Well, the results came in late in the evening on August 14th for the Outstanding Creator Awards. I placed in eight categories and received two honourable mentions!  Here are the results: (Super-Category) Best Non-Fiction Book of Summer 2024: 3rd place Autobiographies & Memoirs: 3rd place Biographies: 2nd place Addiction / Alcoholism: 2nd place Mental Health / Mental Illness Books: 2nd place Romance: 3rd place  Health / Healthcare/ Medical / Pharmaceutical Books: 3rd place Grief and Coping / Trauma: 2nd place Honourable mentions: Best couple - Me and Mark Best Moment: The moment they loved was when I sang “Anywhere” by Evanescence and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis when Mark was on comfort care (among other songs). They also included when I got a small gold pirate chest for Mark's foreign currency he’d collected over the years when he panhandled. To say I am over the moon is an understatement. This book was written out of my grief over Mark. I started it as a website...

 So, I submitted my book to The Outstanding Creator Awards competition a couple of months ago, and they also provide you with an editorial review. I've had a lot going on so I'm only now making a blog post about it here.  So along with the nomination for the contest, I'm sharing a link to the review. I was thankful to them for referring to Mark as my husband as I had explained what had happened in the book. We never got to get "officially" married but we wanted to and I consider him my husband to this day. I took his last name as my own and wear a ring in memory of what could have been on my left hand. There really is no recipe for how to be considered married within scripture. There are sacred  traditions  both within Judaism and Christianity (that it's probably safer to adhere to if you can.) But we thought we had longer and well...you can read it in the book 😉 I was once told by a Priest, that God is not bound by His sacraments and ordinances and so for me...

 So the spring equinox is passed and as usual, St. John's doesn't quite feel like spring yet. Winter is always hard on me because of seasonal affective disorder but as of March 2023 it was so much worse. My breast cancer had me forced into menopause at 40 starting last March...so here I was in the middle of winter getting major sweats at 41. There have been some very stressful events involving some friends who are having troubles, and aside from that? All through February I had one foot in the grave leading up to my February 29th CT scan. The combo of it all had my hot flashes triggered like crazy. It feels like a heating pad covering my whole body when it happens and I absolutely hate it. My last CT before this one was on November 30th, and no joke, I got the results on December 1st. God heard my prayers because I was in absolute agony. You see, my breast went from being very hard and discoloured with a pulled in nipple to looking almost completely normal. This is a good thin...

  So, I just realized that I hadn't updated my blog for five or six months. During this time I had a scare with my cat and had an unexpected vet visit...but all is well. This happened the same day I was awaiting the results of my first CT scan since starting my cancer treatment with the Kisqali, Letrozole, and Zoladex injection. I know, perfect timing, right? My primary breast cancer as well as my mets in other areas of my body were all improved. I received those results on June 21, 2023. Since then I've had my second CT on September 5, 2023, and there's been even more improvement. On both scans, different growths show as barely visible and no further spread. Significant shrinkage on the main breast tumour. I'm not sure about the second smaller one in my breast, but I'll have to ask about it next time I see my oncologist. On September 6 it marked the second anniversary since Mark's passing and I'm just as in love with him now as I was when he passed away. I ...

  So I go through a section briefly in my book where I talk about me and Dad. In the midst of everything happening in my life...one bad relationship ending and falling in love with Mark...Dad passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He was well known in the province and passed away next to the fire pit they had out back. It was one of his favourite things to do....sit next to a fire pit. 60 is one of the BIG birthdays and so this one has been hard for me. Those that knew him in the public eye may not know this but he was very good at drawing and I was always told I likely got my art abilities from him. We had a back and forth estranged relationship. Those matters are personal but it started with him not coming around enough when he and Mom split when I was about to turn 2. He didn't come around as much as he should have been and various other things happened that always ended up hurting me. He had a hard time ever admitting when he was in the wrong. I won't get into things t...

  So on March 3 after a ton of imaging tests my oncologist called me to let me know my beast cancer is actually stage 4. Incurable and only treatable. I've been forced into menopause at age 40 and am taking medication to shrink the tumours and lengthen my life. It's spread to my lungs, bones, lymph nodes (including underarms) and a small tumour on one of my adrenal glands. We won't know if the medication is working for sure for a while longer yet. However, I was getting a sensation of painful breast zaps in the breast that has the cancer...and within just a couple days of starting treatment the breast zaps stopped. I'm hoping this is a good sign. I will admit though, I have been suffering mentally from this. In my mind I flash back to movies like Terms of Endearment where a mother has to lose her daughter to cancer and I lose it. My dad had three more children. I'm Mom's only baby. I am scared it will hurt her. I look into my little kitties face and I hurt at th...

  In my first blog I mentioned how I had a breast biopsy as I'd found a lump in November. Well, the pathology report came back...it's breast cancer. They're saying locally advanced breast cancer. I saw my surgeon this morning...he said type 2B and maybe even stage 3. They're not quite sure yet. I get a CT scan tomorrow evening, and I need a bone scan and a breast MRI. They're hoping to have it all back not by this Friday, but the next. One word came up today that truly terrified me...and that was chemotherapy. He said usually with a lump this large (7 cm) they give chemo to reduce the size of it before providing surgery of any kind. I...am scared to death of chemotherapy. As I mentioned in my book I have a phobia of nausea and vomiting. By the Grace of God, I dealt with it with Mark because I loved him so much...I don't know how love was able to accomplish that but it did. But going through it myself is a whole different ball game. I am very scared. I did find o...