Post Hike + up next

What a day Saturday was!!!!!
Troy and I and the kids met with a crew of our friends and all our kids to hike Snake Mountain. And before even beginning, my friends Jodi and Beth said, "you know, we should do this more often!" It was soooo great to just clear calendars and enjoy! Talk and share and watch our kids interact as friends together.
Out there this weekend were friends from childhood, high school, college, work friends, neighbor friends, friends from church, our kids teachers and coaches, former students and their families of both Troy's and mine ......
as local as Bristol to as far as Texas, Washington, and Berth, Australia. Folks doing single hikes to multiple hikes to whole weekend hikes .... running marathons to hockey tournaments, crew racing to horseback riding....
That's been one truly delightful thing for me to watch in this Peak for Pam .... friends and family of ours connecting together, and others are reconnecting from lost time. I've said it over and over, and this experience with cancer has confirmed it again and again .... we ALL need each other. We really are each a piece in a great big puzzle, and connected, we become something complete.

I share with you two comments from friends ....
"thanks for teaching us about life, perspective and priorities"- Beth Hahr

"So THANK YOU for that fine day, in the middle of the week, to stop the noise and simply move my feet and smile, no worries ...no stress. Every day should be so fine."
- Bridget Nardiello Smith

But, again...thank you all! This perspective has come from YOU all being there each and every day. Cancer sucks! Cancer is hard! But I have cancer ... it does NOT have me!

'The greatest secret to living a happy and fulfilled life is realizing that everything is created in our minds before it manifests itself in the outer world. We must believe before we can see.'
- Willa Cather (sent to me from Kristen Kelly)
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Upcoming....
Saturday, October 20th - Pam Jam skatefest at Burton snowboards
The Mannings, Booths, and Katherine Riley (and others...) have truly made a full time job in their already crazy busy worlds to pull off this HUGE event!!! Come check it out!!

Saturday, October 27th - Peak for Pam Challenge (see www.pamparadee.net)
5 Peaks, 10 hours, 1 Goal! If you are participating or plan to, wow! you rock! ... be sure to email either of my sisters; Jen - j.smith@mtghs.com or Becky - beckwe@charter.net , or Katherine Riley - katherine@cvuhs.org

Keep checking in ... love to all!
Pam

Words of Inspiration......or babble

Hello all!
Yesterday was my second dose of chemo, and all went just fine. In the next week is when my counts really drop, so lots of careful hand washing and no kissy kissy. My pal Amy went with me and to no surprise, time passed quickly with lots of great chit chat and knitting. Great company!

My day post chemo brings relaxing and often reflecting. Peaks for Pam kicks off this weekend. You have all inspired me to a degree greater than you can imagine and 100 times more than I could ever express. So with that, are hopefully some words of inspiration from me in these moments of reflecting. Take it for what ever you'd like.

As you embark this weekend (or next or the next or already have), the weather is predicted to be not in it's most shining moments, at least here in the north country. Don't let it change your plans or pass the opportunity to experience something truely great. Many times, things don't always go as planned or have perfect temps and sunny skies. Trust me, I know. But remember....

Happiness IS what you make it and take pleasure in the littlest and often unexpected moments!

* Enjoy being with your family and/or friends
* Notice the trees, wet stained black trunks and limbs, with their contrasting changing colors
* Or the rain dropping off leaves
* Notice the dew on the spider webs
* Take pleasure in the independence of your stubborn, slow, "me do it!" toddler determined to hike and no longer be in the backpack
* Giggle at the pain of singing 100 bottles of beer on the wall (or juice for those family hikes) all the way down to the last bottle ..... or the forgotten and made up words to "The other day, I saw a bear, a great big bear, oh way up there..."
* Appreciate the luck in being the leader of the hike the day after having that black bean burrito for dinner, .... and forgive and forget if you're behind.

No matter the height, distance, or activity .... be proud of those aches, pains, and extra puffing instead of being frustated or apoligetic. Remember, how lucky ..... you ARE out there!!!!

Take a hot shower, toast to the beauty your day brought you, and believe ....
Life IS Good!!

Love to all - Pam

Chemo's begun

Hello all!
So far so good with Friday's chemo. Overall, a little more tired than usual, but, knock on wood, with the balance of lots of meds....no nausea and minimal aches - I went to movie night at my friend Wiz's, minus the movie due to too many great laughs and chit chat. I even stayed up to almost finish watching the sox win, when I got home. Sat. mostly layed low with the rain. Same on Sunday, till we went to our friend's the Clarks with the Oxfords for homemade pizza and Red Sox. I think I've learned with experience (unfortunately), to pace myself a bit. And that pays off. Sleep in, lay low, get to bed not too late ... then I don't feel that bad. So let's hope that holds true for this week's chemo on Thursday. And with that .....
we are very excited to be joining a bunch of my pals from Robinson and their families on a hike up Snake Mountain on Saturday. It definately will be a push for me after chemo, but....only a pre-curser to the push ahead. One step at a time toward the goal.
On a final note, every night, the last thing I do before heading off to bed is to check the "who's hiking?" list. It is absolutely thrilling to me to see all of you out there. It fills me with so much hope, faith, and strength! And Becky .... speaking to you on Sunday at mile 22 of gritting it out during the Portland marathon .... you fueled me to dig in for this leg of the race too.
Love to all! Pam

Upcoming Event

Hello everyone!
My chemo did not actually start yesterday (Tues.) due to the biopsy report not being back yet. We knew it would be pushing it, but were trying for it. And that's got to definately be in before any next steps begin. So, I start Friday 10/5, then Thurs. 10/11, have a week off (cycle 1) and then repeat with cycle 2.

Anyways .... on to more important things. I send this along via the BLOG because I know somewhere, somehow, even with the best intentions, we'll forget someone by email. Many dear friends got together and created this event keeping in mind who we are - with visualizing and driving forward, persistantly, with positive energy. Peak for Pam brings tears to my eyes. I keep visualizing the power of all climbing up and up and up and throwing those arms in the air when you summit! Just as I will too!!!!
Again ..... I gain my strength from you all - thank you, one thousand times over
Lots of love- Pam

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Please join the Paradee family's friends, neighbors, co-workers, and loved ones near and far as we Hike a Peak and Make a Pledge for the Paradees. As Pam faces the next mountain in her brave fight against cancer, you can show your support and send positive, healing energy to help her up and over the summit.

Visit www.PamParadee.net for details about how you can participate in this event and give support to Pam, Troy, and their family.

Please forward this message to all who would want to be part of this effort. Thank you!

Questions? Contact:

Elizabeth Maher wizmaher@hotmail.com 802-453-6119

Sheila McGrory-Klyza smcgroryklyza@gmavt.net 802-453-5377

Family Fun!

Pam starts chemo again tomorrow and will begin the cycle of not feeling well again. This has caused quite a bit of anxiety for her because she has been feeling so well all summer! Since we know what to expect and that it means she will be spending quite a bit of time in bed and resting before actually going into the hospital for the big procedure, we decided to do the proper thing and take our kids on a little family adventure!
We started Sunday quite normally with waffles, bacon and cartoons. Then the kids played with legos and playmobile for a while. We got them ready for Church and loaded the car. They wondered why we were taking the car to church since we always walk. We drove right by church and kept going out of town, they asked what we were doing. We said "we thought we would go on a little family adventure today and maybe not come back until tomorrow". They were all immediately concerned about missing school (obviously the children of 2 teachers). We kept driving.
As we headed out toward the lake, Griffin really did get a bit upset, so we decided to spill the beans. We told them we had secretly packed bags of clothing and that we were going to hotel for the night. They were pretty psyched about that. We then asked what they thought about a hotel with an indoor water park.....many screams and yells later they said that they were OK with missing school for a day.
So off we went to The Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Water Park in Lake George NY. It was a blast! I highly recommend it for cabin fever this winter, worth the $$!!! They have three 3 story water slides, a fun water play area, a lazy tubing river that circles the whole thing, and an indoor wave that you can body surf on! Needless to say this was a hit with the entire Paradee family. I think the boys climbed about 8,000 steps in 24 hours doing run after run on the water slides. We have some good footage of Sam, Tuck, Pam and I doing some body surfing (including Pam going backwards unintentionally).
We had to take a break after a while to get the water out of our ears so we drove to Lake George for dinner. They happened to be having a Blues Fest on the Waterfront so we grabbed some tacos and enjoyed the music and dinner outside on a beautiful fall evening at the lake. Then it was back to the water park until they closed it down at 9pm. We retired the room and all zonked on the beds and watched Shrek.
More water park in the morning until we finally dragged the boys out to head back to reality and Bristol. It was great fun and we had many laughs and hugs. This has a capped a week for Pam in which she also got her road bike out and went for a nice 45 min. ride with Dan. She was beaming when she got home from that, feeling like her old self.
That is why she is so anxious about tomorrow. Pam is really pretty scared about heading back into chemo and the transplant. It has really taken a toll on her body already, and the continued abuse is hard to fathom. The keeping up of the chin is getting harder and harder to do. She is truly the strongest person I know, and watching her out there today on the body board riding the "fake" wave really made me think about how unfair and cruel cancer is. A beautiful, young mother of three should not have to go through this.
Well regardless of what we want, this is what we get. Chemo starts tomorrow (Tues.) and we will take it one day at a time. Everyone just pray for the results!!!