"The seeds will grow, the flowers bloom..."

Ha! Victory is mine! The blog actually let me post a picture! Well, this is my crazy plant lady. It's not the whole drawing and not of the best quality because I don't have a scanner and had to just take a picture of it and load the picture onto my computer. You can kind of see the flowers she's pollinating. It looks better when you can see all five flowers and the ground below her; it makes it look like she's just drifting around more. But I'm happy with how she turned out, especially her face since I have problems with drawing faces.

"I know you still like old-fashioned waltzes..."

Hmm, guess it's about time to update again.

What have I been up to, lemme see...

Well, band and choir have resumed at RCTC, though as of yet I have only had two real choir classes during which we sang and one real band practice where we've played something. It's a little disappointing, but things should pick up since I think we have a concert coming up in February. Part of the not playing is due to informing new choir/band members about the Florida trip that the music department is going to take during Spring Break. I'm excited about that. We're not performing or anything while we're down there, it's just a trip for fun. I am a little apprehensive, though, since I don't know anyone who is going (all the people I've met in choir/band aren't able to come) and I don't know how much alcohol will be present. I really hope there is a group who is alcohol-free or at least is responsible about drinking and won't criticize me for not drinking. Anyways, I think it should be fun, given I make some friends (which I have been guaranteed I would, so it shouldn't be a problem) and the weather is good. As a group we see lots of dinner shows, go to amusement parks and the beach. I'm excited to go to the beach. It'd better not be raining that day.

Throughout January I've been attending wrestling meets, which are lots of fun- as long as they don't take over three hours. Last night I went to my first boy's basketball game. Sadly, they lost, but Greg played. Yay for Greg!

What else...

Oh, during Christmas break and into mid-January (so about a week ago) I've been helping edit a book that was written by my high school drama director, Mr. Little. He's going to go through and self-publish the book and it should be available at Barnes & Noble by mid-summer. It's a really good book and I recommend that everyone should purchase it once it's been released. =D If you'd like to learn what the book is about, you should check out this site: The Centurion. The post that tells about the book is located at the bottom of the page. Even if you check out Little's site and find you wouldn't be interested in such a book, I ask that you still go forth and tell other people about it- 'specially if you know someone who would probably enjoy it.

Yeah, that was one of the highlights of my January: editing. I got to feel smart and important. =D

But the biggest highlight of my January, by far, is the butt-whooping that the Dover-Eyota Drama Monkeys brought to the One-Act Play Conference Competition last weekend. For years D-E has struggled to even make a placing in the competition. Last year, we finally placed and got a close 2nd to St. Charles. It was amazing; we were all ecstatic. But this year, the cast of "The Swimmer" has scored first in the conference!! It is a landmark in Dover-Eyota history: the thespians of D-E have scored first in competition. So to all the Monkeys who put such great effort into their performance and finally beat St. Charles, Congratulations!! I can't wait for you guys to go to State! Know that I'll be the first in line to battle for coach buses and fancy hotel rooms, paid by the school district, for you guys when you head up there. =D
**If you haven't seen "The Swimmer" yet, there will be a free performance in the Dover-Eyota High School auditorium after the girl's basketball game this Thursday, January 18th.**

Now I'm remembering a fountain of things I've been up to...Eep!...

I've been helping a few friends with songs for the Cancer Telethon, which is this weekend. I'll be accompanying two pieces Sunday morning, one song is "The Rose" and the other "Tears in Heaven," for a few of my friends. It should be fun, and a little nerve-wrecking, but I'm excited- though not about having to get up early.

I started clogging again! Yay! It's nice to be dancing again with other people. I found my teacher from Allegro Dance Studio is now teaching at the studio in Zumbrota, so I'm dancing up there on Thursday nights. Actually, my class is going to be performing Saturday night at the Cancer Telethon, but that's the day I get de-accessed from my chemo pump- so I'll be way too tired that night to dance. =(

That brings me in to Health News de Cheryl...

Tomorrow I have another chemo treatment. I can't even remember what round I'm on anymore, but I know they'll just be a steady thing in my future until they don't work anymore. Chemo is going a lot easier since I've stopped taking the Oxaliplatin (evil chemical...very evil...). The pump, however, has become increasingly annoying. I just can't stand being leashed to that thing for two days; it bugs me. I've kind-a come to a point where I just lounge around in pajamas the two days and don't do much of anything because it's too much effort to try and look decent. I guess this week I'll make an effort since Ben has a wrestling meet Friday that I'd like to attend and the Monkeys have their sub-section competition early Saturday morning. Hmm, I think that means I'll also be learning how to de-access myself since I'll probably be in Wabasha the time my chemo treatment ends and I don't feel like leaving Wabasha to go to the Clinic for a 30 second process. Yep, will definitely be de-accessing myself. Whoopee.

The other day I decided to start drawing again. I’m not much of an artist; my only skill lies in drawing with a Number 2 pencil. So I hunted down a sketch-pad and started doodling. I’m not very good at drawing normal scenes, so I tend to make up stuff. The end result this time was a plant-lady that’s floating and extending her “arms” towards some flowers in order to pollinate them. Her “arms” are more like leafy things with tendrils on the ends. It’s weird. I’ll try to post it on the blog, but I’ve had problems in the past with posting pictures. So if it doesn’t work, just use your imagination and maybe you’ll think of something like what I’ve drawn. =D

Besides reading Little’s novel, I’ve also gone through a couple of other books. The only one I’ve found worth mentioning is the book Beka Cooper Terrier, by Tamora Pierce. It is fantabulous, but that is to be expected in a book by Pierce. It’s about a girl on a medieval police guard making a life for herself in the city slums, a serial killer, a little strange magic, and a mysterious project involving the major thieves of the city. I recommend it to all teenage girls over the age of sixteen. Yep. =)

Okay, this post has gotten plenty long.

Before I end it, I’d like to give a thank-you to Carolann, who gave me some beautiful healing stones. Thank you very much; I love them. =D

Much love to everyone,
Cheryl

"And a Happy New Year..."

Hola!

I hope everyone's holidays were fantabulous.

Mine went pretty well. The actual holidays were great. Christmas Eve I was with my mom's side of the family and Christmas Day I was with my dad's. I got to visit with family and friends and eat lots of good food both days. It was fun. New Year's Eve I celebrated with friends.

Other holiday-break activities included making rosettes with my aunt and cousin, going to an indoor water park (Water Park of America- lots of fun: the slides are awesome), and going to the movie "Night at the Museum" with friends and just hanging out.

I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a bit, but the break was pretty busy. I know a couple days were laid-back: I just stayed at home and read a book or I went shopping with Mom.

And for a health update...

On the 20th, both Mom and I had the stomach flu. It was not fun, to say the least. I couldn't keep anything in my stomach all day and I finally ended up going to the hospital with a 102.4 degree temperature. At the hospital, I sat around for a couple hours, then finally got hooked up to an IV, and then had to wait another couple of hours for the IV to drain into my system. The next day I missed a performance of Peter Pan since I was too sore to move. Like I said, not fun.

But I recovered and was well for a while. Then one day I managed to re-pull a muscle by my hip, which left me limping around. The limp worsened as my thigh began to cramp. I took all the pain meds I knew I was allowed to take, but nothing helped. So New Year's Eve I went back to the hospital. The doctor there gave me a muscle relaxant and a serious pain medication. I don't know if either really helped with the pain much, but the pain medication made me so loopy and tired that I was able to get to sleep and not be concerned about my leg.

Yesterday I was reintroduced to my chemo treatments. I told the nurses about my leg and they called Dr. Pitot down to talk to me. He said the same thing as the doctor in the ER, that the pain was most likely muscular. That was good news, but then he had to come back and say he had considered another possibility for the pain. Pitot said it might be AVN, which I forget what it stands for, but it basically meant the steroids they had been giving me before (didn't even know I was receiving steroids, or maybe my definition of steroids differs from his) were creating little moth-eaten-like holes in the socket of my hip. My first thought was, "Great. And they didn't mention the possibility of me getting this earlier because...?" To make the news even better, he tells me there isn't anything they can do to help AVN except give meds that help relieve the pain. Meh. So if the pain in my leg/hip gets any worse, I'm supposed to let Pitot know. I don't think it's getting worse, but then again I just hung-out in bed all day and didn't do much moving at all. When I finally did get up, it didn't seem like the pain was any worse and I don't think I was limping as bad as I was before. Hopefully the pain will just go away in the near future.

Like I said before, I started chemo again yesterday. Today and half of tomorrow I'll be hooked-up to the pump. Definitely not the most fun of things; I hate lugging it around everywhere and it makes normal bathing near impossible. I'll be glad when it comes off tomorrow.

Well, I guess that's about it. My holidays were great, with the exceptions of being sick and limping. I don't start band/choir at RCTC again until the 8th, and I hope to see some more of my friends during the day before they go back to school.

ttyl,
Cheryl