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