**~~Emily Update~~**

We got really great news today about Emily's latest blood test! Her endocrinologist called to say they were "VERY happy" with Emily's results! Scott later called Emily's nuclear medicine doctor to give him the numbers and he said that this was "OUTSTANDING" news! He went on to say this news warms his heart and made his whole day! This was so great to hear, we have such wonderful doctors.

I am hoping Scott can blog or comment here to share a little more insight, as I am not very good at explaining the medical stuff.

We also scheduled Emily's scan where we will find out if all of her cancer is finally gone. You can read here to read about where we were last year (July 2007) at this time with her last scan. Emily is scheduled to drink her radioactive iodine solution on August 18th and then on August 21st she will go in for her scan both at 8:30 am. We will find out on this day how much, if any, cancer is left in our little girl.

We are praying and hopeful for a clean scan!!! I am praising God today and so very thankful for the good blood test results. It's been a LONG 2 and a half years and we are optimistic for happy news.

Every second with each of our kids is seriously an immeasurable gift.

Please KEEP PRAYING!

My Favorite Dad is Turning 60 Today!

I'm so excited because my daddy-o is turning 60 today! I love my dad so much and I'm overjoyed to celebrate him in a big way this weekend! My mom took him to Wisconsin last night and to a drive-in movie (I hope they saw the Dark Knight!). Later today we are going to have a surprise pool side party for him in Rockford! Tomorrow, after we go to a baptism in Wisconsin, we are going to surprise him and take him to Magic Waters (a big water park). I can't wait, I hope he feels so loved.

Rockin' Anda Rollin' Maddie

15-20,00 people marched in DC in support for Ron Paul's message of Liberty

I wish I could have been a part of it....



"15-20,000 People Marched on Washington DC in a show of mass grass-root's support for Ron Paul's Message of Liberty and Dedication to the US Constitution! In his Speech Dr Ron Paul encouraged Everyone to March on St Paul Minnesota on Sept 2nd in conjunction with the Republican Convention. He highlighted any plans to bomb Iran as complete Insanity and as un-constitutional and blatantly illegal. He also reminded everyone that throughout history revolutions have always been a success through the efforts of only 3-5% of the population. His speech drew many rounds of loud applause and excited calls of support from the crowd."

New Scrappies!

EDITED: I added more scraps at the bottom that I did today at Stephanie's house!

I went scrapbooking last night with fabulous friends (Steph, Kim, Sara, and Melissa) for about 4 and a half hours and I completed only TWO pages! Not my most productive night but a very fun one in deedie!

This was the first page I did last night. It also took me the LONGEST to finish. I do not recommend sewing your pictures together or drawing and coloring your own words if you plan on getting anything done at a mania.

A close up of my sewing and other details. The sparkley "ribbon" is actually some sequence torn from one of Emily's old dress up dresses.

This was my second page. I love the colors and the messiness of it.

This is of Emily on her first day of Elevate (youth group at our church for 6th-8th graders).

This is one of my favorite pages ever. This is of my buddy on July 4th at the beach/park. I LOVE it!!!

A close up...it reads..."You are pure potential, son. In your eyes I see so much love, kindness, and the ability to do remarkable things." It's all true, every last word.

The Old Bait and Switch-o-rooh!

I don't have television so I get my news from yahoo and I just watched this video on a little tricksey gas stations are pulling. I'm glad I watched so I can be aware the next time the husband or I go to the pump.

Be sure to look below this post for my new Madison post! =)

Tinkerton!

Our little Tinkers started Creative Dance last week and we are just so excited. Since Madison was 18 months old she has shown a serious interest in dance. I'm totally serious! I have on tape her mastering moves from The Wiggles, Wiggly Wiggly Christmas! She absolutely loves going and it's one of the high lights of her week.

Here are some pictures we took right before her first class...

Come on, are we that lazy?

I just watched this online. Does it make anyone else laugh watching these guys pour milk? Is it really that hard? I agree with the blond guy, I think the old jugs were probably just as "hard" to pour in the beginning and we just got used to them.

I LOVE my Maddie Jane!

I snapped these pictures of Madison today while she was dancing and singing for me with Emily's HSM microphone. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the first one! She was spinning and and she just happened to look right at the camera! LOVE IT!









Thank you God for this child.

A really great day!

We had a really marvelous day today. First we went to church and Emily graduated on to Elevate ("Sunday school" for 6th - 8th graders). She is going to go to Elevate every other week and serve in the 4th and 5th grade room as a student helper the other weeks. We're very proud of her for wanting to serve and it was all her idea.

Also church was fantastic and very emotional and we got to take communion which was a really humbling experience for me. Before church Scott and I had a really hard morning and had some tough issues to work through. We had a really awesome talk and I'm very happy that we were able to go so deep and grow closer. I feel very fortunate to be married to someone who cares so much about our marriage and pushing through our fleshy desires and pride.

Our little girl is growing up!

Me and Em outside of church

We also had Malachy with us this weekend while his Mom and Dad were at the hospital with his new brother. It was a really enjoyable weekend with him and I bonded even more with the little guy and truly love him. He feels like a part of our family and I was honored to be the one who got to care for him while Steph and Mark were off expanding their family. BUT the poor kid really missed his parents and was certain he would "Never see them again! NEVER EVER!". On top of that he caught a cold and was just a miserable and emotional little kid today. I'm sure his reunion with his family was a really sweet one.

Frank and Malachy at church

After Mark came and picked up Malachy, Scott played catch with Madison while we chatted with Emily and Frank. We all decided to go out to lunch to celebrate Emily moving up to 6th grade and Frankie moving up to 5th grade. We let Frank pick where we went and he decided on Panera Bread. YUM! I had my favorite Pick Two, French onion soup and Greek salad!

After that we came home and the kids and I watched our favorite show, The Biggest Loser (we're watching season 5 right now and we *heart* Bob!). We were then motivated to go for a bike ride and ride we did! We went 8 miles! That's pretty far for our first real bike ride I think with two kids and lugging Madison in the back in a trailer. It was really satisfying and our goal is to eventually make it out to Scott's parents house one Sunday! So Scott and I mapped out a route for us to get there but I'm not sure how many miles it will be since we have to go a little out of the way because the bike path doesn't exactly go right to their house. I'm excited about it. We're going to have to work our way up to biking that far with the kids.

Somewhere along the Fox River by the bike path

Yep, it was a really great day!

Owen Andrew finally arrives!

My BFF Steph had her second baby yesterday via c-section. His name is Owen Andrew and he weighed in at a massive 9lbs 2oz and 21 inches long! Steph was only 39 weeks too so if she had waited any longer he might have been ready for kindergarten!

Owen is absolutely beautiful and so perfect! It truly is mind-boggling to me how just a few months ago Owen didn't even exist but in the hearts and hopes of Steph and Mark. And now there is a little person here that wasn't before. It's also so crazy that this baby was just inside of Steph's tummy yesterday and now he's out and so precious. I can't wait to get to hold him some more and to get to know this little person God blessed my friends with.

Life is such a wondrous thing and seeing a new baby just reminds us how truly precious life is. Congratulations Steph and Mark you guys made another super adorable baby!! Good work!

Steph, Malachy, Mark, and Owen make FOUR!

Owen Andrew

Momma and baby

Poppo Andy (Owen Andrew is named after him) and Aunt Kimbo admiring Owen

Mommo

Auntie CC

Aunt Crystal (I am officially declaring myself an Auntie! = P) burping Owen

I'm adjusting my jacket while holding Owen with one hand. It's OK, I'm experienced, but don't try this at home.

Update or a BRAGdate!?! And EMILY update

Wow, it's really hard to get on this computer these days. It seems I always have so much going on. School, the kids, family, and friends...all of this keeps me pretty busy. I'll try and update on all the kids in this post and I'll start with Emily first.

Emily started soft ball again this year and she LOVES it. This year she even gets to pitch, play catcher, and short stop! Her team is doing so well and has only lost one game so far which was 17 to 18, VERY close!

Emily is going to be having her big scan this August to see if her cancer is gone yet. At her last scan in July last year we found out that all the cancer in her neck was gone but there was still .5% left in her lungs. You can read more about the results from last year here. Through out the year we have been having Emily's blood tested to watch for any change to indicate that her cancer may be spreading. All of her tests have come back great! We are praying that at this next scan Emily will be cancer free. I can't believe we began this cancer journey 2 years and 3 months ago. Please continue to pray for Emily and for complete head to toe healing. And thank you so much to EVERYone who has prayed for and continues to pray for our little girl.

I believe I also shared the wildly happy news with you that Emily gets to Make A Wish and we will be going to go to Disney World this summer! We are over the moon excited and so happy for Emily. This will be the first vacation our family has gone in (without other relatives) in over 5 years. We'll be going at the end of August and I'm really thankful that we have to wait until then...I love the anticipation of it all and just being able to look forward to it! We're so very thankful to Make a Wish that we get to do this. It's really incredible and leaves me speechless and humbled.

Frankie is signing up for soccer this fall and he's excited about that. We're looking forward to going to his games and watching him have some fun. Frank has never really expressed much interest in sports even though he's taken basketball and soccer lessons. He's more of a reader and video game expert type of a guy.

Speaking of reading, our Frankie LOVES to read and just finished Prince Caspian and is almost done with The Hobbit. Prince Caspian dragged a little for him but it was really cool for him to see the movie after reading the book. He REALLLLLLLY likes The Hobbit and that is so thrilling to me for some reason. I just think Frank is so cool and I love him and this person he is becoming. There really isn't anyone in the world like him he's just freaking awesome!!!

And last but not least, Madison. We signed our spunky and whimsical daughter up for ballet this summer and I can't wait for her to start her classes. This kid really loves to dance and perform. Ever since she was 18 months old and saw her first Wiggles it was clear that this little lady was born to dance. So ya I'm pumped up to see her start ballet.

Madison also got to take swimming lessons this spring with her favorite cousin Sofia and of course had the best time. She would get so freaked out with joy before every lesson. It really was jolly to see her so happy.

Oh and Madison is also some kind of coloring/artistic genius. I have to make sure that I really pay attention to that and encourage her art skills.

I guess this sort of turned into a brag fest and less of just an update on my spectacular kiddos. Well I am their mom so....

Some of my latest scraps....

I just wanted to post some pictures of my latest scraps that I'm really proud of. They are vintage inspired and retro chic (my new favorite style).

Emily and Frank kickin' it at the Brookfield Zoo


Emily, Frank, Madison, and Malachy petting the sweetest goats ever.


Emily with antlers


me and Em


Me and my buddy...I didn't get a picture of the finished page but you get the idea.


Me and Frankie when we was 2 and he's wearing Mr. Potato Head glasses.

Finally, a piano!

TA DA!!! After about a year of looking for a piano on Freecycle for Emily who really wants to learn how to play the piano....we FINALLY found one!!!!!! There have been several posted but I never got to them before someone else and this time we did! And I think we did good!! It's an antique 1890s upright piano. It needs a little sprucing up, one hammer, and a tunning but other than that she's GREAT! I LOVE IT! Emily LOVES it!

This little beauty is only here because of the hard work and muscles of 5 fabulous men, Scott (evil genius and my hot man), Mark (game master and husband of my bff Steph), Jeff D. (genius artist and the best uncle ever and our brother-in-law), Papa Jeff (super Grandpa and Scott's dad), and Christian (the man who loves my sister and the sweetest kid you'll ever meet, oh ya and he's my brother-in-law...weird). Also their families sacrificed their time with them so they could move this SUPER heavy piano. Thanks everyone SO MUCH!!! =) We are really grateful and feel loved.

EDITED to add: It's a Chicago Hinze and it's not scratched in the front those are the grains.

WARNING! And other things....

Just for every one's clarification Bend it Like Beckham is NOT rated G. You may be thinking well DUH Crystal, we know that! Well I didn't, I saw it whenever it came out a few years ago but it wasn't that great for me so I didn't remember anything about it. But Emily made a butt load of money from baby-sitting and wanted to buy a movie. We saw Bend it Like Beckham in the 5.00 movie spot and I looked on the back and I saw the G. I thought well hey we can try this one, so we get home and not 5 minutes into the movie does the big old "B" word comes out of one to the girls' mouths! So being as smart as I am, I said to my self, "Self, this can't be rated G." And sure enough I was right.

Here is the back of the movie box and anyone can see why I was so confused.


The "G" clearly stands out more than the itty bitty PG-13 and the PG is even bigger than the PG-13. Naturally I assumed it was G, why do they even have the other two ratings on there? It's just silliness, that's what it is. So what did we learn? Well we learned that the backs of movies can be deceiving so look carefully my friends, look carefully. Learn from my mistakes and don't let this happen to you. ;)

In other news Emily started Softball again this year and she loves it, and I mean LOVES it. Here are a few pictures I snapped from her first game and picture day. BTW, it was FREEZING out when they had to take pictures by the river in their cute little shorts and short sleeved shirts. The girls were very brave. More brave than me because I sat in my nice warm car during the game!

Emily with some of the girls trying to keep warm, they're so cute.



Team Heat! GO HEAT!

Emily playing short stop. The coach calls Emily the Emomatic (she is also "little Emily") and she may even pitch this year and did actually pitch a practice game!!

Me in my nice warm car, I'm wearing my Emily button but you can't see it because of the light.