We had so much fun this past weekend! First, we exchanged gifts with Brad's parents, sister, husband and two little ones. When we have our "Christmas" it's a tradition to exchange gifts and have a beer tasting. Brad and his dad head out and buy 10 different tasty (high quality) beers and we taste each of them (we even use our little tasting glasses). It's a ton of fun...

The kids loved opening their presents and as you can see in some of the pictures the house was pure chaos...Aurelia's plastic food all over the floor, Finn's couch in the middle of the living room. In so many ways, it reminded me of those Christmas' when Mark, Jennifer, Heather, and I were tearing into presents at (pick a house) whoever "had" Christmas that year.

The following morning the kids woke up to find their toys still there and yet they still managed to find Grandma's dried lavender...as you can see in the pictures, they loved sprinkling it all over the house.

My parents came up for a visit on Saturday. It was great to see them and we all got a kick out of Finn when, after he woke from his nap, he walked right over to Rita (after seeing her for the first time) and laid his head on her lap. He sure does love his Grandparents...

On Sunday we shared a special treat with my parents..."Breakfast with Santa". Great food, lots of fun and Santa...who could ask for anything more. We had a great time!

~A Rita Report~

Well~ Rita has certainly done a 180! She has been feeling "great" and what a difference in her energy levels, her appetite and general enthusiasm. She has turned a corner and has completed her Chemo (as of last Thursday)!!! Wow...sixteen weeks of facing medicine designed to kill just about everything in your body. She is so strong~

Rita has been out and about playing Santa to all and we couldn't be happier. Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers as well as the kind words you've posted. She still has a couple more obstacles to face (lumpectomy and radiation) but we continue to chant Positive Thoughts = Positive Results.

Raising Small Souls

Recently, having become a mother and completing a "Counseling in School Settings" class, makes this video Raising Small Souls all the more poignant. The pictures are beautiful and the information incredibly pertinent to today's world and school systems.

Take a minute to watch this video...

http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/wp-content/themes/179/animalschoolsound-editted9.swf

Recently, we threw an Engagement Party for Heather and Joe. The food was great, their house was beautiful and the place was filled with love from friends and family. All of which has been captured in the few pictures I have. What I don't have however, is a picture of the cute couple!

~Congratulations once again to Heather and Joe~

~A Rita Report~

I know many of you check the blog often with hopes of seeing a "Rita Report"...so, while I have a moment here I'd like to tell you all we had a great visit home this last weekend. She was feeling 110% better then the last time we were home (phew). It seems this dosage of chemo does not make her feel as nauseous. She attended Heather and Joe's engagement party (pictures to follow) and has been eating a tiny bit more.

The girls took Rita to the mall for some light shopping and even went to get something to eat! This is big...and very important. Rita knows she needs to be doing more and getting out of the house more often to ward off the fatigue that hits after such activities.

Positive Thoughts = Positive Results

Well? What do you think?

Do you like the new layout? Check Y or N

Happy Halloween!!

~A Rita Report~

Well, Finn and I made a visit home this past weekend and I am in many ways recovering from the visit. As always, it was a shock to see my mother after 3 weeks. She is continuing to lose weight and has officially hit the 50lb. mark. This visit brought the reality of chemotherapy and it's side effects into my life. Until this past visit I would only hear of the difficulty in eating and drinking, the digestive problems that arise if she does get something down, the weakness, the fatigue, and of course...the ever apparent loss of what little hair she had left. I think the most difficult thing to see is the desire, the want, the longing for the energy to get up and play with Finn. While I know he provides a relief and does bring her joy, it proves to be difficult to watch her long to assist me in feeding him, changing him, and giving him a bath...

Now, keeping with our Motto: Positive Thoughts = Positive Results, it is important to know that while I feel this emotional about our visit...I know the chemo is working. Like I reported last week, Rita's Doctor said he can barely feel the lump now. Patience is the one virtue I've been missing most of my life so this entire process is really testing me. What can I say? I just want to see my mom doing the Cha-Cha again....sooner than later.

~A Rita Report~

Rita had her fourth treatment yesterday and this is the last of the "first batch" for her. Yippee! She received a new Porto-cath which will make getting the treatment more bearable.

Her doctor has reported that he can't feel the lump anymore. Yippee again! From here, she'll have four more treatments of another type of medicine. She's been told that this "type" should not make her feel as sick as she has been feeling.

Once that group of four is over then she's scheduled to have a lumpectomy and begin radiation (not sure of the order). I'd like to thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers. I can't tell you what it means to me and my family to have such wonderful, caring, loving and thoughtful friends/family in our lives. The calls, emails and notes have been so sweet and I know that she cherishes each and everyone of them. If fact, she has them in a little basket by the couch where she can glance at one at any given time.

Thank you to our friends, family and those of you who have come forward not having even met Rita to share you thoughts, suggestions and support. We are truly blessed.

New Family Member

Congratulations to our cousins, Mark and Rebecca~ they have been blessed with little Sophia.



Sophia is pictured above with her cousins Ben and CC...yay family!!!!

~A Rita Report~

Finn and I had a very nice visit home this past weekend. Rita's white blood cell count was up and she was feeling pretty good. She had enough energy to get her VERY ACTIVE grandson dressed and even helped to wrestle him into submission in order to change his diaper a few times.

It seems that when Rita was not feeling well last week, her white blood cell count was 2. Yep, that's right she had 2 lonely little white blood cells floating around trying to keep her upright. When we were home however she had 17,000. I guess she should have 15,000 normally so, she had a little extra spunk....we don't know how this happened but we're certainly NOT questioning a thing!

SO, there's your Rita report for this week. Now, go check your breasts...it's October you know =)

We Came, We Saw, We Walked...

What a busy weekend! A whirlwind of hanging with Rita, performing a "trading spaces" on my parents bathroom, and the "Making Strides" walk. Phew! It was a busy, emotional, and rewarding weekend.

Thanks to all that donated...you certainly were in our thoughts and with us on the walk. You truly were honorary Cha-Chas. Special thanks to the Cha-Chas for raising our outstanding and not to mention our goal busting $3,000. Enjoy some of the pictures from the weekend~

~The Cha-Chas~

The Cha-Chas are on the move! We have signed up to walk in the Making Strides Walk on September 30th. Our team page is all set up and we are accepting donations.

So many of your friends and family have already signed up to walk the walk with us and others have generously donated to the fight the fight http://makingstrides.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=pfind&fr_id=3401. We are so blessed to have so many people rally around Rita at this time...

As for the "Rita Report"...she had her second treatment yesterday and the portacath worked (phew!). The results of a test came back to show that her cancer was not an aggressive type (phew again!). Finally some good news!

She was home resting comfortably when we spoke last evening. As we all are, she's taking one day at a time. Two (treatments) down, 6 more to go.

Good News!!!!

My Sister "Aunt Heathie" is engaged to "Fairy Godfather Joe"

Joe proposed to my sister at our house after Finn's birthday party...it was really sweet and just perfect. Joe did a great job and they are very, very happy. So, with that said, we've added another ticker up top to count down the days until the "big day".

~Happy Times~

This entry is certainly one that I NEVER thought I would have to make....

It is with the permission of my mom, Rita, that I inform you that she's beginning her fight against Breast Cancer today. Just recently she was diagnosed with the disease and it is today (right at this very moment) that she begins her treatment.

Her doctors have designed a plan of attack that involves Chemotherapy and eventually a procedure to surgically remove the lump. There are no words that can describe the initial phone calls and the follow up conversations held between my brother and sisters & I. We have been knocked down to our knees but it is now that we stand up and help our mom with her fight.

I write this today, I imagine as catharsis, but mainly with the hope that the more people who know about this...the more positive thoughts and prayers will be sent to my mother. I do believe everything happens for a reason but more importantly, I know that POSITIVE THOUGHTS = POSITIVE RESULTS.

Finn is officially 1!!!

Finn is 1~How EXCITING! The little guy was fortunate enough to celebrate this milestone in both "hometowns". Below is the "bingo" birthday and above is the big bash we threw at our house.

We had such a nice time and couldn't have asked for better celebrations. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. It's so nice to see how much Finn is truly loved by his family and friends.

Side note: Finn just went to his 1 year doctor's appointment and he currently is weighing in at a whopping 20.0 lbs and is a long 31 inches. He's on the gangly side as Doctor Laurie puts it =)

We're baaaaaack...

We have just returned from a GREAT vacation in Cape May, NJ. A good time was had by all! We relaxed on the beach during the day and relaxed on the veranda at night~

If you look real hard in a couple of the pictures...you'll notice things like: Heather sneaking in/out of the pool after hours and some dolphins swimming up and down the water right in front of us (this happened every day).

While Brad and I were vacationing with Heather and Joe, Finn was able to spend some quality time at Camp Andrew...Grandma and Grandpa thoroughly enjoyed the little guy. It was much more difficult leaving Finn behind then expected and next year I think we're going to have a much larger group heading down to NJ!

What a great trip...

For those of you who check out our Blog...and are in the area

(or at least able to make the trip)

Finn's Birthday Party

August 25, 3 pm

Our house

WOW!~ Where has the time gone?

Well, it has certainly be some time since we've last posted. It never fails...we head into summer thinking "okay, this summer we are not going to be running around." As you all know how summers go, fat chance of relaxing.

So far, it's been a great season. Finn is growing up so fast. He's got six teeth and is on the verge of walking. With that said, he's all over the place crawling (especially the stairs). He did get his first shiner when he cut it too short on our step coming in the kitchen. I felt awful but I also know it's probably not the last scrape/bruise he's going to get.

Since it's been so long...I am including a couple slide shows so you all can see what we've been up to. The first is 4th of July. We were at my parents for a bit and had a great time. The next is a few pictures of Finn and I spending time with some very good friends of ours...Megan and Huey. Finn poured his first beer on that visit to Dada's work =) (Side note: It's not a "normal occurance" to see Finn sitting at the bar-it was only because Brad was working this particular afternoon.) The last slide is from today. With Finn's teething, he's been running a bit of a temp. recently and hasn't been feeling all that well. So, we thought let's get out of the house and introduce him to some new things. We went for a hike. He seemed to really enjoy himself (for the most part).

Can't wait to see you all and hope it's soon! Enjoy

I AM SUCH A BIG BOY!!

I went to my first baseball game on Father's Day; I love to eat all by myself and I am also getting around on the ground using my very own "army crawl".

IT' S SUMMERTIME~

Well the weather has been great and it's time to party! Finn has been enjoying the many different pleasantries that come with SUMMER~ He had his first introduction to WATERMELON when we were home a week ago. It was messy but he sure did love it! As always with the nice weather comes visits to the beach. When we are not hanging at the beach we like to go to the park and play with our bubbles!

Little kid fight!
If Finn played hockey...would he be the bully that eventually ran away or would he be little guy that kept getting back up for more? (Please note: I am not a proponent of fighting. I just thought this was cute...thank goodness nobody was hurt)

Hello!

Things have been pretty quiet around here...just gearing up for a great summer. I can't believe that we are almost booked for every weekend. We will continue to keep you posted on our endeavors as well as all of Finn's firsts.

Please be sure to sign our guest book! We'd love for you to leave us a little note...

Dividers Glitters # 203461

Finn's 1st Visit To The Beach

I am 8 months old today!!!

Family Fun

APRIL Birthday Wishes To:
Craig & Vavra (4/10)
Kelley (4/16)
Brad (4/18)
Kathy (4/24?)

~Taken by the Radicchis