Ryan's Birthday

I posted three new posts today because I had the time and it's something I've been meaning to do for awhile.  Make sure and check out the two that come after this.  

Ryan's 28th birthday was on Friday.  By stealth of night on the 28th I wrote all over his car windows.  Here is just the back shot.  We went out to Denny's that morning for his birthday breakfast.  Oddly, that is becoming a tradition for us because we did the same thing when in Las Vegas for my birthday.  On Friday evening we headed up to La Porte for a nice quiet weekend at Alicia's cabin.  It was great to get away from everything and to just enjoy each other's company without internet or phone interruptions.  I love you Ryan!  

Early morning at Denny's.  They gave Ryan a yummy slice of cheesecake for his birthday.  I guess the singing doesn't start until later on in the day.

We packed a cooler with the refrigerated foods.  The egg carton was on the bottom and was soaked by the time we got all the food out.  Luckily none of the eggs were smashed or even cracked.  I squeezed water out of this carton.

Ryan doing what he does best: singing with the corn.

Heating up our dinner on Sunday evening.  Why use pots?

I just really love this picture of Ryan.

This is me being Ryan: wearing his glasses and reading his book.  He spent a good deal of the weekend in this chair reading.

All ready for church on Sunday morning.  We drove an hour down the other side of the mountain to Quincy to go to church.

Our vegan Sunday lunch... except for the butter.

Nice coloring on this one, Ryan.

Gotta love a man that can make cookies!  And I do!

It was a little chilly our last morning there.  Ryan was making yummy egg/bacon/cheese sammies for us.  It's one of his many specialities.

State Fair 2008

In keeping with a tradition that started about 8 years ago, we went to the state fair.  I rented a wheel chair to help me keep off my leg.  It certainly helped, although it was weird being so reliant on the others to push me around.  It's funny how people get out of your way when you're on wheels too.  

The wheel chair saved me that day.

Ryan's first ever funnel cake.

Evanectomy

The tumor I had is commonly known as an Evan's tumor - hence the Evanectomy.  Funny that my brother-in-law's name is Evan.  So, for some reason I can't get these pictures situated how I want.  It was supposed to be in chronological order, but as you will see, that didn't happen.  Enjoy as much as you can.  The wound doesn't look near as bad as it did.  The scoop is filling in and I think it will be fine.  I already had a post-op check up with the doc and he said everything is looking just fine.  That's a relief.

Post-surgery, but before I woke up.

What we got to watch while we were waiting.

Just making sure that I am the actual person whose name appears on the bracelet - both of them.

Shout out to mi madre for coming down and supporting me.

Getting checked in...

Two days after surgery, this is what my leg looked like.

Recuperating and watching the 5 hour Pride & Prejudice.

The wound after taking the bandages off.

This should have come before the previous picture in order to build up suspense.

The love of my life and my caretaker through all of this, Ryan.

First day reflections

Today was the first day back at school.  Wow.  It's going to be a difficult year.  3 of my 4 classes are very full.  I felt weak today at the end of the day.  I likened it to the first day after practice or conditioning for a sport - my body was so out of whack.  Ryan and I go to the gym in the morning and I'm so glad we do because I simply have no desire to go later in the day.  Ryan was so sweet too.  He put a little "good luck/I'll be praying for you" card in my bag last night and I didn't find it until after the school day.  He made me dinner tonight and let me veg and listened to me go on and on about my students.  What a great man.  I do love him.

I will be having my surgery next Wednesday.  I met the doc last week and it should be a fairly low risk operation.  I'm gonna have a nice 7-8 inch scar on my leg.  I will be out of school for about 3 days and I'm not too happy about leaving my new kids with a sub for that long.  Ryan, the trooper, is going to be with me at the med center that day and i'm sure we'll get plenty of documentation.  Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts.

Picturama

Trying to get caught up on the semi-recent pictures.  Enjoy!

Rivercats game.  Grass seats are terrific!

I love when Ryan does these cool color pictures.

Love this guy!  

We were at Target and found these little workbooks for a soon-to-be-married couple.  How well do you know your bride/groom?  We pulled some banana chairs off the shelf, sat down, and tried to figure out how well we knew each other.

Doing, I mean, playing speed.  We were both a little rusty.

Outside of the Sacramento Music Circus.  We saw "The Sound of Music."  It was so cool.

Free Slurpee Day at 7-11

Doing the TA! with Daffy and Bugs at Magic Mountain.

Lara's baby Kira doing her Marla Hooch face.

Ryan showing off his domestic cookie making skills.

We found hideous, yet patriotic, clothes at D.I. and decided to wear them for the July 4th party at Arf's.  What this picture doesn't show is the skirt I made.  It was the cute part of the outfit.

The hot, sexy, power couple.

Kiss the cook!  OK!

News

In the words of one Arnold "Governator" Schwarzenegger: "It's not a tumor."  Ok, well it is actually.  In the past week I've received two pieces of news, both that were very surprising.

I've had a bump on my leg for the last 4 years or so.  If you're a close friend or family member, you know where it is and what it feels like - kind of creepy.  I'd asked doctors about it in the past only to receive an, "Oh, it's probably nothing.  If it's not bothering you, then i wouldn't worry about it."  Nice advice from the medical profession.  The weird thing about this bump is that while it is hard to the touch, it's warm.  It doesn't hurt, doesn't have funky coloring, but it's warm.  So a little over a month ago Ryan and I went to a skin cancer screening.  I had a mole on my foot that looked a little questionable and that's mainly what I was concerned about.  As the doctor was giving me the once over, she saw the bump on my leg and axed about it.  I told her I had no clue what it was and that previous doctors had said to not worry about it.  She seemed intrigued by it, poked and prodded at it, and then suggested that I come back in 1) to get the questionable mole removed and 2) to get samples of the bump so we could figure out what it was.  So last Thursday I got a call from her informing me that it is a tumor and that it is cancerous.  She said to not freak out, but once you hear the c-word, it's hard not to.  I didn't really freak out, but it did sit on my mind for awhile.  She called the next day and gave me more info on it, telling me that it's a rare type of tumor.  Oh great!  Having something "rare" is not what anybody really wants.  She said the common name for it was Evan's Tumor.  Try googling that.  Not much will come up.  That's how rare it is.  She proceeded to inform me that once they're removed they have a low recurrence rate and that they generally don't spread.  She also told me that she was kind of passing the torch onto a doctor at a medical center - someone that had a bit more exposure to "those" types of cancer.  I would much rather have someone that knew more about this, so I was totally fine with being passed on.  I'll go in next week for a consultation and hopefully have surgery not long after to get it removed.  While it shouldn't be a big deal, prayers would be appreciated.

The other news, not so monumental, is that I'll be teaching juniors this year instead of freshmen.  I found this out yesterday.  I had been excited to teach little freshmen again especially since I'd be able to recycle a lot of the material I'd gathered last year.  I've heard a lot of maturation (that's kind of a weird word when you say it outloud) goes on in between the sophomore and junior year - we'll see if that's true.  I'm excited for the challenge and look forward to having a bit older group.  I do have to start over with material and curriculum, but all should be well.  

I have a lot of pictures I want to put up, but I don't have the time right now.  Please check back soon.

Summertime fun

Long naps in the afternoon = late nights.  I took a rather long nap earlier today and while I was still somewhat tired afterwards, I certainly didn't think I'd be up until after 2:oo and blogging.  Truth is I just caught up on reading others' blogs and felt the need to update ours.  It's been an enjoyable summer and I'm sad to see it coming to a close.  Yes, I realize it's not even mid-July yet, but I have one more week of doing nothing school related.  I have inservice beginning on the 23rd and then we start up again on the 4th.  I got bored enough, about 3 weeks into vacation, that I decided to go work somewhere.  I was also spending too much money and figured that getting a job would not only keep me from spending money, but would actually give me money.  So, I went back to the office where I worked before I began teaching.  Being there for 3 weeks helped me to realize why I left it in the first place.  This past friday was my last day (not as festivious as my first last day) and I could feel my brain starting to turn to mush again.  It made me grateful for my freshmen.

Any-hoo, the pictures below highlight a couple of things Ryan and I have done this summer.  At the end of June I had a mole removed from my foot (seriously thought about posting the pictures of my stitches) and had a sampling taken from a mysterious bump on my leg.  Lucky for me they were on the same appendage.  Otherwise it could have made for some seriously funny gait issues.  Results of the bump have yet to come in.  Having surgery (yes, I know mole removal is not really surgery, but you should have seen how she cut into my foot - I had 9 stitches!) on one's foot and leg makes it nearly impossible to get around comfortably and gimp-less.  Sitting on a couch does me no good.  It's nice at first that I have that time to sit there and read, but after an hour or two, I feel the need to be doing something else.  So, due in part to my cabin fever, we decided to take a trip - a road trip.  We went to a farmer's market that Saturday morning and bought ingredients for salsa (this was after the tomato scare).  We chopped up some salsa, grabbed a few other items (catch phrase in the car is a lot of fun), filled up the tank and headed up I-5.  We decided that we would stop if we saw something interesting or got tired or hungry or both.  We thought we'd be getting away from the smoky skies we'd been having, but we just drove into more of it.  We stopped in Orland (known for their olives) for a little break and olive tasting.  Later on we stopped in Willows for lunch.  We'd brought a picnic and wanted to find a nice park to stop at.  Couldn't find one so we found a church instead.  They're always nicely taken care of.  We both really liked the feel of Willows.  It's a cute little town and has some colorful locals.

Here's us enjoying our picnic.

After the stop in Willows, we continued on our way up I-5.  We decided to go to Redding.  My best friend's mom lives in Redding and I hadn't seen her in years.  I had a phone number for her and called.  The machine was a generic, "No one is here to take your call right now."  I didn't even know if that number was still good.  I did know that she worked at Lowe's and that if she wasn't there, I might be able to get some info on her.  We finally found the Lowe's, despite a local's wrong directions and proceeded to the kitchen creating section.  Lucky for me I knew which department she worked in. Lowe (ha ha) and behold, she was there.  She looked at me for a good 10 seconds before she realized who it was.  She had a client there at the time, but we made arrangements to meet up later for dinner.  Ryan and I went to the movies and saw Wall*e.  It was so cute.  And check this link out for something interesting on it.  Apparently this movie has been on Pixar's mind for over a decade.  The popcorn we got at that movie was some of the best movie popcorn we've ever had.  Meeting up with Mama Fiack was a lot of fun.  We were able to fix a broken souvenir of hers and eat lots of yummy watermelon.  We barely stayed awake for the drive home.  

I saw this leaf on the way in to work and thought it looked cool.

We also "enjoyed" a trip to the beach with the fam.  My brother Aaron came out from Texas for a visit and so he and Ryan finally got to meet.  He was the last family member Ryan had to meet.  Now, I use the term "enjoy" loosely because, well, I don't know how well it really was enjoyed.  As with almost every trip we take to the beach (we go to the same place every summer), we forget how much colder it is on the coast.  The wind whipped us around and as you can see Ryan is wrapped in a towel above.  Two seconds before this picture, I had two towels and a blanket wrapped around me.  The water was nowhere near an enjoyable temperature.  Why do we subject ourselves to this year in and year out?  It did warm up a little bit later and  I think almost everyone came home a little bit pinker than they arrived.  My foot surgery was still tender and not only did I have to quasi-hobble around on it, I had to be careful about sand getting in it.  I couldn't run and play as I am wont to do on the beach.  Ryan and I were able to take a long walk down the beach and I still feel bad that he didn't get to climb the ridge like he wanted to.

It has been a good summer so far.  Ryan and I have had a lot of laughs and a lot of memories.  He is so wonderful.  We have a fun trip planned for this coming week, but I'll keep you in suspense (and to actually make sure it happens) before I tell you about it.  No updates on a wedding date, but stay tuned.