Making cookies!

One day before Christmas Clip Clop, Seby & Zane made chocolate chip cookies. Here they are making them. We don't know why Zane is making that strange face. Being silly so Clip Clop and Papa will laugh - I think.




Proving that she is know "ordinary" 81 year-old - Mom said yes to Zane asking her to "Uppy me". I think he was joking, but the gleam on his face when he realized it would happen - pure joy! Sebastian joined in as well. Is there anything she can't do?



Clip Clop and Papa made the Christmas Pudding for Christmas Eve, along with Egg Nog pie - yummy!



Cody & Klaudia HAD to do some Christmas shopping at a local thrift store to get "Holiday" sweaters. They are pretty cute.

Long Time

It has been a long time since I've posted on this old blog.

The last time I posted we had just had a wonderful weekend up at the lake house during Labor Day weekend.

We had our good friends Janette & Ken, Quentin, Forest and Spencer up from Illinois. My good friend Jonel, and our dear, sweet neighbors, Kim & Pete.

Just before we left for that trip I started to have some unusual bleeding. I was concerned about this, but bleeding stopped and the doc tested my blood to make sure I hadn't lost that much blood (which I didn't) and felt comfortable letting me go to the lake house and promised I would go to an ER if I started to bleed again over the weekend. At the time I really thought I had some kind of bleeding fibroid and it would have to be removed.

When I got back home, my doc had me to an ultrasound. This was the beginning of a fast and crazy ride, one which I finally feel like I know how to ride - and more importantly is not moving at warp speed!

The basics are that I was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma (a soft muscle cancer). Mine started as large tumor in my bladder - but it can show up many places (where ever there is soft muscle. The treatment for this was to have my bladder replaced with a neobladder (made out of part of my small intestine) and a full hysterectomy.

The day after I received this diagnosis, we had a pre-planned photo shoot on the grounds of the Walker Art Center. We had already told the kids as they were so surprised to see Slade home from work on a Friday and wanted to know why. I think we all did really well, knowing how unknown the world seemed to us at the time. We didn't understand anything about this rare cancer, but couldn't think about it all the time. So, this photo shoot gave us a bit of a relief.



If this is new news for you, sorry you had to hear it this way. But if you go to the CaringBridge site that my sister set up - you can get more details. I want to use the CaringBridge to just talk about the status of my LMS (a shorter version of Leiomyosarcoma). It serves as a great tool for me to see the progress and where my LMS has taken me.

CaringBridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/michymama



Now I feel like I must get back to posting on this blog instead of CaringBridge. I will update every three months when I have scans done, and if any health issues come up.

My parents have been here almost NINE WEEKS. It has been truly wonderful to have them here, to live this close and come over every morning, help make breakfast, do laundry, read the newspaper with, vacuum the floors, bring in the mail, have tea with, drive me and the kids where ever we need to go, have dinner with us, help put kids to bed, hem curtains, many, many curtains! This is and much more! It will be hard to say goodbye to them in TWO DAYS!

We had a photo shoot while my parents were here - we had such a good time on the one we did in September and I swore that I would hire her again when any relatives came into town. We had plans to have all of Slade's family come in for Christmas this year, and to celebrate Ann's (Slade's mom) 80th birthday (on 12/22). Well the plans changed, but family still came into town so I booked the shoot.



We were also able to get Olive (our sweet Goldendoodle) in the photo as well.

While we are sad to see my parents leave, we are all ready to take life back over. The kids will have to start getting back into the routine of helping out around the house, and I will have to start getting back into my routines as well. I look forward to driving the kids to school. I don't know why, I guess because we have some of the funniest conversations in the car.

My dad told me that getting cancer (for him) has many times been a positive experience. I know what he means. There is so much good that comes from it. I wouldn't tell anyone to try it, but there are some redeeming qualities.

We only have one more day to spend with Clip Clop and Papa - so I better go get some sleep so we can get in the last activities that any of us feel we must do!

Labor Day Weekend

*This is a down and dirty post mostly to put some pics up

We were up at the lake house for Labor Day weekend. We finally worked out schedules so that our dear neighbors, Kim & Pete, could come up for a weekend!

We did a caravan traveling to and from and stopped for a meal together for both drives as well. We had a wonderful lunch that they made, out on the grill in the cold! Luckily we all ate inside!

We had an amazing sunset and of course I had to get more cloud pics (my obsession!)







In addition to having Kim & Pete, we had Janette, Ken, Forrest, Quentin & Spencer -- everyone got along great! We had Liam up for a two week visit and Ken & Janette brought him back to Illinois for us.

busy, busy, busy

this might be a really lame post - but what can i say?

we just got back from being up at the lake house for a week with slade's family - o'd, liz, alex, wes & liam, urris & maddie (soon to be mrs. urris!), maud, lucas, livia & rose, and ann.


look auntie chris - we (slade & od) fixed the door. you were right, it just needed more support.



this painting has had much conversation going on up north. i liked this piece and he gave it to me for our 19th anniversary last year.



slade and o'd doing one of the things they do best.



Zane played he first "official" game of poker. He usually is on a team and this year played alone. He won the first round and was very happy by his big pile of chips.



tubing!

Did I mention Cody was at MCAD for two weeks?

First -- Aunt Kathy, who loves you baby!?

Cody did a two week course on Game Design at MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art & Design). He loved it! Besides enjoying all the many hours of work to do game design, he really enjoyed meeting kids his own age (a gaming program he did last summer at Macalester College in St Paul had many younger kids).



I think his favorite thing was to experience what it might be like to live in a dorm, take classes during the day, and stay up as late as he could working on assignments. He stayed in the dorm on the left in the top right unit. I think he had two roommates.





In his first week he requested snacks that would help him stay up late. Sebastian & I brought him chocolate covered espresso beans, instant starbuck's coffee (it is pretty good), and PEANUTS. Yes, I purchased items with peanuts. Cody loves them and when he isn't around his brothers I encourage him to eat them. That is also why when Clip Clop & Papa took him out to dinner one night they took him to thai - food he loves but we never go as a family because of the peanuts. So, he had lots of peanut-related snacks!



Cody said that during the session they all noticed this large display in the lobby of the MCAD gallery (their classes were upstairs). The artist came daily and added to it.

Like I said I think Cody really enjoyed meeting some kids his own age. Here are many pics from his week there. I can't explain them all 'cause I kinda stole them off FB from some of his friends. They are pretty self explanatory.








The last pic is of a friend who lives outside of the Wisconsin Dells - the other day when he and Graham drove down to Chicago they were able to meet with her at a McD's and hang out for a while. Luckily they made it to the Gilbert's while it was still light.

Hitting the open road!

Cody & Graham have left for their drive down to Chicago.

They are stopping off in Lindenhurst for a few days to visit with our good friends the Gilberts from Prairie Crossing (they moved out of PC a few years after us). Then on Thursday they will head down to ChiTown for Lollapalooza for the three day weekend of concerts in Grant Park.

They will drive up and meet us at our lake house next Monday.

I am very glad that they have each other in the car for this long drive - even though only Cody can do the driving.

They are stopping off in the Wisconsin Dells for Cody to hang out with a friend he met while at his MCAD SES course.

I can't believe they are old enough to be doing this. Luckily I feel very relaxed about them going and know that they will make wise decisions and drive safely. What more do I need? Oh, and having them update on FB would be nice too!

Sebastian turns 11!

Oh sweet, sweet Seby.
Turning 11 and into a tween.
He is getting bulkier, taller, stinky-er.
Ugh.
He is growing up, but still he is my sweet boy and comes into the room saying "Oh, Mama, hugs, Mama hugs" and runs into my arms. For now.
He has 5 friends over right now for a sleepover and then paintball in the morning.
Slade said tonight "I don't know how many more of these birthdays I have left in me."

We love you Seby weby.

Happy Birthday Livia!

Happy birthday to our dear sweet, Livia Rumi Reiner!

We love you and can't wait to see you next month. It feels strange to not celebrate your birthday with you - but it will be warmer in August and we will get to see you water ski!!!!

Graham's in France!

Graham is in the south of France!

He was invited to go along with a friend and his family - where do I get a friend like that???

They are staying in Grasse, which is just outside of Nice.





The above two photos were from the rental site of the place they are in. All the following photos are ones that Graham took and uploaded to FaceBook - gotta love FB when your kid is overseas!










Looks like he is having a fabulous time and we can't wait to hear all about his trip when he arrives back here this Thursday - just in time to get in the car for our 6 hour drive to the lake house for the weekend - hopefully that will be enough time to hear all about his adventures.

I just got an email from him that they are going to Monoco tomorrow!

More China!

We received another update from Nathan today:

Dear Parents,
We arrived safely in Hangzhou (neighborhood of Shanghai) this evening, but my mind is going back to southern China, where we had some great experiences the past two days. First, the Li River...I encouraged the students to use our boat ride as a worship opportunity; the scenery was then breathtaking, giving a distinct sense of the majesty of the Creator. In the evening, we had a great hour-long conversation about the purpose of cross-cultural study. The basic realization that (I think) the students reached is that simply seeing differences in other cultures isn't worth much if it is not accompanied by greater purpose. The students had some excellent things to say about how cross-cultural study could help us to make changes in our lives or help us to more effectively serve others. The point that I tried to make, and will try to make over the next few days, is that the fun of this experience will be gone quickly...and unless you go home with a purpose for what you have learned, the end of the trip can be more disappointing than it needs to be.
Finally, we had a delightful experience today at a host school in Yangshuo, a small tourist village along the Li River. The school was nothing fancy, and unlike the students we met in Beijing, it's unlikely that any of these students has a future in international finance. Perhaps that is why we were welcomed with a local friendliness that was very disarming. Our students had small-group discussions with their Chinese counterparts and then spent several hours in simple kid-to-kid interaction: dance lessons with Savannah, guitar playing with Bjorn and his friend Eric, Korean soap opera talk with Stefanie and friends, Chinese character writing, Chinese hackey-sack, and so forth. We ended up staying 2 hours longer than originally planned, and we had a difficult time getting everyone to head for the bus. The pictures attached are all of our time at the school, though I don't imagine that they quite capture the magic. Thanks for your support (in all sorts of ways) that made today's interaction possible.

Did you find Cody in the pictures? Hint: He is in four of them!