I have recently come to the conclusion that I am way too wrapped up in my dog’s life…but truthfully…too wrapped up just isn’t possible. But I have definitely come to truly understand and respect the relationship between a human and their best four-legged friends.

So here we go. I haven’t posted an update on here for the better part of a year. It isn’t that I don’t have anything to say, I just haven’t had time to sit down and actually say it. But I’m going to try to take a few minutes and rehash the highlights of my last year. Here we go…

Intelligent, even moderately intelligent adults can easily explain the not-so-phenomena of newly formed islands. Science. *insert jazz hands here* Regardless of how or why the island appeared – or how long it will stick around – it is still a fun concept.

The ocean, the waves and the shore, and all of the magic of the seas have always captivated me. They draw me in. I refuse to live landlocked.

When is enough, enough? Every time I turn on the news or scroll through updates online, I find more and more complaints that seemed to be rooted in people simply looking for something to complain about. Today’s complaint (which actually made the news)? Social media may be creating or hiding anxiety. Creating or hiding. Really? Ultimately, the complaint was about people only posting photos of good times.

Well, no kidding?

This one started out a little different. Now that I am starting to feel better, my best friend asked me if I’d be up for a beach day on Sunday.

Heck. Yeah.

So then I thought about it. An entire beach weekend would be even better than a beach day. So after work on Friday, we loaded up the vehicle with beach towels, toys and some overnight gear and headed to Kill Devil Hills for the weekend.

Phew. I’m here. That sounds a lot less impressive than it actually is. But, I’m here and I’m feeling…good…

Good.

I haven’t uttered those words…”I feel good…” in a very long time. But I’m happily saying it now. My good and you’re good may be vastly different but that really doesn’t matter. Because at the end of the day, as adults we are the only ones that are responsible for ourselves in such a way.

But let me go back. First of all, I can’t imagine what my dad has been through in the last several months. I cannot imagine watching my own child deteriorate for no apparent reason. It must have been so agonizing. Don’t get me wrong, it was my physical pain and agony but there is nothing worse in the world than to watch your own child suffer.

And I was sick. Boy, was I sick. It was frustrating and it didn’t make any sense. No matter what we tried, I wasn’t getting better. In fact, I was getting notably sick. I kept thinking back to the six years of remission I had and wondered where they had gone. Ever since coming out of remission, it had been a struggle to stay out of the “red,” so to speak. I was always hanging halfway off the edge, trying not to fall into the next worse thing. And eventually, I would fall. Again and again I fell.

There were hospital stays, blood transfusions, iron transfusions, medications, treatments…everything…you name it.

Eventually, my hair even fell out.

I am so the mom that stands on the sidelines cheering my kid on while she…codes. Yep…codes. At some point during my Friday night, I realized that I’m totally the nerd equivalent of a soccer mom. I introduced Maddie to codewars.com and it was on. She was playing in the arcade in Python and she was totally nailing the tasks.