Happy Halloween everyone!

And a shout out to my dad - today is his birthday

and he is creeping closer and closer to 60... YIKES!

But in January, when he found out his tumor was 20mm his doctor told him

"Typically people with this size tumor have 8 months...

But don't worry about the numbers"

asshole.

Well 10 months later and all the scans have been CLEAN.

Thats why we decided to go to DUKE!

Best decision we ever made.

So obviously my dad's birthday is Halloween

And so as kids I don't remember doing much for halloween.

One year I went as a runner

The closest to a legit costume I ever wore was for Spirit Week

I was Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast

I think it was celebrity day - or movie day.

I never really got the whole slutty cowgirl, or slutty cop, or slutty anything.

And on top of usually spending Halloween with my dad when I got older

I just never dressed up.

But when I discovered pet costumes Halloween changed.

Here are some pictures of my kittens dressed up

and being the happiest kittens EVER

Pumpkin Prime!

The shirts are technically for dogs but FINALLY I was able to find hats FOR CATS.

Pumpkin Mo

Sadly he is this size without the pumpkin now

Might just spray paint him orange this year.

Well well

I come home to New Bern thinking

"What great weather for more engagement pictures at the beach" then

BAM

Hurricane Sandy just pops up and ruins any chance of that

Unless I want my pictures to be death and destruction themed.

Oh my God Becky look at that hurricane.
It's so big...
I can't believe it's so round
It's just out there...

What I meant to say was...

I have terrible luck.

Like every time I think "should I wear my rain boots?"

And decide not to, it rains.

But If I decide to wear them

even with 80% chance of rain

It will become sunny and hot.

Story of my life.

So naturally I decided NOT to bring my rain boots home this weekend

ON TOP of deciding to bring my straightener home

It also rains every time I curl my hair

(I curl my hair with my straightener - my hair is like a stick naturally)

So I think that my bad luck inevitably caused the hurricane to hit NC

Oops. Sorry. 

But seriously, you call this a hurricane?
If you listen to the news its all doom and the end of the world
I still have power.
I was able to go to Target and Starbucks today
and besides the duration I really can't tell a difference between this and a patch of rain.
But apparently I slept through the worst of the wind.
Oh well.

Then to top this hurricane/ lack of engagement pictures off
Of course those Tar HOLES beat my wolfpack.

No "SIX" will go in my status this year.

I so hoped it would.

FIFTH Straight year we creamed UNC - 2011

So what do you do when its pouring rain
Your college team gets beaten
You're a little down
 and you thought you'd be taking more pictures?

Well of course you still plan the wedding

Take your mom to Michaels to buy more supplies

And try to remix to songs that you love

So that you and your fiancee can BOTH have a song they love as a first dance

Let's just say Adele and Red Hot Chili Peppers DO NOT mix very well

Might have found a photographer
Potentially found a preacher- the one who married Robert's mom and step-dad
Figured out what tent/ how many tables and chairs we need
Which is a lot more hard on my budget then I thought
And I have my planner on arrangements of everything.
So much progress being made
I still need a DJ
AND I still feel like my life is in disarray...
I don't even know if I have a home after December
Or if I'm going to grad school.

It's okay, right?
At least I'll have a diploma.
Maybe it's too early to say that too.

Is it Christmas Break Yet?

Other non-wedding related updates from this weekend include:

1) my dad just shaved his head. Turns out that the hair fell out and other hair was growing in and thats why he looked so rough because there were two different lengths. IDK. He looks a MILLION times better now.

2) His birthday is Halloween so I made him enchiladas and lemon pie and the family ate together and played our favorite game (parcheesi) and I won. Of course.

3) I made my brother a mixed tape and he LOVED it. It's really an achievement because I feel like he considers me to only like "preppy" songs when really my musical interest go beyond Taylor Swift and John Mayer.

4) The kittens have a new costume: a tux. I am contemplating getting two so they can come to the wedding. (MOSTLY I'm kidding... mostly).

6) I realized there is less that two months until Christmas. OH MY GOD. This also means there is like a month and some change until I graduate.

7) Treacherous is my favorite song of the day from Taylor Swift's album

8) Can't wait for walking dead tonight




Okay that's it. All I got.
It's dreary outside and I still have to drive back to Raleigh.
SHMERH...

I love Taylor Swift

And that love only gets greater and greater with every CD

And the newest CD came out MONDAY.

Of course I went to Target that day to buy it

And I have been exclusively listening to it ever since.

Why not get it on iTunes you ask?

I made the mistake last year of doing that

And I missed out on the deluxe edition with extra songs

Some of which are my favorite songs on that album

Not this time iTunes!

So here is the deluxe edition cover:

I have to admit I listened to a few of the songs and just thought... meh

I love you Taylor but 22 is awkward.

And I am 22 so I should be able to relate to it

but "everything will be alright if we just keep dancing like we're 22"?
It pains me to say that this is kind of lame.
So is "Girl At Home".
It's a great point to make
No one wants to be the "other woman"
But the way she sang it is awkward.
I'm sorry Taylor, forgive me.

Basically I fell in love (or at least like) with the songs in bold.
So you can ignore everything else if you want to...

Obviously "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together",
"Red", and "Begin Again" are in my list of favorites
but that usually goes without saying when they release singles.
"I Knew You Were Trouble" was love at first listen.
I love how the chorus is almost dub-stepped
Not quite, but almost
And we've all had people in our past that we knew were trouble
and we should have known better
"I knew you were trouble when you walked in so shame on me"
She's so relatable.
God I love her.

"Starlight" kind of makes me think its trying to be "Enchanted" or "Sparks Fly"
But its okay, they're two of my favorite T. Swift songs of all time.

"The Last Time" is beautiful and kind of heart breaking.
I love the voice of Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol)
It's such a pretty song.
Probably a great "I need to cry" song after a break up.


"Treacherous"
"Stay Stay Stay"
"Everything Has Changed"
"The Moment I Knew"
"I Almost Do"
"State Of Grace" (The Acoustic version)
all amazing songs that I get closer to being in love with, with every listen

Of course the rest I am kind of indifferent about, for now
But usually I end up loving those too
By the time I've played the CD 1 bazillion times

Overall I definitely recommend RED.
The verdict is still out on if it's her best album yet
Because "Speak Now" has some MASSIVE shoes to fill

It's okay, I'll always love you Taylor.
Because even your "worst" album is a best seller.
You're the bomb dot com

XoXo

Since my last post was SO exciting

I decided to do something different today

What could be a better way to lighten the mood
Than to talk about who you would Eff, Marry, or Kill
And also Link Up

So...

Hunger Games edition

So you've got Gale on the top left, Cinna on the bottom, and Peeta on the top right.

Eff- Gale
Marry- Cinna
Kill- Peeta

Reasoning: 

Eff- Gale. Look at him. He's gorgeous. But his lack of balls admitting his feelings for his girl, Katniss, makes me think he's better just to EFFFFF. A lot. Even as Liam. yummmm.

Marry- This one might be surprising but I'd marry Cinna. The character, not Lenny, let's be clear. Cinna was from the capital but he was still caring and compassionate. And this was to a stranger. I think he'd make a great hubby.

Kill- This was a hard decision. Not really. Everyone may LOVE Peeta but I find him creepy. He just watched Katniss from a far, in the shadows. Falling in love with her without ever speaking to her. CREEPPPPPYYYYY. I've had a stalker ya'll and this is pretty much how it went. Bye bye Peeta. Team Gale 4 ever.

I'm sure I've messed up this linking up thing
Still learning how to blog
But this has been a fun change of pace
I'm going to need to join in on these things more often.


XoXo,

I have been a Daddy's girl my entire life 

Not that this picture really does it much justice...

(and on a side note I also went through a few years where I would only wear slips)

Anyways,

My dad and I have always been close

But when I went to college something changed

And our relationship just wasn't the same.

It pretty much fluctuated from average to good to bad

Until something terrible happened.

On December 23 2011 his doctor called him in to talk

It was about a mole that had come back weird cells but cancer free

except they weren't cancer free- he had melanoma.

He told me first when he got home from the doctor.

Apparently the tumor was pretty big and the doctors were all very confused

Crane Creek Vineyards, the place I mentioned last post has some memories too

The first time I ever drank their wine was sitting in the kitchen with my dad

Deciding what we would do.

On one hand if it came back terminal but he had some time

I would take some time off school and we would go to all the places he wanted to go

But never really had any "time" for

Or if he didn't have time for that 

I would just take time off school to get everything in order.

We decided my brother should stay with my mom full time 

unless he came to NCSU for school.

And I became the power of attorney in case I needed to pull the plug.

My family always makes the comment

That divorce was the best thing that ever happened to us.

And usually that is a true statement, all kidding aside

Except for when a 21 year old daughter gets to be in charge of pulling a plug.

UGH.

For the longest time we joked that maybe he wasn't really sick.

He said he felt fine and we were pretty convinced it was a mistake

But after some more tests, etc

We found out the tumor was 20mm.

normal size from what I've heard is like 2mm. 

In February we took a trip to Disney for my birthday to spend some time together

And the next weekend he had surgery to remove the tumor.

Followed by another surgery to remove lymph nodes.

The tumor was indeed very large and all the way to the muscle on his back.

They found cancer in one lymph node.

Thus my father had stage 3b melanoma cancer.

He had a less common type of melanoma

That instead of spreading all over the skin

Tunnels straight down.

It's pretty fast acting but apparently not as prone to spread?

I don't know.

He began interferon treatment this may after everything had healed.

A month of high dose 5X a week

then 11 months of self injected interferon 3X a week.

I took him to his appointments

and flushed the IV that went straight to his heart twice a day.

As for now he is on week 22 of his low dose interferon

And having VERY mild symptoms to this drug.

But then I started noticing something else that finally worried me.

This is him THIS August.

Looking healthy. Getting his rock star on with his GF.

A little gray but still pretty close to that picture up top...

His skin looks healthy

He just looks like he has more energy

This is him a few weeks ago.

Hair very much gray and thinned out.

You can't tell as much as in person but its bad.

Skin seems to just not be very healthy looking.

I've been realizing over the last few weeks that he just looks sick.

Apparently its all the medicine 

and as soon as he gets off interferon he will return to normal

But for now its kind of scary to watch.

Personally I think I'm too young to not have my father

And far too young to be the head of a household.

I have heard some interesting rumors that I am overwhelmed with worry

And I think my dad's not going to walk me down the aisle at my wedding

Well, I'm not THAT worried.

I'm still an optimist. 

Just don't like that he's starting to look like some one with cancer.

His last few screenings have been clean

(and this is where my pessimism shows up sometimes)

But his best friend Riley Gray had similar presentation of his melanoma

A few clean scans then BAM cancer all over his body

He died a few years ago.

It's okay I'm still hopeful.

He's too much of a pain in my ass to let go this easily.

And as he tells ALL of his friends who ask what they can do to help us

GET REGULAR CHECK UPS

Had he caught this creepy mole sooner he might have only needed surgery.

As I mentioned before our relationship fluctuated a lot

But when he found out he was sick he became a lot nicer

and it's like all the stress that caused him to change

Didn't matter anymore.

In some respects this awful disease has been the worst thing ever to happen

But in other ways it really brought us back to a good place.

So while I wish it never happened

I am also very grateful that something caused a change in both of us.

And although I don't talk about my beliefs or views very often

I do believe God had a hand in this.

And I thank God every day for helping our relationship

And keeping my dad healthy.

Okay well I'm sure that brightened everyones day

sorry

Promise the next post will be WAY less serious.

XoXo

Well, Mo did a great job with his guest post.

That little guy is the best

Can't wait to see him next weekend

And speaking of weekends I spent mine in Georgia.

And a little bit of NC.

My Aunt has a cottage in Young Harris, GA that we stayed at.

It was gorgeous.

We left Raleigh at 3 so we made it to the actual mountains at dark.

To see this ominous floating cross...

And a mountain trip wouldn't be normal without Mexican food

huh?!?

Doesn't matter, it was delicious.

Then we went to the Folk Art School in NC and saw some music!

That man had a time let me tell you.

He may or may not have been really drunk.

And of course we spent every night at about 9PM eating cheese, crackers, and grapes.

Evan and I split the platter for two a small village

By this point I'm sure you're wondering how I still have pants that fit.

Me too.

I've been wearing leggings.

More cheese, crackers, grapes

Then Bed.

Then we got up this morning, had breakfast, and drove home.

It's about a 6 hour drive to Raleigh

But there was a lot to look at along the way 

Anyway, that was my weekend it a lot of summary and even more pictures.

Here's to another good weekend

And more importantly a great week

(Har har har)

XoXo,

Meow.

Despite the flux of Christmas decorations on the shelves lately

(seriously what is going on? Its not even halloween)

It's too early to call this my Christmas list

Just some things I've been wishing for lately

1. Cheetah Print Running shoes

2. This bracelet

3. Love Ring

4. Aztec Sweater

6. Lilly Pulitzers Fancy Fest 

I'm going to need them in black, brown, silver, pewter, and gold. 

Throw in red too for some school spirit.

Kind of love those royal blue ones.

Okay I'll have one in every color but orange.

Thanks.

I guess I should probably do my homework so I can graduate and get a job and afford most of the things on my wish list. But procrastinating is so much fun...

Until next time

Bye Ya'll