A Birthday Celebration!!!!

Well we had yet another birthday celebration!!!! Nathan turned 5 years old on November 13th!!!





Another milestone for me~ I remember when he was only 8 weeks old and being told I had only months left to live!!! And now he was turning 5 and here I am to celebrating it with him!!!!














Here are some highlights from our gathering to celebrate Nathan turning 5!!!!

Nathan shows off his new talent of balancing a spoon in his chin!!!!



Ryan enjoys his cake too!!!


Owen takes a test taste before diving in!!!





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Zachery....Well we all know how Zachery is he just dives right into the cake!!!




And so did his side kick Brady!!!!




It was just a great night and I truly enjoyed having another year with BOTH of my boys!!!!
Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

Love,
Mommy

A Tribute To Shannon...

Welcome to a very special entry. When another warrior and friend had lost her battle to Melanoma I was devastated beyond words. We had been friends for several years and she had reached out to me for support and I found it much too hard to call her back. I had just had the tip of my tongue removed and I was just so overcome with depression with the loss of many others on our support board and with my dear friend Shannon getting more sick that I was afraid that I would not be able to find the words to help her. So instead I just did nothing.... I emailed her and she understodd but I still felt guilty. She was such a great person!!! Then I got the call on Sunday morning from my best friend Jenn....the call that never
wanted to get...."Chris...are you awake??it's me Jenn...Shannon has passed away..." I sat up took a deep breathe and told her I would have to call her back and just sat in my bed and sobbed hard..really hard!!! I don't even remember if I called her back that day or not. I was so mad at myself!! How could I let my friend down like that??? I hit a wall so hard I crahsed and it hurt!!! I shut eveyone out and I was beating on myself and I wasn't letting up. Then one day at 4:30 I decided to get in my car and go down to my church to talk to my pastor. I didn't have an appointment but he had a few minutes to spare. He asked me if I thought that Shannon was mad with me. That made me think... He asked if I was mad at myself for not calleing her back that day or if I was mad that she had died from this disease and not me?? Was I upset with being a survivor??? He felt that maybe just maybe my real issue was with the fact that I was carry alot of guilt around because I have Stage IV Melanoma and have survived for longer than what was expected but yet many others around me are not. He said that I try to support others but them I fall short at the end and then I beat myself up for that and then what good is what I do if I do that??? He was right. If I want to do good and help other Melanoma patients and their famalies then I have to do it right!!! So I went home and got onto 2peas.com one of my scrapbooking message boards and made a plea for some help with making an memorial album for Ed and Allanah and Ryan, Shannon's kids. I posted my story and Shannon's story and a link to her blog so they could read her story and get a sense of what Shannon was all about. Before I knew it I had a ton of women responding and saying that they would help me out and make layouts. So the end reslut are these amamzing layouts that are now on their way to Ed. They filled up 4 albums!!! Layouts were sent to me from all over..Canda,California,Australia just to anme a few places. Some women took pictures right from Shannon's blog to use on the layouts. The thought and intense emotion that has gone into these is just amazing!!!! I could not have pulled this off with out the help of all of these very talented women!!!! Thank you!!!!

Rest in Peace My Friend Bryce...

I am a few days late in getting this up here but I have been trying to think of how I wanted to do this. My friend Bryce was laid to rest on Tuesday October 30th. There was an outstanding 700 people that attended his services!!! I had been up late Sunday night trying to find a flight to get me out there so I could be there but trying to get a flight that would have me back home in time to be with the boys for trick or treating was impossible. I struggled with what to do and went back and forth in my mind but I just couldn't let the boys down. I sadly had to email Tammy and let her know that I was not going to make it there for the services, I was extremely sad and down about missing it. I sent her text messages that morning saying "Hugs 4 U" and she replied telling me how beautiful Brycey looked!!! Later I had gotten and email from her telling me how the services went. Bryce was truly an AMAZING and AWESOME person!!! Tammy said that 40 members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir filled the large chapel with beautiful music.
Tammy gave such a beautiful description of what the day was on her blog that I have linked http://www.brycedbrown.com/journal/2007/11/week-in-a-fog.html
Here is a small piece of what she said:


The funeral lasted two hours, and none of it was boring. I tried to check out the crowd, but it was hard to see who was there—as I said, I have been in a fog. As we followed the casket outside (I'm sure the pallbearers were glad Bryce lost all that weight--you guys must have one longer arm today ;) to the vehicles, Nic sped around the corner with a SWEET new Porsche in which to transport me to the cemetery. How he scored the use of that car for the day, I’ll never know. It was fitting, as Bryce was a Porsche fanatic. We like to think Bryce was in there with us, saying, “Come on—let’s see what this baby can do!” (Incidentally, we saw what that baby could do after the burial. That car rocks.) Bryce was buried on the hillside, close to his younger brother Brian. Brady dedicated the grave with a beautiful prayer. The weather was perfect, the flowers were beautiful, and many people honored Bryce’s fight by laying their “We’re Killing Cancer” wristbands on the casket. I also saw a few of the wristbands decorating several headstones around the cemetery. It made me sick to think Bryce was caged up in the casket and would be under the ground. I hated it.

If you have never had a chance to read Bryce and Tammy's blog I strongly suggest you bookmark it because as she says, she has only just begun....