Bad news for our family

Picture was taken just after my dad was first diagnosed with Cancer in 2006
My dad has been fighting cancer for almost 3 years and recently had started his 4th chemo treatment. He's been such a trooper and never complains. However, Monday our family got some bad news from my dad's oncologist. His cancer is spreading and is no longer responding to treatment. They have given him 2-3 months. There is nothing more they can do but keep him as comfortable as possible for the time we have. This has been EXTREMELY difficult for our family but has brought us so close together which I know makes my dad happy. The last few days we have met all his Hospice nurses and case worker, re-done all his meds, and will hopefully give him a better quality of life so we can spend some good memorable times together. Our Halona family has been so supportive and several members of our family are coming into town from all over the country to visit with my dad and show their love. I'm grateful that my work is also being EXTREMELY supportive and giving me whatever time I need to be with my dad and family. They more than understand and that is so wonderful that I don't have to worry about that. Monday was one of the worst days I'll ever have in my life, but I am thankful to have my family and John around me. John came to my dad's to just sit by me and hold my hand. When we got home I realized I hadn't eaten all day, and all I wanted was cereal but the milk in the fridge expired. So he went to the grocery store to get me some milk and brought me back some flowers. Lynzie has also been amazing on keeping an eye on me, checking in with me to make sure I'm breathing, eating, resting, etc. I don't know what I would do without my support system. I'm definately going to need it.

Movie Night Birthday Party

Sunday we celebrated my birthday with my Halona family. We had it at my sister Desiree's clubhouse which has a movie theatre room. We had popcorn, chips & salsa and drinks while watching "Transformers". My dad had never seen it and it's one of my favorites. It was a fun movie night with my family and I got to spend some time with my dad and see my little nephew Hurley who is growing so fast. Two of my other nephews, Jake & Tristan, had fun running & flying onto the bean bags. Thanks Re' for arranging the clubhouse and all the treats!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year for Valentine's we took a more casual and approach. Friday I had a dozen red roses waiting for me when I got home and Saturday morning I made John bacon & eggs for breakfast. We decided to stay home for dinner since neither of us felt like battling the crowds. So I bought 2 rib eye steaks, strawberries & chocolate for dinner. John BBQ'd the steaks and I made the chocolate covered strawberries. I even started to setup the dining room table (that we never eat on) so that we could have a nice romantic dinner, but of course we're not that fancy and we ended up eating in the living room while watching the NBA All-Star games in our lounge clothes :) It felt so good to just relax and later in the evening we opened our presents. I got a very much needed gift card to Sego Lily Spa :) I already made plans to use it on Monday since I don't have to work :) Thanks honey!

Valentine's Party for the CBH

For the past week or so, Courtney & I have been planning a Valentine's party for the kids at The Christmas Box House (CBH) as part of our on-going volunteer work with them. I was REALLY excited about this project because we actually get to interact with the kids. So Friday afternoon, Courtney, myself, Terri, Keri and Keri's sister all went to The CBH to setup while the kids finished their lunch and played outside. When we were ready, we split them into two groups and they took turns playing ring toss & bean bag toss. The kids really got into the games and seeing how many points they could get. Quite a few of them asked if they could keep the game so after the party we donated the games to the CBH to keep. After the games we had the kids decorate their own heart sugar cookies. It was messy but a lot of fun for us and for them. They really enjoyed decorating their cookies and I had so much fun helping them and see the different designs they would make with the frosting and sprinkles. There was an adorable 2 year old African-American girl that was such a cutie while eating her cookie. She had frosting all over her face, hands and clothes. It was SO funny to watch her. I wish we could've taken pictures of the kids, but due to privacy issues we are not allowed. I took some pictures while we were setting up before the kids came in but that's all we were able to get. I absolutely LOVED playing with the kids. They were such good kids that it's hard to believe the reasons that they are at CBH. This has been my favorite activity with the CBH and I hope we do more activities like this with the kids in the future.

Pizza Birthday Party at work

Last week I had helped one of my clients, Rock Creek Pizza Co., with a huge Workers Comp issue. Long story short, I fixed his problem and he offered us free pizza because I am so awesome! LOL. The timing was perfect, so I took him up on his offer so that we could have a Pizza Birthday Party for me, Destini, Marshall & Karen since we all have our birthday's in February. Mine, Destini's & Marshall's are almost right after each other. Marshall's is the 6th, Destini's is the 7th and mine was the 9th. So Tuesday we got 5 specialty pizzas and drinks for everyone. It was fun just hanging out and the pizza was pretty good. I got some cute birthday cards from Courtney, Christy and Barb. Christy also gave me the cutest Elvis beanie! I love it! Thanks Rock Creek for the pizza!

And yesterday, the 2 producers I work with, Ryan & Darrin took me & my assistant Courtney to lunch at Ruby River for my birthday. Thanks guys!!