Myasthenia gravis and back surgery report

First and foremost, I had and have a wonderful relationship with my neurosurgeon, was comfortable and trusting of my anesthesiologist (very important for the myasthenic), stayed overnight in ICU, and ta dah here I am two days later recovering very, very well. It was my breathing that I was so concerned about since I had had problems after my kyphoplasty, and the myasthenia is much worse today than it was then.

So, I was nervous. I remember waking, still in surgery, and they said, "Here she comes," then they started taking things off my face, and saying she's going to room such and such, when I knew I was supposed to be going home. Ummmm. All they told me was that I just acted up a little, and were keeping me, and watching me overnight. That was the first operative memory that I was taking into surgery with this one. Once I talked to the anesthesiologist, I felt much better. Still, I was just glad when I didn't know anything that was going on around me, when I didn't have to think about any of it any more. Anyway, except for some after-flair of the myasthenia, I think I've done very well.

Okay. The spinal surgery is done and over, over and done with . . . well, not totally. Due to the condition of my spine, he was not able to remove all the calcification he found there at T2-T3. He spent some time Friday morning explaining it all to me, plus he's going to see that I get a copy of the op-report. Right now, I am just too tired to recount the who, how, why, and wherefores, so I'm just going to post the pictures Jim took as they were filling my veins with IV lines since my portacath continues to malfuction until Dr. Cook takes a look at things.

Computer ~ better than an anti-anxiety pill
















Julia comes to perform her skill with the needle poke of the vein. Later, Mary has to add a line for potassium. Ugh. Ever had potassium flowing through your veins? One of the most unpleasant things in the world, spoken in the plainest of English for I can think of no other words to describe how it feels. Horrible, horrendous, yeck, anything!.... Ragdoll's thesaurus....heheh
























Enter Melissa, a cutie the One Day Surgery staff urges me to not encourage, but how can I resist her when she treats me so special. How special? Well, she treats me like a grandmother, bringing me little tidbits, gifts, etc. She brought me a goody bag. Awww, Melissa, socks that say "Cutie," some shine lipstick, a notepad *just the right size!*, much needed body lotion (how did you know this ole grandma needed THAT?), a picture frame that I'm now going to decide who I'm going to put in there and WHERE Poppa's going to put it.... that's just a bit of the goodies. Think I ought to put the cutie socks on to make me feel lookig ooooh so cute at 66, lotion to feel so soft and smell so sweet, and then top it off with the shiniest of lips. Jonesboro won't know what hit it whenever we girls hit Turtle Creek Mall once I'm recovered from everything. Aha.... shirts that say One Day Surgery. I can do that ya know.

What in the world is this girl up to now?








Melissa, now doesn't she look sassy.... naw, not Melissa. Those other nurses just don't know her like I do. Add the Bobsy twins and who else, and we'll have a blast!








Melissa, down to serious business as a nurse








Jamie ICU, a real sweet, and VERY helpful ICU nurse. I didn't get my other ICU nurses' pictures, Linda and Marcia. Linda and I talked a lot about our grandchildren, talking about our rings depicting our children. Marcia and I had some like meds and diseases of which it comforted her, and we're going to *try* to get back in touch later as I'm coming to the hospital each month.


All the St. Bernard's staff made my surgical experience more pleasant than I ever could have imagined considering how nervous I was to begin it.

Thank you St. Bernard's. I must go.








However, as I go, let me show you the best of all, for supper tonight.......

Pre-Inauguration Day

I am still spending recoup time in bed, watching all the activities on television. It seems to me that I am doing better this time than before.

Matthew, the five year old great-grandson, lost his first tooth, and I am going to make him a card and send to him. I had told Jennifer to text me to remind me, and I just got that text, so I must get away from here and design that card. Now THAT will be FUN, getting back into that once again. I have missed doing that.

See you later. Have a very nice day.

Let a smile be your umbrella!

Home, sweet home. This month's treatment is finished,

It was a good week with no serious side effects until Thursday,
but they have shown themselves vividly since then.
I have slept most of the time since I have been home,
and feel I must continue to do so for me to recover adequately.
Things are just going too well for me to rush it along.
I will make more comments on Twitter about my progress.
However, as my title says, "Let a smile be your umbrella,"
let that be your mantra, also.
Come back, view my card.
Now, I'm off again to watch the Train to Washington.
I've lost one of my hearing aids and cannot hear,
but at least I can watch the pictures and text on CNN.
I'll be back around later.

IVIG next week and I'm apprehensive

Jim has been washing and getting clothes all ready to go tomorrow. Me? My nerves are on edge big time and my not much use to anyone. I do have to gather up my bed into the suitcase and get it ready sometime. Daughter Debbie will be here tomorrow to help with a few important things like giving Dad a haircut, and helping us with our new phones. If I could read I could do most of it, but I have MG eyes right now, and don't know when they will clear up. She thought it was cool that Mom and Dad got BBs.

I had a lemon of a phone, and went to get something different. Radio Shack has always been good to me, all the way back to the Tandy 1000 days of the mid 1980s when I bought my first computer from them. I just feel comfortable with them. I started browsing the Sprint phones, and much to my wandering eye should appear but what I considered quite a deal on the BlackBerry winter (Go away, go away blackberry winter.... song of my day). It was within the range I could deal with, and after looking all around, feeling this fit the desires of my heart without breaking my bank, it was my unanimous decision, and up to the counter I rolled all set to upgrade my lemon of a phone I had.

Finished, we went down to the Food Court to look over my new *baby*, and as gadgets swirlled round in my head, I thought it was time I did something for Jim, he is always thinking of and doing for me, my grandmother's ring the latest. He has the biggest heart for me. It just took me a little while to understand him and his ways, and once I did that, I found a most giving man. Actually, he might be a giveing man to a fault, especially to the woman he loves. He just looks for ways to show that; his way, not someone else's way.

Ayway, I saw it was easily within my Social Security savings' realm to add him to the plan, too, so back to Radio Shack I proceeded. I needed my purse so back to the Food Court I had to ride, and make up a nice reason - NO lie - for needing it back at the store. It is nice that I have built up a reputation for spendig money on electronics, say like a new computer with every new operating system, one of each here at the house. No slaggard am I!

Before the sales assistant was completed upgrading his phone, who should appeard but you.know.who! YIKES! When he asked what I was buying, I just told him, "You know me whenever I get a little money in my pocket, and then get around electronics." There was enough truth to that that he took it hook, line and sinker.

Since I went for a couple of years of not being to write to sign my name, I was having trouble doing that, so I asked him to come around and complete the electronic signature for me. I stayed there at the counter with the girl, her being in on my little deceitfulness (it a sweet one, though, don't you think?) and he just roamed aroud the store, wearing his phone of a couple of years. I fully believed he had figured out what I was doing. After all, she had the box to his out on the counter. All finished, his new phone was in my purse, the one on his belt? Dead! Once we got out of the store, I gave him his new phone, and told him he needed to take his old one from his belt now because it no longer worked. Come to find out, he was totally, and all relative words, surprised, and began his "You shouldn't" speech, but did not get very far. He is about used to hearing us give that lecture, that he stops now, and just says, "Thank you," and that is what he did. He was totally, genuinely, happily, and anything else surprised. No, he had not figured out what I was doing. He thought I had found something to go along with my phone, and was not even paying any attention to the details when I asked him to help me finish up. Sitting in my wheel chair, it is difficult for me to see all that's going on up on the counter, but it would all would have been visible to him. He. never. looked! Nosey me would have scouted everything, especially the box she had in her hand. Wouldn't have said anything, but ohhh my mind would have been going round and round with ideas putting 2+2 and hoping I was coming up with 4, and it was a phone for me.

We didn't do any more of the shopping we planned on doing because we were too excited to go eat, and check out our phones. Well, let me clarify that. It twere *I* Ragdoll Billie who was anxious to check out the phone. I had been wanting one since I was aware they were on the market. Jimbo has had one for ummm, two years? I think that's right. Whatever it is, it is longer than I. With all of our medical and other expenses, I've never given it a second thought of getting one anytime soon. There have just been too many other things that needed to come first. But THEN..... my wandering eyes beheld the BB at such an affordable price, and I went straight to work making it work for me. Ha ha, ho o, weeeee!

I have found that I *pay* myself for my nerves, stress, side effects, pain & suffering and all other manner of evils by getting me my *little* techno gadgets. Forget the clothing and stuff. Lying in bed, and sittig in the wheel chair, clothing looses its appeal somewhat, not entirely as I'm learning how to wear it differently, and Georga Mae at Dillard's is helping me tremendously. *big smile* I'll be washing up, and making pretty after I get this published. That will make me feel a good bit better, and I can only get that done by getting myself out of pain. Oooooh, let's hope that back surgery that I'll talk about in a later post is going to help lessen the pain.

About this IVIG . . . I'm going to start it at 150, and not go very high to see if I can control the headaches better this time. I think that is the rate. When I finish here, I'm going to check my notebook and see exactly what I've been running it, and know I've been doing 180 the last two times. It's nice to get through early, but not with those headaches I had, IF that was the cause of them. Schalawags. That is what they were. Bad, bad, bad. I want to try to control them, and I am going to set my notebook ahead of time.

Well, there wasn't much about the upcoming treatment. I do want to emphasize the virtural blood drive Manic is running. Blood donation is so necessary. A minimum of 1000 donors per treatment. I'm still not sure if that is per day or the total five days. That needs to be clarified.

So long, farewell for a while. Hope for a working hot spot next week!

Remembering Coleman right now

It is time for Coleman Larson's life to be remembered right now in Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Callender, Iowa. I had started a post of "My heart remembers" but could not complete it, for this whole week has been all scrambled for me between my personal life, and my dearest childhood cancer friend and family, Coleman and Team Larson.

I found it interesting that I could not access my internet until ten minutes ago. Ummm, can I say I don't believe in things like that? I did everything I know, and I am pretty tech savvy, and nothing, I mean absolutely nothing would work. I didn't fight against it, and went to play some Mah Jong. When I am doing that, I cannot see the rest of my computer, so at the end of a game, I came to check on my internet, having NO idea of the time, and not uptight about Coleman and my Robert memories.

Surprise! I found everything perfectly normal! It was loading pages so smoothly, and here I am thinking and writing of Coleman right while they are in Callender celebrating his short, but long impressionable life. But when I think of Coleman there, pictuing the service in my mind, I see Robert and his service, his casket at the funeral home for visitation. His service was at the high school gymnasium for several reasons. It's been a long time since I have remembered that day, and never at night in my sleep, in my dreams. But flashes last night. Claudia was playing 'His Eye is on the Sparrow." Yes, and I know He watches me. The song still brings the tears. For twenty-four years He's been watching me. He will still be watching Peggy, Scott, and Caden twenty-four years from now, just as He is today. They each will have their own needs, but He will know them, and will provide for them. Just as this earthly mom rejoices to see that her children have survived these years, so does our Heavenly Father rejoice at our survival, and at times He probably laughed and said, "See, there, I told you so, you just needed to wait on Me." He knew. He knew all along. It was just our wanting to rush it sometimes. But here we are today. Still surviving, and the "kids" surviving much better than then. Praise God.

This road has been sooo rough and rocky, and at times I was not sure I was going to make it, at times Jim and I were not going to make it, but . . . here we are today, and we are still making it, minus one child, and with our family growing by what is perceived the wrong, the hard way, eight grands and great-grands with another great on the way. Jim is 69, I'm 66. He's doling out the advice, me the hugs, things needing to be heard and felt. He is a cancer survivor from last year. I have a rare, incurable disease that requires him to care for me, the house, and himself 24 hours a day. There is NOTHING to big for God! It only "feels" like it sometimes, and that sometimes might be once a week, but that's okay, for God is there every moment of every week. Praise Him!

I have some more about last night, but I'm not sure I am ready to write about it just yet. Maybe I need a soft and silky friend to join me, but I have some soft and silky kitty cats here, one of whom is in my lap right now. I think I wil close for now. I've been writing for an hour. I feel good, and better about Coleman and Robert, readhing towards best. I might as well. There is nothing I can or could do about either of them. You think Robert might be sitting, talking to his grandparents about all of this, just maybe? I will be glad when Peggy, Scott, and Caden are able to have Coleman imaginations, which it wouldn't surprise me if they had not already begun knowing Peggy.

I still have not told about my surgery plans but there is plenty of time for that. God has laid this on my heart.

This is Coleman

This baby begins his 2½ year journey.

Bunny Foo Foo begins the journey along with Coleman.

This picture really gets to me.

Post-opRelay for Life "Brothers for Life"Twirling Bunny Foo Foo's ribbonMake A Wish Foundation

Peggy is a top-notch photographer.
Her videos excel!
See Coleman's CarePage here
Peggy's videos at YouTube

A warrior gets his wings

After a 2 1/2 year battle, exactly half his life, with medulloblastoma brain cancer, enduring every kind of treatment available, in this hospital, that hospital . . . this five year old cancer warrior has received his wings. The angels in Heaven are rejoicing over the arrival of this little child of God. We always feel like it is too soon whenever a child dies, for our understanding is limited to our knowledge here on earth. Every child is special, but there was just something about Coleman. He was just a bit of Heaven to our hearts. I know he carved out a place in my heart.

For me I went for years thinking and saying that when I got to Heaven that was the first thing I wanted to ask God, "Why did Robert have to go when he was only sixteen years old?" Oh, how much I have learned. God had HIS plan all laid out for him. His time here was over; He had other things in store for him; all I had to do was just rest and relax in His arms; He would take care of me for, "Beneath His wings of Love abide, He will take care of me." He is there for Peggy, and the rest of the family today.

One day I realized that whenever I got to Heaven it would not matter to me then, for all would be perfect. Our bodies would be changed in an instant as well as those who had gone before us. All suffering would have ceased. Praise God! Our bodies as new. I would be rejoicing at seeing my son once again. The whys and wherefores that have plagued me here on earth would not matter to me any more. The rest of my family, too, would be there, and oh, what a rejoicing there would be. With my earthly vision I can just picture our true happiness, dancing, missing those who haven't come yet, anxious for their arrival, whenever that might be, and this gives me an idea of a day in Eternal Life, for what a day it will be, for there amongst us all will be God in all His Glory! Coleman is with God right now, playing in God's playground. I can just see that little mischievious grin of his.

No tears, for these thoughts bring a smile to my face. There is a song, "No tears in Heaven" and one line says, "No tears well we know." I believe it. Yes, I believe it!

I want to fight for a cure for childhood cancer more than ever now. I know Coleman was a gift to Peggy and Scott, that they felt honored to be chosen as his parents, and wonderful parents they have been, but that does not mean we sit back and let this beast beat upon our children. I have my four great-grandchildren with another one on the way, and I never want to see or know of a single day that one of them would have to go through the horrors of cancer treatment. How these little ones endure it is beyond me, and Coleman is one who underwent it all. Bless his heart, he suffers no more!




From Peggy:

I believe God’s will was done through Coleman. I know it.

For those inquiring:
We will celebrate Coleman’s life on Saturday, Jan. 10th at 10:30 a.m. at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Callender. Visitation will also be at the church on Friday the 9th after 4:00p.m.

Also for those inquiring- Instead of flowers, we’d love donations in Coleman's memory made to either:
The Hospice House of Fort Dodge, Iowa
The Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City
or curesearch.org

COLEMAN

See you later Coleman

Getting the ball rolling in 2009

Tomorrow is the beginning! The first doctor's appointment of the year. It is with Dr. Campbell, the neurosurgeon; remember him? He's the one who, when a little boy, locked his grandmother out, and ate all the cookies she had bakes, and it was cold out there. He claims the spanking he got was worth it, but I'm wondering if he is remembering all of that correctly. Haha

Next Monday, the 12th is my first IVIG of the year, and I have to tell you I dread it, and am scared. We were unable to access my port last month; what is this month going to bring? They had to press on me so hard that I was sore from it for a couple of weeks. I'm just about ready to say let's just go the vein route like we ended up doing last moth, and not even trying for the port. But it *does* have to be accessed for flushing to prevent infection. Ooooooh me. Not looking forward to all of that. Here is what we did last month. Monday the port worked okay, but Tuesday morning when Terry went to flush it, nothing moved. They removed it from the port and attempted another access with absolutely no success at all. The plunger just sat there. After just a bit of pushing on it, I said for us to just go the vein route, and see what happens. So Julia came and slipped that cannula right into that vein. Think maybe these months of rest have made the veins more acceptable to being stuck and probed? After this success, we left it in the vein the rest of the week until Friday! Why Friday? It blew and bled all over everything while we were getting ready to leave for the hospital, and I do mean it bled every where!! Melissa cleaned that hand and arm up, then Julia came down to stick my right hand, shown here.

Monday, I may let them try the port. Well, no choice. We have to because it has to be flushed. Wonder what happens if we cannot get into it to flush it? Call Dr. Phillips up and tell him we need an oncology nurse to throw the port needle at it? Oooooo, naughty, naughty.

Tomorrow we will schedule the date of the back surgery, which will have to be right after the IVIG so that I keep breathing throughtout, and wake up. Campbell said he is well versed in MG and surgery, as well as having an appropriate anesthesiologist who is, too. I'll just be glad to talk to him tomorrow. I'm sure I'll feel more comfortable, and he will answer a lot of my questions. Whew! Loooong deeeeep breath.

Once the back surgery is over, you are liable to find me cutting the rug just any ole place, but not with just any ole guy, no sirree. Dig us here. You *know* who my man is don't you? Yeah, he's been showing me a good time. He knows how up-tight I am over all that's coming down the road face to face, still another untried. We're dancing the gitters all away. Yeah, from bed to potty! That's now. Just wait until it's all over!

Let go!

Remembering Coleman and Team Larson

So much has gone on since Christmas morning in the lives of the Larsons, it is impossible for me to tell you all of it without getting something wrong for sure. After letting Caden open a few things from Santa they let him choose a couple to take with him as they took Coleman to the ER. It was December 30, when they returned to their unchanged living room as they has left it on Christmas moring. While they were in the ER they called their doctor, and he gave them the option of going home or staying there to be looked over. They knew they could not take him home in his present condition, so Coleman and Peggy got a ride in the helicopter though Coleman never knew anything about it. They were well cared for in Des Moines,De

Peggy: We came home today December 30, 2009, and met with a couple of awesome ladies from hospice, and we went over many options. For now, we are home. That may change, but we want to try it at least. Also Coleman is on a new oral chemo, because…. Well… “Team War-sin NEV-VA divs up.” We aren’t finished yet… we know in our hearts we need to keep praying and trusting in God’s love for Coleman and for us all.

We have a new set of meds to keep Cman comfortable. That's our main goal, we DO NOT want him to be in pain, and so far he doesn’t seem to be. We pray that continues. We’ll take one day at a time and see how everything goes. The one thing, the only thing, that’s for certain right now- God is with us and giving us strength to keep going.

Caden was able to come to the hospital and spend the past few nights with us in the room. It was a wonderful gift to all four be able to spend time together, even if it was in a hospital room.

We’ve been having talks with Caden…I can’t begin to explain how difficult it is to answer his questions, hold him as he sobs, and says he needs to “help Coe-man fight harder.” It brings to mind the quote we have on Coleman’s home page here- "“There's nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child.” -Frank A. Clark
How true it is.

The bond between Caden and Coleman is something we’ve seen all along, and that in itself is hard for us to comprehend at times, yet it’s there. I think we’ve given Caden as much as he can handle each time we talk, and we take his cue of when he needs to quit talking about it & go back to being the bouncy little boy he is.

Peggys next update came earlier today, January 3, 2008. Oh, my goodness. I've lost a son, and I do not know if I could go through all she and Scott are going through, the decisions they are having to make, or not. They truly are living one day, one moment at a time as I have shown here in my own blog, but definitely NOT to this extreme. Could I go day by day and watch and wonder if my five-year-old son is going to see the sun rise tomorrow. We all face that uncertain future, and reality is that today IS our future, but Coleman has specific reasons to make his body vulnerable for questioning tomorrow's sunrise. When Robert died, he was killed instantly, thrown from the vehicle in which he was riding. To the best of our knowledge, he died very near instantly from a broken neck, but that is something we will never know for absolute certaintity, for did the officials tell us that to comfort us, or what. Being a mother, I took it as the truth. That is why I empathyse with Peggy so much. I have written her several times. She and Debbie are the same ages, so it is easy for me to place her with us, or vice versa Debbie in her shoes. THAT is why I want to fight for childhood cancer awareness, and wish I could get my family onboard since we have five eligible ones in our family, with a sixth one coming up.

Now from Peggy's update from today, mainly Peggy and Scott were being unsuccessful at keeping him comfortable, and after the hospice nurse arrived, it was decided to move him to the hospice house where they could access his port and give him some stronger drugs that could do a better job at releiving his pain.

Caden gets to come and go during the daytime, but HE wants to be there with the family at night. I feel so much for him. Peggy posted a couple of pictures which are below, and you can see the furrow in his brow in the one where he is kissing Coleman. There is truly an unspeakable bond between the twins, and the doctors have spoken of it from time to time as the best medicine Coleman could be getting.

It is my prayer that God will bring an unspeakable peace to the Larson fa\mily to get them from one moment to the next. When I chose that picture I had more in mind, but it has escaped me at the moment, except for that which I have spoken. Peace, real peace; joy, real joy. Most miss out on this from our true Christmas truth, that it is not Christ's birthday as we think of birthdays as a date on the calendar. I don't know why this picture struck me so for them, but what? Peggy has spoken all along about the Peace that Jesus has given them, and this, to me, reflects that peace. The artist, to me, did a great rendition. Is it God wrapped around them, holding them safely in His arms? I don't know. The longer you look at it, the more you can read it.

We are praying for Coleman's life, and for a cure for his cancer. We are also working for the awareness of the devastating effects of childhood cancer in all of our children. The majority of people are not aware. There are some things I can and want to do, but my station in bed is crimping my style to get them printed. I HAVE to figure a way to get it done from here, and need to do it today!! It will have to be over the pain, but what better way than to do something for someone else to rise above the stinking ole pain that I get so tired of battling. Look forward to try to help someone else.

I'm selfish, too, in that I use my digital graphics in my blog presentations. They are a HUGE pare of me, just as my music was. At times I want to do nothing but digital graphics, working my way back up to be able to use my hands with other mediums. While I was making the following text, "We love you Coleman," I just happened to remember how to do something with the vector text box, as you see I have done here. Maybe not the most austute, but another return of a bit of my knowledge. Just the how snapped in my memory. So, we love you Coleman, and "I" am happy with the work I did with the pictures, and this is why Coleman says, "NEV-VA div up," and why, though in hospice house, they are still trying an oral chemo drug on him, still looking for a cure, and continued life for this five-year-old little boy who has stolen so many people's hearts, least of all, mine! But, especially his five-year-old twin brother. Those hearts grew together, and they have lived together since this monster hit Coleman when he was only 2 1/2 years old.

Be sure and play the Coleman and Caden - Brothers YouTube on the sidebar, made by Lizz. You'll be blessed.

Goodbye 2008 - hello 2009

I just figured out why I've been procrastinating with this next post which is supposed to be the day after the last one which was December 27th, and it was a shorty itself. Mercy, look at the difference in the dates. Unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable. The way I have been feeling is no excuse. Not an excuse. Not even though I totally missed Christmas because I was so sick, and Debbie and Mark brought us a plate of food over, and we just doled gift cards out, and gifts in store bags. Ha! I never even saw anything. Couldn't even care at the time ::shhh, that is "at the time," not now:: Missed the baby's first real Christmas, and they said he had a ball. Reminds me, I've got to text to have some pix sent to me. Got some others, but really now, nothing beats pix of the babies does it?

Hmmm, well, maybe I really don't have it figured out after all. It is so hard to put things together when you are just so blah. Well, maybe it's a bit more than just a bit blah. After last year of wait, wait, and wait some more where Jim's surgery was concerned, I think I am almost afraid to even begin to think of beginning this year since the first major thing on the slate is the back surgery. I want it, need it, but am so scared of it because of the risk with the MG. Campbell says he's well versed in surgery with the MG patient. All I can do is to trust him. What else is there? Hey, I'm just repeating myself, but that is partially where I am, and why I am having trouble getting started up again after that awful time with the last treatment. An excuse? Let's not drop down, and start relying on times like that. It wasn't the first, and won't be the last, will it now?

Okay, here is the group of them, sans us. Yeah, I feel it. It hurts. I don't want to get going post-holidays because I don't want to feel anything. Just lie here, and let the pain define me. Nah, you know better than that. That is not me. I'm going to give you this now, and then get on and see what I can do. Can do. That is action. Not passive. There are a few things I have working right now.

I *do* have to log in this severe pain I am experiencing, which I do not believe has anything to do with the IVIG treatments, the next one coming up in ten days. Okay, that is done. Look now at this fine family. There is Debbie and Mark, then Christen - remember when she got her lip busted during softball?-holding Ashton - well, he's been all over the place; Donnie and Jimbo, who took such good care of Jim following his da Vinci surgery, both of them; then Ashley, flittering about, trying to find her place in life, which she is still doing.

Boy, I wish hair styles had been this simple when I was younger!

Goodbye 2008 - hello 2009