We celebrated Joe's birthday on Monday at mom and dad's with everyone. We had a BBQ because it was such a beautiful day but it started raining as soon as we got ready to eat so we had to make it an indoor BBQ!

I love this bottle of wine! Thanks, Kim and George!!

And lastly, a picture from our 400 mile bike ride. I was going to write about this a long time ago but totally forgot about it until I downloaded Joe's birthday pictures! Joe and I rode from our house to the Pancake House...met Mike, Shirley, mom and dad for breakfast...then we continued on our journey. We decided we wanted a work out so we went down Ocean Beach Highway, down Pacific Way then up the hill via Cascade Way/Madronna/Laurel. Then to Columbia Heights until we got to Nevada. I thought Nevada would be a breeze....it's a huge hill. Forgot about all the ups though. It was a killer, it hurt to walk the next day! It felt SO good though. I want a road bike now! We had a blast!

Hope everyone is having a great week. Is it really Thursday already?! YAY! Can't wait for the three day weekend!

Barkin' up the wrong tree....

I called my mom on my way to get blood drawn this morning and she told me about a scare that her and my dad were having. Immediately my mind started thinking bad things but I never could have guessed this one...

Last night they got home and there was a big envelope from Peace Health addressed to my dad. My mom gave it to him and he opened it and found a welcome letter from the Lower Columbia Regional Cancer Center welcoming him to the cancer center and giving him information about his first scheduled appointment in about 2 weeks from now. What!! Since it was after business hours there was nothing he could do until this morning and when my mom told me that, they still weren't sure what was going on----it was only 7:15 or so. My dad had a physical a few months ago but everything was fine. I couldn't help but think that the doctor forgot to tell him and just sent his referral to the cancer center without notifying him first.

Anyway, I found that out right before going in to get labs done and I literally felt sick. I kept thinking why not me again, why does it have to be my dad? It made me realize that what I always said going through treatment is true---it's much easier to be the person going through treatment than the one having to sit back and watch. I can't imagine seeing any of my family members go through that.

Needless to say, he called the number that was provided in his welcome packet to see what was going on and the girl told him that he had been referred by his doctor, that's why they sent him the information. He asked what doctor referred him and it wasn't even his doctor! She transferred him to the doctors office and turns out they made a mistake. Said, "So sorry..." and that was it. WHAT!!! How could something like that possibly happen? I get mad all over again just thinking about it! He asked to be transferred to the quality control person and they somehow managed to hang up on him (by accident?) instead....

That was the big scare of the day. I immediately thought the worst when my mom told me. Kinda hard not to though when he received a letter with his name and appointment date!! Crazy.

Speaking of cancer, there was just a story on KGW about a 10 year old girl battling breast cancer. Are you kidding me? Kinda scary considering most women don't get mammograms until 35 or 40!

Also on the subject of cancer, I just got done watching part of the Farrah Fawcett Story. So sad, hit pretty close to home. Mine was nothing like hers, but seeing her lose her hair and all of the emotions brought tears to my eyes. Thank goodness that chapter of my life is over!

Ok, bed time. We have a wedding at The Fairmont in Seattle at 11 tomorrow morning so we're going to be on the road early!

Hope everyone enjoys the sun!

Goodbye 25, Hello 26.

I have exactly 3 hours and 24 minutes left to enjoy being 25. At 12:56 am I will be 26 years old. 2-6. Twenty-six. Holy cow, how did this happen!? The weird thing about it, it doesn't even feel like my birthday. Every year until this one I've actually been excited. I've always gotten that feeling of wanting to run around and let everyone know that it's my birthday! It's a special day! This year I keep forgetting that tomorrow is May 13. Maybe because time is going so fast? Or maybe because I have so much other stuff going on? Or perhaps I'm just in denial? Probably all of the above!

I can't say I'm exactly where I thought I'd be when I turned 26, but I will say I'm happier than I've ever been. I always thought I'd be married by now, maybe even have a baby by this point. In fact, when I first met Joe, he said he wanted to be married AND have a kid by 25. WHAT?! We're definitely a year behind that plan!

As weird as 26 sounds, I really think 26 will be one of the best years of my life. And as much as I don't enjoy getting older, I wouldn't want to go back. Not to highschool, not even really to college. College was a blast and I loved every minute of it, I'm just content now. I have a job, I'm getting married to my best friend and we'll be starting a family very soon. I was never a fan of being in limbo.

Crazy fact of the day: this time 26 years ago my mom was at Good Sam in Puyallup hoping that I would be born on May 12 because May 13, 1983 fell on a Friday and she really didn't want to have me on Friday the 13th. I had different plans! :)

Chemo graduation anniversary!

Tomorrow marks 1 year since my chemo graduation! I just read my post from last year. It almost feels like I'm reading about someone else. It's all so surreal. The biggest thing I remember about my last day was the fact that I had to be quarantined from all of the other patients. My favorite part about chemo was visiting and hanging out with everyone all day. I was always there from morning till late afternoon so it made the day go faster. Being trapped in that room was not fun! I had to be locked up because I had a crazy rash and they thought it was shingles. Turns out it was impetigo.

I've always heard the first year after chemo is the scariest in terms of having a relapse so I have so much to be thankful for today!

The claws are coming off....

After months and months and months of debating, Joe and I have decided to (don't get mad!) get Subie declawed. It makes me sick to even think about it and we feel like terrible people for doing it, but we can't take the scratching anymore! I called and made the appointment this morning. They'll be taken off using a laser, which is supposed to be a little less painful/cruel. We have scratching posts all over the house but he likes our furniture the best. And it's not even that he's just scratching to scratch, he does it to piss us off. Seriously. If I don't feed him right when he wants it, he runs to the chair, looks at me then scratches the crap out of it. If he wants us to get out of bed and we aren't up early enough, he'll scratch the bed. He goes as far as going behind the headboard and reaching up to scratch near our pillows. Joe sprays him with bitter apple everytime he scratches but it doesn't phase him. I had a long talk with the vet this morning and she says it sounds more like a behavioral issue rather than just him needing to scratch.

I've been telling him all night that I made the appointment. Here's to hoping he miraculously stops scratching and we can cancel his appointment!