Monday, April 25, 2016

Climb Kili

I am getting so excited for my Kilimanjaro trip! Our itinerary, should you be interested, is here. I'm getting butterflies!

One thing that I can't decide if I like or not is that I leave the day after school ends. On one hand, I don't have to sit around waiting for the trip after school ends. On the other, I will have ZERO time to adjust to being done with school before I go halfway around the world. Also, my kids will not have any time to adjust. They'll keep going to daycare for a couple of weeks, and they'll get to have field trips and fun playing time with friends. They might actually like it better.

Speaking of playdates, Sasha just had kindergarten round up. I've been thinking for MONTHS that I need to get Sasha's birth certificate (five years late) but the day before kindergarten round up OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO GET SASHA'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE WHAT WAS I THINKING WHY DIDN'T I GET IT FIVE YEARS AGO. But not all was lost: I had the opportunity to get Raiden's birth certificate as well. Almost four years late. The important thing is that I have them now, right?

I talked to the speech therapist about Sasha's Rs. I know they say not to worry, but since Sasha's mother, uncle, and grandfather all had speech therapy, I think now is as good a time as any, amirite? She told me to have him say words that start with RA (apparently this is the easiest R) and to smile as he says it. Sasha said a perfect R. I am a genius! Oops, I mean the speech pathologist is a genius! Hooray!

So many milestones for us!

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

3 years

It's been three years since my cancer diagnosis. The next spring break I had surgery. The next spring break...well, it proved that spring breaks did not have to rival Bella-from-Twighlight's spring breaks in horribleness. Of course, being a stay at home mom is its own brand of torture. Let me go break up a fight.

I'm back. So, three years. Everything...oops, another fight. Okay. Everything CANCER RELATED looks good. My "scary thoughts" are rare and short-lived. My hair is shoulder length. With my clothes on, you'd never know.

On the other hand, my father-in-law was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer a few months ago. It's been bonding, I guess, but it's been hard on me (I know, his cancer is about HIM, but this blog is about ME) to think about cancer so intimately again. It's also been really hard on Zane, since he had to go through it once with me, and now with his dad.

On the third hand, cancer patients get all the cool stuff, as Zane says. I've been offered a grant by Ogden Regional Medical Center to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro! I found out, oh, three months before the trip and it's now two months to go. Mom is going with me. I'm super excited! I think I'm going to be featured in some publicity. Some of my 15 minutes, I guess!

Anyway, more than halfway done to my 5-year mark!