Happy Thanksgiving!

I know the intervals between my entries are getting longer and longer and I am sorry for that. I think of so many people all the time and just don’t have a minute to get in touch. I hope you all know how near you are to my heart.

This is might be short just to catch everyone up. Hopefully at some point during this holiday season I’ll get some time to elaborate! If you read the last 4 entries, you know that Jani, Khaled, and Bob also wrote to update you on their perspectives on things on the 1 year anniversary of the accident. I am glad to have all of them in my life and I greatly appreciate their words. While all 3 are supportive and optimistic, I know it is tough for them and I am so lucky to have them looking out for me.

Health is fine but still no sense of smell or sign of normal pituitary function returning.

Life since October:

Jani graduated and is now a ifrefighter. He passed his EMT exam and so one day soon he will start going out on the ambulance too.

Kids are awesome. Rowan is doing fine in school although he says he is kind of bored but we figure that is because he has to sit still and listen. Jani’s son! He was raised being outside except when eating or sleeping and so he’d rather dig holes, find wood for a bonfire,….   Encsi started at PCCC child developnent center and she loves it and we are very happy about that. Miss Sarah and Mrs. LaNeave enjoy having her there and she is getting exposed to lots of different things.

So here is what has been going on here:

Emilia who came from Mexico in July to live in with us took off without telling us shortly before Jani graduated. We had taken in her friend to keep her company and we tried to find a job for her but we couldn’t and we couldn’t afford to keep them both even though we weren’t paying the friend. So they were both home with Encsi all day (and still often couldn’t manage to cook more than opening a few cans or making macaroni and cheese) and then Rowan 3-5pm and we never saw them because they didn’t get up until 5 min before we all had to leave in the morning and then they went to English classes from 6-9 Mon-Thurs. They packed up all there stuff while we were gone int othe Isuzu, told Jani they were going out with a friend, went to meet her and then she followed them back and they dropped off the car just as I was getting home from work, they never came to say goodbye to me and left and never came back. We found the note the next evening when Jani knocked on the door and got no answer. We are actually glad they are gone because they were teenage girls. They were kind to the kids but they didn’t like being outside (well, other than sitting on the patio) and were more concerned with texting/talking their friend and boyfriends than interacting with us as a family. We tried by having dinner for them and with them, have them join in on family things, but they often didn’t come out of their room on the weekends unless they were going to eat or go shopping. Anyway no big loss. Just bad timing and crappy that they didn’t tell us they were leaving after Jani specifically told them that we would need time to work on finding a replacement and she agreed to wait for us to do so. So much for that!

So we have been very busy juggling schedules trying to get everyone to where they need to be and when. When Jani works, I come home early and wait for Rowan in my van in the driveway and we go pick Encsi up. Then in the morning I get them both ready and get Rowan to school for 7:45am and take Encsi to meet daddy at the firestation for when he gets off work at 8am so he can take her to PCCC. So we’re managing. Jani keeps things flowing smoothly.  

I went to a grant review study section in Reston, VA for a couple of days. Teresa came with me and everything went very smoothly. I enjoyed being there – met good people and learned a lot.

Jani’s sister was here Oct 21-Nov 3rd and that was awesome. She is a riot and she really helped so much. It is nice – we are not be able to communicate but we still “get” each other. And she LOVES the kids and they her. I am happy that she came for Jani’s sake - they are close and he was grateful for the help. She experienced Halloween for the first time. We went over to Lynndale to meet us with Gabor and his kids which we never did but we did enjoy going around there. They really did things up over there and there were lots of kids so it was really fun!! Encsi got the hang of it REALLY fast. A man in a vampire outfit tried to spook her and she laughed at him!

I went to vote. I took my new republican tech, Tracy from Texas and my ultra-conservative republican student Jess with me to early voting. They thought that 2 against my 1 might increase their chances. Ha!

On Nov 6th, Marilyn came to visit us for the evening. She had been canvassing in Raleigh for Obama and so when it was over she had some time to come see us. For those of you who don’t/wouldn’t know, Marilyn was a PhD student in Chuck’s lab when I was a post-doc out in Seattle. It was great fun seeing her and spending time catching up.

My dear friend Julie Ponthier (we went to grad school in New Orleans together) who lives in Australia now with her family called us out of the blue one night.  She has beautiful kids and a fabulous husband and we miss them terribly and were hoping to get to come and visit them but I’m not too sure about that for a while. We certainly live vicariously through them!

It has snowed here a couple of times recently. On Friday when I was taking the kids out to the van, we were out there a little early and so I told them to go out from under the carport and run around. They were thrilled and it was cute. My little southern babies!! Speaking of which, Rowan does immitate the accent scarily well. When you talk to me, ask me and I’ll tell you the story.

As for me, I am keeping busy. Things at work are shifting around a bit because 3 of the 4 new faculty members are here and the 4th is coming shortly. It is good to have new folks. They are all really bright and enthusiastic and so it will be fun to come up with new stuff to work on together.

My family is coming for Christmas and I’m REALLY excited about that. I haven’t seen my parents, sister-in-law, or nephews since February and so it will be wonderful to have them all here.

Anyway, I have to run now because Encsi just woke up and Jani is working today. Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts – I’m still drawing strength from you!

Big love to all of you!!