More pictures!!! (My Kiddos!)

This is Palmer at the airport before he flew down to his dad's for the summer.  I miss that durn 11 year old so much!!!

This is Hadley at the Peden's house getting washed up after playing outside.  Doesn't she look just angelic yet naughty at the same time????

I don't post enough pictures!!

Here are some pictures...of course they are of Hadley!  And I have one of Palmer as soon as I can figure out how to get it off my phone!!  No pics of me.....I am not photogenic as a bald person!  LOL!  But I should probably get a good memory shot so I can go back and reflect on it.  Maybe.

Taxol Chemo - Round 8

Seems like I am always getting chemo doesn't it????  LOL!  Only 4 more left and I am beyone elated about that.  I don't mind getting the chemo as all I do is sleep, I just don't like all the after effects of it.  I am starting to get some peach fuzz growing on my head.   And I am even starting to get a tiny bit of sideburns.  I never thought I would be elated about side burns!!  My hair is a gray, white, blonde, brown color right now....UUUUUGGGGGLLLLYYYYY!  But I am hoping when it does start to really grow in that it's at least a decent color, or that it's long enough to color.  They say you are not suppose to color it right away.  HA! Like that is going to happen....I will color it as soon as I can get away from wearing hats and scarves.  I may be dark brown for a while and look like GI Jane, but it's going to have a color!!!

We are trying to decide on a place to camp this weekend since we have a free weekend.  Unfortunately, I usually get to spend my time in the camper, watching movies as it is too hot for me outside and I burn way easily and that is not good for me either.  I just usually go for the food and movies!!!  Might be cheaper for me to stay home!!! LOL  Our camper is awesome though and I know for the future I am going to love it when I can be a normal camper again and drink beer by the fire.  Oh how I am longing for that!!!

On a sad note, my friends Jared Cook and Janelle Guiles and their families lost their mother this past Friday due to an accident.  My heart is so heavy for them as she was a wonderful woman.  And her death was in the same year as their father's death.  So please pray for these awesome people who have lost so much at such a young age. 

Taxol Chemo - Round 7

I am sooooo behind on posting...it's been a busy summer so far!  Since we have our camper we have been gone about every weekend!  The camper is fun....I am just not fun :( ---- I want to be outside and socializing or going for walks and I am just not there yet.  The heat makes me literally pour sweat out of my glands....it's  bad!!!  But Hadley loves it and night-time is nice since I can stay out of the sun by that time.  I guess I will just have to turn nocturnal.  If I could stay up that late!  I feel so OLD!! 

The last chemo was not too bad.  I have been taking B12 and Vitamin C and drinking lots of water to try to keep my red blood cells up.  So far I think it's been working.  I feel a bit worn down but nothing like a few weeks previous to this one.  I only have 5 more chemo's left!!!!  I can't believe I am getting close to being done!  During the 4th of July week I will get my chemo on Thurs the 5th. So then I will start getting chemo on Thursdays.  For insurance purposes, you have to wait a week between chemos.  Or they said I could skip a week and go back to Wed.....NOT!!!  I want to get it over with!!

Nancy Webb (a friend here in Eldora) has a sister, Kris Miner, who has been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of Lymphoma and is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant to survive. We are trying to help get the word out about how easy it is to register to be a donor, and how simple it is to possibly save a life.

Click one of the links below, you will have the opportunity to register to be a bone marrow donor. You will receive a mouth swab kit in the mail that you will use and send back. That is all you have to do to be registered. (If you are 18-45 and are Dutch or German, this increases the likelihood you are a match!)

The website to the National Marrow Donor Program is:

http://marrow.org/Home.aspx

The link for Kris Miner’s supporters to join is:

http://join.marrow.org/krisminer

Please take 5 minutes and register. It would be greatly appreciated by me, Nancy Webb’s family, and every other family who has someone waiting for a match.

Taxol Chemo - Round 6

Good news!  I was healthy enough to get the chemo this week, so I was glad for that.  The Nurse Practitioner gave me some advice on battling the low red blood cell counts and all the symptoms that go with it.  I need to drink more water....DUH!  I should have known that but sometimes I just don't get those 8 glasses in and chemo patients are suppose to have 16 glasses.  I might as well hook up the garden hose to my mouth and turn it on full blast.  I don't think I will ever make 16 glasses!  But I am going to consciously try to get as much water as I can.  I can also take some Vitamin B12.  And eat as many green leafy vegetables as possible.  I have found Vitamin C also gives me a some pep. So I feel much better today so I need to follow as many of those little tid-bits as I can!  I think I will pass on eating liver though.....blah!

We are going camping this weekend for Father's Day so I am really looking forward to getting out of the house and trying out our new camper for the first time.  I have to stay out of the sun, can't drink and can't smoke or do alot of phyical activity....wait, now why am I going camping????  Just kidding!  I will just talk, eat and be as obnoxious as possible...shouldn't be too hard!

Taxol Chemo - Round 5

I am a bit late on this posting.  I fear I jinxed myself as the chemo finally caught up with my awesomely fast red blood cells.  And because of this, made me feel yucky.  When your body is not making enough red blood cells then it doesn't get the oxygen to all parts of the body that it needs.  (red blood cells carry oxygen) and then you feel CRAPPY!  I really don't want to experience a low blood cell count many more times, although I know it will probably happen again and I will have to deal with it. Sometimes if it gets too low, you have to have a blood transfusion so that you can get those blood cells flowing normally.  I feel bad for my mom as she is anemic and I now know how she feels sometimes when she is in need of her B12 shot since her blood count is low at times.  It really sucks feeling that way.  Hard to breathe, bad headache, achey body, fatigue.  And my cognitive skills were so bad I thought I had suffered brain damage!!!!  But I am feeling much better today.  So hopefully everything is getting better, till the next chemo!!

Redneck Camping!

Mike and I finally bought a camper!  It's so exciting to finally have one as we have been talking about getting one for so long.  We did a little redneck camping the other night in our back yard in the camper.  If I could have only had a beer it would have been a perfect evening!!! LOL!  We bought a 5th wheel with a bunkhouse and a queen size bed so it's exactly what we were looking for.  It's a very nice camper and I am proud of my hubby for getting his rear-end off the pot and going to look at one after perusing the paper and other websites for several months!!  I think our first excursion will be Father's Day weekend.  What better way to celebrate Father's Day then to have Mike do all the work loading and unloading the camper?!  Remember I am too weak to do stuff....**cough, cough**.  Just kidding, I will help as much as I am able to!  I think Hadley will love it!

On a sad note, Palmer left to spend the summer with his dad on Saturday and I miss him like crazy already.  He likes to camp too, so I am hoping we can go for some long weekends in the fall or August when he gets back.  I guess it's blazing hot in Alabama right now, so he is loving it.  The kid loves hot weather!  Go figure!

My eyebrows and eyelashes are VERY sparse now and to be honest....look ridiculous.  I look a bit like I did a flaming shot and singed most of my brow...on both sides.  So the past few days I have been trying to pencil them in.  As a woman who has always had more than ample brows, I find this not very fun.  The pencils are very waxy and I find myself trying to pencil them in, while taking my last precious eyebrows off cuz the waxiness sticks to the hair.  I finally end up using a bit of light brown eyeshadow to just brush in and fill in where I need it.  It works for now, but I fear I need to find something a bit less messy for the future.  I do not mind having long eyelashes with the fake ones I apply, those are kind of nice.  I feel so Hollywood in them!  Hadley likes the butterfly kisses I give to her with the fake ones on...they must tickle more than my natural eyelashes!!  Silver lining my friends...silver lining.

Relay for Life....an Emotional Success!!!

As all of you may know (cuz I have been bragging about it for weeks!) Kristi Myers and I were honorary co-chairs of the Relay for Life Hardin County held on June 1st.  First of all it was a beautiful day to get together and honor those that have survived cancer and remember those that have not.  It was nice to be able to walk around the track and talk and get to know other survivors or family members of those that lost their battle.  I got to see so many people that I haven't seen in a long time....mainly because I hibernate at my house and do not socialize much.  I have to remember to start getting out more!  There was lots of activities for the kids and they seemed to be having a ball.  I know Palmer was wiped at the end of the day...he played and walked hard all day!

Kristi and I also gave a speech which was a lot harder and way more emotional than I thought it would be.  But it felt good to talk to everyone and let them know my story.  It was VERY emtional to lead all the survivors in the survivors lap.  I cried all the way around the track and then cried some more when we let the balloons go into the sky and then cried some more when they were taking our picture.  What an emotional evening!  And don't even get me started on the luminaries....I cried some more looking at the luminaries that people bought in my honor and at the luminaries of those we have lost and my friends who are battling cancer or who have survived cancer...it was so humbling and overwhelming.  Thank you to those who donated a luminary to my name...it means so much to me!

Relay for life raised over $97,0000 and we will probably be closer to $100K by the time all the donations are received....a record for Hardin County!!!  It's so awesome!

I sun-burned my head through my scarf though on Friday!!  What a bone-head I am sometimes!  I have a small circle on my head that is bright red and will probably peel.....you never think to put sunscreen on something that is covered, but I guess I will have to remember to do that!!  It looks so dorky!