I guess your really can go home again.

     Over the past 54 years I sure have packed a lot of info into my tiny little brain.  And I'm beginning to think it's the Bermuda Triangle.  Some information gets buried so far that not even Houdini could make it reappear. 

     Lets think back to my childhood... I can't even remember what I did last weekend; How am I supposed to remember what happened 45 or fifty years ago.

     However, through the magic of Facebook, a neighborhood friend from my early childhood somehow found me.  It was truly magic because I'm guessing I look quite different then I did when I was 8 or 9, and my name... not only is it different, but not even my closest friends could spell it.

     But Heather mysteriously found me, along with several other friends from our childhood.

     I vaguely remembered her three brothers, Chris, Darren and the baby, Todd, along with Heather, when I dug deep inside my brain; but the actual details were impossible to retrieve.

     Heather and her brothers live all over the country at this point, but they had planned to take a road trip to their old stomping ground; in the hopes of taking a walk down memory lane.

     After several messages back and fourth, surprisingly, eight of us, including a couple of our parents, were able to meet up.

     I'll be honest, I couldn't pick most of these guys out of a  police line up; though Heather's brother, Chris, said he recognized me right away.  That in it's self was impressive. 

     Of course, you know I'll talk to random strangers in a heartbeat, so even if the memories were buried I had no problem making conversation.

     And these guys really did their homework; pulling up pictures I didn't even remember posing for.  But I do recognize my own face, so I must have been there.

     In case it isn't obvious, I'm the one with the long hair on the right...

     I certainly hope these guys were able to recreate some child hood memories on their venture; I know I have some new memories to store in my brain now (move over grade school history...)! It's amazing how 45 years later we had so much to talk about.

     Thanks for looking us up Heather!  I guess you really can go home again:)

Have a great day!!

Christine:)

One more year on this earth, and I owe it all to my wonderful Mom!!

     I know it's not typical for women to admit their age; but I'm absolutely honored to be on this earth for 54 years.  And I thank God and my wonderful mom every single day.

     As I've mentioned before, I have two birthdays; August 29th, 2011, the day I gave breast cancer the boot, and November 18, 1962, the the day I was put on this earth.  I was blessed with two very special birthday gifts, and they didn't even have to be wrapped.

     I'll gladly accept every wrinkle and scar with pride, because I have a story to go with them all.  And I look forward to acquiring many more in the years to come.  My body is my trophy case:)

     Looking at this picture of my three year old self, I can't help but wonder what must have been going through my mind, so many years ago.  The only challenge I had at the time was keeping up with my three brothers, and to see this photo you would never guess I gave them a run for their money.

        But 51 years later I continue to dig my heels in and take the challenges as they hit me.  I was certainly blessed with a very strong will.

     After all this time, I wouldn't change one thing about my life if I had the chance, and I owe the last 54 years to God and my wonderful mom!! (and of course my guardian angel/Dad in heaven)

     Thank you for the best gift of all!!  Love you mom! :)

Have a great day!!

Christine:)

Can't blame the MS this time!

          In the past, I've shared with you some of the unfortunate mishaps that I've experienced because I wasn't careful.  And in my defense, the times I've gone flying through the air I could attribute to my MS and crazy foot not cooperating with me. But this time I had no one to blame but myself...

     So it started out to be a calm, typical Tuesday morning at work, and I couldn't even blame it on Monday...  My job is to man the phones and the front desk.  But if I need a quick break the phones aren't going to answer themselves, So a co worker, Jenny, came up to relieve me.

     I know by now not to try to run because that only ends up in me flying trough the air.  But I quickly pulled open the heavy, swinging wooden door to the little girls room, turned on the light, and for some strange reason, unbeknownst to me, I put my other hand in the door jam.  I know... I have no idea why... but I don't always thinks things through.  You guessed it. The heavy door came swinging back like a pendulum!  

     I'm not gonna lie.  It felt like someone had chopped my finger right off. I looked, and thankfully there were still ten.   Now, if I wasn't in the restroom I would have surely dropped to my knees and and pass out for sure. but since that didn't seem like a good idea, I didn't... but as I supported myself with the vanity, I could feel my body heating up and I couldn't catch my breath.  It was my finger, so I'm not sure why, but I was totally sick to my stomach.

     I knew Jenny would start to wonder where I was, so I tried to shake it off and head back to the front desk.

     But as I got there I still felt like I was going to pass out, so I asked Jenny if she could give me a minute to catch my breath.  

     As any logical thinking person knows, ice should have been the first form of defense.  But I wasn't thinking logically, so when Jenny asked me twice if she could get me some ice, I told her I could just squeeze my finger until the pain stopped, so she could get back to work.

          See, this didn't look like it needed icing...

     Not bad at all...Right!?!?

     Until about two hours later... Yikes!

     I finally listened to another strong suggestion to ice it, but by this point it appeared I had missed my window.  My finger had already swelled up like a basket ball, and it felt like it could explode any moment.

     Then a couple suggestions to go to the doctor were made as well, but I knew the doctor would just say "ice it and pay on your way out".  I could save the time and money and do that on my own.

     Now I started getting a little nervous when my finger looked like it truly was going to fall off.  I kept trying to picture my hands with only nine...

                                        

     Of course, within a few days the swelling had gone down, and under neath my pink polished nails I could see the purple nail bed showing through.  Everyone told me I'll probably loose the nail.  Now I'm imagining my finger, nail-less... 

     I guess I just needed to see how bad the damage was, so I ripped the gel polish off, which probably wasn't the best way to do it.

     Surprisingly, it didn't look as bad as I would have thought.  But now my nails looked like a big hot mess.

     But nothing another manicure couldn't fix.

     A little glitter polish to camouflage the purple, and I was good as new!  And I guess according to the manicurist, doing one nail is a "thing"; who knew.

          I still don't know if my nail will fall off eventually.  Though, at least I don't have to stare at the purple anymore while I wait.

     But I'll be sure to have one last manicure with ten nails while I can:)

     I certainly learned a big lesson here... I might think I have all the answers, but sometimes I need to listen to others:)  Here's to ten fingers!!

Have a great day!!!

Christine:)

Is there a mouse in the house?!

        Most people would call an exterminator, but no one seemed to mind the Mouse in this house!! Mr. Chuck E. Cheez Has been a big Icon way back when my kids were tikes; and now the grand babies are carrying on tradition.

     

     When we decided to go just happened to be a Saturday night, and it seemed like the rest of the city had that same idea.  But without much coaxing we convinced uncle Matt to come with, and three adults to two little people was a perfect ratio; we had them out numbered!

             It was swarming with kids of all ages, I'll give you that; but spending time with these little guys was well worth the challenge of fighting through the crowd.

          And Uncle Matt loves video games, so he and William were ready to tackle these bad boys head on!  There were tickets just waiting to be earned:)  But first they needed pizza for fuel, as any serious gamer will tell you.

     This dynamic duo didn't take long to begin to tackle the millions of games surrounding them.

       But Conner found his own buddy to hang out with.

     William may not be as big as Uncle Matt, but he certainly seemed to keep up.  And he had to show mommy just how it's done:) 

     You can't see it, but this train had real steam coming from it's engine, and it obviously didn't take much to impress Conner.

     They call this a game, but if you ask me, I thinks these boys were taking a nap, before they headed back out to the trenches.
                                        
          A quick selfie with my little bud...
                                          

 then it was time for Conner to show Amma his skills...

     This game below may have been too small for Uncle Matt, but he seemed to have fun watching his little nephew conquer it.

     Incidentally, this one was the perfect size for Conner, and he may have even been showing mommy the ropes...

     It sure looks like William was feeling right at home with no shoes on; after all, comfort is important in his strategy...

     We may have battled a million kids this day, but we had a million smiles as well...

     And at the end of the day, I would swim through an ocean of screaming kids over and over, just to get one smile:)

Have a great day!!

Christine:)