A Change of Pace...

I thought I'd get caught up with some family happenings for any "faithful readers" who might still be reading this blog after being such a bad blogger for so many weeks. I very much appreciate your kindness and prayers as we all continue to mourn the loss of Cindy and Jan. I spoke with Carl Hicks this afternoon. Some of you might remember him as the guest speaker at our Phenomenal Hope for a Cure fundraiser this last November. He came to Omaha to tell the story of his daughter, Meaghan and her fight with pulmonary hypertension. She lost her fight on January 30, 2009 due to complications from a double lung/heart transplant. Col. Hicks called to tell me how sorry he was about losing two members of our support group and that he had just returned from Washington DC where he met with various groups to try to continue and increase funding for research for PH. He's an inspiration to all of us.

Anyway, let me take you on a time-warp ride back to May 17th, 2009. (Try to imagine some freaky psychedelic music and light show....)


It was a nice Sunday morning. I slept in and woke to a quiet house. I couldn't find Rod anywhere. So, I called him on his phone, thinking he might have run up to buy some coffee or something. When he answered his phone, I asked him what he was up to. He said, "Not much..." then said, "Hold on..." and all of a sudden I hear Chris' voice on the phone! That wonderful "little guy" decided to surprise me for my birthday by flying in from Chicago for the day!

We had such a great day! We met up with Nick and Kara for breakfast and then came home and enjoyed the weather.
Here's Nick:



Here is Rod. He just threw the baseball to Nick:


Here is Chris. He just threw the baseball to Nick:


And here are "Ding" and "Dong" better known as Asa and Haver trying to catch the baseball:



I think they look more like "Prancer" and "Dancer" in this one! Haver is on the left and Asa is on the right.



We finished up the day by having dinner at one of our favorite greasy-spoon Mexican restaurants, Romeo's!

Here's the happy couple, Kara and Nick:


Here's a picture of Nick and Rod. (Do they look at all like they are related?)


And, just to prove the point, there they are pretending that they are twins joined at the head:



Here is a picture of Chris and his mother who really needs to lose 20 pounds before Nick and Kara get married!!



Shortly after dinner we drove Chris back to the airport. This was definitely one of the best birthdays I've ever had!! Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering, I turned 32.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Thanks for reading.

Annette