It has been quite some time since I have written anything in my blog. I have been very busy going back to work for 1/2 days. Also, all the holiday festivities! But I must say I have been feeling amazing! I’m so thankful to be blessed.
So what’s been going on? Well, I will start with something I have found to help my journey. I went to a breast cancer awareness convention and met a cancer support group in St. Augustine. I talked about meeting this group of survivors back in October. Well Shelby & I finally went to one of the meetings on December 14th. I really enjoyed talking with other cancer survivors. They each have their own journey and type of cancer. The leader asked me if I was comfortable sharing my story. I said, “absolutely I am not shy.” Then I began to tell them my story. The leader of the group gave me a book to read. The information in the book is what they talk about in the support group meetings. The top concepts they talk about are nutrition and lowering your stress level. They made me feel completely comfortable & seemed to genuinely want to help with as much help as one is ready to receive. There was no pressure to show up to the meetings every week, but they emphasized that the door will always be open. They said they don’t care what treatment one chooses because everyone is different & are on his/her own journey. I have begun to read the book & so far the concepts make sense. Oh yeah, they also talked about a documentary on Netflix called “The C Word”. Very good documentary. What is amazing are the things that we put in our body that can lead to cancer. And how we can eat certain foods, exercise, and believe in ourselves and the cancer can disappear. Hey guys, I’m trying everything I can! I also mentioned to them that my oncologist advised me not to go in a hyperbaric chamber. They felt like the more oxygen I have in my body, the better off I am and to go for it! The group meets every Tuesday so I think I will start going to the sessions and learn as much as I can about stinking cancer.
What else have I been doing? Baking of course. It’s the holidays and that’s what we do. Haha. Yes, we spent Friday night 12/17 baking and laughing our butts off. We made caramel puff, apple crisp, pizzelle, chocolate chip cookies, reindeer poo, and an ooey gooey butter cake from Paula Deen’s restaurant (we did terrible, Paula Deen does a much better job). It was so much fun! I surprised the girls with matching baking T-shirts I found at 5 and below. It was the find of the season!! We will be able to drag them out each Christmas when we decide to do our baking.
The following morning we had a 5K at 8:00 am. We were able to wake up nice and early and support a good cause – Chemo Noir. Of course, I came in last walking, but had a good group of people walking with me. After the walk of course we had to eat at Two Broke Eggs.
On Sunday December 19th, we had a Christmas breakfast with some of my family. I got to hold my great nephew, Easton, for a few minutes. It’s such a joy to watch all of his facial expressions. After breakfast, we went on a nice hike through a conservation area near my sister Teri’s house. It was a 2 mile walk up the street, through a wooded trail, leading to an observation deck overlooking the intracoastal waterway.
I only had to work for 3 1/2 days before Christmas. I did manage to get a lot of things done and feel like I’m getting re-acclimated with work. I go back to work full time on Monday after New Years. Thursday, my friend Cheryl picked me up and we went to Julington Creek Fish Camp. We didn’t plan to dress similarly but we sorta did. Haha. We had a good time laughing and talking about old times and how our families drive us crazy 😜. Tom & I were darn sure lucky to have Cheryl help drive Shelby to Gymnastics for many years.
Later in the afternoon, Shelby, Mom & I went to Christmas service. I absolutely love going and hearing all the Christmas Songs. Pastor Tim was pretty full of energy as always. Jesus is the reason for the season!
Christmas Eve we had dinner and white elephant gift exchange at my sister Teri’s house. It was a lot of fun watching people pick gifts they really don’t want. Then they try hard to talk up the gift, so someone will steal the unwanted gift. It is even funnier when someone picks a gift and really likes, it but someone steals it. We also had a nice fire lit in the backyard but it was a tad too cold for me to sit in the cold air. It was so good to have family come in from out of town for a nice visit. We actually had 2 babies come to the party. Holding babies is just the best! I love the innocence in their precious eyes.
Christmas morning my dad came by, I made breakfast for us, and visited with him for a little while. We gave him a Sam’s membership, hopefully he liked :).
The rest of Christmas Day was pretty low key. Tom fried a ham & I made the rest of the dinner. It was actually pretty cool. We went to bed pretty early because we left the following day for our Christmas road trip to the mountains. We will miss our little Rusty boy. But we know he will be in good hands with Ryan!
So happy all is going well and that you were able to enjoy the holidays !! Love all of your pictures and the matching cookie shirts are adorable. Gonna have to check out the show on Netflix. Keep on kicking that cancers butt !! Many answered prayers ❤️❤️
So I’ve had two bouts of breast cancer! It runs in the family. Attitude, nutrition especially buying organic is key. Sounds like you have no problem with attitude so work on nutrition try to stay away from red meat. Eat lots of fruit and veggies! Glad you enjoyed the holidays. You realize to be grateful for each and every day!!