I'll be finishing up my first week in my new job tomorrow. I really like the job so far! I had a few nagging doubts when I took the job... nothing that I will share... but all of my doubts have been proven unfounded! I'm impressed with my co-workers and with the Dr. I'm working for. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from this job.

One of the best things about moving back to my home town... other than the fact that my mom is right next door and that my older children are all a whole lot closer!.... is old friends.

I was born in Keokuk, but moved away when I was about a year old. We moved back here when I was in 6th grade. The first friend I made back then was Peggy. Peggy is still my friend. We still hang out and do things together and laugh and laugh and laugh.

Then there is Mel. I traveled from Bode to Keokuk late last October for Mel's husband's funeral. I was the maid of honor in their wedding many, many years ago. Now, Mel and I are right back to where we were in high school. With a lotta years and scars and life in between, we're still the same silly girls that we were back then when we get together.

There is Anne, who I rarely see. She doesn't live here anymore. Her mom does, and gives me hugs whenever I run into her. I used to spend some fun nights at Anne's house in high school. I don't see Anne very often, but good heavens do we keep in touch! We have that same sense of humor... lots of laughter there!

There is hardly a place that I go that I don't see someone that I know or knew. It's nice to have people who knew me "way back when". There is a history there, here, that just doesn't exsist elsewhere. I didn't really ever appreciate that before. I have a bit of a history in Creston, where my earliest memories are and where I still have contact with old friends, too. But, I couldn't move back to Creston and have the history, the sense of home, the friends, the family, the peace, that I have here. (Are you tired yet of me telling you how happy I am about being back here?)

Got my official invite to my 30th class reunion today. I'm stoked. I didn't make the 25th. It was the beginning of my cancer journey. Now, 5 years later, I get to go to the reunion..... Cancer free and home again.

Life is good.