Kicked Cancer's Butt!

We did it! All of us together. Stood tall - stood strong. Gave our energy to wellness and none to the opposition.

Cancer free! That's me! Able to move forward and follow dreams of the future into the future. Mine and yours.

Each breath is a blessing.

Thank you - thank you - thank you.

A friendly Blog Hijacking...

Becky, dear Becky - while you lie in bed, recovering...we are all out here thinking about you!  I am not going to tell your story as that is yours to tell - however I wanted to give a place for people to stop by and drop some well wishes.

You are strong, you have courage, you are amazing and you will recover and be an even better Becky because of it (is that possible? - you're already pretty stinking great!!)

We love you!
Terra

Support Team

I'm celebrating my way cool support team who accompanied me to visit with the surgeon and oncologist a few weeks ago.

One might think, doom and gloom. Hardly! We had a great time joking and laughing and teasing with the doctors. I haven't had that great a time without alcohol since ..... EVER!

It's was a "Guess you had to be there," afternoon, but I can tell you that the mood was contagious and all the docs and nurses joined in with the humor and jokes.

Thank you Terra, Sandy, and Debby for being the wonderful women, friends, sisters that you are.

If surgery goes as great as the appointments, I'm sure to end up in stitches!

Jury Duty

I'm so happy!

Visualize France

Get yourself in a comfortable position. Take several deep cleansing breaths. Relax your entire body and begin to visualize. Visualize me (yes, me... it's my blog) walking by this quaint French abode. Visualize me smelling the flowers. Visualize me going through the door. Visualize the inhabitants throwing things and yelling at me to GET OUT of their house - visualize it in French!!









Visualize me running barefoot through this beautiful field of flowers, in slow motion, my Breck Girl hair swinging behind me, wearing a long white gown, braless, of course, because I don't need one, my new Barbi Boobs don't bounce! Wiiiiiiii!








Visualize these yummy French pastries!! Visualize me eating them. Visualize you getting jealous and visualizing yourself into my visual and having a few for yourself. Wouldn't we be having a grand time in France??







Well, I'm going! Heck or high water - I ***WILL*** be in France July of 1012. Dayle Doroshow, who I took a polymer clay class from this past fall, teaches week long classes in France and I was planning on going. When all this cancer stuff appeared, I had my doubts. But I turned it all over to the Grand Powers That Be, and I believe.

Dayle believes too and sends me positive support and pictures of beautiful France. Thanks for your friendship, Dayle. To see her creativity, go to:

http://dayledoroshow.com/blog/index.php/about/.


OMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm

It's Time

Not even decked out in his spiffy Ralph Lauren shirt (that his Aunt Terra gave him) can disguise a past due do. Bella has a do do smell all her own, too. Off to the spa Saturday at 9:30.

Field Trip 1 - The Mammogram

I fainted once - a long, long time ago when I was in my very early twenties. It was on a first date and we were at the Colorado Car and Boat show.

He was looking at a display of motorcycle stuff and I was a couple booths away glancing at several 8” X 10” very graphic color glossy photos posted at a Right to Life booth. They were violent, overly morbid, designed to shock.

“That’s interesting,” I thought to myself as I took a couple steps toward the next booth. “I wonder why they would have a booth like that here.”

The next thing I know I’m flat on my back looking up at several concerned strangers. They, looking down at me with their mouths and eyes in perfect circle O’s of surprise and concern.

“You fainted,” someone said. “Let us help you up.”

So, up I was lifted (I was a skinny young thing back then) bright red with embarrassment and apologizing for causing such a ruckus when “whomp” - down I went again.

But, as I remember, it was a graceful, delicate faint. Filled with all the charm and femininity of a Victorian lady whose corset was bound too tightly...

**********************

... I woke up on the floor of a Kaiser cubical seeing only the lower parts of chrome and gray cabinets, some wheelie things, ribbons of electrical cords trailing across a cool, tile floor.

Confused is an understatement. Everything is so industrial and sterile. What the..?? Where..??

“I must be in an e-book,” I thought. (Got a Nook for Christmas. LOVE IT, but that’s another blog.)

A male voice asks me a question - don’t remember what.

“ I don’t know what book I’m in,” I reply

“You’re at Kaiser,” he explains in a shaky voice. “ I think you fainted.”

Now, I ask you to guess just at what point of the biopsy adventure did The Beckster faint?

Was it as I was climbing butt first off the biopsy table?... No.

How ‘bout when I first stood up and was slipping on the designer hospital gown? ... Uh, uh.

Hmmmmm...... on the walk across the hall to the mammogram machine?... Sorry, no again. I wish it had been.

Nope, (and here’s your visual) I waited until I was at the machine, standing in that awkward position of toes facing 37 degrees to the right, torso forward, left arm up, right arm back, chest out, hips back, and, oh yeah, poor assaulted and bleeding Left Girl trapped in the firm grip of the vice......

“Hold you breath,” Male Nurse says.

I did.

Next thing I know, I’m on the floor in an untitled e-story wondering what character I am.

But now I'm wondering, just how long was I hanging there and how did the Left Girl escape? It makes me giggle.

I’m not allowed to go to appointments by myself anymore without a responsible adult.

Field Trip 1 - The biopsy

It wasn’t your everyday exam table: Near the south end, a part of the table was cut away to form a gaping oval.

“Just lie on your stomach and position your breasts over the hole,” instructs the male nurse.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been through this before”. Me, with my body weight pressing down against the table while “The Girls” go dangling through the hole.

“Weeeee!” they seemed to be saying, delightfully waving in the breeze, enjoying their new found freedom.

Dr. Whozit enters the room and explains the procedure: Left Girl will be clamped securely in a vice, then a hollow core needle we be inserted into the breast site to remove some of the tissue where the mammogram had shown unusual calcification. I will hear a loud machine - It’s a vacuum sucking tissue from the site. (Huh? Vacuum?)

She assured me she would numb the area with a couple shots of lidocaine. I should expect to feel a little sting.

A little sting is when you anger a bee. A needle invading 3-4 inches into one of your Girls has a rather “peel me off the ceiling” sensation. I guess she was just trying to be nice.

Five “stings” later she inserts the hollow core needle. Yep, I’m numb.

“Oh, oh,” she says.

“Hmmmmm,” says the nurse.

“Is there something you need to tell me?” I ask.

Silence.

My dentist, my hair stylist, and now a third person to add to the list of people not to piss off: the doc who has one of my Girls in a clamp, an array of sharp needles, and a Turbo Dyson near by.

Finally she speaks. “It seems I can’t reach the site from this angle. We’ll have to go in from another angle. I’m glad I brought more lidocaine. Sorry.”

“Oh, that’s OK,” Becky the wimp replies.

Five more excruciating “little stings”, the hollow core needle, and the Hoover from Hell; finally it’s over.

“Don’t get dressed yet,” instructs the nurse. We still have to mammogram that breast.

Say what????

Barbi Boobs, Free Tummy Tuck, and a Blog Lift!

I'm loving the new look Terra is giving the Bec Blog! It features one of my most favorite projects as a topper. Thanks Terra - you certainly have an artist's eye for design. I think it even makes me look thinner!

Well, getting down to business, all tests have been taken and decisions have been made. The oncologist and surgeons strongly suggest that a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction is in my best interest. I have a history of breast cancer and it's time to tell the girls good-bye. During surgery they will biopsy the lymph nodes for cancer. If they find nothing, it's reconstruction as planned, life is good, and I'll never have to have a mamo again! If they do find any, reconstruction is postponed until after chemo and radiation. But, given the type of cancer I bred, I seriously doubt that will happen. I have been blessed.

Cancer is a serious subject and I don't take it lightly. All of us have been touched by cancer in our lives. A friend, a loved one, a teacher, neighbor, and possibly even oneself. It's scary. It's sad.

I'm making choices. My choices. The Norman Cousins approach. The almost 40 years of studying conversational metaphysics approach. I intend to laugh myself to wellness, whether the healing manifests on this planet or transcends to another level. I'm not making light of dis-ease, I'm making light of my situation, looking for the positive, and being aware of my blessings. I hope friends and readers pop in here occasionally and leave me, if nothing else, a smile.

I Didn't Get the Memo

School Friday - pink everywhere! Kids in pink, parents in pink, teachers in pink. Boys in pink, girls in pink. Preschool in pink, middle school in pink. Pink shirts, pink shoes, pink scarves, pink pants. Pink ribbons on everyone! There was just one poor soul who wasn't in pink - ME! A fourth grader gave me a pink donut and Mrs. G gave me a pair of beautiful hand-crafted pink earrings.


After lunch, the whole pink school gathered together for a group pink picture and a big

"WE LOVE YOU MS MONTEITH"

I was totally tickled pink!!

Good luck is in the timing!

Nurse 1: (surgery recovery room) Look at this patient. She's barely awake and she has a huge smile on her face.

Nurse 2: It's unusual for surgery patients to look so cheerful when they arrive here. Especially from a bilateral mastectomy.

Becky (groggy and in a weak voice): Ohhh, thank God I'm HERE.

Nurse 1: I'm worried. There's a lot of pain involved in that procedure.

Nurse 2: Maybe it's the drugs. What could possibly be a worse or more painful situation than this?



Whew! Got out of it AGAIN!!

Altered Friends

Blessed are the friends who are patient and kind enough to let me alter them:


Altered Tracy. Precariously standing on a chair and hanging out of her office window so I could take this shot, Tracy is never too busy to crawl out from under piles and hours of work to accommodate me and one of my whims.


Altered Danielle. This friend climbed over bushes, rocks, and electrical wires to pose for this shot at a local Chile's restaurant.

Altered family: I begged, pleaded, cried, and finally had to threaten (just kidding) Beth to bring me this shot of her lovely family to play with.


Altered Boss. Rush, rush, rush, and always on the run, Cindy took a moment to sit still and allow me to take her picture.

Altered Family. This is the one I did in art class with Stephanie Lee. It shows the parents of a friend of mine and her little sister. I sent it to them for their anniversary.

Altered Maynerd. Sorry, couldn't resist. I didn't alter him, he came that way.

Altered 3rd Graders. This is my 2009-2010 class of 14 cuties on a cupboard door. It sold at auction for $1200!!

More Altering

Cotton Girls

Crying Girl

These two vintage photos were downloaded from the web. They both seemed to quietly be speaking volumes of the emotion of the times. I couldn't resist playing with them while wondering where these children were now. How had their lives evolved?

The Crying Girl is hanging on my wall, the Cotton Girls sold at auction.

Altered Photo

Ohhhh! Making these are so much more fun than cleaning house! Took yet another class, this one on altering photos with Stephanie Lee, combined with techniques taught by RachO113 on YouTube and this 'vintage' commission was created.

The substrate was a found object (another name for the one-of-a-kind treasures you can only find at garage sales and thrift stores) of a piece of slate attached to a wood back plate. HUGE wooden puzzle pieces (more 'found objects' - $1.50 for a generous bag from a garage sale!), crackle paste, gesso, paints, polymer clay, charms, chains, vintage looking stamps, topped off with bees wax.

The little guy in the pic is a former 3rd grade student who wants to be a baseball player when he grows up. Most everything in the piece is baseball related, including the tiny puzzle pieces attached to the top.

The piece is now hanging above the fireplace at the owner's house (what an honor!) and has yet to have any items falling or pealing off, nor melting bees wax!

Makin' Things

No wonder I never blog - I'm too busy makin' things. I think I'm going to continue to make things and then post them on my blog. Brilliant.

Earlier this year I took some classes in jewelry wiring plus a refresher class in stained glass. When I found my long lost step daughter (rather she found me, I was the lost one) I wanted to make something to honor my eight step GRANDCHILDREN. How did I ever get to be THAT age already? I haven't even had my own kids yet. I guess I've been too busy - makin' other things.

These are my first two charm bracelets. They were loads of fun to create. I also made the boxes! I wish these pics did them justice. IRL they are very shiny and filled with sparkles.

I hope the girls (beautiful, young women now!) like them.

Dusting the Blog

Yea!!! Two more weeks of school and I'm looking forward to three months of creating, writing, reading, and catching up with Blog-land and all the inhabitants. But until then, it's time to shower and head off to parent/teacher conferences.

Our Friend Riley

It's no secret the affection the Monteith family feels for our good friend Riley. Holidays were extra special when Riley came to spend them with us. Always the perfect house guest, he tolerated the bug, bug, buggings of the ever persistent Maynerd and allowed Bella to sleep in his favorite bed protesting only with a doggy smile and a waggy tail.

Now that Riley has made his transition, we will remember him as a cheerful guy and perfect gentleman. We will miss his holiday visits and the fun we had playing dress up.

My heart goes out to the Emersons who loved him and are greiving their special puppy.

What are Friends for Anyway?

Whenever I learn to make something new, I always include my friends to suffer along with me. Remember the WonderUnder sweatshirts with the fabric design cutouts and glitter glue or puffy paint trim? I made dozens of them and gave them away - I'm sure my friends wore them, maybe not in public, but at some time. I knew they liked them by the deer in the headlight look they had on their faces after opening the packages. And the Christmas I made stained glass boxes for everyone ... I didn't intend for the lids eventually fall off! I'm still wondering what happened to that guy I cooked Swedish steak for during my "learn to cook" period. Hopefully he's out of the hospital by now.

This year I tried wood burning images of my friends' children onto plaques then painting and decorating them with lots of sparkles and shiny paints. The shiny paints look kinda funky with the camera flash reflecting off of them and look much cooler IRL.

I hope my new friends like them and don't mysteriously disappear off the planet like all of my old friends. But, where ever the old ones went, they sure had some spiffy sweat shirts to wear!

Hi, my name is Becky and I'm a gameaholic...

Dishes are piling up in the sink, science experiments are growing in the corner of the shower, and the Christmas tree is still in its box in the basement - and what am I doing???? ... playing this goofy hamburger building game! I've played under my name, my sister and her sweetie's, all three of the dogs, and several friends - Marti is in the lead, Maynerd is a close second. I'm running out of names.

If you would like me to play under YOUR name, send me an email. Chances are I already have so I'll just send you your score.

Until then I'm off to look for my high school year book - there's that fuzzy haired red headed girl who sat behind me in biology who I'm sure will want to play - just can't remember her name...

I Love Painting!

Believe it or not - two- count 'em TWO commissions for Christmas presents! The first picture is Hadley who LOVES Fancy Nancy. Maybe you can see her in the wings. What you can't see are all the sparkles and shimmers and positive affirmations written in the flowers.













The second is Jack and his grandmother sharing a picnic basket (one of their favorite things to do together) and sharing the affection they have for each other.