My friend remembered

I'm becoming a pretty rare blogger. Confession - I am now writing in titles and saving the blank posts so I can at least remember what I want to blog about when I do get time.

That's what I did with this post, but I think I may have remembered anyways.

When I arrived home last Wednesday, there was a pretty large package in the mail. I opened it to find a book titled "Angels with One Wing - In memory of Jane Will Eichler". You may recall that my friend Jane lost her battle with cancer a little over a year ago. During her five year battle with cancer, Jane enlisted a group of people she called her prayer warriors. She communicated with us through a series of e-mails that her husband, Bob, has now chronicled in a book.

Wednesday night I glimpsed through the book, looking up specific dates over those five years when I remembered key things in her messages. There's reference to her being able to attend our wedding and notes about becoming a grandmother. Needless to say, there were numerous tears shed, but I also smiled as I saw the picture of Jane in her pink wig and read notes from Bob about how much she loved her horses.

The book ends with some family photos and messages shared from some of the prayer warriors and others in Jane's life. My niece Kelley, a 10-year old at the time of writing her note, who is watching her own father battle cancer, wrote a beautiful note about how Jane showed her to have hope that someday we will fight cancer and win! My mother has a note included that explains how one of Jane's prayer warrior notes brightened what was a bad day at work for her. When Jane was dealing with so much she was still able to lift up others.

This book is a wonderful tribute to my special friend and I'm so thankful to have this special way of someday sharing with my son what an amazing woman she truly was.

To anyone battling cancer or helping a loved one face this disease, I would love to offer up this book as a bit of encouragement and solace. I will lend it out under strict circumstances. Jane would have wanted it to be shared.

Catching up

Short of a bullet post, here are a few updates on my life and thoughts.

Last week I got my haircut at a new salon. Bad idea! It was the first time I had a guy cut my hair, which I was OK with. Every female that I know that has a male stylist really likes them. I, however, will not be making a return visit. I'll be going back to the salon I was going to before now and I'll just find a new stylist, because mine moved to Chicago. I do not like my cut. All I needed was a trim and someone he still screwed that up...and it took him an hour to screw it up. Then, when he asked how I normally style it, he said that he really doesn't use the round brush. I should have just told him to leave it and I would just wear unstyled hair home. End of rant. It will grow back and I've already scheduled my next appointment elsewhere.

I'm currently watching Grey's Anatomy online during my lunch hour. This is great for catching up on ABC T.V. that I miss. Brothers and Sisters is in the hopper for another time at home.

Lately I've been having numerous debates in my head. No time for details here but I feel like I have that little angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. For example, change can be great and I can look forward to new opportunities, while at the same time I can fear change and worry that it won't be all I'm hoping for. This same debate replays over and over lately. I suppose that's the voice of reason arguing with my emotions. Days ago I meant for this to be a full post but this is what I've got now. I'm intrigued to see which little character wins out on each issue. Do you ever imagine what your little characters would look like? Somehow I see mine as looking like those little troll dolls from a few years ago, more than actually looking like me.

I've been thinking about C's recent posts about yoga and the power of our minds. I'm really trying to make the best of each situation because I'm trying to remember that my mood and mindset influence so many other things in my life - the people around me, my work productivity, my own outlook on each and everyone moment with my husband, son and friends. I'm going to do my best to keep a positive attitude.

Emotions exploding

Obligatory apology for not blogging in so long - Sorry. Excuse - don't have one.

On to a "real" post.

Things have been pretty routine for us, busy, but routine. I can't believe our little boy is 11 months old today and frankly that realization is starting to pull at my heart strings. We've started the march towards weaning and that is another reinforcement that he's not the baby that came home from the hospital 11 short months ago. In fact my emotions have been a bit of a mine field lately - not sure when something is going to set me off in to a moment of depression or reflection. However, I have the same unexplainable random excitement and laughter. Damn hormones! My husband thinks it's just my typical family emotions. Yeah, that comment ticked me off too! Not smooth when I was trying to let him know how I was feeling. Hopefully this too will pass.

The exciting part about approaching the one-year mark is that I will soon be done with pumping. I've just removed it from the morning process and it's great to have one less thing to do before we get out the door.

On a happier note, we've been having a great time watching our football team chalk up some wins. Especially when we've historically been pretty bad. It's fun but exhausting - specifically when it is 90+ degrees out. I love nice weather but I would prefer the upper 70s or low 80s.

Yeah, that's enough randomness. Hopefully I can come up with something better for my next post and hopefully it will be sooner. But, for all you blog stalkers, here you go.