Blackhawks Game

Christmas Cookie decorating

Here are some pics of the annual Christmas cookie decorating.

Locks of Love

Izzy has been wanting to have her hair cut. I have been putting it off. She has such beautiful hair. I was just sure that Kris would hang me if I had it done. So I told her about Locks of Love, and of course that only made her want to have it cut even more. She has been talking about cutting it for a few months. We finally gave in. I was in a hurry to post these pics so I took it when she was eating pizza...loving that sauce on her cheek. She loves her new SHORT do. I think it is pretty cute too.

Drew's Baptism!

What a great day! After all it is great to be eight! He so proud of his new suit. He had to be dunked twice....Kris forgot to say "Amen" so the first immersion didn't count. We had many of our favorite friends so up. The room was full of old friends, family, and new friends. We had lunch at our home afterwards, and it was just a good day. We enjoyed the company and loved seeing everyone again.

Drew turns 8!!

Drew is so excited about turning 8!!! I made the cake this year. A complete experiment. I can bake. I am sure glad that I know I can bake....this cake sure was NOT proof of any baking skills that I have ever had. He liked it, and I guess that is what counts. He has fallen in LOVE with Teriyaki chicken and that was his request for dinner. We had a great and he had a great birthday. Tickets to a Blackhawks game....he so excited!

Halloween 2010

Ah...the one Halloween picture that I manged to take. We didn't even manage to find the time to carve the pumpkins....BUT we did mange to get Halloween costumes in time to go trick-or-treating at the new house. I miss doing the theme costumes but it was just too tricky after just moving in a few days before hand.

Good-Bye parties

The kids were so sad about leaving school, friends, and starting over at a new school in the middle of the year. I checked with the teachers and asked if I could bring in cupcakes for a "good-bye" party for each of them. Thinking that it would make it just a smidge easier. It worked. Below are pics of the kids with their teacher....Izzy's teacher was out sick that day so we have her class aid. Mrs. Wrath.

Just in case you didn't catch that. We moved! Kris quit General Mills and now working for Kellogg's. Loving it. He is on the day shift instead of the night shift. It is taking some getting used to on my part. He isn't home when the kids get home so getting dinner going and doing homework all at the same time is new to me....it was REALLY nice having him home at that time. I keep meaning to add a pic of the new house but I only have one on my cell and can't download it. It is smaller, but we are enjoying it.....I am in heaven with a double oven....but really I have forgotten that I have two and sometime end up just trying to bake in just the one. I think the double oven is what sold me on moving. We are STILL unpacking and it seems to be a MUCH slower process than it was last time we moved. I got here the Tuesday before Halloween. I am loving it. I thought that we would end up going into Chicago much more than we have so far. I did take the kids down to the Field Museum about a week ago and would you believe it is 34 miles from the house?

Evan turned 2!

I know this is LONG overdue....Evan turned 2 on October 14th! I can't believe it, these two years have gone by so fast. He had a little cold again just like last year. Here are a few of the pics that got. My cousin Michelle and her clan made it down for his Birthday dinner. He loves chocolate. He even says it....in his own little way. Must take after mom.

Yes, he is holding the ice cream with his hands. Never complained about it, loved every minute of it.
I don't know if you can tell in this picture...but when he blows he sticks his bottom lip out so the air shoots straight up and fluffs his hair. I think he kept wanting to touch the candle or cake, or something....Kris had to hold him back.

First Day of School for 2010-2011

The first day of school went well. We were all very excited about the teachers that they got. I had a bunch cute things that Izzy got from being in Kindergarten...from the teacher. I tried to save them but since it is now the 4th week of school and I am just now posting this I of course can not find them. Enjoy the pics!

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All the other details

So you know the beginning and the end and here is the middle....


Went in for surgery on Monday morning and I was such a BABY. I was scared out of my mind. When I was in holding I just wanted anyone to talk to me about anything. I was asking everyone odd questions just so they would talk. All the nurses handled it so well. One of them got the picture that I didn't want to be alone and went and got Kris and he got to stay with me until I was taken to the O.R. at one point I was so worked up that I asked him to say a quick prayer for me and at the very moment he ended his prayer I just had this calm feeling come over me. IT WAS GREAT! Going under was not near as bad as I had thought that it would be but waking up was! I thought that I did great on Monday. Our Bishop and his wife stopped by and later and I talked with her later that week, she surprised me by telling me that I was not doing good at all on Monday. Was I ever glad that she didn't see me on Tuesday. Perkacet kicked my rear. After that I didn't want anything. NEVER AGAIN will I take that nasty stuff....I have added on to my "allergy list" even though I am not really allergic to it. Such a bad reaction to it that I ended up staying an extra night in the hospital and then did fine on Wednesday with just Tylenol 3.


I went to see the Oncologist on Thursday but we didn't have any of the reports back from pathology yet. We had a plan, if it didn't spread to the lymph nodes I was fine and then would just have to see a dermatologist every 6 months and a the oncologist every year for so long. If it has spread they would do more test and chemo. I got the pathology reports back from the first doc on Friday. I kind of freaked out, Here is the exact working of it, I have added anything that is "( )".

Ten cross sections of four different lymph nodes are examined on multiple slides. All cross sections are immunostained for HMB45. On one slide only, slide B2, in a subcapsular location four cells exhibit immunoreactivity for HMB45 staining. The cells are not cytologically abnormal (not obvious cancer cells). I cannot say with certainty they represent malignant melanoma. They could represent nevus cells (mole cells) within a lymph node.


The first time that I met the surgeon I told her no matter what the results were I automatically wanted them sent somewhere else for a second opinion. Just to be sure. So everything was sent onto the Mayo Clinic. I hear that they really are the place to go for things like this. Yesterday the doc called and said what I wrote down in the previous post and then today I went in and got a copy of the actual pathology report from Mayo. Interesting. Here it is... word for word...even the things you probably don't care about....

"I am writing regarding the material that you sent from RB, a 32-year-old woman. These are very interesting and challenging slides (not something that you want to hear). I am in complete agreement with the original diagnosis of malignant melanoma on the right leg. There are occasional mitotic figures present with this lesion as well as the measured depth of 1.1 mm. Sentinel lymph node is quite interesting (there is that word again). on H&E, there is a clear-cut deposition of melanocytic type cells present within the capsule of the nevus. A few of these cells stain positive for HMB-45, but the vast majority of them do not stain for HMB-45. This is an interesting (again) pattern in that the majority of capsular melanocytic nevi are Melan-A/Mart-1 positive, but these cells as well as their architectural location that these are most consistent with a capsular melanocytic nevus.


The only other thing on the lab report that is worth sharing is....Thank you for sharing this difficult case with me in consultation. If I may be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. (Difficult case??????)


So to some it up I was an interesting difficult case....and I have typical moles inside just like I do on the outside....hum? Interesting.


The surgeon says that I am healing nicely. If you want to see a really gross picture of the back of my leg...let me know. I only have it on my cell phone so I will have to text it as an attachment. It is REALLY GROSS.

The Call from the Doctor

Today is the day that I found out I DO NOT HAVE CANCER ANYMORE! Yippie! I wonder if I will remember August 5, 2010 for the rest of my life. I sure do remember July 21st, but this is an even better day.

Here is what the doctor had to say when she left her message...
"Ranisa, hi its Dr. "B" Hi how are you? Listen I got your stuff back from Mayo Clinic, it is all good news. So I just thought I would call and let you know they did not think that it is in the lymph nodes and I will give you a copy of the report tomorrow when I see you. But I had to call and let you know. Alright take care and I will see you guys tomorrow."

I missed the call!!! The phone rang when we were eating dinner with some friends and I panicked...."get the phone, it might be the doctor!". Somehow that phone call got messed up and we weren't able to answer it, but Kris flipped through caller-ID and noticed that the doctor had called 2 hours earlier. I was frantic, after listening to the message I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

I was wondering how I was going to tell the blog world about it, I wanted to post a picture of myself and say something about this being the face of a cancer free gal...but I didn't shower today! So you get to share in our excitement without seeing my super happy grin! PLEASE GET YOUR MOLES CHECKED!!!!

The BIG 'C'

So here it is...in January I went in to the dermatologist and had some moles removed. With it being January I of course had on pants and didn't notice any of the moles on my legs. There was one mole on my side and under my arm that I wanted off and the doctor took the wrong one off and then told me that the one that I was wanting off was too big and that it need to be done in a surgical setting. No worries, I just needed to come in at a later date and have it taken care of. A few weeks later I noticed a mole that had changed on the back of my right calve. I didn't worry too much about it but realized that I would have to have it looked at when I had that other one taken off. I ended up back in the dermatology office on July 7th. After seeing the mole on my leg he said that he was worried about that one and that it needed to be taken off. Got them both removed and made an appointment to have the stitches taken out and went on my way. A week later the doctor calls and says that the mole on my leg has atypical results and wanted my permission to send it onto another lab for a second opinion. The other mole was fine. My follow up appointment was set for 2 weeks out. The day before the appointment the doctor called and left 2 messages on the phone asking me call him right away. We had gotten home from a trip pretty late and before I had a chance to call him in the morning he called and ask me to come in and made sure that I was bring Kris. When a doctor says "bring your husband" you know that it isn't good. We went in and the results of the biopsy are that I have stage 2 melanoma. A little info on melanoma...they measure the thickness of it, how deep it goes into your skin. Most of the mole was .88 mm, if the measurement is under 1 mm they considerate taken care of and you are good to go. However there is a extension of cells that reaches to 1.1 mm. So that extra .1 puts into the stage 2 category. We got lots of details and met with a surgeon the same day. We are following the standard procedure for stage 2 melanoma. I am scheduled to have a wide biopsy of the area on Monday morning. They will also inject some type of dye around the area and wait a bit for it to travel up to the lymph nodes, then take x-rays of it so that they know what lymphnodes to biopsy. Because the area of the wide biopsy is a few inches and too big to close with stitches they are doing a skin graft. I hear that is the most painful part. We will get the results from everything a couple days later.

Now for my feelings. Wednesday when I found out the news I was a bit shocked...really it is the worst news of my life to this point. I have a positive outlook and I am holding onto the fact that it is just .1 mm from being considered a stage 1. I will try to update the blog after surgery when I feel like I can function. Who knows maybe Kris will do it. Don't be too worried if it is a couple of days until this is updated. Please feel free to call. My parents are coming in to take care of things, be with me, and help out with the kids. Boy am I ever great full for that. We are also trying to get my brother home from Iraq. We have an appointment with an oncologist on Thursday. Maybe I will plan on updating after that.

Kris freaked out for awhile and is doing much better now.

We told the kids....we sat them down and asked them if they knew what cancer was. They said no, so I explained that we have good cells in our bodies and cancer is bad cells. When I had my mole removed they did some test on it and found that there were bad cells in it. Then explained that I am going to go and have surgery so that the doctors can take more out and make sure that they got all of those bad cells out. They understand that I will be 'lazy' laying around the couch and that there are people coming to help take care of them. Elaine at one point asked if I had to have surgery so that I didn't die. I told her that we didn't need to think about that right now, the doctors are doing what they can to help me.

We have a sense of humor about it. At the same are still worried a bit, and being positive all at the same time.

I tried to remember all the details about that day. There are a few things that are frozen in my mind, the elevator button on the wall as we went up stairs to the clinic. The fabric pattern on the chairs in the waiting room. Odd details. Yet it seems that some of the important things I forgot. This is the same clinic that I take my kids to, that I go see the OB/GYN at, that I see the family doctor at. I waiting to go back again and see all the the odd details in my mind and I am hoping that I don't have these odd flashbacks triggered by elevator buttons and pretty patterns of fabric on chairs.

Again call if you want to talk, we appreciate all the thoughts and prayers.

*Update....it is a stage 2A, for all of those that have looked info up.

*****NEW UPDATE******* Cancer was a 1B. What great news!!!! Derm guy din't know what he was talking about!

Curly Hair for a change

Ladies-help me out. How do I get the front to look like the back does? Any tricks?

Sleepy Boy

Big shoes to fill

The Rootbeer story

A few have not hear this. This happened right after we moved into this house. Boy am I ever glad that he has grown up a bit.....and Monster Truck races are on the TV really early in the morning.

Adventures of Drew
I love my son. I love my son. I love my son. I am grateful that he is still a happy little boy after this morning. So here's the story. We all know that everyday, yes everyday, Drew does something that makes a huge mess. I mean HUGE mess. Sunday it was spraying tile cleaner over every surface in main level of the house which included all of the computer stuff, luckily the only thing that no longer works is my computer keyboard, oh yeah and a few of the birthday card that I made for the ladies at church got a little wet, they might not even notice. Everything else survived. Monday it was those little instant oatmeal packages, you know the kind with all the extra sticky gooey flavors added to them. That was all over the freshly mopped kitchen. Yes I do watch him, but when I was mopping another part of the floor he got to the oatmeal in the kitchen. Tuesday, hum so long ago, what happened Tuesday? Don't recall, but since there is something everyday I do know that something did happen. Today was the fun one. I love soda, I seldom buy it. I believe I might buy a 12 pack of soda 2-3 times a year. Yesterday was one of those times. Some root beer sounded good. Love root beer. Left the case on the counter when I went to bed, didn't even think about what could possibly happen. I was so excited the rest of the house was clean and I was going to wake up to a clean house. Every housewife-every women knows what it is like to wake up to a clean house-it just starts your day of on the right foot. Drew often times gets up before I do. He is in stealth mode is what we call it. No one hears him, we don't even really know what time he really does get up. We just know that he is normally up before us. We have even thought of installing a little alarm on his bedroom door-when it goes off we would get up. Once again Drew is the first one up this morning. Today he decided to wake Elaine up. I get up and call Elaine upstairs to take a bath and get ready for school. She of course complains about Drew waking her up but doesn't tell me about the kitchen, maybe she didn't even know about the kitchen. She must have just went straight to the couch. After she is all ready for the day and go downstairs to get breakfast ready as I see Drew siting in the living room with a can of root beer-not so bad there doesn't seem to be any spilled on the carpet or couch. We can handle this. Enter the kitchen, I see what Drew's adventure was for the day. Hopeful this is the only one of the day. That pack of root beer-yes the hole pack is laying across the kitchen floor, a few of the cans are open and seem to be completely empty. The kitchen is covered in soda, I mean from about 2 1/2 feet down on everything. The walls, fridge, cabinets, dishwasher and the floor is flooded with root beer. I like to sleep as late as possible. So of course the morning has go smoothly minute by minute. This is the time for breakfast. We don't do anything else but eat. There is no time for anything else. I mange to tip toe around on what bare toe sized spots are clean on the floor. I get the kids breakfast and then wipe up the soda with a towel. Mop the floor twice-with the tile cleaner that we had left over from Sunday's adventure. The hardest thing to clean was the walls, they are textured, and the soda had started to dry. I was so happy that I manged to get it all cleaned up as fast and as easy as it was. We were even still running on schedule. I toss the mopping towel up on the counter, it tips over the white board which smashes into the candles (no broken ones) and yes the rest of the cans of root beer that where sitting beside the sink to get rinsed off. Once again a few of them fell onto the floor and because of the pressure thy burst open and spin in circles around the floor. Coating everything in the kitchen with root beer once again. Only this time it seemed to spray a little higher than two 1/2 feet, and I was standing in the middle of it all.

He walks!!!!

A couple of weeks ago Evan started walking. It was about time he is over 18 months. He was so proud of himself. We all clapped and cheered him on and soon he was clapping and cheering himself on. He still has yet to figure out that he can stand up on his own. If he falls he has to crawl to something that he can pull himself up on. BUT he is getting there! Way to go EVAN!!!!

Ice Cream

Gosh it was cold....

Must have had a nice nap