Great grandparents

My mom called me on Saturday. My Granny's surgery has been scheduled for Wednesday, the 7th. I know I didn't get around to mentioning it before, probably because I was hoping to get some time to process it and write something poignant. But I'm pretty lazy when it comes to blogging I guess. My grandmother has breast cancer. And apparently it's pretty advanced, but it's isolated to a lump so her doctor was pretty confident that he could remove the lump and just give her radiation therapy to resolve it. My mom didn't think her health (she has COPD and was just getting to a point where she didn't need oxygen to move around anymore) would last through radiation treatments. So my mom had her doctor consider other options and they sought a second opinion. The next doctor told my grandmother that a complete mastectomy would negate the need for radiation. My Granny wasn't really going to go for it, but finally came around to our way of thinking. I think she was rather scared because my Papa passed away within months of his cancer diagnosis (when I was only 13). He had pretty advanced cancer too and when they went in to remove it, they found tumors throughout his body. He just never made it through the chemotherapy. But the reason my mom called, other than to wish me a happy birthday and apologize for not being able to visit, was to say that the surgery had been scheduled and Granny had taken a turn for the worse in health. She's been through a lot of tests to assess her for surgery and she's been getting progressively run down since Liam's birthday party. Well, it turns out that her potassium and sodium levels have plummeted again (this happened last year too). It leaves her so weak and unsteady; she's tired all the time.

We went to visit her today. She is pretty worn out. Her voice is deep and congested sounding. She was wearing her dressing gown. She hadn't made her bed in three days she said. We brought the boys to entertain her and just be generally cheerful, but I don't think her surgeon is going to want to do the surgery after I saw how she was doing. I made her bed. Jon went out and brought in the trash cans and took out the newspaper to the recycling bin. We brought in her walker and her toilet seat which upset her because she just got them out of the house at the beginning of the summer. She's back on oxygen, but only at night. She didn't have any water to drink the whole time we were there. Mom came in from work (she's just moved out of the house and back into her own house but is still working in Sac) and made Granny a sandwich and we had a little chit chat. I think it was a good visit overall and I'm glad we insisted on visiting. Who cares that she didn't have a gift or card for my birthday? I'm 32 tomorrow. It's not a cool birthday; I'm claiming to be 27 again. But she did give me some money. We stopped by Louis Cairos in Williams on the way home and brought home delicious steak dinner. I got a rib eye smothered in miso onion butter and grilled onion with ranch beans and minestrone soup. Yummers. So I still got a great gift.

On a side note, I also got a call from my dad yesterday. He was apologizing for being incommunicado the last 2 months and wanted us to swing by to pick up some money he wanted us to have for Liam's daycare. His van finally died last week and I guess he and my uncle Ted spent the day on Saturday shopping for my dad's first new vehicle since they bought my Garfunkle when I was 12 (um, 20 years ago!). He got a Toyota Tacoma pickup, new, and I think it will be a great investment for him and his property. But he also told me that my Grandpa Bert was in the hospital in Stockton, just having had surgery and was recovering really well. I thought this was for a kidney transplant that dad said he needed. But no. Apparently he had a brain tumor too. And his doctor had not originally wanted to operate on it; I guess he said "let's wait a couple of months and see, but I don't think it's malignant." So I guess my grandpa told him that if he didn't get the tumor out of his brain, then he would stop going to dialysis. I can understand his reasoning. The man's 90 years old. If his brain isn't good enough to rescue, why should his kidney be?

All in all, I'm so lucky that my boys have 3 great grandparents still in their lives, even though we only spend a significant amount of time with my Granny. I still have fond memories of my two great grandmothers, both of whom I knew throughout elementary school.

Father's Day 2011

Today is my husband's third fathers day. We probably won't do much. We were pretty lazy for mothers day too. The weather is supposed to be great, but knowing my man, he won't want to go outside. Oh well. I'm planning on making a lemon cake for him today. Maybe a nice chicken, potato, salad type dinner. Speaking of that cake...I should probably get to it soon. No gift for him today. But he got a tablet PC just recently and that's holding him over. Besides we're trying to not spend too much money since we need money in the bank for the home purchase and I only got paid $32 in May (since I took the whole month off for maternity). That's a pic of us for Liam's first portrait session. Look at that loving daddy!!!

Colin is 12weeks old as of yesterday and is thriving like crazy. He coos and is just on the verge of giggling. He's been grabbing a lot more and has started to intentionally bat at hanging toys in his baby gym. Diaper changes have gotten increasingly more difficult as he's also found a newfound wiggly-ness. He's a super smiley happy boy. Sleepy Daddy and wide-awake Colin.

Liam is doing wonderfully, although he is milking the cold thing since he still has quite a lingering cough. "I soooooo sick." Also, he's been saying the most ridiculous things lately which just proves what we've always thought; Liam is very smart and very imaginative, he just didn't have the ability to express himself. Yesterday he told us he wanted "ambooger, chicken nuggets, AND fwies" for lunch. Ummm, okay?! He's also pretty polite most of the time. "Yes pweez," in a sing-song voice is probably one of the cutest things we hear, and we hear it often which is wonderful. If Lily escapes the house when we're heading to school in the morning, he calls out "dere she goes," runs after her, and catches her for me (while she's distracted by eating grass). Last night, he put my old Freddy Bear on his head at bedtime and asked "whaddya tink of mah hair?" Where does he come up with that stuff?! He also has developed quite a funny run; it has a bit of an antelope leap in it and on really good days he runs around the daycare center barely touching the ground. He's a dancing fool and a singing machine.

Okay, I should be getting to that cake now while all the boys are still asleep.

Buying a house

We picked up Liam from school last Friday and met our realtor and her daughter at the house in Marysville. We went through the whole thing. I definitely felt strong about it; I felt positive. Jon felt really strong about it. Yeah, there are a couple of things I would change: I wanted to immediately change the paint in most of the rooms (liked to color, just couldn't live with it everywhere) and pull out the carpet in the dining/living room and extend the kitchen flooring through those rooms just so there would be a consistent feel tying the kitchen into the rest of the house (as it is very small and located in the dead center of the house). Diana had a couple other homes she wanted us to see since we could qualify for more money now that Dad said he's help us out. It was basically for comparables, a chance to see what more money could get us or what else was out there for $100k. But she wasn't pushing us to go see them; I was the one who said I wanted to go see the Victorian that she said was not too far and really had that "quirky feel I know you guys are into." Jon was serious about writing an offer on the house and frankly so was I. It was going to be easy in our price range and there would be plenty of space for the boys to run around in the front and back, the neighborhood was quiet and friendly feeling. It's a small house but we can definitely start and grow from there.

When we drove up to the Victorian, it was twice as big as the one we just left. There was an elementary school on the way there. As I go through the intersection, Liam shouts "Mommy go dat way," pointing at the park and the playground equipment. Then as I park in front of the house and across the street from the park, he yells "we're hooooome."

I walked in later than everyone else because I had to change Colin's diaper. By the time I went in the door, my husband, realtor, and her daughter were shouting "oh my god, look at this place!" It was beautifully painted, the rooms were large, the energy was uplifting. It's a 3 bedroom/ 2 bath house. It has a formal dining area, a large kitchen, one bedroom and bath on the main floor, a small basement store room, a laundry/mud room, a fireplace in the living room, and the stairs had cute tile facings on the risers. Upstairs was a large landing with vaulted ceiling and skylight, the second bath, a huge master bedroom with a small balcony, and a long third bedroom that was obviously a girly room because of the lavender walls (with green and orange accent walls). Then upstairs (yes, another upstairs) was a fully finished attic loft!!! I even love the orange paint up there. The backyard was smaller than the one on 17th street and there was no lawn. But there were three pergolas, a dove cage, and a fountain. It may be small but it will be aan imaginative yard for the boys to play in (not forgetting the giant big park across the street). Bella said it best when we were looking at the cement slab in the backyard that had glass beads and positive affirmations written in the cement, "someone incredibly creative lived here!" And I couldn't help thinking, and more creative people are going to live here. The house just feels so positive and uplifting and full of great energy. It has the feel that someone alternative was living there.

Our realtor called the listing agent to say we were interested in an offer. It's a short-sale and Friday was the first day on the market; we were the first people to get to see it. She told the listing agent we were a teacher and artist, both very creative, with two small boys. The seller is apparently a nurse (like my Dad) and we are exactly the type of people she wants in the home! It's more expensive and a stretch for our monthly payments but this is a house you can't pass up. So we offered $135k ($2k less than asking) with 3 1/2% down and seller to contribute 3 1/2% to our closing costs. There's only one loan on the house so a short sale might actually be "short." We wrote up a contract and Dad and Jon signed the papers Saturday night.

On Sunday, the realtor sent me a text to say the listing agent thinks the offer is strong and is putting our offer in the primary position, only accepting backup offers just in case ours isn't approved by the bank. Heaven forbid. Today, I got all of my paperwork together and turned into my lender. Now we're only waiting on Dad's paperwork.

It is quite conceivable that we may be homeowners before the end of the summer. :D