A little to share here and there….

First of all, Joe and Michelle came up to Omaha for 24 hours this past weekend. Lily was off at a sleepover, but the four of us (Joe, Michelle, Rich, and I) spent a good chunk of Saturday at a family friend’s wedding and reception. We sat with our long time military friends from Norway, Ed & Wanda, and their son, Zac (Joe’s best friend), and his girlfriend, Megan. It was so nice for the 8 of us spending time together as adults. I had such a wonderful time. Tanner and Megan made a beautiful couple, and I wish them all the very best in their lifetime together. Tanner graduated with Joe and Zac and the three of them are good friends. It is hard to believe two of them are now married, two are firefighters, and Tanner will be a doctor (he is a physical therapist) in the next month or so. I love that Joe surrounded himself with really good people and has kept those good people in his life. I was not only blessed to know Zac and Tanner had Joe’s back, but I also got to love them as if they were my own…along with a few other men in Joe’s life. I am doubly blessed because I got to know their wonderful parents and got good friends in return. I got to see them and got lots of wonderful, tight hugs from these young men and their parents, whom I have really missed spending time with! I can’t even count how many times we either froze or fried watching Bellevue West High School football games! Good times! Now our boys are men….and I am so proud of each of them!

Zac & Megan and Michelle & Joe – the best of friends…they all live in the Kansas City area….Zac and Joe are fightfighters and first met when they were in the 7th grade in Stavanger, Norway. They have been best friends ever since!

How is my treatment going? Pretty good. I am staying active….I have been working 2-4 hours each morning in the store doing manual labor…moving stuff. Tallinn goes along with me as we are not open until 10, so from 8-10, he can roam the store and just follow me as I go from the store room to the floor, putting out inventory. Once the store opens, he settles himself under RIch’s desk in his office and is happy to take his morning nap there. I have been trying to get walks in as well. I am really feeling a lot of stiffness and joint/muscle pain from the anastrozole that I take daily. It is to be expected. I have talked to some people taking the same type of aromatase inhibitors and started taking Claritan yesterday morning. It worked really well with joint pain with neulasta shots I took last year. Tonight I will also start taking tart cherry chewies. Sounds weird, right? Well, it really works for a lot of people, so I figure why not give it a try? I have already noticed a bit of a difference with the Claritan, especially in the mornings. By afternoon, I am stiff and sore again though. I took some Tylenol this evening before going for a walk with Rich and that really helped too. So hopefully this will help. I went back to Mass starting two weeks ago and the Catholic Calisthenics had me moving pretty slow. Hopefully this will help.

I am still taking an advanced photography class online and loving it. However, it has been somewhat stressful being so busy and traveling recently trying to get my assignments posted. Bonus is I have had some gorgeous views to take photos of. If you saw a person in a winter jacket standing under a flowering tree in the Walgreen’s parking lot this morning in between snow flurries taking photos, that was me. I also got a great photo of Lily tonight….made it black and white and absolutely love it. So here are a few photos from my assignments on light this past week.