Cancer

To say I hate Cancer is an understatement. Friends with Cancer, family with Cancer, kids with Cancer, babies with Cancer, truly a disease that show no discrimination on who gets it. You could be white, black, Christian, Atheist, male, female, good, bad, it just plain doesn't care. For some reason it always seems to be the good, the innocent, the pure of heart that get the disease. You don't often hear about the a-hole down the street biting it from Cancer. You hear about the 9 year old just starting life, the mother of 2 young kids, the grandparent watching their grand kids have kids. Needless to say, I hate Cancer. 

As much as I hate Cancer it has taught me to have a deeper faith, to see the joy in each moment, to savor life, to greater appreciate what I have, to be a better friend/daughter/wife/mother/person. It is tough to not ask why but tougher still to let the why go. It is so true that one walks by faith and not by sight. Cody and Holli most certainly walk by faith. 

It is crazy that in a world as technically advanced, medically advanced as ours we still struggle to find a cure for Cancer. It is nice to live in a world though with those that do not give up hope, continue to search, test, fail, search, test, and fail again but never give up hope that in the end their walking by faith will lead to a cure for the rest of us. 

In the end Cancer has made me walk by faith and with that faith I wait for the day when there is no Cancer that cannot be cured. I can only (delusionaly) hope this cure comes within the next year or so. With that, hold your friends and family close, let go of the grudges, breath the clean air, and enjoy this sweet ride of life for as long as you may have.

Jo

8

Originally it started out as 4. Jeff, Jason, Marcus and Cody have been friends since high school. What was 4 became 5, 6, 7 and eventually 8. The core 8, but it started with 4. You know how in Sex in the City Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte are the loves of each others lives, well these 4 will never admit it but they are similar. Our adventures are usually their show and they just let us 4 ladies tag along. Sure us girls like to take over and run things our way, but it is still the 4. The point I am getting at, is I cannot imagine life without the 4. Yet, somehow that is a very real possibility. One of the 4 was just diagnosed with Grade IV Glioblastoma. It is an ugly sounding word for an ugly disease. This however is not Cody's first go around with the word cancer. Shortly before I met my husband Cody had brain surgery to remove a tumor. This one was Grade III. Even with surgery, chemo, and radiation he was given the life span of 3 to 5 years. He defied the odds and made it almost 10 with no recurring tumor. During the last 10 years, with clean scans every 6 months to a year a person almost forgot that there was a possibility the cancer would return. It probably was my own wishful thinking or delusional thinking as some would probably say. Yet here we are and it has returned. The first time Cody faced this down he was 24, not married, and no kids. Still wouldn't have made losing him any easier. This go around he is 34, married, with 3 precious little souls that call him daddy. Besides, Cody, Husband, and Daddy he is also a Fighter and will give his all to fight this diagnosis ever step of the way. The rest of us will be in his corner the entire time! If you so choose you can follow his and my beautiful friend Holli's story at codyandholli.blogspot.com. The are truly amazing people and my life is much better, enriched, whatever you want to call it with them in it. Plus, they are Sawyer's Godparents. They really are the family one would choose and I am so glad we choose each other, or at least I choose Marcus. Here is to hopefully many more years with my chosen family because if I know Cody he is going to give Cancer a big middle finger and defy his odds once again. In the end it really is all up to God and if his army needs another fighter in it, so if you feel so inclined could you add them into your prayer circle or if you don't pray just wish them some good vibes? We all choose to believe what we believe but I can't imagine it will hurt that what ever higher being one may believe in that he/she knows how much Cody means to us!
                                        
                                                Marcus and Cody dancing at Cody's wedding.

                                        Cody and Holli in the Big Horns. Something was funny!

                                                        The 4 at Blackfox in the Hills.

                                                    Smoking cigars at Jeff and Em's Wedding.

                            An oldie but a goodie. The original picture of the 8. The first but certainly not the last.

                                           Jeff/Em, Cody/Holli, Jason/Heidi, and Marcus/Jo

Time

Time seems to move so fast these days and I cannot do anything to slow it down. Oh how I wish I could slow it down. My sweet baby girl will turn 1 in less than a month. When did that happen? And my sweet little boy will be going to preschool in a few short months. When did that happen? I know these times are supposed to come and go to make room for new times and it is all a big circle but I just wish I could slow it down and savor some of these times. Of course with the amazing times comes the not so amazing times. Does anyone else ever have those bad mommy days? The days were you feel like no matter what you do it is not good enough? You yelled too much, you got frustrated over the little things, you shook you head in despair. I hate those days and every time I have one I vow to do better but sure enough one will sneak up on me again. How do I stop them? 
I write to God for the wisdom to know how to stop them and maybe they are not meant to be stopped. Maybe it is a part of my journey as a mother and learning to be a better one, but man this journey makes me feel defeated some days. For some reason I have this picture in my head that my children are going to grow up and only have memories of me yelling. I am not sure if this stems from my own childhood or where it comes from but I don't want those to be the memories they have. I want them to have the memories of me rolling on the floor playing animals, picnic's in the park, running through sprinklers, sparklers on the 4th of July. Don't get me wrong, I do not live in a fools paradise and think all their memories are to be happy ones, or that I will never yell. In all actuality I think sometimes there is nothing you can do but yell. Sometimes it seems it is the only way my 3 year old will listen. I don't know if I am making any sense or just rambling at this time, but does anyone else struggle with the mom guilt of yelling? Like I feel like I am crushing their little souls when it happens :(. I will continue to write to God for the wisdom I know he will bestow on me but it sure would be nice to know I am not alone!
It is May now. Our family is going to be moving soon. We are in the process of building a new house and needless to say we are beyond excited. After picking the kiddo's up Sawyer asked me if we could go look at the new house. At this time it is only a poured foundation, but it is a start. We have to be out of our current house on May 28th and are moving into a temporary twin home until our house is completed. It will be a bitter sweet day to leave our current home. This is where we came home as a married couple, brought both our babies home to, made a life, a family. This house has so many warm memories attached. I can only hope that it will serve the new homeowners well. In the end it is just a house and the people in it our what make it a home but I get sort of sentimental and cheesy about these type of things. 
Anyhoo..I am tired and it has been a long day so short post for the evening. Oh, but recommendation..watch God's Not Dead..wasn't quite what I expected but a good message and decent movie none the less. 
Jo

Moments

It is March. March. I cannot believe where the time has gone. Just like that Marcus and I were in Mexico. Just like that I was on the plane home. Just like that I was thrown back into the routine of life. I can honestly say the routine of my life is my favorite. I love the morning bottle with Hanna while watching the news, Sawyer getting upset because his waffle will not stay on his fork, the coffee ring my husbands leaves on the counter, and the dog laying in the most inconvenient spots possible. These are the moments I love. I work the late shift this week and thoroughly dislike it. One of my most favorite things is picking up the kids from daycare and listening to Sawyer tell me about his day. Who he played with, what he had for lunch, if he had fun, did he go outside, etc. No matter how my day goes when I get to pick those two littles of mine up life seems to stop and nothing matters but being in that moment. 

Moments are a funny thing. As I get older I seem to continue to learn how precious moments are. I am not sure if it is just me or if this happens to every what used to be rational adult but the older I get the more afraid of everything I get. I will choose to believe that I am not the only person this happens to, mainly for my sanity. I suppose I should clarify when I say I am afraid of everything. I am afraid of very irrational things like my plane crashing, lightning striking my camper in a storm, walking with my kids and they slip through the railings of the bridge over the interstate. Like I said, I am not afraid of rational things. So a trip to Mexico without my babies and my irrational fear that my plane was going to crash was sort of a big deal with me. But with the grace of the good Lord and perhaps some assistance with Xanax I made it without incidence and calmly. Almost to the point where my husband might travel with me by plane again. Seriously, I think the plane thing is they just don't make sense to me how they stay up in the air! I know that it is physics and all that good stuff but I also know that the law of gravity says what goes up must come down. Anyway, the point is that even with these irrational fears it is the moments I am most afraid of missing. So with that I am doing my best to live in the moment and not let the fears rule them for me. Because of that I had wonderful moments in Mexico with my husband, my brother, my dad, my sister-in-law, and my extend step family. Because of that my in-laws got a wonderful week with their grandchildren. I am however happy to report I do not have time away from the littles until May so I am going to savor every single moment. Even the ones that involve time outs, tears, saying sorry, and frustration because even those moments are amazing. Remind me of that last sentence when one of these moments are upon me and I am thinking this is not so amazing! 

Without further ado..some moments from Mexico

                                                            Me and my love on the beach

                                                            Back in the USA
 

                                                               Marcus's big purchase
 

                                             A small slice of paradise                                          

                                                  Brother and Sister and the out-laws

                                             Congratulations Brock and Melissa! 03/05/2015


 

Off to the races! Life has been busy and so rewarding and with all that comes little time for blogging. That and I just wasn't totally in love with my blogging. Time to reset, I have recharged, and I am going to give this blogging thing another go. Mainly since I totally dropped the ball on the whole baby book thing it might be nice for my kids to have something that actually documented their early years. So, today marks the new blogger I have become, or the one I am going to strive to be. It is Valentines Day and I get to spend it with my loves. Generally in the past Marc and I have been snowmobiling but with a big trip to Mexico planned and paid for our dollars were slim. Not going to lie, I am okay with that. I like snowmobiling but it has certainly become something that I could for sure live without too. This year however it was spent watching my nieces do sports and quick hello's and see you later's with the family. Tomorrow is Monday and back to reality I suppose. The weekends just go too fast! I guess they go fast because they are fun, packed with activities and errands. Just Monday seems to sneak up on us way to quick. I wish I had the ability to stop time or bottle these moments. It seems as if I blink and they are gone. Just seeing the little adults my nieces and nephews are becoming gives me this huge reality check that these years where they get to be little, so innocent, needing you constantly are going to come to an end. Makes me truly sad some days. Yet I am excited for the future. To watch them grow and become these amazing human beings that I know they are meant to be. 

Marcus and I jet off to Mexico in two weeks for some sun, some fun, oh and the main event is a wedding! My step-brother Brock is getting married to a fabulous gal named Melissa. Should be an amazing time but I am going to miss my babies like crazy. I am sure though Grandma and Grandpa Hunter are more than ready to have us leave so they can have an entire week loving and spoiling our kids, furry child included. We get to go with my brother and sister-in-law, my dad and step-mom, the step-siblings, and a handful of their friends and other family. Marcus and I honeymooned in Mexico and had a wonderful time, however by like day 4 we were wishing we had some friends with. So we are excited to go, relax, enjoy the family, and celebrate Brock and Melissa's happy day. 

Hope this finds everyone well and stay tuned for more to come from the Hunter tales of life! Here are a few pics because no blog post should go without pictures.