Well that was scary...
There were major brushfires burning all over West Hills, Bell Canyon and Lost Hills for the past 2 days. It all started on Wednesday the 28th around 1:45P out in Chatsworth and quickly spread to our part of the west valley. Box Canyon and Bell Canyon were evacuated on Wedneday night, the rest was just wait and see. At 3:30AM, yes in the middle of the night, Daniel and his brother (our neighbors at the bottom of the street) knocked on our door. The Sheriff's Department had knocked on their door saying that they were voluntarily evacuating Hidden Hills. Almost all the houses on our street have Hidden Hills in their backyards. So what do we do? At 3:30AM, we started loading up stuff in my car just in case we had to bail out. We pulled photo albums, scrapbooks, yearbooks, computers, stuff from the safe, etc. We packed up suitcases of clothes and threw them all in my car. We left Gregg's car open for Carly and the dogs, if needed. By the time we came to a stopping point, it was 4:30AM and local news was on. At that point, we realized that the far west side of Hidden Hills was being voluntarily evacuated, close but still the far side. So we finally went to sleep so we'd get a few hours.
We woke up Thursday morning and the fires were still raging out of control. They were heading towards Oak Park and Thousand Oaks at this point. Alli had woken up in the middle of the night and if the fire jumped the freeway, she'd be in big trouble to she started to pull stuff to throw into her car if she had to get out. We stayed home all day, watching TV to see the progress. By 3PM, it was turning back towards Hidden Hills and Bell Canyon. Basically, the reservoir at Roscoe and Valley Circle was burning (where Lisa and Onica live), Bell Canyon was still going strong, including parts basically at Victory and Valley Circle and then the threat to Hidden Hills west of Round Meadow. We pulled out the Thomas Guide and realized that Round Meadow was about 1 mile away, the way the crow flies. That was really scary. Did I think that the house would burn down? No, not really but we're talking 4 fires burning within 4 miles of the house. By 6PM, the house was really smoky and awful to breathe, plus now, ash was falling everywhere. We decided to go to my parents house just to breathe. So we piled everyone in the car and off we went. Again, an awful lot of multi multi million dollar homes would have to burn before it got close to us, but the air was bad enough to get out, at least for the night.
As of late tonight, the fire is 40% contained. Approximately 23,000 acres have burned. Over 3,000 firefighters have done the job of true heroes and ONLY 2 houses were lost. Absolutely amazing. Ultimately, only the vegitation has burned and while the fire has come so close to so many homes, the firefighters have stopped it every time. Lisa said they did an amazing job at the top of her hill ready to spring into action and fight this fire down. Luckily, they were there, ready to go and didn't have to do anything as the fire didn't get close enough to the houses in her neighborhood.
Here are two photos that I took yesterday afternoon. One is from the top of our hill in the backyard looking out past Hidden Hills to the Los Virgenes area. The other is Bell Canyon burning past Hale Middle School.
It's hockey season!!
Well, after 18 months, we went to a Kings game last night. They played the Phoenix Coyotes in a preseason game. We left after the 2nd period since Carly had a bit of a cold. They were losing 4-2. I think our leaving brought the boys some luck because they scored 5 goals in the third period and won 7-4. Let's hope that spirit keeps up when the season starts next week. It was actually kind of nice to see a game again. There was a decent crowd which was pretty shocking. And lots of people wearing their Kings jerseys, including myself. As stupid as the lockout was, I think it was best for the NHL to just start back in the fall as usual. People's heads are okay with hockey in the fall. Of course, if the Kings continue to be inconsistent and stink, then the year off will have been for nothing. At this moment, all I can say is GO KINGS GO!!
Post Surgery
Well, it all went as planned. The cyst was actually IN my ovary. Lovely. But it came out fine and they didn't have to remove the ovary, which was a possibility. My other ovary looked fine as did my uterus. I've got a bunch of pictures to prove it (or scrap it LOL). The whole procedure took just under 2 hours but with my recovery, we left the hospital at about 5PM. It's two days later, I'm still a little sore on the one incision on the bottom (at my hairline). The other three, I don't feel at all. I'm sure I'll have a little scarring but I don't wear a bikini too often these days so it won't matter much. I'm not exactly vain in that way so I've got bigger worries when I wear a two piece than a little scar. Anyway, I'm sure I'll feel fine by tomorrow. I go back to the doctor in 2 weeks for the post-op checkup. Then we'll deal with the timeframe for the next step in the world of IVF. At the moment, we're looking at doing the procedure around Thanksgiving. Hopefully, it'll be a holiday season to celebrate.
A little nervous
Well, after 7 weeks of waiting, I'm finally having surgery on Wednesday to remove the cyst from my ovary. I went to see my doctor today and get the whole story on what's going to happen. We did another ultrasound and luckily, the cyst hasn't gotten any bigger since we initially found it in June and from the MRI. It's about 2.5 cms. So a little laproscopic surgery, 4 incisions and 2-3 hours later, it should all be removed. Luckily, this has had nothing to do with the fact that we haven't gotten pregnant but it has delayed the process for a few months before and now with recovery, another few weeks. It'll be about 4-6 weeks for everything to heal and then we'll start the hormone treatments for IVF with a goal of having the procedure around Thanksgiving. I'm really not looking forward to the hormonal hell but if it gets us another baby, then it'll all be worth it. I'm still a little nervous about the surgery though. I know it'll all be fine but it is surgery and I've never had surgery before except for my wisdom teeth getting pulled. But I trust Dr. Pisarska, and Dr. Cohen will be there too. I just love these ladies so I know I'm in really good hands. Renee had this same surgery about 8 months ago and said she was pretty much fine by the next day. I'm hoping for the same since it's the "BB" wrap party on Thursday night, LOL. I can't miss that after going through this whole Summer of Secrets, now can I?? Anyway, I'll post the pain factor after I come out from under on Thursday. In the meantime, say a little prayer that it goes quickly, easily and that it clears the path for the next part of my medical journey.
As promised...
Here are the two LO's I did this weekend.
Busy Busy
Well, it's been a crazy busy two weeks since the Telethon. We raised $54 million for Jerry's kids and MDA this year. That's $5 million less than last year but considering what's still going on with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Telethon's pleas to donate to the Salvation Army, that's still pretty good. As for what we've done for hurricane relief, not as much as I should still do. I did go to the 99cent only store and filled up a cart with food, dog and cat food, shampoo, soap, razors and shaving cream, toothbrushes, etc. I figured I could get a lot farther buying stuff there and I was so right. Love that store. Anyway, we were going to ship it to a shelter in Baton Rouge that I had heard about but then the Temple was collecting supplies and driving them to Louisiana so we dropped it all off there. I made a donation to the Red Cross through a collection going on at "Big Brother". The producers will match whatever is raised and as of Friday, they had collected over $4700 from the staff. That's awesome.
Speaking of "Big Brother", we've got our finale on Tuesday. The staff's personal favorite Janelle got evicted last night leaving the evil Maggie and even more annoying Ivette as the final two. Janelle had really overcome about a million obstacles to make to the final three. Too bad she didn't have one more trick to pull out of her bag. Gregg's up at the jury house shooting the final Q&A with the last two. I'm sure they were in shock when Janelle walked in the door. Everyone was so "down" after she lost and Ivette won on yesterday's show. Yes, it's just a TV show but when you're a fan AND you're lucky enough to work on it, you get really attached. I was so distraught that it took me 10 minutes to find my car in the parking structure. I couldn't remember where I parked. When I spoke with Gregg last night, he also said that Rich (EP who's up there with him) was also really depressed. We love you Janey!! Other than the fact that I put down $5 on the first day before they moved on Ivette to win, I really couldn't care less between these two people. On to Survivor Guatemala and The Amazing Race.
At least I got finally got some scrapping done. Bucket had posted two challenges on the Foxy board and for the first time, I've finally felt the motivation and inspiration to do them. And of course, photos that applied. I did the "10 Random Things About Me" which I have to scan and I'll post tomorrow. And the Mae West quote. Bucket found this awesome list of quotes by Mae West. I liked "A man's kiss is his signature". I used the photo of me and Gregg kissing at the Lincoln Memorial when we first got together in January 2001. We had this joke from the Millennium special in 1999 about "making out under the bleachers at the Lincoln Memorial". Dissolve to a year later when we got together and then did a show in DC in January. So we had to kiss at the landmark. What I'm proud of in this photo is that there were 3 people looking up at Mr. Lincoln. Thanks to Photoshop, they disappeard a long time ago. I'll scan and post tomorrow as well. Every once in awhile, I like having the house quiet (thanks to Miss Carly sleeping) and I can scrap and kind of do what I want.
Speaking of doing what I want, off to go catch up on some McLeod's Daughters...
Being Grateful
Lisa made a list of 10 things she's grateful for. I'm not sure that I'll make an exact list of 10 but here's my list.
I'm grateful that I have the best husband in the world. He's my best friend, my lover, my best supporter, my shoulder to cry on, the father of our gorgeous daughter. I never thought that I would find someone who matches me so well and puts up with my crap and loves me more and more every single day, as I love him more every single day. We started late in our lives (late 30's) but it's been so worth the wait and every day has been the greatest blessing in my life.
I'm beyond grateful that we have a beautiful, smart, funny, healthy daughter. I always wanted to be a mom. The fact that I started that late too makes her even more special and so much more appreciated. I'm praying that the next few months of medical things I have to go through, will bring Carly a sibling, but if not, she needs to know how much I love her and how much she means to me. I love her (and her Dad) more than anything. As I am about to start the MDA Telethon marathon, where I see children Carly's age struggling to walk, I am especially thankful and grateful that my gorgeous, precious daughter is of strong mind and body and nothing stops her.
I'm thankful that I have family nearby and they're all healthy. I'm very close to my parents and speak with them every day. Within that family, we're lucky that Carly has grandparents and an Aunt who are all physically close to us and just adore her beyond imagination. Uncle Gary is in Sacramento and loves his little niece and now that she's getting older, she's not so fragile. We all know he'd do anything for her too. I'm also thankful that Carly has two Fairy Godmothers who just adore her too. I love you Auntie Deb and Auntie Marla.
I'm most grateful to have some of the best people in the world for friends. My best friend Marla I've known since Junior High School. Caz and Chapin in Australia are also my closest friends. In spite of the distance, I know that they're there for me as I am for them at any time. Time change means nothing to us. I consider myself so lucky that in the last year, I've become friends with a group of women that I've met through my scrapbooking habit. The Foxy Croppers are an amazing, fun and creative. I don't think I can get through a day without speaking to Lisa or Paula and pretty much every other day I speak to Ginger and Kari. I love you girls more than you know.
After the devastation from Hurricane Katrina this past week, I'm grateful to have a beautiful, if not a little messy, house. Two wacky dogs who I just adore. I've got a car to drive, a backyard and pool to relax in. I love my house.
I'm glad I have a flexible job that I enjoy. I enjoy being an Associate Director. I love working on live TV. I'm lucky that most of the people I choose to work with are nice, fun and funny and they make even the longest day enjoyable. We do laugh a lot even when dealing with the insanity. But I love that my job isn't full time so that I can be with Carly as much as possible, even though she's really missing us during this Telethon week.
I'm glad I also have this little place in my little world to get some of these thoughts and feelings down and remembered.
Helluva Week
Well, it's been a week hopefully never to be repeated in our lives. Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm, slammed New Orleans and the gulf coast of Mississippi on Monday. They say it's the biggest natural disaster in US history, bigger than Hurricane Camille in 1969 and has destroyed these cities for years. New Orleans is still under 20 feet of water and the entire city of 500,000 has been evacuated. Most residents evacuated prior to the storm, but many went to the Superdome which has lots of damage, unknown thousands are presumed missing and dead. There is talk that it will be at least a month to drain the city. This is going to take years and years to recover from. The gulf cities of Mississippi are equally devastated but I think the waters have receeded there. And most aggrevating, is our "fearless" leadership in the White House has taken their sweet old time in sending disaster relief, evacuation relief, there's no food, no clean water, no medication. It's all going very slow but somehow they can get troops to Iraq pretty darn quickly. There's a lot of anger in the country about the slow response. Gas prices are over $3 a gallon pretty much all over the country. This is enormous and who knows how long it will take before there's a city fo New Orleans again and the residents will be allowed back. It's tragic, horrific, sad, and unbelievable. This is our Tsunami. I sure hope She above has gotten over her water obsession for the year. And I spoke to Lyman who lives in Shreveport. They had no weather in that part of Louisiana whatsoever. It's all just beyond belief.
The latest on Scoop. He's at Cedars. He had surgery about 2 weeks ago to relieve pressure on his optic nerve (I think). He's scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday for something else, but in the meantime, he had another surgery last Thursday when they found a new tumor that they had to remove. I don't know how his spirits are but they're certainly doing everything they can, thank goodness. And on the Telethon yesterday, we all gathered on stage and taped a get well to Scoop. JL had some nice words to say to him, we all waved, blew kisses, etc. We're all thinking of him and I pray for him every day.
The Telethon seems to be in quite a bit of chaos which is a little scary 4 hours before air. Hour 1 is changing again. Hope we survive the next 24+ hours. I'm tired already.
