Today is my mom’s birthday. I know I’ve written a birthday post to her in the past, but I think that since this past year has been quite a year, she deserves a new birthday post to celebrate everything from the past year.
Since my mom’s last birthday she was diagnosed with breast cancer and kicked ass while completing all her treatments. While my mom was going through her treatments, I got to see her a few times.
The first time I saw my mom was after her surgery but before she started chemo. This was on my trip to Tahoe. And during that trip, not only did we hike a lot, my mom took me off-road driving and drove so aggressively that I had a seatbelt bruise for days afterwards!
I also got to see my mom when we all went to Maui for my brother’s wedding. That was a great week filled with lots of adventures.
After the wedding was when my mom started her chemo treatments, and I have to say that she was able to still be her usual ass kicking self through all of it. I’m still amazed that she still played tennis (and usually won) ever week. She even scheduled chemo around her tennis matches.
Usually, my parents are in Tahoe a lot during the winter (so my dad can fulfill his dream of being a ski bum), but because of the treatment schedule, they didn’t get to go too often. That’s ok since Tahoe had a horrible winter as far as snowfall goes.
Somehow, the universe must have known that my mom was done with all her treatments because there was a good snowfall the other day. So my mom, dad, and Tucker are all up in Tahoe this week celebrating my mom’s birthday.
While thinking back at this past year, I think my family has become much more grateful for the little things. I don’t think we were ever ungrateful people, but we make more of an effort to be grateful now.
I’m so grateful for my mom (and dad) for so many reasons. While they don’t completely understand my desire to act, they support it as much as they can. I’m grateful that my parents are willing to pay for me to fly home so I can see them (and Tucker). I know some friends who don’t have that opportunity so they don’t get to see their family very often. I’m also really grateful that my mom is almost as much of a Disneyland nerd as I am, and we are going to try to get my dad to enjoy Disneyland as well when the 3 of us go to celebrate my mom’s birthday/the end of her treatments later this month.
I know that my mom is going to have an awesome birthday today. I’m sure she, my dad, and Tucker are going to go on some sort of adventure in Tahoe. I’ll just have to wait to celebrate with her in a few weeks.
