The Quirk Family: February 2013

If I had one word to describe the Quirk household since Christmas time, it would be SICK! In mid January, we all traveled to St. Louis for a great family-fun-filled weekend where we got to visit our Grandma Kay and also celebrate our Grandpa's birthday with most of our St. Louis/St. Charles family. It was a lot of fun! John, Theresa (and kids), Mark and Sarah (and Dom), and our family all stayed at a hotel on Saturday night. We hung out for a while that night and then on Sunday morning, we all got up to have an awesome breakfast and then went for a swim in the hotel pool mid-morning. We all dispersed and headed back to KC at different times that day.

Evan at Dave and Busters

Noah at Dave and Busters

Joshua at Dave and Busters

Hanging out in the hotel room

Everyone got home safely, but unfortunately, Mia and Joshua both got sick with a stomach bug in the middle of the night that night. That is what started a several-week-long fight with that stomach bug that went through each of our households. It was pretty terrible. Most everyone got some form of it, and some people even got it more than once. Thankfully, that "bug" left our family. But then, a couple weeks later, another virus hit. Each of the six cousins got fevers and pretty bad colds. Each child was kept away from Grandma's house for at least a few days because of it. Noah and Evan missed a day of school because of it as well. Thankfully, most everyone is better now. Brian unfortunately developed a sinus infection from the virus, so he is taking medication now to get over that.

Joshua and Evan sick with the first virus that went through our house :(

Honestly, because of all of the illness we've had, we haven't gotten out of the house too much lately. We were able to go to our friends'/neighbors' house for dinner last weekend, but had to leave Joshua here at home with Grandma Mary so we didn't get their little girl sick. Yesterday, we went to Grandma Cathy's/Tony's house for the February birthdays party. Brian and I went to some friends' house last night, and Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike stayed with the boys.

This morning, we went to church and then to Paulo and Bill's restaurant in Kansas for an awesome brunch with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Mike, Uncle Mark, Aunt Sarah, Dom, Uncle John, Aunt Theresa, Michael, and Mia. It was so much fun spending time with everyone - and we were thrilled everyone was healthy! This afternoon, we went to our friends'/neighbors' house to hang out while Brian helped our friend Eric brew some beer.

One really cool thing to report is that my longtime friend Clare Janet got engaged on New Year's Eve to her boyfriend Brian. We are so thrilled for them and can't wait for the big day this coming October. Clare asked me to be a bridesmaid, and I am honored to be a part of it! Clare and Brian also asked Noah and Evan to be their ring bearers! Noah and Evan are very excited!

On a pretty serious note, we had a little bit of stress the past couple of weeks as well. I had a consultation with a general surgeon and plastic surgeon about my upcoming bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction that I have chosen to do because of my BRCA1 gene mutation. I ended up doing two mammograms and a breast biopsy because they found something that they wanted to test. I got great news Wednesday morning that the cysts were benign! I didn't realize how stressed and worried I had been about it until I received the phone call. I ended up taking 4 hours off of work that day and Brian and I celebrated by going out to lunch together. Now I am just planning my surgery. I'm looking at doing it some time this May (after Noah and Evan's spring soccer season ends). Obviously I'll write about my experiences and keep everyone posted on my decisions. I've already received so much love and support, especially from Brian, who has been my rock through this.

Now here are some more pics to enjoy of our boys being silly :)