Ineligible

I went to donate blood yesterday, and they went through an exhaustive questionaire probing every intimate detail of my life. Then they proceeded to stick my finger to test my iron levels, and it was 40%, which is excellent for a woman. Finally they went back to some final questions and clicked submit. It came back “Deferred”. What? I’m healthy, clean, and willing! “No,” it said. It seems when I traveled to Cancun a year ago, I was possibly exposed to Malaria there. Until May 5, the American Red Cross doesn’t want my blood.

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Trip Report

My trip to the northwest was glorious! The weather was beautiful, and we could clearly see the mountains all around (Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Ranier, and the Cascades and Olympic ranges.) Everyone said they had been having miserable weather, and it was the first really beautiful weekend in months. Of course, I took the credit for bringing it with me from Arizona.

I did not get to meet with the Medici’s. They had been at Duke for Olivia’s one year post transplant tests, and were hoping to get home by Friday by way of a Corporate Angel Flight. I got an email from Annalee today saying that they didn’t make it back to Portland until Sunday evening. That’s when I was on my way home. So hopefully, I’ll get to make another trip soon to see Alice, and will get to meet with them then.

Alice and I loved our drive up to Seattle to see Dean and Leslie and visit Pathways church. They are booming, and had 140 in Easter services. There was a baptism on the day we were there, so that is truly evidence of the impact they are making in the community. We also got to see John and Sherri Chandler and their girls, plus both Dean’s and Leslie’s parents (Bob, Peggy, Jack & Ruth). So all in all, we felt reconnected with friends we have missed so much.

I took some pictures and will post a few soon.

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Off to Portland and Seattle

I had a free airline ticket that Ken and Robin gave me that expires on May 5. So I decided to make a quick trip up to Portland to see Alice. I’m flying up tomorrow, and we are driving up to Seattle on Saturday to see Dean and Leslie and visit their new church plant there. We’ll come back to Portland on Sunday afternoon and I’ll fly home that evening. I’m busy at work and couldn’t take much time off, but I just couldn’t let that ticket go to waste.

While I am there, I’m hoping to visit another family who has a little girl with Sanfilippo. She had a transplant just a few months after Lauren did. It will be nice to visit with another family who is in the same place that we are.

I’ll write all about it when I get home.

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01.02.03.04.05.06

That’s what it will be at three seconds after 1:02 a.m. on Wednesday. It won’t happen again for 100 years.

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What Happened in Vegas

If it stayed in Vegas, it wouldn’t be any fun. Part of the fun is the telling.

I drove up on Tuesday morning. When I got about to Kingman, it started to snow. Wow! I didn’t realize Kingman was so cold. It cleared up about 20 miles later, but when I came into Boulder (after crossing Hoover Dam), it seemed really cold again. I called Robin on her cell phone, and she said it was snowing in Henderson! They came all the way from Alaska for some warm weather, and it was snowing in Vegas! Fortunately, it warmed up by the next day, and was really nice the rest of the week.

Ken was consulting with a Henderson church and they have a beautiful 3 bedroom guest house that we stayed in. It is owned by a doctor (member of the church) whose retired parents travel, but stay in the house whenever they are in town. The rest of the time, he donates its use to the church as a ministry. It is absolutely beautiful, in a gated Del Web community in the hills overlooking the Las Vegas strip. At night, what a view! We had no hotel bill, our own home with full kitchen, wireless internet, private bedrooms and bathrooms, and even a master closet big enough for Steven to have his “own room” adjacent to mommy and daddy. I’ll post some pictures of the house on my gallery.

Every day Ken went off to work at the church (poor Ken), and Robin and the kids and I went to town. We visited many of the big resorts up and down the strip (we hit a couple a day plus other attractions). We went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, F.A.O. Schwartz toy company, M&M World, and Circus Circus Adventure-dome along with taking in the shops and beauty of the huge resorts.

On Wednesday night we went to see the Blue Man Group. Someone at the church works in the event office of the Venetian and got us free orchestra section tickets ($126 value each). What a show! They are some crazy guys and before the night was through, all of the audience had participated in the action in one way of another.

On Friday night we took Megan to the Tournament of Kings Medieval dinner show. It was great fun, and although cameras were not allowed, I managed to get mine out of my purse and snap a couple pictures before realizing I was breaking the rules. So you can see a couple of shots on my gallery of the action. I didn’t get photos of the horses or sword fights, but you can see the costumes and show ring. After the show, we drove over to the Bellagio to watch the fountains. As we were walking through the Bellagio casino, we saw Pete Rose walking around. Quite ironic. Everybody was pointing him out and making comments about him being right at home in a gambling arena. Ken also walked past Mena Suvari, but I didn’t see her.

We didn’t do much relaxing and absolutely no gambling, but we sure had fun. Megan and Steven were great all week, and kept up with Robin and me. On Thursday, Heidi Colvin and her little girl, Savannah, met up with us for an afternoon. She’s expecting another baby girl in August.

On my way home, I was getting a little sleepy so I pulled into a McDonald’s in Wickenburg for a cup of coffee. I turned off the car and put on my shoes. As I hopped out of the car and locked the door, I realized my keys and cell phone were still inside. I went inside where I asked the counter clerk if there was a locksmith in town, and the look on his face told me he could only understand hamburger and french fry orders and nothing else. Fortunately the manager on duty was more helpful, and I called someone to come bail me out of my predicament. As I paid the locksmith, he told me two things I didn’t know. One: my insurance probably covered his fee (I called today and it does!) and two: if you must break a window, the windshield is the cheapest one to break. But it’s much cheaper to call a locksmith (especially if your insurance covers it!)

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Vegas ROCKS!

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Where Has She Been???

This was so funny, I thought I’d share it. I was watching Cooking with Sara this morning, and Sara was making a quick meal to serve to the boss. She shopped at the market and picked up several prepared ingredients, like a rotiserrie chicken for Chicken Alfredo, and frozen fruit for a cobbler. As she was preparing the aforementioned cobbler, she showed some biscuits in a can. She said she had never seen those before, nor ever used them. She mentioned that she had practiced earlier opening a can so she would know how to do it and show us, the viewers. Of course, it popped when she wasn’t expecting it, and she jumped and gave a little scream. Then she showed us there were eight biscuits in the can, all ready to bake, and she proceeded to make the cobbler with frozen, sweetened fruit and the biscuits on top. As she was putting those biscuits on the fruit, she said “I can think of lots of uses for these. They’re great!” I guess that executive chef has been living under a rock for the last several decades.

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