Busy Daze

These past few weeks have been jam-packed for me, and I'm really thankful for that because it's made time fly and kept my mind from worrying (y'all know I'm prone to do that!).  Between coordinating state testing, totalling scholarships, presenting at Awards Night, speaking at Freshman Orientation, attending Senior Breakfast, finalizing senior records, corralling hyped-up seniors at graduation, and finalizing underclassmen cumulative transcripts (not to mention all the crises that have popped up in between), work has made this guidance counselor a total lunatic.  I am so proud of my seniors, though, and was on such a high last night after their graduation.  I can't believe I've almost completed my first full year in a job I fought so hard to get, and I'm so looking forward to the excitement next year holds.  I miss my first senior class already (how did I get so attached to them in just one year??), but I'm thrilled to say I've already signed my contract for next year (hooray!), and I know there are wonderful things in store there, as well.
I've continued to go home every weekend (this will be my 14th straight weekend in Columbus) to be with mom as she prepares for chemo, which actually starts tomorrow.  She saw her gynocological oncologist on May 7, and he felt she was healed enough to begin this preventive treatment as soon as all the preliminary visits, tests, etc. were done.  Visits to the chemo oncologist and the radiologist have kept her busy these past two weeks, and she's also had a port implanted (where she'll receive her chemo meds), had a CT scan, and undergone several blood tests to make sure her body is ready to begin treatment.  She's even been fitted for a stylin' wig and has it ready and waiting if she needs it days or even weeks down the road.  Tomorrow is the big day, and I would be lying if I said she wasn't anxious and fearful.  She is wholly ready to "get this show on the road," but, as is almost always true with the unknown, she gets anxious about possible side-effects and reactions to treatment.
You have all been so amazing throughout these last four months of our lives, and I thank you in advance for continuing to stand beside us and lift us up.  Those of you who have called, visited, brought food, sent her a card, etc. have really warmed her heart and mine, and we will never be able to thank you enough for your love and support.  I ask you to keep a few specific prayers in mind tomorrow as she undergoes the first treatment:
Pray she will have peace and calm before and during the treatment
Pray her body will be able to receive the medication with little to no side effects
Pray if there is one tiny cancer cell in her body, this powerful medicine will obliterate it
Also, I selfishly ask for a prayer for myself, as well.  I can't be with my mom during her treatment, which, if you know us at all, you know is incredibly difficult for me.  I can't be away from work and won't be able to be home until Friday, so please, if you have a spare second, pray for my nerves to be calmed and my anxious thoughts to be put to rest, as well.  She won't be alone during or after the treatment, but y'all know what a control freak I am... I want to be there with her through every tough situation, but that's just not always possible.  (I think it's very possible God is working really hard in me to surrender some of that need to control everything...)  You, my friends, are so dear to us, and we are so thankful for every one of you.  God has carried us through this season of our lives, but you have made us laugh and cry and put smiles on our faces throughout it all. 
You'll never know how much you mean--

Shower of Love

Before I update you on Mom's status, let me say a special wow and thank you.  I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love so many of you have shown me since I posted about Mom's diagnosis last week.  Your texts, calls, emails, Facebook messages, etc. have covered me in love and support like a warm blanket, and so many of them have arrived at the exact minute I needed them most.  You are all very special to me, and please believe my sincerity when I say I am so thankful for each of you!

But now back to the news...
We did receive Mom's pathology report late last week.  First the positive:  the cancer was contained to her uterus, and her doctor was able to fully remove the cancer present.  Hallelujah, God is so good!  The news that was a little harder to swallow came in the form of his recommendation that she take 6 rounds of chemotherapy as well as some radiation.  This is strictly precautionary, and, as of now, Mom is planning to follow his recommendation.  We trust her oncologist completely and have total faith in his skill, training, experience, etc.  She will go back and see him around the first of May and, if healed enough from the hysterectomy, start her first round of chemo almost immediately, with one treatment every 3 weeks.  Please pray that her body will be strong enough to get started at that time, as well as that she will be able to withstand chemo with minimal side effects.
Now, as I mentioned in my last post, Mom doesn't seem to do anything the easy way--at least when it comes to her medical procedures!  This weekend was another prime example of that to add to our list.  When I got home Friday night, I noticed Mom's right ankle and lower leg were swollen, red around the ankle and warm to the touch.  She said she hadn't hurt it or twisted it or anything, but we elevated it and iced it Friday night, anyway.  I told her if it looked the same Saturday morning, we were going to need to go to the hospital.  When we woke up Saturday, it looked a little less swollen but not enough to wholly ease my mind.  So, we trekked it down to the ER, where, after several hours and several tests, they ruled out a blood clot (which is what I had feared) and diagnosed her with cellulitis, or a bacterial infection.  We were beyond thankful she doesn't have a blood clot, but we prayed her antibiotic would go to work quickly and effectively to reduce the infection.  Her doctor wanted to see her back in his office today, and, as he told us in the ER Saturday, he was 'not going to hesitate to put her in the hospital to receive antibiotics by IV' if he wasn't satisfied with her improvement.  I came home this afternoon to go to the doctor with her, and I am blessed to be able to say that, before I could even get to the office, he had seen her and dismissed her, very pleased with her improvement.  I am so thankful that we're at home watching American Idol now and not at the hospital getting IV antibiotics!  Again, God is SO good!
Please continue to keep those wonderful prayers coming as Mom continues to heal and prepare for chemo and radiation.  We are clinging to our faith tighter than ever before right now, and we are beyond thankful for your continued love and support.  Please pray specifically for me, as well, as I try to focus on my end-of-the-year responsibilities at work.  I've got lots to do to close out the school year and get these sweet (and, yes, a few not-so-sweet) seniors graduated, and I need to be able to clear my head of cancer and focus on them a little.  Can I ask y'all one other favor?  If you think of Mom over the next few weeks or months, will you drop a card in the mail to her?  She's gotten wonderful cards and notes from so many special people, and they both cheer and inspire her, as well as continue to remind her of how many people love and pray for her.  She goes back and reads those words when she's having a hard day, so those special words lift her up again and again.  I know how much it would mean to her... and how much it would mean to me, too.
Thanks again to all of you for your constant thoughts and outpouring of love; keep lifting us up, dear friends!
All my love,

Loving Oscar

I thoroughly enjoyed the Oscars last night.  To me, it was perhaps the best show since Hugh Jackman hosted, and, considering my embarrassingly fervent love of Hugh Jackman, that's saying something.
Even though I felt somewhat unpreprared/uninformed about the nominees this year (I've seen the majority of the nominated films, but I felt hugely out-of-the-loop not having seen The Artist), I was overall rather satisfied with the winners.  Having been blown away by Michelle Williams performance in My Week with Marilyn, I was hoping for her to walk away with her own golden man, but Meryl was also amazing in The Iron Lady, so it's all good.
A few highlights for me were, of course, the return of Billy Crystal (best host of our time), Ellen's commercials for JCPenney (ancient Rome = favorite), Emma Stone presenting with Ben Stiller (I feel like Emma and I are friends; is that weird?), and, finally, the Cirque du Soliel performance (my eyes didn't know where to look; I realized at the end I had been holding my breath the entire time; I adored every second).
The final highlight was, of course, the dresses!  Here are a few of my favorites:

Michelle Williams

Milla Jovovich

Emma Stone

Tina Fey

Penelope Cruz

Stacy Kiebler

Jessica Chastain

Angelina Jolie (and her leg?)

Ah, I adore the magic of the movies.

PS:  My best friend Ben is a wonderfully talented chef and writer for Saveur magazine in New York.  This month he landed his first cover story and bared his heart, his story, and his layer-cake expertise.  Check out the full article here.  

How Time Flies

I always think it's so weird how one minute you're in one place and, then, you turn around and, before you know what's happened, you're in a totally different place.  (I guess that's sort of what has happened on this blog, huh?  When last I wrote (2 unforgiveable months ago!) things in my life looked one way, and, now, things have shifted slightly.  More about all that another night, though.)  I always get that feeling really strongly when returning home from a trip.  It's just tough for me to process that, say, in the morning I'm in Chicago, but, by nightfall, I'm getting gas in my car at the Shell station a mile from my house.  How could such a transition come about so quickly?  How it happen that I blinked, and the magical became the mundane? I felt that way Sunday when I arrived home from New Orleans, where I had been for Amanda's bachelorette party.  It just didn't seem right when I pulled into my driveway that barely twelve hours before I had been dancing the night away on Bourbon Street.

Anyway, enough philosophizing, yes?

The weekend was great, and I had such a good time celebrating the upcoming wedding of one of my favorite friends.  We spent Saturday walking around the French Quarter and soaking up the culture that belongs solely to The Crescent City.  After a great lunch (shrimp po'boy, of course!) and some sightseeing, we laughed away several hours (and a few hurricanes) at Pat O's piano bar before catching the St. Paddy's Day parade coming through the Quarter.  
After a great afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to don our fabulous (read:  ridiculous) 80s paraphernalia and get ready to take on The Big Easy.  After a long dinner at Cafe Degas, we headed for--where else?--Bourbon Street.  I had so much fun laughing and dancing and people-watching with these fun girls, and our Madonna bride was definitely a hit (which is saying something for a city where everyday could be like Halloween!)! 

I was sad to see the weekend (and my Spring Break) come to an end when we headed home Sunday.  How could you not have a great time in a city where the group, including a pregnant girl, mind you, decked out in only the most hideous trends of the 80s is not even anywhere near the craziest thing you'll see?

In an aside before I close, please allow me to highly recommend a new restaurant I went to in Jackson Friday night--Babalu.  The place was sooooo good!!  Great atmosphere, great design, great, great food!  (I'm all for a restaurant that makes a huge batch of fresh guacamole right at my table.)  If you're in the Jackson area and haven't tried this place out yet, I highly recommend it.
Happy Tuesday!
 

Hey Amigo

Tonight I am thankful for my amazingly too-unbelievable-for-words friends.  I'm pretty sure you've heard me go on and on about them before, but my friends are seriously phenomenal.  At the wedding this weekend I was reminded over and over again of how blessed I am to have so many out-of-this-world people in my life, and, since I got back, I have continued to be reminded of that idea at every turn.  Whether it be a long-awaited reunion at a wedding, a lengthy phone call full of laughter and crazy stories, or almost-daily text messages, I am so, so fortunate to have each and every one of them in my life.  I was writing about these fabulous people in my journal today, and I was just overcome by how much they have changed and enriched my life in so many monumental and varying ways.  I would not at all be the person I am without each and every one of them in my life.  People would be lucky to have one or two great friends in their lifetimes, but I have been blessed enough to have a number of awe-inspiring friendships in my life.  I don't pretend to know why God saw fit to bless me in this way, but I continuously humbled by their very presence in my life.



Love Me True

Tonight I am thankful for reminders that true love still exists.  Lindsey and Ray, two of my favorite people in the world, got married last night, and watching them throughout the weekend served to remind me that true love is not a myth; though rare in this day and age, it's still out there.  Lindsey and I have been very close friends for about six years now, and, from the minute I met Ray I knew he was the one for her.  Lindsey is one of the most thoughtful, genuine, caring people I've ever met, and Ray is the perfect complement to her.  Seeing them together reminds occasionally bitter self-deprecating cynics like me that real, honest love is not always a farce created by Hollywood and Hallmark; it actually exists, and it's written all over their faces.  Every minute of the weekend was so "them," and it all came together so beautifully.  I am so thankful to have these amazing people in my life individually as my friends, and I am even more blessed to have loving, caring couples like them around to serve as examples and remind me what I'm holding out for.  I love you both sooooooo much, and I am so honored to have been a part of such a beautiful, wonderful celebration of your love for each other.

PS:  I promise to share pictures of the wedding in the coming weeks when the photographer gets them all edited and posted.  I can't even begin to do justice to this event in mere words, so I will hold out and let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Weekend Update

So, before you say anything...
I know I've been slacking big time lately in the blog department. 
Can I blame the insanity that is work and school 100%?  I hope so... because I am.
Work is absolutely nuts most days and every day is a new adventure, but I really like what I'm doing, and I love the people I'm doing it with.  I'm beyond blessed by all of the wonderful people who have entered my life during the past thirteen weeks (thirteen weeks... how nuts is that?!), and I'm so thankful for their guidance, wisdom, and influence.
This past Friday I took my master's comp exam.  I'm not going to pretend I aced it; I'm not even going to pretend it was remotely easy.  It was quite the opposite, actually.  In other words, it was really, really hard.  In fact, it might have been the hardest test I've ever taken to date, but, you know what?  Lord willing I passed, and it's over.
Friday night Lindsey and I went to downtown Columbus' Ghosts & Legends tour.  It was admittedly cheesy, but it was a good time and a new and different look at my hometown (which is not easy to come by in a place I've lived for almost twenty-six years).  It was great to get to hang out with Lindsey and a fun night all around.

Saturday I spent the day/night in Starkville tailgating and cheering on the Bulldogs.  Did I hear someone say bowl eligible??  I couldn't be more excited about our postseason possiblities, and, although Saturday night's game wasn't pretty, I'm always excited to add another 'W'.  I had the greatest, most relaxing day, and it was so great to be able to enjoy such a leisurely Saturday in one of my most favorite places in the world.

I've got another busy week this week, but I'm excited to be back in Starkville Saturday to see the Bulldogs take on Kentucky.  I'm hoping we can keep this winning streak going, and I'm excited to hang out with so many of my favorites again, too.
Oh, and how could I forget to mention my favorite new thing in my life...

Fro-yo has arrived in Starkville!!  As you may know, I have been a little obsessed with the frozen yogurt phenom since my Spring Break trip to Dallas.  Therefore, ever since I first heard of Starkville's very own yogurt store opening, I couldn't wait for that great day.  And now it's come!  Local Culture opened Thursday, I've already been twice, and I love it so much already.  I'm so thrilled that fro-yo is making a comeback.

Hit the Road

Seeing as I will be picking up Day in less than 5 hours to start our great American adventure of a road trip to Charleston, I should undoubtedly be catching some zzzzzzzzz.

I, however, am burning cds (yes, cds still exist... you can find them next to VHS tapes, casette tapes, and other such archaic tools) and blabbering blogging.
I'm too excited to sleep, though.
I can't wait to get there.  I'm excited about seeing tons of these...

and even more of these...

and I am super excited about eating lots of this...

Good tunes, good place, good food, good friend... does it get any better??

I know, I know...we're not quite Thelma and Louise (seeing as, among other things, we're not driving a convertible, we're not planning to shoot anyone, and we're going to refrain from driving any sort of vehicle off a cliff), but, really, when you think of two ladies on a road trip, who else comes to mind??

In the Good Old Summertime

Ok, so I know it's barely even May, which is actually the last month of spring, but, for me... it's summatime!!

The semester has drawn to a close, and school is out for summer.  Can I get a whoop whoop or a fist pump or something on that one?
Last week I was seriously a lady of leisure, as I slept late, lounged around reading in the sun, and indulged in some of my favorite activities, including:
*****a shopping excursion all by my lonesome, which is sometimes my favorite way to spend a day
*****a massage, which--even though the girl who did it practically cracked my spine in half with her pointy elbows and her intense pressure--was wonderful, as always; there's really no such thing as a bad massage
*****sushi with some of my favorite ladies, telling secrets and hashing out the world's problems
*****a mani/pedi
*****a crazy fun wedding with some of my favorite people of all time--lots of inappropriate things were said, hilarious pictures were taken, and, I kid you not, we laughed for hours.  Early in the night, Boyce asked, "What's the main difference between tonight and high school?"  We all laughed and admitted, not much.  That would turn out to be more true than I imagined, as we are just as ridiculous as we were seven years ago (gasp!) when we were still wee high schoolers.

It was such a great, relaxing week, and I was pretty sad to see it go.  There's lots to do this week, though, as I am starting the slow-but-sure move home that will take place over the three months to come.  Last week, I received word on my placement for my internship (the last step in my Master's degree, a nine month/school year long experience) that I will start in August, and I will definitely be in a Lowndes county school, so... this lady is moving home.  I had some mixed feelings about it, which I will share with you another day, I'm sure, but today I'm feeling okay about it.  I'm saving a ton of money and living much closer to my job location, so it all seems to make pretty perfect sense.  Also, my mom will be undergoing knee replacement numero two just two short weeks from today, so I'm both mentally and physically preparing for that, as well.  More on that later, too.
Anyway, hope you all had a great weekend and your week is off to a great start.  A few things I'm loving right this minute:
Cute, lightweight nightshirts to keep me alive cool through these sweltering Mississippi summer nights.  (Yes, it's barely May and it's already pretty toasty.)  I miss my apartment ceiling fan already, and, even though I've only been home a mere week, I have already woken up drenched with sweat more than once.  Bring on the jersey knits and the cool cotton, I say.

Weight Watchers ice cream candy bars.  Whoa.  This is perhaps the best tasting diet food I've ever discovered.  It seriously tastes awfully close to a Snickers ice cream bar (really!) but with a fraction of the calories... and who doesn't love that?!  And, they're a reasonable size so you don't want to eat the entire box like you might with other somewhat-decent-tasting diet foods that look as if they were proportioned for Barbie and Ken to fill up on.  Give 'em a whirl... you won't regret it.

Happy summer, my friends!