All Clear!!

My Dad had his three month check and got the ALL CLEAR!! The cancer has stayed away!! Another thing to celebrate in our family!


Here he is with the great-grandkids, Corene, Ava and Isaac.

10 Year Anniversary

Today marks my 10 year anniversary with Entertainment Publications.

I love my job. I work with restaurants and attractions and sign offers for the Twin Cities and Madison editions. I work with businesses people go to in their free time.

I have a home office. I have friends (I call them my Entertainment family) all over the country. I am very blessed to work for such wonderful people for such a great family-friendly company, and I am proud to celebrate 10 years with them.

Mom's in Rehab!

Mom is all settled into her new rehab hospital! She was transported by ambulance yesterday. Matt and Jenny (my nephew and his wife, my bff) stopped by tonight with the kids. Corene was excited that Great-Grandma was better and thought it must be because they prayed for her. Undoubtedly!! Thank you to everyone who prayed. We are still amazed that Mom is doing so well and she is amazed that she was so sick. She said, "I almost went to Heaven" and we said we were so glad that she didn't!

She is able to speak with a special valve that attaches to the trach and she is breathing on her own now for most of the day. Her voice is very raspy but what a comfort to hear her at all! The average stay at this hospital for rehab is 25 days but we are hoping that it won't be that long for Mom.
The good news is that her oncologist says no more chemo, so we need to pray that the cancer STAYS AWAY since they are not able to detect any right now. (Hallelujah!) I am so glad Mom doesn't have to have any more chemo, but I am sad that I won't see my nurse buddies in the cancer care wing anymore! From left to right is my Mom and Dad's oncologist, Dr. M., and nurses Kym, Paula, Heather and Karen. They are holding the goodie basket we got them as a "thank you". My Dad has completed his second week of radiation - "only" 25 more sessions to go!

People keep asking how I am doing. I feel like my Mom! Like I can finally take a deep breath! My house is a disaster, so maybe I will get around to cleaning it. Maybe. I have missed a lot of work and have a massive sales goal I would LOVE to acheive, since the bonus I would receive would help us with our adoption fees. I am trying not to be too stressed out! Just doing what I have been doing all along since this crisis began. Praying, doing the best I can and taking one day at a time!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Wow, I was too nervous to post yesterday, for fear that she might just be having a "good" day, but it seems that Mom has had what they call here in ICU a "turn-around day". She wants to go home and is smiling and alert. She is discovering how long she has been here and how very sick she was - and she can't believe it. She still can't talk because of the trach - they are doing some speech therapy today and she can whisper right now with a special valve on the trach tube. She weaned off the vent for 11 hours yesterday - makes me chuckle now that I was excited about 35 minutes last week!!

I am amazed that this is the same woman - I am thanking and praising God for answering our prayers and the prayers of so many - we have heard from friends and relatives all over the country who are praying for her! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Please pray now for her to continue to gain strength and to have patience as she is not headed home like she wants, but to a rehab hospital, to wean her more off the vent and to help her re-gain physical strength. They are thinking she will be transferred as early as tomorrow! Wow.

Came Through Both Surgeries OK

Mom is doing ok after the placement of a feeding tube in her stomach and the tracheostomy for the ventilator. She is still doing better bit by teeny bit, but is STILL listed in critical condition. It was SO nice to see her face today and when she wakes from the anesthesia it will be wonderful that she will be able to smile again. We are going to have to get skilled at lip reading!! :) But lip reading will be a GIFT! We have been playing the guessing game with little nods or shakes of her head until we figure what she needs.

With no more chemo scheduled, she is getting some peach fuzz, too! :)
More soon.

Still in ICU, Still in Critical Condition

The reason I haven't posted yet is that there really is no change--there are very minor improvements at a very slow pace. They were able to take her off the second blood pressure medication, so that is good. They tried to take her off the ventilator and had to put her back on after about 30 minutes. I just can't rest easy until she is out of critical. The farthest I have gone from the hospital is 15 minutes away, because I want to get back if I have to, but mostly I have just been here. I love her doctor, most of the nurses and I love this hospital! It is so nice and they did a great job making certain areas comfortable. The ICU waiting room is, dare I say, almost cozy. ALMOST.

I thought I should instill a smidge of humor into your day. My mom has always used humor to get through life and no matter what you are going through you have to chuckle here and there. I mostly have been chuckling at myself for the dumb stuff I am saying and doing. I haven't been working much, but did go to an appointment I had with the Timberwolves today, our NBA team. I pulled into my parking spot and went to my appointment. When I got back I noticed that I had put my hospital parking permit in the dashboard of my car. In downtown Minneapolis. I have concluded that I am slightly delirious. I can't finish a sentence and I tend to stop in the middle of a sentence and stare and ask whoever I was talking to, "What was I saying?"

More updates as soon as I get some news.

Oh, and today it has been TWO years since we have been logged in to China's system. Yippee.

My Precious Mama

Many of you know that my mom has been suffering from Ovarian Cancer since last September. She was doing so well and was only one treatment away from being done. When I was with her this past weekend she wasn't feeling very well. Monday morning my Dad called me and we decided to have her admitted to the hospital.

She declined quickly - by the afternoon they had moved her to ICU where she remains in critical condition. She has pneumonia, a blood infection and a skin infection.

I am so sad for her to get this close to the end of treatment and have this to deal with now. We are praying that she pulls out of this and would like to ask you to do the same.

We appreciate all the phone calls and messages expressing your concern. We apologize that we are unable to personally respond to each and every one; however, we will post updates at this site periodically.

Family Update!

Today is Patricia's 8th birthday! (I love this picture with her little shirt on backwards!) We wish we could have been with her but even though we couldn't we wanted to celebrate. I'd like to collect pairs of tennis shoes, sandals, and/or flip flops to send to her orphanage - would you be willing to buy a new pair or donate a quality used pair (or two)? There is a shipment of items going down to Haiti in a few weeks, so we have to move quickly. If you are willing, please post a comment or email me and I will give you the address to send them to. If you contribute tennis shoes, please buy a clean pair of socks, too. Sizes from toddler to teen, for boys or girls.

For Patricia's birthday we bought her a car!! Just kidding. We didn't really want a car payment again, but with the transmission going out in the Explorer, we didn't feel that it was worth it to repair it. Here is a stock photo of what we got - a 2007 Mercury Mariner - except ours is black. I know, another black vehicle, but we like it! Plus we got a great deal (only 9,000 miles) and we did well on our trade, too.Other good news this week is that China has now made it into 2006 with placements - through January 4. Our log in date is March 13, 2006 so we are closer than we have ever been and just the fact that they are finally in 2006 is such a relief.

On the other side of things, it has been a tough week as my mom is having hard time with her chemo treatments, so please pray for her to regain some appetite, energy and strength. My dad started his radiation treatments this week also, so please pray for him. I could use prayer as well to be a helpful and good hearted care giver, while balancing work and home. Thanks!

Also, it keeps snowing! The view for anyone attempting to sit on this bench by our house would be a bit dull! I am REALLY eager for Spring. I usually last longer than this, but this has been a particularly bitter winter and Entertainment had our sales training in Detroit this year instead of Florida so I never got to escape and it really made a difference! Hopefully last weekend was the last of the below zero temps!

Our dog, June, is also seemingly eager for Spring as she continually prepares me for motherhood with her constant activity and naughty behavior. She is best behaved after much physical activity and on sunny days where she can bask in the sunlight in our kitchen (that's the cat bed, by the way).

This past weekend Lee was out of town and while some of my girlfriends were over on Friday night, June helped herself to three pieces of pepperoni pizza and on Saturday when my niece Jenny was over, June ate her Ghirardelli dark chocolate candy bar. Of course dark chocolate is toxic for dogs, so out came the hydrogen peroxide. Jenny and I ended up, after 30 minutes of standing in freezing temps and falling snow, using a turkey baster to get June to swallow the peroxide so she would throw up. We were so cold but needed to make sure she puked and I couldn't hold June and administer the peroxide by myself so we tackled it as a team. We went back and forth between laughing and grumbling. FINALLY June threw it all up and we went back in by the fire and finished our movie. So much for a relaxing evening!

Well, this blog is about five posts in one, but that's the kind of week it was! Here's to warmer weather and a great week ahead!

A Grand Night for Singing

I have the privilege of singing with the Great Northern Union Chorus, and on November 17 we had our season finale concert. Fortunately, someone's camera was rolling, so here are a couple of selections for your listening enjoyment. (Oh, yeah. I'm on the far right in the fourth row.):

That Ever I Saw


Loch Lomond

By the way, you can order a copy of our new CD here.

A Canadian 4th of July

Here's the fireworks finale Dawn and I saw at Niagara Falls a few weeks ago:

This is also my first YouTube upload! I thought this would be a good test run.

Prayer Request

Our niece, my sister's little girl, Audrey, has been having health problems. Please remember her and the rest of the Washburn family in your prayers.

A Not-So-Shameless Plug

I am blessed to have married into a very musical family, and my lovely wife, Dawn, happens to be a wonderful singer. With that, I would like to invite you to check out her debut CD, Because I Love You.

This collection features her interpretations of such all-time favorites as "Pennies from Heaven" and Gershwin's "Our Love Is Here to Stay" (where she is joined by yours truly), in addition to refreshing renditions of Norah Jones' hit "Come Away with Me" and Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." Dawn also demonstrates her song-writing talent on the album's title track.

Here is a track listing along with a few audio samples:

1. My Love Song to You
   
2. 'Deed I Do
   
3. Come Away with Me
   
4. Pennies from Heaven
   
5. But Beautiful
   
6. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
   
7. Embraceable You
   
8. Let's Stay Together
   
9. Our Love Is Here to Stay
   
10. Because I Love You
    
11. Let's Fall in Love
    
12. Someone to Watch over Me
    
13. Everything Happens to Me
    
14. They All Laughed

One of the reasons I mention this is that everyone appreciates great music, so I know you will enjoy this CD immensely. The other reason is that all proceeds from CD sales will go to fund our adoption.

So, if you'd like to help out a good cause, if you're looking for a perfect Valentine's Day gift, or if you just like good music, check out Because I Love You. Click here for ordering information.