Cancer Free!

I want to thank each of you for all your love, thoughtfulness and prayer for my mom. I received many texts and calls letting me know you were all thinking of my mom and you have no idea how much that meant to me. Tuesday was a very long day, but well worth it! She was in surgery for 8 hrs, and we were expecting only 5. I know, you're thinking "only 5". But, the Dr's were very happy with how the surgery went and thought she weathered the storm quite well! All of her preliminary tests for the lymph nodes came out negative for Cancer. Praise God! This was my greatest concern. The first night with her in the hospital was quite interesting. She was doped up and saying some really funny things. You hated to laugh, but you just couldn't help it when she was begging you to make sure the monkey's at the zoo got fed that night cause they were hungry. She was so worried about them...ha! Every day since, she has done a little better. She is a ways away from being pain free, but making progress every day. Her surgery was at Baylor All-Saints in Fort Worth and she had such a great support system! There were ladies there who had a double mastectomy that would come to check on her making sure she was ok emotionally, and the best part was that they were volunteers. What great hearts! Their church groups made heart pillows for her to put under her arms for support and they had a welcome note in her room for her congratulating her on being a breast cancer survivor and fighting the good fight. It was so nice for her to have that from complete strangers. She came home today, and was looking forward to being in her own bed. She is such a trooper, and is doing very well coping with the loss. She is an incredible woman. I love you mom!

Not Easy...Yet Thankful!

A few months ago, my mom went to the Dr. for what she thought was going to be a routine Dr's visit. A week later, she received a phone call from her Dr wanting to do a sonogram on her breast due to some concern of what was seen on the results. Needless to say, they ended up doing a biopsy, got the results back and determined that she has pre-cancer in two places in her right breast. The Dr told her without a doubt, she has to have both spots removed. When being referred to a surgeon, this Dr (which is a woman as well) told my mom to be safe and for her specific case, she is going to need a double mastectomy (both breasts removed). The news...stunning, hard to swallow, scary. But, we choose to be forever grateful! This puts so much perspective on life and what truly matters. Life is about relationships and the people you love. My mom is such an incredible woman. She has remained so positive through all the trying news. She has decided to move forward with the double mastectomy and is scheduled to have surgery. She has met with a reconstructive plastic surgeon which has made her feel more at ease with what is to come. It will take her about 8 months or so to feel back to herself again, but is much better considering the alternative. We thank God everyday for Dr.... for being overly interested in this small little place on her sonogram that could have easily been overlooked. The Dr confirmed that if it would have been looked past, that next year at her check up she would have been well into stage 1 cancer. My mom has very high spirits and is looking forward to having the surgery. Life is always very good at constantly humbling our spirit and showing us that the most important things in life simply aren't things. My mom's surgery is scheduled on August 18, so if you would all please say a little prayer for her. I am confident that God will well equip her for the emotional hardship that is to come. We serve a GOOD God! Thank you in advance for your love and prayers! Love you all!

A Baby, A Bride and an Anniversary!

Last week was filled with so many exciting events! Last Tuesday, Michelle and Adan's little miracle, Isabelle made her debut into the world. She is SO adorable! Michelle was such a trooper the day of Isabelle's birth and looked so beautiful the whole time! Adan, the proud daddy was so smitten with love with his new baby girl. It was so much fun to be with them and watch their excitement as they soak in the new addition to their family. Wednesday started Heather's wedding festivities and it was SO fun! We had a spa day for her Wednesday, then Hurricane Harbor Thursday, and Rehearsal dinner Friday, and Saturday was the big Wedding day!! She made the most Beautiful bride! It was truly the happiest day of her and Jeremy's life and her wedding was absolutely gorgeous! Then, this past Tuesday Lance and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary! It is so hard to believe how quickly time passes. We love being a team!

Doesn't Michelle look too pretty to have just given birth to a baby?! :)

This visit was the morning after Isabelle arrived. We wanted her to hurry up eating because we had big plans for her. We had lots of bows and outfits we wanted her to try on! You are beautiful Izzy!

The happy couple at their rehearsal dinner.

Heather, Mom and I at rehearsal

This is the ONLY pic I have of Heather on her wedding day. :( We were SO busy and I guess I wasn't thinking to take more because she had a photographer?? Wish I had an after pic. When I get one from the photographer, I will post it for sure!

Lance and I at the wedding!

These are the flowers Lance brought to me at work Tuesday for our anniversary. LOVE them! Along with the flowers came a note that said, "2 years down and a lifetime to go, I love you." Such a great hubs he is! That night we went to our favorite restaurant in Tyler to have dinner and some wine. Very relaxing!

Since Heather and Jeremy are on their honeymoon this week, we have Oscar!!!! I just love this little dog like he is my own. Him and Mayer love each other. Watching them play is hilarious!

I'm a Lucky Girl...

Since Lance has started his new job, and doesn't have to work weekends anymore, it was his first weekend in a couple months to be able to go home with me (to Dallas). We left after Lance got off work Friday night, and I had a wedding shower for Melissa's sister, Kristen, to go to Saturday morning. While I was at the shower, Lance had told me he was going golfing with a friend. After the shower, when talking to Lance, he was headed towards downtown and wanted to see if I would meet him down there. I was STARVING as usual, and was craving Chuy's that was just recently added to the Highland shopping area in Arlington. So after begging him to meet my mom and I there, he agreed and we met for lunch. Come to find out, Lance was not playing golf that morning, he was meeting with the jeweler to pick up a ring he bought for me for our anniversary/happy hygiene school acceptance!!!! He wanted me to meet him down town because he wanted to give me the ring at the same place he proposed 3 years ago. But, I ruined that :). That's ok, it really couldn't have gone any better. He ended up giving it to me at lunch with my mom, and I really appreciated him doing that! I'm not a mom, so I'm not sure, but I would think that it would be great to hear my daughter's husband tell her and her mom how much he loves her daughter. It was the sweetest thing. I was SOOO surprised and so excited! He is such a great husband! After lunch, we headed to Allen to see Lance's family. It was a very relaxing weekend with a lot of pool time Saturday and Sunday. Mayer got a lot of swimming in, as well as our little Niece Hailey. She is so precious! Here are some pics from the weekend. Love you all!

Look how happy Cade is that his Aunt Andrea is holding him. :)

Happy Bridal Shower Kristin!

Love this pic of Michelle's belly!! We love little Isabelle even though we haven't met her yet!

Yay, the ring!!

My Ring!!!! I love it so much!!

Mayer looked like a little torpedo swimming in the pool. His long body, tail wagging half way out of the water and his ears dragging behind him. He is precious!! We had so much fun with him. This was his second swim.

Little Hailey...she is SO sweet!

Mayer hanging with grandpa.

Look at that two piece! So cute!

Lance's first weekend OFF!!

Crazy, but this is one of Lance's first weekends EVER to have not only the entire weekend, but to get a day off the day before a holiday! We are really liking this new job thing! An update on the job...Lance is really liking his new job a lot! Right now he is rotating around to different parts of the company to get a feel for everyone's responsibilities and such. Then he will be out in the field doing some sales! So, this weekend, we were really excited to be able to spend a lot of fun time together. Friday morning, I met Michelle, Melissa and Cade in Canton for a total of 1.5 hrs of shopping...ha! We were SO hot, and Michelle being at full term with her prego belly, we didn't want to press our luck! It was a lot of fun though. We got in there, bought what we needed and then left to eat at this hillbilly place right outside of trade days. :) Cade was SO good! At the end of July, he will be 8 months old, and he was really a great little guy as mom and his aunties were shopping! I just love that little guy! Last weekend, some friends of ours Tim and Tori here in Tyler moved into their new home, so Lance and I went Friday afternoon to purchase some things for their new place. Lance was so funny trying to pick things out. He would pick things up with excitement to quickly be shot down. Ha! I love you darling! After shopping, we went to dinner with Tim and Tori, then to Bullard (a tiny little city in east texas) for a fireworks show and little festival type gig. It was fun! Saturday, we went early to go running here on the Tyler trail (which I couldn't find my ipod, then later found it in the already cycled washing machine later that day...nuts!), went to the movies to see The Proposal (We both LOVED!) and hung with the pups, Mayer. Sunday was church, workout and work on the house day! We had a really good rain Sunday, and Mayer for the first time enjoyed it! He wanted us to throw his ball in pouring down rain for about 10 minutes. It was super cute! We had a great weekend together. I love this weekend off thing!! Hope everyone had a fun, safe and happy 4th!!

We had only been in Canton for about 30 minutes and we were already a hot sweaty mess!

I am definitely one of Cade's number 1 fans! Wish you could see those 2 little teeth in there. He is chompin on fingers pretty good now!

Tori, Emily and I at the fireworks show Friday night. Lance kept trying to get the fireworks in the background, but no success. We couldn't figure it out.

Lance, Tim and Ross at the Fireworks show. This was our first time meeting Ross and Emily. They were in town visiting Tim and Tori. We all had a really fun time together!

We didn't plan the yellow shirt thing...promise!

Updates On Our Life!

Sorry I haven't been that great about posting these last few weeks! I dont have any pictures, but I feel that so much has gone on and would love to update everyone on our life here in good ole East Texas. This past weekend, Lance went on his first ram hunt. He was like a little kid when it came to packing up all his gear. He was counting down the days for the hunt. He went with a couple friends he met here in Tyler. They had such a blast! He showed me the ram he got as soon as I got home (it was just the head...sick!). Im not real sure what his plans are for the ram just yet, but he was allowed one dead animal on the wall in the study, so we are at maximum capacity. :-) They took some video of the hunt, but not many pics, so I will update with at least one pic soon. While he was away at his ram hunt, I went home to be with my sis and mom to do more wedding stuff!! Heather is having her wedding dress made, so she had her 2nd fitting Friday. This was the first time I have seen her dress on her. She looks absolutely stunning! I can't wait for you all to see her on her big day! Saturday was full of wedding festivities we had her trial run for makeup and went shopping with our step mom Jodi for a dress for the wedding and such. Then more wedding fun till the end of the weekend. We had a great time! Lance starts a new job today with a company called ETOX. It is a gas and welding supply company. He is SOOO excited! Lance has also started playing softball with our church. I have pics of that! I will post that soon! So, a lot of updating, and a lot of fun! We love you all!

Coming July 9th!

A co-worker/friend of mine in Tyler is expecting a little boy (Evan) this July! As soon as we found out she was expecting the little guy, all of us girls at work started planning a baby shower for her. LOVE baby showers! We found out she was pregnant when she was at 6 weeks, so the planning has been going on for quite some time now. It's crazy how time flys! Tiffany had such a great turn out, and we all had a blast! Little Evan is already loved so much and got some really great things this weekend. It has been so much fun to watch Tiffany's belly grow! She is such a cute prego girl! She is scheduled to have Evan on July 9th if he doesn't come before. I have expressed to her that I would totally be ok with her going into labor at work! How fun!!