I'm not dead yet!

So I must be getting stronger!

Life is so out of whack today, I'm blogging for therapy between batches of chocolate chip cookies.

Where shall I start? It's not good to be in our family this week. It all started Saturday morning with my brother Chris called to let us know that his place of work burned down and he was suddenly jobless. He purchased his first house last March, so he was quite shocked and panicked. So we started praying for him right away. Then on Sunday, my mom called before we left for Sunday School (yes, in fact, we were late) to let me know that my aunt Sandy from Illinois was diagnosed with four brain tumors. The doctors thought they were likely malignant. She's married to my Uncle Bob (mom's brother) who has been fighting cancer for almost two years now. He's finishing up his last chemotherapy session at the end of the month. So she went for a CT scan on Sunday and he went for one on Monday. Talk about a bad situation.

Monday nothing bad happened. Tuesday we find out that Eric's employer (Verizon) will not longer be offering pension benefits. He apparently gets to keep what he's earned so far, but we're not sure of much just yet. So we're going to be put to the screws pretty hard in about 20 or 30 years, thanks to money-hungry management. How nice. I cried. Then I got over it and figured God will take care of us whether we have plenty of money or not.

Wednesday, my step-Dad was taken to the hospital with upper-GI bleeding. Come to find out his heart is only ejecting at 15%. That's not good at all and they had to put him on coagulants to stop the bleeding, so that stressed his heart even more.

Thursday we found out that the doctors are saying my Aunt Sandy has probably less than six months remaining. So my other aunt (Marlene) and my Grandma are going up to Illinois to spend Christmas with that part of the family. My mom may go, too. I'm pretty sure this would be the first Christmas I'd spend without seeing my mother, but I'm perfectly fine with that. At this point, a lot of her decsion depends on how well Chuck is doing. She's praying about it. I'm praying that she has peace with her decision because it's a very tough call.

This morning (Friday) Eric took our mouse Henry to the vet. Spent $150 to get all the medicine necessary to fix the darn thing. And has to take him back in two weeks for another $30 shot to rid him of this mites that are causing him to scratch holes in his skin. How lovely. Mind you, we don't have money to spend on this mouse, so Eric has donated money out of his 'New Bike Fund' which makes me very sad, but it's necessary at this point. I'm hoping to be able to reimburse his fund when he gets his bonus in April. I will never again take in a 'free' pet.

I like the fish better, but our red betta (actually, Ethan's red betta) was found deceased this morning. We told him (Ethan) last night that Tooey (the fish) wasn't long for this world. He accepted it pretty well. He didn't notice before he went to school, and we didn't tell him, that he had actually died in the night.

So anyway, the good news is that my batch of cookies are turning out beautifully this morning and the bad news is that Seth just noticed that I'm making chocolate chip cookies, so I need to sign off and go guard my goods.

Thanks for being interested enough to read this entire entry. I feel like the Grinch, but the truth is that Jesus is still the Reason for the Season and, as my Grandma Reese always says, this too shall pass.

PS: Happy Birthday (tomorrow) to my seminary friend, Gil!