there's my new haircut... i figured out how to put in a picture- watch out, now you're all in trouble!! you'll be inundated with pictures of my kids, and my bald head, and whatever else i see fit to publish :)

hello all :)

there is really nothing to report, but i figured i'd check in anyway so you don't think i'm sick or something! i'm *really* tired when i get home from school each day, so i'm not making any phone calls. sorry- this is supposed to be my "good" week, but with report cards due, there's a lot of added stress at work, and i'm just wrung out by the time i get home and have dinner.

i'm starting to lose my hair. not in chunks or anything, but if i tug at it, some comes out. so of course i'm tugging at it all the time to see if more is coming out now, than 10 minutes ago or not. in any event, so far, i've got hair, and i'm officially on day 14 now. which is the day it is "falls out like clockwork" so i guess in the next few days it will probably get worse. i better get a pic of my cute haircut on here before it's gone :)

my birthday is sunday, and i have quite the busy weekend planned... my dad and jill are having us over for dinner on friday night, i have bowling on saturday night (and plan to make my hubby take me out for mexican), and my sister is having us all over on sunday. yay birthday!! i'll be sleepy, but happy, i'm sure :) and by this time next year, i'll be in remission and my hair will be 3 inches long. sort of like it is now, i guess.

i think that's all the news that's fit to print. though earlier today i thought of something funny that i meant to blog, and now i can't remember it. darn it. oh well- if it comes to me, i'll tell you tomorrow :)

so there will not be any photos of wig shopping. it was not the laugh fest that i had envisioned. as soon as the first one was attempted to be put on my head i lost it. it wasn't pretty. walking into a room full of styrofoam heads filled with what could be my next hair was awful. to be honest, they all looked like some former animal perched on a head. and then i had to pick some that i though might look good. i wanted to die. my poor mom and sister probably had none of these feelings looking at the heads. and i'm sure none of you would have either. but i swear that a couple of them were made out of my late guinea pigs. that's totally what it looked like to me. a bunch of guinea pigs resting on styrofoam heads. some were the short hair variety and some the long, but they could all pass for guineas.

then they put a freaking knee high on my head. a black one at that. and then tried to make a wig small enough to fit my freakishly small head. the employees were very nice, and walked away when i cried, and came back later to help me, but it was awful. what i do know: i should never, ever be blonde. most of the wigs i tried on "for style only- ignore the color" were blonde, and looked awful. also, the grey wig fit my coloring better than the blonde. not sure what to do with that information. cry, or be thankful that maybe i won't *have* to dye my hair for the rest of my life. i did eventually get over myself enough to try on a multitude of wigs and have actual conversations about the pros and cons, etc... my mom and lindz were wonderful, and i didn't have to feel like too big of a jerk.

i ended up ordering a wig that they didn't have there for me to try on. i'm a bit nervous about that, but i'm sure it will be fine. and if it's not i don't have to buy it. and because my family is so amazing, if my insurance doesn't cover it my mom, grandpa and uncle are paying for it. i just really hope it doesn't look like a guinea pig on my head...

i went to sleep last night at 7pm... can you say *tired*?? i was in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, and didn't even bother to change out of them until sometime after 11. which is when symma was crying so i went downstairs and found her on the floor outside izzy's room crying "i don't wanna" over and over. i carried her back to bed, and she cuddled right in as if nothing happened. i really hope the sleepwalking ends before she moves out of the house :)

i'm going wig shopping today with mom and lindz. this should prove to be entertaining. i think i'm going to bring the camera along to share all of the fabulous looks with all of you :) blue haired old lady? goldilocks curls? pink hannah montana wig? we'll just have to wait and see!! the good news is that so far my hair hasn't started falling out, so i feel like this is a proactive move instead of a reactive move.

i'm also supposed to go bowling tonight. though if last night is any indication i won't be able to stay up late enough. perhaps a midafternoon nap will help a bit...

my bloodwork all came back normal- for someone with cancer, receiving chemo. the expected drops in numbers were there, but nothing alarming, and i don't need to get the shot to boost them, so that makes me happy.

another good day :) the newest acquisition is a terrible taste in my mouth at alllllll times. it's nasty. so i keep eating things to make it go away, but it only lasts while the food is in my mouth, so i'm just going to get fat. on a better note, i can eat chocolate again. hurray! maybe i'll try chai again tomorrow... we'll see if i'm brave enough or not- after monday's multi-orifice explosion, i'm not sure i'm brave enough. seriously. couldn't drink chai in either of my first trimesters, and now i can't with chemo. this is *really* unfair.

today was a good day :) i had my port checked and my blood drawn and am already home... yay! they're sending one tube off to get tested for the BRCA gene- that's the gene that causes hereditary breast cancer. that way my sister/mom/girls will know if they're at a higher risk or not. it will take 2-3 weeks to hear back from that. the other tube was to check my white blood cell level- to make sure there's enough of the buggers to fight off infections. chemo kills them, so they'll keep a close eye on them throughout the process.

my amazing friend julie is bringing us dinner tonight, for which i am very thankful. last week she brought us veggie quiche! she's fabulous. and it will allow kj to go with ruben and gil to the hockey game tonight guilt free. that's a huge plus.

that's all i have for today- and i have no appointments until my next chemo on april 8th! yipeee!

well, here i am- a blogger. we'll see how this goes :) mostly, i plan to use this to keep everyone current on the ever changing updates in my life- because i really don't seem to be competent enough to make a list that includes everyone in my email family. blurg. plus this way you can all write to me every day and make me smile- onaccounta me being a whore for pep talks and attagirls and such :) so, you'll find all the info on my diagnosis on the button on the right. if i've stuck it in there yet. and then i'll tell you how i'm feeling, and what's new.

today was a pretty good day. i worked all day, managed to hang in for a 2 hour meeting after school and plan for an hour or so, then had dinner and kept it in my stomach. yay! i even threw in a load of laundry, and am now doing this- so i guess i'm doing well :) let's hope for another one tomorrow- i have a blood test tomorrow to check my white blood count and then a port check to make sure it's healing okay.

before i sign off for the day, i would just like to thank jenna for setting this up for me- it's beautiful, and i love it :) and if any of you need a blog designed she does it- but i'll be damned if i know the address. maybe i'll get her to post a link :)