- An Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields

and, Until we meet again

May God hold you in the palm of His hand

My six year Anniversary of being cancer-free

Hi blogger buddies-Hope everyone is well on this St. Patrick's day eve.  I felt compelled to write tonight because St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holiday's.  I don't have a lot of Irish in me but I have always enjoyed celebrating on this day.  Usually my twin sister and her two kids and I, go to a cute little home-town parade in Hopkins.  The people in town always joke about how quick and small the parade is and say, "If you blink you'll miss it."  It's true-it really is that fast and small but it means a lot to all of us as a community.  Many of the local store owners are in the parade and throw out candy and flyers that advertise their store.  It's just a fun way of getting out of the house after a long winter.  I have also made it tradition to go out for corn beef and cabbage on St. Patty's day.  My twin sister and I plan to meet for lunch tomorrow and do the (all- you- can- eat) thing.

The family (Laura, Jacob and Ellie)is planning a big celebration for me tomorrow night because I will be six years cancer-free.  In February of 2004, I was diagnosed with lung cancer despite the fact that I have Never smoked. It was one of the scariest ordeals I have ever faced.  My faith, family and a lot of support got me through it.  I know it was really scary for my twin sister Laura.  I think she was afraid of the unknown and the fact that cancer might take me.  We're soo close that neither one of us can imagine life without the other.  She is my very best friend in the world.

When Laura got divorced in 04, she kept asking me to move in with her and the kids.  I had a really charming apartment in Wayzata and enjoyed my single life.  I kept telling her that I would move in eventually, but just not now.  She kept asking me everyday-"Linda, are you ready to move in with me and the kids yet?"  I kept saying no.  Then in March of 2004 when the doctor came in my hospital room and said, "I have bad news, your path report came back and showed that your cancer spread to two of your lymph nodes.  You are not a stage 1A like we thought but are stage 3A.  You have a 20-25% chance of surviving this within five years."  I felt like I was watching a movie-Could this really be happening to me?  Anyway, that day in March when Laura came to visit, I said: (half crying/half laughing)    "Laura, can I move in with you and the kids?"  Ever since that day, I never looked back and have lived here since.  Now I can't imagine not living with them.  My life is so rich and wonderful here.  I can't ask for more-helping my twin sister raise her children.  They give me such purpose!  So at midnite I am six years cancer-free. ! I would love to go tell that doctor that I beat the odds.
Have a Great St. Patrick's Day everyone- I know I will!   P.S. If any of my blogger friends have a cancer survivor story to share, I would love to hear it. 

Ellie my neice wants to write on my blog, so here goes: ( Whats up world!) says Ellie

Hey, whats up world! I dont know what to say so i'll ramble. Sorry if I misspell, im only a child(she says innocently.)  Im 12 and everyone always asks me "Ellie, what is it like to be in the life of a teen age girl." After, I always think to my self "I am not a teen!" and people always say that after I act out so it's kinda a nice way of saying hey little brat, when I was your age, no one acted like you. After I get cooled off, I realized that.   To me it's nothing special (being 12) cause well, I know what it's like, but I dont usualy ponder the thought.
So now I'll tell you grown-ups what it's like.(grown-up was one of last weeks spelling words! My teacher will be so proud.) Any way i'm just like any other 12  year old, I go to school sometimes. just kidding, I go to school, eat lunch, breakfast and dinner, I text or txt, watch tv while eating a bag of potato chips(talk about hard to do while my dog is jumping all over me trying to eat my snack.) I play basketball, ping pong, (which is very intense in my family) and tennis. I dident say I was good at it though.

So before I stop typing, i'll tell you what it's like to live with my mom and aunt, or the clones. As you know, they are twins. I swear they are telepathic because they finish eachothers sentences and can feel when the other is in trouble. All my friends are like, "How the heck do you tell them apart?" I'll be like, it's easy for me. To me its like comparing an apple pie to a pumpkin pie.  Mmmmmm pie.......well back to the subject. They are so much alike but after living with them, it's easy to tell them apart. I love it over here, its like a circus. By that I mean, it's awesome. I never get bored living with them.

 I'm going to go be productive with my day- bye!(by productive I mean eat potato chips and watch tv).  BTW, please comment- It'll mean so much to me(she says cutely if thats even a word)but really comment! pleaze

My Dog Has Issues

Ok, so my sister Laura, the kids and I recently rescued the cutest little puppy you have ever seen.  We adopted her on November 14, 2009.  She is a Black Lab, Border Collie mix.  Some people believe she also has some Chesapeke in her as evidenced by her wavy black hair. 
  
Anyway, my niece Ellie had been pleading with Laura and I to have a dog she could call her own.  We already have Joey the dog,  our eight year old Black Lab mix who we all love very much.  At the time we rescued Joey from the animal shelter, Laura was going through a tough divorce which was really hard on the kids and  I.  Soon after,  I was diagnosed with lung cancer, so things were pretty serious around here.  Adopting Joey was the best thing we could have done to open our hearts.  We call him our angel because he really did Save us more than we saved him.  All four of us knew Joey was meant for us and we were meant for him.  He is just plain and simple, part of the family.

So back to Spooky, our newest member of the family.  She is soft, cuddly and loves to kiss you and anything else she see's around her, but as we all learned,  even cute little puppies can have issues.  I noticed when bringing her out to do her duty that she was looking for something.  Every time I brought her out to the bathroom, she was scoping something out.  Eventually she would get it in her mouth and I would just take the unknown item and launch it across the yard.  My guess was that it was a rock or a big piece of ice.

One day when going through the same routine:  She does her duty and then finds that special treasure to put in her mouth.  I finally decide to put the mystery to an end and look at the gem that spooky has unearthed.  To my horror, there in my hands (glad I had mittens on) lay a piece of Frozen Poop.  All this time I was letting Spooky eat her own poop. 

I have talked to friends and other bloggers about my puppies issue and learned that this is fairly common with girl dogs.  I guess they like having things nice and tidy in their own space, thus eating their poop.  After the family got over the initial shock of what she had been eating ever since her adoption, we started getting more of a sense of humor about it.  We now coin Spooky's little treasures as Poopsicles.  I guess we'll have to come up with another term now that spring is coming.

"Oops, I guess I got a little side tracked

Hi blogger friends-I hope everyone is having a Great day! If your anything like me, you have major spring fever after this Long, Long, winter.  Every year since I can remember, I seem to come back to life in the spring. I get more energy, my overall attitude improves and I want to play again and get out of the house.
I promised my twin sister Laura as she left for work today, that I would clean up all the doggie doo doo in the yard now that the snow is melting, but I got a little side tracked.
My intentions were good regarding keeping my promise but it was soo mild out and I love that "spring smell". Do you know what I mean? It almost smells like fresh hay or something.  Anyway, instead of doing the yard project, I did what I love to do when I am suffering from "spring fever".  I jumped in my car, cranked up the radio and put the front windows half way down.  I was on my way to a spontaneous adventure.
I began the adventure by meeting my sis for lunch at Olive Garden.  I really enjoy getting the (all-you-can-eat) salad. Those soft, warm breadsticks go so well with this entree.  I say my goodbyes to Laura and I am off. HMMM? What's next on my agenda? Well, lunch was a little salty, so icecream would be good right about now, so I pull into Leann Chinns' for my favorite yogurt icecream. You can choose from a variety of toppings and I decided to skip the candy toppings and go for the fresh raspberries.  It was sooo good!! I was really planning on going home now, but wait, what does that sign say? Massage? I could really use one.  I had never been here before, but hey, we're on an adventure. I knew this would be good when I looked at her inviting business card.  It read: "Life Changing Massage".  Her name also intrigued me: Aspira Dzuro. During the initial consultation and introductions, I learned that Aspira and I had something in common.  She is also a twin which immediately made me feel more relaxed.  I received one of the best massages I have ever had in my life and that's saying a lot as I am a long time veteran of massage. Oh, and by the way, the sign that grabbed my attention as I drove by, read:  "first time customers get special price of $39.00 for one full hour".  You can't beat that price for an incredible full-body massage from a masseus that has been in the business for twenty-six years.  Her business card was right, it was life changing. "Thank you Aspira".
Aspira mentioned to me that there was a cute little boutique downstairs called Bellaluna, so as soon as I got dressed, down I went. Talk about a charming little store. The name of it tells you it's going to be fun and magical. On the business card it reads, "Gifts for the Spirit". They carry items like crystal necklaces, jade earrings, incense, antique lamps and a lot of other really unique, gifty type items.  I had a great time looking around the store, but even better than perusing, was meeting the friendly boutique owner, Gail Melynie.  She has a warm, welcoming personality that makes it hard to leave the store. She's great at telling true life, spiritual, ghost stories. She had me at H-E-L-L-O.  I plan to blog about one of her many interesting experiences in my next post, so stand by for a very touching tear jerker. I ended up spending about thirty minutes at Bellaluna chatting with Gail. What a Great day I had, and all because of "Spring Fever".  I hope Laura won't be too upset about the yard.  I'll do it tomorrow.

Comedy Show

Twinner and I made plans to eat out at one of our favorite restaurants in the suburbs.  One of the things we love the most about this particular venue is that they seat you with several other people.  I am the type of person that relishes the social aspect of meeting new people, but little did I know what we were in for.  This was not going to be one of those quiet and to themselves type of family that we have sometimes been seated with. No, quite the contrary. This was one  of the most intriguing groups of people I have EVER had the pleasure of meeting.  Go grab a hot cup of coffee or a soda and I will walk you through my Bizarre yet Hilarious, dining experience...

We all follow the hostess in single file to the table.  I notice that besides my family of four, there are two other couples, each with one child.  I also notice that the mothers are carrying large trash bags of wrapped gifts.  I knew that my family and I were in for a celebration of some sort.  I don't know if it's that I'm in the mental health field or just my curious nature but I knew right away this was going to be very fun to observe and be a part of.  We hadn't even sat down yet when one of the men at the table introduced my family (twin sister Laura, my nephew Jacob and my niece Ellie)to his wife and daughter and his couple friends  and their son.  I love meeting new people but this introduction seemed so odd to me.  After introductions, we all sat down and Laura and I just enjoyed the crazy ride.  I felt like I was watching a Hilarious skit from Saturday Night Live except these people were not acting, they were just being themselves.  I figured out that this couple was doing their holdiay gift exchange and that's why all the gifts.  I also surmised that one couple was from out of town.  I felt sad for the mom that had a tired daughter that wouldn't stop crying.  Oh, how I remember those days with Laura's kids when they were a little younger and missed a nap or were overtired.  I wanted to tell her that I knew how frazzled she was feeling, especially when her husband asked her to take videos of their daughter opening gifts.  The problem with this request was that she was trying to eat dinner before it got cold, She was helping her daughter dig for gifts and She was trying to carry on a conversation with her girlfriend that was sitting next to her but still try to carry herself like she wasn't ready to have a breakdown.  What got my family and I through the chaotic meal was simple.  They were interesting and a little on the eccentric side.  It made us feel like maybe we weren't so alone after all.  Maybe all families are a little nuts!  Oh, and a couple side notes: 

• The frazzled mommy sounded just like Bette Midler and looked a little like her too. 
• When my family and I finished dinner, I whispered to the server, "check right away please, if you know what I mean"?  He whispered back, "Oh, I know what you mean"!  

Enjoy peoples' differences, it makes life soo much fun! 
  

Kids Week

Hi everyone-I know, I haven't been online since my first attempt at blogging. It's not that I didn't want to as much as I forgot to fit it in on kids week. See, my twinner and I have her children every other week and last week was ours. Things tend to get very hectic when it's our week with the kids. There is sports, sports practice, driving to two different schools, homework, working adults, keeping up and maintaining a house and much more. The week we have the kids is always very challenging and busy but I can't imagine life without my twinners little ones. They give me such joy and purpose in life.

Ever since Laura and her ex-husband started talking about having kids, I knew that I would be much more than just an aunt. When your a twin and your as close as we are, one twins treasure tends to be the other twins treasure. I knew I would be an aunt but deep down I knew that I would be much more...A MOM . At the time Laura and her then husband were starting a family, I was as single as they come but the thought of my best friend and twin having kids was something I looked forward to, even if not yet for myself. I was excited for this new chapter in my life as an auntie. I vowed to Laura and myself that I would be very committed . I was there for the birth of both children and have been there consistently ever since to help raise them. In my wildest dreams, I never knew what becoming an aunt would do to me and my life. Little did I know back then that I would end up living with my twin sister and her kids. How did that all come about? More on that later.....

Twin Trivia: Do twins ever switch classes? Yes, and for Laura and I it started young. Young, as in kindergarten. I know, can you believe we already knew at age five, how fun this bond could be?