Hungry Hungry Hippo
Hungry hippo,
Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle
Bloggers at Work
Step into my office.
This is where I do the very important work of blogging about being a mom. I know. You want to be like me when you grow up, don’t you?
I even have an intern.
Let me tell you, for an unpaid intern she’s quite expensive and high maintenance. She expects a meal, several meals, every day. I’d say something about her expecting me to wipe her butt, but that would be crude.
This is the kind of meal I prepare for my crew every day.
Ok, that’s not true. That’s the kind of food I intend to cook every day.
This is more like the kind of food I prepare for our meals.
Well, no, that’s not true either. That is the kind of food I would like to eat, and it implies I actually cook. In reality, I serve freezer lasagna, macaroni and cheese, and anything else that requires less than 5 minutes of time and effort on my part.
So much for being a food blogger.
These are my blogging pants.
What? You don’t match your intern to your pants?
Yes, she was taking yet another break. But she does contribute a lot to our team.
Here she is storyboarding my next blog post.
How do you work?
She keeps stealing my hat
It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t bald. On the other hand, at least I don’t have to worry about hat hair.
It doesn’t hurt that she looks so cute in my hat
This is my view most of the time: the back of her head, with or without my hat.
and, she’s off… excuse me, I’ve got a toddler to chase
As the sun sets on summer
I spent a little time in the hammock this summer, even more time on the couch. I have always loved the languid, laid back, mellow qualities of summer. But as much as I love this season, I’m usually ready for it to end about this time of year.
As the sun sets on summer, I’m looking forward to fall. The season of back to school has always connected with ideas of fresh starts, forward motion, and momentum for me. This is the time of year when we buckle down and focus. We re-establish routines, and get serious about getting things done.
My last does of Taxol was truncated after just a few minutes, so it’s been a month since I received a full dose of chemo. The unscheduled break is over, it’s time to restart this seek and destroy mission against those cancer cells. Tomorrow I go back in and we will start a new type of chemotherapy. I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and make some progress in this battle.
The Promise
“Will you still love me if I get breast cancer and they cut off my boobs and my hair falls out?”
I should have known better than to ask the question, but I was insecure in our young relationship, and I craved the constant reassurance. Of course he put my fears to rest, along with all the other worst case scenarios I could think up.
Neither one of us imagined how quickly he would be called on to honor that promise.
And he did – he does every day.
With each step in the process – the diagnosis, the mastectomy, my hair falling out, the day he shaved my head – I braced myself for a hesitation, a pause, an ever-so-slight withdrawal. But it never happened. In fact, it was just the opposite. I think we are closer now, more in love, than we were before.
Six years ago today we stood under a tree and vowed to love each other for richer or for poorer, through sickness and in health. Damn if we didn’t nail poorer and sickness. But I wouldn’t dream of spending this time with anyone else.
You might think that with the cancer diagnosis and six months of treatment so far, this year was the worst of my life. It wasn’t. Not by a long shot. That dubious distinction is reserved for my years at Valley Christian School. This past year, cancer included, counts among the best years of my life. And that is because of my husband – and my baby girl.
Happy Anniversary, Sweety. I love you so much.
Now let’s go get some happy meals.
You can learn more about my cancer story here:
Let’s Connect
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