My mother in law is STILL in the hospital! They took yet another toe off her foot. This is getting really old, really quickly. It's putting stress not only on my marriage, but my sister in law's marriage, as she works full time, and has also taken on the role of full time care giver for my father in law. Many times, Pete goes right from work, to the hospital, to see his mom. Not that he wants to, but he feels obligated to. This means he gets home around 8 or 8:30 in the evening, and I get two hours with my husband, before bed. This also means not eating supper together, not being able to talk about the real important things. Add to that, a pipe in our living room wall burst last Monday, and we've been dealing with the landlord, who seems to think the carpet can be salvaged, the restoration company who left a big loud machine in our house to dry up the carpet, and no furniture to sit on. I had stopped looking at other places to live already, but I think I will start looking again. I don't really want to live in a place that will have moldy carpets and loud upstairs neighbors. They keep apologizing for being so loud, but don't do anything about it. Today I was sleeping from chemo and the young girl upstairs had a friend over, and they were playing in her room, above ours, all afternoon. Jumping off the bed, blaring Justin Beiber, just being little girls. I finally had to go knock on their door, and ask them to tone it down *sigh* Trying SO hard not to be a big whiner, but when you are sick, everything seems 10 times worse.

I am SO excited for Christmas this year! It's my sister's turn to come down from Kamloops, but this year my side of the family decided on no presents. It will be strange, but I think it bring back the true meaning of the season! Every family on my husband's side, is getting an updated and framed picture from Pete and  :) Our friend Patti just did a photo shoot with us, and the pictures are awesome!

Three weeks ago I had a stroke. It was a bad one. I lost my ability to speak, and I lost my memory. Both returned in about 3-4 hours. It was scary. I had LOTS of people praying for me. I made it thru, by the grace of God. I want to put it behind me. I was SO blessed to have my sister and niece Paige come for Thanksgiving, two days after my stroke. We all had such a wonderful and blessed time together! That same weekend, we had Thanksgiving with Pete's family. It was not so wonderful. My mother in law has multiple medical problems and the dinner was dominated by that. We all tried to make the best of it, since we were celebrating 3 birthdays that day as well. Later that night, my mother in law was admitted to our local hospital. She is still there. She will be there for a while, as they took one of her toes, due to her diabetes and her lack of responsibility for taking care of herself. This is not new to us. We went thru this in the spring with her. She started out by losing a toe, and ended up having all of her toes amputated. I'm sure the same will happen again this time. I don't know about diabetes, but when you have cancer, you take precautions, and do EVERYTHING you can, to remain safe and healthy. My stroke was due to narrowing of my veins and arteries, which is from my cancer. They can not do anything about that. If they COULD do something, I would jump at the chance to have whatever procedure I needed to, done. It just makes sense to me, when you have a medical condition, YOU TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF! No? Anyways, so our days are now filled by late dinners and hospital visits, again. It may sound like I have no compassion yet .You have to understand what we have been dealing with since last spring with my mother in law. She was WARNED last time, to take better care of herself. She didn't. Now she is paying. So, the saga goes on.

This is my niece Cam (Camilla). She was born 19 years ago, on this day! I love her SOOOOOOOOOO much! She was my sister's first child, and I was so excited and nervous to be an aunt, as I had never been one before. I wanted to be a "cool" and "fun" aunt. I remember the day she was born, like it was yesterday! She was so small, and fragile. As she got older, she was a ham for the camera, and such a joy to be around. Kindergarten, became grade school, and soon it was on the grade 8. The night she graduated from high school, I was SO proud! She continues to make me a proud aunt. She's already lived on her own in the big city (Vancouver), gone to college, gotten her first car, and her second job.....this proud aunt could go on and on. Some of the things I LOVE about Cam, is firstly, her laugh! She has the best laugh ever, and it makes me smile. Cam has her own sense of style that is uniquely her own. She's somewhat quiet, but mature. Cam knows what's important in life and isn't afraid to "go for it". I made most of my "auntie mistakes" on Cam, but she's never held that against me :) I feel so blessed to be a part of her life, and to be her aunt!

 

I am so thankful for MANY things. I am thankful for my husband, who always provides for us, and has weathered "all of our storms". I am thankful for both of my families, well three actually: Schellenberg/Stingl/Larnder. Some of us are a little bit mental and somewhat nutty, but we all love each other, and that's what matters :) I am thankful for my friends, near and far. Some I have not met in person (yet), and some are across the world, working, but all of my friends are important to me and play a special role in my life. I am thankful for my cancer, because it helps me to live each day to the fullest, even if that means sleeping all day from chemo. Life is good, and there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for :)

 

 

I have been a bad blogger. I have not had a laptop since Christmas, so I'm sure people are giving up on my blog! LOL! Well, I'm back!!!! :) Well, winter came and went, spring and summer came and went, and now we are into fall. Couple things new with us: we are praying about moving..either to somewhere different in Abbotsford, or closer to Langley, so Pete's commute to the store is not so long. We would LOVE to live in the country off of Fraser Highway, maybe in a mobile home. Other than that, spring and summer were wonderful, especially summer, since my BF from high school, Lisa was home for the summer. We did lots of great things together! She is SUCH a blast!!! I've just started up a new ministry for women with cancer. There will be more about that on my cancer blog. Now that it's September, I am kind of in "nesting" mode. NO, I'm not pregnant, I just enjoy being at home making nice warm meals for us, cleaning, resting, enjoying the smells, and colors of this beautiful season. We are SO blessed to live where we do! We have beautiful mountains around us, beautiful yellow/orange/red leaves falling to the ground. I love going for walks in our neighborhood, and smelling all the wood stoves and fireplaces. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling, like a well worn sweater. You know the kind...it's all worn out, has holes, but you just can't throw it out. It's like an old friend. Things I am looking forward to this fall are, meeting my (hopefully new) sister in law Jen, at Thanksgiving, doing a cancer fundraiser for the new cancer treatment I am going on, spending quality time with friends and family. I will try to be better at posting more often, now that I have a new laptop. Thanks for sticking with me, I'll make it worth your while :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Our 4 Year Anniversary (Jan. 4th/2012)

I won't lie, the past four years have been a time of testing and learning, but thru it all, we've stuck together, and plan to stay together forever! :) Our love grows stronger EVERY day!