COOKIE - New Year's Resolution.....

Dearest Friends and Family,
One of my resolutions this year was to keep the blog updated. I know. I know. Try harder. I will. You won't believe what's happened to this one. This is the THIRD time I've written it! Either Cookie or Matt closed it out before I could finish the first time and then I rewrote it last night and saved it as a draft. So I thought. I couldn't find it this morning! The reason I didn't just send it is because I have to search the archives for the most recent pictures to post on the blog and somehow the fates have been against me. SO, with all of that said, here's the latest and greatest.......

I'll explain the pictures first of all. The big group picture was taken last Thursday at Downey High School. It's a picture of Cookie with other honored heroes and the student committee in charge of bringing the Pennies for Patients campaign to that school. Downey High was the national winner for this campaign last year with close to $60,000 donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through this three week contest. Cookie has been giving speeches for the Society for four years now, ever since she was named Girl of the Year in 2003.

The other picture is of Cookie with the other honored heroes, each with a unique and heartrendering story. The gentleman sitting in front of Cookie is the Groom from the Extreme Makeover Wedding Edition show that Cookie was the flower girl for two and a half years ago. He was on the waiting for a new heart back then. His needed to be replaced because of years of chemotherapy, from the time he was in high school. Last October, 2006, he received his new heart and carries his pacemaker around in a baggie to share with everyone.

Cookie was the last speaker at Downey High last Thursday. They think she has the most impact. They're right. She literally brought down the house. She's so little and her voice and story are so BIG. It was totally quiet during her speech and it was given to the entire student body in two separate assemblies, approximately 1,000 to 1,200 students each time! Cookie's speech lasted three minutes and afterwards they all want to talk to her and touch her in some way. She's quite the celebrity WITHOUT the attitude! :)

Of course, we're still in the front seat of the "post transplant roller coaster" and holding on as tight as we can. The steroids were increased once again, just when she was down to a very miniscule dose. Her little body needed to have a boost once again and so, as always, the steroids gave her just that. She's been eating and happy and active. It's wonderful. They've decided to decrease the dosages a little more slowly in order to give her time to adjust. We're hoping this will work for her. It's beyond wonderful to see her feeling so well.

It's all about timing. Cookie will be 11 on March 11th and she's counting the days until her big day. For those of you that remember last year, we won't even come close to that kind of celebration. There will be no Marriott, no DJ, no 4 course dinner, and no silent auction!! BUT, we will celebrate the birth of our girl like we do everything.......together. The doctor's have agreed to "manipulate" her meds in order to keep her feeling well. We're going back out to Irvine to the Doubletree Hotel, overnight, and shopping and movies at the Irvine Spectrum. It's one of Cookie's favorite places.

Of course, her first choice was Disneyland because that's certainly her MOST favorite place but the doctor's say no. She cannot do amusement parks as this time. Speaking about amusement parks, we went to Long Beach Memorial's Family Information Fair last Saturday. It was SOOOOOOO fantastic to see so many familiar faces! We never really see our wonderful "Long Beach medical family" because we're still involved with UCLA. It's always a great day when we get to hug our beloved hero, Dr. Finklestein! I wish we could just sit and chat. He's so comforting and is such a wonderful and unique spirit. He's been our guiding light for almost 9 years. Unbelievable.

Not to take away from all of the other wonderful people at the event. You become so close to these people when you're sharing some of the most memorable moments of your life and they simply become an extended family of sorts. Thank you to all of you that have shared and touched our lives over the past 9 years. We will always keep you near and dear.

Funny story.....At the Family Information Fair, the kids go off with a group of teenagers and are taken to classrooms to do crafts and learn a dance that they perform at the end of the event for all of the parents and doctor's. The parents remain in the main conference room and go around to different tables that provide information on childhood diseases, foundations and organizations. Each table has pamphlets and goodies for you to take home for free. At the first table, Shelee got a little bag of stuff for a boy and one for a girl and then, as you visit all of the other tables, you add more stuff to the bags.

So there we are, the five us driving home. The kids are sitting in last seat in the Expedition, I'm in the middle and Shelee and Matt are up front. Cookie says "What's this? It's a squishy!" She hands me a two-pack of hot pink condoms! I have no idea how they got into her bag but I simply handed them up front to Shelee. I felt like she would best handle this. You see, we haven't quite gotten THAT far in "THE TALK". It's coming up real soon but that wasn't the time or place. It's certainly not time for Parker to have "THE TALK" so we did something we seldom do. We kind of brushed it off and tried to keep our composure for the remainder of the drive. The hardest part for Shelee, of course, is not giving Cookie an open and honest answer as she always does but the timing was all wrong and, quite honestly, it caught us all off guard. hahahahaha.

Parker has had his own issues these past months. He's been suffering and missing school left and right. They finally are treating him for asthma and for the past week he seems to have improved with the treatment. They're at the doctor's as we speak, getting the results of his sinus cat scan last week. Yeah! A good diagnosis! BOO! Asthma. Yeah! Meds are helping!
BOO! Asthma.

I say ENOUGH! I know you've all heard "You don't get more than you can handle." ENOUGH! Thank you for letting me vent.

We hope this finds all of you healthy and happy, as always! Thanks for reading and requesting more! It's good for me and there's always something to write about! Always!

With love,
Cookie, The Grandma