Five years and feeling fine

Today is my 5-year anniversary from surgery to eradicate breast cancer. Yes, I had surgery on Valentine's Day. The joke in our house was that my husband was getting a new breast for Valentine's Day. :) You absolutely have to have a sense of humor during such times, or you will just wither up and blow away. Seriously.

I don't know how much I've shared about my cancer experience with all of you who might be reading this, but I have to admit that facing cancer was not the biggest trial. Getting back to "normal" was. That was truly the biggest challenge of my life. But with a loving husband, two great kids, my faith (especially my faith- my husband told me I carried him through the whole ordeal), and eventually some medication, I survived and now thrive. What a wonderful place to be. My heart is full, I'm so happy I only have to visit my doctor once a year now, and I hope anyone who faces a similar trial has the fabulous support I did. And do.

My love to my husband for being so fabulous, and to my kids for having a sense of humor in the face of a crazy mom. I love you all.

It's a Conspiracy

I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, but I have to say that I am convinced there's one among cell phone plan providers. Seriously. Maybe it's not one of those "aliens taking over the world" type of conspiracies, but I swear, it's a conspiracy nonetheless. Or at least something that really bugs me.

So- how many of you own cell phones? And how many of you have grown up knowing how to leave a message on an answering machine? OK, so here's my beef-- why the HECK do they put that annoying lady on everybody's cell phone to tell you how to leave a message? It's not like you didn't just leave your own, personalized message on your own phone, and how many of us can receive faxes through our cell phones anyway? A simple beep is no longer sufficient, we now need to hear how to end our call, what button to push if we want to page somebody, how to let them know it's important, and all that garbage. You would think our technologically-savvy generation would find such promptings unnecessary. How stupid do they think we are? And now to the conspiracy part--they just want us to use more minutes. Think how many minutes those stupid announcements add up to in a year!

And now you know why I tend not to be a conspiracy theorist. My theories are usually pretty lame. But I do think they should end the tyranny and let us all leave messages the way we have for years and years: after a simple beep.