Checking In

I'm at an emergency vet with Milo.

We've been struggling with him throwing up frequently for months, have been to our vet many times, had blood work done, and have been on anti-nausea meds. Those have helped substantially, but starting Thursday night he's thrown up every meal even with the medicine. I realized this last night, when he threw up his dinner, that that was 3 in a row, and now it was a Friday night and our vet was closed. James and Landon are out of town for a swim meet. I worked until midnight almost every night this past week and we leave for our 2-week-long bucket-list family-trip-of-a-lifetime to South Africa for tomorrow.

Of course.

I took him to a different emergency vet last night. They took x-rays, reviewed his last round of blood work, and did a quick ultrasound. He was so brave.

The vet thinks she saw a mass in his stomach. Her words said there were a couple different reasons one could be there. Her eyes and tone said it was probably the reason you immediately thought of. Cancer.

They couldn't do a biposy at that vet, so I took him home, where he snuggled with Claire all night, and now we're at a larger ER that has an internal medicine docter who can do a more thorough abdominal ultrasound and biopsy if needed. I don't know what to think or do. He isn't keeping anything down, even the tablespoon of wet food I gave him this morning, but he is otherwise happy and fluffy and perfect. He is the BEST cat. We leave tomorrow.

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I love my new job. Well, same job really, but new firm and people and stucture. I love it so, so much.

Everyone is so lovely. I was able to transfer all my active clients and am already on several new matters that weren't originated by me, which is SO nice. I'm busy. I feel happy and valued and like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. My associate who came over with me is equally happy and equally nonplussed at the depth and genuiness of our warm welcome.

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Landon turned 18 ten days ago.

I will admit it's the first birthday I mentally struggled with a bit. 18? That feels so truly, officially next-level old. He's an adult. He can sign his own forms. He can vote. He can buy lottery tickets. He can be drafted. It's wild.

I know he still has his senior year at home, but the age really did make the "he's leaving the nest in a year" hit home. And I mean HIT.

He got home late one weekday night after an afternoon spent on the lake with some buddies on his team and he walked in our room while James was showing and I was reading and my first thought was "there's an intruder." How could there be another adult male in the house?

It's my blog so I'll just say it, he's literally the best. He is so smart, so funny, so kind, so chatty and fun. He is 110% himself. He made his three friends sometime during freshman year and has only reluctantly made more. He gets VERY into random things, and shares that love loudly and frequently with the rest of us. It was fishing a few weeks ago, and now he has a crew from his swim team who will fish with him at the lake by our house. It's also currently Pokemon cards, for reasons I can't understand, and he stayed overnight at a teammate's house in Frisco the other day so they could have a team poker night and then be at this one card shop at 5 a.m. to get some special release box. He adores the cats, loves his little cousins (and sisters) and is simply part of the heartbeat of our house.

He had his first job, lifeguarding at the YMCA, this summer and is enjoying his new swim team in Frisco. He looks up recipes on the weekends, buys his groceries, and meal preps his breakfasts and lunches every Sunday.

Any night I'm working late, he's usually stretched out in some manner on the couch in my office. Sometimes silently, usually quite chattily, filling me in on his day and random thoughts.

His birthday was lovely. We decorated his table (the girls felt strongly about the dinosaur theme) while he was at his early morning practice and he had pancakes for breakfast (his "dessert").

Maggie was on theme.

For dinner his much-deliberated food selection was: Kraft "shapes" mac and cheese, smoked turkey sausage, mixed frozen vegetables, and Red Lobster cheddar biscuits.

He was delighted by it all.

18. I've been a mom for 18 years. I've been blogging for nearly 19 years. It's the cliche of all cliches, but man, does time fly.

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The girls are great. Claire seems ready for sophomore year and Cora is ready for middle school. Unfortunately, Cora is still #1 on the waitlist for the public gifted and talented middle school, which is a strange place to be now that we're 2.5 weeks from school starting.

She has some sweet friends who still like to build forts and play and watch movies, though now they always seem to need to make cookie dough or do something in the kitchen when they gather.

I got a dress on The Real Real that has pink and orange giraffes all over it. I wore it on a date night with James last weekend. Like a little safari-preview.

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I had some of my favorite women over on Wednesday night this past week. It was the only night I didn't work until midnight, the boys were gone at their swim meet, and both Claire and Cora each had a friend over.

We sipped wine by the pool and snacked on gluten-free things and my one friend, whose kids are 2 and 4, couldn't get over my life with big kids.

Claire and her friend had walked about a mile to a nearby shopping center to buy dinner and get fro yo. Cora and her friend were making bean and cheese burritos in the kitchen (and cleaning it up, doing dishes, etc.). When Claire got home she was clutching a little big with a white chocolate mousse frozen yogurt with Reeses, my absolute favorite thing, because the person at TCBY had accidentally put Reese's on her cup instead of Reese's pieces and she piped up with "actually that's my mom's favorite" when they were about to throw it away. So they put it in a bag for her to carry home and somehow it survived the mile walk in July Texas heat and it was the sweetest. Also delicious (pic below from a different trip).

I do adore my big kids. (And husband, which is a whole separate thing, but this is a good picture of the two of them from a random dinner a week or so ago.)

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And that's all I can think of while I sit in this waiting room with a Milo who wishes he was home as much as I do.