SunShine Kids

Sunday M-E joins the gang. She is off to Vegas with three other children from here to meet up with 24 others from around the country. I am sending the camera so we will have some pictures.

Should be fun for here.

The title will take you to the web site.

Time Does Fly

I have learned that silence makes people nervous. At this phase of life, please know that things are just slowly winding their way back to normal. We have been on a quest.

M-E is going to Vegas for gathering of like survivors. She and 27 other children are gathering to spend time together and to build a net work of kids from all over the country that have had a similar experiences. She leaves on Sunday the 1st of April and returns on the 6th. We then leave for Mexico on the 7th. Quick turn around.

The quest if for a swim suit. She has a great suit and felt another on just like it was not appropriate. Thus a quest was commenced, started, mapped out..... What ever. It has been a quest. Landsend has been called on to deliver half the inventory in stock in every color and size and possible variation. The local swim suit store has been visited. Macy's has been abandoned as a place so pathetic, why bother to go for anything but sale sheets. JC Penny's did come through. I am please to announce that Landsend did also. She is set. Suits to mix and match and wear. Suits that don't make her feel fat and ugly and gross. Her words. She has since been told by the many wise women in her life that all women feel that way.

The best part is that after a valiant effort, we have had success. She has three suits that make her feel like swimming. What more can you ask from life. I have two suits to try on but trying on suits makes me feel fat, ugly and gross........

So it is just not me.

I look at this picture of this lovely child taking care of her dog. She has hair and looks healthy. She is wearing Holy Names sweatshirt. I look and realize that at this point in our lives, no one knows what has happened if they don't know us. People don't walk up and ask what kind of cancer she has, or how I am doing. We can choose to share the news. I have found that it freaks people out. I guess that is why people start with

"I AM A CANCER SURVIVOR"

It keeps people from regretting they asked....

Here is a great piece that someone wrote about having a disabled child. It really sort of hit home. We were in "Italy" until our plane was hijacked to Holland on August 13, 2004.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
byEmily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Dear Dogs: I have no idea who wrote this but it seemed to be someone I would like to know.

Dear Dogs,

When I say to move, it means go someplace else, not switch positions with each other so there are still two of you in the way.

The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. (Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate of food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.)

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king size bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue to sleep on the couch to ensure your comfort. Look at videos of dogs sleeping. They can actually curl up in a ball. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. (I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space used is nothing but sarcasm.)

For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine or bark, try to turn the knob, or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. In addition, I have been using the bathroom for years...canine attendance is not mandatory.

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dogs. I cannot stress this enough. It would be such a simple change for you.

Thanks,Mom

I think this is a perfect spot

Sadie on the lookout for danger........ Tucker on the lookout for food. Perfect.

Busy week. M-E and I are going to a Mother Daughter Brunch. I hope it is a good thing given we have to drive to Bellevue. Oh, I am so bad....

She is at her first Concert

She earned tickets to see Rascal Flatts. She took Whitney. I will have more to tell tomorrow night. She is spending the night with the Verhoffs and then they are taking her to school.

Should be great. She was excited.

My mom knew who they were and thought it would be a great concert. Only my mom.

The title of this should take you to a video of the group for you that are less than savey about the "music scene".. Anyone hear about something called Rap? or is it Wrap?

The Last of The Leposy Medicine has been Taken.

Leprosy you say? Well of course my daughter has been taking drugs that treat leprosy! Remember, nothing should surprise anyone. It was a drug that is used to prevent PnemoCystis Pneumonia. The killer of many immune suppressed people. It was one of the things that killed lots and lots of AIDEs patients early on in the epidemic.

Yes, we are done with that part of Post-Treatment. Thank heavens. It is over.