Gearing Up For The 3-Day Walk

I'm training for this year's Komen 3-Day Walk on 2 November in Dallas.  Nicole and I are doing it together again this year and I thought it would be good to post an update along with the fund-raising link on the blog after posting to Facebook as well since not everyone uses Facebook.
Ben, Sam and I are doing well and have been keeping very busy this summer with lots of travel, camps and activities.  Sailing, karate, guitar and family trips have lead right in to the beginning of the school year and now suddenly it is time for the 3-day again!  I've started my training on the treadmill and will have to prepare for a colder walk in Dallas this year, but nothing that a good pair of sweat-pants can't handle. :)
Please donate to our walk this year if you can.  The link is: http://www.the3day.org/goto/sixtyforsarah.  Thank you!
On a personal note, I was struck as I read back through our blog by one posting on "hope" just before we lost Sarah in December 2010 - it talked about how, after so many years of hoping for a cure or something that could save Sarah's life, we had run out of time and could only hope for comfort and togetherness in her final days.  Everyone facing this terrible disease needs to believe that it is possible for a new treatment to change the picture, to "save" them from the certainty of an early end to life's journey.  It helps us carry on. It helps us find the courage to fight harder for more time. The tears still come quickly when I remember how time ran out for Sarah that snowy December, as it does for many people... Now I want to do what I can to give others the same hope we felt was so important - a hope fueled by people continuing to raising money for breast cancer research, so that someday there will be breakthrough treatments, and even a cure.  I want someone to be able to feel the relief that Sarah and I hoped for so much - the amazing news that there really is a path back to life from the diagnosis of stage IV metastatic breast cancer.  I think pushing to make that a reality is worth our support and our time!

March Update

At the end of February I finished a big product launch for work at a tradeshow in Las Vegas while my parents came up from San Antonio to be with the boys.  After that, I went to Salt Lake City for some *great* skiing at Alta, Snowbird and Solitude resorts together with my neighbor Eric and some of his college friends.  Wow, it has been a while since I was able to enjoy skiing in the Rockies and it delivered 100%. :)  Now Ben, Sam and I are on spring break at Grand Cayman and having a great time with lots of adventures in "paradise!"  I've loaded quite a few pictures into facebook (http://www.facebook.com/alan.lopez2) if you'd like to see more. :) 
Ben and Sam are doing well in school and overall as well.  Hard to believe Ben is already going to be in middle school next year, but he's really starting to transition in to being a teenager now.  Sam is still playing guitar and likes it, although getting him to practice is not so easy when playing outside is also an option!  We might start him off on karate since right now that seems to be the only physical sport he is interested in.

9 February - Update

January kept us pretty busy.  We celebrated New Year's Eve with Thomas and Kerry in New Orleans, and then we've also been spending lots of time with friends over the weekends.  We also welcomed our new au-pair, Nicole, after Lovisa's departure - she is settling in great and taking great care of the Ben and Sam so far! Ben is getting a lot of use out of his new Kindle and he's doing well in Karate, too.  About to get his next belt (orange) in a few week, hopefully. :)  Sam is keeping up with guitar - his latest song is "Come As You Are" by Nirvana.  We'll be heading to our Indian Guides winter campout soon and are also looking forward to a great Spring Break vacation to Grand Cayman - exciting!

21 Dec and Christmas

November was filled with travel - I went to Denver and then to Stockholm for business and in between those trips the three of us flew to Houston for Rice University homecoming.  Then we went up to Wisconsin with Elizabeth for Thanksgiving to celebrate with her family up there. I also did a quick one-day trip to Ft. Lauderdale for work in December.  The period leading up to Christmas passed very quickly as well... and then there it was: the 21st of December, the day Sarah died last year.  I already knew that Christmas would mean something very different for me this year than it had in years past - and that it probably would for many years to come.  Wasn't sure what to expect, but I had decided to embrace whatever emotions came and let them in.  In the end, it wasn't quite as "different" feeling as I thought it might be - I think because I've replayed and relived those last weeks and last days with Sarah last December over and over in my mind so many times in the course of this year.  Each tear that I've shed brought just a tiny bit more acceptance and peace, and thankfully the ability to let myself hold on to memories without being drawn down into dark grief by them.  That said, I've been thinking more in the past weeks about Sarah and what we were going through together last December.  The boys and I have also talked more frequently about mom not being with us this year and how it feels to them.  Thankfully, they are handling it well and have the capacity to accept life as it is for now, just taking it one step at a time.  The boys and I have had quite a year of new travel and adventures - I think we've learned to embrace life and move forward again, but without having to disconnect from the past to do it.
So, we celebrated Christmas today with my parents up from San Antonio.  The boys were very excited to open their gifts this morning and I managed to cook a pretty good turkey (actually a Cajun Tur-duck-en) and our old family favorite recipe of green bean artichoke casserole. Way too much food (always happens, doesn't it?), but goo-ood!  We're looking forward to spending new year's eve with family as well.

Halloween

Another busy month comes to a close... we finished it off with the Fall camp-out this weekend and we all had a great time.  Ben is getting so tall!  You can also see Sam's Halloween costume as well - gross!  He went for max "scary" this year and I think he chose his costume well.  We are all doing well and these past few months seem to have really flown by.  In addition to the many free time / fun activities, work has kept me pretty busy.  There's quite a bit of activity despite that this is usually more of a lull period for my marketing stuff.  For anyone following our blog, I've been posting more frequently to facebook these days since it is more interactive - please friend me if you'd like to see more pics and weekly updates.  Seems so easy to grab a quick pic with my phone and post it to fb!  I will keep posting periodic updates to the blog as well, though.  We have some family travel and I have some biz travel as well in November so this month will be another full one...
Despite our continuously busy lives, I often think of Sarah.  It's not as raw as it was earlier in the year, but so many little things all around me remind me of her.  I know she will always be a part of me, even as I step forward in life - and I'm thankful for that, and for her.  Sometimes I can almost see her watching over us, proud of her boys and content that we're doing ok, even though she can't be here with us in the same way she was.  Our life together, despite how it all turned out, strengthens my belief that love never dies.  It was all worth it, every minute of it - both the laughter and tears...

Update

I've fallen pretty far behind on updates to this blog since I've been using facebook more... We've been up to quite a bit in September and October so far! The boys and I have been doing things together locally like going to the zoo, swimming and going on bike rides. I've also practiced my kiteboarding some more which has been a blast so far. Ben advanced in karate to a yellow belt which he was excited about! We also just went to the beach at Corpus Christi this past weekend and enjoyed a weekend with my parents & lots of playing in the water.

Work has been busy but going well for me. Lots of events going on & I even got to go to Washington to run a product demo for the FCC chairman and commissioners.

Overall the boys and I are doing well. Keeping busy, as always, but still taking opportunities to spend time together wherever we are.

August Flying By

Not sure how this happened, but August turned out to be a very busy month... Started with the 3-day walk in Chicago which I completed with Nicole, Sarah's lifelong friend. 60 miles was definitely hard to do, but we finished and it was a great experience which felt good to complete in Sarah's honor too. We raised over $10,000 so thank you to all who have contributed throughout this year! Right after finishing the race, I had to go on a business trip to Philadelphia for a tradeshow. The week after returning, I ended up going to Texas with the boys for a week. They stayed with Oma and Grandpa in San Antonio while I learned to kite-board with my friend Chris in Corpus Christi. It was great and I know I'll love this new sport as I get better and better - you get going pretty fast in the water and you can jump in the air quite a bit, too (when you are good enough). And this weekend I ended up going skydiving again since Lovisa and her friend wanted to go - couldn't pass up jumping again; it's such a great feeling!
Overall, the boys and I are doing well. They started school last week and seem engaged in their activities and enjoying the tail end of summer. This year has been an emotional journey - and I'm not sure the journey ever really ends. But I think all three of us are in a fairly good place right now. Having said that, I expect ups and downs and am not looking forward to Christmas time... but we'll see. One step at a time.