Swap for a Cause

I'm going to continue my Swap for a Cause theme this year and wanted to encourage each of you to join in.  I'll be hosting 4 swaps, with the proceeds going to the Light the Night walk.  Mark your calendar and start gathering stuff for each of the dates below:

• May 1st: Home Decor (artwork, kitchen gadgets, table linens, candles, etc)
• June 12th: Crafts (supplies for scrapbooking, jewelry making, stamping, knitting, quilting, etc)
• August 21st: Kids clothing (bring any clothing that your kids have outgrown and look for new things in the next larger size)
• October 2nd: Women's clothing and accessories (clothing, jewelry, gloves, hats, lotions, etc)

The more people that we can get participating, the better the selections will be, so use your spring cleaning time to set aside items that you can donate to the swaps above! 

If the dates above don't work for you, but you think that you and your friends might enjoy a fundraising swap like this, contact me.  I might be able to assist you in hosting the same swap on another day.

Also, I would love to find a BIGGER venue to host the swaps, so I would love to hear from you if you know of a warehouse or restaurant or community center that might be willing to host one of our swaps.

Thanks to all who supported the swaps last year.

Stairway to Heaven

This Sunday, I will be participating in the Big Climb at the Columbia Tower.  This is another one of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's great fundraising events and involves 6000 people climbing 69 flights of stairs in one of Seattle's tallest buildings.  It's the first time that I have participated in this particular event, so I am a little bit nervous about how much my legs will hurt after climbing 1,311 stairs.  They say that the top racers can finish in as little as 8 minutes, but I am pretty sure I will be way, way after that mark!

I'll start climbing around 12:45, so please send me a little virtual strength around that time if you can!

Blood Detectives Excerpt

Check out this link for a great video describing what happens in Leukemia patients, as well as the great advancement that was made by Gleevec.

http://www.hematology.org/Publications/Videos/5712.aspx

Finishing Strong

If you attended Tyler's memorial service, you may have heard that Scott (Tyler's father) was designing a t-shirt to sell as a fundraiser in Tyler's memory.  The shirts are in and I have posted a picture of the images on the shirt for you above.

They are bright green (like our beloved Sounders colors) and have a silhouetted image of Tyler running on the front.  The back of the t-shirt has a picture of Tyler with the quote "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith."

If you would like to order a t-shirt, please contact Scott Bledsoe at (206) 546-2629.  If you can't call him, you may also try e-mailing him at mycaga@hotmail.com, but you will be more likely to catch him by phone.  He can provide you with all of the details about the shirt.

A Great Honor

I was recently asked if the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society could select Tyler to be an Honored Patient at this year's Light the Night walk.  The honored patient serves as the face of the mission and allows fundraisers and businesses to really understand the kinds of people that are touched by blood cancers.  Through my tears, I said that I would love to help Tyler inspire many more people to fight blood cancers!

More on this later, but I can't wait to see the walk brochure with his face on it!

Two Months today

I got a little teary-eyed this morning as I realized that it was the 2 month anniversary of Tyler's death.  He is missed by many people, I know.  I am doing okay.  I have been reading some books about grief recovery (thanks to those who gave such a thoughtful gift) and one of them has something that really resonated in my heart and I wanted to share it with you.

The book said that unresolved grief is often caused by a feeling that something should have been different, better, or more.  As I shared with a friend, the cancer diagnosis was in this one way a blessing for Tyler and me. We knew that our original dreams of growing old together would be challenged by this disease.  As he failed treatment after treatment, that became more of a reality for us each time.  Because we knew this fact, I was able to make choices to be with Tyler and really LIVE the life we could while I still had him.

While I do have a few regrets about things over the past 4 years (mostly that he had to fight cancer at all), I was able to be with him whenever he needed me.  I can never repay my coworkers and bosses for that time, as it is infinitely precious to me.  I spent most of the last month with Tyler and am so very thankful for that.  I flew with him to Houston and stayed until he got out of the hospital again.  I was with him as his health first started to fail seriously and during his last stay at UW.  I was holding him in my arms as he died and hope that helped to ease his transition.  It was (is) quite emotional for me to think about that final moment, but it was a sacred moment for me.

My purpose for sharing this is just to remind you to think about how your choices would be different if you learned that your loved one had only a limited amount of time left to be with you.  What changes would you make?  I certainly didn't quit my job and don't expect that any of you can afford to do that either.  But I surprised Tyler with tickets to a comedy show twice, just because I thought it would bring a smile to his face.  What can you do to make sure that you are not left feeling that you should have done something "different, better, or more" if you were to lose your husband or wife or parent or child tomorrow?

Do it TODAY!