A New Year's survey

New Year Survey Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com What was the best part of last year? My anniversary trip with Josh What was the worst part of last year? Eh, I\'d rather forget about it. What was the biggest surprise of last year? My best friend adopting a beautiful baby girl. What are you most looking forward to next year? Getting healthy! Traveling and Josh graduation from Kish. Is there anything you are not looking forward to next year? I\'m not excited about any cancer testing. I am sick of being poked and prodded. Which new years resolutions did you keep last year? My goal was to be healthy and kick cancer\'s butt...that\'s an ongoing process. Which new years resolutions did you break last year? I didn\'t. What will be your new years resolutions next year? The same: get healthy and kick cancer\'s butt! Which resolution are you most likely to break? I won\'t break it. Getting healthy is my #1 priority. Which resolution are you most likely to keep? see above What will you be doing on new years eve? Hanging out at home with my family. Who will you be with at new years eve? Josh and the kiddos. Who do you want to kiss to see the new year in? Josh of course :-) Who will you probably end up kissing to see the new year in? Well duh! What was the best song of last year? Stronger by Kanye West What was the best TV show of last year? Grey\'s Anatomy What was the best book you read last year? A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah What was the best film of last year? The Bourne Ultimatum What change would you like to make to your life next year? I\'d like to inhabit a healthier, smaller, cancer-free body! What change would you like to see in the world next year? Love, peace and tolerance! Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com

Making cookies

Somehow I forgot to post pictures from our Christmas cookie making adventure.

Abby helped mix the sugar cookie batter...



She also put on her apron and helped Daddy roll out the dough...



Evan didn't really get involved until it was decorating time.



And of course he helped out when it was tasting time!



Abby brought her baby doll and her stuffed cat, Ruffles to help out.



2 happy little bakers...



The finished product!


Happy New Year to you all!

My mini-city

I found an online game similar to SimCity that I've started playing. Please click on this link to help me build my city: http://flufftown.myminicity.com/

Christmas photos

We were so happy that Josh had Christmas Eve off this year. He doesn't always. During the day we relaxed watching White Christmas and playing around. We opened our gifts from Josh's family "down south". Josh and Evan got matching sweatshirts from his parents. Abby got a cute ballerina Barbie from our cousins Erin and Stefany.




On Christmas Eve night, we went to my Mom & Dad's for fondue and to open presents from our "up north" family (Melanie, Earl, Craig, Aunt Lillian and Uncle Earl).

My Mom makes a super yummy cheese fondue for veggies and bread and an oil fondue for meat.


Cassandra and Abby


The newlyweds:


Christmas Day everyone came to our house. We opened presents and Josh made a big ham dinner that was super yummy.
My Mom tried to pull one over on my sister by putting on temporary fairy tattoo.





Opening their Wii:

Dogs

My baby sister and her two adorable dachshunds were attacked by her neighbor's pit bull today. The dog was unleashed and charged at her and her pups while she was in her own driveway. Her 6 month old puppy is the one the pit went after. Her brother, the other pup valiantly tried to defend her. My sister intervened and was bitten. The dogs are okay and eventually my sister will heal too.

Several towns in IL have bans on pit bulls being kept as pets. I really wish that our town had this ban in place too. If anyone is aware of who to contact to set such a policy in motion please comment here.

In my opinion, pit bulls are killing machines and should not be kept as pets. This dog hadn't hurt anyone prior to today. It seems these animals just turn on people or other animals out of the blue. So why do so many people want to keep them as pets? They are dangerous. Please if you have an aggressive dog, do not ever allow it out unleashed! My sister was very lucky that she was bitten in the arm and that's all. Her dogs are very lucky that they were unharmed. A 5 pound dachshund doesn't stand much of a chance against a pit bull.

I am an animal lover. Especially of dogs. But I can't find it in me to love pit bulls.


EDITED TO ADD: For those who wouldn't support a ban, would you support something like the UK's Dangerous Dog Act which covers the following: Under the 1991 Act (and as amended in 1997) it is illegal to own any Specially Controlled Dogs without specific exemption from a court. The dogs have to be muzzled and kept on a leash in public, they must be registered and insured, neutered, tattooed and receive microchip implants. The Act also bans the breeding, sale and exchange of these dogs, even if they are on the Index of Exempted Dogs.[1] Four types in particular were identified by the Act:
* Pit Bull Terrier (a description which has led to some confusion, as the "Pit bull" is not a breed in and of itself but encompasses a range of breeds)
* Japanese Tosa
* Dogo Argentino
* Fila Brasileiro
The Act also cover cross breeds of the above four types of dog. Dangerous dogs are classified by 'type', not by breed label. This means that whether a dog is prohibited under the Act will depend on a judgement about its physical characteristics, and whether they match the description of a prohibited 'type'. This assessment of the physical characteristics is made by a court.

Seeing Santa

We took Abby to see Santa yesterday. I love that she really believes in him. She was so excited about it that she was able to stand in the line for an hour without much trouble.

The grades are in

Yesterday NIU posted our grades. I got a B in intro to cultural anthropology.

Joe & Cassandra's 1st dance

Check out this video: First dance



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My Dad & Sister's dance

Check out this video: Father/Daughter Dance



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My baby sis got hitched

It was a beautiful wedding. Abby danced the night away and we all had fun. I'm super happy that Joe is officially my brother-in-law now. He's the bestest!

Mom, Dad, and Cassandra:



Woot! She's married!



Lovies!



My babies!



Sisters



Two dancin' machines...Abby and our cousin Craig

Update

An update on my earlier basketball post...
I forgot to add that he changed his mind and decided to stay on! This next week he will finish up the season.

The weather outside was frightful, but the snow was pretty!

This morning when I walked to school it was 5 degrees. I wore lotsa layers and was thankful for my pretty pink cashmere gloves.
Here is my new dark brown hair for my sister's wedding. I'm itching to put some pink in there and I shall after the wedding. Just a little more than a week and Atomic Pink and I have a date!

Hopefully my face clears up by next week. Since my thyroid hormone (TSH) is off, I'm having all sorts of symptoms: tired, dry skin, zits...yay!

But I thought I'd share with you all how it looked. It was so pretty.
This is the 10 foot high snow pile I parked next to.

Currently reading : The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan Release date: 21 September, 2006

Eeek!

Today when I was picking up Abby from school, we saw a mouse run across the road. I'm scared of mice...very scared.

Me: EEK, A MOUSE! EEEEEK, A MOUSE!
Abby: Stop eeking Mommy
Me: But there's a mouse!
Abby:But if you eek, it will drive me nuts.
Me: It will drive you nuts?
Abby: Yep, I'll have to drive around with nuts...on my head.

Alone Time

Three mornings during the week I am all alone (besides the dog) for a couple of hours. I cherish that time. That time alone builds up my store of patience for times when I lose my keys, the kids are fighting or the dog takes a big ole dump on the floor. The month of November has not provided me with a lot of alone time. The kids have had a lot of days off for conferences and then of course Thanksgiving. My husband has even been off for Veteran's Day. While I enjoy their company, I also need my "me time". Now, at the beginning of December I find myself feeling very frazzled and in need of "me time".

Just this morning...
*Evan left the front door open causing Abby, the dog and I to freeze until we discovered the source of the frigid air.
*The dog took a dump on the floor so big that I stood and stared at it for a full minute trying to figure out how such a big pile could come out of such a small dog.
*Cleaning up said poo pile caused me to vomit and then flushing it caused the toilet to be plugged up.
*My car would not start.
*After calling hubby home to help me, he of course starts it right away.
*Had to locate which of Evan's clothes smelled of cat pee and wash them right away. Did I mention that I really really hate cats?
*Dyed my hair and now see a spot I think I missed.

*Sigh* I really need a stress free morning alone. I need one where a sexy scruffy waiter brings me chocolate croissants on a tray and some fabulous mint chocolatey coffee from Starbucks. I need a morning where Oprah has on a riveting topic. I need a morning where I can lounge in my pj's and contemplate life.

Monday Update

I did something dumb that I only realized now after the fact. My endo changed my dosage on Wed last week. I was taking 2.5 125mcg tablets of Synthroid 4 days per week and 2 tablets the other three. My schedule was to do the 2.5 Mon-Thur and the 2 tablets Fri-Sun. When she told me the dosage switch, I figured it would be easier to just reverse the days and take the new 3 days of 2.5 pills Fri-Sun and do the 2 pills Mon-Thur. So last week I wound up taking a whole week of 2.5 pills. I was wondering why I felt so crappy all weekend.

Neither Josh or I slept very well last night. I couldn't get comfortable. Then when I did fall asleep, I was snoring which bothered him. I usually don't snore but my allergies have been acting up lately.

So today I'm just chilling and watching tv. I feel too icky to do much else.

I finished my rough draft of my fieldwork project and I'm hoping to get some feedback from my professor or the TA. It's due tomorrow and it will be a relief to turn it in. I think my only grade left is the final. Hard to believe that the semester is almost over.

The Look-A-Like-Meter

Me: It's official...Abby looks more like me. By 8 percent.
Josh: Oh? How did you find that out?
Me: With the Look-A-Like Meter of course.
Josh: What?
I turn my Macbook around to show him this:



Josh: Well who am I to argue with the Look-A-Like-Meter

Doctor Day

Today was doctor day. First had to take Abby to the allergist. She is no longer allergic to milk or soy..yay! But I still have to carry an epi-pen for the peanut allergy. We celebrated with some milk and a snowman shaped donut at Krispy Kreme.

Then I went to the endocrinologist. My blood pressure was great (surprising considering my anxiety). I had a blood test. I swear their phlebotomist takes out her frustrations when she is drawing blood..ouch. So good news: no scan in January. Which means no low iodine diet, no thyrogen injections, no week at the hospital and no giant bill...woohoo! The bad news is that she is still very suspicious of my stupid lymph nodes. She told me that:
*the biopsy doesn't really rule out cancer in there.
*enlarged lymph nodes rings a warning bell in cancer patients
*We will be doing another round of tests on my neck in March.

So what I've pushed to the back of my mind is at the forefront again. I'll be honest, I cried the whole way home. I'm just so sick of my dumb neck. I WANT TO BE DONE. I am looking at this way...if she though I was in real danger, those lymph nodes would be outta there...like now. The part of my brain that wants to throw a huge panic attack fit isn't believing that which makes it more difficult. But I'll get through this like every other time there's been a scare or bad news. I'm getting stronger at fighting this cancer monster. I realized today that I have been focusing on cancer so little that the 2nd anniversary of my diagnosis (November 3rd) came and went and I didn't even stop to notice. It's losing it's hold on me.

Disappointed

Evan has decided that he can't keep his grades up if he's on basketball so today he plans to tell the coach he wants to quit. Obviously I'm proud of him for realizing on his own that he is not able to do both. It's the first time he's really been responsible about grades. I can't help but feel sad and disappointed at the same time though. Basketball really did a lot for his confidence level. It was something that finally helped him fit in with the other boys. He was also pretty good at it.

Video of the kids

Fall Fun

Playing in the leaves

This afternoon we took the kids to the park to enjoy the 60 degree weather. They had a lot of fun playing in the leaves.

Up on my soapbox

As an anthropology student, it comes naturally to me to read the world news. I try to be open minded and to be constantly learning about other cultures in an effort to understand their motivations and way of life. Sometimes it's hard to be neutral and not get upset and judgemental. Sometimes though I read things that make me angry like this article on BBC.com:

"Thousands of Iranian women have been cautioned over their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred arrested in the capital Tehran in the most fierce crackdown on what's known as "bad hijab" for more than a decade."

Read the rest here

What upsets me most about this is that women are treated as though they are nothing. There are so many in Iran today who used to be lawyers, doctors, judges, etc. Now they are getting arrested for not covering themselves in the manner considered proper by their government. Covering one's body or head with a veil or burka should be a personal choice. It shouldn't be mandated and it certainly shouldn't be a reason to send a woman to the clink.

I just feel so angry when I read things like this. Why do men treat women like they are worthless? Doesn't every man have a mother? Isn't it women who are responsible for giving life to men? How then is it that men can turn around and treat women no better than animals?

My little ball player

Evan is doing awesome on the basketball team. They've won more games than they've lost and they seem to improve every time we see them play. These aren't the best pictures ever because my battery was dying so the flash didn't go off. But you get the idea:

More Halloween pics

The kids and their Aunt Cassandra





Evan, Abby and Evan's best friend Najee




My uh...costume





Trick or treat!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to you all!



Abby was able to dress up for school this morning. Evan wasn't supposed to, so I didn't get a picture of him in his costume yet. But here's my Princess Abby:

A day of 1sts

Today was Abby's first time going to a classmate's house to play after school. She went to one of the little boy's house that she is always talking about. She had a great time. Since the boy's mom picked her up from school, I had a few hours to myself after my morning at NIU. I met Josh for lunch at Noodles & Co. Then I came home and cleaned the house. I was really excited that I had some time to sit and read but also sad that my baby wasn't with me.

Today was also Evan's 1st basketball time. It was an away game but they were playing in the next town. His team didn't win but it was a close game. He played a fair amount and did a good job. It was a lot of fun watching the game. I can't wait for the next one!

Fall Family Fun

This weekend was wonderful. For the first time in awhile, we didn't have any commitments this weekend and we got to spend some time relaxing.

Saturday we went to the Pumpkin Festival in Sycamore.


Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

Pumpkin fest is held on the courthouse lawn.



People decorate pumpkins and enter them into a contest. Here are some of our favorites:




Yoda!






Abby and her Daddy: