Happy Mother's Day!

Hope you all had an awesome Mother's Day with your children, your Mothers or someone who's filled that void in your life! I had a wonderful celebration with my family. My husband grilled out lunch with my amazing children assisting with side dishes & desserts!! Oh, and not to mention presents for their Momma! I'll admit it, I love presents & I got some wonderful ones! I have such an amazing family & I don't know why I've been so blessed but I'm so thankful that God has done it for me!

Baseball season has started here again. We are at a ballpark somewhere almost every evening & are loving it. Owen & Myer are playing wonderfully again this year. There is so much improvement since last year. They are really enjoying themselves & we are enjoying sharing this time with them!

Me & my amazing children; Regan, Tyler & Kelly.

Our "supermodel" pose!!



Me & my "baby boy"!











We are enjoying our time at the cabin & construction is coming along nicely. We hope to hve a large portion done by Memorial Day. I'll post pictures & get you all up to date later. By the way...you all have a standing invitation to come to up & spend some time whenever you 'd like! Give us a call & we'll figure out a good time!! We'd love to have you!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

The Great Room...big blank wall will have a stone fireplace & chimney to the ceiling.

Looking from the great room thru the kitchen into the new master bedroom.

Looking into the new master bedroom from the new kitchen.

The view from the master bedroom (closet on the right) hallway with pantry on the left thru to the kitchen & greatroom.

Helo again!! finally an update!

I am still here!! It's been a long time...since March 6th to be exact. That was my 1 year diagnosis anniversary. It's been a great 6 weeks since then. I've started the new medication, Doxil & things are going really good. I've had no side effects as of yet. I have my 2nd treatment tomorrow & I appreciate your continued prayers for the effectiveness & minimal side effects. Thank you!!!

We have been enjoying some time at the cabin. We've had a couple really beautiful weekends up there, weather-wise. Spring is springing in MN...finally. We have had a couple cool snaps but things are blooming & sun in shining. I even have some tulips coming up at the cabin. We are adding on to our little piece of heaven & hope it will be done by summer/Memorial Day weekend. I'll attach some pictures.

I'm going to be having another birthday in a couple days (the 21st) & I'm looking forward to celebrating!! We are going to the new Pizza Ranch in Champlin & maybe even Cherry Berry yogurt for dessert. Being together is the best present of all!!

Ed & I took a road trip to Alabama a few weeks ago to visit his family. It was so beautiful down there! We really enjoyed the trip itself...we both love to travel. Then a week or so ago I went to Ohio to visit my folks by myself. I drove all the way there & back on my own. It was a great trip & I got to surprise my Mom & Dad!

Well...not much else is new here. We are looking forward to a wonderful summer at the cabin with family & friends!! If any of you are in the neighborhood of Moose Lake...drop in!!! We'd love to have ya!

"Old" gas station in Athens, AL

Old mild wagon my Father-in-law gave me...over 100 years old!!

Our cabin additon...great room on the left...master bedroom on the right!



Happy Anniversary!

Today is my "one year since diagnosis" anniversary so I celebrated with a 2 hour massage!! Came home & there were flowers sitting on my front porch! A beautiful bouquet of tulips & irises!! It just doesn't seem like it's been a year since we got the horrible news of ovarian cancer.

But in many ways it's been a blessing. It has really helped me understand & know what is important & what isn't. It's brought our family closer & made us more understanding of each other. We have enjoyed being back home from Amsterdam this past year. Being back with our family is the best medicine ever!

I am getting ready to start a new medicine in a couple weeks, Doxil. This drug has been unavailable for many months/years because of drug shortages. The FDA was just approved to import it from another country & my very wise doctor wants me on it!! I'm excited to get started. I just pray, and ask you to do the same, that side effects will be minimal & most of all that it will be effective!

We are celebrating Owen's 12th birthday this week! Wow doesn't seem at all that he can be that old!! Seems like just a few days ago I was snuggling him on the couch, looking out the big picture window at all the birdies. Owen, you're such a sweet kid & we are so very, very proud of you!!

Been a while...

Thought I should get on here & at least say hello to everyone. Hope your new year is off to a smashing start! All is well here at the "Peek Plantation". Treatment continues to go well...still on Cytoxan (orally) every day & Avastin (infusion) once every 3 weeks. Side effects are basically nonexistent so for that I am extremely thankful!!

We have been really enjoying our winter here in MN; basically no winter to speak of. Very little snow & not very cold. Winter isn't over yet so we don't want to speak too soon!! We've been enjoying watching our middle grandson play basketball this winter. This is the one that broke his femur playing football this past fall!  He is actually playing in a tournament this weekend; his team is 5-1 so he's excited. The other two grandsons are doing great...growing up way too fast!!

Ed & I celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary on Valentine's Day. We were actually in Las Vegas; he was out there speaking at a conference & we took a couple extra days for fun. I got to do some "out of my league" shopping (meaning Tiffany, Louis Vitton, Gucci, etc) sit by the Fountains of Bellagio, go to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum & sit in the quiet with my book & crossword puzzles! I was hoping it would be warm enough to sit by the pool; at least without a jacket but not yet. Still had a wonderful time. We saw Terry Fator, a ventriloquist that won America's Got Talent a couple years ago & a Legends in Concert show. Both were very fun! Spent a lot of time just walking too & we always enjoy that.

We are looking foward to warm weather & getting out on the Harley. We have a couple trips planned for the coming year so it can't get here soon enough. Hope you all are doing well & remember...

LIFE IS GOOD!

Rhonda & the "Elvi"

Ed & I on the Goldola at The Venetian!!

Happy 2012!!

Hello All!
Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas & safe great new year celebration. Ours was amazing. It was so good I got to go to Yellow Tree Theatre with good friends & see Miracle on Christmas Lake-Pt 2. You've all got to see it next year! Such good belly laughs!

I am feeling great. I am continuing my daily chemotherapy pills (cytoxin) and once every three weeks infusion (avastin). I'm having basically no side effects so this is a very good thing. The only "side effect" I guess is that I've lost almost all my eyelashes. Nothing else! Oh, well...I can handle that! So my appetite is good, energy level is good & I'm able to do just about anything I want. I've started volunteering once a week at the cancer center & that brings me great joy. I feel like I'm helpful to the staff there & I've made some good friends. I think I'm helpful to the patients too. I've visited with some who are in their first or second chemotherapy treatments so we chat & we both feel better (I think ;-)) I had a CT scan last Friday (1/20) and will get the results on Wed (1/25) so I'd appreciate a little extra prayer on that morning. I feel confident that Dr Downs will tell me that the tumor is shrinking & we'll continue with the meds that I'm on now.

Our family is all healthy & happy so that is a lot to be thankful for. We have been going to watch our middle grandson play basketball (the same one that broke his femur playing football). Our oldest grandson has his first orchestra concert tomorrow night; we are looking forward to that! The youngest one is busy enjoying preschool & being a sweetheart. We still enjoy our weekly Friday night sleepovers with the grandsons. Such a wonderful gift for us!

We are also enlarging our cabin & that is super exciting for us. Hopefully the construction will be done by spring. I'll post pictures later. But our newest addition to the family is our beautiful moose head that we bought for the cabin. The boys named him Martin; I added Griswold. It is actually my & Ed's anniversary gift to each other. We will celebrate 37 years on Valentine's Day. We will be in Las Vegas; Ed is speaking at a conference that week. We plan on seeing Terry Fator, a ventriloquist on the 15th. Looking forward to a little bit of warm weather.

Hoping you all have a wonderful new year & check in here again soon!!

Corrections...

Got some dates confused & just want to update...I keep myself confused!!!

My next treatment is this week, December 30th. Just a normal infusion of Avastin. Shouldn't take more than an hour or so. Then I have a CT scan on Friday, January 20th. Please pray for a good report & that the tumor is shrinking or even gone! I'll have an appointment with Dr Downs the following Wednesday, January 25th to get the results of the CT.

We've had a wonderful Christmas celebration with our family. Ed, the grandsons & myself went to the cabin for some R&R & really enjoyed ourselves. So quiet & beautiful up there!! Not much progress on the addition thus far. Hopefully things will speed up really soon. We took "Martin Griswold" up & he's waiting in the barn until the additions are done!! So very excited to have him join our family!! I'll post better pictures of him later (he's the moose head that we've wanted for many years).

Hope you all have an amazing New Year celebration & stay safe!!

Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to take a minute to say Merry Christmas & a huge thank you for all your prayers & support in the past year. It is all appreciated aso much more than you will ever know! with friends like you all I feel like I can get thru anything! Love you guys!

Dr appts are going well & my side effects has still been very nominal. I am so thankful for this. I will have my 3rd treatment this coming Thursday. I also have a CT scan scheduled for about the 21 of June. Keep the prayers going!!

Me in front of the Dam Squares Christmas tree . The Queen's plalace is to my left & the Peek & Cloppenburg department store in to the left.

It was an amazing trip & we excercized a lot of demons.