Three years...

Yesterday was three years since I took my last dose of chemo. I can't believe that it's been that long, but also it feels like it's been a lot longer. I'm very happy with my life right now...

... We are living in a great place, surrounded by trees and flowers, and great neighbors. There are lots of great trails around that we like to take walks on. It's pretty great.
... I have two amazing boys that I get to spend my days with, and one little guy on the way. A dream I didn't know would be possible after this whole cancer ordeal.
... I'm back around my family and my in laws and it's been great to spend more time with them and have our boy play with his cousins again.
... I'm planting my garden for a second year in a row. Something that I had always wanted to do but never really got the chance before last year.
... I've been able to spend time with some of my best friends from forever ago, and am making new friends in our little town here.

Life has moved on from cancer and it's been nice to make new memories and move farther away from this. It's still there, it's a part of who I've become, but I no longer feel like people need to know that I had cancer. If it comes up, it comes up, but it's not a defining part of me.

Life is good. It's not perfect. There are a few things going on in my life right now that make me really sad and have been hard for me to deal with, but that is life sometimes. I'm learning that there are lots of things that are not in my control that I can't fix. One would think I would have learned that already going through cancer in my twenties... but apparently not ;). I just need to focus on being good and loving to others and be grateful for what I have.

Sorry about the horrible editing of this picture... I have no clue what I'm doing. It got bad and I couldn't get it back...

As far as cancer stuff goes... I'm now more than halfway through my remission. I go and see my oncologist every 6 months for blood tests and a physical exam. I'm done for now with CT scans and am suppose to have a chest x-ray this next week. However, with little brother cooking away in there I wont be doing an x-ray until after the baby is born. I check myself periodically for lumps and bump in my neck, armpit, area to see if I find anything... but nothing has come up! I'm super grateful that things are going well with this!

Lets talk about the hair for a minute shall we? I have not cut my hair since I took a picture last year. I think I've trimmed my bangs twice but now I'm letting them grow out too. I desperately need my hair trimmed, but just have been avoiding it. I'm super partial to my hair now and I love that it is getting long again! It's been fun curling it up. I wish the curl would last more than a day but my hair is so fine and blonde, it just doesn't hold curl for more than a day. I use this method to curl my hair and it works great! I've been trying to be better to my hair and have gone from washing it everyday to every other day. The days I don't wash, I curl. I think I want to grow it another 6 inches or so, I've never had hair that long! It's been fun to have my hair long again and it's hard for me to even remember being bald. Don't get me wrong, I remember it, but it just feels like that was so long ago.

So... it's super awkward to take pictures of yourself. I always end up taking a bazillion pictures and hate most of them ;). I just feel super big right now, and I look at pics of me and think, "is that really what I look like?" I finally figured out if I put my arms the way they are above that you can't see my chunky arms... true story. So it's a trick! Ha! Probably didn't fool anyone though! It's for a good cause right? I will hopefully slim back down when I'm breast feeding in 5 short months. That's the best weight loss tool I've ever found for myself, and I'm hoping it works again!

Anyway... here are some of the out-takes of our little photo shoot yesterday...
 

He really is such a cute helper.

Mid-self timer make out session over here (not instigated by me... and yes I still kiss my five year old on the lips).

 

He felt like Michelangelo needed some pictures after we were done, and I was eating my lunch. Fun times!