Sunday, September 26, 2010

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!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

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.