Fall is Here!

Officially, Fall is here!  Not just by the calendar alone, but by the drop in the temperature, the smell in the air and the colors of the leaves are changing.  I LOVE fall an here's why...

 

• the leaves are so pretty this time of year
• Pumpkin Spice Lattes are available at Starbucks, for a special treat
• I love to wear boots
• sweaters
• sleeping with the window open at night with a thick duvet on top ...cozy!
• my favorite t.v show  begin again (can't wait for Grey's Anatomy tonight!)

• I love wearing copper jewelry this time of year, the colors are so earthy and organic

Enjoy this beautiful day! Why do you love Fall?
Marla

Oprah's Farwell Season...

How many of you had the chance to catch the premier show of Oprah's Farewell Season?  I don't know about you, but I have been watching it as long as I can remember and yet, it hardly feels like it has been 25 years!

This is What I've Learned from Oprah...

1. Pay it forward and it always comes back to you.
2. Celebrities struggle with their weight too.
3. Never wear panty hose under a bikini (Kirstie Alley)
4. Always keep on top of your health.
5. Oprah has the best taste in her "Favorite Things" shows
6. The Dept Diet is like any other for me, I couldn't stay on it either!
7. We share the same birthday, January 29th
8. I now know what an "A Ha Moment" is.
9. Anything you set your mind to, you can achieve.
10. Every women should not live without Spanx!

What did you learn from Oprah?

Where to Begin...

Hello Blog World!  As you can probably tell, I am new to this so I am going to start by sharing a few interesting things about me.  I really have lived an incredible life thus far and by all accounts, I should have been a cat from the lives I have used up!  Some may consider me a medical miracle...

I was born with a congenital heart defect and at age 7 had open heart surgery to repair my Aortic Valve.  Two weeks spent in Toronto, Canada was almost a vacation for a small town girl from Northern Manitoba.  After a successful surgery and recovery period, my highlight was and still is to this day was to meet Lanny McDonald and Daryl Sitler who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. After the surgery, I was able to regain a normal childhood and haven't had any problems since!

My daughter Sidney, which I am sure you will hear more about in future blogs, was born on an air ambulance.  She was a footling breech and 6 weeks preterm and wasn't waiting for a major medical facility to be anywhere in sight before she made her Grand entrance! We had to make an emergency landing in The Pas, MB because she was born 15 minutes after take off...on a stormy September morning.  All worked out well, mainly because of wonderful medical staff and small town urgency.

I think I had used up a couple of lives by now but was once again challenged.  I really found out what I was "made of" when I was diagnosed with Cancer 3 years ago.  Not exactly what  a 35 year old women expects to hear, "We removed the tumor and it IS CANCER".  blah, blah, blah, blah...I didn't hear anything after that.  I was diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma, a childhood cancer that was aggressive and left untreated, would have killed me in less than 6 months.  I underwent almost 5 months of chemotherapy and lived in a isolated 10x10 hospital room.  I can still smell the cleaning solutions they used,  hear the footsteps of the nurses in the hallways and remember the feeling of complete freedom as my husband wheeled me out of the hospital as fast he could, when I got the okay to return home.

Three years later, I am healthy and livin' life!  I have reason to love the life I have and look forward to sharing more with you in my future blogs.  I hope you stick around and follow me...I promise I won't bore you!

Marla