Category: Me

Mark the date

keep calmI was standing amongst a group of women the other day listening to the conversation.  I am not fully sure how, but the topic of breast cancer came up.    Three of the four of us standing there lost our mothers to the disease.  As I looked around another woman close by recently lost a sister.  It is not hard to find someone who’s life has not been affected by breast cancer, it seems in my travels it is nearly impossible.

According to recent statistics, about 1 in 8 US woman will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime.  As you stand in a room look around, count the woman in the room. Who will it be?  With numbers like that what still astonishes me are those who do not have a sense of urgency to be checked.  Women who find it to be too much of an annoyance to have the yearly mammogram done.  For many of us the mammogram was useless.  I used to also have yearly breast ultrasounds.  If you are not fortunate enough to have a doctor who will write the scripts together you have to wait for the alarming phone call letting you know the mammo was inconclusive or even worse saw something abnormal. It is probably nothing they say but back to the radiologists for the ultrasound, very time-consuming.  Most of my lumps never showed up on mammograms.  Many times I heard it was probably nothing.  Several of those ended up in biopsy until the day when it was the beginnings of something.

dateI was able to react, to take control of my situation because I was vigilant with my screenings.  I hated it of course but a necessary thing.  I had my first Mammogram at 22 years old and my first biopsy soon after.  Mammograms, Ultrasounds surgeries and MRI’s made it clear what my future would hold.  Because of screenings I was able to seek out advice, talk to experts and make the decision to have a preventative mastectomy before ever having to face any type of cancer battle, thank god!

Complain, whine, scream if you must but make your appointments and have the screening done!  Somethings are just too important to wait!

The winter that will not end

Before I begin to whine, I will start off by recognizing that we had very little snow over the last two winters. I also fully understand that the last winter was on the milder side. As this winter started I hoped for some snowfall. I joined in with my children doing the “snow day” dance hoping for the day off from school admittedly more than once.

ImageThe first snow day was a welcomed friend that we had not seen in a few years. The second was also embraced. The third was seen as the friend who had one too many drinks at the party. The fourth, well that one was far beyond one too many drinks and was viewed as a drunken fool. This past Monday was the fifth snow emergency closing of the year. If I were to stick to my “friend at the party” comparison, this friend was the one who stuck his face in the punch bowl, took off all of his clothes and passed out in the bushes.

Image 1We have seen temperatures in the single digits termed the polar plunge, early dismissals from school as well as delayed openings due to ice. It is only the beginning of February and according to that crazy groundhog we will have 6 more weeks of winter. I like where we live. I enjoy the experience of all four seasons. These extremes that we endure, the extremes in the heart of the summer during the 90+ degree heat waves. The humidity that you could cut through with a knife.  Or the winters such as this one that are filled with depressing grey sky, freezing temperatures and snow covered earth.   These extremes make me fully appreciate those wonderful breezy early fall evenings still light enough to walk in the park.  Or the early summer days when the pool is just open, the laughter from the kids and friends mixed with the sounds of splashing water.  Most of all I love the beginning of spring as the trees begin to wake from the harsh winter months and sprout those first splashes of green.  The blue skies and sun rays that makes everything feel new and alive.

After the last several weeks I long for the beginning of Spring and promise the first person who complains about the heat of the Summer will be smacked. 🙂

Craziness

So with each day we as a country become more and more politically correct.  We are at a point where most now resist an opportunity to express an opinion for fear of offending someone or worse retribution.  One of our most important freedoms, that of free speech, teeters on the brink of annihilation.  Our media has stopped reporting news and instead pushes one agenda or another.  Our government lies to us and spies on us but we “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” for the most part sit back and allow it all to happen.  We stand more divided than ever.  

SO why this post today?

My girls are straight “A” students, strong athletes and brown belts in karate.  They are tough, strong and are being raised to know that they can achieve anything if they work hard and YES I will admit openly that they play with PINK legos.  I know, an outrage.  What you say?  Well let me explain. So, I sign on to Facebook the other day, the forum of our generation for pure silliness, to see an article posted by someone from the Huffington post.  I will openly say I would not typically spend a second reading anything from such a clearly biased outlet but this one caught my eye because it was targeting the LEGO company and it’s over feminization of it’s products and their outrage over the Friends line of feminine “girly” legos.  The article basically relays the message that I am a terrible parent for allowing my girls to play with such a toy and as a society we should condemn the toy makers for pushing gender stereotypes.

Not two days later I see an article about a  panel on MSNBC discussing the Oscar awards.  One of the participants on that panel made the argument that the awards show was sexist because it still separated the male and female categories. Really??

So I am sure that some have jumped to conclusions about me so I feel the need to clarify.  I love the freedoms afforded to “We the people”.  I believe in the freedom of speech, assembly, religion and yes the right to bear arms.  I believe we are free to love who we love, marry who we love and express ourselves openly.  I love a good debate and will often take a side at times just for the sake of an open and interesting debate.  What I can not stand are those who make statements about how everyone should be included while attacking those who do not seem to fit the “included” mold.

I will not apologize for allowing my girls to play with feminine marketed toys. Nor will I apologize for when they play in the mud or beat the boys at hockey. I do not want to live in a world of grey pretending that we are all the same, we are not.  What many forget is that it is those differences that make us great, different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs put into the pot to make us even stronger.  Trying to pretend we are all the same, attempting to eliminate individualism, pretending there are no differences between the sexes…….crazy.

I do not claim to be some type of expert.  I am just a woman, mother, wife, person who is tired of some trying to fit us all into a box,  telling me I should be outraged over this or that.  My favorite color happens to be pink, deal with it!