we hate cancer

5 years ago Kevin walked into our home that was in the midst of witching hour and told me within seconds that he was just diagnosed with melanoma.

Time stood still for us as we wept and clung to each other in the entryway of our home. Meanwhile 5 year old Luke, 2 year old Charlie, and 6 month old Jack continued playing in blissful ignorance of the news that he just dropped.

I didn't know much about it. But, I knew it was the skin cancer you really didn't want to have.

It  turns out that the so very tiny freckle that kept on bleeding, was a deep cancerous tumor.

Kevin let it go for awhile. He thought it was just a freckle that kept getting scratched when he was getting dressed, surfing, etc.

The initial biopsy came back negative, but his dermatologist had a nagging suspicion and took a bigger sample to biopsy which came back positive.

As the oncologist said best, "If she didn't do that, you'd be a dead man."

Two invasive surgeries later and finding out that the cancer had spread to a lymph node, Kevin started a year of grueling treatment.

This spiraled us onto a new life path. Although he has been cancer free for 5 years, the long term prognosis is that his cancer can come back at anytime, anywhere. We have moved forward, but cancer is a lurker.

Melanoma is a beast. If you don't catch it early, it is hard to treat and the recurrence rate is high.

So it is with our story that I encourage you to be sun safe. Don't post photos of your sunburn on Facebook. Be preventative all year long. Wear your sunscreen. Use an umbrella at the pool, beach, or lake. Wear a hat and protective clothing. Get your skin checked.

Please.

Not only will you hopefully live longer, but you'll look cuter too!

Much love,
Katie

just in time for july 4th

A few days ago, my father-in-law generously shared a large bag of peaches with us.

While we adore peaches, we don't love them enough to consume multiple peaches per day in order to keep them from ending up as mushy moldy fruit.

I have to admit that cooking is chore for me. If it was not for the direct threat of my children and husband starving to death, I'd elect to remove dinner as a meal option and eat a bowl of cereal each night.

However, baking is an entirely different story, friends. Don't tell anyone that I sliced the peaches without taking the skin off first, which meant that I had to take the skin off the hard way.

Slice.

By.

Slice.

Behold, peach pie.

I didn't quite have enough enough crust to fully connect the bottom and top crust so the juice bubbled through, but trust me, if it happens to you, it won't change the fact that this pie will whisper your name and tell you that it is okay to have a 2nd piece. Not that I know anything about that.

Follow this simple recipe and you will be on your way to pure deliciousness.

I have one confession, though. I cheated this time and use a box recipe for the crust. Here's a great crust recipe that I make when I bake apple pie. It is from my father-in-law. He's a professional chef so he knows his pie crust.

Enjoy your 4th of July!

Much love,
Katie