This and That...

Wow, there have been so many things to celebrate lately. I realized on July 23rd while sitting at work that it was exactly 1 year since I went in for surgery. I thought to myself how much had transpired in a year...the face of death and now the road to recovery! It has been quite the journey.

I e-mailed Steve at work and asked him, "Steve, do you remember what you were doing exactly 1 year ago today?" The ever jokester responds with, "eating chicken fingers". I laughed and said, "how could you, I wasn't even able to have an ice chip, water, food or anything for 7 days besides the fact that I couldn't have anything 2 days prior to the surgery!". I was telling Kimberly and she laughed because she remembered taking chicken fingers to her dad to eat at the hospital because he of course was with me the entire time. It is so awesome to be able to look back and laugh.

This weekend on a whim decided to go to Tenneesee to visit friends, we've not seen in quite a while. In fact, we were best friends for years and then we moved, they moved and we lost touch. When I became sick, we re-connected and they drove for hours on a week night just to spend a couple of hours with us. They live close to Knoxville, Tennessee. It has been so hectic that I've been having chest pains, etc. so I thought a change of scenery would do us all good.

We had a marvelous time. There is nothing like lots of laughter with friends. We had so much fun that we did not want to leave. Since it was our anniversary, we went to a Japanese Steakhouse and then to a place called, Manchies. It is a frozen yogurt place that has all kinds of yogurt with toppings of every kind. It is all self-serve and you fill your bowl or waffle bowls with as much as you like and then you weigh them. It was wonderful!!

They live in the Smokey Mountains so the view was unbelievable. I can see why they would want to live there. The real estate is very expensive but oh my, what an awesome place to live and even more beautiful place to retire.

Today is Steve's birthday so being on the road made it a little difficult to have a cake. We tried at lunch but somehow the wires got crossed and our server never did anything so we finally grew tired of waiting and left. His sister, Vicky made him a cake and his other sister, Angie brought it over once we got home from the trip. I was glad he actually had a cake. I was thinking as I looked at the cake that last year, his sister Vicky made him a cake and brought it to the hospital. So, I guess this year the cake tastes better than ever, especially getting to eat it at home! "-)

Since I've been sick this past year, riding in the car makes my legs swell so I better go and get things under control so I can be rested and ready for work tomorrow.
Have a great night! Thank you all so much for listening and your kind words.

P.S. I just found out that another person who just found out they had the exact same cancer and same stage of cancer that I had, has only been given 6 months to live. This is really the most important thing that I have to say today and that is to please pray for this very young family. God is able to do all things, HE sure has done that for me and I know HE is just as capable to do it for this person. Please remember them in your prayers. They really need a miracle. This really isn't a by the way statement, it has been on my heart and wasn't sure if I should say it or not because I'm not sure who all reads this but the more people praying the better!!

God Bless,
Love to all,
Leah