Labor Day 2010

Another holiday. Hard to believe it was just TWO Labor Days ago Melissa was here. We had so much fun taking Drew to his first parade. I just read her post for that day...she LOVED coming to visit, especially to see Drew.
We ran into some of her friends today - Amanda K - who she played basketball with at Fairmont...first time I've seen her since they graduated I think...that was hard... and John & Jill, more good friends of hers. And Andy of course at the Pancake Breakfast...and Tracy with her son, Parker. And Quincy & Richie and their kids. Wow. She should be here. I miss her every day, and seeing her friends is nice, but makes me think SHE should be here too.

Donny had practice @ 7, then met me, Nick, Mere & the kids at the parade...the kids had a good time, Max LOVES the music (he hears music and he starts to dance - it's SO cute)...that's ANOTHER thing that's so hard for me to comprehend - Max never got to meet his aunt Fort - she would have LOVED his personality too...after the parade, headed to the Fraze for the Craft Show/FOOD (especially)...about an hour of that and they were ready for naps. So were we.
Ran into Nancy K - said she and Jen S. were on the FOPA float (won one of the Awards too - Congratulations!) - and a butterfly followed them almost the whole parade route...FORT?)

A good day - exhausted, but fun for the kids. And that's what gets me through each day -the kids.


Nick & Drew take a break on "Fort's" bench before we go to the parade...

a friend of mine is a school bus driver and does the "Bus Saftey" talks at all of the elementary schools - she was walking down the parade route and stopped to let me get a picture of Drew with the bus...THANKS Marianne!




Drew & Max patiently waiting for the parade to start...


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FIREBIRDS WIN!
Fairmont beat Miamisburg Friday night in a thriller. Too much for my old heart to take. Fmt was down 14-10 with 5:09 (per Donny) to go - scored with 40 seconds to go in the game. Miamisburg got the ball to the 30 and looked like they might score - but Fairmont held on for Andy's first win as the new Head Football coach. (oh...Fort was there...Donny saw a butterfly ON THE FIELD before the game...pointed it out to Andy too. She MUST have been at her cousin Ryan's game INSTEAD of the Alter game....)
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Beautiful weekend. Melissa LOVED the fall, so I figured she'd like the new stuff - red & yellow mums, a pumpkin and a deer since she LOVED seeing the deer in her backyard. Sprinkled a few gold confetti hearts around too - I KNOW she'd like that touch. Sure wish I could be helping her plant mums at HER house...she didn't have a green thumb, as most of you know (remember, when I gave her the black eyed susans to plant at their house, she THREW them in the garden, INSTEAD of planting them!)...and spruced up a little for JP for the fall too. Fall makes me miss them even more - JP's 7th birthday is coming up here in about a month...hard to believe....




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My friend (and former colleague) Jackie. We delivered books/toys/stuffed animals to Childrens Hospital in Dayton this weekend. Last year our principal challenged our staff (at Moraine Meadows) to do the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati. Unbelievably, almost the entire staff took him up on his challenge! We decided to make it a fundraiser for Jackie, who had just been diagnosed with uterine cancer. We raised close to $1500! When we asked where she wanted the money to go - she said "You KNOW how much I love literacy - how about the library at school?" When they decided to close MM...she decided to make the donation the Children's Hospital...THEY were thrilled!
(not sure if I mentioned this in an earlier post - but when I went to see the medium, one of the things he said was "who are you helping that is going through cancer right now? Melissa wants you to know she is there with you"... It was Jackie. Melissa loved Jackie like I LOVE Jackie! OH - and Jackie has been going through treatments for almost a year now and is doing well - back to work - at another building, but doing well.





NEW BREAST CANCER RESEARCH

Took me a couple of days to be able to post this...saw ON the news and IN the paper that the newest breast cancer research shows that women who test positive for the BRCA gene (which Melissa did) have a much lower chance of getting breast cancer if they have a double mastectomy/hysterectomy...seven years to late with this news for Melissa, but GOOD news for women who have a history of breast cancer in their family - EITHER SIDE - Mother or Father's side. When Melissa was diagnosed, we couldn't understand WHERE or WHY she had breast cancer. We always believed that it came from the Mother's side - and I had no history in my family. We later found out that it can indeed come from the father's side...I also had the test (tested NEG)- Melissa's grandma (who has breast cancer) tested negative also. SO the gene came from her dad's side. My surgeon said if I didn't carry the gene, Melissa got it from her dad - who got it from HIS dad. His dad has two sisters who also have breast cancer - one just recently passed away. Her daughter tested positive for the gene and had the double mastectomy/complete hysterectomy. SMART MOVE on her part (even before all this research came out).

My point here? If you have a family history of breast cancer on EITHER side - do yourself AND your families a favor and talk to your doctor about this test.
As Melissa once said "WHO NEEDS 'EM ANYWAY???????"

Have a good week...