Bittersweet...

We feel so blessed we were able to trek to Utah for a family ski trip! Mark had a work meeting in Park City so we hitched along!! Alec & Jack learned to snowboard... Brynn & Brooke refined their skiing and we tried to squeeze in a little extended family time (NOT ENOUGH)!! We tried to convince Tamara and kids to come back to Georgia (where they belong as far as we're concerned)!! and we were SO LUCKY-BLESSED-SAD-HAPPY to visit Jan, the day after she received her terminal cancer news!!!

Salt of the EARTH!!!

The words "I'll be back..." are a good thing when spoken at the end of a long action-fight scene by the Terminator...

AND an even better, comforting "I'll be back..." was promised...

BUT...when "I'm back" is silently uttered by cancer cells, you thought had been eliminated ... this is a VERY UNCOMFORTING statement!!
Our dear friend Jan Gruwell, was told these very words this week...a year ago she endured the lovely treatments that go along with a breast cancer diagnosis...pain, nausea, hospitalization, more nausea, operations, pain, more nausea, hair falling out,nausea, every awful etc...She emerged from this cancer fight her AWESOME self, with great stories (she is a smashing story teller)and a new appreciation for life. This is such a gross feeling to be so far away, from someone you care so much about, when they are told these words. I wish I could do something to ease her burden as she has so often eased mine; helping my elderly parents with their yard work is just a glimpse of her salt of the earth character. I only have a handful of close friends... I desire quality over quantity...and man oh man do my friends ooze with quality!! I feel SO enormously blessed to have Jan as one of those close friends!! I wish I could physically be with you to help you fight this fight...but please know my dear friend I am here for you ALWAYS, I am thinking of you ALWAYS, I am praying for you ALWAYS!!! You are one of my FAVORITE people on this WHOLE planet... I LOVE YOU JAN!!! WE LOVE YOU!!