35 Blessings

Borrowed this idea from a friend who shares my birthday, which occurred during the month of September.

Since I am 30 35 today, I’ve decided to celebrate by counting to 30 35 via my many blessings. I figure this is the best way to focus on all I HAVE (the trivial and the important) instead of all I don’t.

1. I have a very loving husband who, when I was at my lowest during chemo as my hair was falling out and I cried that I would be bald, shaved his own head to let the world know how proud he was of me.
2. I have two of the sweetest, smartest, most loving and lovable sons I could ever have dreamt of — I didn’t even know they were what I wanted but I was lucky enough to get them
3. Caring friends and family. This is really huge.
4. I live in a two TiVo household. Talk about blessed!
5. My not working is not driving the family to financial ruin.
6. My having had cancer has not driven the family to financial ruin.
7. 18 months since diagnosis and still going.
8. Cupcakes! Hot fudge cake sundae from Sonic! Takeout sushi for birthday dinner! Fountain diet Dr. Pepper with vanilla added! Mmm.
9. I’ve got what I to be consider the prettiest bionic boobs in the state of Mississippi. Really, you aren’t going to find a prettier pair of reconstructed breasts.
10. I have four incredible doctors (oncologist, breast surgeon, gynecologic surgeon, plastic surgeon) all actively working to keep me healthy, happy, and feeling pretty.
11. The size 10s are fitting again with almost no muffintop!
12. Friends gave me The Office (both seasons) on DVD and Tom gave me season 2 of Lost on DVD for my birthday. Fun!
13. I just put the Rent soundtrack on my iPod. LOVE IT.
14. I found my lump early enough that it wasn’t in my lymph nodes yet.
15. When I told my husband that I wanted to shelve my editing career and go back to school to become a nurse, he didn’t complain about the money for school, but he did immediately say “if that’s what you want to do, baby, then I think you should do it.”
16. I was able to spend a fantastic weekend earlier this summer with some old and dear friends. No kids, no cancer, just wine and laughter and a delightful time.
17. I got to see the Red Sox win the World Series, and, furthermore, I have it on DVD.
18. Thanks to my father, I was able to attend a private liberal arts college and graduate without student loans.
19. Thanks to my husband’s health insurance, we have not had to pay most of the $250,000+ costs associated with my cancer, chemo, and reconstruction. Okay, we have had to pay about $500 of it, but that seems pretty minimal in comparision to what we could’ve had to pay if the insurance wasn’t halfway decent.
20. Thanks to my grandparents, we were able to hire a nanny to care for the children while I was going through my surgeries and chemo. She was more than a nanny to the children, she took care of me and Tom as well, and loves the boys like her own.
21. I had breast cancer in 2005, and because of the incredible advances made in medicine, my chances of survival are through the roof compared with my grandmother and great-grandmother, who had their breast cancers in 1963 and 1940, respectively.
22. My blood clotting disorder that caused me to have multiple miscarriages was only “discovered” in the 1980s. Women with the same disorder prior to then didn’t have a solution for the problem, and I feel very blessed that I did. As will, I hope, the boys’ future wives.
23. My hair is growing back and I haven’t looked like a Cancer Patient in months and months.
24. When we went on vacation to the beach over the summer and I realized the day before the last day of vacation that I hadn’t thought about cancer one bit the entire time.
25. The dwarf gardenia bushes in our back yard are blooming and smell divine.
26. The crazy rosebushes in our front yard that absolutely thrive on neglect? Still blooming. Lovely!
27. The fun magazine subscriptions I was given as gifts when I was going through chemo, because, really, when you are a hurtin’ buckeroo right after a round of chemo, it’s a really great treat to open your mailbox and find that People magazine is sitting there waiting for you.
28. Halloween is coming and Tom and I are already bickering over who gets to take the boys trick-or-treating because it is SO much fun with them.
29. Wireless internet and my widescreen laptop. Ahhhhh!
30. Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches. How can they be so not fattening and so good??
31. The running hasn’t killed me yet.
32. Internet shopping rocks.
33. WalMart has incredibly cheap organic milk.
34. Crayola’s website has a section with useful and effective stain removal tips.
35. Two family weddings coming up in the next six months; opportunities to see many people (friends and family alike) I haven’t seen since my own wedding. I’m very excited.