Anxious! Nervous!

I'm writing this as I sit at the vampire lab. Yes, it's the blood lab.  I drove over here praying.  Today, could possibly be, the last Leukemia blood test for awhile.  My onocogist is giving it to me today.  Lots of labs.  

I'm nervous, excited, a bit emotional, anxious, and just would like to close this chapter.  

I'm nervous because I am not a fan of giving blood.  

I'm excited because this may be the last one for awhile and it could mean that I am cancer free and cured from Leukemia.  

I'm a bit emotional because this long journey is coming to an end.  I can see the light.  

I'm anxious to complete this test and hear Dr. Ngyugen tell me it's clear. 

I'm thankful because I wouldn't be here without my faith in God. He is my Rock.  He is my healer.  He has been here since the beginning and because of my faith He will be here until the end.   

As the lab tech draws my blood, I will be praying as my blood fills those viles.  I have done that with every blood draw, every procedure, every exam, every Drs appointment.  

I will not know the results until next week.  So after today, it will take a lot of patience to wait.  

GATE Project - Galactus

After studying the first quarter all about the Mars Rover project and visiting JPL in

Pasadena, Briggor had to design his own rover.

His design plans:

Meet Galactus......

Briggor had to come up with the design and a mission for his rover.

Galactus is made out of recycled materials.  The materials include:

a plastic box, spray painted black for the body,

a wooden spindle on the top for the "antennae",

the top of a spray can for a "camera",

a metal piece of something to be the "vacuum" which will

collect samples,

wheels from a broken R/C car,

wooden dowels for the axels,

and a piece of reflective material for "solar panels".

Briggor designed Galactus to travel to Janus, one of Saturn's moons,

to land and collect samples of the surface to

bring back and compare to our moon.

Briggor did most of the construction himself and came up with the

ideas while we were cleaning out our garage a couple of weekends ago.

He rummaged through the trailer of trash to find his items.

He drilled his own holes and also received injuries due to 

the hot glue gun.

The teachers gave me 5 out of 5 points for his project and

his teacher said she was "blown away" by his project.

2 years....................

Well, its hard to believe but it is just over two years since I was diagnosed with leukemia and when all my hair fell out.   Look at me now!  I wanted to post this to show how fast my hair has

grown in 2 years.  I'm still smiling and still feeling well.

In December, we are doing another leukemia blood test to see where my numbers are.

January 10, 2016, will be two years since my last chemo treatment.  That is the magic date

to get to when the doctor will deem me cured.  I can't wait to hear those words.

Looks like you will be looking at a CURED Leukemia cancer survivor!!

If you were to ask me to recall that time in my life, it seems so far away but yet when

I truly sit and think about it the scars, emotionally and physically are still there but I

have done my best to bury them deep inside.   I have good days and bad days.  Chemo is nasty and does terrible things to your body.  But, I feel blessed that I feel as good as I do.  Maybe it was God's way of telling me to SLOW DOWN, Mary!   haha!!

Trust me, my body definitely tells me when I over due!  I'm just too stubborn 

to listen. Eventually, God wins and I SLOW DOWN!

Life is too short to worry about tomorrow.

I will die someday but NOT today!

Solar Panels

So, we final did it.  After years of watching, reading, crying over high electrical bills and learning, we decided to put solar panels on our house.  46 solar panels to be exact.

We signed the documents and up they went.  We have starting banking electricity thanks to

the sun.  Mark and I can't wait to see how much a difference it makes in the summer when

we spend so much money on electricity.

As you can see from the above picture, we have most of the solar panels on the back side of

our roof.  When you look at our house from the street, you can't see them at all.  Would you believe we still have more room for more panels??

Pacific  Gas and Electric can kiss my A$$!!!!!!   This is one company I do not like, at all.

PG&E are going to miss our monthly check.....sorry PGE!!!

The company installed a new sub-panel to handle all the solar panels.

This is half of the total of solar panels going on the roof.

JPL

At the beginning of the school year, Briggor tested into the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Program for his school district.  He attends his GATE class on Tuesdays.  They take education to a whole new level.  The teachers push their intellect to new possibilities.  The 5th grade GATE program is studying Space Exploration with an emphasis on the idea that in Briggor's lifetime, we may have people living on Mars.

Briggor and I were able to go on a field trip a few weeks ago with his GATE class.

We were welcomed to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for the day.

The JPL Public Services Office offers tours free of charge for groups and individuals on an advance reservation basis.  Our tour included a multimedia presentation on JPL entitled "Journey to the Planets and Beyond," which provides an overview of the Laboratory's activities and accomplishments. We also visited  the von Karman Visitor Center, the Space Flight Operations Facility (Mission Control) , and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

Briggor has decided that when he grows up he wants to attend Cal Tech after

high school and work at JPL as a scientist specializing in astronomy.

Mission Control

Assembly Facility

End of another season......

Fall baseball season has come to a close.  The team had a mix of old, seasoned

players and quite a few rookies on the team.   Fall ball is very laid back and

its that time of the year to hone in on your fundamental skills.

The seasoned veterans helped the rookies with basic skills and

encouragement.

We won some games and lost some but all in all the boys

had smiles on their faces the whole season.

BSWB - Mustang A's 2015 Fall Season

Halloween 2015

Another Halloween has come and gone at

our house.  It was much quieter this year.

I stayed home to give out candy as

all the kids went with friends to

Trick or Treat.

Briggor wanted to be a werewolf this year.

Jade did her own makeup to look like her face was cracked and

she put in blue contacts.

I think she did an awesome job.

Jade and her friend, Aubrey, who is Pikachu, right before

they left to go out.

Briggor and his gang.

Jack was a military zombie guy,

Briggor the werewolf

and 

Jayden the clown zombie.

Megan and friends celebrating Halloween night

at a friends house.

Megan is Alice in Wonderland with cowboy boots.

Go figure?!?!?!