My week

Isaac's 18th birthday is today.  I've been doing digital scrapbooks for the younger girls and it's been so great to see so many pictures of him when he was younger and hilarious, he kept us laughing constantly!  I could post dozens of pictures just like this one.  Goofy faces, funny outfits, broad smiles!  We love him a lot, even when he's 18!  💖

Sometimes I get a little "bah-humbugish" about the choirs Christmas concerts.  It's so hard to get tickets, the traffic and parking, throngs of people, most years I can talk myself right out of going.  My cousin Jennifer works for KUTV and was able to snag 2 tickets to last nights concert with Kristen Chenowith.  Thankfully, she picked me as her lucky companion!!!  I'm telling you, it was a WINNER!     She's funny, so charming, and her message of love and Christ being the most important of Christmas was so clear and so touching.  She was raised in Oklahoma and has the best accent.  My Brooklyn and her friend Abby came with us, because Brooklyn has been obsessed with the choir lately.  Mat has taken her 3-4 times to the broadcast in the last couple of months despite our 9:00 church time because she asks so nicely and he cracks.  😂  Her choir teacher at SDJH is in it ... and she LOVES her choir teacher, Mrs. Larson!  They watched the concert from the Little Theater in the Conference Center and loved it as much as we did.

I had my monthly support group on Wednesday and came away feeling a little somber.  One of our dear sisters, Cindy, is very sick.  There is nothing more they can do for her.  Her initial diagnosis was stage 4, it was all through her bones.  By this summer, it had spread to her brain.  She's done surgeries, radiation to her brain, spent weeks in the hospital this year.  Her goal is to make it to Christmas for her kids, which I believe she can do!  Probably won't make it much past that.  It was a very emotional group as we processed what she's been through in the last 6 months or so, and what is coming.

I had my monthly support group on Wednesday and came away feeling a little somber.  One of our dear sisters, Cindy, is very sick.  There is nothing more they can do for her.  Her initial diagnosis was stage 4, it was all through her bones.  By this summer, it had spread to her brain.  She's done surgeries, radiation to her brain, spent weeks in the hospital this year.  Her goal is to make it to Christmas for her kids, which I believe she can do!  Probably won't make it much past that.  It was a very emotional group as we processed what she's been through in the last 6 months or so, and what is coming.

The last couple weeks the neuropathy in my feet is worse, starting to get painful to walk.  And despite my ramped up antihistamines the itching is still a bugger.  I was up most of the night last night trying to get comfortable but it was worse than it usually is.  I couldn't get up for church today even though I intended to get there for at least part of it.  Just after 12 o'clock my friend Regena came marching into my room to bring me something, then we talked for 2 hours!  I love it when that happens!  I'm reaching desperation mode with itching and neuropathy.  I'm meeting with a psychiatrist on Thursday, "not because you're crazy, Kim" my social worker Annie said, but so someone can know what I'm taking and how much and know what's happening and see if there's something more that can help me.  I contacted my study coordinator last week to see if the CBD oil is OK, still waiting to hear on that.  I am also doing acupuncture again tomorrow as well as my monthly massage on Tuesday. 

It seems like I do a lot, but when I look back at my days, I don't really.  In some ways I'm grateful for that, to be able to take life at the slower speed it is now.  But I'm a doer, I thrive on checking things off my list everyday.  Not having the energy to cross much off is frustrating.  Mat's niece texted me this week about Christmas and asked me if she could help us with anything.  She came yesterday with a friend and finished painting the interior doors.  I've meant to get to it, I had another friend help me get to the point we were until yesterday.  But the thought of taking out the paint stuff, prepping the last door, pouring, rolling ...  too much for me.  It's pathetic.  I want to stay active and feel productive, but most days I don't have the gas in the tank to do much.  The pain in my feet doesn't help that either.