Day 17/100 For Richard and Some Other Stuff

Richard has, give or take, 83 days left in the acute phase of his stem cell transplant. Yes, he knew I was taking pictures of him. I thought you'd like to see for yourself how he's doing.

Here he is zoning out to get through another painful day.

Here he is trying to fall asleep.
Here his is zoning out AND trying to fall asleep.

Here's a close up of his radiation-encouraged-summer-freckles and his lovely eyebrows that are holding on for me. He even has some eyelashes still and little whisps of mustache and goatee.

Here's Richard and Norma (his mom). She's just heading back to the Island for the week or so on Sunday.

Richard and I.


Richard was actually feeling well enough to update his blog himself, and since I didn't see him today, I have no new information aside from what he's written himself, so I'll just let you head there to his blog.


Richard woke me at 3:50am with a phone call. Although I was reassured to see that the call display showed his cell phone number and NOT the hospital number, I was still a little freaked out. Evidently, one of his crazy nightmares got the best of him and there was no way he was going to be able to fall back asleep until he had talked to me and was sure I was okay. I guess he had a bad feeling.

He said, "Okay, but before I let you go, just verify for me that at no point in time has anything or anyone been sinking in our house."

I assured him there was no sinking. I went back to bed.

Let's analyse this dream too, shall we?

Sinking

To dream that you or something is sinking, suggests that you are feeling overwhelmed. Someone or something is pulling your down. You may be experiencing low self-esteem and confidence. Alternatively, the dream means that some important and significant stage in your life may be coming to an end. Consider what is sinking and its significance.

*Please see also Drowning.

Drowning
To dream that you are drowning, indicates that you are feeling overwhelmed by emotions. Repressed issues may be coming back to haunt you. You may be proceeding too quickly in trying to discover your unconscious thoughts. You should proceed more cautiously and slowly. If you drown to death, then is refers to an emotional rebirth. If your survive the drowning, then it means that a waking relationship or situation will ultimately survive the turmoil.�

To see someone drowning in your dream, suggests that you are becoming too deeply involved in something that is beyond your control. Alternatively, it represents a sense of loss in your own identity. You are unable to differentiate who you are anymore.

Hmmm, very interesting, Mr. Clark. VERY interesting. This all sounds pretty spot-on to me, considering the circumstances.

Hang tight, Richard. You'll be your old-self soon! And we'll all be here waiting for you!

It's quite possible that we will not visit Richard while out in Vancouver tomorrow, as AJ was quite stuffed up today, which I'm assuming is a cold.

Instead, I'll drop a couple things off with Dad to take into Richard when he has a chance. He wants the neck-pillow (maybe we can expect some more blog entries!) and some garbage bags for laundry.





The Boys and I


Just some night-time scootering at the skatepark with the boys after a long-day stuck indoors. Yes, it started to rain. The boys didn't care.




Tonight.

The boys and I went on a date. I was long overdue for one, and I hadn't planned a vegetable yet for tonight's gourmet meal of mac n' cheese and wienies.

So, we made a special stop after our errands in the late afternoon, running into dinnertime, to stop at one of my favourite sushi places to get edamame for the boys and some mixed veggie tempura for me. The boys were SO excited to get edamame. We haven't seen the edamame at Costco in ages, so they've been deprived for well over a month or two! I asked them if they wanted some rice too. Dexter was a pro at scooping the rice with the chopsticks. AJ didn't care for the plain sticky-rice very much.

But, as you can see from the picture with the bowl of empty edamame pods, they polished off every single one. Hoovered, really.



And how excited were they to be allowed, not only straight-up juice with no water, but a whole can each! You could hear them gulping it like it was a can of pop, which is not too far off...lol.

Totally explains why both of them are laying awake in bed right now at 9pm. Oopsies.

We were going to put up our Christmas tree tonight. We weren't going to decorate it, but just put up the tree.

The boys got wrapped up in the movie Robots while I was doing cat litter and taking a shower, so we all forgot. Oh well, maybe tomorrow night.




On Tuesday, I had Jen drop off her kids and a coffee for me, while she headed out to do a bit of shopping.

Everyone wanted to write on white-boards (hence the reason Makenna and Emerson are wearing some of the boys' t-shirts instead of their pretty WHITE shirts). They had a great time.


Jaxon wasn't interested, at first. He was just playing with cars and trains.

But then... he looked lonely while listening to their fun.
Awwwww.

I set him up with some Disney Cars colouring. He was good with that.



Today, I asked Erica to drop off Jack and Rya for a playdate while she did a little bit of shopping. I was just lazing around most of the day and AJ was begging for Jack to come over.

Do you think I remembered to take a picture? Nope. Almost. I was just about to when the phone rang and then, I totally forgot. But, the boys had a good time and Rya did too. She took Rya home shortly after Dexter went down for nap, and Jack and AJ continued with some Transformers and Lego fun. I think they were building their own transformers.



Thank yous -

AJ is sporting some very exciting new jammies from our friend, Rhonda. Rhonda (and her sister, Sherilyn) get a BIG thank you for a VERY thoughtful gift they put together with gift cards, jammies for AJ (whose limbs keep growing a mile a minute), and hoodies for the boys (matching, of course). I really don't know what to say, girls, but THANK YOU.

Norma - Another thank you to you for watching over Richard for all of us (and doing his laundry). Thanks also for the Starbucks continuation and AJ's gift. I love that you understand the importance of the Americano routine, Miss-iced-capp-and-a-muffin.
Have a safe trip to the Island, hug Bud and everyone else for us, and see you in a week!

Mom - Thanks for taking the boys Wednesday night and Thursday night so I could stay overnight with Richard for all of Thursday and much of Friday! That was awesome! The boys had a blast and asked many times on the drive home if they could go back.

Kim - Thanks for taking the boys out there and for repeatedly installing and uninstalling car seats every week. You are a pro. Thank for the coffee too.

Brocky and Pauly - Thanks for wearing the boys out! They had BIG fun with you!

Gramma Reberger (my dad's mom) - Thanks for the beautiful card and generous gift. What a great help at Christmastime. Thinking of you often, Gramma.

Dad - Thanks for the fun bit of Christmas shopping and of course, driving me back and forth to the hospital! And, thanks for driving us back and forth to the skateboarding lesson tomorrow!