a very dear friend of mine found out a couple of weeks ago that he has lymphoma. they found it in his abdomen and say that it has already spread to many lymph nodes around the body. he will be going wednesday for further tests to try to determine a prognosis and course of treatment. it was all i could do to keep it together on the phone with him last night and as soon as I hung up I started bawling. i cried a lot last night because I just can’t stand the thought of anything happening to my friend. I told him he needs to come down and spend some time at the beach before they start chemo or anything. I’m worried, folks, but I am praying that they are able to get him into remission and i’ll get to have many, many more conversations with my
friend.

we also got an update on hs’s son yesterday. the surgery went well on wednesday. he is breathing on his own again and he can flex his arm up towards his body but he cannot straighten it back out yet. apparently, the same nerves that control that extension action also control many
leg movements. he also cannot move his fingers yet. hs is dealing but said that his son isn’t talking much and it doesn’t seem like it’s really hit him yet. they will be flying him back to atlanta monday to a spinal rehabilitation facility. with any hope, he will be able to regain many movements.

it took forever, but we finally made it. we’ve been hanging out at the cousin’s cabin playing pool, talking, relaxing, and most importantly cooling off. it’s bloody hot out there, folks! our car started
overheating while sitting in traffic in town. it’s definitely pretty here (in the mountains) but the general area is far too crowded and touristy for my likes. last time we were here was new year of the millienia. it’s even worse now than it was then. i’m much more of a spend the holidays close to home kind of girl, myself.

got up at 05:13 (well, i've been awake since 02:37). are we there yet?

and i've been soaking it up this morning. of course my poor husband has
been working feverishly all morning to conslidate all of our junk into
one storage building. a task we've been meaning to complete for months
now. he did it too. i tell ya, if there was an olympic event for
packing a lot of stuff into small spaces, my terrifically talented
hubby would win the good hands down! i've been lazily laying around.
i didn't sleep very well because i was so angry at hubby for trying to
get himself killed by a whale in my dream last night. hey, i never
said i was without issues.

we've made it to wedowee so we are officially no longer responsible for
teenage girls. woohoooo! tomorrow we'll spend a little time visiting
gma h and rearranging our storage building. friday, we'll be heading
to tn for a big family weekend (didn't we just do that?). did i
mention that we're teenager-free.

wherefore does the weekend fly by so quickly?  it was a relatively nice weekend.  we did the cinema under the stars friday night and had a good time.  saturday i got to sleep in a bit and then hold down the couch for a little while watching tv while we waited for the girls to wake up so i could start breakfast (14:00!).  after breakfast (lunch/early dinner), we watched randal’s favorite movie with the girls, went to the pool/hot tub, had a yummy dinner, and unlocked some more songs on rock band.  sunday, we dragged the girls out of bed before noon (actually, we had them fed and out of the house before noon).  it was a good rainy day for shopping so we did just that.  we stopped at several boat stores looking for kayaks.  we also stopped at several clothing stores so the girls could shop.  we ended up at the dollar theatre in town for a movie about baby mama drama (i was highly amused on my bro-n-law’s behalf since he never heard of baby mamas until he changed professions and had the opportunity to employ young men that bring their baby mama drama to work).  after a very long day of shopping/movieing, we stopped for dinner and then took the girls cruisin’ up and down the strip so they could yell out the car windows at boys.  i think that was their favorite activity yet.  we got home just in time for bedtime.  this morning, i’m feeling pretty awful.  i’m sinussy and sick at my stomach.  and, there was a release sent out this weekend so work is full of fallout.  is it friday yet?  ooh, wait… wednesday’s our last day this week! 

it had to happen sometime, right? don’t think that this will change things. i’ll still have nothing interesting to say, it’ll just look more interesting around here while i bore you. i did take the time to go back and post all of my rants from 2008. not sure if i’ll bother to go back to previous years. we’ll just see how it goes from here.

why do i always put things off until it’s too late? we finally found a comforter set for the bunk room that we can agree on and we both like very much. i gave it a few days to look back a few times and make sure that i still liked it. this morning, i went to buy it and they only have twin and king sizes now. aaargh! any chance that i’ll look back in the next few days and the full size will be back again? yeh, i doubt it. stupid, stupid, stupid me. such is life, right? on a brighter note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNY! i’m looking forward to celebrating with her and her friends/family tonight.

last night turned out to be somewhat of a bust again. we decided to just try walking to some of the closer places but were disappointed to find most of them closed. on the way back we ended up stopping at the place two doors down that we don’t enjoy eating at but never tried the nightlife before. it wasn’t great but it is close so i’m sure we’ll go back again sometime. i had thought about trying to find a church service to go to this morning but as i crawled into bed sometime in the 3 o’clock hour, i knew that wasn’t happening. surprisingly, my husband’s goal was to buy some tvs today. in the mid-afternoon, we made our way to town towards that end. we discovered, however, that everything is closed on easter. who’d’ve thunk? the mall was closed. well except for sears (big surprise) which we did go ahead and look through but there is no way in hades that i will ever give that store another penny of my money! (sears SUCKS!!!) walmart was closed. so odd. but luckily the walmart near the beach was open so we were able to get food for me since my husband is taking the car and taking off for the week, leaving me alone and stranded.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIS-N-LAW!!! if i recall correctly, they should have had a great weekend at a music festival in ft lauderdale over the weekend. we, too, had a great weekend. our spring breaking on friday was a great success. it was the most fun i’ve had at our favorite little club yet. we managed to stay out until 0300 and never sat down the whole night. yep, that’s right folks, i danced the night away. inexplicable, i know. alright, so it wasn’t so much dancing as jumping and head-banging and shouting along with the music. it was an awesome time. i even got hit on (and my husband got congratulated – yay self-esteem boost!!!). there was, of course, a price to be paid for all of that being young and partying. saturday was very much a hold down the couch kind of day. although we did drag ourselves out long enough to sit in the hot tub a bit. we had actually planned on going back for a second night but we were just too wiped (alright, we’re old but at least we can muster up the strength to play young once in a while!) sunday was slightly more productive with grocerying and hot tubbing. it was really just a great weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD and BRIAN!!! aside from calling and assaulting dad with my singing, i’m done with this week. just make it go away, okay?