Lissaville

I’ve had so much to blog about lately, but no time to sit down and write!  This week, hockey started for Son 1, the in-laws are in town, thankfully my husband is in town as well, the Michigan Breast Cancer 3-Day starts this Friday and I’m down to the wire to finish a photo book for my dad.  To make matters worse, I came down with a stomach bug this past Thursday and couldn’t keep anything down for two days.  Not what I needed to deal with right now.  My body has definetely been screaming at me to “slow down” , but unfortunately it will have to wait until next week!

Son 1 is finally back from camp – yay!  We picked him up this weekend, driving up on Saturday to watch his musical theater performance, staying in a local hotel and then back to camp on Sunday for his choir performances and the drive home.  He had a great time and I am so glad he enjoyed himself but I am also very happy to have him back home.  Ten days without hearing his voice or seeing his face was quite rough on me but I made it through.  We are truly enjoying all of his stories and experiences he’s shared with us about his time at camp.

As I previously mentioned,  I am walking this week in the Michigan Breast Cancer 3-Day. This is the third year I will be doing the walk and I have lots of wonderful stories to share, but they’ll have to wait for another time.  The Breast Cancer 3-Day, which is held in various cities throughout the year, is a 60 mile walk over 3 days to raise funds and awareness in the fight against breast cancer.  Each walker must raise $2300 in order to walk.  The Michigan 3-Day starts this Friday and unlike the rest of this wonderfully cool summer, it will be hot on Friday and Saturday and Sunday – not fun!  My husband, family and friends will be setting up their own cheering station again this year to pass out refreshments to the walkers.  Last year, they cut up and passed out 14 watermelons, 12 pounds of grapes and about 2 dozen cases of water and gatorade.  Also, last year I was honored to be chosen to carry the “Myself” flag in the opening and closing ceremonies.

The last thing I have on my plate this week is to finish up a bound Creative Memories Storybook I am making for my dad for his 70th birthday.  His birthday, along with the surprise party, is on August 29th and CM needs 7-10 business days to print and bind the book so it needs to be done before the walk this Friday.  I have had a lot of fun going through our family’s old pictures and putting the book together – too much fun and that’s why it’s not done yet.  The most time consuming part has been choosing and then scanning up all of the old family photos but I know it will be something he loves as well as a cherished family heirloom.  I am doing the book digitally and then uploading it to have it printed and bound.  On that note, here are some pics of my brothers and I from the 1970′s that made it into my dad’s book.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend.  I’ll be blogging next week about this year’s 3-Day and a great chicken soup recipe I got from a good friend and now ex-neighbor.  She always brought it over to me the day before each of my chemo treatments and so it’s lovingly called “Friday Chemo Chicken Noodle Soup.”  I made it again last week while I was sick and wanted to post it, but unfortunately, I ran out of time!

Today, I am having a little pity party for myself.  I rarely do this, but I think I have earned this one.  I, as well as my family,  have been through a lot these last 3 years or so.  I’ve battled cancer, started and finished law school, learned to deal with my husband’s insane travel schedule while doing all the necessary mom, home and school things.  My husband has also been through three rounds of layoffs where he works and has survived them all but it has affected him in that his workload has increased and he (as well as I) know that his job is far from secure (is anyone’s?).  We have far too many friends who have been laid off and I see the fall out daily from the implosion of the automobile industry here in Michigan – foreclosed homes, shuttered businesses, worried faces.  You can’t get away from it in this state and it’s gotten to be very depressing.  It also doesn’t help that I’ve been having my own meltdown for the past 6 months or so.  I graduated from law school in December but I haven’t taken the bar because I was (and still am) exhausted and I didn’t have the energy or discipline to study for it.  I decided to take some time off to just be and think but as the economy has continued to tank around me so has my spirit and optimistic self.  I have never been so down for so long and I hope that writing and expressing my thoughts here will help me to get past all that we have been through and allow me to move on.  I am generally a happy go-lucky driven glass-half-full person and not being able to get myself out of this funk is truly driving me nuts!

So, now that I have that off my chest, I can write about what’s truly driving my thoughts this morning.  Last night, I was sitting on the couch watching the end of the Detroit Tigers game and enjoying a glass of wine.  My youngest son, T-Bone, came in from playing outside and sat next to me on the couch.  Almost immediately after sitting down, he started to shake and I put my arms around him at which time he burst into tears.  T-Bone is big for his age of 9 years, he’s very athletic and he has a very sweet and caring disposition – he’ll be a gentle giant when he grows up.  He also rarely cries.  So, when he burst into tears yesterday evening, I knew something was up.  He didn’t miss his brother (see next paragraph), nobody had been mean to him, he wasn’t hurt – he missed his dad.  Yes, his dad, my husband, is back in Louisville this week.  He wasn’t supposed to be there this week or next, but I’ve learned not to hold my breath anymore.  He has been gone over 100 days since February of this year (yes, single moms are my heros!) and it’s really starting to take a toll on us all, him included.  To make matters worse, yesterday evening he called and said his truck was shaking badly when he accelerated so he had a co-worker follow him to a repair shop to drop it off.  Our best guess at the moment is that he threw a rod but we won’t know for sure until it’s looked at sometime today.  I told him to include the repair in his expense report – Ha!

While T-Bone is sorely missing his dad, I am really missing my oldest son who has been away at camp for the past eight days.  We will pick him up this Sunday, August 9th and I can’t wait to see him and hear all about his camp experience.  We have not been able to talk to him since I dropped him off as cell phones are not allowed and even if they were, there is little to no service.  I know he is in good hands and he is doing what he loves which is singing and acting.  He is my hockey player but boy does he love singing, especially when it’s a part of musical theater.  We didn’t even know he could sing but he came home from school one day while he was in third grade and told us he had the boy solo in their music concert.  I was both excited and terrified for him.  I was going through chemo at the time and I couldn’t stop the tears that poured from my eyes when I heard him sing for the first time.  That’s why there is only one picture of him (which is not the best pic) at the microphone – I was in awe listening to a most beautiful voice.  My husband did videotape it though and I still tear up everytime I listen to it.

My husband just called. It was a tie rod and bearing on the left side, just under $700 for the repairs.  But at least he’ll be home (I’m not holding my breath though!) on Friday – yay!

Hello and welcome to my blog!  I am a mom, wife, recent law school grad and breast cancer survivor.  Even though the main focus of this blog will be my experience with breast cancer (and surviving law school while battling breast cancer), it is not the only thing I will blog about.   I have many interests and experiences that I plan to share and leave a record of for my boys, now ages 12 and 9.  Hence, the name Lissaville, a name that encompasses all the craziness and many aspects of my life.  It’s also a tribute to Louisville, KY, which is near and dear to my heart, as it’s been my husband’s home away from home for his job for more than a year now.