Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our family to yours! I hope everyone was safe and got LOTS of Treats and less Tricks. We started our evening at a Fall Festival at one of the local churches, then went trick-or-treating with some of our friends. We had a great time and came home with LOTS and LOTS of candy!

Emilee went as a "pajama person". I think she just wanted to be comfy, but she looked cute anyway!

Natalie actually won her costume when we went to the dirt track races a couple of weeks ago. She was a Gansta' Girl.

The Loot....

Rob and Emilee with one of our friend's kids trying to get in the picture.

Emilee in her SpongeBob Square Pants PJ's

On a more personal note...I had a PET scan this week and the results came back "stable." I don't know if it grew at all, but it wasn't enough to alert my doctor and for that I am thankful. All my bloodwork continues to be in normal range other than my B-12 level. They feel that this deficiency could also be causing the insomnia, which in turn is causing the migraines. And the circle continues... Also, for the past two months, I haven't been feeling all that great. I actually thought I might be pregnant as I had several of the same symptoms. Well after the home tests came back negative, I told my doctor about it and she ran a blood test. I am NOT pregnant, and she feels that the symptoms are probably side effects of the chemo. I was pretty much in shock that I could still be having side effects 10 months after my last round. She said I will be having symptoms for quite awhile. She thinks the chemo is causing a hormone imbalance and that is what was causing the "pregnancy" symptoms. Please keep this new development in your prayers. There is nothing like getting up from my desk, going to the bathroom to throw-up and then back to the desk to continue working, but that is what I've been doing for the past two months.

BUT, other than that, I feel great! I'm getting really excited about the holidays coming up. I absolutely LOVE Christmas! Not only do we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but I can give gifts! I love watching the faces of people when they open presents. I actually spent some time today wrapping Christmas presents. I decided to have some fun with the girls this year because they get so nosey and start shaking all their presents. So, this year, I have picked out two names of reindeer and assigned one to each of the girls and put that on the present instead of their names. They have no idea who is who! They will find out Christmas eve when we do Christmas with Rob's parents.

Thanks for stopping by...I hope each and everyone of you have a great Holiday season! And remember...

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

Light the Night 2009

This year's Light the Night walk was a great success! We had over 500 people show up, which is the most Tyler has ever seen! The day started for Rob and I around noon when we went to go help set up. I had only planned on staying out there for a few hours and then heading home to get the girls and finish getting everything ready. Well, that didn't happen. I ended up racing home changing clothes and getting the girls only to race back to where the walk was being held. Rob spent majority of the evening running around and trying to help anywhere and everywhere. I did a little of that, but tried to be the good team captain and stay with my team. Being this was the first year I actually attended the event, it was such an amazing experience! Thank you to all of our friends and family who joined us and to those who donated! Our team has raised just under $4,000 so far this year. Here are a few pics from the event. I did bring my camera, but did not take very many pics, so this is a compilation of mine, my mom's, my friend Emily's, and the newspaper. We also had Ben Daily from Daily's Photography come out and do professional pics. Thank you so much Ben for donating your time! I don't have any of those yet, so here's the amateur stuff!

Our team tent...we were filling out luminary bags to remember and honor those friends and family of ours who have gone through cancer. Unfortunately, I didn't think fast enough to get pictures of all of them.

The Lymphoblasters- we had one of the largest teams out there!

Group from our Sunday School class "Couples of Promise"- L to R: Me, Rob, Grant (our teacher), his wife Emily, Audrey, her husband James, and in front Amber

All the kids of our Sunday School group minus Emilee...not sure where she disappeared to at this point in time.

Me and some of our team members doing the walk

My nephews did the walk in style!

Me and Rob starting the walk (at the end)...our team brought up the rear of the group, but it was amazing because we were able to look out over all the lit balloons.

Addi (Amber's daughter) and Natalie carrying our team banner

Some of my awesome family- L to R: Casey (my bro), Kay (my sis-in-law), my nephews Wyatt and Walker, and of course Natalie

One of the luminaries

In memory of Eve who lost her fight last year while I was fighting mine

Emilee and Natalie sportin' their balloons!

Olive Garden catered! Yummmmm!!!

Moo! The whole herd of Chic-fil-A cows came out for the walk. Chic-fil-A is one of our corporate sponsors every year!

Emily and Grant- some of our friends from church

The lead singer, Corey Harmon, of the band who is also a cancer survivor.

The Band- Planning Yesterday (Eph. 2:10)- They were AWESOME! They donated their time to this event and kept us entertained the entire night!

Survivor balloon. Each balloon holds a meaning- the white is for survivors and patients. The red is for supporters, and the gold is for those who lost their fight. Natalie carried a gold balloon for several of our friends who lost their fight.

Our friend Amber and her girls Addi and Brylee

Beginnig the walk

My friend Crystal's girls- Hannah and Autumn

To remember Crystal see the post about shaving my head here.

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

Firefighters, Pigs, and A Little Love

A couple of weeks ago, the Tyler area hosted the Firefighters Combat Challenge at the local mall. We set up a booth last year for the Light the Night walk, so we decided to do it again this year. It was such a great turn out! The girls had a blast because they got to work with the firemen and the challenge by resetting the targets after the firemen knocked them down with the water. We sold light the night items and water and candy bars. After all was said and done, we raised around $200 for the cause! We were able to talk to people and tell them about the walk and hopefully got a few more teams to sign up. Here are a few pics from the event:

While we were there, we had this group of bikers come up and start talking to us. I am so glad they did. They are part of the Wood County Sheriff's Department and one of their Deputy's was just recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. They asked a lot about the society and were even thinking of starting a team. His name is Shannon Love, so please remember him in your prayers. His website is www.fightingforlove.org if you want to stop in. They are holding fundraisers all around town to help raise money for his medical expenses. We gave them some information and a "survivor" bear to give to him. Even though he is not in remission yet, we gave him a survivor bear so he would know that we were praying for him and believing he would be a survivor. I hope I run in to these people again as they were so sweet and you could see the love and concern they had for their friend.

This is a pic of the girls and Natalie's friend Haley. Don't they look thrilled!?! They were waiting for their moment to run and set up the target again.

And finally, this past week has been an adventure for our family. Our youngest daughter Natalie was diagnosed with the H1N1 (Swine) Flu. The whole family was put on Tamiflu- which has side effects worse than the flu itself! She has been locked in the house all week and is bored out of her mind. It has been a difficult week for me as well because I've had to stay away from her. It is so hard to stay away from my sick child, but for my sake, I had to. She is just too contagious. So, if she was out of her bedroom, I was in mine. We are germ-x and clorox wipe people!!! Thankfully, she is on the mend. She has been fever free for 3 days now and can return to school next week.I go back to the doctor in another week and a half. Please continue to pray that my blood counts are normal and the mass is shrinking. I'm not sure when my next scan will be, but I will let you know as soon as I find out! Thank you all again for everything you have done and for all your prayers! You, my friends, are AWESOME!!!

Don't forget- Light the Night walk is October 17th at Bergfeld Park. Let me know if you want to join us!

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!