Sorry, I've actually started a stand-alone blog. 

Don't you hate being 're-directed'?  I know.....  blah.  Anyway, I'll try to make it worth your trip over to this address:
http://eachdazzlingmoment.typepad.com/weblog/

Please do drop by, I've just posted some info about the "Candle for Tibet" event coming up on the 7th. 

Love and Namaste, Melissa

I took a road trip with my four-year old granddaughter last week.  We went to Sea World in San Antonio.  We also stopped at the InnerSpace Caverns on the way!  ...No road trip is complete without some kitchy side-trip, right?  ;) 

Surprisingly, she loved the cave!  It was pretty cool...and I mean that quite literally.  Very refreshing since it was in the 90's outside!

We had a great time at Sea World! Nevena loved the swimming pools the best....maybe next time we'll save the five-hour drive and go down the road to the local water park!  ;) 

Just got home from my daughter's house and still feeling warm and fuzzy.  Being with her and the two babes is the best.  (Don't mean to leave out my son-in-law!  He was just working late this evening....)  We had veggie burritos with some outstanding homemade tortillas.  Very yummy!! 

Still being distracted pretty significantly by pain in my leg muscles.  The doctor is still pretty clueless.  Says it could be my personal variant of 'graft-vs-host-disease' (aka 'rejection').  A little of which is a good thing, actually (and expected).  Another guess is a reaction to the anti-rejection drug I'm taking....  see, we're all over the place here!!  Whatever, I'm just tired of it.  Also tired of being my own guinea pig for various doses and combos of pain meds (plus the anti-nausea meds that I need to stomach the pain meds...it gets tedious fast). 

Hope to get back to my polymer clay project tomorrow.  I'm making a bird vessel.  I'm pretty pumped about it, so I hope it turns out well! 

I've been a complete couch potato the last couple of days, so I really needed to get out and do something today.  I had some muscle pain (nothing dramatic, just like really sore muscles, mostly from the waist down.....) still, so that's been kind of a drag on my motivation for a while....a big contributor to the couch potato syndrome.  (By the way, the doctor has no explanation for this that has panned out.) 

Anyway....I have a vicodin rx for it, but had held out from taking any since the pain wasn't that severe.  So today, I decided....*$#* it, no pain would be better than mild / moderate pain, right??  :)  One pill did nothing at all, so I took a second about an hour later.  Interestingly, the pain didn't really go away at all, but my mood lifted pretty dramatically!  Cool.  "Huh, I have this pain, but I feel really good about it!"  Lol. 

So, I went out and did some shopping.  Always fun.  Old Navy has some cool fall sweaters out.  Got a v-neck in a really yummy aubergine.  Couple of kitchen gadgets from Bed, Bath & Beyond and a stack of books (for me and my little grandbabies...) from Barnes & Noble, and I was in a blissful state. 

Yikes, I'm an incorrigible consumer.  Well, some days. 

Got a couple of books related to an abandoned hobby that I plan to pick up again - polymer clay.  I like to make jewelry, small sculptures and who knows what else.  I'm getting inspired.  It's usually a winter-type hobby, but with the temp being 100-degrees-plus every single day lately here in Dallas, it might as well be winter as little as I want to be outside for any length of time!  I'm going to spend some time musing on some design possibilities first.  The thing I love about polymer clay is its amazing versatility.  Your imagination is truly the limiting factor.  So I plan to let mine run wild. ;)   If I come up with anything cool, I'll post a picture.  

My friend John is taking me out to dinner tonight.  I actually put on a skirt and some makeup!  I must be feeling better.   

My new Zaadz friend, Shani, suggested I start a blog to chronicle my recovery from my bone marrow transplant.  Great idea! 

Thankfully, the story of my recovery is not terribly exciting at the moment.  It's a slow, slow process of feeling a tiny bit better day by day.  Some days are more valleys than peaks along this general trajectory, naturally.  I think a lot of this is due to how much medication I'm taking and the regular adjustments being made to it. 

I've been doing some reading.  Today I read "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr (just for fun, I'd read it before...) and "Let your Life Speak" by Parker J. Palmer.  This last was a small jewel of a book and brought tears to my eyes.  I recommend it highly. 

Last weekend, I participated in a 'Contemplative Photography' class sponsored by a Buddhist meditation group here in Dallas.  We went to White Rock Lake. This is one of the pictures I took.