I'm back! Did you miss me? :)

A few people have asked me about the blog and the complete lack of any posts in August.  Sorry guys....it's not that I haven't had anything to say, but I used to write my blog posts when I was too sick to do anything else.....and I guess I just haven't felt that way lately!  Praise the Lord for that!

I'll give the cancer update in a minute, but first, for any Des-Moines/Central Iowa people, my friend Katie's organization, Katie's Crusaders, is hosting a 5K10K walk/run THIS Saturday, and we still need more runners and walkers!  The walk benefits local families, including ours, who are struggling in various stages of breast cancer.  It's held in Waukee, and starts at 8am.  Click here to sign up for the race, or volunteer!  Not only do you get to support a great cause, but you also get a super cool t-shirt. :)

So...here's a quick cancer update.  I am CANCER FREE!  (I think I've already posted that, but it still makes me smile when I type it).  I'm so thankful for that.  My radiation burns are healing and now just look like super weird tan lines.  My bones aren't aching too much anymore, and I'm starting to get some energy back.  I started taking Tamoxifen, which I'll be on for 5 years.  It's not my favorite, but for once (literally, once - this is the only time I can think of for prescription meds), I'm not getting just about every single possible side effect, and the ones I am getting are pretty manageable.  Praise God for that too!  I really prayed for that.  I've seen my oncologist for a follow-up, and she was very pleased with how healthy I was.  I see my radiologist tomorrow so he can check up on my burns.  And, I'll contact my surgeon soon to get my power port removed.  Woo hoo!  Life is good.  Oh - and let's not forget the truly important details - my eyebrows and eyelashes are fully back, and my hair has grown in enough that I've stopped wearing my scarves all together! 

For all of you who were able to make it to my "Kelli's Kicked Cancer" celebration, thanks for coming!  For those who weren't able to make it, I'll tell you that we had a really great time.  It was so much fun to celebrate, and we had such nice weather - it was just a perfect night. Good food, good friends, and a good time! Here's a picture of Dave and I from the party:

And, keep in mind, my hair's had another month to grow since then!  I put a bunch of photos up on Facebook, so check those out too if you're interested.

So, I'll keep going in for follow-ups, and I still will have one more surgery, probably later this fall, but my journey through cancer is starting to wind down.  However, there are very exciting things coming up for us!   With that in mind, I'll keep the blog going, but change the direction of it quite a bit. 

I'll tell you all about the next phase of our lives very soon!  For now, I'm off to clean up the kitchen, run some errands, then teach piano.  Isn't it just wonderful that I can do all that stuff again?