Master Bathroom

We recently finished painting & decorating our first room in our house. (We've only lived here for 4 years, shhhh.....) Sorry the photos are grainy. Our camera is really quite temperamental as of late. Here's our master bathroom:










This is where we keep all of Abby's hair pretties.

Remission Anniversary

My remission anniversary is coming up on July 13th and I would like to do something special to celebrate being alive. Originally we were going to be on the beach that day, but our vacation plans had to be changed after the expensive surprise of needing to buy another car.

I still want to do something fabulous but I can't think of anything. Last year we went to the Japanese Gardens in Rockford. The year before that, we went to the butterfly exhibit at a museum in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Any suggestions? A great place that you know of that celebrates life?

Relay For Life 2009

Last night was my 3rd time participating in Relay For Life. Not everyone who joined my team was able to make it but most of the team showed up. It was super hot and muggy which made it hard to feel excited about walking. Despite the heat, we had fun. The opening ceremony was very moving and inspiring. It felt good to do something to help kick cancer's butt.


Here's the team:




Celebrating (nearly) 3 years of being a survivor. That's my handprint.




Survivors on the field during the opening ceremony.




Doing my survivor lap!




My babies.




Me & the hubby.

Friday 5: 5 things cancer has taught me

Tonight is Relay For Life. It will be my 3rd year going to Relay and I really enjoy being a part of this cause. The first year I went, walking that survivor lap with my good friend Amanda was especially memorable for me. It truly felt like my victory lap, especially when Josh and the kids joined me to finish it. Cancer is truly something that we battle as a family. Even now in remission, we have to deal with the after-effects. Like the fact that I experience hypothyroidism sometimes or have to have expensive tests to make sure I'm still in remission.

For me, being involved Relay is about support. It's about having my friends and family there to celebrate life with me. It's also empowering to be involved in Relay. There isn't a whole lot we can do about cancer once it touches our lives. But being involved in Relay, raising money for the American Cancer Society makes me feel as though I can do something to help fight back.

It's not too late for you to donate to the American Cancer Society on behalf of my Relay team. You can do so buy clicking HERE. I am looking forward tonight to celebrating life!

This week's Friday 5 is about cancer. I could definitely list more than 5, but it's a good start.

5 things that cancer has taught me....

1. Scars can be beautiful because they are our war wounds. My scar is my reminder that yes, I had to have surgery to remove a tumor and my thyroid. But it also reminds me that I beat that tumor.

2. People are capable of so much more than they realize. When my oncologist told me that I'd have to spend 2 weeks away from my family because my radioactive body was dangerous to them, I thought "I cannot do this". But I got through it. So did my family.

3. Your friends and family will surprise you. Not always in good ways. Cancer makes people uncomfortable. They may want to reach out to you but not know how. Other people will be afraid that your bad fortune is contagious and will slip out of your life or do things that hurt your feelings. Some people will rally around you that you never expected. They will let your spouse work from home, visit you, cheer you up and just be there for you.

4. Cancer changes you. I'm not the same person I was before cancer but there are positives to that too. I realize that life can change in an instant and that makes letting my loved ones know where they stand more important to me. Don't be surprised if you get a random "I love you" or sappy monologue about how I feel about you.

5. Cancer can create a strong bond between survivors. I have made some wonderful friends through cancer support networking. I treasure those friendships and I probably wouldn't have met these ladies if not for cancer.

My new mom-mobile

I am so excited because this afternoon I am going to pick up my new car. It's a 2010 Kia Soul. Pictures (borrowed from dealer's website) below:

The monster photo post

I have been meaning to post a bunch of photos but our summer so far has been quite busy and it seems that any time I sit down to use the computer for more than 5 minutes I am interrupted by I usually try to break up my photo posts by event or them so it's not so much going on, but hey this is my blog after all so I can do what I want right? 

Josh participated in a triathlon for the first time this past Sunday and although some parts of it were tough, he finished!  I am so proud of him.  I personally don't like to run on purpose, but it's become a new hobby for him.  Hopefully we can get some action photos soon. Here he is modeling his racing gear:

Josh has been trying to teach Abby how to ride her 2-wheeler without training wheels. She's a bit scared, but hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon.





Yesterday Abby and I met our friends Alycia and baby Ethan at a cool park in Aurora. We saw animals, had a picnic and played at the park.

While we were eating our lunch, this creepy little squirrel was eating hers. She got super close to us and I was kind of worried that I'd turn my head and have her sitting next to me on the picnic bench. Aack!


THE END!

8th Grade Recognition Night

Rather than having a graduation ceremony, Evan's junior high had a recognition night to celebrate the end of 8th grade.  Basically it boiled down to a very l-o-n-g slide show and recognizing everyone who made honor roll, perfect attendance, etc. Afterwards we went out to dinner to hang out with Evan.  I didn't get the best pictures because:

A) My camera is on the fritz.

B) The lighting in there sucked and we sat in the nosebleed section.

Lots of people!

Friday 5 Follow-up

And out of the things I wanted to get done this weekend, the only one I did was read my book.  Just 3 chapters while stopping every few minutes to scan the park for Abby's location. 

Oh well, there's always next weekend.

Friday Five: 5 Things I want to do this weekend

1. Start staining our bedroom furniture black-brown to match our desks.

2. Using our new pool passes at the pool if the weather permits.

3. Scrapbooking.

4. Continuing to read Eat, Pray, Love which is a book that I'm thoroughly enjoying.

5. Finishing the touch-ups and working on drywall repair in the master bath. Here's a sneak peek:

Rapunzel

During her last week at school, Abby's class put on a couple of plays. She was the witch in Rapunzel. It was really cute to go see the plays.

Planting Daisies

I have quite a few pictures to post, but the last couple of weeks have been so busy that I don't seem to get around to them all.  So my goal for today is to get caught up.

Last Thursday, Abby's girl scout trip went to plant daisies at the retirement home in Sycamore.  I went along and helped.  It was a lot of fun. 

Here she is planting her daisy plant.



Here is the troop!

Please support me in Relay For Life

None of us has to look far to see the effects of cancer. Some of us only have to look in the mirror. As you may know, I was diagnosed with Stage III papillary-follicular thyroid cancer on November 3rd, 2005. I am about to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the day that I was first told that my cancer is in remission.  I cannot think of a better way to honor the battle I fought along with my family than to be involved in Relay For Life.

I’ve decided to Fight Back by joining a Relay For Life team and have pledged to raise $100 for the American Cancer Society. I hope you'll consider joining me in this fight by making a contribution to my Relay team. You can do so by clicking the link to my Relay web site at the bottom of this page. It is also not too late to join my Relay team which you can also do by clicking this link to my Relay site. 

Friday Five: 5 Things I want to improve on

A friend of mine once said that from time to time he thought it was a good idea to take a step back and evaluate his life and what needed to be changed.  I agree.  It's too easy to get into a rut and not see how things could be better. I am at a point in my life where I feel that I need to make some changes.  I think it's a great thing to be always evolving as a person, changing things up on a path to improvement.  These are 5 things I am working on right now.

1. Patience. This is about more than waiting in line.  It's about letting go of the need to control things when it's not possible and just letting fate step in. 

2. Spirituality.  I need to find more spiritual guidance.  Finding a faith "home" means overcoming my social anxiety and putting myself in a situation outside of my comfort zone.  The payoff will be worth the anxiety. 

3. Organization.  This is such an important ingredient in living a lower stress life. How can anyone feel calm if there surroundings are in disarray?  

4. Home Improvement.  Time to face the fact that the housing market is not getting better and we are not going to win the lottery (mostly because we don't even play).  This leads me to want to make the best out of what I do have.  I am tired of looking at scuffed up white walls...time to paint them. Rather than vocalizing my dissatisfaction over my surroundings, I need to change them.

5. My relationship with food.  Obviously we need food to survive, but we don't need it to cope. I am working to nourish my body instead of using it to soothe my soul.  It doesn't soothe me.  It makes me feel worse...it causes me more pain. While it's true that I don't have good metabolism, there are things I am doing that prevent me from losing this extra weight. Time to take responsibility for that.  Time to break up with cheese fries!

I <3 IKEA

I have been bugging requesting for Josh to take a day off and go to IKEA with me for the past month or two to get some stuff. Our house is small for 4 people and our biggest problem is storage.  Since we don't forsee moving anytime soon (thank you crappy housing market), we are attacking the problem room by room.  Since we both use the computer like all the time for Facebook either school or work, we needed to have 2 good size desks rather than 1 we had.  

After spending a fun day at IKEA eating and shopping (yes we managed to eat breakfast & lunch there), we now have a wall of desk space in our master bedroom and a new bookshelf.  We are most likely going to need another bookshelf in the future for storage.  I am so excited that not only do we each have a desk for our laptops, but I have a space dedicated to scrapbooking and some real storage.  

The highlights of our trip....

FREE coffee before 11am accompanied by the $1 cinnamon roll we split...



Josh


Some of what we got while there:






I want to go back and get this rug for our living room:

Playing with Bowser

Yesterday we went over to Cassandra and Joe's to hang out with them for awhile and we got to hold and play with their hedgehog, Bowser.  Abby really liked playing with her. Here they are:

Sad news

If you are my Facebook friend, you already know this so I apologize for being repetitive.  Late Friday night my pregnant sister and brother-in-law were in a terrible car crash involving 2 other cars.  They were taken by ambulance to the hospital were they were treated for burns from the airbag. They also have some scratches and bruises from the accident.  Since Cassandra's pregnancy is not more than 20 weeks along, they didn't keep her to monitor the baby.  We are all hoping and praying for everyone to heal physically and emotionally. 

They are lucky that my brother-in-law Joe was able to slow down and react in time to minimize their impact. We are so thankful that they are alright. Unfortunately a passenger in the car that hit them was killed as a result of the accident.  My heart goes out to her family. 

Even though it isn't entirely accurate, I'm posting the news article about the crash below....

One dead, 3 hurt in Northlake crash

A Chicago woman died Saturday from injuries sustained in a crash at a Walmart store entrance Friday night in Northlake. The incident left three others injured as well.
Three vehicles collided near a Wal-Mart store entrance at North Avenue and Hillside about 11:30 p.m. Friday, said Hillside Fire Department Lt. Milnes.

Four people were initially injured in the crash, Milnes said. Two people were taken in critical condition to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood and two people were taken to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital in fair condition. All the injured individuals were adults.

Hoa Ngo, 71, of 5107 N. Monticello Ave., was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center at 4:50 a.m., a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said.

Northlake police would not comment on the crash Saturday.

An autopsy for Ngo is slated for Sunday.

— Sun-Times News Group

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