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October things...

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It has not been the easiest October on record. Kate had a couple of hospital visits to Rochester but she is somewhat better at the moment. She continues with chemotherapy and has not been back to school for quite some time but she is doing her best to set aside time for online school work between naps, loving on cats, and hanging out with her family. I was able to get the girls to visit their great grandma in western Iowa a few weeks back. Here's Claudia shortly after arriving at great grandma's house. She is very into jewelry and lots of it. Grandma had several questions for her about the number of bracelets and thankfully Claudia loves talking about them. Many she has made, some were gifted to her...it's a lovely hodgepodge of middle school girl goodies. Clearly the girls and I were blessed with height genes from relatives not named great grandma. We spent time relaxing, taking four wheeler rides, eating candy and we also received a visit from my aunt and uncle. Aunt Deb ...
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March Madness 2024...

Let's talk brackets. I love a good competition. I love to win. But when I don't win I can typically move on quite quickly from a loss (unless we are specifically talking about Big Six Swim Offs, but I digress.) We have a family group on ESPN for the men's NCAA basketball tournament and it's "high stakes" with no entry fee, a chocolate rabbit for the winner and most importantly bragging rights. While I've never won, nor have I ever been close to winning, I thought I'd share my rationale for my picks through the first round of play. You should not follow this advice but if you so choose to, don't blame me when you too lose out to a cat with it's own bracket. East Region UConn 1 v Stetson 16: This is a silly way to start because it's a 16 v a 1 seed and clearly we know the very likely outcome of this game. But if I could, I'd choose Stetson cologne over a Huskie dog because Huskies kind of scare me a little. Regardless I am going with the ...
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To be brave...

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At the young age of 14, our oldest daughter was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Glioblastoma is not a cancer with stages. It is only stage four; that's how deadly and impossible it is to heal from. When the pediatric oncologist sat herself onto Kate's hospital bed to share the awful news, Kate simply and stone-faced asked if she was going to die. "Do nothing and yes, you will." Kate's diagnosis and she shed no tears. Whereas I had minutes ago been sobbing into my husbands chest wishing I could die instead.  Kate was fortunate(?) to live two and a half more years. Two and a half years without hair, without pursuing her dreams, without...a lot. She bravely and boldly walked into the high school any chance her body would allow wholly different and beyond recognition from the girl she once was. Two and a half years after diagnosis on a chilly November 21st, I read the MRI report minutes before we were to meet with her oncologist. The report was damning. Seated n...
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