Memorial Day Weekend

I know that this is just a few days late, but I didn't use my own camera all last weekend and so my pictures were coming from other people. So, here is your update now! :)

The weekend was just busy. I enjoyed everything that I did, but I joked with my co-workers on Tuesday morning that I needed to come back to work just so I could relax! Ha! ;) On Saturday, Monique & I headed to Chugwater for preps. It was a good, fun day, and I enjoyed seeing everyone and helping out! That night, Shawna M. and Anna & Melissa B. came to visit us and have supper with me, Monique & Julie! Then, Anna & Mel stayed at Monique's for the night and Shawna stayed at her brother's and on Sunday after meeting we all had lunch together! Here is a picture of us (Julie wasn't there for lunch). Good times, I tell ya...good times! :)
After lunch, Anna, Mel & Shawna headed back to Chug and I headed down south to go to a friend's baby shower. Oh, what a wonderful day! Here is the lovely little family, Kimber, Kyle & Willow (this pic is courtesy of Kimber's mom):
And this is adorable Willow!!! Isn't she just precious!!! :)
Kimber & Willow
Kosha is holding Willow
And this is Ms. Haley, Willow's cousin, who was at the party, too. She hadn't been up for very long from her nap when she decided to try on one of the grown-up's shoes. It was hilarious! She's too cute! :)

After that, Julie (who was at the baby shower, as well) and I stayed with Kimber & Kyle and we headed to the Bolder Boulder race with them the next day because Kyle and their friend, Anna, were going to run it! It was a bit rainy and cool that day, but all in all, it was a fun event! We didn't stick around for long because of the weather, but that was okay, too, since I was up at 4 a.m. and we were on the road by 5:30!! Leaving early let me get in a good nap! :) A picture of the stadium where the runners finish at...the next day someone said that there was a record 53,000 participants! Isn't that amazing!?!
Me, Kimber, Willow (who is happily and warmly tucked into Kimber's jacket! She was wrapped up in a sling!), Anna, and Julie
The runners! Kyle & Anna -- Yay for them!! :)

All in all, it was a very busy weekend. I got home from Boulder around 3 p.m. and then I hit the road at 4:15 to head over to Cheyenne to spend the evening with some friends. By the time I got back home that night, I was tired. But, I'm glad for all the memories!! :)

Testing 1, 2, 3.

this is a test. this is only a test. :)

What Flower Are You?

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

Randomness

I stole this the other day from Amanda and it has also been on several other blogs, too. It's kind of a fun one! :)

The challenge: Write six random things about yourself.

1. I am a huge procrastinator. Huge. But I'm working on changing that.

2. I have a small addiction to Starbucks' Frappuccinos. I don't know why.

3. I have developed this..."thing"...where I don't like talking on the phone. Unless it's to people that are very close to me.

4. Give me a "healthy food" choice and a "junk food" choice and nine out of ten times I'll go for the junk food.

5. I like sleeping with a fan running. It's great white noise and I sleep a lot better. So, year-round, I run a fan. And it makes me happy. :)

6. I'm becoming more and more of a home-body. And I'm okay with that.

A weekend of travel and FUN!!

This weekend Monique & I traveled up "north" a bit to visit some friends up there and to go to Alisa's high school graduation. We had such a FUN weekend! We got there on Saturday a little after noon and Monique, Wanda, Callie, Amy and I hung out for a bit. Here are a few pictures of some of the silliness that went on!!

Callie & I...we're showing our nicer sides!
Amy was a rascal! Always on the move!!!! That's why the picture is blurry!!
Amy is showing us...well, I have no idea what she is showing us! Maybe she's showing us her future career as an aerobics instructor?!
After some time with the girls, we all headed over to Andy & Michelle's for a bonfire/cookout. We had SUCH a great time! Here, the fire is just getting started...
This was ALL of our good eats for the evening! Wow, I know! What a lot of food! I think that we were all stuffed by the time we finished!
Poor Tiffany is injured with a knee injury so she spends her time hobbling around on crutches. Well, needless to say, those crutches were a hit with the kiddos and Callie is demonstrating for us how to use them. So...don't worry...Callie is NOT injured!!!! :o)

Andy, Ty and Wayne...discussing things of great importance, I believe. :)
Monique, Dave & Amy...enjoying some father/daughter time and Amy was just enjoying her grandpa! :)
Graham & Lana...Callie is in front of them. I have no idea why Graham's smile is so big. Maybe Tiffany (who you can barely see on the left) stumbled with her crutches or something. I have a hard time believing that Graham is the kind of guy to laugh at something like that, though, so maybe Tiffany just told a joke! :)
Mel is enjoying some of the heat from the fire. Either that or she's contemplating if she really could jump right over the fire. I'm not real sure. :)

Wayne & Milt...

Mel & Michelle...I think that they were having a lot of fun in this picture! What do you think!? :o)
Graham, Lana, Mel, Amy & Tiffany enjoying supper.
Milt, Joanne, Wayne & Wanda...according to Wayne they're all sitting at the "old people's table"...to which he informed me that I was almost old enough to sit with them. Yeah...we were "Friends Off" for a few minutes...but then I got over it. You can't stay too mad at Wayne for long!!! :)
Ty, Andy & Dave...the three of them all sat there forever just talking away! I love that there's always such great conversations when you get together with friends! :)

Amy...the highlight of her night was having s'mores. Can you tell? :)

Here she demonstrates how to daintily eat one. Can you really "daintily" eat a s'more? I'd have to really think about that before saying yes. After all, look at the picture above, again, and the lovely evidence that was left behind on Amy's chin...enough said. :)
And here is the reason that we even made the trip up...Alisa's graduation!!!! Yay, Alisa!!! Congratulations!!!! (I apologize that the pictures are so dark...we were in the gymnasium and I couldn't get very good pictures.)
All of the seniors gave their mom a flower and a hug to say "thank you" to them. I thought that was so nice & special! Here is Alisa giving her mom a hug.
And guess what else?! Alisa was the Valedictorian of her class!!! That's awesome, isn't it?! So, the graduation finished up with her speech, which, I might add, was an excellent speech with some good thoughts and some humor, as well. You can't beat that! :)
All in all, we had a spectacular weekend! I don't know why we waited so long to get back up there, but I know that we won't let that much time pass again!! :)

Scattergories

I stole this from Aleigh! Feel free to do it, too, if you'd like! :)

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things. Nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl.

What is your name: Jennifer
4 letter word: Jump
Vehicle: Jetta
City: Jacksonville
Boy's Name: Jason
Girl's Name: Julia
Drink: Jamba Juice
Occupation: Janitor
Something you wear: Jersey of Football! :)
Celebrity: Julie Andrews
Food: Jalapeno
Something found in a bathroom: Jergens Lotion
Reason for Being Late: Jury Duty
Cartoon Character: Jerry (from Tom & Jerry)
Something you shout: Joking!!!
Animal: Jaguar
Body part: Jugular vein (it was the only thing I could think of!)
Word to describe you: Just Fabulous!! *laugh* :o)

Congratulations!

See these lovely ladies? Well, they are our UW graduates this year! Left to Right: Julie, Lana and Courtney. We are SO proud of them!!! Congratulations, ladies!!! (And thanks to Heidi for the picture...I stole it from her picture site! I had forgotten my camera at home that day!)

Me and my friend, Sandy

A good chica-la-beeca named Heidi took this picture of my friend, Sandy, and me. The cat is Ava. She kind of has a lot of hair. The cat...not Sandy. :) Anyway, I thought it was such a good pic that I wanted to post it today. If you're reading this, "Hi, Sandy!!" :o)

*smile*

Well, Happy Monday, everyone!! I feel unusually chipper for a Monday morning and I'm not sure why! Oh, well! I'm not going to analyze it, either! ha! :)

This weekend was a busy one. I went to a few graduation ceremonies, one graduation party that was honoring three graduates, cleaned my house like a mad woman (it took me three hours! sheesh.), went to meeting at a home about an hour and 15 minutes away from here, stayed at the home for a potluck lunch, got home, changed clothes and then went to another home for supper and a fun evening of Scrabble. Whew!! When I crawled into bed at 10:40 last night, I was c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g because I was SO tired!! I slept good though! :)

So, it was a busy but very lovely weekend! I hope your weekends were just as good! :o) Today, at work, I start my summer hours so that's a nice thing. We just come in a half hour early and then leave a half hour early. Next week starts my three week summer class, so things will be kind of crazy for me for those three weeks. Oh, well! It will be so worth it to get the course done! I'll finish it on Friday, June 6, and then I'll be free for the rest of the summer! Wahoo! :)

So, enjoy this new day! Oh, and I've posted a few pictures of some frost that was on the top of my car on Friday morning last week. I just thought that the frost patterns were so cool that I tromped back upstairs to my apartment, got my camera and took pictures! Of course, the pictures don't do the pattern justice, but it was still kind of cool looking! :)

Thankfulness

Let's list out today those things that we are thankful for!! You may use your name in your comment or remain anonymous. List at least one thing you're thankful for today, but feel free to list a few things if you'd like! It's always good to remember what we're thankful for!! :)

• Today I'm thankful for the freedom that we have in this country. I fear that we will lose it all too soon, but I hope I never see that day!
• Today I'm thankful for my vision. We have a student in our program at UW that is blind. Every day I watch him move around, attend classes and live his life. I can't even begin to imagine what he faces. I hope that I never have to know.
• Today I'm thankful for the quiet times in life where I can meditate, read my Bible and pray. It always helps me to refocus and to "straighten things out" in this journey that I'm on.

What about YOU? What are you thankful for today? Let us all know!! :)

The Doctor's Final Say

Well, my doctor's appointment was this afternoon and she confirmed that I, indeed, am cancer free. Yay! :) As we were visiting, though, she was taking her sweet 'ol time telling me what the future plans were, so I finally blurted out, "What does this mean for the future?!" She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "How long before I have to do this testing again?" Do you know her response? Two years. Ugh. I said, "I thought I'd get to wait for FIVE years!" She said, "Oh, no...not yet! Someday, though!" Ugh. So, the new plan is that I'm cleared for two years. The year 2010 is when I will do this testing business again. If I get good reports then, then I'll be cleared for THREE years. And, so on.

It took me about two hours to fully accept the news of having to test again in two years, but I finally was okay with it and I'm glad that I don't have to worry about it for a long time! I'm moving on!!! :o)

In other news, here's my star of the month for the month of May at Curves! Wahoo! :) If you remember last month's star, you'll see that the loss is just a bit more. :o) Now...I just was weighed and measured today for what will be the month of June on the stars board and I think I'm going to get up on that one, too!!!!! My total loss this past month...10.5!!! I lost 7.25 pounds and 3.25 inches. Wahoo, wahoo, WAHOO!!!!! :o) I'm going to catch up to my good friend yet when it comes to weight loss! She knows who she is, too, so I don't need to mention her name! ;) I'm very proud of her and she inspires me SO much to be healthy! It's been a great encouragement for me! :)

And that, my friends, concludes this season of "Cancer Testing 2008"!! :o) Thank you for ALL of your support, prayers and encouragement!!! There are plenty of others out there that we know who are battling this ugly beast called cancer, so let's not forget to pray for them, too, and to send encouragement their way!! It helps more than you realize! :)

It's GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My blood tests came back GOOD!!!!!! I will find out for sure tomorrow, but if I remember correctly, my doctor said that if I had two good test years in a row, I'd be cleared for five years!!!!! So, unless the body scan had any glaring items on it (which I doubt will happen, but nothing has ever been glaring on the body scans), I think that I'm in the clear for five years!!! "Cancer Free". What a wonderful phrase!!!! :o)

WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some Fun! :)

Some Monday morning FUN!!! :) This morning, on my blog friend's site, I found this fun little exercise! :) I wanted to do it on my blog and you should feel free to do it on your own blog, too, if you'd like! :) Have fun!! :o)

1. Your rock star name (first pet, current car): Boomer Camry

2. Your gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Mint Chocolate Dansko

3. Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Mini Daschund

4. Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born): Anne Spooner

5. Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name): Mar Je

6. Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Navy Blue Frappuccino

7. NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers): Walter Ermin

8. TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Anderson Austin

9. Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Spring Pansies

10. Cartoon name: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Apple Skirt

11. Hippie name (What you ate for breakfast, your favourite tree): Toast Aspen

Another ordinary day. I think. :)

Well, today was hideous...weather wise, anyway! :o) I was supposed to go home today, but there was a winter storm that bee-bopped it's way through. The wind was horrid! Gusts up to 70+ miles per hour!!!!!! (or so I heard...I wouldn't be surprised if it was true!) Every time we went out, we held on to our hats, purses, and anything else that would keep us on the ground! Cheyenne didn't get much snow, but the web cams showed that the interstate was a mess. They closed it all day and I understand why!

So, I stayed in Cheyenne for now and will likely travel home tomorrow. Other than the weather, it really was a good day! I went to the gym, did a bit of shopping and then I finished up my testing by having a body scan today. That was over in a half hour and so after that, my friends and I went to a late lunch at Olive Garden!! YUM!!! I had Manicotti. And I about fainted because it was so good! ;o)

The rest of the day was spent inside, out of the wind and snow flurries, and I just read a book and wrote some letters! Pretty simple! :)

Well, that's all for now! Just thought I'd give a little update on things! I didn't get any results of the scan today and I'm really not expecting to hear anything until my doctor's appointment on Tuesday afternoon. I'll check on Monday to see if the results of the bloodwork are in yet, but I promise that I will post any news once I get it! Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I know that I will!!! :o)

Another Star! :)

Well, my good friend from Curves that I workout with just called me to tell me that I got another star on the Curves "Stars of the Month" board!!! Wahoo!!! I don't remember what the total loss was, and I won't get to Curves until next Tuesday (maybe my friend can clue us in by leaving a comment should she read this post). When I get there, though, I'll take a picture and let you know my total loss for the month of April! Oh, I'm super excited about this! Wahoo! :o)

Oh, Bah...We have a slight delay.

Well, today was the big day!!! The day for the bloodwork to be drawn and for my thyroglobulin levels to be checked! This is the one of the tests that tell them if there is any cancer growing in me and in past years, it seems to have given us a better, more accurate idea than the body scans that I've had done. So, it's been an important factor in all of this and now, honestly, I just go to this test to see what's really going to happen at my doctor's appointment once ALL of my testing is done!

So, today I went in early in the hopes that I could get these results back sooner than later. I asked the phlebotomist, "How long will it take for these results to be in?" I was thinking sometime this afternoon or early morning...to which she replies, "Well, we don't have the appropriate equipment here, so we send the lab work to Salt Lake City. It will be three to five days before you know the results." WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!? Oh, I felt SO discouraged!!! I said, "Okay." ... and then, I willed myself not to cry about it!

And, that's that! I have an appointment with the doctor next Tuesday, so if I haven't been able to get the results before then, hopefully I will get them at the appointment! The phlebotomist told me to call on Monday and see if they're there. We'll see!!

What a bummer, huh?! I went to the gym after being at the lab and I was SO glad that I did that! It just helped me relieve some of the anxiety that had built up since I had left the lab some 15 minutes prior!! As I was working out, that famous Serenity Prayer popped into my head. It says, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." I just started repeating that over and over while I was working out and I think that the workout and really just being able to focus on the words of that prayer helped me to calm down.

I feel much better about having to wait and, really, it will be what it will be!! It's a bit frustrating, but since there's not much I can do about it, there's no sense in fretting over it! And last night at Bible study, we were hearing about "growing seasons" and how it can produce and teach us about patience! I think that this may just be one of those experiences!! :o)

Life will still return to "normal" tomorrow afternoon after the scan. I'll stop the special diet and just continue with everything as I did before the testing process began. IF something is negative about the testing this year, it will be discussed at my appointment on Tuesday and at that time, we'll discuss treatment ideas and I'll start the process over at that point. Until then, I'm going to just enjoy my time and days! :)

So, I will keep you posted and I will let you all know as SOON as I get those test results and what they tell us!! Thanks for ALL of your care, concern and thoughts & prayers!!! They have helped more than you'll probably ever know!! :)