Inspirational NC State Coach, Kay Yow

The "Free Speech Tunnel" @ NC State

"One of the most beloved figures in N.C. State University history and one of the most respected coaches in the nation, Yow died peacefully this morning after a long, heroic battle with breast cancer," Annabelle Myers, assistant athletics director for media relations, said in a statement. Yow passed away at 6:40 a.m.

Snow Day!

The white stuff doesn't fall very often in North Carolina, but when it does, the schools inevitably close. We received close to 7 inches & enjoyed two snow days together!

One of our neighbors gave us a cookie sheet to use as a sled. You might be a redneck if...

Bailey has always loved the snow. Here she is trying to get Toby as excited as she was.

Can you guess how many layers Megan is wearing?

Wipeout!

Mentos...the chewy mint

What can you get for two dollars these days? A science experiment. The girls love surfing for funny videos on youtube. Some of the videos they've found have become silly songs that we sing as a family...in the privacy of our own home, of course. We've heard of the "mentos experiment", but never tried it, so during holiday break, we drove two miles to the dollar store, spent two dollars for a two liter of cola and mentos & went home to experience two minutes of excitement & screaming. As far as science experiments go, I'd rate this as easy as it gets.

Open a bottle of Cola...

Add the Mentos...

And RUN before it does this!!!!

Numbers

Numbers can mean all different things. For example, I wear a shoe size of 8, my eyesight is -3.75R & -3.50L, I'm 5'3", I normally drive at least 10 miles over the speed limit which is also a number. My alarm starts going off on the same number every morning, I'm the 3rd daughter and have 2 daughters myself, I weigh....now wait a minute, did you really think I was going to share that with you? You get my point. There are numbers that relate to us EVERYWHERE. We can't escape numbers!

Recently, I've been able to celebrate two very important numbers. Numbers that most of you have never heard of & I pray you never will. One is a tumor marker & the other is called ejection fraction. When I started my battle with cancer, my tumor marker was 84. What does that mean? I had cancer BAD. Anything under 30 is considered "normal". I've been receiving tumor marker test results periodically and have watched the number miracuously drop thorughout the months. My marker was tested again the week of Christmas and came back at 19! As you can probably imagine, the news was the best present I ever could have recieved. I've had to stop chemo because of the damage it had done to my heart. I took a two month break while taking "heart boosting" medicine. Again, I was waiting for a magic number of >50 to come back from a heart scan. This past Tuesday, I had an additional MUGA scan done. I received a call today with the good news. My ejection fraction is now at 60!!! That means I can can continue with the poison (chemo) that keeps the demon away! Most would think I'm crazy to be so excited to start back on chemo, but to me it's a blessing. It's my security blanket or my "soft kitty" or "rattle pig". My little angels know just what I'm talking about ;)

The ants go marching one by one...

For Christmas, Megan bought Emily an ant farm. But not just any ant farm. A gel-based ant farm. The ants tunnel and survive on the gel inside the carefully constructed & very sturdy (I checked this out BEFORE I allowed them to place the ants inside!) ant house. We had to order the ants online because let's face it, there aren't many ants roaming around NC in January! After checking the mail for the ants EVERY day, they finally arrived with a warning:

The proud mom with her new babies...

Emily helped the ants get started by creating three tunnels...

We're FREE...

This image makes my skin crawl...

By far, this was one of Em's favorite gifts...& Meg picked it out. Priceless.

The word for 2009 is......

drum roll, please.............

FREE

A fellow blogger & very smart lady, I might add, came up with this idea in 2007. You choose one word that you can focus on, meditate on & reflect upon as you go about your daily life. It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is YOUR word, not your spuse's or child's or anyone elses.

So, you may wonder why I came up with the word FREE. It has nothing to do with becoming a coupon clippin' momma & scouring the weekly adds in an effort to come up with a total of FREE on my grocery bill. And I don't plan on entering every type of internet contest on a weekly basis to try to win something FREE. Since we all have dieting as a new year's resolution, I suppose I could try to buy items that are listed as fat FREE, but that's neither realistic nor fun. If you google FREE on the net, you come up with all sorts of things...free games, free videos, free clipart, free dating service...(free, really?), free access to websites that would make your eyes cross...for "free".

I chose the word FREE because it was the word in a phrase that changed my life in 2008. The words came from Dr. Maha Elkordy on July 14th. "Yes, you are cancer FREE". I was no longer a prisoner of cancer. I spent the remainder of 2008 living "FREELY", but true FREEDOM is what you do with what's been done to you. It's time that I take the hardships I've been through & help inspire others who are desperately seeking freedom. I'm more equipped now more than ever to put on my warrior suit and become a soldier in the battles of others. Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. Life is so full of noise...let go & be FREE.

Happy New Year!

I wouldn't be able to add posts to 2009 until I did the honorable thing & thanked 2008 for all of its blessings. I have a LOT to be thankful for, but here’s a brief list of reasons to give thanks…

Top 8 for 2008

1. January 25, 2008 – The day my world stood still & the day my eyes were opened to a new way of life.
2. The year my husband & I rediscovered each other.
3. The year my girls & I truly bonded.
4. The year I experienced so much love & kindness from perfect strangers.
5. The year Dr. Elkordy & Dr. Watters saved my life.
6. The year of MANY vacations!
7. The year I started blogging instead of just reading them.
8. The year the Sooners won the Big 12 Championship!

So, goodbye 2008 & welcome 2009! I pray that we all have a great year!