Cherry Slushies, Inspired by Brandie

Today's post is by Eryn, whom I first met over on twitter! And is just an amazing, supportive friend.

Eryn is a homeschooling mom of two kids that are FAR better behaved than she deserves. You can find her crafting, homeschooling & cooking escapades at her blog, Hearth to Heart or you can find her tweeting snarky things she should probably regret in the morning on Twitter as @Leighbra.


Chemo takes a lot of things from you. Your energy, your hair, your appetite. Brandie told me recently that one of the few things she could keep down is Sonic's Slushies. I laughed, because immediately after a dental surgery last month, all that existed to me in the world was Sonic Drive-In. My hero husband drove two towns over to get me to one.

This is a recipe that allows you to get your slushie fix, without putting on pants. The recipe is open to interpretation; you can add sugar, change up the juices, add fresh fruit. You are the boss of this recipe.

Cheery Cherry Slushies:

In a blender, pour:

• 1 can lemon-lime soda
• 2 cups 100% cherry juice (in this case, Cherry Pomegranate)
• HALF a packet of Cherry Kool-Aid
• 1/3rd a cup of Splenda OR alternatively 1/4 cup of sugar. Modify to taste.

Fill blender 4/5ths of the way with ice

Blend until desired consistency

Serve IMMEDIATELY*

This recipe makes about 4 servings, because Brandie is a mama & no mama can enjoy homemade slushies with pesky kids giving her the "Where's mine?" face.

If a little vodka somehow sneaks into your recipe, who are we to judge?

Feel better, Brandie. Know that you're loved & we're all thinking about you. And Sonic. We're all thinking about you & Sonic.

*We are not responsible for any incidents of brain freeze. Slow down, silly!

Cancer makes you do crazy things ...

First let me preface this with I'm generally a non-violent person. I believe an eye for eye makes the whole world blind, etc, etc. But sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures and you do things you never thought you'd do. Also, no on was injured during this.

I've often said I wish cancer was a person so I could go and beat him up. I never wanted to beat a person up before, but this time, I felt the need to just punch something. I suppose we could have gone to a gym and hit a punching bag. I didn't think of that until the other day. We have extra dishes here  I could have thrown. But we don't have a safe place to throw them what with the kids often walking around barefoot and me being paranoid that we wouldn't clean all the pieces up.

But Monday I had a doctor's appointment where I was sharing how stressed and emotional and just upset in general I was. And the doctor suggest maybe a shooting range. Keep in  mind I've never shot a gun. Never had a reason to shoot a gun. But I am lucky ... my parents own a farm and sometimes they have to take care of animals, so I called my dad and asked if I could come out and do some shooting.

My target


My dad teaching me how to load a gun


First shot

Which by the way it's not easy to shot a gun - which isn't a bad thing I don't think.

MY best shot almost smack in the middle!




I shot 17 rounds. I missed quite a few of the first ones. But I think overall I didn't do so bad!



Close-ups if you are interested:




I can't say I'll even want to pick up a gun and shot again. I can say however it was a great stress relief and did feel good to be shooing at cancer {and yes, being in a safe place where I didn't have to worry about anyone getting hurt}.

*As a side note. my scarf, which I wore precisely for this on purpose because it just has that wild factor to it, came from Tracey over at Just Another Mommy Blog!

Last one ...

Today I go in for what should be my last bad chemo treatment. I'm exited about this but also dreading it. Happy it's the last one. But I know what's coming. At least a week of feeling pretty darn icky.

But it's a small price to pay to get to be here for a long, long time. So even though there's a part of me that wants to call and cancel my appointment, I won't. I'll show up. I'll take my medicine and then I'll come home and climb into bed and hope the worst passes quickly.

For you though, this time I've gotten a few guest posts to share so the blog won't be completely empty. My only rule for the guest posts was there were no rules. I told them to write about anything they wanted to. I think it will be fun to have some different posts on here. I like having guest posters. I think I'll try to do it again someday.

{Also, if you want to guest post, let me know! Pop me an e-mail at Brandie185 (at) gmail (dot) com. I'd love it!}

As for me, I'll probably be doing  a lot of resting for the next week or so. And also, probably celebrating making it through the first four doses of chemotherapy. Because truly? It feels like a huge accomplishment to me. I'm proud of me for getting through. More than once I wished I could have quit. But I didn't. A lot of that is because of all the support I've been given. So thank you all for that.

Finally!

Last night a friend dragged me out of the house {okay, just semi-dragged me} to go and see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. I've been dying to see this, but it felt like the cancer and chemo had conspired against me to make it so it wouldn't happen. Normally, I would have gone at midnight to see the movie, but not this time.

We went to the drive-in to see it. Which was nice. I was able to bring food/drinks I knew I could tolerate. While I'm positive I'm the last person on Earth to see this movie, I won't say anything just in case you are still waiting to see it other than to say, it was good. But the book? Way way better! Then again I'm pretty sure I've never thought a movie was better than the book so it's the nature of the beast.

It was so nice to get out - I hadn't really been out in a while.

In other news: WIWOMH today:

Today I'm wearing a simple scarf. I bought it at Target or Kohl's (I'm sorry I don't remember which store). It might be one of my favorite. Just simple cotton but I love it. It doesn't hurt that purple is my favorite color ;-)

WIWOMH 7/25

Today I am wearing this upon my head:

I bought it for myself shortly after diagnosis knowing my hair would be falling out. It was a treat so to say to myself.



I thought you should also see my shirt today because well, it's awesome and it rocks. It reads "Yes, they're fake The real ones tried to kill me >>Support Breast Cancer Advocacy<<

I think it's funny. Plus I had a visit with the plastic surgeon today so it was a fun shirt to wear there!