The 4th Weekend!

Started the weekend with Luke and Nicki’s annual party!

Live music with Logan Allen. Excellent!

The next day we celebrated Lukie turning 25!

On the actual 4th Shannon, Bourbon and I watched the parade. Bourbon was too into watching it to take a selfie.

And of course, FIREWORKS!

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The Storm

It’s amazing how much can change in the blink of an eye, or gust of a storm…This is our yard after the derecho that moved through St. Joe.

Trying to get out the front door.

Shannon’s brand new truck. 😢

Shannon’s brand new truck. 😢

Shannon’s brand new truck. 😢

The only positive to no power for three days, a cleaned out fridge!

 

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Texas Family Vacation

Family vacation requests:
Patrick: see the ocean, visit a Buc-ee’s
Mac: best BBQ in TX: Goldee’s, large computer store: Micro Center, WWII ship: USS Lexington

So we planned the trip!

Day 1: Drive to Dallas

Day 2: Goldee’s and Micro Center

Day 3: Drive to Corpus Christie, visit Buc-ee’s (no pics – it was too crazy!) and evening beach

Day 4: USS Lexington and beach day

Day 5: Beach Day

Day 6 and 7: Drive to Arlington, TN, dinner and lunch with the McMahons before heading home!

You can see all of our pictures here. If you click on each picture, it’ll show my comments on what’s happening!

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The C Word

Last June I got the phone call everyone dreads. You have cancer. It was quite a shock. I mean, I’m handicapped! I thought I was immune to anything else. I guess I figured God wouldn’t give me two life affecting issues to deal with in one lifetime. But I was wrong.

I had gone in for a routine mammogram and got the word they wanted to rescan. I didn’t think anything of it. Many of my friends my age have had to go back and it turned out to be routine. Nothing. So I went in. At that rescan the doctor mentioned there was a spot that looked suspicious and wanted to biopsy it just to be safe. She assured me that 99% of the time it’s just calcification and nothing to worry about. But then 5 minutes later found another spot she ‘wasn’t comfortable with’. She said we’ll biopsy both…but she didn’t assure me this one was routine. That’s when I got a little nervous.

So biopsy day came and went. They said I’d know in 2-3 days. 7 days later, I still hadn’t heard. Now I was really nervous. Is that good because there was no rush, or bad for some reason? Once I got the call from my doctor, I learned that it’s bad. She said they send off the tissue to verify for a second opinion that it is, in fact, cancerous.

So, breast cancer. Weird things go through your head when you get that diagnosis. I immediately imagined my family’s life without me. How would the boys adjust to life without a mom? How would they turn out differently now than if I were around their whole lives? Would I have a long fight? Or would it be fast? Could I do Make a Wish? Would it come back even if we did get rid of it the first time? Most people I’ve heard of who have cancer get it again. What will I look like with no hair? I DO NOT want to do chemo. Will I be brave through this? Will I disappoint my family and God with how afraid I am? Will I disappoint them in how I handle it?

We met with the oncologist, surgeon and oncology radiologist all in one day. We received the best news. The tumors were very small. They could be removed surgically and I wouldn’t need chemo. My oncologist said “This is just a blip in your summer. An inconvenience.” So relieved. So I processed it all and calmed myself down. I wasn’t going to die. Which was Mac’s number one question. Is it treatable? You’re not going to die? He was okay once he heard that. One question remained for me: What did God want me to learn from this? What was the point of it if it was, in fact, an ‘inconvenience’ in my summer?

Surgery went well. Slight complication on recovery, but all in all I healed quickly and was ready for radiation in October. I completed my 21 treatments quickly with almost no side effects and rang the bell to declare myself cancer free. A breast cancer survivor. I was super nervous about my next mammogram. The doctors told me that the chances of reoccurrence were very small, but your brain still freaks you out. I just had my annual mammogram and nothing showed up.

I was hesitant to share my journey as it was happening. I didn’t tell many people at all. But now that I am a year out, I want to share to encourage others who will undoubtedly face this road also. I want to be an encouragement to others. One of the things that helped me the most when going through this was hearing the experiences of friends and others who had gone through it. Hearing their success stories. I had heard plenty of tragic stories and horror stories of people dealing with breast cancer. I needed to hear the success stories also. So, if you find yourself facing this, I am happy to talk to you. I’m happy to answer questions for you.

I have been blessed with an awesome job. They were so super supportive from admin working with me for scheduling daily treatments to my teaching team giving me DAILY treats on my desk for encouragement and then a party in my classroom complete with encouragement from my students when I finished. So blessed!

My favorite student note: Happy Radiation Free Day!

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Easter 2023

We started our celebration by worshipping at church. It was a great service to honor and thank Jesus for His sacrifice. We then had dinner with extended family and then home for the egg hunt. It was a great day of fun with my wonderful family.

Family photo attempt #1…Patrick being silly.

Family photo attempt #2…Patrick being silly.

Hiding the eggs

Finding the eggs

Enjoying the eggs

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