Goodbye Sweet Soxy, Run Free!

Today was one of the hardest days of my life. We said goodbye to our Soxy. She had been in kidney failure since July, that we know of, and her body finally had enough. She had steak for dinner the last two nights and laid in the sun all day yesterday, almost as if she knew. It was the hardest, yet somehow the easiest, decision I ever had to make. She was suffering, that was obvious today. We will miss her forever and she is a part of me that will never leave. She took a large part of my heart with her, but she is no longer in pain. I will always love you baby girl, my sweetness, our Pupples, our Soxy. You are forever in our hearts!

Word of the Year 2015 Recap & 2016 Word of the Year

As I mentioned in my last post, I gave up resolutions for the "Word of the Year" that my sister-in-law, Sheri, turned me on to. Last year, I had the word BRAVE as my Word of the Year. To that end, I:

• Beat cancer
• Drove to Erie and back (2.5 hours each way) for my job
• Made it through my first surgery without Dad
• Walked my first 5K in honor of Brian "Boz"
• Struggled through my first year without Dad being just a phone call/visit away
• Began, in earnest, my full-time job search...and landed my first full-time, one-year teaching contract 

This year (2016) my word of the year is FAITH. I need to:

• Renew my faith
• Have faith I will find my tenure-track position
• Have faith in the bond of family and friends
• Have faith in myself, my decisions and my relationships
• Have faith I can, and will, get back in shape/stay healthy

Let's see if I can do as good this year as I did last year

New Year's Housekeeping

Hi all (if anyone is still reading):

I am cleaning up around here. This means that I have whittled down those "Other Places to Visit" to active blogs. If I deleted you inadvertently, please either comment or send me a message and I will add you back on. 

Hope everyone's 2016 is off to a great start! 

Kristin

PS: Will post my "Word of the Year" and wrap-up last year shortly...trying to get ready for the new semester. 

14th Anniversary of Terrorist Attacks on US

The minute we forget we make ourselves vulnerable for it to happen again.

THAT DAY
Always remember, never forget the terror, the fear, the loss that you felt that day.
Too many innocent people lost their lives that day.
Heroes were born, and then many perished, that day.
Fear was instilled in the American people that day.
Unity was brought out in America that day.
Our freedom was attacked, but we resolved to fight back that day.
American became stronger in the adversity that day.
People helped strangers that day.
We have been silent for those attacks for fourteen years since that day.
Families have missed loved ones every second since that day.
We need to remember what made us strong that day.
Let us forget our differences and return to the resolve to stand united that we felt THAT DAY.

(Borrowed from Dackel Princess)

September 11, 2001: Basic Facts

Chronology
8:46 AM Plane crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
9:03 AM Plane crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
9:17 AM The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shuts down all New York City area airports.
9:21 AM The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halts all flights at U.S. airports. It is the first
time in history that air traffic has been halted nationwide.
9:38 AM Plane crashes into the Pentagon. Evacuation begins immediately.
9:45 AM The White House evacuates.
10:05 AM The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
10:10 AM A portion of the Pentagon collapses.
10:10 AM Plane crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
10:22 AM The State and Justice Departments, as well as the World Bank are evacuated.
10:28 AM The World Trade Center’s north tower collapses.
10:45 AM All federal office buildings in Washington, D.C. are evacuated.
1:44 PM Five warships and two aircraft carriers are ordered to leave the U.S. Naval Station
in Norfolk, Virginia to protect the East Coast.
4:10 PM Building 7 of the World Trade Center collapses.

The Flights
American Airlines Flight 11
From: Boston, Massachusetts (Logan Airport)
To: Los Angeles, California
Lives: 92 people on board
Crashed into North Tower of World Trade Center at 8:46 AM

United Airlines Flight 175
From: Boston, Massachusetts (Logan Airport)
To: Los Angeles, California
Lives: 65 people on board
Crashed into South Tower of World Trade Center at 9:03 AM

American Airlines Flight 77
From: Washington, D.C. (Dulles Airport)
To: Los Angeles, CA
Lives: 64 people on board
Crashed into the Pentagon at 9:38 AM

United Airlines Flight 93
From: Newark, New Jersey
To: San Francisco, California
Lives: 44 people on board
Crashed into rural Pennsylvania (southeast of Pittsburgh)

Victims
Victims came from more than 90 countries around the world.
The following are the number of people who died at each site:

World Trade Center 2,823 (includes airline passengers)
Pentagon 125 (not including plane victims)
Flight 11 - 92 people on board
Flight 175 - 64 people on board
Flight 77 - 64 people on board
Flight 93 - 44 people on board

The initial numbers are indelible: 8:46 a.m. and 9:02 a.m, the times the Towers were hit. Time the burning towers stood: 56 minutes and 102 minutes. Time they took to fall: 12 seconds. From there, they ripple out.

Fact Sheet
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC
August 15, 2002

Back at It!

So summer is wrapping up around here as I have to prepare for my fall semester. I have a full-time contract with Slippery Rock University and I'm so excited. I will be teaching Public Speaking, and hopefully making it interesting and fun for my students.

I am also working on a couple of projects that are "work-related"...an article with my dissertation director; a presentation for a conference in April; and a book with an artist in England. I am most excited about the book, but must prepare for the semester first.

My neighbor is having a baby in September, so that means another baby blanket is in the works. My mother told her friend I'd make her a ruffle scarf...so that needs to be done. I'm still working on an afghan for D and I...it will let both of us snuggle under one blanket while watching TV. I am also trying my hand at a shadow box for Mom. I have some of Dad's badges and memorabilia from his time in the Air Force and his work in the steel mill and I'm looking for pictures to include. Needless to say, the dreams/nightmares are back as I'm trying to do this...lots of sleepless nights. But, I want to have it finished by the anniversary of his death (9/14) for Mom. My brother originally said he would do it, but it has sat in one of Dad's jewelry boxes and never got started, so I took it to get it done.

I'm also trying to plan a girls' weekend with one of my friends and a 10th anniversary get-away with D for my Christmas break as family concerns kept us from going around our anniversary.

Life is busy, but I need to blog more as it does help me work through some stuff. Miss my readers! Please say "Hi" if you're still out there.

Trying to Look at the Bright Side

It's been 9 months...Father's Day was awful!

It wasn't helped that D was out of town.

Mom, brother & I went to the cemetery and placed flowers and an angel on Dad's grave. Glad I drove and had to focus because I was having trouble holding it together. From there my sister-in-law, who was dog-sitting, was able to meet us for lunch. It was really nice to sit around and talk with the family. Mom had me do some running to different stores for her. Mom doesn't drive.

After that I came home and started going through old photo albums. Made a collage for Facebook, posted below. BIG MISTAKE!! Spent the rest of the night crying. Crawled into bed and couldn't sleep...go figure.

Does this ever get any easier?

Here's the collage:

Wow, I Can't Believe I Haven't Blogged All Year!

What a bad, bad blogger I have become. My last post was on New Year's Eve. Well, here's a bit of an update on my life (and somewhat of an excuse as to why I've been MIA):

As you know we lost Dad on September 14, 2014 and I had a rough time with that.

After that work was very busy catching up from a rough start to the semester. Then there were all the first holidays to deal with and I wasn't prepared for how hard they would be. I mean, I knew they would be rough, but they were truly devastating (although I tried to put on a good face for Mom, brother, and the relatives...especially the kids).

The Saturday before Christmas I received a call...the biopsy came back malignant; I had breast cancer. Except for my Mother, D's parents, and our brothers we refused to tell anyone until after the holidays. Mom was a mess, as you can only imagine. I wasn't much better, but I've been through so much medical stuff that my plan was just to beat it an move on.

January and February were full of doctors appointments because when you are a heart patient, with a pacemaker, radiation becomes dangerous. There were so many precautions that needed to be taken: stress tests, ekgs, echocardiograms, etc. etc. My pacemaker was checked daily throughout radiation. Loads of fun.

My oncologist chose a new "targeted" radiation as our best option. So on February 26, I had the lumpectomy; the following Friday I had a procedure to insert a catheter for the radiation to go through. Then, over Spring Break I had radiation treatments 2x a day for 5 days. And it was done. It was the worst Spring Break ever!! During the process, luckily almost at the end, I picked up the stomach flu which made things really nasty.

That was last week. I'm back to normal now with a pile of projects on my desk to be done. I have regular schoolwork; an article; a children's book; 2 presentations; and other research I want to do. One day at a time I try to knock things off the list. The idea is to keep moving forward one day at a time.

So far Mom, brother and I have gotten through their anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and just today...Mom's birthday, as firsts without Dad. It's a painful, but necessary process that we will deal with for the rest of our lives. There is a big hole that Dad used to fill.