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Friday, October 29, 2010

15 Inspiring Breast Cancer Survivor Blogs PINK

  • I received this email and decided to share this with you since it is Breast Cancer Month. I believe it is imperative for everyone to get the best education they can. Online options are great.. See the email  below:
We at Toponlinecolleges.com recently came across your blog and were excited to share with you an article “15 Inspiring Breast Cancer Survivor Blogs” was recently published on our blog at ( http://www.toponlinecolleges.com/blog/2010/15-inspiring-breast-cancer-survivor-blogs/ ), and we hoped that you would be interested in featuring or mentioning it in one of your posts.
 Either way, I hope you continue putting out great content through your blog. It has been a sincere pleasure to read.  
Thanks for your time,
Jennifer Lynch



Anyway, today is Friday and my daughter, Rhonda, and granddaughter, Taylor, are coming. I am so excited. They hardly ever come to Virginia. Jesse and Garrett are going on a Boy Scout trip for the weekend. It is very difficult to get Jesse out of North Carolina. Rhonda is going to help us with our Poker Run for the Lions Club tomorrow. 


See http://nnlions.blogspot.com/ for the details of what is going on. We entered the info in the HRTownSquare.com over 2 weeks ago but we didn't make into the Daily Press today. I sure hope people show up at the Harley-Davidson Shop on HW 17 in Grafton in the morning. This is our first one but we are thinking of doing it once or twice each year and maybe even creating a Motorcycle Lions Club. Wouldn't that be awesome? I don't know why they even have HRTownSquare any more. The Daily Press just doesn't do much free advertising for non-profits any more. They are really becoming a thing of the past and HRTownSquare is so confusing, I don't think it will ever take the place of the paper. I don't think they have upgraded it at all since they put it into play a few years ago.                                  


Yesterday was a real bummer.The lady at the Vet Clinic that was going to give away a 3-year old Yorkie decided not to give her away. So I cried and got over it. I really want a little dog to keep me company when Ray is out working. I think I have talked him into it. When we had Precious and then Pepe, he was the primary caretaker. I was working at Langley then and it was difficult for me to take care of them. But, now that I cannot work, it would mean a lot to me to have a little dog to love.
I was reading an article in Arthritis Today about having pets is good for people with arthritis.


It is a beautiful day today. I hope everyone is having a lovely day. I did my FollowFriday's this morning on Twitter already, but I am sure that I will do more later. I am busy watching Regis & Kelly and their annual Halloween show. They are wearing lots of costumes today. What fun. Maybe I will be Lady GAGA since I have the perfect wig for it. LOL.


The Rheumatoid Arthritis has been giving me fits. I never really knew what it meant to have this terrible disease. I thought arthritis was arthritis, but this is an auto-immune disease and a connective tissue disease, so sometimes the pain isn't even in a joint, it is in the connective tissue and can cause absolutely excruciating pain. The doctor gave me some prednisone to take if the pain gets too bad because pain medication doesn't seem to do very much. Although, I have found that XanGo works for the inflamation. I mix it in my 7-Up and drink it all day. It really is a wonderful drink. 


The O2 Breakthrough with @ZnaTrainer works also. I am doing the exercises and it really seems to help with the pain. Thank you Zna for all you do.



It has been a difficult week. Dr Norman Edwards passed away in his car on Wednesday. He was waiting at a stop light and the driver behind him found him and called 911. It was too late. Norman was in our choir and a wonderful baritone. He sang solos occasionally and people loved to hear him read. His wife Benita is a friend. She was on the Board of Commissions for years and she was a member of my Women's Club. She has been having memory issues for the past year. I am worried that she won't be able to live on her own now with Norman gone. I imagine she is in her late 60s but I am not sure. 


I had to unfollow over 1400 people on Twitter yesterday. I hate to do that, but if you get too many people who are not following you, but you are following them, it creates an uneven balance and you cannot add any more people until you get it down. I don't know why people don't follow other people. It doesn't clog up your feed. It is really kind of awesome because your feed moves and you get to see a whole lot more of what is going on. TweetDeck is awesome because I have 5 columns that I can see what is going on. 2 columns are ones that I created so I see my favorite peeps there and #SweetTweet them at least once a day. 


It is amazing how once someone has said to you, "It's cancer" you never get over it. Even when the doctor tells you that it is gone and you are "cancer-free" you never really believe it. It is like waiting for the ball to drop. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have faith in Christ Jesus. He keeps me grounded and positive. He is my source and salvation. If you would ever like to discuss this aspect of treatment, please don't hesitate to contact me. 
  • Love to All, God is Good, All the time.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

I WORE PURPLE PINK

On Wednesday, I heard on TV that we should wear purple in support of those who had been bullied and/or committed suicide. It said gay but I think it is for any young person who has been bullied. If you have the time, I have a story for you:

There was a baby boy who was born in England and traveled with his military parents, brother, and sister back to the United States in 1960. He was so tiny, but so precious. His brother was 14 and sister 12. The sister cared for baby Paul as if he was her own. It was like playing with a real doll and really took the pressure off her mother. She loved to rock him to sleep at night. A couple of years later, her mother had her baby sister, Cindy. Paul was the good boy and Cindy was the one who always caused a ruckus. Paul grew up into a fine young man who was very popular at school and was considered a real catch. He was in the band and played the trombone and Cindy played the clarinet. He had a girlfriend and they seemed very happy. They were in Louisiana by then and the older brother and sister had made families of their own.
Paul went off to school at North Western and I am not sure if he discovered it there or had been hiding it, but he was gay. He didn't want the family to know, so we didn't. His parents moved to Dallas and his mother started her business there as an interior designer. Paul worked with her a few years and decided to get a more regular job with benefits. He went to work for American Airlines. Flight attendant was a good job for him. He was a nice person and a real people person. Unfortunately, the lifestyle for male flight attendants swings toward homosexual. There being so many opportunities to travel and vacation in exotic places was a real perk. He did this for a few years and then he came back to Dallas. His sister had moved to Dallas to work  for his mother and he would stop by occasionally to work in the shop when he had a customer. He told her he was gay and then he told his mother and father. It didn't seem to matter to his mother, but his dad took it really hard. Soon, his sister left and moved back to Virginia.
A couple of years down the road, his sister received a phone call, Paul had AIDS. He was still working for AA and never missed a flight. One day, his supervisor called his mother and told her that he hadn't shown up for work and that just wasn't like him. They were really worried whether he was alright or not. Mother found him in his apartment just sitting and staring at the wall. There was a  tumor in his brain and he couldn't recognize anyone unless they spoke to him.  He was in the hospital for a short time and sent home to die. His father stepped up and even took care of him until he passed. He was a kind, loving person who was sweet and caring. He had been through some bad times being gay. He was bullied by some. I think that is why he didn't tell anyone until he was older because he was afraid of the bullying.

When Paul died, AA flew all the brothers and sisters to the funeral in Dallas, First Class. They provided flight attendants as pall bearers. AA was very supportive of my parents and made sure that things were expedited in a timely manner.

No one should have to put up with being bullied. Paul had to put up with it from his father, who was a bully, so why open himself up to others. His father, my stepfather was basically a good man at heart who had a terrible temper when things didn't go his way. He bullied us all, beat on us until we all left home, one by one; we escaped. We went home occasionally, but not too often. If you were around too long, it would start again.

Paul Burns was my brother. I loved him very much. The upshot of this is that after living with a father who was a bully and a brother who was gay, I wore purple in support of those who have been bullied. I had also married an alcoholic who spend his life bullying others, not with violence but with his mouth.
Breast cancer is not the worst thing that can happen to you in life. It feels like it sometimes, but when you have a past that takes over your life, you can see that there are other things that can be even more devastating. Make it clear to those that you know that you will not tolerate a bully. Anyone who is a bully has no place in your life, whether it is a friend or relative.

There is no one in the world who has the power to bully you if you won't let them.  Don't let them. If you need to, report them to someone. If they are physically violent, make sure they spend some time in jail or treatment. Don't put up with a bully. If you are married to one, remember the bully is not just changing your life but the life of your children and your family. Nothing is worth the pain a bully costs. There are people out there who can help.

DON'T PUT UP WITH A BULLY!

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I! God is good all the time!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Shrimp & Grits Pink

We went to NC last Friday. We didn't get there until late in the evening and fixed a DGiorno Pizza in the oven. It really did taste like someone just made it. We stopped at Sam's Club on the way through Greenville to  provision our weekend stay. Rhonda was at our house when we got there. She had taken all the plastic drop cloths off the furniture and was vacuuming. She is a wonderful daughter. She knows the troubles I have gone through and she helps when she can. She had bought me a pot of gold mums and in the birthday card she had two coupons: one for painting the porch and one for a complete detail house cleaning. When Jesse got there with Garrett and Taylor, they gave me their handmade cards. They are so cute.
Ray and I slept in on Saturday and just rested most of the day. We got together with Rhonda, Jesse, and the twins and went to the MUMFEST in New Bern. It was nice. It is held in the old downtown part of New Bern on the water. There was a band there but they had it closed off so you had to pay to get in to see them. Since we could hear the music, why pay? I guess I am used to the cities around here. They usually provide the Entertainment in a effort to get people to come to the event. Anyway, the children had fun on the Ferris Wheel, teacups, and bumper cars. We walked much further than I am used to. I found a pretty necklace, earrings, and bracelet from Africa. We bought drinks from the New Bern Lions Club and I met the President of their club whose name is Barbara too.
After MUMFEST, we went to Annabelle's Restaurant in New Bern. I don't think I ever said it out-loud before, but I love shrimp and I love grits. The thought that someone actually took two of my favorite foods and made such a luscious dish as shrimp and grits is almost beyond my comprehension. It was awesome. Actually, I would have put more shrimp in it and maybe a little Old Bay Seasoning. But it was really good. Then my precocious granddaughter told the waiter that we were having my birthday dinner. So the waiter brought all the other waiters and presented me with "Death by Chocolate." (with 6 spoons, thank goodness)


Garrett stayed the night with us. He laid down with his blanket on the sofa and fell right to sleep. I fell asleep in my recliner. We were all so exhausted that we stayed in bed late on Sunday. I think I overdid it Saturday. When I got up, I made pancakes. Rhonda came and got Garrett. Ray fixed a few things around the house and I cleaned up what I could. Then Ray and Jesse went to a barbecue restaurant to get dinner. They brought home barbecue chicken, Carolina Pork Barbecue, potato salad, cole slawb, but there were no hushpuppies in the bag. And I really had my mouth set for hushpuppies. LOL! It is about 20 miles to New Bern and too far to go to get the hushpuppies. Oh well, we made do. Jeff, Sharon, and Dillon came out and had dinner with us. It was good to see them. Rhonda was trying to get the children's things together for the week so they didn't stay long.  It sure was nice to see them.
Ray and I got up and got the car packed and came back to VA on Monday. When we got home Ray turned on the computer and it didn't come on. I went to the HP site and went through everything it said and still nothing. We tried to call a friend from church on Tuesday but he never called back so Ray called Geeks and they sent someone to fix it. He was here about the time I left to go to my Genesis class. Anyway, he replaced the power supply and Ray was working on the computer when I got home. He didn't lose anything. I am so glad. It was a wake-up call for him. He will be backing up everything every day now.