On birthdays and new beginnings

Since today is my birthday (shared with beautiful daughter Allegra) I thought I'd re-post what I posted on my newspaper blog.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

A new year ahead brings hope for us all

As 2012 comes to a close and I celebrate another birthday in a few short days I'm really not feeling nostalgic about the passage of time.

On the contrary. I'm looking forward to 2013 and a new start.

Soon I'll be marking my second anniversary as a breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with the disease in February 2011.


The past two years have been an educational experience, to say the least.
From hearing my doctor give me the news of my diagnosis on Feb. 11, to two surgeries, to chemotherapy and radiation treatments, to losing my hair, I've learned a lot.

One thing I learned is that keeping oneself healthy is a full-time job. Appointments abound!  

I've also learned to appreciate the little things in life more than ever before.

Soon after I was diagnosed I joined a support group.
I'm part of the Circle of Friends, which is based at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby. The ladies certainly live up to the group's name. They are friendly! I've never been in a support group before. New members are always welcome. 

I consider myself a private person but a year ago I wrote a revealing (for me) story about the American Cancer Society's "Look Good...Feel Better" session I attended at Griffin Hospital.

And I've participated in three fund-raising walks - two sponsored by Griffin and one coordinated this October by a dedicated Naugatuck mother of four whose own mother is a cancer survivor. The walks benefited the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital.

This year I formed a team. It was a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to getting an even bigger team together next October. New members are always welcome. {grin}

This fall Griffin Hospital launched a survivorship program and I've been taking advantage of what the program offers. Last week I was one of only three patients who took part in a helpful workshop run by licensed clinical social worker Donna Hayes.

My takeaway from that session was I need to make time for moi, something with which many women seem to have trouble.
Women of a certain generation (myself included) have been raised to take care of everyone, which leaves little time or energy for much else.

Maintaining a healthy diet, exercising, getting physical rehab, socializing, participating in fund-raising activities, and writing about all of the above. It's all a part of kicking cancer to the curb.


If you have gone through a bout with cancer as millions of us have you know whereof I speak.

 
And so...what about those New Year's Resolutions?

I haven't made a list yet, but mostly likely I'll jot a few resolutions down on a piece of paper.

And what about you?

Labels: 5K walk/run, breast cancer, Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital, New Year, support group, survivors

Halloween was hectic, but fun

We had 142 Trick-or-Treaters! Whew! 
They were cute, though. And polite. They said thank you and many of them even said Happy Halloween.


On Friday the school where Allegra works as a tutor held its belated Halloween celebration, since the storm forced schools to be closed through Wednesday.

School marm

The costume theme for the staff was the 1950s. Allegra found this skirt and blouse at a thrift shop and went as a school marm.
The art teacher attached a white poodle to her skirt, to make a "poodle skirt." It worked!

Tina's Wordless Wednesday ~ Moooo

(My husband Ralph participates in this wordless meme and I thought I'd join in the fun this week. Our daughter Allegra and I visited a farm yesterday to get ice cream.)

Eating more ice cream, tra la, tra la

I did it again. I consumed more frozen deliciousness on a hot summer day. And it was at yet another historic site.


Allegra joined me in the fun. 

This is "swamp" ice cream ~ cookies and cream with caramel swirls and M&Ms.

So in an effort to pump up my page views, I'm promoting it here ~ because I can.


Stay tuned for future installments of Ice Cream 101.

Update to yesterday's pre-Memorial Day parade post

If you look in the center of the photo you'll see Allegra wearing a costume from 1790 in Monday's parade as she walked with a group from the Derby Historical Society. Wish I had a better camera and a telephoto lens.

This is near the end of the parade route ~ everyone must have been tired!

Then a few steps closer  to where we were situated, she paused for a quick pose.

Here she is with Ralph watching the rest of the parade, all smiles because her job was done! It had gotten quite warm and summery and I'm sure that costume was hot.

Ready for a parade

Darling daughter just left to march with other docents from the Derby Historical Society at the Derby-Shelton Memorial Day Parade. She is wearing a circa 1790 dress.
It's much different than the Colonial garb she wears when she is one of the teachers in the "Day in 1762" program for fifth graders at the General David Humphreys House.

I'm happy she enjoys American history as much as she does! 


Ralph and I will be stationed near the end of the parade route to see her marching and then bring her back to the car. I just hope she doesn't get blisters..

Breast cancer, blogging, being healthy: the 3 Bs

I seem to be busy with work and life in general and my blog has been ignored.
That doesn't make me feel good. But I have returned.

What does make me feel good is I'm blogging away as part of my job.

Yesterday I wrote a story for the newspaper about Saturday's second annual Women's Day of Health at Griffin Hospital (in Derby, Ct.) and also wrote a blog post about it. I even mentioned my own breast cancer surgery. I'm not one to reveal too much about myself, but it was in me to write.

I knew quite a few of the ladies there, and enjoyed chatting with them. There were slightly more than 100 registered.
Darling daughter, one of the youngest participants by far, accompanied me and we had a great time, as we did last year. And we ate! Yogurt and fruit for breakfast and a delicious chicken wrap, apple, and goodies (cookies and pretzels - Ralph got the pretzels) for lunch were included.
All in all a wonderful event. We're looking forward to next year.

Please click on the link above and tell me what you think.

~ And so my breast cancer journey journal continues...thanks for reading.

Shadow Shot Sunday ~ waiting for Allegra

Our daughter marched in New Haven, Ct.'s St. Patrick's Day Parade March 11; the crowd was huge (I've heard it is the second biggest St. Paddy's parade in the country after NYC).
It was an absolutely gorgeous, almost-Spring afternoon.

We dropped Allegra off, since we have Ralph's wheelchair with which to deal. Allegra was part of a small group wearing Colonial costumes representing the Derby (Ct.) Historical Society. If she participates next year, we'll have to plan to to get there really early so Ralph can find a good spot to park his van and get through the throngs of people along the parade route.

I spied these shadows as we sat in the van waiting for her to find us. Ralph parked a few streets over from all the action.
We didn't spend the entire time parked here, we visited the nearby IKEA for lunch and plenty of people-watching. What a busy store that is!

I was going to post these pix last Saturday for SSS2, but sadly I didn't get around to it. I guess I am a "late" bloomer. ;-)


Join the fun and see lots more photos of shadows from across the globe at Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Bizzy days

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to radiation we go ...

It starts today and will continue for the next seven weeks. 

Life has been a bit busy lately...we got home at 10 p.m. yesterday from Ralph's co-worker's wedding and this morning I'm fixin' to head to my first radiation treatment.

Here's Ralph enjoying himself at the wedding. I had a tough time getting a good photo ~ I blame it on the soft lighting. This was the best one I captured.

Before we went to the wedding we visited our docent daughter working at an open house at the David Humphreys House. 

The annual open house features samples of Thanksgiving fare - turkey, cranberry sauce, cornbread, squash pie and more - prepared over an open hearth in the historic house. 

Here's a link to a post I wrote about the event three years ago! I would have guessed I had written it last year. Time sure does fly.  

Allegra surprised us yesterday when she told us she had made the tasty pumpkin soup.

My favorite is the squash pie. Our friend Christine who always makes the squash pies says she follows a pumpkin pie recipe and simply substitutes butternut squash, because it's sweeter than the pumpkin.

Yum!

That's about it from here. Off to get ready to be radiated.  

Cute and observant, if I do say so myself

I went through a drawer yesterday that hasn't been gone through in quite a while.

I found a scrap of paper from 1995, when our daughter was 6 and our son was 4, with the following written on it:

July 30, 1995:

Allegra said, "Cam, you're confusing me." 

Cam replied: "I'm confusing myself."

So Allegra said, "Write it down, Mommy."

~ ~ ~

She knew I was always writing down cute things they said. A lot of it is on scraps of paper.

Now to find them all!

Balloons, crowds, and general silliness

As I mentioned here yesterday, I spent Saturday at the 14th annual Derby Day.

I had never been at a venue an hour before a festival started, so it was interesting to see the vendors hurriedly getting ready for their day, that feeling of anticipation in the air. (I'm easily amused I suppose).
At that point the skies were overcast and I thought that rain was on the way. Fortunately that wasn't the case. It turned out to be a lovely, sunshiny day.

I thought there was a good turnout, but I'll have to find out this week from the organizers what they thought about the how the day went.

Above you see the stately Sterling Opera House standing in the center of all the activity.
It's the same historic (and haunted?) 19th-century building that was investigated a few months ago by SyFy's "Ghost Hunters" team led by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson.
People were lined up throughout the day to get a chance for a free tour. It generated a lot of interest. I love that building.

These two wine bottles that Valley Arts Council member Billiejo of Prospect, Ct. transformed into incense holders were on display at the council's booth. Eye-catching!

So after helping at the booth a good part of the day I started to get tired, and by late afternoon I got out the camera to pass the time. These photos are what I call my balloon series:



Silly enough for you? There were more pix but I decided that was enough of that!

There also was a Mustang convertible being raffled off..here are Allegra and Ralph checking it out.

I think our daughter would like a vehicle like that. She sure looks comfortable in it. ;-)

Our docent

When I was stopped at a light the other morning I was able to catch a photo of our daughter Allegra in Colonial garb doing her docent thing.
She loves teaching the fifth graders who visit the Gen. David Humphreys House in our town. Humphreys was aide-de-camp to George Washington and his boyhood home is now the headquarters of the Derby Historical Society.
The 18th century house in the photo is for sale, as you can see by the sign that kinda ruins the scene.
Allegra portrays Elizabeth Clark Hull, who was the paternal grandmother of Commodore Isaac Hull, who fought in the War of 1812.

Shadow Shot Sunday * snowy *

We had a blizzard here last Sunday and Monday. Here's a photo I took as our Allegra was looking for photos Monday once the snow had stopped.

I was lucky enough to catch a shadow on the snow.

You can see lots more shadowy pix at Hey Harriet, hosted by our awesome Aussie friend Tracy.

I wish a Happy and Healthy 2011 to all my blogging friends!

Sepia scenes

On Sunday we attended a Thanksgiving open house at the David Humphreys House in Ansonia, Ct. Here are several junior docents who made a lot of the food (pumpkin soup, squash pie, turkey and all the fixings) we sampled. They did a great job.

They even churned butter in glass jars. Now that is a lot of work!

Our daughter has been working there as a docent teaching fifth graders from area schools to learn about "A Day in 1762," the year that Humphreys was 10 years old.

Unfortunately tomorrow is the last day of the program until spring. Part of the day is spent outside touring the historic district, and so the classes are put on hold for the winter.

You can read about the open house here, and here, and at Ralph's blog here and here. I hope you can stop by! Safe to say we both got a lot of posts out of the fun event.

Visit Mary T's Sepia Scenes to see lots more sepia-fied photos.

Our daughter the docent

Today was a Thanksgiving open house at the David Humphreys House in Ansonia, Ct. The house is the headquarters of the Derby Historical Society. Ansonia, as well as several other towns, were once all a part of Derby.

Our daughter, who hopes to become an elementary school teacher someday, has been working there as a docent when fifth graders visit the house where Humphreys, a Revolutionary War hero, was born. The house was built at the end of the 17th Century. Humphreys was born in 1752.

Humphreys was a teacher, an aide-de-camp to George Washington, and later served as an ambassador to Spain. He brought black Merino sheep back to Connecticut from Spain and started a woolen mill.

At the open house we enjoyed samples of pumpkin soup, squash pie, turkey, cranberry sauce, applesauce, and brown bread with freshly-churned butter. Everything was delicious. I enjoyed watching Allegra talk to the members of the public about the house and the food that had been prepared in two fireplaces.

I was pleasantly surprised when blogger and history buff extraordinaire Linda walked into the room while we were sampling the food. I knew she had wanted to see the house, but I wasn't sure if she would be able to make the trip today to our part of Connecticut.

Happily she did, and brought her daughter Jamie and, of course, her camera. It was good to see them! I hope they enjoyed themselves. I'm sure Linda got some great shots.

You could say the kitchen is "rather dark" even when it's sunny out. But with its big fireplace it is definitely cozy. Notice the formal portrait of David Humphreys in the front room, seen through the doorway.

The turkey was roasted in this tin oven in the fireplace in Lady Humphreys' parlor, located next to the kitchen. This room in the front of the house definitely lets in more natural light.

Ralph also wrote a post about our afternoon, which you can read here.

Bowled over

Told ya we bowled! (See last week's post here.)

Here's proof that Allegra and I were actually in the bowling alley. Notice the lanes behind us.

One of the folks who works for the non-profit that hosted the bowling night took this photo. I thought it came out cute.

We were hot and tired, but we managed to have a lot of fun!

To bowl or not to bowl

Daughter Allegra and I went bowling on Wednesday. If you knew us or had been a fly on the wall at the bowling alley, you would be chuckling right now.

We're not very good at it.

The non-profit for which she has been volunteering had a family night, and it was free. So we went and had a good time! Met a few nice folks and realized we needed some "practice" before we could call ourselves bowlers.

I won the first game; she won the second. Neither of us cracked a 70..but we did crack up a few times.

The last time I bowled the balls were all black. Who knew they came in pretty colors now?

Bwahahaha