"I Did It!" and other wrap up stories from the last 31 days

Woo hoo!  I did it...again!  I posted a blog here for the past 31 days straight as part of WordCount's 2012 Blogathon.  This is actually the second year I've accomplished this feat (and trust me, it has especially been a feat this year).

I first threw myself into the 2011 Blogathon a few days prior to the start of last year's Blogathon I had no blog, had no idea what I would blog about, but I was willing and able to learn.  And "learning" was an understatement from my experience in 2011.

In 2012, my busy life resulted in my lack of notice that the 2012 Blogathon was approaching.  When I received Michelle Rafter's email reminder of  the upcoming Blogathon the week before the beginning of this year's blog, I thought for a moment that I should forgo this year's Blogathon because I knew the month of May was going to be a bit busy.

I was in the middle of remodeling both upstairs bathrooms.  I had not hired a contractor to oversee the project.  I was coordinating the work of the old shower removal and prep work for new shower, tile company, shower glass installation company, electrician and drywall repair.  Then I would be cutting, painting and installing the new baseboard in each bathroom as well as painting the walls, installing new faucets and repainting the cabinets.

That was just one project on the May calendar.  I also had already planned to participate in the annual neighborhood garage sale the day after we moved our daughter back home from college.  Those two projects by themselves take an enormous amount of time and energy, but I had planned to do them back-to-back.

As if that weren't enough to deal with in May, we already had on the calendar a mid-month trip to Florida to seek and purchase a home for retirement.

So the thought of adding another daily responsibility to my already busy May plus my daily responsibilities of my part-time job writing for the local newspaper was...well...daunting.  But turning down the challenge isn't in my inner-being.  The thought to say, "I'm out this year," lasted about a whole 30 seconds and with a punch of the enter button on my keyboard, I was "in."

Now 31 days later, I'm quite proud that I actually completed the 2012 Blogathon.  There were a couple of days I wondered if I should just throw in the towel because I had so many other distractions, but I'm glad I didn't.  I admittedly haven't learned as much this year as last but that's only because I had no extra time to focus on learning.  Any energy I had available went into coming up with the blog topic and writing. But I feel that participating in this year's Blogathon reinforces something that I already knew deep down, but sometimes need reminding - and that is that I really can do "anything" that I put my mind to.  (Mom, you were right about that!)

Before I wrap up the 2012 Blogathon, I wanted to quickly update you on a few items I've blogged about here during the month.

1 - Sugar, our 12 year old Shih-Tzu, is home after a three-day hospitalization, and she is doing well!  Sugar was diagnosed with pancreatitis which I've determined generally means that she's getting older and I need to be more watchful of her diet. Those were a few scary days for my family though!

She needs a bath and a hair combing but she's well on her way to her old self!

2 - There's now light at the end of the bathroom remodeling projects - literally.  The master bath's new lighting has been installed and the drywall repaired.  The shower is now "in" which means all that's left to do  is painting the walls, painting the cabinet, installing new sink faucets and cut, paint and install baseboards.  The hall bath just needs its cabinet painted and the baseboards installed (they are already cut and painted).  We're getting close to the end.

3 - An Olivia Update.  I'll let eight year old Olivia's words fill you in on where she's at in her now 15 month battle against Ewing's Carcinoma which I blogged about last year and again this year.  Olivia wrote the following on her CaringBridge site on Memorial Day!

IT'S OVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Written May 28, 2012 7:00pm

HEY GUYS IT'S OLIVIA GREAT NEWS ALL OF THE CANCER IS GONE AND TUES. IS THE LAST FULL WORK DAY OF SCHOOL THEN IT'S SUMMER!!!!!!! AND WED. IS FUN DEPOT THE END OF THE YEAR FIELD TRIP OK GUYS HAVE TO GO TO BED NOW
BYE LOVE OLIVIA

I can't think of a better way to put an exclamation point ending to this year's Blogathon!