Birthday Boy

 

Happy Birthday to our little man who was born

Mary 28, 2008!

We love so much!

Our little Hiker

This morning we all went on a hike. This is Jack’s first hike and he did pretty well. We walked about 3/4 of the way up the mountain. Side note: It took my FIL over an hour to remember where this place was but finally we found it. http://sawneemountain.org/

We had to stop along the way to take some photos.

This one below might be my favorite!

This one is a cute one too.

Off we go again up the mountain.

But eventually his little legs got tired and he hitched a ride on Poppa.

Finally we reached the top. It was beautiful and very cold and windy.

Looking over Cumming and Canton.

And in the end it was worth it. My husband posing at the top of the mountain.

Spring has arrived

We hope that Spring is here to stay…we went to the park this past weekend. It was mid 60’s and it was just beautiful!

Jack had a play date with Miss Molly and I think we all had fun! Hopefully there will be many more days at the park this year!

Snowfall 2010

Friday we received about 3 inches of snow. It started around 1pm and continued till 6pm. As soon as we all got home we went ‘side’ with Jack. Jack says ‘side’ for outside. So out we went! We walked all around our apartment, we made snow balls, climbed up hills, and then we fell down the hills.

It was just beautiful! They are saying we might get another inch of snow tonight or into tomorrow morning. We will wait and see. It’s pretty cool to know that GA has snow and more snow then Vancouver!

Love

Things I love:

thunderstorms

maui

cherry coke zero

sushi

jimmy buffett

my black boots

chocolate milk

disney world

kitties

uga bulldogs

blankets

my boys

a fireplace

smores

nicholas cage

gerber daisy

Struggling to find the voice

I've been in a rut lately since my friend past. It's like I've lost my voice to blog. Sounds strange right...so I came across these great photo that made me smile.

My cousin, Steph, myself and my brother at my rehearsal dinner. April 2007

Loss of a dear friend

On Jan. 1st the world lost an amazing sole a dear friend had lost her battle with cancer. In one moment my world stopped.

I had the opportunity to talk with her on the phone a couple weeks before Christmas. I was lucky enough to speak with her as she asked her daughter to have me call her in the hospital. Even though our short conversation gave me no hope of a quick recover I knew she still had her humor and this made me smile if even for a moment.

I wanted to share this letter that I had written about her shortly before the holidays.

A dear family friend of ours was recently diagnosed with the rarest cancer cell, Multiple Myeloma.

We worked together for 4 years. She is a loving, compassionate person who never wants to burden herself on others. Before her diagnosis she was a vibrant woman with lots of life! She loves music, quilting, her cats, drinking wine, eating good food and spending time with her friends and family.

I will never forget the day she went to the doctor. The day before we meet up with her and her daughter for the Dave Matthews Concert! The very next day she went to Grady for her doctor’s appointment, she had been to the doctor before with complaints of stomach pain and hip pain but the doctor’s couldn’t figure it out just yet. Finally they figured out that she has cancer. The cancer cells had attacked much of her body and she is already at the late stage 3 of the cancer progression.

Since her diagnosed in May 2009 she’s had many changes in her life; she decided to quit her job to focus on her health but she has no insurance; she had to move from the home she loved to a smaller place just to afford rent and utilities; her daughter and 4 yr old granddaughter moved from DC to be with her and help her out; she’s on her 2^nd run of chemo and hoping that she can afford or find funding for her Stem Cell Transplant; she’s in lots of physical pain that never stop; and now she has a hard time walking as the cancer lesions have increased and spread to her ankles which she will need a walker or a wheelchair to get around.

She went for about a month with out treatment as the first round gave excellent results. However, since she not only has a rare form of cancer, but the rarest cancer cell with in Multiple Myeloma the levels have come back up rapidly and she is undergoing chemotherapy again. Basically she HAS to have the stem cell transplant. We are working on the government funding for that so hopefully it will come through soon and we can start that process.

Soon after Thanksgiving, she was readmitted to the hospital due to her calcium levels increasing in her brain causing her to hallucinate and have signs of dementia. A few weeks later after additional and extensive chemo treatments we learned that her heart couldn't take the pain any longer.

My friend, a mother, a daughter, a wife, and a sister lost her battle after 6 months of being diagnosed.

She is in heaven pain free. Though she'll never know how much I think about her everyday, you are still with me.

She had given me a quote several years a go as a reminder of who we are and what we do isn't always easy.

"If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. It's hard that makes it Great."