Four, Three, Two...

We have done a few things over the past few days to add to our good deed countdown:

1. We donated a large bag of the boys' too small clothing to the Clay County Clothes Closet. We have donated clothes to this organization on numerous occasions and it never actually appears to be open, so I really hope the boys' old clothes is going to families who need it!
2. My sweet husband donated some of his hard earned monies to a coworker who is raising money for Relentless Detroit {Go Paul!}, an organization that helps children and families of children with terminal or lifelong illness. If you want to donate to Paul's cause, just click on the link there, it can be your good deed for the day. :~)
3. We put quarters in the carts at Aldi AGAIN, now that the boys have done it once, I don't think we will get out of there without putting quarters in the carts. ;~) And yes, I was at Aldi again, they had a really great deal on some Halloween decorations and I just HAD to go back for more, you know how it is. :~) Also, while I was at Aldi buying MORE Halloween decorations, someone did my FAVORITE good deed for me, a nice older lady let the boys and I go in front of her in line because we only had a few things. I LOVE when people do that! I am sure she knew that sometimes waiting in line to pay is the worst time for young kids. Yay lady!
4. I did the unplanned good deed {really this isn't a good deed, it's something any citizen should have done} of returning a boy who appeared to be about 15 months old or so to his father. The boy was playing at an indoor play place, but had somehow made it to the exit of the building without anyone noticing {which is where we found him}. I walked him back to the play place where I found his dad who hadn't noticed he was missing. I get it, when the boys were that age they ran out of that SAME play area ALL.THE.TIME!!!

I am really hoping that tomorrow I see some of YOU post your good deeds here or on my facebook timeline and tag me! Seeing good deeds pop up will be a PERFECT celebration to the end of chemo!

On that note, if you are the praying/ finger crossing/ chanting/ energy sending/ well wishing type, please send some good juju my way for the following:

1. That the chemo is doing is job and eradicating the cancer from my body so that it will NEVER return again! {obviously}
2. That my blood work all looks "good enough" so that I can follow through with my LAST CHEMO HOPEFULLY EVER!!
3. That the side effect remain manageable so that I can do some fun celebrating with my family/ friends and get things ready for Halloween next week!
4. That I have a clear mind so that I can remember to ask Dr. K all of my questions about finishing this portion of treatment and what comes next.
5. That I can be at peace with chemo ending, I know it probably seems insane, but its scary to think about not getting it. It becomes a bit of a safety net and as I have stated before, change is hard.
6. That I can find some clarity about my upcoming surgery, I am conflicted about a couple of things and I just need some peace.

Thanks friends! I hope to see many of you celebrating with me tomorrow by doing good deeds! XO

FIVE...and a CHALLENGE!!

FIVE - The boys and I put quarters in the carts at Aldi {a discount food store where you have to put in a quarter to get a cart}. You DO get your quarter back, but I figured this way people would either GET an extra quarter or pass on the quarter to someone else. :~) We actually saw a couple go up to put a quarter in and notice that they didn't need one and then smile and point to all of the other carts with quarters in them, so that was nice.

 

Emmett and Owen spreading the love at Aldi.

And now the CHALLENGE: I would love to challenge all of my friends and family to do a good deed on Friday, or before, or after, or every day, but on FRIDAY I would love it if you would do a good deed or a random act of kindness and SHARE IT WITH ME! You can share your deeds on my facebook wall {if you are my friend}, or in the comments here, or by email, or with the hashtag {sorry Jimmy and Justin} #10gooddeeds on facebook or instagram. I really think that seeing a wave of LOVE and KINDNESS spread through the world on Friday would be the perfect way for me to celebrate FINISHING CHEMO {hopefully forever!!!}. Please help me spread the love by sharing this with your friends and family.

Thanks All! #10gooddeeds

Eight, Seven, Six...

Well, it looks like I need to get caught up with the ol' bloggity-blog here!

Eight - On Friday, the boys and I made cookies to take to the neighbors {and by the boys and I, I mean I made cookies, they lost interest after Thomas the Train came on}. It started sleeting as we walked back from the grocery store to retrieve my wallet, which I had FORGOTTEN, thank goodness the nice checker just put the groceries and my receipt off to the side and we drove back to pay! It remained rainy and cold for the rest of the day, so Matt took one plate of cookies across the street {as the boys screamed that they "WANTED TO TAKE COOKIES TO THEIR FRIENDS!". We waited until Saturday to deliver the remainder of the cookies during a walk through the neighborhood. I got to spend time catching up with a childhood friend and the fall weather was crisp and cool. Good times. Also, the cookies we made are seriously the best cookies EVER, I can say this because it's not my recipe. Seriously, do yourself a favor and try these things.

Seven - Saturday's "good deed" was brought to you by the wedding of our sweet friend Shelley. She and her new husband were VERY Earth conscious in their wedding plans. They made sure to use recyclable/reusable materials {such as glass mason jars for drinks}, Earth friend decor {such as apples, sticks, wood and hay bails}, and compostable dinner ware for eating all of the SUPER YUMMY FOOD {seriously, I need that beet spread recipe!}. So, because it's always good to reduce~reuse~recycle and be a good friend to the Earth, Shelley and Derick received wedding gifts procured with that in mind. I'm not going to post pictures of the gifts here, because, one, I forgot to take a picture and two, I don't know if they have opened their gifts yet. Although, I am sure they noticed the "vintage" teacup full of dirt and a thyme plant dug from our garden, haha. So instead, here is a picture of Matt and I on our way to the wedding, yes, I realize I look a bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman in that blonde wig, but hey, the hubs liked it. :~)

Six - I'll admit, this one is going to be kind of lame. Sunday, I went with my Mother-in-law to our local Holiday Mart, where vendors come from all over and set up booths with the idea that hordes of women come in and do some Christmas shopping. It costs money to get in and that money goes to the local Junior League and they do various charity type things with the money <---- so that was the good deed for the day, money to the Junior League. It actually ended up being more charitable than we thought because we had the times wrong and were only able to spend about 45 minutes in there shopping! Oh well! After the Holiday Mart, we met up with my Sister-in-law and Aunt-in-law {is that a thing?} and went to see Wicked. It was my third time seeing Wicked and it was WONDERFUL. I just love that musical and the song Defying Gravity really feels meaningful to me right now. I wish I had a picture of me handing over $15 to spend 45 minutes shopping, but instead, you get this. :~)

NINE

NINE days until my {our} final round of chemo!!!! Today we donated some supplies to our local animal shelter. We called about donating food, but apparently they have a program with Science Diet so their needs were different than we originally thought. So instead, we picked up kitty litter and some bleach and we filled a box with newspaper from the recycle center and headed off to deliver our supplies. The people who work at the shelter are very passionate, they love the animals and really want to find them forever homes, they were also very appreciative of the gifts and very kind to us and our sweet boys, even though they weren't technically open yet. If you are local and have been thinking about adopting a cat or dog, I would recommend checking out the Gladstone Animal Shelter we saw several little sweeties there today that might make a great addition to your family!

The Boys and Mommy organizing and delivery supplies to the shelter.

And the Countdown Begins ~ TEN

TEN!!!! Ten days until my last chemo treatment, hopefully EVER! It's weird, because it feels like I have been doing this FOR-EV-ER, but at the same time it feels like it has gone by pretty quickly. There are still mornings where I wake up and I hope to look in the mirror and find myself with a full head of hair as I realize that this has all been the longest nightmare EVER, but then I think of all of the GOOD that has happened over the past 5 months and I wonder, would I really want to give that up? Sure, I would get rid of this cancer in a heartbeat {and hopefully we HAVE gotten rid of the cancer!}, but I don't want to lose all of the other memories, the sweet ones. I don't want to lose the new friends I have made, all of the lunches and laughing with Shelley while the patients in the other pods probably prayed we would shut the heck up, the time spent at Deanna Rose Farm with Shelley-2 and her sweet boy, watching her help my boys out on the pedal tractors, all of the texts with Jenna and the reassuring messages on Facebook from Cari. I don't want to lose the knowledge that I have probably the best family and friends in the entire world, I mean, I knew it before, but it's set in stone now, never ever to be undone. I don't want to lose all of the meals prepared out of love for our family, all of the care packages from duff, all of the love sent through the mail from friends most of which I have never met, the weekly cards from my Grandma Peggy, all of the nights the boys spent with their grandparents, I know they had so much fun. I don't want to miss out on the shock of Jessica, Aimee, Sara and MaryAnn SHOWING UP and giving me a Labor Day weekend I didn't expect. I don't want to lose all of the simple times my family and I spent together, those trips to the drive-in on "chemo Fridays", falling asleep with the boys in the back of the van as Matt stayed up to watch the second movie, family movie nights at home on our "floor bed", various hotel staycations and the boys' fascination with the "hot-cool" {hot tub}, trips to area festivals, pumpkin patches and the zoo. Sure, some of these things would have happened anyway, but maybe they mean a little bit more now, seem a bit more precious.

So it's with a thankful heart that my family and I want to put some good BACK into the world, after all of the wonderful we have experienced, it only seems right. We will be counting down the ten days to my FINAL {please God, let it be final!} chemo with 10 good deeds over 10 days. I will admit, some of these deeds will be small, but small deeds can sometimes lead to great things. Thank you ALL for your love and support, you have changed our world, by making it a bit better.

 "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has" ~ Margaret Meade

TEN - Picking up trash at the park. The boys were REALLY excited to do this until they thought a tractor was apparently coming to attack them and they started flipping out. Seriously, it was NUTS. I swear I picked up a bit of trash too, but you know, compromised immune system and all. ;~)

One More!!!!

It's been quiet around here! I haven't been good about posting updates and I apologize for that, but honestly, this "chemo brain" thing, well, it's REAL and it sucks and it makes me feel like I can barely function mentally at times and staring at the computer screen and attempting to type something halfway meaningful is about the last thing I want to do!

So instead of trying to be witty or deep or any of that, I'm just going to tell you this: I HAVE ONE MORE ROUND OF CHEMO TO GO!!!! HOPEFULLY EVER!!!!! My last round of chemo {providing that everything goes as planned} is Friday, October 25th. I am hoping to do a little something special to acknowledge this milestone and to give thanks for how blessed our family has been through this process, so be looking out for that on the blog!

Even though chemo is coming to an end, the process of getting well and staying well is far from over. Following chemo, I will have surgery {scheduled right now for November 15th}, after surgery, we will find out if I need radiation {we are REALLY hoping for a complete response so that I do not need radiation}, and then I will be on some kind of anti-hormonal for the next 10 years......wow. Sigh, it's not just pretty pink ribbons is it?

Now, enough with the cancer talk, I want to show you all what we have been doing to GET BUSY LIVING in the midst of all of this crap, because honestly, THIS is what really really matters ----> GETTING well, STAYING well, and LIVING well!

• Daddy has been on "furlough" due to being contracted by the government, so we have been able to spend some unexpected family time together! Here are our silly sweet boys being bribed with ice cream to take a decent picture. :~)

• We welcomed a new sweet baby girl into our family, my beautiful niece, Alina. 

•  We hosted our 2nd annual pumpkin carving party, a little early and the pumpkins are already rotting, but OH WELL!

• And, I got the opportunity to take 1st birthday pictures of this sweet little lady. :~)

There have been many more moments and memories over the past few weeks, we really are living well, even in the midst of this storm.

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If you are wondering where to send your prayers/ energy this week, here you go!

1. That the cancer is being eradicated from my body NEVER to return again {of course!}.
2. That my lab work looks good {especially those pesky liver levels!} and we stay on course for my FINAL chemo treatment on Friday the 25th.
3. That I have a COMPLETE RESPONSE and do not need radiation!
4. That the side effects remain manageable and that maybe Dr. K WASN'T bluffing when he told me that I would "feel better IMMEDIATELY after I am done with treatment". ;~)
5. That we continue to GET BUSY LIVING and keep making sweet memories!

Thank you everyone! XO