We plan on sitting on the couch all day tomorrow, cooking and watching football. It doesn't get much better than that!

GOOOOOO COCKS, beat those stinkin' Vols!

Have a spooktacular Halloween!

Love to all,

Kerri

PS - please pray for me this weekend, my next scan is Monday morning at 8:30 am...

There a bunch of stuff here, and finally some pictures!

So we've been busy traveling to watch the GAMECOCKS play football, and we are lookin' good this year! Number 22 in the rankings right now...YES! Here's some pics of tailgating at it's finest!

On to the next topic...

Here is a pic of all of us when Brett and Monica came to visit...good times!

Light the Night was this past weekend in downtown Atlanta! My entire side of the family came up to walk with me...thank yall so much for coming up to support me! The entire state of Georgia raised over 1.7 million for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I raised just under $2800...how awesome is that? Thank you so much to all who donated to my page, you are all so wonderful!

And last but definitely not least...My Mom brought me a gift this past weekend, and I wondered just what it could be. I began to open it, and it's a beautiful framed hummingbird picture - THAT SHE TOOK HERSELF. It took her several months to get this one shot of the hummingbird, and I'm not quite sure how she did it - it is SO HARD to get a shot like this! It really meant a lot, so thank you Mom - you are the best. I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

Here is the inscription on it:

It's scanxiety time again...I can't believe how fast this one came around. I just got word that my next scan is November 2nd at 8:30 am - holy buckets I'm nervous, please start praying for me!!! Thank goodness we have A LOT going on between now and then!

We are off to Alabama this weekend with Ben's parents, Kristen and Matt to watch the USC - Alabama game Saturday night! I hope we don't freeze, it's a low of 42 Saturday night, brrrrrr! Wish us luck, we're gonna need it! It's on at 7:45 pm Sat, GOOOOOOO COCKS!

I'll post more pics next week!

Love to all,

Kerri

Hey all!

WOW...the last week and a half has been insanely busy. I need a vacation...seriously! Work has been crazy lately. I was going on about my business last week at work when my boss called us into a meeting unexpectedly. He went on to tell us that my division is basically done with, and that we are merging into one business unit. They let two guys go that I have worked with for almost two years, and two other guys from the other division as well. These guys were awesome employees. It just goes to show you that you ARE NOT SAFE. No one is. It's scary. I could have easily lost my job. But, they kept me and two other guys. THANK YOU GOD! I am now part of the "design team" here and I guess that's ok - well it's gonna have to be ok. They moved me out of my massive office with a window, to one a quarter of the size that faces customer service. Oh joy. But I need to get over being so spoiled. At least I have a job, and I am so unbelievable blessed that I was spared.

We had company in town last weekend from Baltimore. Brett Johnson, and his fiancee Monica came to visit and we had a great time! We watched football and showed them around the city on Saturday in the pouring rain...but we didn't care, it was a blast! It was good to see Brett and meet Monica!

This week Ben has several car sales, and I've been adjusting to my new position and the added responsibility that has come along with it. I am headed to Columbia this weekend to hang out with my bf from college Kristie and go to the Carolina game! Ben has to work, please pray that he has a successful car sale this weekend!

One last, but very important note - I would like to ask you to please pray for my online forum friend Alison Humphries. This is sad stuff...but her daughter Adrienne lost her battle with Hodgkin's yesterday. She was only 22. She has been battling this disease since she was 9, and had multiple relapses. They removed her from the vent yesterday morning. I cannot fathom how devastated their family must be. It isn't fair. Adrienne fought with all she could - she fought it for 13 years. May God bless you Adrienne, fly with the angels!

Sigh. Cancer sucks.

Love to all,

Kerri

I'm sure you've seen the Atlanta floods all over the news lately - well to our relief, our home is untouched. Our home is the highest in the neighborhood, and I honestly did not see any flooding in our area this week. It's the surrounding areas that got hit HARD. I think we got about 12 inches at our house over the past week, it could be more though because my gauge only holds 6 inches and it filled up in no time. I thought my flowers were going to drown! Well, others weren't so lucky. Ben and I did not realize how bad it was until we watched the news Monday night. Oh my goodness...some of the photos rival Katrina. When I saw people in boats, and kids having to stay overnight at schools because their parents could not get to them - I realized the severity of this flood. I feel so sad for the people that lost family members, that is so awful. I have never seen 85 and 285 shut down because of water before! Here are some pics of Atlanta below...

We hope the rain stays away this weekend, there is no reason to add insult to injury! Those poor people that lost everything in their homes and don't have flood insurance, oh my gosh what do you do?

Hope all of you are having a great week - the sun is finally shining over Atlanta, thank you God!

Love to all,

Kerri

Hey all!  I have begun to raise funds for the Light the Night Walk in Atlanta on October 10, 2009.  Please help me out if you can, it's tax deductible!

I'm halfway there, YAY!  Here's the link:

Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day - we sure did!  Thanks to my family for coming up to spend the weekend with us.  It was filled with beautiful weather, football, yard games, grilling out, trout fishing and shopping - FUN!!!  :)  We also got to see my in-laws briefly last night, and that was nice too!  Hope you all have a great week.

Love to all!

Kerri

Kickoff is at 7 pm tonight on ESPN.  I'm so excited I can't even work!

You dropped the bomb on me...baby, you dropped the bomb on me!  It felt like an atomic bomb had been dropped on me exactly one year ago. Today is the anniversary of my own personal D-DAY, or diagnosis day.

I was diagnosed with the big "C" ...Cancer on September 2, 2008.  The memory of that day is so remarkably vivid, it's like it just happened.  But it didn't just happen.  It happened a long time ago - and that feels good to say.  The memory of it is hard to think about...that infamous phone call at work...those horrible days until we knew what I would be facing.  I know all of you have tried to imagine the horror that comes with that kind of news.  You may think you know, but you have no idea.  Before that, I sometimes acted invincible.  Nothing could ever hurt me.  Nothing could ever be wrong with me.  And that is immaturity at its finest.  Yes, things do go wrong and yes, things will happen to you.  It's just a matter of time.  Struggles are a fact of life.  It just comes in different forms.  One persons cancer may be another persons financial ruin. The thing that you have to come to terms with is that the experience will shape who you are, whether you know it or not.  I sometimes have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the only thing people think about now when they think of me...is that I had cancer.  That sucks.  Would you ever want that word associated with your name?  Heck no.  Would you ever want people to not know how to act around you?  Heck no.  But, then there comes the fact that I did beat it...that I did so well with treatment...that I didn't let it break me.  And I hope people also think about that when they think of me.  

Over the past several weeks, I've been thinking about everything I had to do to be in remission.  Surgeries, blood draws, chemo, more blood draws, more chemo, radiation (I could still spit fire about that), more blood draws, surgery again, etc etc etc....ugh, not fun.  So now comes the fun of major "scanxiety" every time I go for a scan.  Not only does cancer affect you immediately, but you've got to put up with blood draws and scans for 5 YEARS after that.  I have to put up with the thoughts that it could come back...and it won't, but I'm just saying.  That's why they scan you.  I also think about the millions of emotions that I have gone through in a years time, wow.  It really has opened my eyes to so much...and has helped to prioritize my life.  I now know what is important and who is important.

I consider myself lucky in many ways...I'm lucky that I caught it early...I'm lucky that I sailed through chemo...I'm BEYOND lucky that I'm in remission and have had 2 clean scans...I'm lucky that I can look back a year later and say "wow, what a scary ride" and still be sitting in the same office where I was diagnosed.  I thank the good Lord above for keeping me sane, keeping my body strong and putting my mind at ease.  I could not have done it alone, and for that I thank my husband, parents, siblings, in-laws, and friends for being there for me.  You are all a gift from God.  I also thank everyone who reads this blog...thanks for being interested in what I have to say.

Cancer...you messed with the wrong chick.  And to all of you who are just starting on your journey through cancer, the waiting really is the hardest part...after that, it's easier than you think it's going to be.

To echo back to my first post on here almost one year ago...you have all been so good to me.

Love you all!

Kerri