Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 14

Friday Five

TGIF!! I, for one, am glad it’s Friday and this week is over. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Now let’s get to sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

The diet and tests are over! Hence my joy at the week being over What I’ve seen so far of the results is good, but I can’t tell if I’m still a candidate for one more treatment. There was one uptake spot in my neck, that I don’t understand enough to know if I’ll need more treatment. That’s going to be something we’ll decide with my doctor at an appointment at the end of the month. But the great news is there’s no evidence of metastasis and that’s everything at this point. Wednesday night, we celebrated by going out to dinner. Now for two things that stood out during the whole experience. #1) When I took the tracer pill 24 hours before the scan — inside the radiation area of the hospital — I was not allowed to TOUCH the pill. I had to use the small vessel to pour it in my mouth then swallow it with lots of water in cups lined up on the table. And I’m like, okay, I won’t touch it but I’m SWALLOWING it. It was a weird feeling.  And for #2)  When the scan was done, we got good news that I won’t need a CT scan which is a hint that things are good. If they look bad, they would have sent us over to the CT scanner in another part of the hospital. We were thrilled and left — making it all the way to the elevator to leave, when the nurse caught us and we had to go back. They’d found a spot on my hip. Our hearts sank, hard. But they quickly rescanned it, and it was fine. Whew, we were relieved and this time, we hustled to the elevators before they could burst our happy bubble again On Tuesday between the morning and afternoon appointments, I visited my granddaughter who was quite chatty. She’s really learning to make noises and mouth movements in response to our talking to her. She’s cute and was the perfect break in an otherwise very long day. Here’s a pic of her talking to me:I took Maggie to the vet yesterday for a couple shots. The vet tech told me not to worry, she and Maggie were friends. I was amazed to see that she got Maggie to go with her almost willingly. So yep, they’re friends! Even after two shots and some invasive exams. Sadly, we were there when a family brought in a dog who had passed. The entire office went quiet and respectful, trying very hard to not interfere in that family’s clear and painful grief. While it was sad, at least people tried to not make it any worse. It’s good to see people come together in quiet support that way.One of the days I was gone, my handbag arrived. I love it. It’s silly but this is my present to myself. Here’s a pic:

This weekend, I may do some catchup stuff on the house and see if I can find a wallet for the new bag. I may have one here, or I’ll get one (cheap, LOL). I know I’m not seeing either grandchild, while the radiation in the tracer pill I took was low, I’m still going to wait through the weekend to be 100% sure before I see either kid. It’s overkill, but I’m fine with that.

That’s my five, now I’d really love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Quick Story

So a quick story time. I went in yesterday for my shot, and was chatting with the young, nice and cute nurse while she prepped the shot. I’d mentioned I was going to hang with my 7 week old granddaughter between appointments. In that conversation, I learned that she didn’t have her own kids, but she’d been a nanny for years since she was 13. I don’t know all her history of why she was working at 13, but here’s the kicker for me: Her last family had five (5!) kids with a set of newborn twins! She did overnight work, so she got the whole experience of taking care of twin newborns + three siblings.

And then she became an RN.

Of course, all I could think was she needs to be a heroine in a romance. Also, she was a really nice nurse who made the awkward experience of getting shots in my backside bearable, so I might just really like her for that

How’s your day going?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The post Quick Story first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

It was a good weekend, and I like those. However I think my energy is rude for being lazy and having trouble keeping up with my life Seriously, my energy is probably normal for where I am after a couple heath things, it’s my goals that are a bit aggressive most days. So that’s on me.

Saturday, we went to the engagement party. It’s always nice to see family! Wizard’s mom and her husband came and that’s very rare. They are mid nineties, but I gotta say that physically, Wizard’s mom is a marvel. She moves slower but still moving quite well. She’s forgetful now, but she’s always been social, and she kept wandering off talking to random people and panicking the rest of us when we thought we lost her. But she was fine, just mingling. The party was great. We left after a couple hours to take Wizard’s mom home and that honestly worked out well for us. My niece is actually getting married in January in a location out of the country so this was a nice event for those of us who can’t go. My niece is also currently living in Australia practicing law. She and her hubby  (also a lawyer) will be moving back to the states in a few months.

Going the the engagement party meant I missed out on Legoland with Turbo. I can’t decide if I’m sad about that or I got lucky! But I get to spend time with him on a weekend trip in a couple weeks, so it’s all good.

Sunday, Wizard went racing and I did roughly 100 things before leaving at 11 to help with my granddaughter while her parents unpacked from camping and gave the dogs a bath. The trip went well for them. So my granddaughter is 7 weeks today and already been camping! Well more like glamping since they have a huge  and very well equipped 5th wheel. Youngest son stayed a night at the campsite and also hogged, um I mean helped, with the baby. He even got up early and fed her so mom and dad could pack up to leave. But I did hear stories about him hogging her

I had a great time with the baby, and her parents. They were mostly busy. Man, that baby was was so tiny at birth is growing daily.  It’s normal but a marvel to watch. And my daughter in law is fine with my coming over Tuesday between my 10 am and 2:45 pm appointment. The two different locations I have appointments in are reasonably close to her and makes my life easier. I appreciate that! And I’m getting extra time in with the baby as I’m taking the tracer pill at the later appointment, and will avoid both grandkids until after weekend as a precaution.

This will be a crazy week, so Wednesday’s post may be late. I can’t even predict, LOL. But it’s almost done and I’m very happy about that.

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! Another week flew by and Halloween is next week!

I tried to get organized this week and messaged the family about Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’re making progress on getting that sorted out. T-day is at my house this year. And it’s still hot here — someone needs to inform Mother Nature it’s time to let go of summer weather and embrace fall!So…I saved all my change for two years. Finally I rolled it all up, took it to the bank and planned to do something practical with it — like buy clothes or things I needed. What I did…ordered a handbag from the Coach Outlet (I’d never pay full price for those!). This is all one of my daughter in law’s fault — she had a really cute Coach bag and that got me trolling the Coach outlet site, and here we are with me waiting for them to ship that bag to me and hoping I love it. For the record, Wizard encouraged this wanton financial behavior.  And I still don’t have any “nice” clothes for events. Do I care? Snort. Maybe a little, but the new handbag is more fun. It’ll fit and it won’t make me look fat.  By the way, I didn’t have a plan to save change for something special — I just kept dumping change in a cup in my nightstand to keep my wallet more manageable until I got around to rolling it up. But let’s all pretend I had plan, okay?I’m having trouble with my pain in legs. This is so freaking annoying. I will mention it to my doctor someday — when I’m done trying to fix it with the power of my mind Next week will be…interesting. Monday I go get a shot. This shot may make me sick, or not. Who knows. But in case it doesn’t make me sick on Monday, we get to test it again on Tuesday morning and do a second shot. Because I’m like a science experiment now Oh wait, I’m a Traveling Science Experiment because this will involve 100’s of miles of driving over 3 days! Then four to five hours later on that same Tuesday afternoon, I go to the Nuclear Vault (okay, some people call it Nuclear Medicine, but whatever) and take a tracer pill so the government can track me. No wait, that was a movie. This pill will spend 24 hours lighting up any rogue cells, so that on Wednesday the government doctors can find them in a full body iodine scan.  And then Thursday I’m free!! After that, it’s just another blood test and a doctor visit in which I shall learn that I’m a boring specimen with no rogue cells, and therefore freed to go live my boring life. Yay! I can’t wait!And this weekend, we have an engagement party for my niece (for which I have no appropriate clothes as mentioned in #2). That’ll be great to see everyone.  My food restrictions for the iodine scan could be a bit awkward, mostly because I don’t want to suck the life out of the room by talking about my health. But most people know what’s been happening, and I really think the focus will be on my niece and her fiancé, so it should be fine. Then Sunday, Wizard is racing, and I may go help with my granddaughter in the afternoon. They aren’t sure yet if they’ll need me and I’m willing to be on call since I’ll otherwise just be doing chores and boring stuff.

That’s it for me. Now I’d love to hear your five! I hope everyone has a great weekend.

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Reading and Recipes

I finally finished a hardback I bought called “Ultra-Processed People” by Chris van Tulleken, who is an Infectious Disease Doctor in the U.K.. But for me, this bestselling book in food science wasn’t what I hoped it would be. I do like his message in general, but I don’t like the helplessness, and I found the book tedious at times. But other people love it, and I’m happy for them.

Then I listened to “The Boyfriend” by Frieda McFadden. It’s  a mystery where I actually rooted for the heroine to die, LOL! I liked the mystery quite a lot, but the heroine and her constant harping about finding the right guy while dating all the wrong guys had me been plotting the ways the real killer might unalive her. But nope, she lived. Still I did enjoy trying to figure out who the killer was! I do like this author.

And now I’m listening to “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune and loving it so far!

Up next is another hardback I bought, “That Will Never Work” by Marc Randolf about the birth of Netflix. I’m looking forward to reading it.

And on recipes, I tried a Lemon Herb Grilled Chicken for company this weekend to accompany a Tri Tip I also made. I loved this recipe and so did my son. Also it had flavor! That’s been missing from my life on this two week low iodine diet (and yet, I somehow manage to eat a ton of food because I’m committed to eating, LOL). I’d happily make that chicken again. My only change was that I added the zest of the lemon to the marinaded, and I marinaded it all day while the recipe says no longer than two hours.

What are you reading and any fun recipes you want to share?

The post Reading and Recipes first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

It was a long but good weekend. I did a ton of cooking and running around getting ready to have oldest, Special K and Turbo over Sunday. Once they were here, we had fun! Turbo was so good. I can’t believe how tall he’s getting. He’s growing up so fast. It was nice to just spend some time with Oldest and family. Special K took some of her cake home, which makes me happy.

I’m tired Sunday night as I’m writing this, so this is the shortest roundup in history

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! Here I am, once again, surprised it’s Friday already. And we all know what that means — time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

I have no idea what I did on Monday or Tuesday, but it was nothing fun.Wednesday I hung out with Daughter in law and Baby Girl. That was so fun. We took the dogs and the baby for a walk, and the rest of the time, I held her or fed her, and daughter in law and I talked (when she wasn’t getting other things done). It was fun for me to get away and out of my own head. Then when I got home, Wizard had finished fixing the water lines in the front planter and planting flowers in the whiskey barrels. I wanted to choose the flowers but I really appreciate him doing all the work. I’m actually amazed — he does all this while dealing with some physical challenges. He just learns to work around them, and go at a slower pace. I love that kind of determination!Yesterday I cleaned and cooked. I was exhausted. And then Maggie threw up on my clean floors. How do animals do that? I mean she could have done it BEFORE I washed the floor, right? She seemed fine after that, but of course, I’ll keep an eye on her. The throwing up in the middle of the day is weird, but she’d been obsessed by something out in the back yard, so I’m guessing she ate something she shouldn’t have. Then got rid of it on my clean floor Today I’m getting my hair cut and colored by someone new to me. My regular hair person is out recovering from surgery. I’ve wanted to change the color forever but keeping running into delays for months now. But then again, I’m probably chicken to do it   Yeah, I think that might be it!This weekend, Oldest, Special K and Turbo are coming out for dinner. I’m making a dinner of probably tri tip and chicken that I can eat. The dessert is Special K’s choice (lemon cake!) and I’m fine with not being able to eat that. The important thing is being with family and celebrating Special K!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Wednesday’s Agenda

Today I’m going to see this little beauty:

The Grandma Life is tough. Full of homemade cookies for grandson and his team and watching him get some great hits, and playing with adorable babies. Hey, someone’s gotta do that hard work, right?

I do get to spend three hours on the freeways too, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay to hang with my daughter in law and grandbaby!

What’s on Wednesday’s Agenda for you?

The post Wednesday’s Agenda first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

The weekend felt like a whirlwind, but it was a good one overall.

Friday morning, I walked Maggie, got home and found a new mosquito bite — on my face! Oh yay. I began icing it to try and prevent it from turning into the lobster red boils covering my legs from mosquito bites. For some reason, it’s worked better on my face than it has my legs, so I’ll take that win! After doing my best to tone down the redness and swelling with my limited makeup skills, I headed to my neck ultrasound 50 miles away. That’s four freeways, two of which are notorious for traffic. I left two hours before the appointment and got there an hour early. Oops. I found easy parking, went in and confessed I was there an hour early. After some good natured teasing from the receptionist, she signed me in and I sat down to wait. I had time to send a text off to my sister, then got called in. I was shocked! They technician saw I was there early and decided to do my scan before she went on her lunch break. I was out of there by 11:25 and my actual appointment was 11:45. I don’t know the results and probably won’t for a while. But nice to get that done so quick and easy.

Then I got home, ate, and finally got a call from the nuclear medicine nurse to schedule my full body scan. Great — except I found out that I have to go on the low iodine diet for two weeks before the scan. Sigh…I’ll do my best but I’m going to feel sorry for myself now and again I can, however, have coffee and red wine so it’s not all bad. I can be a caffeinated drunk, as long as I don’t have any iodized salt (which is in everything), dairy, soy products (also in a startling amount of products), or you know, food. Okay now I am exaggerating. I can eat some foods like raw nuts, seeds, a few fruits and veggies, egg whites and a very limited amount of meat and unsalted grains. See why I’m gonna need coffee and wine?

And at the end of the two weeks…I’ll be doing three days of 100 mile round trips for a set of two shots, a radioactive tracer pill that I have to take in a nuclear medicine pod at UCI or maybe just in front of a nurse? I don’t know. But since I’m doing this the week of Halloween, maybe I’ll glow brighter than any pumpkin! Anyway, the following day I go back and have a scan that will make the TSA envious. The idea is that any cells that escaped my surgeon’s scalpel will be detected — and possibly they’ll find that green gum I swallowed when I was seven.

Yes, I’m being a little silly with the descriptions, but I do take all this seriously. Both Wizard and I do which is why I’m doing a lot of work to get all this done.

Saturday, we did stuff. I made the chocolate chip and peanut butter M&M cookies for Turbo’s baseball team. My son doled them out (after checking with parents) after the game, and I saw a few extra hands grabbing cookies I made plenty. Better grandmas than me would have brought something healthy. And I could have, but Turbo and I planned these cookies on Facetime so that’s what I brought.

Sunday, we went to see Turbo’s game. Turbo hit three times, and made the winning run! The kids all had a fun. The other team made some great plays too. Youngest and his wife were there, and we all went out to a super early dinner afterwards. Before the game, Youngest and his wife hung out with Middle, his wife and Baby Girl. Oldest went by too. We resisted stopping by ourselves The aunts and uncles should get their time in. I’m pretty sure I should get a medal for that self control, LOL.

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF!! Whoa, Milton, was a doozy. Maybe a bit less than it’s full potential, but still…enough with the disasters! We need to have good news for awhile! Now let’s shift into sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

I’ve mostly stuck close to home this week and loved it. It’s not that I don’t want to see everyone and do things, but I think I needed the break I got a bunch of things done, but the prize goes to Wizard! He cleaned out the overgrown mess in our front planter — it took him a few hours– and now it looks so good with the new yard. He’s a rockstar to me this week!Today I’m trying to make homemade sourdough bread sticks. I followed the suggested timeline, but I think that was mistake as the starter was past it’s peak effectiveness when I used it according to the timeline. So the breadsticks may not rise enough and come soft and fluffy. But this is a practice run for the 20th when I’m making dinner for Special K’s birthday of Manicotti with homemade breadsticks, so I can fix any problems by then Wizard is pretty excited and hoping this batch is good enough for him to enjoy! Which he would definitely deserve after cleaning that planter our and I didn’t have to do it!I’ve been spending money this week, LOLOL! This is weird, maybe it’s a side effect of my thyroid meds? I’m joking, it’s more a side effect of I need stuff and put it off for so long, I have to buy it all now. So the first thing is a cordless stick vacuum. I ordered that on Monday and it’s not coming until sometime next week.  Then Amazon Prime Day got my attention I ordered a zip-up sweatshirt, a few long sleeved shirts for what passes as winter here and a small wallet. That was all necessity stuff and I didn’t actually spend much as the prices were cheap. But it felt like a lot after buying the vacuum.And yesterday…that’s the one that surprises me! I needed a better suitcase than the one the size of a clumsy unwieldy tank in the set we bought for Hawaii. Wizard is keeping the smaller suitcase and overnight bag from that set. So I’ve been searching for a few weeks for something for me. I ended up buying a London Fog 24 inch suitcase and the under the seat rolling overnight case. The cost was crazy to me!!! I’m in shock, but I also had 30% off, Kohls cash, a gift card and some extra cash I’d saved so it came out to something reasonable.  But still! I normally buy the cheapest thing I can. Wizard is happy that oversized suitcase bugged us both will be donated and out of our closet. Now can I pack less when I travel??? We will see when we go to Cambria in November with Oldest, Special K and Turbo!Today we are going back to UCI for a routine follow-up ultrasound for me. Wizard is insisting on driving me, which I don’t need but appreciate all the same. Saturday I think we’re staying home and I’ll clean. Sunday we are going to see Turbo play baseball then we’ll all get something to eat. Next week, I hope to get to see my grandbaby and maybe help her mom if I can. She’s a month old now (the baby, not her mom, LOL!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! Hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.