Relay for life by me

My relay stint this year began around 4pm. The temperature was 104 degrees. I sign in for my team and got our little camp spot figured out. I decorated a few luminaria bags for the luminaria ceremony. I did some for family and mostly for the friends I have lost to this horrible disease that keeps trying to take me down as well.
My maternal grandparents Grandma and Grandpa Martinez were the first ones I did. I was so close to my Grams and lost both of them to this crap. I did ones for my paternal grandparents too. Grandma and Grandpa Gossett who also lost life to this crap.
I made one for my friend Kimmy. Remember her? I was the temporary guardian for her young son Gavin. Throughout my experiences I have met some of the strongest and amazing people. I have also buried too many of them. Out of my main cancer support group that I met with the most there are 2 of us left alive. We started out with 12. 10 dear sweet friends in 1 year. WOW!!! That is so upsetting to write. I am bleassed with amazing medical and holistic care. As well as friends who have become family and my family as well. It is because of those people and things that I am here today writing this very emotional blog post.
Anyway back to relay... I did the survivors dinner, and the opening ceremonies. By this time it was about 7pm and still 104 out. I got so sick. I was dehydrated and throwing up. Stupid heat exhaustion. It was so bad that I was not even sweating anymore. My months of preparation were down the tube. :( SAD DAY!!!
I finally found some shade and laid down to try to conquer yet another thing this cancer was trying to take away from me. No such luck. I called my sweet friends and team members to tell them I am OK if they want to quit since I was too sick to continue. They would hear nothing of it. I am blessed remember! They walked, ran and repeated. I went home to rest. In all the team did about 60ish laps and we raised around $1200 out of that $500 was donated by my work doba.com Thank you to everyone who helped prepare, walk, run, donate and everything else! I know without a doubt that without all of you in my life I WOULD NOT be where I am today! You are all truly amazing.

Relay for Life by Matt Bailey

The Relay was an interesting event. There were plenty of people, plenty of flies, plenty of sweat, and plenty of things to do. The track was almost barren when I got there, but I soon found my place in the 6th lane (The one on the outside). It was good to be running and helping the team. I ended up going around about 22 laps. TAKE THAT CANCER! I will kill you cancer. But, back to reality, It was a motivational and inspirational experience.

A quote for comfort

Always laugh when you can... Apologize when you should... And let go of what you can't change... Love deeply & forgive quickly... Take chances & give your everything... Life is too short to be anything but happy... You have to take the good with the bad... Love what you have... Always remember what you had... Forgive & forget...and always remember... that life goes on...

Relay for Life by Kip Wardell

My name is Kip Wardell and I supported Relay-4-Life! I was introduced to the Relay 4 Life through my co-worker Derin who previously had fought cancer. She painstakingly worked her butt off to get people in our office informed about it and committed to attend and support. When I got off work and pulled into the lot at UVU the sun had just gone down and the mosquitoes had just woken up:) jk I saw people young, middle aged, and even some old farts walking the track supporting the cause of cancer research. I made a few laps with my other coworker Chris Hill and by that time the sky was dark and night had set in and the luminary ceremony had begun. A man (who I cant remember his name) shared his story of being diagnosed with cancer on his mission and being sent home and struggling with the devastating effects of chemo. He fought through it and is now cancer free, however the part that touched me was when he shared how he later was asked to sing at a funeral of a friend(a young kid) who also had cancer that he met in the hospital. He said how hard it was to face the reality that he lived yet his younger friend died. Questions like: Why me and not him? or What the hell makes me so special or was it just plain old luck? came across his thought process. He said what he learned is that God has a plan for everyone and each plan is unique. He also said that the only way to stay sane through it all is to laugh a lot. Good advice and a good experience. So I guess the whole "laughing" pep talk must have rubbed off cause Chris and I went shirtless and glowsticked a couple smiley faces on our rippling, perfectly sculpted upper bodies:) and ran around having fun and making asses out of ourselves. I headed out about midnight and was really happy I went to support relay for life and appreciate the invite to participate.

$750 / 2br - 1100ft² - Big 2 Bed Basment Apartment Includes Utilities (Santaquin)

We are looking for new renters for our basement apartment. Please send this info to anyone you know who might be looking for a place. It is open and ready to go as of now.

I have a large 2bd 1 bath 1100 sq ft basement apartment for rent. It is in Santaquin Ut. Pets are allowed for a separate deposit. Rent includes brand new Kitchen, storage room/pantry, washer/dryer hookups, internet, and all utilities. Rent is $750 and deposit is the same. Please email, call or text me if you are interested. 801-921-0166 -Derin

Description:
Full Basement apartment in Santaquin Utah, Available now. Asking $750.00 per month which includes utilities.
Includes:
2 Bedrooms
Kitchen
Living / Dining area
Large Bathroom with W&D hookups
Large Storage room
Private Entrance
Pets will be considered for a non-refundable deposit
Call Derin at 801-921-0166

Kitchen

Master bedroom it is BIG

Large storage room

Living room

One side of the large bathroom it is twice this size

The last month(ish) in pictures

At the end of July my supervisor rewarded our team for hitting our metric goals! We voted and decided mini golf sounded fun. Aside from the ridiculous heat and Whitley locking her keys in her car.... we all had a good time. I even got 2 hole in ones. Well I cheated on 1 of them but the second one was TOTALLY LEGITIMATE!!! Here are a few pictures of my very awesome bosses and co-workers. I took all the pictures so I am not in any of them.

Above Charles is lining to make his amazing shot. Deven is on deck.
Below is the " boss of all bosses" in blue, Jeff. Deven is our 2nd in command supervisor giving us the thumbs up!!

I think this is one of the hole in ones Deven got!! He was sure excited about something!

Above is our dynamic duo bosses Jeff on the left and Deven on the right. Charles is in the background putting.
Below is Matt on the left and Kay on the right.

Below is the one and only Whitley or as I call her Whittles. Don't be fooled mini golf is a serious business to her.

Here are a few pictures for the Relay for Life 2011. I participated in the survivors ceremonies and then got very sick and had to go home. My awesome friend Chris Hill took these for me. I will try to do a whole post about the relay. I am waiting for everyone on my "Derin's Angels" team to send me a writing about their experience so I can post those too. I am in a bright pink shirt and dark shorts. It was way too hot to put my survivor shirt on.

On July 2nd Rocky ran away when he got scared from the fireworks. He was gone for 12 days and then we found him at the shelter. When we got him out I took him to get groomed and then his left eye started to get more goopy than normal. I took him to the vet and found out one of his sets of eye lashes (he has two on each eye) was growing directly into his eyeball. This gave him a cornea ulcer. SOOOOO GROSS!!!! The vet wanted to do emergency surgery to the tune of around $600-800. This surgery would have needed to be done every 6-8 weeks to prevent this from happening again. WOW I didn't know what to do. By the time I got home and Phil and I discussed it the ulcer had ruptured. The vet said it would happen and that it will kill his vision and the eyeball. He has not had vision in that eye for weeks now and has adapted very well. Long story short, my dog is now a 1 eyed dog. Poor baby. Here are a few pictures of what the eye looked like yesterday. His eye is slowly reducing in size and should be cleared out in a few weeks. I feel bad that I didn't get the eye fixed sooner but he is doing great with one eye and is not showing any signs of pain or discomfort.

I keep having the intention of blogging but life keeps happening. So enjoy this random post of pics and I will leave you with this quote: "The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover."
Joseph Addison

Also please send a prayer out for my dear friends Tim and Laura Harper. Today is a very hard day for them and they can use all the prayers we can say. Please remember them and all those who are struggling with anything. Live, laugh, love!!!! ~~~Derin~~~

Friendly Spotlight

Today I am thinking about my sweet friend Cammie. Cammie is actually my husband's cousin. I don't quite remember how we first started talking. She used to live in Hawaii. We began talking through facebook and eventually were at the point where we were talking on the phone pretty much everyday. We worked through quite a few heavy things in each of our lives. We were able to develop a deep connection and a lifelong relationship.
Cammie's main squeeze/ hubby is in the ARMY! He was whatever you call it, moved to a different post in NY! I finally got to meet her while they were moving from Hawaii to NY. I think it had been well over a year since we met and began talking. Well wouldn't you know it, he got deployed to Afghanistan. PS Thank you for your service Daryl!
While he is deployed Cammie came home to Utah to live. I am super happy about it cause I get to spend more time with her. On July 9th she gave birth to a BEAUTIFUL baby girl. She is now the amazing mother to Kaleb who is going on 2 and baby Katelyn.
What a wonderful sister, friend, and family member she is to me. I absolutely believe we found each other and were placed together for a reason. I know that no matter how crappy and bad my day is, I can call her to vent, get advice, or or just visit. She has improved my life in ways I cannot describe. Thank you Cammie! I love you!