Book of Mormon comes to Broadway

So, apparently the Book of Mormon is coming to Broadway. And who better to write and direct it than the creators of South Park? (Who also made the movie Orgasmo about a Mormon recruited to act in porn movies.) When my Dad emailed me the post, I at first thought, oh, how strange, they decided to turn The Work and The Glory into a Broadway musical. Nope. Not quite sure how I feel about this- mostly just that it's really bizarre. Here is the link: http://broadwayworld.com/article/Plot_Details_Revealed_for_BOOK_OF_MORMON_Dahmer_Cameo_More_20110120

I'm still here!

Family photo in Yachats, OR, Aug 2010

Madelynn playing Just Dance 2 with Daddy and Uncle Daniel

Madelynn's 2nd birthday. Look at Daddy's pink eye!

Madelynn with Grandma and Grandpa on her 2nd birthday

Wow, I didn't realize that it had been that long since I wrote my last blog post. And I'm still trying to figure out how this whole blog thing works anyway (obviously, I haven't been trying very hard.)

So, where do I begin... since the last post, quite a few things have happened. The biggest one is that Madelynn is going to be a big sister! I'm 10 1/2 weels and due August 13. And a couple weeks ago, I found out that another SLP I work with is due with her first 6 days after I am!

This time around, pregnancy has been much kinder to me. I didn't realize how difficult my pregnancy with Madelynn was until now. This pregnancy certainly hasn't been a walk in the park so far- I'm pretty much constantly nauseous (but have only thrown up once so far!) and I've had to use a fair amount of sick leave the past few weeks, but the severity of the nausea and being tired isn't quite as bad. The tired thing is probably because I'm already tired anyway working and chasing a 2 year old around, so I'm used to it! I'm inclined to think that this baby is a boy, but Nate thinks it's a girl, so I guess we'll see- we should find out some time in March, probably.

Madelynn turned two on January 3rd, and we had a small family party for her that evening. My dad was supposed to start another round of chemo that same day, and we weren't sure if he'd be able to make it over, but his white blood cell count was too low so it was postponed for another week. So, he was able to come over and spend time with Madelynn for her birthday. Madelynn had a great birthday, and had a lot of fun opening presents! This year was great, because she actually understood what was going on. She has been obsessed with birthdays- my dad and brother both had birthdays at the end of November and middle of December, so she knew all about what was going on when it was her turn to have a birthday! She loves singing the "Happy Birthday" song and now she thinks that cupcakes mean it's somebody's birthday. She'll go around saying "It's a happy birthday!"

We thought we had things nearly finalized with the short sale of the condo, but it fell through once the inspection revealed an insane amount of dry rot and termite damage underneath the place, which was also causing the deck to pull away from the house and the floorboards to warp. And, the drainspout was installed incorrectly, so water has just been pouring in under the building for who knows how long. I'm pretty upset about this- there's no way this just happened in the past 4 years since I bought the place, but my home inspection seemed to not mention it at all. I doubt the inspector even looked. I wouldn't have bought the place, either, if I had known about all of the problems. It's an HOA issue, so they're now going to have their hands full figuring out how to fix that, because it affects all of the units in the building. So now the place is pretty much unsellable. Hello, foreclosure. I guess I'll get to join that club soon. The one positive in this whole mess is that the place is only in my name since I bought it when I was single, so only my credit will be ruined and Nate's will be fine.

My dad's first course of chemo proved to be ineffective. After two months of chemotherapy every two weeks, a CT scan revealed that the cancer was still exactly where it had been before, and a couple spots were slightly larger. So, he's now on a new course of treatment, which has more severe side effects and generally isn't as effective for most people. I just keep hoping that the bad side effects he's having with the increased nausea, high blood pressure and hair loss also means that it's killing cancer cells, too. We commiserate together about our nausea and food aversions, and we both wear sea bands most of the time for our nausea. But it's definitely easier for me, because I know mine won't last for much longer and has an outcome that makes all of the ickiness worth it. With him, we don't know the outcome, so it's hard to be positive and feel that all of the side effects are worth it.

My cousin's 2 1/2 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer as well about a month ago. She's the youngest of 4, and her mother is expecting again in the summer. It's been a really big blow to the family, who has already been having a hard time dealing with my dad's diagnosis, and then to have this sweet, innocent little girl given such a terrible diagnosis as well has been pretty awful. She has neuroblastoma, and it's spread throughout her legs, hips and all the way to her face. It's neuroblastoma, which is a common form of childhood cancer, but right now, her odds are 50% and it is just so hard to be positive. She's only a few months older than Madelynn, and it just makes me sick to think of how much pain this little girl is having to go through and how hard this is for her parents and the rest of the family. Cancer is just one big mean ol' bastard that deserves to have the sh#* beat out of it. I picture it as this giant black blob with fangs and red eyes that I want to blast with a flame thrower.

I always hoped that I would be one of those people who got to go through life relatively unaffected by cancer or other terrible diseases, but have come to realize that this terrible disease is so much more prevalent than I ever imagined, and virtually everyone is going to be affected by it at some point during their lifetime. It's like the bubonic plague of our time.

Well I don't want to end this post on a depressing note, so I will add one more positive. Nate is planning on graduating this Spring, hurray! Nate is looking forward to being done with classes, and so am I! When you're a student, you never get a break, and he's been in school for a long time- he deserves to be able to come home and relax, rather than read and write papers and take mindless quizzes.