Man oh man what I see outside of our front window!

It's not the great pumpin Charlie Brown but.....

This morning we had about 30 turkeys come to the bird feeders. They do come two or three times a day but today a nice big tom was with them and here he is-

Now, the great thing about a digital camera is that you can shoot loads of pictures not having to worry about the cost of film. The bad thing, for me, is that I have a real difficult time deleting any picture that I have shot unless it is really bad! So there I sat this morning shooting tons of pictures of the group of turkeys that were in the yard and in the bird feeders. Here's a few-

The first time that I realized that we had turkeys coming in I was backing my car out of the garage when something HUGE came flying across the hood. There was not only one but many and they scared the crap out of me!

Tackla, our big dog, is so well trained that she can be laying on the deck, the turkeys will come, and she does not go after them. Peeko is getting to that point but is taking a bit longer. He is more willfull and deliberate! However, you put a squirrel in the feeder and there is no stopping them. Here are some window shots that I have gotten of the squirrels-

Our squirrels are very fat and happy.....

Loving to bury their corn and peanuts in not only our yard but in our neighbor's yards!

The other day David looked out to see a hawk sitting outside the window on a log-

And then there is this picture of the masked racoon family that came to the feeders during the night. We knew that the racoons were coming to the feeders becuase the dogs had been barking. On this night I stepped outside the front door, turned on the outside light and here they were.

And the various birds-

We also get Orioles and Hummingbirds but boy they are hard to get pictures of.

On this last day of October-the month of breast cancer awareness I am going to close with the latest picture of that wonderful bunch of roses that David surprised me with last week. the flowers are fully opened and they are still very pretty. Thank you all who have supported finding a cure for breast cancer. And thank those of you who have always been a support to me. Good friends are hard to find and I must say I do have some.

Message for today: Enjoy what you have right outside of your window.

Talk about a deer caught in the headlights......

While setting up the stelth cam in our woods he must have wanted to see if it works or some danged thing or another. Now I love my husband BUT...I would much rather see pictures of the deer in the woods....Our friend Mikey will appreciate this one!

The shed is in progress. It was a bit more work I suspect than they thought it would be and they didnt have the crew that they had hoped. Now I think I understand why things dont get done as quickly in the northwoods as it may in other parts of this state. I mean absolutly no disrespect to anyone who lives in that area (heck we will be residents soon) but it is more of a laid back attitude and what doesnt get done today MAY get done tomorrow. Come to think about it it is a way of life that more of us should adopt, certainly is less stressful. So, below are a few pictures of the garage/shed/place for David to put stuff/ in progress. The roof will be green and when it is completed it will be nice. The first picture shows the where the shed will sitin relation to the cabin. This is taken from the woods looking at our bedroom. The second picture is of the opposite side of the shed.

David and I and Peeko took a walk in the woods one afternoon. Even though it was mostly cloudy and the woods are not colorful this time of year, you can always find something to take a picture of if you are just patient and keep your eyes open. I caught these as the sun was poking out.

This is my favorite time of year in the woods. I love being able to see through the trees, love the crispness in the air. The next picture is of an old boat that is in our woods. When we finally get the 'junk' cleaned out of the woods this boat will go as well. If it didnt have trees growning out of it I would save it and have it placed in our yard somewhere.

This past weekend, as the crew worked on the garage, David got some work done in the cabin. He trimmed out the living room and started on our bedroom. We were able to get stuff cleaned out of the living room so that I could take a picture of it. This picture shows the wood walls and vaulted ceiling. The cabin is small but our hope is to 'minimize' and live with less than we THINK we need currently. Oh and by the way, this is also the room that will be my hunting shack next weekend! Nice huh?

While David was working inside I was enjoying myself outside making do with what we had. We were staying in a hotel (cabin is not yet heated and ready for cold weather living) and really didnt want to eat out every night. So I kept a roaring campfire going, cooked the garage workers lunch and I cooked us up our suppers that we took back to the hotel and warmed up in the microwave. As I was doing this I thought of my mom lots. It is just the sort of thing that she would have loved doing. I am sure that she was there with me while I was happily stoking the fire. I still miss her everyday but I am now able to smile when I think about her as opposed to the sadness that once overcame me. I find myself doing something or saying a particular phrase ofrmaking a particular gesture and I think my goodness that is just what mom would have said or done. I have become my mother's daughter that is for sure and I am damned proud of it.

Speaking of becoming my mother's daughter, I am posting some pictures of my mother's grandson. He is sooooo like her. These are a few engagement pictures that he and Kelly (his fiance) had taken at Minnehaha Falls. The first one is so Lenny. Jeans frayed at the bottom and sandals.

I love the presentation of the next picture. Something about the stone wall that just really makes this nice.

I am closing today with a picture of two pumpkins that were harvested from our pumpkin patch. Lenny called me one day wanting to know if I had fed the pumpkins steriods! Apparantly they are very thick on the inside, lots of meat. Now dont think that they are so talented that they can carve those pumpkins so perfectly on their own....nope they used stencils...haha. But they do look very nice dont they my steriod pumpkins.

Enjoy and celebrate each and every day of your life.

Celebrate Celebrate Dance To The Music!

OK OK so me dancing would not be much more pathetic than my attempting to apply lipstick!

But we are celebrating today because as of today I am one year NED. NED happens to stand for no evidence of disease. It was one year ago today that Dr Deaconson removed all of the cancer that I had growing in me and found no cancer in my lymphnodes. Wooooo Whoooo huh?

So the opening picture is of the roses that my wonderful husband and soulmate had sent to my chemo infusion yesterday to surprise me and congratulate me/us for our year journey. Even the onc nurses said they too loved him.......If only they REALLY knew him huh Mikey? Just kidding. He is fabulous he is so there, as are the rest of my family and the people that I am fortunate to call my true friends. Thank you all for supporting me during this leg of my journey.

In a previous post I talked some about perhaps thinking too much about the possibilty of reaccurrance and wondering if certain aches and pains were maybe cancer. I did talk to Dr Cockerill about this yesterday and it felt like my very own counseling session with a bonafide pshycologist! He reassured me that in my case the percentage of the cancer reaccuring is much lower than it is to never reaccur. He also said that I should monitor the ache in my hip for a bit and maybe stop jogging and just walk the dogs for a week to see if that helps and then let him know how I feel. If I want an Xray he will certainly do that but really feels as if it is the fact that I am coming close (oh so close) to the age of 50 that is causing some of these minor aches and pains.

So I made a decision while driving to the northland last night-

MOVE OVER CANCER BECAUSE HERE I COME WITH THE REST OF MY LIFE. GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY.

So having said that here I am on my/our one year anniversary at a wonderful little coffee shop in Longville called the Common Grounds drinking coffee and blogging on my laptop. Ummmmm, it doesnt get much better than this does it?

David has been here since Wednesday. We have a crew up that is putting up the shed. Thus far they have the poles in and yesterday the rafters went up. I will be sure to get pictures today of the progress.

Last night, as I approached Longville (it was getting quite dark) a nice big doe ambled across the road, I had to beep the horn to get her to move out of the way. Just as she began to move a bigger yet 6 to 8 point buck ran across from the opposite direction. A bit farther down another large doe sat on the side of the road just looking at me like she would like a ride. They are in the rutting season and are certainly not afraid of vehicles. Peeko and I took a walk once we got to the hotel and for petes sake....I swear people do not live in this town, deer do. We saw many deer running across streets and into parks etc. As I said before, it just doesnt get much better than this!

I am closing today with a picture of a doe and her fawn that we captured this spring on our stelth cam. This was taken in our woods in the northland. Enjoy and be sure to celebrate every day of your life.

Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy
Was a great movie in my opinion. It dealt with almost every raw emotion that you feel when diagnosed. Both David and I watched it and both liked it. Even though she is more than 20 years younger than I some of it is the same no matter what age you are. The beginning was a gut grabber for me, brought it all back. The mamo, then ultra sound and the docs really thinking that it was nothing until the biopsy....me totally. I especially liked the scene where her husband, after assuring everyone else that he was OK and it would be OK, went into a hallway and broke down. I am so glad that this movie remembered those that are our caretakers.
I do like how she dealt with her journey. She took control and marched on with humor. It is how I like to think I have dealt with my journey....minus the lipstick of course. My goodness can you imagine ME attempting to apply lipstick! We did both agree though that we are glad we chose the shave the head route as opposed to watching it fall out. And of course I got lucky and didnt get sick with the chemo. In fact I really didnt loose my taste for anything except veggie omletes at Baker's Square. We stopped there after one treatment and had a veggie omlete. It tasted really bad to me afer the chemo and even now thinking about it is making my stomach quesy!
If you didnt get to see the movie it will be aired again. I think on Saturday in fact. If you know someone with breast cancer or you yourself have been diagnosed, watch it.
I am ending this post with one of the most fun pictures I have gotten. David and I were taking our usual evening deer drive and happened to see this nice big boy. He is beautiful isnt he. But where the heck are the big ones during hunting season for goodness sake!

Continued. Humm you must be able to say only so much or post only so many pictures each time as I could not add anything more to the last blog entry. Still learning folks!

Anyway this weekend we also had an eagle swoop down in front of the truck as we were driving out of Longville. I was unable to get a picture because it went too quickly (or was it David that was going too quickly??) so I thought I would share this picture. It was taken a year ago this past weekend. We were on our way back from the Lost 40 and drove upon two very large eagles feasting on a road kill deer. They are awesome in flight but even more awesome on the ground up close. My son in law (Rachel's husband Melvin) and I share a passion for these majestic creatures.

Today I have a MUGA scan done. This is a test that meassures how your heart is functioning. Herceptin (and the initial chemotherapy drugs) can cause heart damage so this is one of the tests that I have periodically. So far the ole heart is doing just fine!

Thursday I see my oncologist. I am going to talk to him about reaccurrance and how do we watch for it in my case. I realize that the closer I come to the end of my infusions I am wondering more about is the cancer coming back. I know too that this is normal, many people go through this. But I do find myself thinking about it probably too much. I dont mean to sound negative because I'm really not. I think maybe just realistic. If I do have a reacurrance I know that we will fight that just like we fought this. So my message for today is ask the questions, don't be afraid to. Knowledge is power.

I am closing with another picture that I took this weekend. This is one of my favorite picture taking spots right outside of Longville. It had snowed and was a foggy day. Makes for a pretty cool picture.

It was a cold weekend in the northland. But we had to go close up the camper and get a bit done on the cabin. I HAVE to share a picture of what we drove up on when we entered our property. Our friends Mikey and Jan will appreciate this...Mikey I can just see you shaking your head!

This is what happens when you procastinate closing up a camper in the northland! While we were gone they got about 2 inches of nice heavy snow and apparantly an awning cannot handle that sort of snow load! So as you can see it ripped away from the end.

We did get some work done in the cabin though. Below are pictures from the outside and inside. We are anxious now to get going on the inside this winter. On Wednesday our shed/garage/David's place to put STUFF will be built-finally. So we will be able to take the crap out of the cabin and store it in the shed.

In an effort to dress up the entryway David made stencils that he then painted and attached on either side of the doorway. He hand drew these folks! Talented guy I am married to.

And a picture of the new living room with the new pine walls and ceiling.

And the 'original' part of the cabin with it's original pine boards. This is the kitchen area. Slowly but surely it is coming along.

David and I did take some time to drive around looking for the perfect photo ops and did find a few. I love old outhouses and we found an old old abandonded one. David took the door off of it and we are going to use the boards to finish up a corner shelf that he made out of another old door. I had to get a picture of the inside, this outhouse was old and was a great find!

So.......one year ago today I found out that I have/had breast cancer. I wasnt going to blog about it today because I realized that I was rather emotional about it and was trying to bury all of the emotions I guess, so I hadnt said a thing to anyone. UNTIL tonight during David's pool league. He shoots pool with a great bunch of guys that are pretty much Lenny's age and accept us two old folks like we are one of them. They are a lot of fun and keep us young. In recognition of breast cancer awareness month Bill requested a pink wrist band which I gave him tonight. I then told Lenny, Kelly and David that one year ago today I was diagnosed. Hugs from all and I now feel better emotionally than I have in a week. Gotta learn to live by my own words I guess....TALK ABOUT IT!

A reminder to watch the Lifetime Movie Network movie on Monday-Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy. JB, you'll have to let me know how you like it you old LMN person you...haha.

David and I are off to the northland tomorrow after treatment to close up the camper, yes it is officially the end of the season...RATZ huh.

In closing tonight I am sharing a fun picture. This is myself and my cousins all with our naturally curly hair. What a crew huh? Enjoy.

So because it's do danged cold out.....I decided to blog rather than take the dogs for a walk/run. Instead I just think I will blog about our dogs. How's that for a trade off. Ok Ok so blogging doesnt get me the exercise that I need but maybe (and I say maybe) I will get them out later in the day when it warms up a bit.

Before I begin I need to let everyone know about a movie that is going to be on the Lifetime Movie Network. It is titled 'Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy' and will be aired on 10-23 at 8:00pm. This is a story written by a person with breast cancer and how she deals with it.......humor. Might be worth watching even if you are not a Life time fan (husband, son!!!!) JB make sure you catch it huh?

So we have two dogs. One is an 80 pound Huskey Golden Retreiver mix. Her age is debatable, none of us can remember how old she is. So anywhere from 11-14 I guess. Her name is Tackla and we got her from David's mom who was helping out a friend when her dog (Tack's mom) had babies. As I remember the puppies were born looking almost hairless. Tack was the only female in the bunch. At that time we had a poodle at home (GiGi) that Lenny and I had had for years. GiGi didnt shed and we knew that Tack would so Tack was originally meant to be a basement dog where Lenny had his bedroom and she was supposed to be Lenny's dog. None of this lasted long because one day David brought the puppy upstairs to sit on the couch with him! Since then GiGi has passed and we have moved and now Tack has her very own bedroom with her very own bed-picture below.

Now Tack likes her sheets changed weekly and as you can see she loves to spend her days looking out her window at whatever wildlife may come to the birdfeeders out front.

Tackla got her name from hockey equipement. Lenny was in hockey at the time that we got her so there you have it. She is smart as a whip, loyal and has been a great companion. She has never had REAL pups but has a basketful of 'babies' in her bedroom. These 'babies' are groomed by her regularly, played with and when she is finished she puts them back. In fact she frequently feeds them. She will take a mouthful of her food and drop it next to the basket of babies. Of course they dont eat the food and after a minute or two she will eat it. She is very protective of her babies and of her bed.

Enter Peeko. His life started out pretty bleak. From what I have been told his first owners kept him in their basement for one reason or another. He was not house trained and I would suspect didnt have much socialization (which is a MUST for a dog). At 10 months of age my mother in law inherited him. She has two other dogs and a cat or two. Peeko came to her untrained and despite her efforts she could not completely house train him. The first time that I saw him I wanted him but David said no as did Lenny -having many good reasons the biggest one is that this is Tackla's house and she would not like an intruder. So there came a time when David's mom was going to be gone for a few days and needed a sitter for Peeko. I of course jumped at the opportunity thinking in the back of my head, 'once he is here David will love him too and wont let him go'. Peeko didnt leave after that babysitting weekend. Picture of Peeko when we got him prior to his first haircut.

He seriously had the softest curls ever but we knew he had to be groomed. Below is the groomed Peeko.

Peeko is the most gentle boy and is the ultimate lap dog. David and Lenny have eaten their words and love him too. Tackla is very accepting of him. In fact she shares her babies with him (only certain ones mind you!) and her bed on occassion. Tackla has been very good for Peeko we have come to realize. We think that it is because of her that he no longer poops or pees in the house. He sees that she does not do it and sees where she does go so he follows suit. He always looks for Tack when outside and allows her to be dominant. This next picture is of Tackla corraling Peeko in the computer room so that he cannot get out into the living room to be with us!

Too funny.

Our neighborhood is dog heaven actually. We have four houses in this area and all four of us have dogs. Three of us regularly babysit each other's dogs and our dogs play together like kids in a neighborhood for goodness sake! So having said that I cant sign off without posting pictures of Peeko and Tackla's 'friends'.

Below is a picture of Pixie who I have mentioned in previous posts. Pix spends half of her time with us and the other half with the person who owns her (Jessica). As stated in previous posts Pix loves to be photograped and always seems to be posing. This picture of her is one of my favorites. She is up north with us (oh and Jess is as well) sitting by the campfire when she decides if her mom can have a beer she too will try it!

And this picture.....do you think she could make a ton in beer commercials? I do.

Below are Peeko and Tackla's other two friends, Buster and Buffy Marie. They belong to Brent and Chrissy. Buster and Buffy dont have the run of the place like the other three dogs do because they just dont stay away from the road dang it. But they are just as spoiled as their friends are.

Buffy Marie loves to soak up the sun and Buster loves the snow. And you think I spoil ours....Brent and Chrissy leave lights and either the radio or TV on for their dogs when they are gone! Oh what we do for our animals huh?

Our fourth neighbor has doberman's one of which is an attack dog. Needless to say we have nothing to do with those dogs. One of them attacked Pixie last year when Pixie was on a chain in her yard. The dog did some pretty severe damage to poor Pix. I love animals but those two really need to not be here....... Believe it or not they now have a baby or a miniture pincher. I do know that the big dogs are either kept in the garage or out back in the fenced in yard and are not let upstairs as the baby dog would be at risk. Talk about lack of socialization.....I dont like the dogs but I also dont like the way in which they spend their days.

Last picture is of David and I at Itasca State Park this year. We have so few pictures of the two of us that I had to post this one. It's not bad actually.

In signing off today I want to remind all to buy pink. YES big corps do profit but hey so does breast cancer research.

And watch the movie On Lifetime Movie network (get over it those of you that think LMN is a dorky channel...Ok Ok so it is but really this is a worth watching movie) titled Why I Wore Lipstick To My Matectomy. Not only will it be entertaining but educational as well. It certainly talks about the feelings that one goes through when diagnosed. It is on on 10-23-06 at 8pm.

Bobbi

My Journey

A year ago this month (10-18-05) I found out that I had breast cancer. A suspicious lump was found on my annual mamogram that the doc decided to watch and re-do a mamo in 4-6 month's time. Needless to say I did not wait 6 months but returned in 4 months only to find that the lump had grown quite a bit in that time. An appointment was made with a surgeon (who is a wonderful person-he has a way about him-I trust him with my life....hell I did trust him with my life!) who scheduled a core biopsy. Even though the lump had grown he didnt think that it was cancer, just didnt look like cancer. Dr D knew that we had planned on spending a long weekend up north with friends so rather than wait until Monday to tell me he called me at home to tell me that I did in fact have cancer and went on to say that he didnt want me to wait all weekend to find out. I was glad that he didnt wait.

Needless to say to hear this news is quite numbing. Poor David, I can't even begin to think how he felt. And Lenny...this news on the tails of Granny's passing. What a kick in the gut.

That night I went to bed, turned on Lifetime TV (yes I'm addicted to it!!!) and there was Melissa Etheridge doing a concert for breast cancer. Now I am not a Melissa Etheridge fan but I am so thankful that she happened to be on that night. She too is a BC survivor and said the words that I lived by....talk about it it takes away the fear. I talked to anyone that would listen (and still do so there!) and it helped me cope.

I also am a firm believer that you choose your attitude. Your glass can either be half empty or half full. You can take what is dealt you and make the best of it or you can throw your hand in and quit. Quit I did not and have not. This is not to say that there wont be down days, days when you feel like crawling into bed and crying. Or running around the house screaming and yelling and throwing things when no one is looking-this is my personal favorite. I just did it yesterday and felt much better. Crying gives me a headache and makes me tired..ranting and raving suites me much better!

My mastectomy removed all of the cancer that they know of. There was no lymp node involvement and on December 6th I began chemotherapy. This has been and will be a long journey but we will walk it one day at a time.

You know, the cancer and treatment of has been the easy part really. You just do what you have to do. Dr D told me that I would mourn the loss of my breast, I thought no not me....well yup I did for a few days mourn that loss and it surprised me. However, the most difficult part is what the ramifications of this disease does to your self esteem.

The chemo makes you feel like a real idiot-it's chemo fog and boy it's thick. For many losing their hair hits them hard. For me it was losing my job that kicked me in the gut. BUT everything happens for a reason and I needed to be out of that environment. You certainly do learn who your friends really are when you go through something like this tho.

Last night I met a gal whose grandma and mom have had breast cancer. She is afraid, afraid to do self exams, afraid to do any testing for herself for fear of what she will find. I understand that fear. Prior to my diagnosis I did not do self exams because I did not want to feel that lump and only did mamograms because my doc insisted. I am hear to tell you though that it pays to be proactive. Finding something early increases your chance of cure/survival.

Along with ranting and raving my other saving grace has been my camera. There is nothing more I like than to walk in the woods taking pictures of whatever it is I may see. I am closing today with some pictures that I took up north last weekend. Enjoy and buy pink stuff this month.

This is what is left of the colorful leaves in our woods.

Looking through our woods as the sun sets on a cold, cloudy blustery day.

Our dogs Tackla and Peeko who love the woods as much as we do. Poor Peeko who has curly hair gets into the burs and bad. He has had his tail stuck to his butt, his ears stuck to his head and his lip so full that he cant move it! You'd think he's learn to stay out of them but NO.

Since it's breast cancer awareness month

I wanted to insert an image of the well known pink ribbon but I'll be darned if I can figure out how to do it! Lenny-Kelly helpppppppp.

UPDATE - ABOUT 6 HOURS LATER...I DID IT ARENT YOU PROUD OF ME! I LOVE THIS RIBBON, LOVE WHAT IT SAYS DAMN IT!

So anyway yesterday we completed yet another milestone on this journey. I had my last expander fill at Mayo. David had made the comment that I had just completed another milestone but nope David you have walked this journey with me every step of the way, it is our journey, WE completed another milestone.

I left the office yesterday and got a hug from the RN who has been doing my fills every week. We both became teary eyed for goodness sake! Crazy huh? But when you see some of these folks every week for months you get used to seeing them.

I now have 645 cc's of saline in each expander. Dinah (the RN who did the fills) said that my process went very well. I know that some are able to have a very little at a time put in (25 cc's) because folks it is uncomfortable! The expander is under the pec muscle and each time that they do a fill the muscle and skin are stretched. It feels like someone is sitting on your chest and your back at the same time or that you have done bench presses with way too much weight on the bar for way too long. But in the end it will all be worth it.

At the time of the expander placement surgery my plastic surgeon put 100cc's in the left one and 150 in the right. At my first fill Dinha put 150 and 200 in to make them even and bring them to 300 cc's. The next two visits I had 75 cc's put in and then went down to 50 cc's at each visit. I now have to wait 6 months to allow the expanders to do their job of stretching everything and make a good pocket for the implants. After 6 months they draw off 200 cc's (which will then be my 'real' size) and I wait another two months for the implant exchange. All of this is to lessen the risk of complications. One of the major complications is capsular contrature. This is when the membrane that forms around the implant tightens and squeezes the implant causing it to be mishapen or the skin to wrinkle. So, they overfill to create a much larger than needed pocket. I should also say that implants will not last for life. It is like a hip or knee replacement sort of, they too wear out. Implants typically last 10 years or so and then you may have to do the process over again! Crazy huh? Now they can also give you a nipple and tatto areolas. I have looked at pictures of the finished process and they really do look absolutly real. To make the nipple they sort of twist the skin forming a nipple and then stitching it to make it stay.

So to celebrate this leg of the journey I was going to go somewhere really fun and take a few pictures. The weather didnt cooperate as it became cloudy and there were storm warnings out (Kelly did you ever get your weather radio working...hahaha) so I took a few pics at home. My camera has been a bit of a lifesaver. The weekend that I was diagnosed we spent up north and I took loads of pictures. It relaxed me and kept my mind off of the cancer. My advice to anyone that receives a diagnosis like this is to find that 'thing' that will take your mind off of the not so good stuff, keep a positive attitude and take one step at a time. You know your glass can either be half empty or half full. Choose your attitude.

These are two of the pictures that I took yesterday














Above is Pixie, our good friend and neighbor's dog. She is the most photogenic dog ever, is always doing something that screams....take my picture. Here she is in our other neighbor's bird bath 'diving' for a rock! Those that know Pix know that she carries an attitude and is a free thinker. She does things on her terms and that is that! It does cause her (and her owner) some trouble but ya gotta love her.















This is a Mexican Sunflower that is just now blooming. A friend of mine (M&M) gave these to me a few months back. They are a great flower and as you can see the color is fabulous. It's fun to have this color this time of year in the flower garden.

Oh I have to share. In my vegetable garden this year I planted tomatoes, muskmellon and watermellon. As the season went on they vined all over the place (now I am not a gardener at all, have no clue what stuff is supposed to look like so keep that in mind when reading this!). And then they bloomed I had blooms all over the place and thought I was going to have one heck of a crop of one or the other. So I then had these big green and what I thought were watermellons growing all over. I picked one (with two of my neighbor's help...I am not alone in this know nothing gardening business...haha) and we cut it open hoping to get a nice juicy watermellon. My goodness the thing was hard to cut but cut it we did. And on the inside it sure didnt look like a watermellon. It had these big huge seeds and the 'meat' was sort of stringy. My one neighbor (that would be you Jessica) thought perhaps we had a squash-but I didnt plant squash so we're still thinking give them time and they will look like watermellons. The season goes on and now we can diffinitly see the watermellon and muskmellon and finally figure out that what we had cut were pumpkins. I didnt plant pumpkins for goodess sake where oh were did they come from. Jessica had thrown her last year's carved pumpkin in the garden area so what I had growing must be from that. I have about 12 very large pumpkins now in my pumpkin patch. How fun is that! Lenny, Kelly and two fo Kelly's friends came a week ago to go through the pumpkin patch for their Halloween pumpkins. Their friend's picked two and they picked one. Kel has dibs on another as soon as it ripens. And David and I picked one of the watermellon last night, it was really quite good. It is the only one that I did get. The muskmellon didnt fare so well but oh well it has been fun to watch...and to figure out!

October is breast cancer awareness month. In honor of this I would like to recognize the caretakers of not only those of us with breast cancer but of those who are caretakers to anyone with a dibilitating disease.
My husband has been my rock during this entire journey. He has been supportive and has been there when I need him. This breast cancer thing threw us for a loop. We had not planned on this nope we had not. In fact we planned on retiring in 2.5 years, purchasing a motorhome and going on the road full time.
After I was diganosed I took an FMLA (leave of abscense that work places are required to give by law). Once the FMLA ran out I received a letter stating that I needed to return to work or they were going to fill my position. I was, at that time, in the middle of my chemotherapy regime and was in no way able to return to my high stress job of taking care of vulnerable people when I was not able to fully care for myself. SO, we have been a one income family for a bit now. This of course certainly throws your 'plans' for a loop. My husband however has not once made me feel badly for having lost my job. He in fact says that it will work out, we will do what we need to do.
Well what we are going to do (the plan for now anyhow as you never know what life may throw you tomorrow) is to for-go the motorhome, spend our summers at our cabin and perhaps our winters in Mexico or some other warm place where our kids might be (look out kids here we come!)
This has been a life changing diagnosis not only for me but for my husband and our relationship. We have been one of the lucky ones, it has made our relationship stronger. I dont know what I can say or do to 'recognize' him fully so I guess I will just say that I love you husband and am so very thankful that you are in my life.
To my female friends-you need to know that anyone can get breast cancer, even those that are very young. Get to know your body, do self exams. Prior to my diagnosis I did not do self exams, never wanted to know I guess. I was lucky, we caught my cancer in it's early stages via an annual mamogram. After I had my initial mastectomy and prior to the propylatic mastectomy of the other breast I DID self exam during EVERY shower! And remember to get your annual mamograms.

Changing the subject totally...imagine that huh? I have a friend with a birthday. Happy birthday to you dear friend. She is the blonde one. Hey in fact she is still blonde by golly!Yeah I know, the pic was a long time ago, what a crew huh?????