Treasuring the Good Days

From Becky...

Tara finished her week of chemo!  That's always good.  By Thursday (she finished Tuesday night) she was feeling so much better.  (at least that's what she tells me).  Sometimes it's hard for me as the mother to REALLY know how she's feeling. Tara and I have a unique "deal" going on.  She doesn't like to tell me when she doesn't feel good, (even though I always want to know the truth) and I don't want to ever let her see my fears.When I cried tears of relief at the last MRI, Tara said, "Mom, you really were scared and all this time you have been telling me you were not worried." She has seen me break down at times; but I try to keep it to a minimum!  A few that stick out are..... May 14th at EVDI when we saw the tumor, and that Thursday after surgery when I had to tell her about the pathology report.  Those were the two worst break downs I've had while Tara was watching..... I have  had many of my own private breakdowns.

Anyway, this is a happy post, so I'll continue....signs a mother knows Tara is normal (since she doesn't like to tell me if she doesn't feel well)

SHE vacuums the sofas and cushions instead of lying on the couch watching me vacuum.
SHE has energy to go grocery shopping and make her husband homemade cookies for a picnic on their Friday night date.
SHE smiles more and even wants to borrow my bicycle to exercise!
She is even a bit more fiesty sometimes - back to her old self.

My thoughts for today are to treasure the good times.  Treasure those days that you can have the good health to DO what you want to do.  We treasure those days around here.  Every day is a blessing and our friends and family and our faith are blessings also.  There is a scripture in 2 Nephi about opposition - if we never knew opposition, we couldn't appreciate the good things and there is so much joy in the good moments.  We will enjoy the next 2 1/2 weeks before chemo starts again.

We miss Rachel at this house, our table is small with only 3 people around it.  Thank heavens Tara & Josh and Ryan & Steph will join us for dinner sometimes!  There is no one here to eat all the ice cream, make us laugh when she regales us with stories of her workday, one less beautiful face to look at, and the list of things we miss about Rachel goes on and on.  We turned on Skype last night while we ate dinner and it was so fun for us to see Rachel and for her to give Nate tips on school life.  Nate misses that.  Lots of happiness and vitality left this house when Rachel went to college.  We love you Rachel.  We know Travis will keep track of Rachel and fight all the boys off for us!  (ha, ha)