Yesterday

Yesterday, was one of the roughest days I have had.  My sister was diagnosed in early November with cancer... again.  We were shock, it had been 30 years ago. At that time, she was pregnant with her only child.  She had cervical cancer, but because of the pregnancy it spread to her lymph nodes.  The doctors wanted to take the baby.  My sister refused.  After the birth, they immediately started radiation treatment, followed by chemo.  On her first chemo appointment, they overdosed her and she lost her hair in the parking lot. My sister was so sick.  The chemo was awful. They had to knock her out for the other treatments.

Today, that beautiful niece is 30. 

So, when the doctor called in the beginning of November, we ALL felt like we just experienced a horrific car crash.  She had surgery the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to remove her ovaries, tumor and 7 nodules. The doctor said that the tumor was a different looking tumor and that she would have to have some chemo, but we would know more after the pathology report.  They sent it to the Mayo clinic. She hadn't been eating, was depressed - sleeping all day.

Then, we got the call last Tuesday that it was Stage 3 ovarian cancer.  We weren't ready for that news.  But, SHE really wasn't ready for that news.  She has been angry, sad, mad at everyone.  Why her?  Why a second time.  The fear of going through chemo again, was worse than the fear of dying.  

She made a decision to fight through the chemo, still being angry.  I took her to her first chemo,  It took me 2 hours, patiently waiting for her to get ready to get in the car.  When we got to the clinic, we would walk a little to a bench or chair and she would rest, then repeat it until we got to the door.  I hated seeing her hurt this much, but I was holding it together - for her.  We got her all settled into the chair and the wonderful chemo nurse explained all the medicines.

My sister and I held each other's hands and cried when they started the chemo medicine.  

She kept waiting for the side effects, she didn't have any.

She waited to start feeling horrible and throwing up, like the last time - it didn't happen.

When it was over, she said she was starving.  I think the extra fluids helped her.  I got her something to eat on the way home and she ate all of it.  We thought she would get sick, it didn't happen. By the time, we got home (a 2 hour drive) - she said that this chemo was 100 times better than the last time. 

I hope that she did well last night, I will check on her this morning.  We made it through the first step for her healing.

Simple

This morning I am craving simple. I am tired of running and not being able to catch up ... On anything

My soul wants quiet

But how do I find the balance

Any suggestions????

Organizing my Pinterest

I love Pinterest.  I might even be slightly addicted to it.  However, my boards are a mess.  I spent 20 minutes looking for a breakfast recipe and never found it - so I decided to get organized.  I love looking at the pins, I would like to actually use my boards for inspiration and creating.  This meant, I needed to get organized.

The first thing I did was to look at my boards.  Some of the cute titles of the boards just didn't work for me anymore or the board was so huge I would never be able to find anything.  I renamed some of my boards.  I put "celebrate" in front of any board that was a holiday.  That way they would all be together, instead of all over my "mother board".

Next step, I wanted the individual boards to be in alphabetical order on the "mother board".  I clicked on the individual board then dragged and dropped it where I wanted it to be on my "mother board".  It is so much easier to find things on the board now.  It reminded me of the game where you would slide the tiles over.

Then, I took a board - "yum" - and broke it up into individual boards.  I want to be able to find the pins, quickly.  Plus, sometimes when I am looking for something on one of my boards - I get distracted, lol.

This took me some time to do and I'm not finished yet.  But, my "mother board" is user friendly.  I will probably break up some of the boards.  My Christmas board is huge and it is hard to find things.  So, I will probably sub-category them into smaller file boards.  It will be easier for my daughter-in-laws to find things on my board too.

I plan on spending 15 minutes every day cleaning and organizing my boards.  Now, I just need to quit pinning.

Project Life - Week 2

I did it, I finished the first two weeks of this year's Project Life.  The first week was ok, but I like this week better.  I am having a hard time figuring out what I want to add.  I don't want it to be too busy, but then I want extra stuff.  I used the Studio Calico - Copper Mountain Project Life kit.  I have 4 other of their kits, but this is the first time that I used one of the kits.  I really enjoyed it.  

I put letter stickers on the twins' photos.  I know them now, but I probably won't remember in a couple of years.  Ok, I get confused now looking at older pics of them.

I love, love the puffy stickers that came with this kit and used them on my quotes and pics of the twins.

I had extra pages in the middle this week - three 8 x 11 pages that held my penny maps and a 3/4 protector about my amazing Disney Sunday adventure.  You can read more about it here on my Disney blog.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Enchanted Tiki Room, so I pressed some commemorative pennies and put a set in the album.  

I am enjoying the idea of Project Life, but will probably still create some bigger albums for the grand kids.  Especially, since I take so many photos.

One Word and Project Life 2014

Each year Ali Edwards picks a work to focus on.  She embraces the word and tries to make the word part of her everyday.  I haven't picked a word in a few years, but this is the year.  My word is ...

PROMISE

I PROMISE to get healthy

I PROMISE to make lots of memories

I PROMISE to only say "yes" to the things that I truly enjoy

I PROMISE to dream of a passion project

I PROMISE not to sweat the small stuff

I PROMISE ....

I'm not sure where this word will take me this year, but I do want it to be part of my everyday life.

So far.....

I have made it part of my Project Life 2014 cover.  

I took some wood veneer letters that I had leftover from my December Daily kit and used Black Diamond Stickles on top of them.  It took two coats, but it gives it a raised shiny look.

This is my first page of my album.  I used the same wood letters and Stickles for the year.  Some of the cards are Becky Higgins Midnight and the rest are from a Studio Calico Project Life Kit (I can't remember which one).  The little blessed button is, also, from Studio Calico.

I might replace the top left card with a black and white photo of the grand kids.  I think it would help make the page pop.