And We're Off, Before the Crack of Dawn!

UPDATED: 1/6/09 - My grandma's prognosis has taken a fantastic turn for the better = They were wrong; no malignancy found! She should be fine. Best news of 2009!

We're headed north tomorrow morning, hitting the road by 5am, that's the plan (and I'm VERY attached to it). The last few days have been a blur, much of it good, but most of which dominated by some recent family news. My Grammie Joanie was in the hospital last week, and a few days ago, the diagnosis was determined; she has a malignant cancer and she will not have much more than a year ahead of her.

I don't know what to say. I feel overwhelmed in general, but this, I absolutely don't know what to say. It just feels awful.

We'll be foregoing Christmas cards this year... I just have too much on my plate and have been unable to get a number of things under control, like Christmas cards. I did manage to bake 6 batches of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins the other night, but it nearly killed me... [slight exaggeration, yes].

I'll soon hafta share my new list of pregnant moments... lots of broken glass involved. But that'll have to wait a bit. However, I do hope that EVERYONE has a wonderful holiday season! Merry Chrimpus and Happy New Year to you all! Mmmmwah!

"Mah New Do!" or "Lockin' for Love"

Okay, so the 'short' of it is this:

I cut my hair and short, and here I am now!

The 'why did you do it?' should be the interesting part:

My mother died in 1987 of Hodgkin's Disease (lymphatic cancer). Before then, my mum lost her hair twice in the time I knew her. Consequently, she owned an eclectic array of scarves, knitted berets (those were the best!) and several colorful bandannas, and she also wore a wig. The first time she lost her hair, I was about 6 years old. I can remember hearing her cry in the bathroom at night and discovering big chucks of her long chestnut hair discarded in the bathroom trash, and then one morning, all of the sudden, she revealed herself with a short styled wig.

Our kitchen back then, living in Salt Lake City in our first home, it had a swinging door to some stairs that went down to our back door, out to our back yard and the unattached garage. One night, after coming home and inside from the back, I'd gone ahead of her and up the stairs and through the swinging door, into the kitchen... I turned to look behind me and that door was swinging back and forth, and each time it swung, I caught a glimpse of my mum who was standing on the stairs with her back to me... one moment she had hair and the next swing of the door? - It was all gone, as she had removed her wig! It was the first time I saw her bald head - - I don't remember at all what I did next, if we talked about it, or if I burst into tears or not, or whatever... but I distinctly remember the feeling of sheer and total panic rising up inside me. For as long as I can remember, I had been told my mother was very sick, but it really gut-punched me in that moment that she really was, indeed, very sick - - sick enough that she could die, as I'd also been told this, but it'd never really sunk in until that very moment.

After she lost all her hair, even though she had already been deemed terminal upon diagnosis at age 17, found in the 3rd stage of cancer development, it was when she lost all her hair that people truly began to treat her as if she were sick and dying. In fact, one of the reasons my longtime and dearest childhood playmate and I had hit it off so well when we met in kindergarten [Anna Dilemna is her blog alias], is that she, unlike most kids, was completely and totally unfazed by my mother's lack of hair, because her mother, too, had lost hers during treatment of a benign tumor... so I never had to defend my mother with her, and she would happily come over to play, even though my mum had no hair.

Anyhow, a few years ago, in the same town where my own mother grew up, a younger cousin of mine who was in high school at the time, Whitney, she had a friend diagnosed with Hodgkin's, and as a amazing sign of support, when her friend lost all her hair due to cancer treatments, my lil' cousin cut off all her gorgeous long hair and donated it to Locks of Love (go check it out!)... and I thought, of all the people to do that, I should do that!

And so, a couple years ago, I told my honey-man,
"After we get married, I'm gunna do that!"
And so, I did! Some child out there somewhere is going to be wandering around wearing a wig made of my hair!
It's true, I could have had kept my hair in a short bob, as it was long enough after cutting off a foot-long ponytail of hair for donation, but I told my hairstylist (the same who styled my wedding updo) that she could do with me whatever she pleased, which made her so happy!

And lucky for me, I love the results!

P.S. Just before boarding the plane at LAX for Dublin, about to leave on our honeymoon, I called my hairdresser to make my appointment for the same day we were to return to Vegas, just to be sure I wouldn't chicken out!

In Memory of Shirley-girl

Well, this is all VERY last minute BUHHT (and I gots me a big butt at that)... Earlier this year, some may remember I had participated in the Nat'l Multiple Sclerosis Society walk. Closely thereafter, the Komen Race for a Cure for Breast Cancer followed, but it was so close behind the M.S. walk, I hadn't wanted to ask everyone for money again - but this time? The M.S. Walk is 7 months away! Still, I wasn't going to ask for donations - I was worried some may be annoyed by it - BUT my old boss heard I'll be walking tomorrow (3.5 miles) and asked why I hadn't let everyone know about this one, promptly offering to give me a donation!

So tomorrow AM, I'll be walking in Memory of my Grandma Shirley-girl ~ she died of breast cancer in 1994, after her 5 year struggle. She never saw her 60th birthday.

If you'd like to sponsor me by making a donation to the American Cancer Society (A.C.S.), pa-pa-pa-PUHLEEZE go for it!

You can use the following link to my personal A.C.S. donations page - http://tinyurl.com/dhud5
To avoid future emails from the A.C.S., feel free to use my email (yes, an effective loop hole I've discovered): annejelynn@yahoo.com
When the system asks you to list credit card billing info. to make your donation payment, your actual billing address WILL IN NO WAY be made available for A.C.S. contact records. Once your receipt/donation confirmation posts to my email account, if you'll email to me your email #, I will promptly forward it to you.
Again, I know this is VERY last minute, but I'm sure if you want to help, you will!