Well

This weekend should be interesting as Friday I'm going to a bell festival with our church's bell choir (I'll be back Saturday afternoon). Last year the youth had their own group, but unfortunately it got extremely small (it seems most youth don't seem to appreciate bell playing =]) and so now the few remaining youth have been combined with the adult bell choir. My mother happens to be in the choir as well (we have been known to get in huge fights during practice ;)) but she happens not to be going on the trip. (Hallejuah). Don't worry I'm just kidding of course. =] I'll be sure to let you know how it goes, and hopefully my hands won't fall off from all that bell playing and I won't go deaf from all those wrong, loudly rung notes I'll be hearing.

That's all for now.

Discouraging

Unfortunately yesterday we discovered that my dad's brain tumor (which had been benign) has converted to cancer. So next week he'll have to start strong chemotherapy treatments which will go on for quite some time I think. Also my mom is starting him on an anti-cancer diet (which can supposedly actually get rid of some forms of cancer) that is mainly composed of fruits and vegetables. Thus he can't eat sugar, bread, meat, dairy products, etc. (yes I would probably die if I went on that diet.) =]. We are praying that all of this will work out, and hopefully everything will be okay. Your prayers are very much appreciated.

Before I go just thought I'd post one of my favorite verses at this time. "In this world you will have trouble, but fear not. I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Crazy week

Have been having a busy week so far and it certainly hasn't ended yet. My dad had to have another MRI late morning/afternoon, which meant my brothers and I had to get our own lunch. Wait let me rephrase that. I had to get everybody's lunch. *sigh* Then tomorrow my dad's having a biopsy done starting at 5:30 AM (no I'm not even going to think about getting myself up that early. ;) ). Plus I have a bunch of school on top of all of this plus piano tomorrow. *sigh* Guess I'll just have to deal with it. I'll just put it is way though. Once we make it to Friday I will be a very very happy person. =]

School is actually going well at this point. The only thing is, starting next week in biology I get to start dissection (Oh joy). Lucky for me I get to start with a good old earthworm. (NOT). haha. I guess I'll be okay. Hopefully I'll be able to find my appetite again by the time I make it through the earthworm, the frog, the crayfish, and whatever else is waiting for me....

Books

I thought I'd mention a few books I've been reading lately since I really have nothing new to report.

*One of my novels for school is Cry the Beloved Country, a book I hadn't been looking foward to reading (especially when I saw the list of literature questions). However, it's actually been quite fascinating, and is definitely very moving and touching. Set in South Africa, the book deals with an elderly black parson who is searching for his prodigal son in the large city of Johannesburg (sp?). The amount of apartheid and racial prejudice against the natives is astounding and the way they must live because of it heartbreaking. A very deep book that I highly recommend.

*The novel After the War (which I just started today) looks to be rather different and interesting. It deals with a young Jewish girl who is the only one in her family to survive after the Holocaust. A time and perspective I'd never really thought of before presented in a relatively easy to understand format. I'm sure when I'm deeper in I'll be recommending this one as well. ;)

That's it for now

Prayers

My dad had his MRI today, and they discovered that a small part of his tumor had actually grown some which in turn sparked his seizures. Soo basically sometime next week he'll have to go in the hospital for a biopsy to determine the best way they can treat it. Prayers would be much appreciated as not surprisingly we are all pretty stressed out at the moment. Thanks so much, and I'll let you know when we find out more.

On a lighter note we got to take our cat to the vet yesterday as she had been limping rather noticeably on tuesday (it was quite pitiful). Luckily she's fine (probably just sprained it jumping off the roof or something), but it was hilarious watching them try to trim her claws. Let's just say she didn't appreciate it too much. Her eyes got as big as saucers, and she kept tucking her paws underneath her in an attempt to escape this horrific torture. ;) I can hardly blame her though. I probably wouldn't appreciate that too much myself.

Cake and Copy Machines

Last night we went to a meal at church, and let's just say my brothers and I were the only ones there under 40. Soo I was beginning to get very ornery and started wishing we hadn't come, until I saw the strawberry cake. One bite of that stuff and all my complaints and worries sailed away on the breeze....okay so I'm exaggerating quite a bit. It was excellent cake though....

Hope everyone has been having a great week so far. School wise this week has been a little too busy for my liking. ;) I started this rather massive history project about a week and a half ago, and everytime I thought I had done a ton of work on it my mom thought of something else I should add. So after a few rounds of this, I headed to the copy machine to make the last copy that I needed, when suddenly the copy machine stopped working. Of course my mom freaked out (she really does love that thing) and I had an image of being grounded for the rest of my natural life (exaggerating again I suppose). We did get it fixed though, which was a huge relief as I was really really ready to finish my project. Now it's finally done and all I can say is, "Hallejuah".

Voice and Other Things

I had my first voice lesson of the semester last Tuesday, and it actually went very well. I wasn't even too sad when I found out I wouldn't be able to participate in a voice competition because my teacher hadn't turned the forms in in time. All I can do is wipe and brow and think, "Thank heavens I got off that time." ;) It's not that I hate performing, it just makes me rather uptight.

I am required to memorize something every so often for school, and at the moment I'm doing Hebrews 11 (if I make it through the whole chapter it'll be a miracle. =]). That chapter has some great stuff in it. Verse 6 is particularly striking, "And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." No I don't think commentary on my part is really needed if you were wondering. ;) hehe

As to my dad, he is having an MRI next Thursday, so we won't really know a thing until then. I'll be sure to let you know how that turns out.

Well that's it for now.

Okay

To start off with yes I am still alive. ;) This past weekend has been crazy, and not in a good way. My dad (who has a benign brain tumor) started having these wierd attacks (that he thought were strokes) last Saturday. So he ended up in the emergency room, and I ended up almost hyperventilating (I am very prone to panic attacks). After my dad had a cat scan to see what was going on (too bad they don't use a real cat on those things) the emergency room doctor basically came in and said to my dad, "well it looks like your brain tumor has grown some. Bye." Okay so he wasn't that brusque, but he didn't give us any details at all. The good news is that 1: Those cat scan are not accurate at all; 2: My uncle (who is a neurosurgeon) called us late sunday night and explained that those attacks don't necessarily mean his tumor has grown or has converted to cancer. He thought they were probably just focal seizures that could have something to do with his medicine, or the fact that his tumor has just rotated a little, etc. So the bottom line is we are not as freaked out as we were, but we haven't had the mri yet so we don't know anything for sure. I will definitely keep you updated. Prayers would be great. ;)

On a brighter note, didn't you just love watching the Giants beat the Patriots? (Pardon me if you're a Patriots fan) =] It was after that last big touchdown by the Giants that my dad had another attack (just a focal seizure and not a stroke we kept reminding ourselves) since he got a bit excited. (that is a bit of an understatement). Anyways, even though I knew perfectly well the attack wouldn't harm him any, I still got really panicky and my head started vibrating. Add that to the excitement of the game, and you had my ears ringing, everything going dizzy, and my mom yelling, "put your head between your legs!". Yes I did recover before I passed out luckily.