September - Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

This month is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Many of you may not have known that. I never knew until my mom had ovarian cancer. 

I had so many dreams and plans of making people more aware of this silent killer such as at one of the football games..... doing teal pom poms for the cheerleaders, or teal socks for the football players.... like they do for Breast Cancer Awareness. I know Breast Cancer is just as important as Ovarian Cancer as is every kind of Cancer, but for a while I was very bitter about it because I felt like it was favored more than other cancers. I'm not sure why I quit trying.... I just did. 

Mom hurt for a long time and never knew what the problem was. She continued to go to the doctor. They ran several tests, did ultrasounds, X-rays, scans, found nothing. She continuously told them SOMETHING WAS WRONG. She was very bloated, stomach pain, extremely fatigued, constipation, and very nauseous. It took her going into the doctors office and telling them that she thought she had colon cancer for them to do the proper testing that actually found her ovarian cancer. 

This was my very first blog post about her cancer if you would like to read it: https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-moms-journey-ovarian-cancer.html

The picture below was from our last vacation together. We went to the mountains and had a wonderful time. I remember how badly her stomach was hurting that entire trip and she had no idea at the time that she had cancer. This was in November 2013. She found out February 2014. 

 

There needs to be some type of exam that can be done at a woman's yearly check up that can test for ovarian cancer that is covered under your insurance. There is a blood test that is called a CA125 that you can pay to have done, but it is SEVERAL hundred dollars. 

Here is a post I did that talks about what your CA125 numbers should be: https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-return-of-evil-cancer.html

On January 13, 2016 we were told she had about 4 months to live. She passed away May 4, 2016.  This is the blog post that I wrote talking about that doctor appointment experience : https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2016/02/mom-update-hard-post-to-write.html

I just mostly want to make every woman out there aware that if you are having any of these symptoms to please not take it lightly. Even if you think it sounds silly and if you don't think it is anything serious, at least go talk to your doctor. Keep going like my Mom did. She eventually got to the bottom of it. Of course we all wish they would have caught it sooner, but God knew this was His plan all along as heart breaking as it is for all of us.  

The post where I wrote about her passing..... 

https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-sweet-loving-memory-of-my-mom-janet.html

This post talks about a lot of the hard things that Tyler and I had to do that people didn't realize. Our mom was not married so we had to make the decisions after her passing and I truly cannot express how difficult that was......  https://thecolquett5.blogspot.com/2016/05/decisions-that-most-dont-realize-we-had.html

A SCALLOPING Good Time

Three years ago my aunt and uncle invited us to go scalloping with them during Labor Day weekend..... we had A BLAST and have been hooked ever since and it has become a fun tradition. 

This year my cousin and his wife bought a boat and they came too with their precious girls. We truly had such a great time. We laughed so much we cried, we sang..... LOUDLY😂, we reminisced, and made a ton of memories. 

We rented the cutest house in Cape San Blas. I thought I would share some pictures of the house...

We stayed Friday - Monday. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday scalloping. The weather was absolutely AMAZING. 

There is just something about being out in the water.... the boat ride... and then snorkeling..... it takes you to a whole new level of relaxation. You seem to forget about everything that is happening "in the real world". 

I know a lot of people have never been scalloping so it can seem intimidating at first. At least it was for me my first year. I could not stand being in the grass.... I didn't like walking in the grass nor swimming in the grass, but I tried not to complain.  All I could think about was looking up and a shark staring me straight in the face😂. BUT I always loved it because of all of the sea life you get to see. We have seen things that we don't get to see when we go to the beach for the day.... like star fish, sea horses, conch shells, horse shoe crabs, sand sharks, blow fish, etc. This year we even found sunken ship parts scattered.... there was a huge anchor, then a little bit away from it was some of the old thick rope looped out of the water. Hank tried pulling on it, but it wasn't budging. Then we found like a big cage type thing that goes on ships, and several other parts. It was very cool. 

I have to say this year was the first year I wasn't freaked out about the grass. The water is always so crystal clear and you can see straight through the grass so it really is not scary. PLUS scallops aren't only in the grass.... there are LOTS of sand spots that they like to be in too.

See how clear it is..... 

You really feel like you found a block of gold when you see one...... we always race to see who can find the first one..... this year IT WAS ME😁🙌🏼🙌🏼......

I do have a story that I want to share. It is political, but it wasn't meant to be. There were Trump flags EVERYWHERE you looked. Several boats had them..... our house was not on the water, but we went to the house that was right across the road from it to see if we could borrow their pier.... not to park the boat at, just for Kyle, Mary Kirk, and Walker to walk on to run real quick to the house to grab some things and come right back. 

He walked to the pier to ask the people there if he could walk on it really quick. Long story short, they said some rude things and ultimately said no because of the Trump flag on the boat. It completely shook us. We weren't asking them to vote for him, weren't talking politics, etc. and they were completely rude because of a flag. Different beliefs is just part of life. Being kind has nothing to do with your belief.  Kindness is kindness no matter who you are, what you believe, what color you are, or what kind of flag you have on your boat. Of course there are a lot of other details that I won't go into on here, but I still can't believe the rudeness of some people. I have always said it is so much harder to be mean than it is to be nice. 

SO there was another pier and people on it a couple down from this one.... they actually had a Trump flag flying... so we went to ask them. Turns out they were from Andalusia which is the next town over and were SUPER nice. We knew people that knew them, one of them owns the Ford dealership in Andalusia and they had absolutely no problem with us walking across their pier. By this time it had gotten later, so Aunt Mandy & I were taking most of the kids in to go ahead and get showers while the others loaded the boats.  When I tell you they were nice, I mean so nice that one of the ladies insisted on giving us a ride to the house so that we didn't have to walk. Kindness is so easy!!!! What happened to treating other people the way you want to be treated? We will forever be grateful for them. 

Ok that first picture is the boat and in the background where you see the pontoon boat is where the people would not let us walk on the pier. The second picture is Aunt Mandy, Heidi, and you can't see Karter but he is up ahead walking to the peoples pier that were from Andalusia.

ON the way from the boats to their pier, I held on to Sophie and Amelia..... or more like I held on to Amelia and Sophie held on to me😂😂.  Amelia bless her... she walked through that grass like a champ (by the way we all wear water shoes)..... Sophie on the other hand held on to my leg and I had to drag her the whole time😂😂... I said I felt like I had a kid hanging on to my ankle and was trying to drag them across the floor. 

This was the first night...... I don't even remember what they were all doing.... 

The second day was just as much fun..... 

 

This next picture will forever be one of my favorites...... Uncle Sonny had tied a knot in his shorts and could NOT get it undone.... it took Aunt Mandy, Levi, and Kyle to get it out.....  the picture just shows true laughter and happiness to me...... 

Sophie and Mamie enjoying a breakfast of champs (poptarts😂) on the deck..... 

On the second day Karter did get stung by a jellyfish. I wasn't close to him, but Sophie yelled at me to go to Karter because he got stung by something. By the time I got there, Uncle Sonny had caught the jellyfish in a net. Nothing showed up at first, then within a few minutes it looked like this...... 

The only thing I could think of was somebody needs to pee on it..... he didn't love that idea and was grossed out by it, but it was definitely worth a shot. And GO figure out of all these people HE was the only one that had to pee😂.... so he peed in a bottle and I poured it on his arm. Then Uncle Sonny said he could pee a little so he peed in the bottle and I poured it on there too...... within like 15-20 minutes the sting was mostly gone and the spots had gone away.

I know I haven't kept up with blogging so this is the first post about our scalloping trips, but 2years ago Kyle actually got stung by a sting ray. All I could think of was Steve Irwin's sting ray outcome.  Thankfully Kyle got stung on his leg, but he did not get any relief until we got back to the cottage we rented and put scolding hot water on it. The jellyfish thankfully was much easier to handle.

At the end of the second day we ran into our beloved friends, The Bradshaws. Evan is a good friend to Karter & Sophie so they loved bumping into him.

Amelia and Sophie admiring their treasures...... 

Karter & Hank making a big bowl of guacamole..... 

Sunday night the guys grilled burgers and hotdogs and we played cards and had a great time hanging out. 

On leaving day every year we eat lunch at Krazy Fish in Port St Joe.... 

Once we got home and unpacked we headed to The Messers to clean the scallops.... this is a process the kids really enjoy doing.... even Heidi....

Here is a video of Sophie and Karter showing us how to clean them.... 

Here is the horseshoe crab shell that Heidi found..... 

If you ever get the opportunity to go scalloping, I HIGHLY recommend it. The entire process is mind blowing. It makes you realize why fresh scallops cost so much😁.... they are hard to find.