Cincinnati Race for the Cure 2010

I walked with 75ish names on my shirt, of peeps I love who have fought or are fighting cancer.

In no particular order, because they all rock my world equally, here is the honor roll:

My chemo sistah, Shelly

My survivor sistah, Cathy (who lent me all her hats when my head was cold)

Cathy's Mum, Peggy Jean Mason

Cathy's Grandma, Ila Mae Thornbury

My Auntie Cheryl

My Uncle Bill

My Mum

Gail Konop Baker (fab author of Cancer is a Bitch)

Cancer/Blog sistah Daria

My bank teller's Mum

My lifelong friend Monica

sweet Amy Inkrot

My poet friend, Susan Fuchtman

Kiley

Kristi Frasier

Mary Jo Cropper, of the Mary Jo Cropper Breast Cancer Center

Mardy of the ridiculous amazing pipes

I can't wait to meet my new friend Betts

My neighbor/tennis bud Janet Cross

Kim Wanamaker's sister, Lori Robertson

My chemo bud Don Boudinet

Fellow tennis lover Rich Reis

My friend Ruth's dad Jim Lueckenhuff

My friend Patty's Mum

Doreen

Noreen

My sister's friend, Megan's Mum, Jeanne Nelson

My sister's friend, Kandi Castles Fernandino (who recently did the Chicago 3-day walk!)

Jean, a trailblazer from my chemo lounge

Julie Haubrook, a chemo sister

Leona, another chemo sister

the sisters

Amy Reid

Barb Martin

Donna Scheffler

Cancer/Blogger sister, Jo

Tennis friend, Stacy Souders

Artist Deb Mulligan

Celtic lover Debbie Smith

My friend Marsha's sister and bro-in-law, Brenda and Bob Markham

My tennis friend Mindy's friend, Cindy Miranda

My friend Becky's friend who is now my friend, Julie Garvin Luce

The amazing Maria Meyer

My Florida sistah-friend Mary Kate Bourquin

My friend across the Pond, Anita Mason

My neighbor Ron

his wife Sue

his daughter Amy

My step-mom's sister, Diane

my hero Tiffany Floth Romero (of The Tiffany Foundation)

my hero Karen Wellington (of the Karen Wellington Foundation)

my hero Heather Ray

sweet Sarah McGurk's sweet Mum

Paul Swanson who I met at the survivor ceremony

My friend Terri's friend Darlene Izzo

Sonya who I met at the Race

Jill Cummins who I stood next to at the survivor ceremony

My friend Becky's friend Terri's Mum who passed away the day before the Race:

rest in peace Ilene Sween

Floyd Penrose, who we miss very much

My friend Steve's Mum Carol Lawson

Nancy Ficher

Jelka Gern

Heide Golde

Marianne Adam

Linda Cisco

Rhonda's Mum who life ended up saving my friend Shelly's: Janice Hubbard

I never got to meet Teri Neu Simpson but I prayed for her

awesome blogger and cancer ass kicker Clusterfook

My friend Heidi's Grandma

My tennis friend Linda Wimmers who taught my Mikey Geometry and loved Africa

The first friend I ever lost Sue Thompson

_____________

The three amigas from Team Shaken Not Stirred

Me, Cathy, Shelly

I finally got another SURVIVOR bracelet to outlive! This will be number 3! Game on!

Dave and Me

The Finish Line... starring yours truly!

My chemo sister Shelly and me, and our new friend Paul, at the survivor ceremony after the race. Photo courtesy of The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Even my Mikey Skyped for the Cure from Germany with love!

The Yellow Bus Moment

Whoa... what just happened? It's so quiet here in the Evanshire, I can almost hear a pin drop. But for some reason that makes it hard to think. Used to the hubbub about me. So I strain to see if I can Name That Tune the pin makes when it drops.

Nothing.

So I get up and go start a load of laundry. I walk really loud just like Matt does to see if I can trick myself into thinking it's him stomping around. But I'm just too savvy to fall for it.

The washing machine's hum helps, but it's no Amanda Michele Freaking Evans. I cue the dishwasher to harmonize with the washing machine. Amanda can harmonize with herself, times 4. (Check out "The Butterfly Song".) Boom, roasted. It takes way more than two appliances to keep up with my little whirlwind, I mean, daughter. Though h

er wake, I mean, trail is much easier to spot than it is not to trip over.

But yeah, so my nest is relatively tidy today. The Redheads have all done cannonballs out of the Evanshire and are making splashes even as I type.

Mikey is safe and sound in Germany at the YWAM base. This is where he is living for the next 7 months.

Kinda beautiful, yeah? Just beyond his building, which I think is mainly a guys' dorm, is the Castle.

The Wifi is in the Castle, which is where keeping in touch with Mikey happens. Or should I say, where it will happen as he settles in and down enough from all the excitement and splashing around so that we can establish a more regular time to connect. We have gotten to Skype with him a few times, and can I just say thank God for Skype, not to mention Facebook?!

Basically, he's having the time of his life. On Monday when we were skyping, he told me, quite casually, that he was going to Switzerland on Saturday. I guess it's going to take a while for it to settle in for me, because it felt so ridiculous surreal hearing your son say something like that to you. Here is his latest blog post, which is the place to keep up with his YWAM adventures, if you'd like.

Meanwhile, we are all missing him like crazy. Here's Amanda's blog post about taking Mikey to the airport. I made a Mikey shrine of sorts this past weekend. I hung two black clocks (one is set one for his time and one for ours) and a collage frame (of pics of him I have been collecting off Facebook as his new friends post them) in a cozy corner of our living room.

Matt had an orientation day at UC yesterday, and he and Amanda started classes today. Matt thought I was ridiculous, but of course I had to take a picture of him before he drove off to college today.

It was, after all, my yellow bus moment.

And after that moment, came the next one, and I found myself all alone with a whole day in front of me and no lesson plans. No plans at all, really.

ASSURREALASHEARINGYOURSONSAYHESGOINGTOSWITZERLANDONSATURDAY

But kinda fun, not gonna lie.

Mama Bird is very happy to see her baby birds flying about and so very happy. Homeschooling them was a very fun chapter, but methinks I'm going to like this next one too.