Well,
I started school again this week.  Today was difficult because
Steve and Valerie had doctor appointments today. 

Good news for Steve in that his bone marrow test came back fine --
nothing wrong with anything there -- so his official diagnosis is Common
Variable Immune Deficiency treatable by IV Gammaglobuline.  

Valerie, too, is doing good with her recent diagnosis of Asthma. 
The medicine she was put on is doing the trick and there is already
improvment in her breathing.  But -- she has a cold and is running
a small fever today - so to her she doesn't feel better - but the
breathing tests she does improved greatly.

I have my CT scan tomorrow morning.  So that will throw a wrench
into tomorrows schooling as well.  Good thing - we don't do a lot
of schooling on Wednesdays - so hopefully the girls will get done what
they need to without me; otherwise I will schooling tomorrow afternoon.

Elizabeth and Valerie are packing up their room so we can paint
it.  They are having a difficult time picking a paint
color.   I think today's choices are light pink and
black..... hmmmm.... They should be ready to paint this weekend,
however, I don't know that we'll have the money for paint.

Ballet started again today after taking off the month of
December.  Don't have the money for that this week either, but I
will pay next week for the month.  And tap has been moved to
Thursdays.  I am hoping that come summertime, it will be moved
back to Monday's as Thursday has been typically my day that I have
nothing planned and would enjoy going to the beach during the
summer.   It got changed because the instuctor is in college
and she has a class on Mondays -- so that shouldn't be the case during
the summer.

EDIT: Another walk in the past -- Here is a picture of my three oldest way back when.

I love this song!!  It took me a while to find an online mp3 file
to link to.  This song meant a lot to me last year when I was
going through all I was going through.  When things got tough, I
would just imagine what it would be like when there would be no more
sorrow or bad news or pain or grieving... and on top of that being in
perfect fellowship with our Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit!!!
Perfect love... I long so for heaven -- Lord come quickly!!

On that note -- I'll check out.
love to you all ~me

The
last few hours of 2004 --- Never have I been so happy to see a year
end!!!  But thanks be to God for all the strength (grace, mercy,
love, etc) He gave me and my entire family to endure the year of chemo
and surgeries.  I got my tattoos (areola) on Wednesday -- all I
have to say about that is O U C H !!!!  But it was the last thing that I needed to do to finish the reconstruction.  YEAH!  I made it!!!!!

Well not much more to say -- Have a great evening and see you in the new year...

2  0  0  5

~me

Hello and Merry few days after Christmas. 

How was everyone's Christmas?  Mine was good, although I was sick.
Here are some pictures from Christmas

Gracie gets some new slippers:

Val gets a new video:

Elizabeth gets some new nightie pants

Julie gets a new pancho

Here are the So. Cal Bartosch Cousins

I don't have much to say, but just wanted to check in.

~me

Good morning all....

Two days left until Christmas and I'm
sick.... it just figures....  I've had this nauseous thing going
since Saturday night (I swear I was pregnant if I wasn't sure
otherwise) and this morning I've woken up with a cold.     And there's just so much to do today!!! 

Steve is having a bone marrow test done today.  He has a lousy
immune system and we are trying to find out why.  If this test
show nothing then he will be officially diagnosed with Common Variable
Immune Deficiency -- which just means he will have to have the IV
Gammaglobulines from now on every 3 or so weeks.  This test today
is checking for any underlying blood disorders that could be causing
it.  We should get the test results back next week.  We have
already ruled out that it is some type of low grade lymphoma.

I have to get my shopping done this afternoon.  Not too much left,
but I have to make a few stops to peoples houses too.  I can't
image getting it all done -- oh well, what doesn't get done today, I'll
just have to shove into tomorrow.  I already have been to Sam's
Club this morning.  I love it as we have a business card and it
opens at 7am for business people!  Yeah!  So by 7:45 I was
home.  I went to buy another gift for Steve (to replace the one
that was stolen), however, they were OUT OF IT! 
Can you believe it??!!  I guess it was just not meant to be. 
I got something similar, but not quite what I originally wanted to get
him.

Well, gotta go.  Have a great day!!
~me

Test Results - Frodo

You are most like
Frodo. You're very friendly, and you have a great personality. Although you
like to have fun, you can also be pretty serious at times. It's pretty hard to
get you mad, but once you're mad...everybody better look out! Keep that temper
under control and realize that you're better off than you may think.

I'm feeling better today.

This last week was a busy one.  Things going almost every
night.  This week is a bit slower, however, all that last minute
shopping needs to be done.

On a random note, I love blues music.  I had forgotten after not
hearing it for so long that I do.  Not the words, but the slowness
of the music. Maybe I'm craving slowness....

We had a get together on Friday.  We had some old friends over and
some friends that we've never had over before, so it was fun.  I
had bought some crafts from the Oriental Trading Co -- but everything
came in a dozen.  So I had a craft table set up so that the kids
could do different crafts, although we were working with hot glue guns,
so it wasn't without incident.  I was having a good time helping
the kids with the crafts so for a bit of the party I didn't really get
to talk to others much, so I hope they had a good time and there was
enough to eat, ect. etc. etc. because I wasn't paying much
attention.    We set up the ping pong table in the patio
and also had a fire going by the pool.  So the older kids had
something to do too. 

On a sad note, someone broke into my van the night before last and
stold my husband gift out of the car.  It was in the back
seat.  I never have anything of worth in my car, ever!!  So
how sad that the one time I do....  There were several of them
(robbers) and they were trying to break into all my neighbors cars as
well.  One neighbor just happened to be getting home from work
(this was at 3am) and started yelling at them and they took
off.  

In 14 years we've lived here we've never had a problem such as this --
nor have any of my neighbors, which is quite surprising because we
don't live in the bests of neighborhoods-- not bad either, just not the
best.  So I'm thankful that it wasn't any worse and what was taken
is easily replaceable, but not cheap.

Well, that's all for now.
~me

 
I got all my "away" shopping done today!! I should be ready to ship it
out on Wednesday.  I just have one item left to finish -- I make
calendars for my extended family each year.  I make the calendar
months in PrintShop on 8 1/2 x 14 pages then I affix a 5x7 to the top
part of every month.  This year I am making 6 calendars (one is
ours).

And it gets confusing because each calendar does not get the same set
of 12 pictures.  If we have vacationed to any of my family during
the year (which we have for every
family this year),  I like to use pictures from that vacation for
that family for some of the calendar pages -- and then I supplement
pictures of the 4 girls together taken through the year, except on each
of their birthday months (Feb, Mar, May & July) which I use a
picture of just each one alone.
Sound confusing... not really.

This year I used 23 different pictures for the 6 calendars.  I
have a system down that makes me not get it all confused as I have been
doing this now for years.  Through the year I'm constantly
thinking of the calendar with every picture I take, so that helps.

Then I take the completed calendars down to Kinkos and have them
laminate a 8 1/2 x 11 cover page, then spiral bind the top and drill a
hole for hanging.

So I have this beautiful, personalized gift of not just my girls but of
their family incorporated into it as well, and because the printing of
the 5x7 pictures at Sam's is so inexpensive (like 50 something cents a
picture), with the Kinko's bill, the calendars only end up costing
about $12 a piece.  Not bad... not bad at all. 

Here's a preview... these are the pictures I'm using for each of the girls' birthday months:

I'm almost done shopping for the girls as well -- and Steve and I don't
usually buy too much for each other.  Plus this year we are
redoing our kitchen so that's part of our present to each other. 
Each year, also, as a tradition, the girls buy stuff for each other's
Christmas stocking.  For years we would go to the Hello Kitty
store (Sanrio).  I would take them all in and they would tell each
other what they want, then I would take them in one by one while the
others sat outside to buy little things. This was/is great because you
can find a lot of little things for a buck or two.  This year, my
eldest wanted stuff from Claire's - nice also because they are not
pricey and it's right next to Sanrio.  I took the two littles
yesterday and I'll take the two older ones probably tomorrow.

I'm gonna go now...
love to you all
~me

Hello......

I'm feeling better today. I'm not angry any more.  Still worn out,
though.  God has been faithful to remove my bitterness and anger
and replace it with peace as I have leaned on Christ over the last few
days.  I feel removed and protected (by both God and my husband)
-- and that's good.  I am glad to be rid of it because I found
that being full of bitterness makes me captive to sinful thoughts
towards my in-laws.

Hopefully, as my husband has promised, he (we) can put this behind him
for a bit and concentrate on his family.  I have been proud of my
husband for his diligence in trying to get to the bottom of the issues,
however, it is time for a break - a time for just us and kids.

Looking back in the photo archives, here's another one from the
past.  This was just moments after our first child was born (May
'91). 

Look at the proud Daddy (and exhausted Mommy!). I had a lot of preterm
labor with her (well, with all of them).  At 35 1/2 weeks my water
broke.  Elizabeth was born 4 1/2 weeks early, although healthy,
weighing in at 5lbs 9oz and just 17 inches long.  Definitely a little bundle of joy!

This coming week is a busy one.  I get slightly overwhelmed when I
think of all that is going on and needs to be done.  Oh well.

Have a good weekend.
~me

Pictures from the past... they always cheer me up.  Here is one of my eldest when she was probably 3.

She's having a tea party with all her friends... but what we find funny
about this pictures is that everyone has their arms up in the air --
Praise the Lord!!!
~me

Oh ... what a day... it's one of those "Worst Mommy of the Year"
days.  I'm so stressed out!!!  I am like juggling 5 different
horrible issues and it's just getting the best of me!  Ugh!! 
Yes... I'll have a little cheese with my whine ...

On the brighter side we decorated the tree yesterday.

You can see our kitty - Squeekers -- right here       ^^
She kind of blends in with the stuffed animals.

~me