July 22, 2010 Good & Bad

The GOOD!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, smart, funny, Jaco! I can not believe he is 11!!! He has been anticipating his birthday all week and could not wait! Wednesday night he was so frustrated because he could not fall asleep. Then he was up at 6 the next morning but I had warned him he could not come wake us up until 7:30. So right at 7:30 our door was just about knocked off it's hinges by a very excited boy!

Jaco's birthday was fairly low key but he had a great day. He started by opening his presents which consisted of 4 books (The 1st 2 Hunger Games, Percy Jackson #5 and Percy Jackson the DemiGod files), a remote control dragon fly, a small blow up raft for the river and Scribblenauts for his DS. My parents gave him some origami paper because he loves folding origami and he got some cold hard cash from the other grandparents that is burning a huge hole in his pocket!

Having a summer birthday, he rarely gets to do anything for school like take cupcakes. This year he has taken a short summer violin session through the school and it worked out perfect that today he had class so he was able to share cupcakes!

After his violin lesson, we picked up his friend Ian to come hang out and have a sleep over. I didn't really see him again until dinner because they were having so much fun being boys!

We have a tradition that the birthday person gets to choose dinner. This year Jaco wanted a fish fry. I don't do seafood so this took me way out of my comfort zone! I bought shrimp for the first time ever and we fried some cod Justin had caught on the ocean. Plus we had onion rings, fries, and corn on the cob. Both Justin and Jaco LOVE seafood and they are ever so slowly getting me to come around. I still don't think I would ever order it at a restaurant, but I can say I don't hate it now. There is hope for this Idaho meat and potatoes girl!


After dinner, our friends the Bruners and The Savages came to have cake and ice-cream with us. I found a fun tutorial online for a Rubiks Cube cake so that is what I made. It turned out pretty cool but the black icing was a pain to work with! The birthday boy loved it so that is all that matters!
Love you Jaco and Happy Birthday buddy!

The BAD

Yesterday morning Jaco called my parents to say thank you for his origami paper. After he was done, I talked to my mom for close to an hour about all sorts of stuff including a suspicious spot in one of her breasts. She had had a biopsy on Tuesday to check it out. They had found it in a routine mammogram in June and after an ultra-sound was inconclusive, they decided to do a biopsy to be safe. The radiologist who performed the procedure was very optimistic that it was benign as it did not present as something malignant. My mom was very positive yesterday morning that it would be fine. She told me they would send out an e-mail later in the day after they got the report back but she really thought it would be OK. I hung up feeling reassured. Later in the day my sister Michelle called and asked how I was doing. I was curious what she meant because of the way she asked. She then told me the bad news that Mom does in fact have breast cancer. I was shocked and crushed and sad and in disbelief. Mom can't be sick. This is Mom! She has to live forever. I was in a fog for the rest of the day and am still having a hard time. It hurts to live so far away and not be able to do anything. She goes in on Monday to figure out the game plan and we are all praying it will be OK, that it was caught early enough, and that her relative good health will help her through it.

I am now wearing my yellow Livestrong bracelet, the same one I wore for my nephew when he was diagnosed with brain cancer and I will continue wearing it for a long time! Brian is living and doing great after 7+ years so like my mom said, if Brian can do it, she can. It just makes me sad to think of her having to deal with chemo and radiation and go from feeling fine today to being made sick tomorrow in order to kill the bad guy.

If you want a glimpse into what an amazing person my mom is, check out this post I dedicated to her on Mother's Day this year.

Love you Mom and pray that everything will be OK!