This is MY ribbon!.

This is MY ribbon!

On several occasions I have worn ribbons for other people in my life. I often wear a Yellow ribbon in memory of those who are fighting or who have lost their lives fighting for our great country. I have worn Teal ribbons in support of Cervical Cancer and the battle my sister in law Kiley went through while she fought her way through treatments and recovery. I have worn Pink (like most of you have) to support Breast Cancer and the millions who have been affected by it.

 On Thursday June, 28 I had a biopsy done on my left leg. On July 3 I got the call from my doctor telling me she received my pathology reports and the biopsy was positive for Melanoma.... Cancer. I was sitting at work when I got the call from my doctor. I had missed a call on my cell phone and when I listened to the message, Dr. MaGree asked me to call her on her cell phone if I could not call back until after the office had already closed. I could physically feel my heart sink into my stomach as I was listening to the message. I called the Dr back and left her a message with my office number on it. She called back several minutes later and started off the conversation by saying "I'm sorry to have to give you bad news over the phone, but with tomorrow being a holiday, I did not want to wait to talk to you". Yes, I'll be honest and say I had a mini meltdown at work. The worst feeling was knowing I was getting such horrible news and Paul was not there with me to hold my hand. Dr. MaGree and I discussed my options and we decided I would schedule my surgery for as soon as possible. Paul and I had already booked our flights to go to Wyoming for a few days the 1st part of August so I decided to have my surgery on July 27th so I could have a week to recover before heading off to Wyoming on vacation.  I am so thankful my mom is able to come to Virginia to help me out for a week before she heads off to Utah to spend a week with Emily :)

I had called my dad when scheduled my 1st appointment to tell him what I was going in for.  He's had several places on his arm burned off to I knew he could tell me what to expect!  YEAH RIGHT!!!  He told me they would either burn it off or just cut off the top of the mole.  :)  As you can see in the above picture, they did more than cut off the top of the mole!  ha ha!  They made a 1 1/2 inch incision and I ended up with multiple internal stitches and 12 external stitches.  That was a big fat pain in my rump to deal with for 2 weeks while I worked.  I had to keep it covered so it delayed healing and on top of it all, i found out I am 1) Allergic to all band-aids and medical tape except for paper tape.  Everything else TOTALLY breaks me out!  and 2) I am allergic to the internal stitches.  I ended up with a nasty sore on my scar line and finally, about 2 days ago, the internal stitch came out and it's healed up very quickly since.  I asked my doctor about it when I went in on the 9th to have the stitches removed and she told me it was nothing to worry about.  Apparently it happens from time to time.  It just slows down healing a bit.

I'd also like to say I TOTALLY flipped out during my biopsy.  I stressed out so bad I made myself ill.  Dr. MaGee thought it would be a good idea for me to take some Valium before my surgery since it too will be local anesthesia.  I am doing a trial run tonight to see how it makes me feel.  That way I will know how much to take to make me feel good without overdoing it and not being able to walk out of the place on my own :)

Well, that's all the Melanoma updating I am able to do tonight!  I'll post again hopefully Friday evening after surgery!  Wish me luck!

In Other News:

Since it is now the end(ish) of July and my last post was April 2nd, I guess I have a lot of catching up to do!  So... here goes.  I hope I don't miss anything important!

April 9th, I started a WONDERFUL job at Hospice of the Piedmont in Charlottesville.  I am a CNA in their Hospice House!   It's a house that was built back in like 1920 and it's a BEAUTIFUL area of Charlottesville.  We can only hold 8 residents and the only staff there in the evening is me and my nurse Wendy (who I love).  I went in for my 90 day evaluation a week ago and I am proud to say they are very impressed by my work.  It's not hard to do a good job when you actually enjoy going to work every day :)
Paul hit his 1 year mark with the Albemarle County PD April 21 (I  think).  His PD ordered 3 new radars this week and Paul was given one b/c he writes more tickets than anyone else on his shift!  THAT'S MY MAN!  I can't explain how proud I am of Paul and all of his hard work!

April 3rd was Paul's birthday :) (Sorry if I am repeating stories from my last entry).  We decided it would be fun to drive to Harrisonburg for dinner at Long Horn Steakhouse!  Well.... long story short.... although the drive was BEAUTIFUL, we made it there only to find out the building was under construction... or should I say demolition!  We laughed so hard when we realized we drove over an hour for steak and ended up eating at Buffalo Wild Wings, which we have here in Charlottesville :)  Ha ha!  I did decorate for Paul's birthday this year!  He was at work and I thought it would be a lot of fun to have him come home to the house looking all birthday festive!

July 9th was our 2nd wedding anniversary :)  Awwwww Love!   Can't believe it's been 2 years already.  Sometimes I feel like we just met and other days I feel like I can't remember a time when we were not married.  Since there really are no words to express how I feel about being married to Paul... I will just say this.  When I was a little girl and I dreamed about my prince charming... I never in my wildest dreams ever thought he actually existed!  I honestly don't think 2 people could be more perfect for each other than Paul and me.

Last year for our Anniversary he surprised me with my Kitchen Aid mixer and this year was just as wonderful!  I have been REALLLLLY wanting the perfume by Coach called Poppy!  It's way out of my perfume budget so Paul bought it for me as one of my anniversary presents!  I was SOOOO excited when I opened that coach bag and found it tucked away in it's little white box :)  I wear it every day and am in love... YES!!! IN LOVE with it!  I had also told him I wanted a wristlet from Coach but when he went to order it, it was on back order and NONE of the Coach stores in our area had it.  So, instead of waiting for it to come in months from now, he told me I could pick out a different one in the store.  I ended up getting the CUTEST little wristlet and I actually like it more than the one I had originally picked out :)  I don't want anyone to read this and think everything I own is Coach!!!  haha!  Totally NOT!  These are the 1st 2 things I have ever owned by Coach :)  For Paul's anniversary present I bought him a paisley silk western scarf and a scarf slide.  He honestly picked them out AND ordered them but I would not let him have them until our anniversary!  He's not a fan of surprises so I pretty much have given up trying to surprise him and let him buy whatever he's been wanting!

Tell me it's not CUTE!

YAY for pretty presents :)

Upcoming Events!

On August 3rd (1 WEEK FROM FRIDAY... YAYYYYY) Paul and I are leaving on our first vacation alone.  The only times we have traveled together has been to see my family in Missouri!  We thought it would be fun to take our first vacation to Cheyenne Wyoming!  Paul's never been there and I've only driven through once or twice. We have our flights booked, rental car reserved and our hotel booked!  While we are there we will be looking at a few apartment complexes to see if there are any that we like, Paul will be doing a ride along with the Cheyenne Police Department so he can pick their brain about the department... pro's, con's, etc.  We will be attending an LDS Ward while we are there and pretty much spending 3 days looking around the town to see if our dream of living in Cheyenne could actually be a reality. 

Well everyone, That is the happenings of the Quillon home :)  I will update more on Friday or Saturday... depending on how I feel after surgery!  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!!!!

Liz

April brings flowers (outside), warm weather and job changes!

I would like to start off by saying I HATE the color purple (Well, I love the movie The Color Purple, anyway!) BUT the Mormon Tab Choir women wore purple... lots and lots of purple... at General Conference. Soooooo, I am typing in purple to honor those women and their amazing talent.

General Conference was AMAZING. I watched most of the 2 sessions yesterday and although they were good too, today was special. So much of what they said was exactly what I needed to hear. I love hearing the General Authorities of the Church emphasize the importance of the family. All aspects of the family! The role the children play and each individual parent. But, most of all I loved hearing them talk about the importance of the relationship between a husband and a wife. I loved hearing them talk about how neither partner is dominant in the relationship. How there should be kindness toward each other, no harsh words and an equality between husband and wife. I watch daily so many relationships in the world fall apart. Relationships are torn apart due to money, too much "guy/girl time", not enough together time, intimacy, trust, dishonesty, a lack of showing your partner that you love and cherish them, lack of friendship between the couple, differences in how to raise children, job loss, working too much, working too little, "he said/she said"... truly, the list could go on and on. I constantly hear from friends/co workers/ friends of friends complain that "so and so cheated" or "I just can't trust him/her". How sad of a life that must be. I have 2 moments that will stick with me for the rest of my life. 1) While visiting my friend Marcie, we (with her husband) were discussing the important of being married to your best friend. I will never forget when Marcie and Chris both said that although they enjoyed their time with their other friends of the same sex, at the end of the day they enjoyed being with each other more than anyone else. I knew from that moment that what they had was exactly what I would strive for in my own life. 2) My mom and I were discussing relationships and I made the comment that "every couple fights, no relationship is perfect". I'll never forget her response. She told me "why does a relationship have to be hard? you should strive for the perfect marriage". She could not have been more right. I look at my husband and I's marriage and there have been plenty of times we could have argued over one thing or the other. He could choose to get mad every time he comes home from work and I have failed to put away the clean clothes, or do the dishes. I could choose to get angry if he fails to take out the trash or if he tracks dirt through the house when I just swept the floors. We could chose to allow the fact that our dishwasher went out a reason to get on each other b/c that's money we did not want to spend. My point is, so much of the things that make a relationship fail are things we choose to allow into our marriages. I look at the General Authorities of the Church and I admire the way they treat the women around the, especially their wives. Do we honestly think they got married and life was a barrel of peaches from that day on? They had/have large families. With Large families come large expenses and their choose to have their wives stay at home to raise the children. I am sure there were literally a million things that could have torn them apart as a couple. And YET, when President Hinkley's wonderful wife passed away, we are told that President Hinkley cried every single day for the loss of his beloved wife. How beautiful that story is. Every single person should strive for a relationship like that. I know I do.

Ok, enough of my relationship rant!!! Onto brighter things in life. I was offered a wonderful job about 3 weeks ago. I came to the point with my previous employer that I could no longer allow my character to be questioned so I hit the pavement and started looking for a new job. I was only working 2 days a week PRN anyway, so anything would be better than what I was currently being offered. On a whim, I emailed a copy of my resume to Hospice of the Piedmont here in Charlottesville and shockingly, I got an email back from the head of their HR dept telling me that the only job they had available was a full time, Mon-Fri, 3-11:30 pm shift at their Hospice House. Although I was not really looking for something full time, the more I thought and prayed about it, the more I knew the Lord was giving me a wonderful chance to make some good money and allow Paul and I to build our savings account so when we are EVER able to move, we can do it cash in hand and not feel the financial pressures that typically come with a big move. I will be starting orientation on April 9th and will be working 8:30-5 for 2 weeks and then will start my evening shift. This job is going to be so different than anything I have done. The Hospice House is an actual house. It's a home that was built in the early 1900's and was donated to HOP when the couple passed away. It can house 8 residents at any given time so during my shift, it will be myself and 1 nurse. My charge nurses name is Wendy and she's 27 so we are right at the same age. I believe this is going to be a wonderful opportunity for me.

Paul is doing amazing at work. We found out a few months ago that they were interested in sending him to Radar Instructor School. This would be a wonderful skill to have on his resume. He is anxious for the Dept to find a school he can attend. He is currently (and I cannot see it changing in the near future) #1 on his shift for writing tickets. Although many citizens would think that is not something to brag about, it shows management that he's a go-gett'er and those are the kind of cops that get to keep their jobs. I will never complain about him looking good at the dept!

Married life is WONDERFUL! We have really made the most of the warm weather we have had recently. We take time almost every day to take Harley for a walk, we spent an afternoon at a friends farm playing with their goats and shooting our guns. We have done so much outdoor work this spring so far.

So far not bites on the house. We are still hopeful and prayerful that the house will sell asap so we can move onto bigger and better things, but the market is still so bad out at Lake Monticello. We can't let it get us down b/c as of right now, there is nothing we can do about it. Just keep making improvements on the house where we see fit and keep our fingers crossed that someone will love it when they come to see it.

Well everyone, I have written a dang book and I am sure you are bored. I hope you are enjoying this amazing spring!

LQ

March... already???

Where in the WORLD is this year going? I still feel like yesterday was Christmas and now not only is Christmas/New Years gone... but so is Valentines day and St. Patricks day is knocking on our front door!
I noticed I have not posted anything in 2 months and that is not like me! I'm thinking it is b/c nothing has really been going on in the Quillon home over the past 8 weeks.
We signed a new contract with a new realtor February 1st. Actually, it's a husband/wife team and they seem to really have their head in the game. We had 2 showings last Sunday so that was a nice change from our last realtor. Although nothing came from either showing, it was nice to see the interest. Paul and I need to sit down this week and decide on a weekend we are both home so we can schedule our open house. I'm anxious to get that out of the way. Near the end of January, the Lord blessed our little area of Virginia with amazing spring weather. We had about 4 days where it was in the high 60's and we were able to get all of the leaves out of our front and side yards. The back yard would have been impossible since it's totally wooded. It has made a huge difference in the look of the house.
Speaking of spring, our flowers are blooming in the front yard. It's so nice to have a little color around some of our trees. I am anxious to see the rest of my flowers come back to life. It has been such a snow-less winter... i'm anxious to see flowers again.
Speaking of snow, haha. 2 Sunday's ago we got about 4 inches of snow in just a few hours. It was so beautiful outside. We took Harley for a walk and he had the BEST time running around and shoving his cute little face in the snow. He did this funny thing where he's put his face in the snow, lay his body down on the ground and push with his back legs. I have never seen him have so much fun outside. Paul and I both commented that we were so excited he loved the snow... b/c when we are finally able to move out West, he will have to put up with a lot of snow. We really did have the best night with him.
Harley turned 2 January 21st. I wanted to have a little Birthday party for him but with our work schedules, etc we ran out of time. He was 7 months old when we adopted him. Can't imagine a day without him as part of our family. I don't know if there is another dog in the world that is truly loved as much as he is.
Work is going well for Paul and I. Paul is still loving his job with the County PD. He will celebrate 1 year there in April. My gosh it has been a fast year! They seem to really like him in that department. I remember when he came to me and told me that he was interested in switching police departments. I was really nervous for him to change jobs but he told me he felt really good about it. I am so thankful I trusted his decision b/c this job change has been such a blessing to our family in so many ways. I have been at my job for 10 months now and it has been wonderful for the most part. This past week has been a weeeeeeeee bit stressful but that comes with any job. I am only working PRN where I currently am so I have decided the time has come to look for something more full time and keep my PRN status at my current job so I can work a weekend from time to time when Paul works if they need me. I hate looking for new jobs. I know the Lord will put the right job in my path.
I really don't know much else right now. I hope everyone is enjoying some beautiful weather and that you all had a wonderful Valentines Day!!!

Love,
LQ

Merry Christmas and a Hap-Hap-Happy New Year

Christmas came and went so quickly! One day I was looking forward to my mom and sister coming to town for a week and it seemed like the next day I was taking them back to the airport. Here is a recap of Christmas:
The Thursday before Christmas, mom and Em were originally scheduled to fly into Charlottesville. I was so thankful b/c that meant I did not have to drive clear to D.C. to pick them up. Plus the weather in C-ville was horrible and I hate driving in the rain. Well, I decided to drive into town a little early to do some last second shopping before they arrived and as I got to the airport, Emily called me to tell me that they still had not left St. Louis. They were scheduled to leave STL at 5:50 and at this point it was a little after 7:00 (their time). After a moment of sheer panic I decided the best thing to do was to try to contact their airline to get an update on their flight. Emily was told they would not make it to D.C. in time to catch their connecting flight. After FINALLY getting in touch with United Airlines (I spoke to the NICEST most HELPFUL guy ever!!!!!!!) I was informed that they would be stranded in D.C. until the next morning. Apparently Colorado got hit with a bad snow storm and it delayed all of the flights from CO to MO. So... long story short, I ended up having to drive to D.C. anyway to make sure they did not have to sleep in the airport.
Friday we made sugar cookies and spent the day at my house relaxing and baking
Saturday we drove into town and delivered some of the sugar cookies to the girls I work with. Everyone said they were good so tha made me happy. We personally think they are the best ever! We then headed to see the movie Sherlock Holmes (the 2nd one). It was such an amazing movie. After the movie we stopped by Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and ended the night driving around to look at lights and we read the Christmas story out of the bible and made hot chocolate :) I think we also watched the movie The Help. Paul had not seen it and it's a Stone Women's favorite already.
Sunday we opened gifts and I was so spoiled this year. From Paul I got a bottle of Rose perfume by Averil Laveine (sp?) and an AWESOME t-shirt that says "my husband can arrest your husband" :) haha! And he bought me a "thin blue line" sticker for the back window of the Toyota. The sticker stands for Police Officers. If you cannot tell. I LOVE being a cop's wife! I fell so proud all the time! I got a green pea coat from my sister :) From my mom I got a beautiful pair of earrings that I have been wanting for a long time. I got a ton of candy in my stocking and had such a great time giving Paul his presents. I bought him a book called "the back page". It's a collection of funny stories written by Baxter Black. He writes this story for the back page of the Western Horesman magazine. Paul loves them and I happened to find this collection. He has really enjoyed it. I also bought him cologn called Let'er Buck. For his stocking I bought him a pair of Izod pj pants. I am so happy he enjoyed Christmas as much as I did.
Monday mom and I got up at 5 am and drove to town for some day-after-christmas shopping. It is an understatement when I say I totally scored some amazing deals :) I bought a set of such cute christmas dishes and found Paul a couple orniments for our tree. I also bought my 1st ugly christmas candle for my new ugly christmas candle collection :) Probably since before I was born, my mom started this tradition and this year I thought it would fun to find my own ugly christmas candles. It's a deer covered in copper glitter. Not really ugly... but not really cute either.
Tuesday we hung out in town, I dropped mom and Em off at the airport that evening. Soon after getting back on the highway to go home, Emily called to say their flight was cancelled due to bad weather in D.C. I turned around and picked them back up. We got up at 4am Wednesday to take them back to the airport. They made it bakc home the 2nd time!

New Years was not as exciting as I wanted it to be. I worked from 3-11 that night and Paul was scheduled to get off at 12:30 that next morning. I got a call from him around 11:30 telling me they were in a "situation" and he would be late coming home. He had no idea how long it would be. If you are interested in reading about the situation, I found the newpaper article. Enjoy :) Also - Paul was the officer that was assaulted!
"January 3, 2012
Police believe a new gang is emerging in Albemarle County, specifically in the Southwood Mobile Home Park.
One man allegedly assaulted a county police officer on New Year's Eve at the community located off Fifth Street Extended. Sgt. Darrell Byers tells CBS19 that fueled the crowd's anger. Another man was later taken into custody, and he allegedly assaulted an officer as well.
The two suspects were identified as Becael Hernandez, 23, and Joshua Pena, 18. And police discovered more after arresting the two men.
"The one thing we've learned out of this investigation is that these were probably members of Sur 13," said Sgt. Byers, referring to the Sureños 13, a gang with roots in Los Angeles.
The History Channel documentary on the Sur 13 describes the largely Hispanic gang as a violent group with a ruthless reputation. Their origins date back to 1968, and police say gang members are rumored to have ties to the Mexican Mafia.
New Year's Eve was the first known act of violence by the Sureñors in Albemarle County.
"As we continue to look at some of the things that happened in the earlier part of the year, with the gangs at Albemarle High School and now it spreading over to the southern portion of the county, it's a huge concern for us. It's something that should be a huge concern for the community," said Sgt. Byers.
Police are beefing up patrols around Southwood to eliminate the gang activity before it escalates."
Needless to say, Paul got home around 3:30 am New Years day :( Not much time to celebrate at that point. Hopefully next year we will both be off. I think I was actually taking a shower when the clock struck midnight. Woo Hoo I'm exciting!!!
Well, I think that is all I know right now. Life has been pretty normal so far this year:) Paul and I do celebrate our 2nd dating anniversary on the 21st of this month and Harley turns 2 this month! Very excited for both of those days!
I hope the Holidays treated everyone very very well!

It's beginning to look a lot like.... not Christmas

This is not at all the way I pictured winter to be this year. Since this past spring, everone has been saying that we were surpose to have a horrible winter with lots of snow. Here's my question... where is the snow? It's December 11th and it's ugly outside.

I have the house all decorated for Christmas and I love it. I love buying decorations but I hate the price tag's the stick of them. I ran into Dollar Tree several days ago to pick up a few things and they had some beautiful decorations. I typically think their stuff looks cheap, but this year was shocking. I found the cutest bells you hang from door knobs and cute window stickers. My mom and I are going shopping the day after Christmas so I'm hopeful to pick up a few fun decorations from Hallmark and maybe go to Sams Club and Kohls to see what they have! I love after the holiday sales :)

Mom and Em will be here in TEN days! I cannot wait to see them. They fly into Charlottesville, VA on Dec 22nd and fly back to Missouri on the 27th. I am so thankful I get 5 days with them. We are going to make sugar cookies and drive around to look at lights! We have several fun things planned.

Well, I think that is all I have for now. I will write more probably next week once I get my camera working and can take some pictures!

LQ

House For Sale... again

Back in July, Paul and I decided it was time to put our house on the market in hopes we would be one of the few homeowners to have a quick sale.... Well... that did not happen. In fact, we only had one previewing and one showing in the 4 months it was listed through that particular agency. About 3 weeks ago we went ahead and took the house off the market since our realtor was obviously not helping us sell our house. This past week Paul was talking to a friend from work who told him about a realtor in Charlottesville who was apparently (her and her husband are a team) one of the top realtors in the area. Monday we drove to town and had about an hour long meeting talking about our house, what we wanted out of the sale and what their opinion was, being the pro's. Today the came to the house to do a walk through, take pictures and talk about price. Selling this house has turned into quite the experience. I have learned a lot so far and it reinforces my desire to NEVER move again after this. They gave us some great tips on how to spruce up the outside and we have a minor repair to do in the basement. All in all, I actually have a tiny bit of hope that this couple will be able to sell our house. I guess all we can do now is wait and see what happens. They both seemed to love the house and they totally fell in love with our dog Harley. Believe it or not, they have a dog that looks exactly like him. If they were together, you would never be able to tell they did not come from the same litter. They were so impressed by how sweet he was.

It is so hard to believe that December starts tomorrow!!!!! It's almost shocking. The weather this past week has not screamed CHRISTMAS, that's for sure. It has been in the low 70's high 60's for over a week now. Today is the first day it has been cool and it's currently 44 outside.

Paul and I decorated our livingroom/diningroom on Monday. I cannot say we decorated our tree b/c here's the simple truth... we have a 3 foot tree and we did not undecorate it from last year. We simply covered it with a sheet and put it in the basement. Sad, we know! Our tree is sitting on an end table in front of the window. It's kinda funny b/c if you drive past the house, it looks like a 6 foot tree :) Sneaky, sneaky, lol! I love the Christmas season and I am really looking forward to snow. I love sitting on my couch with all of the lights turned off and drink hot chocolate while looking at my pretty tree. We have the stockings hung up over the couch. My mom and sister are coming to Virginia for Christmas!! YAY!! I am so excited to see them and to make sugar cookies with my mom and deliver them to the girls at work :) I still have to decide what to get my husband. He does not think so, but he's very picky. He has given me a couple ideas so I am sure I will go with one of those ideas :) I hate giving people gift ideas... but so far, Paul has done a wonderful job buying me gifts :)

Well, that's all I have for now! I hope everyone had a wonderful November!

LQ

Awwwwww... November!

I love November! I love the cool weather and the bare trees. I love the sound of the leaves crunching under your feet as you walk. I love laying on my couch in my comfy pj's with my warm blanket and my dog. I love making hot chocolate from scratch and eating hot chocolate chip cookies. I love buying candles that smell like pie and vanilla and other yummy things. I love having cold feet as my excuse to snuggle up to my husband when we go to bed. I love how life slows down in the fall.

My sister-in-law Kaylyn and her 2 little girls Corin and Kendall are in Virginia for the next month!!!! I am SOOOO thankful that I have had such much needed bonding time with her and the girls :) I am so thankful for the family I married into and the time this week that we have had time to just relax and talk!

This past Saturday I had quite the... situation! My mom recently bought me a Pampered Chef veggie/food slicer and I thought it would be a good idea to slice cucumbers for work. Well, I was doing a great job and then Paul came into the kitchen to talk to me before getting ready for work. Too bad for me, I did not have the guard on the cucumber and I ended up slicing off the end of my finger. Aprox 4mm. Despite our pervious plans to go to work... we ended up at Urgent Care in Charlottesville. They were unable to attach the end back onto my finger so they used some skin growth promoting foam and wrapped it up. I went through 2 days of really bad pain but it's finally starting to feel better. I'm anxious to see my finger next week when they take the bandage off :)

Well, that's about all I have for right now. Life is pretty slow!

Liz