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Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Aloha #17)

Posted on October 10, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Aloha and TGIF everyone!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

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My question for this week is inspired by October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month:

Has anyone in your life been diagnosed with breast cancer? If so please feel free to share.

Right before NHL was born my father’s sister received some horrible news. My family actually tried to hide it from me at first because I was SO very pregnant. I knew something was going on and told them I wanted to know. They finally shared with me that my Aunt S had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I remember those days, sitting at my grandmothers house and aunts just being there with everyone.

For years Aunt S had been going for tests and watching herself because of a family history of breast cancer. Suddenly she was faced with the news that she had always feared. NHL was born and soon after she had her first of many surgeries. Those months were very hard to witness as Aunt S longed to hold her new nephew but could not risk it.

Aunt S has been a breast cancer survivor for five years now. We are so lucky that she was on top of things and caught it early. Growing up I spent a lot of time with Aunt S and Uncle M before they had children. I would play dress up, watch videos (Barry Manilow concerts – they all corrupted me), and bake with her. Both of my boys are also very close with Aunt S. NHL spent the day with Aunt S and my grandmother the day JSL was born. Thankfully when JSL was born Aunt S was able to snuggle him lots. Here are a few photos of my Aunt S, a true hero in my life and most importantly a brave breast cancer warrior.

Categories:
Aloha Friday bad news family looking back

Happy 94th Birthday Grandma (WW)

Posted on October 1, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Categories:
birthday family food glorious food Wordless Wednesday yummy

Days of fun for next summer

Posted on September 29, 2008 9:00 am by TheAngelForever

Have you ever done something out of the blue that just shocks you? Last Saturday JL and I did.

While at Six Flags an old friend was there and happens to work at the park. She mentioned that we may want to look into upgrading our day passes. She said that they were running a special where you could upgrade your pass from the day to a Season Pass for the 2009 season, as well as the rest of this fall. The price for this — only $40 a ticket.

I know $40 sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t when you consider that a day pass for this year was $41 alone! Mind you we were able to snag an online sale for our post-Labor Day tickets for $25 each (not bad for 6 1/2 hours of fun). Still if we go more than one time from May to September of next year the passes pay for themselves.

The really nice part, our season passes are good at all of the following parks (15 in all):

(1) La Ronde, Montreal, (2) Six Flags America, Baltimore/Washington DC, (3) Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo (does not include Waterworld), (4) Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio, (5) Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey, (6) Six Flags Great America, Chicago, (7) Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville, (8) Six Flags Magic Mountain, Los Angeles, (9) Six Flags Mexico, Mexico City, (10) Six Flags New England, Springfield, MA, (11) Six Flags Over Georgia, Atlanta, (12) Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington, between Dallas and Ft. Worth, (13) Six Flags St. Louis, (14) Six Flags Wild Safari, New Jersey, and (15) The Great Escape, Lake George, NY

In addition to this, we also receive five free guest tickets to use on certain days and a coupon book to save within the park. Not too shabby if you ask me. So now we can think about going on trips to some other Six Flags parks close by to us next summer. The possibilities are quite nice actually.

So next year we can look forward to more memories at the park.

The best part is we are pretty much done with Chanukah gifts thanks to this!

Categories:
decisions family fun jl looking back nhl photos play time summer

Fun nearly ruined

Posted on September 27, 2008 10:49 am by TheAngelForever

A week ago at this time we were on the road to Six Flags. JSL was staying with my parents for the day and we had a special day set for NHL. Our things were ready to go, our prepaid tickets printed and everyone was excited for a fabulous day at the park.

When we arrived at our destination we opted to drive past the park and head to lunch. We quickly found a cute little pizza place and went there. After lunch we got back into our car and went to the parking area of the park. As I was loading things up to go inside the park I looked at JL and asked where my purse was.

Ever have one of those moments where your heart skips a beat and you can not breathe? This was my moment.

My purse was not there. I then recalled putting it on the seat next to me at the pizza place. I am not used to having a purse, especially a small one and just forgot it. I quickly went to an attendant in the parking lot. He told us to go to the gate and ask for our parking pass back since we had a prepaid. JL hopped out of the car and went to the gate where we had paid. They quickly gave it back to us.

As we drove a short distance it seemed like forever to me. I had to literally remind myself to breathe. My heart was ready to leap out of my throat. Everything was in that purse – cash, credit cards, gift cards, drivers license . . . the works! The tickets for the park were safely in the backpack in the car with us.

When we finally arrived back at the restaurant JL ran in. People were sititng at the table where we had been. They saw how anxious JL was and asked if he was looking for a purse. Sure enough when they sat down they saw it and gave it to the people of the restaurant. Everything was still inside – thank goodness there still are honest people.

When we drove back to the park my heart was slowly settling back down. We were lucky enough to be able to go right back to the parking spot we had left (right next to the bridge to the park) and went in.

After a few rides and watching NHL’s smiling face I was able to put the scare behind me. Thank goodness our day was not ruined by my stupidity!

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While visiting in Looney Tunes National Park NHL and JL went onto a little roller coaster. Here is a sign that we passed on the way there.

Here are the boys waiting for and then going on the ride. It was anticlimatic after the Bobsled ride, but fun none-the-less.

Of course when you are near Wile E Coyote there has to be TNT. I thought this was cute and too funny not to take a photo of.

When we were ready to head out of the area they still had the water on and JL joked that he would toss NHL in to cool off.

Clearly finding my purse was meant to be. Someone was definitely watching over us. Had something different happened in the morning, none of these memories would have happened.