One Year Ago This Week

A year. This week marks one year from my 16 week appointment where I brought up a suspicious lump to my midwife. If it weren’t for the calm, but serious, encouragement of that caring midwife, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Dismissing my concerns and letting my cancer fester until after delivery is something that I can’t even wrap my mind around. On the first appointment with my oncologist, she wrote in her notes “your midwife saved your life”. She’s right. After 4 Rounds of AC chemotherapy, a double mastectomy while pregnant, Step 1 to my reconstruction surgery, 4 Rounds of Taxol chemotherapy, 25 rounds of radiation, and months of expansion—it all leads to this. This is the day I’ve been waiting for. July 17th. Tomorrow morning I’m going into surgery to have my tissue expanders removed and permanent implants replaced, along with some scar revision. I’ve always been a private person and this diagnosis and treatment have caused me to be more open about myself and my body than I ever thought I could be. If it weren’t for the support of Ryan, I don’t think I could have made it out on the other side feeling as positive and full of love for life. Also, knowing that I work for a company that values my professional efforts and also my personal well being was such a piece of mind going through this. After going into an active lifestyle so quickly after treatment, I assume the one month hiatus on exercise will be somewhat difficult, but I’m prepared to cope with the difficulties both mentally and physically. This isn’t the “all clear” that our friends and family wants—cancer will never leave my mind and there’s no guarantee it’ll stay out of my body. But I’m confident knowing I did everything in my power to take on this disease, half while pregnant. We are cautiously optimistic about this surgery, as my choice to complete radiation therapy could cause issues with the skin healing. My doctors are feeling good going into surgery, and I’m going to take their feel good energy with me as I drift into that lovely sleep. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, donations, and meals over the past year—and especially tomorrow.




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Be your own advocate. Know your body. You're not too young to be at risk for breast cancer, or other diseases. Speak up to your doctors if you feel like something isn't right!

LuluLemon vs. Athleta

The moms in my neighborhood seem to be pretty hot and bothered over Lululemon. Yes, their clothes are super cute, but who has $98 to spend on yoga pants. Um, not this lady! Enter- Athleta. I'm obsessed with all things Gap Inc, from GapKids for Benjamin to Old Navy and Banana Republic for me and Ryan. I was super excited to learn that there's an Athleta store here in Denver. I've received their catalogs for awhile but never actually gone into the store.

Here are some things that make their store awesome--

1. Specialized salespersons. All women who work there specialize in a certain sport. Wanna know how those cycle shorts will fare in a 120m weekender? There's a cycling expert in store to let you know how they worked for her. Will this top fall down when you're doing inverted yoga poses? There's a yogi to give you the scoop. Love that!

2. Wear it for a workout return policy. Say what? I'm a serial returner. Things stay in my closet with the tags on until I wear them, and if I don't they get returned. No sense letting money get wasted hanging in your closet. At Athleta, you can wear their clothes for a workout and if you don't like it-- return them. How awesome is that!?!?

3. Price. Like I mentioned above, Lululemon has cute tops and bottoms, but I'm not paying those ridiculous prices. Add in their "scarcity" business model, and you can count me out as a customer for life. Athleta has great prices to begin with, and they frequently have sales.

I've started getting into skorts lately, and here are some of my favorites-- Have you shopped at Athleta before?

Relay Skort $54

Ramp It Up (I got this one for $34!)

Runaround Skort $54

*I wasn't endorsed to write this-- I just really like the store

Benjamin is 7 Months

I'm a little late posting this (as usual), but here's Benjamin's 7 month photo. I can't believe how quickly he's growing, and I love how you can compare his size against the same object every month.

Some fun facts about Benjamin at this age:
Weighs 17 lbs
Wearing 9 month clothes
Sitting up well and playing with toys
Tried 4 vegetables: squash, green peas, green beans, and carrots
Likes the pool, but normally falls asleep in his raft
Loves putting anything in his mouth, especially ice cubes inside his mesh feeder.

Started taking feedings in a sippy cup and can hold the bottle by himself

Has 2 bottom teeth and 0 top teeth

Is on the verge of crawling- he rocks back and forth on his knees

Very entertained by our dogs, always trying to pet them

Very entertained by everything-- smiles and laughs all the time!

7 Months: June 25, 2013

6 Months: May 25, 2013

5 Months: April 25, 2013

4 Months: March 25, 2013

Three Months: February 25, 2013

Two Months: January 25, 2013

One Month- Christmas Day