Our House

Today I went to see a gal that is in our support group. She is staying at the Ray Hickey Hospice House in Vancouver. She looks good but finds herself getting a little discouraged. I really think that she will be getting out of there soon and will be able to go home to her apartment in the Pearl District. I love it when she is able to go to our meetings. I remember her saying that it always makes her feel so much better and lifts her spirits when she can be there. I was suppose to pick her up and take her to our last meeting but she wasn't able to go. I will not be attending the next meeting but I am sure someone can take her if she feels well enough to go.

Then I came home and helped Denny caulk one side of our house. The caulking was grey (our house color) so we didn't even have to paint over the caulking. Denny also touched up some of our gutters with paint. Here are a couple of pictures of the front of our house. My flowers are growing pretty good and Denny has the grass looking nice.

Tomorrow I am participating in the Relay for Life at Sherwood High School. I have always participated in the Race for the Cure but have never been involved in the Relay for Life. I will take pictures and am looking forward to letting you know all about it.

Hope all of you have a great weekend.

Love to you all,

JO

CAT Scan G-R-E-A-T!

We just arrived home from my appointment with the oncologist and my CAT scan was great! It was the same as the previous one that showed "no evidence of disease." I haven't seen the actual scan yet because she mailed it to me yesterday, so I should get it tomorrow. I always like to read it over and I like to have a copy for my notebook. Plus, I always send a copy to my brother, Michael ,who is a doctor. I always feel more comfortable after he has read it. He has helped me so much during my cancer journey. I can remember a couple of times when I wasn't feeling well, due to my chemo, and I would be talking to him on the phone (he lives in N.C.), and he would say to me, "winning isn't for sissies!" I had that slogan embroidered on my sweatshirt. And he is right. And I am no sissie!

I feel so blessed to have another good CAT scan. It has now been 19 months since I have had chemo. I was hoping for two months off and look at me now! Going to my support group each week, makes me realize even more, how blessed I am. See what all your prayers and support have done?!

I will have another scan in three months and my oncologist said if that one turns out good, I will probably wait 4 or even 6 months before I have another one. WOW.

So I am "good to go" on my yearly trip to Reno with THE GIRLS in October. Jan, Lynne, Leslie and I have gone there for probably 10 years. I had to miss two trips because of chemo. Unfortunately, Leslie died a couple of years ago (from that damn cancer), so this year her daughter, Tara, and Lynne's daughter, Shauna, are going with us. Plus, this is kind of a bachelorette party since Lynne is getting married a couple of weeks later. It should be a fun trip and I am so glad that I will be able to go.

We have been busy working on our house. Denny washed the back gutters (we had the front of our house painted last year) and I washed the windows, inside and out. Yesterday, we painted/stained our fence. I need to start a thorough cleaning of our house. Can you tell that we are expecting company?! We are having a family reunion the end of August. It is going to be so nice to have all my family together......and especially when I am doing so well.

Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support. You all did a great job since my CAT scan was terrific. I owe it all to you!

Love to you all,

JO

Dakota and Bella

Justin sent us some pictures of Dakota (10) taken during the baseball all star games. He looks so tall and it looks like the weather was really hot.

This picture was taken at the 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Dakota played fantastic. He is the one shooting. Justin also played but his team didn't do as well as Dakota's.

Here are some recent pictures of Bella. Cute, cute, cute.

I just found out that a dear friend of mine was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I am getting darn tired of so many people getting cancer. They discovered hers early, so I now she will be fine. But she is going to have to have chemo and radiation. Like I said in my previous blog, "sometimes life just isn't fair."

Hope all of you have a great week. Our weather is again, fantastic. We went for a Harley ride this afternoon and it was awesome.

Love to you all,

JO

"Sometimes Life Just Isn't Fair."

I hated hearing that Randy Pausch died yesterday. I loved his book, "The Last Lecture" and I loved watching him on TV while giving, "The Last Lecture." It is certainly one of those times when I find yourself saying, "Sometimes life just isn't fair."

And I hated that Tony Snow died recently. I was diagnosed with metastatic cancer about the same time as he and Elizabeth Edwards were. She said the following about Tony Snow's death: "And when he died, I cried. I know I cried not just for him, but—filled with fear—for myself as well. The diagnoses of our cancer recurrences tumbled out upon one another by days."

I have not heard how she is doing recently, but I hope she is doing very well. Again, I find myself saying, "Sometimes life just isn't fair."

I hate that Leroy Sievers (Ted Koppel's friend who he did a documentary on along with Elizabeth Edwards and Lance Armstrong.) is not doing well. I receive his blog each week day and he now has Hospice coming to help him. Again, I find myself saying, "Sometimes life just isn't fair."

Cancer sucks, but metastatic cancer really sucks. But, "Sometimes, life just isn't fair."

Love to you all,

JO

Tooth Fairy Again?!

Today I had my CT scan. I hate drinking the two 16 ounce glasses of barium sulfate but "a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do!" I know a couple of you that read my blog also have to drink that icky stuff and here is a great suggestion: Prepare the drink the night before and put it in the refrigerator. Shake the cold drink well before drinking and it is so much better than drinking the "just prepared" drink with the lumps and bumps. I will get my results back on Thursday. I have to admit I DO get a little nervous thinking about it and the reason is because I know that you can be feeling good and still have your cancer growing. I will never forget when I was at Tammy and Jeff's wedding, I felt and looked good and two days later I found out that I had metastatic cancer. But I truly feel like I am doing great and DO plan on receiving good news. By the way, it has been 19 months since I have had chemo! When I went to Kaiser for my CT scan, my friend, Janii was there getting her chemo so I got to see her. She is doing awesome. Her tumors are shrinking tremendously. Way to go, Janii. I am so happy for you! Keep it up.

I received an email from one of the facilitators of our support group with a copy of the article about our group and the quilt we made. It was published in the Providence/St. Vincent newspaper. I couldn't figure out how to copy it from the article onto my blog so I had to scan it and as you can tell, it didn't turn out too good.

We have had Kyle and Tori here with us this week and will take them home tonight. Tori lost her other top front tooth last night. I really didn't think it was that loose, but when you are being rolled up in a rug by your brother while you are brushing your teeth, I guess anything can happen! So the Tooth Fairy came and she seems to be more generous at Grandpa and Grandma's house than her own!

We have ridden our bikes to the school several times. It is nice to live only 2 blocks from it. I had my camera sitting on my bicycle seat and raced to get to my spot in 10 seconds, so the picture isn't the best.

Hope all of you had a great week and will have a super weekend. Our weather is suppose to continue to be terrific.

Love to you all,

JO

The Tooth Fairy Is On Her Way!

Tori finally lost her top front tooth. It has been ready to come out for weeks.

She attended a soccer camp last week and had fun even though it was pretty hot.

She also went to a birthday party for her friend, Zora. Tori has met so many nice little girls since they moved to Newberg. She is the one in the middle.

Hope all of you are enjoying the nice weather we are having. Aren't we lucky? Mom's weather has been about 108 in Vegas.

Love to you all,

JO

Rockin' Boy's Camp at Rockaway

I went to my support group meeting on Wednesday and on Thursday I met Amy and Carolyn for a little shopping before meeting Eileen and Julie for our monthly luncheon. I ended up buying a lime green denim jacket. It is a little out of character for me to buy something that isn't black and white!

Denny drove up to the area where we go hunting each year. It was so hot that he only stayed a couple of days. But he enjoyed it. He always likes riding his 4-wheeler around while looking for deer and elk.

On Friday, we rode with Julie, Scott and Tori to Rockaway to pick up Kyle from the boy's camp he attended.

He had a ball. He loved his counselors and met a lot of neat kids. He definitely wants to go back next year.

We all played "putt putt golf."

We had a tour of the camp, saw a slide show of all their activities and then they had a nice hamburger BBQ for us.

On the way home we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for ice cream cones. As you can see, Tori missed her brother!

It was a fun day. Hope all of you are having a great weekend.

Love to you all,

JO