Butterfly Project

A few weeks back I asked for some help with my butterfly quilt.  Nearly immediately I had two people send wonderful fabrics!



My friend, Amy, sent these fabrics and I made two butterflies out of each fabric.  Aren't they wonderful?!  Especially fun to have a monarch wing print to make wings, lol.



My friend, Jan (author of many blogs, but I think you can access them all from the one linked to her name) sent these gorgeous additions.  Wouldn't mind finding a leopard winged butterfly out in the wild, lol.  I also made two from each fabric here, the little circles inside square fabric is now put together, lol.  All butterflies will have black appliquéd bodies eventually.

I have received a few other fabrics and will be posting them later.

Thank you ladies!!! :0)

 

Larry the Cable Guy

Saw Larry the Cable guy filming here in Wisconsin this week! Exciting!

Maybe Larry's not you guy - do you prefer Johnny Depp? Well he's been here too photos here.

Walking iPhone advertisement. :)

Meeting Jientje

Last Sunday, I met up with Jientje in Chicago.  She's been on a great adventure and I'm sure when she gets back home (Belgium) she'll tell us all about it.  But for a couple of hours we pointed our cameras at many beautiful things at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.  Here we are reflected in a garden sculpture.

And one of the greenhouses had these huge Christmas balls scattered about.

There we are - don't we look happy?!  It was so great meeting her!

Meeting bloggers

While in the Quad Cities last weekend I had the opportunity to break bread with Leanne and her family. It was great to finally meet in person! Leanne designed my blog and she's a great artist if you ever have need of one, check out her blog!

With all our online interaction it was like catching up with an old friend.

See, we aren't white trash after all.

This past week I also caught up with Kaytabug. We had met once before, but forgot to get a pic. This time we decided to wear our funny t-shirts. Her's reads "Not everything is flat in Kansas" and mine reads "I might be flat broke, but I'm not flat busted". Her blog is here.

Being zany,

We had to show we weren't flat, lol.

I LOVE meeting bloggers!!

Partying with some Packers

Hmmm, wonder what’s going on here. Do you have any ideas?

Well, first up is me with Gilbert Brown. I know , I look goofy!  I think he had just told me to eat a cookie!

Here he is signing a photo for me. These Green Bay Packer players were at the huge annual fundraiser for Angel on My Shoulder. It’s a huge event that happens every June - maybe you want to plan a trip up here for the next one? Gilbert was there last year as well and he is loads of fun! This year he brought his brother with him - they look a lot a like. About a month ago they were in our favorite Chinese restaurant when we picked up some food.  So you never know where he'll tunr up, but if you see a Hummer painted like the Hulk, he's nearby.

Here’s William Henderson signing my photo. He brought his father and his sweet son along. The families spent the day fishing while we all went to the golf course.

Craig Newsome was also there and here he is signing my photo. He was the quietest of them all. They all like to raz the 'paparazzi' and we give it right back!  We were impressed that they all prayed together before eating.

And here’s the one of me with Craig and William. All of these were taken during the Party with Pack on Thursday evening.

Before the golf course, Friday morning starts with a breakfast at the Wolf Pack Café, and those Packers were hungry! But I will not let them in the door until we get the mandatory shots of them with the owners of the café in front of the sign. Amazing that lil ole me can stop three huge football players isn’t it?

We spent 14 hours shooting photos on Friday but had loads of fun doing it!  All of the photos in this post were taken by my husband, which might be obvious since I'm in so many of them but I feel I should say anyway.  Credit where credit is due kinda thing - ya know? ;-)

If you want to know more about Angel on My Shoulder or see Leroy Butler and Gilbert from last year then please visit this post.  It's truly a great organization that I'm proud to help out!

Camp Angel

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

The kids had a great time at Camp Angel. Although they all have an immediate family with cancer their weekend is about having fun. Getting away from it and spending time in the rocking chair room, spending time getting to know some animals and rock climbing.

Doing crafts and getting their faces painted.

Snowshoeing, when the weather finally warmed up a little from the -14 degrees we woke up to.

Riding on snowmobiles on the lake.

Thumbs up! Think they’re having fun!

Sledding.

This little boy wiped my husband out. Camera’s fine, and laughs all around.

They also got to ride in a horse drawn sleigh and on dog sleds! Needless to say they all went home exhausted. It’s one of the best things Angel on My Shoulder does. And it’s free for them to come!

My friend, Cathy

A friend of mine, Cathy Calvetti,  just started a website and blog, I’m sure she’d love to meet you. She’s an author and artist and geocacher and I could go on and on, but how about you just pop over and say hi!

I took this photo of Cathy over a year ago when we were out geocaching together.

Cancer Sucks!

My week just has not been going well. You may remember, in August, I shared about a friend of mine being ill. So you don’t have to click back I will share that part of the post:

When my husband changed jobs last year he began working with a man who’s wife has multiple myeloma and for the last year I have been sending her cards and notes. Through our husbands I’ve tracked her progress through two stem-cell transplants. Finally, she was well enough that she gave me a call and we agreed to meet in the middle (Oshkosh) for lunch.

Three weeks ago, I drove an hour away to meet the lady who had been on my mind so much this past year. Upon meeting there was instant comfort, we had an ease of talking you don’t often find with someone. We spent several hours just sitting and talking, and I think I’m safe to say that we both left feeling mighty good inside. She is an absolute wonderful woman! We agreed to meet at least once more before Christmas and I decided to start calling her every week or two. In the mean time, I was scheduled to see the oncologist on Tuesday and she was scheduled to see hers on Wednesday so we set a time to talk after those appointments.

It’s pretty funny, because when we would talk on the phone, we always set up a time to talk in a few days. For awhile she had to see her oncologist every 3 days but she had worked up to going every 10 days and was so happy with that. She got permission to go on vacation and was really looking forward to going this September.

Then she told her oncologist that she had been having a little pain in her hip. He immediately scheduled an MRI and a tumor was found, a rather large tumor, 5-6 inches and it was decided she would start radiation and chemo, once again. I am still having a hard time grasping how she can go to meeting me over an hour’s drive away, to being hospitalized and time ticking, in just a few days.

I haven’t been able to talk to her for the last week, she’s just too weak, but our husbands talk every day or so and her prognosis isn’t good. The doctor’s were talking in weeks, now they are talking in possible months. So that’s a little bit of good news. But in amidst all of this, they have also found a tumor in the motor center of her brain, so for now, that is the tumor being attacked. She’s not strong enough for them to work on the hip tumor and the brain tumor so brain trumps hip.

Over the last couple of months we have talked many, many times and she has been in and out of the hospital several times, honestly spending more time in than out. She went through chemo a couple more times and she so wanted to be here for as long as possible.

I am heartbroken. She passed away Sunday, and my brain just does not want to function properly. I know my grief is nothing compared to her family’s. Her husband is so very lost without her; they were together nearly 40 years. Her son and daughter, in their twenties, should not have to be without their mom. Every time she spoke of her husband and children she called them, My 'J' or My 'S' or My 'T', she loved them so much.

One of my greatest fears was that I would not live long enough to meet my grandchildren. She did not have grandchildren yet. Her children are not yet married, she missed that too. It’s not fair and I want to scream and maybe hit a few things. But instead, this evening, I will going her funeral.

I know October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and she fought breast cancer and won in 1998. The breast cancer was not what took her and in no way related to the Multiple Myeloma. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. She will be missed by many.

Good news and bad

Well, I have so much to say that I’m not quite sure where to start.

Let’s see, shortest first - my PET scan showed that I’m still in remission!  Not only that but the oncologist, himself, called to tell me.  I will go back in six months, but yippee!!

Regarding my Sprint crisis - A very nice and helpful Sprint Nextel Account Service Specialist contacted me and took care of our issue.  She removed the offending line at no charge and apologized for the problem.  Double Yippee!

. . .I agree with you and would like to offer you the ability to cancel the 6th line without having to pay the Early Termination Fee, since we cannot accommodate you and allow the 6 lines to remain on one family plan.  I would like to apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience in allowing us to resolve this for you.  You have been a valued Sprint customer for many years and we would not want something of this nature to interfere with the relationship.

Tristan, 17 month old grandson of mine, had to have oral surgery on Friday.  He did great!  Short explanation, a few months ago we noticed a dark spot on one tooth and his mom got him in to see a dentist, she was told it was some sort of mineral discoloration, possibly from his vitamins, Iron specifically.  Over the months since he got more dark spots on other teeth and Brit didn’t want to take him to the same dentist.  Every dentist she called did not want to see him until he was 3 years old (When did this start?!)  It took many phone calls and getting his pediatrician involved, but she finally found a dentist to see him.  They said he had many cavities, they did not pin point a cause and some could be genetic, but he needed several caps and they put him under for it.  It turns out they only capped his front top four teeth and the others were fine under x-ray. It all actually went rather quickly and he did great!  He will be seeing the dentist every six months now.

Now, the longest item.  When my husband changed jobs last year he began working with a man who’s wife has multiple myeloma and for the last year I have been sending her cards and notes.  Through our husbands I’ve tracked her progress through two stem-cell transplants.  Finally, she was well enough that she gave me a call and we agreed to meet in the middle (Oshkosh) for lunch.

Three weeks, I drove an hour away to meet the lady who had been on my mind so much this past year.  Upon meeting there was instant comfort, we had an ease of talking you don’t often find with someone.  We spent several hours just sitting and talking, and I think I’m safe to say that we both left feeling mighty good inside.  She is an absolute wonderful woman!  We agreed to meet at least once more before Christmas and I decided to start calling her every week or two.  In the mean time, I was scheduled to see the oncologist on Tuesday and she was scheduled to see hers on Wednesday so we set a time to talk after those appointments.

It’s pretty funny, because when we would talk on the phone, we always set up a time to talk in a few days.  For awhile she had to see her oncologist every 3 days but she had worked up to going every 10 days and was so happy with that.  She got permission to go on vacation and was really looking forward to going this September.

Then she told her oncologist that she had been having a little pain in her hip.  He immediately scheduled an MRI and a tumor was found, a rather large tumor, 5-6 inches and it was decided she would start radiation and chemo, once again.  I am still having a hard time grasping how she can go to meeting me over an hour’s drive away, to being hospitalized and time ticking, in just a few days.

I haven’t been able to talk to her for the last week, she’s just too weak, but our husbands talk every day or so and her prognosis isn’t good.  The doctor’s were talking in weeks, now they are talking in possible months.  So that’s a little bit of good news.  But in amidst all of this, they have also found a tumor in the motor center of her brain, so for now, that is the tumor being attacked.  She’s not strong enough for them to work on the hip tumor and the brain tumor so brain trumps hip.

I would appreciate any warm thoughts, prayers, vibes, etc, you could send her way.  She weighs on mind heavily everyday.

Angel on My Shoulder

We are helping out with most of the Angel on My Shoulder events this year, taking photos. Most of the events I label private and I feel I can’t share with you. These are cancer retreats, retreats for the caregivers of cancer patients and kid/teen camps for children with a loved one who has/had cancer. But this was one weekend full of fun that I feel pretty safe sharing. Lolly (the happy lady pictured above) is the founder of the organization and one energetic lady!

Do you know which Green Bay Packer that is? One of the things that impresses me most about this organization is that they are completely run by volunteers. No one draws a salary so all the funds raised goes right back into helping people.

These photos were taken at the Party with the Pack dinner and above you see Gilbert Brown posing with some fans. He was really nice, only giving me crap a time or two.

Leroy Butler happily signed autographs. And I managed to get both of their signatures before we left.

The next morning a few lucky people got to have breakfast with Leroy and Gilbert. They weren’t much in a mood for photos that early in the morning, until I told them that this couple (Wolf Pack owners) would be feeding them. Then they ran to the sign to pose for a moment. Btw, the Wolf Pack Café has awesome food if you’re ever in St Germaine.

 

This young man, Austin DeGroot, has an incredible voice(!) and leukemia.

After breakfast we were off to the golf course. They had about 200 players sign up for the Golf Spectacular, which is their biggest fundraiser each year.

Everyone took it in stride while we stalked them all for photos. We even earned the nickname of Paparazzi, in a loving way.

Aren’t long lenses great?!

Oops, that’s not a golfer.

It was an exhausting couple of days, but loads of fun too! I know this post is a little long but when you know that we took over 1500 photos, you know I weeded a bit.

The evening ended with a dinner and auction.

These are annual events and if you’re interested in being a part of next year’s just go to the Angel on My Shoulder website. (PS ~ there’s a wine tasting event coming up in September. We’ll be there snapping photos *hint hint*)