Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to one and all, and many blessings to you in the New Year!

I am feeling well— not quite my normal self yet, and I still get tired easily, but my bald spots are re-populating and I survived a very nauseating encounter with the flu and I’m definitely on the up and up.  Thanks to everyone for your well wishes, especially over the holidays.  It was so fun for us to receive Christmas cards from so many loved ones over our first married Christmas.

NOVEMBER

Early in November, my mom leaked an image of a t-shirt she designed for our family to wear at the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving Day Race in Long Beach, California.  I knew the whole family worshipped our Baby Gwen, so our Thanksgiving running team was to be called Gwennie’s Gobblin’ Gang, but to my amazement, our team shirts had me written all over them…literally.  The text was in our wedding colors, the shirts had a Philly LOVE statue replica spelling out “CURE.”  The shirt itself was gray which, like its pink breast cancer cousin, is the color representing brain cancer awareness.  And then in great big letters it read as follows: Gwennie’s Gobblin’ Gang runs for Brain Cancer Awareness and LINDSEY.

 

Here's Miss Gwennie herself with her sweatshirt saying "Go Aunt Lindsey!"  What a doll she is!

And Gwennie's Gang spanned the entire US-- from Long Beach, CA, to 35 degree weather in VA, and states in between!

Whoa.  There is something about having your name all over people’s chests –not against their will—that feels…powerful/awkward/humbling.  Seeing the gray-clad runners and walkers really made visible the fact that so many people think of me, pray for me, and love me.  It was an unexpected jolt of support, so THANK YOU to Gwennie’s Gang for making me feel so supported!  Once again, I have the greatest family in the whole world.  And my mom even collected donations for The Breathing Room Foundation in Pennsylvania which gave me a grant while I was receiving radiation.  So great!

December I

You probably heard about our disastrous experience at our home…picture this: a single-family house in New England that is near the ocean, not insulated, and has no fireplace and no working heater, IN WINTER.  Really, really bad.  So we had the great pleasure of moving (I HATE MOVING!!!!) to avoid freezing to death.  But we are really happy with our new place and Mom and Dad even helped us put on the finishing touches because…

December II

Mom and Dad came from California to stay with us for Christmas!  We went to New York City because, according to Clarence, “There is nothing like Christmas in New York!”  We saw the big tree at Rockefeller Center, had a smashing meal at 21 Club while a brass band played carols in the restaurant, and marveled at the bustling shoppers down 5^th Avenue—especially inside Tiffany’s and FAO Schwartz.  Because who can resist toys and diamonds in Christmas Eve?

We also popped up to Boston for a day to complete their Eastern tour.  So glad to have some extra Price’s on the Right Coast this year!  Please come back!  And that means you, Evan, when you are back with us in the USA!  We had a little error in calculating the time change, so Evan called me on my iPad during church from Argentina and I basically disturbed every last Sunday Schooler by running around the church trying to get the best internet reception.  Sorry, not sorry.

December III

Since we got married this summer, we have been meaning to go down to Georgia to get me acquainted with more of the Jackson Family.  We wish it had been under happier circumstances, but we made the trip sooner than expected to attend a dear uncle’s funeral.  Our only mistake was driving to Georgia…that is one heck of a long drive…  But the family was so kind to me and I got to meet tons of cousins, aunts, and uncles I never knew I had!  Get this—both of my husband’s parents had FIFTEEN children each born into their families while growing up!  FIFTEEN!!  I could NOT believe this when my sister-in-law told me!  So, yeah, LOTS of cousins!  And we got some real gems from Uncle LeRoy: old family photos that we are restoring and using as we work on putting together Clarence’s complicated and expansive Family History.  Of course we will post them when they are restored!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Linds Rang The Bell!

ANNOUNCEMENT:  Linds finished radiation and got to move to Connecticut yesterday!


For months now we have been anticipating the day I would get to Ring The Bell!

In the main waiting room of the Radiation Oncology department at Penn Medicine, there is a large stand with a shiny silvery bell.  Here are some photos of it--

The plaque at the bottom of the bell stand says, 

"The Bell Ringers.  As the sailing ships of another generation relied on their ship's bell to signal their position in a fog, may this bell enable you who ring it to navigate your way to a life free from cancer." 

(Generously donated by Frank McKee, Grateful Patient)

My own personal Liberty Bell!  Liberty from being at the hospital for hours EVERY day, liberty from lingering cancerous cells in my brain, liberty from being states away from my marital home!  Liberty indeed!

Some of my radiation therapists came out from the back to watch me ring the bell.  One of them took this video (below) for me, hopefully you can see it...if not, I can email it to you :-)

Here is the YouTube link: 

http://youtu.be/naPpuU6cnTY

The bell is loud, but my voice is pretty quiet.  I said something to the effect of, "I started this the day after our honeymoon, which was like the worst thing ever.  But now I can finally move in!"

Yes, I cried when I got on the elevator to leave, but don't ask me about it! :'(

OPEN HOUSES are CANCELLED :-(

Hello to our dear family members and friends!

We have already begun to send out postcards announcing this, but we also wanted to put it here as well--

We must regretfully cancel both of our Open Houses originally scheduled for October.  

With Lindsey's rigorous treatment schedule in Philadelphia, it would be really tricky to travel all the way to California and back without risking missing a day of radiation.

It is also getting increasingly difficult for Lindsey to even make it up to Connecticut, because the radiation is starting to take its toll and she gets tired easily.  Planning the Open Houses was just a little more stress than she wanted to deal with at present.  We are very disappointed to not celebrate with everyone, but we hope you all can understand.  


To our Connecticut loved ones, please plan to come visit us for dinner in the new year!  We would love to have guests once things are settled and Linds is actually living in CT full-time.

And to our California loved ones, we are planning to try to make to to California for Thanksgiving, so when it gets closer to that weekend, please reach out to us and we will try to get together, if possible.


We love you all; thank you for your continued support.  Linds is doing surprisingly well and is nearly half done with her radiation treatments.  If you want to read the latest on her blog, the URL is--

 http://jaydiva.blogspot.com/


XOXO!

Raspberry Rapture

We were so excited to hear that Bishop's Orchard still had raspberries!  We drove up there on Saturday and picked 7 POUNDS of beautiful, dark, sweet raspberries!

And it was a lovely, sunny day.

So I made Jack some berry and yogurt parfaits to put in his lunchbox this week :-)

And I have been experimenting on all the delicious things to do with super ripe raspberries before they go bad.  Here's today's from-scratch accomplishments:

~ Lime and Raspberry Crumble (Gluten free!  Made with coconut flour, oats, and coconut oil!)

~ Whole Wheat Raspberry-Chia Galette 

~ Ginger and Raspberry Scones 

~ Chia Pudding with Honey, Cinnamon, and Fresh Raspberries



All natural, of course!  Made with maple syrup or honey as sweeteners.  And I used differing quantities or coconut flour, garbanzo flour, whole wheat flour, and organic unbleached flour.)


YUM!    Happy end of summer!


P.S.

We saw the GIANT pumpkins at the Durham Fair on Saturday, too!  We saw one over 1,500 pounds!

A few more of the details...

You may be getting tired of our wedding photos, but I NEVER WILL!

Here are a few more details from our Central Park Family Picnic and Ring Ceremony:


Price family photos outside the Manhattan LDS Temple-

 Mountain of picnic boxes!

Gift bags for our out-of-state guests--

The cutest little processional...

Our guests got to choose a button to wear in support of my issues :)

Central Park Family Ring Ceremony on Cherry Hill-

 The Cake!  One little coconut-lemon meringue cake on top of tiers and tiers of lemon, coconut, and vanilla cupcakes.  Excellent flavors for summer.  We LOVE Magnolia Bakery!

Photo Teaser

Our photographer is working on editing our photos, but sent us a few recently-- what a tease!  I love them :)

Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, NYC.

The Lake in Central Park.

I got caught mid-shoe change...oh!  Didn't mean to show off my Italian leather Kate Spade wedding shoes!  (Thank you, EBAY!!)  And here's a close up of my bouquet-- yellow billy balls, yellow Gerbera daisies, Creme De La Creme roses, yellow spray roses, and viburnum berries.

So this is outside the Metropolitan Opera House, which is right across the street from the LDS Temple where we got married.  In case you didn't know, our first BIG date was to the Met Opera and we later got engaged inside there, too!  So it is special to us :D

We took a little row on The Lake, very picturesque!

P.S.
Gary did not take this photo, my Grandpa Mike did--- but we also ran into some pirates on the lake!  AKA my siblings...

Hahaha!

Its Official!

In case you haven't heard the good news...

WE GOT MARRIED!!!

We had such a fun, exciting, emotional whirlwind of a day!  It all went by so quickly and we only regret that we didn't have more time to spend with each and every one of our loved ones.

Thank you for everyone's help and generosity.  (And thank you for praying for No Rain-- it worked!) We could not have pulled it off without everyone's patience (my mom...) and for everyone's willingness to share their talents (RAJ, Annie!)- including their organizational talents (Simmandi, Meredith), and people's amazing willingness to help out (Sheila, Jason, Shawn, Sarah, Bishop Jenson...)  HUGE shout out to the Philly YSA constituency who really made the family picnic in Central Park what it was.

Thanks to everyone's love and service, we had a wonderful day!

And adorable Baby Gwen was the sweetest --if not the most disinterested-- little Ring Bearer ever!  She can do NO wrong in my eyes!

More photos to come!  And many thanks to those who have taken and shared THESE photos!  We were a little too busy that day to take any ourselves :)

XOXO

Countdown...

10 MORE DAYS!!

That's a hot photo, right?  Nice work, Gary.


And the 10-day forecast so far says August 30 should be... 

High of 80 degrees, 30% chance of AM showers.  Could be worse, but still... EEK!!!  At least there is supposed to be sun all the week before, so the ground shouldn't be sopping wet.

Still, time for the prayer patrol to get on the cause of NO RAIN AUGUST 30 IN MANHATTAN!!

Before and After

I wrote a new post on my personal blog-- HERE is a link to it, if you are interested.

But to get to the point, here are the highlights!  How about these for Before and After photos:

Not too shabby, my neurosurgical team!  The smudge on the post-operative photo where the tumor was, according to my chief surgeon, is just leftover blood from the operation that will diffuse.

Now if that is not a miracle, I don't know what is!



P.S.

ONLY ONE MORE MONTH UNTIL THE WEDDING!!! :D  HOORAY!

Our First Hike

This is a pretty big deal.

Not only was this our first hike together, but it was my first hike since surgery (hooray!), and it was my Mr. Jackson's first hike ever! 

We were inspired by either spontaneity or perhaps he just wanted to support my recovery by joining me in something he knows I love, and this weekend we went on an impromptu hike at Sleeping Giant State Park in Connecticut after searching for homes(!!) and checking out the Peabody Museum at Yale.

This was my first full week after getting the green light from my physical therapist to walk without a cane.  With that new liberty, as well as having my mom back at her home so nobody could tell me I was going too fast or needed a break (sorry, Mom, I was a little naughty) I entered Turbo Time!  I have been speed walking for miles around downtown Philly, getting my groove back.  I felt ready for a little trail because if I can navigate cobblestone streets and sidewalks that have been on the city's Fix-It List for, oh, decades, while somehow not getting run over by taxis, then I think I can watch out for sticks and stones on a trail.

Plus- big, strong Mr. Jackson was holding my hand or had an arm around me for support the whole time.  So we went on a little 3.2 mile loop to the top of the mountain on the Tower Trail.  As you might imagine, there is a large stone tower at the top which was built during the Depression by WPA workers- cool!

On our way down the mountain, there was a nice breeze and at one spot we were experiencing a surround-sound of singing birds and he said, "Now this I like."

And this from my novice hiker!  YES!!

To try to give him positive associations with hiking, we ate pizza at Sally's for dinner right afterwards.  Excellent!

So don't you worry, Grandma, he will use that brand new camp pillow you got him from our REI Registry-- I'll make sure of it!

(Full story at THIS LINK)