It has been way tooooooo long since I updated the blog and you’d think being retired I’d have all the time in the world 🤣.
I’ll do a quick catch up:
•shoulder issue: argh! (Insert lots of cuss words here) humeral head is dead. D E A D. Loss of blood flow, all the good stuff. First surgeon wouldn’t even consider doing a shoulder replacement because I’m ‘terminal’. I mean, aren’t we all??? Don’t we all die??? Ahem. Second surgeon says sure-let’s do it. But….I’m busy and fall is my busy sign making season and my sister is getting married, etc etc. so it’s being scheduled next week for January. Then I get to recover in the warmth of my home with no painting to do.
•MY BABY SIS GOT HITCHED! Congrats to Katie and Aaron and my niece(s). I got two new ones! And a wonderful new family and group of friends came with them. It was an incredible weekend of love and laughs with lots of distant family and only a little drama (ha ha!)
Katie and Aaron Eckerberg
Family
My two oldest
Beautiful bride
Katie and the bald kid
My sisters
•Mexico!! 🇲🇽 Katie and Aaron planned a “Framilymoon” to Puerto Vallarta in late October for some friends of Aaron’s who couldn’t make it to the wedding and some other family and friends and we were thrilled to join them.
Our resort was lovely-the beach was great, food was awesome and cocktails flowed freely. (Literally)
We relaxed and I read a whole book on the beach! All by myself with almost no interruptions! We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my niece Abi and her boyfriend Owen. Abi has grown into such an amazing young lady and we adore Owen. I hit the spa for a much needed massage, Brian and the guys hit the ocean for a fishing trip, and then we went to swim with the dolphins and sea lions-which meant I checked something off my F*ck Cancer Bucket List ✅
The Eckerbergs
Swimming with the dolphins
In my muumuu headed to the beach
My sis
Colter and Stephanie and boys
Dolphin swim
Dinner at Blue Shrimp
On the beach
Fishing in PV
Cassandra the Sea Lion
Angie and Gary
Goofballs
Angie and Gary
Me and the dolphin
My love
•speaking of October….I made it through another one with Stage 4 Breast Cancer. If you followed my social media stories I shared my journey and lots of info on breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer. Other than that, I refuse to give it anymore of my time! #nottodaycancer
#FUcancer #dontignorestagefour
•November: what can I say…. My husband got a phone call from a dear friend who had an awesome opportunity for us to check another bucket list item of mine off and asked us to go to Paris and Amsterdam with them!! After a frantic rush to ensure the bald kid was going to be taken care of and all that entails…..(you have NO idea unless you’re a part of this crazy ‘special’ club) we said YES!
And off we went.
Paris: the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe (did you know there are stairs and a tunnel that takes you UNDER the insane traffic circle to get to the Arc? Yeah, us either 🤪)
The Louvre, shopping, walking, dinner cruise, Jim Morrison’s grave, The Seine, lock bridge, Notre Dame, macaroons, crepes, and lots and lots of wine (and beer and mimosas…)
On our way
Jim Morrison’s grave
Me and Mona
Venus de Milo
Aperol spritz
The Louvre
Wine, of course
The Eiffel Tower
Mimosas and crepes
Lock bridge over the Seine
The Williams
Notre Dame
Me and Colette
Base of Eiffel Tower
The Williams and Mona
Paris finest
Arc de Triomphe
French macaroons
The Louvre
Arc de Triomphe
The Eiffel Tower
But we made it to Amsterdam! Ahhh, we LOVED Amsterdam! Walking the canals, canal boat tour, Anne Frank house, Heineken tour, The Red Light District, The Bulldog, lots of ‘coffee’ shops (they don’t sell coffee there FYI) beer, dinner with our Family from The Hague, more beer, bitterballen, making new friends from the UK and Italy, clean trains and trams, and bikes, bikes and MORE bikes!
Beautiful church
Cocktails on the train
The canals
The gay bar we had a drink in
Yes, that’s MILES per hour
Another drink
Smokin in The Bulldog
The Bulldog
Proost at Heineken
Ummm, Brian, need I say more?
The secret annex the Frank family hid for two years
Gorgeous canal
Anne Frank house
Train ride
Williams on the canal
Dinner with Olav and Marlene
Beautiful
The Anne Frank house-no photos allowed inside. A must see if you make it to Amsterdam. So hard to imagine and so tragic. We must NEVER let anything like this happen again.
Red light district
Seven bridges canal
Love the architecture along the canals
Heineken and bitterballen
The canal
Heineken Tour
Our friends from the UK on our boat canal tour
Texels makes a great beer!
This was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for me, literally! We had an absolutely fabulous time and I can’t thank Brian and Colette enough for thinking of us and asking us to go with them on this trip. And my husband for knowing what it would mean to me to go and making it happen. I
won’t lie-it was hard for me to keep up some days. Damp, chilly weather, 16k step days, lots of stairs and bone mets don’t always mix well and there were a few moments my frustrations with this damn disease got the best of me. But if I was a burden to anyone, they never showed it and gave me all their grace. For that I am most appreciative and truly cherish the friendship we have with these guys. ❤️
December is almost upon us, and will be as busy as the last six months I’m sure. I can’t believe 2022 is almost over, and Christmas is almost here. I’m most looking forward to spending time with family over the holidays and hope you get to do the same. Sending all our love to you and yours!
And I PROMISE I will update this blog more….
Love and hugs,
K
