I am still hanging around. I haven't been on Xanga for 6 months. I really do wish I had the time to make up juicy blogs and read what is up with everyone else, too. I am glad some of my Xanga friends are on FB, but I miss those who are not.

We are homeowners now and have to make time to fix things up ourselves. I love my house, but it's had a few problems. As John said to me the other day, "It's not like we can call the landlord and have him fix it while we are at work. We have to schedule some time at home to take care of things." How right he is.

My mom and youngest brother are coming for a visit in 3 weeks. I'm so excited I can hardly stand myself. They will be here to help out with the Nelson Pioner Farm's Old-Fashioned Fiddle Contest during the Pioneer Fall Festival. If you are in Iowa and want a fun experience, come out to the Nelson Pioneer Farm in Oskaloosa on Sept. 18. They have pioneer living displays, antique farm machinery and displays. They'll be threshing oats with a steam engine and cutting corn with a single row picker. Plus, the great music you'll hear at the fiddle contest. For more information, visit www.nelsonpioneer.org.

I've been spending most of my time on Facebook of late. I'm in love with FB now the way I was in love with Xanga. I finally got my theme changed here. It took me a while to find the cherry blossoms, but once I found it, I knew that was the one I need for spring.

Speaking of spring, it is spring here in Iowa. John and I got to work out in the yard of our new home yesterday after work. We got an old water pond torn out. At one time I'm sure it was lovely with all of the wheels and moving pieces that the water ran, but with all of them out of the yard, it was just a stinking breeding ground for mosquitoes (which looooove to eat on me above all others) and a safety hazard for the neighbors kids.

We got to meet another neighbor last night. Everyone out in University Park is so friendly. I'm glad God led us to this house. It is definitely home to us.

Wishing all my Xanga friends a very merry and blessed Christmas.

John woke up early this morning and found a show on PBS that was talking about brain health and one of the modules discussed cancer brain. Cancer brain is different from chemo brain. I've heard of chemo brain since I had cancer 8 years ago, but since I didn't take chemo, the term chemo brain didn't fit.

Chemotherapy destroys cells throughout the body, including brain cells. This results in "chemo brain" because brain cells are destroys and the neurons no longer fire correctly.

"Cancer brain," on the other hand, results from a protein sent into the body by the cancer in it's preparation to spread through the body. The proteins destroy a coating on the neurons, causing them to misfire and therefore leaving us cancer survivors with memory losses. It's frustrating to know that you know something but cannot recall it.

The good news is, you can reroute the neurons by learning new things, so I need to make the time to study new things.

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Ours was wonderful. For the first time since I've been with my husband's family, we all sat around a table eating together, instead of having plates in our laps scattered around the house. We all went around the table and said what we were thankful for - it was perfect! My sister-in-law's turkey was so moist and it just fell off the bone. Good job, Jenn! John and I had a good time playing wii Monopoly and golf with the nephews. It was a very nice day.

The US government has struck again. The news said this morning that the government is no longer recommending women get annual mammograms beginning at age 40. Now it's bumped up to 50, and they are recommending every two years. On top of that, the most HORRIBLE news to me, is that they are now trying to say that self breast exams are worthless. The government beaureacrats claim that all SBEs do is encourage unneccessary biopsies.

EXCUSE ME????

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 35. I found a lump in my breast during one of those worthless self breast exams. I have encouraged other women to do their monthly routine SBE ever since. Had it not been for that silly little self breast exam, I might not have a breast. I might not even be alive. Because of that self breast exam, my cancer was caught extremely early, and I was able to have a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy.

On top of that, I know of at least 3 other people within a 25-mile radius right here in rural Iowa that are also alive and well, breast in tact (well, mostly in tact considering we had to have a chunk of it cut out) because of a routine monthly self breast exam. Two of these women, like me, were also UNDER the age of 40 when the lump was discovered. The other lady was under 50.

I see this as a precursory move by the government to cut health care expenses before universal health care takes effect. The government needs to mind their own stinkin' business!!!

I love this little video. It needs to become an anthem for diabetics.

John and I are in the process of buying a home. We actually started looking for a house the beginning of August, and we found one we liked at the end of September. Yes, it took nearly 7 weeks for us to find a home that we actually liked that was in our price range. We signed the purchase agreement Sept. 22. It seems to just drag on from there.

I'm getting frustrated with the home-buying process, but I do trust the God is in control of this. He has been since the beginning and I do believe this will be a testimony to my husband as well. A couple of examples: 1) I've told John all along that if God wanted us to have this, he'd bring us to the right house in the right price range at the right time and it would be right for the seller as well. When we found this house, we had actually been scheduled to look at another house but we didn't like it at all. The realtor said, "I've got another to show you if you have time. It just came on the market today. We looked and we loved it. It was missing a garage door. We asked the sellers to pay for the garage door as a condition of the purchase, as well as to give us a $2000 credit toward closing. The realtor told us we were asking for too many concessions for a home that had been on the market only one day, but my attitude was "if it's meant to be, it's meant to be" and if they didn't agree it wasn't meant to be. They agreed.

One of the reasons we sought out buying a house this year was the first-time homebuyers credit. The entire time we've been married, we've rented, so we qualify. But, we had a deadline to close by Nov. 30. We need the homebuyers credit to replace the money that we were going to use to pay down our toxic debt. John's been getting really worried and has been saying, "If we don't close on time then this was pointless." I told him that God knows our needs and will see to it that it happens. We may be closing at 10 p.m. on Nov. 30, but it will happen. Lo and behold, the government extends the homebuyer credit. Now we do not have to worry about the deadline at all.

God is so good!

Does anyone know what happened to all of my photos? I haven't been on in a while, but I did pay for a lifetime subscription so I could store my pics here back when Xanga only allowed photo storage for subscribed members. I realize I haven't been spending much time here lately, but come on? Now I'm going to have to do a complete redesign of my site because they've even taken my custom-designed header.