Rolling along

Yep, I've officially failed at my new year "to do" of blogging more often, after only 2 months! I really don't know where the time goes, all I know is that I'm ALWAYS busy and there's not much time to blog. Danny and I have taken a couple of brief, whirlwind, but very productive, business trips since the first of the year, our whole family has been sick on and off (taking turns with various ailments,) and this past weekend I was off with my daughter Bethany at a middle-school-youth church retreat of sorts. We continue to be potentially over-scheduled with the kid's activities, and that keeps our daily tasks to a brisk level and keeps our stress levels fairly high also! The shop has been busy (can't complain,) with new products arriving almost daily, so that gives me plenty to do in the office. Of course the new products arriving daily is my own (and Danny's) doing, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to keep things moving and fresh. Although I am passionate about The Pink Ribbon Shop and its mission to promote breast cancer awareness -- one pink ribbon at a time -- it's definitely a full time job for both of us, and with the multitude of other similar online shops, there is lots to do with trying to set our shop apart from the rest. Not complaining -- just sayin'.

In my last post, I was in the middle of my "on" week for Xeloda, and I was having a really hard time dealing with the side effects. I took it upon myself (well, Dr. Green did say to stop taking it if it got too bad) to get off of it before the week was up because the pain and tenderness in my hands was excruciating, and my feet were very tender as well. So, per Dr. Greens instructions about the next cycle, I took about 12 days off from Xeloda and let me tell you, it was VERY, VERY NICE! My hands and feet healed up nicely -- not completely but to a "hardly noticeable" level of discomfort. I was even able to taste a little saltiness for short time! Yay! And then it was back "on" for 7 days and "off" for 7 days. After being off for 12 days, it seems to have taken a couple of 7&7 cycles for the side effects to really build back up ... which is where I am right now. BUT, since Dr. Green had told me earlier that I could take a couple weeks off of Xeloda so I can enjoy my vacation-of-a-lifetime that's coming up, I am now at the lovely place where I took my last dose just a few days ago and will be off of it for 3 whole weeks!

I'm excited that I'll get to enjoy my vacation to the absolute fulliest! (That is not a typo ... there are times that fulliest is just a more appropriate word than fullest, but that's just me -- plus it's fun to say. I adopted fulliest into my vocabulary after seeing it on a kids worship CD we used to play in our van.) Anyway, back to the good stuff. We love to hike and do what I'll call "active sightseeing." We want to see way more than what can be seen by looking out of the car windows. We want to learn about the history of wherever we may be visiting (like it or not, the kids are forced to like these things, too!) We want to do things that can't be done in our flat 2nd hometown in southeast Texas! And with that comes more self-induced stress on my part, trying to squeeze as much action into my "vacation" as possible! I actually got overwhelmed reading books about our destination, because I'm thinking, "I don't know how we're going to do it all!" Yes I'm a little crazy. Surely I'll need a vacation, or at least some rest, after my vacation, but my philosophy is that you only live once -- I want to do it ALL!

Poor Danny!
Goodbye for now.