Hoppy Easter

This year for Easter I went buck and made a ton of handmade Easter candy. I started a week before Easter. I worked every night until 11pm making these lovely chocolates. Even though it was very labor intensive I still really enjoy making them. Its very rewarding when people eat your candies and then repeatedly tell you how great they are.

My Easter Eggs all wrapped up 

Close up of my craftiness

I braved sending chocolate home to everyone

Here's what the look like in the chocolate molds

 Here's the chocolates before I wrapped them up

I thought I would add the pictures of my past years creations as well. 

Easter basket cake. The inside was checkered with pink purple and yellow.  (Took six hours to make)

Rice krispy treats for the kids I made with Gregory

Easter Bunny Cake. Made it with Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. Gregory helped decorate. 

One of my favorite creations. Cadbury Egg Cakes. If you love Cadbury Eggs you would absolutely love this dessert. 

Can't wait to see what next year brings. I really do enjoy making these creations for the holiday's. I have to do a better job of making sure I take pictures though. 

Big Poppa

My Grandpa or Big Poppa as we called him. Was truly an amazing man. I still cannot believe its been five years since he has left us. Big Poppa was the sweetest, and most loving man I know. I miss his whisker kisses that ended with his unshaven prickly cheek to cheek rub just to make sure you weren't kissing any boys. I miss him more and more everyday and wish he was still here. I wish he got to meet my boyfriend. I wish that they got to meet each other. I know that my Grandpa would of loved Kevin and Kevin would of loved my Grandpa. I truly believe you are the one that started my deep love for sweets and ice cream. My thighs say Thank You :) I inherited this awful thing called asthma and we both shared awful asthmatic episodes when I was much younger and I came over to use your nebulizer several times until I got my own. Just recently I got to also experience something that you went through as well. Thyroid Cancer. For some reason mine was caught a little late. But I am doing just fine and can't wait for the day that they say I am cancer free. Big Poppa you make me strive to be the best I can be everyday. I am so glad that I had a Grandpa like you to grow up with and see almost everyday at the farm you loved so much. I love you and miss you so much!

Big Poppa holding me and my cousin Michael. 

This is the only picture that I have with my Grandpa. This is the way I'll always remember Big Poppa (Big boned, muscular, roughed up hands) .... Cherish every minute with the ones you love and snap a few more pictures you'll want to look at them in the future.

My Prince Charming

He came into my life June 2008. My Prince Charming is my 2007 Honda Civic. He's been the best type of transportation a girl could have. Got me from point A to point B and back to point A without any major issues. He was the best of car for the long trips that I had to put traveling back and forth to college, home, to see Kevin when I was still in Plattsburgh you name it. The best part was he had great gas mileage, so I didn't spend tons of money getting to where I had to go. 

I treated him to tints the first summer I got him. That car has so much glass that it got so hot in there and melted my air freshener all over my front dash.

The only money I had to put into my boy was front breaks and rotors and I got a flat tire two winters ago by hitting a huge pot hole so I had to put two new tires on it.Other than that he has given me the best two enjoyment out of owning a car. 

The day I brought him home. My apartment at college in Plattsburgh.

Charming & I

Before I put the tints on. 

He had a big rear, just like his owner ;)

2013 snowfall 

Selling him at the car dealership

Posing with Charming one last time

Sad because I'm selling him.

Blizzard at our apartment in Plattsburgh. Charming is supposed to be in the back there.

After six hours of shoveling look how much shoveling we got done. So much snow. 

Happy 4 Months to a Healthier Me!

It's been four long months since my life has forever changed. Between feeling so much better, taking snythroid everyday waiting 45 mins-1 hr everyday to eat after I take my medicine. From dry mouth to sensitive teeth loosing hair numb neck and everything else that lord knows I've experienced since then I cannot wait till the day I can look back at all of this and be like wow I went through that?

As today marks four months that means my picture update of how well my scar (Sierra) is healing. I am very impressed every month to see how well the scar has healed. Knowing going into all of this that was my biggest fear, having a giant ugly scar on my neck for everyone to see. Well thanks to Dr. Wong I have the most fabulous scar and it is healing so well that I don't hide it anymore. If someone asks and they are kinda snotty about asking I throw the "I have cancer" back in their face. I think this goes back to the old saying think before you speak. You wouldn't believe the comments people make and say as they make an assumption because they see a scar on someones neck.

My newest thought today while collecting my handful of hair from the bottom of the the shower. Was that I think I should chop of 8" and donate it versus collecting it off the shower floor everyday. I believe I have straighten and blow dried my hair once in the past two months. Anyone that knows me well knows that I LOVE MY HAIR, so seeing all my hair all over the floor and into the trash can is slightly depressing. So I've decided that I am going to think about it over the weekend and see what the length of my hair would be if I cut off 8".

There she is from afar. 

There they are 4 consecutive months of my beautiful scar.

A close up of the beauty.

Love it right? That is just from washing my hair. No brushing, running my fingers through my hair NOTHING.

This picture is a little harder to see but you can see the glob of hair... that is from straighten my hair like a month ago. Imagine how my head feels :( 

Trying to think what I would look like with medium length hair. Will this be my new hair do? Need Opinions?

NY Rangers

Last Thursday Kev and I went to put first professional hockey game. We've always wanted to go to a game but never have. So while Kev was in town we took advantage of the opportunity to go to a game.

The Rangers played the Tampa Bay lightning. The plan was for me to catch the shuttle early to catch the train that Kev was coming into White Plains where I work to express to Grand Central. It's great to be so close to the city and be at to do these things on a week night if you have the chance. Otherwise we'd have to pay a pretty penny to see a weekend game. We had a few road sodas on the train, a standard for riding the train to any event.

We get to Manhattan and off to Brother Jimmy's we go for my favorite drink so far. The Charleston A.P. I think I primarily like it because of the name and our dream to move to the south specifically Charleston. Then it was off to the I've rink. Surprisingly it wasn't too cold. I thought I was going to freeze my butt off. We had good seats, first row on the upper level thanks Kev :)

It was awesome to be in MSG versus watching the game on TV. The fans and atmosphere make it a great experience. I wish I could of snapped a picture without being too obvious but I couldn't. We had the ultimate super supreme fan next to us. Long straggly hair, thick messy beard two beers in his hands and of course I'll never forget it the filthy looks like he hasn't washed it since he bought it NY Rangers jersey. Started the Lets Go Rangers chant every time fans were cheering on their team. My favorite part was he'd always say "Let's Go Boys!" It was definitely the funniest thing I've seen in such a long time. We had a phenomenal time and hope to go back to a game again this year if the tickets aren't too ridiculous.

Let's Go Rangers!

Waiting for the Rangers to take the ice.

Thanks to Kev we got some great seats.

I tried to lighten this picture up. This is the best picture I have of the two of us at the game.

Our first Rangers game.

RAI-131 Known as Radioactive Iodine

I received my treatment Wednesday February 6th. A week and a half prior I had to start this god awful diet called the low iodine diet. Let me tell ya. It's basically like starving yourself. There is not one normal daily food that we eat that doesn't have salt in it. Literally everything has salt in it. It was one rough time. My favorite part of it was hearing everyone say oh how bad could it be? Well you do it and report back to me.

Thankfully Monday February 4th came around. It was one more of the several trips I've taken to Manhattan  I've gotten the commute to Sloan down pat without the GPS. It was day #1 of testing blood work and my Thyrogen shot. It was a rather long day of waiting going here and there. My favorite part was that when entering the radioactive area you had to be buzzed in never experienced that one before. Filled out the usual paper work and of course waited the usual 45 mins to be called in. Meet the nurse and she explained to me everything that was happening over the next few days. Meet the radioactive Dr. I'm sure he had some fancy name but I don't remember it. Asked me a bazillion questions and explained all the lovely side effects of the treatment. Then released me to get my shot. Then off I went.

Tuesday- some what the same routine. Except I got my shot was told to come back in two hours for my meds to take the whole body scan. So off Kev and I went. I worked from my car and we impatiently waited until street sweeping time was over do we didn't get a ticket and back to the hospital we went. I got my low dose of iodine for my scan and was told to come back tomorrow at 8am. That was news to me, I thought it was 9am. So back home we went. Worked the afternoon away and packed for my week away in isolation. That night rushing around to pack things, make sure I didn't forget anything I needed. I fell down a flight of stairs  I have not done that in a very long time, was winded and in a ton of pain. So after I felt better in about ten minutes off to complete my packing.

The radioactive card that I was given as I can still set off alarms due to my radioactiveness.

Wednesday rolled around quicker than I thought. Lots of traffic on my commute to MCKCC this time. So of course I was late. Oh well. It was time to take my first WBS (whole body scan) and then when that was over I was it was to the radioactive room to get ready for my treatment. A room in the corner of the hospital with tons of radioactive/hazard signs on it. There was someone else who was also getting the treatment done at the same time. So as MSKCC calls it I had a radioactive buddy. We hung out and chatted until the Radioactive Security officer came in to discuss all the terms with us. He spoke with us both individually regarding our dose, all our rules for the radiation and treatment itself. Then came in the fancy named Dr. who was here to give us our treatments. He spoke with each of us and then explained the results of our WBS and said that mine specifically came back with cancer still in my neck. I tried to get a better answer as to how much, where, is it in my lymph nodes etc? Nothing. So I was like okay. Well let's hope this works. It was time to give my my dose of 150mci. I had to put gloves on, the Dr. had a mask on and gloves as well. They had about 2 feet long tweezers that they took the medicine out of what looked like a time capsule. One at a time, shutting it, watching me swallow the pill and doing it all over again 4x.

We hung out until around 2pm ish when we could go home. We chatted about our cancers and its crazy to know that we both basically had the same exact thing minus the whole voice thing with me. We were fed a low iodine meal for the second to last time before we could return to a normal diet. That was honestly the best meal I've eaten in two weeks. So happy I got to do that. The nurse who sat outside the room who could not let us go unless we went pee. We were finally released to go home and escorted out of the hospital and told to go straight home as we were now radioactive and could harm others around us for the the first 6 hours especially.

I stayed at a good friends house during this isolation. I am so thankful for her as I have no idea what I would of done without her letting me do so. It was great to be able to stay there. It was like a vacation for the week. I had my own space, tons of quietness and was in heaven. The first 24 hours I was really radioactive. I had to stay 3 feet (so arms length) away from people, could not be around animals, had to clean the toilet and flush 3x's every time I peed, the sink, and you name it. It was intense. I'm surprised I didn't develop OCD from it. As the days went by I could actually hang out with my friend and Kevin came to visit me. It was so nice to have some company even though I had to be in isolation. That next Monday I returned to the hospital to get another WBS to see if the treatment had started working and it gives a better idea of what's going on inside my neck for the Drs. to see. I was to get the results in two days. So Wednesday rolls around and no answer yet, I call. I get a call back saying that as expected there is still cancer in your neck, it'll continue to work over the course of the next year. In six months I have a follow up appointment with my Endo to rerun test and discuss the results of them to see how the treatment is working as well as my next steps in the process.

The sign on the door of the room I had to stay in for my treatment.

So for now I battle with damaged salivary glands, super sensitive teeth, loosing a ton of hair (thank god I have a ton so it's not too noticeable yet and still a numb neck from surgery. But even though I still have these things going on, I say I am thankful to not have to struggle like others have and currently are. So if I'm having a down day with all of this I will always think of how lucky I am to not have another type of cancer.

Cycle For Survival

Today I got to participate in a very touching event. A cycling event that raises money for rare diseases cancer research for Memorial Sloan Kettering. This was such an inspiring event for all those who are battling cancer and have had someone close to them affected by the disease. My college friend Webb was one of the instructors at the event. He gave his bike up to me so that I could ride and participate in the event. If it wasn't for him doing that for me than I wouldn't of been able to taken part of such a remarkable event. So thank you Webb, I really do appreciate it.

I made a promise to myself that I was returning with a team/teams next year. I consider myself a lucky cancer patient due to the fact that I haven't had to go through intensive chemo and radiation, still have my hair  even though I've been loosing a ton and that my type of cancer is "treatable," whereas there are others who are fighting for their life everyday and have no answers or ways to treat their disease.

If you haven't heard of it and would still like to make a donation to this years Cycle For Survival Event that is going on nation wide you can do so here. If not this year I will be contacting everyone I know to make a donation towards this event for next year. Get your wallets ready :)

https://secure2.convio.net/mskcc/site/SPageServer?JServSessionIdr004=ft7xu134c1.app202b&pagename=cycle_for_survival

My friend Webb, the other cancer survivor and Karen the other spin instructor.

This place was packed of many great supporters.

My on the bike getting ready for the big ride.

You can see me on the instructor bike on the far left and a glimpse of the other cyclers.

Another great picture of the many participants today.

My friend Webb and I mid ride. I was one sweaty chick when I was done.