justenjoyhim

MEBUYAN Concert at Rodelsa Hall, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, July 18, 2009 MEBUYAN is composed

Just after Frank had his seizure and I was worried out of my mind and also dealing with our seven year old son who had witnessed this event and was also scared out of his seven year old mind and trying to process what this meant and trying to comfort him, all while I was [...]

Just after Frank had his seizure and I was worried out of my mind and also dealing with our seven year old son who had witnessed this event and was also scared out of his seven year old mind and trying to process what this meant and trying to comfort him, all while I was [...]

This movie, Precious, looks like a must-see. A tear-jerker, yes, but a must-see:

Life is HARD
Life is SHORT
Life is PAINFUL.
Life is RICH
Life is PRECIOUS.
Posted in video

Last Wednesday night, when I was driving Absent Minded Professor (AMP) back from the campus one hour away from us, I very calmly said to him, “I have this weird urge lately to rent the movie ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’” AMP laughed. I continued, “I think I need to buy you some old lady dresses . . . a Jessica Tandy wig, and some old lady hats for you to wear while I’m driving you around.” In his typical way, AMP said in a serious voice, “Well, that would be different.”
AMP has always played along with my strange ideas, without missing a beat, ever since we met. He does this with a completely straight face and often no real inflection in his voice, making some people believe that he’s serious about what he’s saying — or that he’s a very serious person — when that couldn’t be further from the truth. So we’re currently having a little fun with my “Driving Mr. Daisy,” although that night I made it into a gender bender for him.
Back to the conversation in the car: We both concurred what a good movie “Driving Miss Daisy” is, and then AMP talked about what a good performance Jessica Tandy gave. “Well! He was good too!,” I stated, indignantly, like I actually was Hoke, or Morgan Freeman. “Oh, she was just so wonderful in that movie,” said Frank again. “Well, what about HIM?!, I asked, again. “He was just as good!”
I started thinking to myself that it probably wasn’t quite normal to get quite so attached to the character in the movie when, after all, we were just joking about the “Driving Mr. Daisy” thing. No, I was just stressed, had a long week, not enough sleep. I needed to chill. Although a chauffeur’s hat would be kind of cool.
“You know,” I said to AMP, “I might have to make you sit in the back.”
I can’t remember if he responded to that statement or not. Odd, that.
And a little tune played in my head as I drove AMP around.

Posted in family, health, Humor, video

I reserve the right to:
- open up the blog again if I feel the state higher education situation is more secure
- open up the blog again if I have any health news that I’d like to share
- open up the blog again for basically any ol’ reason.
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This seems appropriate at this time. Don’t forget the good parts of your seasons, your years.
How do you measure a year in the life . . . .
How about love? Measure in love.
Seasons of Love, from Rent:

Seasons of Love
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Moments so dear
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
How Do You Measure - Measure A Year?
In Daylights - In Sunsets
In Midnights - In Cups Of Coffee
In Inches - In Miles
In Laughter - In Strife
In - Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
How Do You Measure
A Year In The Life?
How About Love?
How About Love?
How About Love?
Measure In Love
Seasons of Love.
Seasons of Love.
Joanne:
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Journeys To Plan
Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand
Six Hundred Minutes
How Do You Measure The Life
Of A Woman Or A Man
Collins:
In Truth That She Learned
Or In Times That He Cried
In Bridges He Burned
Or The Way That She Died
All:
It’s Time Now - To Sing Out
Though The Story Never Ends
Let’s Celebrate
Remember A Year In The Life Of Friends
Remember the Love
Remember the Love
Remember the Love
Measure In Love
Joanne:
Oh you got to you got to remember the love,
You know that love is a gift from up above
Share love, give love, spread love
Measure, measure your life in love.
ALL
Seasons Of Love(2x)
Joanne:
Measure your life, measure your life in love
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With love, too big to measure,
Judy
[maybe keep me in your reader, you know, Just In Case . . . . . ]
Posted in blogging &n

This really cracks me up! Jasmine and Aladdin's fairy tale ending didn't last very well, did it now?

When I first learned that I had metastatic Inflammatory Breast Cancer, many people told me things like “today is all any of of us have,” and while that’s absolutely true, at the time it held no measure of comfort for me. I was scared, terrified actually, and I thought I was much closer to death’s grip than they were. At the least, I knew I was close to death’s grip, and I thought, and still think, that makes a difference in how you think about life and death. Prove me wrong, but I think intimacy with death changes a person, makes them more aware of death on a much more frequent basis, makes them think of death more, do things that others would think of as “morbid” like think about what they’d like their funeral/memorial service to be like.
I was told untold times, “any of us could die at any time. I could be hit by a bus today/tomorrow.” And while that’s also true, I still argued against that, because for one thing, the bus analogy annoys me. I challenge people to chose another, more appropriate analogy unless there’s been a whole slew of runaway buses running over innocent pedestrians and killing them. I think something more typical like “I could fall over from a heart attack” would be more likely. But I digress. I’m still of the opinion that those of us who have faced death have a greater awareness of just how close death can be to us — today, tomorrow, next week, next year. I’ve been given a reprieve, thank the Good Lord, from death from my cancer, but of course it doesn’t mean that I won’t die tomorrow from something else. I just don’t expect to.
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Last night Frank and I saw Rent, the musical, in person with two of the original cast members - the first time for both of us. It was wonderful, glorious. The story and song are still playing in my head. The one that sums up what the story is about is the one that does say what those of u...

2008
didn’t go
exactly as I had planned.
I had cancer,
a bad form of it
Stage 4 even.
I had thoughts of death,
what would happen
to my family
my son,
my husband.
I thought I might die.
I fought against the thoughts
It was the hardest year I’ve ever had.
E-V-E-R.
I can’t even describe it.
It’s almost surreal
it was so difficult
and numbing
and soul-crushingly bleak at times.
Surreal but real
because I lived through it.
I don’t know
that everything happens for a reason.
I still can’t
quite buy that one.
But as my pastor said,
try to look for the good in the journey
because there will be some,
and he was right.
My faith grew by leaps and bounds,
and that wasn’t an easy journey
as I railed at God
time and time again
at 2:00 at night
in the bathroom,
silent screams
so as not to wake anyone
in the house.
But as another pastor told me,
God expects our anger
and anger I had
in boatloads.
But at least I was communicating
and I got to a place
where I wasn’t as angry
with God anymore
and I leaned on him
and that made it
easier
for the most part.
I met some
incredible people,
warriors all.
Inspirational women
and men, people I am
proud to call my friends,
even though some of them
I haven’t met.
I told my story without
censor or embarrassment
or holding back.
It is what it is.
It hasn’t ended yet;
I am forever changed
in ways that I don’t
completely understand
yet.
At times
I was sadder
than I can say
because, once again,
I didn’t want to leave
my son
or my husband.
It was always about my son
first,
and about love, not wanting
to break hearts and not wanting
to break mine by leaving
them.
I prayed and others
prayed and my doctors amazed.
My oncologist brought out
the big guns of
chemotherapy, my surgeon’s
cut off a breast, my radiation
oncologist’s gave intense
radiation. I had
burns with wounds
that lasted for weeks.
I was in such pain,
but as long ...

Christmastime is here:

And a Merry Christmas to you all. Leave it to Linus to tell us about the real meaning of Christmas.

Blessings to all of you. May your holidays and new years be bright, healthy, and happy.
With love and blessings,
Judy
Posted in video

Do we really have to wait until January 20th? Can't we just have him already?
~ Jon Stewart

Some people have asked me how I’m going to celebrate my great news of NO. MORE. CANCER., and honestly?, I haven’t even thought about it. At work, they joked about popping open a bottle of champagne, but I haven’t drunk alcohol since I found out that I had tumors in my liver — that was by choice, not because anyone told me that I had to quit drinking. Now? It’s not that important to me to drink, so my thought is, why start again now since it’s healthier for me to not drink?
How am I going to celebrate? Well, Frank, Nate, and I are going to an indoor waterpark for a few days before Christmas, but those plans were made before we found out this incredible news. But sure, that will be a celebration.
To be honest, at least at first, I think every single day will be a celebration.
I’m living. I’m ALIVE. I’m . . . . healthy, as odd as that is for me to think of myself that way, I am healthy, or at least getting there. I just have to regain the strength that I lost during the long time that I was in treatment.
I want to do more things to make myself healthier too, now that I can focus better and won’t be as anxious about cancer-related things. At least, I think I won’t be as anxious.
How will I celebrate?
I will live. I will get up every morning and thank God for the life that I have, for the life that he’s given me, for the life that he’s allowed me to continue living. I will live. I hope to give back in some way; I don’t know quite how yet, but that will come. I will mother my son. I will be a wife to my husband. I will work.
I will be here for Christmas with my family.
I will LIVE.
That’s celebration enough for me.
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I didn’t suffer in vain. I suffered so I could live, and love, and give. And even grow.
Live life.
Life is beautiful. Life is good.
Praise God, life is good.
I didn’t suffer in vain.
“It’s Only Love That Gets You Through...

Singing with love and the will to trust
Leave the rest behind it will turn to dust
This is the sound of all of us

We always do sound better together, don’t we? The stronger voices propping up the weaker ones — and those can change, depending on circumstances.
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Thank you
for singing with me.
I couldn’t have done it without you
nor would I have wanted to.
Posted in health

In my Real Life, most of the time, I’m a pretty happy, very friendly, often goofy, usually humorous person. I know you couldn’t tell that from my blog lately.
Here is where I write out things that I don’t get out In Real Life, things that are on my mind that I keep inside, for survival’s sake.
The last few months, particularly — well, probably the past several months, since the full-dose chemo stopped and after a month I had a mastectomy, then after I healed from that I had the radiation whic

Things change. I’ve changed . . . . a lot.
I’ve said it before, many times. It’s not just that I know, intimately, that life is fleeting, is worth fighting for, and that there are no guarantees about who lives and dies on any given day. It’s also that during this time my faith has grown immensely. It hasn’t been easy by any means, and I’ve struggled with God many many times, but he’s been faithful to me and stayed by me throughout, even when I’ve sometimes shut him out, even when I hav

That’s one of the few lines from the song “One” that works for a situation that is nagging at the back of my brain, but I love the song anyways, so what the heck? I’ll go ahead and share it here.
And the situation? Well, I thought it was a non-situation anyways, so let’s all hail a Non-Situation/No-Drama Day/Week/Month . . . . you know, particularly for those of us who, shall we say, just Don’t. Need. It.
Not that anybody does.
‘Nuff said.
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Sing i

Talk about hope! A dying boy brings hope to the homeless. Heartwarming, inspiring, and yes, you might need some kleenex for this one.

This eleven year old is much braver than I've ever been. He is gone now, but God blessed him and God bless his family.