It Takes A Village -- ADDENDUM

Oh my Lord, my brain is failing me already!! In my "It Takes A Village" blog entry from a couple days ago, I completely forgot to mention five of my most important village members:

I have five friends -- Jan McDougal, Cindi and Dave Frame, Gale Love and Jenny Zeszut -- who began providing endless support and love immediately upon hearing of my diagnosis. Cindi and Jenny have served as the point-persons collecting funds from anyone who wanted to contribute and Cindi's husband, Dave, set up a bank account in my name so that I can tap into these funds as needed. Many of the fun "bells and whistles" on my blog site -- such as the calendar function or the traffic counter -- are also thanks to Dave. And before the blog calendar was created, Jan and Cindi coordinated all of the meals that people provided so that we didn't end up with 25 meals one week and nothing the next. Jan and Cindi have even personally cooked a wide variety of strange, albeit healthy, food options for me that my nutritionist recommended. A couple of them were actually pretty tasty -- who knew! And as you know from my prior posting, Gale has been the one responsible for creating and ordering my "The Bitch Must Go!" t-shirts. She is also the one who has committed to running the Nike Marathon with me next year, which will help provide me the motivation that I need to get back in action after my treatment is over. And lastly, Jan has personally appointed herself as my "laughter manager" -- this came about after I told her that I really need to make sure that I laugh every day because I think that this is the best medicine I can get. So if you have any funny stories or emails that you can share, please send them along to her so that she can filter through and pass along at least one per day to me (her contact info is jan.mcdougal@comcast.net).

Needless to say, these are the kind of friends that make me realize just how blessed I am!!