And now a recap, Summer 2012

It's time to get back to blogging. Has it really been since November? Yikes. Would you believe my New Year's resolution was to blog more often? Yeah, me neither. Life is exciting and busy with a 3 year old but apparently that's no excuse as I regularly read blogs written by people who have way more going on than that. Although I do have yet to find another blog of an over 40 single mom with a toddler, a geriatric dog and Stage IV cancer. Quite possibly that's a very small subset of the population. Just sayin.

When we last left off, I relaxed at a weekend retreat fly fishing. We enjoyed the rest of the summer with gusto, having fun at home and going on outings...

The Woodbury High School gymnastics team reunited. Well a few of us anyway. We had a great time anyway. Some of us (not me necessarily) still have the moves! Still looking for Michelle's set of keys, anyone seen them? Someday they will show up, I'm sure!

 Katy saw her first fireworks, down the street on the fairway of the country club. It was at least 120 degrees outside, with 110% humidity and there were swarms of mosquitos. And yet we cuddled tightly for the duration of the show. Not Katy's favorite thing, I guess. So sweaty...

We had visits with some or our Ethiopian friends! Katy's best friend Evi and her mom Rachel visited from Superior. The girls are so cute together! And since they have know each other the longest of anyone in their life, we're so glad we can keep in touch. Stay tuned for more cuteness on that front.

Sophie and her mom Sarah visited in August from Illinois (Indiana? why can't I remember that?) It's fun to see the girls growing up!

I scored backstage tickets to the Barenaked Ladies show at the Minnesota Zoo. My favorite fun band at an excellent outdoor venue. It was a great night! I also saw Coldplay and Madonna at the Xcel Center with work friends in the suites. Great nights, bad pictures but this post is long enough to skip any of those.

 Katy loves getting messy and splashing in the water to clean off...

We went to lots of festivals...
Linden Hills corn feed. So yummy! Also Linden Hills festival which featured Katy's first pony ride. Great video of that, can't find it.

Woodbury Days - another pony ride!

The Minnesota State Fair - Katy's second trip was much more active. Last year she slept through most of it. This year there was food, rides, coloring and dancing on stage! We also checked out my crochet projects entered in the creative arts contest. Two red ribbons! I'll have to think of something else fun for this year and see if I can score a blue ribbon.

Ethiopian New Year 2005 celebration with Nana and Papa

That's way more than enough for one post. Sheesh, I've missed a lot. Next up, fall and winter!

Katy's lifebook, chapter 1

Katy gets published! Many thanks to a fellow adoptive mom for the base version of this wonderful book. I adapted it to Katy's story and I'm already on to chapter two. Hopefully I can get it done before it's time for chapter three!

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love award-winning Shutterfly photo books. Start your own today.

Casting for Recovery weekend

While perusing the flyers at Pathways, I came across the Casting for Recovery brochure. If you haven't heard of it and are a breast cancer survivor, you should definitely check it out. They host fly fishing retreats across the country. And it's free for participants! It is positively amazing how generous people can be and I for one am truly appreciative of their donations of time, money and spirit.

Our retreat was on the first weekend in June in Siren, Wisconsin. We had time to socialize and get to know each other. Then we got into tying flies, learning to cast and making lanyards for our guides and prayer flags. It was so fun! And finally on Sunday morning we each got our own guide and we tried our luck at actual fly fishing. I met some beautiful and strong women, both participants and volunteers. We had lots of laughs and a couple of tears too. I was the only Stage IV girl there, thankfully for them but sad for me. Nevertheless we bonded on that level that facing cancer brings. If I could do it every year I would. Maybe I'll become a volunteer...

We gathered up all our gear and learned to tie some basic knots

Outside of the Lodge at Crooked Lake we tried our first attempts at casting

It's good to have a bit of instruction first!

One of the neat things about the weekend was the swag, I'm not gonna lie :-) We had goodies on our beds when we checked in and when we left. We also got a graduation bag of goodies. At lunch one day we all had our names drawn for gift baskets. At The Hartford, the main sponsor of the retreat, the employees have contests to make up the best gift baskets. The winning baskets are given to the participants. When my name was chosen I got a big styrofoam cooler of grilling utensils and condiments which was great but I had most of it already. My table mate drew a box of cupcake making goodies. Didn't take too much for us to realize we liked each other's baskets so we traded! Her husband was going to love all the grilling gear and I'm making cupcakes. yea!

This is a wooly something or other. I did not catch a fish with it but it looks like a fish would think it was tasty. I guess?

My prayer flag

The beautiful Crooked Lake

Gotta have all the gear, right? I'm suited up and ready to fish.

Knapp Creek, just south of Siren. A beautiful place to be, fishing or not!

Proof I caught a fish! No that's not bait, that's the fish.

My new friends Lisa and Catherine (her guide) reeling in one of her catches

I couldn't have wished for a better weekend. Great company, great weather, great fun! 

Holiday Weekend Visit

Memorial Day weekend we had a great visit from Aunt Susan and Uncle Erik. I was recovering from surgery and they offered to come and take care of us for a bit. Yea!

We started off with a trip to Como Park Zoo and Conservatory

Which included a ride on the carousel. Katy actually enjoyed it very much, even if the photo doesn't show it.

We also spent some time with Nana and Papa. One of our excursions was to Smalley's Pirate Bar in Stillwater. Apparently they are the home to the hottest wings, even hot enough to almost make Triple D's Guy Fieri cry! We polished off one plate of six wings and they were indeed the hottest.wings.ever. I had one bite then promptly ordered the milk and ice cream sandwich platter. Good gravy that was too much. (Katy wanted one but wisely, we said no)

The rest of the weekend we hung out, played around and did some chores around the house. Erik fixed my remote (woot!) and the crib (double woot!) and Susan cooked some amazing meals (yum!). Erik also set us up with some XBox360 games and we had loads of fun flailing about. Wish I had pictures of that!

Not sure why she wanted to tape herself together...

Having fun on the rocks soon to be added to the rain garden.

Beating the heat with the fun pool rings from Nana.

Part of our holiday celebration involved these yummy Snow Cone Cupcakes. Despite the crappy picture, they were quite spectacular. They even had foil sparklers on them and sugar crystals so they looked like snow cones. 

We love having visitors and especially loved having Auntie and Uncle here! We won't get to see them again until Christmas and we're looking forward to it.

Linden Hills Festival

In the spirit of catching up, the next adventure (happening on May 20th) was the Linden Hills Festival. I've attended with Riley in past years. We did not, however, participate in the kid and pet parade until this year. Riley got to stay home this time and Katy got to ride the choo-choo stroller. At the last minute, I got some kind of crazy idea I'd make the stroller into a train. It was slapdash crafting at it's finest. Time from start to finish was about 15 minutes and by the time we got to the parade, two blocks down, the mist had taken a toll on mama, Katy and the choo-choo. Nevertheless we soldiered on and enjoyed a fine parade!

Here's the fabulous engine with a stack made from the spiral from the water table and a pinwheel whipped up out of scrapbook paper and a long ruler. The back has drawings of a conductor, which sadly ended up looking more like the doughboy than a train conductor. Hazard of working for the doughboy for so long I guess!

Southwest High School band starts it off! It was quite crowded at the beginning so we let a bunch of people go before we took off. I'm not sure Katy was enthralled with the noise of the band anyway.

Next stop was the pony rides! After the parade, this was the main attraction for me us. Since Katy hadn't ever been on a pony before, at least as far as I know, she was apprehensive at first. We were almost first in line because it was nearing nap time, freezing cold and rainy. The ponies were just getting saddled up and we watched for a bit.

Then it was our turn! Katy loved it! Because it was her first time, I walked next to her. Guessing I wouldn't have to do that again but I didn't want her falling off when I was across the pen just for the sake of a good picture.

I did get a little bit of video. The jolt at the end is from the ride coming to a stop rather suddenly. Didn't scare this munchkin a bit, I think she's going to be a daredevil!

After the pony ride we hightailed it home so we could warm up. Looking at the weather today which is somewhere around 90 degrees and tropical dew points I can't imagine how we were so cold. brrrrr.

Mother's Day Race for the Cure

I decided this year I wanted to try the Komen Race for the Cure. The local radio station was giving away a plane ticket to bring someone to walk with you and I thought maybe I'd win it. Indeed, I didn't but I'm glad we went anyway. My cousins Kathleen and Karen joined us and it was a beautiful day for a walk. I'm not sure I felt any more connected to the cause. In fact I felt a little on the outside. In the pink washing that is associated with that pink ribbon, no one really talks about those of us fighting the metastatic battle. The not-so-happy, smily and pink part of cancer. I'm really happy about all the money that gets raised for screening, prevention and early diagnosing. Disappointed that more doesn't go to the 30% of us who see it rear its ugly head again, much too soon. In any case, I'm glad we went and now, even if we don't ever go again, we'll have the memories of a fun day!

Here we are pre-race...

 Amidst the mass of pink people

 Catching up with some of my Yoplait friends

 And post-race winding down

All in all it was a great way to spend my first mother's day with my angel!

Project Weighted Blanket

My darling Katy sometimes struggles to get to sleep. At daycare it's been especially difficult. In her crib she can jabber on in her own language of sorts for an hour or more. Completely content but very much awake. Hard to do that at daycare though! So after much research and the advice of Katy's occupational therapist, I embarked on the mission to create a calming weighted blanket. I found a great tutorial at Craft Nectar. It was very easy to follow and it has helped settle Katy's restlessness a lot.

First the supplies: fuzzy, fleecy type fabric (non stretchy) and a soft cottony fabric, poly pellets and a scale. The striped fabric made it easy for this rookie sewer to keep in straight lines. I used 4 lbs of the pellets and the finished size was about 30"x45".

 Sewing the two fabrics together and creating channels

 Starting to fill the channels

 Almost finished

 The final product!

 Closer view, scrunchier face

Katy is loving her blanket and is sleeping much better at home and at daycare. I have enough supplies to make another so we don't have to carry it back and forth every day. Now just to find the time...