Be The Match

Several weeks ago I was reading an online article about blood marrow donation. It involved a little boy undergoing a blood marrow transplant and how his little life was saved by one individual sacrificing a insignificant amount of time. Of course my heart-strings were instantly tugged.

I went online to Be The Match to see if I would qualify to be a blood marrow donor. It took me all of 5 minutes to answer the online questionnaire and provide them my home address. 

This came in the mail today!

I am feel silly saying that I was excited to receive it and tore it open just like a birthday card!

The process was soo easy from there...

They send you a small kit in which you swab the inside of your cheek for your cells.

All done!

You simply mail the kit back in a prepaid envelope that they give you. It was soo quick and easy!

After my samples are received they add my info into a national database and I wait and see if I'm ever a match for someone. I will be able to remain on the list until I'm 61 years old!

I was asked an interesting question today by a friend. (Hi Amy!) She was curious if I was worried about how painful it will be to donate the bone marrow if I'm ever a match.

One of the most interesting things I learned was that 76% of the time the doctor doing the procedure will request for a PBSC donation (peripheral blood stem cell). This is a non-surgical procedure very much like when one goes in to do a standard blood donation. Easy peasy!

The other portion of the time the doctor would request that liquid bone marrow be drawn from the pelvic bone.

It all sounds a tiny bit painful but I keep asking myself what if it were one of my boys in need??

I urge everyone to go to www.bethematch.org and see if you qualify to be a blood marrow donor!

Sponge Water Bombs!

I'm always out on a search for home-made summer fun! I'd seen other people online making sponge water bombs and decided that I could totally do the same.

I started out with about 10 sponges and cute them into 8 sections each.

I stacked them like this so that when I tied them together the alternating colors would show up well.

I had an adorable helper that just had to be in a picture. Fine by me!! I love this sweet face. :)

I used a loop of fishing line about this long. WORD TO THE WISE... If I make these again, I will use a zip tie. These were very hard to get tied and several broke during water play.

Once pulled tight they look like this! I think I was about to make about 10 of them.

I filled this container with water outside and the kiddo's had a ball!

I hope to add more colors to our bombs as the summer goes on!

Do You Think Griffin Needs A Haircut? :)

My poor baby....

This is what Mommy did to him this afternoon.

Surprisingly, once the clippy was in , he didn't mind at all! 

He reminds me of this guy...

Have you seen the movie "Grandma's Boy"? Seriously the funniest movie ever. Do NOT watch it near children who are awake. :)

Just this past week someone said "Who's that little girl over there" referring to Griffin. Yikes. I should have gone straight from the pool to the hair cut place. :/

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

True Love

Ya'll, my apologies, I have GOT to get back to blogging. This is the longest I've ever gone without posting and I've missed it terribly but just haven't had the time to do a proper job of it. Maybe this summer I should just commit to doing an improper job at it and at least it will be something :).

We've had a zillion things going all with a trillion pictures to go with it but baby steps folks. Let all just be glad that I'm here typing away. :)

Last night Graham was supposed to have let Bobby pull one of his big molars out. It's one of those teeth that dangling by a thread and starting to impede eating. (that is where Bobby and I draw a line and start to pullin')  He decided mid-attempt that he was horribly scared despite this being the 100th tooth he's lost to date and he fully knows that it won't hurt that bad. Cue water works and tears from my overly tired 11 year old. This is turn sets off Grady who starts his whining and crying.

Oy.

What's a mother to do?

I asked Grady if he'd like to sleep in Graham's bed with him for an impromptu sleepover whereupon the still weepy and sleepy Graham is cradled and hugged by his much smaller 5 year old brother. I almost cried myself. In that moment Momma no longer existed for either of them. They comforted each other and whispered for a little bit while I hovered in Graham's dark room just listening. It finally got quiet and they each feel comfortably asleep.

For as much as my boy fight and bicker they love each other just as strongly and fiercely.

March For Babies!

This upcoming weekend here in San Antonio is our annual March of Dimes walk. I'm so proud to say that our family team has raised around $1100! This is just amazing to me! I'm so proud of all the friends and family that we have walking with us that have contributed to this awesome amount! 

That being said, I have to mention that overall for the year March of Dimes is still far below what their monetary goal is. Even though we are just 2 days away from our walk, I'd like to see if there is anyway that my family team can contribute even more! 

As Caroline's mother, there is pretty much nothing that I can do for her anymore. She is forever in my heart and mind but it's just not enough. What I can do is help other families avoid the pain that pre-maturity often brings. 

This is where the March of Dimes comes in. 

The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. 

I pretty much never solicit on my family blog but I will for this. Please consider going HERE and making a donation. Any amount is a blessing not only to the memory of our sweet Caroline but to babies and families everywhere. 

Love you all! 

What About a Black Front Door?

I know... I win the award for most random posts :). I have started doing a little bit of paint work in my downstairs hallway and you know how one thing always seems to lead to another right?

My front door right now is a very strange 1980's light green stained wood color. I HATE the color but I'm unsure what to change it to. I have white on hand right now and I'm re-doing the trim and doors glossy white right now. It seems simple enough (and matchy-matchy) to just continue on to the front door.

The problem with the white though is that I don't want the outside to be white. It would get SOO nasty dirty here in South Texas. I'd love to eventually paint the shutters on the outside of our house to black so it would be nice to have the door match I think. But from the inside standpoint is black too dark of a color to bring into a home? I did recently paint all my kitchen cabinets black so I guess a black front door wouldn't be too far off the mark.

Give me thoughts and ideas friends!

Here is what we have to work with...

Scorpion Stadium Soccer

The new professional soccer stadium here in San Antonio was recently finished and the boys soccer league was invited to play their games on it!! We were all soo unbelievably excited! 

The fields that they normal play are really nice and pretty manicured but this was amazing! All the kiddos that were in the Under 5 - Under 9 were able to play (poor Graham still has to play on his regular fields).

There was a no parent on the field policy (which made me a tad bit nervous until I saw our seating). We were able to sit super close and even had a place to park Griffin in his big double stroller.

Grady's regular coach couldn't make the game so the assistant couch handled the game. Both the regular coach and the assistant coach have boys that play on Grady's team so all was well.

The kids played a great game and had a ton of fun. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and gorgeous weather! I can't wait until the next game tomorrow!