March 17th

Well, today is St. Patrick's Day. An interesting day. I hate green, but feel obliged to wear it nevertheless. I am not Catholic either, so what is that all about? If someone pinches me, they are going to wish they hadn't. I forgot to warn Megan, I hope she wore green. Kids in school are the main offenders of pinching. I have mutual tonight and already told the girls no pinching. As usual, I'm not wearing anything green. I don't even own much that could be called green, so this is truly a daunting task anyway.

In other news, I just stepped off the scale and I'm down to an even 313.0. Two more pounds and I'll have lost 10. I am excited for that to happen. I am glad that I can concentrate on it again. I think it will help. I did the Pound for Pound challenge with Biggest Loser and pledged 30 or 35 pounds, I don't remember which now.

My Dad isn't doing well. He went to the hospital a couple of weeks ago and had to have his lungs drained three times. He then was fitted with tubes to drain the lungs at home. His cancer has progressed to the point that the internal organs cannot keep fluid out.

Here is an email I sent out yesterday to family:

"Dad went to the Dr. in Tucson today. He said that because of the situation that Dad has, he does not recommend chemo or radiation. Dad is terribly dehydrated and is having lots of trouble with keeping anything down. Today they discovered Ensure and that seems to be the best thing for him right now. Pretty much everything else gets thrown right back up. Dad is on morphine and they are trying to keep him as comfortable as possible until he is gone. They have signed a paper saying that they do not want him plugged in at all when the time comes. He is barely able to get himself to the restroom. Mom puts his food into his mouth, he chews it. She puts his medication (nausea and pain) into his mouth and he can take it from there. In short, he is suffering badly and is probably not far from passing on, though we of course don’t know for sure.

Hospice comes as needed. They brought him a chair for the shower as he is unable to stand long enough to take a shower, it wears him out. They call each day and see how he is doing and if they need anything, they provide it.

Dad is able to talk on the phone, but not for very long. He looks forward to visits, but again wears out very easily. Both Mom and Dad are in hopes that the Ensure will help him feel better soon, but there is no guarantee of it.

Thanks again to all who are doing anything to help them out in anyway, even if all you are doing is praying or thinking of them, it is felt."

I sure hope I make it back there before he passes. I'm not sure if I will or not, his passing seems so imminent.

March 15

It has been a long time since I wrote anything!

We moved again, this time the move went much smoother and the packing and unpacking was all mine to do basically. Megan was a big help though and Andrew did what he could as well. We are pretty much settled in now. I have been super-busy doing what I could here on the house and keeping up with school. I think things are a little more settled down now, so I can relax a little more and have time to keep up with things like this again.

I haven't been paying any attention to my efforts at weight loss, but last week sometime I weighed in and was at 313 something, I can't remember what. I'm glad it was down, not up. I will try to post an update on that in the next few days.

This Saturday is our Stake Temple Day. Assuming we can meet with Pres. Saye before Saturday, we will be heading to Chicago for the day on Saturday. I sure hope that we are able to pull that off.

I am starting a math class today. I still have to wait for my book to arrive however. It should be here this week sometime. It's my first math class in over 15 years and I'm required to use a graphing calculator. That should be funny since I've never used one before EVER! I laughed when Megan told me that she is required to have one for Math next year in 7th grade...holy cow!

There is so much more to say, but I just don't have time to do it today as I'm super-busy with a long to-do list of things waiting for me to get more settled in from the move. lol

Hope all of you are doing well. I shall try to post again soon!