St. Baldrick's on Saturday--Let's Raise some Money for Childhood Cancer Research!

Unalaska really knows how to get behind a good cause! A couple of months ago, the firefighters and EMS folks started to plan the first ever local St. Baldrick's head shaving event to raise money for childhood cancer research. I had never even heard of St. Baldrick's but I was in Houston with Bonnie and Emery when the initial email arrived in my inbox, telling me about the foundation and its work. By the time I got back home, every time I turned around I heard about someone else who was shaving his head. I say "his" because everyone I heard about at that time was male. :) However, as the event has gathered steam and more and more participants who come from all walks of life, we now also have at least four females shaving their heads. (No, I am not one of them--sorry if you were hoping to see a photo of that!)

Soon our friend Steve asked me if he could sponsor Emery for his head-shaving. What a kindhearted guy he is! After getting Bonnie's okay, "Team Emery" was born and Steve has continued to go all-out raising funds! The whole event has taken on a life of its own and a carnival-like atmosphere, with many of the participants dying their hair in wild colors and getting into a bit of good natured rivalry. Click on Steve's blog here to see the latest info and some funny head shots.

My friend Judi has also taken the plunge--I think she was first just going to cut her hair for "Locks of Love" but now she is going all-in and shaving her head as well! Now that's a brave woman. One of my teenaged friends, James, just told me he is shaving his head, too. Way to go, James! If I look at the list of "shavees," I either know them or know who they are--I love that about small town life!

Saturday is the big day, with the event starting at 1 PM at the Burma Road Chapel. Our own Channel 8 will be televising the head-shaving live starting at 1:30 PM. If you're local, come on over and join in the fun. Rich and I will be there taking photos to document the craziness.

You can look here for the list of all the Unalaska shavees and make a donation to any of them. I am partial to Team Emery (and Steve is giving away some Alaska crab to a lucky winner!), but the money all goes to the same place so pick anyone that you want (or more than one!) and help us do away with childhood cancer. A donation of any size is appreciated greatly. If you are leery of online donations, you may send a check or call in to the live show on Saturday at 907-581-1888 and make a pledge. We'd love to hear from you!

Our family has been affected by cancer several times, including my dad's death at the very young age of 42 from lung cancer. (Hard to believe that all of his children are older now than he ever got to be!) Although I had heard of children with cancer in the past, it had never touched our lives closely till Emery's diagnosis smacked us upside the head and led us down a completely unfamiliar path. We are grateful that she has done so well and we have every confidence that she has a happy and healthy life ahead of her. Unfortunately, this is not the case for every child with cancer. Additional funds for research will help more and more of these little sweeties to survive and thrive.

Thank you!

We Breathe a Sigh of Relief and Life Returns to Normal

The best news is that Emery is home, happy and active, and we don't have any medical news to report. Hopefully Bonnie will be able to post periodic updates on her blog so you can keep up with their "back to normal" lives. I am glad this phase of all of our lives has come to a close and we offer our heartfelt thanks one more time for all of your thoughts, prayers, love and good wishes. Although Emery will have ongoing checkups and periodic medical appointments, we are thrilled that the most complicated part of treatment is done.

Our grandson Aidan is playing baseball in Texas and I am wishing we could go to some of his games! It would be great to sit in the stands and cheer him on. Good luck, Aidan--play hard! And, of course, we miss the little girls, Ally and Elle, too. Some day we will live closer and will be able to pop in and out more often.

There's been lots going on here but I haven't had the energy to blog about it! I never wrote about the Healthy Native Communities Fellowship after the first night of our arrival. It was a very busy and intense week, with a great deal of learning about working for the betterment of our communities and literally no time for me to write on my blog.

The faculty were superb and renewed my faith that there really are people who walk the walk instead of just being talking heads that tell us what to do. I was so impressed with not only their knowledge, but their spirit and their caring attitude toward all of us, the people we serve, and the community at large. It was interesting and inspiring to meet individuals from all over the country who are working in extremely difficult situations and never giving up--hearing their stories was an amazing experience. In some ways, it was difficult being the new person since I had missed the first retreat in January and everyone had already bonded and formed relationships. On the other hand, it was a good opportunity to listen, observe, and learn from others and I hope that the next trip will bring deeper relationships and more involvement for me.

Here we are with two other Alaska teams, one from Anchorage and one from Cordova.

Although we worked hard all day and had homework each night, we did manage to get out and have a little bit of fun, too. We made it to the San Diego Zoo and did a little bit of sightseeing around town. It was not as hot as I would have liked, after all, but still warmer than Unalaska, of course!

Old Town
A peacock wandering around the zoo

The polar bear was literally "chillin' out."

Cute panda!
Flamingos

Back at home, there's always lots going on. Last weekend was the Convention and Visitors Bureau annual wine tasting event. Rich was working since he and his crew had to prepare appetizers to go with each of nine wines. My friend Donna and I went together and had a great time visiting with everyone and sampling the wines. Donna even won the grand prize of a cruise! I was teasing her because I picked up our tickets and handed her one of them--if I'd handed her the other one, I would have been the winner! Funny, huh? I guess I said it once too often because she asked me if she should give the prize to me. :) Ooops! I really didn't mean it that way and was thrilled for her!

Beautiful sisters Danielle and Darcel

Alyssa is back in town and working for the CVB. We are happy she is here!

Susan and Debbie were serving wine and having lots of fun.

Donna

Rich finally got to come see us at the end of the evening.

The next night was book club at Steve's, where we discussed the last two books, The Book Thief and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Steve's wife, known on the blogs as Goldfish, made us some lovely snacks, including a delicious potato peel pie! See Steve's blog here for a photo. Thanks, you two! I have highly recommended The Book Thief before and will again. The Guernsey book was a fairly quick feel-good read--a sweet story that I enjoyed but I liked The Book Thief a whole lot more.

The Aleutian Arts Council's annual community art show has been going on for the last couple of weeks, including four sets of photos from Rich this year. For a town this size, we have a lot of very talented people and it's always interesting to see the various pieces of art on display. The show ended with the Arts Council's annual meeting and fundraising auction last night. Rich and his staff prepared the food again but he was able to join me at the event, which we enjoyed with friends. We came home with a couple of door prizes and two cool little baskets that I won on the silent auction.

The snow is melting and spring MIGHT be in the air but it's still a little hard to tell. :)

Going Home....Finally!

Emery was discharged from the hospital today and Bonnie reports that she is her happy, active self, not seeming to be in any discomfort. They are spending the night with Lauren and Dan in Katy and then will fly home tomorrow. It is hard to believe that the past several months away from home are now finally coming to an end. I know home has never felt so good as it will tomorrow. I am so thankful that Emery has tolerated all of her treatment and surgery so well and hope that this is the end of anything major for that sweet baby girl (and her parents). She'll need checkups for awhile but hopefully there will not be any worries from now on. It will be nice to have typical baby news instead of medical reports!

Discharge? Hopefully!

Emery had a good day and is off all monitoring equipment so was able to get in lots of play time. She even laughed a few times--Bonnie told me earlier this week that David is able to get Emery to laugh more than anyone. I remember when I was there that we kept waiting for her to laugh out loud but she never did it before I left! Sounds like everything is going very well and it's possible Emery may be discharged on Thursday. Wouldn't that be GREAT?!

Chest tube is out!

Emery's chest tube was removed today. She is doing well and we hope this means she will be discharged in a day or two!

Emery update

I just talked with Bonnie and she said everything is going pretty well. Emery had a little bit of a rough night so she was given some morphine to help her feel better. After that, she was able to get some rest. She's been feeling okay so far today and has just had tylenol for pain. Bonnie said the chest tube makes her uncomfortable so it's a little hard to pick her up and move her around but otherwise she's been happy. David's dad Bo came in so I am glad they have some family with them! Dr. Thompson has been out of town but will return tomorrow and come to visit. Nothing major to report, which is good!

I stole this photo from Bonnie's Facebook but I guess it was taken with a phone--pretty small, huh?!

Emery's out of surgery!

Our sweet baby girl did really well and the surgeons are extremely happy. Most of the tumor was removed, leaving only a little bit of scar tissue. Emery had very little bleeding and tolerated the procedure well. Her central line was removed. She has a chest tube, but they are hoping it will only have to be in for a few days. Bonnie and David were waiting to see her when we talked and she will be moved to a hospital room sometime today.