Recently in Personal stuff Category

Here's some words of wisdom for those of us who are struggling, I found it encouraging, maybe you will as well:

I agree with Matt Chandler that getting up early is the best time to focus on the Lord and his word. It's been a while since I've done it and I miss it. When my daughters where small, it was the only time I could write Bible studies. For the last year or two, I've turned to the Internet first and then Bible study when I got around to it. It's time for a change of focus, I need to prioritize my time and put study first and then the news of the day. Maybe I'd be less anxious about the economy and health care if I did.

OK, I resolve to get up at 6:00 tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how I do :-)

(via)

Good news from the oncologist, my CA 125 is 7.5. Three months after chemo and the number continues to go down (at least a tiny bit, the last number was 8 :-) Thank you for your prayers and well-wishes. Praising God for getting me through this devastating disease. When I finished chemo and I started to recover from my last neulasta shot, the thought popped into my mind, "That's it? That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be or could have been." I feel like, what I suspect plane crash survivors feel, shocked that I didn't die and dazed by the brush with death. And a little guilty that I survived when many others like Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze and Ted Kennedy did not.

My kids appear to be over their fear of losing me and it's business as usual, taking it for granted that we've dodged a bullet and cancer is a thing of the past. They've moved on but I still feel shell-shocked about the whole thing. I told my husband, I think I have post traumatic distress disorder or something. I'll be cooking dinner or driving to pick up my kids and all of a sudden it hits me that I've survived cancer and I'm shocked by it. The speeding car swerved to miss me and I can go on with my life. How do you now live?

Well, one change is how I view aging. I just turned 49 and last year I thought I would be pretty bummed about it since it's on the cusp of the dreaded 50, but this year I was relieved to make it to 49. I was never so happy to celebrate a number as I was this one, it meant that I made it to the other side. Every year I add to that number is a thing of beauty no matter what I look like :-) It means I'm that much closer to seeing my daughters graduate from college and start families of their own. So, going through the aging process? Getting more wrinkly? Adding to my collection of gray hair? Praise be to God that I have the opportunity to do so.

I asked the oncologist, if the cancer returned, could it metastasize to my brain or other organs and I was relieved to find out that he had only heard of two cases (at his practice) of ovarian cancer metastasizing to the brain. So, thankfully it's pretty rare. Evidently, ovarian cancer likes to remain in the original region and attach itself to the lining of the abdominal cavity. On the one hand, it's great that I don't have to worry about brain surgery or losing part of my lungs or kidneys but the problem is that there is no way to know that there's a tumor apart from testing, there are no symptoms. Ovarian cancer is not called the silent killer for nothing!

But I will be tested for the next two years, so I live like I've dodged the bullet and not worry about dodging another. I'm learning that in God's grace it's not too hard to live in three month segments. It makes me appreciate the time that I can live cancer free.

And organic milk, Whole Foods and even Mini Coopers (yes, I'm thinking that it might be my next car -- preferably the nightfire red). What's this confession all about? Well, apparently, Glenn Beck freaked out the lefties by being spotted using a Moleskine. And evidently, Moleskines are the domain of the left:

Glenn Beck is a racist who is encouraging people to harm liberals. The fact that he likes moleskines is shocking to me. They are associated with liberal minded, intellectuals. Not the people he appeals to. This makes me almost want to thow away all my moleskines and never use them again.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I've been using them for years! I love my Moleskine notebooks and used them throughout the years at Westminster (I like the Moleskine Squared Notebook), they are great for taking notes. I also carry around the smaller Moleskine Square Notebook Pocket. I've had it since 2004. I'm currently using the grid notebooks for writing a Bible study (the Gospel of John). I love the pocket in the back, very convenient to store my index cards with to do lists and questions I need to answer. (BTW, when in public, I don't use my notebook with an Apple computer, but I do use it with my iTouch, which has an ESV Bible app).

I like Moleskins so much, I even bought the ESV Moleskin Bible (the ESV Journaling Bible), but was bummed it didn't have a back pocket for notes.

BTW, the Field Notes linked to in the article looks tempting (I like that they're made in the USA), if they make it to a Barnes and Noble or Borders near me, I might buy them as well. Sorry, lefties but you guys can't have the cute notebooks to yourselves, they belong to us as well :-)

(via)

Thought I would note it in case I'm not the only one living in a bubble. Please join me in praying for him and his family during this time of struggle as they deal with it. Even though the cancer was caught early, it's never easy dealing with surgery and recovery.

While you're praying, don't forget Jolly Blogger, David Wayne. He switched to John Hopkins hospital for his treatment in July, which should improve the care he's getting since, according to him, Hopkins ranks third in cancer in the nation. It appears that he'll be on and off chemo the rest of his life -- the most he can hope for with treatment appears to be 5 years, but my brother-in-law was given 5 years and he's on his way to 10! So, with God, all things are possible :-)

The good news is that he must be feeling well enough to blog since he has a number of posts up including this one with a great quote on suffering from Geerhardus Vos:

"What the Lord expects from us at such seasons is not to abandon ourselves to unreasoning sorrow, but trustingly to look sorrow in the face, to scan its features, to search for the help and hope, which, as surely as God is our Father, must be there. In such trials there can be no comfort for us so long as we stand outside weeping.

If only we will take the courage to fix our gaze deliberately upon the stern countenance of grief, and enter unafraid into the darkest recesses of our trouble, we shall find the terror gone, because the Lord has been there before us, and, coming out again, has left the place transfigured, making of it by the grace of his resurrection a house of life, the very gate of heaven."

BTW, for those of you wondering where I am in my fight with cancer, I go back again in September to see my oncologist. My last CA 125 number was 8, so I am in remission. I have to see my surgeon before that but have been procrastinating making the appointment. I guess I just wanted more time off before I have to start the next round of doctor visits, MRIs, CAT Scans and colonoscopies (yech! I'm really procrastinating on that one).

I'm no longer bald, I look like I have a crew cut. You can see a recent picture of me on vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Twitter, my hair had just started to grow in again. I stopped wearing wigs after the chemo and it's been quite an experience walking around bald and with a crew cut. Kids look at me like I've got a mental defect, they can't understand why I'd do this to myself. I'm not sure they understand the whole cancer thing.

Adults stare and then when I notice them staring they look away. I've only been asked about it once. A woman came up to me in a bookstore and asked if I was a cancer survivor and I when I said yes, she hugged and kissed me. It freaked me out! I'm not used to being hugged by strangers, let alone kissed. This is NJ after all, we don't even say, "hi" to each other. She told me her aunt was a cancer survivor and I was kind of touched when I heard that (though, still freaked about the kiss).

Update: Fixed for typo that the spellchecker didn't catch. Calm down nameless commenters, it's a minor issue at best.

Pretty cool!

The look that was once sported by both Mona Lisa and Elizabeth I is now being sold as the last word in modernity.

The thinking seems to be that if you've exhausted every other manner of facial alteration in the book, why not try losing your eyebrows?

After all, we've inflated our lips, pierced our noses, smoothed our foreheads with Botox, chiselled our cheekbones and tattooed our eyelids with liner.

Or had chemo treatments. It's funny, my eyebrows and lashes lasted until graduation and then I lost almost all of the hair except for a few strands. The hair is returning very slowly, but until then I can make a fashion statement :-)

I'm going to be hanging out with my family today, so no blogging (or even tweeting or facebook). Real conversation, not electronic :-) I'll leave you with this. The real reason famous people die in threes :-)...

She is the doctor who discovered she had breast cancer in Antarctica and operated on herself to biopsy the tumor. The cancer metastasized five years later to her liver, bones and brain:Nearly a decade after she was rescued from a...

So, I wasn't able to blog. I wanted to blog about the prop. 8 decision but I didn't get the chance (my mother-in-law and I talked too much this morning) and now I have to go to the rehearsal for...

I hope everyone is enjoying their day off and at least pausing long enough to remember those who gave their life so that we can live in freedom. We thank them for their sacrifice and appreciate their love for this...

If you haven't read his article go read it. It will be amusing to both the left and the right. It's about his reaction to protesters who passed by a fancy restaurant that overlooked the beach they were marching on...

He suggested I have the port removed from my chest as soon as we are done with the treatment and I will only need to see him every three months. I think he suggested I take out the port because...

I completed my final final this morning. I'm done and I'm so thankful I never have to study for another Hebrew quiz or an OT final ever again. Yes! I was going crazy this week studying for this final, I...

It seems that my CA-125 number dropped from 148 to 20!!! My oncologist thinks that once my surgeon finds out the number is that low, he would probably be OK with me only having 6 chemo treatments instead of the...

He's going to recommend that my oncologist give me 9 chemo treatments instead of 6. He wants me to have a negative CA-125 for a couple chemo treatments before they stop giving me chemo. Bummer! This means that I'm not...

That's the title of Paul David Tripp's new book, it's 52 meditations on Psalm 27. Here's a video promoting the book which is one of the best book promotion videos I've seen. It convinced my to buy it. I should...

But it's close! Long time readers of this blog know that I've wanted an iPhone since it was first announced. I loved its looks, portability, and ease of use. Recently we bought our 13-year-old an iTouch for her birthday and...

I will never have to take a Hebrew quiz again! I am sooooo happy! Let's celebrate: (via) I think I did OK, it was my desire to finish off on a high note, I hope I did. Professor Green is...

So, I'm watching one of the morning talk shows and they have a segment on Hallmark's cancer cards which were introduced in February. This was the first time I heard about them and I'm glad no one has sent me...

Woohoo! Thanks for your prayers, the Lord certainly answered them but it was really hard with a lot of road blocks thrown in my way. I have thrush (from the steroids) and had to spend valuable time today looking for...

And I'm just starting it! EEP! I'm freaking out!!! (You can tell by all the exclamation points :-) I'm going to have to work really hard from now until Thursday to make my deadline. Maybe I'll post some of my...

Isn't it wonderful? I realized that I would have to live in four month intervals after I visited the oncologist the first time and it made me realize that my life as I knew it was over and I had...

I started chemo on Friday. Everything went well during the treatment. The oncologists prepare your body with drugs to ensure that they're aren't major incidents. I had to take 5 Dexamethason the night before and the day of chemo, its...

I did not! I had a Mediport inserted Friday and it was causing me much discomfort yesterday and today. It hurts when I swallow and I feel the Mediport in my chest and the site is tender to the touch...

Here's a shout out to my mom who turns 70 today (sorry, mom but it's true). Have a fun day looking at your pictures on your new HP digital picture frame and make dad get you Chinese food or a...

I'm finally getting around to reading all the comments that you guys were posting when Sarah took over the blog. Sarah told me about this comment: Sarah, you absolutely must not lock your mother in the basement, no matter how...

That you guys don't want to see the scar. I don't blame you, it's not very pretty :-) I'm glad that I don't have to prove my veracity. And thanks to everyone for the recommendations on the port. I'm going...

One of the commenters thinks that I may be lying about the cancer: My mother had ovarian cancer and she most certainly wasn't returned home from hospital as quickly as Michelle. And there's no way that my mother would have...

So, I have papillary serous carcinoma, it's stage 3 C ovarian cancer -- it's an aggressive cancer. The tumor was removed as was some cancer cells from my intestines and fat. They also removed my uterus and ovaries. I have...

But it's been really hard to blog about the cancer but I promise to post something tomorrow. I'm an emotional wreck right now (between coming to grips with having cancer and having a hysterectomy) and it's been hard to bring...

This is Sarah again. Michele hasn't had the strength to blog yet, but she's home and walking. Otherwise she's ok. Hopefully she'll be blogging again soon and back to her old self, which we all love....

Sarah here, for the last time. Yes, you shall all be rid of me because my mom is coming home!!!!!! Yea!!! So she was feeling better, obviously, she was eating solid foods, getting up and walking around by herself, and...

Well today we went to the hospital- obviously- and she was doing much better. The oxygen tubes were taken out. She even got out of the bed a couple times to go to the bathroom. She was doing well, took...

Sarah here again. Thank you all for the uplifting comments and all the encouragement. It's great how at times of crisis people rally together. Everyone has been so helpful while we are going through this and it's greatly appreciated! Well...

Hello, this is Sarah, Michele's daughter. I'll be blogging for her while she is in the hospital. The surgery went well, the tumor was 99% removed. The other 1% will be treated with chemotherapy. The tumor was cancerous. I saw...

Around the Christmas holiday my abdomen bloated up so much it looked like I was pregnant. I figured maybe I wasn't getting enough fiber in my diet so I increased my fiber intake as well as drank more glasses of...

So, I spent the morning cleaning out the junk from email account. I had over 4,000 unread emails, now I'm down to just over 1,000. I have unread emails going back years! Very embarrassing. So, while I continue on with...

Hope you're enjoying the first day of the new year :-) I've been thinking about my new year's resolutions and realized how similar they are to last year's which is pretty depressing. Why can't I keep them? Why can't I...

As promised here's my buckle recipe. Don't forget to whip some heavy cream and sugar to go with it! Add 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp cornstarch to peeled and quartered fruit. Mix until sugar dissolves....

So, I got back on my diet just in time for the traditional Christmas eating binge :-) We already started the sugar binge yesterday with sugar cookies and pastries. We were celebrating the snow day and I thought it might...

I took my last exam yesterday and don't have to go back until February! It was a lot of work and I'm glad I'm done. I liked the subjects and would have enjoyed the readings more if I wasn't...

And for the light posting this weekend. I was studying for my Prophets final which was today. I think I did OK. It was a lot of work but I read everything I was supposed to read, listened to all...

Hope you all enjoy your day. I'm going to be studying for finals most of mine! But at least I don't have to cook, my sister is hosting Thanksgiving as she does each year. She makes an excellent turkey...

To all my brothers and sisters in Christ, I ask that you pray for my Hebrew exam today. It's on the book of Amos. I think I'm ready and it's an open lexicon test but I'm still very nervous since...

I expect this is happening at a number of schools this year. My 7th grader was called a racist by four of her classmates for supporting McCain. She's nice and didn't call them out on their racism for assuming that...

I'm looking forward to The Biggest Loser which premiers tonight. It's annoying that it's up against Fringe but since Samantha loves to watch it, my husband and I will have to watch it on Hulu. Here's a preview episode I...

I originally posted this two years ago. I am posting it again because it still sums up my feelings about this day in history. Hug your babies, tell people you love them, tell them again. Look intently into the...

Ahhh...it's music to the ears of an American traveler to hear that the dollar is surging while you are on foreign soil especially when you haven't exchanged your money yet! When we went to Montreal I exchanged a hundred US...

I just got back last night from Montreal and was too exhausted to blog and now I'm getting ready for church but I saw something from Friday that I plan to comment on. Full blogging will resume later today...

Everyone will be focused on the Olympics, Obama is taking a vacation and who really cares what McCain is doing (unless it's a snarky ad about Obama :-) and I'm not interested in the love life of a potential VP...

Ouch! Oh how deeply the words of our daughters wound us to our very soul! That's a quote from a mother-teenage daughter review of a new British movie by the director of "Bend it Like Beckham" called "Angus, Thongs And...

Because I had surgery again! This time I can post a picture of the part of my body that went under the knife: Isn't it gross? It's a ganglion cyst. Usually it's on the wrist but of course I have...

See? Yet more silly attacks on my view of Christianity just because the commenter doesn't agree with me on the subject I posted. I guess if you can't argue the issue, attack the deeply held conviction of the one who...

And I was shocked to learn that I had received an A- in both classes! Though, I'm not surprised that I received the A- in Doctrine of God since I got an A- on each of the digests and they...

When I was harassed into proving that my Reformed theology is the source for my worldview and not the Republican party, I provided you guys with a nice little primer that explains Reformed theology so that I can then provide...

A reporter has a hard time finding someone to admit that he's baby is average looking. And though everyone thinks their baby is cute, I know that mine were and still are :-) Judge for yourself:...

Well, if we can't be number one in something, this would be it :-) But we can't crow too loudly because they only won by one percentage point :-( The latest comprehensive obesity study has shown that 26 per cent...

OK, so we had to take Sarah to the Met last Sunday for school and we couldn't have picked a worse day to be in Manhattan (we didn't have much choice, it was picked for us), not only was it...

So, the exercise program hit a snag last week. I was going too often and was too exhausted to lift weights. I would go in the morning and then in the afternoon with my daughters. I took a couple days...

Since the commenters insist on repeatedly making the same charges against me I've decided to started saving my responses in Microsoft OneNote as a way to save me time and aggregation and to demonstrate the lack of imagination in the...

So, as I mentioned to you guys recently that I joined a gym with my daughters last week. I can't believe it's only been a week since I started working out, it seems like so much longer because I've been...

No Obama bashing all day. A 24 hour Obama free zone. I don't care what he does or says today, I will not post anything with his name on it or even allude to the story. See Christian love in...

I hope all you Mom's out there enjoy your day (especially you, Mom -- sorry we couldn't make it). It's got to be better than mine, I'm reading Turrentin! Yech! OK, maybe he's not exactly, "Yech!" but he's pretty close....

And I have no idea how I did, I never know, But I did fill one blue book and had to use a second, that could be a good sign (or not). I wrote for the whole 3 hours straight...

I have a small break on the right side of my nose. It's a clean break but since my doctor referred me to an ear, nose and throat doctor, I decided to go even though there's probably not much that...

The reason that I can't say definitively is because I haven't heard those words from my doctor yet but I got X-rays taken yesterday (of both my nose and cheeks) and today the doctor's office left a message on my...

Well, I was able to complete my digest and hand it in on time with only moments to spare. I had to leave school by 3:00 to be able to get my tween to a function she needed to be...

Just a short post to let you guys know that I won't be blogging today (probably). I have a digest due tomorrow and I'm not even close to being done! I'm starting to panic. Prayer would be appreciated :-)...

I was just going through my moleskin looking for a quote I wrote down from the Westminster Confession the last time I took a class with my doctrine of God professor (he always puts the same section on the test)...

So, I'm posting this for my 10th grader to read. I want her to see her competition and the lengths they'll go to so that they can get into Ivy League schools. We aren't even trying for Ivy League schools...

But I'm bummed that it wasn't for a more interesting post. Thanks to RJohnson and meh for the bulk of the comments :-)...

Hey! I know I haven't been posting that much but I have a Hebrew quiz tomorrow. I hope that you will pray for me because the amount of material is overwhelming. I have to know Deuteronomy 4, Joshua 24, Judges...

I was right, it took me another hour but I finally finished it and went out to my car to print it. Yeah, I had to schlep my printer from home and borrowed my husband's AC adapter because of course...

And I'm not even done! I have only one more page to go and I know it's going to take at least another hour. I did mention that I don't want to delete anything didn't I? The material for this...

I probably should have attempted to post once more before I had to turn my full attention to writing a digest for my Doctrine of God class :-) I'm still working on the digest so blogging won't resume until I'm...

I was doing the mom thing and supervising a sleepover that took up most of my night and a large part of my morning. We went to the mall and the movies and then had ice cake and by the...

I now have to get up an hour later or I won't get enough sleep tonight and I really can't afford the time (it's really bad when losing an hour messes you up this much, don't you think?). Argh! Stupid...

Thank you, God! Oh.my.heck was it hard! Writing a digest is the absolutely most disciplined type of writing that you can do because you have to read the writings of theologians (which can be pretty difficult some times) and then...

They found a pre-cancerous tumor on his colon. Please pray for him and his seminary while he is undergoing treatment. And while you're at it, could you pray for me as well? I will be having surgery this week to...

(What do you expect? She's in middle school :-)...

So, long time readers of this blog may remember that I got a new Vaio laptop for Christmas but I haven’t gotten a chance to let you know what I think of it. I love it! Of course, what’s...

Joel Hunter posted this privilege quiz at The Boars Head Tavern. The bold statements are true: 1. Father went to college. 2. Father finished college. 3. Mother went to college. 4. Mother finished college. 5. Have any relative who is...

I have been invited to join a bible study at my new church. Well can you technically call it a "new" church if you've been there for a year? Anyway, I am looking forward to getting to know some of...

It's me, the other chick Susan saying hello to our new community! I know some of our readers think that there is only one blabbing chick over here named Michele, namely because she does the most posting, but there really...

And I completely forgot! I even called my mom on Tuesday to make sure what the day was. I though it was the 9th but it turned out to be the 10th. I know, I'm a terrible daughter. But they...