Hello?

Ryan never answers his cell phone. Whether he is screening his calls or simply does not have it near him, I will never know. Now I think this is rubbing off on Leslie!!!! My solution, Connor is going to have to have a cell phone. One of them has to be near him, right? Hopefully when Ryan is back at work things will go back to how they were.

The Dispatch reporter stopped at our house tonight. It went really well. We did not get to any good stuff because it took us so long just to walk through Neal's medical history. We will be seeing her again. I do not believe the article will be out for a while.

Neal is doing good. He is having to adjust his medicines after blood draws, which is normal. He is moving around a lot more although very slow. The Wii has not been busted out yet. At that point I will know he is back to normal. Tomorrow Ryan and Les are coming over. It will be the first time Neal has seen Ryan and Les since they were discharged. From what I know Ryan is doing good. He still gets warn out, but from what I have read that is normal. I guess normal is all we can hope for since we are rarely normal.

I posted the information regarding the NKF walk to the right------------------>

People always ask what can we do for you....

I found a local walk to raise money for the National Kidney Foundation. At this point, Neal is unsure if he will be ready, but I certainly can do it. I have named us Team McKoth on behalf of the guys. I am not exactly sure when the E was dropped from our name, but I think Dave knows. Perhaps it was when Neal was testing the Medical Center systems under his alter ego Dr. Kothe. Anyways, the walk is on March 15th at Polaris Mall. It is one mile, indoors. There are more details at http://www.kidney.org/site/310/walk.cfm?ch=310. If you want to join my team, just let me know and I will add you (I am not sure you can add yourself). If you would just like to make a donation, there is a link below. I think this was meant to be as it falls on Neal's 31st birthday. Given the year he had I think we will recelebrate his 30th birthday too. Leslie, maybe Connor can roll it in his stroller! Mom, I already signed you up!

I have never really done anything like this, unless you count selling boxes of M&Ms to raise money for who knows what in grade school. This will be much more healthy as I will not have M&Ms laying around the house for 30 days to eat. My Mom and Dad probably had to buy more boxes than my sister and I sold. Although, if the walk travels past Cinnabon and they are open....that could be a problem. Stacy, don't worry, I will not leave your sight. We do not want a lost child or I guess lost adult alert.

http://www.firstgiving.com/mckoth

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

It is true. When I think back on my life (only 29 years of it!) I rarely ponder on the things I have done, but the things I did not do. Would I have changed a lot... no, not really. I would have enjoyed life more and not worried about the little things or made my job my top priority. However what I had done is what got me to where I am. Now I will probably never do anything close to what Ryan and Leslie did, but they are not the norm. They were strong enough so that they will never have to look back and be disappointed for not giving their friend a better quality of life or wondering what if. As Neal's doctor told him a year ago, the ones that love you will be happy to give you a kidney in exchange for getting you back to your old self. I am slowly becoming a believer of the things happen for a reason theory.

I got to see Ryan, Les and Connor today. I guess I really saw Connor most of the time. He is just too cute. We had a lot of fun if only for an hour. Sorry Ryan and Leslie for ignoring you! Ryan is doing good and continuing to push himself. Leslie is taking care of the household. Connor has his casts off now and is back to his skateboard. I guess he was pretty unhappy yesterday, but I think he is already adjusting to the bar between his legs. Who wouldn't be unhappy the first day you attach a bar to both of your feet? One day we will tell Connor about all of this and we will have to show him a picture for him to believe it! Below is his picture at 3 months. He is gonna be a heart breaker. Neal was not quite up to a ride in the car, but hopefully we can all get together later in the week.

We had some visitors today as well. Raegan was able to put a smile on Neal's face, which was great to see. She was very energetic when she walked through the door! Mom and Mike dropped off some food and I have already ate half of it. Neal is still very tired. He tried to sleep upstairs yesterday, but could not get comfortable so he is back on the couch. He is moving around much better but still having some pain. We are hoping to meet with the Dispatch early this week. I am heading back to work this week. Neal has a blood draw Monday and Thursday and an appointment for follow up from his seizure on the 31st. Other than that we will just be relaxing at home.