Conversation with an 8 year old

My favorite 8 year old, Parker, now has an email account. Here's our first interaction:

Hello Parker,
How are you today? Did you have fun
playing with PJ and the kids yesterday? Do you have any homework from school?
What is your teacher like? Have you made any new friends?

I'm so glad
you have an email address! I will write to you, okay?

Love,
Bonnie

Thanks for email Bonnie. I do have new friends.I did have fun with PJ
and his brother's.

later,
Parker

It made me smile, thus qualifying it as a needed post on ye olde blog.

Freak Out!

It's Friday night at around 8:30 and I'm typing this as I listen to a variety of 80's disco songs loaded on my i-pod by my music savvy friend Anita. It's rather ironic because I am indeed freaking out right now. I have fought against it since Monday at about 1:17 p.m. when I met with a specialist following several months of feeling run down and fighting off one sinus infection, fever, or sore throat after another. I ended up going to an InstaCare the Monday of convention. My blood work showed I was anemic, so I began taking mega doses of iron and went to my regular doc for a follow up. He did blood work and told me he thought I was having a reaction to the drug I was on for the silly (in my opinion, I know it's serious to those who truly suffer from it) Restless Leg Syndrome. He told me to slowly take myself off the drug and come in for a repeat blood test the following week. He also put me on a strong antibiotic (my third in 24 days). The repeat blood test was still off, but showed I actually had too much iron in my system-so I went off the iron and was scheduled to meet with a hematologist to talk about what was going on. Here's where the first freak began: "Utah Cancer Specialists; How can I help you?" What? I thought I had the wrong number. Deep breath.

Thus began the beginning of my long waits. One week to meet with the specialist. Three hours for the appointment. Another blood test just to make sure things were still off. Talking to the doc, okay, listening to him explain the reasons for anemia and telling me the story my blood is telling him indicates a blood marrow disorder. Well, doesn't that sound nice! Knowing I would Google it anyway, he spoke frankly about things like leukemia, lymphoma...and my mind kind of closed up. It was reassuring to hear him lay it all out and explain we should begin by doing a bone marrow biopsy to start with, it may be he's wrong and this is some other issue with my colon, kidneys, or liver, but we might as well know what we're dealing with, I should be able to get a biopsy done this week and have results within two days. Okay. It's Monday, so if I have the test tomorrow I'll know by Friday. I can handle that. What? Nursing shortage, will call later with a biopsy time, nice person on phone telling me the biopsy will be Tuesday, Sept 1 (Sept 1? Isn't it still Aug 5? What the heck!) and since the test is in the afternoon, the results won't be guaranteed until Friday Sept 4 and the doc doesn't work Fridays oh and Monday is a holiday so could I come back for the results on Tuesday, Sept 8th? I heard myself say sure. Call my team, call my sisters, call my friends...

Put on a happy face. All will be well. Work is a blessing. Loving family, great friends. Prayers, love, concern, phone calls. When will it be normal again? Speaking of normal, what about this itching? I feel tired. Is that from lack of sleep (the voices of darkness seek me out each night), from the anxiety of not knowing, or from something more sinister?

So tonight I'm being obedient to the i-pod.

Ahh, Freak Out.

Stampin' Up! Convention

Ahh, Convention! I have sufficiently recovered to hit the highlights of the week. I love SU's annual convention. As a demonstrator, I always get tons of ideas and feel rejuvenated and revved up. As an employee, I get to reconnect with demo friends, make new demo and employee friends, and watch my team be simply amazing!

I was thrilled to have some time with Jacque Craig (my soul twin in Hawaii). I met her last year at Founder's Circle and we found out we have many things in common. While I don't get much face time with her, she's a familiar friend already. Know what I mean-someone you feel like you've known forever?

I can't even begin to mention names of other demonstrators-I know I would forget someone! When I close my eyes I see and feel a sea of smiles, hugs, quick visits and affirmations. I am amazed at how many of these wonderful women truly impact my life. They probably have no idea how much I look forward to even the briefest of moments with them. It might even be pathetic in a 'you don't have a life' sort of way-but I truly feel blessed to be around them.
I met some new demo friends and look forward to sharing gluten free recipes with them! Bring it on, ladies!

As for connecting with employees, I love to visit with Paula Hogan and Pam Harbin at our events. Seems I don't get enough time with them-so just eating a meal together reminds me of their great personalities and talents. I try to eat with people I don't normally work with just to give me a chance to get to know other people better.

My team (Amanda, Holly, Mark, Carrie, Shannon & Donna) was amazing! Amanda and Holly were mostly behind the scenes, but their support made the breakout classes go smoothly. Mark stepped in for Ben at the last minute and did a great job interviewing Lisa Fast. He's a terrific guy and I like seeing him get a chance to present. Donna's class with Missy Shipman was so polished! They worked together very well and Donna really helped Missy to shine. It was informative and motivating. Shannon had a big challenge to coordinate everything Ruth, Joan and Christina needed for demo theater-and she presented some fun ideas herself! The three demo presenters really benefited from Shannon's dedication. I was glad she also got some time to stamp on stage and have fun doing it. She's an amazingly dedicated gypsy! Sweet, talented Carrie was my convention lead-so she took care of sooooo many details in preparation for the event-then she researched and presented a great break out class and stamped on main stage! Wow-what a lot to juggle. She came through like the professional she is. Love her to death.

I also got to present at the last general session. My oldest sister Loene and my two darling friends Anita and Cathi came to watch. It was so much fun to stamp for the demonstrators. What a rush! I had a fun ending to the presentation-Jill Kocherhans and I sang a couple of years ago at an NBA ball game (such an amazing experience) and I tricked her into thinking Anita needed us to sing at a Ute event the week after convention. We rehearsed quite a bit the weeks prior, then on Friday right after Spencer finished singing, Jill said "You and I should sing sometime," and I said, "Oh, we will!" Then I explained that we were really singing together the next day and she cried because she was so touched and excited. I don't know why, but I wanted it to be a surprise. I hope our Canadian demos understood and didn't feel slighted. A demo posted the song on YouTube, so here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URs0FADNd4o


All in all it was a great week. I wasn't feeling 100%, but I loved every minute of it.

Sister Party

Annette, hanging up some Decor Elements. She's good!

Tamsin, Katie and Annette during our Facial Fiesta! Aren't they glowing?



Loene, Jennifer, Ava, Annette, Katie, Tamsin, Emma

I love a Sister Party. I grew up with three older sisters, Loene, Annette and Linnea. Oh, I have one older brother, but that's an entry for another time. Anyway, I shared a room with Linnea, so we were always buddies. Being just two years older than I, she was wise and very street smart in my eyes. Loene and Annette shared a room also. Theirs was a mysterious lair with teenage girl stuff that I both feared and envied. I'll spend more time on the sibs later-this is all about Sister Parties.

We began Sister Parties by taking short trips together. Now we simply take advantage of any long weekend and put it to good use. A Sister Party for us entails a whole lot of nothing. No schedule, no expectations, no obligations. We read, sleep, eat, watch movies, shop, laugh, and repeat. Not all components have to be present-some Sister Parties are heavy on the reading and light on the shopping. Others are full of sleep with the occasional outing just to breathe air outside of the house.

Oh, I should also explain you don't have to be a sister to join a Sister Party. Many years ago after my sister Linnea died (another blog for another day), we invited my brother Alan to join us. He pretended to have fun, then asked that next time we had a sister party maybe he could just come to the eating part. Funny, funny Alan! Loene's sister-in-law has partied with us; so has Annette's twenty something son. Oddly enough, outliers tend to only attend one party. Hmmm. Most notably, the sister party includes nieces. The most consistent non-sister attendee is my niece Tamsin. She became an honorary sister after Linnea moved to the great Sister Party in the sky.

This particular Sister Party included Annette, her daughters Tamsin and Katie, Tamsin's daughter Emma and, for one fun afternoon, my sister Loene, her daughter Jennifer and granddaughter Ava. We did pedicures, manicures, facials (thanks to Cathi-yay for Cathi), read, shopped, saw the newest Harry Potter movie, went out to breakfast for a rather pathetic gluten free meal at Marie Callenders (they've changed their menu-no more yummy cheese and bacon laden hash browns-dang!), watched So You Think You Can Dance, spent an entire afternoon running errands that resulted in one failed attempt after another to find a perfect gift for Emma's upcoming second birthday, rented some shows On Demand, and just enjoyed being together. The gang is staying for church today-a real treat-before heading out. It's been a great weekend and I'll miss the noise and bustle of family after they leave.

I can't believe I'm doing this!

I decided to see how hard it would be to get a blog going. Hmm, not hard at all! I suspect keeping it up will be the challenge. I'm not too worried-who in the world is going to actually want to read the goings on in my life? Nevertheless (fun word to use!), I'm doing it.

So, what do you want to know? I'm currently reading Fatally Flaky (Diane Mott Davidson). I like the series-she's not the best writer in the world-but she's just right for a light read.

Hmm. I've learned to not make fun of syndromes I hear about on TV. Turns out I have Restless Leg Syndrome. I've made so much fun of those commercials! Oh well, now I have an excuse on those days I feel draggy.

I've recently joined Facebook and Goodreads. I must be growing up, huh? Just wanted to see what the fuss was about. Seems to be my pattern of behavior. I've learned not to make fun of fashion because about the time something (ponchos for example) goes out of style I decide to get on the bandwagon. Blogs are probably on their way out too-now that I've joined the hullabaloo.