45 and ALIVE!

Long time no blog….sorry!         

Apparently there actually ARE people who read my blog J.  Whenever they are able to find a posting that is! A lot has happened since I last wrote here, the biggest event being my 45^th birthday. As I’ve mentioned before, it was a goal I made when I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at the age of 35.

I did it. I really did it. Thank you God, thank you Sweet Baby Jesus, thank you, thank you, thank you. Although it was an important day for me I didn’t plan anything special, as my husband and I would be on the sunny beaches of St. Lucia enjoying paradise. I told him this was ALL I needed for a birthday present. Just to be somewhere warm and beautiful, and at a Sandals resort no less, was more than I could have ever hoped for. Our first ever warm winter vacation was one I thought was my first AND my last. It was thought that I wouldn’t survive very long, so I honestly believed it would be my one and only warm winter vaction. We went to a Sandals resort in Jamaica back in the fall of 2001 right after 9/11 happened. Nothing could have kept me off that plane, and even though I only had a couple inches of hair and didn’t look very feminine I had a blast. We met some wonderful people and even keep in touch with some today…ten years later. This trip was just as fun. We met TONS of new friends that I’m sure we’ll stay in touch with for many years to come. TNT were our favourite duo, followed by A & D and D & J….all Canadians! In fact we got along with TNT so well we asked them to be with us on a very special day.

When we planned this trip, I asked my husband if we could renew our wedding vows there. He agreed, and it was such a perfect ceremony. We had a great officiant, a caring wedding planner, excellent photographer, superb photographer #2 (TNT!), and renewed our wedding vows barefoot on the sand with the rowdy St. Lucian waves crashing behind us. We’d been at the resort for five days and had fallen in love with the sound of the pounding waves, despite the fact that most days were a “red flag day”, meaning it’s not safe to swim.  We did have some fun in the ocean, but the waves at the resort were just too dangerous, so we went to another Sandals resort to swim and snorkel in the ocean. I didn’t mind at all because there’s something so romantic about the sound of ocean waves. It’s also very relaxing and exciting at the same time. To see the sheer size of some of them is truly astounding.

My birthday was at the end of our holiday and it was one of the best birthdays, simply because I was still alive and in a beautiful place. Two or three weeks before we left, some friends threw a surprise party for me. Six of us had gone out for supper and they surprised me when we went back to the W residence and all the walls were covered with Happy Birthday balloons. I stood there for quite awhile, digging in the recesses of my pitiful menopausal mind trying to remember whose birthday I’d forgotten. I then decided to admit that I’d forgotten and asked “Whose birthday am I forgetting?”. Turns out it was a party for ME a few weeks early!  The kids ran over with a princess wand, tiara, and gift bags wishing me a happy birthday. I proudly wore my tiara and waved my magic wand around like I was a real princess and then got another excellent, delicious surprise when I saw THE BOX. I recognized the box from last year’s birthday cake surprise (go back one year in this blog for details and pictures!!) and my mouth started watering in anticipation. When the lid was opened, the smooth smell of chocolate and fresh strawberries wafted over me. Oh…it was heaven! It was another work of art by Jena at Sugartree Custom Cakes that tasted just as good as it looked. Even though we were stuffed from supper, we were just like the kids and couldn’t wait to dig in!  

The 45^th birthday celebrations started early. The first party was on January 16^th and the second surprise party was on February 20^th so I didn’t have a clue. Turns out my two friends who’d organized the first party thought I deserved to have something bigger and they should “share me with some other people”, so they organized a surprise party at The Keg. Once again I thought it was just us and two other couples going out for supper but when I rounded the corner to the room there was a long table filled with familiar faces, some who had driven hours to be there. My husband’s birthday was coming up and I had a secret up MY sleeve for him, with a cake from Sugartree Custom Cakes. After my first surprise party he said “All I want for MY birthday is one of those cakes!”, so I arranged it for the day were were going to The Keg so the two of us wouldn’t just cut it in half and eat it all ourselves :).  When I saw all the people sitting in the room I assumed it was for my husband’s birthday! Wrong. I celebrated it as if it was a joint birthday celebration but of course I was the only one getting cards and gifts because no one knew about my husband’s birthday until later when I brought out the special birthday cake to sit beside the Safeway cupcake-cake they’d got for the big group! I’d ordered a decadent chocolate cake from Jena at Sugartree and we cut it up first to serve, and ended up sending cupcakes home with almost everyone. Another surprise that evening was that everyone was coming back to OUR house after for a party. I thought it was just us and our 4 friends so I did minimal cleaning. I hope no one noticed all the dust in this place!!

My birthday celebration lasted for about a month and I’ve definitely eaten my share of cake as evidenced by the weight on the scale these days. I’m just itching for spring to arrive so I can get back to doing some gardening and get some of these extra pounds off.

Next task is to get through re-staging tests. Bone Scan and CT scan on the horizon with results to follow that will hopefully show nothing is happening with that new liver tumour we discovered last time. I try not to dwell on it and just enjoy the fact that I’m alive but “test time” is definitely a stressful time for me and my family. Luckily I have other stuff that I need to blog about because I’m so far behind, so hopefully you’ll see something here again very soon. Perhaps I’ll share some fun from the girls scrapbook weekend I just took part in. I swear I won’t share anything personal I heard that weekend, to protect the innocent gaggle who took part J

45 years down, hopefully a lot more to go.