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Archive for the ‘Party Time’ Category

An invincible summer

Posted in At the Doctor's, Birthdays, Blessings, Boston, Change, Chronically cool, Coming together, Family, Friends, Home sweet home, Hospital life, Immune Deficiency, Invincible Summer, Kiddos, Life Line, Love and loss, mito, On the road, Party Time, Sick and Tired, Sleep, Smiles, Stealing words, Sunshine, Symposium, The Cans, The storm, Tutoring, umdf, Vampires on 8 September 2011| 6 Comments »

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus

Sometimes those of us with chronic illness get so caught up in the can’ts. The shouldn’ts. The mustn’ts. I decided to focus this summer on the things I can do. From embracing the lives of loved ones lost to adventures in lands (not-so-)faraway. So we celebrated, joined, conquered, ventured, traveled, laughed, cried, and smiled. And we experienced life. It didn’t matter that I did most of it hooked up to at least 3-4 tubes at a time. It mattered that I did it.

Now that the summer comes to a close (thank you, labor day), I thought I’d go through the tradition of writing the back-to-school essay “What I did this summer.” Then I rethought. And decided I’d show you.

What I did this summer:

{And wished her Happy Birthday}

{At the 2011 UMDF Symposium in Chicago}

{With my Great Aunt Arden at the Sears Willis Tower}

{Lab safety is a must while tutoring}

{Sisters Day Out – Southwick Zoo}

{First time at Niagara Falls – Maid of the Mist}

{Seneca Falls, NY – With two of my most influential people – On the bridge from one of my favorite movies, It’s a Wonderful Life}

{For the first time since my license was revoked for seizure activity}

{TPN bag, enteral tubes, and all!}

{White Mountains in NH with my favorite in-laws}

{Haven’t attempted this since I was a gymnast – take that mito!}

{At the 2011 Mighty Matthew Benefit in Plattsburgh, NY}

{We love you, Princess Eithene!}

{So blessed to live in Boston, the Medical Mecca of the World!}

{With 4 adults, 2 kiddos, 2 dogs, and a partridge in a pear tree}

{Disappointing from the weather standpoint, but fun nonetheless}

{With a grand closing to a grand summer!}

And no one can say I didn’t do. Because I did. I really did.

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Here comes the sun

Posted in Blessings, Change, Coming together, Dogs, Family, Friends, Home sweet home, Keith, Kiddos, Life, Love and loss, mito, Party Time, Realizations, Sharing is caring, Smiles, Stealing words, The way I see it on 25 April 2011| 2 Comments »

Note: I wrote this blog nearly a month ago and am just now getting around to posting it because a good friend has been asking for it for ages and I thought she could use a small pick-me-up. This one’s for you, Liz…

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Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here

This winter has been one full of challenges, stresses, adaptation, loss, learning, sickness, and love. Yes, love. Without it, I’m not sure I would’ve come out as relatively unscathed on this end.

This winter, New England received more snow than it had in years. It was blizzard after blizzard. It was cold and unrelenting. Even worse, my body appeared to be taking lessons.

One thing that I’ve always prided myself on is being able to rise from just about anything and everything stronger and smiling. After December, I was petering on the edge, still smiling, but straining and struggling not to lose myself. But after the second month of medical hell, I wasn’t sure that I wasn’t going to rise.

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Now back to our regularly scheduled program

Posted in Babies, Coming together, Family, Friends, Home sweet home, Immune Deficiency, Keith, Kiddos, Party Time, Playing Games, Raising Awareness, Sleep, Tummy troubles, Tutoring on 9 March 2011| 2 Comments »

As you may have noticed, I’ve been mostly absent from the internet for over two weeks now. Following an internet snafu at our apartment that took far too long to remedy (thank you, Comcast…), I’m baaaack! And we are now the proud owners of a land-line with a Massachusetts phone number! Yahoo!

I must say that it was somewhat nice not having internet. I didn’t stress over e-mail or Facebook or even the weather. Whatever happened, happened. It’d still be there when I got the internet back. I was able to check for important e-mails and monitor bank accounts and the like by borrowing internet from friends every few days, but it was for minutes at a time and just for the essentials. It was almost as if I were back in the 1990s! And I loved it!

But now that I’m back, I’ll give you a brief update on the last 18 days, you know, in the few hours I wasn’t catching up on sleep! 😛

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