Happy first day of December. It's a new month, and today was a good day with my Nana. I spent the day across the street at her house and her memory was good for the morning. You count those time as the blessings. We talked about how hard it is to say good-bye to pets and when I told her about Gussie she got teary, as she remembered the dog, Lady and cat, Kit-te, she had for years. It felt good to talk to her and for her to remember things. You know, these are times when she brings up stories from the past, like from my Mom's childhood or even her own childhood and it's neat for me to listen and learn about my family. Like for example, she still is slightly scandalized that my Grampy, a married man, went sledding with his kids ; ) I like hearing stories about Grampy, as we were really close. He loved horses, and he's the one who really got me into riding.

I'm feeling hopeful about this month. I know there's a lot to look forward too, like hopefully a full recovery, nice times with family and a chance to return to my parent's home. Maybe even reconciliation in my extended family. But there's hard stuff in store too, like family decisions about my Nana's future and care. An achey knee from those 1 pound leg weights. One pound!! Who would've though one pound was enough to put my little leg out of commission, hehe. ; )

Hi, I'm Rachael's cousin Deanna. (Rach is typing this out for her). I am 9 years old. Rach has told me much about you guys and I hope she will tell me more things about you. I think it is cool to have my older cousin Rach to stay at my house. (Thank you!! -- You're welcome). In Science I'm doing a terrarium, and I have two boys and two girls in my group. The boys are ICKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the girls are cooooooooo-oooooooooo-ooooooooo-lllllllllllllllll Rachael has a puppy face dog on and probably wants me to say she's the best cousin in the world, but she is also leaving out her sister Cait, and my other cousin Emily (cause the boys don't count, that's for sure!). Um..hope to hear more about you soon, DEANNA "What-EV-eeerrrr.....just kidding" (hehe, Dee)

; ) It's fun, been helping her with homework a lot. She dances all the time and whistles, it's pretty cool. She's a sweet kid and always asking if she can help me out. She says interesting things like, "what is a boar? -- an adult male PIG!" and "shake your bootie baby, like your mama don't care" and this is one that Caitlin and I taught her, "girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider!" hehehe Another one is (she's dictating these to me now), "Umm...." and "AT-(snap)-TI-(snap)-TUDE(snap)" (waving arms in a wavy motion). ; ) Isn't my cousin the calmest person you ever met? (she's telling me to write this, and we are being sarcastic, Dee told me to write this) ; ) Anyways hope to hear from you guys soon, from BOTH of US ; )

Dee (most importantly -- I let her type that), and Rachael (the um...um.....tehehehe....um...no no....hehehe...okay stop, okay sto-o-o-p....RACHAEL....Okay now start writing....hmhmhm....hahmhm...the weirdest person ever to live on earth, but the smart one) hehe from Deanna. That's it.