Mommy gets new hair! Bryce wins coloring contest!

Cheap ain't good, and good ain't cheap. My Dad has been drumming that into me in the lumber biz for years, but it applies to wigs too! Trust us if you want a good looking wig, be prepared to pay. Mommy is very happy with her new hair. So is Daddy, RRRRREEEERRRRR!! Hubba Hubba! (EWWWWWW, Sorry I couldn't help it!)

Bryce the big boy won the Easter coloring contest at Manson Bay Market! He was so proud, so were we. Jack and Gail made a donation to a charrity in Bryce's name, he chose Habitat for Humanity.

Live from the chemo room......

Coming to you direct, via wi-fi, from the red leather recliners in the chemo room.....it's the Sheri and Brett show!!! Anyway. Here we are at #7 with six to go, we're on the home stretch. It's snowing! Kinda cool, but I think most were ready for spring. Our Contractor Show went extremely well with nearly 200 served! It's always fun to say thank you to our loyal customers. I used Meg Ryan's line from the movie "You've Got Mail" as my theme. She said "If business isn't personal, what is it?" I get accused of wrapping too much of my emotionally into our family business, but I don't know how else to do it. With what we've gone through with Sheri and Mom this year, our customers have shown us that it is personal. If we got to the end of doing business (way down the road by the way!), and no one cared, that would suck! Business is personal, and I'm glad my customers care, and we care back. That alone makes it worth doing.

My Cougs lost. They had a good year. I'm wearing my crimson with pride today. Once a Coug, Always a Coug!

Brett


We saw Dr. Malhi today. It's always good to see her. Our nurse Bonnie helped us set up an appointment with a plastic surgeon on April 18th in Spokane. After that we'll have more direction on later sugery dates. We are remaining flexible in our schedule and thinking. I'm sure we'll have more appointments coming up. I'm just thankful to have a great oncologist and team here to help coordinate it all. We have so much to be thankful for.

Our family is ready to enjoy spring break...even in the snow today! I can't believe this weather!!! However it will make the hills greener and the flowers bright and beautiful. Have I mentioned I LOVE flowers? I do.

As I sit here in the chemo chair, I want to thank you all for praying. I know it is making a difference. We are thankful for today and look forward to tomorrow. We know God has asked us to trust Him in this situation and we are. That is something that I'm reminded of daily. It is a daily choice and choosing to trust no matter what has brought so much peace into our lives.

God bless and keep looking up!

Sheri

Home Stretch......Chemo Friday

16 down, 7 to go. Chemo appointments that is. All seems very quite out there in the blogosphere, at least here on our blog. We can tell folks are reading as the ticker gets close to 11,000. We are doing chemo on Friday this week as it's our annual contractor dinner at the lumber yard Thursday night. Also the Cougs are playing in the sweet 16 Thursday night! Sheri wanted to attend the contractor night (she's been to every one), and I really wanted her there. Even though she doen't officially work for Lake Chelan Building Supply, in a small town it's a family thing. She gets questions all the time at school asking if we carry this or that. She's one of my best sales people! So we moved chemo so she could be at the dinner, helping represent the family.

It's been a challenge trying to balance family, work, and cancer. Getting rid of the last one will be nice. Did we mention cancer sucks? It is, what it is. Right now it's in our lives whether we want it to be or not. My mother is still battling her cancer. She's a brave women, but it gets a bit old after fighting 16 years. Keep her in your prayers as she fights on. Well there you go. Go Cougs, Boo Tar Heels!

Brett

Happy Resurrection Day!

Yesterday while riding in the car came the simple question from the back seat. "What colors is God?" Bryce asked. "Well, I know He is bright but I'm not sure what color he is. Someday we'll all find out." I answered.
This Easter we are thankful for red, the color of the blood he shed for us. We are thankful for white, the color the represents the cleansing of sin that he does in each of our hearts as we ask him to forgive us. We are certainly thankful for His resurrection. We are thankful He has been with us each step of the way through this adventure and for answering prayers.
That fact the God lovingly cares about each one of us and every need blows me away. He cares about the details and will never leave or forsake us. That's cool.
Happy Easter! Keep looking up!

Sheri

Catching up

Well, I'm meant to write for a few days. Here I am, finally sitting at the computer. It's been a great week, however I've been a little more tired than normal. I think it's just because last week was the third week of chemo in a row. I'm looking forward to just getting Herceptin and taking a week off of chemo. this Thursday.

Work is going well. My kinders are energetic and full of spunk! I love their enthusiasm for life. It's just my job to funnel that energy into learning...and some people call it work. I call it a fun challenge that often makes me laugh.

Speaking of laughing, Bryce asked me if we were going to celebrate Sponge Bob, the cartoon character, the day after St. Patrick's day. "No, why?" I asked. He said, "because today we celebrated Partick's day" I laughed as I realized he thought we celebrated Patrick, Sponge Bob's best buddy on Monday. Ya gotta love looking at life through the eye's of a kindergartener. Tonight we are reading about St. Patrick's day so he gets a better understanding.

We did go look at wigs today. First of all, it helped to learn how to put them on correctly. Secondly, it will help to get one my size. Thirdly, it was great to learn how to take them in with a simple needle and thread to make the ones I have fit. For now, I figure I'll go back and forth between wigs and hats. Over all I really appreciated the help and am looking forward to trying on the ones we ordered to see if one or two of them fit and look well. I'm still looking forward to getting my own hair back, but what girl wouldn't look forward to this?! The gal I went to has been through chemo so she totally understands. I'm so thankful.

Keep looking up!

Sheri

New Hair?...

Well, we've been making several calls to try to find a place to order just the right wig. Or something that doesn't feel too plastic at least. We have an appointment for next Tuesday. I've tried looking before, but it just didn't fall into place. Maybe I just need to learn how to style these things. Then I also have to decide which hair cut to go with...long or short?...curly or straight?...
We'll make the big decisions Tuesday. For now, we're off to chemo tomorrow to continue fighting the battle.
Keep looking up and thanks for all the prayers!
Sheri

How ' bout that hair!!!! Ah the good ol' days.

We were just reminisin' through some old pics tonight. We thought people would like this one circa 1993 at my sister Amy's wedding. In the one picture is Doug's mom Patti, what a great lady, she passed from cancer last year. Sheri said it best today talking to a good friend, "I hate cancer!" Yep, pretty much sums it up, cancer sucks, but life is good! We're pushin through to the other side of getting better. Keep pushin that wheelbarrow God!

Brett and Sheri

Another chemo Thursday........9 to go.

We're headed down to Wenatchee for another chemo treatment. This is #10 with nine to go. It's nice to be in single digit territory. We started with 23, with the possibility of more, so we've come a long ways on this journey. We'll keep pushing on until the end, but I think I can see it from here. That's nice.

A couple of other things have happened over the last few weeks, besides scan results (sorry, that kinda dominated our minds). Sheri was selected as the Blue Ribbon Teacher of the Year. Being a kindergarten teacher tends to fly under most radar when it comes to these things. So she is very thankful for the recognition of her hard work and dedication for the past 15 years. I've watcher her care for the children in her classes, she owns her job. She loves seeing their progress, and they love her back. It's a very rewarding career she's chosen. Also the La Mar family has been chosen to be the Grand Marshals for the Manson Apple Blossom Festival in May. My folks, Sheri and I and the kids are very excited and honored. It will be fun for all of us.

So there you go. We keep on keepin' on. It's starting to get busy at work for me as the weather improves. My crew has been great at allowing me to spend what time I need to with Sheri and the kids. Thanks guys and gals! I know they've got my back. Well off the the chemo room. YE-HA!

Brett

Hurray for the 8th of May!

Looking forward, if all goes as it has been, May 8th is the day. Sheri's final chemo day. Hurray, hurray for the 8th of May! We know not to put too much into that day, but we are goal oriented people, and it helps us to push for a line in the sand.

In late May or early June she'll go in for surgery. So we'll go right from one battle into another, but they all work toward the same goal, life without cancer. In talking to other survivors, including my Mother, it (cancer) never really leaves your thoughts. But life somewhat normal, with hair, and not doing chemo weekly sounds nice. We are well aware that this will likely be a lifelong change in our lives, but celebrating the milestone makes it bearable. You almost have to bite this off in small, manageable chunks, or it becomes too overwhelming.

All in all it was a great week. I turned 41 Saturday. I got the best gift of all with the news of Sheri's scans on Thursday. It felt good to look up from our marathon and see that we are ahead of schedule, and hear the cheers of our friends! We still have another half to go, so keep praying, together we can kick this thing.

Just a note, we started the ticker you see on the left side of the blog in December 14th (10 weeks ago), three weeks after we started the blog. We're nearing the 10,000 mark, that's kinda cool. We had no idea people would be so interested in a Kindergarten Teacher from Manson with cancer, who knew. It's a good story, with a developing happy ending! Everyone loves a good story.

Brett