The past few days have been SO wonderful, that the nausea hardly seems worth mentioning; although it's definitely a part of my everyday life now.

We drove to San Jose Thursday morning for a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws house. John, the kids, and I love to spend Thanksgiving with John's family, it's the best day ever!! Between the corn souffle that my sister-in-law, Terri (aka TT) makes, Nana's stuffing, or just sitting around catching up, I don't know what we look forward to more. I personally love to admire my mother-in-law's dollhouse that was hand-crafted by her grandfather back in the 1930's or so. It's an exact replica of the house that Pauline grew up in and it fascinates me! I love how she always has it set up for the next holiday :) This year Amy (one of the grandchildren) took the liberty of setting up the house for Thanksgiving. The dollhouse people (our family) go all out, including putting another leaf in the table, and using the "fancy" dishes. It's so much fun to look through the eyes of a child.

Friday morning John and I parted ways. Don't worry, it was only temporary :) John and the kids dropped me off at Luanne's house in Santa Clara, while they drove on home, since John had to work later in the day. I stayed at Luanne's house for a nice little visit until my brother Jeff, my sister-in-law Sheryl, and niece Marina, came to pick me up. Jeff brought me back to his house in Gilroy for the weekend. What a fantastic time I had!! My cousin Harold was already planning on coming for a visit and it was such a joy to see him when he arrived. We don't get to see Harold as often as we'd like because Harold is a Catholic Priest and travels around helping out wherever he's needed. Jeff is working on getting Harold set up with email so that we can be in touch with him on a regular basis :)

Saturday, Jeff, Harold, Marina, and I went for a drive through the hills to a little town called Corralitos. If it weren't for the car sickness that Harold and I felt afterwards, it would have been a beautiful drive :) We stopped and had lunch at this cute little deli where Jeff had to buy "the best bacon in the world" for Sunday's breakfast.

Sunday morning we all went to mass and the homily just so happened to be about a story comparing two cancer patients. Mary, was given a diagnosis where she felt she had nothing to live for, no hope, and she soon died. The other named Mark, was given the same diagnosis and felt that he had everything to live for, all the hope in the world, and ended up living a long life. The doctors told Mark that there was an 80% chance that he would survive this. After church, we all went back to Jeff's house for breakfast and it wasn't until we were talking about how awesome the message was, how God was speaking directly to me regarding the cancer, did it dawn on Jeff that too bad my name wasn't "Mark", then the story would truly have meaning. His mouth hung open as he said..."Oh my God, your name IS Mark!!! Your last name is Mark". We laughed for awhile about that. Just astonished how amazing things are if you truly believe that God is working in your life and I choose to believe.

The last amazing thing that happened over the weekend was that my cousin Linda called and said that she had a van for us. Just like that. She had known for awhile that we had one vehicle and she just called and told me to come pick it up. Wow!! I don't know how to thank her enough. It was as if my prayers were answered. When things start to get hard for me (and I imagine they will), having two vehicles will be wonderful. Thank you Linda for making my life easier :)

When I arrived home Sunday night, I received the warmest welcome from John and the kids. I've never felt so loved in my life :) They told me to never go away again!!

So you see...I had the best weekend EVER!! Thank you to ALL OF MY FAMILY for having us over, it was wonderful :)

Love to you all!! Peace ♥ Genie

It's a great day to be alive!

Today I am grateful...

For all the men and women serving our country
That I am living in the United States of America
For the fact that I woke up this morning :)
For my fantastic family & friends
For all the prayers and messages from loved ones
For the world's best husband
To be blessed with two terrific kids
For great health insurance
For the best doctors and nurses around
For quick pharmacy lines
For awesome meds that are keeping me from vomitting
For even better meds that are killing my cancer cells

The list goes on and on...

So you see, I am not bitter, I'm grateful. IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE ALIVE!!

May God Bless You All & Happy Thanksgiving ♥ Peace out

So far my journey has been pretty easy...considering the circumstances. I mean, who ever WANTS to be diagnosed with cancer?! But, after the initial shock, it's been a piece of cake. A little nausea here, a little bone ache there, big deal. Well, after speaking with Luanne a bit yesterday & this morning, I'm starting to get the picture that it's not always going to be as EASY as I'm letting it out to be. Who really cares that I have sores in my mouth, right? WRONG. Luanne says that it's a huge deal, that I should really watch that carefully, as she's seen it go terribly wrong, to where the patient can't eat and/or drink and ends up in the hospital being fed with IV nutrition. YUCK!! So...with that being said, I'll be picking up a mouthwash prescription today when I'm at the hospital, which will hopefully keep my mouth infection free.

I haven't introduced Luanne yet! Sorry about that. Luanne is my best friend of 31 years! Dang, we're old. Anyway, I trust Luanne with my life. She just so happens to be in the medical field and works with critically injured patients everyday. Luanne works as a manager at Stanford Medical Center, which just so happens to be where I was born :) Yay!

Well, it's time now to start getting ready for my day. My brother Frank & my sister-in-law (whom I've known almost my entire life) Monica, are taking me to my 2nd treatment today! I'm actually looking forward to another dose, believe it or not, because it's just one step closer to getting me healthy :)

Today I choose HOPE, LOVE, and HAPPINESS :)

And as Jordan would say...peace out

Today was full of mixed emotions for me. It started with work ~ yay, I went into work and although I was scared every time somebody would cough or sneeze around me, I managed to make it through the day. I felt good, so why not work? I'm not out on disability, so in the meantime, if I'm able to work, I'd like to.

Then, my brother Jeff came all the way from Gilroy to pick me up for a funeral of our cousin Linda's son. Martine Rosario was only 19 years old, just a baby. We wanted to go and show our respect. Linda's mother and mine weren't always close growing up, and so although we're cousins, we didn't get to spend enough time together. We recently reunited at my brother Tim's house in August and it was a wonderful occasion. However, I never imagined the next time I would see Linda would be at Martine's funeral. Jeff and I can only remember meeting Martine once when he was a little boy, so it was very sad that we did not know the young man that he had become.

With sadness, brings joy in some instances and this was one. Before the services started Linda motioned over Jeff's shoulder and we both turned around to see a well dressed man who was introducing himself as Jim. It took us quite a few minutes before realizing that Jim was Linda's brother whom we haven't seen since we were small children. We proceeded to reminisce after the ceremony and vowed not to lose touch again.

Life is too short. Enjoy the memories, love your family and friends, and most of all...live for TODAY because tomorrow is never guaranteed.

So this is all new to me, never had a blog before, never felt the need to inform everyone of what was going on in my life on a regular basis. Until now. Everything changed October 5, 2009 when Kaiser called and told me that I had breast cancer. What?! Are you kidding me?! There must be a mistake, I don't have cancer. I not only don't have cancer, I've never missed a mammogram! How could this be happening to me?

Instead of going back and reliving every single day since that horrible phone call, I've decided to start where I'm at and look back occassionally. Besides, what good will looking back due now? I've got to look to the future now and start working on getting better.

The reason for this blog is to inform family, friends, and those just curious about what my daily life has been like since the diagnosis. My children, Johnny and Jordan, should have something to look back on someday and I want to start here. Thank you for joining us on this journey :)