Time to play catch up!

The beginning of 2010 was a little crazy around the Palmer house. Caroline and I ended up flying to KC on the 16th, Mom had been admitted to KU Med Center with abdominal pains. Long story short, but many tests, doctor visits, road trips, etc. she was diagnosed with adeno carcinoma in her stomach - cancer with an unknown primary source. She was accepted into a clinical trial through the Mayo Clinic - and is being treated close to home at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

It was a terrifying time for all of us. Caroline and I were in KC for 10 days which was stressful on everyone. Once we got her into a treatment protocol we were all feeling a great sense of relief. The support for my entire family has been overwhelming and we are glad to see that her chemo treatments are working - her lymph node tumors are shrinking!

Caroline and I got back to Erie at the end of January. It was so tough to be here, and not know what was happening with Mom. I needed to have Caroline back in her own world and usual routine, Ryan was my rock as always. We were very glad to see January end... moving on to a new month, warmer temps, and more hope.

Some More Indy Fun!

As you can see there was a load of presents in Indy and I did a great job of handing them out. I got some new food (that I can cut) to use in my Erie kitchen. We were able to make a small snowman and I was able to turn into a marshmallow before I went outside! : ) I don't really like the cold weather, and can't stand my gloves or hat but guess that's what I have to deal with in order to really play. I"m not an Erie kid, can't deal with this cold stuff!

December... we have made it through 2009!

Yeah Christmas! What a great month... I loved having a tree in my house and did a nice job of un-decorating it immediately after it was put up. By the end, we only had the top 2/3 of our tree covered, nice Caroline.... We sat on Santa Mike's lap at Millcreek Hospital - complete with all of the other ENT kiddos: Luc and Necia. I got a baby doll and thought that was super cool.

I'm totally into books these days. I would read the same book about 5000 times and still not be tired of it. I"m able to point at the pictures and show my parents what objects are on each page. It is pretty cool to say the least.

Christmas morning was super special. Dad was on call, as usual, but didn't get called away at all. We opened presents - I perfected that rather quickly. I would tear a little piece at a time, which made the gift opening take a long time. Santa brought a kitchen set - wow am I a good chef! I look to cook and can't wait to share a meal with you from my special basement kitchen.

We finished the holiday in Indy with my family. It was great to see Doug and Joe - they traveled a long time to see me. Tim and Budi came over to play quite often as well. The grown ups were into a board game, and I was into everything else! :) My Aunt Erin wasn't able to join us becasue she was busy cooing my new cousin who will be here in March. I'm sorry I didn't get to see her, but can't wait to have a playmate the next time the whole family gets together!

November... do I even remember that far back?

Welcome to the world of slacker blog mom Anna... just can't figure out how I've been this far behind on a catch up. Maybe a few photos will refresh my memory....

I'm a climber. Caroline will climb pretty much anything and everything if she wants to reach something. Determination, hmm wonder where that one comes from? She likes to "help" in the kitchen and uses the step stool to cook with us. We hosted Erie Thanksgiving once again. More kiddos this year which made dinner shorter but the party later - how did that happen? We were rockin' until 10.30 that night. Caroline had a ball! We loved getting a chance to catch up with all of our Erie buddies, and the food was fantastic as usual.

Madi and Pal joined us for Thanksgiving this year. Ryan (as usual) was on call. Thursday and Friday night he spent most of the time at the hosptial - sorry Richard's family, who also joined us for the meal. Just part of the joys of residency. It was great to have my parents here and as you can see the weather was fantastic - no sarcasm. We were playing around outside and got our tree all set for Christmas.