Laura waves to Cheri....Hi there!  Been reading just not posting.
Thanks for asking.  *smile*  The past few months have been pretty
rough.  Standard pain issues, compounded by some family problems
(tragedies would probably be a little dramatic but it was the word
that originally popped to mind)

Son had hand surgery in July.  Dog had surgery for mammary cancer in
July - she died in October.  Quite the trooper -- you would have never
guessed she was sick, she tried so hard to stay happy and playful.
Daughter was t-boned while making a turn at a light by an SUV doing 55
through a solid red light.  Fortunately, the baby was with the sitter
at the time.  The crash popped the trunk and threw the stroller across
three lanes of traffic.  The car was totaled and daughter is still
dealing with neck and shoulder issues.  Daughter & son-in-law got
screwed over badly by real estate agent -- and long story short they
have been living in my home since the first of December.  My dad was
taken quite ill at the end of October. He's had on going
gastro/intestinal  bleeds since April two years ago.  He was
hospitalized last week of October, had exploratory surgery on
Veteran's Day weekend and lost 2/3 of his colon.  He seemed on the
mend and then took a bad turn on 11/16 and passed away on 11/20.  The
bright side to that (gotta find something bright) I had Thanksgiving
with both of my brothers & their wives for the first time in decades.
That would have pleased Dad.  The funeral was on my husband's 50th
Birthday and the day before my nieces 29th birthday -- something so
surreal about singing happy birthday at a wake.  But somehow I think
Dad would have been singing the loudest of us all.  Came home from all
that to have my daughter, SIL , grandbaby (there's the bright light
that keeps me from going loopy) and two extra dogs move into the
house.  Hubby & I are trying to hold it together.  Throw in some B/S
from the bosses (VERY bad week this week).  I work (sorta) in the
lending industry.  I do research before people can buy/sell/refi etc.
Life has surely been white knuckle from one week to the next there as
well.  Especially when the third young woman (we only have three
employees besides myself & my co-manager -- my husband) gave birth in
2007.

Cheri, aren't you glad you asked?  hehe.  Nice to be missed.  

Hope 2008 is good to everyone here.

Laura

In alt.support.diabetes on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:27:00 -0800 in Msg.#
<dKudndiZVq8nOxranZ2dnUVZ_oGjnZ2d@inreach.com>, "Cheri"
<gserviceatinreachdotcom>  wrote:

Thanks for adding more MIAs! I hope others will also.

Thank you all for your wishes for a happy 2008.  It was nice to know
that I'd been missed, and it is so nice to see people caring about
what I've gone through.  It may seem odd, but until I wrote it all
down I don't think I'd even realized just how crazy this past year
was.  So much of what I "went thru" was spent taking care of others
that I didn't really view myself as going through much by comparison
to the pain that my Dad, my kids and my dog were having.  I've gotten
kind of used to my own pain issues and I wasn't allowed much time to
grieve Valentine because I immediately was forced into putting that
down to help my daughter.  Losing Dad has been the hardest of it all.
We lost Mother in January '04 and during the years that followed I
spent a lot of time really getting to know my Dad.  I'm very grateful
for having that time, but because of family history -- his parents
lived into their mid 90s -- and the fact that he really seemed to be
coming through the surgery, his death was a real shock.

I still hold on to the birth of my granddaughter Julie as the defining
event of 2007.  She is an absolute delight.  She started walking in
November and is a real handful.  She'll be a year old on St. Patrick's
day.

Again, thanks to all of you for your good wishes.  Cheri, Jan, Loretta
-- congrats on your upcoming grandbaby, CindyB, Frank -- welcome to
the world Emilie.