MI Survivors

Hi Michigan Friends,

 What an honor to meet so many of you and walk in your Detroit Komen Walk. Thank you for the kindnesses and graciousness adopting this Tarheelian buddy. I lknow that I will leave out names and will,most likely,confuse names...but thanks so very much to all of you. It was neat to put names with faces and meet in person. This was a once in a lifetime chance to visit,and I thank you for your wonderful Michigan hospitality.

 Nancy,your generosity of time and support to all members of the team is awesome! Thank you for allowing me to ride into the city,with you,and thanks for sharing info abt Detroit. You are such a wonderful leader and creative person. You really inspire everyone with your dedication and caring for this cause of ours.

Irene,so sorry that we did not get a chance to chat more. I really enjoyed seeing you,again,and thank you and Chris for being so kind.I am glad to have visited with you and thank you for your kind words.

Wendy,it was so neat to see you,again,too. Thank you for allowing me to ride back to Bonnie's/Denise's cars. I have no clue where we were but you are the best navigator and kindest person! It was neat to hear about your cats and your projects. Hope you locate the machine that you mentioned;so talented,Wendy.

Chris,so terrific to meet you in person and your dh. It is awesome to meet our on-line bco friends. Will e-mail you the info on the iPod...best to you.

Sue,you and your dh were delightful lunch companions. I am so thrilled to see you,again,and glad to meet your dh,too. I am so excited that you like Margaret Maron;we are proud of her NC mysteries. I will mention you/dh to my friend,bookstore owner,who is great friends w/Margaret.

Carol,so hope I have that name correct,thank you for walking and telling me abt Detroit and the history of so many neat architectural structures. I very much enjoyed talking w/you and hope that you/dh have a great trip to VA soon. We would love to have you in NC.

JudyRock(sorry if I spelled that incorrectly)such a pleasure to meet you. Bonnie and Denise and others have mentioned you and I am so glad we met. I loved your shirt and the designs....don't think I told you as it was so busy/crowded. Your shirt was so creative. 

Bonnie,my awesome MI beach buddy,thank you for allowing me to stay with you and be adopted into your state. Your family might want to think twice abt adopting crazy me;thank you ever so much! Your dd and grandson...just so neat that they were in our group. Much love to you and my thanks for everything you and Denise did;Nancy and the team.

Denise,my friend,don't remember the exact yr we met on bco? However,my awesome friend,thank you for your hospitality and sharing your family w/me. So special to have your dd and her friend there. As I said to Bonnie,the family might want to think twice abt this bearlysane NC person. LOL However,thank you,thank you for your hospitality;much love to you!

Come to NC...anytime! All of you would be most welcome here and I would be honored to share my state with you.

Gratefully,

Iris 

Shoot - I liked that last post, Iris.  Thank you for joining us!  It was so nice to have you with us. 

If anyone got the email from Komen about the Race recap, there is a picture of Neesie and Wendy in the bottom picture.  I haven't taken my pictures off the camera yet.  I hope to do that soon but the sunshine is calling me (along with the laundry and dust bunnies).  Speaking of bunnies, anyone know anything about rabbits?  We have a huge, brindle-colored rabbit in the yard.  It looks like someone's pet to me.  I've never seen a wild rabbit any color other than grayish.

Hope everyone is out enjoying this beautiful weather and Holiday weekend.  

Denise, Please send the Energy Fairy to Williamston.  I crashed this weekend and have been sleeping a lot - I think with my continued increase in energy since treatment I got too exuberant and then my body said ENOUGH!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day, I'm thinking of everyone who has served our country and those ladies who've had or have family members serving for us. Thank you.

Gerri

    Sorry to hear about your friend Wendy.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR DENISE!

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Hugs

Bonnie

Happy Birthday Nessie!!

Suzette, hope you are feeling better!!  I was doing really well but started working 50 hour weeks plus trying to keep up in the garden.  Oh well came home today, ate, showered and sat down, not getting up until bed time!!!  Hugs to all

Happy Birthday Denise!!

I am feeling better and thanks for asking Carol - 50 hours is a lot to work!  I can't hardly make the 40 I'm doing.

Have a wonderful week everyone - I'm doing a girls wine tasting weekend this weekend at the Old Mission wineries on Friday night and the Leelenau wineries on Saturday.  If any of you are going to be up there this weekend I'll look for you.

Aw, Thank you all for my Birthday Wishes!!  You Michigan girls are the best!

Hugs,

Denise

Carol - Send some of your energy my way.  50 hours is a lot of work plus keeping up with a garden is a job in itself.  We will have to plan another get together so you can take a break!

 Suzette - The girls wine tasting sounds like a fun time.  I would be buzzed from my first sip. teehee

ICanDoThisSUE - Did you see the pictures of you and Terry on the Wings of Hope site I posted?

Val - Thank you for the kind comment on my DD and G-son pictures...........I am just a little proud.

Denise - I wanted to post a birthday cake picture for you but no luck.  Why can't picture posting be easier.  I did like Nancy's butterfly...............very cute............how did you post it Nancy?

Tomorrow is the Deroit Tigers Breast Cancer Awareness game - I am going!

English Major posted this article in the Stage IV post.  In case you missed it and the replies, it is worth posting here.  I could have written that a few years ago!  I remember posting here about learning the metric system fast after finding my lump.  I got a chuckle out of that one. 

About not sweating the small stuff.  That is one I have to embrace again.  Not in a way that I'm annoyed or impatient with other people's problems but in a way that sometimes I need a reminder what is important.  I don't want BC or loosing friends to be that reminder.

From EnglishMajor: "I enjoyed this 2003 article by Lauren John and thought many here could relate:"

The Post-Breast-Cancer Personality

by Lauren John

http://bcaction.org/index.php?page=newsletter-75a

. . .The one thing that I can tell you for sure about personality and breast cancer is that my personality changed after breast cancer. I think that's probably true for a lot of women. There are so many ways to react (or not react) to this disease that I think that scientists would be hard put to chronicle them all.

So, even though nobody asked, I am going to help out.

Here are five personality traits that I have noticed in myself and in other women I know who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. I have no idea if they are good or bad traits to have in terms of prognosis, and I don't think you'll find these in the medical journals just yet. But you might recognize yourself here, and I'm told that having a sense of community is healthy. I know I felt better just writing them down.

We love to celebrate birthdays. Many women in their 30s and 40s and beyond simply dread having birthdays; to them, birthdays are a sign of lost youth. Not so for many women living with breast cancer. (I just turned 45 in December!) We throw great birthday parties with joyous toasts to another year of life. Granted, the dessert may be soy-based carrot cake. And sure, we'll argue over whether or not to serve alcohol, for health or political reasons. But each year of life is a cause for celebration-and we are thrilled to be having arguments over what kind of food and drink to serve, rather than what kinds of chemo to choose.

We know the metric system-and the diameters of most common fruits. When I learned that I had a 1.4-centimeter tumor growing in my breast-"the size of a grape," my surgeon said-I learned the metric system damned fast and ran to the grocery down the block to see how big a grape was. As long as tumors are measured in millimeters, centimeters, raisins, grapes, and kumquats, women are going to be very familiar with European measurements and small fruits.

We don't sweat the small stuff-especially when it's someone else's small stuff. Yes, I still get stressed out in traffic. But when other people complain about traffic, I'm not very sympathetic. Ditto for stories about the hassles of toilet training your kids, your problems with home contractors, and complaints about your neighbors who use their leaf blower early on weekend mornings. After getting cold stares with my stock reply-"You call that a problem? I'm living with breast cancer. That's a problem"-I've learned that nobody loves a martyr.

We're there for the big stuff. Weddings, commitment ceremonies, anniversaries, christenings, memorial services, hospital stays-I'm there for as many of these milestones as possible. Part of it is very self-serving. If I die of breast cancer sooner than I should, at least I will be immortalized in everyone's photo albums and guest books.

But the most important reason that I show up is because after cancer, spending good times and bad with people that you love becomes more important than ever.

I think I cry more and pray more than other people at these kinds of events-especially at the weddings. At weddings my tears are tears of joy for the couple and also tears of joy for me. I take great joy in that fact that after all that disfiguring breast cancer treatment, I have my health back and look so great in the new outfit and shoes that I have bought for the wedding.

I was a newlywed when I got breast cancer. At every wedding I go to, in between the tears, I pray, "Dear God, please always keep these people as happy and healthy as they are today."

Some women say that they especially cry at milestone 30th, 40th, and 50th wedding anniversary parties out of both joy and sadness-they're happy for the couple that is celebrating, but at the same time they're sad because they wonder if they themselves will live to cherish that long a marriage or relationship.

We never ever want to see our daughters, our granddaughters, our nieces, our daughters-in-law, or anyone else go through what we did. 'Nuf said.
http://bcaction.org/index.php?page=newsletter-75a

Here is the post from the topic so you can read the replies:

 It's titled the Post Breast Cancer Personality.

Edited to remove the link.  It times out and is no longer valid.  Look for the Stage IV topic and scroll down for the title - "Post Breast Cancer Personality".

Edited to fix spelling - inpatient (ha ha) to impatient.  Am I the only one to do this a week after the post?!

I also have edited a posted to fix spelling on Edited!

I finally uploaded some pictures to the Wings of Hope site:

 http://teamwingsofhope.shutterfly.com/

I haven't stopped by in a while, so wanted to say Hi !  to everyone.

Happy Birthday! Sorry I'm a bit late, Denise, with these Birthday wishes.    I hope you had a beautiful day!

Nancy, I really like that post. I will check out the replies link when I get a chance. Thank you for sharing. Love the butterfly!

Hi Suzette! I haven't forgotten that we will meet up for lunch/shopping again, just been very busy.

Carol ~ I saw on another posting of yours that you are eating peas from your garden. You must have planted them earlier than me, I have some nice pods, but nowhere near ready yet. 50 hours a week! You are Superwoman!!

Have a great Sunday everyone! Look forward to our next lunch!!

{{hug}}

I missed the whole thing! 

Does anyone know when we're planning the next get together?  I'm so bummmed about missing the last one I want to get the next one on the calendar

Hi everyone garden is doing great.  We have been eating peas, beets, swiss chard, strawberries and kholarabi out of the grden all good stuff.  Having a picnic at Moms today my youngest brother is home form New Mexico with his family.  Monday he will be at my place.  Ready for slower paced week.  I am off Monday Tuesday and Friday.  We are heading up the east coast of Michigan Friday.  Tawas City, Oscoda, Green bush and then up to Presque isle to see cousins and then back home Sunday.  Should be a great week!!

Nancy I like the post.  I know I am actually a calmer person don't sweat the small stuff and I really enjoy time with friends and family. I also am content to say no and try harder to take care of myself, not real good at it yet but try harder!!!  Hope you are all having a great summer.

Suz hope the wine tasting went well.  For some reason I am more into a beer after work, summer thing I think.  I find a beer after work helps me destress so that is a good thing!!!

Abe Lincoln rose, it smells divine.  I take time almost every night to enjoy my flowers and stop and smell the roses!!  Make sure we all take time for lifes simple pleasures.

 Hugs to all

Carol

Oh My Gosh..........it has been almost a month since anyone has posted here!  That's unusual......hoping all are okay and enjoying the ridiculous heat!

I know we talked about an 'outdoor' get together this summer....maybe Kensington.  It has just been to hot............!

Anyone have any ideas for a luncheon?  Outdoors, restaurant, or you could even come here and we could hang out............just leave the white gloves at home!!

Hugs,

Denise