Saturday

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I hope everyone had as nice of a Thanksgiving as we did.
The weather was so beautiful. The sleepover went pretty well, Jade stayed home and got some well needed rest. The kids made cookies and played in a tent (indoors). We picked cat tails and blew the fuz all over the place. Then the kids brought them in Grandma's house, (sorry mom). So now there are cat tail seeds in her living room.

I also had a wonderful birthday. The girls at the office had a party, food from Red Lobster. Never really gave it much thought, but I don't recommend ordering crab legs as take out. I ended up using a can opener to crack open the legs. What a mess! But how yummy! Dr. Hatcher even bought each of us pink scrubs with cancer well wishes on them, I'll try to post a photo.

Today planning on putting up the tree and decorating it. The kids can hardly wait. We also are doing some home improvement stuff, new trim and some light fixtures. It's taken over 5 years to get this far!!!! The trim is even already in the house, so the odds are pretty good that we'll get it put up today!
I hope everyone continues to have a wonderful weekend!
Oh, mouth sores are gone, jog/walked 6 miles yesterday! Ran by the Yoders (Amos and Amanda) and Rachel was standing in the drive. She hollared at me to come up and see her mom's new baby. What a beautful child. Then she ran and brought me some deer jerkey that her dad just made. I had to chuckle b/c I put it in my pocket and then worried that a dog might attack me for that piece of jerky. So I was thankful when her mom told her to run and get a ziplock bag. I made it back to mom and dad's safely and shared the jerky with dad and mom...it was very good.

Happy Thanksgiving

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What a beautiful day! Started out foggy and cool, mom and I ran the Turkey Trot in Huntington. It was a good and well organized race, except for the start. Ronald McDonald didn't really know what he was doing, so the timer started several seconds before we all realized we were supposed to start!

Great afternoon for a get together. Getting ready to head to mom and dad's for the first annual thanksgiving sleep over. Kyle and Emily are bringing a tent to put up for the kids. Should be interesting. Rache is bringing Guinness, her black lab, so there will be 4 little ones, including the dog. We'll see how long that tent stays up. Dad doesn't have to work tonight, so he doesn't get out of this craziness!

So you may be wondering who that is with my husband...it's my cousin Mindy. Rachel wrote about her superimposing herself with Jade...well I tried this! You asked for it!
Happy Thanksgiving! Love Becca

Happy Birthday Rachel!

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Since I can't sing...just imagine the happy birthday song being sung by Whitney, no, how about by Marilyn, no, how about by the kids??

Made it 3 miles last night! Feel great this morning!! Thanks be to God for that!
Jackson is trying to scare me right now, he keeps climbing in the back of my chair as I write, screaming "Boo!". He has been opening cards and pretending they have the words to "Jesus Loves Me in them"...and really, that's the idea behind most of the messages in those cards.

I'm looking forward to the next few days. I'm excited about the warmer weather and hope to get in some miles on my running shoes, as well as, play with the kids, eat a lot of mash potatoes and gravy, and maybe find some turkey somewhere. I'm looking forward to holding some of the new babies, and just enjoying being around my family.

I've had some people requesting photos of my hubby, so I will look for one to post here...please don't tell him, though...
Have a great day and Thanksgiving. Thank you for all of your prayers, cards, and support.
Oh, and there is a 5k in Huntington on Thursday at 8 a.m. at the McDonald's. A few of us can't resist a race from McDonald's so, maybe we'll see you there?

Not the news I wanted to hear...

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Dr. Nattam called me back last evening. He talked to Dr. Triozzi at Cleveland and I guess he doesn't think that I will ever be a candidate for surgery. Not what I really wanted to hear. I'm glad I was done seeing patients when he called.

Again, I think about God's healing power and that He has already shown me a miracle with the tumor shrinkage...medicine can't really explain that too well. Dr. Nattam told me that I had less than a 50% chance of response from this chemo and look how small that tumor shrunk!

I love reading your Thanksgiving stories. It so good to hear from people, Jennifer, I loved your story too. I remember begging my mom to go to your house to look at all the decorations and crafts. In fact, I still have 2 bird house lamps in my house!

When I think about Thanksgiving, I still picture my Great Grandma Opal's house...the fogged over porch windows from everyone coming in and out of her house, the candy bowl that eventually always made it to the top of the refridgerator so we wouldn't spoil our dinner, peering over the counter watching the busy ladies mash potatoes, make gravy, and cut the turkey. The "grown ups" always got to sit at the big table, which really wasn't so big, I have it now and who would have known it was a drop leaf? Then we'd all go outside and play basketball, even if it was snowing, over at Grandma and Grandpa Hurd's house. Rach and I would always take on our cousins we renamed as Cheech and Chong--not sure why we called them that--I think their real names are Zach and ?

This year our Thanksgiving is Aunt Christine's home. I still look forward to it, even more than Christmas. I love watching the kids play and just relaxing. A new tradition I think we're going to start this year is camping out at mom and dad's Thanksgiving night. Then Friday, we're going to make cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, and other goodies to share. I hope everyone really enjoys the holidays with their family and friends. I know we'll be savoring each second. We all have been guilty about griping about going to all the gatherings, but at least we are able to do so. Happy Thanksgiving and please keep the stories coming.

Monday, November 20th

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Although chemo ended a day early last week, I still couldn't seem to shake the side effects over the weekend. A lot of body aches, skin aches, and heart palpitations. I could count my heart rate without touching a pulse...I could feel my heart beating so hard in my chest I could count my rate! I'm not too sure why I'm doing this more, unless the chemo is accumulating in my body. I'm also having pain again in my upper right and left abdomen...like I had at first.

Been doing some reading about the meds I'm on, and I guess these side effects are listed. BUT, I'm going to bug the oncologist about them today. I don't want to shrink the tumor and then kill my liver! What would the point of that be? So maybe it's time to make an adjustment some where?

The kids got to spend time with Grandma Judy this weekend. They made a gingerbread house and made houses out of shoe boxes for their dolls and match box cars. I remember doing stuff like that as a kid. It's so funny watching them drag those shoe boxes around the house like they cost $100! I love it. Kids are so easy to please.
Looking forward to some warmer weather this week. Hope to get outside and log some miles in. Mom and I may try to walk/jog the Galloping Gobbler on Thanksgiving at Saint Francis (it's at 8:30 if anyone is interested), Or we may decide to have our own turkey trot that morning more locally. Hate to waste great weather and not put in some miles. Those miles go a long way physically, but also mentally!

How about some Thanksgiving memories? Anyone have any good ones? (Remember, this is the church blogsite!)