Scan results-books-birthday

Today I went to see my Dr to get the results of my most recent scan of my kidney tumor.  I always get anxiety before these visits and I always think about the day he said the words "You have a tumor" and that was followed by a talk where the C word was used.  It is scary stuff.  Nobody wants to have a conversation that includes tumor, cancer and your own name.  I found out about this mass 2 weeks after having had surgery to remove my gallbladder.  Five months prior to that I had a full hysterectomy and the thought of having another surgery was a lot to take.  I did not have the surgery to remove the tumor.  My Dr recommended waiting and see if the tumor grows.  I went to see a specialist at Loma Linda for a 2nd opinion and he said the same thing.  So that is the plan.  Today I got the results of scan #7 and it showed that the mass is not bigger.  It is the same size as it was on the very first scan.  This is good news.  Maybe tonight I will finally be able to sleep. :)

Books
I love books.  That is my favorite thing to receive as a gift, it is the only thing I spend money on for my kids or myself outside bdays or Chirstmas.   Bill bought this one at Costco last week and I stole it right away..I mean he works 18-21 hrs a day, he does not have time to read!

I know many of you read this one.  I just started it and it is really good. 
Before this one I read this book

Anyone read this? It is from the teen section.  Yep. I read an article about it and I had to read it.  I think every parents should read this.  Teenagers should read it as well WITH their parents.  The subject: suicide.   It is a hard subject of course but this book is more about why the person got to this point.  She left tapes to explain why and we follow one boy as he listens to her voice on these tapes.   This is the kind of book that opens discussions. 

Running
After my Dr Appt I went to the gym to do my speedwork.  6x800 @4:30.  Man that was hard. It was late and my small breakfast was hours ago...I only had one bottle of water with me.  I was not pretty.  First 4 went OK.  At #5 I started telling myself that 5 is good, I could do just 5 and nobody would know or CARE.  That is true.  Except I care.  I did the 6th one.  I almost threw up on the TM and it was my slowest of the 800s but I did it.  In the end today was more a mental workout than anything else.  I struggle with the mental aspect of long races like half marathons.
Speaking of that...18 days only before Half Marathon #3.  I got 2 long runs left, one 11 miler this weekend and 12 next week.

Today it is my dad's 78th birthday!
Bonne Fete to my wonderful papa!
He is the smartest person I know...Hey he has a PhD and he speaks 5 languages (Hungarian, Russian, German, French and English)!
He is fair and kind and family is the most important thing to him.
He is the kind of grandfather who will roll on the floor with the kids and who also thinks they cannot do anything wrong.  "They are perfect" "Don't be so strict" "It cannot be that bad"  This is what I hear all the time from my dad wh0 was REALLY strict himself as a parent. 
And to me he says this "You are too thin, why don't you eat more"  "You look terrible and tired in this [running] picture"  "You know you will not go to the Olympics right?"  "Too much running is not good for your.....wait for it.....KNEES!"  and also my all time favorite "You are doing a good job raising your kids"  That is priceless to me.



This was when he was 21, Hungary 1954, 2 years before he left his country.

 

Playing with Will

In his garden, he makes is own wine with the grapes 

New Year's Eve 2010, we were going to an NHL game!