ok.... ok... I know

It's been a long, long, loooong time - sorry!

Busy living life again. What's a girl to do?! {shrug}

But real quick like, I thought I'd post some pics of the 5K walk I did today! That's right, last October I was still bald, in the midst of chemo treatments & this year I'm happy, healthy and walking in a 5K to raise money for Breast Cancer Research!

It was a Making Strides for Breast Cancer event and took place at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana. Reba, my girlfriend from Kentucky happened to be here visiting.... so she walked with me and took a majority of the pictures : ) Mark would have gladly gone, but had to work : (

About a week ago, a friend sent me the link to this BIG pink ribbon - to wear! So I ordered it & it arrived just in time. Yeah, I got a few looks, a lot of sweet comments and even called on stage before the walk began (by the MC, a local newscaster) that was fun! I raised well over $1000 for this cause and thank every single one of you that were able to contribute! I've never done anything like this but must say, it was enlightening, inspiring and so much fun!

In St. Louis again...

It's Mark's birthday and we've come to St. Louis with his kids, daughters beau and sons bff.

Because I am such a GENEROUS girlfriend (and because the Cardinals are not playing the Cubs tonight) I made this t-shirt to wear .....

a new do

Couldn't stand the mop of curls anymore.... yes I was grateful to have them, but gosh my hair has always been thick and I tell ya, I would wake up looking like Don King! Not kidding! So instead of getting it colored this week, I just got it all cut off & I like it much better. Eaaaasy to take care of for sure!



In my last post, you saw me removing border from the top of the dining room wall. This morning, Mark and his friend Brian put trim up (which covers very old wallpaper gap) and this week I'll roll the rest of the room.



While they did that, I hung beach border in the other room....





And this afternoon, Mark (a 30 year volunteer fireman) competed with his friends, and four other towns, in a Water Ball Fight..... that was a lot of fun to watch!





Had a great visit with old friends Jon and Judy Reynolds! Funny thing is... Mark has known Judy forever (Leroy native) and Jon a very long time, through the fire departments. Yet another way our paths have crossed throughout the years!

what I've been up to .....

Wallpaper work at Mark's house (oy vey!)

He is in the process of moving the dining room into a front room and putting a new pool table where the dining room table was. So I volunteered (what was I thinking?!) to take down the border in what will be the dining room.... and repaint it. Well I love painting, that's not the problem! I started stripping border and found ANOTHER border hiding underneath - yikes! It has been a three step process (at least) and taken most of five days!






Because that work is all on a ladder, I also started to take down the border in what was his office/exercise room (which will be my Sanibel / scrapbooking room) which thankfully is at eye level!





It has been incredibly tedious work but I've actually enjoyed it! I think it's more manual labor than I've done in a long, long time! We have paint for the dining room and a new border ordered for my scrap room. This week will consist of washing wall, painting (hopefully) hanging border and roman shades!

I guess I should check in .....

and tell you that everything is going well!

I had a follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon last week and she was very pleased with the results. As am I.

I actually went to Victoria's Secret today, for my first fitting.... that was fun!

Have been out and about (as usual) having fun! Will post pictures soon ~

All is well on the home front. Will post more whenI have the time : )

and..... they're..... soft! LOL

Yeah, the tissue expanders were rock-hard & I'd gotten used to it. But yesterday Mark and I went to Springfield for the "unveiling" and I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome!

Last week was the first that Mark had met my plastic surgeon by the way & he liked her very much! He said he could totally see how and why I chosen her to care for me.

I'd been given the orders to bring a sports bra for Fridays appointment. I had to guess at the size (LOL) since I was wrapped in gauze and knew I couldn't wear anything I had before. But I guessed correctly and was told to wear the sports bra 24/7 until I see her again next Friday. Dr. Sommer was pretty pleased with her work as well. She said her only concern (and she even said she'd lost some sleep, thinking about me the other night) was that area of thin-skin. She'd fat grafted where she needed to, but was worried in how it might look when she unwrapped me. It looks great. Little to no redness in comparison to what it had been.

I'll add some pics that I took last night. Seems kind of odd to post 'boobage' pictures ..... but then again, that was my whole reason in starting this blog in the first place. And thankfully, here I am, 15 months post-diagnosis ...... nearly done with my journey - yaaay God!

Yes, I wore this shirt to my appointment & all day yesterday. I got numerous laughs and comments on it of course : )

24 hours after

and I'm doing well. I'm sore, but that's to be expected.

We got to the clinic by 12:15 and I was checked right in. It took two pokes to get my IV in (which is typical) and then we waited and waited....

At about 2:30 I actually walked back to the operating room - yeah - that was a first! The procedure took a bit longer than I'd expected it to. I think Mark said the doctor came out to speak to him around 4:45. He was able to come see me shortly after 5 and it was 6 or after by the time we got out of there.

I never saw the doctor myself (well not that I know of anyway : ) but she told Mark that everything went well. She said there was no sign of any infection whatsoever - good news! I had some fat grafted from a thigh, to pad that area where my skin was so thin. No matter how much I begged, she wouldn't lypo both thighs for me : ( oh well.

We grabbed a bite to eat at Culver's on the way home. I like their pot roast sandwich but my mouth was so dry from the anesthesia, it took me forever to eat it.

My chest is wrapped until I go in for a follow up appointment on Friday. Today I'm just laying on the couch and taking it easy......