Fortune cookies.

Today we went on our favorite shopping route:  comic book store and Half Price Books on 1960.  On the way we stopped at Pei Wei (which has great vegan options).

Max ate some ice, then dumped a cup of it all over his seat.  Here's what his fortune said:

I think that's pretty appropriate!

Gabe was the only one who ate any of the fortune cookies.  His said:

Hmmm ... This could be more about Gabe than to Gabe.

Dan has just accepted a new job with the new University of Houston campus at the old Compaq Center.  Here's his fortune:

That's awesome.

And here is mine:

A quiet evening with friends?  What friends?  The last time we ate here was when I was awaiting my genetic test results ... While everyone else got fortunes that said something good was going to happen to them, mine were just stupid comments about friends then too.  And no, I don't believe in fortune cookies!  (But if I did, I might think the universe was implying that I need to acquire some friends!)

Next Gabe and I tried to shop for homeschool books while Max kept running away.

I took a picture of these two books so I could try to find them online instead.  Now I kinda wish I had bought Cha-Cha and Zee Explore San Antonio!  Two penguins in the Alamo city ...  Fun!

We had a pleasant day out.  Here's wishing good fortunes to everyone reading!

Max's videos, Dad's buildings.

Max has been talking more!  He likes to sing, "Ba ba baaaa," and copy us when we are singing.  He also knows some of his animal sounds:

And here's another cute one of him hitting Daddy on the head and learning the word "ow."

Dad has a couple of construction projects going:  a carport for us, and a tornado shelter.  (As far as Gabe is concerned the tornado shelter is of the utmost importance and direly needs finishing!)

Dan helped Dad with the carport this morning.

Dad came to the realization this week that the posts holding up our new carport are not construction-grade.  Well, great ...

He says this means the top of it is fine, but the bottom of the main posts may start to rot away in the next 20 years.  In this case, the structure would just fall over "like a table."  Goody ...

Which makes me wonder if it would become a projectile (if we do get this tornado Gabe has been anxiously expecting).  Could Dad's tornado shelter, in fact, withstand a blow from the carport?  (As it blows away, "like a table?")

(I'm kidding, Dad.  You are awesome for building us a carport and a tornado shelter!)

Until the shelter is finished, Gabe will nervously stay on the lookout for tornadoes.

All about turtles.

Gabe, Joe and I have been reading about turtles.

Our pond is full of red-eared sliders.  And since I can't seem to take a great picture of one, here's one I stole:

Occasionally I'll see another one of these guys walking down the road and bring him back to our pond.  They sun themselves on the opposite side of the pond, and the kids get a kick out of feeding them every night.

Here's Gabe, who wanted me to blog about turtles today!

We do have one that is not a slider.  This is Snappy, our snapping turtle.  He's the only one who has a name, except for poor Floatie ...

This is all that remains of Floatie, a.k.a. One Eye.  One day I found her trapped in the garden fence, her shell damaged and with only one eye.  We let her go in the pond, but she appeared to have air in her shell and could not swim under the water (hence her name).  Later we found her next to the bushes where she died.  

Today we examined what was left of Floatie, and compared it to the turtle book.

The turtles go into our woods to lay their eggs.  This turtle's nest was disrupted by an animal ... you can see the white eggs that were opened and eaten.

 

They are fun pets to observe.  And we don't even need an aquarium!

Here's Terraspin, the turtle guy from Ben 10 Ultimate Alien whose image Gabe wanted me to add ...

And here's the picture Gabe drew of himself, turning into the Ben 10 hero Diamondhead!  I like the series of photos illustrating the gradual transformation!

Cancer free!

My appointment with the breast oncologist could have been done over the phone today ... The MRI was fine.  The lump is a galactocele from breastfeeding.  The lymph node was normal.  I don't have breast cancer! 

This little guy was not enthusiastic about riding into Houston today!  Dad and I had to make a stop along the way because of all the screaming.  Here's Max on the way back, pushing my phone right up to his mouth and saying, "Hello, hello."

But then we hit traffic, and all the entertaining items I brought were not enough to keep him from thrashing to get out of the seat!

Soon we decided to pull over and switched drivers.  Well, I guess Max was just tired of looking at my face, because he was much happier to have Dad sitting beside him!

My results could not have been better!  Yay!  But of course, this does not change the fact that I have the cancer gene and the risk that that entails, so preventive surgeries still lie in my future.  But it does mean that I have a good chance of being a PREvivor instead of a SURvivor, as far as cancer goes.  So here is my current plan:

1.  Finish breastfeeding Max, 1-3 more years.

2.  See a gynecologic oncologist next about my ovarian cancer risk and have an ultrasound.

3.  Continue screenings every 6 months (mammograms alternating with MRIs for breast, abdominal ultrasounds and CA-125 for ovaries).

4.  Pick out surgeries and surgeons at my leisure.

5.  Have prophylactic bilateral mastectomy at 37 or 38 and BSO at around 40.  These surgeries supposedly do not eliminate cancer risk, but lower them by something like 90-95%.

I ordered this book to help me pick out my new boobs.  Now I have to learn all about silicone, saline, gummi bears, DIEP flaps, LAP flaps, GAP flaps, one-steps ...  Although it's not a fun thing at all, I guess there is something appealing about the shopping aspect.  I'm just not ready to do this surgery yet.

I just heard that Christina Applegate, who also has the BRCA1 gene, is now pregnant with her first child at age 38.  I guess she's decided to wait on the oophorectomy ... till 40 as well?  I wonder what her plan is ...

So anyway, I am just going to be happy right now about today's news and save the remaining worry for later. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers!  ~Amy  :)

Gabe's brand new toy: just opened, and ... lost!

Maxie's still fussy.  Here's Daddy in a rare moment of calm just before the lost toy fiasco.

Gabe and Joe came running home when Gabe's package arrived in the mail.  It came with a faun and a minotaur from the recent-ish Prince Caspian movie.  (Gabe's been playing the video game on the Wii.)

Gazing into the package.  Then, nearly immediately after it was opened, the little sword vanished!  (So did Joe.  He had to go home.  It's always a good time to go home when Dan is mad.)

Daddy found the little sword.  He had warned Gabe not to lose it.  Here he is giving it back to Gabe with an admonition.

Gabe is generally not very sensitive to or upset by admonition.  Here he is running to tell Joe the sword was found!

Yay!  So, issue resolved, right?  

Not exactly.  Now, the faun toy itself was missing!

So here's the score:  Just moments out of the packaging, two parts of Gabe's toy were lost.  Here's Daddy, incredulous.

Lifting the couch so Gabe could look for it.  Gabe found a whole bunch of stuff he was looking for!  (Well, except not the faun toy.)

Was it under the couch?

In between the cushions?  

Maybe in the grass outside?  

Or maybe ...

Mysteriously, it was in the barn.  Hmmmm .....  I'm actually going to look back at these pictures for clues to solve this mystery.

Oh, and here's the picture Gabe drew of Four Arms today.

Final note:  As I was writing this post, sword and faun were lost again!  (It never ends.)  But Grandma found them, and all is well tonight ...