It's Caturday!

Well it's a nice Spring-like Saturday here in So. Illinois and I'm thinking about Spring cleaning but not really doing it! I have aching knees and hands and back pain, so anything energetic is a struggle, but I'm trying to keep positive and be thankful for the things I can do! Sometimes it's very difficult as I really want to do stuff .... like today there's a Spring Flea Market at SIU and I long to wander and browse and poke around all those old things, but I know that I'd be so frustrated at not being able to walk any more than five minutes, so it's not worth the effort. It would be okay if there were seats along the way and I could rest and then wander some more, like at the Mall, or if there were mobility scooters - then I would be there all day long!! Tom's watching telly and Neil's off to do some work for Rebecca in her enormous yard. Maybe I'll go fiddle with some beading for a while before we go out for dinner with our "adopted daughter" Nina! Oh and that Apple Pork BBQ from the last entry? .....Not so good!

Silly me!

Well I've successfully managed to log in today! Some I have mixed up my yahoo account with my google account and when I log in with google Blogger tells me I don't have a blog - but - I can follow myself!! Crazy! Anyway, we still have winter weather here. Snow, snow and more snow so lots of time for knitting and crochet, if only my hands didn't ache so much! Oh and of course I can while away the hours on facebook, pinterest and ravelry so well! Tom's on his sixth month of chemo which involves him taking the chemo pills for 5 days every month. The first day (today) he usually feels pretty awful and so we've stayed home. He had a 'wee turn' this morning where he told me he felt ill and then blacked out for a minute. Luckily he was sitting in his chair so no falling over stuff. Every month seems to bring something different, just when we think we've figured it out. Still, roll on next week which is Spring Break from school for Neil. We're off to Branson, Missouri and I just hope we all like it! It sounds like an American Blackpool, so we're hoping it will be fun! Right, off to check the crockpot which has Apple Bourbon Pork loin in it for dinner. Smells good!

It's been a LONG LONG time........

Two years ago was the last blog entry!! What on earth have I been doing??? I'll just skip from February 2012 until June 2013 because that when our whole world turned upside down. Tom was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had to have surgery to remove it. This was followed up by radiation and chemo. It was a really terrible time all round. So scary when the life of the person you love is threatened. It must have been so much worse for Tom of course, but he just kept saying he was going to beat it and be a survivor. The odds for cancer in the brain are not good but at his last MRI we were told 'there's no visible sign of cancer' anymore. Of course we know it could return but right now we're taking every day as it comes. He's getting stronger every day, beginning to regain his appetite and looks great! Nothing like a life threatening event to make you re-think your life and put things into perspective! You know people say it's in times of trouble that you find out who your real friends are. Well we certainly found out that we had a whole lot more folk caring for us than I thought! We're convinced that all the good wishes and prayers really helped Tom's recovery. Just before all the cancer stuff kicked in, we had arranged for my great nephew Neil to have a year long visit to stay with us here in America and attend the High School as a Freshman. We hoped that it would be a happy and carefree time for him so when we knew all the treatment in store for Tom we gave him the option of pulling out, as we knew we wouldn't be able to travel and do all the things we'd have liked to do with him. He decided that he wanted to go ahead, however, and even said that he'd be able to help look after us both! So here we are with a teenage in the house, with all that brings! Neil's a great lad though and kept me going many days. We're now more than half way through his time here and Wendy and Andrew are counting the days until June, when they come to take him home. Stef came to visit in September and we even managed a wee road trip to Memphis, just the two of us. It was wonderful. I'm so glad we had time together and his visit cheered me up no end. Tom, Neil and I all went to St Croix for Christmas as Neil's Visa didn't allow him to go home and it was Tom's first big trip after surgery and treatment. The weather was wonderful and we enjoyed relaxing in our Villa overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Bliss! I love St Croix so much and really didn't want to come home to Carbondale! We returned for Hogmanay and spent it at Lynn and Brian's, again just what was needed to take my mind off the fact that I wasn't with family and friends in Scotland. I was missing them a lot!! To brighten our winter, Stef and Craig visited in January/early February so we celebrated Tom and Stef's birthdays together. Superbowl was fun at Paulette's when Don introduced us to another "Scot" from Portsmouth!! So funny that he thought Nina had the same accent as me!! We're still laughing at that one!