SpruceHill

Iris and a relay update

As promised I am posting some pictures I took the other day of my iris. Since I took these pictures 5 more have bloomed.

  

These flowers are such a great color. They look purple when they are all closed up but when they bloom.

 

They are the prettiest color of wine possibly a piont noir.

 

The centers, well they are so beautiful, with yellows and deep maroons.

 

They remind me of Georgia O'keefe.

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Tomorrow I am off to Relay. It is an all night walk for the American Cancer Society. My support group team BCAUSE (Breast cancer and U support and encouragement) is the top fundraiser team for the even raising $6,785.13! I am the third highest fund raiser  for our relay raising $1065.00! Thank you to everyone who donated to my cause. Every penny counts and I am very proud of my group and all that they have done to make cancer a thing of the past!

I will be taking lots of pictures of the event and will be twitting and Facebooking from the event. It is all night so I will be keeping everyone informed of all the goings on. There will be theme laps such as duck tape and news paper fashions. It sounds like we will be having a lot of fun!

You can click on my side bar to follow me on twitter. My twitter name is sprucehillfarm.

Cancer Fears Me, It's a climb!

I met the most wonderful lady today. I was having coffee (at Starbucks of course) with my friend JM, her friend Sue Lanman was coming along too to drop off cookies for the bake sale. Her son Ben Lanman is a cancer survivor, he had Ewings Sarcoma . She told me about a video that her son is in for the Cool Kids Campain. Ben is the boy in the flag patterned cast!

I really wanted to share it all with you. To remind us all that cancer does not discriminate. There are children battling everyday for their lives.

Cancer Fears Me is a slogan of the Cool Kids Campaign, a nonprofit devoted to making life a little easier for children living with cancer. These children are so inspiring because they don't let cancer defeat their optimism and spirit! ...

 

 

Susan G. Komen Symposium, and Relay For Life

I had a very busy weekend this weekend and did not really have time to sit down at the computer and post. The weather here was in the 90s and we were outside getting things done and just enjoying the sunshine. I am celebrating the fact that I can be in the sun this year and taking every opportunity to do so. Sitting on my wrap around porch enjoying the kids and reading. I have been enjoying my morning cup of coffee outside, eating lunch outside. It has been so great!

Saturday I traveled outside of Baltimore to the Susan G Komen educational symposium. We had a group of six of us from my young survivor's support group who attended. It was a nice day of classes, lunch, friendship and survivors. The key note speaker was Kathy LaTour. A two time breast cancer survivor,a author of The Breast Cancer Companion, and editor at large for CURE magazine. Her story of courage empowered everyone in the room. It is not something that I will ever forget.

I was able to take classes on long time survivorship, Life after breast cancer and acupuncture and Identifying long term breast cancer issues. I learned a lot and even made a couple of friends along the way. It was a nice chance for our group to do some sister bonding too!

There are 18 days left until our local Relay for life.

Sponsor me in the American Cancer Society Relay for life HERE My goal is $1000 and so far I have raised $735.00 please help me reach my goal! Every penny counts towards making cancer something of the past. Click on my link to visit my fund raising page. Find out why we relay and why it is so important for ALL cancers.

What is relay? Find out Here.

The Bake Sale Was a Success!

We got up this morning at 6:30, headed to Starbucks for some caffeine and then arrived at our Relay For Life bake sale by 8:00am. It was cold and rainy, and rainy and cold.

 

We had a lot of baked goods to sell, and were a bit worried about the weather. With all the rain and cold we thought people would not be out and about.

 

My girls came along for support, they did a good job and were real troopers. These pretty ladies are my support group buddies Laurie and Renee, both survivors.

 

The table was covered with goodies.

 

 

 

 

 

It was hard not to have a little taste of everything. It all looked so good. All of our bakers did such a good job!

 

 

We made a total of $333.13! Thanks to everyone who baked and sold, we could not have done it with out you.

You can donate HERE on my personal American Society Relay page.

Thank You!

It's ok not to be ok.....

In the last couple of weeks I have had several conversations with some of my survivor friends, about not feeling like they are doing great. feeling not OK. What do you say when someone asks you how you are doing? Do you lie and say “I’m great!” or do you say “ well I am having trouble sleeping and I am having panic attacks and I think I might have lymphedema but I am not sure and….”  I have been feeling guilty about my issues with my anxiety. One of my friends said to me “It’s OK to take medication because of your anxiety you have had a rough year and you have been through a lot, give yourself a break!” It is very easy to feel bad about feeling bad. Not only does cancer take it’s toll on us physically but it takes a toll on us mentally too.

I was standing in my bathroom the other day thinking to myself, “Did this really happen to me? Did I really have breast cancer, and surgery and chemo?” It floors me sometimes. How in the heck did this happen? I was walking along one day and BAM! I have breast cancer. Who thinks that is going to happen to you? A healthy 41 year old Mom of three girls, nonsmoker, healthy eater (most of the time) in good physical shape. It’s really hard to wrap you brain around sometimes. I wonder if there is such a thing for cancer survivors to have post traumatic stress? I am thinking the answer to this is yes.

The point to my rambling is that I decided it is OK to have bad days, it’s OK to need medication if your are having anxiety, it’s OK to be scared and unsure. No one prepares you for having cancer, no one thinks it will happen to them. There is no book What to expect when your expecting cancer. There is no guidebook no instruction manual. We all just plug along on our own personal journeys.

How wonderful it is that we have each other though.

(I'm not saying that I am crashing and burning here, I am just saying it's ok to have a bad day)

Cross posted on Mothers With Cancer