Renewed Spirit

Oh my look how long it's been since I last posted!! As I predicted the fall semester took over my life. My family did without a wife and mother for nearly 6 months as the classes were pretty much all-consuming. However, that was my last hard semester and this spring is my last semester altogether. A health crisis has put an end to my schooling. I am treating it herbally and it is doing so much better!! BUT the amount of stress I was under also played a part and I was told I had to put an end to that stress. For the moment that is easy - come the near future this will not be easy at all and I will have added stresses on me that may be just as bad as school stress. Prayers for guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Let's add some news!!! We're gonna be grandparents any day now!!! The little mister is due any day now :) We simply cannot wait to meet this little mister and have a baby in the family again!!! So as you can imagine, I've been doing all I can to get ready for a new grandbaby - a baby shower, sewing up a storm, helping Bean1 and FianceBean1 any way we can, etc :D

Sadly, we are also not expecting my father-in-law to last much longer. We've already had what we consider an extra four years with him, when they told us that he wouldn't last another month. We were sort of expecting that same thing but it's different. They finally told my mother-in-law that there is absolutely nothing left for them to do for him. Prayers for his physical comfort these last days, his spiritual health, and my mother-in-law's ability to deal with all of this would be even more greatly appreciated than the ones I mentioned above.

So anyway, let me get posting about a few of the things that have happened in this past almost year...
1) Two trips to Washington, D.C. - Molly Marine Monument Dedication in Quantico and Bean4 donating Bone Marrow at George Washington University
2) Church Camp
3) A hike at Tallulah Gorge, Georgia plus a few other hikes that day in the same area
4) Caving trip to Raccoon Mountain, Tennessee
5) Homecoming
6) Bean3 coming home for a visit / tailgating at UGA
7) Bean6, Bean7, and Bean8 Birthday Parties
8) Gingerbread Nativity Scenes
9) Beach Trip for a Baby Shower / Engagement
10) New Year's Eve
11) MrBean's Birthday
12) Baby Shower
13) A few church school projects
14) A few church school snacks
15) Snow at the homestead
16) Baby Gifts
17) Lenten Projects
18) St. Patrick's Day goodies
19) Once a Month Lenten Cooking with a friend

Bone Marrow Donation - Washington, D.C.

BeTheMatch.org

Last fall Bean4 decided to "get swabbed" and register for the Bone Marrow Registry. About two weeks later she was called up - "You're a match!" Thus began a two month journey toward donating :) You can't imagine how proud I am of her! Her recipient is a 40-year-old woman.

So after all of the medical tests and getting all the paperwork where it needed to be at the right time - all from overseas in Italy - it was time to fly to the states and start the donation process.

Bean4 needed a companion so the bone marrow donor association flew me out to meet her the Wednesday prior to her Monday donation. We flew into Dulles International and were driven to Georgetown University Hotel which is literally in the same parking lot as the hospital not 30 yards away. That was good because it was cold!!

Thursday morning we were met in the hotel lobby and taken over to the hospital. Here she had vitals and stuff run again before her first injection was given. Oooops there's a problem - "You're here but your medicine is not."

"WHAT???"

"Okay, we are getting it all taken care of, no worries."
So she finally gets her first injections. Two shots in the back of both arms.

And then we're off until the next morning for the next set of injections. Each morning she had to start off by going across to the hospital to get those two injections. She and I did some shopping (I finally found a wool coat I liked!) and met my godbrother and his son for supper - actually he picked us up :) They had just dropped off his lovely wife at the airport for her duties with the U S Air Force.

The next day the rest of the family still living at home drove out to meet us and spend the weekend in D.C. as a mini family vacation while visiting with Bean4. That night they picked me up and dropped off Bean5 to stay the weekend with her at the hotel while the rest of us stayed with my godbrother's family.

The next day we started touring D.C. for the family had never been there before. The only thing I'm sad they missed was Arlington National Cemetery. I got to show Bean4 the day they left but unbeknownst to me it closes really early in the winter - in fact I didn't really know it closed at all. At Arlington we visited two graves - one of a man whom Bean4 knew and the grandfather of my friend, Rose. It was so cold that day that my breath froze on my coat collar and neck scarf.

Anyway, Monday morning rolls around and MrBeans takes me back to the hotel while picking up Bean5. Bean4 and I are met in the lobby along with 4 other folks... 2 donors, 2 companions. The 2 other donors are guys. The process was much like dialysis where blood comes out of one arm, goes through a machine to have the stem cells removed, and the blood goes back in the other arm. Because Bean4's body took so well to the meds, her time on the machine was drastically reduced. During this time the donors had to lie still and could not move one of their arms. We companions were ushered in and out of the room as one or the other had a procedure done so we wound up out of the room as much as in it :) This is also where we got to learn about each of the donors. I would like to highlight one of the donors - well actually his fraternity.

This particular donor was from Atlanta. He is in a fraternity and one of the brothers was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. So every single one of the brothers registered with the registry. He was the third one to be called as a match to someone!

Anyway, Bean4 was pretty much up and running afterwards :) We did go take a little nap after lunch but I think that had more to do with staying up half the weekend with her sister than the donation itself.
She got an update on her recipient a month later. It stated that considering her recipient's disease and age that she was doing as well as is expected. That's about as good of news as you can get at this stage. There will be at least one more update later on. I'll post it when we get it.

Pictures from around D.C. coming up in another post.

The Airman Visits

So Bean3 joined the Air Force right out of high school and I am so proud of him :) Yes, many people wonder how a Woman Marine's son would be allowed to join the Air Force - well, 1) They make their own decisions and I support them when the do; 2) I am a Marine, my father Army, and his dad Navy - he said he didn't want to feel like he was choosing one of us over the other. My late cousin was Air Force so I feel it is a fine decision :)

So anyway, he is stationed so far from home! I saw him at his Basic Training graduation and I visited him the year after that. This is the first time he was home though to see all the little beans :) and he got to stay for three weeks!

Me and My Boy

So what did we do? We visited the grandparents, had 3 birthday parties, he picked up siblings from school, and we went to UGA for the LSU game which included the SportsCenter broadcast from UGA, the DawgWalk, and Tailgating with Rock-L! Since he had to leave a day early, his little brother Bean7 got to enjoy the Mizzou tickets :)

Wizard of Oz Surprise Half Birthday Party

Last spring as I was planning Bean8's birthday party I find out that Bean3 is finally authorized for leave that fall. So we quietly let the idea of a party with friends die a peaceful death in order to plan a surprise party while Bean3 was here. Worked like a charm :)

I wrote a note to go in all of the invitations that explained why we were having a surprise half-birthday party and all the parents loved it :)

Invitation

Bean3 took Bean8 for a ride in his Jeep so the guests could arrive...

Awaiting Bean8's Arrival

SURPRISE!

I painted all the girls' nails...

Somewhere over the Rainbow is food....

A Rainbow Jello Birthday Cake

Melted Witch Punch

Rainbow Ice Cubes

Rainbow Marshmallows

Ruby Red Cake Pops

Lollipops from the Lollipop Guild

Rainbow Fruit and Star Wands :-/

Bean8 Painting with Colored Ice

Friend Painting Rocks

Friends Painting



UGA v LSU

What a day with Bean3 :) We went to UGA to spend the day. There was a broadcast of College Game Day from UGA that Christian wanted to watch, then of course there is the famous DawgWalk, and Tailgating! Between the broadcast and the Dawg Walk we did a little shopping and got something to eat. Then we stood in our little spot for over an hour waiting on it to start. It was worth it for Bean3 to see all the players from the front row ... especially after we saw the crowd that formed around us. It was a little sad to watch some people be rude and push their way to the front in front of families that had been waiting for an hour or more.

Caving

Oh my what an adventure!!! If we had only known a little bit more about what to expect we would have changed a few things....
As it is we headed to Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When we arrived we found a great little BBQ joint and feasted like they instructed but careful not to drink too much since we would be in the cave for quite sometime without potties. If only we had known, which we do now, we would not have eaten but a very small meal much earlier and taken trail snacks to eat when we settled in for the night.

But wow!!! We overcame some serious issues - claustrophobia, vertigo, total darkness .... Yep, it was great!!
Apparently we did some 2 1\2 miles underground, practically crouched over, crawling or belly crawling almost the entire time. We squeezed through spots that were a mere 11-inches tall after belly crawling 180 feet, navigated the top of a ravine, waded through underground streams, and told stories of underground caves in total darkness while taking a breather for me to recover from a nauseating bout of vertigo!

If you look close you see Ashley to the left, some gear in blue in the middle, and David's head in between them .... That is a tight squeeze to be belly crawling for 180 feet and the only way out is 11 inches high!

Survived the Key Hole (the 11-inch space)

One of the many areas we had to crawl through

The ravine we had to traverse

We lived!

Molly Marine Monument Dedication

Quantico, Virginia, July 2013

I haven't been to Quantico since September 1997 when I graduated Small Systems Computer School. It felt like home! It was absolutely bone weary exhausting but it was so very worth it to be at the Molly Marine Monument Dedication with Generals Salinas, Mutter, and Reals, and of course, the ever motivating Dr. Brown!

I was a Molly Marine back in April 1997 after my platoon - Platoon 4010, November Company, 4th Battalion - voted me as their Molly. I wish I could have recorded General Salinas' description of becoming Molly of her platoon - it was so spot on, this description of the brusque way we Mollies are awarded this honor! At the time we don't have a real clue - until we see things like this letter my parents received. (It is toward the middle... You won't miss it.)

Being a Molly is a pretty big deal - a max of 52 women are awarded this each year. That's only if all the female platoon dates fall just right and a platoon forms every two weeks like clockwork without being interrupted by specific holidays in which no platoons form. To put this in perspective for every 2 female platoons around 24 much larger male platoons graduate. We females tend to have 40-45 per platoon graduate while male platoons have upwards of 60-80 graduate. So while about 2% of females are awarded this honor that makes us about .001% of the entire Corps!

I am so thankful that my wonderfully good friend, Rock-L, could accompany me on this trip! Not only did we attend a lovely 4th of July Neighborhood Bash at my godbrother's, watch 7 fireworks shows!, tour the Museum of the Marine Corps and Semper Fidelis park, but we visited all over Washington, D.C.!! When we got back to my godbrother's the last night we were there, we literally crawled into the tub and crawled out of the tub. Our feet and legs hurt so bad that we couldn't stand. In fact we went to bed without eating because our lower extremities won the "I hurt worse war" with our stomachs!!

This is Molly Marine!

 

Major General Angela Salinas - at that moment the highest ranking female officer in the Marine Corps prior to her retirement.

Lt. General Mutter - the first female to attain the rank of Lt Gen (3 stars)not only in the Marine Corps but in all of the Armed Forces. She was also the first female to command a Fleet Marine Force at flag level - 3d Force Service Support Group in Okinawa, Japan - and the first woman to attain the rank of Major General.

Bg. General Reals, the first female to attain the rank of General via the selection board in the Marine Corps. The late Bg. General Brewer was the very first female to attain the rank of General in the Marine Corps by promotion.

As I just discovered when looking up Lt Gen Mutter's command, my platoon is in Wikipedia as the first females to attend Marine Combat Training. What isn't mentioned is that we were the first (and according to several sources, only) platoon of women to hump (carry) all the weight the males did. Oohrah! How honored I feel to be among those great women listed on that great list of firsts for the Marine Corps ... so humbling.

Here is a photo of The Museum of the Marine Corps from across the parking lot. See the hill gently sloping down toward the US Flag? Molly stands right at the bottom of that hill, essentially greeting and bidding farewell all who visit the museum.

There are more beautiful pictures of the whole place but they will have to wait as only a portion are uploaded. I promise that I'm working on it all!

But until then let me leave you with the only place I visit each and every, single time I am in D.C. - The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall where I visit my dad's best friend, Sammy James. The rubbing of his name is from the very first time I visited in 1997. The photo of me in blue was taken by Rock-L.

Feel free to visit my dad's page .... Just click here