural disaster like ours? (sigh)
This was what was left after I hid all the dirty dishes and silverware in the dishwasher…the Leftovers!
Putting my thinking cap on, it was that time I decided I was thankful for a few things.
First, after carting all the dirty plates to the kitchen, the dining room floor was a disaster! Remember when you had two small kids eating big meals?
So with little time to lose I became ever so thankful for technology and our Roomba Robot Rosie, who agreed to sweep and buff the dining room floor for Daddy.
Thanks Rosie!
Before I started rinsing all the dirty things and trying to find a place for them I noticed it was after 2:00pm. And so the Thanksgiving football games had started. THAT would be a good way to distract me while I labored over this disaster in the kitchen!
Thanks Fox Football!
So I got all the dirty things stowed. I only had the leftovers to put away yet. But where? What to do? Tupperware? Dirty containers? What to save and what to throw away? Mom usually does this chore for me! What to do! …the game was on!
How am I going to clean up all these leftovers I thought?
Enter my best buddy Chumley…..
Thanks Chumley!
I hope yours was memorable and found things to give thanks for too!
Now, did you hear there is only 3 weeks left until Christmas?
OUR LIFE IN 3D 