Miss December

I know a colondar girl! Way back in 1999, I worked a hellatious job where I met a girl named Heather. We became fast friends and even went through our second pregnancies together and our daughters were born a day apart. Heather moved off to California and while driving through there we stopped off each time for a visit. As most people know in the military, true friends are friends forever.

About two years ago Heather was diagnosed at the age of 28 with stage IV rectal cancer that had spread to her lungs and liver. During this time Heather created a blog in order to let people follow her courageous battle with this cancer. Heather is candid in her blog and lays it all out on the line as she went through treatment, went into remission, and once again had the cancer return.

I recently got a letter from Heather that she said I could share, and I am hoping that others will support a good cause. I'm so proud of her and all that she does to make people aware of how colon cancer CAN happen to those that are young. She speaks out on the issue and is active in several organizations all while being a single parent to two beautiful children.

Dear friends,

For those of you who don't already know, in June I became part of a really cool project - the 2008 Colondar.

The 2008 COLONDAR is a 12 month wall calendar of 12 colorectal cancer survivors who have been diagnosed under the age of 50, and I am featured as Miss December. Each months model/survivor's photo is accompanied by a short bio about his or her experience with colorectal cancer.

I do have to warn you, its a pretty "sexy" calendar, although it was designed to be beautifully artistic and tasteful. All of the models (including me!) are "showing off" our scars by baring our bellies - so if you are easily offended by things like this, you might want to skip looking at the Colondar!

Our goals with the Colondar are 1) to show that anyone can get colorectal cancer at any age, 2) that colorectal cancer can be detected early and BEATEN, and 3) that it is beautiful to be a survivor.

Go to www.colondar.com to check out the pictures, read the stories, and find out more. The 2008 Colondar makes a great gift for friends and family, and of course your nurses and doctors! You can order them online or from me and save yourself the shipping!

We hope that everyone enjoys the 2008 Colondar - please let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you for all your support!

Heather

Change

Since DH is gone so much he misses out on so much with the girls and Junior. When he returned from Iraq last December Junior was just over 5 months old and he had only seen him for the first 13 days of his life. DH carried Junior in and was going to set him down on the ground as I was busy putting down the diaper bag, etc. I heard him ask the girls if he could sit up yet and they told him no. It kind of hit me then how much he had missed out on and how even with pictures, letters and phone calls he still didn't know his own son. We quickly remedied that and he has always been a very involved father with diaper changes, baths, medicines, etc. with each of our three children.

A lot can change in a month. DH left knowing his son and in that month he grew, changed and started new routines. So yesterday he spent the afternoon and evening learning what his son likes and dislikes now. He learned the new way of putting Junior down for the night and (since he still doesn't sleep through the night)what Junior was looking for at each time of the night--bottle, binky, time to wake up. I didn't realize how much Junior had changed during this time. I mean I knew, but I can't imagine what Chris sees when he comes home to such big changes in a little guy. The girls grow up and change a lot but it is not nearly as drastic as Junior. He is climbing on top of the furniture, starting to throw little fits, knows to wait by the door when it is time to go "bye-bye", can work a lot of his toys and much much more.

So when DH leaves soon I will make a point of putting everything down on paper for him, more scrapbooks, and tons more pictures (if that is possible!). I meant to do it last time but ran out of time, but this time I want to do a Year in Review album and put down the highlights of each month at the END OF THE MONTH (and now wait since I know I won't have time to do it then) for him to enjoy.

Headed Home

Dh should be home soon and of course I caught a cold. Hopefully he doesn't get it as the world stops when he gets sick!

Took Junior to get his picture taken today by my frind Molly at Photographics Unlimited. I can't wait to see the proofs! They have a great setting there and can do a lot of outdoor shots which I love. I like variety. We will go back before DH deploys and get some shots of DH with the kiddos. I know I should get in some pictures, but I am not ready for that yet! I got three microdermabrasian sessions for my birthday (what I wanted) and I have an appointment next week. Maybe I will look/feel younger?

Girl Scouts starts tonight and the girls will be in the same troop this year. It's a big group of girls so I am hoping that there are no problems.

.....he's home and we are off and running. When does life ever slow down? I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and having my sweetie home.

Also Abs was on green today and did not get in trouble at all. She saw the doctor yesterday and got her medication adjusted and hopefully we are headed in the right direction. The teacher said she is extremely bright and can do everything asked of her and do it correctly. She does have a referral out for an ENT and we will talk about the tonsils.

Paperwork and Deployments

Today I had an appointment to get the kids enrolled in Child and Youth Services on post. This will allow the older two to have access to School Age Services if needed and for Junior to be enrolled in hourly daycare and have some interaction with other kids on occasion. I was early for my appointment as I usually am for every appointment--I may not be organized but I am prompt! I actually did have all the paperwork I needed except for the girls' physical. It took more red tape for me to enroll three children than it did for my husband and I to get married and it cost more to enroll them for one year than it cost me to give birth to all three! (Em and Junior were free and Abs cost me $11 for my meals)--it was $40 to register them. We can get that money back if DH gets a letter from his commander stating that he will deploy in less than 90 days. First I told her that it was more than 30 days and then I started to think about it and realized it wasn't. Then it hit me that he was leaving us...again....and he's not even home yet from training and still has another month of field time.

Anyway, because Junior is allergic to eggs they gave me a meal substitute form that I have to get filled out by a doctor and submit before he can be seen at the CDC. I called while she made copies and they said they didn't have the schedule out yet and it would be out later that day. I asked them if he could be seen this week and she said no it would be more like the middle to end of September. So then I told them to book Junior an appointment for his skin problems and he will be seen tomorrow and I'll have the doctor fill out the form. We aren't waiting for a specific doctor, just any random doctor in the Peds clinic. One drawback to military life, but one that usually doesn't bother me too much.

Once all this paperwork is completed and DH deploys I can get 16 free hours of daycare a month and one Saturday a month as well. They have really increased the amount of care, so maybe I can schedule a massage once a month!

I had lunch with the outlaws since my MIL kept Junior this morning for me. Saw the puppies which are going to be huge and cute. I still don't think they need two more dogs, but they don't seem to listen to me....imagine that!

Abs still hasn't had a perfect day at school yet, but she is doing better than I expected and I still have hope that she will get it altogether one day. I hope her teacher realizes what a precious gift she is! Em is doing great and working hard and loving her math class! I never thought I would hear that come out of her mouth, but I bet my dad is smiling hearing that!

Back to the deployment....with it looming around the corner I am going to try to get some free time (yeah right) and start on some of the projects I want to get done before he leaves. I would like to make him a deployment countdown calendar this time (I had intentions last time but with everything else going on it just didn't get done)and of course a scrapbook of our family. I am scheduling family pictures too with a friend of mine who is a great photographer in November and I promise I will get in these!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Abs....we don't leave lotion down anymore.

More pictures here.

The Carnival

The girls spent hours planning a carnival that they put on yesterday. They designed games, came up with prizes (toys they didn't want anymore), made tickets and setup. Abbie banged on a drum that Emily designed out of material and a bucket (I really should have taken pics)and yelled "Carnival" at the top of her little lungs. They had different stations setup and they had one person come and they made 10 cents. They were so disappointed (I got to play for free) but they haven't given up and when DH gets home they plan on trying again and this time making it bigger and better. I told them that they might make more money having a garage sale with their toys, but they decided that wouldn't be as much fun as a carnival.

They even have a box you can sit in and rest...

UPDATE:

I guess I must have missed it while they were planning, but they are raising money for the local non-kill animal shelter, Second Chance. When the puppies that their Oma and Opa have from their stray dog that they adopted are old enough, 4 of the 6 will go there and they want to make sure that they are well taken care of. Such good hearts.

Long Weekend

We didn't do anything too exciting, but the kids and I had fun just hanging out, visiting the inlaws (who even kept them for a few hours on Saturday so I could get some things done!), and even got in some shopping.

A word of advice--never take three children swimsuit shopping even if it is 75% off at Dillard's and they have the handicapped dressing rooms that all of you and the stroller will fit into. I did find some good deals as well as got to hear a lot of comments about what I looked like in the bathing suits. They were nice about it all just told me "yes" or "no way". Em kept trying to get me to try on bikinis, but I am in no way prepared for that!

Dh should be home on Saturday morning! I can't wait! His dad is going to pick him up so that I don't have to go out at 2 am to get him. If he had been gone longer than 4 weeks I would have ventured out, but the thought of dragging three children out in the middle of the night just doesn't appeal to me. Junior doesn't sleep as it is, so I don't need to give him a reason to stay awake!

I am trying out this new menu thing where I select my meals, print the grocery list and then just cook them up. Of course everything I selected can be prepared in less than 15 minutes. So far so good.

I've had three friends that had babies this past week--2 boys and 1 girl! My SIL is due any day now with my new little niece. Babies everywhere! Just glad they aren't coming into our family. We are complete!