Feeling optimistic & a huge thank you!

I just want to say thank you so, so, so, so much to all of my friends who've taken the time to send me a quick little message or e-mail. It means so much to me that you're thinking about me and praying for me and sending good thoughts my way. There is much to be said about the outlook we take on things. I really feel like "attitude is everything" and by staying positive, things will take a positive turn and I'll have a good outcome.

It feels like, for the past several days, all I've been talking about with people is what's going on with me. To some, maybe it's weird to want to keep talking about this since it's such a scary thing. But, for me, I'm finding it's really theraputic to discuss (even though it does still seem surreal to me) and it's a relief to talk with those close to me about my fears and worries and what's on my mind. I need an outlet to vent my feelings, frustrations, and worries. Thank you all for even taking the time to listen to me and for just being so supportive.

Before this, I never knew anyone personally who had received a cancer diagnosis. I never knew just how scary it was for them. Mostly, I never realized how even the smallest gestures or what may seem like the most minute phrases truly mean to someone who is ill. It's got to be hard on the healthy person's end as well... I imagine it's hard to find words that you feel truly convey how sorry you are to hear the bad news about someone and to find a way to tell them you care. I just want to say, it doesn't really matter what you say, no matter how silly or small it may seem. Just taking the time to say, "I'm thinking about you" or "I'm praying for you." means SO much.

On that note, enough mushy stuff... I got a beautiful Christmas Cactus plant delivered from the local florist shop today from my mom and stepdad, John. I was filled with such joy to see this. It really brightened my day! Here's a picture of it... I can't wait to see it bloom!!!



Thanks again to all of you. I love you all so much! Please remember to always look for beauty in every day. If any good can come out of me having cancer, it's that I'm looking at EVERYTHING in an entirely different way. I'm "stopping to smell the roses". Here's a picture I snapped earlier this evening of the purple-ish pink sky as the sun was setting through the woods across from my house. I thought it was so pretty and just wanted to remember that moment.

Grandma's Birthday, Our Fence Construction, & Random Photos

It's been a while since I updated (shame on me!) so I figured I should share a bunch of recent pictures. These are all from within the last month... Grandma's 78th birthday was on September 7th so there are a few pictures of her with her cake. Also in September, Lee constructed a privacy fence on the side of our house... he built onto my grandparents' fence (they live next door) so we'd have a closed-in area for the dogs to play and run and do their business. It was a big job, he took a week off work to do it, but I think it turned out fabulous! Throughout this I also added a few cute shots of Logan being, well, Logan!!!

It's been a busy month -- I hope you enjoy the photos of our family!

Me in the 1950s?!

Yearbook Yourself is this awesome site where you can insert your face on hairdo's and styles from the days of yesteryear. This was too funny not to share. Here's "me" from 1950 to 2000:

Long Anticipated Photos From Florida

Our trip to Florida was successful. Successful meaning, we arrived alive, mommy having not killed anyone in her stressed-out state, did all the visiting and socializing we wanted to do, didn't lose anything (this fact in itself is amazing since we had a toddler in tow), and then made it back home without mommy killing anyone again, yay. The trip was fun, as fun as a trip involving a plane ride with a toddler can be.

I won't bore you with all the long, drawn out details of our trip (that's what the photos here are for!), but I'll leave you with a few of the not-so-great highlights, in hopes that you can laugh at some of our mishaps:

* Day 1, at the airport: We are smart. Oh so very smart. Three adults (Lee, Mike, and myself) and one toddler boy... we can carry all 4 huge suitcases, a laptop bag, a backpack, a giant diaper bag, one purse, a car seat, and a stroller all in ONE trip from the car (way out in the boonies in relation to the airport entrance door), right??? RIGHT! We can, and we did. How and why we did this? That's something we're still trying to figure out. By the time we got to the check-in counter we were all a sweaty, out-of-breath mess, but we made it. ** We did smarten up and use a cart to get all of our crap back to the car on our return trip home though.

* The plane ride from Chattanooga to St. Petersburg: The flight's going great; Logan's sound asleep, sprawled out across my chest and lap, oh and I'm in the aisle seat and Lee's in the window seat. That's when something very wrong happens. Lee just has to go pee, and NOW. I'm all, "Are you sure you can't hold it?" and "Come on, Lee, he's SLEEPING." So, Lee, being the slick one that he is, gets up to carefully squeeze over me and the sleeping terror child in hopes he won't wake Logan and cause me to murder him there in front of all the other passengers. No such luck, as I'm sure you figured, or else, why on earth would I be telling this story? The kid wakes up, starts wailing, and at that moment, when I wanted to dig a hole and crawl underneath into the luggage compartment of the airplane, people start looking. And looking. And staring. And shooting dirty looks. I came pretty close to either flipping the bird or shouting out something just as rude as the looks they all gave me. Why is it when your child is screaming his lungs out and you absolutely canNOT calm him, does time seem to stop? In reality, Lee was probably in the lavatory for 5 minutes. For me, it felt like 20 minutes of hell.

* A few nice, relaxing, uneventful days in Port Charlotte later: Monday, a beautiful beach day. Lee, me, Logan, my brother Grant, his girlfriend Nikki and her kids Ryan and Lindsey all headed out to Boca Grande for a day of fun in the sun. We had fun, lots of it. I may have had just a bit too much fun. My beach day was followed by a major, severe, awful, terrible, miserable, painful allergic reaction to some unknown thing at the beach (I'm going to guess it was something to do with jellyfish goo in the water, but what the heck do I know.) Did I have eyes anymore? I'm not quite sure seeing as my entire face around my eyes swelled up so hugely that you could not see my eye color, much less if I actually owned a pair of peepers. I spent Tuesday at the lovely emergency room getting a prescription for steroid pills to make my bubble face shrink back down to normal. It took 3 whole days (maybe even a little over 3 days) before I resembled myself again. Sorry, I have no photos of that fun look I was sporting.

The rest of the trip went pretty smoothly. Those are just the horrible things I'd love to forget, but probably never will. At least I can laugh about them now. I hope you enjoy our pictures and get a taste of some of the beauty we found in our visit to Florida. Sorry this entry took me so long to post... I was getting back into my routine at home and needed to find time to just sit down and write this out and get my photos inserted. Hopefully I'll not be neglecting the blog anymore!

Logan, Mike, & Lee on the airplane flying to St. Pete

Logan in Grandma's car from the airport going to Port Charlotte

Logan & Daddy on the dock at Grant & Nikki's place

Ryan (Nikki's son) fishing on the dock

Grant

Logan & Daddy

Happy Logan

John

Grant, Logan, & Lee

The view from the dock

Logan with his Uncle Grant

Lee fishing (or pretending to, I'm not sure.)

Nikki & my Mom, Cindy

Logan playing in the kids' area in the Port Charlotte mall

I think this little girl liked Logan

I'm not sure about this, Daddy

How cute is this?

Having a blast

Logan's first time on a boat

My boys are so cute.

Captain Grant

Pretty day for a boat ride

Logan was enjoying the breeze as we rode in the boat.

Having fun!

Logan fell asleep on the boat!

Later that day, playing at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda

I love my silly boy!

Logan's first time at the beach!!

Grant, Ryan, Logan, & Lee playing catch

Logan with Nikki & her daughter, Lindsey

Me, Ryan, & Grant in the water

Waving to the landlubbers Logan watching Lindsey playing with his bucket... he didn't like to share


Gotta love the seagulls
Blowing up Logan's raft that ended up having a hole in the stupid thing!



Lee with Aleja, she's 97!

Ophelia, Lee, & Aleja
Ophelia, Rosa (Lee's grandmother), Lee, & Aleja
Nayade, Rosa, Lee, Aleja, & Ophelia
Me, Rosa, Lee, Aleja, & Ophelia
Rosa & Aleja
Rosa, Lee, & Aleja
Pretty flowers outside Becky's house

Logan watching Becky's bird!
Becky, Me, & Logan
Lee, Rosa, & Becky
Me, Rosa, & Becky