Happy Mother's Day

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Miles For Boston

Thinking and praying for the victims and the families of all those involved in the bombings at the Boston Marathon yesterday.

xoxo

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Heroic

My GOSH, I have a lot to catch up!  I have post after post written in my head…too bad I can’t beam them up to my computer.  There is just no time.  Zero. 

But this morning I am making time.  Squeezing this in between a workout, laundry, and taking my boys lunch at school.  Yes, I do this every day…and yes, I know they are spoiled.

First thing I want to tell you brag on, is this-

We have a HERO in our family…

We went to my BIL, Brett’s deployment ceremony a couple of weekends ago.  We could not be prouder of him and his service to our country.  We will miss him terribly, but we are already talking about how awesome his coming home celebration is going to be!

And could I give any bigger props to my sister, who is wrangling my two precious, VERY active nephews while their Daddy is gone?  Nuh-uh.  She is more than awesome.  MORE. 

We encountered a lovely springtime blizzard while we were there, but it wasn’t going to stop us from getting to my baby sister and her family.  Love you, Brett!!

 

And yes, I’m going to stop here.  Not because I am running out of brain-power or motivation, but because Brett deserves a post all to himself. 

Go get ‘em boys…and come home to us all, safe and sound.

Love you, Brett!!!

xoxo

Run, Baby!

Like I said before, it took me about .2 seconds for me to put on my running shoes when my doctor gave me permission to run.  I am SO happy to be back to running.   I’m sure my family is, too.  It makes a WORLD of difference in my mood.  

So this week, I have been HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY.  <--------And yes, we are MAJOR Duck Dynasty fans over here!  We love this show, and the  Robertson’s values are spot on.  Oh gosh, I’m going to have to do a whole other post on this.

Because THIS post is about RUNNING!

Here is this week-

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday 

 

Did you notice the two outdoor runs?!  Yay!!!  The temps have been chilly but perfect and it has been a couple of gorgeous mornings to run outside.  Man, it’s good for my SOUL. 

Happy Friday, y’all!

xoxo

Weekending

Goodness, we’ve been busy lately!  Nothing unusual for us really, but still!  We always seem to cram nine million things into our time; and such is the case this past week.

The kids had spring break all last week, which meant a week off from all obligations and schedules and general busy-ness…right?  Wrong!  The boys’ still had baseball practice every day, we traded vehicles (our Jeep for a truck), Tyler went to state Beta convention, I had doctors’ appointments in STL AND ran my first post-op 10k, and we went to the state basketball tournament in Columbia.  Whew!

Truck.

We decided that we needed to trade in our Jeep for something a little more family-friendly, as our kids are getting bigger and the Jeep is getting more uncomfortable to all of us to take it places.  Our suburban has has always been our family rig, but it’s getting older and reallyyyy racking up the miles (countless trips to STL will do that to ya).  So we needed a dependable vehicle that we can ALL fit in comfortably, and will be much more practical for our family.  SO-a new four-door truck it was!  Our new Ford F-150 super crew cab with Ecoboost engine (No, I have no idea what that means, but I’ve heard it countless times over the past few days so I’m just going to go with it). 

But I do know that it’s very comfortable with TONS of room and we had a great time trying it out on our little road trip this weekend!

BETA.

By the looks of the pictures, it looked like my son had a great time at State Beta Convention!  I am glad that there is at LEAST a couple pictures of him in clothes!  

Heehee

But something else wonderful did come out of his 3-day trip…A FIRST PLACE PLAQUE!!

For what, you ask??  Why, POETRY, of course!  I mean, what else would you expect my sports-lovin’, huntin’ and fishin’ kid to excel at?!

But he nailed it.  Check out the poem he wrote-

MY MOM
By Tyler Griffin, Van Buren High School MO Sr. Beta Poetry Competition 2013

She may not be too buff,
But dang that woman’s tough.
If stubbornness were riches,
She’d be a billionaire.
She told us not to cry,
Because God would not let her die.
Cancer will not beat me,
I know this, I swear.
Going out in public,
People began to stare.
They all quickly seemed to notice,
That my mother had no hair.
Soon people started bringing me homemade food,
And sending flowers to lighten the mood.
But still my mother said,
Cancer will not beat me,
I know this, I swear.
In the face of adversity,
My mother would not give in.
When people hear the word Cancer,
They tend to think of death.
But not my mom,
She stood face to face
With something bigger than man.
From life my mom would not part,
Wow, what a HEART.

Wow, my son.  And he won first place, of course.  I was overwhelmed when I read it; it’s so beautiful, and so heartfelt.  I truly have no words.  And first place in the state of Missouri?!  Wow again. 

And does he score bonus points for writing about his Momma? You betcha.

Doctor.

I had my 3-month check up with my amazing oncologist (and proud to call he and his family “friends”) on Friday.  Since we were going to on Columbia to watch basketball on Saturday, we had Zach and Katie with us.  They have now decided that “doctor day” is STL is absolutely no fun at all.  Zero.

But Katie did get to get a pink bandage for her arm and didn’t even have to get poked for hers!  But she matched Mommy.  I have the best support ever.
 

My appointment went pretty well.  I have some labs that are a little out of whack, but he feels confident that it is all because of my recent surgery and that things will level out.  We will recheck them in two weeks. 

I also had a repeat bone scan to check on one of my ribs that lit up during my last scan in December.  The rib is better, but I’m still showing uptake in my fibula from my stress fracture last summer.  It doesn’t even hurt and hasn’t given me any problems at all!  Go figure.

In talking about my bone issues, and me being frustrated with all the injuries and stuff that I’ve had, he said to remember that they’ve aged me.  All the chemotherapy and radiation, and drugs that I have to continue to take, all have major effects on the body.  Basically I’m 35, but my body is not.  I’m not even going to ask how old my body is…  I feel like I’m 90 when I get out of bed in the morning, and at different times during the day, but I hope my body isn’t QUITE that old yet.

Appointment and scan done.  Next up,

Celebrate Fitness 2013.

I had kept the idea of going to this year’s Celebrate Fitness in the back of my mind, but never signed up because I didn’t know where I would be in my recovery, or if the family would want to stay the night in STL so I could go the next day. 

But we stayed, and I went, and am SO GLAD I did!  Here’s last year’s recap!

Yay!!  Even running in the pouring rain was awesome.  Seriously, I love being a part of something that is so connected to me.  If I could only do two events per year, it would be Celebrate Fitness and Komen Race for the Cure.  Love me some PINK!! 

State Basketball.

One of the teams from our conference, and my Dad’s alma mater, was playing for the state championship on Saturday night, so we headed to Columbia to support the Eminence Redwings!  (Now that’s a first for me saying that.)

We had a lot of fun watching them win their school’s first ever state title.  And we always have fun when we are together…well, minus Tyler of course…boo.

And Zach and Katie crack me up!  They can fight like crazy sometimes, but they are the first to have each other’s backs, too.  I love them MORE THAN WORDS.

 

Ok, so I’m exhausted just writing this post.  In all honesty, I started it on Tuesday…it’s now Thursday.  It obviously hasn’t taken me three days, I just have no focus.  Thank you chemo and menopause!

Bulldog Baseball season starts here tomorrow, so we will be back on schedule again!  I can’t believe it’s the middle of March already.  Geez, where is the time going?!

Love y’all!

xoxo

Perspective

I’m tellin’ ya, we’ve had a good dose of it the past week or so!

[this is from my in-laws’ suburban. it always hung from the rearview mirror.]

A week ago today, my in-laws were involved in a car accident that left all of us shaken and, in the end, very thankful.  To say that they are both living miracles is an understatement. 

On their way home from a orthopedic appointment for my MIL’s knee, a propane truck came across four lanes of traffic without stopping, and t-boned my MIL and FIL’s suburban directly in the driver’s side door.  Their car then spun around and plowed into a sign post, into the passenger side back door.

My FIL took the brunt of the impact.  After being flown to the hospital, it was determined that he had a broken fibula in his leg and torn tendons as well.  And all this was all exposed…meaning, hanging out of his leg.  *shudders*  The majority of his injuries were to his lower left leg.  Of course, his arm, elbow, shoulder, everything on his left side took a blow giving him cuts and scrapes as well.  He had surgery immediately to put his leg back together.  Get this-by the SAME orthopedist that they had just seen for my MIL’s knee and is actually doing her knee surgery today (Mon. March 4).

[taken while in the hospital to receive his antibiotics]

My MIL was also taken to the hospital, but by ambulance…no air-time for her.   After CT scans showed that she didn’t have any injuries, she was released.  BUT, she still had a non-functioning knee (which she had just been to the doctor for), so she was still using the wheelchair to get around.  Since the accident, her orthopedist has scheduled an MRI for her right shoulder because she can’t move it at all without extreme pain…he thinks that the accident has probably caused some soft tissue damage there that wasn’t picked up by the CT the day of the accident.  She is banged up and bruised up as well, but extremely fortunate.

[having lunch together at the hospital]

They came home on their 40th wedding anniversary.  Wow.  What a way to spend it, right? 

You betcha.  They spent it at home, together.  As I was updating my Facebook status to reflect this,

I was hit with the thought that this status could have very well meant something different, under different circumstances.  They could very well have been celebrating their anniversary together in their heavenly home.  They would have been celebrating, and we would have been here-grieving and devastated.

I am so beyond thankful that they are HERE, at their earthly home, with us still.  We are all praising Jesus for His protection over them.  I KNOW He had them in the palm of His hand during that accident…it could have been, it should have been, so much worse.  Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Father.

Today, my MIL is going for arthroscopic surgery on her knee, and will be scheduling her MRI for her shoulder.  Other than that, she is getting around pretty good!  My FIL is also recovering…as much as his leg will allow.  They are both unimaginably sore.  {And a praise from the week before the accident-his cancer is in check and even showed some shrinkage from previous scans, which means his medicine is working!!!}

We don’t know why these things happen.  We just have to trust God’s plan and believe that HE’S GOT THIS.  No matter what, no matter where, no matter how.  He is THERE. 

I know He has a purpose in all that we all go through.

Please keep our family in your prayers as my in-laws recover and heal.  Please praise Him for His protection over them, and His amazing love for all of us.

Love you guys.

xoxo 

PS- Check out my friend Jenna’s testimony on She Reads Truth today…it’s beautiful, just like her.

Cranky About Yoga Pants

I’m sitting here on Sunday morning in kind of a funk. 

Honestly?  At the moment I’m cranky about:

• my fuzzy hair- Katie helped me wash it right before bed so I slept on it wet (ugh) and I can’t straighten it myself so I am pouting about it.  Because I can.

 

• my black yoga pants- I am so so so tired of wearing them every.single.day.  But they are the only pants that won’t rub or put weird pressure on my fat-grafting sites…other than my running capris, which just makes me sad to put on.  Which brings me to,

 

• not running- need I say more?  C’mon, y’all know me well enough by now to know that any long lapse in workouts for me (especially running) is not a good thing.  In fact, when someone asked us yesterday how we were doing and if we needed anything, my hubs said, “I need her to run.”  Um, yeah, me too. 

 

• total schedule interruption- I should be leaving for church right now, but with fuzzy hair, stylish black yoga pants, and a sore left side because I slept on it wrong, I’m sitting here pouting.  Yep, the devil’s doing his darndest.  I should probably walk to church.

 

• depending on others for almost everything- I am SUCH an independent person.  So having my amazing Momma have to come strip my bed and wash clothes for me, and my wonderful sister come and straighten my hair, is humbling.  I am used to being the one who is helping take care of everybody else, so to have to ask my kids to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer is so out of my comfort zone.  I run MARATHONS, but I can’t clean my bathroom right now-which reallyyyyy needs it at the moment!

 

• and this is the biggie- survivor sisters/friends who have been diagnosed with recurrences lately.  My heart breaks every time I get word that one of us has had a recurrence.  My stomach does a flip flop and my mind works overtime.  It’s a physical sick feeling.  But I MUST remember, that God is in control here.  He knew that these recurrences were going to happen, and He knows what is going to happen tomorrow, and ten years from now.  And you know what- He’s already there.  Nothing surprises Him.  No matter what, I can believe in His promises and rest in His love.  I choose to stand strong in His faithfulness.

 

I’m going to try to log on and watch this morning’s church service online, if that doesn’t work I’m going to get some #SheReadsTruth in my system.

Let’s find things to be thankful for today…first up- the sun is shining!  

Have a blessed Sunday, friends!

xoxo