Yes, yes, yes, a million times YES

Celebrating one of the first milestones on the path to being a cancer survivor not a cancer patient.  Boy does it feel amazing.  A little weird frankly but amazing.  As of 8.10 this morning, I am finished with radiation therapy!!!  I have been to the hospital 27 of the last 30 days for either radiation or chemo.  No more daily trips, woo hoo!!!  Aside from recovering from surgery, this is really the first big survivor-path milestone we have hit. 

A few weeks ago my friend Ann baked us Alan Jackson's favorite Chocolate Sheet Cake.  Its delicious & pretty simple to make so I made it last night & took it to the radiation therapists today to say Thank you for taking such great care of me the last 6 weeks.  Margie, an older lady who has been my primary therapist, was so touched by the cake - it made me feel good. 

Poor Emilia is home sick today.  She's sleeping peacefully right now, hope she is better this evening so we can go out to celebrate.

We had a great weekend - Saturday the kids had a ball "helping" our neighbors with their garage sale.  Emilia sold out of all her jams except for the Mango Mint - I guess people have trouble wrapping their heads around that flavor combination.  She got savvy this time - had graham crackers so people could sample.  I think she was pretty willing to sacrifice on price but she was so proud of her accomplishment.  Great lessons in marketing, sales, & persistence.  She tried to give me $10 as my "25% for making all the product".  I told her to keep it & discovered the little tycoon has $100 cash in her wallet.  Hoarder.

Eri & Clara Beth - BFFs from birth, literally.
It was hard to get them to be still long enough
to take a picture & I forgot my good
camera.

Saturday evening EB & I took Eriana to her buddy Clara Beth's fifth birthday party up in Hendersonville.  Eri & CB were in daycare together from 6 weeks old until we moved Eri to Primrose when she was 4.  They have such an amazing bond - they don't see each other all that often now but when they do its like they have never spent a moment apart.  I'm really intrigued by their connection.  I absolutely adore CB & her family, especially her mom Sheri who is a kind, loving, fun, smart, amazing working mom.

Happy Birthday CB!  They are sweaty from
the jumpy house!  Good times!

Yesterday I took the girls to see Chimpanzee - amazing footage, frankly horrible narration.  Tim Allen should stick to comedy & let James Earl Jones do the narrating.  I thought they would be freaked out by the mom chimp dying & the orphan struggling but they really weren't.  Our girls are just like me - its the facts of life, deal with it!  We went & bought a new mattress yesterday too - very exciting since we were still sleeping on the one we bought when we got out of the Army in 1999.  They delivered it last night & its HUGE - our bed is so tall now.  Pretty cool. 

Right now I'm sitting on our screened porch - its a beautiful cool morning & I'm excited to take a day off today to spend with one of my best friends, Mindy, celebrating her birthday.  We are going to take a class at the Viking Cooking School - a farm to table class where we get to cook with fresh, local ingredients.  There are birds everywhere - a bluebird keeps landing near the porch & Gus, our adopted big cat who sometimes thinks he is a dog, is sitting out here with me.  He can't decide if he wants to chase the birds (he's a great hunter) or take a nap.  Gus is such a funny cat - we've had him almost a year now - he is only 3 but he's huge.  He goes for a walk every morning with Kendall & the dogs.  And he adores EB.  He is absolutely gorgeous & has been such a delightful addition to our family.

Tomorrow I am getting a blood count so we will see how much my white & red counts have improved from the transfusion & the Neulasta.  I need all my friends, readers, even my enemies, to send hugely positive blood count vibes please.  If the counts are good, I will be free from doctors until next Tuesday when I get admitted for the next round of ifosfamide & etopocide.  If the counts are good, we will more than likely stay on schedule for this round of chemo.  If the counts are good, our trip to the Keys on the 23rd will more than likely come off as scheduled.  So please, think positive thoughts for me tomorrow!  I will let you all know how they are once I know.

Life is perfectly good today - definitely something to celebrate.  I'm excited, no THRILLED, for a week with no treatments, for feeling wonderful, for being done with radiation, for the amazing family I have, for this life I get to lead.