Labor Day Weekending.

The air was cool and crisp, the water shimmering, passing showers made us thankful and ready to play when the sun shone through the brilliant white clouds, fall was in the air.... it was perfect!

We spent the weekend up at the cabin! The place is brilliant and we had a ball. The kids fished with David, I helped mom and dad clean out the smaller cabins and put away things for the season, we spent lots of time strolling the docks of Hessel in the sunshine, cooked, ate out one night, read books, took the last swim of the season (or at least some of us.... this mom is a wimp when it comes to cold water!), knitted, had time for long runs and came home to celebrate mom's 60th birthday at our house.

I didn't take many pictures, just enjoyed the moments.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Now I am working to get my head around the fact that my baby boy will be in school all day, everyday. I'm not the biggest fan... We have a plan, we're going to stick with it... at least for the immediate future. My little one starts pre-school on Thursday, she is SO excited! New back packs have been toted around for weeks and special outfits have been chosen. Mom just needs to get with the program. I have been so happy with them around all the time, it's been a great summer!

Gut Check.

6 months ago today I was told I had cancer. Today is a weird day, I don't feel the way I would have expected to feel even two weeks ago. I feel elated, grateful, emotional, healthy, and alive. I've come along way baby!

I certainly have near panic attacks when I recall the cancer-events of the past six months; needles, information overload, traveling back and forth and back and forth to Texas, tears upon tears, helplessness, anger, peace, painful surgeries and frustrating recoveries, elation over the no-chemo news and love.

I must admit that I am very angry that as I read about cancer, what causes it, and what can prevent it that no one told me more before! Why have we become a society that is so caught up in making money and racing here and there that we have turned our lifestyle into a killing machine?! and why do we have a health care industry that for the most part pretends that they don't know what causes all of these awful debilitating diseases?! We should all be smacked. It seems so, so sad to me that with all of the knowledge that exists on how to prevent cancer that more and more women are diagnosed all of the time.

Okay, enough of my tirade.

David is amazing. Simply amazing. It is very hard to express how grateful I am for his support, love, constantness (I know that's not a word but it works). I could not have done this without him.

So, what have I done the past six months while I was LIVING?

Explored Beautiful Beaches.

Sat on above beaches and worked on a sweater for David for Christmas!

Watched my babies balance on and jump off rocks.

Skipped stones.

Hit the wooden boat show with the fam.

Flew kites.

Built sand castles with the kids.

Watched the experts catch frogs!

Kayaked with my family.


Visited Mackinac Island.

Picked tons of blackberries. Deep, deep in the woods!


Took one last picture of my boy with both of those little front teeth. The tooth fairy has been busy!

Watched as my love rocked out with his baby girl.

It's been a busy, awesome 6 months!

Taking back the reigns.

Enough said. Planning session underway this evening. Good conversations had regarding goals and directions. Steps beginning to form on how to execute. I'm ready.

Cancer Sucks.

I read a shirt when we were in Houston that said CANCER SUCKS. It was right. I have found that any given moment on any given day, it can take me down to my core and rock my world. Today was one of those days. I don't know why. I try to figure it out, analyze every situation/conversation/interaction that I have experienced in the past 24 hours/week to determine if it was that event or the layering of the events that has caused me to lose it... as soon as I can figure that out, you can be sure I won't be doing it again.

But there is a bit of me that softly whispers "it takes time, this has happened before, it may happen again, let it come, heal." I just wish it were a bit louder because most of the day I hear "you are going crazy, when will I stop falling apart, why me, how did this happen?"

On my run this morning I saw a sign that said;
Take long walks,
indulge in hot baths,
question your assumptions,
Just Be.

I need to work on that. I need to work on allowing myself the space to heal. I guess that's it....

Rejuvinated.

This weekend was exactly what I needed. Lots of time with my family, just the basics... it was perfect.

After all.... how can things not be grand when hanging out with these two?!

I cannot even remember what we did on Friday night but I know that we were all together. Saturday brought a day of playing at home, doing a bit of catch-up and the fabulously special wedding of our dear friend Elaine's daughter, Laura. The wedding was at the waterfront with a pig roast afterwards. The kids made lots of friends and danced the night away. I so enjoyed sitting and watching them have such fun!

Today was full of simple perfectness. Church, a walk down at the river where we found black raspberries by the fist-full,
waded in the river,
played a bit of Frisbee golf
and picked flowers.
David and I did a bit more catch-up, we'd fallen behind these past few crazy months but we're feeling more on top of things now. We had a delightful dinner of local veggies and wild rice and then headed out for a family bike ride. The boys did a bit of trail riding along the river and Amelia rode behind me and kept giving me hugs - still makes me smile! I got to read everyone stories tonight and as I sit here typing I'm remembering a conversation I had at the Grain Train today with another survivor about the blessing that this journey brings with it.... the realization the every moment is a gift, really every breath should take your breath away. Life is so precious and amazing. I'm so lucky and blessed.

What's Up.

We are now more than 4 weeks post 2nd surgery and we are back on track! Yipee!

What have we been up to.... what don't I want to forget... why haven't I been taking any pictures?! Life has been so much fun, actually we may be bordering on too much fun (is that possible?!) since the kids are so exhausted. We have had late nights, trips up North, hours on the boat to stop at the sand bar and launch ourselves off the drop off only to continue the trip into Cedarville to grab pizza and icecream by the dock, tubing (first for Amelia who shreeked with glee and first time back for Mom!), evenings with wine on the porch with David (heavenly!), family date nights by bike to Bay Harbor to have dinner by the boats and stroll with ice cream, friends coming to visit, slow quiet moments snuggled with my babies and books (we may need to incorporate more of these), post-dinner trips to the beach on hot nights where everyone comes home sandy and dripping, Sunday brunches with new friends up in the Les Cheneaux, sailing classes for my dear boy, mid-day trips to jump off the dock down at the waterfront, sunset dinners at the Rose Garden with college roommates, dinner with my Higgins Lake girls, lots of kisses and hugs from the kids, Amelia riding her two wheeler, discovering Monarch caterpillars, chrysalis and butterflies on the Milkweed near the cabin with the kids and needing to back to watch their progress on several occasions, knitting a sweater for my love.... I am so blessed and grateful to be alive.

I could go on and on. I vow to take more pictures!

Peeks at the week.

It's been a blast - what can I say! Ben has been playing and loving soccer (he works so hard on the field and is a pure joy to watch having so much fun!), Amelia visited her new preschool and is thrilled, we all planted two new perennial beds and all of our veggies and herbs, David had a birthday and coached the boys track team at the regional meet, and I took my first Zumba class!

Last Friday Ben, Amelia and I headed up to Pond Hill Farm to pick up our first of the year CSA. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to use up an entire share but I'm pleased to say that we ate through the entire thing and I've had to restock at the Grain Train to get us through the week! Go green veggies! It's a beautiful drive around the Bay, through Harbor Springs and then over the bluff looking out at Lake Michigan. When we arrived we were so pleased to find a new batch of ducklings hanging out in the yard! We admired the yellow feathered friends, chatted with the pigs to wonder why they didn't have any babies (Amelia was hoping!), played on the play ground, wished for quarters to launch squashes from the rockets (my guess is that Ben will remember precious quarters from his piggy bank this week!) and marveled at the contrast between the sky and the trees.

"Mama piggy, why don't you have any babies? I'm here to love them..."

Practicing his form on the squash rocket.

We definitely have our moments but overall... he's an amazing big brother and she loves him!

As we left the farm we decided to detour and headed to Thornswift Nature Preserve. The kids ran through the trails finding morels, naming Marsh Marigolds and remembering times when they fell off the board walk into the muck. We followed the path down to the beach and threw rocks in the the lake until the cold fog required Mom to retreat with reluctant kiddies in tow. I promised that next time we could take the longer trail!

I'm always having to run to keep up!

My favorite little Poison Ivy.

I feel so lucky to live where my kids daily activities are this....

I know... we're not supposed to take anything out of the woods but she found her very own morel! and... obviously, she wasn't looking at the camera the way Ben wanted her to.

Forget-me-nots, always a good reminder...

I love that they stop to admire and that I can be here to watch them.

On our way through Harbor Springs we had to check on our favorite deer park and take a few pictures of boats in the harbor. It was amazingly beautiful (as always!).

Oh, and we wrapped up the day with rhubarb-strawberry crisp - yum!!

David and I are heading out to Traverse City tonight with our friends to stay at a B&B, ride bikes to dinner and then the girls have a yoga class tomorrow morning. I'm loving our new resolve to HAVE MORE FUN! In fact, I've never felt better in years!