I like your haircut

I was at work today when I finally had my first "I like your haircut" comment.  I really didn't know this lady.  I've seen her here and there but since she didn't work in my office I never really had a conversation with her.  Sure the normal hi and bye with a smile but no conversation.  Sounds silly but we were in the restroom (isn't that where most females have conversations???) when she looked over to me as we were both washing our hands and said.......

Her:   "I like your haircut."  Didn't you use to have blonde hair too?  It looks so cute. 

With the most null and void look on my face and I thought for one moment do I tell her or do I smile and say thanks?  I don't like my hair, and it certainly wasn't a chosen haircut.  She was smiling at me and I though, gezz I gotta say something so I did it.  I looked at her and said.......

Me:   well..........ummm......it's actually not a haircut. 

Another lady walks in.  Oh geez, should I even go there?  Well, whatever these women are all familiar and why is cancer such a secret?  I guess I don't want people to feel sorry for me, I want people to be aware of this silent killer.  So I continued. 

Me:  Ummm......I actually had cancer and I've only had this hair for 6 months now.

She looked shocked and apologized immediately. 

Me:  No, no, you don't have to apologize.  It's not that big of a deal, I didn't tell a lot of people so you wouldn't have known.
Her:  I'm so sorry. 
Me:  It's ok.  I'm fine now.  Well, so the docs say.  But really never know.  I never expected cancer.
Her:  Can I ask what type you had.
Me:  I had breast cancer.  It came out of no where.  In fact, I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of finding it.  So hard to believe how things change in a year.  I smiled and looked down at her belly.
She was about 8 months pregnant.

So we talked about my cancer and talked about her pregnancy.  Things are fine and I enjoyed our conversation.  Funny how something like a haircut or in my case hair growth can start an entire conversation and now when I see her, I'm sure we'll be chatting up a storm.  But what's funny is, I've been wondering when my first "I like your haircut" comment would occur and how I would react to it.  Now I know.

Radiation done

Well I had a chance to call dad today and he said he was doing well.  Radiation ended yesterday and he's back home.  He said it was quick and easy, no burns.  Lucky duck!  So glad dad is doing well.

Dad's Radiation treatments

I haven't mentioned this before but I've been talking to my dad here and there for the last few weeks.  Apparently the docs thought my dad's cancer came back.  He had lung cancer in May, 2010.  He had surgery in which if I'm correct the surgeon took 3/4 of his lung.  He had 3 chemo treatments, once a month for 3 months.  I think he was suppose to have a 4th chemo treatment but decided not to do it.  Anyway, he never had radiation treatments.  So just recently on a followup appointment, they found something on his lung.  They did a ton of tests and dad met with several doctors.  From what dad said if I have this correctly, the doctors said it didn't spread and that it's a small spot on the 1/4 of the remaining lung.  So the doctors decided to do 5 radiation treatments, once a day for 5 days.  I'm concerned for him but I'm sure his medical team know what's best for him.  So today is day one.  I assume it was somewhat like mine.  Show up, get undressed, get lined up, get radiated for approximately 5 min and get dressed.  Unfortunately for him, his doctors are 2 hours from his house so he got a hotel for the rest of the week.  I'll be thinking of him and of course wishing him the best.

Damn CANCER!!!  I really HATE it!

Green thumb

Last year Ken and I moved in to our new home at the end of June.  I was so excited to move in, decorate, and make it ours.  One of things I've always enjoyed was planting flowers and I actually wanted to try to plant a garden as well.  I had all these flower pots ready to go.  Then a few weeks later, I found my lump and the entire summer was ruined.   Well actually summer, fall and winter was ruined.  Now that I'm finally getting back to some sort of normalcy I'm happy to announce that I was able to plant my flowers and my garden this year.  And this is what I grew:

Strawberries 

 Basil, rosemary, tomatoes, green peppers, radishes

 tomato plant

 They're getting there

 Green peppers and radishes

 My radishes

 Tomato almost ready

 my green peppers

 And an unknown corn stalk.

Story behind my work:
Loved the strawberry plant.  I think I might have only gotten about 10 strawberries total.  Ate 2 and the other 8 were taken by some critter or bird.  All I know is right when the strawberry was ready to be pulled, it was gone when I went to pull it.  I finally made it to the store to get some netting but by then the strawberries were done.  I'll be ready next year.

I made the mistake of planting 2 tomato plants in one pot.  Although the pot is rather large I didn't realize how large tomato plants grew.  So as the summer has gone by I went from really large tomatoes to small ones.  But I did get approximately 50 tomatoes off those 2 plants and I still have about 20 left.  Verdict...home grown tomatoes are way tastier than store bought ones.  Well see how long this plant lasts but mental note for next year.  1 plant per pot of find a spot in the ground for it.  

Loved my radishes but will try to find a different place to put them.  They grow quick but all at the same time so I will try to stagger them as well so I get a bunch weekly instead of all at once.  I think I only got about 10 radishes and I kind of gave up on replanting them.  I grew mine from seeds.

I bought 2 green pepper plants.  1 plant produced 3 green peppers and the other only produced 1.  The plants have really grown in the last few weeks and new buds are appearing all over.  The green peppers are in a small square pot.  I'm thinking next year I'll have to try to plant it in the ground.

The rosemary and basil plants smell so nice but the basil plant has grown like a weed.  I've actually cut a few stems off and put them in water.  It's grown roots and I replanted the basil stem and gave it to a few of my friends.  From what I hear, their basil plants are growing well.  I've pruned my basil back once and will have to do it again.  At the end of summer I'm going to try to start a new small plant.  We love throwing basil in our homemade chicken noodle soup.

I tried to grow scallions and chives and neither worked.  But what didn't expect was the corn stalk I grew without planting.  Ken found it growing in our yard and planted it in my pot with my dill plant.  Well the dill didn't do very well but the corn stalk grew over 6 feet tall and there's actually 1 corn on it.  It won't be edible but it was really fun watching the corn stalk grow.  In fact I enjoyed watching all of my garden grow.   It was good therapy for me and although I have no desire to rush this year, I am looking forward to growing a new crop next year.   

My little graduate

Although he's to young to attend Kindergarten this fall, my little Codyman graduated preschool with his class today.  Congratulations Sweetie!!!