WELCOME

Hello,
Welcome to my Blog! Yes, I have been in the fight of my life against Leukemia, insomnia, depression, side effects of medications, molting skin, pooping my pants and this list goes on.... however, I still love my life, and that's what this blog is about Real Life. I hope to meet others who trails have brought them closer to the Lord and molded them for the next step in God's will. In January 2011 , my family, physician, and Be the Match was featured on a Fox 5 news story about bone marrow donors and transplants. In March, I was interviewed on Atlanta and Company along with Be the Match. I was chosen to sing the national anthem at the Be the Match Run last year and will also be doing it this year, along with some other songs. My team, no thanks to me, raised over $4,000 and raised more than any other team! Please join my team this year or consider donating here at the Run those Stem cells out ! Team I was also chosen for a patient advocacy panel for the international council meeting at Be the Match in MN in November. How exciting!! I ended up not being able to attend due to the relapse. I had hoped I could help raise awareness about how easy it is to sign up to be a donor and how many people need your help! Please go to bethematch.org and sign up! I was able to have my bone marrow (same as stem cell) transplant at the end of March thanks to a 22 year old donor oversees that I hope to meet her one day. As I came up on my 6th month mark and continued to add more normal activities to our lives, I relapsed, meaning that the that the cancer had mutated and the leukemia came back. I spent 2 more weeks at Emory and some other nights here and there and now I'm on a drug from the FDA. I have a compassion waiver so I am able to get it. I have to take it day by day sometimes hour by hour. Time keeps moving and my little girl is growing up. I'm lucky that I'm getting to see it. I continue to praise God for his wonderful blessings he has shown us including my wonderful husband Jonathan, baby girl Evalyn Rose, supportive family and friend, great medical care, new readers, and the chance to make a big difference, even if that means being a Lab Rat.
God Bless You!

Please read, comment, enjoy, learn, grow, LOVE LIFE.

Most Recently I have started a booth at a local consignment store with handmade jewelry from friends, crafts, and my own art from recycled materials. It is called DAY by DAY. God was very clear with me starting this. Please look over to the right of blog and click on Day by Day to see some pictures. I'm just getting started but I am taking orders from people that I know. You will be able to personalize items, etc. I just haven't decided how I will be selling them via internet yet. But for now, the jewelry is at A Weekend A'fair in Athens, GA and will hopefully be at some stores downtown soon.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Nov. 26th Black Friday aka Heather stays at home

              It is curious how many things I have gotten that I have asked for this year. The next thing is staying at home for the holidays. I don’t care for the holidays for many reasons. It’s starting to get cold, work was always more stressful, and people seem to generally loose their mind. I more prefer to see family during the year instead just at a huge gathering.   I have never been one to like to be made to do anything and buying presents because you have to is not fun. Don’t get me wrong, I love gift giving, I just like to buy special presents for people as I see them and don’t like to wait for some product driven holiday to give it to them. I also enjoy making crafts for people instead of something else they don’t need.  Again, I have issues with authority. Over the years, I would just Christmas shop all year saving the special gifts in the wooden toy box my Dad made me. Sometimes I couldn’t wait and I would just have to give a present early and say, “By the way this is your Christmas gift too unless something creative hits.” I usually only do that to people that can handle it. This year is easy…. Pictures of Evalyn all around. Period.  There is no energy or time to go running around trying to find items that I feel good giving. Of course, I have a few good ones stashed away…..
              Black Friday freaks me out a little. Just the thought of it makes me want to pull the cover over my head. Speaking of Sleep… the time is 3:20am. My mom came home one time telling us that some crazy women had snatched power rangers out of hand and then there is always someone that get stampeded to death. Bet they wish they said home. Supposedly this year, there were people camped out days before Black Friday and skipped Thanksgiving all together. Jonathan and I laid in bed and discussed what we would do that for. We had to stay in the reality box…. Not like for you dog, or favorite mattress, something you all ready have, or 10,000 off a car you are buying. I really couldn’t think of anything. It almost bothered me that I couldn’t think of anything. I would camp to camp…. In the woods.
                Now I appreciate that there are some great deals out there and if you have to save the money, well fine. Jonathan's said a really good price on a big T.V. would have done it for him. I would be ok with him going if that T.V. also had a volume stabilizer, do they even make those? I’d like to think that if we cook at home a lot, use thrift stores, craigs list, and ebay to save money all year on needed items, I can splurge to possibly save my life. Now for some of you, this has become a family tradition and you are actually spending time with people you care about and you don’t get all stressed if a yellow power ranger is available…. To me this is ok…. Spending time together is good. What ever floats your boat. But for others, is possible that we have been brainwashed through constant advertising that we NEED all this stuff NOW? The book I’m reading now, “Through Painted Deserts”, talks some about this too. Concert Tickets…. I would camp out for maybe two days to see Michael Jackson again… not in the box though.


1 comment:

  1. I'm with you. I also worked in retail so I had to work on Black Friday. You really see the ugly side of people and it sort of ruined the holidays for me for awhile. So...I have no desire to experience that as a shopper. There is nothing I need so badly and I'm not a very materialistic person anyway. Plus I love my sleep more than ever now.

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