Countdown to V-Day

I haven't cared too much about Valentine's Day in the past several years.  Although it used to be a pretty exciting holiday when I was younger, we haven't made a big deal out of it recently.  However, as long as thing continue to stay on track (and I hate to jinx myself, but hopefully they will), we'll be having a big celebration this Valentine's Day since it will be my last chemo session! Hard to believe, but unless things change, I only have 3 left (one this week, one on the 31st, and the final one on V-Day).  So a little less than a month to go of chemo - and I'm hoping I'll continue to feel as good as I have over the past 2 weeks.

I had my off-week dose of Herceptin on Tuesday, but as expected, I had no real side-effects from it. I think the hardest part of all of this recently has been the mental aspect.  Although I'm getting closer to the end of chemo, it still feels like a long, slow exercise in patience.  Waiting to see if the tumor responds to the meds, waiting for surgery, waiting to see what they find when they do the surgery, waiting to see if anything else changes or turns up in my tests....it's definitely tougher mentally right now than anything else.  We were also originally supposed to have been in Florida this weekend celebrating my grandma's 85th birthday with our entire family, so having to miss that didn't help my mood. But I'm hanging in there as well as I can.  I have an appointment with my surgeon on the 25th, so I think I will feel better once I start figuring out my surgery details.  And believe me, I want to get my next steps scheduled as soon as possible so I can get this all over with as quickly as I can!

Despite the mental stress, we still had a very nice, NORMAL week and weekend with the boys.  Ed and I both worked all week - despite Ed being between semesters, my poor hubby is swamped right now because he's co-hosting a national music conference up here in about 3 weeks (great timing, right? but he's been planning it for over a year!). Winter finally arrived up here on Thursday (my mom left just in time) and we got several inches of snow.  It  cleared up quickly, though, and I had a great weekend with my boys: a trip to the children's museum and lunch with Colin, date night with Ed, and an ice skating adventure today with Owen.  The boys also all went sledding this morning (I skipped out on that one). A Packer's victory would have topped off the weekend nicely - too bad that didn't quite work out. Some pictures posted below of our weekend fun!

I'll post a brief update after I get through my chemo on Tuesday....and continue my countdown to V-Day....

Colin exploring our backyard winter wonderland

My adorable lunch date on Saturday!

Sledding sure wore the boys out!

Attempting some ice skating with Owen!