Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Continue Barb's Fight Against Leukemia
Continue Barb's Fight Against Leukemia at http://pages.teamintraining.org/mn/lifetri10/OssyPosse
The Ossy Posse "Team In Training" site is here. Donations to this site will be the same as those sent to the address listed in the previous post.
Barb's fight with cancer ended on December 20th. Her strength and courage during her 8 month battle was amazing. Unfortunately, medical science has not yet found a reliable cure for her type of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). It was her tremendous desire to live, which enabled her to surpass the average life expectancy of someone with this devastating disease.
Barb's treatment included an experimental round of chemotherapy. She volunteered to participate in the study not only because it could have been the cure that she so desperately sought, but also because she wanted to help continue the fight against AML.
She has been contributing to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for 12 years, since her sister-in-law died of Leukemia. Now, we have the opportunity to continue the fight.
We are raising money for Leukemia research as members of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training program at The Lifetime Fitness Triathlon race July 10th. We will be racing in honor of Barb's life, as a wife, mother, grandma, sister, and friend.
Please join us in our tribute to Barb by helping us meet our fundraising goal.
Thank you for your support!
Darrell, David, Jeanine
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Barbara Jean Wilk, July 29, 1945 - December 20, 2009
From Jeanine:
Dearest Friends,
My mom passed away this morning. It's hard to believe over eight months has passed since my mom's diagnosis. This year has consisted of the most life changing events of my life. The year began with so much promise and excitement. I was expecting the birth of our baby girl in July, completing my graduate degree in May, starting my new career in the fall, and planned to escape the dreadful Minnesota winter by spending time with my parents in Arizona. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to enjoy one last trip to AZ with my mom last March. I will forever cherish the memories from that trip. I am also so thankful my mom survived long enough to celebrate the milestones that came to pass this year even if it was not in the way we had intended. Her spirit will live on through her friends and family. I am so blessed to have had such a spectacular mother and friend. I will forever strive to be as wonderful to my children as she was to hers.
I realize I've been difficult to contact during the past month and want you all to know how much your notes, cards, calls, and text messages helped me through this heartbreaking struggle. I have been overwhelmed by your generosity. It has been difficult to see the good in this experience and you have all shown me true love and compassion. You have given me a gift, which I will always treasure.
Thank You,
Love to you all this holiday season,
Jeanine
From Darrell:
Barb asked me to let you know that memorial donations are preferred to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) in lieu of flowers.
So, Dave, Jeanine and I are going to participate in a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society program called "Team in Training" where we race in a LLS sponsored Triathlon event to raise money for Leukemia research. If you are interested, please make checks payable to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at:
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
8441 Wayzata Blvd, Suite 340
Golden Valley, MN 55426
Please include Barb's name on the check.
Barb has been donating to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society since our sister-in-law, Marge, died of Leukemia 12 years ago. There has been tremendous progress in curing and controlling certain types of Leukemia during this time. Hopefully, some day, others will be spared what Barb has gone through with AML Leukemia.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Happy Halloween!
Another Halloween has passed. It was difficult this year as the dude could not decide on a costume. He wanted to be both batman and darth vader. In the end, a nice compromise was reached. Batman for halloween and darth vader for christmas.
In other news, mommy finally finished knitting a dress she has been working on:
Also, prior to the big day, there was some experimentation with other super heroes. Here is his attempt at his own spider man costume:
In other news, mommy finally finished knitting a dress she has been working on:
Also, prior to the big day, there was some experimentation with other super heroes. Here is his attempt at his own spider man costume:
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Super Grandpa
I bet grandpa's back is thanking its lucky stars that there isn't a 5th grandchild...
...yet?
...yet?
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
12 Weeks Old...
And barely a picture to show for it. Wow how the time flies. Hopefully I can get back into the blogging spirit. Anyway here are some long overdue pictures of the little princess...
She also got to go on her first trip to Lawrence. She got to go to her very first jayhawk swim meet, watch a football game, and hang out at some her parents old favorite eateries.
Big brother is really enjoying the company that will sure to hang on his every word in the near future. For now she can just stare and smile as he entertains her.
Also, I know kanye thinks he has it in the bag, but I present another possible successor to the king of pop:
She also got to go on her first trip to Lawrence. She got to go to her very first jayhawk swim meet, watch a football game, and hang out at some her parents old favorite eateries.
Big brother is really enjoying the company that will sure to hang on his every word in the near future. For now she can just stare and smile as he entertains her.
Also, I know kanye thinks he has it in the bag, but I present another possible successor to the king of pop:
Saturday, August 29, 2009
La Familia
La familia came to town:
I think little girl is going to be mad at us someday. Here she is 6 weeks of age and other than the one above with grandpa, these are some of the best pictures I could come up with:
Although we have been busy lately, we did make it up to the cabin a couple of times. The only photos of trip #1 was of the dude water skiing at 3.5 yrs of age. None of our gorgeous little girl. I promise to be better from now on...
I think little girl is going to be mad at us someday. Here she is 6 weeks of age and other than the one above with grandpa, these are some of the best pictures I could come up with:
Although we have been busy lately, we did make it up to the cabin a couple of times. The only photos of trip #1 was of the dude water skiing at 3.5 yrs of age. None of our gorgeous little girl. I promise to be better from now on...
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Heavenly Hangover
The dude became a big brother on July 13th, 10:32am to a healthy, 8lb 1oz, 19 3/4 in, baby sister. Other than the epidural not having any time to take effect (hence the hangover), everything went as smoothly as one could wish for. Everybody is healthy as can be. Gwendolyn Jean Roddy and mommy come home tomorrow!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Fallen Off the Face of the Planet
Where have the Roddy's been for the past month? Let's just say life has thrown us a couple of curve balls in the past couple weeks. After spending months and months consumed with studying for my graduate exams, I was looking forward to the completion of graduate school. To celebrate, the dude and I spent a week in Phoenix with my parent soaking up some much deserved sun (pics of trip in previous post). Upon our return, I thought life would finally slow down, allowing me to prepare for our big summer. With all my new found freedom, we had planned to cut back the dude's daycare hours. I had envisioned me and my little buddy passing the early summer months by preparing the baby's room, gardening, playing at the city pool, and enjoying our last few precious weeks of mommy & dude time before little sis shows up.
Unfortunately, that is not what was in store for us...
At 28 weeks gestation, my doctor determined it was time to put me on full bed rest. If you have been a loyal Roddy Blog follower, than you know I had the dude at 31 weeks gestation. Even though being put on bed rest was no surprise, it was still discouraging to know my body was taking the same path as my previous pregnancy. It was also unnerving to realize baby two’s health was potentially at risk.
Bed rest is a whole lot harder than I thought it would be. It’s proven to be one of the most mentally challenging tasks I have encountered. I think the hardest aspect of bed rest is the disappointment of missing out on family fun and plans I had intended to do during these 8-9 weeks. I will be 33 weeks on Friday, and have had three weeks of no change or progression. Since bed rest seems to be paying off, I’ll continue to remain in bed for another 4-5 weeks in hopes of making it to 37 weeks gestation (which is considered full-term by medical standards). Thankfully, I will have some company to break up the monotony of bed rest.
The helplessness of being on bed rest becomes more intense when we were blindsided by the news that my mom was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). This news was a complete shock. She had little or no symptoms two weeks prior to her diagnosis. In fact, while we were in AZ she was climbing rugged mountain trails, and pushing me around on a desert path in a wheelchair with a flat tire. She has completed her first intense round of Chemo and will likely be receiving a bone marrow transplant in the next month. The chemo treatment has been a successful first step in her treatment and we will continue to take it day by day through her recovery.
Thank you to all our family and friends who have provided continued encouragement and support to help keep our family running. I’ve been overwhelmed by your generosity. I struggle with how I will be able to repay you all!
Unfortunately, that is not what was in store for us...
At 28 weeks gestation, my doctor determined it was time to put me on full bed rest. If you have been a loyal Roddy Blog follower, than you know I had the dude at 31 weeks gestation. Even though being put on bed rest was no surprise, it was still discouraging to know my body was taking the same path as my previous pregnancy. It was also unnerving to realize baby two’s health was potentially at risk.
Bed rest is a whole lot harder than I thought it would be. It’s proven to be one of the most mentally challenging tasks I have encountered. I think the hardest aspect of bed rest is the disappointment of missing out on family fun and plans I had intended to do during these 8-9 weeks. I will be 33 weeks on Friday, and have had three weeks of no change or progression. Since bed rest seems to be paying off, I’ll continue to remain in bed for another 4-5 weeks in hopes of making it to 37 weeks gestation (which is considered full-term by medical standards). Thankfully, I will have some company to break up the monotony of bed rest.
The helplessness of being on bed rest becomes more intense when we were blindsided by the news that my mom was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). This news was a complete shock. She had little or no symptoms two weeks prior to her diagnosis. In fact, while we were in AZ she was climbing rugged mountain trails, and pushing me around on a desert path in a wheelchair with a flat tire. She has completed her first intense round of Chemo and will likely be receiving a bone marrow transplant in the next month. The chemo treatment has been a successful first step in her treatment and we will continue to take it day by day through her recovery.
Thank you to all our family and friends who have provided continued encouragement and support to help keep our family running. I’ve been overwhelmed by your generosity. I struggle with how I will be able to repay you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
