Tuesday 12 November 2013

I'm Such a Delinquent

Oh boy, I have been such a bad blogger.  I have been busy and lazy which is really a terrible combination.  But it goes well with my insomnia and fatigue.

Let's see, it is November, I just had my birthday :-) Funny thing about having cancer, you appreciate turning a year older every time it happens.  I haven't looked forward to my birthday so much since my 19th but I am getting ahead of myself.

Time for a little time travel........................and whoosh.............beep beep.........it is September again.  Remember September?  It was very nice here on the west coast, I think.  I actually don't remember that much about September.  The last week of September Ian and I packed up the pets and headed to Kelowna for some wine and hot tubbing.

Wait....I'm getting slightly ahead of myself.  In mid-September I HAD MY FIRST HAIRCUT!!!!!!
Yay!! Such a bizarre milestone I know, but it is the first time scissors have touched my hair since July of 2012.  It is hard to not get excited.
Okay, and back to Kelowna.  Ian and I helped our lovely friends Keetah (yes, also my hairdresser) and David do some house sitting for a few days.  It was positively lovely.  There are so many wineries around.  We would go out and try a new winery and bring home something pink and bubbly to sit in the hot tub.   Such a fabulous way to relax.

We found a really great deli in Vernon as well, although it turns out it now also in Kelowna.  The drive along the back road, which is now paved, between Kelowna and Vernon was beautiful.



And we saw a very nice barn.


We also brought home lots of wine.

A couple days after we got home it was Run for the Cure time.  The Red Devils did awesome!  We raised over $10,000!!!!  Thank you at all my team members for your hard work fundraising and baking.  Turned out there were bake sales at 3 different work sites for this year's team.  And a HUGE thank you to all of the donors.  Our team is pretty famous from last year at the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation office for the amount of money we raised so it is so awesome that we could do it again this year. Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!

The day was fantastic, we had such beautiful weather.
And here it is, my speech (Thank you Sarah for videoing):


And here is a partial team photo:


I had to be at the run site freakishly early to be interviewed so this the pic is mostly the early arrivers.  We actually had almost 30 people on the team.

After run day was over I had a week to recover before it was time to head off to Mexico.  Ian and I were flying to Guadalajara for a few days before heading to Guzman (here it is Heather in print so you don't forget the name) for my nephew's baptism.  I think our week in Mexico was possibly one of the best holidays I have ever had.

In Guadalajara we stayed at Hotel Morales in the Historical District.  It was positively stunning.  The building used to be a house where the visiting bull fighters would stay.  Eventually it was combined with a couple of neighbouring buildings and the hotel was created.  There were two different wings to the hotel and each wing had a central courtyard.  It was interesting because we didn't have a window in our room.  Turns out that not having a window is a great feature as the room was so quiet after the chaos of Guadalajara.

Ah ha! Found some pictures:




The top photo is the view from our hotel room door into the court yard.  Middle is further out and the bottom one is looking down on the courtyard fountain.  Such an awesome hotel!

We also visited a couple of tequileries one day which was fun.  After doing the Kelowna wine tours it was an interesting comparison.
Then on Wednesday it was off to Guzman.  I must say that mid-October is one of the best times to visit Guzman.  It is the time of their primary festival celebrating Senor San Jose that runs from the 13th to the 23rd.  There are lots of street food vendors (churros.......yum) and local artisans.  There are a couple of really neat dance groups and as the festival goes on it seems like more and more people join the groups so the dancers really start to take over.  There are fireworks every night sponsored by local families.  It is really unlike anything you would see in Canada and worth the visit just to experience the festival.

We also had the opportunity to see some small town and farming Mexico and even get up close and personal with a few cows before having a fantastic barbecue.


Saturday was the baptism.  The ceremony was at Rocio's old church, the same one where she and Craig were married.  I was delegated the role of user of Craig's camera.  I was definitely not a photographer......it is kinda scary holding a camera that is probably worth as much as my disability benefit is in a month.
Sebastian was super cute in his baptismal outfit and he was very good.  I think he may have had more patience during the ceremony than some of the adults present:-)

And there was a huge party after with the required bouncy castle.  Those castles are the best way to entertain a big group of children, it is quite amazing.
I did my best to not consume too much tequila and it was fun seeing so many of the people we had seen at the wedding 2 years ago.

Sunday we came home.  And then I was pretty much in a stupor for the next week.

Last week I saw my oncologist. Tomorrow I have a bone scan. Eek.  My birthday was Sunday so it was ribs and chicken and potato salad and beet slaw and baked beans.  And, of course, cake for dessert.  Yes, I did bake and decorate my own cake.  I wanted to practice all the skills I learned in my class.

And here is  the gratuitous meat shot:



No, I did not eat all that and yes, we do have a few leftovers still.

Oh, and one last thing.  I have now been approved for CPP Disability. That should make my LTD company happy.  I don't actually see any of the money it is just automatically sent to the insurance company.  The only perk I get is that from the perspective of the Canada Revenue Agency I am now classified as disabled so there is some sort of tex credit I now get or something.  I don't really know.  I am waiting for my information package to arrive now that my claim is approved.

Okay.  I think that is everything and we are now nicely up to date.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow's bone scan.