early summer fun...

The summer is just beginning... and so is the fun!!

decline push up time

it may be chilly but we love it anyway!

yummm... roasting marshmallows

Happy Father's Day!

pop pop and his girls

Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy!

We are Warriors... grrrrr

We have done MANY different kinds of races, and now we can check "warrior dash" off our list.  We participated in the Warrior Dash in the poconos this past weekend, and it was a GREAT experience.  It is a 3.5 mile run through a paintball site (Skirmish - near Jim Thorpe) while doing all kinds of obsticles - climbing over piles of junk cars, jumping over open fire pits, swimming through lakes, climbing over 2 story walls, crawling through tubes, trying to avoid the razor wire, and best of all, diving head first into mud.   Over 15,000 people participated and everyone was VERY muddy at the end.  We went home with ALOT of mud and great memories!!  Can't wait to do it again next year!


post race



last obsticle - you had to "swim" through the mud and make sure you were low enough to avoid the razor wire...



post race refreshments





the girls enjoying our hats



Lets go Phillies Lets Go!

the reedell clan

We were lucky enough to get to a fantastic phillies game on June 15th at 1pm.  This was a rescheduled game, and since Angela was out of school early that day, we headed down to the game.  The weather was perfect and the Phillies pulled off a fantastic win against the Florida Marlins.  The girls even got to dance after Jimmy Rollins smashed a hit into the stands giving the Phils the lead.  It was a great day to spend with the family at Citizens Bank Park!



beautiful day at the ballpark



mommy and angela



out baseball fans



daddy and elyse





dancing after the home run



Congrats to Angela - now offiicially a first grader!

We are pleased to announce that Angela did a FANTASTIC job in kindergarten this year.  She was always "on target" each marking period, and this last one she scored "exceeded expectations" in every subject.  She is now reading totally unassisted, and is just learning soo much every day.  She loved having Miss Laughlin this year.  Angela made MANY friends and is very much looking forward to first grade. 

We are soo proud of you Miss Angela!!

Angela made this for Miss Laughlin as a thank you for being such a great teacher!

Happy (belated) 6th Birthday Angela! (june 13th)

Wow... 6 years have flown by!  Hard to believe that Miss Angela is now 6 big years old.  She has come a LONG way and we couldn't be more proud.  She has just "graduated" to first grade, can now ride a bike without training wheels, reads constantly, and is just a fantastic young lady - growing up before our very eyes.  You would NEVER know what she went through when she started out life just by looking at her today.  So, happy birthday kiddo - we love you more than you could ever know!!

The Reedell Family Royal Gala...

The Reedell Kingdom invites you to celebrate the birthdays of princesses Angela and Elyse... and boy did we!!

Usually we have two parties... one for the girls "friends" during the week after school is over, and one with "friends and family" inbetween the girls' birthday.  This year, I just coudln't schedule two parties (with the unknown of my mom's treatments), so we turned it into one HUGE party.  We had over 75 people here, and thank goodness the day was perfect!  Angela and Elyse had around 40 little friends playing in the backyard (and the mud that still exists is proof)... what a day!!  And believe it or not, I did not snap one picture - I was too busy keeping the party going.  But I guarantee you, it was fun had by all!  Thank you to everyone who made their birthday's sooo special!! 

this is a picture of them blowing out their candles on their princess cake (many of the kiddos were still busy on the trampoline, swingset or slip n slide... craziness I tell ya!) - thanks to Cathy for this one!!

just can't stay away from Fox Chase...

After getting the results from mom's scan on friday, she was admitted again to Fox Chase Hospital on thursday, June 2nd.  She has had some difficult GI distress and the doctors wanted to be able to keep a much closer eye on her in the hospital... so she is now there.  Her spirits are ok, and we are hoping that they can "figure out" what is going on and get her on the path to recovery" so we can ALL figure out what the next step will be! 

And of course her little "nurses" always bring a smile to her face, no matter what she is feeling like...

Mom's Scan Results are in...

After 6 weeks of treatment and then three weeks of "recovery time" we finally got some answers about mom's follow-up catscan.  She had the scan done on tuesday and on friday we met with Dr. Igor about the results.  Dr. Igor told us that the tumor had shrunk, but was still in a too difficult location to discuss surgery.  So we are now on a one month break to enable mom to get her strength back, gain some weight, and with any luck feel MUCH more human than she has for the last few months.  We will be going back to Fox Chase at the end of June to discuss chemotherapy session #2 and what it will involve.  So, please keep those prayers coming, and we will keep you updated when we know more!

Mom on Good Morning America

A few weeks ago I video taped my mom "ringing the bell" at the conclusion of her radition treatments.  It was such a happy occasion, I wanted to "share" it with the world.  I e-mailed abc's Good Morning America with my video for their "3 words" segment.  Amazingly within 1 week, my mom was on national tv....

here is the link to watch the whole clip - she is in the middle ringing her bell!!
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=13603726

Enjoy!

Scan day is set...

Finally after all the weeks of treatments then a few of waiting, finally my mom has her catscan scheduled for tuesday, May 24th.   We are also happy to report that mom is feeling better and we hope this will continues to improve.  We do have an appointment down at Fox Chase on friday, and with "any luck" we might get some info from the recent scan.

So, please keep those prayers coming and we will update when we get more info!!

look mom... no training wheels - Angela

Yesterday (May 21st) I came home from teaching an early spin class to hear "mommy, I don't use training wheels anymore" from Angela.  She was BEYOND excited to show me her new skill.  She demonstrated her ability on the flat part of the road, then we did the "big loop" and she even swerved around vehicles and rode up and down hills.  She is doing great - our little girl is growing up soooo quickly!!

Pictures and videos to follow!

Congrats to our little athletes!!!

We participated in the Sesame Classic last week and had a GREAT time!!  Angela and Elyse were VERY excited to do their first official one mile run.  The day was quite rainy, but that didn't dampen anyone's spirits!  The girls got ready for the one mile to start.  They took off, Angela running with me, and Elyse running with Scott.  They both ran the entire race.  Angela crossed the finish line in 9 minutes and 17 seconds (66th place out of 296 females in the one mile race) and Elyse crossed at 10 minutes and 30 seconds.  They had soo much fun and now can't wait until their next race - the Dog Days of Summer Kids Triathlon this August. 

Scott and I then ran the 5k race.  Scott crossed the finish line in 22 minutes and came in 6th place in his age group.  I crossed the finish line in 24 minutes and 53 seconds, also came in 6th place in my age group, and was beyond happy because this was the fastest I have EVER run a 5k - woohoo!!

So, it was a great race for all... I will add some pictures when I get back to "my computer" as I have borrowed Scott's for the evening...

Happy 4th Birthday Miss Elyse



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Elyse Morgan Reedell 5.10.07



first family picture

Hard to believe our Miss Elyse is turning 4 years old!  I still remember seeing those chubby little cheeks and jet black hair right after she was born... and the sweet sound of that raspy little voice.  She was such a FANTASTIC baby - slept great, ate great, and then slept some more.  We are soo proud of all she has accomplished and we look forward to see what she will learn next!!  Happy Birthday to our Elysiebug!

Devilman

proud to have finished our first 50 mile race!

Happy to report we didn't see the New Jersey Devil while competing in the New Jersey Devilman Half-Lite Triathlon this past weekend - lol!  It was a GREAT weekend for a race. The water temp was around 65, the air temp was a high of 70 and it the sun was shining brightly.  Perfect race weather.  This race was our LONGEST race so far.  It was just under a mile swim, then a 40 mile bike ride (20 miles of it against the wind... that was tough!), then a 9 mile run.  This distance is half way between an olympic distance and half iron-man triahtlon - so we figured it was the next logical step.  We had both set "goals" for times we would like to finish in, and both did great!!  Scott finished in a  VERY respectible 4 hours and 9 minutes, and I finished in 4 hours and 48 minutes.  I was hoping to finish in 5 hours - so I was VERY happy.  And I found out that I placed 4th in my division - 3 minutes out of third place!  But it was a GREAT experience and we look forward to our next challenge - the Warrior Dash in a few weeks - stay tuned for fun pictures!!

Can't seem to stay away from Fox Chase....

Last thursday (the 5th of May) my mom got out of Fox Chase Hospital and seemed to feel a bit better.  She spent the remainder of the week with us, then went home for the weekend to her house.  The girls spent some time with them and aunt Erin and Mr. Mike over the weekend.  By sunday evening mom wasn't feeling too hot again.  In fact she was feeling downright awful.  By monday morning, we made a call to her doctors at Fox Chase, they sheduled an appointment for monday morning and we were on our way.   We went in for bloodwork, and after a quick evaluation, we were told "your room is ready".  So, she was admitted for dehydration, nausea, and vomiting.  They are stumped by her issues, and are going to do their best to make her feel much better.  We sure hope so!  As always, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and we will update everyone as more details become available.

Ring that bell - we are outta here!

Ring, Bell, Ring
Loud and Clear!
My treatment is OVER
And I'm Outta Here!

The poem above is written on a plaque with a bell attatched to it symbol the end of treatment for radiation patients. Although the last "official" radiation treatment was friday - mom was not feeling well enough to "ring that bell" and enjoy the applause that comes with it. So, today while we were at Fox Chase, we walked down, rang that bell, and got a HUGE round of applause! Although it was tough, she made it through. Now the recovery period begins. She has about three weeks off, then we'll get another scan to check how the treatment worked on the cancer. We are crossing our fingers that there are good changes... but only time will tell!! Thank you for all of your prayers!

Batter up...

Angela, Elyse, and Boomer

The weather was perfect for a trip to the ballpark.  We headed to Trenton to watch the Thunder play ball.  We got club box seats (so we were VERY close to the field) and the girls had a blast.  And to make it even more fun, it was "pet day" at the park.  There were dogs of all shapes and sizes enjoying a day at the ball park.  Unfortunately the Thunder did lose in extra innings, but it was such a fun time, it didn't matter.  We look forward to seeing another game soon!!