Category Archives: Friends & Family

NaBloPoMo Day 22: happy turkey day

Posted on by

I was going to write a little post about how thankful I am for my family, but I already did that a few days ago.

Other things I’m thankful for:
* The rest of my family (you know, outside of Dave and Cate) and my friends, who continually give me a better perspective on life and who can make me laugh until I have a coughing fit.

* That my mom’s cancer was caught early and that she’s going to be absolutely, positively, 100% fine when this is all over.

* My job, which I really do enjoy most of the time. I know that I’m incredibly lucky to have the flexibility that I have and the option to work from home, because a lot of new moms would kill for this gig.

* Sugar snap peas, which I eat in mass quantities every day. And Diet Coke.

* That Dave cleaned up for me today (while Cate and I took a nap together) so I could cook our big Thanksgiving meal in a nice, tidy kitchen.

* That Cate is such a little grown-up that today we pulled her high chair up to the table while we ate Thanksgiving dinner and she fed herself English peas and mashed sweet potatoes. Also, that she started clapping her hands, which is just about the cutest thing ever.

* That she will hopefully be tired and ready for bed soon, because good GOD, child. It’s almost 11:00. Go to freakin’ sleep already.

NaBloPoMo Day 20: family visits and holidays

Posted on by

I just realized something that I haven’t mentioned here yet: my in-laws are coming for a visit soon. They’ll be here from December 4th to the 18th. It’ll be Mags (my mother-in-law), Roger (her boyfriend), and Steve (Dave’s brother). This will be the first time that any of them have met Cate, so we’re pretty excited about it.

I’m actually not sure how Cate will react at first. She tends to freak out if new people try to pick her up, but I’m guessing that she’ll get over it quickly. The last time Kris came over, Cate didn’t seem to remember her because it had been several weeks since the last time they saw each other. Even though Kris didn’t try to hold her, Cate sat on the floor a safe distance from her with a “right on the verge of bursting into tears, trembly bottom lip and all” look on her face. I’m not sure why, I was sitting right next to her, but she kept sort of whimpering and acting like she was about to freak out. An hour or so later, she was fine. When Kris went with us to the grocery store, Cate even let Kris carry her around. So my guess is that she’ll react similarly to the in-laws.

For that matter, she’ll probably react the same way when we see my folks at Christmas, because she hasn’t seen them since July, so I doubt she’ll remember them either. It’s gotta be tough to be so little and have no real long-term memory yet.

Anyway, maybe it’s because the in-laws are coming and I know I’m going to be busy with them for the two weeks that they’re here, but I’m getting prepared for Christmas freakishly early this year. I’ve already ordered my Christmas cards, and I’ve bought at least one gift for everyone in my family already. This is highly unusual for me, I’m typically one of those people who doesn’t start shopping until December 15th or so. It’s kind of nice to feel prepared, though.

Of course, this means I don’t have very long to get the guest room tidied up to the point that it can be considered usable. Lately it’s been the catch-all room for outgrown baby clothes, gear, etc. So it looks like it’s time to get out my label-maker and some boxes.

NaBloPoMo Day 15: blah

Posted on by

I gotta say, I did not think that comma usage was going to be the thing that was going to get a whole bunch of comments, but man, y’all have some serious opinions about that.

Today has been kind of hectic. I tried to clean the house and work while Cate was at daycare – that never seems to work, I usually end up getting not much of either done. Then one of my windshield wipers fell off (don’t ask) so we got to spend some quality time at Jiffy Lube this afternoon. Always fun.

My mom heard back about her biopsy. It’s not Paget’s disease, but it is breast cancer. The good news is that she might not need a full mastectomy (yay!), but the bad news is that she might need chemo (boo!). She’s going to meet with the doctor tomorrow to find out more information, and she’s supposed to get her second opinion sometime in the next few days. We’ll know more after that.

Meanwhile, hey look, cute baby!

I know we shouldn’t let her watch TV like that, but she gets so excited over “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” and it’s so funny to watch her “sing” along with the theme song. It’s more like yelling while rocking back and forth, there’s no discernable tune at all. Hi-larious.

the big C

Posted on by

My goal with this whole NaBloPoMo thing was to write some random funny anecdote for each day. For that reason, this post doesn’t really fit in with the rest of them at all.

My mom has breast cancer.

That’s what yesterday’s post was all about, and thanks to the people who emailed me to check on me and make sure I was ok. I wasn’t trying to be cryptic, but the news sort of stunned me and I couldn’t figure out how to put everything I was feeling into words.

Here’s what I know:
Sometime last month, my mom found a weird bump on her nipple. She went to her general practitioner about it, who gave her a round of antibiotics, and told her that if it didn’t go away completely by the time she finished them, she should come back in for a mammogram. It didn’t, and so she did. Her doctor looked at the mammogram results and said she was pretty sure it was nothing – a cyst, maybe, nothing to be concerned about. But just to be safe, she referred my mom to a breast surgeon.

The surgeon took one look at my mom’s mammogram and said she was 95% sure that she has Paget’s disease, a very rare form of breast cancer. They took a biopsy, and we’ll find out the results either tomorrow or Monday.

I knew about all of this as it was happening, but I have to admit that the news really shocked me. My mom has had some weird skin things in the past, so I figured this was along those lines. Some minor skin problem that she’d need an ointment for, but otherwise nothing. When she called me yesterday to say that it’s cancer, I almost dropped the phone. I was absolutely gobsmacked.

Her prognosis is excellent. We have every reason to believe that it was caught early, so she should be fine. However, because this type of cancer is in the ducts of the breast, it means she’s looking at a full mastectomy, and possibly a preventative mastectomy of the other breast as well. Again, this is all stuff that we’ll know more about after the biopsy results come back.

My mom is staying pretty positive about it so far. She said that when she was my age, the thought of losing her breasts would’ve been the end of the world, but now it doesn’t seem like such a horrible thing. She’s mostly dreading the surgery, because the anaesthesia always makes her ill, and then there’s the pain afterward, etc. My sister is planning to fly down to help out when she has the surgery – I really want to go, but I think that with Cate there, I wouldn’t be a very good nurse, and I certainly don’t want to add to my mom’s stress level.

Mostly, I’m worried about my dad. He is such a worrywart, and he’s so dependent on my mom. He’s trying really hard to be stoic for her sake, and I’m afraid that with something this big, he’s going to silently fret himself a stomach ulcer or worse.

So that’s what’s going on. If any of you guys are into praying or sending positive thoughts or whatever, they’d really be appreciated right now. I’ll update with more information as I know it.

P.S. I’m definitely not pregnant. But y’all are funny for thinking that’s what I was freaking out about.

making plans

Posted on by

Attention Mississippi residents: I booked our plane tickets for Christmas, so we will be visiting my family in Jackson from December 21st through the 30th. A couple of those days will be spent in New Orleans, but I’m not sure of the exact dates. But if you’re going to be around then and want to meet up, let me know!

Edited to add: Did any of you Jackson locals see the plume of smoke when my old high school burned to the ground last week? My mom said she saw it when she was driving down I-55. I’m a little sad that I missed it. Could’ve been a great opportunity for a little marshmallow roast. (Obviously, not too many happy memories associated with the place, as I mentioned when I saw the burned-out gym last spring. I try not to be bitter about it, but seriously, do we ever 100% get over all of the damage that’s inflicted during our teenage years?)

not to be read during or near mealtime

Posted on by

The only reason I’m writing about this is so Cate can read it someday when she’s older and be mortified that this story is published on the Internet for all to see.

This morning started off like normal. Cate woke up, I fed her, and then I went to get her dressed for daycare. I let her crawl around naked for a while, which she loves to do. Seriously, y’all have no idea how many naked pictures and videos I have of this child. She gets mad when I try to put clothes on her. So I try to let her have plenty of naked time every day because it makes her happy, and I love hearing her laugh. And ok, occasionally she’ll pee on the floor, but you know, when you’ve cleaned up as many cat hairballs as I have, that’s really no big thing.

Today, she pulled a first: she pooped on the carpet. Normally when she poops, she does the whole red-faced, grunting thing, and it takes her a while to produce anything. Obviously, if I had seen any signs of an impending poop, I would’ve slapped a diaper on her and that would’ve been that. But this happened so fast – she slowed down mid-crawl, and PLLLLBBBTTTT!!! It just exploded out of her butt. And all over her legs and feet.

The next ten seconds are still replaying in slow-motion in my head. She turned around, sort of surprised, like “hey, looky at what I just did!” Then… she grabbed it. Oh, the horror. I grabbed her arm to stop her from making more of a mess, and in doing so, she managed to smear her poop-covered hand all over my pajamas.

So that’s the story of Why We Were Late for Daycare today, since a bath for both of us was mandatory after that little incident. God, my gag reflex is still acting up when I just think about it.

Also, on our way out the door, I tripped on our front step. This same thing happened back when Cate was about ten days old. I didn’t skin my knee this time, but I did manage to twist my ankle, stub my pinky toe and slam my back against the side of the house before landing flat on my butt. Don’t ask me how I pulled that off – I’m sure I couldn’t demonstrate it if my life depended on it. The good news is that no clothing was ruined, and Cate was totally fine. I wasn’t even carrying her this time – I had set the car seat down to turn around and grab my cell phone (which I had dropped) when I fell. She got a little upset because I screamed when it happened, but she got over it quickly. (I yelled the Queen Mother of All Dirty Words, too – good morning, neighbors! Sorry about that!) I don’t think that bodes well for a good day, do you?

Unrelated: Sally is having a baby! I’m so excited for her, I’ll bet she’s just about the cutest pregnant lady ever, and I can’t wait to have playdates when we’re in my hometown. (Also, Sally, I hope the above poop story doesn’t make you re-think this whole baby thing. I promise it’s totally worth it 99.9% of the time.)

soon-to-be working mom

Posted on by

Ok, this is going to be quick because Cate is finally asleep and I need to get to bed myself. So I’m going to be lazy and number things. Sorry, it’s just easier for my frazzled brain.

1. I guess I kinda-sorta started my job on Friday, but all I did was find out the details about the project I’m going to be working on, signed human resources paperwork, etc. My official start date is tomorrow. AHH!

2. Dave is currently setting up a big fancy desktop PC (actually his old one, plus a few new bits of hardware) in my office for me. Because he’s a sweetie. And probably also because I’ve been kind of freaking out about this job – nothing major, I’m just nervous because it’s a bit out of the realm of anything I’ve ever done before. So Dave wants to do whatever he can to help me chill out. So I’ll shut up. I’m guessing.

3. We’re going to do a little experiment over the next couple of weeks to see if we can get away with sending Cate to daycare only three days a week. Since Dave and I both work from home, the hope is that we’ll be able to take shifts with the baby so we can each get our work done. I’m not sure how that’ll work, or how I’ll be able to concentrate if I hear her crying while Dave’s doing his shift, but that’s why one of the new hardware bits that we bought is a set of speakers. Hopefully I’ll be able to crank up some music and drown out whatever else is going on in the house.

4. Totally unrelated to the previous 3 points: today we got a visit from Liz, aka Lizardbreath, and her own little baby Catherine. That was a lot of fun.


She is such a cutie-patootie, blowing raspberries and smiling and everything. And she seemed to weigh nothing when I picked her up – which I know isn’t true, it’s just weird how you get accustomed to your own heavy load so any baby that’s slightly smaller is like, “woo! She’s a baby feather!”

It’s funny because we both named our babies for the same person (although, honestly Cat, as much as I love you, if your parents had named you Mildred or Bertha or something… um, yeah. That whole namesake thing probably wouldn’t have happened). And also funny because it occurred to me that I always write Cate’s name as – well, Cate – but when I’m talking to her or about her, I always call her Catie. Which is what Liz calls her baby as well. I imagine that it would’ve been really confusing for them if they’d been older. As it was, eh, neither one pays much attention to their name yet. Lucky for us.

Ok, bedtime. Work tomorrow. Woo-hoo, paycheck!