Happy Holidays!

Wow! What a quick month and a half it's been. I've been really busy at work during the month of December and busy growing hair as well! You can't see very well in the picture, but I swear it's getting curlier every day! I'll have to have Matt take a couple closer pictures so I can post those.

A couple weeks ago we had a family brunch for my father-in-law's birthday. Here is a picture of the family...
That night Matt and I attended our neighborhood Holiday cocktail party and the girls went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a sleep over. Everyone had a great time at the party - we were there until 4am!!

Olivia had her Winter Sing at school last week. Fantastic! It was so entertaining and all the kids were singing their little hearts out. Olivia's favorite song from the program was the Kwanzaa song. She's since taught it to her sister. I spent all afternoon at work that day singing "Christmas cookies and holiday hearts, that's the way the holiday starts...."

Since we can't get enough of the spirit of the season we decorated cookies today. Carina spent about 15 minutes on her first cookie. I'm not sure how it happened, but the cookie made it's way to the floor.

I'm scheduled for one more surgery on January 25th. So unfortunately I can't say everything is over with the end of 2007, but this should be a piece of cake.

I hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy your time with your families and have a Happy (and healthy!) New Year.

HoHoHo!

Watch out for that dog!

I'm back from my European tour. I was traveling for 10 days. First I was in Prague for a conference. It was great to see all my WBN friends and colleagues again. Reinhard from Germany brought me flowers at our first lunch as a group to say "welcome back". Here is a picture...




We went on a tour of King Charles IV castle on Saturday afternoon....his "compound" included a cathedral that was quite impressive....

We walked back to the hotel over the famous Charles Bridge (also named after Charles IV)...

I was in Prague from Tuesday to Sunday. Then it was onto Milan to meet with our client. Here is a picture of the cathedral in Milan - it only took 600 years to build it.



We left Italy and flew to Sibiu, Romania on Tuesday. We arrived at the airport and had driven about three blocks in our taxi when the driver hit one of about one zillion stray dogs in the country. The dog was ok, but it wrecked the license plate on the car.

The manufacturing facility is in Medias, Romania - which is about an hour drive from the airport. In addition to dogs, we also encountered some goats in the road.

Here is what a women's toilet looked like at the plant. Are you sure you want more coffee??

Before we left Romania, we had a walking tour that was arranged by our Romanian broker partner in Sibiu. But first we had to survive the drive from Medias to Sibiu with this same broker partner. Since one of the people traveling with us was an attorney, we decided that should anything happen, he was doing all the talking. The drive was a two lane road and included passing trucks on curves at a speed of about 60 MPH. This was all while there were pedestrians with small children walking along the shoulder of the road. I don't think that they will be exporting Romanian driving instructors any time soon.

This is from the old town in Sibiu. The area has been almost completely restored.

There were signs everywhere - there was going to be a Scorpions concert in the square shown in the picture above. The guy in the picture is my colleague from The Netherlands, Duncan.

Here is a picture of a dog in Sibiu. I think he was looking for his friend that had an encounter with the taxi license plate.


We left Romania late Wednesday afternoon to head to Bordeaux, France. Sibiu later. Here is a picture of the engine on our plane from Sibiu to Vienna. Hey - look, there is duct tape on the engine!

We didn't get to Bordeaux until 9:00 at night, minus luggage for Duncan. We drove to Tonneins the next morning (almost a 2 hour drive). The drive was very scenic.



Tonneins is very much in the country. There is an interesting neighbor next to the plant.

As you can see, it was an interesting and fun trip.

Matt and the girls did just fine without me. I talked with them every day. When I called from the airport in Detroit, Olivia wanted to know how long my hair was. Carina said she was going to hug me and kiss me and never let me go. It doesn't get much better than that.

Happy Halloween!

Lots of big excitement lately!

I've started wearing my new baby hair. It's definitely a work in progress, but better every day. I don't have so many bandanna matches with my winter wardrobe. This is my brother-in-law Brad - our hair is pretty much the same. Well, ok, his is actually twice as long....

Here is a picture of the girls at a Halloween Party at Grandma Becky and Grandpa Dennis's golf club. They had a great time and their cousins were there too. There was a magician and Olivia volunteered to be an assistant. It was hard to believe she went to the front of the room. There were about 75+ people there and she can be pretty shy sometimes.

I'm leaving for Europe tomorrow. I've been looking forward to this trip for the past 8 months. Needless to say, I'll miss the family a lot. It's really hard to believe it's finally here. I'll be back on November 9 and share some pictures.

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Vacation at last!!

I know it has been quite awhile since my last post - I got a concerned phone call from my friend Liz. No worries - everything is going just great.

The port removal was a little creepy since they are slicing you open while you are fully awake and aware of what is going on. Of course they use a local anesthetic. Anyway, that is all healed up now.

We just got back from 8 days in Florida. The weather was pretty good for the most part. We drove down - it's about 17 hours door to door with our few stops. We went overnight on the way down and during the day on the way home (leaving FL at 3am). The girls were both fantastic in the car.

I'm leaving for Europe on Monday the 29th and won't be home until the 9th of November. I'm really looking forward to it (of course I'll be missing the family in the mean time). The first part of the trip I'll be attending a semi-annual conference that I missed this past spring. I can't wait to see all my colleagues from around the world that have been so supportive during the past 8 months. The conference is in Prague and I've heard great things about the city. Next to Italy, just outside of Milan, then Sibiu, Romania, and Tonneins, France just outside Bordeux and home. We'll only be in the other cities for 2 days at the most so we won't have much free time.

Here are some pictures from our trip. The girls had a great time and can't wait to go back in May.

Olivia teaching Carina some ballet moves....

Sunset at the beach...

Carina wearing her sunglasses upside down and putting on her own headband....

Our last evening at the beach...it rained NON-STOP our last two days there, ending around 4pm the second day.

Yay Team!!

Today was our race. But before I get to that, I'll give an update since it's been quite awhile since my last post. We all went to Madison last weekend for the Badger football game. Olivia went to the game with Matt and Carina and I went to the zoo.

Yesterday we went to the apple orchard and did some picking and went for a hay ride.

Finally, today was the Race for The Cure. Thank you to everyone who signed up to participate and to those who donated. Your time and generosity are greatly appreciated. Here is a picture of those that made it by 8:30 for the picture. We actually were missing my mother and father in law and my brother and sister in law!

Brother and sister in law, nephew, my mom, my co-worker Emily, and my mother and father in law.....

Olivia walked for awhile (or is she marching her way through this?)....

Our family at the finish. My goal when I was diagnosed in March was to be a team captain and run in the race. Mission accomplished. My time was 33 minutes.

Other news.....This week Tuesday my port comes out. I'm a little nervous about that because it's just a local anesthetic and the scar from when they put it in is about one inch long. The good news is I won't feel terrible for the following three days - so really I guess this is a piece of cake.

Olivia's First Day of School

I'm all ready for my first day....
Everyone get in line....bye Mom and Dad!! Mrs. Zeimet is taking us to our classroom...
I love school! "Grandma, can I go again tomorrow?"

Three Happy Ladies

DONE!!!

I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend (at least those of you that live in the US). I'm feeling good and so very happy to be done with my treatments. Although this is not all over yet, I feel like the hardest part is done now. I can't thank everyone enough for their kindness and good wishes. I think I'm one of the luckiest people around to have such great family and friends supporting me through this. Now I just need to feel good enough to have some wine and life will be just perfect!

To all of you that signed up for the Race for the Cure - thank you. I'll send an e-mail out and keep you informed on the shirt pick-up. I'd also like to try and do a team picture!

Olivia's first day of school is Tuesday. I'll be sure to post some pictures. She's really excited. I'm not sure at what age that ends, but is sure is great now.

Until later....

Last call!

Hi Everyone,
Two things to mention. First, don't forget to sign up for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure if you want to be part of our team. The LAST DAY for team registration is this Friday - the 31st. I will be picking up the shirts for the team. I'll be sending team members an e-mail with details on the shirts and hopefully we can meet somewhere before the race and do a team picture.

Second, as many of you know, this Thursday is my last treatment. I'm soooo excited! YIPPIE!!!!

Next time I'm posting I'll be on the road to hair!!! (well, after a couple weeks anyway)

Only one more.....

Yesterday was treatment #5. Not as bad as the first one, but worse than the last. I can't even begin to say how happy I am about this almost being over. I can't imagine those that have to go through treatment after treatment hoping for shrinking tumors with no real end in sight. I sure hope that I will never be in that position.


The Dr. said that three weeks after my last treatment they'll have me back in for a blood draw to see how my counts are. Then, if they are OK, we can schedule the medi-port to be removed.

After that it's back to the plastic surgeon.


As far as the plan with the oncologist after that, it seems there are no magical blood tests and they don't do any sort of scans. It's monitoring some blood counts to be sure that the treatment didn't wreck anything, then it's just me letting them know if something doesn't seem right. He is going to work with radiology and the Breast Care Center to determine what type of imaging screening will be done.


The hardest thing is going to be to try not to think about a recurrence all the time. Hearing the statistics about recurrence is scary. It seems my chances in 10 years are 3%. When you talk about something like a recurrence, 3% seems like a huge number. When you think about it in terms of a lottery drawing, they seem low. It's all the perspective. I think it's best just to take it a day at time. I will not be consumed with worry.


I also want to remind everyone the deadline for on-line registration for the Race for the Cure is August 30th! Thank you to those who have already signed up and to those that have donated!!

Hi Everyone,
We had a great weekend. Contrary to a couple of the comments posted, my 5th treatment is actually on the 9th. This also happens to be our 10th wedding anniversary. Needless to say we are going out to dinner on Tuesday night instead of Thursday. I've now managed to have all sorts of things going on during some significant dates. My surgery was on my friend Amy's birthday, my first chemo treatment was on my Dad's birthday, and the 5th is on our anniversary.

We went to State Fair on Friday with the girls. Here are a couple pictures - the two of them with the Grand Champion Goose (how exciting is that??) and Matt and Carina going down the Giant Slide. Olivia said she will go down next year. Perfect.

Olivia and Carina are quite the swimmers. Here are some pictures from Saturday.

Finally, today was the Brewer baseball game. We had a great time and there was a lot of effort put in by a group of people at work to put the event together. Matt informed them the were part of history - one of the worst losses in Brewer history. They were winning while we were there though. Man, was it ever hot. We lasted until the middle of the 7th inning. Then it was time to hit the road.

I hope you all have a great week. Oh, I almost forgot - I went running today for the first time since before my surgery - so early April. Although I've been doing other things, this I found out that I am definitely not in running shape. My legs let me know what pretty clearly along with my sky-high heart rate at a normal jog. So, since I know you all are planning on signing up for the Race for The Cure and just haven't yet - I highly recommend a little preparation.

Happy training!!

Only two to go!!

Yesterday went well. Last night was good, best so far. The hardest part now is actually getting the treatment. Which is a little strange, because it's not like the time following is completely awful. I think the worst part is the treatment room has a really funny smell to it. So, yesterday I took my very most scented lotion with me and had very soft hands by the end. Amy was with me and we played tons of card games. Thanks again Amy for coming with me!

I talked to my Dad yesterday afternoon and he said he is going to get one of those car fresheners that you hang from your mirror and make it into a necklace for me. That should be interesting.

I hope everyone is doing well. Don't forget to sign up for the walk - for you local people that is!!

Six more weeks and this treatment stuff is all history!!

Get off the couch!

The Milwaukee Race for the Cure is Sunday, September 23rd. I've started a team - Bosom Buddies. I've posted a link on this page over to the right. Join us! There is something for everyone - a 5K timed run, 5K fun run/walk, 1 mile walk and even "sleep in for the cure"! I've set an aggressive goal of $5,000 and 40 team members - so I really need some help here.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world. The funds got to breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. 75% of the funds raised at the Milwaukee race will remain in SE Wisconsin.

Our family has done this race for several years now, but this is the first time for us to have a team.

Family Fun!

We've been having a lot of fun since my last post. The Sunday after my last treatment we met some cousins and a couple of Matt's cousins and their kids and the grandparents for both. We had a picnic at the park and the kids played on the playground. Here is a picture of the ladies....



We're missing a couple from the picture, along with the two baby boy cousins.

I've been feeling good - easily my worst day was the day of the treatment. The worst part about the last one was the smell of the treatment room. I've got a crazy sense of smell these days. I walked into the kitchen at work the other morning and said something about some cooking breakfast and my co-worker looked at me like I was crazy. She said someone had used the microwave, but that was about it - she certainly didn't smell what I did.

We went to the 4th of July parade and to get a good spot at the fantastic parade in Wauwatosa you have to get there early. I went with a few neighbors at 5:45 in the morning to get a spot for our group and we weren't even the first ones there!!

The girls are ready to head to the parade. They made their visors.

On the afternoon of the 4th, our neighbor John, also a member of the Bald Society (I think he's the Vice President) decided it was time to take the razor to my head to get rid of the the stragglers and give me a sleeker look. Here is a picture of us on the front step of our house. We were wondering if people driving by thought I lost a bet on something....

Here is a picture of John and I looking our toughest with my very, very, very most wonderful friend Amy (John's wife). I see a Mrs. Clean costume in my future for Halloween. Hopefully this picture doesn't freak anyone out, but I just loved it...

1/2 Done!

YIPPIE!!!!!!!!

Play Ball!

The baseball outting was a huge success. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so here are some baseballish pictures from after we got home. Olivia and Carina got to hear fireworks twice, once the Brewer's first time at bat and once for a home run. They handled it quite well and Olivia even said that the fireworks and the food (just like Mom) were her favorite part of the game.

Quinn is sporting the mini-batting helmet the cheese fries were in. Olivia and Carina thought this was funny. The ladies are showing off their new prized possessions, Bill Hall bobble-heads. Carina wanted to sleep with hers, but we had to tell her no.

The picture with Olivia in the hall is also from tonight. We heard some activity upstairs after the girls were in bed, but sometimes Olivia runs around collecting things or turning lights on. Matt went upstairs for something and found Olivia with her little sleeping area all made up. This is the first time this has happened and I have to say that I crack up just thinkng about that sight. Matt relocated her to her own bed without incident.

This Thursday is treament #3 - 1/2 way!! I'm getting a little more tired, but that's it for now. Hopefully that doesn't get too much worse. I guess we'll see soon enought. The good news is eyebrows and lashes are still intact.