Grateful!

As I sit here on this last day of Spring Break with my girls I can't help but think about how grateful I am to have these 2 beautiful girls in my life.  I know I have said it before but I will say it again, Cancer opened my eyes up to so many things and truly has made me a better mom, wife, daughter, aunt, and friend.  Yes, Haleigh is driving me crazy because she is bored and she is messing up my daily schedule but I love having her around with me.  Hannah is once again refusing to take a nap but at least she is resting in her bed...even if it is with the iTouch. :) 

Next, Wednesday, is my 32nd Birthday.  I am so grateful that I have yet another year here on this earth to see my girls grow up, make more memories with Tim, and see my family & friends.  Not every day is roses but most come pretty close.  Last month I had a clean bill of health from the Oncologist.  In 2 weeks, I see my Radiation Oncologist and I am sure I will get the same report.  I can't imagine not having these last two year watching Haleigh and Hannah grow.  Haleigh is almost finished with Kindergarten and doing so very well in it and has SO many friends.  Hannah is a mini me.  She loves the daycare kids and LOVES helping me with the kids.  She is her own little person and is a big helper, even to Haleigh.  Sometimes Hannah acts as the big sister and helps Haleigh get things.  For example Haleigh wanted something from the basement and I told her she could go get it.  She was scared so Hannah said "come on Haleigh, I will turn the lights on for you."  So away the two of them went.  My two girls so different from each other yet the same in so many ways.

This past weekend and week has been so nice outside that we have been enjoying our time on the trampoline.  I can't wait till this weekend when we get the enclosure on it so I don't have to have a heart attack every time Hannah or Haleigh get close the edge and think they are going to fall off and break their necks.  Sunday as you can tell it was pretty dry outside and the trampoline was FULL of static electricity.  I couldn't resist getting the camera and taking this picture it tells it all.

I hope all of you are enjoying the beginning of spring.  I can't wait to see the flowers start to bloom. :)

Love always, Katie

Finally it is getting warm out!

Well as you can see I am still not as good at this as I was with my caringbridge site.  The last month or so has been so "normal" that it is hard to think that I should write anything down.  I know I have not been that great at filling out the girls baby books like I used to be so I am hoping that one day this can all be printed and they can read all of it. 

First off...my dad had back surgery in January and so we were in Cherokee 3 times in about 6 weeks.  He is doing great and is doing physical therapy now.  Our first trip up there was in Jan and poor Haleigh got sick.  She woke up with a high fever and ended up with strep for the 2nd time in 6 weeks.  Our second trip was in Feb and it was warm enough to take the girls sledding.  For those of you from Cherokee yes, I do know that the Country Club hill is one of the best for sledding but remember these 2 girls are 6 & 2 and live in Waukee where there are NO hills!  So Roosevelt school seemed like the best place to go.  Haleigh had a blast!  Hannah wasn't very fond of it at all! 

Haleigh & Hannah getting ready to climb the hill.


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Tim & Hannah at the bottom of the hill.

 


Tim & Haleigh coming down the hill!

Our second weekend in Cherokee was also in Feb.  I wish I had pictures but Haleigh & Papa went out on a date.  Haleigh LOVES Chinese food and so does Papa, Nana doesn't like it at all so while Tim & I painted their living room the 2 of them went out to eat.  They made it such a secret and no one could know where they went.  Hannah just hung out with Nana and enjoyed her weekend.

The girls are definitely ready for spring...we are very anxious to get out and play outside.  Well we better get our stuff packed.  Off to Sioux City for the weekend.  My niece Lauren turned 5 last week and we are celebrating this weekend.

The Holidays

So I am not very good at this blog thing.  First off, I really don't like how my page is set up.  I think I need to get someone to show me how to make it more creative.  Secondly, I have been SO busy this last month and a half that I actually forgot that I had it. :)  So many things have happened since my last blog, I did the 3 day walk, we had Thanksgiving here in Waukee & my sister Mary and I did Black Friday shopping, I had surgery the 10th of Dec. and then it was Christmas.  I am not going to do all of those things in this one blog but I will catch myself up.  That is one of my goals this year is to stay more on top of this thing.  I have really enjoyed going back in my caringbridge website to see what has happened the last year and how the girls have grown.

Thanksgiving weekend we were here at our house.  My parents & sister, Mary, and her family came here for the big day.  After being gone for 5 days walking it sure was nice to just stay here at my house and not have to travel.  We had a very nice dinner and Haleigh & Lauren had a blast drawing fake tattoos on everyone. :)  Mom & Dad left mid afternoon to head out to Wyoming to spend time with Derek and his family.  Mary and I decided to get the girls to sleep and we were going out to do midnight madness shopping at Jordan Creek mall.  We started out at Toys R Us and holy cow!!!  What a crazy mess...we had only a few things to get and we were so excited we only had to wait in line outside for about 10 min.  Once inside it was madness!  After finding our way through the store and getting our few things we needed or wanted we went to get in the end of the never ending line!  While heading that way we witnessed a gentleman having a seizure and so while someone else was attending to him we blocked the aisle so no one could get down that way.  What a night of memories.  The gentleman I believe was okay but we had a few laughs.  While waiting in line one of the employees was explaining to another customer about how this gentleman had a chemical embalance and that is what causes seizures.  I guess you had to be there to laugh because it was hilarious.  Thankfully we had some enjoyable people to stand around while we waited 45 min to check out.  After Toys R Us we headed to Jordan Creek Mall.  We found a few deals and had a lot of fun shopping.  Shortly after 3:30am we headed to Target and thought about going in.  Once we saw the line we decided to wait and watch the crowd run into Target.  That was the funniest thing I have seen in a while as Mary said "This was like watching cattle get feed for the first time"  Needless to say we had a very good Thanksgiving and will probably be making this shopping excursion a yearly event.

December came and went so fast but we had a lot of fun.  Christmas was spent in Cherokee at mom & dad's house.  The kids are all growing so much and the family is getting so big.  These girls are all loved by their aunts, uncles & grandparents.  We had a very good Christmas and had a lot of fun looking back at pictures from the year.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

LOOK AT MY HAIR!!!  Holy Cow has it grown!

Well I don't want to bore you with more details.  I will update more here in the next couple of days.  I will share about my 3 day experience and what has been going on this past month.  Hope you all have been having a great start to the new year and I can't wait to see what this new year has instore for us.

Love always, Katie

It's TIME!!!

Well here we are only hours away from me getting up and getting on an airplane bound for San Diego. I think I have everything I need, well I hope I do because NOTHING else is fitting into this bag. :) I just hope I am not over the airport weight limit, because I am about 7 lbs over the Komen limit...oh well! If I can lift it the crew can lift it!

The time has finally come. 24 weeks of training and now we are here...I am very excited and can't wait to get there and see what this journey is all about. I know I am going to have a wonderful experience and I can't wait to see all the walkers, survivors, and support group. I know I couldn't have done this without my support. My aunt Cindy is the best! She has been with me every step of the way and here this last spring she was with me when I said I wanted to do this walk. We have trained for 24 weeks, raised over $2300 (each of us) and gone through many pairs of shoes. Now we are ready and guess what the weekend calls for...RAIN! UGH!!! I am not excited about this part of it but it will make it memorable that is for sure.

The girls are not excited about me going and could really careless about me bringing something home for them but you and I both know that if I don't they will be very upset. I did leave a stack of messages (1 for each day) to them and Tim. I know they will be just fine and I can't wait to hear all about the fun they have while I am gone. Rumor has it Tim is going to pitch a tent in the living room and they are going to have a campout. Can't wait to see pic's of this.

Okay well bags are packed, feet are conditioned with LOTS of calluses and my body is ready to go. I will post pic's and stories as I get back.

Thank you everyone for your support!
Love always,
Katie

Training & Halloween

Well today, thanks to my AMAZING husband, my aunt and I walked 16 miles. I couldn't go the full 18 because I didn't have time to get home and let Tim get to work. He hung out with all my kiddo's (3 of them) while Cindy and I walked. We started at 5 walked 6 miles then took about an hour break to get the kids ready for school and then we started back up at 8 and walked 10 more. It was FREEZING out! The temp was about 26* and when you combine the cold temp with a wet head...it isn't good! :) Tomorrow we are getting up and walking 8 more miles...only 1 training weekend left before San Diego. I can't wait! So far my feet are holding up and doing great!

HALLOWEEN

I have been bad lately and forgot to post pictures from Halloween. Haleigh and Hannah had a blast and our weather was PERFECT! They went around the neighborhood and got way too much candy. The weekend before Halloween our neighbors have a Halloween Pumpkin Carving party and so this is what the girls did to their pumpkins

Haleigh dressed up as Batgirl and Hannah was a witch...a bad witch! She was very excited about trick or treating and didn't take just 1 piece of candy. She grabbed a whole hand full! :)

Training

Okay so it has been a while since I have wrote anything about my training. Let's just say I have been VERY busy walking and working out. Much to my disappointment I have lost 0, nothing nada. UGH!

After taking 3 weeks of in Sept after my surgery, my first big walk was 17 & 13. I was so tired and sore after that weekend it wasn't even funny. I had so many blisters I could hardly walk for 2 days. My shoes were worn out for the second time and so it was time to order ANOTHER pair of shoes. UGH...this event is starting to get expensive. So after popping my blisters several times I was put on an antibiotic because the one toe was starting to get an infection around it. Dr. Deming gave me an antibiotic and off I was moving. After about 3 days of soaking in Epson salt and trying out my new shoes I walked 6 miles and a 1/2 marathon. NO BLISTERS!!! I was so excited.

So all of that was about 3 weeks ago and now I have accomplished so much more than that. The weekend of Oct. 23rd was our BIGGEST training weekend. We needed to walk 18 miles on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. Since my cousin had soccer games we had to split it up a little bit. So Friday night we walked 6 miles, Saturday I walked 12 and then Sunday we did 15. I was beat! But I know I can do it! That following Tuesday I lost my first toe nail! I am taking a Nutrition class and our workout that night was water aerobics...the water made everything lose.

So here I am 2 weeks away from leaving for San Diego and I can't tell you how excited I am about this trip. I have finally met my $2300 goal and now I only have to concentrate on getting things packed and ready to go. This past Tuesday night I met a lady that has done Tampa 3 times and she told me it is the most emotional, exciting and rewarding thing she has ever done. Once you do one you either LOVE it and want to do another one or you are happy you have done it. Personally I have a feeling I am going to LOVE it and want to do several more. I don't know yet if I can do one next year...I promised Tim he could run a marathon. So we will see what he decides. I will keep you all posted and I will post more later.

Thanks for all your support and following our journey!
Love always,
Katie

Hannah

No blog would be complete without an entry about Hannah. I would like to first say that I am so happy that I have her in my life. She definitely makes life interesting. She is so full of energy, spunk, stubbornness (is that even a word?) okay I think you know what I mean. So here are the full events of last week for Hannah....
Monday...stuck an eraser up her nose and Tim had to come home from work to take her to the doctor to have it removed. I have to admit I wasn't as afraid because she is, after all, taking after her mother. When I was little I stuck gum up mine and had to have it removed...one of my prouder moments.
Tuesday...she decided it would be a LOT of fun to paint herself toe to knees with Desitin (diaper rash cream) For those of you that don't know it is not the easiest thing to get off. UGH!
Wednesday morning she got sick in my bed...not something she could help but after Monday and Tuesday what else would you expect. :)

Thankfully the rest of the week for her calmed down. She is such a light of energy and so very stubborn. She does things in her own time and you can't push her to do more. I am so thankful for all the time I get to spend with her right now. So far this week we have only colored on the kitchen floor with crayon (magic eraser worked wonders on that)

Well off to bed so I can deal with Hannah and all her mischievous little ways.

Much love,
Katie