Love is spelled Friends and Family

Some people tend to not talk to much about things like disease so much. In my life, I've realized that it is easier for me just to tell people what is going on in my life, so that there is nothing lost in translation and taken the wrong way. I've told maybe a half dozen people what has been going on over the past couple weeks. It's helped me a lot to understand where I'm at with accepting certain things.

The other night my two closest friends called me. It was the sweetest thing. They've never even met, yet they both knew that it was the right time to check in. In a lifetime if you have one friend that you can call your "Bestfriend" you are blessed....for me, I have two blood bestfriends and three people that came into my life at different times and who I love and think that World of. I am very thankful and blessed. I hope they know how much I appreciate their postive affect on my life.

xo- Cakes

The Day That Changed My Life....

February, 27, 2009
Well, thanks for emailing, texting and calling to ask about my mom. I met her and my dad at the Cancer Center yesterday and I really liked her doctor. Which is good because we will be seeing a lot of him. He first told us that the disease is worst than he thought. It is stage 2 Mulitiple Myeloma, cancer of the plasma. They found it in her skull, arms, collarbones and legs. Monday we scheduled her to go to get a port in, so that in two weeks she can start chemo, three times a week for about six month. After that she needs to consider having a stem cell transplant.
The chances of remission are really high. I don't know what else to say....other than thank you for my closest friends for being so concerned and supportive. I don't know what I'd do with you now.
Today my Sis finds out about the ovarian cancer.
What are the chances that three family memembers are diagnosed with three different, unexplainable diseases within a year? Someone told me that God won't give us more than we can handle. I have a feeling I'm going to be kicking some serious cancer and parkinson's ass this year. :) Thank you for your prayers.
Whatelse can I say?
Other than, if you can't get a hold of me right away, please leave a message or email me. I've just really have had my hands full.

Understanding Death....

Some of you have asked what is going on...
As we get older it seems that I keep running acrossed things that I know people have gone through, but noone has ever told me about them....things like death. Dealing with it is very personal, for me I rely on my friends to keep me going (Thanks). Everyone knows that I'm taking care of my Gma....and everyone knows that it's getting toward the end of her life. She said to me last night "What would I do without you?" and my response "What would I do without you?" (I've been preparing myself for months.)
Which she promptly told me that I would soon find out...and that we would be together again someday.

Anyway, it was last night when I had Hospice give me a little booklet explaining what death looks like...I didn't realize I was experiencing it. About three months before a person passes, certain things happen.
I'm okay writting this because I'm realizing that my Gma is ready and she has made it very clear to me that it is what she wants.
About a month ago, she started craving liquids....milk and oj. Something that I have never bought her over the past year. She'd have nothing to do with them before and all of a sudden, she was going through a gallon of each in the course of a few days. Well, this is part of what happens. Then this weekend she stopped eating. I've been force feeding her until I was told that this is also what happens. The person draws their energy from a spiritual place and they are getting ready to leave this earth. I am really uncomfortable with it, but they tell me it's ok.
The final thing I want to say about this is that I didn't really understand why she was sleeping so much...other than she is 100 years old. Let's face it, I thought she was tired. But, what goes on is the reflection of one's life. They reflect with their eyes closed. My grandmother and I have become very close over the past three months especially. She has been teaching me all these things and I had no idea how important they were to one's life.
Me telling some of you is like therapy, sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. But, I'm so amazed at how life begins and ends.
I'm so thankful in my life to have my family and friends. Blessings to us all.

I'm ready to be "snowed-in"!!!

As of Friday we hardly had a scant of snow on the ground. But, the forecasters were saying snow is on it's way...so I, like most people of Southeast Michigan, dared to go to the grocery for the essentials...bread, eggs, milk, wine and TP. While I was at the grocery I dodged two people that I recognized. Why is it that everytime I look like "hell" I run into someone I haven't seen in ages? The last thing I want to come out of anyone's mouth is "Holy crap, I saw so and so and she looked like crap"....not that I care...but, yes I do care. It just happened to be my first ever boyfriend. The one that I fell in love with at the roller rink and thought was the cutest boy ever. Needless to say, he's gained a little weight and ain't so cute anymore. I heard his voice first and walked the other way. We had a chance meeting in the summer and it was the typical "Linda? Wow, it is you?" I guess noone ever thought I'd be back in Michigan. Anyway, I'm not sure if he saw me...and I'm probably going to hell for not say hi to him. Oh well.
The lines were horrendous, but I made it home just in time for me to fall asleep at 7:30pm! Sharp!
Saturday morning I woke up and went to the gym...right away 6am. I didn't want to talk myself out of it. The race is only two months away and I'm not going to be ready for it! But, I'm trying.
After the gym, and before I went to Grammy's, I stopped at coffee. I got the low down on all the gossip from Aiden and Katie. And Aiden made me the best Mo-cha ever with a little French flair.
By 10am the snow started and it's coming down hard. I'm home now baking cookies and relaxing with the wieners. Daddy Cakes is in Pittsburgh until Sunday, so I'm spending some quality time watching 8" of snow fall and being lazy.
We heart snow storms and BonJour Mo-chas!

A Monday Morning on Tuesday!!! Ack

So, I open my eyes this morning and I'm not at my house...this has been a pretty regular happening for the past couple weeks. I look around...the room is way bigger than my tiny bedroom, it's cold and I have a big guy sleeping next to me. But, today he gets up and mumbles something as he heads out to the livingroom. I gather he is letting Angel, his huge Rotweiler, out.
After a half hour of being outside, I hear her bark. It's not a "I want to come in bark"...more like I see something bark. So, off Daddy Cakes goes to let his girl in...she bolts through the door and heads straight for the bedroom, where of course I am. I didn't realize it at first, the air was fine until she whirled around and headed back out....ahhhhg....SKUNK smell!
I retreat to under the covers and she is ousted to the outdoors.
Skunk is the most god-awlful smell ever. I tried to think to myself "mmmm, this smells pretty"...didn't work. It was horrible I'm telling ya! But, then what really stunk was that she rubbed against my new light weight puffy jacket, that I found on sale at the outlet for $29.99....it can't be ruined.
My boss walked past it at work and made me take the whole coatstand outside for the day! It was bad.

I was a little depressed until Mike, a local radio guy, came in to visit...he brought Utah. The most beautiful Shepard I've ever seen...He's a Dutch Shepard.

I thought I was in love with him...until I came home and found these two silly wieners running around my house.

The Sweetest Thing for Valentine's Day

Since my mother has been waiting and waiting and waiting for her test results...and we are all holding our breath, she has kinda been in a real funk. I've never known my mother to be like this. Last week she felt she really messed up by not telling anyone that Sydney (her red healer) got into (and ate) some rat poisoning that she forgot was in the garage. It had been sooo cold and Syd was in there out of the weather. It was 6 days after that she showed signs of being sick. Mom and Dad rushed her to the ER and found that she was bleeding internally. The antedote for rat poison is Vitamin K. So, they've brought her home and are nursing her back to health.
Meanwhile, my mother feels badly and is in an even bigger funk.
That's when my sister brought her a little Valentine's gift....a little white chicky that she hatched just for mom.

It's soooo effing cute. I just want to squeeze it!
Happiness is having a sister that knows how to hatch an egg!

It's February 16th?! WT?

I can't believe it's been soo long since I've updated this thing. Too busy taking care of other people and messing around on FB I guess.
Backing up time a little, I was trying to figure out if this one guy was someone that I wanted to seriously date...nope. Super nice cutie pants, but it just didn't click...and I wasn't going to "make" something work. I figured out this the same week that I met Daddy Cakes...a new nickname, of course. It had been about three weeks that I had been emailing and talking with him before we met. I was urged to meet him from Pablo, who knows him from riding. After we met the first night, I pretty much knew he was the one I wanted to spend more time getting to know.
So, that first date was the week before my friend came to visit from Maryland...which became a disaster! I always had a feeling that it would be painful to have this guy visit...and I was right. What do they say about your gut feeling? Not only did he insult me by asking me if I was "doing" my friend, who happens to be like my nephew and my bestfriends fake future husband! The nerve...then he insulted me by calling me something I wasn't happy with and then really insulted my friends gf. Once we began to ignore him it was all better. I guess there are some people that just don't fit in. He left a day early, needless to say...I was fine with that.
Back to normal life.
I've been following E's workout patterns and she's motivated me to workout harder. I applaud her for that. When I went to the Doc on Friday, they said I've lost 14 lbs. I honestly don't know how...my explanation was that I got rid of Rob, the ex-bf. Dead weight.
Last week I broke down and bought a camera. With mom's possible diagnosis with cancer, I've been thinking a lot about how I hadn't taken any pics over the past couple years...so, now I have a new camera...and I can't figure out how to work it.
Ok...back to Daddy Cakes....so, I like this guy...really feel a connection. We've been seeing each other about three weeks now, and I feel like I've known him longer. So, we'll see. The kid makes me laugh. Better yet, he laughs at my stooopid jokes.
Valentine's Day, a holiday that I hate (which I'm starting to think I hate all holidays) was really nice...quiet, but nice.
Today is President's Day. I used to go every President's Day weekend to Yosemite to cross country ski and snow camp. Oh, how my life has changed. I miss teaching and Yosemite!

Happy Prez Day everyone!