Fall is in Full Swing

Fall must be here! Back to school, soccer and the pumpkin patch. It has always been a very busy time as we rush from school to the soccer fields, as I fall into my volunteer work at the school.


The kids are growing up so fast. 2nd and 3rd Grade. I am so proud of both of them: they were both elected by their classes for ASB: Associated Student Body. They will help plan the monthly service projects and spirit days at the school, as well as help the special needs kids in their classrooms.

We hit the pumpkin patch last weekend and came home with 85 lbs of pumpkins. Of course Ellie picked a gigantic one!






Soccer is going great! Coaching Ellie's team has been a lot of fun. The growth in the girls has been fantastic to watch! I love that all her friends are on the team and they just love each other. Tia and I worked our magic on their team shirts. They used to be a deep maroon color and look what we did! We are the cutest team on the field!


This year I am heading up Social Services at the school. This means running all the food drives, the toy drive, mitten trees etc. In years past, the school has worked a lot with Hope Link and most of our drives go to benefit them. This year, I have a broader vision for our community outreach projects. I want to reach out to our school community, our local community and our global community. My plan is to cover all 3 with service projects this year. In a school of 900 students, these projects are a lot of co-ordination and my budget is $65 :) So it will be a lot of time but I can't think of a better position for me to really sink my teeth into.

I'm also room parent for Ellie, helping with writing in Ellie's class, Art Docent for Lucas' class, working in the Student Store and running the Sunshine Club at the school (meeting needs of families going through a tough time). I really do love being a presence at the school for the kids, my own and many others.

Me Book

We had Curriculum Night at the school for Ellie ths week. I love seeing the little surprises they have prepared for us on their desks. Ellie's was a "Me Book" this year, with pages all about her. What better subject?

Her drawing is so cute and so detailed. In some pages, she added little touches like hot air balloons flying in the sky. I love looking at her sweet touches and beautiful drawings. Here are a couple of her pages:


You are right, Ellie. We love you so so so much! I love how we are all matching in purple and orange. Love the "diamonds" sparkling in the sky and around us.




Notice the feathers in her hair! And look below for the little birds she healed in her future as a vet :)


She definitely is creative and has attention to detail in her works of art!

It's Friday Night

Hubby is home early and is out playing frisbee with Lucas. El is in the yard with all the little friends playing. Dinner is prepped and ready to fire up. Love it when a Friday night comes together like this!

Skin Stuff

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a dermatologist for a precautionary full body check up and to address some issues I have been having. Upon inspection, the Dr decided I would need 2 spots on my body biopsied and some pre-cancerous sun damage removed. He was very optimistic about the issues and well convinced there was nothing to worry about. The biopsies were just precautionary.

So I had everything done today. And I am alive to tell about it! They did a punch biopsy on a spot on my left arm. That required freezing the area, and using a small cookie cutter type instrument to take out a portion of the spot. Then they put in 3 stitches. The second punch biopsy was done on my left leg and required 2 stitches.

Then, they used a freezing agent to freeze the pre-cancerous damage from around my lip line. I have to say, with the numbing of the biopsy areas, that was fine. But the freezing on my lips? That hurt like crazy. It felt like a very intense stinging, or like someone was poking many needles into my lips simultaneously. My eyes watered a lot.

I managed to get through it all without passing out :) Yay for me :) I will have the sutures out in 2 weeks. And now to wait for the results...

Scenes of Summer

Summer Report

Hard to believe that the kids go back to school in 3 weeks! But as I look ahead at the next 3 weeks, I realize that there isn't much left to do to make it a really cool summer for the kids and for us.

We really did pack it in well this summer. The kids have had lots of fun and had the summer you always want them to have. We had our road trip to San Fran, sports camp, Bible school, camping (and 2 more camping trips to come!), countless playdates. It really didn't matter that the weather was not too summerish, the kids didn't seem to notice at all. In fact, I enjoyed the weather, it was easy for me to stay out of the sun, stay cool and save on our energy bill :)

It was my goal to make sure that I had no regrets about what we should have done, what we didn't do this summer. With 3 weeks to go, I'm thinking we achieved it! We will definitely look back and think of all the fun things we did.

Melanoma

Warning: this post is honest and graphic with photos.

I try really hard to protect myself from the sun. I am so fair skinned that I feel like it's just asking for trouble if I don't put a max effort into it. Sometimes the sun beats my efforts and I get a little too much. But it's not for lack of effort! My husband on the other hand has that type of skin that tans like crazy. I always offer him sunscreen because I know what the sun can do. My Mum had skin cancer on her nose years ago and had surgery to remove it. But that was basal cell.

This past week, Mum had melanoma removed. I remember seeing the suspicious mole a few weeks ago and asking her about it. At the time, it looked like a small mole with a black spot on it on the edge. She told me she was getting it checked out soon. Before it was checked, she says it bled and scabbed and that fell off.

She had her appointment and it turned out to be melanoma. According to the American Melanoma Foundation, 1 American dies of melanoma almost every hour (every 61 minutes). How do we get melanoma? From the sun or tanning beds.

You do NOT want to go through this. Trust me. If you don't believe me, look at the pictures below.


BEFORE:

AFTER:


They take a strip out of your skin an inch and a half wide. They dig down an inch. They sew you up and leave you with a large scar. Then you wait. You wait to see if it has spread to your organs, your lymph nodes. Then you find out if you need chemo or not.

Is it worth it for a little tan that is so temporary? Brown skin is not healthy. It's a defense mechanism of your skin. It boggles my mind how much value people put on a tan and how people will use tanning beds in this day and age. I did it too in college. We all have. But there is time to change that. And what better reason than your own life?