Oh how do I keep up?

It's been such a long time.......how does one keep up?  Well, this is the one place that gets left in the dust when it's busy.  Hmmm, when isn't it busy?  The last time I posted was Dec.  Wow, how time flies.  Life has been good for us.  We had a scare a while back where at our usual 6 month diabetes research with Julianne, she was diagnosed with Diabetes.  What?  Really?  No, not really, she ate a graham cracker before the testing started.  Thank God for graham crackers!  Joe's parents had a quick but great visit with us after their trip to Mexico in January.  It's always so great to have them here with us.  Funny thing though, their "room" at our house is currently under construction getting turned into my craft room.  Hello couch for Jim/Denise. :)  Anyway, while here, we jammed in some good days.  We got to see the Mars movie at the Imax, go to the Science Center (which by the way is cheaper for us to buy a membership than to purchase tickets for the five of us to get in to).  The Mars movie was great.  The kids were on the edge of their seats.  Then, in a flash, the Carrolls were gone and we were back into the crazy groove we live in.  Unfortunately, my iron levels that I've battled keeping in the "normal" range (nothing is normal for us!) plummeted and a nasty cyst growing on my ovary caused me some issues.........so, off to the dr. and into surgery.  Two weeks later, I'm feeling GREAT.  I can't believe how easy the recovery went.  I was up and moving right away.  I guess when you've had your tummy sliced open once, twice and now three times, it just gets used to it.  Any how, the two weeks home were good with the kids.  To celebrate, I picked up the kids and we went out to lunch today at their favorite restaurant, the Beach Cafe.  Fun times!  Good to see them all smiling and laughing with each other.....that part of life has been a bit (to say the least), challenging lately with NOBODY MYOBing (minding their own business).  Joe and I continue to refine our refereeing skills.  We also had the sad experience of telling our kids that our little guinea pig Brownie died.  Sadly, she suffocated in a play tube.  So sad.  We have now started our pet cemetary in our back year.  As Jackson said, R.I.P. Brownie.  Joe and Jules headed out and rescued Violet from the Seattle Animal Shelter.  She fit right in and is a delight to have around.  She definitely squeels a lot more than Fluffy.  We love our pets and are lucky to have her join us!  A quiet night tonight, Joe is off to a Silvertips Hockey game with Jackson (thanks Denise & Jim for the bday gift to Joe) and the girls and I are having a quiet WII SuperMario night at home.  Who says we can't melt our brains as much as the boys.  Actually, we are GOOD!!! 

I spoke to Kristi this week, Joe's sister in Fairbanks.  She is shaving her head for the Saint Baldricks's http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/369928 .  Basically, it is a fundraiser for research for children's cancer.  It's not often that I think about children's cancer with all of our work with Julianne and Diabetes research, Anna and Diabetes, learning about Epilepsy for Tristan (for which I am still a novice though now that I'm receiving newsletters and had a bit of time over the past two weeks learned more and more from the follow website http://www.epilepsynw.org/ ).  However, I took time to read some of the stories from Kristi's site and took a walk down memory lane........shortly after Kennedy passed and Jackson and the girls were born, I met a wonderful friend, Lisa Judd.  She too had twin boys just a bit older than Jackson.  She also had a little girl a few years older, Kelsey.  I'll never forget the call........Michelle, this is Lisa.  We are at Children's.  We took Kelsey to her regular dr. for a cold that wasn't getting better....tears.....heavy breathing.....she's been diagnosed with Leukemia.      The boys spent many days with us while she and her husband tried to help Kelsey.......  the next call, Michelle, I don't think she's going to make it.  How will I live without my 8 year old girl?  Why is this happening?   To make a long story short, Kelsey died a few days later.      Why does this happen?  Why should anyone, let alone a child have any disease?  It's just not right.  I am so proud of Kristi.  Shaving her head is a bold statement. 

As for me, this year, I won't be fundraising for Diabetes.  A year and a half ago, I made fast friends with another mom at a Brownie meeting with the girls.  I liked her right off the bat because she was real.  No crap, just a plain person who was going through a divorce at the time and looking for a job.  Meeting after meeting, we laughed and I looked forward to seeing her.  In September of this year, she told me she had breast cancer and over the past several months, I have seen her go through HELL.  Thankfully, a hell that she will likely live through.  I knew that breast cancer exised.  My dad's mom had breast cancer when I was in college and she went through chemo and is now good.  The learning for me is that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.....who knew?  Like everything else, probably everyone but me.  To learn more and to honor my friend Teresa, I have joined TEAM EIGHT and will be participating in the Susan G. Komen's walk for a cure.  You can check out my site to learn more about breast cancer http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2010/SeattleEvent2010?px=4474882&pg=personal&fr_id=1471   I have a lot of walking to do to build my stamina for 20 miles a day!  Here to getting my "hind end" in shape. That and the fun fundraisers......martini night, cooking class, yard sale, etc..

Hugs, Michelle