I'll never capitalize cancer

I have alot going on in my life, more than just cancer and chemo. Sure it's a big part of my life right now, but it's not the most important part of my life. You will never see me spell it with a capital "c".

I'm a Wife and Mom. I love my Family. I have good Friends. We do fun stuff and dumb stuff and sometimes we argue and then we laugh again. We go to work and to the grocery store and we go swimming and have birthday parties and get ready for the first day of school.

I keep saying that I don't want ovarian cancer to define me, but sometimes I just can't help it.

A good friend put it this way for me "cancer may be defining your life for the moment, but it is not your entire life. You seem to just make time for it." That made me feel better.

If you want to see it from the beginning, my cancer story begins in March.

The rest of my story is happening now.

Monday, September 15, 2008

After the Storm

We decided to stay in Beaumont after all. We live in a safe location and we were pretty sure that the TV station would be up on generator and we could go there if we needed.

Hurricane Ike came in Friday night and about 1AM Saturday our power went out. We were very fortunate. Others not so much.

We spent the weekend grilling up the meat in our freezers and standing around looking at all the downed trees. Sunday, we picked up branches and swept off the porch and moved the plants back. A grocery store was open so we were able to buy charcoal and snacks. It's funny, I wanted to stock up on junk that I never buy at any other time - chips and Little Debbie snack cakes!

Sunday afternoon the generator was running and power was on at the station. So we have been hanging around here. But we are getting a bit antsy. Laying around watching DVD's and playing video games is fun for about a day - tomorrow we need to find some activity. My daughter's little friends all have scattered to other cities and we cannot escape to Chik Fil A or the park, or even meander through HEB or the Mall.

This weekend I am booked to work in San Antonio. My favorite Newsman and Wiggles will be coming along too. I haven't booked a hotel yet, I had planned to
priceline.com this week and get a good price. I found a great site to check hotel availability during disasters. I hear that alot of people evacuated West. I am hoping they are not all booked this weekend.

I am taking some pictures, to post about how we are doing.

Driving around feels kinda like a Sunday afternoon. I am surprised how many people are in town. No traffic lights, though. You have to really pay attention. I think they are finally putting huge Stop signs up at the intersections - you can't miss 'em.

My favorite Newsman is working long days. He is doing the morning show and gathering News and reporting during the day. He was in Orange and Bridge City today. One of the photographers went up in a Helicopter this afternoon and got aerial footage. So I would say that the best place to get information and really good pictures is at
KBMT12.com. You also can find useful links like Entergy's site for outage information. I am hearing that power already is coming on around the area.

I am sitting here now in the newsroom. It's quiet and I can get on line here. Earlier it was all very busy getting the late newscasts together. Soon the morning crew will be in. These guys really take the news and weather seriously. They work hard to stay on top of things to get the latest info and keep everyone up to date. It is so exciting when new info comes in that is helpful - FEMA and Entergy spokepeople, Carmen Apple, Judge Thibodeaux, lots of people taking time to come in and go on the air to answer questions.

Fortunately a cool front blew in. A good thing since we have no air conditioning. It's a bit chilly out tonight. I opened my windows earlier to let the cool breeze through; my bath towels and sneakers finally are dry.

I keep thinking about all the times that I have said "If only I could have a couple of days with nothing to do - I could finally clean out these closets and organize these scrapbooks!"

The not knowing is difficult. How long til things get back to normal? Postal Service? Bank open? School? Laundry? And it's hard to create and adjust to a new schedule.

I'm not complaining, just wondering - we're safe, and that is everything. And now my little girl has another adventure to add to her little lifetime.

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