The Month in Review... March

Hello Everyone.

The statement for the month... Yes, I'm crazy. :)

• I am 9 months past the resection of my brain tumor/cancer.
• It has been 5 months since the completion of radiation.
• I am one month past the great news that everything is stable.

Medically - I'm very happy to say that twice this month I have not had any type of medical appointment to attend!!! After having some sort of appointment every week since August of 2007, this has been a huge milestone for me. It has been nice not having to worry about arranging work schedules or making up time in order to go to the doctor.

My two trouble teeth are gone and I'm not having any problems with where they were. I have to wait until the 20th of April to get my partial because they insist on doing my filling the same day. (On a tooth that doesn't bother me and the filling looks so tiny it's almost not worth it but since the dental insurance has changed and you can only do one every 6 months... I'll let them do it so they don't "need" to do more than one during a six month window.) *rolls eyes* Now I know why I avoided dentist offices for as long as I did.

Emotionally - Everything is going well here. I've got good control of myself despite the additional strain of the work situation. (I'll explain a bit later)

Mentally - I continue to see improvement in this category. The other day I was able to increase a large portion of my stats again in Big Brain Academy for the Wii. I haven't increased my stats for quite some time so that felt good. I've also managed to get a big of my calculations back down. For a while after surgery I could not calculate for anything but I'm getting back to it now. This pleases me.

I'm still not back to myself when it comes to analyzing numbers. This does bother me some but I keep hoping it's more because I have other things I'd rather do and not so much that I just can't do. I used to be "budget beware" but now it's down to just what has to be done to manage our money. I think this is the first time since John and I were married that I did not find the need to do our taxes a dozen different ways and both electronically and by hand. (Yes, I was a bit obsessive.) :)

Physically - Things are still going well here. Right now John and I are on a spring cleaning rampage and are working on lots of projects that have been put off for WAY too long. I've got good energy and I'm keeping up with him physically so that is a good thing. I haven't done wiifit in a while so that I can work on the house after work but I look to get back into it and walking in the next month or so to get ready for the Relay. I am working on setting goals for myself on how many laps I want to walk in a single hour at the Relay.

Work/Family/Play - Work has been... to say the least... stressful. We have lost some big accounts at work and with the downslide of the economy the outlook isn't looking too positive. They have decided to do week long plant shutdowns. I am currently on one of the two that they have already announced. The other will come the week before Easter. Part of me doesn't mind. I have budgetted for this very type of thing so John and I will not be hurt too bad financially. We may just need to put some projects off a little longer. However, I've been getting a ton of stuff done that I haven't had time to do. Between the spring cleaning, Relay, the Pampered Chef party for Relay, doctor's appointments, dance, etc... it's been chaotic and I've been running like a mad woman. I'm slowly getting things caught up and I am happy about my progress so we'll see where I am at the end of this first layoff.

The meds have helped my son tremendously with his school work. He had not missed an assignment since going on it and his grades have improved as well. Hopefully this quarter he can stay on the right foot and not dig a hole that he will have to work his way out of. His spring soccer started Monday night and his first game is Saturday. Both of my soccer mom buddies have kids on his team so I don't have to sit around bored at practices this season. The only issue is that it's on the same night as Relay For Life meetings so I have to be two places at once. We'll work it out.

John has been very busy at work and has already started working Saturdays. I don't mind because it gives me the morning to work around the house... although this week I may wish for it to not be there since I have had that opportunity all week.

We have not been dancing in quite some time. Unfortunately the last couple dances one of us has been sick. (I something similar to the flu one dance and my son had sinus/bronchitis the other dance.) We'll get back out there at some point I am sure.

In other news, I turned 30 on March 15th. I've decided that 30 isn't all that bad but the first week of it I could have done without. I was sick Wednesday and Thursday, the layoffs were announced Wednesday, and we spent Saturday night at the clinic with JJ. So far this week has been better. *knock on wood*

Relay - We are wrapping up a VERY successful fundraiser for Relay For Life. With the host percentage and the 10% that our consultant is graciously donating of her commission we are looking to make around $300 for the Relay with our Pampered Chef Party. The party is still open until 6 PM on the 31st if you are interested in any items. Just go to: www.pamperedchef.biz/loucarm and put in my name as the host. Any product you order will result in a total of $25 going to the Relay.

Our Relay For Life team is doing very well as a whole. We have raised over $1200 of our now $4000 goal. I'm very excited about our progress. If you are interested in donating, you can do so by going to: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/dreamcatcher . All of your donations are greatly appreciated and it all goes to defeating the beast we call cancer!!! Every little bit helps!!!

Well, I hope this has been a satisfactory update. We've been majorly busy but nothing seriously to report unless you want a run-down of all the things we've accomplished around the house this month but even I wouldn't want to know all of that!!!

Hope this finds everyone well. I'm off this week so don't hesitate to bug me!