Last Day of School: Tanner

I'm always amazed at these side by side comparisons of the first and last day of school, because throughout the year you don't notice the small changes and then one day you wake up and they just look older.

 He was so excited for school to be over so summer can begin!

 Class picture:

 Tanner unfortunately had to miss his classes end of year celebration due to an unchangeable appointment, so we did our own little celebration by going to chick-fil-a and then to target to pick out a new toy (another bat mobile!)  

For the first half of the year, going to school was hard, he cried every time I left him (it was when I was doing my treatment).  But the second half of the year he blossomed!  He started writing his name and wanting to do homework with Carson (even though he didn't have any).  He loves being with other kids and his favorite thing to do at school was the puzzles.  I'm so proud of this boy and how much he has grown this past year!

Another tooth gone

Carson lost his top tooth and his look is changing to a big kid!

Look at what he would do with his tooth right before he pulled it out!  

A week later and his other top tooth fell out!  

I'd Rather be Pale than Dead

11 moles removed, 3 abnormal moles re-removed, 1 melanoma, 2 gnarly scares, 6 paper punched scars for the clinical test, 6 welts from injection sites, 4 CT and MRI scans, who knows how many viles of blood drawn, and permanent numbing on the back of my arm. Yep after all that I think I'd rather be pale then dead.

With the warmer weather comes shorts, and swim suits,  and naturally the ladies at the bus stop have been talking to me about how "white" they are and how they need to go tanning.  I laughed and said "yep no more tanning for me"  their eyes got wide as they realized what they just said.  I even had a close friend tell me that I should instead get a sunless tan (aka a spray on tan).  I was shocked (she talked to me the next day all embarrassed and apologized profusely for saying that).

I don't blame them, I used to say the same thing.  Although I never really got tan, I did like having that sun kissed look.  Now when people talk about tanning to me or I see the ladies tanning by the pool I want to scream and tell them its not worth it!

May is Melanoma awareness Month and I've been reflecting a lot this past month on my cancer journey.  I just hit my year mark, but May was also when I had found out that my cancer had spread and I had my second surgery.  I've also been thinking about the people I've meet on my journey and wondering how their journey is.

I found this quote that really struck me:

"Cancer changes people. It sculpts us into someone who understands more deeply, hurts more often, appreciates more quickly, cries more easily, hopes more desperately, loves more openly and lives more passionately." -taken from the book Cancer Memoirs

This quote was posted under a picture of a child who has cancer, and one of the things that I thought of early on in my journey was that I was glad it was me and not my beautiful boys.  I'd rather go through this then to see my child go through it and for that I feel blessed.

So as my public service announcement in honor of this month: schedule an appointment with your dermatologist and check yo 'self!

Muffins with Mom/Mothers Day

Tanners preschool hosted a muffins with mom.  It was so fun to have some one on one time with my Tan Man.  He was so happy I got to come to his preschool that day!  He served me my food and we had a fun time talking and eating with each other.

 His cute little class even recited a poem to us mothers.  It was a special day.

 Here is what Tanner thinks of me.  My favorite is that he thinks I'm the same age as Carson :)

 Then it was a wonderful mothers day with my boys!  All I ever wanted to be was a mother.  These boys make it so worth it!  Motherhood can be challenging for sure, tiring, exhausting, and even frustrating, but I find motherhood to be the biggest blessing!  I love being a mom to these boys.  They teach me so much and I'm thankful everyday for them!

Cinco Day Mayo Bunco

Up until this month, I had only been a Bunco sub.  With all my surgeries and treatments I didn't want to commit to being a permanent member, but my friend who was in charge for May was moving and so I told her I would take her spot and host for her so she didn't have to worry.  It was last minute, but being the month of May I decided to do a Mexican theme party and have a salsa bar and virgin margaritas.  It was a lot of fun!  Excited to be the newest official bunco member!

Promotion

It was a hard decision for us to leave Sahuarita, but it felt like it was time.  There wasn't much room for Brad to grow in his career there. It was extremely hard to leave a company that thought Brad was a rock star.  He was really admired by all at Freeport, and when he left they even gave him a plaque for the magnificent work that he did there.  Now I don't know about you, but I've never seen a big corporation do that for an employee that wasn't retiring.

We knew that by leaving his job in Sahuarita he was going to start all over in a new company gaining the trust of his new employer and co-workers.  And for the first six months at Conoco I think it was a learning curve for Brad, but he persevered and now only 3 years later, Brad got a promotion.

Meet the new Corporate Industrial Hygienist of Conoco Phillips:

The new job title now means that Brad is the corporate Industrial Hygienist for the company.  Managing all the industrial hygienists in his company throughout the world! To be given this title after only 3 years with the company is a huge honor.

With all the layoffs that have been going on in the oil industry right now we feel extremely blessed.  When Brad was first hired he was the IH manager for the lower 48 (managing all the industrial hygienists in the US), but this past year with all the layoffs his job changed 4 times!  Now with his new promotion Brads job security is more secure.  Which is great, we love being Texans!

Brad started his new job on May 1 and he loves it.  He says its less stressful, and he's back to doing what he loves; doing Industrial Hygiene vs. managing people.

 So proud of my wonderful husband and all the hard work that he does to support our family!

Logan gets a haircut

Tanner thought it would be a fun idea to try his hand as a barber and gave Logan a beautiful new haircut with his toddler scissors.  He added some beautiful layers to Logan's rather straight hair, I'm sure in order to add some volume. 

Good thing he's a boy with already short super blonde  hair so it's not too noticeable right?