Welcome! Come on in...

Welcome to my first post at Bless Your Heart! As a Jr. High librarian I have known about blogs for quite some time and even read a few librarian blogs. Interesting, but not engaging. However, this past fall when I got sucked into the world of Facebook, I discovered that a dear friend of mine had started a blog for her family. (Hi, Arwen!) This sweet family had moved a couple of states away and I LOVED being able to catch up with her family through this media. But oh my, my, my, when my lovey daughter came home for the Christmas break and introduced me to google reader and taught me how to subscribe to blogs....I have been hooked and have discovered some AMAZING women across the country. TALENTED, WISE, INSPIRING women. Through their blogs I have been encouraged to study my bible, create crafts, declutter corners of my home, and laugh!

After just a few short weeks, I knew I wanted to have my own blog. I would jot topics and ideas down while I waited in the McDonald's drive-thru line. What held me back? A title!!! Everyone had such creative, perfect blog titles....I couldn't get over that hurdle. How silly! If I were giving advice to one of my students I would tell him that the content is more important--just choose anything and get started--after all, the title can always be changed later. Easier said than done. But, alas, I have chosen "Bless your heart", and I would like to share with you the background and double meaning of that phrase.

If you have grown up in the South, you have probably heard "Bless your heart" or "Bless her heart" all your life. It is a southern phrase that basically allows you to say not so nice things about someone as long as you add "Bless her heart" at the end of it. For example, you might say
"Well, I see Mrs. Martha cut her own bangs again. Bless her heart." or "How is that diet coming, Susie? Bless your heart." Bless your heart can also be used as a nice way to tell someone to "go to h***" if they say something rude to you. When one of my 8th grade boys comes into the library and says, "Hey, ma'am! Havin' a bad hair day?" I could say, "Oh, Bless your heart. Thanks for noticing." Finally, you can mean it as a sincere expression of sympathy or empathy. So you see this little three word phrase is very complex--

In the past three years, my family has been through a very roller coaster journey. My husband was diagnosed with cancer in February of 2006. In March he had his kidney removed and we proceeded to follow up with check ups at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (about a six hour drive from our home) every three months. His doctor (Dr. Christopher Wood, a hero in our world) explained that if he went two years with out any reappearance of cancer we could breathe easier and extend his check up to every six months....if he went five years without any reappearance we should throw a huge party and be sure to invite him. In my mind, I had already started the guest list and designing the invitations. I will post more about this experience in another post, but long story short, the radiologist found two spots on my husband's left lung that December. His prognosis was one year. We got in with a oncologist there at MD Anderson (I cannot tell you how much I love this place) and she explained his options. A drug (Sutent) had just came on the market but not all patients have responded to it--others could not stand the side effects and had to get off after just a few months. My husband has been on for two years and the tumors CANNOT be seen. This drug only works on 35% of the patients, and on THOSE patients it usually only stops tumors from getting bigger. It has shrunk his tumors so small the radiologist can't see them!! Well, BLESS HIS HEART!

This introduction is much longer than I ever intended it to be. But let me tell you, now when I iron his clothes in the morning, I don't feel as irritated as I used to. I find I don't take the little things for granted. The things that used to bother me, I treasure because I am just so grateful that he is here...they bless my heart...it is all relative....you get to decide what bothers you or what blesses you. Not every day is roses and sunshine, but now I even treasure the cloudy days.

Thanks for stopping by.