A little help from my friend

     Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend time with my best friend, Sharon. We used to see each other several times a week, but since I moved in July I've only gotten to see her a handful of times. She and I have been friends for almost 20 years, we usually tell people that we are "adopted sisters." We have always been close, I met her when she was pregnant with her daughter and I was in high school and I started babysitting her kids. She, in turn, took me under her wing and helped guide me through the crazy high school years. We stayed in contact after I left for college, she was my matron of honor in my wedding, when my son was born and we moved back home she was at my house almost daily.

     In August 2010, both of our lives were changed forever. Within a weeks time my husband and I separated and her doctors found a tumor on her lung. I'll never forget sitting at that first oncologist appointment with her and her mom...hearing him say "stage 4 cancer to the lung, liver and lymph nodes."

     This is meant to be a happy post so I'm not going into the details too much. She's been through hell and she's been strong and brave throughout the whole thing. At the same time she was my biggest support as my marriage ended. It's been 17 months since she was diagnosed, she's done chemo, radiation,  had surgery on her liver, and had an allergic reaction to one type of chemo that almost killed her. The tumors were shrinking at first, but there has been no good news since the spring, they found spots on her brain and spine in November. They started a new chemo and radiation and will retest her in March, and here's the thing, she looks better then she has since this all started and she feels great! The docs told her this new stuff has the possibility to work miracles, and we're counting on it!

 This is the day she had surgery on her liver to remove the tumor. Unfortunately I realized as I was putting this post together that it's the only picture I have of us together in the last few years. Anyway, she's been feeling really good lately and had offered to come help me with cutting and interfacing. I really HATE interfacing, lol, it's so time consuming, so I jumped at the chance to not only get some help, but also spend some time with my friend!

 I have 6 crayon roll and tote sets due this coming week (with 15 other orders in line behind them!) so I figured we could get those ready to sew. She started out cutting but quickly realized she didn't get along with the rotary cutter, lol!

 I started cutting and got her set up at the ironing board. It took her a few pieces before she got the hang of interfacing but once she did she whipped through it. Lucky for me she said she LIKED it!

 We even had time for her to mark all the lines on the crayon rolls. in about 4 hours of work we accomplished what would usually take me 2 days! We had fun hanging out, she said it was nice to get away from the house and do something different and she would gladly come back to help again. With orders piling up and 2 craft shows coming up I'll definitely take her up on that!

Izzie hasn't seen "Aunt Sharon" since the summer and she was so happy to get some snuggle time with her. She asked her, in her cute little 4 year old voice, if she was still sick and "Aunt Sharon" said with a big smile "I'm feeling better and getting healthier every day!"

It was so wonderful to spend time with my "big sister" I can't wait to do it again!

I love you Sharon