I Got A Rock.

I am writing from the hospital.
Our 16 day break turned into a 14 day break
because Ryan doesn't want to miss anymore school
or drama rehearsals as well because
her drama production is in 2 short weeks.
So here we are 2 days early :(

Last night, I had Erin get dressed in her
Halloween costume because I will miss
going trick-or-treating with her because of
being here in the hospital.
This time I drove us in,
so I do have my car if Ryan is feeling o.k.,
I just might drive the 3 hours roundtrip
as to not miss my first Halloween with my girls.
Look at my Erin!:



How cute is that?
She came up with the idea of being
"the Charlie Brown ghost who says 'I got a rock.'"
all by herself but she is her mother's daughter
when it comes to loving all things "Peanuts"
And my mom gets all the credit
for putting the ghost part together.
Thanks Mom!!!
My contribution was my stash of old American Crafts stickers
to use for the quote on the paper bag.

Believe it or not,
I actually scrapped last night.
I have had no desire or inspiration
in the least to scrap lately.
But last weekend, we went pumpkin picking
at a local farm and I took a photo of Ryan
in front of the red barn wall
in her new fall coat.
I used the "Togetherness" line of Cosmo Cricket.
How gorgeous are these colors?:



So that's about it,
signing off from day #1(of 5)
of chemo round #3(of 6)
Drop us a quick line to say hello,
we can use all the smiles we can get!

Happy Halloween!
-Jody

October Blatherings

Hi everybody!
I figured I would write a new post
catching up on this past month
a.k.a October blatherings.

First of all,
I have not scrapped at all.
This makes me so sad and I wonder just when
I will ever feel the urge to.
I take all these wonderful photos,
and I feel...nothing.
But I can finally post the page that was published
in last month's Creating Keepsakes magazine.
Megan was the star of this layout,
I had taken so many photos of her that fall day,
in this cute orange shirt,
it made for a very easy play on a title.:



Next up, the love of my life.
No, not my husband or children.
My sweet bunny, Delilah.
(Ok, Erin's sweet bunny Delilah)
Here she is in full-frontal flop mode:



Did you know that a rabbit's fur color can change?
I came home after spending 6 days in the hospital,
and I thought Andy killed our bunny and replaced it with another
because she had changed so drastically in her face.
You betcha I googled it! lol

Next up was my High School reunion.
Oh my, what a great time was had.
We saw people that we were so close with to this day...
and people we have not seen since graduation 30 years ago.
And it was if not a day had passed.
A perfect evening.:



Let me preface this next paragraph by saying,
I will be a happy woman if I never see another snowflake.
Here in New York, we get all 4 seasons in their glory.
The winters are long and cold, the summers are short and hot.
But the fall? :::sigh:::
It is so stunning, the foliage is probably
at it's most beautiful right now.
Here is a photo I took right by West Point.
The view is incredible and my camera doesn't even do it justice.:



Even in our backyard, we get some beautiful backdrops for photos
and its my new favorite photo of #2 and #3:



Next up, was Ryan's Homecoming Dance.
You know I did a happy dance when she said
all her friends wanted to come to our house
to get ready and take photos!
I took so many lovely photos of them in their finery,
here is the entire gang.
It is so hard trying to get 15 teens to all look at me,
but here is the best shot.
There are 5 exchange students from France in the photo,
and Ryan's french friend Camille is very sweet.
She speaks very little english and we speak no french,
so my husband makes up for it
by speaking LOUDLY and s-l-o-w-l-y.
I have to keep telling him,
"Andy, she's French, not deaf!"



We also went pumpkin/apple picking yesterday,
but I'll leave that for later this week.
As always, thank you for your good thoughts for Ryan.
When she isn't in the hospital, life is so very good!
Have a great day!
-Jody

Run For Ryan, Walk For Wenke

The "Run for Ryan, Walk for Wenke" benefit
was held this past Sunday afternoon.
It was a beautiful blue sky, crisp autumn day
overshadowed only by the incredible turnout.
So many friends, family and what felt like
the entire community showed up to show support.
The final tally was around 650 people!
Can you believe that?



Some people walked:



Some people ran:



Some people wore tshirts in support (and they sold out!)



Some people wore sunglasses to hide their happy tear crying:



Some people were in awe of this young man Bobby,
who orchestrated this entire event,
along with another classmate of Ryan's
(a lovely young girl I work with named Alayna)
and the love he has for my daughter.



Some are still overcome by the emotion,
brought on by all the love felt
on that high school track
on that beautiful blue sky, crisp autumn day.
We are very blessed.
This I know.

-Jody

Round 2

I am writing this from the hospital
on day #5 of chemo round #2.
We are being released tonight,
and not a moment too soon,
because this weekend will be a very busy one.
Back in March, Ryan went to France with her school
and stayed with a host family.
She has become very close with the girl her age.
Camille arrives here tomorrow,
so we have lots to do in preparation of her arrival.
And then on Sunday, there is a walk/run benefit for Ryan
at her high school.
It's looks to be a beautiful day,
with hundreds of people attending.
I hope to take some photos of the event.
I can't wait to see and feel all the love
that will be there for her.
This hospital stay has been pretty uneventful.
She just got sick for the first time,
which is always tough to watch :(
We have filled our days with many MTV shows.
I am now a "Teen Mom" addict,
after watching the same show 276 times.
At the beginning of this post,
is a photo of Ryan I took
before we left for the hospital.
Bald is beautiful.
Thank you for your prayers and your comments.
I am grateful for each and every one.

Much love,
Jody

30 Years???

Hello again!
Tomorrow night, my husband and I will be attending
my 30th High School reunion!
How can that be???
Sometimes, it literally feels like yesterday
that I was walking the halls
(and cutting out of the classes)
of my high school.
It probably helps that I am married
to my high school boyfriend,
which keeps it still so fresh in my mind.
We were asked to send in a photo of ourselves
for a class montage and I found this gem
from waaaaaaay back in 1980:



Ahhhh, the memories.
What do you think about Andy's 'fro?
And my eyebrows that were tweezed
within an inch of their life?
I bought him that turquoise cross
and that terry cloth shirt he is wearing!
Yes, those were the good old days :)
Fast forward 30 years...
throw in some wrinkles, some gray hair
and add some extra pounds (for just me!)
and here we are now:



We had a scare earlier this week when
Ryan woke up on Monday morning with a low grade fever
of 100.3 and a sore throat.
We are expected to go to the hospital every Monday
for a weekly check-up.
But a fever over 100.4 means immediate hospital admission.
So we drove there in silence, expecting the worst.
When we got there, they took her temperature...
98.6!!!
She was SO happy she didn't have to stay,
it's bad enough chemo #2 is fast approaching this Sunday.
Ryan, sadly has tried to hold on to her hair,
but it was not to be.
She pulled it out in clumps yesterday,
so out came the wig again.
She is such a trooper :*)

I ventured into my scraproom again
with a photo I took of Erin the other day.
I love the Taylor Swift song, "Mine"
and decided to make a page with the lyric:



And finally, I am off to drive Megan
to a last minute orthodontist appointment
because one of her bands broke in her braces.



Have a great day/weekend!
-Jody

Life Goes On

As much as I feel that our life as we know it
has shifted in its purpose,
the rest of the worlds life goes on.
Most days I just sit in front of my computer,
reading the wonderful words of kindness
sent from different parts of the world,
and I am astounded that a young girl
who most of you only know by reading
a scrap page I have made about her,
could amass so many prayers and well-wishes,
and I would literally cry my eyes out.

Ryan is doing remarkably well, I am thrilled to say.
She hit the ground running after her release late Sat. morning.
We got home she took a well-deserved shower,
and was out of the house at drama rehearsal 30 mins. later.
The rest of the day was filled with the sounds of laughter
from all of her friends that came to visit
(and we all ate some homemade red velvet cake I made,
it's my new food obsession!)
She has been to school everyday,
and am happy to say her life has gone on too!
She looks so beautiful and we are hoping these 2 new drugs
will have some less side effects than the last chemo drugs.

It's a new month over at Write.Click.Scrapbook
and I wasn't sure I even would want to contribute this month,
but the theme was Tumblr inspiration and holy moly,
if you are not inspired by Tumblr, you are not inspired, period.
I ended up making a card (you know I was inspired,
because I don't make cards. lol)
I wanted it to be a virtual "Thank You"
to everyone out in cyberspace
who has taken the time to comment, email or even
say a silent prayer to themselves, in honor of my Ryan.
So thank YOU from the bottom of my heart!



By creating this card, it inspired me to make a page about
Ryan getting ill again and what it means.
This is one of my favorite photos of Ry,
I think the light shining behind her
makes her look so angelic :*)



Have a great weekend!
-Jody