They are back

The children returned home. I asked what their favorite moments were on the trip. Unanomously, they all said playing in the snow. They had been to Hood River and to a resort at the coast. Hood river won hands down. In an old decrepid barn full of rats they had gone hunting with a pellet gun, under adult supervision of course.



Trevor told me they climbed on the roof of the house and used the roof as a giant slide. Riley did not participate in this activity. I know the house. The back side butts up against a hill. It would make a fun slide. There is a small three foot drop at the end. it is just enough to give a thrill without giving the parents a heart attack. There is a drop on the other side of the house of 20 feet, but Trevor said they stayed away from that edge.

I remember climbing on the roof of my Grandmother's beach house at Sand Pines. You could climb up the wood pile and reach the roof. Tom tells me of swimming through the fish ladders at Detroit lake as a teen. My Mom told me of jumping off the gates at Bonniville Dam, way back when she was a teen. Its what they do, challenge themselves, get a little excitement. I know they wont be extreme sports participants. They were just looking for something to do with a little edginess. Sounds like fun. I would probably want to try it myself if I wasn't so old with bad knees.

They headed to the beach after a day of playing in the snow. This is the destination where in their own words "The event" happens. This hotel has an outdoor pool they keep heated. At this time of year the cold air creates a deep fog on the pool. Trevor has been swimming. His eyes are blood shot and tired. They are playing some game and swimming fast. He bumps into someone in the pool. All he does is brush her breasts accidentally in the water. That is all it takes. He backs off quickly, swimming away to his friends where he proceeds to tell them about the hot babe in the water he accidentally touched her breasts. His friend looks over at the woman, "Dude thats my mom".



What better compliment can a woman of five children, over the age of fifty, receive than being mistaken in the fog by a young teen as a "hot babe". Everyone laughed and it became known as "The event" .

The boys ran into another friend's daughter at the resort. Riley heard she was in the building and ran down to say hi. That is all he said, I understand. She is now a beautiful teen. Riley stands there looking at her, completely tongue tied. He ends up retreating back to his room for more video games, unable to carry on a conversation with his old friend who is now a beautiful teen. I know he will eventually learn to talk to girls, but at the moment he has reached that time where boys are boys and girls are girls. They don't play together. I guess the next faze is dating and I can put that off a long time.

I have been wrapping packages like crazy. I think that we now have a satisfying number without breaking the bank. Tom will shop on Christmas eve as usual. It is his tradition. He knocks it all out in four or five hours, what takes the rest of us weeks to accomplish.



I was putting names on the packages. I find labeling Tom's packages difficult. I don't call him Tom. I have never found that name fits him. He has always gone by our last name. We were introduced by his friends who all call each other by nicknames. It was easy to pick up the same habit. Now it just doesn't seem right when I use the name Tom.

It is such a normal and common name. Tom is a much richer and deeper person than his name. He needs a name more unique than Tom. Sometimes I can think of a few names to call him when I am not so happy with him, but right now I am really excited about the gifts I am giving him.

I spent a lot of time searching for books he would find interesting. He is a copious reader. My job is to find books he would not normally pick himself, yet still find interesting. Unique and different. I am really proud of my choices this year. Everything from a history book to a biography to a few fictions and award winners. He will love them all. I used Barns and Noble's web to find award winners. Then I spent hours at a book store thumbing through titles.
It is a Shirley thing to give books. My Dad was really big on giving books. He loved to stimulate the mind. He would be smiling and pleased to see the stack of books I was gifting.

Kids are gone

The children are gone for four whole days. Peace reigns at our house. I do have to work today, 11 to 5, but its short hours. Tom gets to have a quiet house. Last night I bought a chick flick Christmas movie called the Holiday with Cameron Diaz. It was very improbable and sweet. Tom and I loved it. We had wine and a romantic movie with no children in the house. It was a lovely evening.

We had both brought home left over pizza from our respective works so I didn't even have to cook. I did throw on a load of dishes from the morning. They were left from the children before they got picked up. We had a lovely cookie exchange at work the day before, I made up a platter to send with the boys. It was gone when I got home, so I know they didn't forget it. The quiet is heavenly. Three nights of bliss, no fights, no mess, romantic moments with the man I love.

I just hope all is well at the other end with the boys. Luckily this particular mom knows her stuff. Trevor gets to go because he is so good with babysitting her 4 year olds. She has two little boys that need constant activity and attendance. Trevor loves to feel useful and what better way than playing with children. He gets to go to a resort with a pool and play in the snow all for the price of playing with more children. As far as he is concerned there is no down side.

Riley goes because her other son is his best friend from infancy. She and I went through pregnancies together as next door neighbors. Riley and her son are six months apart in age. they are both highly intelligent nerds. Though her son is very active also. He can wear Riley out physically. When that happens she flips Trevor. Trevor gets to play with the big boy for a while. It does take two of mine to keep up with her older son. But everyone is happy, and she gets some quiet time theoretically.

I used to go on these trips with them upon occasion, but with work, I was happy just to send them off with a trusted friend. With so much time on this holiday, I was grateful when she offered to take them for four days. I just hope they behave.

Dreams

I have decided I don't like dreams. If I eat late at night before bed it causes me to have dreams. Last night's dream is beginning to fade, but I remember hospital hall ways. I knew it was the children's hospital. I was trying to find a private room to take a shower. The place was crawling with children. The only showers were in the common playroom where there was a water slide and pool. The shower stalls were lined up on one wall next to the water slide. The stall doors did not touch the floor, very little privacy. Children were playing but you could tell they were part of the hospital. Some had bald heads, while others had tubes coming out of their arms and chest. I ended up going down the slide into the pool and having to climb up the pool wall to the showers. I showered with my cloths on and then woke up.



Riley is going away today with a friends. They are taking him to play in the snow, then to the coast to play at a hotel on the beach. I don't think he has been drinking enough water. I can hear him when he goes to the bathroom. He leaves the door open. Everyone seems to leave the door open around here. When he urinates, the sound goes off and on. At his age it ought to sound like a waterfall. It is darker than it should be. These are all signs of kidneys working hard.

Tom wants Riley off his drugs. I do also. Riley is being sloppy with his pills, not keeping to his schedule well. I had to remind him after he went to bed the other night that his pills were still on the counter. I think I might call and schedule the doctor for the beginning of February rather than the end.

I received a call to reschedule our appointment to February 24. The Doctor will be gone on our other appointment date. I think I will call and ask for the tenth instead. We need to move on to the next faze whatever that may be. Hopefully, Riley is weaned off his pills and his numbers continue to improve. That would be dreamy.

I can't cook

I can't cook. When we were growing up we could sit on a stool in the kitchen and watch, but the kitchen was my mom's territory. No one could make messes in that room but Mom. Tom always asks for his rebate from my Mom about this time of the year. My biggest flaws, not good at cooking and not good at cleaning, become glaringly apparent during the holiday seasons.

One of my coworkers wants to do a cookie exchange. I have one recipe I do, pecan tarts. I have to make 5 dozen for the exchange. The first batch is delicious but not the most attractive. The sugar and butter filling covers the cookie so no pretty rim is visible. The first three dozen are unattractive balls of sweetness. deliciously edible but not pretty.

I decided to try and hurry the process. I get out cookie sheets and make balls of the cream cheese and butter with flour crust. I think that maybe they will be like sugar cookies and be able to hold enough shape. I use the tip of a wine cork to make the centers and pour in the sugar sauce. The oven is set at 375. The cookies go in to the oven. Shortly there after I turn around to see flames in the bottom of my oven.

The sugar filling in the cookies has poured out onto the elements and started a fire. Sadly this has happened enough before that I don't panic. I treat the kitchen fire like an every day occurrence. It doesn't even get my heart racing anymore. I turn off the oven and pull out the sheets of gooey cookies, laying the trays on the counter. Now I realize why they have to be cooked in those tiny muffin pans. Its a good thing to know for the future.

I go into the pantry and grab the box that contains the baking soda. I taste it to confirm that it is baking powder. I wouldn't want to accidentally use the powdered sugar. I then open the oven door and scatter the white powder. The fire instantly disappears.

I am luck to have two ovens. I make up another batch of cookies and finish the project using the upper oven. Once I am done cooking, I turn on the cleaning cycle on the lower oven to cook up all that mess. It will turn all that hard messy caked on sugar to ashes in a few hours, an easy clean up.

I sigh over the fact that even making Christmas cookies can turn into such a production.
I was even able to turn the stove fan on quickly enough that I didn't set off the fire alarms for once despite the black smoke billowing from the oven when I opened the door. The key is to be quick and then shut the door and keep it shut. Any smoke that would escape goes out the top, straight into the fan vents.

The boys come home from school. Riley says it smells like pizza. I tell him I was cooking in the ovens. They comment over the fact that if you don't look at the cookies while you eat them, they are delicious. I have over a dozen rejects on a plate in the kitchen, The ones that broke while being removed from the cupcake tin or were just too unattractive to serve. The boys devour them all. Within minutes every spare cookie is gone, over a dozen. I am hopeful my coworkers will respond the same way. The whole idea of the cookie exchange is to get homemade cookies. These cookies were made with love. No one goes knowingly into disaster without a little love involved. I could do without always setting fires to my kitchen. Even my boys don't get over excited when I botch the cooking.

Turning 50

We were supposed to be hosting a friend of Trevor's for the weekend but due to grades being below par that got canceled. Instead Tom and I headed to Seattle without children to see an old friend turn 50. His wife was hosting a dinner for him at a new restaurant in Bellevue. Tom and I got a room at the Marriott down the street from the restaurant.





The drive up to Bellevue was gruelling. There were flood watches . The rain poured down the whole way. Passing a truck was blinding. When we reached Tacoma, the traffic was stop and go on the freeway. Tom is driving with both hands on the wheel in case we hydroplane. We pass a car that has hydroplaned into the concrete meridian. The back end of the car is completely crunched. The police are just arriving to see if the driver is OK. What gets Tom is when there is no accident and still the traffic is slow or stopped, for absolutely no reason.



when we were dating and Tom lived in Eugene and I lived in Seattle, he could do the drive in 4 hours. He would start at two in the morning and miss all the traffic. This drive took us 4 hours to do half that distance. Seattle had heavy traffic on every freeway. It was Saturday, not even a work day, and people were driving everywhere. Tom comments that he wants to move to Montana where there aren't all these people on the roads.



We finally reach our destination. With a half hour to spare on our dinner reservations we have time to drop our luggage and car at the hotel and walk over to the restaurant.



The Wild Ginger has only been open a year. We have a private room in the back. The place is packed with parties. The location is in a new mall next to the Microsoft tower. Neiman Markus and Hermie's are just some of the stores. Swanky and very high end. Tom was lucky the stores were closed. I could blow some serious money in this neighborhood.



Dinner was Divine with a sea bass salad wrapped in fresh cabbage leaves, skewers of chicken and steak and scallops. I used to not like scallops but these were mouthwatering good. There were dipping sauces on the table.



I could have really indulged myself, but I was looking at all the beautiful wives in the room. They looked as young and as beautiful as when I knew them 20 years earlier. These women had stayed in shape. I don't know if it was because they had been chasing after their children for all these years or working out, but I was impressed. I was glad I had on a girdle under my dress so I didn't jiggle in the wrong places.



Our hostess was the wife of one of Tom's oldest and dearest friends. She had asked Tom to say a few words, so it was very important to Tom that we be there on time. A coworker had generously given her afternoon to sub for me so we could leave early enough to make the dinner.

I had my own toast I wanted to share. I had met Mark when I was dating just out of college. My date introduced us. They worked together. I ended up sharing a house on frat row with Mark and another man, when my college roommate and her boyfriend needed more space in the house we were sharing. Mark had a spare room at his house.

When Mark and my other house mate turned 30, they felt they needed to be home owners and have more mature digs. I became a tenant to help pay the mortgage on a town house Mark purchased.

Meanwhile, Mark had told me that an old school friend was coming to visit. This friend was turning 30 and divorced, and really depressed about life. Could I show him around Seattle while he was in town. This depressed friend turned out to be my future husband Tom. Mark told me over the course of the next six months he had seen more of Tom than in the last six years.

Mark and Tom go back to age twelve when Tom moved to Salem. They had a lot of history attending high school together. Tom's toast reflected those old times. I wanted to thank Mark for introducing us. 17 years of marriage, through fun and rough times, we are still together. It was kind of a "Wonderful Life" moment without the suicidal tendencies. Mark has impacted our lives. How different our lives would be if not for having met him. His wife gave Tom advice on how to court me when she was single and dating Mark. It seems like just yesterday except for the teenage children and weight gain I have put on.

Time magazine ran an article about marriage recently. The trend for successful marriages these days is that you have a college degree, wait until you are a little older when your career is established, and marry a peer or equal. You are more financially stable. More women are comfortable not getting married at all. More children are being born outside of marriage than in marriages especially to non college graduates.

Looking around the table at our good friends, I am pleased to note that most of the couples I know are still together. A few have fallen to the "D" word. I am Tom's second marriage. I owe a lot to his first wife. He finished college when she blew him off as a drop out Freshman. She taught him to compromise with his spouse or else. We are not perfect people. Learning to live with the flaws is half the battle. The other half is love and enjoyment of life.

The evening was a delightful catch up on every one's children. Some are reaching their senior years of high school and must now choose colleges. Tom warns me I must not live vicariously through our children. Let them make their own choices. Aah, but were is the fun of parenting in that. So, I give a little nudge in the right direction. Beaver nation is not the only nation in the world. Private schools have more scholarships.

Anyway, the party was a great success. The hostess even had adult goodie bags for all the guests. The bags had music CDs and beautiful blown glass wine corks. Tom and I walk back to our hotel while everyone else has to get in their cars and drive. In Seattle, no where is close.

In the morning, Tom slept in while I walked over to that expensive mall. He was lucky it was Sunday and nothing was open. The clothes in the windows were so wonderful. When I got back to the hotel I threatened Tom that if he didn't get me out of here before the stores opened he would be sorry in his pocket book. He crawled out of be and we checked out.

The drive home was almost as bad as the drive up. The rain was unrelenting, but this time we had all day to get home, so we could relax and not rush.

When we arrived home my sister looked exhausted. She is working two jobs these days. Every other weekend she works at a church downtown as the coordinator for events. She plans weddings and memorials and special events the church hosts. This weekend she had wanted to play with the boys. She took them all to the singing Christmas tree and then to the movie Tangled, and stayed up most of the night. The cousins all had fun. She on the other hand looked like she could due with a nap.

What a lovely weekend.

Size 10

I went to the thrift store to buy a pair of jeans for the weekend. We are headed to the Civil war, Oregon State Beavers against the Oregon Ducks. Probably the biggest deal in the whole year. Its our anniversary. How could I deny my season ticket holding husband the civil war game.







The Ducks have a perfect season going into the game, 10 and 0. The Beaver Nation hope is to knock them off that pedestal, ruin the perfect season. It would make up for the 5 and 5 season the Beavers have had. Some key players are injured on the Beaver team. It is unlikely that they will win. We will be happy if it isn't a total blow out. Vegas has the over under at 64. That is where the total points are added up. They also anticipate The Ducks scoring more than 45 points.







Tom gave up his excellent seats on the 35 yard line for four seats near the end zone, so the children could come with us.









I booked a hotel in August. Even then I had to hunt. But I got lucky on Hotels.com. One of the hotels had not changed to premium prices for that weekend yet. I got the hotel for $100 less a night than anywhere else. It was a good 50% discount. Two nights for the price of one.







We will drive down separately as Tom has to work and the boys are off due to a grade day for school. Riley had his first finals this week. He had to ask me what finals were. I laughed. It catches me off guard sometimes the things our children don't know.







Now Riley knows. They are really big tests on everything learned in the whole semester, that weigh heavily on your grade. He says he did well on all of them. I have no doubt he did do well.







I bought a pair of jeans at the thrift store. I am now a size ten trending to a size 8. Jeans don't lie. I need to get a few size ten pants. I was told my 14s look really bad on me and are way too big. Yeah!!! I have to wear my 12s with a belt.







Trevor and I went on the walk and knock before we left for Corvallis. We were looking for canned food for the local food bank. It being Friday morning, most people were not home. The kids made a valiant effort. The end result was maybe 30 cans for our particular group. I took Trevor and another boy to the Safeway. I told them to buy $50 worth of cans. Food they would want to eat also. Trevor shared with me a meeting with an adult who, as a child, had been a recipient of gift baskets of food. She said it was really disappointing to receive powdered milk and other ingredients that they didn't normally eat. Her parents probably appreciated the staples, but not the children. With that in mind I told the boys to get things that make a meal or that they like to eat.







The boys loaded up the cart. They did not stick to any budget at all, just grabbing what they liked. When I met up with them again the cart was full. The cashier rang up the bill, $91. He took pity on me and gave me a $10 off coupon, as it was for a good cause. Those boys did not even bother counting to $50 or fifty cans. Trevor knew I would cover the bill. Well, it was a good cause.


We all had fun. The teacher in charge had donuts waiting for us when we got back with our load.





Trevor and I went home after that to get Riley and hit the road. We had still to pack and head out. The laundry was not ready when we got back. Tom had wanted every piece of Beaver apparel washed and ready for us to wear to the game. He will have to swing by the house after work to pick up what he needs.





I am going to head out with the kids early. We are to swing by my sister in laws and pick up our Christmas cards since we pass her city on our way to Corvallis. She took pictures of us a while ago.





We finally reach Corvallis. We are all hungry. Across from the hotel is an all you can eat buffet Chinese restaurant, a perfect choice for everyone. Tom arrives later and orders pizza to be delivered to our room.





You know the old saying "you get what you pay for". We rent a movie, Secretariat. The film is not in High Definition and it roles with lines throughout the showing. Tom calls to the front desk but they can't fix the problem. In the morning, on Saturday, I am the first one up. I take a shower only to feel the water go from hot to warm. I warn everyone still sleeping that they had better get up and shower as the hotel is running out of hot water. Tom grumbles in bed, saying hotels don't run out of hot water. I tell them that everyone staying here is going to the game and they are all getting up and taking showers. The hotel is full. They are running out of hot water. Riley gets up to take his shower. The water is getting cooler. Trevor is next and its getting worse. By the time Tom tries, its a cold shower. He has waited too long.





I, meanwhile, have gone down to the lobby to enjoy a great breakfast of regular pancakes and eggs, included in our room fee. I had a choice of blueberry or regular or chocolate pancakes.


Riley was thrilled with the chocolate pancakes as was Trevor. Tom just wanted coffee.





We leave for the game. We could have caught a shuttle but Tom said he knew good spots to park. But this was a big game. Parking was already hard to find. We ended up parking 10 blocks from the campus on the north side. The stadium was across the campus. People were coming from all directions. Walking towards the campus, we passed homes with cager parties in full swing at 10:30 in the morning.





We checked out the Alumni center where beer and wine were being served. Tom said the cheer leaders and the band would make an appearance. They did show up just before we were about to give up waiting for them and head to our seats in the stadium. We cheered along with all the other alumni.





Our seats in the stadium were in the top tier in the corner. There are really no bad seats at Reser Stadium. We could see the whole field. There is also a giant TV to watch the game, in the end zone. I like to watch the TV because it follows the ball better than I can.





The fly by of two jets felt like they were barely over our heads. They came in from our side of the stadium, seemingly to just appear out of nowhere. We flinched as they flew by they were so close. It was impressive how low they were.





I liked that the stadium was alcohol and smoke free. The security guard in our area had a work out. He would climb the stairs to the top and watch us all from above, trying to spot alcohol that had been snuck in. If he saw someone drinking a beer, he would climb down the stairs all the way down to get a state trooper then climb up again to identify the culprit and have the person escorted from the stadium. He would then have to climb back up again to his station at the top. His first eviction slid down the stairs, already intoxicated before he had arrived. His neighbors had asked for his ejection. The next two ejections were Duck fans in green garb. The Beaver fans booed them as they left, calling out "good riddance". The next ejection was a Beaver. Everyone was silent with no comments. For each ejection that security guard climbed the stadium stairs three times.





I had brought ear plugs and a head set with me to the game much to Tom's consternation. He said I would look geeky. Head sets are for Nascar, not football. I loved to be able to muffle the yells and noise. I felt I could pretend like I was listening to the radio. There was also a gentleman eating peanuts behind us. He was dropping the shells on the ground and on us. It was not intentional, just one of the experiences of going to a live game. I liked the feeling of insulation that the head set gave me. They also kept my ears warm as the temperature dropped during the game. We started out hot and removed our jackets. As the sun moved across the sky and the shade hit our area, we put our jackets back on.





It was a hard fought game. I think we were happy the Beaver stayed in it as long as they did. They had lost some key players during the season. Vegas had them losing big with the over under at 65 points total. The fans stuck with them until the fourth quarter, then from being down two touchdowns down they went to three. There just wasn't time on the clock for a miracle turn around. Tom suggested we leave before the end. I didn't argue. I was along for the ride.





Many people had the same idea of leaving early. There were a lot of unhappy Beavers cussing and swearing. Tom tells me Eugene is worse, but I wouldn't want to be a visiting fan in either city. We were hungry after the game so we headed to Applebees only to find it closed for repairs. We ended up at Ruby Tuesday. The meal was awful. Mine was cold. The food tasted like microwaved dinners. But we were having fun. Tom had a view of the TV in the bar from his seat. They did serve a good cocktail for me.





After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Trevor and I headed down to the hot tub and pool. The pool was unheated but the hot tub was great. You would get so hot that you would jump in the pool to cool off then quickly climb back into the hot tub.





One of the Beaver players was in the hot tub soaking a sprained ankle with his family. Another guest in the hot tub was a player from a decade ago staying at the hotel with his family. He had two small girls with him. Trevor and I headed up to the room after a while. But Trevor got board watching TV and put his pants on to go work out on the weight equipment in the room next to the pool. He was back shortly to put his swim suit back on. He said there were some really hot girls in the hot tub.





Riley throws on an Hawaiian shirt over his black long johns saying he is going to pretend to work out so he can see the hot girls also. Trevor comes back up to tell us two are Beaver cheer leaders. Tom tells Trevor to invite them up. Trevor laughs and ignores his father. I get the feeling the hot girls in the hot tub are the boys high point of the weekend.

I have to work Sunday so I am up early for breakfast and to hit the road to drive straight to work, leaving Tom and the boys asleep in bed. On the way out of town I spot a car pulled off to the side of the road. Two cute girls are standing by the car, one is slumped over vomiting on the grass verge. It made me laugh and smile, remembering how it once was to party that hard, and glad I don't feel that way now. Been there, done that.

It wasn't my dream anniversary weekend of 17 years of marriage. But there have been a few we have had which we have both forgotten entirely the date and done nothing. This was a fun weekend.

American Cancer Society

Hi All,

I was asked by the American Cancer Society to ask my neighbors for donations. How could I say no given our circumstances. Riley would be dead if this was 10 years ago. His disease may not technically be cancer but he is being treated with a cancer drug.

They gave me a letter to send and the names and addresses of my neighbors. I just finished getting it ready to send. I thought while I was at it that I would let my blog followers know that American Cancer Society was asking for my help.

They are asking for my help when I owe my child's life to their dedication. Great medical improvements have been made in just the last ten years. Riley is able to attend school and get on with his life, indistinguishable from any other high school freshman, other than that mustache he is so proud of.

His camp this summer was sponsored by the American Cancer Society. It allowed him to meet others just like him, facing life threatening illnesses. Doctors and nurses were at the camp to help as needed. Keeping the children healthy and safe so they could have a summer camp experience like any healthy child might have.

These wonderful opportunities cost money from somewhere. Our family will be eternally grateful for the research that has allowed Riley to continue living with Aplastic Anemia, Bone Marrow Failure, with a fairly normal life style. We are grateful for the fun opportunities that put aside the shadow that hangs over our home. There are so many charities that contributed to making this incredible year so... well, incredible.

Doernbecher Children's Hospital diagnosed Riley quickly and got him the treatment he needed to stay alive. They held our hands and supported us through Hell.

American Red Cross provided the red blood and platelets that kept Riley alive. If you have ever given blood, you know the detailed care the staff takes in collecting blood to try to ensure the safe quality of the product. The shelf life is shorter than I ever realized. There is a constant need for fresh donations from good reliable donors. Many people do not qualify as good donors for a variety of reasons; Being in Europe after Chernobyl or the mad cow scare in England, having a tattoo, or any decease or a cold that might compromise a sick patient. A blood drive takes nurses and volunteers. It is time consuming. No wonder that one pint of blood costs $700 with the amount of care taken to collect the blood and care for it and distributing it appropriately. It is a priceless life giving commodity.

Make a Wish sent us to Charlotte North Carolina to meet Dale Earnhart Junior and see our first Nascar race as a family. What an incredible experience that was. Children with life threatening diseases get a wish granted. Some are modest wishes, others are quite grand in scale. It is all about cramming a lifetime into a moment, because that may be all these children have, a moment of time. I don't even want to know how many recipients don't survive to adulthood. I know that on our trip I met three other children. One has already died. His family will remember that people cared and wanted to wish them a wonderful memory. Total strangers opening up their hearts and giving up their privacy for a child's wish. The money for those wishes came from somewhere.

American Cancer Society has their finger in every part of these experiences. Their research gives us hope. Their camps, so children can feel normal, give our children hope and cheer. I know from my experiences this year that these programs work. They are worth every penny. Riley is alive and mentally well balanced. He does not feel sorry for himself or question what might happen in the future. No dwelling, we have been having too much fun to dwell. Who could ask for better blessings than that.

If you are in a giving mood or need that tax write off, I can tell you from personal experience any one of these charities are truly worthy causes. American Cancer Society has asked me to put in a plug for them. Riley would be dead almost a year, if not for their research in medical cures for cancer. That summer camp they sponsored made us realize that life can still be fun. I made a donation in honor of Riley. He will get a card in the mail. I thought it would make a nice Christmas gift for him, the gift of life and happiness.

I wish you all happiness and good health to you and your family.

Lots of Love,

Steph