Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Another beautiful story by Carol Shaw Johnson whose granddaughter Lily is being treated for cancer after 5 years in remission.

"Today is September 17th – the 17th day of Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Today I want to honor Matthew LaRocca. Matt’s journey with childhood cancer began in November of 2009 when he was 11 years old and in the fifth grade. His family was living in Florida, and his parents took him in for an MRI to confirm a sinus infection. Instead, the doctor looked at Matt and said, “Buddy, you have a pretty big brain tumor in there.” The LaRoccas’ lives changed forever in that moment. The tumor was over 5 cm, and the doctors thought it had been there from birth. That would’ve explained some minor issues Matt had dealt with for years for which they never had answers. Matt had brain surgery on November 16, 2009, but the surgeon was only able to remove a small piece of the tumor for a biopsy. The tumor was a Ganglioglioma and it was benign. However, it was growing and it was located on Matt’s brain stem, and that made it very dangerous. The brain stem controls major bodily functions such as breathing and heart rate. Amazingly, Matt returned to school within a week of surgery.

Matt’s parents, Dean and Kim, left no stone unturned as they sought out the best treatment for Matt. They sent Matt’s records and scans to doctors throughout the country to get opinions to help them determine what to do. Matt was started on a chemo regimen to hopefully shrink the tumor.
Meantime, the family realized that they couldn’t make the journey alone. In addition to Matt, they had an older son, Jordan (15 at the time), a daughter, Alyssa (14 at the time), and then Ryan, age 5, who was the youngest of the 4 siblings. Since so much of their extended family lived in Nashville, they decided to move back home to Tennessee. There, they would not only have a large support system of friends and family, but they’d have Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital as well. Once they were back in Nashville, Matt continued his chemo while Dean and Kim continued their search for Matt’s best treatment options.

Matt had varied interests. One thing that Matt enjoyed was cooking. He had the idea that he would start making and selling snickerdoodles, 7-layer bars and “crazy croutons.” He named his made-from-scratch goodies “Miracle Matt’s Munchies.” He often took treats for the nurses and other patients when he went to clinic, and they looked forward to his homemade yummies. Matt even had a cookbook printed that was sold to help raise money for his treatment. I was happy that I was able to buy one. Kim wrote: “ He loved to bake for the very people that would stick him with needles, administer chemo, and make him do such odd facial gestures for neuro checks. He took his cooking seriously and did it all with such joy, passion, and love. I sometimes would wonder how such a young man could be so giving in spite of such a frustrating plight. But He pushed himself in everything he did. He kept up with school as best he could, read with his little brother, and offered to help bring the groceries in from the car when it was all he could do just to walk on his own.”

Matt had a great sense of humor, and he applied that humor to his brain tumor! His family started a website: http://www.braintumorhumor.com. Matt loved seeing the looks on people’s faces when he wore one of his t-shirts with a funny quote or saying about brain tumors. He felt it was a way to break the ice when people didn’t know what to say to someone going through such a difficult experience. Leave it to Matt to find humor in even the direst circumstances.

Matt also loved Legos. They were a signature interest for him. He enjoyed putting together Lego kits and creating designs with them. It was good therapy, both emotionally and physically. One day Matt said, “Hey mom, you know how sometimes people send me a little money in the mail?” Kim replied, “Yes.” Matt continued, “Can you tell them to just send Legos instead?” The boy loved his Legos!
Cold weather was something that Matt especially enjoyed, and so when he was offered a wish through the Make A Wish Foundation, he chose a cruise to Alaska. That trip was one the whole family will always remember.

As Dean and Kim explored options, they unexpectedly were able to talk with Dr. Ben Carson at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Carson discussed Matt’s case with Dr. George Jallo – another doctor in his group and the top doctor in the country on brain stem tumors. Everything fell into place to the point that the LaRoccas felt assured that this was the path God wanted them to follow. They went to Baltimore to meet with Dr. Jallo who would perform the surgery. As they were leaving, Dr. Carson came in and said, “So this is Matthew LaRocca!” He told them the story of a little boy who had a tumor similar to Matt’s and how he had been given 6 months to live. He laughed and said, “That was 20 years ago and he is in college now.” Kim said that the look on Matt’s face was priceless – a mix of relief and shock. That trip gave them hope. Matt’s surgery to de-bulk the tumor was done by Dr. Jallo at Johns Hopkins in January 2011. Matt had been suffering for 16 months from violent hiccups because of the tumor, and the surgery finally gave him relief from that, too.

Matt returned home and seemed to be doing well when, without warning, on April 6, 2011, his battle on earth ended. He was twelve. His mom wrote: “He won! Matt beat that cowardly brain tumor. While we are broken and void in heart, we are so thrilled that Matt is free to run again! Life will never be the same, but we are thankful for the battle he waged.”

Months after Matt’s death, Kim wrote on his CaringBridge page: “Matt was brave beyond his years and fought with the knowledge that the end of his life's story wasn't promised to be long. I recall him taking me to lunch not long after he was diagnosed. We talked about many things, I'm sure - music, food, school, life - but I clearly remember him looking at me and casually saying, ‘You know, Mom, there is no guarantee I'm going to make it through this.’ I recall looking him in the eye to see if I could read anymore into what he said (which I couldn't) and knowing my only response could be, ‘Matt, no one is guaranteed tomorrow. Not me, not your dad and not you, but I am going to see to it that you out-live us both because parents aren't supposed to bury their kids.’ In a way, he did outlive us. He accomplished real living sooner than we did.”

After his death, Matt’s family donated lots of Legos in Matt’s memory to help kids with brain tumors in their therapy. If you're reading this and wondering what you can do to help, here it is. Why don’t you buy a couple of Lego kits and take them to your nearest children’s hospital. Tell them you’re giving them to honor Matt LaRocca – a young boy who battled a brain tumor with humor, determination, snickerdoodles, and Legos. If you do, come back to this post later and leave a comment letting us know. Matt’s family would love to know that people are still honoring his memory by giving Legos to kids in the hospital.

Matt, you must be smiling down from heaven as you see how your family has continued your work to help others who are battling brain tumors. You taught us all lessons in treasuring life and helping others.

Boycotting Grey's Anatomy and NFL games which I never watched anyway!

Ellen Pompeo says she doesn't want Trump voters to watch her show, the popular and over rated Grey's Anatomy. She hasn't aged out of any influence on that show (14 seasons and she's almost 50--worth over $30 million), so gen-xers are sticking by her. She also used a lot of profanity in kicking her supporters and fans off the train.  I didn't know the show was still chugging along, since I've only seen it occasionally in reruns. She always looks like an angry frump--plays to type. With her political views, and if she were a real doctor, I'd be terrified to have her near me. So self important. And then there's the NFL millionaire jokers who disrespect the flag and national anthem, a publicity stunt begun by the ungrateful Colin Kaepernick (3 white parents, white Muslim hot girlfriend, bad stats). So darn it, can't even watch football!   Filthy rich people who've never read the Constitution.  What would we do without their telling us what to think and where to go?

When I Googled "Ellen Pompeo wants a boycott" I see she's done this before for other shows she doesn't like usually for presenting ideas that conflict with her personal far left views (why do TV and movie celeb-millionaires who read other people's words for a living have such missionary zeal for Communism?) But by telling Trump voters to not watch her show seems counter productive if she wants a platform.

https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/celebs-stop-polite-start-getting-real-fans-twitter-195857527.html

Friday family photo--the laundry

This is the laundry at Lakeside after I decided the dryer was unsafe. Pink, blue and cream are our colors

I've had a lot of jobs in my life time from newspaper carrier to agricultural worker to author to librarian, however for 57 years I've been a housewife. Let me tell you my most exciting laundry story. I've been buying bargain laundry detergent my whole career, but recently bought a small jug of Tide. Hey. It works. My husband does all the hard stuff and gets really dirty. His work jeans look fabulous.

Manning is a pardoned traitor

Lipstick, hormones and blonde hair does not make a man a woman and a pardon by Obama doesn't make him less a traitor. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/09/14/former-cia-directors-shun-harvard-after-the-school-invites-chelsea-manning-to-campus/?

• "After serving in Iraq since October 2009, Manning was arrested in May 2010 after Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker in the United States, indirectly informed the Army's Criminal Investigation Command that Manning had acknowledged passing classified material to the whistleblower website, WikiLeaks. Manning was ultimately charged with 22 specified offenses, including communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source, and the most serious of the charges, aiding the enemy. Other charges included violations of the Espionage Act, stealing U.S. government property, charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and charges related to the failure to obey lawful general orders under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Manning entered guilty pleas to 10 of 22 specified offenses in February 2013." (Wikipedia) 
•  "Among the records Manning has admitted to passing on to WikiLeaks were a video showing a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed 11 men and 750,000 classified documents that contained military and diplomatic dispatches." (NPR) 
• "Manning placed the lives of at least 900 Afghans aiding U.S. troops at risk by orchestrating the biggest leak in American military history." (Breitbart) And he has the gall to claim discrimination because he's a transwoman. (Twitter)

Margaret Sanger's legacy

In 2014, a total of 303,844 blacks died in the U.S., but 343,440 black babies were aborted. That's more than all the Africans imported to the colonies as slaves in several centuries--but just one year! But Mrs. Clinton called Sanger her hero, she's honored by numerous organizations as a "first" among womanhood, and we tax payers provide half a billion a year to the organization she founded. The Smithsonian has her statue--which I don't think should be removed, but it needs a plaque dedicated to the millions of children she's help kill. (73abort.com)

Robert E. Lee statue in Texas

Robert E. Lee complied with all the requirements for amnesty and restoration of his citizenship in 1865, but his request was never acted upon. Finally, in 1975 President Ford corrected the error of the Andrew Johnson administration.

"In 1975, Lee's full rights of citizenship were posthumously restored by a joint congressional resolution effective June 13, 1865.

At the August 5, 1975, signing ceremony, President Gerald R. Ford acknowledged the discovery of Lee's Oath of Allegiance in the National Archives and remarked:

"General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride." https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/spring/piece-lee.html

Now ugly racist elements in our society that wish to destroy the hard fought unity won in the bloodiest war of our history, are demanding not just the removal of Civil War statues, but also founders, poets, musicians, college presidents, etc.

 But these same elements revere statues and the memory of the biggest murderer of all, Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood founder. Hillary Clinton claimed her as her hero. Her centennial was celebrated last year.  Our government sends the abattoir she founded half a billion dollars each year. Thirty percent of her victims are blacks. And here's what she thought of immigrants. (A Plan for Peace, Margaret Sanger) was published in Birth Control Review (April 1932, pp. 107-108) https://www.issues4life.org/pdfs/1932_peaceplan_margaretsanger.pdf

Of a population of one hundred million, Sanger considered only about 15% were fit to reproduce.  The others should be sterilized and sent to special concentration camps. Would you be here if your immigrant ancestors would have met the fate she recommended?

 

So, Hillary, why’d you lose the white women?

1.  Basket of deplorables.

2.  Ferguson and Baltimore.

3.  Women have sons-–fake campus rape charges.

4.  Benghazi.

5.  E-mails.

6.  First amendment.

7.  Second amendment.

8.  Same old , same old.

9.  Entitled.

10. Bathrooms.

Love me like a Princess had a fund raiser last night, and I saw a photo of my cousin (2x removed, Joy's daughter) on FB at the event.  Not sure, but she may have been modeling for the fund raiser.

 "Love Me Like A Princess© is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We advocate for domestic violence survivors, based in Central, Ohio. Our Program is designed to help survivors take the final steps to reestablish themselves as productive and self-sufficient members of our communities. Our goal is to help those survivors who are willing to help themselves, speed up and complete their healing process. Love Me Like A Princess© workshops, continuing education programs, resources and services are effective, flexible and convenient for all survivors, including those with unique working schedules and special circumstances."

What happened, Hillary?

Counties won:
Trump 2626
Hillary 487

States won:
Trump 30
Hillary 20

Electoral:
 Trump 304
Hillary 227

http://time.com/4587866/donald-trump-election-map/

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2016/12/06/1206-clinton-won-487-counties.html

https://www.cnbc.com/heres-a-map-of-the-us-counties-that-flipped-to-trump-from-democrats/

http://www.cnn.com/election/results/president

Decline in global poverty is breath taking

"The global middle class expanded, as real income went up between 70 percent and 80 percent for those around the world who were already earning at or near the global median, including some 200 million Chinese, 90 million Indians and 30 million people each in Indonesia, Egypt and Brazil.

Those in the bottom third of the global income distribution registered real income gains between 40 percent and 70 percent, Milanovic reports. The share of the world’s population living on $1.25 or less per day — what the World Bank defines as “absolute poverty” — fell from 44 percent to 23 percent."

https://www.cato.org/blog/capitalism-global-trade-reduction-poverty-inequality 

The country with the most success in overcoming poverty did not receive foreign aid. Nor did churches and NGOs set up camp there.

Tax reform

So no wonder Democrats claim ANY reform will benefit the rich. They pay the bulk of the taxes, money that could be invested in businesses, charities, or their children's education which employ millions of people, or on spending and purchasing from other businesses which support workers who do pay taxes.The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (39.5 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (29.1 percent).

What if Democrats had supported the 2007 bi-partisan effort?

But Senator Obama voted against it with other Democrats beholden to big labor interests.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/why-immigration-reform-didnt-happen-in-2007/article/2513987

Here's how Obama excelled in politics. As a senator, he either didn't show up to vote so there would be no record, or he'd vote no if it was something that would benefit the country but not him. As a president, he vetoed everything the Republicans supported on immigration and health care because he couldn't be king if they passed.

In the Illinois legislature, the U.S. Congress and in the WH he supported abortion on demand for any reason, 40% of which are for blacks. I'm not going to guess about his motives on that holocaust. "In the United States, black children are aborted at three times the rate of white children; Hispanic children are aborted at one and a half times the rate. Whatever the intentions of the abortion industry, by functional standards, abortion is a racist institution." (73abort.com)

Miss America contest uses Anti-Trump questions

The Leftist culture  hated the Miss American contest--ridiculed it--until they found out they could use and manipulate these women as a weapon against President Trump.
 http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/09/11/when-did-miss-america-pageant-turn-into-nasty-woman-protest.html
https://pjmedia.com/video/miss-america-contestants-competed-for-anti-trump-quips/

• "By presenting an unattainable image of the ideal woman, Miss America not only reinforces noxious gender roles and stereotypes, but also implies that a majority of women have failed at womanhood itself." (2015)
• "Yet, there's this ridiculous message the pageant peddles: We enjoy judging women on their looks and bodies, and we will set as a body ideal a standard impossible for the vast majority of women on this planet.' (2013)
• "Can you believe it? They still have Miss America pageants. I thought they went out with Capris and beehives, or at least bangles and roller disco." (2008).
• "Watching the pageant "is almost the experience one gets when one opens a time capsule," says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University in New York. "Miss America is in many ways a perfect reflection of a slice of American values as they stood a quarter-century ago."" (1999)

An anniversary celebration--sort of

Our condo association had its fall picnic Sunday evening on the grounds and I announced that we and our neighbors were celebrating our anniversaries on Monday and Tuesday for a total of 115 years.  We’d gone out on Friday at the Rusty Bucket for dinner together.  When I told the waitress she looked at me strangely, and said, "Anniversary of what?"

But the fun part was we have new residents who had moved in during July, so we’d never met.  He’s the new director of the school of music at OSU. They are from Texas, but natives of Iowa and met in high school (one of the questions on the quiz).  When we’d finished eating and playing our games, a group of men singing OSU stuff like Carmen Ohio and Hand on Sloopy walked up to our group—it was about 1/3 of the men’s glee club.  Wonderful voices. Their director was a friend of our new neighbors and did lots of inside jokes and stories.   It wasn’t for us, and it was all planned, but it sure was fun.

 

A surprise for our anniversary

I knew my husband attended a one day art class at Lakeside this summer, but hadn't seen the results.  It's a pendant he painted of the Marblehead Lighthouse, with lake, trees, sky and sailboat, and it's an anniversary present.

Monday Memories--Aunt Muriel September 2002

From a letter.  "Aunt Muriel called twice this month to wish us a Happy Anniversary and also on my birthday.  I said something about my last letter, but she didn’t receive it for two weeks.  I looked back in the computer, and I’d written it Sept. 4.  Even allowing that maybe it sat a day or two, it seems even by pony express it should’ve made it to Illinois by the 11th.  I said to Bob that sometimes I don’t know how she stays so perky.  She no longer has parents, husband or siblings, and most of her contemporaries have passed away. I think she and Mom lived next door to each other for 40 years, and as a teenager she lived with my parents.  I was the one to tell her of the death of her last surviving cousin, making her the only surviving cousin out of 28.  Fortunately Diane and Frank live close by--I think they visit almost every week-end.  She is really wonderful to her mother.  Just a rock."

Ready for Irma

We have a lot of family in Florida--my sister Carol's children Cindy and Greg and grandchildren, my brother's children, my husband's niece Susie and her children, my cousin Janet, and my husband's cousin Norma Lou and husband. And then there's my friend Jerry and her husband Jim, who use to live in Michigan and vacation in Florida, and now it's the other way around. A few days ago they were driving south as Floridians fled north.  Now they are ready.

 

 

 

Carol's granddaughter and great granddaughter waiting out the storm

 

The English Reformation was like Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 20th century

Did you ever wonder why the Crawley family of the fictional Downton Abbey TV series lived in an abbey?  “There are many old country houses in the UK called "xxxxx Abbey", due to the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, after which the land and the buildings themselves were sold to the wealthy.”  (Quora) “In Apr 1536, there were over 800 monasteries, abbeys, nunneries and friaries that were home to over 10,000 monks, nuns, friars and canons. By April 1540 there were none left. Much of the property was bought by or granted to landowners; monastery churches were sometimes converted to parish churches, while some buildings, such as Tintern Abbey, were left to ruin.”

“One of Eamon Duffy’s key resources [The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580] are the extant last wills and testaments. By collecting the data from wills he was able to trace the changes in English religion that Henry VIII and his officers enforced. Put simply, the wills made by Catholics before Henry VIII’s break with Rome expressed simple belief and enthusiasm for the Catholic faith.

In their wills the English provided for Masses to be said for the repose of their souls. They left funds for the maintenance of the church and her services. They left money to build extensions to churches and monasteries, provide for bells, vestments, altar cloths and candles. They provided funding for the poor, left money in their wills for schools and hospitals, and left endowments for colleges and orphanages.

In short, the wills are evidence of the health and vigor of the Church in England just before Henry VIII enforced the destruction of English Catholicism.

Similarly, the wills after the break with Rome reflect the new understanding of the faith. The old clauses granting funds to the Church and all her good works began to disappear. Being taught that Masses for the repose of their souls were pointless, they stopped providing for them in their wills. Being taught that religious art, vestments, stained-glass windows and statues were vain or idolatrous, they stopped leaving money for such things. They no longer left money for the poor, but left it for their relatives.

England in the Middle Ages was referred to as “Mary’s Dowry.” The churches, cathedrals, monasteries, convents, colleges and shrines were wealthy. There was corruption, certainly. Wherever there is a concentration of money and power there is bound to be corruption. But Duffy shows that the state of the monasteries and of religious life in England was robust, dynamic and strong.

Henry VIII’s depredations were about more than wanting to marry his mistress and have a male heir. He and his commissioners had also spotted that the monasteries and churches provided rich pickings. The king himself grabbed vast amounts of land for the crown and he awarded his faithful subjects with rich prizes of religious houses and their lands and goods.” Catholic England

DWS and the Awan deal

HT Happy Hayride.  “The legal teams for Imran Awan and Hina Alvi are close to finalizing immunity deals with the Justice Department that could spare them jail time in exchange for testimony against sitting members of Congress, federal law enforcement sources said. FBI sources familiar with the case said late Friday that Imran Awan’s legal counsel was “deep in the process” of structuring an immunity deal for himself and his wife with Justice Department lawyers. The deal would allow the couple to freely testify against any or all Democratic lawmakers they worked for as IT specialists, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. True Pundit reported on Thursday that the couple was working on a plea deal to avoid prison time. But on Friday federal sources said those talks had progressed into a likely immunity deal for the duo.”http://truepundit.com/fbi-awans-finalizing-immunity-deals-with-doj-in-exchange-for-testimony-on-members-of-congress/

Irma, Harvey and Climate Change

Has climate change created fewer hurricanes?  Something to think about. Things have been historically quiet since Katrina, when it was predicted that we were in for terrible storms. I’m watching TV with non-stop coverage, and they still don’t know where Irma will go even with deserted streets and hunkered down people who aren’t leaving. So why do these climate mystics and gurus think they know what will happen next month or next year or in 2030? We even have better technology, and drones, since 2005 and they still have computer models that look like a plate of spaghetti on the floor.  They should look backwards.  Last week I was walking on the shores of Lake Erie, the shoreline of 10,000 years ago on 6th street.  Absolutely climate change exists.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/despite-hurricanes-harvey-irma-science-has-no-idea-climate-change-causing

“What ensued [after Katrina] was an historically unprecedented 12-year absence of major (category 3 or higher) hurricanes making landfall in the United States, until Harvey, which ties for 14th-most intense hurricane since 1851. The events after 2005 were “consistent with” some projections, but any other events would have been as well.The long absence of landfalling hurricanes also points to another problem when opinion writers connect GHGs [greenhouse gases] to extreme weather. Science needs to be concerned not only with conspicuous things that happened, but with things that conspicuously didn’t happen. Like the famous dog in the Sherlock Holmes story, the bark that doesn’t happen can be the most important of all. 

It is natural to consider a hurricane a disruptive event that demands an explanation. It is much more difficult to imagine nice weather as a disruption to bad weather that somehow never happened.”