I guess the best way to sum up this past week.....long and stressful!  There just seems to be so much going on and there seems to be no end in sight lately.  I have had so much on my mind I have just not been sleeping well.  I am no doubt looking forward to this long weekend, a very much needed long weekend.

I would like to ask everyone to keep my old classmate Nicole Farlow in their thoughts and prayers.  She is 32 and the single mother of 2 children and son and daughter (10&12).  They diagnosed her in May with Stage 4 Liver Cancer.  Fairly unusual in a woman her age and a woman that does not drink and so on.  She was given 4-6 months but with Chemo and all possibly up to a year.  They said she was not a good candidate for a liver transplant as they feel her cancer started somewhere else and attacked her liver and they can't find out where it started.  A fund was set up for her with Wachovia Banks and money was raised to afford her the opportunity to go to Duke for a new opinion of her situation.  Well the funds were raised and she was seen at Duke yesterday.  It seems they have given her the same news, there is nothing they can do.  It is so sad to see a life that will end so soon and with such cruelty.  It is sad to think of her children and how they just don't understand yet how little time they have.  She will not see them go on their first dates, prom, graduation and the many other milestones children have as they continue to grow.  I can imagine the heartache she is dealing with right now trying to take this all in and find some strength to deal with it and accept is since she has been give no other option.  What do you say?  I mean we can all sit around and say we are sorry, we will pray for you and so on but it does not change a thing.  It doesn't take her pain away or the pain her children will have to endure.  It is one of those times where the world just seems so cruel, so unfair.  IT STINKS! I am not sure where this originally came from but it is on Nicole's page as well as the Butterfly Funds page.

I don't know how, I can't see why
people with cancer have to die,
why there is no cure to make it go away.
and people are dying of it every day.
women, men, children and more,
...are dying because no-one can seem to find a cure.

 

WORK....has been stressful.  The economy seems to finally (2 years later) be hitting the construction industry.  You wake up in the morning and the thought of having to deal with it all just makes your whole body tense up.  My administrative assistant was laid off yesterday.  It really stinks.  I hate it for her, she is such a sweet person, a good person.  I know things have been tight for her to begin with and now she is having to deal with this.  I just feel so bad and there is nothing I can do to fix it.  I truly hope that things will turn around and she will be back.  It is too quite here today.  She has been a big help to me around here and I will no doubt miss her.  I am just that way, I want to fix things, I want to help and when I can't it just weighs on me.

WoW.....Got a call last night....it was my brother!  Yes, I know, you don't hear me speak of him much.  He is my half brother and after he and dad had a falling out when he was younger things were just never the same although we have always kept in touch just not often.  My nephew Jean-Luke, "Luke", will be a senior this year at East.  That is just crazy!  I still remember when he was born.  I can't believe he has grown up it seems so quickly.  Of course I say this same thing about Jeramy & Starla all the time too.  Anyway, seems he was in a very bad head on collision after football practice the other day.  After several surgeries they were able to bring him home last night.  He has a hospital bed at home and a wheel chair for now.  They are hoping that within 4-6 months he will be walking again.  I hope to see him soon, it has been too long.  I am glad he is still here with us but I do hate he is having to deal with all of this.  I can't imagine how scary it must be for him.  All of the surgery, stitches, broken hip, arm, almost tore his knee off.....I just can't imagine.  I know I would be scared for sure.  It makes me worry even more about Jeramy.  He will be 16 in April and is so excited to drive.  In this case, both kids were speeding and hit head on, I mean I don't know anyone that is not guilty of speeding and I don't really know many, especially new drivers, that haven't pushed their luck.  I know I did, I know that someone was no doubt watching over me on a number of occasions when I was that age.  Of course, they have to grow up and they have to learn by mistakes you just hate to see it be in such a situation.  It is sad but I am very thankful he is OK.  That is what matters when it comes down to it.

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.”

 

~ Catherine Ponder

On another note, I have been keeping an eye on the baby birds that have made one of my hanging baskets their home.  It is neat to see how much they change day to day and how quickly they grow and come into their own.  Animals are so different from people in that sense.

Anyway, I can't help my curiosity when they are right there under my nose!  lol  I have to keep any eye on them.

I am pretty sure the newest addition has a mohawk!  ha ha ha  Here are a few pics.  The cookoo bird had to be relocated (the clearly larger egg) and there ended up being a total of 5 tiny eggs!

"To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, 

to have houses, music and paintings 

- it's all miracles. 

I have adopted the technique 

of living life from miracle to miracle."

~ Artur Rubinstein