Just an Update and Prayer Request

Dear Reader,

It has been a long time since I last wrote. Sorry to disappoint you but I probably will be keeping the long gaps in my writing until after the holidays. Things are much more exciting this time of year, meaning I have stuff to do and people to watch. So, hopefully, if all goes well, I will be so busy doing things and having fun that I won't have time to blog!

Last time I wrote it was to remind you to listen to me on the radio. It was really fun doing the radiothon this year. I always have fun doing things like that. I decided to go green for Halloween and I went to the radiothon in my costume. I think probably 38% of the people didn't know who I was and didn't realize that I was in costume, they just looked at me really strange and then looked away super fast. The other 62% of the people that saw me in passing at the hospital seemed to know who I was and said things like, "Great costume, Mary!" and "Love the hair!"

There is a video that you can find me in HERE. Remember I went green!

On Halloween, Brother went trick-or-treating with Angler and a few other friends. Brother and Angler were soccer players. Brother spent the night at Angler's house because they had a soccer game early the next morning in Tampa.

While Brother was out being a soccer player, I baked cookies. I make chocolate chip cookies from scratch and after that Mom and I had a little party with Norman Bates. Psycho was a really cute movie. My favorite parts were when the private investigator fell down the stairs and at the end when the fly was there and Norman's mother was saying how she would never even hurt a fly.

Brother actually won his soccer game on Sunday 2 - 0. He scored both of the goals too because apparently "He's a beast." Mom and Dad didn't get to go watch him because it was too early and too far away and Dad wanted to get his car blessed and go to church and they didn't have time to do both. Brother's next game is at home though, and we are all planning to go and watch him at that one.

My birthday is getting very close! In only 7 days and 2 hours I will be 15 years old! Mom and I are getting super excited because we are actually planning a party. If everyone who is invited comes then it will be my biggest get-together in over 2 years! My aunt and uncle are flying in, Gorilla (my cousin) is supposed to come, Polly (my umm, my Polly) is coming with her family, and we are inviting the group. Mom also invited Brother's Foxes while she was at church and we are also hoping to invite the super ancient people that live across the street so that they won't have to cook! I'm getting very excited!

So that is about all that has happened lately! I ordered myself a Dulce de Leche cheesecake birthday cake from The Cheesecake Factory on-line with Mom's credit card and it is supposed to come this Thursday. I also included a note but I forgot exactly what it says, I'll post what it says later when it comes. Friday I have a family centered care meeting at the hospital and I also have a clinic appointment the same day. I'm really excited about that. I'll probably be the youngest person at the meeting and this is a great networking opportunity for me. I really enjoy networking!

So, I'll let you know if anything very exciting happens. If I don't write in a long time, it is probably because I am busy being busy and having fun!

Thanks for reading!

Miss E.

P.P. Please pray for my friend, Hawkman. He is sick in the hospital right now and his uncle's wedding is this weekend. I don't want him to be too sick to go. Thank you.

Radiothon!

Hey Reader!

Don't forget to listen to me on the radio today on US 103.5 FM. You can listen and watch a live video of me by clicking on All Children's Hospital Telethon 2009. I'll be on at 11AMish today!

Make a donation if you can too please!

Love, Miss E.

Cute Smile and a Nice Back-Side

Dear Reader,

I have been the busy bee of late. Since I have been having more energy I have been doing more and more. I've been riding along in the car every chance I get too.

Brother had a friend sleep over on Friday night. His friend is on his soccer team and they had a game Saturday. This is the cutest of Brother's friends. He has a such a sweet smile. Everyone loves his smile, it'll light up any room. He is just so cute! Brother's friend is on a swim team and apparently is quite good. I have decided to name him after a smiling swimmer that can light up a room. If you are a Disney fan, you might recognize the Angler Fish from the movie "Finding Nemo".

Anyway, Brother and Angler actually won their first soccer game last Saturday! Hooray! They have been such losers for so long and they finally won a game. So, we are all very happy about that.

The weather was so beautiful on Saturday that we decided to burn our big ol' pile of wood that we had been waiting to burn. Mom doesn't like to start fires when Dad is not home because she has set our field on fire too many times. I've learned from past experiences that when a field catches fire it is good to have at least three able people present. One to run and get buckets water (that would be Brother), one to run over from his chickens to the fire to do some kind of fire dance on top of it (Daddy), and one to run around in small circles near the fire with her hands in the air and yell repeatedly, "FIRE!!! FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!" (that would be Mommy).

Our fire was so hard to get going. We thought it would never start, when all of a sudden there was a WHOOSH! and the fire shot out of the ground just like when they send a shuttle into space on TV. The "WHOOSH!" stayed for quite a while and got EXTREMELY hot. When it died down a whole lot, Brother went and took a picture with his phone to send to his friend who loves bon-fires to "rub it in his face". I had posted it up on here, but then I accidentally clicked on "Remove Formatting From This Section" and poof it was gone. When I went back to get the chip, I discovered that the chair had eaten it. We tried everything we could to get it to cough it back up, but all it coughed up were straight pins. So we are going to wait until it poops it out.

The fire was quite fun. I walked up and down the hill in our back yard and I really felt it on Sunday. I'm really out of shape.


Sunday everyone went to church, except me of course. I think everyone really liked it. We hadn't been in so long. I got up a while after Mom, Brother, and Dad got home. I was tired from the fire the night before I guess.Once I had got dressed and ready to go, Mom, Dad and I went car shopping. We were looking to buy a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry to replace Dad's old car.



We didn't buy a new car for Dad that Sunday. We went to two car dealerships, but he has his heart set on a Honda Accord exactly like his old one except not smooshed. He's never owned anything else car wise, and he LOVES them. Dad is a really tough customer, the first car sales had to get the manager pretty early on and still couldn't take it. He ended up walking away. I thought he was going to cry, the poor dear. The second one was a really nice, sweet, easy to trust car dealer from Bangladesh trying to sell Dad a Toyota Camry. He told us how the Camrys are as nice as the Accord but better because of the "Nice, comfy, roomy back-side." He was really cute, and he never looked like he was going to cry. He was a great sales man. I probably would have bought the car he was trying to sell.


Today I woke up quite late, at noon. I don't know why I've been sleeping so late, but I hope I get over it soon. We picked up Brother and got a snack and then went to my uncle's doctor's office to get our flu shots.I was super nervous about getting my flu shot. So, so nervous. I kept thinking about the Swain Princess though and how she got her flu shot and it didn't hurt her at all. I was saying her name over and over in my head. It's crazy that I was this anxious about a little shot, all I've done and gone through, but I'm not used to anyone but me giving me shots. My own mother hasn't given me shots since I was 10 except for when I was diabetic and needed my daily insulin and I felt so terrible that I asked her to do it, and at that point I didn't care. Someone could have cut off my big toe with a light saber and I wouldn't have cared. Anyway, I insisted that Mom and Brother go first, and then I went. The nurse was super good! I didn't feel a thing, hurt less than a bug bite. I love flu shots!


Dad wasn't with us at the time so we took a shot to go for him. Dad was home when we got home and I said, "Hey Daddy! Do you want to play nurse and patient?"

Dad told me to wait until Mom got the camera. After I was all done he told me that I did a great job, that his chicken bites hurt more than that, and he now has evidence against me for malpractice.

Sincerely,
Dr. Miss Ellaneous

PP Thank you to my #2 Fans for sending me the adapter so I could put all these pictures up!

Football, Fabulousness, and Geese, Hawks, and Deer

Dear Reader,

Yesterday was really fun, I did a whole bunch! I'll tell you all about it, but I'm going to update you on the previous days first.

On Sunday we watched football. Dad has come to enjoy football very much. He's becoming more American all the time. During one of the games he was watching over the weekend he cheered on the player saying "SAACK! SAAACK!" with the "a" really strained out. I knew why, and I had to smile. He's really working on saying "sack" because last year we were all watching football together when Dad yells out, "SUCK HIM! SUCK HIM! SUCK HHHHIIIMMM!!!!!!!" I was 14 and Rio had either just turned 13 or was going to soon. We all, Mom included, just looked at him with our eyes popped out. Then shortly after we all burst into laughter. We've teased him about it so much and told so many people the story since then that I doubt he'll ever do it again. Its a good memory for my memoirs.

On Monday Brother had soccer practice. I think this is his last day that it is on Monday, next week he'll have practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays again. I brought Piggy with for her training. There was a whole bunch of people at the park, but Piggy did really good. She got to see her first little kids. A dad, big nice looking guy, came up to me with his little girl, who came up to his thigh in height, and said, "Can she pet your dog? She loves puppies." The little girl was all shy, hiding behind her daddy's leg, and so cute with fine long light brown wavy hair. I'm thinking, "Puppy? This girl is nuts!" However I say, "Sure! My dog would love that!"

I gave Piggy the go-ahead and she goes to the girl and as the girl is petting her she lifts her nose and sniffs the girl's face. Their noses are at the same level. I never realized how big Piggy really is. The last time she was weighed, she was 107lbs but I didn't really think of her as that big. When she steps on my feet I get huge bruises, but I thought that was mostly my fault. The girl just kept on petting her and loving on her, she had such a cute smile, and the Dad keeps saying, "She just loves puppies." I keep thinking that they are a bit bonkers because my dog is like 3 times the size of that kid and so not a "puppy". It was all good though. The girl followed Pig and me around the whole time she was there and became very chatty in no time and kept telling me how much she "loves puppies". Pig, the girl, and I bumped into some other kids and Pig did wonderful with everyone she met. I'm quite proud of her.

Tuesday, yesterday, was a very fun day (as I have previously stated), I got to do a lot. It was a clinic day and a meeting day. I'm on the family advisory counsel at the hospital I go to. I'm the youngest member. I was only 13 when I joined. There are currently only two patients on the counsel, and they only let me be on there because I'm a super genius mastermind and I'm totally awesome and fabulous. I'm still trying to figure out why they picked the other patient to be on the counsel, not to be mean or anything though. The other patient is very quiet during the meetings, and she's 18 now. Her mother talks all the time! Everyone on the counsel raises their hands and waits their turn to talk except her mother. Her mom likes to tell stories, and some of them are kind of personal to her daughter. I was so stunned that her daughter let her tell those things to a whole room full of people when she first did it! I'm a bit more used to it now though.

Anyway, first was clinic. Our appointment was at 3ish. Agent 99 wasn't there, so Agent 100 (the boss nurse) got the privilege of sticking me. This time she didn't trip on anything or make any comments about being blind. Though I might not have heard her if she did. CatWoman was visiting us when I got stuck.

CatWoman is the media lady for the hospital, she is awesome. She has her nickname for her love of cats and her paralyzed-cat-like reflexes. We chatted with CatWoman for as long as we could and examined her newer bruises and wounds she had. She has a large newly acquired burn from frying fish (cats have a thing for fish you know) and another new bruise that she doesn't know the origin of. CatWoman came to invite me to be on the All Children's Hospital Radiothon. I do enjoy doing these type of things very much! We got the okay from Patch (my doctor) and I am scheduled to be on the radio at 11AM next Wednesday, the 28th, on US 103.5FM. For you computer no-nothings, you can click on US 103.5FM and it will take you to the station's website where you can click "listen live" in the top left corner of the page and listen to the station live.

After clinic we went to CatWoman's building to get my picture taken by Marshmallow. Marshmallow is so named because he is a marshmallow. He is the moving picture man for the hospital and he is a mushy marshmallow guy. I've seen him crying behind the camera before, and he cries during the telethon every year, and he's just a marshmallow. He's a lovable one though.

Marshmallow was all excited about taking my picture. He is learning to be a still picture man instead of just a moving picture man. Peter Pan is teaching him. Peter Pan is the still picture man, and he's also a cartoonist, music writer, music player, and what ever else he wants to be. He grew up around the hospital because his dad was some big kahuna, and everyone that has been with the hospital for a long time treats him like their little boy nephew. He's always happy and joyful and having lots of fun. He's forever a boy, which is why he is named Peter Pan. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of Peter Pan this visit because he "had something" but he did bounce (okay, he really walked, but it always seems bouncy when he does it) into the room once on accident and ruffled my gorgeous curls.

Marshmallow took tons of pictures of me, kept saying over and over that's he's not a good photographer, and Peter Pan is better, and "I don't know what I'm doing." He would say it like this though, "You're beautimus! I don't even know what I'm doing and you look great!" That's what he kept saying most of all, "Beautimus! You're just beautimus!" I think he had learned a new word since I had seen him last.

While Marshmallow was taking pictures of me, Mom and CatWoman went over the script that she had written up for me. I'm part of the production team for the bone marrow transplant discharge DVD that we are working on. I'm "the star" of the DVD, or at least that is the way it is planned to be right now. You never know things may change. I hope that these things don't though because that would be really inconvenient for CatWoman as she is writing the script to fit me.

Anyway, after pictures and what not we went to the meeting. None of the vending machines were working and they didn't have any food that I could eat that I liked in the cafeteria, so Walski went into the kitchens and got me some Doritos. I can't tell why Walski has her nickname, because in doing so I would probably have to expose her true identity.

We were all excited about this meeting because we were having new members attending. Some of these new members were Mother and Father Goose, also known to you, Reader, as my #2 fans. The meeting went okay, we discussed some new projects that we will be working on that I'm quite excited about, I'll let you know about them as they unflold.

After the meeting we got to talk to Mother and Father Goose for quite a bit, and I also talked to Sargent Sweetness. Sargent Sweetness is the boss lady of the family advisory counsel. She is really super sweet, you meet her and you want to bake something for her, but she is someone that you would never want to cross or make upset. Pure sweetness with a cup of sargent mixed in, maybe a bit like your grandma.

Mother and Father Goose live near where Brother's next soccer game is going to take place, so they might bring the Swain Princess and the Silly Goose to go watch his game this Saturday. I think Brother is actually a bit excited about this.

HawkMom, the head parent of the family advisory counsel, wasn't there today. Her son was sick. This was quite bummish because I really love to visit with her and I really wanted to introduce her to my #2 fans. There will be other meetings though, so maybe next time.

After the meeting and all of our lovely chatting, we left for the long ride home. We can get home in about an hour and a half if the road has no body else on it as it did last night. On the way home I saw something really cool! It was a doe, a deer, a female deer! It was actually two darling deers. It was very exciting, we sped by them on the toll road at 60 or 70mph, but I did see them. They were very close to the road too.

Today I have not done anything very constructive, and I have a lot of work to do and I feel quite a bit unaccomplished. So, I am going to ground myself for a bit. Usually I can get a lot of work done in decent time when I get in "the zone", so I probably won't stay grounded long but, if you don't hear from me it is because I'm doing very important things.

Thank you for your prayers and comments if you leave them,

Miss E.

PS Patch called my mom during the meeting and gave the verdict on my blood. My platelets and creatinine (kidney function) have not changed too much. My sodium was low and potassium was high, Patch thinks something might be up with the steroid I am on, but I'll let you know more about that when I do.