Happy Birthday, Mike

Today was our son-in-law, Mike's, 36th birthday. He's been married to our baby, Sarah, for 11 years and they have three beautiful, well-behaved children.

Last night I conducted a phone interview with Mike and, of course, he was very friendly and agreeable. The interview went something like this:

(Oh, and as usual, the pictures accompanying the questions might not have anything at all to do with the question.)

I suppose you've been looking forward to this fun interview with your mother-in-law all day right? I have actually.

You're going to be 36 tomorrow. Does that number have any significance for you or is it 'just another birthday'? I haven't felt any angst about an age yet. Maybe at 25 or 28 I might have started to feel like a grownup but nothing's made me feel old yet - except 3 kids - lol.

No, the birthdays don't bother me at all.

Is there an age you anticipate that might make you feel uneasy? Some people say 40 but I don't foresee it being an issue. Whatever age I don't feel young and spry will be the one that signals another era for me but I don't anticipate that for quite awhile.

Do you have any special birthday activities planned. Let's see. Dinner with the family then maybe opening a present or two.

Any special gifts you're hoping for? No, it's one of those things where it's so close to Christmas that I usually just throw out a list and I get some for Christmas and some for my birthday. I never know what to expect when.

You were a stay-at-home dad for almost 3 years right? Yes

Did you enjoy that role? Not particularly. It was okay but I prefer to be working outside the home.

What was most challenging about it? I think when you work outside the home you make an extra effort to have meaningful time with the family; and when you're always home, sometimes time goes by without those meaningful moments ever happening.

Was it difficult to juggle your work-from-home job with child care? Yes, there were times when I'd have phone meetings that I'd have to work around nap times. It helped that my parents were close by so I could loop them in and get into the office when I had to; but sometimes an unexpected phone call would have me struggling to juggle everything.

Okay, so everybody knows you're a sports enthusiast. What's your favorite sport to participate in. Golf

What do you typically shoot? Right now probably like 82.

How often do you get out? This year is the least I've been out. I've missed 5 or 6 tournaments that I usually play in. I don't know exactly why it happened - it just did.

What is your favorite sport to follow? College football. I'm first and foremost a Louisville Cardinal fan - mainly football and basketball which are televised and I can sometimes attend. I also enjoy reading about and following their golf and baseball programs.

Are you a fan of any professional teams? No. We're kind of in the middle of about 5 or 6 teams - Bengals, Titans, Bears, Rams, Colts. I guess the Colts would be the team I'd follow most - of the ones nearby anyway.

Did you find it overwhelming at all to become part of such a large family? Well at first I felt like a spectator. You know, by dating Sarah, I'd paid admission to watch and now it just seems like old hat. I'm pretty used to the numbers and the chaos that comes with a family this size. At first I was Sarah's boyfriend,

then her fiance,

then her husband,

and finally Mike. Now I feel like part of the action.

What do you like best about your present job? It's somewhat challenging and yet I'm able to be successful at it.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? I don't know. I see us in Louisville although now that my company is multi-national, there's always potential to move up and go to a different city. And, I wouldn't be surprised at some point, to see myself with a business of my own.

What haven't I asked about that people might find interesting about you? I like creating physical challenges for myself whether it be a mini marathon or p90X. I like having goals to attain like dieting and training for a mini. Right now, because of the weather, I'm doing p90X but earlier this year I took a month and ran 25 miles a week. Sometimes I don't run for a month and then I might go out on a Saturday and run 7 or 8 miles just to get out there.

And recently I started trail running. I have a GPS watch and I'll take marked trails or head out to parts unknown. I don't have to map out a route in advance or even stick to streets and sidewalks. I enjoy running on new trails.

Sarah and I also share cooking duties. I enjoy cooking - not super healthy things but scratch biscuits or pancakes from scratch. And I can make some different entrees like pork butt and things like that. I have my little specialties that I can do pretty well.

Are you looking forward to Christmas week? Absolutely!

And I can add some more interesting things about Mike. He's always helpful.

He's always fun.

He has one of the best senses of humor of anyone I've ever met.

And he's one of the most personable people you'll ever meet.

He's a good sport.

A real family man.

Who always helps with the 'kid' responsibilities.

We love Mike and we're proud and happy that he's a member of our family. He's kind, considerate, and always a joy to have around! Although it's a little late in the day, we hope he had a fabulous birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mike

P.S. You never seemed like a spectator to us!

You Capture - Light

Beth's You Capture subject this week is light. I wanted to take a picture with beautiful sunlight but by the time I was thinking 'You Capture' there was no beautiful sunlight - only clouds. So I went with the obvious. These pictures might be lights rather than light but they will help light the dark scroogie front of our house.

And this picture is of a light and all the lights that help make it beautiful.

And these decorators definitely know how to light up the neighborhood.

Which is especially apparent went you get up close. This guy is bigger than their house and could light up the neighborhood all by himself!

For more light and I'll bet more Christmas light, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

My first granddaughter, Amber, and mother to our three great grandchildren had her stitches removed Monday that were put in when the worrisome tumor was removed from the back of her head. When the doctor went in, he thought he was removing a pilar cyst and that was good news for everybody but when he removed it, he knew it was something else and sent it off to be biopsied.

Yesterday we found out it was a neurofibroma, a benign nerve sheath tumor in the peripheral nervous system. The key word for us here is benign. Thank you, God.

That's the good.

I had my follow up appointment with my plastic surgeon last week. He feels sure there are at least precancerous cells left. He explained that if he removed a cancerous cyst from my back, he would cut fairly generously taking a little more than he needed to just to be sure to get it all. This is made possible by the fact that there's plenty of stretchy skin there making it easy to close the wound. However, when he's removing a cyst from the tip of a nose, he needs to remove as little as possible because there's no extra skin to stretch in order to close the wound.

So....in January we'll do another round of chemo cream. And possibly another surgery.

That's the bad.

Right now I'm continuing with the 'Scar Away Silicone Pads and massage to try to minimize the scarring. Unfortunately my nose is still somewhat lumpy and bumpy. And the chemo cream will make it lump, bumpy, and fire red.

That's the ugly.

But again. It could be worse. I'm going into the holidays with a feeling of relief. The two special prayers I've prayed lately are that Amber's tumor would be benign and that Dave would get home safely from Afghanistan. And a couple of days ago, Dave wrote that he could be home as early as January 3rd instead of February 6th as we originally thought which could be very conducive to an answer to my second special prayer.

So that's more good.

Last Sunday I started the dreaded cold symptoms that I knew were coming when Mr. Right got sick. But I started taking Zicam and so far I really believe it's helped. So that's more bad.... but it could be worse.

And I don't have more ugly except for the weight I keep gaining.

There! Now I'm updated. And the good news is that there's a lot more good than bad or ugly.

Double Yolker

42 years ago we lived in Alamogordo, New Mexico the only town close to Holloman AFB where Mr. Right was stationed. It was hard being almost 1500 miles from home and it became even more challenging when we were over the top with excitement to be expecting our first child. And it was hard for my parents too.

So Mom got an idea. She did a little research and found a small town - but not too small - approximately midway between their house in rural LaPorte, IN and our house in Alamogordo. Then Mom and Dad called and said we should meet in this little town. That way we could have a little visit and neither of us would have to drive 1500 miles.

So we did it. Mom and Dad had a camper on the back of their pick-up truck and Mr. Right and I had a VW. We agreed to meet at whatever gas station we came to in Stroud. Remember this was before cell phones or emails or instant messaging. Once we each started out early that morning we were inaccessible to each other until we all arrived at our destination.

So late that evening we drove into the first gas station we came to in Stroud and a few minutes later so did Mom and Dad. We all spent the night in that little camper and it might sound weird but it's one of my best memories. It was so good to see them and so worth the long drive.

In the morning, as she always did, my mom got up and started making breakfast. When she cracked open one of the eggs it had a double yolk. She was quite tickled as soon as she saw it and said this meant that we would have twins. Of course our firstborn was a singleton but eventually we had identical twin boys and I always remembered that double yolker that prophesied twins for us.

Several years ago I cracked open a double yolker. I was really tickled when I saw it and thought to myself that one of my children would have twins. As it turned out Beth carried her identical twin boys for nineteen weeks before they died in utero. It was a tragic and heart breaking time for our entire family but James and Jake will always be a part of our family. They'll always be loved and we all look forward to the day when they'll be with us again.

Yesterday, I cooked breakfast for Mr. Right. That's pretty unusual for me since usually I dig out a Hostess cupcake for him or some donuts left over from the last time someone visited; but this weekend he had a toothache and thought scrambled eggs would be something he could handle.

I cracked open the first two eggs and they were 'normal' but when I cracked the third I laughed out loud. Then I showed them to Mr. Right and he laughed too. Because look what we saw:

Now I'm not saying that someone in the family is going to have twins. I'm just saying to any of you kids who are reading this and would like to have twins, you better go ahead and get pregnant now. I mean some of you don't even have 4 kids yet. What?

Does It All Start With A Common Cold?

Last year, right after Thanksgiving, I got a really bad cold. I didn't suffer long before I visited my doctor who prescribed an antibiotic. Then I got worse. And a new antibiotic. Then Christmas arrived and I wasn't any better. In fact I was even worse. During Christmas week when I'd normally be in seventh heaven because our family was together, I was sick. And went to the doctor again. I think my kidneys were failing or something because the doctor said that the antibiotic that I was on could affect the kidneys.

I don't remember getting completely well after Christmas but in the very early Spring I went ahead with the shoulder surgery that seemed necessary at the time. And oh my, what did I do? It was so much worse than I thought it would be and I thought I'd never regain the mobility that I'd enjoyed or the small pain that I thought needed correcting. After months of physical therapy and then home physical therapy, I've seen steady but slow improvement.

Then I was diagnosed with skin cancer on my nose - not the deadly kind but any kind on the tip of your nose is a challenge. We started with a chemo cream the effects of which are terrible, then a biopsy, more chemo cream, excision of the tumor, a lingering unattractive bump, more chemo cream this coming January and then possibly another surgery to address the bump.

Healthwise it's been a difficult and challenging year. I've exacerbated the problem by gaining 30 pounds and feeling completely unmotivated to do anything about it.

And it all started with a cold after Thanksgiving last year.

Now things are looking up for me. I'm walking about a mile and a third a few times a week - it's not much but I really believe that staying active is the key and I'm increasing the time and effort I expend by just a little every week.

I'm hopeful that I've completed a year-long bad health cycle of some kind and that the coming year and hopefully all those to follow will be better.

But after Thanksgiving this year....... Mr. Right got a cold and a cough that seems to go on and on. He thinks it's a little better and he's somewhat reassured because he got a pneumonia shot last Fall so that's good.

But now he's got a really bad toothache.

Oh no. Does it all start with a common cold?

You Capture - Chilly

Beth's You Capture subject this week is Chilly. That sounded easy enough when I first read it but as our snowless, iceless, week wore on I started to realize I had to look for less obvious 'chilly'.

So I looked in the koi pond first. When the pond starts to freeze the fish begin to hibernate. They kind of lay on the bottom - not doing anything but, I guess, sleeping. And prior to that, when it gets 'chilly', they start practicing. Here they are - feeling chilly, getting ready for winter.

And then there was this vacant house. You can tell it's chilly by the bare branches and the fact that it's vacant.

My hydrangea blooms are chilly too.

And the fruit on the ornamental trees in back? Definitely chilly.

These lonely leaves are chilly.

But what could be more chilly than a boy in a refrigerator. Of course it's not all that chilly because it's not plugged in - but the idea is there. He's just chillin' in his new refrigerator.

For more You Capture Chilly pictures, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.