Yesterday's visit to Memphis

Yesterday was my first visit to see a neurologist at UT Memphis to participate in a new drug study. The purpose of yesterday's visit was to evaluate my cognitive and physical abilities and determine where I am in the progression of the disease. This evaluation helps them decide which trials I qualify for. These tests are the same tests I am used to doing every time I participate in any study. The fun part was that they were using spouses as non HD participants so they made Chip go through the same tests - and he got to see why I always feel so dumb! =) After the tests, the doctor decided that I definitely qualified for the 2CARE study. Don't ask me what is stands for because I can't remember right now. This is the Coenzyme Q10 study that I was hoping for. Most studies have been done at 600mg of CoQ10 and shown some "favorable trends toward slowing disease progression" but this study is doing a dose of CoQ10 at 2600mg. The frustrating part is that I have to go back next Wednesday to have my blood taken to be sure that liver and kidneys can handle the high doses of the drug.
I wanted them to do that yesterday but they were already taking blood for that study and they didn't want to draw that much in one day. =( So after next week, I will go back the following week, on the 11th and get the drug. Yesterday was a long day. With traffic, it took us 4 hours to get there. =( Of course, if you know me, I slept the almost the whole way there. We laughed about the fact that even if it might be for a yucky reason, it was pretty nice having a day to ourselves. Over all it was not a bad day. Tonight I am thankful for my husband... my friend.

I'm so proud of my babies!

I just wanted to brag on my babies a little. Both Shelby and Cole were baptized tonight at church. They both asked Jesus into their hearts several years ago but weren't ready for baptism. Shelby has been putting it off because she is nervous about doing it in front of a crowd but Cole decided he wasn't waiting on her anymore. But they both decided to do it tonight along with about 14 other kids. I was so proud of them. I pray that when times get tough, they will be able to look back on their decisions and their baptism and remember.

Thursday night, Cole was in a President's Program and he was John Adams. He was so cute in those big black pants and jacket (thanks to Marla!). And he wanted his hair white so we spray painted it. Each president had to escort his first lady to the podium and they took turns with their speaking parts. Cole almost drug his first lady back to the chairs. It was so funny! Tonight I am thankful for our children. They really do make me proud!

UT at Memphis

I have my appointment at the University of Tennesse at Memphis on February 25th. I will actually be enrolling in 2 different studies. The first one is called COHORT which is basically another observational study that involves the whole family. Chip and I will go and answer a million questions and from those answers, they will decide which drug trial is best for me. Most likely it will still be the Coenzyme Q-10 but there are 2 other trials that are now available - one is creatine and I'm not sure what the other is. All of these trials will involve several visits at first to Memphis for bloodwork. So I may be looking for friends to ride with me to Memphis when Chip doesn't have to go with me! This is all I know for now. I will tell you all more when I get back!
I just want you all to keep something in the back of your mind for me over the next couple of months. My younger sister is going to be tested for HD in April and I am having a hard time with it so please keep our whole family in your prayers when you think about it. I will also talk about this more later.
Today is my baby's 9th birthday. Cole is so much fun and has such a sweet heart. Today I am so thankful that he is a part of this family! (I do wish I could freeze time and make him stop growing while he still loves his mommy so much!)

Good Question...

Hey Laura, just to answer your question, in case anyone else was wondering, I have read the books (twice) myself. I read them first because I wasn't going to let her read them until I had checked them out. You are right about the sexual tension but she totally doesn't get that yet. She thinks I'm stupid for for talking about how cute Jacob & Edward are. And in the last book, they never talk about the actual act of sex but I warned her ahead of time that they would have sex after they were married. This still grosses her out and I'm glad :-). Want to hear something funny? Guess who else is hooked on these books? Chip! We got him to go see the movie and then he wanted to read the first book. Now he's read them all twice! We're all pathetic aren't we?

I have a question for you...

This is a question for all of my friends who love to read. Shelby loves to read as much as I do and lately she is stuck on the Twilight series. And I do mean stuck. She won't read anything else. She has read all 4 of them at least 3 times. She says she can't find anything else to read that is as good. And while I continue to agree that Edward and Jacob are very appealing, I would like for her to find something else. I am afraid she's going to be very disappointed one day when she figures out that boys don't come quite so "perfect." Ha! Ha! Ha! :) So my question for you guys is do you know of something else out there. I know that some of you teach reading/english. And some of you get to read a lot more than me, so you've got to give me some ideas.
Tonight I am glad that Cole is no longer puking. I am tired of cleaning it up and I smell like Clorox wipes!

Happy Birthday!

Last week was a week of birthday celebrations for us. Shelby turned 11 on the 12th and Chip turned 39 on the 16th. Yes, he is really 39 this year. He's not looking forward to 40 so next year may be his second 39th birthday! The weekend before Shelby's birthday, she had 6 girls over for a sleepover. It was fun but very loud. It is amazing how much 10 & 11 year old girls squeal! We only had one emotional breakdown - which is pretty good considering there were 7 girls! I am sad that my little girl is 11. She is growing up so fast right in front of me. But I also know that God has great plans for her and so I am excited to see what a wonderful young lady she is going to grow into. As far as Chip's birthday goes, his one request was that I make him a cake and so I did. It's just not as much fun to celebrate our birthdays as it is the kids. Cole's birthday in on the 15th of February and he has been negotiating his birthday plans for weeks!! And then my baby will be 9. I really wish everybody would just stop getting older! And do you know what really bugs me? Is that I sound like "old people" when I complain about not knowing where the time went! :)
Tonight I am thankful for my husband and my children and the fact that they are healthy and have celebrated another year in their lives.

Happy New Year!

Over the past couple of days I have been thinking about past New Year's. What I have done for them and whether or not I made any resolutions. There are a few New Year's Eves that I can remember growing up. A couple at church, one at a friend's house in high school, one at Food Max, and my most memorable one was in New Orleans. Since Chip and I have been married, we have spent almost every New Year's with the same group of friends from church. There are 6 couples that started out as newly married couples and now we've all been married for 12 years or more and last night there was 13 kids between us all. I always enjoy spending New Year's with all of them because I like being with my whole family. I like to have Chip and both of my kids with me at midnight. I know there will come a time when my kids don't want to kiss their mom on New Year's but for now they do and I love it!
I've never been one for resolutions because I know that I'm not very good at keeping them after January 31. I always say I'm going to eat better and exercise but if you know me well, you know I don't do that well either. The one thing I have done that motivated me the most was doing the half marathon in 2007. I have never felt so good physically or mentally. You also know that I partially tore my achilles tendon during training last year for the half marathon. I really want to do it again this year but I am also afraid of hurting that bad again. So I am thinking I am going to go really slow and see how it goes. I may not be able to run it like I want to but even if I can walk it, that would be okay. So if I am going to make just one resolution, it will be to start training slowly and see how it goes. This will make younger sister happy since she keeps bugging me to train with her again. :)
Today I am thankful for a New Year. It is always a nice way to have a "clean slate" and have a new start. Happy New Year everybody!