Wordless Wednesday: My favorite little girl



Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

November is such a huge month for our family. Today marks the start of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. As most of you know my mom, Kathy was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer in June at the age of 54. You never in your worst nightmare think that your family would be affected by something as horrible as this. From day 1 she has been a fighter, never letting cancer get the best of her. There is a wonderful quote that is very fitting: "I may have cancer but cancer doesn't have me".

Pancreatic Cancer is the 11th most commonly diagnosed cancer in the U.S. About 29,000 people are expected to be newly diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer each year. It is the 5th leading cause of cancer death. About 20% of patients diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer survive the first year and only about 3% survive 5 years. We are hopeful that she can live a great life the next few years.

To show support this month, wear a purple ribbon for those who have lost their lives and for those who continue to fight this disease. We so desperately need to find a cure!

Here are a few links you can visit if you want to get some more information:

Lustgarten Foundation

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

Kyle and I are so proud to be participating in the Purple Stride Raleigh-Durham 5k for Pancreatic Cancer on Sunday. As I'm sure it will be an emotional day for all who are in attendance, it will be a great showing of support and love for those affected. As of right now, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network has raise over $59,000 for research!! It is truly amazing!!!

Lets spread the word and fight this disease!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Our Halloween festivities were last night here on post and we had an awesome time!! Of course we dressed our dog, Emma up in her bumblebee costume and she loved it:

Our friends Jeremy and Kristina came over to hang out with us to pass out candy. We grilled up some burgers and hotdogs for dinner and then sat outside to greet all the trick or treaters. I do have to say that we saw some incredibly creative costumes, my favorite was an 8 year old girl dressed up as Michael Jackson! It was awesome!!! Although, the best part of these night involved her:

A couple walked up dressed as "Killer Clowns", immediately Kyle pointed out that Kristina hates clowns and this is what happened:

They followed her all the way to our backyard haha it was all in fun though, they were awesome!!!

We managed to not run out of candy this year and still had a few pieces left at 8 when trick or treating was over.

Earlier in the day was great as well, I ended up purchasing a set of golf clubs so now I can join Kyle when he plays. We went to the driving range so I could get accustomed to my clubs, I can honestly say I had the best time!! We also decided to purchase our Christmas gift to each other:

A nice new 60" TV lol

Kyle loves it and so do I! It was definitely worth it, have to love the PX and no tax!!

Well for those who are passing out candy or venturing out to trick or treat with your kids tonight, be safe and get lots of candy!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

*NOVEMBER 1ST IS THE START OF PANCREATIC CANCER AWARENESS MONTH, PLEASE HELP BY SPREADING THE WORD AND WEARING PURPLE TO SHOW SUPPORT*

Coffee anyone?!

Last night I finally went to my first "Coffee" for my husbands current batallion. Although we have been with this unit almost a year now, I either didn't have the time or honestly just did not want to go. I figured last night was a perfect chance to go (since it was being held 3 houses down from me). I ended up having a wonderful time, our batallion commanders wife Heather is a crackup and made it so much fun! Maybe this was the motivation I needed to start going more often. Our FRG leader sent us our updated calendars through May 2011, wow so much will be happening and all the red marked dates for things such as JRTC and Deployment kinda bummed me out. A few things that got me excited is that now instead of 2 balls (Division Ball and St. Barbaras Day) we now have 3 to attend! I love getting dressed up, my husband on the other hand hates his blues lol. I am taking advantage of the dress shopping while I'm in Vegas so I can spend some quality fun time with my mom. Also know we have a general idea of his block leave dates before deployment, we have decided that this will be a trip for us to:

YAY!!!!

I really can't believe that October is almost over, but November is going to be a wonderful month for so many reasons. My beautiful niece Kylie will be turning 4 years old. I swear it feels just like yesterday that she was born:

Isn't she beautiful?!?!

My sister Lisa will also be celebrating her birthday (she and Kylies birthdays are 2 days apart), I love my sister so much and wish I could be there to celebrate their birthdays with them. Not long after that I will be there for Thanksgiving, yay!!!

Me and Lisa on my wedding day

As I'm sure most of you are I am beyond happy that it is Friday!! It has been one heck of a week, we are going on a Hallows Eve cemetary walk tonight, which should be interesting. Tomorrow we plan on watching a marathon of Ghost Adventures and passing out candy to all the trick or treaters!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

All I want for Christmas is..

Kyle and I really hadn't talked much about where we wanted to go for Christmas. We finally made the decision on Sunday (purchased plane tickets last night wahoo!!!) and this is where we are going:

We are going HOME!

I am so excited for 2 reasons:

1. We get to see our niece open gifts on Christmas morning, last year we had to settle for a DVD of her opening gifts. She is such a character and we are so excited.

2. My Mom (need I say more?!)

The best part is that she has NO IDEA we are coming. I have told my Dad and my sister Lisa because I want them to be in on it. Kyle and I can't imagine a better way to celebrate the holidays then with our families. He will be gone for Christmas next year and I want him to have this time with family.

This weekend went by way too fast for my liking. Friday night we went on the Historic Hauntings hayride in downtown and we had a blast!! It was perfect weather and we heards lots of awesome stories and some pretty cool reenactments.

us on the hayride

Saturday, we ate had breakfast out, did some shopping ( I took advantage of JCPenneys buy 1 get one for .88!! sale) and watched "The Lovely Bones" that night. If you have not seen this movie I highly recommend it, it was beautifully done.

I am back to work today after my procedure yesterday, everything went well there is no cancer and now the issue is under control. Thank goodness! All I can say is that the anesthesia they gave me was AWESOME! I have no recollection of the procedure at all. I slept until about 4:30pm and felt great after.

I better get back to work, have lots to get caught up on!

I hope everyone has a great week!

I wanna be sedated.....

If you are reading this right now I am currently under a lot of anesthesia having a not so fun procedure done (promise I won't go into detail). I have spent the last few days freaking out about this not knowing what to expect. Over the last month or so I have been experiencing a few issues that I needed to get checked out, then this procedure was recommended. Hopefully, this will help them diagnose what is going on (please pray that it is not cancer, as that is a very real possibility).

Hopefully I will be back to blogging in a few days. Please say a little prayer for me!

Good times..

These next few months are filled with a lot of fun things!! Tonight, Kyle and I will be going on a Historic Haunting Hayride in downtown Fayetteville. There are a lot of historic sites to see and I'm sure some awesome stories that go along with it. Saturday we are going to the 82nd Airborne Museum to walk through the "Haunted Hercules" it's a C-130 on display that will be converted into a haunted house!!! Awesome! If you live in the area you should check it out:

Next Friday we are going on a Cemetary Walk in downtown as well. We just bought these tickets today and are really excited. We love anything to do with paranormal activity, spirits and ghosts. Hopefully we can catch "something" on camera.

November will be fun-filled as well, we run the Raleigh-Durham Purple Stride 5k for Pancreatic Cancer on November 7th. I am praying for good weather and an awesome turnout! Towards the end of the month will be the busiest we are 3rd on a stand-by list to go on a retreat with Kyle's battalion to Great Wolf Lodge (we are pretty sure we will go), we have never been before and are pretty stoked about it. Then a few days later I hop on a plane to Vegas!! Yay! (I'm planning on getting my nose pierced while I am home, might even have another tattoo done but we will see)

I am excited to go here with my family:

My mom is the most excited out of all of us. Even though she can't ride the big rollercoaster anymore she plans on taking my niece Kylie on every kiddie ride.

Now we just have to figure out what we are doing for Christmas. (Maybe Disneyworld?!?! We shall see)

Happy Friday!!!!