I have decided to return the blogging world. God knows why.

What killed me before what thinking I had to take photos of everything. I am not a photographer. I am more of a writer. Thus, back to WordPress from Blogger, and I will only take photos when needed.

Quick update:

Husband, hereafter referred to as Spiff is still alive!! Against all odds, the brain tumor has disappeared, thanks to a wonder drug called  Avastin and prayers from people all over the world.

I should be a widow by now, but I am not. Praise be!

He finished his chemo treatments two weeks ago, and will have another MRI next week, then he goes on a cocktail of Tamoxifan, which I don’t know how to spell correctly, Evening Primrose Oil, which I do, and some other things which have not been decided yet. The purpose of these is to try to keep the tumor from coming back until a cure is found or until he dies of old age, which ever comes first.

More later. Why knock myself out when know one even knows I am here.

I am off trying different things on Blogger and Typepad, making up my mind as to where my new bloggin home will be.

While I am gone, why don’t you go visit my friend, Amanda. She is having another contest. She designed a cute little bag, called Mandy’s Candy bag. You can win a prize for posting a link to her blog, and making your own Mandy’s Candy bag by September 3rd.

Her blog is more interesting than mine, anyway. So, be amused. I will let you know when the new improved Cookie is back, and where she is.

http://nhknittingmama.blogspot.com/2007/07/mandys-candy-bag.html

You may have noticed, I didn’t get moved over to Blogger, like I said I was going to.

I have been dealing with a teeny identity theft problem. Someone hacked into my ebay and Paypal accounts, and tried to buy several thousand dollars worth of stuff. Fortunately, an alert seller cross-checks names and addresses, and noticed neither the names nor the addresses matched each other, notified both ebay and Paypal, and called me!

I have been busy changing passwords on everything I can think of, checking everywhere I do online business to make sure nothing else has been hacked into, and running three different programs to see if something has been downloaded onto my computer to give someone access to my passwords. Neither Adaware, Spybot nor MacAffee can detect anything other than 7 plain old cookies that have shown up since my last scan, which ran automatically last week.

Looks like I am safe, this time, again!

The last time this happened, someone at at doctor’s office stole my debit card number and tried to charge some stuff. Fortunately, that didn’t work either. First thing she tried was to start a membership with Columbia House Dvd’s. They sent the Dvds to MY house, not hers, because their system went with the address that was on file with the bank! That alerted me.

I called my bank. The only other thing she had charged was some weight loss program, which hadn’t gone through yet, and the bank stopped it.

The doctor’s office figured out who it was, and fired her.

I have been very lucky so far that the only people who have tried this with me have been idiots.

I have decided to stop dithering. I am moving back to blogger on August 1st. I went over today, and checked it out. They have made it much easier to post pictures, and since knitting blogs are primarily supposed to be about showing off, I need to be able to post pictures.

My husband and I will probably blog over here together, with our “empty nester” adventures. We have been talking about doing a joint blog for a while, and think it will be fun. I will keep you posted.

 I read this on Mezzodiva’s blog. Someone sent it to her, and asked her to share it with all her friends. She decided to blog it, rather than emailing it to everyone she knew. I thought that was a good idea.

ONE FLAW IN WOMEN

Women have strengths that amaze men.
They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
but they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don’t take “no” for an answer
when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about
a birth or a wedding.
Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
yet they are strong when they
think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They’ll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you
to show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have the compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to
their family and friends.
Women have vital things to say
and everything to give.

However,
if there is one flaw in women,
it is that THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

By the way, Mezzodiva blogs at http://sockit-tome.blogspot.com

 Thanks for sharing, Mezzodiva! And, thanks for your prayers for Philip and me.

(Written yesterday July 25th, late afternoon, but not posted.)

Philip and I just got back from the oncologist’s office. His PET scan showed NOTHING!!!!! !!!
Her recommendation is a course of oral chemotherapy drug called Temodar:
http://www.temodar. com/temodar/ application, with regular MRIs to make sure that no tumor growth recurs. If it does, they can do radiation at that point.
She says we do have time to get a second opinion. When we asked her about a different radiation oncologist than the one we saw before and didn’t like, she said there were several she worked with. She asked if we prefered Dallas or Fort Worth, and we said it was actually easier for us to get to Fort Worth, so she recommended someone at Harris Methodist Hospital. We will meet him after we get the second opinion, so if Philip decides to get the radiation, or if it becomes neccessary, we know who we are dealing with.
This last big scare might have been because there was a mistake in typing up the report the hospital got from the pathologist at Washington University. Whoever did it, worded it so it appeared as if the doctor there was nearly positive Philip had a high grade malignant brain tumor, which was NOT what we had been told originally. The pathologist’ s report actually said, there were some cells suggestive of a brain tumor, but he couldn’t be sure, because there was too much blood from the rupture
The oncologist’s feeling is, there may have been a brain tumor, but with the stroke and the surgery, all or most of it has been removed, so the correct course of action would be the same with any other form of cancer. Treat for the tiny amount left that you cannot see with chemo and/or radiation. We hesitate to do a course of radiation first, because it can destroy surrounding healthy brain tissue, and you don’t want to do that. You don’t really have much spare brain tissue.

So, tonight, we relax, breathe, and thank God for another chance at life. Thank you all for your prayers. We don’t want to even think about where we would have been without them.

Addendum: I cannot believe how totally exhausted I am today. Last night I slept 10 hours, and today I fell asleep in the afternoon, and slept another hour and a half. I think the relief of having hope has finally allowed me to relax.

Tomorrow, I will post the pictures from my SP10 pal to Flickr, so you can see my goodies!

I think tonight I will sleep a long time again.

I got the BEST package ever from my SP10 secret pal yesterday! And, of course, I can’t remember how to post pictures. I promised her I would.

Unfortunately, I leave in 20 minutes to take Lamb up to her college orientation. We are spending the night up in the old college town  in the Red River Valley. I am going to ask Philip to see if he can fool around with it tonight.

I am moving back to Blogger in August.

Anyway, my SP Spoiler is April, and she blogs at Meiflower.blogspot.com.

 She is a theatre teacher. No wonder I like her. I majored in Theatre in college.

Tomorrow, I drop Lamb off at her orientation, tear like hell back here, and then we drive to Fort Worth to Philip’s oncologist to get the word about his PET scans.

Depending on what that word is, I will post pictures of my package either tomorrow night, or the next day.

Carrie Penny. You get all my novelty yarn. Congratulations. I put all nineteen names in a bowl, and my daughter drew yours. I am going to see if I can find something else in my stash to throw in for you as an added surprise, and I should be mailing it all out as soon as you and I make contact, and I get a mailing address for you. Glutton for punishment that I am, I will try to take a picture of the pile of yarn, and post it here, using the NEW instructions several people sent me.

 My daughter, by the way, does NOT want to be known as Cookie Jr. She would rather I refer to her as her nickname, Lamb. So, Lamb she is. Even at age 20, she does not mind me calling her that in public.

No, not until “Harry Potter Dies…Merges With Voldemort…Becomes The Headmaster Of Hogwarts…” or whatever spoiler trash you have heard, comes out. Until I draw for my novelty yarn stash winner, sillies!  Just think, you could be the winner of two bags of funny looking yarn and get your copy of the last Harry Potter book on the same day! Lucky you.

 Speaking of HP, I am very carefully avoiding all the gossip. I am also not going to talk to my son until I have finished the book. He ruined the ending of the last book for me, by GUESSING the ending! Stinker.  My copy will be delivered by owl from Amazon, winging its way overnight to my door. It should be here even before I have finished my morning coffee. 

Thanks for all the prayers, support and positive comments all of you are sending our way. It really helps to have so many friends pulling for us.

 Life goes on. Philip goes to work each day, as there is still NO impairment. I knit, read, do my things.  I cry. I yell at God. I cope. There is only so much whining I can do. Philip isn’t even sick yet. So we have a life to live as well as we can, without this “thing” in his head getting in our way.

I have a get together this afternoon with some friends from my Yahoo corgi group. A St Louis area woman and her dog, and an Austin area woman and hers are all driving to Fort Worth, where we are meeting at “Mizzy’s” for some wild doggy fun. So, after tonight, I will have met 6 members of the group. When Philip gets a break from whatever treatment the “bullpen” decides on, we will be making a trip to Pennsylvania to visit friends, and there I will get to meet 3 more corgi pals!

The “Who Wants Cookie’s Novelty Yarn Contest” continues. The pile on my dining room table is growing. Someone is going to get a nice addition to their stash, and I am going to get more room in my cupboard for more stash of my own. Oh, so devious, I am.

 You have until July 29th to get your weird, wacky and serious ideas in. Winner will be chosen by random drawing, but will be sure to have enough of the type of novelty yarn they want for their special project. Uh, unless they want to knit a Statue of Liberty cozy. Forget that one.