Back to reality

Good morning! It is good to be back home. It was a busy week both at home for the fam and away for myself. Late Friday evening I returned home from 3 days of reviewing in Washington D.C. As always it was truly a privelege to have the opportunity to review the neuroblastoma research proposals. It is one of the few places where patients (consumers as they are called at the AIBS) get an equal vote for funding. I am always amazed at how well we are treated and thankful for the opportunity to be heard. In this scenario our opinions are heard and truly impact the discussions. In the end, I feel confident that the process was not only informed by our children's experience with neuroblastoma but I think everyone (especially basic scientists) walk away with a new understanding of the impact of their work.

On the home front, Lynley had her hands full. With school on Wednesday and Thursday, 2 Tae Kwon Do practices, a day off of school on Friday, a birthday party and a doctor appointment for Sydney, they were all kept running. While I always feel drained after several 12 hour days of research proposal review, I know that Lynley had the tougher job. The good news was that they finally had the appointment to meet with the dermatologist to discuss Sydney's thin hair. Once again, I am hopeful that this may be a solution for her. Time will tell but he seems confident that Sydney's situation may be rectified. I am still learning about the process but you can bet I will share more once I can speak intelligently about it.

My first day home was filled with a Tae Kwon Do tournament in Arlington. As usual the kiddos did pretty well. Sydney brought home a 1st place trophy in sparring and Graham a second place trophy. Graham has close though. He barely lost the gold in a sudden death match with one of his team mates. We spent the bulk of the day there cheering on our team mates and even had an early dinner afterwards with the team at Pappasito's.

As usual, that was followed with Cinderella Sunday at the Dungan household. After several days of being out of town and then a full day of play at the tournament it was back to the salt mines. Grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning - the stuff dreams are made of. Thankfully, Lynley let the crew off to watch the Cowboys at noon and, low and behold, we were even able to play monopoly for awhile after that. That was until Ainsley spilled her orange juice all over the board and the idea of playing with sticky orange juice soaked money left everyone wanting to play something else outside.

In the end, it is just good to be back and plugged into the chaos that is our lives.

It was a week full of purpose but I am glad to be back with my purpii.