Update on a previous post. The doctors have found not one bone marrow match for little Liam, but three. If everything works out well he will have his transplant early next year. Thank you to all of you who prayed and registered yourself to be a donor, and I know Liam and his family thank you too.
This Is For My Friend Katie. November 14, 2009
Hopefully it doesn’t send her into a major panic attack.
Never Would Have Thought About It Before. November 12, 2009
Meet my friend Ann, and her youngest son Liam. I have known Ann since first grade. She and I started elementary school together, then we went to high school together, then she moved to Southern California while I went to a junior college back home. When my roommate Jenn and I, who also went to high school with Ann, the two of them were practically inseparable, moved to Southern California for school I got to hang out with Ann a lot more. She and I would spend our Summer’s tanning and loading up on Caramel Frappuccinos, while perfecting our Britney Spears dance moves. Ann has since moved back to Northern California and married an awesome guy named Jeff. Together they have two little boys, Cole who is three, and Liam who turned one a few months ago. The last time I saw Ann was when she was still pregnant with Liam, so unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to meet the little guy, but this blog post is actually about him. A few months ago Liam was diagnosed with a disease called HLH. It is an extremely rare disease that requires chemo, spinal taps, MRIs and possibly bone marrow transplants, but it is not cancer. Since the diagnosis Liam has had good days and bad days, and if you have children of your own you can imagine how hard those bad days can be on Ann and Jeff. Liam has had to spend nights alone in the hospital because he was so sick. Through all of this Ann and her sisters have kept everyone up to date through the power of Facebook. Because of this I came to realize how important it was to become a bone marrow doner. What if I am able to help Liam or another person out there. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help my friend, or a total stranger whose life I could save. So tonight my swab kit came in the mail. It took me about five minutes to take four swabs of my cheek cells which I will send off to the bone marrow registry, who will let me know if I am a match for anyone in the future. If you are interested in helping someone you may or may not know, and are willing to donate some marrow, check out this link. http://www.marrow.org/
Weekend Wrap-up…Really Late. November 11, 2009
This last weekend was pretty awesome because of the fact that on Saturday night we got to go out to dinner and celebrate the birthday’s of two of our friends Stephen and Stephanie. And even though they have birthdays only a day apart, and they have names that would make you think that they could be twins, they are not. They are married, and they are awesome. About 18 of us got together for some sushi, some good and some questionable, but the company was all that mattered, and it was great. After dinner, and much discussion about what to do next, we ended up at…I can’t believe I’m going to say this…Belmont Station. The Station and I have a bit of an uncomfortable past because when I was 20 I borrowed the ID of a friend and tried to pass it off as mine in order to get in. The only problem was that the friend was also with me and only a couple of people in line ahead of me. The guy at the door totally caught us and wouldn’t let me in. At least the trick had worked at three other bars before that. Sorry Mom and Dad. We didn’t stay long at The Station because I was so afraid that I would see someone that I work with and I wouldn’t know what to say. That’s the wrap-up. Here are the pics.
Wherein I Declare My Love For My Favorite Holiday Beverage. November 5, 2009
I absolutely believe that every year media and retailers bombard us with Christmas stuff way too early. Since Starbucks started using the holiday red cups on Tuesday, I have heard so many people complain about how it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet, and to top it off we are also playing Christmas music in the store. It’s very subtle, I will be working and all of a sudden I will hear a Christmas song, then 30 minutes later I will hear another one. Starbucks is sneaky in the way they plant thoughts of holidays in our heads. With the early arrival of the red cups and the obnoxious Christmas music also comes the holiday beverages, gingerbread lattes, eggnog lattes, peppermint mochas and caramel apple spices, the last two of which most people don’t know we have year round. See, Starbucks is sneaky. But by far the best drink that we have is…wait for it…CHAI EGGNOG LATTES!!! Dear God my mouth waters just typing the words. When someone comes into my store and orders a regular chai tea latte, I ask them if they have ever had it with eggnog, and when I ask them my eyes get really big, almost like I am drug dealer only I am strung out on sweet delicious eggnog instead of crack. It is quite possibly the best drink to ever touch my lips. So good in fact that on the first day we had eggnog in the store I drank three of these delicious beverages. Today I only had two, so I consider that an improvement. The eggnog will be around until January, so I’m either going to need to learn how to control myself, or start running more than just three days a week.
Did I Wish It On Him? November 5, 2009
A couple of posts ago I put up a video that I had found on another blog poking fun at what big babies men can be when they get sick. Well guess who has a big hairy sick baby in her house? That’s right, me. After Keith saw the video he told me that he thought it was pretty funny, and I guess he learned something from it too, because this time that he is sick he is taking it very well. Not once have I seen him fall asleep while pretending to read Ellie a book, or had him tell me that he’s sick without me asking how he is feeling, and using it as an excuse to not have to do anything. So while I may have jinxed myself with a sick husband by posting that video, I also now have a husband who can laugh at how silly he, and I’m sure some other men out there can be when they are sick.
Real Weekend Wrap-Up. November 3, 2009
Last weekend was a big one. Not only because of the fact that it was Halloween, but because it was also The Dickson’s (that’s me and Keith) six year wedding anniversary. The festivities began on Friday night when we went to our church’s Halloween event. Ellie dressed up as Sleeping Beauty, and Jackson was her prince. Ellie takes dressing up very seriously which was demonstrated by the fact that she insisted on us calling her Sleeping Beauty, and started crying and told on her friend Drew when he called her by her real name. So we went to the event, played some games, and then for the third night in a row we came home to a house without Keith. Keith was on a trip for work, which meant that I slept with every light in the house on for three nights in a row…I’m a little paranoid. Saturday morning came, and not much happened, oh except that Keith came home…Yea! That night we met up with a friend of Keith’s at Disneyland who was in town with his family. Now you may be thinking “But Liana, Halloween was on Saturday. Didn’t you take Ellie trick-or-treating?”, and the answer is “No”. One of the great things about having a child young enough to not really understand that certain things are supposed to happen on certain days is that we can totally mess with her brain. What I mean by that is that the church event was enough for her, and the fact that we let her wear her Sleeping Beauty dress to Disneyland on Saturday was a huge treat. She doesn’t even realize that going to strangers houses and having them give her candy that her parents will steal from her after she goes to bed was even an option. Sunday came and we went to church, followed by a picnic at the park with our lifegroup. After that Ellie went home with the Hutton’s so that Keith and I could go out for our anniversary. We even went to see a movie which we haven’t done without her since we went to see “Into the Wild”. Who knows how long ago that was. In all we once again had a pretty full but fun weekend. Hope yours was good too.
Weekend Wrap-Up. November 2, 2009
This is the post in which I would post pictures and share funny stories about what happened over the weekend. However, I don’t feel well and I am super tired. Please check back on Wednesday for some awesome pictures of Ellie and her boyfriend from Halloween…can you guess which boyfriend it is?
