Not Really About Nail Polish

Okay, so you've heard me talk about The Band before. Well, if you've been reading you have. If not, then you should certainly be checking them out. Anyway, so last night one of the band members found out her son Jack has leukemia. Yeah, super serious stuff. Now it seems this is ALL, which is one of the "better" ones to have, but still, a 5 year old should NOT have to deal with this crud. So we're all teaming up to send our best wishes to him, and he's gonna KICK ASS and get healthy.

Now, I don't have any orange ribbons, so I'll have to post some orange polish for you to enjoy while I tell you more about what you might be able to do to help. Yes, YOU.

Did that bright orange polish catch your attention? Good. One of the most important things you can do to help out folks with leukemia is to join the Be A Match Registry. It won't cost you a penny during the month of January, because American Express has given a grant to cover the expenses (it normally costs $100, which may or may not be covered if there have been enough contributions). You could be a super man/woman to somebody out there if you are their match.

It may turn out that Jack doesn't need a transplant, but even if you don't happen to help him, you could help somebody else. Somebody's son or daughter. Somebody's brother, sister, or cousin. Somebody's best friend.

So, have further questions on what you'll need to do to join, or how this all works? Just check out their Frequently Asked Questions section. It's got everything you need to know.

Maybe you are ready RIGHT NOW to possibly help save a life? Then you can go here and follow the instructions to join.

Or are you one of those people who is already signed up, and just waiting for the call that asks you to help? Are you certain your information is up to date? If not, then you should head on over and make sure it is.

Perhaps you're like me, and are unable to join for some reason. I have psoriasis, and that precludes me from being able to help in this way. But take heart, there are other things you can do to get involved.

There are even several ways to donate money if that's how you prefer to do things.

Maybe you are reading all this and just not quite sure what leukemia is exactly, or how it can be treated. Well, the Band has put up a resource page that can help.

If you'd like to learn a bit more about Jack, and/or follow along, you can visit his Caring Bridge page. He's so adorable and sweet. No kid should have to go through this.

If you'd really like to send Jack a get well e-card or an email of support, just contact me, or any of the Band members for an email address. Or just leave a note at his Caring Bridge site Guest Book.

Band members have also started using the #jackonaut hash tag on twitter to send Jack messages of hope and light.

If you'd like to stick one of the cool buttons on your blog to show your support, even for just a day or so, you can grab it from the Band post. Well, that's about all I can think of for the moment. I'm going to dig up several orange polishes and wear them this week in Jack's honor - as well as all the other kids who are dealing with leukemia in their lives.

Oh, one last thing... if you're just itching to spend some money on something, here's Jack's Amazon wishlist. How about you, do you know somebody special who is going through a rough time? Maybe you can do something small to help lift their spirits.

More Swatches To Share!

Okay, this time I'm actually getting back to this before a week has gone by! Go me! It's windy and rainy, and I've had a really rough day, so I'm kicking back with a Subway sub, some delicious wine (a Sangria from Brookmere), and the time to do a little 'housekeeping' on both my blogs. Maybe I'll even find the time to get some more swatching in tonight, unless I get tipsy. Of course, that wouldn't take much. So let's go through how my day went while we see the rest of the WNW swatches. (Fair warning, there is some gross talk in here!)

Couple of Days. HAH!

So, after I slept way not enough, I went back up to the hospital, and the jerk in the other bed was so nasty that when we ran into the doctor in the hall, we talked him into letting The Mate come home. After all, it's not like he's doing physical therapy and needs to be at the hospital, I can make him just about as comfortable here as the bed there, and even though the animals can be pests, he kinda likes having them around. which means, night before last, I brought him home, and tucked him into bed, and we've been hanging out ever since, dozing a lot (I'm so totally not caught up yet).

Of course, I haven't managed to upload pictures off the camera, so there will be plenty of those once I get to it. He's doing quite well, although the pain is, well, excruciating. But my sweetheart is a trooper, and isn't complaining much at all. (I bet I would be.) Seriously, all I can say is that I'm super lucky that he is way easy to take care of. So many people get nasty when they have pain like this, but he really doesn't at all. I'm so relieved that it went this well, and though we won't know if it helped a lot for a while, I sort of suspect that it might ease a few of his symptoms a little. And that's all we hoped for, since we knew going in that this couldn't fix everything.

The animals have been pretty good, although they want to be near him, they seem to understand that they can't be playing on him or bouncing on him as much as usual. Many of them will wander in, spend a few minutes cuddling with him, and then wander out again. Well, except Tabitha, who has practically glued herself to him. No shock there. And Sherbet still crawls up for his Dad time, which isn't surprising either. Jupiter is pretty happy to have his person back (don't get me wrong, he loves me too, but he and The Mate have a pretty special bonding thing going on), and has been extra smiley.

I'm way tired, not because he is working me much, but more because I'm so overjoyed to have him home that I can hardly sleep for sheer giddiness. Yeah, I know, I'm like a teenager in love or something, but I just don't do well when he isn't here. Even if he's dozing off, and I'm doing other stuff, just knowing I can reach out to touch him any time I want to is a big thing for me. I guess it's loooooooooooooove. Hee. Whatever it is, I am one lucky girl. And with that, I think it's time for me to try for some actual sleep, so that maybe I can do something special like bake him a cake tomorrow later today. I gotta put those wonderful new Christmas presents to use!

I'll try to catch up on pictures, blogging, and reading in the next few days, but no guarantees. And I really need to do some computer cleanup and such too. If you see me unsubscribing to your blog or whatnot, don't worry, I'm just rearranging how I subscribe to some stuff, and in many cases I'm subscribed twice! LOL I'm attempting to get things more organized so that I can keep up with reading, and maybe even comment more on the wonderful blogs I read. Plus I need to sync up my MP3 player, and catch up with my Kindle stuff as well. We'll just not talk about how much cleaning there is to catch up with around the house. *shifty eyes*

PHEW!!!

He came out of surgery early, and is back to being an annoying pest already. Doc thinks he'll be home in a couple days rather than a week. Now I'm going to fall over for a few hours, then head back up to the hospital.

So Much To Do!

I'm not even the one having surgery, and yet I've  got enough anxiety for any five people. I'm already running around trying to get things ready, and see if I can figure out how to slap some blog posts up while I'm taking care of The Mate and just worrying in general.

Instead of a one-track mind, I think I have a billion-track mind. So many things are running around in my brain that I can't seem to pin any of them down. I've finally decided to sit down tonight and do something for me, so I'm getting a little swatching in before I paint my nails and try to sleep. We've both done some work with the dogs, and Missy is having a rough night (could it be she is sensing our stress?), so she is crated and Lassie is put away. More about that later. In fact, more about a lot of things after the jump.

I Hate My Skin!

Fair warning right now, if you are grossed out by things easily, then you should just stop reading right now. Because I'm pissy about my skin, and I'm going to put pictures of how yucky it looks in this post. Yes, there is also blood. So you should absolutely not go further into this post if that kinda thing will bother you.

Nail Polish; or My Pretty Nails

Anybody who gets to know me will find that I'm quite enamored of nail polish, and am willing to spend time nearly every day painting my nails, and making them look pretty. It's an indulgence that I wouldn't want to give up, as it's one thing that can look pretty, no matter how cruddy I look otherwise. My psoriasis is not attractive (yeah, duh), and affects everything. Because my skin is so sensitive, I have trouble with makeup. Because my scalp has so many spots, I have to try to cover bald patches, and my hair doesn't exactly style easily. Because it hurts to even move so often, I'm overweight, so fashion isn't really doable for the most part. But my nails, they can be pretty with just a little effort.

Taking one day at a time.

I've always been fond of the quote, "I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several attack me at once." These last few days, I've found out just how true that can be. The weather changing is making both The Mate and I very sore, the critters have been extra demanding, I had more than one transport run this weekend, and the fatigue has been extra harsh lately. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with life, and my life is pretty easy compared to some others.

Introducing... The Mate!

Well, I've introduced me, although not with very many details, so I'll introduce the other person that I'm likely to blog about regularly. The Mate. Without revealing too many personal details about him, I'll tell you that he is disabled*, he's 15 years older than I am, and he's so much more than just 'The Mate' to me. We're common-law married, but haven't ever done anything official about it, for various reasons.