The doctor pre surgery

We dropped the doctor off via bike at hunstman cancer just before 2:00






He has been sitting up there waiting for a surgery room for the last few hours.
Surgery is now scheduled for 7 pm
And should last around 2.5 hours

They finally got him back at around 8 which means he will be done around 10:30 and off the drugs and with it enough to see anyone around midnight

Why is this whole cancer thing not working around my schedule?

-- Post From My iPhone

Cat:Part 2

About 18 hours after taking the cat home, i was on a mountain bike ride and got a phone call from home. Megan rarely calls me on my bike rides unless i am a couple hours late and i knew i wasn't late yet, so i thought it was weird.

It was #1 and this was our conversation:

hello

*sniff* dad *sniff*

yea?

*sniff**sniff* can you make some lost cat posters?*sniff*

yes.......why?

*sniff*the cat is gone*sniff*

I can make them when i get home, but i won't be home for a couple of hours.

*sniff* okay, thanks *sniff*

I love you, i'm sorry, i will see you in a little while.

bye*sniff*

I couldn't help but think about THIS

I finished my ride and loaded up the bike and drove home.

As we were pulling into my street, we ran into #1 who apparently couldn't wait for me to come home and make the posters. She was hanging her own lost cat sign on the light post at the end of the street. We hadn't had the cat long enough to have pictures so it was mostly just a poster with text, a description, and a phone number.

We did have the little piece of paper that was on the outside of the cage at the humane society that had a small black and white picture of the cat with the sex, age, description etc.

The girls ended up taking that to about 100 houses in our neighborhood, knocking doors and asking if they had seen the cat.

Since it was going to be an outside cat, we kept the cat in the garage, but somehow it had escaped.

Not more than 18 hours after we brought it home, we already lost our cat.

I talked to Lil bills dad to see if the cat showed up at their house, looking for her sister.

He told me with his infinite wisdom of having given up his masculinity years ago to open a can of tuna fish and put it by the garage door. It has a strong odor and cats like it.

30 seconds after opening the can, the kids could hear meows. #3 came running in and told me that they could hear the cat but couldn't find her. I walked out in the garage and she was sitting under my table saw.

Apparently she never ran away at all but had been hiding for the last 4 hours out of fear of being loved to death.

Her sister cat may die of a similar fate.

On sunday afternoon, we went to my parents for dinner and took the cat up to see her sister. As we were leaving, the cat ran and hid behind some boxes and wouldn't come out. I guess Megan is going to be going to Costco and buying Tuna in bulk.

I have ordered the Tabby Tote, but it won't be in for a few days.

Hopefully this will make it easier to not lose the cat.

Cat:Part 1

I had dogs growing up and even went and got one against my mothers wishes when i was 16. A few years later the doctor got one too. Then we got some more and had a dogsled team for a while.

I eventually put my first dog down because he had diabetes. It got to the point where he was blind and couldn't move. It was hard explaining to my daughters that i was taking the dog to heaven. They had been taught about heaven in church and when i left with the dog in the car, it confused them that i could drive to heaven.

Megan and i agreed to wait a while before getting a new dog. That while turned out to be about 2 weeks. Megan got obsessed and ended up doing lots of research on what breed would best suit our family. It turned out that a labrador retriever was best suited for what we wanted in a dog. The only drawback with a lab is that there are so many of them that sometimes the breeding can be compromised. We found a reputable breeder that had both the mother and the father so we could see both of them and then had its hips and eyes checked. We bought a puppy and took him home and went through all of the highs and lows of having a puppy.

He grew up big and had lots of puppy energy even at the age of almost 4.

Right as we moved into our current house, he started having seizures and we found out he had epilepsy. We got him on medication but within a few months we ended up having to put him down as well. Megan never really had a chance to have a calm dog curl up at her feet and look up at her adoringly while she read a book that she was so looking forward to. I have offered to do that for her but she just thinks it's creepy when i do it.

We again agreed to wait a while before getting another dog. Megan wasn't ready to do the puppy thing with me being at work all day, and i was okay not shoveling poop for a while.

We had various rodents and fish, as well as fish that were accidentally fed to the rodents. The life expectancy of rodents is not long so it is hard to get overly attached to a mouse. Especially since we set mouse traps in the garage.

Megan recently became obsessed again.

This time she figured that the girls have too much love to keep bottled up and they need to give some of that love back to one of Gods creations. This time she decided that the recipient of all of that love was going to be an outside cat. They live longer than a year, they bury their own poop and when you go out of town, you just dump a bunch of food in a bowl and they are fine. It's not like a dog where you have to board it or pay some neighbor kid to come over and take care of it. I have been telling the girls for years that i was allergic to cats, but if it was going to be an outside cat that i didn't have to touch, i would deal with my allergies.

I figured we could just wait until we saw someone giving them away at the grocery store and pick one up for free.

Megan talked to lil bill's dad who had their cat run away a while back and it was decided to go to the humane society and get litter mates together. Lil' Bill stole the kitten that we wanted and we had to settle for the second best kitten there.

We filled out an extensive application and then gave urine and blood samples and had a psychiatric evaluation, we were finally able to take the cat home.

I have officially given away any small piece of masculinity i had left.

When it Rains, it Pours

3531 Days

3531 days ago, my only sister was diagnosed with cancer.
Brain surgery removed a softball sized tumor.
Lots of treatments, lots more open brain surgeries, and she is still here.
My oldest niece Maia decide to put together a team for Relay for Life to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Pretty amazing for someone that won't even be able to drive for a couple more years.

We raised money, walked, ate licorice and pizza and walked some more.

8

This video is mostly so she can remember what life was like when she turned 8.

The big 3-0

Conversation at dinner last night.

Me: Do any of you know what special day it is tomorrow?
#2 excitedly: Yes! it is uncle G G's birthday.
Me: You're right. Is it anybody else's birthday that we know?

blank stares and crickets chirping

Me: Do any of you remember that it's your mother's birthday?


I guess i am not very good at building up for birthdays.
The kids were all disappointed that there would be no singing gorillas with balloons.

At least they remembered Jeremiah's birthday.

Happy 30th Megan