I'm still here

It's amazing how fast your blog gets neglected once you are back into the swing of things.  I went back to work in the middle of July and here it is almost October and no posts!
Important things that happened since my last post:

My oldest step-daughter started college !!!
My sophomore step-daughter made varsity volleyball!
My son started middle school and joined the local select soccer league which means practice, practice, practice!

I ran 2 5K's - the Pink Arrow Quiver in 41:19 and the Susan G Komen West Michigan Race for the Cure in 35.48!

My hubs bought me a banner to commemorate my cancer journey and it hung on Main Street for 2 months.

I started taking bellydance classes and also dropped in on some bollywood dance classes (SOO much fun!)

My hubs and I decided to take the intensive 3 month Yoga teacher training in Lansing starting in January.  I am planning on becoming a certified yoga intructor.

I got two baby angora bunnies in March , one of which passed away suddenly last month at 6 months old, and then got another 5 month old chocolate colored English/French angora cross who is gynormous!

I have bleached my hair (which is growing in curly)  platinum blonde and also pink on two different occasions

I have spoken to 1200 High School students about Cancer and what our Pink Arrow Pride program means to me.

I've gotten 2 more tattoos....my survivor bracelet on my left wrist and a 1/4 sleeve of Hanuman, the hindu monkey diety on my right arm!  I'm just waiting for the color.  Life is too short to not do what we want to do!

And I've been continuing to go to Herceptin chemo every 3 weeks until November when I'll be able to get my port out!!!

All this and working full time, too.

I realize I need to really keep up on the blog.
I don't want people thinking that once you are done with chemo, you are done with life, or cancer either!

I'm still here, living my life, albeit with a lot more attention to doing what makes me happy, not letting my job get to me too much and appreciating all the support and love that I still get from the important people in my life.

Hopefully, it will not be another 3 months before I post again!

until then~  "Seek Peace, then pursue it!" (from psalms 34: something._

Pixie

I was hoping to add pictures to correspond to all the events I mentioned in this post, but I realized that day would never come.  I'll try to add a few into upcoming blogs so that these past few months don't just fade away.  ~ P (still badass!)

Relay for Life

I wrote this post in June and never got around to getting it published.  It's amazing how fast a year streaked by and things you thought would never arrive have come and gone.

In June, I participated in Relay for Life at Lowell High School.  I've never done a relay event before, and this year I was signed up under two teams.  My friends and family team- honoring my girl Melissa - who also is one of the organizers for the event -  her dad, my friend's mom and several other people.  Carol, our head coordinator from my Gilda's Club Survivors group, finagled me into joining their team as well.

I had 4 different shirts, but each one had a picture of my girl Victoria, who was and still is battling stage 4 colorectal cancer.

I ended up walking 17 miles in 20 hours and Brian walked 20 hours, he figures around over 50 miles in that time. While we were tired and sore at the end of it, the event raised over $62,000!  I'm really looking forward to next year, and will probably sign up to be a 12 hour walker, now that I know how things work.

Connor was the lucky one to get the honorary dunking prior to the survivor ceremony.  My friend, Tracey McDonald ended up speaking last minute at the Survivor ceremony, and additionally gave me my inspiration for my survivor bracelet tattoo! After that, we did a Survivor Lap and I got to spend some time with one of my numerous friends I met through this experience -  my friend Krystine, who is not only the grandma to my GF's son, but also turned out to be a BC survivor and my nurse on the dayshift when I had my mastectomy!

Here is Tracey's speech, it is really moving, get a coupla kleenex now!  2012 Lowell Relay for Life Survivor Ceremony Speech

 I was honored to be asked to speak at the Luminaria ceremony.  People decorate white lunch bags in honor or memory of cancer survivors and then around sundown, they surround the track and light candles in them. Then we do a lap in silence to honor them.

Here is the speech I gave: 2012 Lowell Relay for Life Luminaria speech

I stuck to my new tradition of adding some 'bling' to my hair to commemorate special occasions.  I still didn't have too much hair to do anything with, but I managed to find some to dye purple for the occasion.  The cool thing about that, as I found out, is that complete strangers recognized me after my speech and came over to talk to me

In the end I walked 17 1/4 miles over a 20 hour period, stayed up all night, learned the cupid shuffle AND performed it twice, did sunrise yoga at 7 or 8 in the morning and had a total blast!  I'm really looking forward to next year!

-----> The Cupid Shuffle ------> learn it and come out and dance with us next year!

The Luminaria bag my hubs made for me
all my family on the front and lots of
friends names on the back