Cancer Sucks, Friends Rock. {PYHO}

Cancer sucks.

Having a friend with cancer sucks. 

Having a friend whose son has cancer sucks. 

Having your daughter's boyfriend having cancer sucks. 

Having a friend whose husband has cancer sucks.

But somewhere in all of that cancer suckage, there is a little ray of sunshine.

It started with an idea of mine. I decided to create a Zazzle store to sell products and raise money for Dusty, our family friend/my daughter's boyfriend, who is fighting T-cell lymphoma.
Now to say that I am not a graphic artist is a huge understatement, but I made a very simple design with a lime green ribbon to symbolize lymphoma, and added the words "My Hero is Fighting Lymphoma - Praying for Dusty Thomas." I placed the image on several products and shared the store.

And that's when the ray of sunshine showed up, in the form of my friend Amy.

Amy lives in Canada and is one of my BBFs - Best Blog Friends. She and I have been through a LOT together and she has been a wonderful support for me. In an effort to cheer me up during a dark time, she even did my beautiful blog design!

Now, unfortunately, we have another connection - Amy's husband Ken is also fighting lymphoma. 

And that sucks.

He is getting treatment in another town, so much of the time, Amy is taking care of their two very young sons on her own, while working and dealing with having a husband with cancer. 

But not long after I posted the link to my Zazzle store on Facebook, I got a comment from Amy, offering her amazing design skills to create more (and WAY better, although she is far too kind to say that) designs for products to raise money for Dusty - a kid in Florida whom she's never met.

I flipping love this girl!!!!  She is kind, giving, caring and selfless. And amazingly talented. 

She made this offer purely out of goodness and friendship, not for recognition or praise. Just to help me help Dusty.  But she will certainly get recognition and praise from me because she is truly inspirational.

The world needs more people like Amy.

I would love for you to visit my zazzle store and look at Amy's artwork. If you would like to order something to help out Dusty and his family during his cancer treatment, well, I would love that even more. 

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Pouring my heart out with Shell at Things I Can't Say 

Focusing on the Positive Fragments

~ Work was exhausting this week, but I am looking forward to the weekend!
Tomorrow we're going to visit both sets of parents (and the baby Hayleigh will be there!!).
Saturday, we're going to Byron's family reunion.
And of course, Sunday we'll be celebrating Father's Day!

~ Today we went to my stepson Tyler's baseball game.  Shelbie's boyfriend Dusty came with us.  The team won, beating a team that was favored to win.  Afterward we all went to my MIL's house for a cookout.

~ You wanna know what puts a damper on all of that?  On the way home, we stopped at a store and Dusty got out and threw up his dinner. Then, on the way back to the truck, he took his hat off to wipe his forehead and I saw several bald patches.  Talk about reality slapping you in the face....
He had chemo this morning.  This was, I believe, the fourth time this week.  Right now he is doing chemo 4x a week.  It's called "Hell Month".  Then he enters a maintenance phase.  But during this period, his body has NO time to recover from chemo before it's time for another treatment.  It's so hard to see a strong, active teenager going through this.  He's seventeen.  This should be the time of his life, with no major worries, just enjoying the last of his carefree childhood time.  But cancer ended that.  And it sucks.

~ Anyway...focusing on the positive.  He had a good time and has a great attitude and good spirit about all of it.

Hope y'all have a good weekend and a wonderful Father's Day!

Go visit Friday Fragments' summer home at Unknown Mami's place!

Family, Friends and Frags

~ I worked a weird schedule this week.  A co-worker asked me to switch a day with her.  She is the same one who switched with me in March, enabling me and Byron to run off and get married last-minute, so I was happy to help her out.  I worked Monday and Tuesday, was off Wednesday and Thursday, and I work Friday night, then I'm off Saturday and Sunday.  It's like having two weekends in one week.  Kinda cool!

~ Dusty is Shelbie's boyfriend.  He has cancer.  His mom is Heather, my friend from high school.  I LOVE her.  She also drives me crazy.  BUT...when she calls and asks me if I can do her a favor and take Dusty to his chemo appointment?  I can't say no to that.
It is so surreal to hear her explaining that the length of the appointment depends on his blood counts and whether or not he needs a transfusion....sigh.
He's strong. He can fight this.  That's what I keep telling myself.

~ Tonight (Thursday night) we went to my parents' house for dinner.  Hayleigh was there and OMG.  She is at my FAVORITE AGE (between one and two).  She is SO funny, cute, adorable, etc......I just wanna freeze her!  She sings, dances, talks, plays,  And my kids adore her.

~ This weekend we're going to the Springs to celebrate a friend's birthday and Memorial Day.
I can't wait!  I love this time of year.


~ More and more every day, I realize that my husband is the perfect man FOR ME.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!! 

Family Filled Weekend - Sundays in my City

Today we went to my parents' house for a visit.

Of course, Hayleigh was the Star Attraction.

Concentrating hard on that block.
Or, ignoring her crazy aunt.

She finally graced me with a look
AND an almost-smile.  

Hello, I'm just wearing my food.

She's growing up SO fast.

This is Dusty and Shelbie.

You may remember Dusty from previous posts.   He is the son of a good friend of my since high school. He and Shelbie dated, then broke up, and are now dating again. Dusty also has cancer.  The meds are the reason his cheeks are puffy. He is doing well; he has years of chemo ahead of him,  but he's young and strong and his prognosis is good. He did lose his hair,  but as you can see it's already grown back! He went to my parents' house with us today.   It was fun spending time with him again. Tomorrow, we are going to my Mother-in-Law's house to hang out with her!   I love these Family Filled Weekends.
Hope y'all are having a good weekend! I sure am!


Visit Unknown Mami for more Sundays in my City posts.

Bracing Myself...

Hunter's biological father was never a part of his life.  He left his mother when Hunter was just a baby.
Hunter's mother is one of the sweetest people you could ever want to meet.
She is not, and never was, a disciplinarian.
When Hunter was a (rowdy) teenager, his mother married his stepfather.  Stepdad, Mr. J, was a cop.  Very strict.
It was like fire and gasoline.  You can imagine, I'm sure, the conflicts that ensued.  Suffice it to say, it was a volatile relationship.
But things changed.  Hunter grew up.  He put his parents through hell for years, but as he matured and settled down, things got better.  It took a long time, but now, they are very close.  Mr. J is a WONDERFUL man.    Mr. J has been incredibly welcoming to me and my children and is very happy to have us in their lives.  Not only does he call Hunter "son", but he even introduces him as his SON - not stepson.  He is very proud of him and the man he has become.  It sometimes makes me tear up to see the way they are now.

And now, Mr. J is dying.

He was diagnosed with cancer several years ago.  He has undergone chemo, radiation, and who knows what all other treatments.  He has four grandsons (including Hunter's son) and I believe he has endured all of this for them.  He adores them and wants to see them grow up.
But it seems that is not going to happen.
The treatments just aren't helping any more, and in the last few weeks he's been going downhill quickly.
Today, they arranged hospice care.
Now of course, Hospice doesn't stamp an expiration date on someone.   People can be under hospice care for a very long time; I know someone who was under hospice care for over a year.
But truthfully, I don't see that happening here.  He hasn't eaten in well over a week.  He can't walk, and falls when he tries.  He mostly stays in bed.  He's fading quickly.
It's heartbreaking.  Mrs. J has a wonderful support system but still - she will be lost without him.

Suddenly cancer is really rearing its ugly head in our lives, and it's terrifying.

My friend's son who is also my daughter's ex-boyfriend has lymphoma.  He's 17.
Another family friend, a very young teen girl, just had a mole removed that was melanoma.
Another family friend, who already beat cancer once, has cancer again, this time in his liver and colon.  He's 45.
And the list goes on.
It makes me mad.  And scared.  And sad.

There are hard times coming for people that I dearly love.  It's time to for me to be there, to support them and help them in any way that I can.  I hate to see people that I love, in so much pain.
Bracing myself.....

The C Word

T-Cell Lymphoma.

That's the diagnosis that our close family friend received today.

He is 17.

I've blogged about him before - he is the son of one of my best friends, and my daughter Shelbie's boyfriend.

He was rushed to the ER last night in severe pain, and they found a mass in his chest that is larger than a softball.  It was pressing on his lung and heart.  "Like a rock on a balloon", his left lung couldn't inflate properly.  I can't imagine how much he hurt.  

He's pitiful.  Can barely talk, but still reached his hand out for Shelbie and managed to talk to her, and later, ask his family where she was when we were downstairs getting dinner.

Obviously his mother is shocked and worried.  Her life changed in an instant.  His prognosis is good; it's one of those "if you must get cancer, this is the one you want to get" situations.  He'll be in the ICU for at least two weeks.

But....it's CANCER.  He's 17.  He will have to go through radiation.  He will lose his hair.

It certainly makes you remember what's TRULY important in life.   A lesson many of us need sometimes.  

Prayers, thoughts, voodoo, whatever.....totally appreciated. 

Things I'm Into Right Now

I ripped this idea off of my local friend (who I still haven't met in person yet!!), Irregular Tammie. She kind of hates Florida so she'll probably end up moving away before we ever get around to meeting up!

Anyway, here's what I'm into right now. Feel free to rip it off and do your own version!



~* Autumn! The temperatures are actually dropping already here-it's supposed to get down to 55 tonight and 52 tomorrow night! We may actually have a real fall here in Florida this year - well at least, what passes as Fall for us. I've decorated the house completely, and we got Elayna's Halloween costume today. She's going to be a ladybug and the costume is adorable. I LOVE Halloween!



~* Diet Dr Pepper. I had an urge to try one a couple of weeks ago and now I'm obsessed. I'm always obsessed with something.



~* Softball. Elayna's softball practices started last week. She loves it and I'm not just saying this because she's mine - she's good! I really think she's a natural. She does better than some of the kids who have played before!



~* Church. Although I consider myself Spiritual, we haven't regularly attended church in a long time. But it seems that we've finally found a church that we really like and fit into. I am very particular about what I want in a church and we're really happy with this one. It looks like we're going to become members & get the family baptized. I'm excited!



~* Giveaways. I'm getting approached more for reviews & giveaways and I'm thinking of starting a separate review blog. I'd love your suggestions, opinions, advice, etc. Speaking of giveaways, don't forget to enter my bloggiversary giveaway! It ends tomorrow and I'll announce with winner October 1st. And I'll have another one starting shortly!



~* Blogging for Boobs. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I'd already planned on joining in with A Southern Fairytale, and after losing a friend last week to this dreadful disease, I'm even more fired up for it. We must raise awareness and funds to find a cure!



PS - Thank you all for the bloggiversary love! WOW, I want to have a bloggiversary more often, I got the sweetest comments. I am SO feeling the love! You all are so awesome! xoxo