"The Drifter" By my friend Lauren Schwark

I am a bit confused as to when I post my blogs there are no spaces between the paragraphs! It has me urked to no end! I assure you I am a total paragraph separater & I do take into consideration grammar. In fact I'm one of those nerds who get my thrills out of editing & diagraming sentences.

Last summer I had the complete honor of editing my friend Lauren's 1st Published book called "The Drifter" It wasn't an easy task to pick apart his words & offer suggestions. He's been a great friend since I was about 5yrs old. I will never forget his face last summer when he brought over his 1st copy of his published book. I am so superly proud of him for his hard work & dedication to producing a great read!!

Ok, now I reckon I'll post this. Lord knows it will most likely smear all the paragraphs together & I hope to get that figured out VERY soon!!! It's driving me batty!

A True Inspiration from Esky

This post is going to be about my friend Becky and her neverending inspiration she gives me & I'm sure many others.

I met Beck when I was around 10 years old. She was a good friend of my cousin Brenda. Anyways, Becky was always a nice gal & didn't make my young childish self seem like a burden to be around. Awhile ago I was having a not too swellacious day with my meniere's crappolla & was really down & out. I had had been talking to Brenda and she informed me of Becky & her health problems. I hadn't seen or heard from becky in eons but I often wondered what ever became of her. Brenda went on to tell me Becky has brain tumors & is completely deaf & has no remaining balance. She also told me that she is a cancer survivor & said I should check out her blog sometime. Only thing, Brenda didn't give me an addy to Beck's blog.

A couple months passed & I got in an MM funk again & I feverishly searched the web for this blog of Becky's that Brenda had told me about. My hope was to get out of "oh poor poor Kathy" mode I was slipping into. Low & behold I found it & I think I pulled an all nighter catching up with Beck's past several years via her web page. Some entries had me laughing, some had me wanting to bop ignorant people in the butt & others had me bawling my eyes out.

See, Becky has a genetic disorder called Neufibromatosis Type 2.

It is defined as : NF2 is Neurofibromatosis, Type II. It is a genetic disorder that causes benign (non-cancerous) tumors in the brain and/or throughout the central nervous system, often accompanied by peripheral tumors. These tumors are called either neurofibromas or schwannomas. They grow on nerves and put pressure on the nerves that eventually causes damage to the nerves. Symptoms vary depending on which nerves are involved and the size of the tumors. NF2 is caused by a defect in a gene on chromosome 22. The affected gene has been identified, but at this time there is no cure for NF2. Surgical removal of the tumors is the main treatment at this time, but attempting to treat the tumors with several types of radiation surgery is becoming more common.

Some good sources for additional NF2 background are AdvoCureNF2, Children's Tumor Foundation, Neurofibromatosis, Inc., and Wikipedia. There are several other good NF2 related resources on our Links page.

NF2 has taken her hearing & her balance & has paralized part of her face just to name a few things. But ya know, Beck continues to go on each & every day. In my opinion she does far more than any "healthy" person has ever accomplished. She has a beautiful soul & is an amazing advocate for NF2 & deafness & participates in numerous fundraisers. She will kick off her upcoming quest for NF with not one but TWO 5K races this June & will complete her fundraising mission with a 31.5 mile hike on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail (SVT) in Washington on September 7th, 2008. I have added a link to her fundraising page on my main page. Feel free to donate if at all possible. Every penny helps to find Beck along with many other sufferers of NF2a cure!!!

Yup, the Title Fits!

Ok, last night I sent out numerous emails inviting some family & friends to view my blog. No biggie right? Well I forgot to include the address of the blog! I do believe "A Look Into A Scatterbrain" is a more than fitting title. I was unsure what to call it at first but I'm keeping this one =)






I have a list of tasks I need to accomplish today along with the tasks I didn't do yesterday. I think Miss Scatterbrain got a bit sidetracked yesterday. Hehe






This weekend Ken & I are taking our camper up to Munising to camp at Otter Lake. Years ago when my parents were still living the Pepin gang would rent the big lodge up there & have a heck of a family gathering.






About 20 miles down the road is a town by the name of Christmas, MI. We first fell in love with this lil hole in the wall town a few years ago while on a geocacheing adventure. I will explain geocacheing in a later blog. Down a winding road we drive & it takes us to the rocky cliffs of Lake Superior...my place of solace & where I find inner peace. It's also the place where Ken & I carved a memorial for our babies Angel & Alex last summer. I am very eager to visit there this weekend. Hopefully the weather will be nice on Saturday for a bit of adventurous fun & exploration.






I hope to take oodles of pictures & will post them later. In the meantime here are some pics from last summer & this past Autum's adventures at Paradise.

The road into Paradise

Inside the cave looking out to Lake Superior

















Ken & I last Autmn on the shores of Superior

Exploring the inside of one of the caves

Ken & I at Paradise last summer

Mindless Pitter Patter

I originally started this blog with the sole intention of it being about dealing with my Meniere’s while on the road with my husband. It got to be too depressing only writing about that crap. I’m sure it will come up on occasion but it needn’t take over my being.

I guess for the first entry I will better introduce myself & give you a better idea of who I am….
I am married to my best friend, my soul mate & my everything, Ken. We just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this past March 23rd.

I am an aunt to many, a cousin to oodles, a daughter, a sister to 20 siblings, (yeah you read that right, I have 20 siblings), a daughter in law to my fabulous in-laws, a Mommy to our 5 dogs Macey, Brayden, Mckenzie, Allison & Arizona & our 2 cats, Buster & Betsey, a friend to many. The daughter of Donald & Thelma and a friend to many fabulous people.

I love paper & reading. I crochet & bead whenever I have time. I find solace in Lake Superior’s rocky shores. I love to write & I snort when I laugh real hard.

I am a feverish researcher on meniere’s Disease & am continually looking for answers, I’m the biggest animal lover I know & would love to have many more pets. I believe in rescuing animals from abused homes & animal shelters.

I am a survivor of life’s many turbulances & continue to keep on choosing to keep on moving along.

I’m what you’d call a sports junkie. NASCAR is my 1st love & baseball, more specifically The Red Sox & football, gotta be the Packers close behind& hockey too. During off season of Racing I tend to watch races from the 80’s & 90’s on SPEED Channel…cuz I’m cool like that. LOL

I get my thrills with big trucks & I hate riding & driving cars. Air Horns have been noted to float my fancy & raise a couple shirts.

I’m a seamstress, although not too good…but I try & have great fun. I take too many pictures. But actually I don’t believe there is such a thing as taking too many pictures. I scrapbook & doodle designs on paper & can spend hours making cards with rubber stamps.

I’m the world’s biggest Kid at Christmas time & I begin listening to Christmas music daily come October. I love the Upper MI winters & would never want to move down south to hot weather. Especially during winter. Autmn is my favorite season.

I still wish on falling stars every single time I see one. Has one of those wishes come true? No, but I continue to wish. Ken & I bought a star from the National Star Registry a few years ago in memory of our babies Angel & Alex (I had an entopic pregnancy in 95 & another in 97)

I’m not into diamonds & fancy things & I actually do prefer cubic zirconia over diamonds. My fave gem is Tanzanite & I despise yellow gold. You could pretty much wrap foil around my finger & glue an interesting rock on it & I’d appreciate that & treasure it forever.

I am a complete scatterbrain most of the time . After I have a Meniere’s attack I am even more-so. I have so may ideas going through my head at one time.

I’m a total people watcher & I can read lips very well. I also know sign language…although it’s a bit rusty…but I’m working on un-rustifying it.

I have too many baseball type hats to hide my crazy naturally curly/wavy hair. On humid days I don’t even attampt to control my wild hair.

I’m pretty much an insomniac & I harbor useless information in my brain. I laugh a lot & real loud…so I’m told. I can’t hear myself hum or sing along with a song so I never know if the neighborhood is hearing me when I belt my lungs out.

I have sensational neighbors now that the crack heads got evicted. I grow numerous flowers & miss having a big veggie garden.

I hate to do dishes, but love to cook & bake. Thanks to whoever invented the dishwasher! I am also a complete anal retentive, almost obsessive compulsive towel folder. My sheets as well. I have lists for almost everything & dream of the day of my husband & I adopting a child & completing our already fabulous life.

Soooooo….I think that gives a smidgen of what this scatterbrain is all about. I can’t wait till I have something more worthwhile to post than this mindless pitter patter =)