This Week's Update [1/20/13] - Happy Birthday Steve

[The Weekly Update is an email that was started in the fall of 2010 to keep family and friends informed of my medical condition and has continued as a review of family activities.  Written by Zelma and edited by Steve. Working on adding past issues to the blog.]


Hi All,

Steve was delighted with all the birthday wishes and cards he received for his birthday.  The festivities started on Sunday evening with a Skype call with Sue, and of course, Sue and Ron singing Happy Birthday to Steve.  On Monday - GJ, Matthew and I gave Steve his presents and Matthew whistled the Happy Birthday song (since we do a miserable job of singing.)  Mom gave Steve some new scenic biking DVD's.  

This worked out great to have some new scenery to see while we were on the birthday ride on the trainers.  We saw Europe, Yellowstone Park, and Hawaii. :-)  I gave Steve another photo book from this past year.  It was a lot of fun to put together to highlight all the things that happened in 2012.

We did the ride in 2 parts.  I was also glad that Steve decided to ride his age in metric (65 km) instead of miles.  Overall, it was easier than I thought. This is probably because Steve rides much faster than I do on the trainers and I get to take credit for how many miles he rides instead of what my odometer says.  :-) 

The birthday ride is our new longest ride so far... and we made our first 200 miles for 2013.

The weather has continued to be confused - it was in the 40's yesterday and is expected to be in the single digits by mid-week. We also still have no snow on the ground, but Steve noted that it has started to snow this evening.  

We've continued to maintain our daily riding and because of the birthday ride we had 111 miles for the week, 273 miles for 2013, and 5,473 miles total.

I expect this week to fly by as it is Matthew's last week at home before heading back to Oswego for the spring semester.  Hope everyone has a good week.

Take care,

Zelma

This Week's Update [1/6/13] - Good-bye 2012 - Hello 2013

[The Weekly Update is an email that was started in the fall of 2010 to keep family and friends informed of my medical condition and has continued as a review of family activities.  Written by Zelma and edited by Steve. Working on adding past issues to the blog.]


Hi All,

As I put together the picture for this week's update, it was a good time to reflect on how much has happened this last year.  We started 2012 with Steve taking the really aggressive chemo treatment to give him the best chance to be healthy for Sarah and Mike's wedding in May.  It was a very rough (and scary) process, but the results have continued to be better than we could ever anticipate.

  The celebration of Mike and Sarah's wedding with so many family and friends was priceless. It was also a year full of other significant family life events - GJ moving to Rochester, Sarah being accepted into the Nursing program, and Matthew graduating HS and getting off to a great start in college at Oswego.

Woven through it all has been our biking and Steve's perseverance through his treatment to continue to ride.  I know neither of us thought we would have accomplished what we have this year.  I remember Steve telling his Aunt Jackie when she was at the wedding that he hoped to do 2,500 miles for the year if his health (and the weather) held up.  We have been fortunate to have both and New Year's Eve we completed 3,300 miles for 2012.  

This brings us to 5,200 miles since Steve's surgery.  In the photo, we are wearing the jerseys I had custom made to celebrate our 5,000 miles ride on 12/12/12.

We are looking forward to a great 2013 and miles for the year are 77 and counting...

Wishing everyone a wonderful year.  Take care.

Zelma