If Given a Chance

would you take the opportunity to make  a positive change in someones life? What about if the process was easy to do?

I know from experience that thinking about becoming a bone marrow or stem cell donor isn't at the top of life changing activities. Unless you or someone you know and love is in need, or you see or read about someone who is in need the option isn't one of those things that jumps to mind when you hear about someone who has changed another person's life for the better.  Becoming a donor remains one of those things we think is a good idea but rarely something to act on. The idea usually dissipates as soon as the next topic of conversation rises.

image courtesy of my niece

Last March I posted about my nephew who really needed a transplant to treat his rare disease. Today would have been Linden's first birthday. While Linden was fortunate enough to be matched with not one but two donors as well as receiving stem cells from his Mama, there are families still waiting for a match out there. Families who just want their baby, their child, sister, brother, mother, father to have a chance at more time with those they love.

Linden's life ended on his own terms and had nothing to do with his rare disease or the treatment he received for it. If it had not been for the two people who signed up and were matches with him as donors, his family would have had very little to hope for. The two matches that ere found for Linden were cause for much rejoicing. In honour of Linden, on the day that he would have been smearing cake and frosting all over his face and opening presents to celebrate one very full year of life; please consider becoming a donor. Please pass on information about becoming a donor to your friends and family. If you could help save the life of some body's loved one it would be worth it! What a wonderful gift to Linden's memory? Please help spread the word and please if you do sign up and are a match let us know so that we can celebrate with you and the person you are matched up with.

  
If you live outside of Canada you can become a donor in your own country. Matches can be made from all over the world. To list a very few:


In Canada visit One Match
In the US go to Be The Match 
In the UK go to the British Bone Marrow Registry 

Birthday Season

It's creeping upon us.

I don't have any photographs to share in this post but there will be some coming up in the next post. I promise (I got my mothers day/ birthday gift yesterday and I've been putting it through it's paces; a lens attachment for my iphone that has wide angle, macro and fisheye options; I'm super giddy about all that) in the meantime I'll keep this post as short as I can.

Usually for all the birthdays we go to each summer I get all the same thing for each child we celebrate with, and I always give something art supply-ish. Getting all the same thing for everyone means that shopping is less of a hassle and if I shop at the right time cheaper. We've been on a pretty tight budget ever since the Peanut came on the scene and now with the Bean here and the Husband headed back to school we are even tighter in the budget department.

I go with art supplies because a gift of art supplies is different from what they'll get from the other kids and because beyond crayons markers and the odd set of watercolours; kids don't really get stuff that they can be creative with on a regular basis. That said; I do have some fabulous Mommy friends who stock their kids up often but a little bit of something new is always welcome and just what the doctor ordered to get the boredoms out of the house.

In the last few years our gifts have been:
watercolour paints and glitter glue
sketch pads and pastels
Buddha paper (paper that changes colour when wet but then dries back to normal) with paint brushes
and last year it was a packet of watercolour paper and water soluble pastels

I won't say what we're getting this year since party season isn't on just yet, but suffice it to say that it will hopefully help those creative minds get going.

Birthday season starts off with the Peanut. She turns six in eight days and we'll be celebrating on the following Monday. It's a long weekend here and Monday seemed to be best for most of our friends to join us. We're keeping it simple. The theme this year is Using Your Imagination and we figured the best way to do that was to fill our back yard with moving boxes and let the kids use their imaginations to build obstacle courses, hide in them for hide and seek and create towns, space ships and whatever else they can come up with. I can tell you now that it will probably be nothing like what I've listed here and most definitely better.

Each child will go home with a personalized paper doll with a selection of clothes to colour, collage and decorate as they see fit. I've got costumes of astronauts, cowboys, rock stars, pirates, fairies, ballerina's and just plain old being you clothes for them to make up for themselves. I'm pretty excited about them and thinking of adding something similar in the Etsy shop. I'm seeing some potential to get into a niche here and I'm having fun with it as well.

In other news my nephew had his second transplant on Monday. No news is good news as far as we are taking things. We've heard very little except the odd photograph and facebook status. He's off the breathing tube and has even had a stint in his Mommy's arms which I'm more than sure has done him a world of good.

We're still sending out all of our healing thoughts and prayers to him he's got a long way to go but he's getting there each day.

So what types of things do you like to get for your kids birthday gifts? Do you go the experience route and get a class for them to take, a night out to the movies or a play or do you stick with toys and books or (heavens forfend) clothes? Share, please I always like to know what works best for other people.

Five Years Ago today

I woke up in the hospital (having spent the day before there on bed rest) and reminded the nurse that I wasn't able to eat the breakfast they had brought me what with the imminent c-section I had been emergency scheduled for two days before. Looking back I should have just eaten it, since the Peanut didn't make her grand entrance until after 9pm.

I had waddled on my extremely swollen feet with my super bloated belly, back, arms and hands) for my final maternity appointment and the high blood pressure (along with the extreme water retention) I had when she did the basic check up routine alarmed the Doctor enough that she took it again 10 minutes later (in the hopes that it had just been raised because of the physical activity of walking to the office) to make sure. When it was still high after the wait, she called the specialist who booked me an appointment for later that day where I was told that I had preclampsia, the baby was too big for me to safely deliver and I was headed to the hospital for a day of bed rest followed by an emergency C-section to take place some time the day after.

So I was told I could go in at 9 and then 10 and I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't be going in until my Mom arrived. I needn't have worried since each slot I was put in throughout the day (5 times between noon and 7pm) was pushed back and my Mom and Grandma arrived in more than enough time.

When it was finally my turn, the husband was led off to change into scrubs and I was wheeled into the prenatal ward where I promptly threw up into a cardboard boat (you know, the kind french fries are served in at the high school cafeteria).

In the operating room I sat up on the table, hunched over while they tried and failed (what with the extra 25lb of water I'd been carrying around) a few excruciatingly painful times to give me the spinal. The Specialist (who was amazing) helped by holding me down while they jabbed the needle into my nerves a few more times before they hit the right spot and the lower half of my body went numb. Interesting side note: the room the Peanut was born in was in the Movie Look who's talking. To this day I will watch that show just to catch a glimpse of the dated pink flower wall paper that decorates that room in Lion's Gate Hospital.

The Husband came in and before I knew it they made the incision.
They dropped the curtain and I got my first look at the Peanut, "It's a girl! here's your baby!" the Dr said.

I took in her little old man face (I don't care what anyone says all new born babies have it; it's the scrunched up slightly bloated from swimming in fluid for 9 months about to cry from the indignity of being forced out of a nice warm safe place face), the shock of hair (there was so so so much of it) and tiny button nose and greeted her with the first thought that came to mind "Oh, there you are!"

She cried, I cried, the husband shed a few manly tears and they weighed her (8lb 5oz), measured her 20" and poked her in the heel to test her blood. Then I got to hold her as I was wheeled into a recovery room where the husband and I nixed all the names we'd short listed for her (River and Clara were the top two) all of which just didn't suit her; while we marveled at how perfect and beautiful our daughter was.

We finally landed on the perfect name when I suggested a name that just seemed to have been made for the Peanut and then, just like that 5 years just seemed to fly by.

She's grown into a simply beautiful little soul. She's smart and funny and creative and (along with her sister the Jelly Bean) the best thing I ever made. She makes me laugh, cry and sometimes so frustrated I wonder what I was thinking when we decided to start a family, but only sometimes. She also makes me bust with pride every single day.

So, five years ago today I stepped into motherhood; the Peanut was born and our lives changed, it's been one sweet ride.

Hot hot hot. Someone turn down the heat please!

With the Peanut the most heat I had to endure was about two weeks worth and there was a pool involved almost daily to help with that. This time around I'm sweltering. I'm melting. I can't think straight I'm so hot.

Did I mention that we are going through a bit of a heat wave here?

We are nearing the end of our birthday season, last Sunday was a birthday party day for one of the Peanut's friends and also the day that we celebrated my birthday too since the Husband thought he had to work late on my actual birthday.

So was I spoiled? Did I get the full on birthday treatment? Yes and no. No because with GD I'm not allowed cake unless I want to do some walking afterwards which didn't fit in with our plans. Yes because the husband had a stunning lariat necklace custom made for me by one of my good friend and jewellery maker extraordinaire, and my sister was awesome enough to take the Peanut for a few hours to have dinner and go for a swim and then back home to put her to bed so that the Husband could take me out on a date.

We hit Granville Street for a live show at the Venue where enjoyed air conditioned loveliness while watching This Will Destroy You and Autolux play. And the Bean was kicking, I mean he/she was moving with a little rhythm. Each beat of the drums got a good nudge from the inside out and the end of each song got a full on boot. I can only guess that he/she liked the music or that he/she was banging on the walls to get the volume reduced. In any case we are well on our way to creating another little music snob; a child who will snub the annoying kiddie music in favour of Depeche Mode, Dragonette, The Raveonettes and the Clash... well we can hope anyway.

Are you having a heat wave or are you wondering when your summer is going to show up?

How my weekend went

and how I wanted it to go were two different things. This weekend was the Birthday Bonanza weekend. My birthday and two parties all on Sunday

The plan for our weekend was this:

Saturday during the day we had earmarked for getting our place ready for the BBQ garden party the husband had planned to celebrate my birthday. Late afternoon was for the party and evening was for more celebration preferably with a jam session and cake.

Sunday; my actual birthday was a double birthday party day. The Peanut and I had planned to hit the morning party by bus, making it home in time to rendezvous with Daddy who would have picked up our Co-op car and installed the car seat, ready to head out to the afternoon party which was held in the opposite direction and requires a two hour bus ride and a five block up the side of a mountain hike to get to. We would have been home a little after bath time and the rest of the evening would have been spent eating left over BBQ and cake.

What really happened was this:

Thursday night, while sitting up and working on some handmade holiday cards for PeanutButterPie, I noticed that things in my head were a little bit like I'd had too much to drink. It was kind of like when you're at that giddy stage of drinking and the room stands still a little bit when you turn your head and then catches up with you a little too quickly. Worried but not thinking too much about it, I decided to go to bed, hoping that a good night's sleep would nip any problems in the bud.

Friday I woke up with a mild case of vertigo. When I say mild I mean that the room was spinning while I was laying still; but I was able to get up, cook a grilled cheese sandwich for the Peanut. Get us dressed and out the door to the medical clinic, after popping a few children's' Gravol. Bed time for me was the same as the Peanut's, again with the hopes that the vertigo would clear out, or at least be as easy to deal with as Friday had been.

Saturday brought Friday morning like symptoms x 500. Nausea in a dump truck and the inability for me to even hold my head up without taking a virtual roller coaster ride. The husband went out to fill my prescription and I stayed in bed, getting up only to use the bathroom and cursing my bladder and inner ear each time I lurched the few feet from bed to bathroom, clutching the furniture and walls frantically with each step.

Fortunately my popularity was highly over estimated and the guest list for the BBQ party was considerably shorter than the 20 plus (with kids and significant others) who RSVP'd their regrets. Instead of a bursting backyard and not enough food, we had the members from Husband's other band playing an acoustic set with guitar hand drum and shakers featuring Psycho Killer in the backyard to me and the Peanut. About dinner time the meds kicked in enough for me to be able to get out of bed and enjoy a light meal and the music.

So why did we go ahead with the shindig? I'm obstinate? That, and husband was having conniptions over cancelling. Trying to keep a cool head when opening your eyes to blender vision is exhausting. I just told him to suck it up and go ahead with it. I'd get up if I could and if not, no one who was coming would really be bothered, they'd play music, eat food and enjoy themselves, what I would have wanted any way.

Sunday saw me waking up with minimal spins. Husband presented me with my birthday gift at breakfast.

Initially the plan was for husband, my Mom, Mom-in-law and Grandma to send me to Seattle last week to see the Sounds Of The Universe Tour. With car problems (read: we don't own one anymore and I'm not legally part of the car Co-op yet) and family health problems and other emergencies that plan went out the window about a month ago. Instead I was presented with the SOTU deluxe box set. Something I've lusted after but wouldn't have gone out to get myself.

We skipped the morning party, a bus ride at 8:30 AM was out of the question even with a somewhat steady head. I sent husband and Peanut out by themselves the the afternoon party. They returned for dinner with the Peanut painted like a ladybug and sang me Happy Birthday at bedtime.

Not the weekend I had planned. Not a weekend I'd do over again up to the second. Not too shabby all things considered. Here's to next year, no more vertigo and a great year ahead.

Last Monday was the Peanut's Birthday

and we spent the day doing whatever she wanted to do from tea party time to building a bridge with blocks. She helped to bake her birthday cake and ate all of her dinner (scrambled eggs, toast and bacon with watermelon slices, as per the peanuts request) and still had room for cake. We frosted the cake with lime butter cream with cherry jam filling and decorated the top with three of the juiciest raspberries from our garden iced with chocolate frosting dots to look like ladybugs. It was a great day and a little sad too because now at 3 the peanut is no longer a toddler but a pre-schooler, next year I won't be able to call her a baby anymore. She had her birthday party this weekend, followed by a BBQ party at our friends place. All in all it was a busy weekend and I think I need a nap...

While I'm sharing, did you check out the amazing give-a-way from last week yet? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I win the grand prize.

If you're interested in finding some great new blogs to read here are a few of my favourites:

Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom is a new one for me, I've been following Mrs B on Twitter for a while but only recently stumbled across her blog and boy am I glad I did. She has links in her blog to some other wonderful blogs as well as recipes, art, pagan parenting, kitchen witchery and of course some wicked product reviews. In amongst all that fabulous stuff is the odd give-a-way, on of which is for the most amazing Tarot Decks ever. full of retro 1950's housewife images it's just too kitschy cool.

With my own recent addiction to caffeine in full swing, and my obsession with following creative blogs, I started following Caffeinated Frenzy way back when I started my own. Frenzy was one of the first creative blogs I encountered and I've been following her ever since. In addition to writing about her adoration of caffeine, Frenzy also blogs about her knitting and other random things that she just can't help but share. She's a good read and I have to say that I have been known to covet some of her sweaters and hats.