2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS

Anonymous

V- We will be with you on Friday. I am so glad they scheduled it right away.

dEBBIE, sorry about dh's truck, it's like 'when it rains, it pours.'

TracySeattle

Linda - I am so sorry about your sister. What a scary thing for her to be there alone and on the floor. It is good that you missed her and investigated where she was. You are all in my prayers....

Debbie & Deb - I am keeping my hair short too! Wow you two are at opposite extremes when it comes to guns, aren't you? Deb - it seems so strange to me that there would be guns everywhere. I think you are very brave. Debbie - I too wish that there were no guns. I have family who are hunters, but I really would rather that the whole gun thing would just go away....

Dave is a retired school administrator. He was telling me last night that after Columbine, they had a lot of seminars that taught them how to deal with situations that involved gunmen in the schools. He said that if you are in a confined space (like a library or cafeteria) and there is a gunman - you are much better to RUN away and try to get out than to get under a desk or table and stay still. A moving target is much harder to hit and you don't want to put yourself in a situation where the gunman can walk up to you and shoot. They also learned that a good thing to do in this type of situation is to RUSH the gunman. It is probable that one person might get shot, but multiple lives could be saved if you can get the gunman down.

I guess these are good things for us to hear and to know. I just pray that none of us or our families need to experience a situation of this kind first hand.....

Cindy & V - you are in my prayers..... (((hugs))) You are such strong women I know you are going to get thru this and be OK.

TracyNY

Bwaaahhh, Debbie!! Size zero?! Me?! I wouldn't wish that on anybody. Isn't zero nothing, zip, nada. I don't understand how people can aspire to that. Now give me a size 10 any day!! A little wiggle in the walk, that's the right stuff baby!!

To more serious matters, that massacre was terrible. I cannot imagine the depths of the sickness in the mind of a human being that would formulate such viciousness. All of those families devastated and for what? We can only pray for those who have lost their loved ones. It is so sad that they were not allowed to reach their full potential in life. Just awful.

ake

i'm so sick about what happened at tech. i was talking with my father-in-law last night and was saying that i would do college over in a second. and i realized it was because when i was at a college, in addition to having a blast with friends, taking my psych classes, i always felt so safe. like i said, i went to school about 2 hours from tech, and that whole area is just quiet, beautiful, in the moutains. we always felt so contained. and then things change on a dime and suddenly a place that was so safe is beyond violent and dangerous. it's so scary to me. i'm holding my breath and praying that when they release the names of the victims, i don't recognize anyone...there are sooo many people from this area and from where i grew up that go to tech for college. i'm nervous for work because i have some kids who graduated from tech or who are getting ready to go to college. it's disgusting. i hope we find out why this kid did this...we have to learn to prevent these things from ever happening again.

debbie444

I am sorry to hear about everyones family troubles. Please know that if i lived near i would be there in a shot to help. The brightness there is little Isaac, that is such good news.

Guns - well i have never had a run in there thankgoodness. The staff in our autism unit were scared today as one of the boys threatened that he would get them with his knife. They put him in soft play , checked his bag and found a flick knife !! By all accounts his parents knew he had it - an aunt had bought him it for Easter. Yeah right - great idea!!

cathy987

So much sad news today. I watched GMA this morning from Virginia and just the demeanor of Robin Roberts, Diane Sawyer and Chris Cuomo affected me in a profound way. Then they were talking about how important it is to keep our loved ones close to us because none of us know what’s around the corner in our lives. Then I remembered that yesterday was my oldest daughter’s birthday and though I thought about it once, completely forgot later and didn’t even call her. I will today!

Linda–I can’t imagine what you are going through with your sister and your friend. So glad you are able to come here for comfort. Happy to hear Isaac is doing so well. Grandchildren are special and can give us joy when we’re burdened with life’s issues. Has the rain affected your NY family?

Deb–so sorry your fil is facing this surgery but thank goodness he has agreed and your dh is able to help him

RoseMarie–I have to agree with Kelly, your way with words painted a light hearted picture of a very serious situation with your fil. Hope the family can find a way to help him. I loved the video of your friend. Would you please pm me with the info on the shoes.

Brenda–hope you find a solution to your fatigue. I still seem to have bouts with it too. Love the picture of your son. It’s a winner in so many ways.

Paula–Since it’s already tomorrow there and your probably sleeping just know that I have my fingers crossed that your congestion doesn’t delay your surgery.

Victoria–so glad that your surgery is scheduled without a big delay. I’ll be thinking of you and praying for you all week.

Cindy–here’s hoping for a surgery date soon It’s good that you find comfort here. These are the best friends ever.

Mary-Anne– I don’t think I ever shared my congratulations on your B9. Peanut Buster Parfait’s are the best way to celebrate!! (Debbie—no peanut butter in the DQ treat–just peanuts and lots of hot fudge) Your latest picture is truly beautiful. Right up there with your Mother/Daughter portrait.

Debbie–your dream is just too funny. Put me in the short hair group. My hair has been pretty short for years. Some day I’ll dig up a picture of me with long hair that will give you all a laugh.

Michelle-–I admire your participation in a support group. My pastor wants me to help start one here in our little community. I would really like to give it a try. Your retreat sounds like fun. Would like to know just what “bell dancing” is?

Kelly–no pressure here. Pictures? Of DD?
Guess what? Sun is shining, it’s warm in North Dakota. I’m deciding the sad day only has sad moments. Wishing you all good moments today.

Love you

Cathy

cathy987

TracyNY–your ability to put into words what we all are thinking when there’s something serious happening surpasses your ability to lighten up our lives here. Thank you.

Amy–Your perspective on this whole situation makes it more real than any newscast. Know that you are in my prayers as you wait for news.

Debbie– what a scary situation. How wonderful though that you are in a place where your staff can control the situation.

ake

in the midst of all this craziness, my best friend just delivered her first baby an hour ago she had a baby girl i had made a bet with my husband about the gender (no one knew) and i was convinced it would be a boy! my husband picked girl. whoever won the bet would get to plan an entire weekend. if it had been a boy, we would have gone to movies all weekend and eaten sushi all weekend and taken walks. but, nope. my best friend had a freakin' girl and now my husband is going to make me eat mexican food all weekend and play 2 rounds of golf on a saturday and then 2 rounds of golf on the sunday. that's 64 holes of golf!!! walking the course! after lots of mexican food!!! happy for my best friend, but not happy for what's to come!

debbie444

Amy , I am sure that you are going to be the best Aunty ever. Your character has shown through - I can tell just how happy for your friend you are from your post. Your time will come , i just know it. Just be careful what dog name you choose - my friend was desparate for a a baby. She lost 6 to miscarriage and bher husband bought here a puppy which she named Lucie as that was what she wanted to call her child. She lost two more children and had given up on having a baby and her husband bought her another puppy , which she called Pippa - the other baby name she had chosen. Now she is actually pregnant - with a baby girl ( due any day) and her dogs have the chosen names !!!!

ake

so funny don't worry....we're naming the dog "kelby"...it's arabic for "my dog"
pretty basic

thanks for your words, debbie...they mean a lot. it's hard sometimes with all my best friends having babies, but i know that when i want to be a parent, i will be able to have a child...regardless of the way it happens.

TracyNY

When I was younger my cousins next door had a cat that they named "My Cat". In English though, so there was nothing that cute about it!!

TracySeattle

OMG!!!! The American Cancer Society just called and asked me if I would be a Guest Speaker (Survivor) at their Making Strides Against Breast cancer Event on May 9th!!!

I am totally honored BUT SCARED TO DEATH!!!! What in the world am I going to talk about for 15 minutes???

I need to talk about my experience with how the American Cancer Society helps women through their treatment - Do any of you have any stories/experiences with the American Cancer Society and what they may have provided during treatment? Look Good - Feel Better? Reach to Recovery? Road to Recovery?

Anything? Help!!!

debbie444

Go Tracy, Go Tracy!!
You will be fantastic - whatever you talk about !

ravdeb

When I was in college we would name the stuffed animals we had on our beds. I named mine "dog", "cat", "elephant"... my friends were always laughing at me!

congratulations on your friend's new baby girl, Amy! That's great! I don't know..sounds like you have a fantastic weekend ahead of you! I love Mexican food and though i don't play golf, I'd do that if offered to me!!!

Amy...my friend the rabbi in VA just wrote to me and told me he has congregants in that area of the college and some students there. There is at least one person who knows a victim. They are having a healing service tomorrow night to talk about it. How horrible this is. Saddens me that this is happening. And, look what is happening in Iraq and in other places in the world.

I'm not brave. We have a political history here of violence in our area but I don't feel brave. It's a way of life for me already. And that is the sad part..we become immune to the fear of it all...

It shouldn't be that way...

Cathy..thanks. my father in law is feeling better but must be on rest mode. He may return home tomorrow. We have him scheduled for an appt with the top cardiac surgeon in the country..naturally where my cancer center is! I see a vascular specialist there as well, so I even know THAT area of the hospital.

Debbie..the story about the autistic boy with the knife...that is scary. I worked with autistic teens years back and they are not always so easy to handle..thank goodness the knife was found. Who gives an autistic person a knife??? I mean..who gives ANYONE a knife? I hate weapons of any kind. Wish they didn't exist but that will never happen.

ake

tracy....you go girl!!!! that's awesome you'll be fantastic.

bethny on these boards has spoken for the american cancer society and actually i think she works for them if you want to contact her. pm me if you want her email address.

Anonymous

TracySeattle, did you know that ACS will reimburse cancer patients for their transportation to and from chemo, onc visits and rads? Maximum reimbursement is $400 per year but $400 is $400.

MaryAnne, I forgot to tell you how BEAUTIFUL and ALIVE you look in your new photo!! I love it. YOu also look so HAPPY!

And Linny, glad Isaac is doing well!!

Anonymous

Quote:

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JERUSALEM - The e-mails from grateful students arrived soon after Liviu Librescu was shot to death, telling how the Holocaust survivor barricaded the doorway of his Virginia Tech classroom and saved their lives at the cost of his own.


Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several foreign victims of Monday's shootings, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Joe Librescu, who studied at Virginia Tech from 1989 to 1994, said his mother received e-mails from students shortly after learning of her husband's death.

When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war.

Librescu, who was 76 when he died, later found work at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said, and he was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel.

In 1977, according to his son, Israel's then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family an emigration permit, and they left for Israel in 1978.

Librescu left Israel for Virginia in 1985 for a sabbatical year, but eventually made the move permanent, said Joe Librescu: "His work was his life in a sense."

The academic community in Romania also was mourning Librescu's death.

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Anonymous

Wow - a lot of chit-chat today!

Sorry to hear about all the illness - hope everything turns out favorable for all. It's so sad that so many lost their lives in VA. It reminded me of why I no longer watch the news regularly.

RoseMarie -
When I was a child my Uncle Ralphie was Senile (sp?) (that's what they called it back then, I don't think Alzheimers was even known of). He was found many times wandering the streets of our neighborhood in his jammies (thank goodness he was wearing some)! My Aunt was constantly hunting him down!

Tracy -
That's awesome! You will do a great job. They truly picked a winner!

--------------------------------

I'm shocked...

I have received more pm's in the last 24 hours than I have in the last two weeks! LOL gotta go read 'em again!

Chow, chow for now!

Anonymous

I hardly ever get a pm!

Graycie

Mary-Anne. I love your hair. I wouldn't cut it but that is just me, it look's nice that length.

OMG Tracy, I am not a good speaker..........I would be so nervous nothing would probably come out right....But don't let me scare you..........lol.....You will probably do just fine. I could just see me now, I would open my mouth and insert my whole foot..........

Kelly, I don't get PM's either.......I feel so unwanted (I'm just kidding).......want to PM each other..........lol. Goes's to show Laura, you are well liked.

Linda, So sorry about your sister. My mother had a massive stroke that took her life. She lived alone in Florida and when we couldn't get her on the phone we had the police go over to her condo where they found her unconscious in bed. To this day I feel so bad I wasn't there for her but I can't beat myself up over it because there was no way of knowing that was going to happen. Your sister is young and it may take some time but hopefully she will be OK. AWWWW, little Isaac, I am glad he is doing so well.

Rosemarie, Your poor FIL. Your right he does need to be somewhere where they can keep an eye on him. It will be best for your MIL too and the people he is flashing.......lol.....sorry, I know it's not funny. That is my biggest fear that is going to happen to me someday, not the flashing part, but with this chemo brain I think the Alzheimer's is not far behind.

Laura, I am jealous of your weather since you usually have the same as us. It is only 35 here........and the rest of you wearing the bathing suit's I am really jealous.

Anonymous

Awwww...thanks Graycie!

I sent you some sunshine...have you received it yet?

Graycie

Laura, You are sweet........no sunshine yet, maybe tomorrow.

RoseMarie

My FIL, the flasher, eek...yes, something must be done!

Well, I had a first today...I ran into the curve, popped a tire, then changed the tire. I actually waited around for an hour thinking help was on its way...then I pulled out the book and changed the tire!! Like Kiersten used to say, "I'm so proud of me!"
Kelly, you are well loved too!!
TracyNy, I actually DID laugh out loud! You are so funny!

I want everyone bathed and in bed by 8:00...having one of those nights...so, will talk later!
Lots of love!

Graycie

Rosemarie, I am impressed.......changing a tire is pretty BIG...

Anonymous

Quote:

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I want everyone bathed and in bed by 8:00...

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Hey Girls - RoseMarie wants us all bathed and in bed by 8:00! LOL

RoseMarie -
I promise I will be!

Nice job with the tire! Wow...I would have cried like a baby! LOL

Anonymous

Rosemarie!! Changing a tire! I'm so proud of you! When I got two flat tires on my RV, I called the tow company, called my place of business and refused to wait for the tow truck! Had work come get me and my dog and DD and my food from the fridge!! Then the tow truck delivered it to the service department!!

Once, last summer, I ran out of gas and called work and had them come get me. I was too close to the edge of the freeway. OnStar came and picked up my car. Just so you know, the gas gauge was broken, it was not my fault!!!! LOL

RoseMarie

Ok, it's 8:55 my time, are you all bathed and in bed?? Lol!

I have 2 kids sleeping and 1 reading - but he's in bed. DH is playing Football (video game) and I was just outside on my deck with a cup of coffee. (which is not real smart since it IS 8:55!!) It has been beautiful ALL DAY and it's still 65 degrees.
Wow Kelly, 2 flat tires?!!!! and running out of gas on the freeway! Yikes, I was parked in my daughter's school parking lot - about 2 miles from home!
I was a little ticked that my dh didn't share my enthusiasm over my "accomplishment" - he was more ticked that I hit the curb! He was in downtown Indy and couldn't come rescue me, meanwhile my neighbor was calling the Police dept. and anyone she could think of to help me. I'm glad THAT's over!

Mary, how are you by the way?? Hope you're ok - thinking about you!
TracyS - Good luck - you'll do great! The only contact I had with ACS was when I first moved here and needed childcare during chemo. I called to see if they could help and they gave me a few numbers of some places -
ok - off to turn John Michael's light off...he'd read all night if I let him!
Good night!

ravdeb

Tracy..I missed your post about you speaking. What an honor! I wish I could help you as far as that is concerned. I do know that the first bc nurse I met when i was first diagnosed, gave me a copy of their book with all the chemo treatments depending on stages. It was an old one but I got her a copy of a new one. It was helpful for English speaking patients.

Other than that..we have our own cancer society here...

ravdeb

RoseMarie..I am totally impressed by your tire changing. I would never do it!!! Good for you! Of course, I have a huge van but not sure that would make a difference..just an excuse! I'd walk home! You probably worked on adrenaline. Good for you! You should pat yourself on the back many times. You did good!

Kelly..thanks for posting that article...here is the letter my friend sent his congregants. He lives not far from there...

Dear Friends,



We are all deeply touched by the tragedy in Blacksburg which occured yesterday. A number of congregants have asked me why these things happen and I cannot begin to offer any comforting reason that will offer us solace at this time. When Job asked G-d, in his own way, "why do bad things happen," G-d did not offer him any reason, except that G-d is G-d and we are human and there are certain things we can never understand.



Rabbi Harold Kushner says that when bad things happen, G-d appears in the ways in which we reach out and support each other. I believe that the best we can do is comfort those that have suffered loss and remember, as we did after 9/11, to hug our children and tell the people we care about that we love them. There are so many things in life that cause us to behave angrily and tragic events help us to put things in perspective. I hope that any of you who are wrestling with negative energy in your life, will remember that life is too short and precious to fill our days with these kinds of feelings.



Please join us at minyan tomorrow, Wednesday, at 7:30pm where we will light a candle in memory of the victims at Virginia Tech and hopefully hear from the parents of one of our students who attends VA Tech. Our congregants in Blacksburg all appear to be okay, although at least one of our congregants knew one of the victims.



May the memories of the victims be for a blessing and may their families feel our support.



B'shalom,



Rabbi Bruce D. Aft

debbie444

!!All hail RoseMarie!! I am impressed - changing a tyre - excellent!
I will be honest , i dont know how to do it - but I dont go very far without 9 yr old Mark and he can do it ! ( Hecan also change oil , brake pads and discs and is virtually there with suspension too so i cant see me ever doing it myself!
Our papers are full of the shootings so i guess yours will be worse. Catherine said that they prayed for the kids families in form time yesterday and i know Marks school had an assembly for them. How awful that young kids cant feel safe at school .
Ok - got to hang my washing out before school.
Debbie

Sorry Rosemarie , i will try and be in bed on time tonight