Wow

Well I know its been a while since I posted...and for that I am sorry...
Things have been more crazy then usual. It is never dull in my life. I have taken time off from writing because I couldnt focus on anything.

Mom is still dealing with her issues from colon cancer earlier this year. Well shes cancer free, but shes not gotten all of her strength back and at times has vertigo and we cant seem to figure out why. Still physically ill at times, but no where near as bad as it was.
She had a MRI for the "mass" in her pancreas and they are just calling it "nodules" and saying that everything there is ok.
The lump in her thyroid, they are calling nothing more than a goiter. They say that everything there should be ok also.

My mother in law is still dealing with her myeloma. She has had 3 hospitalizations in the last few months for various reasons. The last radiation didnt take and her myeloma is still active. But they cant do another radiation at this time because they say that it would eat away at her skin. So they are forced with a decision about how to handle it now.
She has lost a substantial amount of bone in her spine and pelvis. She had a surgery around May, where they fused those bones back together to relieve some pain. It sort of worked for a while, but her pain is back and at times excruciating. So much so that she can not be moved out of the hospital bed that is in the house. She can not even be moved by both my husband and my father in law to get her to Drs appts. (and they are both big strong men)
She has been battling this disease for approximately 8 yrs now.

Of course then theres the fact that my son is bipolar and ADHD. Now my daughter is showing signs...bipolar runs in her family (on her dads side) and so does ADHD...but shes also 12...so is it the bipolar and the ADHD or is it just PUBERTY?? UGH!
So between him and her both...I NEED A VACATION!

Then I was hit with another freight train on Friday...We were doing routine testing for my husbands work wellness program and we were told that he tested positive for HEPATITIS C. He has had high liver enzymes for a while but they thought that it was due to high cholesterol. I feel bad for him because hes dealing with this stuff with his mom and then he gets hit with this crap.

On a good note, we are still NOT smoking! :)

SO I will try to be a little mroe diligent on my thoughts and things, but as you can see, if I am not you will know why.

God Bless

Heres the skinny...

As usual things have been hectic...but no drama around here means that we arent breathing. lol
But I will try to address all the things going on.

Indeed grandma's "mass" was cancer. Colon cancer. Hearing the "C" word kind of takes your breath away. Its hard. You're freaked out, but you want to keep your composure and stay strong so that the person going through it stays strong. Mom did just that. She may have been scared, but you would have never known it. She has always been a strong woman.

She did get very weak before all was said and done. So much she barely left the house for months and slept alot.

They scheduled her surgery and took out part of her colon along with 33 lymph nodes. They sent them to pathology. Her liver is fine, and all lymph nodes are clean. The oncologist said that at this time she needs no further treatment. However, it is likely that someday the cancer will return. We will deal with that bridge when we get there.

It has taken a little time, but she is gaining her strength back and able to do more things. It was a close call but thank God she is on the road to recovery.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

On the opposite side of the board, my mother in laws cancer has returned. She is currently undergoing radiation for it. So please keep her in your prayers.


Now onto other news, I have NOT had a cigarette for going on 6 months now! Not even sneaking one here or there. There has been a time or two that I wanted one. But for the most part, I dont care. YAY me!


On the farm, we have had a ton of babies coming lately. Lots of goat kids, lambs, chicks, ducks and bunnies. They are all just so cute. We did have 2 little goats that lost their babies :( because the billy that got them was too big. But you can read about the babies we do have and see pictures of them at www.smfamilyfarms.com.

We are finally starting to dry up after many many months of solid rain. The ground is still saturated. But at least it is somewhat drier. SO my husband has been able to get most of the rabbit retreat done. We are just shy of it being complete. I know I have been so anxious for it to be ready and so have my bunnies. :)

Mom got a new tractor! Its BIG! :) Harleys at work, so he hasnt gotten to use it yet. I know he will just love it.

On a crappy note, my carpal tunnel is getting horribly bad :( (another reason why I dont get to post as often as I would like) I rarely even use the phone anymore because I cant hold it for more than a minute if that. I have dropped my phone so many times I am surprised it even works anymore. Trying to get a full nights sleep is a nightmare. Writing something by hand? Forget about it. Even just typing this little blog has taken me over 30 minutes. The middle fingers on both hands stay numb 24/7. Nerve damage already.

Why dont you have surgery you say? Well I was scheduled for surgery back in Oct of 2007. Had all the tests done, it was confirmed that yes I do have carpal tunnel. (like I didnt already know) Just now THEY know. Anyways, it was actually scheduled for the 15th, and on the morning of the 14th my kids & I were in a bad car accident. We were in the trauma center in ETMC Tyler for 3 days. So I missed my surgery.

My husband soon quit working for the company he was with and when he went to the next job, it was a different insurance, so now I am "pre-existing". So basically now it is, surgery will come when I have enough money to pay for it out of pocket since insurance will not cover it. Do not know when that will be. :/

But all in all, we are all alive and well. Life is good. You take the good and you take the bad.

Behind as usual

Well once again I am behind in my blogging...I apologize for that...

We have tons of things going on. My stepdaughter came down for Christmas. My husband and I drove up to Iowa to get her due to the outrageous price of place tickets and all the extra fees that they tack on. I have seen more places and taken more road trip since I met Harley, than I ever have in my entire life. I enjoy all the trips we take.

I have still not had a cigarette since NOVEMBER! My husband also quit smoking. He had a few here and there for the first month. But he has totally quit smoking now. I am so proud of him. We just celebrated our 3rd anniversary February 23. He has also been drug FREE for 3 years!! That is an awesome accomplishment! Getting him away from that crap was a horribly tedious battle but I never gave up on him. He is so much happier now. If he had not gotten away from it when he did, he would either be dead or in prison today.

Harley will call me up when he is at work with some crazy request for me. He called me up at the beginning of February, for me to come to the rig to rescue 2 little puppies that were found at an abandoned house near the rig. They were starved almost to death, the little girl being literally skin and bones. The rest of the litter perished before they were rescued. I am always leary about taking in stray dogs because of the massacre we had with "Oscar" the stray killing 8 lambs, 3 goats, and 1 turkey at the beginning of 2009. But I drove all the way over there that night to get these little puppies. They were so weak.

Van the company man at the rig has a big heart and just fell for the puppies but he couldnt take them home & he had another week left before he could go home anyways. He paid for the puppies to be taken to the vet and checked, wormed and vaccinated. The first vet visit, both puppies had a fever and the crud from being out in the elements. A round of antibiotics cleared that up. We named the little boy "van" and the girl "missy". We are guessing them to be a lab mix. You wouldnt know they were the same puppies. Today they are growing like weeds and so loving and playful. They have come a long way. They have been vetted and started on heartgard and are ready for new homes. Unfortunately, I can not keep them.

We had twin baby pygmy goats born on February 7th. They are so cute. 1 little girl and 1 little boy. They are named Smokey & Bandit. We also have about 8 more goats that are due anyday now! I am so excited.

Then we got hit with a nasty snowstorm. We lost power for hours and it killed our internet for 2 weeks. Although the aftermath of it was pretty first thing in the morning, it soon turned nasty. With all the rain that we have had, all that snow did was make matters worse by keeping our flooded pastures soggy and gross. Its so bad when we were working on pens ten weekend and setting posts, you could barely dig 2 ft and strike water. The dogs loved the snow, as did the kids. Us on the otherhand, we can do without it!

Now, onto important business...mom has been sick for over a year now. Not knowing what it was. Now being the typical mother she is always on me about going to the doctor. However, I have told her several times to go to the doctor and she wouldnt because she is stubborn. She went in for soem testing and they did blood and found her blood count to be extremely LOW! They had her come back and it was even lower the next time. So they scheduled a endoscopy and a colonoscopy to find out where she was losing so much blood at.

The doctor pulled me aside to tell me that they found a "mass". He then tells me that it is more than likely cancer but that they did a biopsy to make sure. The mass is 3/4 blocking her colon and most definitely what has been causing her to be sick and to be losing so much blood.

She has hardly left the house in the last 2 weeks. Although her symptoms have been noticeable for over a year. This has me stressed out. This is exactly why I wanted her to live next door to me so I could take care of her if something happened to her.

The doctor called yesterday to tell her that they saw something on her xray in her throat so today they had her do a cat scan for that. We wont know for a few days what that is about. They will be doing surgery on March 9th to remove the mass, then she will talk to the oncologist and we will go from there. I dont know much else.

Then a little over a week ago we had 2 baby lambs. They are just so adorable. Growing like weeds. I would love to keep all the babies, but its not possible. Especially now with mom sick. I am selling as much as I can in order to help anyway I can with her medical and anything to help take care of her, like her bills etc.

We also brought home 2 new boer goats. Billy and Lilly. They are over a year old. Very sweet. The people we got them from had to find a new home for them because they lived in the city and the dogs were attacking Lilly. Billy and Lilly were a little nervous at first with all the new animals. When we got home they were greeted by the welcoming committee (calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, and more) They didnt know what to think but quickly blended in.

That is business in a nutshell. It has been way more complicated than that, but that is the condensed version as my carpal tunnel has been flaring up nearly ALL day today.