Of course they're fake. The other ones tried to kill me.

This was on a t-shirt on a breast cancer website. LOVE IT!!!!!

You should see me trying to decide on a hotel in Chicago. I think I have some "can't make a decision disease". (here i go again, looking for some disease) Finally, after almost 10 hours of trying to decide, we made our reservations at the Hyatt Regency, where I have stayed before. We were all set on this W Lakeshore but some of the reviews indicated the pool was being fixed. The funny thing is we will probably be in the hotel for about 12 hours! And won't go to the pool either. I was psyched that they allow pets until I thought "heck no, I am not taking that dog!" What was I thinking.

Josh is hitting the slopes as we speak. I am cooking my spiral ham. Last night Shade ate the whole loaf of rye bread. WOW. She is working her way up to Marley status.

Andrew is studying. If studying means watching the NFL game and then running back to the computer to study his on-line notes. I sure hope the on-line notes are what he needs to study because that is all he is looking at--I can't wait for this semester to be over.

We went out for breakfast with Dan and Aida and the kids. Skyler is well aware that Objagina (sounds like ob-ja-vagina) is going to be our new president. We laughed! Talon declared that HE was our next president. Willow just ate her hot dog and smiled the whole time. You never know what she is thinking!

We are preparing for bitter cold temperatures this week. Andrew keeps checking the weather report in his itouch. For as much as he loves snow, he really needs to be a teacher in the hopes of future snow days.

Josh's middle school English teacher has asked him to enter a writing contest about a novella by Ayn Rand. He is pretty excited about it but hasn't put the time in yet so who knows how long that excitement will last. In case you haven't read it, Josh wrote a controversial article for our school paper about his dislike for cheerleaders. It was quite tongue and cheek but of course upset some (less than you would expect) cheerleaders and a few others. I would not have published it had I been the adviser as I was quite conservative and hate hurting anyone's feelings, but they did publish it with a rebuttal from a cheerleader so it was pretty balanced. Josh got all kinds of praise as well so overall, it was a good experience for him. Now he really looks for controversial topics. He told me yesterday that he was most recently assigned a story on "gay people." Oh lordy....why me???

Not much else to say. Chest barely hurt when I got up but the burning is starting again.

Stay warm.

Mrs. Molly Elizabeth Holdship Brawley
The One Boob Wonder

Same pain, different day.

Good afternoon on this snowy, snowy Saturday. We're getting ready to go to a family birthday party for Chase, Matt's son, who is two. I want to pull my hair out as Andrew is doing everything to avoid studying for his AP Psychology exam. He really has to do well on the exam to salvage a decent semester grade. I am just mad at him in general these days. The whole college search thing is occupying his mind--so much, he is forgetting he has to finish high school first. His MME scores waived him out of all of his final exams, but in AP he does have to take it...........Josh only has his Chemistry final and says he will Ace it. We shall see! : )

I am going to get this over with: my chest still hurts. The whole week of school I doctored with Advil and Pepcid AC --thought it helped some--even wanted to say to people "I think this is better!" but today that burning spot deep in my implant area is definitely there. It is so reminiscent of the burn the ACC tumor had-but also reminds me of pains I had years ago that we think we related to birth control pills. So I don't have to go on and on about this, I will say that when it's time to call the doctor, I will know it. I guess I am not there yet. Or am I just too scared to do it? You know, someone said heartburn is related to menopause? But this isn't just heartburn--and it seems to be too high up to be an ulcer. And I have no reason to have an ulcer. (HA!)

Andrew has his K-College visit Friday--I am going with him. The visit will last until 2:00 or so, and we are thinking about letting him skip basketball practice so we can head to Chicago Friday night for his North Park University visit on Saturday. I am googling hotels--we are thinking about staying by Navy Pier. North Park is way north of the city but easy to get to from Lakeshore Drive. We stayed the Hyatt once and it was very nice. I think as a family it will be good to get away and this visit is a good excuse.

The Olivet College coach also called. One of my best friends from high school is married to his brother so we sort of know him. We have not picked a visit date yet--the coaches are out of town this week so it will probably be later this month. Jim will go to that visit. We don't even know if parents are supposed to go to these things or not--I can always go to my mom and dad's during the K-College visit.

Jim made venison stew yesterday and we are planning on having it for dinner. I still struggling eating venison but will try it. He, as always, used no recipe, which means it will have some really strong flavors. I bought a spiral ham today to cook for tomorrow. Also bought stuff for ham and swiss sandwiches.

Must go to the party. Happy Birthday Chase!