Quiet Morning

Why yes, the time stamp is correct.  It is 6:38 in the morning and I have been up well over an hour.  Monday mornings are my favorite morning of the week, other then Friday.  Monday I don't have to rush around and get me ready and then the small person.  I have an hour and a half to sit at the computer, do laundry, and just relax in general.  There is no school on Mondays, just Gymboree and any other South/Mid/West County errands that I need,(want!), to do.  I know this quiet will be short-lived, as full school weeks begin next fall.  I sit here and relish the quiet...until the cats start meowing they are hungry and make me get up to feed them.


GO CARDS!

Post Season Baseball

Go Cards!  'Nough said.

MRI

MRI Monday-nothing new, lesions are still too small to do anything about, so no new chemo for the time being.  Next MRI, more then likely January.

On another note, Blogger problem *might* be fixed, so I might be around more :)

Fall, the season, not me!

Fall is rapidly approaching.

Between this and my Salted Caramel Mocha, I am excited.  What things do you associate with fall?

Boeing Day at the Zoo

Saturday was Boeing Day at the St. Louis Zoo.  This "team building" exercise gave Eric's Boeing section a great excuse to play outside.   We had fantastic weather; our first taste of fall temperatures.        The highlight was seeing the new Sea Lion, (not seal), show.  Boeing had an entire section just for employees, so we had prime seats.

Vacation Pics!!  Click on the link for our vacation pictures.

We had a weekend in Terre Haute, Indiana with Eric's family and then drove to the Philadelphia area for the week. 

Some of the highlights were:

*Almost sleeping at a rest stop in Ohio, due to full hotels because of the storms.
*Driving through the mountains of PA and MD
*Hershey's Chocolate World
*Crayola Experience-ended up with more crayons then I could imagine!!
*Sesame Place
*Independence Hall and The Liberty Bell
*GENO'S CHEESESTEAK!!
*Driving to NJ just for ice cream
*WaWa hopping
*Please Touch Museum-though I don't think I would go back

As you have noticed, there are not that many pictures.  I had to borrow my MIL's camera and it died about half way through the trip.  Instead of taking the PA Turnpike through the state we went south and drove through Maryland and West Virginia and then on the way back, we drove through Deleware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and then to Indiana to see the fam for the weekend.  Couple that with a jaunt to New Jersey to hit a Carvels and we were busy busy folks.  We had a great time and only had some minor issues.  We didn't have any traffic problems until KY and then all kinds of issues.  Our marriage, child, and car survived.  It was a long time on the road, but worth every minute!

Birthday Boy!  We celebrated Alex’s 4^th birthday on the 19^th.  His big surprise this year was  a swingset.  Grandma Barbara and Grandpa David came down to help celebrate. 

 Cheeseburger cake.

Preschool Birthday!

Preschool year one down…fourteen more years to go.  Can I just make it stop now?!?  Alex made it through his first official school year with flying colors.  He loved going to school and seeing his buddies, Hunter and Leo.  His confidence has blown through the roof since he began last fall.  Some of his favorite activities include block building, (if you’ve been to my house this is NOT a shock), music class, and playing outside.  While academically he is ready for kindergarten, (and in some cases 1^st grade), he is way too young to be starting formal school.  Therefore, he will increase his preschool days to three half days this fall.  It also so happens that his birthday fell on the next to last day of school.  Happy Birthday!!  

Little Late

No Chemo!!  Dad goes back the end of June.  No Whammys, we leave for vacation just a few days after that!!

Blocks and Legos

These are staples in my house and of my almost 4 year-old.  Today's Lego/block adventure was a bird feeder.  Why a bird feeder,um, I don't really know.  Every time he built it the way he wanted it and it stayed up, he was ecstatic.  Excitedly running around the living room and begging me to look at it.  When it fell, he was crushed.  He would get mad and want to know why the blocks didn't stay up.  Each time I would talk to him about the design and what he could do differently and most importantly, that blocks will fall no matter what.  He would build it and it would stay then shortly after it would fall.  This pattern was repeated several times throughout the morning.  Each time the bird feeder fell, I would remind him blocks fall and to look at his design.  He finally figured out the problem was with a type of block he used on the bottom and it was too thin to hold the structure.

Fast forward to noon when we went to the Stations of the Cross.  Jesus falls not once, not twice, but three times on his way to Calvary.  Does he give up and quit?  Does he get mad and upset?  He carried a wooden cross that weighed between 75 and 125 lbs., to his death just so we would not have the same fate.  He fell so we could walk tall.  Unfortunately, like Alex's blocks, we all fall.  How many times have we walked away from a job, sport, or friendship because it was challenging or, "hard".  We all fall many times during our day.  Not all falls are as spectacular as Jesus' or the blocks, but they are falls none the less.  Failing to hold open a door for someone carrying too many things, replacing the toner cartridge in the printer, swearing in traffic(guilty!!), these are just a minuscule representation of the many ways we fall each and every day.  The beauty of God, much like the blocks, is that we can be rebuilt in His image. 

Jesus rose on the third day, after defeating death, and we too are given the opportunity to, "rise," to the occasion.  For most of us it will take many tries and we will continue to fall, even after being built up again.  We need to look at our own design flaws and see how we can fix them and make our own structure stand taller.  Jesus tells us to forgive our neighbor 70x7 times(Matthew 18:22).  He forgives us infinitely more then that, and yet we still fall and tumble like blocks.  My son got the hang of his block design after several tries, will I ever get the hang of it and stop falling?  I guess I need to stock up on band aides. 

Roller Coaster

Up and down and down and up...the weather.  We've gone from below freezing to 70 degrees and back agin, since New Years.  We've had snow, ice, and everything else.  We've been to park twice this month and gone sledding in the yard.  T-shirts and jeans to fuzzy sweaters and snowsuits.  I could go on, but you get the picture.  The weather here has been crazy!!  We have been in the high 40s low 50s most of the month and I have yet to break out most of my nice sweaters.  The upside to all of this is that my heating bill for this month will be quite low.  Why the paragraph on this, well, it got me thinking about how much cold weather affects the whole rest of the year.  Thanks to the warm January, allergy season this spring will be hell.  The ground here hasn't really frozen, so the flowers and plants are already starting to come up.  Stay awake, I am going somewhere with this. 
Consistency.  There is a lack of weather consistency in this part of the county.  It seems so weird that something out of our control can cause so many issues.  Many people beg for consistency in their lives, personal and professional lives.  Do we become complacent in our need for consistency?  Do I want to walk through life like a zombie?  I say no!!  As much as I hate the inconsistency in the weather, I love the inconsistency in my life.  It keeps me awake, alert, and aware of God's presence in my life.  So, if it starts raining cats and dogs and you are wearing shorts and a Hawiian shirt January, just chalk it up to God makeing you pay attention and making sure your windshield wipers are new.

Heart Trouble

Please keep my father in your prayers.  He is having heart trouble again and goes in for a Nuclear Stress Test tomorrow, Friday, to see if he recently had another heart attack.

Pics

Pictures!!  Here are pics from this fall.  Click on the album for some goodies!!  

January 2012

No Chemo

No chemo for now!  Clean MRI, will go back at the end of March.  He still has lesions, but they have not developed into tumors...yet.