We are moving....

The week I found out I was in remission or NED (no evidence of disease) we also got a contract on our house and made an offer on a new house. It was a busy week but very exciting for us. The day is now approaching our closings and we are getting excited.

I am a little sentimental towards my house because it was my first house and I

have had a lot of first things happen while living in it. I have

loved my neighborhood and really have great relationships with some of my neighbors that I will miss.

our current house....

But, we are SO EXCITED about our new house. We are moving on Halloween to a great neighborhood and cant wait. Michael's sister and brother-in-law will live across the street so we will get to see our niece and nephews a lot! We can't wait. This house has a great back yard and is exactly what we were hoping to get in.

our new house!

REMISSION!

I am officially in remission! We are so excited. I will begin the phases of coming off of different medications and begin a different chapter in life. Thanks for praying for us throughout the past 10 months. It has been a hard journey but we have been able to see the Lord work in our lives in powerful ways. I now can say I am a cancer survivor!

I will blog more soon, but wanted to get the word out today.

We have had quite a week. We got a contract on our house on Monday. Heard I was in remission on Wednesday, and put a contract on another house today..... If you want to know what it is like in our house... this is it. Stick with us to get the news of next week!

the "GO RUN"...

Saturday we had the opportunity to go out and participate in a 5K that raises money for my specific cancer. It was a really neat experience to think that the money they raised goes to the research for cancer's that are not hardly ever heard of or rarely mentioned. My oncologist is in the middle of me and Michael and does lots of research. He is a neat man that has been incredibly encouraging to us. I am very thankful for all he has done for us and for all the cancers he researches.

This weekend really is the first physical thing that I have done since January when I started chemo. It was a great feeling and I was excited to be "on the move" again. I am playing tennis in a league again starting in October, so I hope to begin to get some stamina back. I never really knew how much chemo stripped me of everything.

On the hair front.....I think I might have a little growth beginning. It is slow and I am not 100% sure that it is not just wishful thinking but I am now hoping to be able to be hat free by Thanksgiving. My niece did tell me tonight that I could keep my hat off cause she could tell my hair was growing back. Usually she brings me my hat as soon as she sees me to cover my head. My first dream was hat free by Labor day then it went to Halloween and now I have pushed that back to Thanksgiving. I am still wondering what color, texture, and whether it will be curly. Hopefully just a few more months and we will know.

still not there...

Well I realize that I have not updated in a while and I was hoping to update after getting word that I was in remission. Well, as you might can imagine the last three days were not as we hoped. We had an appointment Wednesday and my oncologist wants to wait one more month. I realize that this is not that big of a deal and in the long term what is one more month, but I was EXTREMELY disappointed. I have been doing a daily count down for the past month and could hardly sleep Tuesday night because I was SO excited.

Oh well maybe next month! Please pray that we get the word on September 28.

And the good news is that my favorite time of year is here! Fall, Foliage, and Football. Cant beat that. We are excited to go to the first ever USA JAG football game tomorrow and tailgate.

If you are praying here are a few of our request:

1.) continued healing and restoration of my body.

2.) my hair to begin to grow back

3.) our house to sell

4.) Young Life as we begin another fall and continue to raise money in a tough economy.

thanks so much for sticking with us on this journey!

Time is flying but at the same time seems like it is standing still....

Have you ever felt like that? I feel like this summer has flown by in some ways and other ways I feel like October will never get here. I have really enjoyed this summer and come to a few conclusions that I will share with you. These are very random thoughts but this is what has been on my mind these days.

1.) Work weeks should only be 4 days. I think that America needs to establish 4 day work weeks or institute much more vacation.

2.) Milk should not cost so much.

3.) Mobile needs a Publix

4.) There should be one nationally celebrated and recognized by all holiday every month!

that's my thoughts!

"Feeling Normal"

This past week has been an incredibly hard week as well as an amazing week wrapped in one. I got the opportunity to take some high school friends to a Young Life camp and I would say most had the best week of their summer. It was so much fun. I had mixed emotions going but also had an amazing week and it felt great getting to do "normal" summer activities to be. The day we left for camp was my due date. I believe that this day brought about emotions that I was not expecting but it was good to be occupied with all the details of going to camp. Going to camp really helped me begin to believe that I am on the road to recovery and I am beginning to believe that remission is coming.

I had blood work done this past Monday and met with the Oncologist and he believes that everything is looking good. My "counts" are where they need to be and we are moving forward and waiting on time to pass. I am now released to travel where ever I would like so Michael and I are going on vacation in August. I cant fly until October so it will be close by. We are still very excited. I have also no longer have to go get blood work every week! We will decrease our visits over the next few months so in the end we will only be going once a month. How exciting. I have only missed two Mondays since the beginning of the year so I think after 7 months of doing the same thing every Monday we will celebrate.

My hair has slowly stopped falling out....it still is a little. I look everyday for new growth and have not started that phase yet. I am so ready to not have to wear a hat to leave my house and that day is coming soon hopefully.

staying the same...

I went for blood work on Monday and happy to say that my results from my last blood work stayed the same....THIS IS GREAT NEWS! I have now passed the six week mark with no active cancer cells. Michael thinks this time has flown by, but to me I feel like it has dragged along. Only 4 1/2 more months and the Oncologist will officially declare remission. What a blessing that will be...

On a side note...we got the bill this week for my last week of chemo that I did. That week I went every day (Mon-Fri) and so we had a total of 5 sessions for that round. Well, thank God we have insurance because just the chemo drugs were close to $5,000 per day. Yes, you read that right. I about feel out of the the chair when I read the bill. That doesn't include everything else, that is simply the DRUGS! But it worked, so I thank GOD for expensive drugs.

I am headed to camp on Sunday. I am very excited to get this opportunity. This is the first trip that I have been released to go on and so that makes me feel like I am on the road to remission. I am very excited about our group. The girls going are mostly from my campaigner group (which is just my small group that has become a large group) and I have had them for two years. This time last year they were all in my wedding, so they are very special to me.

Hope you have a great 4th!