Give the Gift of Music this Valentine's

Ruben and I spent the day shopping for Valentine gifts for Natalie. Nothing too extreme, she deserves a box of chocolates as we love her and Valentine's Day is supposed to be all about celebrating love. We started with a grand plan of going to the mall to hit up Godiva (my fave) then heading to Home Depot to get fertilizer for the lawn. Well we made it to the mall ok, did a little shopping, walking around. Ruben bought Natalie a small heart shaped cookie cake - I got my box of chocolates, we looked at the puppies at the pet store, checked out the Disney store, then ultimately broke down and entered the Apple store.....Ruben needed a plug to charge his iTouch, plus he was fondling and drooling over the notebooks. His HP died a few weeks ago and we're waiting for the extended warranty repairs to be done on it - in the meantime he's been using this ancient Dell that requires a WiFi card. I've mentioned before how electronic stores are hazardous for us as we have a major addiction, and right now we are truly having a love/hate relationship with electronics from Ruben's notebook dying, his phone breaking, our Blu-ray player not working, issues with our new Onkyo receiver - and now my notebook as just minutes ago my computer just turned off. It seems to be an issue with where the power cord plugs in...great, now I have to send in MY HP as well. Lovely. In any case, lately an old alarm clock that I've been using has been picking up some strange noises. I tell Ruben it's the aliens trying to make contact - it happens near nightly. He says it's interference with my iPhone, but I don't buy it since this problem just began and I've had my phone for about 6 months now. Somehow or another a iHome alarm clock caught my attention - it works with my phone, and it would solve the strange noise problem. The catch is that the Apple store is highly overpriced. I say this because we had bought Natalie the same model for her birthday and it was $50 less at Toys R Us, so we decided to go to the other mall where Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond is at. Sure enough we found it for just $100 - $50 less than Apple. I'm not sure what happened after that because I can tell you that we have 2 iHome products and we love them both, but somehow or another I ended up with a Jensen that offered all the same features for the same price but is actually an HD receiver. We figured why not, and so far I really like the product itself - though it is a little large for an alarm clock, but I can't say I'm too impressed with HD radio. I think I only found about half a dozen channels, but as far as I know it resolved our problem though I'm sure swapping out that old alarm clock for a different one we have in the house would have sufficed. Oh well - we can use this when we walk on the treadmill. It just goes to show that if you have an addiction you will find any excuse to get your fix!

Oh, and while at Target we did get Natalie two little gifts for Valentine's - a Nerf dartboard and this thing that maps out all the constellations and stuff, cause she loves all things science, biology & weather. So the day wasn't a total loss....it coulda been worse, I coulda walked away with that cute little Bichon Springer puppy I was holding at the pet store :)

Follow Me

I added some widgets recently - you can now follow my blog or follow me on Twitter - if you follow me, I'll follow you too =)
If you want you can also find me on Facebook. I do keep a MySpace account, but rarely use it....I should just delete it, but I like how you can customize the look. Wish Facebook would allow that.
Anyway, with the whole iPhone, I'm all into updating my status now. It's so convenient! Sometimes I wonder how I ever lived before that phone came along?

From My Sister

My sister recently blogged about the benefits of blogging - it enables us to keep up with one another's life despite thousands of miles and a 5 hour time difference. We get to be informed without spending countless hours on the phone. Gotta love technology. In addition to blogging, I love the Stylem App for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It allows us to instantly send little greeting and messages to brighten our day and let us know we're thinking about one another. Wish my nhbby could get this for his Blackberry. Maybe I should get him a Touch afterall.
Anyway, here is the greeting she sent me....

http://stylem.com/greeting/q17v2k

Sent from Stylem iPhone App

Sent from my iPod

I Figured it Out

If this works correctly I should be posting this from my iPhone - no
app needed. I sure hope it works, cause I'll want to use it during
chemo.
Today after radiation I saw the dr and found that I will probably be
doing only 28 to 30 treatments instead of the 35 I initially thought,
so good news there. Bad news is my burn is getting worse and now
extends across my chest (upper & lower) into my armpit - which is
doing wonders for my lymphedema!
Ruben landed safely in STL and got to see the Arch and other things
while driving downtown, which upsets me so......he is so close to my
childhood home and there is so much I want to show him there. It's my
trip down memory lane.....hrmph! I guess we'll be planning a trip
there soon.

Sent from my iPhone

Post Secret

Last night as I was writing my post, Ruben was curious what it was I was posting about - so I told him. He then informed me that I have a sizable audience of readers within his company, and I should probably watch what I say - especially when it comes to him. He is more of a private person, whereas to me, this is MY forum, MY place to be myself, My place to say anything I want. I rarely hold back - but now I wonder what some of his co-workers may think of me after some of the things I have posted, LOL! Ah well, it's all in good fun. I'm sure most people just get a little chuckle out of the things I say as most can relate on one level or another. Oh and I should mention to everyone that while I made a comment about the pictures in Playboy - it is neither here nor there. I think that women who are comfortable with themselves, can most certainly look at another women and say to herself "nice rack or she's hot or I want that ass" and never mean it in a sexual way. We recognize beauty in other women, and we can appreciate it. Men however, would NEVER admit that another man looks good - they are certainly different creatures than the rest of us.

But as many of you already know, I try not to name names or companies or give away any pertinent information - that is unless you piss me off, LOL. I don't want any stranger to know where we live live or where to track us down - especially my daughter - that's why I try to leave out our last name (though I know I have mentioned it before) and the names of her schools.

Speaking of which, next week she goes to a week long reading camp at school for half days. Gives her a nice chance to be prepared and become a stronger reader for the upcoming school year! Hence the reason I bought her books yesterday. Last night we read Little Miss Chatterbox and Little Miss Bossy - for appearing to be easy to read books, they were not - but I thought that Natalie might learn a little lesson out of them......let's see how long she retains that lesson, LOL.

So after I finished my post, I surfed some of my favorite blogs. One of them being PostSecret, which really upset me. Not sure if you've ever visited PostSecret, but it is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. I've never sent one in because I honestly can't think of a secret worth sharing. I mean let's face it - I am a pretty vocal person. I don't hold too much back. So anyway, I am browsing through this week's secrets and I come across two items that bothered me and made me cry. Ruben asked what was wrong and I showed him. He says to me - "you don't seriously think that one is from me, do you?" I said "no" - I knew he had no way of sending it in, as he hardly even knew about the site, let alone what to do or where to send it. I don't read the secrets looking for one that pertains to me, I just simply like reading them. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry, sometimes I am disturbed. Last night I was just upset cause the postcards hit a little close to home, and I could relate to them in a way. I don't worry so much about my scars anymore, but I do worry that I have pushed him away. I remember in the beginning I couldn't even stand to look at my scars let alone let him look at them or touch them. Today I wear those scars with great pride because it shows how strong I am, and that I will go to any length to be here with my family. I feel awful for the woman who wrote this card, thinking that her insecurities drove her man away and I hope one day she comes to terms and is no longer ashamed of her disfigurement. For the other card, I say shame on you. Love is unconditional. Your wife would still love you if you had testicular cancer and had to have your balls removed. There is more to a marriage than what is on the outside. Is being fortunate enough to still have a living wife not good enough for him, would he rather have someone with boobs? That is vain and selfish. I feel for his wife, because I'm sure she has her own personal struggles from dealing with cancer. She deserves a man that is sympathetic and understanding.

These cards make me feel so blessed to have the husband I do. One that loves me and stands by me no matter what - even though I have tried to push him away, he refuses to budge. One that told me that it did not matter if I chose not to get reconstruction - that if I am going to do it, then do it for myself. I am extremely fortunate to have a husband like this - and rather than take him for granted, I try to remind myself of this day in and day out. I wish all women faced with breast cancer were as fortunate as myself to have such a loving, caring partner - and that they have the strength and courage I now have.

If I had more time before radiation I would send Frank over at PostSecret an email response regarding these two cards, but it's a little late now as he posts new secrets every Sunday - so any chances of the emails being posted or seen before Sunday would be slim. Ah well, maybe next time I will remember to check earlier in the week.

On another note, I am so loving my new iPhone. It's so handy to not have to call 411 when you need a phone number, cause you have the web right there! Plus I am really becoming addicted to some of the game apps I have downloaded! I just wish the battery was as good as they advertised. I charge it AT LEAST once a day....300 hours of stand-by time my fat ass! My iPod has a better battery. Thankfully I bought the AppleCare Protection Plan to extend my coverage to 2 years - and it does cover the battery, thank goodness!

Trying to Blog from my iPhone

Played with my phone lots today. Got it all set up, played some fun games - but when it comes to blogging, though I can view and log in to my page, I can't make a post. Not sure why. I know MySpace makes an application for for the phone, so maybe that's the problem - maybe I need a blogger app, but they don't make one. Still though, even if I can't blog, I can do lots of other stuff to pass the time while I'm at various doctor's office. I still need to check and see if I'm able to answer questions or blog for the breast cancer sites I work independently for. instead of checking to see about the important stuff I've been too busy playing games and such, lol! Oh, but I think I'm in love. How in the world did I ever manage before without an Apple iPhone?


Oh - was also wondering something else.....what could possibly be the reason behind wanting and eating tuna every day, like those little fat free tuna salad lunch kits that comes with crackers? Would a vitamin deficiency lead to such cravings? I'm I putting myself at risk of mercury poisoning by eating it everyday? I wonder if the radiation is somehow involved. Just something that I've noticed myself doing and am curious as to the reasoning behind it. Any suggestions?

Got me an iPhone today

A week after it's debut, my direct fulfillment order came in and I got my new 3g iPhone today. I've spent half the day trying to set it up - installing a bunch of applications, music & ring tones (once I go through it all, figure out what I want and get it all synced) This baby has lots of bells and whistles and I love it! It's definitely going to take some getting used to, but I'm sure I'll have fun playing along the way!