Much has been going on since I last wrote. The kids continue to do quite well as we forge forward with our new life. Hallie is quite busy with school and athletics. She is getting all A’s and recently finished basketball season and is well into softball. I am really proud of her and she is working really hard at being the best she can be in all her activities and becoming quite the athlete. Jack is about to wrap up his first year of school (pre-k). He is signed up for a couple of summer sports camp already and is eager to get going.

Big news… Kendall is now potty trained! So after roughly 9 years of purchasing diapers, I am done with that (well for the most part… we still have to get through the nights). However a box of diapers will go much farther only using one per day.

Yesterday I bought a pop up camper. Julie and I had talked about doing it for years and we were actually looking when she was diagnosed. So…. I have been looking and finally found a deal and took the plunge. And I am glad I did. It is something I can do with the kids and it somehow gives me a connection back to Julie. She loved the outdoors!

So I picked it up yesterday and we headed to Aunt Sherri’s and Uncle Brad’s property about an hour away for our first camp out. The weather could be a little better but the kids are having fun playing with their cousins and we are enjoying the country air and the bluebonnets which are in full bloom.I took a couple of pics…enjoy!

This will be just a short post as I need to ease back into blogging. : )

Last year everything was so fresh and did not seem real. I was walking around in a fog and going through the motions. Much like a chicken who has had its head separated from its body… the body keeps moving for a short period of time. This in addition to the outpouring of friends and family that were around day and night to help me. This year, it is REAL for me and I am faced with the reality of what this time of year will be for me for the rest of my life. There will be a huge void as I get out the Christmas decorations and every piece I pull out of the box will have Julie and a memory tied to it.

This was her time of year. She loved the cold weather and wearing sweaters. She loved decorations and lights. She loved the time spent with family. She loved the anticipation of the kids on Christmas eve and the excitement in their eyes as they bound down the stairs Christmas morning. I miss her.

I was having a particularly hard day yesterday as I stumbled through some things in my home office I had not seen before that just punched me in the gut and knocked the wind out of me. On top of that Irma (a long time friend of Julie’s from College) was holding her Christmas White Elephant party that we went to every year (except last year as she did not hold it… I don’t think anyone was up for it.). The party consists of all of Julie’s close friends from her childhood and college years that still live in the area. I delayed until the last minute to accept my invitation as I just could not see myself going without her. I did, and I got through it somehow.

After the party the kids headed to Clear Lake to spend the next couple of days with Nanna and Poppa as I have to work this week and Ebony is on Vacation for the holidays in Michigan. So I had a quiet house. I sat down and decided to watch a movie. As I scrolled through my selection on my AppleTV I came across what is probably my favorite movie and one I had not watched in a long time… The Shawshank Redemption.

I have watched this movie dozens of times and remember every scene (If you have not watched it you are missing out on a great) but one scene spoke to me in a brand new way and I had to rewind it and listen to the line one more time. It was a line by Ellis Boyd Redding, better known as “Red”, played amazingly by Morgan Freeman. Red was reflecting on the escape of his best friend Andy Durfresne who had spent 20 years in prison wrongly convicted of a double murder…

Sometimes it makes me sad, though. Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up, does rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty when they are gone.

Substitute Julie’s name for Andy and the quote fits like a glove. Julie’s feathers were just to bright. God called her home so that she could influence and touch many lives vs. just the ones she could here on earth as a mortal. We all know that it is selfish on our part for wanting to keep her all to herself and we can “rejoice” in knowing that she is guiding and helping many in God’s kingdom at present. However, we who knew her here on earth can’t help but feel a huge void now that she is not with us in human form.

I felt a sense of peace come over me as I listened to that line for the second time and absorbed it all in. Believe what you will, but Julie guided me to watch this movie last night and made sure my ears were primed to hear this…. She was speaking to me.

I wish everyone a very safe, happy and HEALTHY Holiday and 2009. I will sign off with one more very poignant line from this movie…

Get busy living or get busy dying.

-Andy Dufresne

I hope all who read this choose the former. It’s what Julie desires of all of us.

YAY GOD!

-Brendan

I can remember our first anniversary as that is the first milestone of any marriage. We were talking about our life ahead together and what our life would be like at the next milestone… 10 years. We talked about how big our family would be, where we would be in our careers… we even talked about where we would go to celebrate it.

Thanks to Guillermo and Christina and a host of friends we were able to celebrate this milestone in Rome (In Aiugust) where we walked all over the city in a mad 48 dash to see all of the sites. We stayed at a beautiful Hotel (Michaelangelo) just outside of Vatican City where if we stuck our head out of the window we had a view of St. Peter’s basilica. We even had a wonderful dinner at Alfredo’s where the Alfredo sauce was first created.

It was a wonderful treat because as life went forward Julie’s health started to decline once we returned home. We celebrated our actual 10th anniversary by stopping for a quick lunch at Pappadeaux’s restaurant (a nice creole seafood restaurant) before heading off to MD Anderson for another oncology appointment. By this time Julie was in a wheelchair and very frail. Since I was with her every hour of everyday at this point I never noticed how sick she actually was. I just saw her as my wife with a giant heart who was fighting this monster like Rocky Balboa.

I never thought I would lose her 11 short days later. As a testament to her fight, she took Chemo Thanksgiving morning, ate a full Thanksgiving meal before she finally succumbed to the cancer that evening after laying in bed as she repeatedly told me “I Love You”. She knew it was time…

Julie, its almost been a year and I miss you SO much. I think about all we had together, our little jokes that only a couple can share etc… The pain is so fresh, but I still know you are there.

A story I have not shared with the blog people… Both Hallie and Jackson are playing soccer this fall. Hallie’s season started a few weeks before Jacks so she got her uniform first. As they were passing out the uniforms they threw Hallie hers and when she opened it up she had the number 3.. Julie’s sign to us that she is with us. Hallie’s lit up like a Christmas tree. Fast forward a couple weeks later, Jack got his uniform and the coach held up a shirt, said “this looks like it’ll fit ya” and threw it to him. That’s right, Jack has the number 3 as well…. and I promise we did not make the request… Julie is here.

By the way… Tomorrow is the BTHO fundraiser. If you are in the Houston area and don’t already have plans, come on out. We would love to see you. Follow the link on the right for more information and directions (Landolt Park in Clear Lake).

Yay God!

Brendan

I did not do the LiveStrong Challenge as a day or two after I posted it, I realized that once again I had in fact overbooked myself. Several weeks earlier Brad had asked me if I would be interested in going to an LSU football game against Georgia in Baton Rouge before basketball season started. Brad has a cousin who is a student there so we had a built in host and I had always wanted to see a football game there as I heard it is an experience like no other, so I said I am in! Tiger Stadium consistently hits the Top Ten College Football Stadiums in the country.

Our friend JFLO decided to join us and we headed out Friday night. It is now Sunday and we are headed back home (I am posting this from the car actually). Needless to say we did it up pretty big and we are a little worse for the wear at present!

Below are a few pictures from my experience.

Now I am not a huge LSU fan, but we were sitting in the Student section and since I am not a Georgia fan their was no point in going against the grain. I owned the yellow shirt ahead of time, I bought the hat as a souvenir from the stadium and I “borrowed” the tie from the frat boy who was sitting next to us! I think I did an OK job of looking the part!

The three of us were talking and I think we are going to try and hit one of the stadiums on the list each year and make a guys trip out of it each fall. If so, I see my hat collection growing.

As far as the LiveStrong Challenge goes, it probably turned out for the best anyone as I would have had to rush to pull the gear together. I am DEFINITELY doing one next year and actually considering doing the one in Portland, OR just to do something different. I received a lot of feedback with people who know people who are into cycling and can recommend the right gear for me and maybe get me in touch with some bike shops who might be willing to sponsor my effort in part. Look for more to come on that in the coming months.

Lastly, the BTHO Melanoma event is coming up on Sunday, November 9. Bring yourself, bring your kids and bring some $$$ for the raffle, silent auction, donataions, etc… All the money goes to worthy Melanoma causes. I hope to see many people there as Angie has done a truly remarkable job pulling it all together (thanks Ang. this means more to me and someday my kids than you will ever know.)

Yay God!

Brendan

Livestrong Challenge

Well with the storm damage from Ike as well as a myriad of other things going on this event snuck up on me. As it turns out I am actually available to participate in this particular event on this weekend… nothing really going on. But, I have done zero in the way of preparation.

If you recall, we (Julie, I and a numerous friends) had planned all year on attending and taking part in this event to help raise money and awareness. As you recall, this time of year is where Julie started to really take a turn for the worse and was actually in a wheelchair so we did not make it.

I would like to take part this year in her memory…. I am in fairly decent shape as I have been working out quite regulary and feel as though I could do the 65 mile ride (physically). However, here is my problem and I need my readership out there to help me decide if I am biting off more than I can chew and wait until next year, or with the help of all of you out there can WE pull this off this year? Please provide your thoughts and feedback.

Key things to consider…

• I need to raise a minimum of $300 dollars (no problem as I can pay this out of my own pocket)
• Julie and I did the MS 150 one year (as she talked me into it). We did it with all of the wrong gear and I swore if I ever took something on like this again I would have the proper equipment. … So In my broad network of “ant”/ readers out there does anyone know of:
  1. A cycle shop (or buisness/ businesses) that may be interested in sponsoring my effort (even if only partial)
  2. I need to procure a suitable road bike (does anyone have one I can borrow for this event or maybe the cycle shop could loan me one). I road the MS 150 on a mountain bike and paid the price for several weeks to come.
  3. Gear I need… Helmet, shoes padded cycle shorts, hydration equipment in the form of water bottles or camelback etc… other stuff that I am not thinking of??? (I have some equipment but not all)

I really want to do this but don’t know if it is just to late to pull it together. The thought of being on the road, with just myself and the thoughts of Julie and her battle as I pull myself up and down the hills of the central Texas hill country holds a lot of appeal. However, I am looking for honest feedback as to whether or not I should try for it or wait until an event next year when I have more time to plan and pull the needed resources together.

Please help me make a quick decision….

Yay God!

Brendan

You will note in the graphic below that we are expected to experience sustained winds today of about 30 to 50 mph. Then tomorrow the sustained wind measurements move to a sustained speed of “Ike” then they drop back down to 10 to 20 mph the next day.

Can someone please tell me when “Ike” became a quantifiable number in our numeric system? 81, 82, 83, 84, Ike, 85, 86… Someday I hope to be “Ike” years old! Ummmm… NO! ABC news Fail.

Our news stations blow worse than the pending storm!

-Brendan

Well I have opened the Lyons Hurricane evacuation shelter to Julie’s Uncle, wife and two kids in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Eisenhower (Ike if you’re nasty). Since my house is on the NW side of Houston storm surge and flooding is really not an issue. The biggest concern is wind and power going out. So we have a generator with 20 gallons of gas on hand to keep the refrigerators, some fans and the TV (the essentials as college football is tomorrow) running. If the power goes out and is out for any period of time what so ever I will be headed to San Antonio to my uncle’s house with my parents.

We spent yesterday preparing the house as I pulled in all of the outdoor toys, patio furniture, grill, potted plants etc… David and family got here yesterday about 2 and we all went out to dinner last night. Now we are just waiting. I am going to try and get the kids outside for just a little bit so that the cabin fever does not set in too quickly.

So here we sit, watching ridiculous coverage by the media. They are giddy with excitement, repeating themselves and the sensationalism is palpable. I will update as we move through this ordeal provided the power issue does not prevent access to the internets!!!

Say a prayer for all who are in the immediate path.

Yay God.

Brendan

Well all, I promise d more frequent blogging and have thus far failed. Further, I am WAY overdue in posting about the subject event. My sister in law, Angie Jackson (or as she says, call her Ms. Jackson if your nasty!) has done an AWESOME job of putting together the second annual BTHO Melanoma event.

In case you are not an Aggie, BTHO is the acronym for the Aggie battle cry of “Beat the Hell Outta (insert opponents name here). So that is just what we are going to attempt to do. Last year we raised just over $12,000 dollars that we donated to the Mary Crowley Research Center in Dallas. We had a silent auction with over 40 donated items, we raffled off a shot gun, had bar-b-q and two live bands and free skin cancer screens by Dr. Garmin (Dermatologist(. It was a great event and one that Julie was very proud to be a part of. This year we carry it on in her honor and are determined to do it better.

Please visit the link below and plan on joining us as Landolt park in Clear Lake on Sept 14. This year the raffle prize is a Nintendo Wii donated by Diamondback Works (Julie’s Uncle’s company…is that proper grammar ). Click this link for all the details and check in often for more details. BTW… winner need not be present to win the raffle, although we want as many people present as possible. And again we are having skin cancer screening by Dr. Garmin as well as one other dermatologist.

Below are pictures from last year’s event.

Thanks Ang for putting this together again. If you can’t make it but you want raffle tickets, post a comment and we will get in touch with you via your email. Hope to see all of you on the Sept 14 for cancer prevention, cancer fundraising, music, food and raffle/auction items.

Until next time…

-Bren