2 1/2 years

I am so pleased and grateful to report that I have made it to my 2.5 year mark in remission! What a big milestone for me. I recently had scans and treatment, and although I am always very nervous and anxious, deep down I felt the results would be good. And they were!

Until I hit 3 years, I will continue to have scans every 3 months, but when I hit the 3 year mark, I will go every 6 months! What a relief. I have to say that as much as I dread the scan time, it's always a reminder to me of where I came from and how far I have come. I appreciate those humbling reminders because I need to ALWAYS remember the journey I have been on and the lessons I have learned.

For example, when I look at this picture of me in the hospital 2.5 years ago, I remember so many things. I remember how sick and wiped out I felt, the fevers and chills I would get, the nausea, the itching, the 2 hour constant vital checks that would always wake me up, and so much more. But I also remember the excellent care I was in. The amazing nurses who always cared and took such great care of me, my doctor who checked on me each morning, and of course, my parents always there by my side supporting me and giving me the things I needed (like food from outside the hospital!). I also remember thinking that as awful as those experiences in the hospital were, it was worth it because the treatments were working and that was all I needed to hear to keep going...

 

And now here I am, 2.5 years later, healthy and in remission. I wasn't sure I would see that day, but I made it and I'm so eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father for working his miracles on me. Faith and prayers work! I know I wouldn't be here solely on my own faith and prayers. It's the faith and prayers exercised on my behalf from my family members and so many friends that have kept me here. That, I have no doubt. Faith is a beautiful thing and God is good!

 

 

(Celebrating clean scan results and continued remission!)

 

St. Al's Inside Ride

 

Each year, Eric's employer participates in the St. Alphonsos Inside Ride, an indoor cycling event that draws teams of 4 to compete side by side on bike trainers in the Boise Towne Square mall.  Money raised goes to support their cardiac and cardiovascular programs.  This year, I got to be on one of the teams with Eric and it sure got the competitive juices flowing!  Eric and I were neck and neck the whole ride pratically, but the last 15 minutes, I kicked it into high gear and beat him by almost a half a mile! :)  We ended up riding a total of 22 miles in an hour, which wasn't too shabby!

Cosmic bowling

We had a fun date night with a group of friends going cosmic bowling!  It was super fun and like always, we had a lot of laughs (at each other)!  Some of our friends surprised us with their mad skills bowling!  Who would've thought?!  We also played some games in the Arcade, and I just have to say, it's a good thing Eric doesn't have a gambling problem!  I couldn't peel him away from the game, 21!

 

We are so blessed with good friends here in Boise.  I pinch myself all the time that we got lucky with such good people in our ward and neighborhood.  They are simply the best!  

V-Day

Valentines Day this year started out kind of interesting.  Shortly after I dropped off Austin at school, I found out that there was a lock-down at a nearby middle school, which in turn, also caused a lock-down at Austin's school.  Although I knew Austin was safe and wasn't concerned about his school (the middle school ended up being a false threat anyways), I was bummed because I was planning on surprising Austin for lunch that day by bringing Kneaders!  Luckily, the lock-down was lifted around 10:30am, and so my plan carried through.  We had a nice lunch together and it was quite comical to sit with his class mates and listen to their conversations!

I also helped out at Carson's preschool Valentines party, which was so cute! Miss Tia is the best preschool teacher ever and she sure had some fun activities planned for the class.  Cookie decorating, minute-to-win-it games, and of course passing out Valentines to the class...

Later that night, after dinner, I surprised Eric and the kids with fondue for dessert!  Boy, were they stoked about that!  I think Carson said something like, "This is the best dessert ever!"  We stuffed ourselves silly with chocolate, fruit, and cheesecake and enjoyed reading our homeade Valentines cards to each other.  We shared some good laughts too!

 



Valentines crafting

 

 

I'm not the craftiest mom, nor do I pretend to be.  I usually leave the crafty skills up to friends!  Each year though we like to make homeade Valentines for each other in our family--it makes them special and memorable (and less likely to end up in the trash!).  So, we spent FHE one night making cards for each other, the kids' grandmas and grandpas, and teachers.  In theory, it always seems like a harmless, not-so-messy, quick process, but then THREE hours later, there is a huge mess with glitter and glue everywhere, and we still aren't even done.  Oh well, it's the memory that counts, right?

 

 

I also made these cute heart strings that I saw on Pinterest last year, but of course, never got around to it.  They seemed easy for someone who isn't crafty!  Sadly, I can't even take full credit for them though because they required sewing together, which my friend had to do for me since I can't even stitch a straight seam!  They looked cute, when all said and done though, and will be going up each year for sure!

Dog wash

 

The boys love taking Tucker to the dog wash.  Tucker, not so much!  He's always trying to escape somehow, so it's a good thing we can chain him up to the bathtub!  The place we like to go to is do-it-yourself dog wash, complete with brush, shampoo/conditioner (do dogs really need conditioner?), ear wipes, and dryer.  They even have cute little aprons to wear so you don't get wet (which we still do)!