It's Official!

Greetings to our Raff Update Blog Followers:

Our blog started out a couple of years ago sharing the news with all of you that Gil had been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of leukemia. Fortunately, that episode in our lives only served to make us stronger as a family. And he's still thriving.

And to this day, we have much to be thankful for.

Add to all that gratitude, Marika's welcome news from the weekend.

On Friday night, shortly after midnight, she was sent the most delightful link to a YouTube video announcing that she was ADMITTED to the U-M Medical School Class of 2016.

The photo above is from the U-M Medical School website and the "baked good" is the pumpkin bread -- it hasn't been iced yet with Marika's homemade cream cheese frosting -- that she and her friend, Elizabeth made as Marika waited to hear about her admission status on Friday night.

The entire Raff family and many friends are thrilled for her. (Whether she chooses to go to U-M is entirely up to her as she completes her other interviews across the country.)

But we are secretly, and perhaps somewhat selfishly, hoping she chooses to stay in Michigan. (Having Marika around is like having eternal springtime -- she is smart, kind, optimistic and a good friend to all.)

Gil has been taking some awesome photos of Kent Lake in Kensington Park nearby when we go out walking with the dogs. He has promised to post them in our November  blog update.

I spent the day in Ann Arbor yesterday at an artist's studio (www.redshoeshomegoods.com) making a whimsical wooden fish to hang on the wall. I have not enjoyed a day quite like that for a very long time. It reawakened in me a passion for making art. (I lovingly referred to the experience as my "make-and-take-it" day.) As winter approaches, I'm going to restock my craft studio downstairs and start "making stuff" again. (I made the piece below which I titled Fish with Attitude. He's about a foot long, made of a discarded piece of Adirondack chair wood, and painted metal flashing. The "26" represents my birthday and Gil's and my wedding anniversary date. The fish "trophy" hangs on the wall and I'm still deciding where he should go.)

I'm heading off to Kentucky for a short visit with my mom and her family. Her brother from California is coming in town next weekend and we are all meeting up to welcome him back to Kentucky where he grew up. There will be brunches and lunches and dinners together until he returns a few short days later to Riverside where he lives. Wishing his entire family and all our cousins could come back with him. California is just too far away sometimes!

Haiku:

So many doctors

Doctors Raff, Raff, Raff and Raff!

Too good to be true