On a little journey - Wanna come along?

Dear little honeysuckle peeps,

You know how much I care for you. You know I have been a little sporadic on my posting as opposed to what I usually do. Well, I am inviting you on a journey I am going to be taking. You have to promise me some things first or Harley will be all over your case. Ready.....

OK - I admit it - the luggage is only representative of a "journey" - we are not really going out the door with it although if the truth be known it has really gotten a work out lately since the end of September: two trips to Wisconsin and one trip to Warrenton, VA. Whoop whoop.

Here it is used only as a visual aid. Journeys are sometimes interesting, sometimes fun, sometimes educational, and sometimes gotta be done if we want to or not. No choices, you gotta suck it up and walk on down the path you are meant to walk at certain times in your life.

Well, I have had several of those journeys over the years, especially in 2003 when I had to have the ole aortic heart valve replaced with open heart surgery and a little mechanical one, Tic Toc Tic Toc put in! LOL That one event opened my eyes really wide and I really believe I started a new life at that point. And, I have to admit something to you little peeps...... after that most things in my life are literally "no big deal."

This journey will be a little bit different and hits 1 out of 3 women. Yup, had my annual mammogram and they found a small 1.2cm mass. No one thought much about it and even thought we could wait 6 months to do a new ultrasound or not - we could do a biopsy now. I chose the latter. The decision to put this event on the blog has been a long-time coming - since October 1 but I believe we all can benefit together from this story. Yes, it is cancer and I have been going thru a whirlly wind of doctors appointments, blood work, EKG, and ... this week will have an MRI tomorrow and surgery on Friday. Can't tell you what kind of surgery since everything will depend on the MRI.

So what have I done in the middle of all this and go to work each day? huh? Oh I tried to play as much tennis as I can before I can't lift my left arm too high. Last Friday played from 4:15-6:00 and will try to get more play dates in this week before Friday. Also been trying to catch up with work since I'm not sure if I will be out a day or two or what. Harley, of course, is doing everything he can to assist. I offered him the choice to go into surgery with me:

He flatly said: leave my boobies out of this. GRRRRR, as if he has any? but I'm not telling him - Oh crap, he heard me, I'm sorry little guy, You got little Ta Das - kind of.....


Man on man, I will not hear the end of it tonight - he has yet to forgive me for the shower cap photo. hehehehe


Anyway, the message here is don't skip your annual appointments, boys and girls, it is important to catch cancer early. When I told a friend of mine who is a breast cancer survivor - she said, "Cancer is such an ugly word, but...." The "but" is we have come a long way in the treatment of it. Right now I have heard from two health care professionals that we seem to have an "epidemic" of breast cancer right now. I think it is probably because we have become so successful in detecting it.

So, I have told my immediate staff:


And my assistant, Gertrude,


And if any of you others from my workland are reading this, I would ask you let me spread the story, if I want, around the staff or not. Those who know, know and I know not many of you read this blog. OK maybe one I do know who is near and dear to me,


Guess you know now... my little le peep....

So, as we walk together down this lane, remember to breathe in the scent of the honeysuckles, let your soul soar and sing with the songbirds, relax, watch dumb TV, create, and thank God for the glories of His universe and the opportunity to partake in it each and every day to the fullest. I have used this poem many times in my art work and will close this post with it. I believe every since word of it:
"When you come to the edge of all the light you have,
and must take a step into the darkness of the unknown,
either there will be something solid for you to stand on,
or you will Fly...." Patrick Overton
OK, peeps, I will keep you posted and you keep playing, singing, and creating!
I'm gonna play tennis and cross stitch and - oh yeah, have dinner with Oliver. What more can a girl ask for, I ask you??