We are celebrating! Brian had his last maintenance chemo last Friday, so no more trips to the chemo suite hopefully for a very long time! It is hard to believe that it has been 2 1/2 years now since Brian was diagnosed with NHL which turned our world upside-down. Brian’s response to therapy has been case-book perfect and he had no ill effects from the chemo regimen. I attribute this to Brian’s overall general health being so good. He has always taken care of himself, eats well (thanks to me – hahaha!) and of course he has never lost his love for exercise and athleticism. Brian has no other chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease or other ailments that seem to creep up on us as we age. So all of this I feel has really helped him tolerate chemo and get that little pesky lymphoma to recede. We know that one day it may return but Brian’s mindset is that he is keeping it at bay for many years to come and be one of the statistics that beat the odds of recurrence within 10 years. He says he is going for 20!!!!! That’s fine with me and I love the positive attitude and faith he has! Brian now just follows up with the oncologist every 6 months with blood work every 3 months and has no restrictions on his life-style other than to live a healthy one!
So on Saturday we quietly celebrated Brian’s 69th birthday even though he was feeling a little fatigued from his chemo. Breanne and the girls dropped around in the morning to wish him Happy Birthday and then in the afternoon Jenn and David came over and stayed for supper. Breanne and the girls came back for another little visit and we had a really good day with everyone.
Brian and I are going to get away to Florida next week for a 7 day trip to meet up with our friends from Australia who are visiting family in Sarasota and thought it was a good opportunity for the four of us to get together again for a few days before they head back to Australia. We are really looking forward to seeing Richard and Roseleigh and also to get some sunshine after this long and brutal winter!
It is birthday season for us now, with Brian’s birthday first, then David and Breanne’s on Feb 20 and 21 (can’t believe they are going to be 32 and 31!) then my dad’s birthday on the 24th (he is going to be 92!!!!) and then Bob and I celebrating our big “7-0 and 6-0” birthdays. Unbelievable how quickly life passes by but we all enjoy every second of it! Unfortunately, we will be away in Florida for Breanne, David and dad’s birthday but we will celebrate when we come home. Bob and I will have to celebrate as well and have a dinner out!
Other than that, I have a few pictures to share of things we have done over the past couple of months. In the meantime, I’m counting the days until spring…..I think we have all had enough of winter for this year!
Breanne and I decided that we would do a Freezer to crockpot marathon one Saturday so we had healthy food in our freezer made from scratch and all we had to do on any given day is pull one out from the freezer and plop it in our crockpot. I researched the recipes, we made a grocery list and went shopping and shared the cost.
Here is all our meals, ready for the freezer. We totally enjoyed doing it and it took us about 4 hours from start to finish (including the shopping) and we had 14 meals for the freezer! Since then, we have both eaten all our meals and now are ready to do it again; this time making more to last longer! It is so easy and so nice to just have supper from the crockpot without a lot of fuss!
While Breanne and I were making our crockpot meals, Selena went down for a nap and Brian and Annika made snowmen in the snow!
Annika and Selena have started swimming lessons at the University Pools. One day Uncle David (who is also a coach for the Marlins swim club) was there to watch.
Love the look on the instructor and Selena’s face!
This is how high our snow is in the front yard! We have no where to put the snow and I can barely lift it now that the pile is so high. Thankfully we have a snow-blower as well!
After one of our many snowfalls this year; this is looking out the end of our street onto Victoria Road. It was very pretty that morning actually!
After a day of playing outside with Papa and sledding, it was time for some nice warm hot chocolate and marshmellows!
