Maynard Family Christmas 2011

More Great Christmas memories!

Hull Family Christmas

Great Christmas memories from 2011!

African Cats

No one wants to watch "The African Lion" with me. I asked Chris to and he said "no way". I asked him who would and he said "no one". :) Which I did myself in on Big Cat week on NATGeo last week. There was one scene that will take some time to recover from. Chris told me to turn it at the end of an episode last week. He said it was going to get sad and he didn't want to watch that. I said no it's not. He said told you so.

A Year in the Life of Hair

My niece Amber shaving my hair.

Hair.  It's a funny thing.  My whole life I've complained about my hair.  Too oily, widow's peak, cowlick at my widow's peak that gets out of control.  In the 80's I couldn't keep it frizzy enough.  In the past 10 years I couldn't keep it straight enough.  Then, well, no hair.  And still I complained.  Mangy dog?  Why couldn't my hair just fall out.  All of it?  No, lol, my hair fell out in patches and I had to keep it shaved throughout chemo. (Which is the norm more than not.)

Chris shaved my long hair 19 days to the first treatment, in our back yard with our horse clippers.  My sister Lynette helped me shave one time and Amber another. The photos show my niece Amber shaving my hair, the last time I needed to before letting it grow at an even pace.  Now?  Well now I still complain about my hair.  Now?  The curls.  I cannot contain or control the curls.  Hair or no hair.  Maybe it's just in my nature to hate it.  

My niece Amber doing me a huge favor.

I've been so lucky in the blessings of my friends and family during my hair loss.  Being bald is a emotionally hard trial.  Everywhere you go there are stares.  Wig or scarf.  At home there is also the fear of being stared at with visitors.  Being afraid of going without covering even though you are in your own home.  


Those around me made being bald easy.  I never thought about it when I was around them.  I felt like I'd always been bald.  When the subject came up it was in fun.  Not in fun that people made light of it or tried to distract me.  Just fun as in it's no big deal fun.  I usually asked those around me if it bothered them for me to take off my scarf while they were visiting or we were driving somewhere.  I knew they would say no they didn't mind.  I just hated the thought of making those around me uncomfortable.  They never were.  And I never was.  It's almost surreal to look back upon those times.  How lucky I was.

GREAT friends Kelley and 
Brittany whether it's sitting on 
the couch watching UFC

or playing with my wigs.

Chris and Rusty having 
a  good time with my wigs.

My niece Amber

My niece Jessie brought me food to chemo.  

Ohhhh the hunger was excruciating!!!

My nephew Tanner

My nephew Jamey

Thanksgiving 2010

   Kelley always willing to share
 lends me a hand with my hair.

My sister Lynette

Cathy, me & Brittany
New Year's Eve 2010

Kelley, Elisha, Me & Brittany
GREAT Friends!

My nieces

                                                                                                                    

The amazing thing in the year of the life of hair was the growth. To the right is the 2010 Christmas photo showing my hair which had just started to grow since Thanksgiving 2010.  

To the left is this year's, 2011, Christmas photo.  I'm very lucky that my hair has always been fast growing.  Thank you God for my hair.  And not letting me down in bringing it back even though I'm still never happy with it.

( I wonder if my niece Jessie will notice that I had "borrowed" her furry vest in the 2010 photo.  She is wearing the vest in the 2011. Ha!)

Winter Classic

Wishing I could go to the Winter Classic.

 Especially after watching HBO documentary

 "24/7 Flyers vs. Rangers Road to the NHL

 Winter Classic". Liev Schreiber makes

HBO sports documentaries like this one even

 better. Wow, what a narrator voice he has.

No one writes in cursive anymore but everyone blogs

I recently found out that teachers are not required to teach children how to write in cursive.  This discovery has been quite disturbing to me.

What is the purpose of no longer writing in cursive?  Is the thought of decision makers that we are entering the iPad era and such things are no longer important? (Batteries go dead ya'll.) The time is coming where everything we use to communicate with others will be on the computer-is this the reasoning?

Hand writing is an important skill everyone needs to have.  Handwritten notes and cards are so much more caring and thoughtful when reaching out to others.  Everyone will always need to know how to write, debit card or not.

Once having learned handwriting it's with a sense of pride.  Signing your name, in a readable way, on documents or letters is a powerful thing.  A signature, handwriting personalizing a issue and puts your face onto that issue in a deep bonded way with your handwritten signature that not a type out Word document can accomplish.

Yes, no one has to write in cursive anymore but everybody blogs..

Dummy Doe part 2

I was on the front porch this evening about 6.  Just as the sun was really setting.  I happened to glance over to the soy bean field and who did I see in the dusk?  My doe and her yearling.  I started to talk to her to test and see what the deer would do, to see if it was my doe.  She just raised her head and listened for a minute then back to grazing she went.  So it had to be her I thought to myself.

I walked to the edge of the porch and yelled toward the barn for Chris to come to the house, that my doe was home.  He came over and said he wasn't so sure that's it's her.  Maybe he said.  He has seen three doe together with two babies this past week.  Our doe is never with others so this might be her. We were watching her and the yearling as we talked.  They just kept looking back and grazing.  I saw something move at the tree line and at the tree line I spotted something else.  A six point buck!

Trevor

I love Trevor's You Tube videos from the Apple Store.

The Hunger Games

Can't wait for the movie!  I almost wish I'd never read the book because movies never seem to be as good as the books.  Hopefully this one will be.