A Very Special Family Wedding

Our family celebrated Taryn and Mac getting married on May 29, 2010 at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club. They shared their wedding day with my mom's birthday and look forward to celebrating their wedding anniversary falling on that special day.

The weather wasn't quite cooperating but the rain let up for exactly 30 minutes for their "first look" pictures at Elizabeth Park. They changed their outdoor ceremony to an intimate indoor ceremony filled with candles and calla lilies.

My mom has been looking forward to this day since the day my sister was born and we were all very thankful for her to be feeling so healthy. She was beaming for every photo and danced the night away with my dad on the dance floor.

Mac and my fiance Skye have really become close over the last year. Skye was an usher at the wedding and helped me snap photos when I was busy with my Maid of Honor duties :)

My sister could not have looked more stunningly beautiful on her wedding day. It was very special for me to help her plan her wedding and see this day unfold for her and Mac. He has been a part of our family for a long time already and I'm so proud to call him my brother in law. Skye and I know how lucky we are to be so close with Taryn & Mac and can't wait to raise our children together with them.

So handsome and SUCH a great dance partner (check out Aubrey Joy's pix haha)

Cousins by birth but raised as sisters :) Loved the bridesmaids dresses by the way, I will totally wear mine again!

We were very blessed to grow up in a home with wonderful parents who always put their marriage and family first. After 31years together they have been through so much and are more in love than ever. They were definitely our role models for love and commitment and showed Taryn and I to hold marriage to the highest standard. So congrats Macky you made the cut!

Everything about this day was so Mac & Taryn...down to Mac's custom designed leather Chuck T's and Taryn's bright green stiletto heels! Their wonderful wedding planners Mary & Marsha helped them put those special touches that made it so memorable.

I got through my Maid of Honor speech with flying colors but also quite a few tears...here is some of the advice I gave them...

"My greatest wish for the two of you is that through the years, your love for each other will deepen and grow. Take each day and cherish your time together. Love one another and stand together. Take time to talk to one another. Put your love and your family first; your job and your hobbies second.

Years from now, may you look back on this day, your wedding day, as the day you loved each other the least."

Please go to Aubreyjoyphotography.com to view some of their professional photos which turned out AMAZING!

Dear Friends

This picture was taken several months with my Mom's dear and long time playgroup friends: Laurie, Donita, Elsie, Anne and Nancy. My mom has known these women for close to 30 years and they have been through a lot together. These ladies have been there so many times for my mom and our family since my mom became sick.

Together they designed and created this beautiful quilt with handwritten messages to my mom around the border. They also made delicious homemade meals, beautiful plants and sent cards of love and encouragement. I know that this single blog post isn't enough to thank these amazing ladies for just HOW MUCH of a pillar of support they have been but I hope it is a start. Every time my mom wraps up in your quilt we are reminded of you all and how lucky we are to have such a wonderful group of friends in our lives.

So Blessed

Once again it has been too long since I updated our friends and family on my mom's progress. Life has been very hectic but exciting, planning last minute details for my sister's wedding next month. A wedding like this one is such a great way to really appreciate the two very best things in life: Love & Family. We kicked off the wedding extravaganza with a wig themed bridal shower for Taryn. Everyone showed up in some pretty great looks and my mom got to show off her new wig with pride :) Our whole family couldn't be happier for Mac and Taryn and my mom is very focused on feeling fantastic on their big day.



Today my mom got a very clean bill of health from her oncologist after her daily blood work came back looking good. He told her she is the poster patient for a chemo patient and he only wishes that HALF of his patients could be looking and feeling as well as she is. She says her mind feels a lot clearer than it has since her surgeries and beginning cancer treatment. We are REALLY celebrating this and hoping she will continue on this trend.

We feel so blessed to see my mom's energy and appetite also return this week because both of these things were a struggle for her the couple months. After a week of chemotherapy followed by an IV infusion of Avastin she was totally sapped of all her energy. The best way she can describe her nausea is that she said she felt like she was pregnant again, which of course made us all laugh and lightened the situation a little. Certain smells and tastes in foods were overwhelming to her and made her not want to eat. When I started seeing her weight drop I encouraged her to talk to her oncology nurse about some alternative methods for treating her nausea. Ginger immediately came up in conversation and the very next day my mom was on a ginger supplement and eating much better. She has also had a lot of success with acupuncture therapy through the Cancer Care Center. She said it really increased her energy levels and helped ease her tummy troubles.

Right now my mom is exactly halfway through her 6 rounds of chemotherapy and Avastin treatment. So we are assuming that she has about 3 more months of treatment and hopefully her body can get a much needed break. She is really excited about getting the okay to start driving again at the beginning of May. She says my dad is starting to complain about all those trips into Bellingham to Trader Joes to buy all her organic fruits and veggies! I think it will be great for her to have some of her independence back, even if she only drives herself somewhere once a week. Well thats all for now, love you all and thank you for all the continued prayers and supportive gestures...God Bless

Relay For Life-Team Bubbles!

This year, on behalf of my mom, our family is helping to save lives from cancer by taking part in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives people in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length.

In addition to helping people celebrate, remember, and fight back, Relay For Life also helps raise much-needed funds and awareness to help the American Cancer Society save lives from cancer.

Please support me and our team by visiting my personal fundraising web page to make a donation. Every donation really does make a difference. I know that times are tighter than normal for many of us, but any amount you can give truly can help save lives.

Thanks to your support, the American Cancer Society can:

* Help people stay well by helping them take steps to prevent cancer or detect it early, when it’s most treatable
* Help people get well by being in their corner around the clock to guide them through every step of their cancer experience
* Find cures by funding groundbreaking research that helps us understand cancer’s causes, determine how best to prevent it, and discover new ways to cure it
* Fight back by working with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and rally communities worldwide to join the fight

Each of us has our own reasons for caring about the fight against cancer … whatever your reasons, I hope you’ll choose to make a difference by making a donation online to support my efforts. I’m so grateful to have people like you in my life who want to see an end to cancer in our lifetime. We are so excited to participate in this event, walking together to celebrate my mom's journey and raise money to save lives.

To learn more about Relay For Life, check out our team's progress or make a donation please visit my personal fundraising page at
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Tanis.SmithForMyMom

Thank you and I will keep you updated on my progress. Go team BUBBLES!!

Great MRI news!!

God has heard all of our prayers and granted us a huge blessing this week. My mom's first MRI scan after completing her first round of treatment came back clear with no sign of a tumor! They are continuing to watch a certain ridge of her brain near where the original tumor was removed. This ridge was the target area for her radiation treatment. The MRI also showed that the cancer cells on the ridge have not spread and may have actually decreased slightly. After discussing the results with her many oncologists, they are very optimistic that we will not see another tumor growing anytime in the near future. They truly believe that my mom is going to be one of the lucky people that will fight and succeed to live for a long time after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma tumor. They explained that this is only because they caught it early when the tumor was so small and because she is so incredibly healthy! We do know that unfortunately there is no cure for brain cancer at this time. But our plan is to help my mom fight this off until they do find that cure!

We are so grateful for this much needed good news. And to know that all the doctors and all the treatments that have sapped my mom of her energy and taken her hair are REALLY WORKING! Yes everyday we deal with the worry and the doubts about what tomorrow could bring for my mom and our family. But we are so lucky to be surrounded with friends and family that help us find guidance when we need it. A very dear friend of mine sent my mom and I a devotional book called "Jesus Calling." She herself has found peace in her crazy life after sitting down each night and reading this book, so I am now doing the same. Granted there are some nights I fall asleep without reading, but have I found comfort in the scriptures I have read and reflected on. It's also pretty cool knowing that my mom and I are reading the exact same thing every night and can focus our prayers together. Like many people, I have a hard time accepting the fact that there are things in life that I cannot control, like my Mom's cancer or my boyfriends deployment to Afghanistan in July. These things could overwhelm me with worry and fear if I let them. But my faith reminds me that I am not in control, someone else is. Monday night's reading spoke to me for obvious reasons and I thought I would share it:
When something in your life or thoughts makes you anxious, come to Me and talk about it. Though the lessons of trust that I send to you come wrapped in difficulties, the benefits far outweigh the cost.

Bubbles!!

Well since I am WAY overdue in my blogging I figured it was definitely time to catch everybody up on my Mom's progress. Sorry I am so way behind, but when you don't hear anything from us for a while, just know that "no news is good news" and that life is just keeping us busy.

Since January my mom has been extremely busy with radiation treatment 5 days a week, daily chemotherapy and has started her new clinical trial of Avastin that will continue for the next 2 years. We gladly celebrated her last day of radiation on February 4th, woo hoo!! As she would tell you, her treatment got very intense towards the end. Her radiation tech buddy Aaron described it as "peeling an onion," meaning that it gradually becomes more focused with each treatment, as it hones in to target the cancer cells. The Bellingham Cancer Care Center truly enjoyed seeing my mom everyday for the past month and even gave her the nickname "Bubbles." They say her energy and zest for life is contagious and just bubbles out of her :)

Right now she is enjoying a much needed break from chemotherapy as well, she will be starting up again in the next couple weeks to start a 5 day course that will occur every 28 days. Her blood counts and overall health continue to look awesome and her oncologists are so impressed with how her body held up during such an intense first round of treatments. We are so very blessed that besides being exhausted and have some hair loss, she hasn't experienced any harsh side effects of cancer treatment. She has acquired a very beautiful collection of fun hats and scarves and wears them proudly wherever she goes.



She's been feeling up to getting out of the house a little more and going for walks almost everyday, rain or shine! We are very excited about her new nutritionist, who was recommended by her oncologist at the Cancer Care Center. My parents have met with her twice already and like the recommendations she has made. So far she has my mom eating a very "clean and green" diet with lots of lean proteins, organic fruits and veggies and a few new supplements (including some kind of interesting dried mushrooms)...But I really like the fact that she encourages my mom to indulge whenever she feels like it, for example the girl scout cookies I'm bringing home to her this weekend!

Overall things are looking very good for our family. We continue to be hopeful for the future and are grateful everyday for my Mom's strength and the wonderful advances in modern medicine. My mom has found such a great support system made up of all the staff at Bellingham Cancer Care Center. Also, I continue to be AMAZED and eternally grateful for how our close family and friends have stepped in and come through for us in whatever way we have needed help thus far. Our load has REALLY been lightened by all the delicious meals that have been made, offers to drive my mom to doctors appointments or help her run errands and especially the professional house cleaning donated by my mom's dear friend Brenda. You have no idea how much we appreciate IT ALL! We love you, God Bless.

Great start to 2010...

After a wonderful holiday we were ready to say goodbye to 2009 and look forward to what 2010 has to bring for all of us...health, happiness, a more positive outlook on life, a very special family wedding and hopefully a medical MIRACLE!

My mom just finished up her 3rd week of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Because she started in the middle of the holiday season, her first couple weeks of treatment were only 2-4 days instead of the full 5 days. I think this worked out in her favor to allow her body to start out more slowly. She sent me a text this Friday telling me she had just finished her first 5 day treatment week and put a big "WOOHOO" at the end. She said she feels tired by the end of her full week of treatment, but she still had enough energy to kick my butt at the gym today! She is learning ways to relax during her radiation treatment and now refers to it as going on vacation into her "hut." Her first blood counts this week came back perfect and the doctors say that her body appears to be handling the treatments extremely well. My mom specifically asked her doctor how he thought she was doing so far and he said "great"! I'm soooooooo incredibly relieved to see her feeling so good, but also made her promise me that when she's having a bad day, its ok to tell us about it.

The doctor's plan is to continue chemo and radiation for 3 more weeks. She starts a clinical trial on January 18th that I am still currently finding out more about. I will share with you real briefly what we know about the trial. This clinical trial is a type of double blind research study being done on patients with glioblastoma brain tumors. The point of the study is to prove that when you combine chemotherapy with radiation therapy and follow it up with a drug called Avastin, patients have improved tumor control compared with chemo and radiation alone. Avastin is not a NEW cancer fighting drug, it has been used successfully for many other types of cancer treatments but this study is for doctors to see whether this drug will work for glioblastomas. Avastin is an antiangiogenic agent, which means that it can interrupt the body's ability to grow new blood vessels, causing tumors to shrink. There is also information that shows that Avastin may eliminate poorly formed blood vessels in tumors, resulting in improved blood flow. Improved blood flow may result in better delivery of chemotherapy agents too. So all in all it sounds like a very promising study. Unfortunately because it is a double blind study, a certain percentage of patients will be receiving a "placebo" instead of the actual drug. But my mom has a very STRONG feeling that she will be getting the "good juice" so she calls it. And you know, some patients that receive placebos can even have amazing results because they believed all along that whatever they were receiving it was helping them heal. So the way I'm choosing to look at it is either way, my mom has such a positive attitude that no matter what they give her she will benefit from it. And if the doctors are learning something, even one tiny thing, that will help someone else with a glioblastoma down the road, then its all worth it!

And now on a little different note, for those of you that didn't know, my younger sister Taryn got engaged this summer to her long time boyfriend Mac. Recently Taryn and Mac have decided to move up the date of their wedding from late August to May 29th, which happens to be my mom's 55th birthday and keep the celebration small and intimate. The venue they were looking at changing the wedding to just happened to have that date available and the fact that her birthday even falls on a Saturday this year...well it couldn't be more perfect! So we are jumping into the wedding planning to make everything come together for them. Mom is looking forward to dancing all night long at the wedding!

Again I want to say thank you thank you thank you to all the wonderful people who have rearranged their lives to drive my mom to her treatments when my dad and sister are working. I feel like the day that I move back up to Whatcom county just can't come soon enough. My amazing boyfriend has spent every weekend making the 2.5 hour drive up from Lakewood with me so that we can spend time with my family. And as I realized today at the automotive shop, my poor car has taken a beating and I had to buy some much needed new tires. But it eases my mind knowing that my mom has great friends and family to fill in for us when we need it.

So many people continue to ask us what they can do to help?? And honestly right now, as a family we are managing very well, but we promise to ask for help when we need it. The one thing I do want to say is this...Anyone that knows my mom knows that family means EVERYTHING to her. Even when Taryn and I were little, we picked up on all the love and dedication she made to keeping our family close. From time to time every family faces situations that bring up disagreements that could possibly end in some hurt feelings. But its those times that you pull together and should work to put differences aside to get through it as a family. What I'm trying to say is, if anyone reading this blog has some unresolved family issues weighing on their hearts, please take a minute to step back and ask if its really worth growing apart from the people that should matter most in your life-your family! My mom has always said and lived by the advice of "when it comes to family, let the small stuff slide." Now more than ever I realize that we are never guaranteed another day to apologize, make things a little better, or spend another day with the people we love.

My mom continues to be such a positive and bright spirit to be around. Like right now at this very moment she's cooking pasta dinner with Il Divo cranked up in the kitchen, singing away :) She swears that Il Divo is very stimulating to her brain and listens to it all the time, much to my dad's dismay ha ha! One of her very kind and knowledgable doctors told her that people learn to really LIVE with cancer and a lot of people live a much better life with it than they did without it. God Bless and love to you all, more to come soon!