Great Swimming Today!

Today was the boys Conference meet. It was one of the best swim meets I've seen in quite some time. All the boys had GREAT swims. Conner swam the 200 free and had a great RACE...and RACE it was. He raced with great heart today and dropped 4 seconds and 2 places. He was seeded 9th and came in 7th. The boys came in third....but there were only 9 points between 1st and 3rd. It was a race for 1st up until the very end. I know we had the most parents there and our girls team did a fantastic job cheering their "MEN" on. Each girl had a shirt with one or two boys names and when they turned around they spelled "We (heart) our boys". It was a fantastic day. GREAT JOB CONNER!!! We are so proud of you.

This is Maria....apparently Conner was her man! :)

Better days

Conner and I went to see Caitlin yesterday. They had a swim meet and she swam a few events. She's feeling soooo much better and it's nice to see her back to her old crazy, happy, silly self. It was wonderful to see her and I think she was just as happy to see Conner and me. So just wanted to post a quick update. She will start to reduce the Prednisone on Tuesday which makes me happy. I want her off of that as soon as possible. It worked wonders on her gut...but the side effects just suck!

Living a new life

As many of you know, Caitlin was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease this past week. While this is not what I want for my child....or any person for that matter....this is now her new life. She has not been feeling well for a while and we had her to the doctor a few times before she left on her Christmas training trip to Puerto Rico. The doctor said she was anemic and her estrogen was low. Okay....so she started iron pills. By the time she returned from Puerto Rico she was doubled over in pain. I went on line and started looking up her symptoms separately and Crohn's disease popped up. After a quick call to a friend that is an Internal Medicine doc, who had the same opinion, I was off to Illinois.

She was into the team doctor Monday morning, the GI doctor Monday afternoon and had a colonoscopy done on Tuesday. The test confirmed the diagnosis. While this disease is chronic, we were somewhat relieved to know what was wrong so that she could begin some sort of treatment. After a few days on the steroids she is feeling much better. Both doctors said there is no reason she can not swim and compete. She's already back in the pool and feels a lot better. Her statement to me was "I'm a swimmer, I've swam 20,000 miles, this disease won't stop me".

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Happy New Years Eve!!

Happy New Years Eve! This past weekend we celebrated Christmas after the fact with some friends. We did a traveling party where we started at the Bowling's came to our house then on to the Wang's and finished up at the Tabler's. The kids had a great time playing Guitar Hero World Tour from house to house.

Tonight Conner and I are back to the Wang's for a New Year celebration. Brian has gone to New York for a few days to visit with his family and Caitlin left this morning for Puerto Rico for her Christmas training trip.

So now that the year has come to and end....we hope that the new year brings lots of wonderful and exciting adventures and memories for everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Merry Christmas to you!

Merry Christmas blog reader! We all had a very nice Christmas...mellow and uneventful. Just the way I like it. :) We went to Christmas Mass last night at 4:00 and afterwards met the Wangs for dinner at Texas Road House. I bought the kids each a movie for them to open last night and we spent the evening watching The Dark Knight and Hairspray.

We awoke this morning when Conner decided it was time to get up...around 7:30. The kid never wakes up at 7:30 unless he has too. We went down and opened presents, and I think the kids were pleased with their gifts. Conner and Caitlin played his new Xbox World Tour game then Caitlin took a nap. We had dinner around 5:00 and afterwards we watched The Women. Conner has been on the Xbox all day....Caitlin is in her usual position on the couch....and Brian's gone to bed since he has to go into work for a little tomorrow.

See...pretty mellow and uneventful! We hope that you and your loved ones had a fantastic day and that the new year will bring all kinds of great and wonderful opportunities. Merry Christmas!

Is my nose bleeding?

A few weeks ago, Diana asked me if my family would like to go to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert with them on the 22nd. Of course we would love to go, I told her. TSO was coming to Indy and we thought it would be a great Christmas show. So Diana ordered the tickets on line and last night we headed up to Indy for the show. We (my family) arrived and parked in the huge parking garage with about 15,000 other people. We walked into Conseco Field House and headed up to the second level. I knew the seats were on the upper balcony since we were a little late in ordering them....and we all wanted to sit together. We walked out into the stadium and I was instantly dizzy from the height. We turn to find our row and seats. We start walking UP the stairs....and we walked....and we walked....and we walked. I could not bring myself to look behind me for fear that I would fall to my death. Finally, row 23. Just a note.....there was no row 24! We were seated at the VERY TOP of the stadium! Caitlin and I parked our butts down and refused to move. If someone was to get around us they would just have to climb over us....we WERE NOT standing up!

Other than the nose bleed I was worried would come at any minute, the show was quite spectacular. The music was phenomenal, the light show was amazing and the seats were....well, they were seats. We had a great time and truly enjoyed the show. I highly recommend to anyone that has the chance to see it....just order your tickets early!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

We have another happy birthday shout out..... this time it's going to Rachel! Happy Birthday Rachel, sorry I didn't get this posted on your birthday. Rachel is Caitlin's good friend that also swims for the Illini. I secretly think she could be my daughter....she scrapbooks, her favorite movie is "P.S. I Love You" and she makes up her own words. For instance, this weekend her "hip fell off" and they had to do the "rolly-polly" on her (hehe). Rachel we hope you had a wonderful birthday and we know that this next year will be full of wonderful and exciting adventures!! Happy Birthday kid!