Well it’s floodin’down in Texas…

Auntie Em! Auntie Em! —
Don’t worry Joey, there’s no such thing as “global warming” — storm clouds always look like were photoshopped onto the sky.

Okay, so I went to the worst place in the neighborhood to take this photo — but still, it’s pretty impressive.

The spinal tap that wasn’t

“Uncle! Uncle! I mean, AUNT! AUNT!” Joey and Aunt Liz at the last contest.

Johnny and his trophies — one for long board and one for short board.

Joey at the last contest… trying out for “BayWatch: Galveston Island”.

BUTTERCUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUTTERCUP! I love her so much!!!

Okay, this will be pretty much just photos of the past week — but still pretty good. All is well at the Romano compound — we even have a new addition — Buttercup the bunny. She’s adorable! Mike asked me if she would curb my thoughts on a puppy, and my remark was less than enthusiastic — “um, sure, yeah, for now….”. He can relate.

Not that kids are anything close to pets, but kinda, they are. We first had Daisy, then she grew and I begged for a baby. Joey came, and that kid grew FAST! So, I begged for another — Johnny came. That kid was crazy (still is), but eventually grew out of diapers (I thought that would never happen). Once he was out of bottles and diapers I begged for yet another rug rat. Mike tired to talk some sense into me. “We don’t have to worry about bottles, nap times or anything, we are free to do what we want now…”. Two weeks later, I found out I was knocked up with Soph. Mike still thinks that I “tricked” him, but really, I was 100% on board with his thoughts, yet thankful we had a girl.

Then she grew up. Crap. Can’t we have a baby that stays a baby?

Then we got the doodles. WOW. I thought we should have gotten them before Sophie. They would have worn me out. I would have begged that we wouldn’t have any more kids. Alas, puppies grow too.

I promised Sophie that once we moved to Galveston I would get her a bunny. Well, we’ve been down here now for almost six months now, and, well, the bunny found us. Her name is Buttercup and she is an AWESOME bunny. She’s not scared, or timid, lets you hold her — and is litter box trained. I had no idea that they could do that, but they can, and she does. The doodles haven’t found her yet, so we don’t know how that will work out. Our good friends Carolyn and Gordon have had bunnies in the past and their last one was licked to death by the neighborhood dog (not ours…), but yes, really licked to death. Gordon found the bunny in the cage, dead, covered in slobber — not one puncture wound — just licked to death.

This bunny is super cool. She doesn’t run to the corner to take cover, just runs around to see what’s up and sits on your lap. From what I hear, it’s pretty unusual. I have ALWAYS wanted a bunny too — I mean Sophie has always wanted a bunny, and so far she has been a great bunny mom. Okay, it’s only been about three hours, two of which both Sophie and the bunny have been sleeping.

The rest of the photos are from the last contest. The next one is the last weekend in Oct. and the day before the contest, Johnny is scheduled for an LP. So he can’t compete. He totally blames ME, but that’s okay, he’s still a mama’s boy. I think Joey and Mike might compete though.

I’ll keep you posted!

Much Love,
Jules

Mike and Johnny at the last surfing contest…

Okay, it’s been awhile, and I apologize profusely. I actually had to get out my calendar to see what we have been up to the past few weeks. A LOT!

Mike and I had our 13th wedding anniversary, I had a couple of speaking engagements at The Blood Center, and I took the kids for a couple of doctor’s visits — nothing important, just check-ups. My mind is still stuck in September, I haven’t changed any of my calendars yet, maybe that’s why I’m so behind! I just now switched to October in my planner, wow — I can’t believe it’s half over!

Anyway, here’s the update:

The boys (when I say boys, it’s always Mike, Joey, and Johnny unless otherwise specified…) and Aunt Liz were all in surfing contests last weekend. Actually Joey helped out, he didn’t surf because he would be competing against 17 year olds, but he was there for moral support and decided that next contest he could whip the 17 and under kids butts. Liz of course placed first in every heat, Mikey did really well too, I think he was 2nd and 3rd in his heats. Johnny did really well — he placed 2nd and 3rd in the shortboard and longboard heats. What’s really amazing about it is that he only surfed about 5 minutes for each heat, and during the last one he came in and started crying because he was just to tired to surf. He wanted to, just didn’t have the energy.

He was still proud of himself though. He told me later that he was excited for the next contest in a few weeks, and that he is going to try and get first in all of his heats so he can go to the State Championships. The kids have tried soccer, t-ball, and karate, but the thing they keep going back to is surfing, and as long as they want to do it, Mike and I will take them.

Johnny had clinic on Friday, spinal tap and vincristine. Well, just the vincristine. I screwed up. I gave him some meds that he only takes once a week except on spinal tap weeks. I knew that he didn’t take it the day he got the LP’s (spinals), but I didn’t know he couldn’t take it before — it’s crazy I know, even the doctor’s have a had time explaining why certain meds have to be taken on certain days, at certain times. So we rescheduled for two weeks from now.

His counts were excellent! They looked like a “normal kid”, I think he’s getting used to the dosage of meds now. Each time we go back to the clinic we go up just a bit and hopefully he will be at full dosage someday! Since he has been doing so well, and we have been keeping our two week schedule that the protocol states, I feel like a stranger at the clinic. It’s weird, and hard to explain…

Joey started in the Young Astronaut program they have at school. It’s pretty cool. It’s an after school program every other week, and they do cool experiments and stuff. They plan to have a astronaut from NASA come and speak to them, and then at the end of the year they will go on a field trip to Space Center Houston/NASA. The boys (just Joey and Johnny) are also running for student council — we just made posters tonight. Elections will be held on Friday. I will keep you posted!

I guess the biggest distraction we’ve had was that we leased our house. Didn’t sell it, just leased. Our friends that live the street behind us sold their house in ONE WEEK — but hey, I’m not bitter… Marilyn’s house is more than double the size of ours, pool, master suite that not only has his and hers closets, but studies off each side of the bedroom. It’s beautiful. So, they have no place to go and asked if they could rent our house until they found something. Of course Mike and I said “HELL YEAH YOU CAN RENT IT!”

So we have been moving our furniture down to Galveston over the past two weeks. I have to say that it feels like home now — before it felt like we were camping, definitely not permanent or “like home”. It’s all falling into place now. I guess it’s officially-official that we live here now. We still haven’t sold our house, but Marilyn said she will let us still show it and we both know that it’s temporary. As soon as they find a house/we sell ours, it’s final.

If anyone is wondering about Aunt Liz (she’s a pilot for CO and does the HOU-HNL runs) she’s fine. The earthquake happened enroute, but they still got the clearance to land. Once she landed they didn’t have any power, and everything was at a standstill, but she called to let us know she’s okay. I called our friends on Kaui (Marshall and Jolie), they felt it, but no damage. We tried to contact our friends on Oahu, but couldn’t get through, if they don’t have power, probably no email either!!

That’s it for now… school pictures are in too. I will post them ASAP!