I'm Dizzy...

A week ago Saturday Pete and I managed to celebrate Sweetest Day by hanging out with bunches of grandkids. The parents were on vacation or at the hospital with a scare with one of the twins. All in all, we did pretty good and had fun. Cool part was seeing Izzy play rugby at Northwestern. Of course it was also NU Homecoming so moving through traffic was excruciating.

Last Monday night I spoke at Grief Support about lost dreams in losing a loved one. I was caught off guard viewing the four minute video of Laurie. (Still viewable on the website http://www.laurieboncimino.com/ ) When the lights came up the 150 or so participants were obviously moved. I think I was able to convey how I have moved through many dreams for Laurie's life and lost dreams for us as a family but also what we have done to move through that and still live with hope.

In the ever changing drama of life here, the rest of the week played out with mostly normal stuff: Work, grandkids, sewing a hilarious costume for my dear friend Karen, visiting the awesome jewelry show. ( I am well jeweled now) And then getting the text that Pete's dad was on the way to the hsopital which is where he is now. Visits to the hospital as well as quick snippets of visits with Greg who was in from Malaysia to see his darling daughter, the coed filled out this past weekend.

And as sometimes happens with me when under stress, I got a migraine. This one was mild and in comparison to the ones my mom used to get which incapacitated her for days, I am ready to face the week ahead. May the week you face be filled with blessings.

Greg and mom! Home for a really short visit.

Hay and Reece ready for mom and dad's return!

Rugby woman - Izzy!

I think this is called a scrim???

Izzy is celebrated!

Isaiah and grandma tryout our superman headsets.

Izzy rings up an order...

College dorm hug!

Journalism Student works!

I read the Daily Herald everyday. I love reading the paper; it is my morning ritual. How did I miss an article where my own granddaughter is mentioned in an article? And now I have just finished diving headlong into our gigantically deep recycling bin to retrieve yesterday's paper, and alas, it has already been recycled. The cruel irony! The only thing worse would have been to actually fall in and not be able to get out of the bin. Pete would wake up tomorrow wondering where I was and find my feet sticking out of the green and yellow plastic prison!

So lacking the real paper, here is a link to see what was written and where Izzy was quoted. http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=242436 I love that she is one of the very few who is actually working for her keep ( or a part of it at least.) while being a freshman coed. She rocks!

One more piece of irony is that through the years I have followed the career of this Daily Herald writer because he married the daughter of one of Greg's teachers. Six degrees of separation...hmmm.

We are ready to step off.

Laurie's legacy team rocked!

Saturday was a beautiful day for a 5K walk for AFSP, the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide. I am so proud of each of our team, my girls from my Student Impact small group and Lisa's husband, Rick and Lisa's mom. Each one is a rock start in my mind. These girls have been with me every step of the way in the long journey of losing Laurie. They were Laurie's friends but they have also been "my girlie -girls". Thank you to each of them and to everyone who contributed to our team. We ended up being in the top five teams out of over 100 teams and I was the second highest fundraiser out of over 800 walkers. 800 walkers represents too many mourning the loss of someone to suicide.

Former IL state's attorney Jim Ryan opened the ceremony by describing his own handsome 24 year old son who took his life last October. He told a story too close to all of us. But he also gave hope that there can be better help to those suffering from mental disorders, better education programs to identify those in trouble. There is hope. Thanks goodness for that.