Road Trip!

We are headed out of town tomorrow morning to visit my sister in Oregon. We are road trippin it and hoping that we all survived the 13 hour drive (probably more like 18 with all of the stops I know we are going to have to make). The Boy loves driving in the car and can hardly wait to take the "far, far, far drive to see D." He thinks it is going to be great fun. The Girl on the other hand, hates being in the car for even ten minutes. She cries and huffs and puffs and wonders why you aren't holding her when you are right there. Needless to say, I have had a lot, A LOT, of anxiety about the trip. Deep inside me I am so excited. Excited to go to Oregon. Excited to see my sister and my nephew who we haven't seen since they moved to Oregon almost a year ago (which is so long considering we were always together when they were here!). But even with all of those things, the thought of how The Girl might be in the car and wondering if we can survive if she isn't entertained enough have gotten the best of me. I have begun wondering what we were thinking planning this trip. Maybe it would have been worth the money to fly. Sigh. Too late now. All the bags are sitting in the entry way, the rental car is booked and so is the hotel. My sister is waiting (we really are excited to see you :-) and we just hope we survive. I know once we get there we are going to have a great time!

For Our Friends

Our friend, Tim, is in need of a kidney!

Here's their link

And here's the scoop including info on how to help. . . .

We Love YOUR Guts! Kidneys especially.About 5 years ago, Tim was diagnosed with Kidney Failure. We were surprised, but not shocked because 2 of his siblings also have kidney failure and have had to have transplants.Over the last 5-ish years, Tim has been seeing a nephrologist regularly every 3-6 months as requested by his doctor. They've monitored his B.U.N. and creatinine levels closely and determined late last summer that transplant time was getting close. We then met with a transplant coordinator, social worker, financial coordinator and surgeon. 13 vials of blood were drawn and labs ran. The goal for Tim during this time was to have him ready for transplantation before it became necessary for him to go on dialysis. This included, for us, finding a living donor.We've talked to many people about donating their kidney to Tim. Not asking anyone specifically, but just throwing it out there so people know what's going on and if it's something they would be willing to do, we'd be willing to take them up on it. So many have said it's something they would think about, and we appreciate SO MUCH that they would even consider it.At Tim's appointment today, his doctor had his name put on the waiting list for a kidney. Within the next week or so, we'll have the results of his blood work to know if he'll need to start dialysis. (His last labs read that he was at 12% kidney function, dialysis usually starts around 10% funcion.) As he has been feeling pretty good, we're hoping dialysis will be put off for a few more months.This is where you come in.Have you seen the billboard on the highway that says something like "Donate a kidney/car to the kidney foundation"? Well, if you've been thinking "hmm... I have this spare car lying around, but I also have a spare kidney.... what to do... what to do..." We'd like to encourage the kidney donation. :)Here's what you do.Call Cathy at 801-507-8311 or 801-507-3380.Cathy is Tim's transplant coordinator. She'll schedule a time for you to get a work up done to see if you're a match for Tim.What you need to know.Tim's blood type is A+, however, if you are A+ OR A- you can still be a match. If the sub-grouping is necessary, it will be determined later on.Recovery time for the donor is 4-6 weeks on average. You would be in the hospital for 5-7 days. You can't drive for 2 weeks or lift anything over 20 lbs for 3 weeks.Either our insurance or Medicare covers both the donor surgery and the recipient surgery, so there is no out of pocket cost for you.That's it. So now if you're thinking "I only have one kidney... I'm diabetic... I'm the wrong blood type... I hate hospitals... I'm terrified of needles... Tim? Who's Tim?" I have one more teensy weensy favor to ask to help us out. For all you bloggers out there. Link us! Copy this and post it to your blog, put a link, copy and email to friends and family, whatever. But please help us spread the word and find some new guts for my hubby.If you do decide to be tested, please e-mail me at tim_and_cas (at) yahoo (dot) com so we can follow up with the coordinator.Whew! If ya got through all that, THANK YOU!

Rare Occassion

OK, so I feel bad leaving you without any pictures. Here are a few from a few weeks back (when we were all sick as you can see with his poor little, red nose).
We were having quiet time and The Boy was playing in his room. It was so quiet that I thought I should check to see what was really going on. I went down the hall to find this. The Boy, laying in his bed, reading a book. This is a rare occassion. Very rare in fact. He normally 1) never lays in his bed willing 2) isn't very quiet and 3) doesn't entertain himself for very long. It lasted until he realized I was there with the camera and then it was over.

Alive & Well

We really haven't been Down & Out this entire time. We are all alive and well! We've just been very busy doing things. Stuff. At the moment I can't even really think of what. But one of these days I am going to actually sit and edit some personal photos so that I can make some posts. I always figure I'll wait until I have pictures but then somehow they just never get edited. I am always working on something else. I'll have to move that to the top of the to do list. But for now, I will leave you with my top ten list of things to do and then you'll see just how exciting my life has become!

10) Organize this office/craft room. Redecorate since The Boy decided to take all of the decor off the shelves and think they make great toys. Sitting in here on the computer makes me clostraphobic because nothing is really in its place. (Note to self: This house used to be so organized. I need to find that anal part of me again :-)

9) Redecorate my bedroom. We got a new bed set and some new decor to give it a fresh new look. Our old bedding is about 9 years old and overdue for a change. Sheets are in the dryer as we speak so tomorrow will be a good day!

8) Clear out the kids dressers. It seems like half the stuff in there doesn't fit anymore. Move on to the next sizes.

7) Help The Gent's wardrobe. I swear if I didn't go through his stuff once in a while he would just wear the same thing for fifty years. I've noticed lately it is time. Time for something new.

6) Subscribe to a fabulous new photog magazine. Any ideas? I've come across a few I like. Now which to choose. I'm open for suggestions.

5) Sign The Boy up for some sort of extracurricular activity. I guess first, decide what. Soccer? T-ball? Gymnastics? He has so much energy and it needs to be channeled. More so than drawing big snakes on my wall and climbing on top of the fridge. Another post entirely but the pictures will be worth the wait!

4) Find things to occupy the kids in the car on our way to Oregon. We leave in two weeks and I am so excited yet stressing so much about the drive. The Girl cries in the car about 85% of the time regardless of where we are going. So, 12 hours in the car. Well, maybe I should buy three sets of earplugs. Any activity ideas for Little Miss? we're going to need them.

3) Edit some pictures!

2) Make some Primary phone calls/visits. I always dread the phone calls. Everything else, no problemo. Phone calls. . .they always get procrastinated.

1) Send out thank you cards. Always in the back of my head but always the last thing on the list to get done.