Snow Joys

Mr. Snowman by Ve and Tuki!!

Basketball season is over, skating is on the last month but track will soon begin

Basketball season is officially over, Mim has continued to improve but she will still need to make a HUGE leap of improvement to make the 10th grade team next year.

This is the area I dislike about basketball, it is an elitist sport in of itself since the teams are so small and you have to be really good to still be playing by the time you are in high school.

Mim loves the sport so I will do what I can to help her make up for lost time.

Ve's HOOPS team took second place in today's tourney, so for playing for the 1st season her team sure racked up the hardware...


I credit this to the coaches and thank goodness she will have these same coaches for the next 5 years. 

 Ve receiving her trophy today-I actually remembered the camera today.

 The team and coaches

Mim's BB picture that she gave me for Christmas. Mim will be starting high school track next week.

Update

 The girls on Christmas morning

 Mim loving her journal, she loves to write in her diary

 Tuki and her cousin N at Ve's birthday party

 Ve's 9th birthday party at Grandma's

 Mim with DaVinci and Ve with Rembrandt, finally the dogs are 3 and starting to settle down..:)

 Mim's side view in her Freshman Formal attire

Mim feeling all beautiful ready for a good time, and she has been walking around in a daze all day today dreaming about her magical night at the ball...:)

I have been incognito for a while. On December 18th I went in for another surgery and ended up spending 7 days in the hospital this time around. I was able to return home on Christmas eve, spend the night in my bed surrounded by by girls and pets. On Christmas day we went to my sister's home for the extended family celebration. The girls and I spent the week relaxing, healing and traveling to doctor appointments. On New Year's Day we went to Grandma Jill's home and celebrated the New Year as well as Ve's 9th birthday.

I didn't make a big deal out of the New Year this time around because I have been hopeful for the last two years and then the year seemed to progressively become worse. The year of 2012 was a year of surgeries for me. I spent around 31 hours under anesthesia, 17 days in the hospital in Milwaukee all while having a double mastectomy, one reconstruction on my right breast and 3 reconstructions on my left breast since the first failed due to blood clotting, the second I declined (implants) and the third has finally been successful. The initial surgery the Doc used excess flesh and fat from my abdomen to reconstruct (called a DIEP FLAP), then when my left breast failed, they went to a tissue expander in preparation for an implant, but I HATED this, it didn't feel natural at all, and it was painful, so I said I wanted them to attempt a TUG reconstruction from my thigh from my left leg. I am still healing from this, but it feels way better than the tissue expander. My advice here is if a hospital/clinic (our nearby one that is why I went for the surgery in Milwaukee with a doc who is the 4th leading surgeon in DIEP FLAPS in the nation) only offers implants as an option for breast reconstruction, do some research and find a doctor that is highly successful in DIEP or TUG reconstructions. Essentially my breasts are natural looking, natural feeling but they are not real breast tissue so no more breast cancer. A win win all around.

Through all these surgeries it was discovered that I have a blood clotting issue with clotting excessively. So I found a doc who has now done a global blood testing and we have found out that the sore feet, severe allergies, low thyroid, blood clotting and cancer that I have been diagnosed all within the last 3 years is probably due to he fact that I am still positive for erhlichiolis (a form of tick borne disease, the same disease that my dog Isaac died from years ago). The exact words from the doc were "The disease has been hiding in my body for the last 3 1/2 years creating havoc" It irritates me since I have been complaining to doctors in these same years that I felt something was wrong and I have felt that I have aged 10 years in the last 3, but now starting in March I will start a program that will treat the disease and boost my immune system. Thank goodness, finally an answer!!! Apparently some of these illnesses could be reversed over time...yeah I am hopeful that if my feet actually feel good again I might actually be able to stay running consistently again.....finally.....

I have slowly worked back into school full time, managed to write a grant for 40,000, but didn't get it, I continue to take admin classes that meet once a month, Mim is involved in basketball that practices 5 days/week and plays 2 -3 games each week. Ve is also involved in basketball, and her team is quite successful already winning 2nd place medals and 1st place trophies at weekend tournaments. Ve and Tuki are skating again this year and their skate show is coming soon, so I have been and will continue to be busy all around. Yesterday Mim attended her first Freshman Formal. She was initially asked by a boy but then she decided it would be better to go with a group of girlfriends (making me a very happy Mama). All the girls are doing well in school with Ve and Mim's reading and comprehension levels improving in leaps and bounds. Tuki has always been well above her age level for reading, but then again she didn't have to learn English at an older age and she had me reading to her daily since she was tiny.

I applied for six administrative positions opening up this fall in our district, haven't heard anything yet, but I also applied for 3 administrative intern positions this summer, and I found out on Friday that I will be offered the elementary position for the summer. Thus I will be working for 6 weeks this summer and also be doing extra work during the school year helping to get ready for this summer. It is my hope that I will have my principal license by the summer of 2014.

Our winter has been relatively mild for this area, but I am starting to get excited about spring, gardening, sunshine and starting to get back into shape now that I am starting to feel like my old self..

I think that is all for an update at this time and now we are off to a fundraiser spaghetti feed for our basketball program in town.

Christmas Cheer, Dogs and Basketball

 Photo Opps with the dogs

 Tuki and Ve after their Christmas Concerts yesterday

 Mim at her game last night

Mim aggressively guarding (sorry for the dark photo)

We are busy weekly with basketball practices (Mim (every night) and Ve (2 times weekly)), basketball games (2 times weekly), skating practices (1 times weekly), school work and meetings. I will be taking a little break since my surgery will be this Tuesday and I will be out from school until the 7th or so of January, depending on how well I recover. In addition my next admin class does not start until Jan 25th, so close to 7 weeks of break from classes.

Post of photos

 Funeral photos: Kent's 3 kids and 2 grandkids

 my brother Jeff, his wife and daughter

 my cousin Tas and her husband

 The girl's trick or treating

 Thanksgiving: the trio putting on their concert in the dress-up clothes...still the most favorite toy-dress up clothes

 celebrating Tuki's 7th birthday

 and N's 8th birthday

 the girl's with their birthday cake

another shot of their singing

My eldest brother Kent passed away Tuesday November 13, 2012

 Above: When we were wee ones, youngest sis hasn't been born yet. Below: all of us with Santa

Kent with his 3 nieces 4 years ago. He was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy this past January.

Update

Wow, where has October gone? I have many photos to upload and sometime soon I will do that. It has been a busy month with school, admin classes, the girls' sports, attending a conference and winterizing the yard and animals every chance we get. Immediately following October, on Thursday Nov 1st I interviewed for a Summer School Coordinator Position, naturally interviewed poorly, it was first in a very long time so I was really nervous. Hopefully now that I have one interview down for administration jobs, I will be more relaxed, especially since there will be more posted in December.

I had a student teacher the first quarter and now he has moved onto his high school experience, so in some ways things will get busier at school and in some ways quieter. I will be teaching for about 5 weeks and on December 18, I am scheduled for another surgery. I will be out of school for 3 weeks (one will be Christmas break) and then start up again, but probably dead tired for awhile.

Mim and Ve will be starting basketball in November and both programs will run until next March. Tuki will continue with the skating since she is still too young to join any formal BB team.

Tuki and Ve's birthdays are coming up in the next two months and Mim's 3 years home celebration will be this Monday, Nov 5th. This year has been a much better year with her than last year. I think all the pieces are finally falling into place and she is maturing.

We are hosting the family Thanksgiving this year since our usual holiday is Christmas and I will be moving very slow at that time.

Other than that all is well around here, busy as always during the school year, but we become use to the craziness that occurs during the 9 months of school.