KBrinager: 2011

Hey all-

Happy 2011! The past year went by so fast. Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. We sure did in grand ol' Ohio. Glenn and I went to his parents house on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas morning we opened stockings and presents here with my mom and the rest of the family. The girls had a wonderful Christmas! Spoiled rotten really. Haha. Rachel was so excited that she called my cell phone to wake me up (too bad I sleep with it on silent) and left a message saying "um Katie, it's Rachel. it's time to get up. it's Christmas and Santa came. please, please get up." At least this was at like 830 in the morning and not 5 or 6. We were up late wrapping gifts so I needed some sleep! After presents everyone went back to bed and we started making dinner around 400. Then of course I had to be at work the next morning at 8am. How joyous.

So one of my goals is to try and write more on here. Life has been hectic since August (even though I haven't posted on here prior to that!) Well let me try to wrap up a year quickly.

End Feb '10: Shawn and his gang made the long haul from Florida up to Ohio. With a new baby and everything Shawn was going through, it was easier to be with other people. He's not really one to reach out and ask for help unless it's really needed so it was important that he came. I got to see Rachel for the first time in a few years and finally got to meet Breawna. The house went from me, mom and Glenn with 5 cats to me, mom, Glenn, Shawn, Nikky, Ray, and Bre along with 5 cats. Did I mention we only have one shower?

March '10: I celebrated my 23rd birthday and that evening Glenn and I packed the car and headed on our (what would be) amazing road trip to Arizona. Oh but of course about an hour into it, I realized I had a flu bug. Luckily we made a makeshift bed in the back for when we switched drivers. Basically Glenn drove 3 days and 3000 miles on his own. Sorry love! We made stops in St. Louis, Texas and New Mexico to name a few. We finally had arrived at Kat's doorstep in beautiful AZ! Since we were only 15 minutes from Indians spring training facilities from Kat's house, we spent 2 weeks covering the team. Thanks again to Kat for letting us crash there. After, we headed out to California where we made stops in San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles. Then we headed to Vegas, Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Then we drove through the Rockies (right before a huge snow storm came!) and stopped at the Field of Dreams house. We ran the bases together and bought some souvenirs. Then we arrived back at home! I even managed to get a tan...well sort of.

April '10: Mom and Shawn celebrated birthdays. Had Easter dinner at mom's.

May '10: Got to take the girls to the local Memorial Day fair.

June '10: Rachel started day camp where Shawn and I used to go to and worked at for so many summers.

July '10: Glenn turned 27 this month. Our neighbor and my mom's best friend, Peggy, passed away from pancreatic cancer. It was surreal how fast it all happened. She was feeling sick, got diagnosed and within 6 weeks was gone. That was really hard for my mom to go through.

August '10: Rachel turned 5! We had a carnival themed party for her here at the house. Some of her friends from camp came along with their parents. It was a fast 2 hour party! She had a great time. She also started afternoon kindergarten at the end of the month. On the 12th, my newest nephew, Elijah, was born. His daddy is white and mommy is phillipino and by golly does that combo make the cutest baby!! It reminds me of how Jon and Kate (korean and white) made gorgeous little kids. Then on the 16th Breawna turned 1! Can't believe how fast she is growing up.We kept postponing her party because mom was sick (with what we thought was the flu). Shawn had to take mom to the ER one day which was a crazy day in itself because we had to go to 3 different hospitals until someone would help her. After a week long stay she was told she was okay to go home.

September '10: Mom worked up enough energy to go to the Train concert down at Tower City. It's one of her favorite bands so I knew she wouldn't miss it. I had managed to get front row tickets for her and we had a blast. Not long after, mom had collapsed from extreme pain in her side and ended up in the hospital again. (This time was a new hospital...a good hospital) After a while of being there we learned she had a blockage in her intestine and they decided to go forth with exploratory surgery. We then found out she had colon cancer but that all the cancer had been taken out in surgery. It took a long few weeks for mom to heal from surgery but she still had to learn to gain all her energy again. Also this month, my nephew Jonah celebrated his 4th birthday.

October '10: Mom had a consultation with her new doctor, a gastro cancer specialist. They determined that chemo was the way to go for precautionary measures. End of the month would be her first treatment. She would go once every 2 weeks for 6 months. Each session would be roughly 3 hours and then she would have to be connected to a take home pump for 48 hours. Aside from that, my nephew Liam turned 2! Also I traveled to my alma mater for Homecoming. It was nice to see my friends from college! It had been 2 years!!

November '10: Continuing with chemo, mom has luckily been dealing with it pretty well. Aside from being tired and having numbness/sensitivity to cold, her and chemo are getting along. Glenn and I had Thanksgiving lunch at his parents and then dinner here with my mom. Nikky and Rachel were in Florida for Turkey Day.

December' 10: Mom missed a session of chemo do to her counts being too low. Came back the following week and had the same problem. Only positive thing was she was able to enjoy Christmas with no chemo so she had a little more energy. Right before Christmas my step mom's dad passed away. Jack was like my grandpa because I never had one growing up. It was really hard because he was living down the road from my work and I kept saying how I wanted to go visit and I never did. Sometimes we need to slow down in life and do what we need to do. It was especially hard on my nephew Jaden because Jack died the day before his 9th birthday. They had a fun relationship. More of a love/hate. They loved each other put loved to pick on each other as well. Also this month was an important time for Glenn and I because it was our 2 year anniversary. We went downtown and ate at the Chocolate Bar across from the House of Blues. I had this gourmet mac and cheese. Yum yum! For dessert we had a fondue for 2. Even yummier! Then we just walked around downtown.

So that's 2010 in a nutshell really. Mom should be done with Chemo by the end of April, just in time for spring. She hopes to head down to Florida for some sunshine and relaxing at the beach. Glenn and I won't be having a road trip again this year but hopefully can do some smaller trips here and there. Our goals are to get to Philadelphia, D.C, Chicago, New Orleans and back to NYC. We keep saying we want to celebrate the new year in NYC so maybe 2011 will be the year.

I hate posting photos on here so as always I will throw photos up on Facebook.

Until next time...

KBrinager

Friday, December 30, 2011

Picture Time!

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Wedding Time

Friday, August 26, 2011

Some new photos

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Summer Fun

Monday, June 6, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend

Monday, March 21, 2011

Finally some sunshine!

Friday, March 18, 2011

St Patrick's Day photos

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Photos

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Photos from the past 6 months

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

I'm baaaaack

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