BUSY~BUSY~BUSY

Goodness! This has been an incredibly busy week! I've worked 10 hour days. It has been sooooooo much fun, it hasn't really even felt like work! I go at warp-speed, then realize I haven't eaten yet. I scarf down lunch in about 15 minutes then go back to it. When I look at my watch again, it is time to go home! I love it!
Roy has had a decent week. The pelvic pain is getting more pronounced, but he is able to keep it controlled with the lighter of his pain medicines. His blood sugar is still too high, but his new medicine is definitely bringing it down some. He goes for another PET and CT scan on Tuesday, so as always, prayers are needed. We get the results of these scans NEXT Tuesday.
I'm trying so hard to NOT put up my Christmas decorations yet! I thought I would hold off until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. For the past 12 years I worked in retail. Now that I no longer do, it will feel WEIRD to be off for 5 days after Thanksgiving. I will actually be able to visit family and friends and decorate my house the way I like it! I'm so excited!
All-in-all, life is beautiful. I hope everyone has a wonderful week~
♥ you, Lilly

I can't BELIEVE it's NOVEMBER already!!!

I have always LOVED the Holidays.... all of them! I love dressing up for Halloween and answering the door to the little trick-or-treaters and scaring the crap out of them! I love seeing all the cute costumes on all the little kids.

BUT..... because Roy hasn't been feeling his greatest, and because with our recent adoptions we now have 3 dogs, we decided not to participate this year. :-(

I just thought it would be too much on everybody. Our street is about 1 mile long. Parents drop their kids off at a service station on one end of the street and pick them up at the service station at the other end. The houses that aren't participating simply leave their porch lights off and the kids bypass them.

Well, yesterday the kids started coming at 5:00! What-the-what???? Trick-or-treating is supposed to start at DUSK! We must have had 100 kids ring the bell, bang on the door, call out "anybody home?" and leave frustrated before 6:15 when it finally got dark enough that they could see we didn't have any lights on. I had NO CANDY to give them at all, just a bag of dark chocolate kisses I bought for me and I wasn't about to part with those (and kids don't like dark chocolate anyway, right?) I also had half a sheet cake I had baked the day before, but NO parent would have let their child eat that! So, Roy and I stayed huddled up in the back den, all the lights off, hungry because we didn't want anyone to see the kitchen lights on, while the dogs were going CRAZY at the front door! Next year, I'll go all out again. It was brutal knowing those kids were on my porch and I couldn't even SEE them!

My grandson, Sam, went to a Church festival yesterday. My daughter didn't think he would do very well going house to house. At 18 months old, he can't say "Trick or Treat" and doesn't need the candy. How cute is this TIGER?

In other news....we so enjoyed the extra hour sleep last night. I loved that we woke up all rested and got to start our day and hour earlier!!!

Roy's doctor changed his medicine for his diabetes. He now gets a powerful shot at 10:00 each night that is a time-released insulin that works for 24 hours. His highs have been around 350 and lows around 200, so it's helping some. It's pretty normal for cancer patients to run a higher blood sugar, and it makes it a little harder to treat. He has had just a few bad days and a lot of good ones. We went out to lunch on Thursday! I can't tell you how good that felt! We just went to a little Chinese restaurant down the street (Ding How, but I affectionately call it Ding Meow). It's buffet style and we both ate too much! Great fortunes too!

I'm going to start decorating for Christmas in a couple of weeks. I found the tree I want and have to order it online. Soooooo excited!

Happy November everyone!

♥ you, Lilly

What's so Funny about Peace, Love and Cocker Spaniels?

Joe Cocker!

Things are settling back down here. Roy has had several good days! His blood sugar had been out of control, staying close to the 500's, but has now been hanging in at around 250. Still too high, but manageable.

Clay came for a visit this weekend and that always makes Roy feel better! They spent Saturday watching football all day, we ate way too much and had a wonderful time. Yesterday, I don't think either of us moved out of our chairs the entire day!

That's about it for now. Thank you everyone for the sweet words of encouragement and all the prayers for Roy.

♥ you, Lilly

~ The Best of the Worst~

Hi Everybody~
The results were not as good as we were hoping for, but not as bad as they could have been either, so we are grateful for "meeting in the middle".
Roy's cancer has been held at bay for several months, mostly because of the 33 radiation treatments. The latest scan shows that it is on the move again. It has not metastasized to any other area (GREAT NEWS), but can't be radiated in the area where it is (not so great news).
The kind of chemo that they have to use for this grade (4) and stage (4) of cancer is not one that Roy can tolerate. They had cut his dosage to 75%, to 50%, to 25% and finally just tried giving him 25% of one of the two drugs he needs. He still had to have blood transfusions because it would wipe out his red cells so completely.
Dr. McDaniel will re-scan him in 6 weeks to see just what this mass is up to, then make a determination as to how to proceed.
Thank you so much for your prayers, good thoughts, emails, calls and for wearing yellow for Roy. We most definitely felt your love and strength.....
♥ you, Lilly & Roy

The "Gurley Girls" in yellow for Roy!!! ~ SO Beautiful~

Tuesday is SCAN RESULTS Day

Yellow is the support color for Roy's cancer. Every time he goes to surgery or to get test results, I have asked for everyone to wear something yellow to keep him in your thoughts and prayers. It has helped EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!
Tomorrow is a very critical day. If you would wear something yellow (a bracelet, scarf, socks) and say a quick prayer for him it would be so appreciated. I would LOVE to have a pic too, if you wanted to share that. You can send them to my cell 334.324.5001 or to my email lilly7@knology.net . We love seeing all that sunny love!

Thank you all~
♥ you, Lilly

~Lilly is Quiet~

This won't be the usual crazy, silly, funny post. It's time for Roy's scans again to see what this monstrous cancer is up to now. We repeat these scans every 3 months and I always just kind of *lock up* in the days before. He had his CT scan this morning, and will have his PET scan tomorrow. We would very much appreciate prayers and positive thoughts! We will get the results next Tuesday~
♥ you, Lilly

Sorry Nikki...Lacey and I just CLICK!

Have you ever read a blog and just felt KINSHIP with the writer? Like you knew EXACTLY where she was coming from? Where she was going? What made her happy? Sad? Those of you who know Nikki from http://nikkicrumpet.blogspot.com/ have undoubtedly come to love her too. She seems to reach into our hearts and minds and write just what we need to hear that day. It seemed we had so much in common: at least it felt that way until I "met" her daughter Lacey. That's when I KNEW I had met my twin! Meet Lacey~Lacey and I both share a love for bodybuilding, as evidenced by the following side-by-side pictures.

Checkout these phenomenal ABS! Lacey is on the left and has what we in the bodybuilding world call a "6-pack"! I am on the right and have a whole CASE!

Hineys, booties, bums, butts, gluts are a very important part of bodybuilding. It takes a lot of work to sculpt a derriere to this perfection.

Again, Lacey-left, Lilly-right.

All bodybuilders alternate upper and lower body workouts, though Lacey and I both obviously spend a LOT of time muscling up our legs. Man, I love those wolf whistles when I strut past the construction sites (and car washes)!

You will see Lacey's amazing gams on the left, my equally amazing gams on the right.

Now, I think we have BOTH perfected our sultry/pouty look for the camera. What do you think?

Fooled you this time! I am the one on the left, Lacey is on the right! See!!! You can hardly tell us apart, it's astounding really.

OK, now that I have humiliated myself (and possible prostituted myself too), please be kind in your comments. I'm over 50!

Then go see Nikki and tell her I'm lonely over here :-(

ed. note: I totally stole these pictures and reprinted without permission, so when you see Nik or bff Lacey, please plead my case ;-)

♥ you, Lilly

Britney, Girls Night, and Saleswomen on Parole!

*For Molly's 16th Birthday last week, Oldest daughter Kate gave her tickets to the Britney Spears concert in Atlanta. So on Friday, Molly & I headed to Birmingham to pick up Kate, then on to Atlanta for the concert. We were late (of course, I'm never on time for ANYTHING) and completely missed the opening act. I'm assuming Jordan Sparks did fine without us. Britney was surprisingly good. She is the same age as Kate (mentally Kate is twice her age) She has been a long-time fan, so I too have followed her career ups and downs for a decade. She seems to have finally gotten her life together and really put on a good show.



Molly looks like any Britney wannabe....fits right in. I'm the token Senior Citizen and grateful they didn't escort me out. Katy is just beautiful and swears that she and Britney are sooooo much alike that they could be sisters, though I don't know how that could happen 'cause they're only 2 months apart and I'm also pretty sure I never had sexual relations with that money hungry/daughter-whoring/Louisiana redneck man, Mr. Spears . I really had a great time with my girls!




*I spent today in Birmingham with Kate and my Grandson Sam. He is only 18 months old folks, and already over 3 feet tall. I believe my Son-in-Law is 6'4", Sam will probably pass him soon.


*Katy is probably one of the sweetest young women I've ever known (yep, a little biased). She just goes with the flow, never hurting anyone's feelings. I love being around her and often wonder how she turned out so well ( I don't need any comments from my sisters here) I called her when I was close and told her I just needed to stop by the Pet Store and would be right there. When I got there, she had this LARGE woman in her den. I thought she was a friend, so I stuck my hand out and introduced myself. She said "Give me your glasses" and I assumed it was because they are the CUTEST glasses in the WORLD and she wanted to see the name on them, but NO.....she reaches in this camo back pack, takes out this cleaner, sprays it on the cutest glasses in the world and proceeds to wipe them with a PAPER TOWEL! Now, I only use those ridiculous glasses cloths on my cute glasses when I wear them, which is not very often because I don't want anything to happen to them! I squint the rest of the time. I give her this WHAT-THE-HELLO? look, she stops wiping them, BREATHES on them, wipes her fingers on them to show me that they don't smudge and hands them back. By now I'm thinking my sweet Katy needs new friends.
Anyway, to make a long story not quite so long, it ends up that this woman is selling some cleaner that supposedly will clean carpet, glass, wood, clothes, animals, poo diapers....whatever.
I declined to buy the only cleaner I'll need to buy for the next year because I fell for that trick when I was a young mommy, and took Sam into the kitchen to feed him lunch. Katy couldn't get RID of the woman and bought the $60 cleaner, and that didn't even include the spray bottle! I asked her why she didn't just tell her no like I did and she said the woman scared her. She thought it was me at the door, even though I NEVER ring the bell because I feel like since I gave BIRTH to her that entitles me to barge in whenever.... Can I get an AMEN? So, the bell rings and she thinks it's me and that my hands must be full of whatever crap I have decided to dump in her tiny house this time and I guess she thought I was ringing the bell with my foot. She opens it to this woman (I really wish I had taken a picture of her, but to be honest she scared me a little too). The saleswoman PUSHES her way into Katy's house, past Sam, past various toys, past a ROTTWEILER, a PUG and Katy, and starts cleaning the mirror over her entryway table. THEN goes into Sam's room and cleans juice spots on his carpet, THEN goes and cleans a TOILET! The entire time she is telling Kate that she used to sell DRUGS and "things" on the streets of Detroit and this job has allowed her to make an "honest?" living! hahahaha....Katy was scared she would come back and kill her! Saleswoman/drug dealer/parolee got mad that I wouldn't buy it too, and Katy played the dreaded cancer card! She told the woman that her Dad has cancer and I that's why I couldn't buy the stuff. I guess she was trying to say that since Roy is sick I don't clean??? Who knows. It worked because the woman didn't come into the kitchen and kill me.

*Anyway, that's what's been going on in my life lately. Roy hasn't been feeling so great this week, but will see his Oncologist in a couple of weeks and can hopefully get some answers then. He will see his G.P. next week for other issues.

*I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Don't answer your doorbells, they're out there!
♥ you, Lilly

I'm Not A Masterbaker!

Got your attention? Good!

I have always considered myself a pretty good cook, but never made any bones about the fact that I can NOT bake.... not cakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, nor apparently, PIES! While reading an adorable blog written by 18 year old Jacky ( the sweetest petunia) at http://thesweetestpetunia.blogspot.com/ I came across her recipe for her Award Winning Apple Pie and her exclamations of how EASY it is to make! AWARD WINNING AND EASY? **ding**! I headed to the grocery store for the ingredients! I wrote to her and told her that I was planning to make it. The Sweetest Petunia asked "did the recipe make sense?" and not wanting to show my ignorance for all things baking, I replied "Perfect sense, I can't wait to make it"!

Well, Sweetest Petunia/beautiful, talented, 18-year old/Sado-masochist, I am here to tell you that recipe was NOT easy! And certainly nothing I could take to a Church get-together. And the only award it will be winning is the "What-the-heck-do-you-call-this-hot-mess?" award.

Questions: (1) How do you ever get the pie crust to fit? (2) When you say "woven", did I REALLY need to weave it in and out, 'cause that wasn't working for me? (3) Did you know that if you neglect to trim the ends of the non-woven pieces before you put the pie in the oven, they will burn off, fall in the bottom of your oven and start a fire? Smoked apple pie just isn't the same. The entire process left me looking like this. I realize that I should have been upfront with you and admitted that I need the elementary version of homemade apple pie, but I'm stupid proud!

I had planned on spending Labor Day in the pool, just having grilled hot dogs for dinner, but Molly wanted Alex (new boyfriend) to come over. I didn't want to mark that 17 year old boy for life by subjecting him to me in a swimsuit, so I decided to stay in and make a nice dinner instead. This is the 5th or 6th time he has been here for dinner and each time I have tried to impress him with my culinary skills. I have even sent him home with leftovers for his family because I'm braggy nice like that~

I can tell you, there were no leftovers going home with that boy last night! I had laid out pork chops to grill. Roy is my griller, but he had a bad day and spent it in bed. "How hard can it be to cook over an open flame?" I asked myself. Heck...I'm a Cherokee Indian, my ancestors did it ALL THE TIME! Well, it can be this hard.....

Our grill is on the patio outside the den. I was in the kitchen when I noticed all the smoke and realized it wasn't still coming from the apple pie debacle. The dinner went downhill from there.

I really hate Rachel Ray, Paula Deen and Martha Stewart right now. Sweetest Petunia? I still love you....you're an absolute DOLL....you couldn't have known!

So, let's have another cup of coffee....and let's completely forgo the pie!

♥ you, Lilly

Megan and Shannon.....

Sometimes, I get overwhelmed at life. I look at my sweet husband and scream to the sky "God, why did you do this to him?" I watch him struggle to get dressed some days and wonder why I couldn't have been the one to get cancer instead of him. Then I get all melancholy and pout-y. From there I get angry. I finally do reach the acceptance level and deal with it. I go through the gamut of phases regularly, about once a month.....it's MY monthly cycle. Then I "meet" other people who are facing grim odds with such grace and dignity that I feel ashamed of my rants. One of those inspirational people is Megan of The Paraplegic Chef http://www.theparaplegicchef.com/ She was in an ATV accident nearly 2 years ago and is paralyzed from the waist down. If she and her partner, Shannon, have had any feelings of "no fair", it hasn't come across in their writing or the way they are living their lives.

Megan wants to work with the disabled. She also is the official chef for fightpink.org

These girls are so precious. If you know them already, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't know them, I urge you to visit them now. Megan is a fantastic chef....I'm making her chicken-tortilla casserole for dinner tonight. It has become a family favorite and you can find the recipe on her blog! You'll also find a link to Shannon's blog that in itself is a breath of fresh air!

In attempting to gain more Independence, Shannon and Megan are raising money to buy a hand cycle. Now, I KNOW how caring and generous blogland is.....y'all helped me raise $3000 for cancer research! I'm asking again, for Megan. Just any donation will help get her closer to independence. You'll find a paypal link on her blog and it's completely secure. There is also an address if you'd rather mail a check. Please look hard into your soul and help this young woman, send a donation, post something on your blog, write her a "You Go Girl" message! She is such an inspiration....her story NEEDS to be told!

Go see her now, then let me know you did. I'm going to try to come up with some raffle goodies to help the cause ~ Thanks so much everyone!

♥ you, Lilly

Bear With Me Please!!! I'm a Proud Mommy~

Well, it's official....We have no more babies! Molly's 16th birthday was so much fun. It's hard for me to comprehend that she will be getting in the car, by herself, and going places. I'm not sure when she is going to take her driving test, but I'm not going to urge her to go anytime soon!

I made her birthday a scavenger hunt, hiding gifts all over the place and leaving her riddles to solve the clues! (like inside the messy desk in our den) (taped to the back of the door in the half-bath) (hidden on the bottom shelf behind the wet bar) (even stashed among the groceries in the pantry).

She was a good sport...and fairly good at figuring out the clues! She needed a little help with some of them (her sister Katy deciphering the next riddle).

Her final clue led her to her bedroom where I had spent 6 HOURS redecorating!

We had a nice time, despite the fact that the grocery store made the ugliest cake EVER, even though I took the Eiffel Tower to them and described exactly how I wanted the cake to look....with lots of flowers around the outside and super special. arrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

She didn't really seemed to mind at all....Alex was there, so she wasn't worried about her cake!

This is after they went swimming. Just what you want for your 16th birthday pictures....wet, stringy hair and mascara-streaked eyes. (Pay no attention to the beer bottle on the table, it's mine!)

I didn't get a lot of pictures, way too busy! Roy had a bad day yesterday and I thought he might have to spend the party in bed! He was feeling better by the time everyone got here though. His girls have a way of making all of his pain go away... (Katy and Jess).

It's going to be a busy month in the Dean house. 2 more birthdays, lots of doctors appts, hopefully a trip to NY if I can work it in and now a Britney Spears concert in Altlanta that Katy gave Molly for her birthday~FUN

♥ you, Lilly

OMG!!! Any ideas on how I can STOP TIME???

Despite all of my attempts to thwart it, it appears that Molly is growing up!

She is 15- going on Grandmother!

When Roy first got sick she was only 13. The hospital was over an hour away, so I stayed there around the clock for 3 months, only coming home 2 times to pack different clothes because the seasons had changed. Our middle daughter, Jess, moved back to the house to stay with her. Nearly every day Molly would call me on my cell to tell me she had forgotten something. She would call Jess at her job in the afternoon to tell her she had forgotten her keys and couldn't get in the house. I finally told her one evening on the phone that she HAD to start being more responsible and keep up with her things. She screamed out in frustration "Daddy always did that FOR me!". It was true! As she would come in the house, Roy would pick up her keys from wherever she left them and put them back in her book bag. He would make sure she had lunch money, school forms signed, gym shoes and books. She had to do some fast maturing. When we got home from the hospital, it was Molly that would take care of her Dad. She would let the nurses in and out, fix his meals, handle phone calls or visitors and help with housework.

This summer, we let Molly go to France with her French Club. I was so worried, but she handled it all very well. She took great care with her money and managed to buy great souvenirs for everyone here. I was so proud of her when she came back and described paintings or architecture she had seen. She really paid attention!

She is 15 now, a Junior in High School! McDonald's is still her favorite place to eat, she will drink kool-aid over water, and thinks vegetables are Satan's food. She rolls in the floor with the dogs, does crazy tricks off the diving board and would rather be a passenger in my car than a driver. I begin to relax and think "well good, she's still my little girl" when she looks at me from the floor, upside down, feet on the back of the couch and says "Oh, I need tampons the next time you're at the store"!!!!

My baby daughter texted me from school today, ***Mom, Alex asked me out! YESSSSSS!***

Now, Alex is a SENIOR, she told me about him yesterday. Molly is only 15, she won't be 16 until September. If this Alex is a Senior, he is probably already 18!!! (possibly 17). At this age, a 2 or 3 year difference might as well be in DOG years! So we have tiny little Molly at 15 and burly, probably bearded, muscled, hormonal Alex at (18 + 21) 39! or at least 24. Too much! I don't know how I'm going to break it to her that she can't go out with him.

***Editor's note: Alex is actually 17, Molly will be 16 in 2 weeks. Chalk it up to a Mom's overreacting subconscious. And the "date" isn't actually for a couple of weeks! ***

♥ you, Lilly

Sorry.....

....that I've been MIA lately (all summer). Life has been a little crazy. I'll be back at it soon, I'm sure. In the meantime, don't forget us!
♥ you, Lilly

Our Own Independence Day!

NO DISTANT METASTASISES.....NO CHANGE IN THE PELVIC TUMOR!

Can I just say "Thank You God"?

And thank you EVERYONE for your positive thoughts and prayers!
They will repeat the scans in 3 months~

In the meantime, Prattville is having a parade and fireworks on Saturday to celebrate the great news (they are just promoting it as a 4th of July Parade!)
♥ you, Lilly