Charlcie

I've been somewhat pleased with January 2010...cruising along, doing my own thing, staying on pace with life in general. Keeping things fairly in order. Haven't quite tackled all of those resolutions with the vim and vigor I had planned but have had good intentions and made headway in general. But I feel it coming...I have several things creeping up. First on the docket, my round of thyroid cancer follow-up shots and scans the week of February 8th. I'm not freaking out about it like I used to, especially since I'm keeping with my New Year's resolution of no more thyroid cancer in 2010 . But it's a process - physically, emotionally, logistically. It's a pain in my routine. But you know, if that's all I've got to contend with in regards to thyroid cancer, I'll take it. So here's the schedule: Feb. 8 - thyrogen shot (preps me for the scan) Feb. 9 - thyrogen shot Feb. 10 - small dose of radioactive material given (no glowing green will occur...I...

I'm asking a question today to which I have no answer: Why are we, as a society, so fascinated with shows like " Hoarders " and " Intervention "? Specifically, why am I so fascinated by these two shows? I "DVR" (yes, it does seem to be a verb these days) both of these shows. I started watching Intervention a few years ago and then quit recording it because....I felt guilty? Had thyroid cancer and was dealing with that? It was too voyeuristic? Let me back up a second and give you a quick synopsis of each show from the A&E website: Each 60-minute episode of Hoarders is a fascinating look inside the lives of two different people whose inability to part with their belongings is so out of control that they are on the verge of a personal crisis. Intervention™ is a powerful and gripping television series in which people confront their darkest demons and seek a route to redemption. The Intervention Television series profiles people whose dependencies on dr...

Last week I made my way back to Dr. Pun 's, my endocrinologist, for my somewhat quarterly blood draw (checking thyroid levels in general) and to talk about recurrence monitoring. I told him what I had decided on New Year's Eve , that I was going to speak positively and not have thyroid cancer again in 2010. I had it in 2008 and 2009....I WON'T be dealing with it in 2010. He liked this plan needless to say! And then told me a really bad joke, thus, the name I have given him, Dr. Pun. :) The other topic of discussion: it's almost time again for shots and scans. Two days of shots, one day to take the low dose of radioactivity, one day for the scan and the last day, blood work: a full week of fun! The last time I did this "week of fun" was April 2009 , and everything came back relatively clean. It was the first time since all of this cancer business had started that I had any cancer test, scan, etc. come back with any sort of good news. My "fun week" isn...

Wow, how can that be, the last day of the decade? On Twitter today, there was this trending topic "#10yearsago" that really got me to thinking....Here was my tweet about that: #10yearsago my kids were in preschool & elementary school. Now....teenagers! Oh yeah, and I didn't have cancer then either. That came along in 2008. However, my life has evolved so much more than that in the last 10 years. Biggest events in my small world: Great decision to marry Chris in 2004, Pepa passed away in 2005, and thyroid cancer in 2008/2009. The girls have grown into amazing kids....plus, added Christian by marrying Chris. And so much more that I'm sure I will think immediately after posting this, "Dang! I forgot about __________!" I'm really looking forward to this new year....a new beginning, a new decade. I've got some personal goals/resolutions to tackle that I'm actually pretty psyched about. Plus, I am thrilled to see the kids grow into adults....hmmm,...

For some the holiday season begins when they put up the Christmas tree. For others, it might be the shopping the day after Thanksgiving. For me, it is when we receive our first Christmas card, which this year is today (thanks, Beneventis!). Yes, we've been buying/shipping/receiving presents already, but something about the Christmas spirit and season for me starts with a Christmas card. Whoever sends me/us the card has chosen a card design that they like, added us to their list, and decided to use one of their increasingly valuable postage stamps to send the card. That means something in my book! And something about getting the cards via "snail mail". Granted, I'll send an e-card from time to time, but I love getting the cards in the mail as how often do we really get letters or cards from anyone these days? If you are friends with someone on Facebook, you don't even have to remember someone's birthday AND can wish them a happy birthday online! Now, I'm no...

Where does the time go? November was a blur. I work at a veterans organization so the beginning of November was crazy in terms of my job...lots of great work to be done surrounding Veterans Day. Just days after that, I took off for Austin, Texas, and the Convio Summit. Convio is a content management system used by non-profits (remember...I'm a website/social media geek?), and they have a conference (or summit as they call it) each year talking about product development, improved usage, etc. It was a good chunk of time for me to focus on professional growth and fresh ideas/approaches for the website/organization for which I work. From Austin I flew to OKC to my parents' house for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was nice to have three days with my parents and just me. I looked at mom at one point and said, "This is the first time we've seen each other in 18 months that is not related to me having cancer!", which frankly was great! Chris and girls arrived on Sunday then...

Today as I drove home from a Veterans Day program at a local elementary school, I noticed something great about Vienna: the streets are lined with flags for Veterans Day. It made me proud! Tomorrow is Veterans Day. When you work for a veterans organization as I do, it's a big deal, frankly, as it should be for all of us! I work at a great place with a great mission so I'm going to share a bit of my work, which wasn't hardly work at all, from today. I had the opportunity to attend a Veterans Day program today and talk with kids about it. They attend a school where they place alot of emphasis on Veterans Day education, and as I listened and participated in the program, I understood: the principal is a veteran herself, and the coordinating teach is a veteran of 27 years. I've added a link below so you can check them out. There are individual videos as well so don't miss those... Thanks for supporting our veterans! http://www.pva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=support_Ve...