Look at me!

found and lost

So, while we all know what an amazing athlete Kaycey has become, she has really FOUND her "thing"--running. She likes almost all sports, but LOVES running. Kaycey even decided to RUN the Walk for Wishes 5K!! Running has really become something she enjoys, and she even joined the school cross country team (YES, our school has a cross country team for grades 3rd-8th--all Wisconsin Lutheran grade schools offer tons of sports and activities!) She was amazing, taking 35th place one meet. Mind you, 35th place was against all girls 3rd-6th grade girls. One meet her time was 12:19 (for a mile and a half). Yes, our eight year old runs faster than I ever did or will!!

Unfortunately, twice in the past week, she had some frightening moments as her heart raced, she had trouble breathing, chest pains, and pain in her back. Her pediatrician advised us to take her to the E.R. We chose to take her to Children's Urgent Care since she was in no distress by the time we were going. When she got to Urgent Care, there was NOTHING abnormal to be found--normal heart rate, they did xrays, normal pulse. She suffered episodes of what the doctors are calling "supraventricular tachycardia". While I'm not completely understanding it all, all I do know is this sports fanatic is on the bench until further notice, and she is none too pleased. So, now she has LOST her favorite things...NO activities--no gym, no recess, no sports (she had cross country meets and soccer games for this week), until she is seen by a cardiologist. The soonest she could get in is Oct. 8 (at first it was Oct. 23rd, but our pediatrician called and fought for an earlier appointment). Could it just be a lingering cold that has settled and won't go away? Could it be she's trying too hard? Could it be late effects from chemo, or something worse?

Boat or Disney World??

This is the question Mike asked the kids this past Friday night. We had discussed going to Disney (between Mike & I) but apparently Mike was so excited about it, he brought it up to the kids (I wasn't really thinking we'd go this year, but...) He told me the kids replied with, "Boat!" (only because he really wants to buy a boat and a pop-up). The big kids told me they said, "Both!" Maddie replied with, "Boat!" because she didn't know what Disney was. Once we told her it's where the princesses live, she quickly changed her mind!! And since Mike even brought up the notion of going there, it was time to start planning. How can you bring it up and then not even go??

Okay, so it's official! WE are going to Disney World. I have spent at least 10 hours in the past week looking at the sites, the deals, the flights, the options, the reservations...enough to make your head spin!! But it's done, and we are going!! Of course, everyone is super excited!! (well, Sadie, she's getting her very own vacation staying home with Grandmas, Grandpas, and an Auntie)

to be young again!

My cousin ended up with an extra ticket to Dave Matthews...so when she asked me if I wanted to go, DUH!!! I had SO much fun Friday night at Wrigley Field w/ Laura. We counted at least 4 times we've seen him together, so I think that makes 9 or 10 times total that I've seen them in concert since 1995. It brought back so many memories from high school and shortly after. Sigh. I wish I could go back just for a day!

But let me just say how glad I am that I don't live in that crazy city!! I felt like it was New Year's Eve in New York...not that I've ever been to New York for New Year's, but seriously, it was INSANE!!

A picture of my cousin & I after the show, waiting to get up the steps to the "L". We had major problems trying to figure the whole subway/ticket thing out :)

Dave! He always puts on a great show, but even better--he sang one of my all time favorites (Dancing Nancies)! Even more awesome, he sang "Burning Down the House", which he BETTER sing in two weeks at Farm Aid (I'm going!).

AWESOME tavern sign outside Wrigley (lyrics to "Tripping Billies")

me outside Wrigley!

pages & prayers

While it isn't often I get a chance to scrapbook anymore, I did get about 5 hours in the other night by going away with my scrappin' buddy. I did 3 single pages. What's hilarious is that when I did the one, she said, "Didn't you scrap that picture before?" I told her no, that I have just had it along to do at every crop we go to. So... the next day I look through Maddie's book and low and behold, I HAD scrapped that picture before. Too funny!

While I do not scrap chronologically, nor do I scrap everything, I do try to stay on top of school stuff. I always do a first day & picture with the teacher page. I also (plan to, if I haven't already) to do big field trips and other big things at school. Obviously the older they get, the fewer pages there are to do. I actually filled an entire book with Cal's kindergarten stuff! That's just pages of stuff going on in the classroom. His teacher was awesome, and a scrapbooker herself. She gave all the parents an envelope at the end of the year with all sorts of pictures. So that's the only reason I had so much for Cal for one year! I am almost all up to date with Cal's school stuff, which is amazing!

A few pages...I still have to journal on them. Not the greatest photos of the pages, but here goes...the pictures in the pages are 1-2 years OLD, other than the one of Sadie!

And now the prayers:

going out to Trent's family...Mike's friend from work died of a heart attack this morning. He was 45 years old.

going out to Jacob's family. Jacob's mother is the one I spoke with a while back after he was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma. After 6 rounds of chemo, his scans are still showing cancer and the doctors are at a loss as to what to do next. They have the same BMT doctor Kaycey had, and he told Jacob's parents that in the 20 plus years he has been a working as a pediatric oncologist/BMT doctor he was embarrassed to say that there has been very little progress made in regards to Neuroblastoma. He went on to say that he HATES neuroblastoma and that it is a very wicked cancer.

It's times like this I realize just how very fortunate we are.