My Mom

My Mom...Patricia Penrod Jensen was born the only daughter to my grandparents Cloyd and Rhea Penrod. She's the baby, by 16 years to two older brothers. She married my dad, an Elvisly hunk army guy Mike about a million years ago, had three daughters (i'm the middle). She joined the National Guard when I was like 8 or so, and my favorite t-shirt in my closet was "My Mom Wears Combat Boots"! She was a stay at home mom for the most part through our lives even when she divorced my Dad and married my Step Dad and we moved to Idaho and lived in a single wide trailer on a pig farm and had such a little amount of money that we had to drink milk straight from the cow, and that was for sunday dinners...I SAY HAD TO...'cause honestly I would have rather had powdered milk and that was the other 6 days of the week. SICK TO BOTH! My mom and step dad moved to California to start a new life for us, leaving us kids and all their belongings in Utah with my Grandma and they headed out in their van and lived in truck stops and koa camps while they looked for a new life for us in Northern California. After many years of struggling and many moves through out California and Texas they have settled in Sacramento California. They were able to buy a home about 9ish years ago and seem to be settled until the west coast of the US falls into the ocean up to the Tetons, Jackson Hole, and Yellowstone so my mom can have the ocean view on one side and the Tetons on her other side. She also really loves Hawaii and we are taking the opportunity as a family to go for her and my Step Dad's 25th wedding anniversary this June. :)

I can't tell you how many years she's battled, I regret to say that I was semi estranged from my family for a few years in my life during my own struggles. But I do know that when March is over, she will have battled breast cancer 4 times. AND SURVIVED! She is in the process of radiation on metastasized breast cancer that has manifested itself in her C5 vertebrae bone marrow. Statistics (which I am really not cool with, I might add) say that only 20% of metastasized breast cancer victims survive, and this will be her second battle. She's battled through 2 types of breast cancer, a double mastectomy, major depression (due to a pain drug reaction with her last battle), radiation x4, chemotherapy x2 and that is just the cancer battle...I honesty consider my mom MY HERO! She's fought, laughed, cried, and best of all Survived!
She said to her eldest brother last week when she was here visiting..."it's a fight I may have to keep fighting, but I am not going to let it beat me"!

Every May she walks in the Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk on Mother's Day in Sacramento. I have been able to go twice, but need to take the opportunity to go every year with her to show her how proud I am of her!

I just wanted to publicly tell her that I love her and am thinking of her each morning at 9:00am when she is getting her radiation treatments, knowing it's one day closer to survival x 4.

Let me leave you with a couple of photos that make me smile. and a video if I can get it attached...When she came to visit me last week, we had some tears, a lot of laughs and a ton of fun playing the Wii! It'll be a memory I will keep with me forever! :)

Turn it up so you can hear us laugh.
Mom with her favorite Disney character Tigger.Mom with her favorite grand daughter Presley .
Mom laughing while playing Guitar Hero and getting boo'd off the stage for her second time. Patrice came down and got mad at us for laughing so loud while she was trying to get Tristan to sleep. HA HA HA



TTFN