Pumpkin Carving

Here are the girls carving a pumpkin with Grant. Last year, we carved 3 (or I should say, Grant did!). Notice we only have one this year, and look how small it is!! ha ha.

Back from Boston!

(Dawn with her cushie carpet pads!)

(Duck Tour)

(Tina driving the Duck...Quack Quack!)

Me, Dawn, Julie, Tina - at Quincy Market

(Dawn, Tina, and Julie - ready to begin!)

(Tina, and me - holding on for dear life on Subway! -another fear conquered!)

Just wanted to let you all know that I am back from Boston and had one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. It was such a thrill to work with such great ladies. We immediately knew we were going to have a great time, when the adventure began at the Hertz Rental car place. I'm going to have to really think of a good way to describe the scenario, because it was really one of those things that you couldn't "create" better if you tried. Just to highlight, it involved losing the car rental receipt from our parking place to the exit booth, Tina frantically trying to get the back hatch unlocked, with Dawn steadily locking it each time Tina was successful in unlocking it (Dawn not doing this on purpose though!), the windshield wipers going on and off, the car being shut off while in park, and then having difficulty even getting the car to start up again (because it was in park), and I really think somewhere in there, a boob was accidently responsible for causing the horn to start blowing. All of this at the exit booth, with cars steadily lining up behind us!!

What a way to get started. I would love to be able to adequately describe Dawn's carefree attitude at the hands of our trusty Navigon trying to get us to where we needed to be. We would be in a very serious junction - needing to turn right or left at like this very second - and she would turn around giggling trying to tell us a story that could easily have waited UNTIL we made our important turn! About 20 turnarounds, several loopty loops, many streets that were marked both North and South but heading in the same direction, we amazingly found our way to the hotel. Feeling very confident now in our abilities to travel, we decided to head out for a bite to eat at "the mall" (as if there is only one mall in Boston, and our navigon was going to find that one mall for us), we traveled through people's yards in a random neighborhood in search of a place to eat. Another 2 hours shot in the car on the lovely roads of Boston. [Tina, I will forever consider you a warrior for the cause - for all the driving you did, and for being so brave!! Your white knuckles will forever be etched in my memory!]

This is how it all began!!

Tired already - so were we...so off to bed we went so that we could get up bright and early for all the setting up we would have to do on Friday (which took all of about maybe 1 hour!!). But, hey...we were ready!

So off to the duck tour we went...(I had no idea what a Duck tour was, but it's some military vehicle that took us on a land tour and water tour). This was fun and would have been more helpful had I known some of the history of Boston before we arrived, but a fun experience nonetheless. Tina drove the boat better than the rental car - but hey, at least she was brave enough to be the "driver."

We were shocked when we returned to the Convention Center after our afternoon of sightseeing to find our booth totally destroyed (I shouldn't say totally -but it was messed up!)! Huge crates (that the HUGE pharaceutical companies were unpacking) were backed into our booth, our curtains were on the floor with our decorations getting all messed up! So...while this was a bad thing in the beginning, we were able to make "friends in high places," and immediately, everyone knew who we were - "the crazy ladies from the spot booth!" (not really...that's just we called ourselves!) But from tragedy, comes progress - right, so were able to squeeze out 2 more chairs (because we could only pay for 2 of us to have chairs), and Dawn tried to get us cushie carpet pads for our carpet, but managed to get the nice set-up lady to hand cut for her shoe-size carpet cushions for her to stand on.

Let's see...that brings us to Saturday morning, which was our first day of Convention. We had a great day and made a lot of positive contacts with doctors. One in particular, stayed in our booth for a while, looking at pictures and asking questions, and told us that she felt she just missed a diagnosis, and was glad to be talking with us so that she could go back and adequately diagnose this child. For me, that made it all worth it!!

Along with that...we connected with many nurse practitioners, doctors, publication representatives, the National Organization of Rare Diseases, Epi-Pen manufacturers, a group that provide camps for kids with special medical conditions that might limit them from going to regular camps, and many more. We were commended for our work and the overall look of our booth by the AAP representatives, and just had a very productive time overall.

On Sunday morning (I think...the days started running together), many physicians had just come from a dermatology lecture where a small segment on mastocytosis was discussed, so this was great for us. They were immediately drawn to us to learn more.

We purchased a scanning system from the Tradeshow organization in order to be able to scan doctor badges to get information from them in order to send more information to their offices. We had very many contacts this way and cannot wait to make further connections with them.

Some of our publications materials were donated and tons were done at a fabulous price by one of our members and her husband's printing company (so while we didn't give away all 6000 of our brochures, we will have wonderful color copies to distribute across the country to many more doctor offices, and have a ready made supply for future conventions!!!)

All of this was such a great experience. The subway ride was my first, and our tour of the cemetaries and Quincy Market was great fun!!

I cannot believe that 2 and a half years ago, the word mastocytosis was foreign to me, and I was honored to be there representing this great group!! It was such a joy and a blessing.

I just wanted to personally thank you all for the contributions you made to the organization, either through your financial donation, or your many prayers for us while we prepared, and as we traveled.

I love you all, and am so excited for having been apart of this great opportunity!!

Probably one of the greatest surprises of the whole trip was that Grant had the girls bathed and in their pj's when he picked me up at the airport, I opened the door to a CLEAN house, and the bed was actually turned down for me - just waiting for me to fall in. (And for you Dawn - the only thing that could have made it better would have been if there was a little Hershey's kiss resting on my pillow!) - But since Grant didn't know about our little story - I won't fault him for that.

Tina, Dawn, and Julie - you've made me laugh harder than I have in a long time and cry with such joyful tears...I will never look at a Navigation system and not think of you Dawn, or drive around a strange city without thinking of Tina, never have a better backseat driver companion as you Julie, or never ever have a more exciting, emotional, prideful experience in my life. I am so honored to have had the opportunity to work with you. You inspire me, uplift me, and above all, fill me with a lifetime of wonderful memories and you've provided me with 3 new lifelong friends. I love you girls!!!

Grant, thanks for "letting me" go!! Thanks for encouraging me to have fun, for praying for me, for taking such good care of the girls while I was gone. Thanks for knowing that I was going to be tired when I came in last night and for having everything ready for me to fall into bed and go sound asleep. I really do love you with all of my heart, and we couldn't have done what we did without the support from our husbands and significant others. Your support brings me to tears!

I love you!

I just cannot say thanks enough for all that each of you have done. Whatever your part was was instrumental in getting us there and having it be a success. I had a great time (can you tell?)

I'll stop for now...but it was great!!

Amber

Happy Birthday Again

I just wanted to let it be known that I am so comfortable with the content of my previous blog, that I am happy to just let it stand as is.
I wouldn't dare wake MY kids up before dawn, just so they could draw more pictures in an attempt to one up my sister!!
I just wouldn't do that....
I mean after all...let's not lose sight of what's important...It's your birthday Daddy - and I was thinking you were only 57!! Who's right? I'm sure it is me...

Happy Birthday Bryan!!!

The girls had this GRAND idea of drawing birthday cards for you. They came up with it all by themselves - I mean they wouldn't have looked at Abbey's blog and seen that Austin and Ella had done that or anything like that!!



Happy Birthday from the Pittmans

[Pause the music on the playlist at the bottom, so that you can here the video sound]

Your Birthday Poem

There once was a man named Bryan

Who went on cruises all the time.

He left the kids, and took his wife.

Cruises became his way of life.

To here him tell it, you'd never know,

That from now on, this is how they'll go.

It doesn't matter what stops they make.

They just like the midnight cake

And the bingo games are fun for Mom.

And watching Fox makes Dad real calm.

He'll have a birthday on this trip

And won't be having chips and dip

But lobster rolls or succulent crab

Whatever they have, he's sure to grab!

So on your birthday we wish for you

A happy day, through and through!

It's hard we know, it's never fair,

To celebrate your b/d without us there,

But, please have fun, or we'd feel bad.

You're the greatest, our dear OLD Dad!!

BZZZZzzzzz AGAIN!!!

Okay...up until this point, neither Madison nor Audrey have ever been stung by bees, wasps, yellow jackets, etc.

So...when Madison gets in the car yesterday from school, she tells me that she was stung by a bee, too!!

Obviously, she was fine, but I just think that is so weird that they both were stung for the first time within days apart.

Madison told me about going to the office, and them putting an ice pack on it, and how she only cried a little bit.

She then told me that her friend CJ or Jacob (cannot remember which), told her not to worry about it, because when the "bee stings you, it gets a big hole in it, and it dies!!!"

BZZZZzzzzzzz

Well...it happened.

I got that dreaded call from the church where Audrey goes to Mom's Day Out. The first thing that came out of Mrs. Otillio's mouth was "Audrey is fine. But..."

I am thinking, Oh, great...so who did she hit or bite and how bad is it?

But..instead, she told me that Audrey was stung by a wasp. (Sigh of relief on the hitting thing....panic over the wasp thing.)

Thankfully, she had no reaction at all, and all seemed to be fine. [With her mastocytosis, she has the potential of having very severe reactions with bee or wasp stings, so this is always a concern!]

I went to pick her up at the scheduled time, and we were driving home, and she was just fine.

A motorcycle was in front of us, and all of a sudden it accelerated it's speed and made a very loud buzzing noise.

Audrey couldn't even see the motorcycle, but she said, "You hear 'd that?"

And I said, "Yep."

And she said, "That's a bee," and I couldn't help but laugh thinking that that is probably what she heard as the wasp or bee was approaching her sweet little face!!!

1st day of Mom's Day Out

Yesterday Audrey started Mom's Day Out again for this year. She was sick on Monday when she should have started, and of course, was out last week because of Hurricane Gustav. I think she was just as glad as I was that she would be going to play with her friends. Here are a few pictures of her morning.

Getting ready to leave for school.

Big Sis giving her a hug on her first day!
(with gloves on, don't know what that was about!)

Audrey insisted on wearing her socks "old school" as Grant would call it!!

I kept pulling them down, and she would pull them back up saying, "up high, up high!"

Thankfully, her teacher said she had a good day!! And that she was so "sweet!!!" Wait 'til Audrey gets used to them!