**NEW** Starting Chemo March 2009

Julie you met on ebay???? How fabulous - bet that is a great after dinner story!! Damian and I met online too, though on a dating website not a shopping one. Without the internet we would never have met and that makes me so grateful for technology. You must feel the same. I hope you'll post pictures of the happy event as soon as you can.

Julie, congratulations ... and EBAY??  I really want to hear this story, lol.

Francine, I met dh through the newspaper, too.  I moved to LA near the end of a bad relationship (he was in FL, and planned to move to LA once I settled in), and after I was there two or three weeks I got drunk and dumped him.  So to put some distance between us I decided to date a lot.  I met a bunch of nice and not-so-nice guys, but with dh it struck immediately.  I guess that despite our many issues, it was meant to be.  Of course, it was right before I met Ken that I realized how much the guys in LA outnumbered the girls.  Girls out there had it made.

Michelle

Thanks for the congrats ladies. Yes, it is a very interesting story. Where to begin...as I said I had been married 29 yrs, with 2 grown children and 1 newly born granddaughter in Jan. 05'. I had been a seller on eBay for some time. Mostly selling memorabilia for a well-known TV show in the US. The name of the show was Xena, Princess Warrior! Anyhow, I had sold 2 photos; 1 to a woman in Germany and 1 to a woman in the US. I did something I had never done before; sent the wrong picture to the woman in the US, which happened to be MJ. When I realized what I had done I had emailed her to apologize that I had sent the wrong photo. She responded by offering to forward the photo to the woman in Germany. Thus began email correspondences, which opened up confidentialities. We wrote emails at first and then IMd on AOL. First a couple times a week and then progressed to daily. Even with the time differences we did not miss out in keeping daily contact. Some months passed and I was spending increasing time on the computer,while my husband had his own activities; he ran a local football (soccer) team. The children had their own lives, which left me to rebuild mine. Things came to a head and I confessed to my husband things I had only spoken of to one other person, my best friend Sue. All my life I knew something was not quite right, but went with the flow as you do and was meant to have my children. So we built a decent life together and raised our children. While he was trying to be supportive and wanted me to be who I was meant to be, he might have been a bit disillusioned by what he thought the outcome would be...as though a passing phase. However, it was not a passing phase. By this time MJ's mum had planned a trip as a gift for her to the UK and since we had been corresponding for months we offered to have her stay with us and finally meet face-to-face. She was to begin a doctoral program that August and arranged a collaboration with Nottingham Trent Univ. at Brackenhurst...so it more or less was killing 2 birds with one stone so to speak. It was really planned as anything other than friends meeting and my husband thinking MJ being gay that she could help me work out these inner feelings and thoughts. Like a sounding board. The crux of the matter was that we were very attuned to each other and it became apparent to us that we were meant to be together. Maybe fate had intervened...meeting on eBay...sending the wrong photo...then talking endlessly for months....no one can say when love happens...it just does. It is each of us who decide the course of it and I chose to make the leap. Not that was an easy time after the leap was made...the upheavel...the affect on everyone...stress...changes...another country...but it is what you do to be with the one you love. My ex moved on and remarried very quickly and MJ and I have waiting almost 5 yrs. LOL. In between that time was last years' life-changing event....which makes next month's event all the more significant and everlasting.

Hope I haven't waxed on too long, but that's it in a nutshell!

Hugs, Julie

Julie, what a fascinating story!  Funny how fate has a way of leading us....

Sorry for the duplicate pics...never figured out how to delete one ( or make them smaller...lol).

Ready to relax this weekend (inbetween 3 soccer games!).

Have a good one...

Chris

Hi,

Chris ..loved your photos. Great reminder of a real fun weekend. Just right click on the photos and I believe a menu will come up with a delete button.Try it.Loved the photo of you at FAO Schwarz.  

Michelle. Funny about meeting your husband also from a newspaper. It was not that common back then. I still have my ad somewhere in the house.

Julie- Some story but I believe you told me it last year. It is so great you have found your soul mate.

BMalcombe..Nice to hear you are doing well but I think you may want to join the board for this year. We had our chemos in 2009.

Gina- I rememeber those rainbow cookies you made for your husband.

Ladies. Not a very nice weekend in NYC, cold , nasty and damp. We were so lucky.

Have a good weekend .

Hugs,

Francine

ChrisC433  Thanks!  I wondered how you all became friends so fast.  I'm a year behind.

Chris..You were so sweet to MBalcombe. You are definitely one of the great warrior princesses.

Having a "family" problem. My son flew in for my nephews funeral. He slept in his old room which is now the two cats room. Well the boy cat has become depressed . We even took him to the VET as we thought he was sick. The Vet called it stress. Murphy hasn't been eating and is so lethargic. I guess he felt his territory was invaded. To make matters worse the girl cat..now Karly is now angry at Murphy and hisses and smacks her. HELP..LOL

NYC weekend ladies this weekend's weather was just not that good . WE were all so lucky last weekend.

Hugs,

Francine

Chris - We were in Indiana PA for my daughter's lacrosse game.  It was 40 degrees had snowed earlier.  Luckily the rain held off.  Worth the 8 1/2 hours in the car though.  She had 3 goals, 1 assist, and 5 draw controls, plus they won 14-13 it was a nailbiter with lots of sneaky physical contact.  Amazing how tough these girls are!  It was 55 in Phila when we got home at 8 much nicer in the SEastern PA.

Sorry about your cat Francine.  Do they have feline uppers at the vet?

Good luck on your chemo journey Malcomb.  It is doable.

What wonderful NYC pictures, thanks for sharing, everyone!

Just checking in here. I have been having some cognitive issues that my onc believes are probably either from the chemo or from the very fast push into postmenopause that my ovary removal has caused. But standard of care is to follow up with a brain MRI to rule out brain mets, so off I go tomorrow

I strongly suspect it is fine. My tumor markers keep going down, in fact. But we're just covering all bases.

Wish me luck, and I will report back!

Hugs to all,

Nadine

Francine!  Happy Birthday!

Nadine!  good Luck tomorrow!

Raymon:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU TOO!!!