Why Shea Weber is the best NHL defenseman.......ever.

1. He's an Olympic gold medalist. (We'll ignore it's for Canada.)
2. He is courteous by picking up the puck for the referee every time.
3. He has the hardest slap shot- it has actually went through the net once.
4. He's a Captain.
5. He's a dog owner.
6. He owns a big dog.
7. He can pick up an opponent with one arm and put them to the ice.
8. He's seems like a mentor by patting teammates on the head in the "huddle" after a score.
9. He's an invisible man.  Who knows anything about him?
10. He plays through pain.
11. He's cool enough to be a Captain but can loose his cool when need be.
12. He stays out of trouble off the ice unlike Cain and Seguin.
13. He stays on the ice with blood on his face.
14. He doesn't have a Facebook page.
15. He has the fastest slap shot which he proves at each All Star Game. (Well, second.)
16. He's a Norris Trophy Nominee.  Three times.
17. He's a class act after he's lost the Norris Trophy. Three times.
18. He's never on Twitter.
19. He's cocky when need be. Think arbitration and contract negotiations.  (Please write a book someday.)
20. He's stuck in Nashville for the rest of his career. (Please write a book someday.)
21. He has the best playoff beard.
22. Instead of teammates battling his battles he battles his own.....and their's when need be.
23. He rarely takes cheap shots. (We'll ignore the Zetterburg incident. )
24. He never screams at the refs.
25. He is a true defenseman. (No Karlson there.)
26. He's made it just fine without Suter.
27. He doesn't dive.
28. He may never win the Lady Byng trophy but he will win the Norris....and Lord Stanley.
29. He's respected by his peers.
30. He's got a great check.
31. He can skate backward.
32. He can skate forward.
33. He can skate.
34. He could play in a movie.  Think "Youngblood" and "The Cutting Edge".  No " Mighty Ducks".
35. He can push someone against the boards and they can't move.
36. He gives to the community. Not sure how much exactly. He's the invisible man.
37. He shot a puck from a waaay up in the stands of Bridgestone and hit the net.
38. He can score. He can assist.
39. He has a sharing nature. He doesn't hog the puck.
40. He's #6.  My lucky number.
41. He's large physically.  Imposing.
42. He has an Angry Shea which rears from time to time.


And...He.......He........There has to be more. My brain is tired.  I'll think of others tomorrow. Or better yet. Add your reasons in the comments on why Shea Weber is the best NHL defenseman ever.


Shea Weber is a boss.

The only thing that would have made Shea Weber
even better?  If he was American. HA!

NHL All Star Game

"Hey guys, did you hear?  The 2016 NHL All Star Game is going to be here in Nashville!"

Prepared under the Circumstances

Throughout the year I try not to be the woman defined by her breast cancer.  I slip at times but for the most part am able to put aside the Big C experience.  But October comes and with it Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  I’ve never been one for rallies and walks and the such.  Even before my breast cancer diagnosis.  Since 2010 I’ve participated in one regional and two local events/walks.  For some reason I’m so crazily uncomfortable.  Perhaps it’s my shyness.  Perhaps it’s that a deep part of me doesn’t want to face the fact that those events are for women like me.  That I’m one of “those”.  

So the month is here.  October.  “Pink-abulous" month.  There are many memories and thoughts swirling about in my head.  Mostly from a survivors perspective.  Having watch loved ones and friends battle the disease and some die from it I also have the loved ones perspective.

Death.  The one topic that should have been on my mind and family’s mind more than anything during 2010.  But I never thought about it.  I absolutely never ever thought about dying.  Which is fortunate in a way for no one ever asked me if I was ready to die.  At least I don’t remember if anyone did.

Prayers I remember.  Before my surgeries but after no discussion.  I’m wondering why.  Perhaps my family and friends knew my deep faith in Jesus and the promises of His Word and thus no worries for my soul. Maybe they saw someone who was tough and strong enough to see herself through.  Maybe they thought I’d bring the subject up if I needed or wanted to talk about it. Maybe they were afraid if they asked I might say I’m not ready to die.  Maybe they didn’t want to face the fact that I might die and their own fears of what that would mean in their life.

For example I overheard Chris talking to someone about my cancer last year.  I never knew until then that Chris would wake up in the middle of the night and touch me.  To make sure I was alive during my hard nights.  That I was breathing.  I never knew.  I asked him why he didn’t tell me.  Talk about it with me.  Chris said he didn’t know.  Perhaps he was afraid of the emotions the discussion might bring.  But I know one thing, when I heard him tell someone this tidbit of information from our breast cancer experience I was….disappointed.  I didn’t realize that perhaps in the middle of that treatment year did I not only ignore death but also ignore the need I had for deep conversation.  When I heard him tell that story I suddenly had this deep, uncontrollable, weird yearning to go back in time.  To go back to one of those nights.  To know that he had those moments of weakness.  To know he loved me that deeply and had his own fears he was battling.  And besides that?  To be his comforter.  To hug him and tell him it was all going to be alright.  No matter what. 

I’m guilty of this as well.  I’ve had sick family and friends.  I’m not sure I have really talked about death and fears of such with anyone.  Maybe it’s fear?  Fear of the unknown myself or fear of what emotion may be opened up.  Maybe it’s fear of saying the wrong thing.  Of not having all the answers.  Maybe it’s fear of upsetting the person.  Or of bringing up a subject they don’t want to talk about.  Fear of prying.

Before every procedure the question from the admissions nurses was “Do you have a living will?”  “No” was my reply.  The nurses would usually look at me in disbelief or in a disapproving way.  I guess they thought I was crazy not to prepare under the circumstances.  But I didn’t worry about death nor did anyone else.

During my life I have always loved deep conversation about life, death, the universe, and so on.  I can remember being little and spending the night with my neighbor Marty.  She and I would have these amazing conversations about faith and life and the world and the universe  and God and the Bible and we were probably only 9 years old.  I remember conservations with my mom about the same subjects.  Especially brought on by my brother’s death in 1979.  In her deep grief somehow my momma was strong enough to put aside her pain to comfort a little girl scared about her brother Gary’s death—was it painful, did he suffer, what was he doing right then as we talked.  Mom and I had great conversations such as those.  She gave me a deep peace of death.  Perhaps from those lessons I developed the ability to not think about death during that hard year.  But then again….maybe I was in denial about the whole darn thing.  Maybe deep inside my heart was saying that I won’t die.  It won’t happen to me.

Is it a disservice to those we love to not talk about death?  To make sure they are prepared.  To make sure they have the opportunity to talk about death and explore the possibility.  To have their affairs in order.  I know looking back it was a great loss to me personally to not have had talks.  Not related to the condition of my soul. Just that I would have loved to have those talks about life, death, the universe, what we’d do in Heaven, meeting our parents and brother again especially with my sister Lynette and my niece/friend Jennifer and Jamey, and my other nieces, my husband.  What deep and loving conversations those would have been!  At times I yearn to go back for this as well.  I missed so many, what would have been precious conversations.  That’s biggest loss of the whole cancer experience.  Not remembering the pain of what was but thinking now of an emotion and experiences I missed out on.  An emotional bond and connection which might have been intensified within me and within my family and friends.  

I was prepared under the circumstances.  For death.  But looking back nothing else.

A few of my nieces. A few of my favorite people.

Last season.....

Can't wait!

This is what breast cancer feels like

Yes, there are symptoms for breast cancer.  Though each cancer is unique and shows in different ways.  Not all are found with a lump you can feel, not all show on a mammogram, one type will even have a red rash on the skin which no one thinks of cancer when seen.

I had several of the "main" symptoms of breast cancer.  Number one being a mass.  However I stupidly ignored that lump.  One reason?  The mass I felt (and could actually see) had popped up about three months or so AFTER my mammogram.  My mammogram which showed the lump was in  March of 2010.  The previous year, 2009, there was no lump on the film.  Surely something serious would have shown a year before?  Or so I told myself.

Another reason I ignored the mass?  I'd had about 5 biopsies over 15 years due to family history.  I had grown numb to lumps.  Had them, been there, done that.  Though looking back it felt very different that the other perfectly round, mobile lumps which had been removed.  This was a mass, a heavy tumor in my chest that would not move if you pushed with all your might.

A third reason I ignored the lump?  It was symmetrical in my right to my left.  I'd had a liquid filled cyst on my left upper breast for years.  The doctor would drain when it bothered me.  Otherwise it was not dangerous.  I'd always read that if you had symmetrical lumps-one breast to the other-generally it wasn't cancerous.  However, I did find later that most breast cancer begins in the right upper breast.

One should never ignore any symptom and never feel safe because you only have one.  I realize I knew in my heart it was cancer.  The lump in my left upper breast was "smushy" and would roll when mashed.  The right mass was solid.  It felt to me it had a "root" or something like that. And it grew fast.  Very fast.  One month no evidence on the mammogram film.  In just a few it was almost four inches and growing.  

I remember lying in bed about two months or so before my mammogram that would forever change my body and life and feeling the lump.  I'd tell Chris to feel.  He'd say no, I'm not touching it.  Perhaps I was in denial.  Perhaps I was putting to much trust into things I'd read in pamphlets.  Never linking all the things going on in my body.  

My symptoms were:

*Fever.  Common in some cancer but not all.  I ran low grade fevers for months with no thought it could be related to cancer.  It had become a running joke between Chris and I.  I’d have him feel my head and he’d reply your warm or nope, your cold as a cucumber.  When Chris said I didn’t have a fever I’d say “no, that’s not what your supposed to say.  What are you supposed to say?”  Chris would say, “your burning up.  Do you want me to take you to the emergency room?”  We still have that joke.

When I was doing my blood work a week before my mastectomy the pre-admittance nurse took my temperature.  She asked after reading the temp if I had drank a cup of coffee which I replied no.  The nurse said they'd not do surgery if I had a fever the next week.  I panicked.  How was I supposed to get rid of a fever being caused by something that needed to come out of my body??

*Lump.  I described the lump above.  One other thing about my lump: you could actually SEE it.  In the following weeks of the mammogram during the poking and prodding appointments before the breast was gone the doctors would look me in the eye and say in a condescending tone, "do you know you can see it?"  YES!  I told them YES I could see it.......  I’m not an idiot though they were fast making me feel so.

*Skin puckering or dimpling.  When you bend over your breast will likely pucker or dimple around the area of the lump if it's cancerous.  Mine did but I'd only recently noticed before the fateful day.

I did not have any visual changes to the skin or nipple.  Please be aware that one type of deadly breast cancer will sometimes have changes in your skin-some say an area will look like an orange peel.  However I did have change in size and shape.  That was due to the fact that the tumor was growing at the top of my breast thus making it larger and a different shape.  

*Fatigue.  I'd been tired that year.  Of course with me that is nothing new. I have always been low energy and love naps.  However fatigue is different than my laziness.  And looking back I can see that.

So there.  Those were my main symptoms.  I realize so much now that breast cancer is more than a mammogram-in more ways than one-for good and for bad but I’ll not delve into the new controversies surrounding the usefulness of mammograms.  Not in this post.  

The last thing I did with my symptoms?  The very last? The one last service my breasts could do for me and others. The one that many did not want to participate in when I told them to.  Feel my lump.  I’d have those I love feel my lump.  And I’d look at them and say, “This is what breast cancer feels like”.

In room for the night following my
mastectomy.

Age and Birthdays

Age.  I've never worried about my age, growing older, or telling my age. (I turned 43 yesterday by the way.)  As I talked about age and aging to someone close yesterday a comment was made about turning 50 and being thankful to have done so.  Many have not made it to 50.  So I'm thankful to be turning 43.  Birthdays could have ended for me in 2010.  And so, once again, a reminder it's "Breast Cancer Awareness month"!

My 43 birthday at "Painting with a Twist" with close friends.

Cousin Sarah and niece Amber.

Stacy. Hard at work.

Sorry Kasey.  Can't help with that.

Loved the hair dryer.  Wanted to take home.

Passion meter test.  I failed.  Michelle did GOOD tho.

Pretty cool Patty!

My final piece!

What it should have looked like...

My painting turned into a giant birthday card.

My cousin Sarah did great!

I've the Right...

 I've the right to say I hate pink, and ribbons and all such things combined.   I have the right to say I'm uncomfortable at candle vigils and money earning walks.  And I have the right to change my mind tomorrow and wear a pink ribbon in my hair while struggling to walk a mile holding a candle.  Why do I have that right?  Because I bear the scars.

True Sportsmanship

Well, I've never had a true Internet rant. But after only a few hours of sleep last night in a house with no air-conditioner I really don't care.  I am rarely ever angry.  I didn't even have real anger toward my cancer.  But I do have anger toward the subject of my rant.

First off I FULLY support hunting!!  Kill all the deer you want.  I do not care!  What totally irritates the life out of me?  Poachers.  Bow season opened today right?  Not high power rifle?  Sorry if I'm mistaken.  But poaching is poaching no matter bow or muzzle loaded or whatever season.

I have friends and family who are true SPORTSMEN.  They abide by the rules and law.  And then we have the poachers.  Those who do not.  Maybe they aren't good hunters and can't hit with a bow?  I dunno.  Want to know why I hate poaching?  Because of poachers the sportsman who follow the rules and laws miss many of the good, big doe and big buck because the poacher has already taken them.  It's not fair!!!  It's not fair for a poacher to go out and get all the nice deer and only leave the spoils to the SPORTSMEN!  It's not fair.  It's not right.

Nor do I like the fact that poachers are so bound in bloodlust they forget it's dangerous and stupid and illegal to be 200 feet from my house and shoot a doe with a high powered riffle on land they do not own in bow season TOWARD my house.  (That was last year.  Who knows what will happen this year.)  Mr. T said "pity the fool".  Pity the fool who "accidentally" shoots one of our horses or dogs or a customer's horse.  Or me.  Remember poor little Carl on "The Walking Dead"?  Hunters MUST remember that when you shoot you must be aware of whats around.  Bullets can and do go through deer.  Or hunters miss their target and have a stray bullet.  What if that had happened last year 200 feet from my house on the land that was not owned by the hunter, I mean poacher, toward my house??  I might have ended up like Carl on "The Walking Dead".

Forgive me now for my first and last rant on Facebook.  But poachers remember, you aren't flicking your finger at the law because it's your "right" to hunt.  You are breaking a law that is there for safety of others and it's YOU taking away a sportsman's RIGHT to hunt and get some big prizes.

 That is all.

Pink'ofit

It's very hard putting words to paper.  This is not meant to be a bitter post.  I hope you'll please keep that in mind..

WARNING!  It's "Pink'ofit" time.  (Or what I call it.)

October is almost here and millions of people are planning and purchasing their pink items for "Breast Cancer Awareness Month".  Many put more money and thought into clothes and accessories for this than into Halloween.  (Good thing in my thinking. Money better spent. Although Halloween is fun!)

Before you buy a pink product ask:  how does the purchase benefit someone in treatment for breast cancer?  How about survivors?  Does the profit go toward research or national programs or local?  And where do I want my money to go or how to be spent?  Does it spread awareness?  And by awareness I mean so much more than the coined "breast care awareness"!  

Thank goodness people are indeed so aware these days. It's a hard worked for victory.  But instead of awareness (for everyone is aware there is such a thing of breast cancer) let's have "breast cancer education month".  Or at least think of October as such.  How many know there are several types of breast cancer; that there are treatment options for some cancers that do not have to include a bilateral mastectomy or chemotherapy or radiation; what the symptoms are; to not put your total trust in a self exam or mammogram; the pitfalls of some things about hereditary breast cancer (my opinions anyway.)

The reason to think deeper than a coffee mug that is pink or blouse with a cute pink bow is what I call "Pink'ofit". 

Unfortunately there are dishonest thieves in the world who will use any means to gain profit.  And unfortunately many are using pink to prey on the fears of women.  Pink is big business!!!  There individuals and businesses who prey upon women who are afraid of someday having breast cancer.  Or the grief of those who have experienced breast cancer or love someone who has suffered from or died in order to turn a profit.  Disgusting.  Please do not assume when you purchase something pink or an item with a pink bow that a breast cancer cause is being helped.

Be careful.  Be a wise shopper.  Be aware breast cancer is so much more than pink....

Offensive Words?

Have you ever noticed on TV the word sh*t is never utter, however, GD has been making it's way onto TV for the past ten years or so.  What is wrong with this picture?  A bodily function is offensive but saying the Lord God's name in vain is not?  My what times we live.

Election 2014

My Oath of Office.  Election 2014.

Mischievous

I'm rarely mischievous, but this morning I was. Tailgaters.  Ugh.  Nerve wracking.  My cure, or revenge, is to turn my windshield washers on.  The person who is toooo close really doesn't like to be sprayed with water and thus have to turn their windshield blades on.  Especially irritated are those in a nice, shiny, black fancy car...

Patent

An invention I need to apply for a Patent?  Rearview mirror with an internal camera to enable the driver to take selfies.  A new car option all would pay for I am sure.....

Pudding

Throwback Thursday.   

As you can tell from the coffee table I loved coke and chocolate pudding. The two empty cans of pudding obviously have put me into a pudding coma.  I wonder if I finished the third that's sitting there after my coma lifted?  (I was probably around three or four?)

A good man...who is sick...

A good man has cancer.  A good man I've admired for so long.  A man I never imagined would be sick because he comes across so strong.  He and his family are constantly on my mind.  The fear for what's ahead for him and the survivor's guilt that follows. 

Election Night

Me and the great nieces and their dad the nephew.

Jennifer, a pole worker and my nephew's wife.

Pole Workers

Counting some votes.

A precinct vote arrives!

Cory Russell

Allison from the property assessor's office and

Bridget

Marty Cook, Circuit Court Clerk.  It

was a LONG day!

Margie Cagle

Charles Kennedy, Constable

Richard and Kelly Kirkland

Lowell Russell

Brian Hodge "Worm"

Great niece Bella

Bridge

Packy!

Silly girls.  It was a LONG day!

Flower Hunting

I love Tennessee Passion Flowers!

Just regular Daisies?

Bumble Bee on a TN Passion Flower.