Itsy Bitsy Spider

During her birthday weekend, Elizabeth treated us to a rousing rendition of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while jumping on the air mattress...don't forget the sound!

A Month in Pictures

This month has been so busy-I haven't had much time to blog. But I wanted to share some fun pictures of what we've been up to!

We started the month with Elizabeth's (Joel's goddaughter) 3rd birthday. She's loads of fun and she got tons of presents!
Then I went to Austin, Texas for work-it was beautiful and brief (24 hours!). 70 degrees and sunny-my co worker and I ate at the Iron Cactus on 6th Street...it was great!During my Spring Break, I went up to see my godson. And during that time I got to see my friend Tina and her son Jordan. The kids played so well together, they are getting so big. It was a great visit!

Anderson Mark

Ella Beth

Jordan Thomas

February was Birthday Month!

So many birthdays in February!

The 14th-My friend Dee's 30th Birthday
The 18th-My father-in-law's Birthday
The 22nd-My friend Lindsay's Birthday
The 25th-My other friend Lindsay's Birthday
The 27th-Jolio's Birthday
The 28th-My friend Julie's Birthday

For a short month...that's a lot of birthdays!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYBODY!a picture Joel took in Yosemite-I miss summer!

OBAMAnia!

I try not to make this blog political and those of you who know me...know that's really rough for me...

This time, I just can't help myself.



He's an amazing man. Check out his site and help make history!

My Sister, the Flutist

So proud. Joel and I went up to Lawrence University for my sister's senior lecture recital. It was phenomenal. It was obvious that she had practiced and she played two pieces on her flute and had some of her fellow students sing and play as well. The topic was Native American and American Art Music through the 20th Century: From Appropriation to Cooperation. She highlighted the evolution of American music's use of Native American traditions. She played works from Charles Wakefield Cadman, Katherine Hoover, and Ling-Yu Hsiao. She was great and the lecture was really interesting.

There was tons of food at the reception afterwards and Dan even treated us to "Mary had a little lamb" on Nora's Native American flute.

After the recital we headed up to Shawano for a weekend of sub-zero temperatures and what else, ice fishing! I never made it out on the ice but Joel got some great pictures. He and Chad got up at 4:45am.


An added bonus was spending some time with Elizabeth-Joel's goddaughter. She's getting so big and she's lots of fun!

We are Family!

Congratulations Lindsey and Clayton Hardsaw!

I realized this weekend that I am a very fortunate person. You don't get to choose what family you are born into and sometimes family turns out to be more of a burden than anything else. I was blessed with a great family. Not that we don't have our quirks and disfunctionalities (see the video of my brother) but we love and support each other. And perhaps most importantly, we enjoy being together.

This past weekend we were in southern Indiana for my cousin's wedding. She looked beautiful and happy and everyone had a blast. All of my cousins on my mom's side were together for the first time since our wedding five years ago! It was fantastic...enjoy the pictures...

My aunt, my mom, and my uncle(father of the bride)

The ring bearer (Trent)

My dad and uncle

My cousin, Kendall and Nora

And then there was much dancing...

My brother might be one of the funniest people I know...

Sometimes

Sometimes words cannot express exactly how you're feeling...And so I'll let his mother say it:

In the words of our oncologist, Anderson's latest MRI showed 'no evidence of disease!' The areas of enhancement on the MRI are believed to be scar tissue and Anderson is TUMOR FREE! Thanks be to God!

Merry! Merry!

Whew! Thank goodness the holidays are over! I'm not sure I could've taken much more. It seemed like Joel and I were always going somewhere. There wasn't much downtime but it was a great Christmas.

We started on Christmas Eve at Joel's cousins house for dinner. It was great to see everyone and Julie fixed a fantastic meal (she made an appetizer with gouda and carmalized unions...mmm). We played a few games and puzzles with Joel's cousin's daughter Nadine. She's 3 1/2 and loads of fun. Then headed home to Joel's dads for Christmas gift exchange. I got an IPOD shuffle! a digital camera! and work clothes! It was nice to spend some time with just Joel, Nathan, and Harry. Pictures and video on the blog are courtesy of my new camera!

On Christmas morning, we relaxed and fixed an appetizer and salad for Christmas dinner. The day was filled with backgammon, Connect Four, and more food. We had a sit down dinner of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc....

I learned how to put videos on my blog (so exciting!) After dinner, Nadine had great fun using Nathan as a trampoline!

The day after Christmas I spent with my best buds from college. We had our annual post-holiday get together. It's one of our holiday traditions and it's always nice to catch up, relax and eat great food!
Ella also sang "Jingle Bells" all the way through for me! She's definitely a talented little girl.

After those visits, Joel and I headed down to my parents on the 27th for a few days. We had the Gifford-Hertel family Christmas two nights in a row! Once at my parents and once with my brother at a restaurant. It was a really nice visit-filled with more great food and my mom's cookies! MMMMMMM.
We also had time for some DDR (Dance Dance Revolution!) with my high school friends. Joel turned out to be really good! Who knew he had such rhythm?

Stay tuned for New Years!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

In many ways this has been a challenging year. It was the first year without Joel's mom and also marks the ependymoma diagnosis of my godson. But it was also a joyful year filled with family and friends and trips to Tucson, Seattle and Vancouver. I feel so fortunate to have a great group of people around me. Merry Christmas!

Good News

The MRI results are in! No new tumor growth and the tumor that was there was reduced! What a great Christmas gift.

Thoughts

Just wanted to let everyone (at least the several people who read this on a regular basis) that my godson is having another MRI tomorrow. Thoughts and prayers for him and his family are always appreciated and will be especially nice tomorrow.

I visited with he, his sister and their mom today at their house. It was a great visit-he's walking along the furniture and we had a great time playing with play doh. Check out his website and leave a note!

ICE!

The weather has been amazingly mild this December! We've been above freezing for the past week or so. Last weekend Joel and I headed up to his goddaughter's place in Shawano. She's two and a half and so much fun! We spent all day Saturday watching her. We took her down to the river where she had a good time throwing ice chunks into the river. Then we took her to lunch. She is talking in full sentences now and is really developing a great personality. Here are a few pics....

Food + Games = Thanksgiving!

My parents playing Sequence!

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to get out the games and put away the belts! Joel and I spent Thanksgiving down in Indy with my parents. Every year my mom hosts Thanksgiving at our house with her side of the family. My cousin Barbara was there this year and she brought her son Trent (who's two!). I forgot how fun two year olds are-he was full of energy and a bit of mischief but on the whole-very well behaved.This year we had an extra day with everyone-as my Uncle Joe had to work in Indy so they all stayed on through Friday. Good times. My mom made a great meal and I got to spend time with friends and we even made a trip up to Batesville to see my Gram.

On the whole, it was delightful! Enjoy the pics...

My Uncle with his daughters, Lindsey and Barbara