Bone Marrow Registration

Bone Marrow Registration Drive!!

Join the national bone marrow donor database and be somebody's hero!As you may already know, my sister, Paige Gibbons (a two-time breast cancer survivor) was diagnosed with Leukemia at the beginning of this year. Over the past 6 months, she has received 5 chemotherapy treatments and is now ready for a bone marrow transplant. After testing my other siblings and I and finding that we are not matches for our sister, the doctors began a National Registry search. (70% of patients are unable to find a suitable donor in their families and must turn to the National and International registries.) Paige was one of the lucky patients—a match was found and she is going to be scheduled for a transplant in mid-July. There are many patients who do not ever find a match. In fact, each year, more than 10,000 people are diagnosed with blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma that can only be cured with a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. I have made it a goal to recruit as many new bone marrow donors as possible in order to give hope to more patients around the world in need of a bone marrow transplant. The registration process is quick and easy, and requires you to fill out a registration form and swab the cells from the inside of your upper cheek.YOU CAN HELP! Saturday, June 13th, we'll be registering people for the database. It only takes 10 minutes to fill out paperwork and do a quick mouth swab. If you're unable to join the database for whatever reason, we'll also be collecting donations for DKMS, a registered 501c3 non-profit that funds registration drives and donor testing.In addition to the registration drive, the Factoria Jamba Juice is partnering with us to donate 20% of their sales on Wednesday, June 10th and Saturday, June 13th. Print one of the fliers and bring it to Jamba Juice Stop, grab a smoothie, and support bone marrow registration.

Questions? Looking for other ways to get involved? Contact Carrie or Kim.

and....THANK YOU!
Carrie

Christmas Spirit

For a little bit of Holiday cheer, here's Abby! Sorry the videos are sideways. Didn't think of that when I recorded!!

Snow Angels

It's only been 6 months....

An actual picture of Sam and I. Wow. I didn't think it could happen.

So, here's the six month update.

1. Carrie is back to work at EB doing the same thing--merchandising.

2. Laura (Carrie's friend) is watching the kids, which is fine with Abby who says she's marrying Bowen (Laura's son) anyway.

3. Sam is still teaching/coaching and on Winter break at the present moment.

4. We bought a minivan. It's like a breakthru into our "middle ages".

5. Zachy still isn't talking--he just says "momma" and "dada." He is doing speech therapy, which is helping him make more sounds, but he hasn't really made huge improvments over the last 6 months. We're not too concerned. It would be nice to have him saying what he wants instead of him having to show us in such animated ways, but neither of us have any doubt that he will eventually spit out a sentence or two.

6. Carrie has a friend whose nephew is very, very sick. He has neuroblastoma and has been at home on Hospice for the past 6 weeks. We pray for Ben and his family everyday and ask that everyone else do the same. He is an amazingly strong 3-year-old little boy fighting 3 tumors in his brain--outliving everyone's expectations. Please pray for peace for Ben and his family.

7. Abby turned 4!! She had a great time at her birthday party and asks everyday if she can have another birthday soon. Lucky girl got my dream car for her bday....

I took the day off and took her and Zach to the carousel in DT Seattle. They absolutely loved it.

I think that's it.

Presently, we are under about a foot of snow, which is unheard of around here. We have been sledding down our hill the past few days and it's compact snow and ice, which is perfect. We tried again today, but with the added 6 inches of powder, we're slower going. Dang it.

Christmas is this week and Abby is really looking forward to Santa Claus visiting....well, and Madeleine. Hopefully the snow will let up some. Santa has a sleigh, but Madeleine's Toyota Matrix isn't as snow-proof!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Update on the Surowiecs

I had a request from Molly to update my blog with cute pictures of my kids...so HERE YOU GO, MOLLY!! These are two of my favorites. It looks like we are attempting to make Abby a UW fan, but in reality, it was more about dressing her in purple like her Daddy's team!! (LW softball, for those who do not know.)

Zach has developed some serious stubborness to match the rest of his family. This is a common look for him, and even though it's not the HAPPIEST moment, it's still in the top cute pics for his mommy.


So, updates for us...

Sam is working on getting his hands on a handcycle, which he tried out on Memorial Day and LOVED. I saw a picture of a dad with his baby in a seat attached to the back and was very excited. I won't have to cart both kids around every time anymore!! WOOHOO! His last day of school is next Wednesday and then he is teaching summer school starting after the 4th. How nice it would be to be a teacher!

Carrie is starting at EB this week (yes, again). I have a job until September, which could possibly be great timing, if I get some good experience with my medical transcription stuff. I did start a pt transcription job this week, which isn't the best paying, but like I said, will hopefully provide the experience I need!

Abby is working on learning her letters and numbers. She is recognizing quite a few more letters lately...and is actually very good at singing along with songs on the radio.

Zachary is trucking along. He is getting crazier with time, jumping off the couch with no landing gears and sliding head first down a nylon tunnel off the couch. He hasn't developed a huge vocabulary, yet, so we contacted the school district this week to see about getting some help. Since he grunts the correct syllables for words, I'm pretty sure that he will quickly gain a voice.

That's about it for us. Oh yeah -- Lucky seems to be getting more in shape. All of my running is paying off for her! I took her for a run last night and she went straight to sleep and has slept most of today! I guess she technically is a 42-year-old woman!

April snow brings May.....showers??

Here we go again. I have to say that there are many people who a) Are extremely ready for warm weather and are very bothered by the snow, or b) Hate the snow in any situation and wish it would go away. I would say that I do not fall into either category. I freaking love the snow...even in April, and I am proud to say that I have a daughter that loves it just as much. As soon as she sees the snow, she is screaming and laughing and has to call Grandma to let her know that it is snowing at HER house. She gets herself dressed to go outside and demands that we go sledding. It's AWESOME.

Don't get me wrong. I am very ready for a nice warm summer day. I can't wait to not be cold....BUT I will enjoy a little April snow when it happens. I mean really--how often does this happen??

So, for the stats: We got 6". (I know for sure because I measured with a ruler!!)

More on the snow...

I was driving through the neighborhood across the street and realized how much I love cherry trees. Sam and I planted one at our old house and then MOVED. We were both really sad about it. I love this street when it is in bloom....BUT the snow really did some damage. Seems like all the cherry trees had trouble surviving this snowstorm.

And of course, here's some pics of the family at the mall. Zach is our aggressive little fighter. I caught him right in the middle of a punch. Isn't that great???