Living for Lisa

As you know, Lisa Burns has lived with Stage 4 breast cancer for the last 5 years. She discovered her metastasized breast cancer in her 8th month of pregnancy with Sofia. Such an extreme tragedy would bring almost anyone down.

Lisa has been though a lot in the last five years. She faces on and off strict diets, she exercises almost every day, and she continues to have her port for her difficult and non-stop chemotherapy treatments. She does all this on top of taking care of her family. In spite of all of this, she maintains her smile, spirit and her laugh. Lisa is a true inspiration to many of us who know her and get to spend time with her.

Lisa's scheduled body scans had slowed in frequency since she had been beating all odds and has been healthy. However, this summer she knew her breathing was not right. She suspected something might be happening with her cancer and insisted on being scanned again. Sure enough, she knew her body and there had been some activity.

Lisa is pursing a Clinical Trial that is in phase 2. However, breast cancer is not available in this study right now, so in order to pursue the clinical trial, she will have to pay out of her pocket.

Those of us who love Neil and Lisa and sweet Sofia want to help support her in her new hunt for a treatment. There is only 1 option for Lisa and that is Living. We have started a "Living for Lisa" fund and we hope that you will support her as much as you can. Thank you for your help and consideration.

https://www.wepay.com/donate/livingforlisa

Fiddling Cabbages

St. Thomas Aquinas has a big Carnival every year and it is quite a production. Now that we are at the school, I have an entire new level of appreciation for all the work the families put in to making this event special for the kids and the adults. It's a great, great time. During the Carnival, they have a Talent Show. Right away, Ainsley Grace wanted to be a part of it - after consulting with our Violin Teacher Mrs. Kathy, she suggested we playing a little fiddling piece called Boiling Cabbages instead of one of her longer classical pieces. One skill (and it is a skill) is if you mess up, you keep playing. AG had a tiny mess up but she kept playing and no one even knew! She did a FANTASTIC job!! Here are pictures the organizer took for us..... Her friends came to watch her, it was so sweet!





Here is the Green Team tent (I'm the co-chair). It was fun and cute.


Here is the team walking to the dunking booth - AG got em good!


Here is my adorable Goddaughter with her cute hairdo and her yummy treat!


Here is my Green Team Bulletin Board. I had helpers...


Here is Lulubee with two of her besties. She hasn't had a playdate with her WRM friends since school started. It was sweet - they had a great time and played and played... That next picture is Vintage Lexi - She likes to do crazy hairdos and usually at places where a lot of strangers see us....


Here is Anderson's poster board for being Student of the Week.It was cute - he wanted a picture of Mac and Cheese, Banana Split, his brother, family, Spiderman, Ninja, swords and a soccerball with flames!



Here is Whit - A lady at the grocery store looked at him and told me, "he is juicy!"


September is crazy crazy busy. But, as you can see, it's all happy busy. Kids are working hard in school, dancing, karating, playing soccer and playing music. Now, we are gearing up for Halloweeeeeeen!!

6 months already

Man, this is one cute little dude. He laughed and laughed during our peek-a-boo session... Happy Half Birthday Whitaker!

Brothers

She's GREAT

It's official, our little girl is now a big 8 year old. She had a super fun party. Lexi and I bought little silk fortune cookies in NYC for her Asian Fusion party. The fortune read, "In your future, you will be celebrating Ainsley Grace's 8th birthday party at Benihanas." It was super cute. AG wore her kimono we bought her in NY and wanted her ballet bun for her party. She also wanted us to make her cake. She invited a lot of her new school friends and they were a sweet group.

Although, I began to question this party once most the girls had arrived and they decided to seat us early because it was so loud! 14 8 year old girls. Yup, it was loud and FUN.

What a fun show!



She had a ball. And she was not the only one having fun!




I explained to the kids that the symbol on her cake was an 8 in Chinese. They asked verbatim, "how did you know how to write her name in Chinese, too??" Well, that's what happens when Mumsie is not here to make our cakes! LOL, I was cracking up.


Happy Birthday Ainsley Grace. 8 is great and so are YOU. We love you bunny love.

Impressive

So, the day of Anderson's Kinder Camp, I took the kids to Luby's for lunch. They had never been in or seen a cafeteria before. It was so extremely funny I wish Stan could have been there to hear all of the remarks. We were quite a sight in that line, I'm dragging the baby down the line in the carrier b/c he was asleep. I was barking at the kids, MAKE A DECISION! Mom, our meal comes with Jello!!!! Fine, you can have it - pick the color, blue or green! Oh the decisions... Mom, we get a roll!! Ainsley Grace got two sides of Mashed Potatoes. They exclaimed, "Mom, this place is great. It is really impressive." They would not stop talking about the place the ENTIRE LUNCH. I love my kids....

There are many things that impress me. This one was a biggie, my friend Laura gave me this for my 40th birthday present. It was called "40 Adjectives for Dawn." Sweetest most thoughtful gift EVER. Should I... Why, YES! These were her adjectives for me. Obviously I ate this up!

Witty, Stylish, Creative, Silly, Organized, Unique, Empathetic, Intelligent, Republican, Unsinkable, Nutty, Enthusiastic, Magnetic, Loyal, Brave, Successful, Maternal, Godly, Interesting, Fantastic, Godmother, Fun, Involved, Friendly, Comfortable, Unstoppable, Faithful, Thoughtful, Wonderful, Sensitive, Encouraging, Beautiful, Glorious, Refreshing, Gentle, Zany, Funky, Authentic, Warm, Outgoing

Here is the Kung Fu Master finally in his element....! Even the teachers are impressed with his skills!

Here is Mr. Mo sitting up for 30 seconds before he tumbles over. CUTE and impressive!

This tasty Hot Fudge Sunday from McDonald's only costs a buck. It's pretty impressive...

I can push all the buttons and bite everything on my wonderbug. I'm impressed with myself!

On a serious note, this is one of my dear friends out celebrating my 40th with me. She is one of the strongest, beautiful, funny, smartest people I know. She has been living and surviving with Cancer and has recently had a re-occurrence. We are about to have a fundraiser for her to help her through this next fight. Please. Pray. For her.