Updates.

Hello All.

Just an update on some of the families that I read about every day.

Unfortunately, there's just not a lot of good news going around. If you remember the Loneliest Road campaign, of those 7 fathers, three of their children have received the worst possible news. Please keep these families in your hopes and prayers, that these children may be in the least amount of pain, and that they maintain stable disease as long as possible.

Grace Oughton

Grace relapsed awhile ago, but recently her prognosis became extremely poor. Her abdomen was described by her doctor as "a mess" and she has been sent home to hospice. Her parents wrote on her website, "If Grace is to die of cancer, we want her at our home, in our bed." This breaks my heart, this little girl is beautiful and has fought so hard. Her website is here: www.savegrace.com

Marissa Monroe

Marissa was NED, and on antibodies (3f8), however, she HAMA'd recently, and unfortunately, a few days later, her family learned that she had relapsed. With this relapse comes a new chemo regimen. This little girl has a lot of fight left in her, please keep her in your hearts. It seems that when relapse happens, the families hope and pray for an answer that will "buy time" until something new comes around that may save the life of their child. Marissa's website is here: Marissa

Jack Brown

This little boy is from England... he received his chemo and transplants in England, and then his family raised $350,000 to come to NY so that he could treat at MSKCC and receive the 3f8 antibodies. While he was here, he relapsed. He just flew home to England, as he has run out of options. In the words of Jack himself, "I just want to be at home." Jack's website: www.jackbrownappeal.org


The other Loneliest Road children are all undergoing treatment, and dealing with their own scans, tests, and chemo. All of them can be found at the Loneliest Road website.

One other bit of news - beautiful Lucas Tran gained his wings a few days ago. His father was a founding member of Band of Parents, a new group of parents who are willing to go to almost any measure to get their children the care that they need, that the government refuses to provide.
Lucas Tran

Lucas and his mommy. Visit his website here.


Finally, as always, please PLEASE keep Katie Krize in your hearts. I feel a really special connection with her, even though I have never met her. She is the very first child that I knew other than Liam who has NB. She was in a state of relapse while Liam was treated and passed away, and sadly she relapsed over a year ago.. I was devastated. Once again, Katie is at odds with this monster, but she fights each day and Em and I keep up on her very regularly. (She also sent me mail while I was at H**ver.. so that instantly made her one of my favorite people!!)
Katie Krize

Please visit her website, and leave her some LOVE!

Please keep all of these families in your thoughts, and remember that there are always struggles going on all around you, even ones you may not be aware of.
Love everywhere,
Kristen

Today is my half birthday.

CNN right now is showing live, the Dalai Lama speaking on Capitol Hill. It's the ceremony in which he is accepting the Congressional Gold Medal. He's struggling his way through the speech because he wants so badly to do it in English, but he's making great light of the situation, lightly joking as he struggles through words like "Pelosi" and "Personable" and "intolerable".. Kind of funny - He just thanked President Bush for his kind friendship, and Bush just giggled, his face turned red, and he smiled this ridiculous goofy smile - not looking the D.L. in the face, but looking out into the crowd. He then thanked "Madam Speaker" (haha) for her support of Tibet and for her excellent representative skils, and she smiled, and gave one long nod and said, "Thank you". I'm glad someone knows how to treat one of the smartest, hardest working individuals on the planet. Bush's reactions tend to be so rude sometimes.

Anyway! So last weekend was fall break, and it was FABULOUS! I didn't want it to end! It started out with driving to Richmond, VA on Thursday night, where we stopped to stay at a hotel - a first for us. We are usually "marathoners" - we drive the whole thing all the way through. But we decided to treat ourselves to a night at the Hampton Inn (thanks Mr. Galbraith!) which was really actually pretty fun, the bed was HUGE! The only negative part was that Syd was forbidden to come into the hotel haha, so we made her up a really comfy bed in the car, and put one of Em's sweatshirts on her to keep her warm. I was really worried about her all night, but as you can see from the picture, she had a great night!


Friday we arrived into Wilmington and we drove to West Chester University in W.C., PA to pick up my sister/see her dorm, which was great! Friday night my mom took us to Red Lobster, which I haven't been to in years - it was great =) Saturday we went to the Mutter Museum in Philly, which is this great museum that is full of medical anomalies and is used to teach the human anatomy. There is this collection of skulls from around the world, so you can see the differences, and there's a TON of scary looking this submersed in jars (conjoined twins, babies born with ALL SORTS of disformities. (is that a word? because blogger is telling me it's not haha). Anyways, after the Mutter museum, we switched gears and met up with my dad (luckily, Kels was with us to help buffer the awkwardness) and he took us to Charcoal Pit for dinner. After dinner he dropped the three of us off, and we went to see a movie with my mom - The Heartbreak Kid .. it was really funny, as long as you're not one of those people who needs movies to be extremely realistic. It was definitely worth the money, lots of good laughs.

Sunday morning we left DE and headed to Philly to meet up with Em's best friend Lindsey. She took us to this great place for lunch, and I had an excellent tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad. Yum, then we went to the AIA bookshop, which had the coolest stuff ever. I need to go back there at some point because I already have a birthday present picked out for a certain someone :D It was great to see Lindsey, and her pooches (sorry again, about the accident in the apartment!!) but we had to get going because Em's family had a big dinner Sunday night. Em's parents recently returned from China, so we heard all about that and everything else that's been up. Mrs. Galbraith bought me this beautiful Love Ball from China - I guess the story is that the girls used to make them (they're beautiful, and very ornate) and give them to the boy, and if the boy wrote her a love note back, then they were to be engaged. Cute =)

Monday was another great day, minus the part when we went to the DMV and sat for over an hour. Monday afternoon BEAKER JEAN met us at Target, and her and I went to Starbucks for coffee and catch up... it was sooooo nice to see her. She came to dinner with us and Em's parents, and then afterwards we went back to Em's and played around with her brother's Wii. (Beaks was the best at golf.. let me just say ;-)

Tuesday morning we woke up, drove home, had a tiny mishap that set us back, and arrived home after 13 hours on the road. We saw this sunset coming into Greensboro, and the picture, of course, does it absolutely NO justice. Sorry that it's blurry, but it kind of shows how the sky looked like it was exploding red and orange!



Enough for now.
Love everywhere,
Kristen Nicole

Rainbows and Dancing..

Em and I saw this rainbow yesterday on Pisgah Church
Rd. I had to snap a picture, because it made me really
happy.

I haven't updated anything but pictures in awhile... so I thought I'd stop by and talk about something besides pictures =)

Em and I are coming home next weekend. It's fall break, and it seems that fall break in the past has been a sad time for me. My first fall break was the last time that I was honored to be in the presense of sweet Liam. We visited him at A. I DuPont hospital. He was walking, talking, and looking great. Last year for fall break I went home and went to Steenstock, which was fun, but just hard all around - for everyone I think. Hopefully, this fall break will be a little less depressing =) We plan on going to Wilmington first, for Friday and Saturday, then Sunday morning drive to Chatham and spend Sunday and Monday in NJ. We'll drive back Tuesday. If you're in the Wilmington/Northern NJ area and want to see us, then let us know!!

Katie Krize, a sweet neuroblastoma fighter from South Carolina, has recieved the worst news ... they are out of options for her. Basically, she is going to start a chemo regimen that hopefully won't knock down her platelets too badly, and that way she may be eligible for some sort of clinical trial that will buy her time. Katie is SUCH a cool girl. She's in 8th grade, and she sent Em and I sweet letters all summer! We sent her letters too, and meant to send her a H**ver tshirt, but we forgot at the end of the summer. We play Clemson in a few weeks, so we're thinking about maybe heading over to meet her and give her hugs in person that weekend. She has fought for EIGHT YEARS total. The only way I even found out about her was because her website was in the "Hope" section of Liam's website... she was in remission then. She relapsed a few months after Liam passed away... such a shame. This cancer is such a monster, and I will never stop doing whatever I can to help fight it.

On a happier note (and there usually has to be a happier note with my entries, sorry!!), if you haven't seen the disney movie Cars, then go rent/buy it!! It's brilliant, I love how clever the screenplay writers were. It's one of those movies that is hilarious for kids, but even more so for adults at times because it's so funny. Ex: Lightning McQueen: "Doc won three Piston Cups!" Tow-Mater, discretely: "He did what in his cup?"

I'll leave you with this video of my little cousins...Coulby and Emma. If you remember, I went on vacation with them after Christmas last year at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. It is totally worth watching!!!!

Love everywhere,
Kristen

1 year of happiness.

Big Dorks... in Florida at Em's Aunt Ginny's house,
playing with a really sweet blow up croc.

Today marks one year of Em and I dating - and I can honestly and happily report that we are just as happy as we were when we started dating :) This is a first for me- I've never made it an entire year dating someone. So cheers to us!

To love!
-Kristen

Just a picture for now.

I like this picture. The sign I'm writing says "Free Hugs"...

I think the human body is one of the most beautiful things in the universe.

There Is Love...

Weddings are amazing. This weekend was absolutely fantastic. It was so beautiful, the entire wedding and everything about it. I'll post some pictures, and try not to go overboard ;-)


Getting ready! Me, Parker, Allegra, Alycia,
Kim, and Jaden the flower girl.


In the boathouse, 10 minutes til Aisle Walk!


Suzi with bridesmaids and Geoffrey, her
man of honor =)


Speech at the reception =)


Me and Elliott.. I love this man =)


Dancin' the night away

Em's artistic skills at work!

The night ended with fireworks that were

setoff over the lake... and then I got hit by

an explodingbox of fireworks, but I'm okay

because I'm tough :D

Since I was in the wedding, I don't really have many pictures of the actual ceremony, but you can trust me when I say that it was absolutely gorgeous... we were right on the lake! These pictures I took while on the ferry from Burlington to Port Kent:


And that's about it for now... let me know what you think :)

Love, crying at weddings, awesome bridesmaids gifts, seeing Sydney for the first time in 4 days, and watching 2 of your best friends say "I do"...

Kristen

I thought for awhile about what I wanted to post today. And then I remembered a paper that I wrote my freshman year of college, in English 101...

[I deleted out the boring parts, about what we did that day when we got home from school...]


We thought we looked so cool, sitting in that cherry red convertible with the top down and the sun shining on our hair. We were only fourteen, with the exception of my twelve year old sister, Kelsey. We had gotten off school early and we all walked home together from the high school that was just around the block from our houses. Things were unusually quiet in our middle-class neighborhood, and we were looking for something to do. We decided to pose in my next door neighbor, and friend, Laura’s beautiful convertible for a few pictures. Amber sat in the driver’s seat, while Kelsey and I squeezed together in the passenger seat. Mariah climbed in behind Amber, and Laura sat behind Kelsey and I. We smiled in numerous poses, giddy to be in a convertible and having ourselves photographed. After the photo shoot, we started a game of touch football in my backyard. We played for hours, not thinking about anything except for passes, interceptions, and touch downs on our makeshift end-line. When the sun began to go down, we went our separate ways for dinner.
Famous photographer Ansel Adams once said, “A photograph is usually looked at, but seldom looked into.” Looking into this photograph, I realize now that there is a certain sadness in my eyes. Although the five of us are all smiling happily in the picture, it is obvious that something is not right. Or is that just my guilt talking? Is it that I want us to have been upset and unable to smile?
When I pick up that photograph from my picture box, I hold with one thumb over the bottom right corner. I cannot bear to look at the date, for it breaks my heart and fills it with guilt and sadness. However, when I do remove my thumb from overtop of the tiny orange numbers, a universally recognized date appears: 9/11/01.
I woke up that morning and walked with my friends to our high school. It was only my third day, and I was still trying to adjust to being in such a big school with so many students. I can clearly remember walking from my history class and hearing talk in the hallways about some sort of attack on New York City. When I reached keyboarding class, my teacher had already turned on the televisions. I walked into the computer lab and immediately noticed everyone gathered in front of the television. The first image that I remember of the September 11th attacks was of an African American woman on her cell phone screaming at the top of her lungs, blood running from her head. The camera then panned the horizon and the World Trade Center buildings came into view. Thick clouds of grey smoke poured from the steel buildings, and I read the bottom of the screen: “PLANES HIT WORLD TRADE CENTER”. Moments after I walked into the classroom, we watched on live television the first building crumble to the ground.
In the days after September 11th, I found myself immersed in the articles published in magazines and newspapers. I listened to more of the news broadcasts of what had happened. I was informed about the attacks on the Pentagon, and the plane that had crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I also learned the death toll and who was behind the terrorism. When I look back now, I can easily remember the pain and suffering that I felt in my heart for the months after the September 11th attacks. However, you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at this photograph.
Four years later, I can barely look at the picture without my heart wrenching. I still cannot believe that at fourteen years old, I dismissed the fact that thousands of people had lost their lives in an awful display of terrorism. I played touch football with my friends that afternoon and smiled into the camera for silly pictures while people in the thousands were praying and sobbing at the sights on the TV. While my friends and I were having fun and glad that we had been awarded a half of day off school, the rest of the world was weeping.

The Loneliest Road

The Loneliest Road campaign began today. 5 fathers of kids with Neuroblastoma are biking from Sacramento, California to Washington, DC. I'm pretty impressed with the campaign to raise money and awareness. If you'd like to read more or check it out, click here.


I love this picture of Christi Thomas and her
mom, Angela. That child truly was a gift.

Lots to take care of before practice tonight... keep those 5 fathers in your thoughts/prayers as they battle possible harsh weather conditions and extreme exhaustion. Along with the fathers, keep the kids, ALL of them, in your hearts as well. They are the strongest people I know.

Love everywhere,
Kristen

So Rise and Shine

Stunning. Hot Springs at Yellowstone
National Park- June, 2007.

I'm still recovering from the fact that I accidentally deleted every single one of the pictures off of my camera from Yellowstone/Idaho/Oregon/Wyoming, and from the entire summer at camp. I'm so incredibly thankful that I printed out about 50 photos at Walgreens before I left for camp ... so I scanned a few of them in.

Just some thoughts recently-

1. Lately I've been getting very angry, very easily. It's not like me to get so angry that I am basically blowing steam out of my ears, but it's a more recent development. Hormones? Maybe.. but it's bothering me. Things that I used to be able to brush off and just let roll over my back now make me BOILING MAD. I've gotten to the point where I don't care about being incredibly polite or nice in all situations, which I don't like either. Just something else to work on I guess.

2. I really miss when things were easier. Just.. life in general I guess. Every year it gets harder and harder. Being a freshman in college meant that I could show up to rugby practice and not worry about any of the politics involved. It meant I could show up to class and fall asleep or doodle because it was some random General Education requirement like "Drama Appreciation" or "Nutrition". I miss the days of things being easy, and I'm not complaining - getting older brings awesome and new experiences - I just kind of wish I could go back every once in awhile to not having to be so incredibly responsible for myself.

3. I really truly miss my friends from Wilmington. As much as I've distanced myself - it hasn't really been on purpose, but has been entirely because of me. I moved so far away, and I never come home... when I am home, either no one else is, or I don't really call people because I'm usually exhausted from the drive, or because I'm only going to be there for like 2 hours. But I really miss it, and I know that things have changed there, things are always changing - some people don't want to admit that, but time and experience always brings change. I miss having friends from home. I can't believe no one has seen my mom's new apartment, and she's been living there for 6 months! I need to keep better contact with my friends before they think I'm not their friend anymore ;-)

4. "If you judge people, you have no time to love them" -Mother Teresa

That's about all for now. Leave me a comment and say hello, because I have no idea who's still reading this!

Love everywhere,
Kris

Life After Camp.

In all my camp glory... cooking breakfast

in Hickory Hill on a buddy burner (basically,

an upside down coffee can with a can of

sterno underneath.)

Life after camp is hard. I've adjusted back into the "real world" well. However, I won't lie - it was hard. I got very used to listening to the crickets at night before falling asleep, and now the silence is strange. I got used to eating at the same time everyday, and now at 12:30 my stomach tells me LUNCH NOW. I miss the lake, and the docks... and the fun in the staff room. I even miss climbing waterfront hill twice a day (sometimes THREE). I got really used to my friends being just two units away, or sometimes even just on the bunk above me or across from me. I miss twin days and surprises like all staff "LSR procedures" and showing the girls how to make a spiral for their tie dye. Life after camp seems very boring. I was so excited to come back to NC, and so ready to- after 8 weeks in the woods of NJ. And now that I'm here...I'm happy, it's just that I'm not as active. There are no little kids who say the FUNNIEST things and they have no idea what they're saying...

Life is good though, because I am taking awesome classes, I have a good schedule, and I'm babysitting for the same family again- who I LOOVE. Sydney is happy here, we take her to the bark park almost every other day. She misses all of the attention though, definitely.

Doing a trust fall from a 5 foot high platform.

I walked up to the group saying to Kelly,

"I'd never be able to do that!" And ten minutes

later, I found myself falling into their arms =)

Love everywhere,

Kristen