Happy 12th Birthday, Lindsey!

Better late than never...

Lindsey turned 12 on the 19th of January, and I am in shock at the delightful and beautiful young woman who has taken the place of my frowny-faced, uni-browed baby. She is an amazing girl--independent, helpful (especially with the little girls who see her as another mother in many ways), and has a great, unique sense of humor. She is nearly always cheerful, and is a self-starter who has taken off academically this year. I am so excited to see what she becomes.

Above is a photo of the purple panda cake "Auntie" Jen made during her recent visit (it was SOOOO good to have her back and now we miss her all over again). Pandas and purple, in case you didn't know, are Lindsey's two favorite things. She celebrated her birthday with two parties (worked better for me than one big one) as well as a family celebration. She is very convincing in her need for formal recognition of her aging process... (We are all relieved that the endless celebration has finally ended--except her, of course!)

I am truly blessed to have such a sweet and loving daughter. Thank you, God, for Lindsey!

Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands

Natalie, for a three year old (actually, for anyone, really) is quite tech savvy. She can operate an iPad or an iPhone like nobody's business. She can find Netflix and locate Dora. She can locate all her preschool game apps and play them. But this week she has taken it to a new level. She discovered Amazon.com and, thanks to my automatically populated password (which has since been corrected) ordered herself several hundred dollars worth of Dora the Explorer merchandise over three days. Happily, all was cancel-able but she was outraged that it would not be shipping. Take a look at this screen shots below showing just some of her rampage...

Guess she's a girl who knows what she wants and doesn't mind helping herself to it! But even I was surprised that she figured out how to buy things. I didn't even know she understood the concept, but by the third day I realized this was no accident (I'm a little slow). Gotta love one-click ordering, eh?!

Doing Beautifully!

Just a quick update to let you all know that I am doing very, very well. I was not sure I would ever again enjoy this level of health and, let me tell you, I am savoring every minute!

I have not been nauseous, I have had loads of energy (I even painted a wall I have been meaning to paint for more than a year!) and, although I am still eating things that some might consider strange (celery and peanut butter and clam chowder for breakfast for instance), I am eating regularly and get hungry like a normal person.

I am doing laundry and dishes, I picked up my kids from school today, and I am catching up on overdue desk work and communications. I have rejoined the world and I will never, ever take regular life for granted again. Or, if I do, I should be hit over the head with a frying pan.

I have a nice gentle treatment of Herceptin tomorrow, am tolerating the daily Tykerb well and have scans in February that, I am nearly certain, will show that, for now, the cancer has been beaten back. I should not get cocky on this point, as we all know cancer is a very, very sneaky beast, but I truly feel as if I am healed for real, a true miracle. Yet, if the news is NOT good come scan time, I am in a good place to receive that news and am so grateful for this reprieve in the meantime.

Thank you once again for your prayers and sacrifices on my behalf. They have certainly been working.