I Bought Two New Books Today - I never buy books!

I went to Barnes & Noble this afternoon with my sister and actually bought two books - wait, I bought three books!  I've been a library goer and anti book buying for years now so this really is monumental day for me.  I bought Jillian Michaels - Master Your Metabolism, David Servan-Schreiber - AntiCancer a New Way of Life and I bought "Just Like Daddy" - a kid's book about a border collie and his puppy.  I bought the last one for my hubby.  Our soon to be 14 year old dog is a border collie and we love her so much!  I had never seen a kid book with a border collie in it so I had to buy it!

Regarding the other books, I'm trying to figure out why in the world so many people are getting cancer.  I also wanted something I could give my mom that would help her try and take some control over her body in this fight she is in with this ugly disease.  I read bits and pieces of AntiCancer on Amazon and decided it was worth shelling out some bucks to purchase it.  I'll let you know what I think as I make my way through it.  As for the Jillian Michaels book, it just intrigues me and I was in the buying mood so it now lives at my house.

Mom had a CBC done on Friday as she was on the schedule to return to work on Monday.  Needless to say she won't be performing her nursing job on Monday as her WBC count was low.  I also came down with a sore throat on Thursday and Sam had a bit of a snotty nose.  We were planning on going over to see her but I called and talked to her nurse and she advised we postpone our visit.  I'm so scared I'm going to make her sick.  Will I ever get over that?  We'll see if she is good to go for her next round of chemo on Thursday.

Training for the Goofy is coming along.  Saturday was a 12 miler which I ended up running on the treadmill at the Y.  ICK!  It was raining and about 52 degrees out.  Travis ran the whole thing outside but I'm not that tough.  I think we do 14 next Saturday.  I got some new shoes about a week ago and I can really tell the difference.  My legs feel so much better now. 

Quick Sam update, she really started walking this week and she is everywhere.  It is amazing how quickly they go from just a few steps to full speed non stop all throughout the house!  I like that I don't have to carry her everywhere and she seems to have stopped shoveling every little speck of dirt she sees on the floor into her mouth so that is nice as well.  She has started throwing a little temper tantrum or two though.  She will just lay down on the floor and kick her legs.  I try not to laugh but it is rather funny to watch.

I have a Habitat for Humanity build tomorrow so I get one more day of not doing my day job - gotta love that!  I think I'll be doing some interior painting which should be fun.

Fall is Awesome

I love this time of year! The crisp mornings, low humidity, leaves turning colors, everything about it is great except one thing.....it means winter is coming! :-(

Marathon training is going ok. I was sick for about a week and a half. I finally went to the doctor after a week of horrible sinus issues and a productive cough. He told me I had bronchitis and sent me home with an antibiotic. 24 hours later I was feeling 100% better & today for the first time in 2 weeks I didn't need to blow my nose thousands of times a day. One health related remotely disgusting fact to share....towards the tail end of the illness I was blowing out Tang colored snot. That is disgusting!

I did my second tri of the season the last weekend of August. I didn't do as well as I did in the July race but I still finished 6th out of 31 in my age group which isn't too bad. My run was horrible though and I killed myself on the bike course. For some reason I refused to shift into my smaller chain ring until the third and final lap. If I would have done so during the first lap I would have finished the bike quicker and probably saved my legs for the run. One of the really frustrating things was that I could not find my spot when I came into T2. Seriously, I spent an extra minute just trying to find my spot on the rack. My sister-in-law joined us in the race and completed her first tri. Nice job Kris.

Sam is doing great. I should take her in for a weight check. Something tells me she is nudging her way up on the the weight percentile charts. She is eating everything in sight and feels like she is packing on the pounds. She is talking more and says "hi, bye, mama, dada, puppy, and her newest thing is no-no". The no-no comes complete with the index finger wagging. The first time she did it was after I told her "no biting". We have never said no-no and wagged a finger at her though. She must have picked this up from daycare. It was hilarious. I managed to get a video of it and posted it on FaceBook.
My mom is doing good. She had her second chemo treatment today. The first one wasn't too bad. She had a little bit of a queasy stomach but never threw up. She had her first round on a Thursday as well and she felt ok that day, pretty good the next day, totally wiped out Saturday and then gradually started to gain back some energy. We expect the same this time around. She gets a shot the day after chemo to help keep her white blood cell count up. They did blood work this morning and her counts were a little low but not low enough to postpone chemo today. They expect the shot tomorrow to help out. So far her hair is still attached to her head but they tell her to expect it to start falling out soon. She says she won't cry when it does. I told her if she did that was ok. Since I've been sick I haven't been able to go see her. I'm paranoid I will make her sick. I think I'm probably being too concerned. I wanted to go over today for her treatment but she doesn't want me taking time off work to come over now. She wants me to save my time until she needs me. I want to hang out with her some while she feels good though.

Thanks to all who have posted concerns about me and what my mom is going through. You are all awesome and I appreciate it soooooo much.

I noticed some people posting "a day in the life". I think I should do that too. Thanks to MomRunningFromCancer for tagging me for the Cherry on Top Award. I really don't have time to see who I could tag who hasn't already been tagged but I will answer question # 1.

1) Answer this question: if you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be? I would know more about what I wanted to be when I grew up when I entered college. I started out as a pre-physical therapy major, which I think I would have loved if I could have handled the chemistry courses. I don't get chemistry and I gave up too easy. I changed to dietetics but hit the science problem again and then changed to advertising. I now work in banking & finance. How did I get here? I make too much money to quit and go back to school and I'm good at what I do but to be honest I don't think it is my "passion". I would love to work in public health and wellness. I would really like to work in a medical setting helping people who have chronic diseases such as heart disease or diabetes and even cancer make changes to their diet and exercise. We need to get people in this country to take control of their own health! Our kids are becoming diabetic everywhere we turn. This shouldn't be happening. We are smart people. We need to fix this!!!!! We need a way for this to be affordable. I'm not saying it should be covered by insurance but if mental illness is covered couldn't health and wellness guidance be covered as well. I don't know but I do know that what we are doing now isn't working.