it's been awhile...

so sorry! i've gotten some complaints, so here i am :) plus, i'm home sick (cold/flu), so i have time to write...

everything has been going really well! i've got what i think is a "normal" amount of energy back, so that has been really helpful in my day-to-day life. i was able to get a lot of my christmas shopping done before this stupid cold/flu thing took me down on sunday night. now i'm getting a bit nervous... the holiday is creeping closer- we don't have our tree up, i haven't wrapped a single gift, i haven't done our cards, and i'm not finished shopping. but, i have a really hard time worrying about it... i'm healthy, which is so much better than it could be :)

we lost my aunt mona last week... she had breast cancer a few years ago, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor a couple of months ago. she'd been experiencing seizures and communication difficulties for the past 18 months or so, and since the brain tumor diagnosis went down hill pretty fast. i know that she's very happy to be reunited with her hubby, and happy to be done suffering. the fact that it was most likely metastasized breast cancer has been a bit difficult for me to deal with, but i know that she had a different kind of cancer than i did, and different treatments.

this weekend i got to make cookies with my family- cookie day is my favorite day of the year, and i can't tell you how happy i was to be healthy enough to be there :) it's one of those things that i didn't realize exactly how important it was to me until this year. i always looked forward to it, but this year i really realized how special it is... we make cut-outs at my dad and jill's with my cousin kate and her girls and my cousin adam and his wife michelle, and my aunt mary and uncle dan. and this year we had a special new addition- adam and michelle had a little boy 3 weeks ago- his name is noah and he's beautiful. he was an angel all day, and let everyone pass him around. and my nieces are so big (lydia is 12- she was our 2 year old flower girl in our wedding if you remember that, and pj is 10)- i can never get over it when i see them. they are old enough to take care of my little ones, and they all played together so well. it was perfect. i'm really hoping that i didn't infect everyone with my cold... i swear i didn't have any symptoms until about 6pm on sunday, and then it was just a bit of a scratchy throat. of course, by 9pm i knew i was really going to get hit hard, but by then it was too late. i hope i kept my germs to myself!!

yesterday i had my post chemo blood work and ct scan. this is to set up a new baseline. i'm not expecting any surprises, but it's making me very nervous. i'm supposed to go to the oncologist today to get my results, but i'm too sick to be around cancer patients, so i'm waiting on a phone call now. i'll let you know when i hear from him!

i have gotten so many wonderful gifts since finishing chemo:

cousin beth sent us a check to pay for our continued cleaning help- so, so generous!!

lindz and erik gave me a beautiful necklace- so pretty!

my friend kate gave me a book and a magnet to help continue to encourage me in my fight :)

we've had many dinners continue to come in which is so sweet. i'm feeling guilty about them now, since i'm feeling good, but people still want to help, which i can't ignore!

i've also gotten countless cups of chai and pumpkin spice lattes :) people know what i love!

thanks so much to all of you for all of your support and love throughout all of this! i'm so glad to be done, and while i'm not very good at keeping this up when i'm healthy, please know that it's because i'm busy, and active! which is a *good* thing :)