FIRST THE BAD NEWS, THEN THE GOOD NEWS AND MORE OTHER STUFF

 First the bad news: We had a bump in our own little universe here at home, with finding out 19 days ago, after Tom's colonoscopy that he has colon cancer.

Now the good news! We have fantastic doctor's and after many, many tests, Tom is heading to surgery on Monday Dec. 19th to have that evil monster cut out of him.

Better still, it's a small cancer in an easy to reach part of the colon, but nevertheless, a very serious surgery that will have him recovering in the hospital for 7-8 days. 

The Surgeon is very optimistic that all will be well, that the cancer has been caught in time and hasn't spread, but again...all will be revealed during the operation.

Tom has a very upbeat, as well as good positive attitude and just eager to get this over with. He is still joking and flirting with the nurses and female technicians that have been poking him with needles and pushing and prodding him over the past few weeks.  I am amazed he doesn't glow from the radiation in his body!

Christmas has been packed away in our thoughts while we deal with this problem. ( All we wish and care about is a good recovery!

(My other wish list is still on the fridge though!)

There will be many trips back and forth to the hospital in the week ahead, as I sooth his fevered brow, and overseeing that his care is only the best!

I expect, it will be very tiring to keep repeating over and over to those who are concerned, regarding how he is doing, so I'll TRY to just put a tiny little update on here when I get home each day.

Please send some healing thoughts to him!

Tom trying to nap, but Benji has other idea's! Picks at Toms hair and maybe leaves a little poop behind!

 December Group Lunch and this is what I wore. 

 Did anyone pick out this fashion mistake in the above picture? I got dressed, looked in the shoe cupboard and pulled out these two shoes to try on and see what looked better. You know how ones memory sometimes last for 2 seconds when heading to do one thing and end up doing another....well, I headed to look in the mirror and ended up doing something else and totally forgot about my shoes!

Away we went and I noticed a slight limp, so when we got in the elevator, I lifted my leg up for Tom to check to see if the rubber heel had come off one shoe, because it also made a clicking sound when I walked and the other didn't. Tom glanced and said, "Maybe it's worn a little on one side of the heel". 

I accepted that as I click clacked and limped with one short leg to the car, but still didn't notice anything wrong. We drove off, and had gone away's before I glanced down at my shoes, and noticed I had two different shoes on!!! Ohh noooo!!! We were going to a nice restaurant too!!!

Tom laughed, told me not to worry and that I could tell anyone who noticed that this was a new fad and they had to catch up on the latest fashion.

 Look at these two very handsome men! One is my husband the other is just a wonderful sweetheart of a man and when I get mad at Tom, I ask Doug, will he rent one of his bedrooms to me! He never takes me up on it!

 This is the old railway station that Doug pointed out, he could still see the hall filled with men in uniform, as the troops got on the trains, to take them off to WW11. A new station was built somewhere in the 60's or 70's and this beautiful place is now part of the Sea Bus station and Canada Line and Sky Train and Sea Planes. Also in the area of where the Cruise Ships come in while in port.

It's a beautiful heritage building with lovely high ceilings and I bet if the walls could talk, what stories they could tell.

It's much like our Toronto Union Station...once a grand old place, and so disappointing to see how it's fallen from what it once was, when I took the train from Toronto to Belleville last summer.

Our restaurant called The Rogue was also in this building.

 One of the huge beautiful ceiling lights in The Rogue.

 Doug, Dianne, Linda on the left side and Debbie, Bill and Tom on the right side.

Sadly Dave was missed, and we had hoped that Doug would have bought one of his friends along, but maybe next time. More the merrier!!

 We are a happy bunch and much chit-chat and a whole lot of laughter goes back and forth between us all.

When we left the restaurant, we wondered what these three men where doing behind our car. When we got closer, it was a nice surprise to see Rick Hanson. Now, this Rick Hanson is one classy man!!! After I sheepishly asked him, would he allow me to take his picture, which he was extremely gracious about, he then asked Tom if this was his car that had the Veteran's licence plate. Tom said it was, and Rick reached out to shake Tom's hand and said "Thank you Sir", meaning Tom had served in the war. Now to me, that's CLASS!

He's even better looking in person and such a nice man! We also thanked him!

 Look at that stupid gob smacked look on my face! Tom and Rick having a laugh about something!

 It's Toms son Martin's 63rd birthday! My stepson is only 4 years younger than I am! He's a great guy, but he never listens to my motherly advice!

He's unwrapping a birthday gift we gave him and I think he loved it!

 What the heck is this I bet your thinking! Tom is playing a game with Byron, his/our G-Grandson. It's a Velcro hat that they both wear and then see who can throw a Velcro ball and have it stick on the other's head.

 Great Shot Byron! 

 Yup, Byron won, and you look very silly Tom!!

 Happy Birthday to you...happy birthday to you......

Joan, our wonderful hostess! It's the only picture I took of everyone around the table that turned out. They turned out, but everyone's expression was so bad, that if I posted them here, I may not get invited back! Better to be safe than sorry!

This little pretty one is Taya who is going to be 1 whole year old in a few days! She alway's wears this sweet smile on her face, however whenever she looked at me, she broke out in tears! Was it my shoes?

 We drove to Dundarave to see the Christmas trees that I posted on the last blog, lit up in full glory! It was much prettier than my camera would take. 

That's it for now! More after Monday!

Tom would love to hear from anyone as he spends Christmas in the hospital, so if you'd like to drop him a line, you can do it through my  irish5@hotmail.com   address, which also goes on my iPhone, which will come to the hospital with me to show him.