~ July ~

July is always a busy month for our family. This year is no different, but with a lot less urgency and excitement than last year's July. July is filled with birthday's for us. It starts with my Mom on the first, my Mom's Mom was July 6th, followed by my sister-in-law (8th), me (15th), my Dad (18th), my two nieces (20 & 21st) and probably some others I am forgetting.

Last year, Trish received her transplant on July 10th. Admidst a lot of fear and worry and hope. Both Trish and I never lost hope, ever.

This is the month that the NMDP will release our contact information to Trish's donor. We are very grateful to this still unknown fireman. We still hope that we can thank him in person for his generous gift. Everyone in the family hopes this is a connection we can still make and asks me about it often. It, like everything we have been through these last three years, is not something we can control. It is up to him to contact or agree to be contacted by us.

This was also a good month for memorial activities...The plant at Nova High School is blooming (see pictures below), the memorial brick at the Delta Gamma Headquarters in Ohio was laid (see pictures below), the memorial brick at the Humane Society of Broward County was laid as well. Just a few more bricks to be laid (UCF, St. Max, Canton Square in Baltimore), and three more memorial Masses at St. Max (see the list on the left).

The boys are doing well. Matt is chilling mostly, but heads up to Georgia for vacation with my parents, brother and Aunt, etc while I stay home and work. Andy is getting good grades and having lots of fun in his summer semester at UF. I expect him to have a more rigorous schedule in the Fall.

I am determined to get the cook book put together sooner than later and will also redo this website into more of a memorial and less of a blog. While there are still some of you who use this to check up on us routinely -- it's not that many and the current site isn't as much a memorial as it can be. We'll see how well I do on these to do's..... Take care for now. Chip