my facebook statement

My response to Melissa Etheridge's comment about Angelina Jolie decision..I know many don't care but I wanted to get it out.

 August 2011, I was diagnosed with LCIS, a non-invasive form of breast cancer, 60% chance of turning into invasive in 10 - 15 years My daughters at the time were 6, 8 and 14. .

My mother was first diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 35, I was 5, I lived my life with cancer and that cancer eventually killed my Mom when she was 50, I was 20. At age 6 or 7, I started making very conscious choices in how I lived my life, extremely healthy, food and exercise wise. So much so my Mom was concerned about me doing this at such a young age.

It didn't matter, at age 48, I was positive, the docs said don't worry we can monitor heavily, 0% chance reduction, take tamoxifen 50% chance prevention, double mastectomy with reconstruction, 95% chance of prevention. After 10 months of heavy research and worry, I choose the last option since I had no desire to put my daughters through what I had gone through as a child and I didn't want to go through what my mother had gone through.

I ended up choosing double mastectomy with DIEP flap reconstruction (my own flesh), 2012 was a difficult year, but now on the latter end, I feel so much better and stronger. It was the right decision for me and my family. I support AJ and her decision, it was a brave decision and a courageous decision based on the circumstances of her life. Though I doubt she cares little about what I or anyone else thinks since she did what was right for her family.

I personally feel much better since the operation, and I am glad that AJ made such a decision public, it makes it easier to talk about. Before her announcing what she did, I told very few people what I was doing, but now her announcement has created a platform for me to talk about my last 1 1/2 years and that has been healthy for me.

I am a school teacher thus felt the need to stay quiet since it was a relatively unheard of procedure in my local small town...now everyone knows of it because of AJ, and it seems to be accepted with ease as well.

Randomness

Yesterday during the rain filled afternoon we finished cleaning and sorting clothes for all the girls. Today since it is suppose to rain until noon we are sorting the books, taking the lower level ones off the shelf and placing the new books and the "set" books on so it encourages the girls to keep reading. I wish my parents had the option of sets when I was young because I would have loved them. Mim is reading the Harry Potter series, Ve and Tuki now and then pick up the June B Jones books. I purchased nearly 50 books from scholastic (165.00) for the girls to read over this summer.  They won't get through them all but they will work on it. I encourage the girls and myself to read way more then watch TV all the time, but especially during the summer. We have the Judy Moody series, Guardians of Gahoole (owls) series, 39 clues series, A - Z mysteries, some Amelia Bedelia, and Ramona and Bezus and an assortment of many other books.

I think I am going to start on the Nevada Barr series, I was told I would like them since I love the adventure in Clive Cussler's books

When it quits raining I plan to shave Einstein today for the summer and then Heathcliff tomorrow since they have become my walking partners..I am walking daily, all the activity I am cleared for at this time, and I want them to stay cool so they can keep with my pace.

I guess in another two weeks I can finally purchase a sports bra for my new bust and because my feet are feeling so much better since being on the Lyme (+co-infection) treatment I am going to attempt to start walk-running. I have a long ways to work my way way back to, but I am hopeful.

In addition since I have been on the treatment, I have taken ibuprofen about 2 -3 times in the last 3 months where as in the past 4 years it was nearly a daily experience with all my stiffness, aches and pains. That is what Lyme disease does, slowly cripples and disables a person over time, and the treatment does the opposite.  The doc has taken me off the old thyroid treatment and I am now on Armour (90mcg, still may need to be increased) that I take with one selenium and zinc tablet each morning, and I finally have my appetite back along with some increments of weight loss with the increased walking workouts....finally after 4 years. I am also taking 2 antibiotic and 1 anti-parasitic twice daily plus tons of supplements to increase my immune system. The doc feels that I will probably be on this treatment until Aug/Sept and then recheck my WBC killer cell numbers. My numbers were really low thus all the medical problems these last 4 years. I guess the only diseases that drops your killer cell numbers are; Tuberculosis, AIDS, leukemia, and Lyme disease, thus compromising a person's whole immune system.

Now we are waiting for our breakfast to finish warming up in the oven.....

I guess this is the end of week two of summer break..it always amazes me how quickly breaks go but sometimes how slowly school weeks go......the time seems to run differently.

This next week is the last week of softball for Ve and Tuki, and then on July 8th all the girls will start month long daily swim lessons.

Mim is focusing on running for CC this fall, so she runs 5 miles 5 days/week, 7 miles/ 1 day/week, a day of rest, in addition she attends Panther Fitness (endurance/strengthening)  4 days/week to help her with her running form, so she is not in softball this year since she is already involved in so many physical activities.

We may attend the energy fair today, but honestly I am not feeling motivated to do so, we'll see!!

Car brakes

need changing, just this last week I heard metal grinding every time I braked the car. A car mechanic told me in January my brakes were great, and now 6 months they are grinding...ohhh those car mechanics tick me off sometimes...another 250.00 or so but I guess this is still better than car payments.

My first week of the admin internship has gone well. I really like this future prospect, now I just need to finish my credits and hope that a job shows up, I get it, and it works for the whole family.

Everything in the garden is coming up, I predict in a week or so we will be eating lettuce from the garden, something we all really enjoy...way better than store bought.

Zamboni has been a great addition for our family. Mim's behavior has been fantastic. She says she is trying to be well behaved and she is doing it too. I feel it has something to do with Zamboni. I see her acting more grounded with him around. Maybe it is having something alive that is "hers" and she knows she is responsible for him. We took him to the vet yesterday and she handled the whole process, except for the payment of course. :) I think since she will only be doing two sports during the school year she should not get overly stressed so hopefully not overly tired thus bad behavior will be at a minimum.

This summer

Two summers ago we cleaned out my old neighbor, Art's,  new house since he passed away in May.

Last summer I was basically was drugged out due the pain killers needed to heal from two major surgeries in 3 weeks.

This summer we in the process of doing a major house cleaning from top to bottom...MAJOR, this causes a ton of stress in each of my daughters. They are all pack rats, I am not, they are messy, I am so so in this department, they do NOT keep their rooms clean even though we organize their rooms every year. Tuki has always been messy, since she was little, Ve was neat but has become messier and Mim is messy and a pack rat. We are starting with their rooms this week and there is a lot of drama...lucky me!!!

Thank goodness the garden isn't ready yet...

Summer Update

Today we went to June Dairy Days for a pancake breakfast, came home and I slept for about 1 1/2 hours. I woke,  Mim took a 5 mile run with DaVinci, I made supper, we all ate, then we sorted laundry, cleaned the house and now Ve and Tuki are getting ready for a sleepover at our neighbor's house.

I picked Mim up from running camp yesterday, and she has been nothing but "running camp" talk since. The purpose of this camp is to get the girls in the habit of running everyday through the summer to prepare them for the cross country season in the fall. I have sat down with Mim many times explaining that when she makes her goals for cross country and track that she intertwines the goal for good, respectful, obedient  behavior around home along with the other goals she has set. This has been major sore spot between us for the past two years. In addition, I told her she can compete in two sports a year and really focus on getting good in them instead of competing in four and doing mediocre. She choose cross country running and track, so she is not doing softball nor basketball anymore. This will also lighten up her schedule and hopefully that will help with her behaviors during the school year. She will be starting at a different school this fall, the very large local high school that both the junior highs feed in to. Also a school that I won't be at so I pray she won't be blown every which way by new friends she will meet. I used the analogy that she behaves like a leaf blowing in any wind (friend) that comes along, and she need to become like a big oak tree and become rooted into our family so she won't be blown all over the place.

I came home from the hospital on Wednesday about 3:15pm, Grandma Jill had supper ready for me and the two wee ones were happy I was home. I have been getting stronger everyday. I have all my parts back and I have to wear a corset around my hips where they lipo-suctioned the fat for the breasts. I also have two donuts shaped Styrofoam circles taped around my new "nipples" that were reconstructed from my rib cartridge. Medicine is amazing today, all they can do compared to the days that my Mom had breast cancer and they just removed the breast and fitted her with a prosthesis. I need to keep the corset and donuts on for 4 - 6 weeks, then wait and heal until my very last surgery next fall....

Our carrots, lettuce, sunflowers, dill and beans have now germinated. I still want to add more beets and broccoli and then we will mulch the garden with the 15 hay bales I just purchased from a local farmer.

Summer school will start for us all this Monday, so back to a busier schedule. We all go to school 8 - 12 Mon- Thur, until July 25, so not too shabby.

school is out and we are in summer mode

 Columbine Flowers in our garden

 poppies in our garden

 Zamboni at 10 weeks-getting big very quickly

 birch snag in our chicken run

is home to a chickadee nest..still just eggs, but we will keep an eye on the egg progression
Tomorrow I am off for surgery 4 in the breast reconstruction...all my parts are to be put back with a little hip lipo included..nice thing is I am only staying the night and then I should be home by Wednesday.
Tomorrow Mim will be going to her endurance running camp for 4 days, and Ve and Tuki will be going to a mission camp with Grandma while I am in the hospital. We dropped the 5 canines off today for boarding, the girls were very unhappy especially about Zamboni but he seemed to be just fine since he was with the other dogs. I plan to pick them back up on Wednesday once I get back into town.
The grass is cut, the garden is growing, in fact I planted potatoes today, first time ever so we will see what happens. The sun came out a little today, so I think all is good until I return from the hospital. I always get a little nervous about this whole thing even though every thing in planned out to the umpth degree...

BTW - the phoebe nest fell down a couple weeks ago when it was raining non-stop, they never rebuilt so this is the first year in which we don't young phoebes in our yard and we don't hear phoebes calling either and I really miss them....maybe it is God's sign to me that it is ok to sell this property. In the past even though I have wanted to leave, I have always felt responsible for the wildlife that live here. We are an oasis among development and I like knowing that we are an oasis, but once a new owner lives here they may not be as tolerant as we are about the wildlife neighbors, and contrary to what people believe wildlife don't just move somewhere else, sometimes there is no where else to go, so they die and that is not ok with me..

So far so busy

 DaVinci waiting for me while I was outside taking pictures of the garden

 Zamboni checking out how mush he can get away with Beatrice...he is finding out not too far

 His right ear is starting to prick, eventually both ears will be standing

 he looks so much bigger already

 our freshly planted garden, it took us 3 hours to plant and 1 hour to finish tilling, we planted the same as last year, except  no corn since the raccoons always get it before us and no spaghetti squash since we really didn't like it much. We had extra room this year so we planted extra large sunflowers to give to the chickens in the fall. We also planted 8 rows of 6 different varieties of tomatoes, and 5 rows of 4 different types of pepper. We also planted beets for the first time...

 another angle

notice the 3 bird houses around the garden, the house wren has started using one already this year

4 days of school left for the girls and 4 more left for me...