I always knew that my friends and family were awesome people, but I had no idea just how awesome until The Cancer. Here is a list of just SOME of the awesome things that people have done to support my family lately:

1. My east coast friends and some of The Hubs’ former coworkers collected money to pay for a housekeeping service to come and clean our house every few weeks. They raised enough to pay for the service through the end of the year.

2. Some mom friends I met online, most of whom I have never met in person, made me a quilt. They each picked a different fabric (including one that’s got strips of bacon, and another with martini glasses) and then one of them sewed it together. It’s gorgeous.

3. A couple of my friends set up a website where people can sign up to bring us dinner or pick up the kids from school if we have doctor appointments. We haven’t had to cook a weeknight dinner in weeks because we’ve had people bringing us food every night.

4. Several of the parents of The Boy’s friends have offered to take him for play dates, which makes him feel loved and special.

5. My college BFF flew out to visit and spent the entire time she was here cleaning our house and reorganizing the disaster area that is my desk in our home office.

6. My work colleagues donated hundreds of hours of leave for me, so I don’t have to take unpaid leave when I’m getting chemo and going to doctor appointments and just feeling too tired to come to work.

7. Our awesome daycare provider said “I’ll keep The Girl late anytime you need me to, for no charge.” This after she’d given us a bunch of prepared meals so we had food for lunches.

8. My big sister came up to stay with us a couple of weekends and spent the whole time doing our dishes and folding our laundry and taking care of our kids when I was a chemo zombie.

9. People who follow this blog have been sending me messages of support and offering to send meals and CDs and anything I need. One of them who I have become friends with sent me a really awesome pillow thingy that smells like Christmas and you can warm it in the microwave.

10. I’ve gotten SO MANY beautiful scarves and hats, some of them hand knit, from friends all over the country, and even a couple that came from Turkey that I can’t figure out who sent them to me. (I don’t know anyone in Turkey…but perhaps someone I know knows someone in Turkey?)

11. A bunch of people who don’t live close have sent gift cards to help us pay for groceries or take-out.

12. One of my coworkers gave me a bottle of organic locally made vodka. I can’t wait to be feeling well enough to drink it.

13. I can’t tell you how many people have baked us cookies.

14. A blogger friend found a pair of pink high-heeled shoes at her local thrift/vintage store and wrote “FUCK CANCER” across the front of them and mailed them to me.

15. SO MANY KIND WORDS. Just, so much support and love coming my way, in emails and Facebook messages and cards, and so many hugs. Even people at work, where we don’t hug that much, are hugging me these days. (But not in a creepy way.)

There’s more, but I’m getting all verklempt thinking about it. A few people have said that it’s a testament to what a great person I am that so many people love me and want to support me. And, I am pretty awesome…but I also think it’s that I’ve surrounded myself with awesome people. And that seems to be the key to getting through a bad time–to have awesome people around you. If you don’t have awesome people around you, dude, now’s the time to find some, because you never know when you’re going to have a crisis and need a pair of pink high heeled shoes and a quilt and some dinner and a housekeeping service and OMG are people really doing all this for us? And I’m in shock for a minute, until I remember how awesome the people are that I’ve got in my life.