Brian Regan

Last night we got the chance to go see Brian Regan--our family's favorite funny guy. He offered to come support the Steve Young & Anasazi Foundations. (Big fan of the Anasazi program).
My kids were in heaven and our faces are sore from continual laughter. He had a lot of great new material. If you haven't heard him, I highly recommend getting his CDs. My kids love listening to him in the car or on their CD players before they go to bed. He is good and clean.


Thanks to Tom's parents, we had great seats, with the Shills, and could see every contorted facial expression and monkey-like movement he made. He is so funny to listen to, but you have to watch him to get the full affect.
On our way out to the parking lot, I turned around and couldn't find Tom. He came rushing out to tell us he had finagled us backstage to meet him. We ran, me not so gracefully in heels, back inside. Kudos to Tom for being bold enough!!


While we were waiting to meet Brian, Steve Young and Jerry Rice asked Cole if he would like to get a picture with them.


And for curious minds that wonder what Brian Regan's wife looks like.....here she is.

Princess Picnic

My girls and their cousin Cosey invited these cute little girls, in our neighborhood, to a princess picnic today. Summer and Cosey met last night to make a plan and menu. Summer loves to make a plan and prepare for an event. She is my list, goal-making girl.

The invitation asked that they dress up and bring their doll.


Meg offered free airplane rides. We don't want to be "too girly"

I love this girl. She has had such a great attitude with the big change in her diet. She hasn't blinked an eye at ordering her hamburger without the bun and saying "No thanks" to a lot of her favorites. She has done great and kept her smile through it all.

Thank you thank you to everyone that has called and e-mailed me information about Celiac and living gluten-free. I appreciate the network of love & support that we give and get from one another. My mother-in-law brought us by a gluten-free chocolate cake mix (from Costco) and we made it today. It was actually yummy...Yeah! I found a great blog that has gluten-free, healthy recipes that I am excited to try.

Update on Summer

Thank you for the calls and nice e-mails about Summer. Today we got the results back from the biopsy and she does have Celiac's. I was prepared for it, but still shed some tears after I hung up the phone with her doctor. I appreciate those that have offered your help and suggestions for a gluten-free diet. I plan to take you up on your offers.

A Bit of Cozumel

(Push the HQ button for better viewing)

Tom and I LOVE scuba. Before I was certified, I thought it would be kind of scary, always looking over my shoulder for creatures of the ocean. However, after my first dive, I knew I was hooked. You find yourself wishing a shark (not too big) would swim by. There is something about being down below that makes it feel safe. I don't like playing in the waves or swimming in the ocean, just scuba diving.

We look forward to our scuba trip every year. Our destination is always Cozumel (a little island off of the shores of Cancun). We may break out and try something different, but I like that it isn't hard to travel to, has beautiful reefs, and Carribean water--- really clear and warm.
We always go with our scuba group and have a great time. I look forward to when our kids can get certified and join us. I am terrible about picture taking, but this year I borrowed Summer's flip video and captured a few moments. I count on Del and Shawni's photography talent for the rest.

It is a great escape, but I always look forward (just as much) to come back home to my kids. Thanks to my mom , Bonnie, and Janet for taking such good care of them.

Summer

I have never been to Phoenix Children's Hospital, but that all changed this week. Summer and I have been there enough to make up for that and some. Before you think something terrible has occured.....Summer is fine. She is going to school, tennis lessons, and bike rides with friends. She just has been having constant stomach aches for the past 6 weeks. She saw a specialist, took some blood tests and then some more tests on her liver and gall bladder. The above picture was the gall bladder test. The gall bladder test took 3 hours of just lying still under a big x-ray machine. Summer was very patient through it all. Tomorrow we go back for an endoscopy. We are hoping to solve this riddle soon. Our doctor suspects celiac's disease. If she does happen to have that we won't call it that, we'll just say she has to live "gluten-free." I just hate the word disease.
She will no longer be able to eat wheat, rye, barley, or malt. There is still so much that is fine to eat and we will focus on the things she still can have. Like anything new, there will be a bit of a learning curve, but I have already gotten some great advice and suggestions from some friends...thank you. But, for now, we are thinking positive and hoping that the biopsy comes back in our favor.
With all of these long tests, blood taken, IV administered---the worst part of the whole process has been our meeting with the Pediatric GI Specialist. After her long drawn-out explanation on how our GI tracts have evolved from a primitive ape-like system to the one we have today......she lost us. After she left us alone, Summer and I started cracking up.