I LOVE MAY!

hello friends

this is by far my favorite month, with august and december coming in close seconds. as always, a lot but not has transpired in the last month. it's been a busy 2 months for me actually - ladybug was in a play and talent show; i hosted our family's Easter dinner and threw it together at the LAST minute; and then had a few rounds of chemo, of which i'm just finishing up, and now getting ready for vacation which we leave for in exactly one week. whew!

so where do i begin? i'll start with ladybug since so many have been looking for pictures. so here they are. and ladybug was AMAZING! she had a major part in her schools production of "Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as Fenris Ulf the queens (witch) trusty captain. she practically stole the show and i'm not being prejudice (i promise, lol!). we had a small party for her between shows on saturday where the whole family and tons of friends came; juans family even flew out from atlanta - it was just a wonderful day full of love, laughter, and food.... and i was exhausted. then i started chemo the following week, but not before her solo performance in the schools talent show! i can't wait til the school year's over!

** as i go to upload ladybug's pictures, i see that i don't actually have any of her!! juan only took video!! stay tuned i will update this with her pics tomorrow ** 

next up is our vacation. heading to atlanta for a nice break. will be surprising ladybug with a quick trip to disneyworld. i can't wait, we need a vacay so bad. it was around the holidays when i realized that we've never taken a family vacation before - ever! we've done tons of trips all related to track, and yes, we go to atlanta every year, but that's our second home - literally. that's not a vacation.

i'm so glad the valley is so close

i just adore him.

so pretty

the day my chemo quarantine ended (last saturday), juan was thoughtful enough to whisk me off to the napa valley (yountville/oakville/st. helena) for lunch and to hang out while ladybug was of on a play date. the weather was nice so we grabbed some sandwiches from Dean & DeLucca then headed to one of my favorite wineries, V. Sattui , and had an impromptu picnic. we had a grand time flirting, eating, and kidding around. then headed down to yountville, home of the famous The French Laundry, and grabbed some dessert at Bouchon Bakery then he took me shopping. it's a wonderful thing when you have a someone in your life who enjoys food as much as you do, but also enjoys you enjoying it, AND actually wants you to shop! jealous?

this is what all the fuss is about!

beautiful 6ft foxglove

yes, i'm still gardening and it's going well. i'm off to a late start though due to the wet cold spring we've had. i'm just now pulling out my cabbage and broccoli! i'm at the tail end of my last patch of carrots, and am about to put in my zucchini and sweet pepper starts (all from seed). my green beans (haricort verts) are coming up now, and i'll be putting in my tomatoes this weekend - roma's, sweet 100's for sure, and maybe early girls, not sure yet. i've got lots of flowers going this spring/summer too - dahlias, gladiola's, and lillies from bulbs (my first time!), and hostas, gardenias, and more bouganvillea are waiting to go in. i'm excited!

under miscellaneous is that i'm finally getting back into photography. i used to develop my own film 'back in the day', and have put up my SLR (Cannon EOS) for a bit to play with my Nikon D5100. so i'll be posting even more pics, so definitely stay tuned!

be well my friends

green around the gills

i'm quite sick and haven't been outta bed in a few days - i won't go into details. but today i just HAD to see my garden and get some fresh air, i couldn't take it anymore.

so when i step out into the garden from the kitchen, this is what i see. once i got out there this morning, saw some zucchini ready to be picked, and broccoli almost. the tomatoes are going like gangbusters! i'm going to have yellow pear tomatoes for months.

i just love looking at everything, even when the yards a mess like today. the zucchini plants are just gorgeous to look at (to me), and it just amazes me how things grow. you see my little bell pepper? i'm so proud!

back to bed....

enjoy and be well :)

not so hot

today's just ok. the yucky-ness is starting a bit sooner than i had anticipated, a lot sooner than normal. so i'm not so hot. what was i thinking, trying to blog everyday after chemo? NUTS!!!

it began with me having to rush to get up to get ladybug to day camp because hubby just couldn't make it back in time. honestly, i didn't think i could do it. but once i got behind the wheel of my beloved T5, feeling the engine hum, vibrate... it woke me up. got my brain and my spirit in the right place.

i love my car. she takes care of me. she took care of me today. got me, and my ladybug to and fro safely. before i knew it, i was back on my comfy blue sofa like nothing happened. but then the garden called me.... i couldn't help it, so i went.

and it felt good.


and now...right now? i feel like crap, to over simplify it. the nausea, the pain, the chemo fog. but it still was a great day! good night friends.


be well :)

chemo - round 2, day 1 & my garden

hey there,

i've gotten through day 1 of my second round of chemo this year. for me and my treatments, one round of chemo is actually 4 infusions lasting about 6 hours each, over a two week period. i go two days back to back with 2-3 drugs (depending), then wait two weeks, and do it exactly the same again. i have a 7-10 day quarantine after each infusions, so one round literally takes about a month out of my life.

the first drug they give me on day one really isn't so bad... as chemo's go, lol! they give me drugs to make me sleep - LOVE THAT! - and they monitor me every 15 minutes for the first 3 hours, then every 30 minutes for the rest. so really, no sleeping actually going on, just a drug induced stupor. but i always sleep really good when i get home...nice. i have a port in my chest so that they can literally 'plug' me up to all the I.V.'s, and they leave them attached over night. ladybug loves that. she loves everything that has to do with me going to and being in the hospital.... oh well, maybe i'll get a doctor or a nurse outta this?

no on to my garden.... (ala, the majority of my NaBloPoMo topic)

like a said, it's growing like gang busters so here's a few pics from the end of june - this is a month and a half growth! and i just had no idea how big the zucchini would get, lol! i had to chop it down, but don't worry, it's doing just fine. i hope you enjoy.

be well friends :)

NaBloPoMo - Yes, it's been a while!

hey y'all!

yes, it's been a while since i've posted and in a way alot has been going on.

first, i'm going to kick my blogging off with trying my darnedest to participate in NaBloPoMo this month. it's when you post every day for one month continually on a particular topic. the topic for august is "Green" and other than talking about money and my garden, i have not other ideas, but hopefully more will come to me as i blog.

so for the updates:

- ladybug made it to the NATIONAL JUNIOR OLYMPICS in VIRGINIA!! yep, we are still amazed that she did it, and in 3 events - 200m, 100m, and the 4x100m relay! her medals are gorgeous and incredibly heavy. and yes, pictures of course!

- my life coaching practice (TurningPoint/Coach Angela) is definitely keeping me busy, and that's a good think because that means there are more and more women out there who are realizing their worth, and deciding to work on themselves, their relationships, they're financial, and employment situations. i'm working on new workshops for 2011, so stay tuned!

- i'm in the process of starting a charitable not for profit specifically for those recently diagnosed, fighting against, and more importantly, living with Lupus - THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT (site is under construction). i've selected the board members (and everyone has so graciously accepted), incorporated, filed state and federal tax exemptions for 501(c)3. i've got the state tax exemption, but the fed will take a while unfortunately. i'm working on the first fundraiser, but am going to wait til i've got everything i need to be able to say "your donation/gift is tax deductible". even though it's ok to do actual fundraising before the federal certification (i think you have up to 27 months), as long as you are incorporated and have at least the state certification. but until i get that i'd feel like i was taking peoples money 'unofficially'.

- health wise i've had my ups and downs - more downs in some areas, more ups in others. it's been a good year heart and lung wise, but not so much neurologically. we've been knocking around the idea of a bone marrow/plasma transplant thingy since late january (see short post), and like only i can, i've been putting it off. well, actually, i can't take all the credit. my doc's haven't been in agreement on whether or not to do the procedure because my heart and lung doctors, and rheumatologist are concerned that my heart/lungs can't handle the procedure. so we've been adjusting the medications and i had an intense couple rounds of chemo in february, and there's been no improvement, only decline.

so i start more chemo tomorrow morning and if there's no improvement, then we'll go through with the transplant procedures. hubby is not happy because he wants me to skip the chemo and get the transplant done. why? well he feels the chemo isn't working, and that all it does is make me sick with no payoff. i understand where he's coming from, it's tough for him to see me go through chemo. but i appreciate the doctors caution.


let's see.... i think that's it. so lets get on with the NaBloPoMo topic - GREEN.
and i'm going to give you a quick update on my garden! it's going like gangbusters! i'm a newbie so i've had a few mishaps, but nothing catastrophic. as a newbie i've made classic newbie mistakes like planting things waaaay to close, and not catching cabbage worms quick enough. but all in all, things are going well. i've managed to harvest 3 heads of broccoli, 5 zucchini, about 4 cups of green beans, and one small tomato.

i'll give you more on my garden in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

my new venture.... yes, another one

as you've seen from the post below... i've taken up gardening. hubby built two 3ft x 3ft raised beds that are about 16 inches deep and filled them with good old fashion organic compost - all in one day! boy do i love that man!

on moms day we went to the garden supply and nursery to pick up the things we/i needed and i got to it on monday and tuesday. i'm trying hard not make what the 'certified nursery professional' called a classic newbie mistake, by going overboard with all my plantings. i'm trying to be smart about the space i have, which is not alot, and the amount of sun i get (about 5-6 hours max), and what i want to grow/eat.

we don't have a lot of backyard space in general, but its just right for us, so i'm trying to balance the growing space with patio/entertaining space with where the sun actually is for most of the day. and it's not easy! we've been on a search for the perfect patio furniture for at least 2 years now and still no luck. i don't want to spend an arm and 2 legs, but still want something with a little flair i had no idea just how hard that would be. so now summer is fast upon our heels and we still have nothing. well, actually, we may have found a compromise at a local store. yeah, if we get that set we'd be settling, but hey, i want to actually sit out, or maybe even take a nap in my backyard this summer!!! i will have a set by the end of next week if its the last thing i do!

now, back to the veggie garden... so i'm going to try to grow -
3 types of tomatoes - sweet 100's, yellow pears, and early girls
3 kinds of summer squash - green empire zuc's, and yellow straight necks
italian bush beans (green beans)
bok choy
2 types of sweet peppers - red and green bells
collard greens
cabbage
spinach
broccoli
various salad greens - mesculin mix, romaine, red leaf
various herbs - rosemary, thyme, sage, french tarragon, genovese basil, and parsley

so what do you think? enough huh? i know! and after i plant all that, i'll still have those big wine barrels left to fill!! hmm... corn? carrots? rainbow swish chard? i'm so happy i could scream!!

be well :)

mommy's day

this is late, but i've been just too pooped, and my fingers have been too swollen and too much pain to type.

well, i do hope that all the mommies out there who deserved to have a great day for them, did. i know i did!

it began with hubby dearest getting ladybug and i up at the almost the crack of dawn - 7:30 am - he let me sleep in! we went off to breakfast, then he took me to my all time favorite kitchen/cooking store - Sur Le Table - and let me pick out several things, but most important, he 'made' me get my beloved Le Creuset!!!! i have been a crazy fiend for these pots for at least 10 years! my granny had 3 that are at least 40 years old, i just don't know what's happened to them. so, i hemmed and hawed about whether or not to get those pots til dh walked up behind me and told the sales lady that i'll take the purple ones. he said that that's why he brought me in the first place, and that he would have just done it himself only he didn't anticipate there being two different purples (purple is my favorite color), both of which he thought i'd like (he was right). i melted right then and there!

then off we headed to the nursery to get the supplies we needed for the raised bed garden that dh built for me. i was showered with cards from my brother, mother, and father, and then dinner was made for me! all and all i had a great day! here are a few pics... please enjoy!