Hair is a fantastic luxury!

My hair has finally come back enough to stop covering my head and not feel like I look a hot mess all the time! It took me a couple weeks to be fully comfortable with my short, short 'do, but I have learned to embrace it and I figure it's a symbol of a fresh start in more ways than one. I not only get a do-over with my hair and now have fine, never been colored or flat ironed or over processed hair, but I get a do-over with my life also. Let's hope I don't mess either one up!

Here's what I'm looking like these days, it's a little longer than it was in the last pic I posted because of the most wonderful hair product ever (well, if you need your hair to grow or thicken up), Nioxin. I use the shampoo, conditioner and a scalp activating spray daily and I'm telling you the stuff is fantastic! I'm going to get the vitamins also because I hear they work wonders for your hair, skin and nails, but I can't confirm that for sure yet.
Here I am, and here's a side view so you can see all my little curls. I haven't had curly hair in at least 5 years, but haven't had really curly hair since I was really young. I'm interested to see how it looks as it gets longer. Hopefully I won't have a curly afro, how hard will that be to grow out?! :-)

Now that my hair is curly, maybe people will stop asking us where the Little One gets her curls from. Bless her heart she gets asked that question ALL the time!

It's still a strange color if you ask me. It's an ash brown shade, but I guess it works since it seems to blend in with my grey hairs and doesn't make them stand out quite as much as they did with my old natural color, which was a lot darker. It would be nice if I didn't have to color it to hide the grey all the time, we'll see if that works out! I'm a bit of a chameleon when it comes to hair...well, I was when I had some ;-) I love to play with hairstyles and colors, maybe I'll have to tame that down with my new curly mane!

So, I say all that to tell you: YAY FOR HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HAIR :)

Family Visit!

Last week The Hubby's Aunt, Uncle, Brother and our little family all met their cousin's wife and 3 precious children at a restaurant in town. We had a nice time catching up, and the kids had a blast! After dinner the Aunt & Uncle wanted to take the kids to the Dollar Store and let them pick out a few things, and that was hilarious! It was the hardest decision for all of them, I couldn't believe it!

We so wish they could see each other more often and grow up being close. Their family lives near Orlando, and we don't get down there often and they have 3 little ones (and one on the way!) so needless to say they don't travel often either! They act like no time has passed when they do get together though, hopefully that will always be the case :)

Another fun visit!

Last weekend some friends that moved away recently came into town for the day and we were able to visit for a while. Our kids have so much fun together, and when we told the Little One who she was going to see we asked if she remembered them and she said "Yes, I think about them EVERY day!" She might be a little dramatic, I don't know, but they are too cute together!

He even told us that she was his girlfriend which she acted like was disgusting to her, but she loved every second of it :-)

They were born on the same day at the same hospital. The Little One thinks this is SO cool! Here they are this weekend:

Funny Faces :-P

And here they are on the day they were born: Yeah, my little one was a week late and hers was a few weeks early so they had a big size difference...and we were holding each other's babies in the pic in case you couldn't tell!

They have another little boy that's 2 who came also but he didn't want to pose for any pics. He's way too busy for that!

We were glad to be able to see them, hope to be able to spend a little more time together soon (and that I can get more pics)!

Georgia Tradition

If you live in or have visited Georgia much, you know about our "mountain" and all the fun stuff to do there. We take it very seriously, and a summer tradition around here is the Laser Show. The Little One had never been, and since she's not deathly afraid of fireworks anymore we decided to take her.

We went with some good friends of ours, and our girls had a blast together as always! We had a great time catching up and just enjoying a relaxing evening together!

The girls played in a little creek area to cool off a little

They danced to every word of every song before the show started!

Such a sweet family, we just love them :)

The show was great, and the fireworks after were a nice treat for us all, too!

Looking forward to lots more fireworks this weekend for the 4th!

Yet another scare

Last week I had another "You've got to be kidding me" scare. I have been having some cramping for the past month or so, sometimes it's bad other times it's not noticeable, so I didn't think much of it. Sunday morning, I was woken up at 6:00 am by awful, think I should go to the ER pain. It was hurting into my back and I had to lay in the fetal position to have any relief whatsoever. I tried to walk and thought I would pass out or throw up from the pain so I woke the Hubby up to tell him what my symptoms were "In case I die this is what you can tell the paramedics".
I was, needless to say, afraid. I called my primary care doctor and my girl doctor both on Monday morning to see what they would suggest. Both wanted to see me, so I had bloodwork done at my Primary care on Monday and they scheduled me with a Gastroenterologist (sp?) for a colonoscopy. On Tuesday the girl doc wanted to see me for an ultrasound to see if she could find the source of the pain. When the ultrasound was complete, she told me I had a "big, nasty cyst" that was 8 cm...basically the size of my entire right ovary. She thinks maybe I had another one that burst on Sunday AM and that was the cause of all the pain. Of course, with my history of cancer this was cause for concern, and I was immediately sent to another office for a CT scan to make sure it wasn't a tumor.
I was freaking out a bit needless to say, but honestly I think I was in denial. I mean, what are the chances that I could've grown a tumor during chemotherapy? That would be crazy, and terrible!
So for over 24 hours I tried to go on with life, hoping this nightmare wasn't about to kick into high gear again.
I finally got the call that the bloodwork was fine, and the CT scan showed no sign of cancer. It is apparently just a cyst. I was elated! Bad news is, the cyst still has to be removed (that appt. hasn't been scheduled yet so I don't know what to expect) but I'll take that any day over that nasty c-word!
The GI doctor still wants to do the Colonoscopy because of my cancer history and to make sure that another little issue I'm having that I won't share (just in case you're eating...trust me, you don't want to know) is just a minor issue and nothing to be concerned with. Apparently young breast cancer patients should be carefully screened for colon cancer as well. Yay for me! That is scheduled for the 29th. I'll let you kow how fun that one is!
Apparently I'm going to be known as a "lab rat" for the rest of my life and any issue will be treated as a major issue until cancer can be ruled out. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about early detection, but the fear that is ALWAYS there in my head is a bit intensified when a medical doctor becomes alarmed. So, that's my update. Good news so far, Thank you Lord!!!

Oh, I keep meaning to tell you that my body seems to have adjusted to the Tamoxifen (remember, the estrogen blocker that I have to take for 5 yrs) and I rarely have hot flashes anymore! I really thought I was going to lose my mind for a while, SO thankful the summer heat didn't bring hot flashes along with it!!! :)

Wedding Fun!

**You'll have to excuse this post for being all over the place with pictures and captions. I have changed and updated it at least 20x and I'm done. I could probably start all over and re-load the pictures, but I don't have patience for that again! Just think of this one as a puzzle you have to match up the pictures with the captions ;-) **

The Little One was a flower girl in a friend's wedding this weekend & she loved every second of it! My friend and I were a little concerned that one (or maybe even all 3) of the girls would be too scared to walk all the way down the aisle, but they did great!

These were from the rehearsal & rehearsal dinner. The Hula Hoop was the greatest gift ever! She's been practicing non-stop ever since she got it!

Well, if you know my little girl, you know she can be a bit bossy with other children (Shocker, right?). She, of course, carried that attitude over to wedding day! I stayed inside to make sure they didn't have any meltdowns right before they were to go out, and my best friend, who was the Matron of Honor, was going to keep them in line during the ceremony. So, the Hubby sat in the back row and said that she was telling the other 2 girls "slow down, throw your petals, wait for me" etc. about half way up, and everyone was laughing. Then, the girls heard the laughter and got the crazy giggles the rest of the way up. I SO wish I had it on camera!

My best friend, the Matron of Honor, with her precious daugter, The Little One's Best Friend!

I'm sure she was giving them a "last minute tip" type of conversation here. They were SO excited!

The gorgeous bride with her most handsome nephew, the ring bearer.

It was a beautiful ceremony for a sweet couple! We were glad she could be a part of such a special day for them!

They did it...going back down the aisle at the end! Of course she's still saying "Wait! Slow Down!!!" the entire time.

The reception was lots of fun also! The girls danced all night, and so did the wedding party :)



Dancing with the girls and with Daddy :)

Ringing the bells for the happy couple to leave!

We had a really fun weekend with one of our favorite families, so glad everything went beautifully for them!

Here it is

Well, drum roll please........Here I am in all my baldness.

I don't think my color is as grey as it appears to be in this picture. It's lighter than it was before, but I don't THINK it's in the grey family...maybe that's me just denying reality though!

I will not be going out like this any time soon, but since I feel so close to all of you I thought I would share. I feel sure you're not as shocked as a lot of the general public would be ;-)