Another Chance Ranch

There's A Special Birthday in Our House Today

Abby is two years old today!

I have been looking back through the photos of her growing up.  I thought I would share a few with you.

This one is one of my favorites.  Of course, this is before her ears were cropped.

Here she is with her favorite toy.  She takes this football with her everywhere, even to bed.

Last winter.  We actually had snow last year. 

Happy Birthday Abby!  We love you!!!

The Highlight of My Trip to Washington D.C.

Last week, we were in Washington D.C. and I loved it!  Every freezing cold moment of it!  But, the highlight of our trip, for me, was the night we took a toured D.C. at night.  It was so AMAZING!

We rented a limo, but not just any limo.

It was a Hummer that seats 20 people.  It was nice!

We made several stops, and here are some of the shots I took to share with you guys.

The Capital.

The Washington Monument.

The back side of the Jefferson Memorial.

Jefferson.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK, Jr. again.

As we climbed up the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial, this was my view.  It was awesome.  I just had to capture it.

The Lincoln Memorial is one of my favorites.

The Lincoln Memorial.

This is the statue that we just love that is at the Vietnam Wall.  These guys are looking at the wall, and when it was raining on Sunday it looked like they were overwhelmed with emotion.  The raindrops became tear drops.  The mood was very somber that day. 

Iwo Jima Memorial.  This isn't the typical view of this memorial, but you know that I like to be a little different.

And last but certainly not least...

The White House.  We were running out of time on our three hour tour, so I had to take this photo as Dan, our driver, stopped in the intersection. 

We had a great time!  If you ever get a chance to go to D.C., GO!  If you ever get the chance to take a tour of the memorials and monuments at night, GO!

This was the highlight of my trip to D.C.!

Words Spoken True by Ann H. Gabhart - A Review

Book Description:

As the daughter of Louisville's number one newspaper owner in 1855, Adriane Darcy is dedicated to the success of the Tribune.  Then brash young editor Blake Garrett takes over the competitor paper.  With his Yankee ways and controversial new reporting style, he launches a battle for readers.

The undeniable attraction between Adriane and Blake is hard to ignore.  But Blake is the enemy, and Adriane is engaged to the son of a powerful businessman who holds the keys to the Tribune's future.  Blake will stop at almost nothing to get the story - and the girl.  Can he do both before it's too late?

To see my review, please head over to ENLR.

Absolutely the Best Entertainment & It's Free

Who doesn't like to watch people?  Seriously?  That might be the most entertaining pasttime that costs absolutely nothing. 

We just returned from a trip to our nation's capitol, Washington D.C., and let me tell you, it is a great place to watch people. 

Over the next week or so, I will be sharing some of our adventures there with you.  We had a great time, and experienced new things.  We also have ideas of what we would like to do the next time we visit there.

We set out to walk the Mall, and encountered many people roaming around with signs. 

I'm not sure if you can read those or not, but they say "I Am the Pro-Life Generation."  There were people all over DC carrying signs like these, and other signs as well.

You see, it was the anniverary of the Roe v. Wade case.  Pro-life and pro-choice signs were every where!  People were standing on the corners handing out signs for those that didn't bring their own.  As for me and my group, we just kept on walking.  Walking and watching is how we rolled. 

It was really interesting to see how far people had come to stand for their beliefs. There were buses from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and New York.  A very nice couple of elderly ladies told us they were from North Dakota. 

There were both young and old carrying signs.  Many of the pro-life generation sign holders weren't even a glimmer in their momma's eyes in 1973, but it is something is studied in school. 

Every monument we went to there were protestors.  This young lady was looking up at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. sculpture.  It is awesome!

I am telling you, they were every where!

We live in a great country!  I am so thankful that we live in a place where we can take a stand for what we believe in, voice our opinions, and not be punished for either.  Now, some people take this a little too far, and I will show you some photos of that sometime soon. 

It was cold and rainy that day, but it didn't stip them for protesting or us from walking and watching. 

The weather added a different element to our day.  As I stood next to the statue of three soldiers looking at the Wall, the Vietnam Memorial, and I saw the raindrops streaming down their faces like tears it made me even more emotional.  The first time I saw the Wall it was unbelievably moving, but the sun was shining, so just that one element had changed and it was a downright breathtaking moment. 

After walking the Mall, we went to the American History Museum and look what we saw.

How fitting for the 39th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

 

Let Me Clear A Few Things Up

I have to say that this photo has nothing to do with this post.  I just like it. :) 

Yesterday, I posted a photo and asked you guys to guess my location.  You all guessed correctly, but I think I need to explain what I was doing there.

Yes, I was getting a treatment.

Yes, I am finished with chemo.

Part of my treatment plan is receiving a years worth of Herceptin treatments.  Let me tell you a little bit about the Herceptin treatments.  After reading this, I hope you will have a better idea what this step is for, and what it is like for me.

Herceptin treats breast cancer that is Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 positive (+), otherwise known as HER2+.  Herceptin is a targeted treatment, and is designed to target cells with the HER2 receptors, which may help cancer from growing.

My Herceptin treatments are every three weeks, and are administered just like the chemo treatments.  They use my port to give me these treatments, and the actual treatment lasts approximately 90 minutes. 

The nice thing about the Herceptin is that it doesn't have the side effects that the chemo did.  I don't have to worry about my cell count going down, my hair falling out, or everything tasting like metal.

So, when I mention that I am going in for a treatment you will know that it is just a Herceptin treatment. 

Thanks for all of your nice emails, and comments of concern.  I am doing great!  Later this week I plan on showing you what the first step of the expanders looks like. 

More Cupcakes

I told you that I'd post about the other cupcakes we went after today.

We went to Georgetown Cupcakes, aka DC Cupcakes. DC Cupcakes is the name of a television show on TLC. A couple of friends and I headed off on the trolley to get some more cupcakes.

Here I got, Vanilla-Chocolate, Chocolate2 (which is supposed to be chocolate squared), and birthday cake.

After trying each of the cupcakes, we decided that Georgetown Cupcakes had the better cupcakes.

Where do you get your favorite cupcakes? Or do you make your own?

Cupcake Testing

Today, I am tasting different cupcakes. First, we tried cupcakes from Red Velvet Cupcakery.

We tried Cookies & Cream, Birthday Cake, and Black Velvet.

This afternoon we will be trying some others. I'll fill you in on those later today.

Can You Guess Where I'm At?

Any idea?

I'm thinking about Sarah, @sprucehillfarm, a lot today. Anyone else remember how she would get smoothies during her treatments?

Adding To Our Family

On Tuesday, January 3, I was driving along minding my own business when I saw something white moving in the woods.  At first, I wasn't sure what it was, but as I got closer I realized that it was a puppy. 

If you know me at all, then you know that I love animals.  One problem with this is that we live in the middle of nowhere, and that is exactly where people dump unwanted pets. 

I stopped the pick-up, got out, and started the typical baby puppy talk.  She came right to me, wagging her tail the whole time.  I picked her up, and she clinged to me like a baby to it's momma.  We loaded up into the pick-up and went home.

When we got home, she wasn't too sure about the other dogs, and Abby wasn't too sure of her either.  Mia really could've cared less.  If dogs could roll their eyes, then that is exactly what Mia would have been doing.  The new puppy was growling at them, and eventually started barking yipping at them.  But, she clinged to me the whole time. 

We made it into the house, and she laid at my feet under my desk.  When I came back in from feeding the cows, McD had found her hiding under my desk.  I had texted him photos and videos of her, so seeing her there wasn't a surprise. 

After we ate our supper, and settled in to watch a little television, the pup made her way into McD's lap.  It was then that he told me that he could kill me for bringing the pup home.  He liked her.  I liked her too, but I wasn't going to be the one asking to keep her.  It had to be his decision to keep her. 

I tried to find her owner, but no one came forward.  We watched the lost ads in the newspaper, but none appeared.  Someone had dumped her, and it just happened to be her lucky day.  We discussed names for her, we called her several names before finally deciding on one. 

Everyone, I'd like for you to meet Pepper.

Pepper, meet everybody.

Now that you have been properly introduced, let me tell you a little more about this little cutie.

We took her to the vet, and he said that she is approximately 4 months old.  We have given her a birthdate of September 15th, just because.  We noticed that one of her jawbones looked larger than the other, so I asked the vet about it.  What he said broke my heart.  He told us that it looked like it had been broken.  I don't even want to tell you about the images that went through my mind.  I am just glad that she is with us now, and won't ever be hurt ever again.

We weren't really ready to potty train another puppy, but we did it and in record time I might add.  Pepper is a very smart pup.  Don't worry, I am not going into the whole, my puppy is smarter than your puppy thing. :)  But she probably is, I'm just saying.  She is very patient.  She is good on a leash.  She now knows what "no" means, and she seems to remember.  She loves our clothes, socks and shoes.  I know what you are thinking, and nope, she doesn't chew on them.  She lays on them. 

Pepper spends most of her evenings cuddled up with McD in his recliner.   During the day, she hangs out with the big girls.

Welcome home Pepper!! Welcome home!  (I hear Ty Pennington's voice when I say that, do you?)

I Love You Guys

Thank you guys so much for keeping us entertained while we were at the hospital. The story was appropriately silly! I laughed through the whole thing!!

As soon as we slow down a bit, I will have McD take photos for me to show you guys what going through this is like.

I'm dealing with a drain again, but my doctor was nice and just gave me one. Yeah!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be off of here until Monday.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!! I love you guys!!