Back to school!

I was going to post pictures of the first day of school a couple days ago, but my Internet was down do to some strong storms here in Chicago.

The first day of school was not the same for Mary and Anna although they go to the same elementary school. Since kindergarten is only a half day and the first day for the older kids is only a half day kindergarten starts the day after grades 1-5 do. Kindergartners got to come to school to drop off their supplies and meet the teacher and explore the classroom that day though. They got to see where they sit, where they hang up their backpacks and found their cubby holes. There were two other kids from Anna's preschool last year that were going to the same school as Anna and they are both in her kindergarten class, so that was exciting for Anna. Mary also got to find that there were a few girls from her class last year in her class this year, so that was really good for her since this is only her second year at this school.

Everything went well on the first full day for both the girls. Anna goes in the afternoon session (because the girl is not usually a morning person) but all morning she was asking how long until school starts! Jason was able to come home in time to come with me to drop Anna off. Grandma even came! This was a big deal for all of us, our little miracle girl starting kindergarten! There is a special playground for the kindergarten classes that is closed off, which makes me more comfortable with the whole recces thing. The older kids look like they would squash the littlest kids in school! The teacher came out, asked the kids to line up and took them away when it was time to go in. Oh, how sad for Daddy, Grandma and I. Anna barley had time to say goodbye. Some of the kids were hesitant to leave their parents side but I didn't see many tears from the kids. The parents; We all looked like the paparazzi with our cameras flashing (a couple even with camcorders), calling out to the celebrity children! It was a funny site, I'm sure.

Anna playing before school

Anna and her good friend Hunter from preschool, before school

Lining up for the first bell

Anna coming out of school, very excited!

Mary and Anna after school!


Thursday, which was only the second full day of school, was very interesting. Just 15 minutes before school was out, the skies got very dark and the Tornado warning sirens came on. I was told in the past that when there are weather warning, children would remain in school until the warnings expired. This is something that has never been an issue since I have had school aged children, and since it was only the second day of school I panicked a bit. It was very hard to be stuck at home without your children in severe weather. I was scared, Jason wasn't home, Alex was napping, and I had no idea what was going on since the girls were supposed to be picked up by Hunters father. Ben (Hunter's dad) called me to let me know that he called the school and they weren't going to let out of school, and to wait around until the weather calmed and the warning expired. I was nervous for the girls, especially Anna since they have not had time to have tornado drill with it only being the second day of "real" school (as far as I know they didn't practice this in preschool, only a fire drill). I pictured her crying and scared, and Mary being scared, but knowing what to do in the case of an emergency since she has practiced this before. Everything turned out ok in our area, even with the strong winds.

It was a mad house at the school when it was time for the kids to be picked up. Parents had to go to the office to sign their kids out, then the kids were called one by one to the office. There were lines and groups of people everywhere. I don't think anyone was really prepared for anything like this as we don't have very much severe weather in the Chicago land area. I signed out for the kids, and Anna and Hunter were the first to come out. I expected tears and strong hugs, but they were totally fine! Obviously the teachers and staff were good at keeping the kids calm. When Mary came out, however, she had the look of terror on her face. She called out "Mommy" ran up to me and hugged me tighter than she has hugged me in the longest time! She's still my baby!

They ended up cancelling the next day of school due to power outages in half of the districts schools, and unsafe conditions on the school premises. This was an interesting first week of school, that's for sure. Hopefully next week will be calm so that we can get into the swing of things.


Here are a couple pictures of some of the damage done in the area around us. This was taken in Elmhurst, which is just about 10 miles east of us.

One Little Girl, One Big City!

My friend Jenny just sent me these pictures that she took of Anna at the Shedd Aquarium the week that Mary was in the Dells. I still have to develop the pictures that Mary took while she was on vacation, and I'll get those on a disk so that I can share those photos too!

Anyway, I just love the picture on the top of this post of Anna in front of the Shedd because she looks so little compared to that big city skyline in the background. Leave it up to Jenny to take some pretty cool pictures!

I love the look on Anna's face in this picture. I have to ask Jenny what Anna was looking at in this picture, doesn't she look like she is really concentrating on something?



I wish Brandon would look at the camera when someone takes a picture because he is such a good looking boy!



Here is another cool one! You can't see Anna's face, but you can see her reflection off of the fish tank!

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Anyway, we are all feeling much better, just coughing up a little more Flem, yuck! Mary starts her first day of school tomorrow, for just a half day. Anna doesn't have her first day of school until Wednesday, and Mary will start full days on that day too!

I got a call from the school nurse one day last week as she was looking over Anna's medical forms. She wanted to know what they could do as far as making sure Anna was safe in her class room. She wanted to know if she should send out a health letter to all of the Children in Anna's classroom, and inform the staff. I told her that I already had a letter that I have handed out in Anna's past years in preschool, and if she just wanted to look it over and OK it, this would save her a step. I told her I would bring it in later that day so that she could have it ok'd by the principle and staff so that it would be ready for the first day of school. I had no idea that not only was the nurse waiting for me, but she had Anna's teacher on standby so that we could have a meeting about Anna. The nurse went ahead and read up on transplants and Anna's medication and had a few questions to ask me. I was bombarded with questions from the both of them, and to tell you the truth it was a little overwhelming just because I wasn't expecting it! I guess I didn't think that this was going to be a big deal, but neither the nurse nor the teacher have had a student with these medical issues. After much discussion I was comfortable with the nurse and teacher and it felt so good to know that they have so much care for Anna and our situation. We are going to be on the computer as a contact when any big illness is going around in any part of the school. They only usually send things out to the parents in the particular classroom of the sick child, but I will always be informed because if those germs are in the school; if anyone would catch them it would be Anna.

This is a letter that I got from a fellow liver mother that her son's school nurse typed up for the kids to take home to keep parents informed. This is what will be handed out to the parents. Here is what it reads:

Dear Parent/Guardians:

This year we have a student in your child's class who has had a liver transplant. She is healthy and active and can participate in activities along with your son or daughter. Some of the medication that he has to take to prevent her body from rejecting her liver also weakens her immune system and makes her more susceptible to infections.


You can do the following to help prevent the spread of infections.

Teach your child about frequent hand washing

-After blowing noses and catching sneezes
-After using the bathroom
-Before eating

Do not send children to school if they are actively sick with vomiting Diarrhea, cough, sore throat, or fever. Children should be fever and symptom free for 24 hours before returning to school.


Keep children home if they have had a strep test until you know that both the rapid test and the overnight test are negative or until they have been on antibiotics and are fever free for 24 hours.


If your child has a rash that you think may be contagious, please do not send him or her to school. Call your doctor for advice or an appointment. If your child or a sibling has been in school and is then diagnosed with a contagious disease such as strep, mono, chicken pox, conjunctivitis (pink eye), gastroenteritis (vomiting and/or diarrhea), please notify us as soon as possible. This is particularly important to limit the spread and sometimes re-infection of both bacterial and viral infections.


The parents of this student appreciate your assistance in making attending school a healthy experience for their child and all the children in class. We view this as an opportunity to continue to instill healthy habits in all our children. Limiting the spread of germs that cause illness is the goal of our whole school community. Thank you for your cooperation. Working together we should have a healthy school year for everyone.

So.......Yes.........I am feeling good about Anna starting Kindergarten!

More on Illinois Donor Diaries

Anna's story is now up on the Illinois Donor Diaries and the I am, Are You blog! Please stop by to take a look, and register to be a donor if you haven't done so already!

Sorry for the short post, we are all sick here with a nasty cold, possibly flu, virus. I hope it goes away before school starts this coming Tuesday!

Dog Sitting

We are in our glory with a dog in our house! Some friends of ours went away for the weekend and we begged them to let us watch their dog, Baily. She is a golden retriever and a beautiful one at that.





It has been a little over a year since we had to get rid of our dog, Annie. Annie was a great dog, but we had to move into a place that doesn't allow dogs, we had no choice. It was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do, she seemed so sad, and the girls were heart broken. Thanks to my good friend, Jenny, we got Annie a great home where she is spoiled rotten! She lives with a single Man, he revolves his whole world around "our dog" and we are so grateful to him for that. Jenny even works with Annie's new owner, Paul, and she gets to see Annie once in a while. At first I thought that we would schedule some visitations with her, but as time went by I wondered if that might not be such a good idea. I started thinking that all it would do is stir up some emotions in the girls, and maybe even in Annie. Paul said that she went through a period of depression, being taken away from the only family she knew for 6 years. We are just letting Annie and Paul be happy with each other. Just knowing that she is alive and well makes me happy. You still can't bring her up to Mary without Mary putting on the water works.

Anyway, I forgot how nice it is to have a dog around. I don't think I realized until now how much of a dog person I am. Don't get me wrong, I love my cats, but dogs are just totally different. You have to earn a cat's love, but dogs love you unconditionally. The girls haven't left the poor thing alone since the moment she walked in the house. They want her to play all the time, we have to remind them to let her rest! We have taken her outside to play so many times, and take her for nice long walks. She slept with Jason and I last night, thank God we have a king size bed! Her owners warned us that she might not eat because of being in a strange place, but she is eating just fine! I think she likes us! I think we might not answer the door when they come home tomorrow night! I haven't even heard her bark once, my landlord would never know!

While the girls are away......

Monday morning Mary left early for vacation, without us! She got an offer from Jason's cousin to tag along with him and his 7 year old daughter to go to Great America for a day, then drive up to Wisconsin Dells and stay at the Kalahari Resort (this is a hotel with a water park in the inside and one outside) for 3 days! Mary, of course, was excited. Anna was less than thrilled. Anna didn't think it was fair for them to want to bring Mary and not her! At first I actually didn't think it was fair for Anna either, but after giving it some more thought, why hold Mary back? It's really hard to give to these girls equally. When Mary gets to do something, Anna feels left out, and when Anna gets to do something Mary feels left out. Granted, Anna has not yet had the chance to do what Mary is doing this week, but it doesn't mean that she never will. She will get her chance. Besides, I didn't have to pay for anything, in fact Rob (Jason's cousin) told us not to send Mary with any money! Good thing because I didn't have any money to give to her!

I tried explaining to Anna that she wouldn't have been able to go on a lot of the rides that Mary and Samantha would be able to go on, because they are much taller than she is. Also, Mary and Samantha both know how to swim (this is probably helpful to know how to do at a water park), and Anna is not a strong swimmer. Also, Anna is really good at wondering off into her own little world, you have to remind her to watch where she is walking and to stay with you. When she sees something she likes she WILL beg for it and she is very good at arguing her case. Especially, I wouldn't want to give Rob the responsibility of remembering Anna's medication every day at the same time and measuring it out and all of that.

We are trying to think of fun things to do with Anna while Mary is gone. The day Mary left, Jason, Alex, and I went to the local public pool. Wouldn't you know it, an hour of swimming lessons with Jason and Anna was swimming! She swam the whole width of the pool! She is a swimmer now, I am so proud of her! Alex decided to get really brave this time too, and she was floating around with her arm floaters in the deeper water. We didn't go into the baby pool at all this time, she was jumping into the water to me, making me hold her belly to make her swim, and was having races with Jason and Anna! It was so adorable! Later that day Anna went to Grandma's house for a sleep over. Anna's Grandma made her favorite dinner and Papa and Grandma took Anna out for ice cream when they were done eating. A day at the grandparent's house is always fun for the girls!

Of course, that left Alex and I home alone because Jason was working late that night. Alex was less than thrilled, I guess I am chopped liver compared to her sisters. She always has one sister or the other with her, and I obviously just don't play the right way with her. She threw a huge fit because I didn't have any icy colds ( aka, Popsicles) for her, and because I wouldn't take her outside in the thunderstorm! I guess in a two year old eyes, they don't see the rain and lightning as a threat, they just want to ride their tricycle! Eventually, we found something to do that pleased us both. I painted Alexandria's nails for the first time! She felt so pretty, she said she looked just like Mary and Anna now! It was very cute!

"Alex, show me your nails!"


"Let Me Try to get a close up!"


"Ok, one ore Alex!"
Jeez Mom, that's enough!!!




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Yesterday we had Anna's friend from preschool over, Hunter, and his little sister Maya. They always have fun together! Hopefully Anna and Hunter get into the same Kindergarten class together because he will be the only other one from preschool who is going to the same elementary school. I know Anna will make friends, and pretty soon it will not be cool for Hunter to be friends with a girl, or for Anna to be friends with a boy, but for now and at first, it would be nice for them to at least know each other to get through the first few weeks!


Anna and Hunter making silly faces, and Alex and Maya making silly faces!



Then later after they left we went to Anna's favorite restaurant, the Mongolian BBQ! This is a very good, all you can eat, put it together yourself stir fry. They always a good variety of meats and veggies and sauces. You put together all your favorites, and watch them stir fry it in front of you. They sometimes throw the knives up into the air, and do some little tricks, and they have a big symbol they gong when you throw a tip in the jar. Anna loves it! It is very good food!

I'm not sure what today holds yet as it is still early, but tomorrow my friend Jenny is taking Anna and her son Brandon out. Possibly the Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago. That should be fun!

So Staley Da Bear, we meet again!

Jason ditched worked on Saturday so that we could go to Bourbonnais, IL to watch the Bears at their training camp. Jason has always been a huge Bears fan, and goes every year to watch the bears train for the season. Of course this year was very crowded. I'm thinking it's because the Bears made it to the super bowl last season. Everyone has high hopes for them this year.

Two summers ago we brought Anna with us to training camp for the first time. This was also the same summer we went to Disney for Anna's wish trip. Anna was afraid of the team mascot, Staley the bear, that summer. She wanted to see him, but once we got up to him she freaked out. He acted as though he was upset that she didn't want to see him, and walked away with his head down. Later on she decided that she wanted to go give him a hug, but we couldn't find him. She was three, but almost four that year. We were actually afraid that she wouldn't want anything to do with the characters at Disney, but it turned out that she gave each and everyone of them a hug! Maybe she didn't want them to feel bad the way she made Staley feel. Anyway, after I wrote about this in Anna's old caringbridge page Staley must have googled his own name and found the post about himself on Anna's page. He ended up writing her a letter in her guest book. Unfortunately I had to erase Anna's page because someone spammed the guestbook it with porno(how anyone could do this to a little girls Caringbridge page is beyond me)
After he wrote it, I printed it out for her and put it in with her baby book, and other stuff I save for her. This is what it read:

Dear Anna,
My name is Staley Da Bear and I just read the article your mom wrote about Training Camp last year. I wanted to let you know that you didn't make me sad. It's ok to be afraid of the big brown grizzley bear. Sometimes I wish I didn't look so scary, but that's just the way I am. I hope you are doing well. Please visit me this year at training Camp!

Love your friend,
Staley Da Bear

I'm sure you can imagine the excitement Anna had over this letter. Heck, so did Jason, Mary, and I.

Anyway, last year we went to family fun night at Soldier Field. All Anna did the entire time was look for Staley so that she could give him that hug. We found him and she did give him a hug and this time I did not forget my camera!



As you can see, in both of the pictures Staley has got a hold of Anna's hair! When he pulled Anna's hair this last time, he did it, he made Anna totally obsessed with him. Since we stayed for the whole day (got there for their 9am practice, and stayed the day to go back for the 7pm practice) all Anna could talk about was how Staley remembers her because she hasn't seen him pull on any other girls hair and she couldn't wait to go back to see him later. When we saw him that evening, she asked him if he remembers her and if he remembered writing her the letter. He pointed to her and nodded his head. She was ecstatic! For the whole two hours, every time he would come near where we were sitting, she called out to him. She wouldn't stop. She kept on talking about how he knows her, like they were best buddies. She is friends with a celebrity! It was so precious.

Anyway, it was a great time this year at camp. The weather wasn't so hot because the sun was hidden behind the clouds. We hung out in the van and watched Harry Potter movies and ate the packed lunch Jason made that morning. The evening practice was awesome, they had a little kiddie training camp set up for the kids, which they got a kick out of. Through out the day we got some autographs, Mary thought that was really cool because last year she was really into watching the games with Daddy, so she knew the people. It was hard to get good pictures of the players we got autographs from just because everyone was pushing to get through, but I got a few good ones!

Robbie Gould #9; Tyler Mcmeans #62


Roberto Garza #63; Fred Miller #69


Drisan James (rookie); Lovie Smith!!!!! (head coach)


Muhsin Muhammad #87; Greg Olsen #82 (rookie, Jason says he'll be awesome!)


Here is a good one, three in one. Tommy Harris #91, Devin Hester #23, and Charles Tillman again.




This one Alex took of the Mary and Anna



This one is scary, all three of the girls with Robbie Gould faces!


And these are of the girls in training camp!

Illinois Donor Diaries

I was browsing the blogging world last night and came across this blog, "I am. Are you?". The blog is a part of the Donate Life of Illinois campaign.

One of the reason's I started Anna's place was to tell Anna's story. To let people know the importance of organ donation and what good it can do. My blog has since turned into more of a family journal. Not that that's a bad thing. There is just not much to report on Anna, health wise. She has been in great health since her transplant!

After leaving a comment on "I am. Are you?" I recieved an e-mail from the creator of this blog asking me if I would like my story in a Illinois Donor Diary entry. I will have to write our story along with a picture of Anna and describe my personal story/tie to organ donation. With hopes that this would help others to register as donors, I would love to help!

Upon discussing this with a friend I was asked why my story would help; because I was Anna's donor. This took me by surprise, she knows us, knows our family, and she knows what Anna has been through! I explained to her that even though I was Anna's donor I still like to promote oragan donation. Living donation is not possible in every case, and a living donor can only donate part of a liver, or one kidney. What about hearts, lungs, ect....... This pushed me more into wanting to do this. Some people don't understand the importance of organ donation. If myself, or any of my family, weren't able to donate to Anna, I would have hoped that someone would have made the selfless choice to donate their own or their loved ones organs. We were very lucky in our case, but not everyone is.

Here are some statistics:
Almost 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.

Every 12 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.

An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.

In 2005, there were 7,593 deceased organ donors and 6,895 living organ donors resulting in 28,108 organ transplants.

In 2005, 44,000 grafts were made available for transplant by eye banks within the United States.

Approximately 1,000,000 tissue transplants are performed annually.

According to research, 98% of all adults have heard about organ donation and 86% have heard of tissue donation.

90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor.

So stay tuned, I will let you know when our story is up, but for now you can read other stories here!

These are other ways I have been promoting organ donation awarness:

My car is decorated with this: You can purchase this, and other great items here

And This:


And My family Wears these:



I wear these




And Anna wears this:




I know it doesn't seem like, but I get a great response to these and then I get to tell our story. I get people thinking. Anna has touched so many lives around her. A lot of people come up to me and say that they changed their minds about donation and register to be donors after knowing about Anna.

More fun at the zoo

I'm a little behind on blogging again. There is just not much going on here. We went to the zoo for the third time this summer. We have season passes that my good friend Jenny got for our family as a Christmas gift. It's really nice to take advantage of Brookfield Zoo being so close to us and being able to go anytime. You pack your lunch, even bring along one of the neighbor kids and you have yourself a nice outing that doesn't break your wallet. This zoo is big and unless you feel like spending the ENTIRE day there, you can't see everything. This time we spent a good amount of the time at the Children's petting zoo and near the bears, who were being very entertaining! Also, in the restrooms, since Alexandria is being potty trained and anytime a 2 year old says she has to go, you better get her there fast. Anyway, here are some pictures and a video of the brown bear there. He was doing the back stroke over and over again! It was so cute, and you just wanted to jump right in there with him because it was so HOT!!!!

This is so Cute if you want to check it out! This Bear was having a grand time swimming and showing off for everyone!




Mama Bear and baby Bear playing in the water, and piglets (Alex swore that one of them was Wilbur from Charlotte's web!



Miss Anna trying to brush a Billy Goat. This one kept running from poor Anna! Alex really enjoyed the petting zoo and brushing the Goats as well!



Mary wasn't as thrilled as the little ones (or at least she didn't want me to know she was, but I told her to smile). Then one of the girls with Shantana (the neighbor friend that we snagged to come along with us)

In a few years???????

Mary has been taking Viola lessons weekly from my little (soon to be married) sister, Deborah. Today we went to her 3rd lesson and Deborah says that, for this being only her 3rd lesson, Mary is doing very, very well. Deborah thinks that by the beginning of the fall, when Mary starts Viola in school, she will be way ahead of everyone. I wonder if they might transfer her to the fifth grade Orchestra? Deborah says she might be playing actual songs by this time, and fourth grade Orchestra will be teaching reading notes and plucking songs(something Mary can already do). Mary loves everything that has to do with music. She has a guitar and has taken lessons from a friend of Jasons. Mary also has a piano (keyboard) which she teaches herself to play. She just has it in her blood. She totally looks up to Deborah and hopes to play as well as her some day. Deborah said she has had students in the past that just don't seem interested at all, but Mary is different. She wants to learn, she practices all the time! So...in a few years...if she sets her mind to it...she could very well be as good as Deborah (or at least close to it)!

Once again, my little digital camera isn't the best for recording, but it is all I have. The sound doesn't do Deborah justice. Deborah has studied mostly Violin since she was in fourth grade, but this is her on her Viola.



Mary has a ways to go...here she is practicing her notes.

Celebrating Family!

I feel terrible. The only pictures I took for the fourth were of Alex and her cousin's. We were going to stay home and just have Jason's parents over for the fourth of July, but we were invited to Jason's cousins house instead (along with Jason's parents because Jason's mom is Jason's cousin's auntie). The more the merrier! It was nice for the girls to get to see their cousins, but I didn't get to see my 2 oldest girls much that day. Samantha who is almost 8, had a friend over who was just one school year younger than Mary, and they all thought it would be cool to go to the park down the street instead of hanging out with the old people and the babies (meaning Alex and the littlest cousins Michael,3 and Mathew,2). Normally Alex would have wanted to go with her sisters but she was having too much fun getting her pig tails pulled by her very boyish, and active cousins. I think she loved being chased down by them, and they loved having a little girl around to torture, that wasn't their sister. I'm sure Samantha lets them know who's boss! Sooo, I got pictures of Alex playing in the back yard with the boys while the older girls were at the park. They came back, we ate, and they went back to the park. When it came time to see the fire works I made sure that my camera was in my purse. Since we had to carry chairs, blankets and a cooler for 3 blocks, I decided to leave my purse in my car. Forgetting of course, about my camera. The pictures would have been great too! There was a park that the kids played in before the fireworks started. Rob got the kids all an ice cream and they all made such a mess since it was so hot and humid out. I LOVE messy pictures! Oh well. The girls loved the fireworks as always. We had a great night with family!

Even though I feel guilty that I don't have a picture with all of the kids from the fourth, I will still post these of Alex and her cousins. And just so that I don't leave the other girls out, here's some that I took outside today of the girls riding their bikes.











Speaking of family, this August we will welcome a new member to the family. My little sister called me this morning to announce her engagement! She is having a little wedding in early August. She sure didn't leave herself enough time for planning! Deborah will be starting her third year in college this fall, and I guess she wanted to get married soon so that they can find an apartment near her school in the city. I mentioned to her that she CAN move in with him before getting married.....but my parents raised a good Christian girl! She will not live with him unless they are married, that is her reasoning behind getting married so soon! I still think of Deborah as being Mary's age, it seems so weird that she is in College and is getting married! She is studying music, and is planning on being a music teacher/instructor. She was so excited to learn that Mary has expressed an interest in playing the Viola this fall. Deborah plays the violin, the viola, piano, cello, and bass I think. She is so good, she can make you cry and she can make you laugh when she plays. For the past few weeks she has been giving Mary private lessons. She doesn't ask for payment, and she refuses my money. She looks at it as a learning experience for herself and Mary. Like they are both getting something out of it. Guess I'll just have to get her a few things on her bridal registry! Since my mother only lives about 20 miles from my house it's not a big deal to drive there weekly, but I don't know about driving out to the city for Mary's lessons! (We'll talk about this next week Deborah!)