Wow, have I been delinquent?  It’s not like we’ve been doing nothing. 

We have been a little busy around here.  It’s been almost two months since I enlightened you with the wisdom that oozes from my mind.  It is currently one of my four favorite seasons of the year: Winter.  I know some of you are not lovers of this particular season.  Then there are you that live a little closer to the equator are being inundated with those trying to escape the beauty of the season.  But alas I digress, let’s get back to the my droning on and on.  Wow, that was weird, I just went off on a tangent about snow in Indiana the very next sentence after getting back to how busy we are.  But I saved you from having to muddle though it by deleting it.  So now, this time I really mean it, let’s get on with the update.  By the way, that once of the cool things about having your own blog.  You can say anything you want and somebody may actually read it.  Crap, I just did it again.  I guess I am officially the ADD blogger tonight.  So let’s try this again.  Tonight I’m going to try backwards history.  I’ll start with the recent stuff then work my way backwards and ask Jenny what we did when we hit the end of my memory timeline.  So today Jenny bought some new boots, her old ones broke, it was ugly.  So we had to test them out.  So as soon as Brad arrived home from school we bundled up and made good use of the 3 new inches of frozen sunshine that God blessed us with last night and went to Sarah Bolton Park in Beech Grove to sled.  We had a blast until we were Deputysicles (Woo hoo! new word).  Then home for a scrumptious dinner and now to blogging, homework, and cleanup.  (Guess who chose blogging over cleanup?  Bad husband, bad)  A couple of days ago we hosted our small group from Church as well as my parents for the Super Bowl and Mom’s Birthday.  Well, although they are not my first choice, living in Indianapolis we were of course rooting for the COLTS.  We had so much excellent food that I think some of it didn’t even get touched.  Although the team we were rooting for did not win, it was a good game.  Congratulations Saints.  I know my nephew Drew was loving every minute of it.  Unfortunately that has led to left-overs and as a result re-joining the YMCA and working out.

Both Jenny and I have gotten involved at church in the technical ministries.  Jenny is doing lights and slides and, I know this will shock some of you, I have begun to run sound again.  (ROCK ON!!!!)  This has been a really fun experience.  Our church’s tech ministry, like everything else at the church, is done with excellence and it has been a real learning experience working with such knowledgeable people on such good equipment.  Our small group has been growing on Sunday nights and our discussions of that day’s message has been very challenging and though provoking.  Helpful tip for the day:  You will get so much more out of the message if you take notes and do more than fill in the blanks if that is how your church offers it.  It’s amazing how many times we have to use the backside of bulletins announcements for extra room.

We are also in the middle of the Dance Marathon season (a fundraiser program for Riley Hospital for kids)  We recently attended and spoke at BUDM (Butler University Dance Marathon).  And we have PUDM and BSUDM coming up.  I’m betting those of you from around here can guess which colleges those are.  We went to PUDM’s family day and while Mickey and Brad bowled, Jen and I watched the Colts vs Jets.  We had a great time.  Later the IUDM alumni invites us to speak and play question and answers for the IUDM executive committee retreat.  I think they are going to have a awesome year.  Speaking of speaking, Jenny did several school assemblies for Pennies for Patients including Sidener Academy for High Ability Students and Christel House Academy (Brad’s and Mickey’s school).  Both Brad and Mickey made the honor roll for the second nine weeks, making it a first semester sweep for Brad.

Jenny had a few more adventures including finding Indiana’s best tenderloin at the Blue Crew Sports Grill before going shopping with my Mom and her Mom to get some things for her trip to Nicaragua.  Yep I said that right, she is fleeing the country for a week to work with a special needs school outside Managua.  Which led her to having a bunch of shots to get ready to go.  Those shots and the trip will defer her from donating blood for the next year.   HMMM, I think there is something else that will defer one from donating blood for a year.  I wonder what that could be????  Maybe a tattoo.  Well since she is deferred anyway why not go for it.  So in honor of her 26.2 mile accomplishment earlier this year, her ankle is now decorated   as follows:

Yep, that ain’t no sticker.  Mickey joined Jenny for her next adventure and loved every minute of it.  Mickey received four tickets to the symphony, and I know you’ll be shocked by this but Brad and I really weren’t interested in going so Jenny offered the tickets up on Facebook and a friend of ours from church and her son (who happens to also have Down Syndrome) jumped at the chance.  They all had a wonderful time.

On the Brad front he had a not so happy experience after a piece of an elastic with a metal fastener met his eye at at high rate of speed.  He got a day out of school (not so bad in his eyes) and a couple trips to eye doctor and a contact to help the abrasion on his eye to heal.  On the other extreme, Brad and I went to Climb Time Towers with his life group from church.  We had a awesome time climbing walls until we were both exhausted.  Then we went out for pizza and found the closest thing to Chicago style deep dish I have found here in Indy.

The end of December included Christmas and New years.  I took the last two weeks of the year off so we spent the Christmas vacation all as a family.  It was a wonderful could of weeks.  We went shopping down in Nashville, IN and played a bunch of video games and movies.  It was so much fun.  I have a great family.

Wow, I was finally able to focus and burn through it.  I didn’t go down too many rabbit trails once I got going.  So look forward to my next update.

Dep

Yesterday was a milestone at the Deputy household.  It was the day of five years cancer free for Mickey.  That has special meaning in that this is the day that she is considered cured, not just in remission, but cured, done, finished with cancer.  She had a very surprising evening.  She is also in ballet class and she had her first recital last night.  Unbeknownst to her, but beknownst to us, Jenny had sent out a message on Facebook to let her friends know what was happening.  That resulted in a huge cheering section for our little ballerina.  We had friends from TNT, friends from Butler Dance Marathon, friends from Indiana University Dance Marathon (even though it was finals week for both schools) Grandma & Grandpa Deputy, Aunt Joy and Uncle Brian and of course the best brother in the world: Brad “Black Belt” Deputy.  It was so cute, she came out with her class and was warming up and saw one of her friends and just stopped stretching and her jaw almost hit the floor and the morphed into the cutest smile you have ever seen.  After the recital, and after she was showered in 4 bouquets of gorgeous pink roses we went out with Joy and Brian and the Butler Dance Marathon cheering section to Boogie Burger for a cure date celebration of cheeseburgers, bacon cheese fries and ice cream.  So Mickey accomplished her goal of “Kicking Cancer’s Butt”, and she did it with the grace and beauty that we have all come to expect from her: touching lives and making a difference in the world.

-Daddy

This week was a monumental week at the Deputy house.  After five years of hard work and dedication Brad received his black belt in karate.  This is an incredible event considering he is only 10 years old.  It is a image that will be ingrained in my mind forever.  Brad walking up the his instructor, bowing to each other, shaking hands and having Mr. Rick tie his belt on.  This was so cool to see, and he now has something to look back on to remind himself that he can persevere and with hard work he can complete a difficult task.  We are all so proud of him.  If you want to send him a note of encouragement he would really appreciate it.  His e-mail is Brad at Deputyfamily.net.

Last week was Thanksgiving and now we are in the full throws of year end holidays.  I love this time of year.  We had a quiet Thanksgiving this year.  We stayed at home and just hung out as a family and enjoyed the day, the parade, and the football games.  My Mom and Dad come over for an altogether non-traditional Thanksgiving meal: Fondue, fries, garlic bread, and salad.  We fired up the chocolate fountain and dipped fruit, marshmallows and Snickers bars.  Yes, you heard that right, chocolate covered snickers bars.  Life just doesn’t get much better than that.  It was a great day.

The next day, BLACK FRIDAY, Jenny and I braved the crowds and went to Wal-Mart at 4:45 in the morning and snagged the perfect digital camera for Jenny’s mission trip to Nicaragua.  They had a 12 megapixel camera that uses AA batteries for $69.00.   Not knowing the power situation where she is going I suggested it might be a good idea to not rely on lithium ion.  So now we just need to get some SD card so she can bring back 1000s of pictures.  I was not feeling so well, so I came home and crashed and Jenny and Brad went shopping.  That girl’s shopping stamina is unbelievable.   Then we went to my Mom and Dads to assist with the extreme makeover bathroom edition,  but they really didn’t need that much help at this time.  Maybe next time.  But we did go out to see Disney’s “A Christmas Carol”  Grandpa and Mickey in 2D and Grandma, Jenny, Brad and I in IMAX 3D.  The animation was excellent, the story left a bit to be desired.

On Saturday, the day culminated with the annual trek to IRT for their rendition of  “A Christmas Carol” which, of course was wonderful.  We always enjoy this as family.  It was opening night for the play and they ended it with inviting alumni from the play onto stage and sing the last song with the current cast.  It was truly magical.  Then Mickey had a special moment.  Her class had gone to IRT to see a play called “The Giver” after they read the book in class.  One of the main characters in that play was an alumni of “A Christmas Carol” and Jenny asked him to come say hi to Mickey and he did.  She was in heaven.  It absolutely made her night.

Believe it or not, we have almost all our Christmas shopping done.  Want to know what I got Jenny this year??  Do ya?  Do ya?  Well, so does she, but I’m not telling.

Have a good week, remember people are busy and there is always a blood shortage, so don’t let the festivities get in the way of giving the gift of life.  I’m not to thrilled about needles either, but a few seconds of discomfort can literally extend someone’s life.  O.K., you have hung with me this long,  I have one other challenge:  Do something nice for someone else, but don’t tell anyone.

Dep

Well it’s been a while since we have updated the blog.  O.K., it’s been more than a while.  Anyway, it’s been a busy few weeks culminating in a trip to the west coast, but more on that later.  Karate has started up for the fall semester and Mickey is working on her Green Advanced belt and Brad is going for his Black belt.  School is in full swing, and we are busy at church.  Let’s see if we have any pictures since a picture tells a thousand words.

Mom and Dad Deputy’s 50th Anniversary at Ruth Chris’s Steak House and playing around afterwards.

We also spent a little time at O’Reilly Raceway Park to see the Kroger 200 Nascar Nationwide Series race with our nephews Grant and Joseph.  That was a good race, Jenny was able to see her favorite Nationwide driver Carl Edwards win and do his signature back-flip.  The Brad and Joseph both waited until the hat dance was over and got autographed hats.  We almost turned turned Joseph into a Ford fan, but alas, he is still a Jeff Gordon fan.  But that will come.

An awesome day at King’s Island

A phone call and gifts form Monique Coleman

Open house at Grandma Bennett’s

Hanging out at “My Best for You” retreat (Just Dad and Brad)

On the charity front alot has been going on.  Mickey is a honored hero for the LLS’s Pennies for Patients program, so she had a photo shoot with Gary Brackett.  Again here are some photos:

Jenny also raised over $3,300.00 and along with her mentor credit, she hit the fundraising minimum and we went to San Francisco for the Nike Women’s Marathon.  She competed and finished all 26.2 miles in 7 hours and 39 minutes.  That is a monumental achievement no matter who you are.

So here’s a glimpse into our lives over the last few weeks.  Hope your life has been as much fun.

It’s been a busy few weeks here. Mickey went to Camp Little Red Door at Bradford Woods the last week of July. She had a great time! The next week found us at clinic for her 6 month check up. Her counts were fantastic and she was looking great. We go back in 6 months. On that Friday we went to Kings Island for the last hurrah of summer. We all had a lot of fun. We were there from opening till after the fireworks! It was a super day!
The kids went back to school last week. Mickey started 6th grade at Christel House Academy and Brad started 5th grade at Sidener Academy. We are praying for a good year for both of them!

For fellow Riley kid Tyler Genneken whose leukemia has come back: Meals for Marrow located at Independence Park in Greenwood, IN, on Tuesday, August 4th (11 am – 4 pm) The event is being catered by Gray Brother’s Cafeteria and if you donate blood and sign up for the bone marrow registry – you eat for free! You can purchase a kids meal for $5 and you can also PURCHASE PIES to help cover the cost of the kits.

If you would like to volunteer for Meals for Marrow, please let me know. When I signed up to volunteer I was told there are 4 volunteers so far and they need at least 15.  Please send me an e-mail at mjmb@deputyfamily.net if you would like to help out. By the way, the test to get on the Bone Marrow Registry is a simple swab of the inside of your cheek – no needles involved.  You can follow Tyler’s story at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylergenneken.

Our 4th of July was rather lowkey.  I had group training this morning.  We did 80 minutes at Eagle Creek.  I was able to walk 4.5 miles in 70 minutes on the hills.  I feel really good about that time knowing I have 3 months to cut at least a minute off my mile to make the required pace for the marathon.  Michael is training for RAIN a bike ride from Terre Haute, IN to Richmond, IN on July 18th.  Today was his last long ride as he will start to taper and give his body time to rest.  He did 120 miles, most of it in the rain.  Poor guy was soaked and frozen when he got home.  Mickey and Brad spent the day lazing around watching TV.  All in all a great day.

Here are some more pictures of the fun we’ve been having this summer:

School’s been out for 3 weeks and it’s been fun times here in Deputyland.  Last week was fun simple times -  movies, bowling, a visiting cousin.  Last Saturday was Mickey’s Challenger Jamboree.  She had a great time playing on a nice field and visiting with her friend Jeremy whom she only gets to see once a year at Jamboree.  Sunday we took Mickey to Camp HiLite, a Down syndrome overnight camp.  She had as much fun this year as she did last year.  Michael, Brad and I kept busy but missed her.  Wednesday Michael and I celebrated our 20th anniversary by spending the day with Brad going to a movie and an Indians doublheader.  We are blessed to be together and to have great kids.